SPOILER ALERT! This is the 4th book in a series!The day everything fell apart started pretty normal. It wasn't until later in the day that the flares struck. Sun flares torching everything, and everyone. The only reason they survived is because they were underground. They've been running ever since, first through the subway tunnels, then they ran from other survivors, then they ran from the scorched city, and just when they think they can stop...the people in the green suits come with their darts...and the horror starts all over again.
First, it's only the people who have been hit that die. Then it becomes apparent that what infected them is contagious. Others start to act strangely, the disease is mutating, taking longer to affect its victims. After the first week, it almost seems like the survivors could be okay, but one by one they begin to succumb to the horrifying illness. No longer just killing quickly, it is warping their minds. The infected begin acting aggressive, violent, crazy, even causing hallucinations...and soon they are mobs of people with "the Flare". That's what they're calling this mysterious disease.
The gang started with Mark and Trina, Lana and Alec, Darnell, the Toad, and Misty. Mark and Trina are still teenagers, barely 16 when the sun flares changed everything. Lana and Alec are former military, and their training has saved them all countless times. Darnell, Toad, and Misty are about the same age, and they thankfully provide some much needed humor and entertainment. When the people in suits come, Darnell goes down first. One by one, they all start to show symptoms.
On a mission to find the people responsible and find a cure, they travel toward the location of the Berg they saw carrying the PFC: Post-Flare Coalition. Along the way they meet a young girl, Deedee. She's been abandoned by her village as they all slowly succumb to the sickness and insanity. They bring her along, how could they leave a child? She can't be more than three years-old.
Catching up with the rest of her village, it is clear they are past help. They talk of demons, blaming Deedee for the evil that has befallen them. Mark and Alec learn that Deedee's village was attacked months before their camp, and it seems that the girl truly is immune. She could be the key to everything! They are separated from Trina and Lana, and do whatever they need to do to get them back. Who are the people in the green suits? Can they escape the contagion? There must be a cure right? It's the only thing keeping them going as one by one they start to feel the unsettling pain in their heads, a sign that it's only a matter of time...
"It was as if a mental hospital had released all its patients. There was no order to the madness that Mark witnessed below him. Here he saw a girl lying flat on her back, screaming at no one. There he saw three women beating two men who'd been tied together, back to back. In another spot, people were dancing and drinking some kind of black liquid out of a pot that boiled over a makeshift fire pit. Others were running around in circles, still others stumbling about as if drunk.But then Mark saw the worst thing of all. And he no longer had any doubt that the people who'd gathered there were beyond any kind of help.A small group of men and women were fighting over something that looked like it had once been a person, their hands and faces covered in blood," (Dashner pg. 243, 2012).
If you liked this, check out:
Dashner, James. (2012). The Kill Order. New York: Delacorte Press.
Kind of disturbing... Can't stop reading!!
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