Summary
Trina says that Mark looks familiar. She says that Deedee is immune and that they need to get her to people who 'matter'. Mark is heartbroken by how out-of-it Trina is, but they still all get aboard the Berg, and Alec flies out. While everyone is resting, Mark cannot sleep, and needs to take his mind off of things. He goes in search of workpads. He is only able to get into one of the workpads on the Berg. Looking through all of the files, he finds a folder titled 'the Kill Order'. This workpad belonged to someone who worked for the PFC (Post-Flare Coalition), which consisted of governments that came together after the sun flares. They met in headquarters in Alaska. There is also mention of a PCC in the emails. Mark uncovers that the Flare was released by the PCC, which was a branch of the PFC. The PCC, or Population Control Committee, realized that there were too many people for the amount of resources left in the world. They took drastic measures to eliminate half of the human race. They found a virus they thought would serve them well, but they did not know it would mutate. Mark is infuriated, and begins crying. Then he screams in rage and breaks the workpad. Mark finally falls asleep and dreams of pleasant things. He remembers when he and Teresa got off the New York City boat and landed in New Jersey. They kissed and relied on each other. It had finally started raining after the intense heat.
When Mark wakes up, Alec stumbles in, almost in a sinister way. He is also sick, and his symptoms have been increasing exponentially. He is very sick right now, but agrees with Mark that they should guide Deedee to the Asheville Flat-Trans before they all die. Alec teaches Mark the majority of the controls on the Berg. When Mark takes a quick break to go check on Trina and Deedee, he hears hysterical laughter. Three crazies have snuck on the Berg. Mark manages to use the Transvice on two of them, but one of them steals the weapon from Mark and runs into the ship. When the crazy man returns, he points the Transvice at Deedee, accusing her of conspiring with the demons. The people from Deedee’s village hate her because of how she survived. Mark feels the Flare insanity rise up in him, and he is able to overpower the man. He tries to toss the crazy man out of the window, but in the process he half-falls through the window—again. He manages to kill the man by partially incinerating him in the Berg’s thrusters.
Mark and his friends descend on Asheville. They see Bruce leading his group of crazies stampeding over the wall into Asheville. Mark and his friends also see a door marked 'PFC Personnel Only' where the last government employees are entering calmly, about to escape the craziness of the area. Mark, Trina, and Deedee have Alec open the hatch, and they enter the PFC building first. Before leaving, Mark tells Alec that Alec knows what to do. Sadness hits Mark, as he knows he will never see Alec again. Mark is feeling his body rapidly deteriorating now as they approach the Flat Trans portal. The portal is like a shimmering gray wall. Mark has written a note about Deedee’s immunity, and he gives this note to Deedee. Mark and Teresa let the little girl into the portal. After Deedee leaves, Trina kisses Mark. They hear Bruce’s people about to break into the building. They hear Alec about to come down and crash the Berg into the building, as planned. Before it all ends, Trina whispers Mark’s name into his ear.
In a two-part epilogue, the story shifts to the childhoods of Thomas and Teresa from the original Maze Runner trilogy timeline. Two years after Deedee walks into the Flat Trans, an immune boy is taken from his mother. Government officials take him, thanking his mother for making this sacrifice. As they leave the house, one of the officials notes a dangling naked lightbulb in the family’s apartment, and mentions Thomas Edison. He says they should name the boy Thomas, after Thomas Edison. Thomas’s mother cries as they leave.
In the second part of the epilogue, a recovered memory from Teresa's Swipe data, Teresa has been with WICKED for two years. A woman named Ladena comes to take her to meet a boy, who is reportedly the most 'qualified' they've found thus far. She says that Teresa and the boy will be given certain responsibilities. Teresa is a precocious child, often surprising the woman with her intelligence, maturity, and spunk. Teresa and Thomas meet each other. They have an audience with Katie McVoy, the same woman who had the idea to release the Flare in the first place. McVoy tells them that they will lead the other immune children. WICKED has about a dozen of these children right now. McVoy also will have them help WICKED build the Maze. A few hours later, Thomas and Teresa are sitting together and talking. Thomas tells Teresa about his past, how his father succumbed to the Flare and became a 'Crank'. His mother was also infected and going to become a Crank. He asks about Teresa’s past. She prepares to start at the beginning, saying that her name was Deedee before she came to WICKED.
Analysis
After rescuing Trina and Deedee from the wreckage of the Asheville suburbs, Mark runs past a house that has small children locked up in it by a crazy woman. He thinks of “Trina and Deedee and the future” (285), recognizing that that is indeed what Deedee symbolizes. Deedee, a small child, is a symbol of a future that is still coming. Deedee, a small child who seems to be immune to the deadly Flare, is even more of a symbol of hope.
Trina’s lack of recognition of Mark is the most painful for him and the most disturbing. Her experiences with the crazy, infected people have affected her so much that she cannot even recognize her best friend and lover. It is also partially because her mind is already succumbing to the Flare. However, getting Deedee to safety, or to “people who matter” (286), is Trina’s idea, because Trina is the one who recognizes that Deedee is immune. In order to get Trina and Deedee aboard the Berg, Mark has to ask them to trust him, and tell them that they can trust him. This hurts the most, to “have to say such a thing” (287) to the person he cares most about. However, the trust itself is practically more important than the recognition. Trusting will actually move the group forward. The reason why trust is such an important concept is because Mark’s group of friends has relied on it this entire time. When Alec first found Mark and Trina down in the train tunnels, they had to rely on him, this grizzled man they did not know at all at the time, in order to survive. Their friendships are all built on mutual trust, even in a time of such extreme danger.
When Mark finds out the truth about the Flare’s release, he instantly thinks of a montage of images in his head. He thinks about the sun flares, the looks on people’s faces, and the way the darts had come through the sky (296). He knows that the Post-Flares Coalition, the group that governed after the Flares and the group that released the Flare virus, originally meant well with their goals; however, he cannot reconcile these two sets of information and images—he cannot justify the horrible effects of the Flare virus with images of all the equally as horrible things that have happened in his life.
In a flashback, Mark remembers how he and his friends finally got out of New York and were on the shore of New Jersey. The rain and storms that finally come down are a symbol of rebirth and of washing away. It is almost like Mark and his friends are getting “baptized” by the rain as they are about to begin a new life. The storms, too, are violent, but they are about to have a new beginning of living, not being holed up in the Lincoln Building.
In their final moments alive, Mark and Trina hold each other in the room with the Flat Trans. In these final moments, Trina finally remembers Mark and whispers his name in his ear. This recognition brings everything full-circle. Not only does Trina remember the name of her best friend and how much he means to her, but a deeper significance is also present here. Mark has now succumbed to the Flare’s effects, just like almost everyone else around him. He is brave and physically fit. However, the Flare has rendered him a complete nobody. The Flare and all of the ways of death in Mark’s world (like the Transvice) are weapons that reveal how disposable people are. People continue to die off in heaps, with no names or legacies. That is why it is so important that Trina gives Mark his name just before they die. It is almost like Mark and his specific name really matter to the world. The significance of names also becomes relevant again in the epilogue passages, where Deedee has been renamed “Teresa” by WICKED. “Teresa” has to do with naming her after Mother Teresa. By giving her a new name, WICKED attempts to make Teresa their own member, their own product. By giving her a new name, it is almost like they are trying to remove her past. The past, however, with all of its violent and crazy adventures, will of course stay with Teresa far into the future.
