The Scorch Trials

Thomas tells the other Gladers that he and Aris can communicate telepathically. Thomas is concerned, thinking that if WICKED killed Aris’s telepathy partner, something terrible might have happened to Teresa. Thomas tells Minho that Aris could also communicate telepathically with a member of his group, but that someone killed her. Aris says he does not know who “they” are, but that one of the other girls in the group was controlled and forced to kill his friend, Rachel. Thomas realizes that this is the same scenario that played out when Gally tried to kill him but killed Chuck instead, which leaves Thomas to wonder if he was meant to be killed, just as Rachel had been.

As the boys try to figure out what is going on, one of the Gladers sees a tattoo on the side of Aris’s neck. The tattoo says, “Property of WICKED. Group B, Subject B1. The Partner” (29). Aris is dumbfounded, as the tattoo had not been there the previous night. Minho is suspicious of Aris, unable to believe that the tattoo has magically appeared overnight. When Aris goes to the bathroom to look at the tattoo, Thomas finds that Minho has a similar tattoo on his neck. Minho’s tattoo labels him “The Leader.” With this revelation, the rest of the Gladers realize that they all have similar tattoos, and go about reading them. Most of them have no designations, but Newt’s tattoo calls him “The Glue.” When Thomas asks what his own tattoo says, Newt tells him, reluctantly, that his tattoo says Thomas is “To be killed by Group B.”

As Thomas attempts to process what Newt has just told him, a loud bell, similar to the one that announced the arrival of the Box in the Maze, begins to ring. Given the small space, the bell nearly deafens the Gladers. They attempt to leave the room but find that the door is locked, which should be impossible as Thomas broke the handle in order to enter the room. Thomas tries to contact Teresa in his mind, but is still unable to communicate. When the bell finally stops, Thomas notices that the door to the common area is now slightly ajar. The Gladers realize that they are meant to go back out into the common room with the dead bodies. As they exit the girls’ dorm, they see that the lights have been turned off again. When Minho manages to turn the lights back on, the Gladers find that the bodies of their rescuers are now nowhere to be found; it is as if they had never been there in the first place.

Thomas and the others are entirely confused about what happened to the bodies. In addition, the overwhelming smell that was previously in the room is no longer there. There was not enough time between them finding the bodies and their disappearance for anyone to have removed them so expertly, or to get rid of the smell so completely. At the same time, Winston realizes that the Cranks have stopped yelling at the windows in their own dorm. When the Gladers rush to their dorm, they find that red brick walls have been placed in front of each window, just outside the iron bars. Moreover, the walls are solid, meaning that it would have taken some time to have placed them there and for the walls to have solidified. The Gladers also find that all of their beds have been made, that their clothes have been replaced by fresh clothes and there are digital watches for each boy. Amidst all the new changes, Minho finds that the label on Teresa’s door has also been changed, and instead has Aris’s name and designation, “The Partner.”

Thomas, unable to deal with the confusion, returns to the boys’ dorm and gets into bed. He again attempts to contact Teresa, determined to keep trying until her reaches her. Suddenly, Teresa responds to him, telling Thomas to get out of her head. Thomas is taken aback, realizing her mental voice is full of fear and anger. He calls out to her again, however, asking her where she is. This time, Teresa says that she does not know who he is, but that if he does not leave her alone, she will hunt him down and slit his throat. Despite the warning, Thomas again tries to reach her, but to no avail.

The incident with Teresa causes Thomas to feel sick, and he cries for the first time since Chuck’s death. No one asks Thomas what is wrong, and he ends up falling asleep, and then dreams. In the dream, Thomas sees people in strange green clothing hovering above him. He hears them talking about having to “cut deeper” (42) and that “The Flare is rooted inside him” (42). Someone also says he might die, or worse, that he might live. The dream makes no sense to Thomas, and to complicate matters, someone also predicts another outcome, that “he and the others might save us. Save us all” (42).