Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more  variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and  the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what  sort of life they were going back to.In the Maze, life was easy.  They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the  end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long  ago.Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate,  the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegratedand with it,  orderand now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to  murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam  the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.The  Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they  find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch,  the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in  two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack  the odds against them.Thomas can only wonderdoes he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?