Scorch Trials 9: It Took Way Too Long to Read This Book

Okay, Kids. I'm finally finished with this God-forsaken book. I will warn you, you're about to be underwhelmed and not entirely surprised.

Chapters 56-End

A storm is brewing overhead, and Thomas, Teresa, and Aris are still behind the Gladers and Group B. They decide to catch up to the others, naturally. The deadline is slowly approaching, about three hours remain before they need to find the safe haven. Thomas, Teresa, and Aris start running to catch up to the others. While doing so, Thomas and Teresa talk telepathically (say that three times fast). He tells her about his weird memory/dreams and she tries to explain her actions again. Thomas isn't really having any of it, though.

That's seriously all it said.

Eventually, they catch up to the other groups, who are all standing around a stick in the ground that is exactly where they were told the safe haven would be. They are getting along because Harriet explained everything to Minho. The stick they are looking at has a ribbon on it that says 'The Safe Haven.'

There is about two hours left until they run out of time. Everyone just sort of sits around. They are exhausted and dejected. No one knows what the hell is going on. The storm is getting worse over head. There is wind and rain. It's starting to look like the storm from earlier with the lightning. No good. Brenda finds Thomas and has a very frosty conversation with Teresa, because why have two female characters be friends when they could be enemies?



Suddenly, there is a bunch of noise and these strange objects start coming out of the desert floor. There are about thirty of them and they are in a large circle around the Gladers and Group B. They are trapped in the middle and start arranging themselves to form a circle facing the objects. The objects open and strange, human-like monsters slowly climb out. They look like humans, except they have no faces and are covers in gross orange bulbs that glow. The monsters walk toward the groups. There is one monster per person, naturally. They each fight a monster and notice that their life-force seems to be tied to the orange bulbs. When they pop the bulbs, they start to die. Then, the lightning starts. There are lightning strikes that hit humans and monsters alike. Basically, everything is shit for about the millionth time. Most of the monsters die, but there is still time left before the deadline, so the lightning continues. Thomas and Teresa decide to hide in one of the objects that the monsters came out of. Before they close the lid, they are joined by Brenda and Jorge. They count down the remaining time in the box while lightning continues to strike their hideout. They hear a very loud whirring sound outside and decide to open the lid.

Outside is an aircraft like the one that picked up Thomas after he was shot. It lands at exactly the deadline and a cargo bay door opens. This is their safe haven. They start to run toward the craft (called a Berg) and are met with the remaining monsters. The groups run right at them, easily defeating them. Then, the Berg begins to take off. The group all scramble to get on board before it leaves them behind. One of the last people left just barely hanging off the door is Brenda. Thomas helps her but he isn't enough, so Teresa joins to help. Together, with the help of Jorge holding them back from falling off as well, they pull Brenda aboard.

The only stranger they see is a tall, red-headed man. He has a gun pointed at Brenda and Jorge. He wants to know who they are. Thomas explains their deal to the man, who is pissed. They weren't supposed to pick anyone up. He makes Thomas choose which one stays. The other has to go. He is not specific as to how. Thomas thinks it is a trick and picks Brenda to die because he thinks the dude will kill the opposite. He does not. The dude picks up Brenda and starts walking toward the still open cargo bay door.

Thomas tackles the man from behind and struggles with him to get the gun. Thomas then holds the man at gun point and demands answers. He tells the man that no one else is going to die, that the senseless killing has to end. The dude is very casual about the whole thing. As the cargo bay door finally shuts, he tells the

This whole bit is important.

Gladers and Group B that his name is David. He tells the group that it's over. That everything is over. Understandably, no one believes him. He explains that everything has gone as planned and will continue to go as planned, but the trials are over. He says their taking them to a safe place and that there will be no more pretending. He says that they are all going to understand soon why they were put through this. From here on out, "the only thing we'll ever ask you to again is listen." Listen to what, we have no idea. It's all very vague. I'm sure you're all shocked by that. This is a very long book with no actually information in it.

From here, the groups are given food, drinks, and showers. There is another exchange between Thomas and Teresa where she acts like nothing is different and he is still pissed at her. She is confused as to why he won't just get over it. She says, "I can only say sorry so many times." Can she be any more shady? Soon, everyone is asleep.

Thomas has another dream, but this one is really strange. He hears a voice in his head, talking to him telepathically. Only, it's not Teresa or even Aris. It's Brenda. She says that it's about to get bad for him. He screams himself awake.

He wakes in a completely white room. He is completely alone. Everything is white except for a brown desk in the corner of the room. He walks toward it, only to be met by a force field like the one back at the dormitories when the one guy appeared. Teresa then telepathically talks to him. She says that he has been gone for nearly a week. They were told he was separated because the Flare has taken hold of him and he is too far gone to save. He then tells her to leave him alone and never speak to him again. She leaves him with one last bit of confusing ass information though. The last thing she says to him, the second-to-last line before the epilogue is "WICKED is good." Great. Super helpful. Thanks for that.

That's just dandy.

These fucking epilogues. I hate them. This one is not as damaging as the one in The Maze Runner is, though. This one is still in the form of a WICKED in-house memo. A woman writes her colleagues to tells them to not let their emotions cloud what needs to be done. She says that things have gone wrong, but they have still made progress. She says that "every death and every sacrifice are well worth the ultimate outcome." She goes on the reveal that the Gladers and Group B will be given back their memories. She also says that those remaining will be told if they are or are not immune to the Flare.

Analysis

This book had little to no actual information in it. Literally nothing about WICKED's ultimate plan was revealed until the epilogue. I can't help but feel like this book is just set up for the next one and that it serves no purpose on it's own. It's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Dead Man's Chest all over again. There is no purpose to this book. There's not even a climax, for Christ's sake. This book started so well, with so much

I don't even know what the purpose of this book was.

promise, and did nothing with it. It got too bogged down in a love triangle to do anything interesting. The only important thing that happened with Teresa's betrayal of Thomas and the Gladers, but the reasons behind it are so vague that it's hard to tell if it even was a betrayal.

Maybe I'm wrong. If you have a different idea of what it all meant, I'd genuinely love to hear it.

I'm going to be starting the next book in the series this week. I'm hoping against hope that this one has some goddamn information in it. I'd like to know what the fuck is actually happening for once. I'm fairly certain Thomas would like to know as well.

Until next time, happy reading.