The Scorch Trials

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010

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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

As Thomas attempts to sleep after being rescued from the Maze, Teresa speaks to him telepathically. When she asks what he thinks about their ordeal, Thomas confides that most of the Gladers will probably have psychological problems for the rest of their lives as a result of their time in the Maze. Teresa is separated from the group of male Gladers, and while asking her where she has been taken, Thomas admits that he hates being separated from her. Thomas is reasonably calm, despite everything he and the Gladers have gone through, and eventually falls asleep and dreams. In the dream, he is four or five years old and is lying in bed, with a woman sitting next to him. The woman, who is Thomas’s mother, is sad, and tells Thomas that he has been chosen, and that he is special somehow. Thomas asks his mother if she is going to go mad like the people on television, and she tells him not to worry about it. The dream dissipates, but Thomas is still struggling with the aftermath of his dream when Teresa calls to him telepathically and tells him that something is wrong.

Chapter 2 Summary

Unable to rouse himself from sleep, Thomas hears Teresa scream out his name telepathically. He is momentarily afraid, but reassures himself that they are all safe. Thomas then hears other sounds of panic as he struggles to wake up. Suddenly, he feels something disappear from inside of him, as if it has been ripped out, and realizes that Teresa’s telepathic presence is gone. He calls out to her but receives no response. The suddenness of her disappearance causes him to awaken finally, and as he does, he witnesses the panic and fear of the other Gladers in the dorm room. The Gladers are yelling like “animals being tortured” (6) and looking out of the windows in horror. When something out of the corner of Thomas’s eye causes him to turn, he sees what all of the commotion is about. At a broken window three feet from Thomas, he witnesses a horrible image: a man with scars and sores all over his head, and a cut in his cheek that exposes his teeth, is gripping the bars on the window. The man calls himself a Crank, and is shouting, “Kill me! Kill me! Kill me! …” (7).

Chapter 3 Summary

Minho tells a terrified Thomas that the “Cranks” are everywhere, at nearly every window, and that their rescuers are nowhere to be found. Thomas feels that the false sense of security the rescuers provided is worse than the fear and dread he and the other Gladers have experienced over the past few weeks. He knows that, to survive this ordeal, the Gladers need a plan. Thomas hopes that Minho and Newt can formulate a plan, however, as he is anxious to try and make contact with Teresa again, and hopes that her warning was just a dream. He tries contacting her again, but to no avail.

The Gladers try the doors, but realize they are locked. After strategizing, Newt takes a fire extinguisher and breaks the lock from the door. Though apprehensive about what they might find, the boys leave the room, with Minho leading them into the darkness. As the Gladers move into the common room where they ate the previous night, they find that the room now has a horrible smell, and bump into “low-hanging chandeliers.” When Newt finally finds the light switch and the lights come on, the Gladers find that the “chandeliers” are in fact the dead bodies of their rescuers.

Chapter 4 Summary

The Gladers are terrified by the sight and smell of the dead bodies. Thomas attempts to reach Teresa again telepathically, to no avail, and confides to Newt that he has been trying to reach her but is unable to for some reason. He tells them they need to find Teresa, and Minho orders the Gladers to spread out and search for her. Thomas sees the door to the room where Teresa mentioned she was taken to the previous night. To his surprise, the room has a label near the door identifying Teresa as “Group A, Subject A1.The Betrayer.” The Gladers all have questions about what the identification might mean, while seeing Teresa’s last name on the door causes Thomas to question what might have really happened to his own parents. Thomas tries not to let the word “betrayer” bother him as he breaks the door’s handle.

Upon entering the room, the Gladers find that it is a smaller version of their own dorm room, and immediately see that one of the beds has been slept in. Thomas calls out for Teresa, and the Gladers hear a toilet flush in the bathroom. Thomas is about to rush into the bathroom when Newt restrains him, reminding him that he should not barge in to a girl’s bathroom. Minho gathers everyone together so that they can find out from Teresa what is going on, while Thomas attempts to tell Teresa that they are all outside the door waiting for her. He receives no response from her, but when the bathroom door opens, the Gladers find a boy—not Teresa—standing in front of them.

The boy appears calm, and tells the surprised Gladers that his name is Aris, and that he has no knowledge of Teresa. Aris says that he was placed in the room the previous night, and that he woke up to use the restroom, and then the Gladers showed up. Thomas feels any hope he had of finding Teresa leave him. Aris tells the Gladers that he was rescued by people with guns, and was then placed in this room. When they ask Aris where he was rescued from, he replies, “the Maze.”

Chapters 1-4 Analysis

Thomas and the Gladers are given a brief moment of peace before finding themselves thrust back into harm’s way. When Thomas awakens, he finds that he and the other Gladers have been tricked by WICKED. Before the panic sets, Thomas speaks to Teresa telepathically, and the reader learns that she has been separated from the rest of the group, though no one knows why. Right before the confusion, Thomas has a dream about his mother, and about being “chosen” for something as a child. When he awakens from the dream, Teresa tells him that something is wrong.

Thomas sums up the feeling of seeing the Cranks at each window when he wonders if perhaps having their sense of safety taken away is worse than the horror of the weeks spent in fear inside the Maze. As WICKED has explained, their task it to see whether or not the Gladers can remain hopeful, and so this new test plays directly into the hopes and fears of the Gladers, including Teresa’s mysterious disappearance. Confusion runs rampant in the first few chapters, as their rescuers are found dead, and a new character, Aris, is found in the room where Teresa is supposed to be. Moreover, the Gladers find that Aris has been rescued from “the Maze” as well, adding further confusion as to what is truly going on with the Trials. Ultimately, these introductory chapters show that WICKED is not done testing the resolve of Thomas and his friends, and with the memories of his family and the disappearance of Teresa, the “testing” is becoming more personal, hitting Thomas, specifically, a lot closer to home.