The Death Cure

When they enter the Glade, they see hundreds of people. Among them are Frypan and some of their other friends. Thomas wonders how they will get all of them out through the Maze and through the WICKED facility. They decide to split them into groups with Brenda and Teresa leading, Thomas directing, and the others bringing up the rear. Thomas gets the Immunes’ attention and explains what they are going to do. He nears the end of his speech when they hear a cracking noise. They realize it is the explosives. A large rock falls atop dozens of people, crushing them.

The Maze begins to fall in around them. He tells people to run. As they run, people are knocked aside by falling rock. They approach the Cliff: “Thomas got a full view of the terror. Faces white and twisted in fear, people falling to the ground, getting back up….Thomas was horror-struck but kept running, all the while yelling encouragement to everyone around him” (291). Thomas and Teresa make it to the room where they used to the ladder to get to the Maze. Teresa begins to speak but stops when she sees some of the Griever pods opening.

Teresa tells Thomas how to kill the Grievers. He begins methodically going to each pod and killing them by pulling a leaver. One Griever makes it out of the pod before he can get to it. The Griever’s spikes and blades prompt Thomas to look for a weapon. He picks up a pipe. When he turns around, he sees Minho attacking it. He yells to Minho, telling him he will distract it. The Griever turns and kills a man. Before Thomas reaches the creature, Teresa slams into it. She gets sucked into its gooey skin. Thomas attacks the Griever with the pipe. He reaches into the creature’s body and pulls the leaver that kills it. Teresa is released and grasps for air. They hurry out of the room and onward.

They head down the hallway, hearing occasional explosions. Once they reach a stairwell, Thomas directs everyone upward. He fights fatigue as they climb higher and higher. Another explosion knocks him to the floor and sends dust into the air. Finally, they reach the maintenance room and locate the Flat Trans, a kind of teleport device. “He realized he needed to know one last thing. He had to test it to see where it led before he sent everyone through….he came out into a simple wooden shed, its door wide open in front of him. Beyond that he saw…green. Lots and lots of green. Grass, trees, flowers, bushes. It was good enough for him” (301).

He tells everyone to go through. The explosions begin to get closer and closer. Suddenly, the Rat Man and WICKED security guards show up. Thomas and the others pick up weapons to fight. Explosives drown out their battle cries.

They struggle amidst explosions. Thomas goes into a rage and beats the Rat Man repeatedly. Minho stops him and points out that the Rat Man is dead. He urges Thomas to get up so they can leave before the place collapses. “A splintering, shattering noise split the air so loudly that Thomas looked back. His eyes drifted upward, where a massive section of the ceiling had torn loose. He watched, hypnotized, as it fell toward him. Teresa appeared in the corner of his vision, her image barely discernible through the clogged air. Her body slammed into his….the huge piece of building landed on top of Teresa” (306).

He rushes to her side and the others pull him away as the rest of the room collapses. They jump into the Flat Trans.

When they get through, Brenda tells them to go ahead, that she has one last thing to do. Thomas and Minho walk out into something they did not know existed: a lush green paradise. Brenda joins them after setting the Trans Flat on fire. Minho begins directing the Immunes to prepare to live in the forest. Thomas watches them from afar and Brenda joins him. Brenda says, “There are over two hundred of us and we’re all immune. It’ll be a good start” (312). Thomas asks what she means and she shrugs it off. They get close, holding hands.

A memo from Chancellor Paige to the rest of WICKED explains that she created an alternate solution to save the human race.