The Maze Runner, by James Dashner, is an intense science fiction book which is the first in its trilogy. The entire Maze Runner series takes place in a futuristic apocalyptic world where sun flares ravaged the Earth, turning most of the Earth into a desert wasteland. During the process of the sun flares, a disease known as the Flare has leaked out of Government hands and spread all around the world. The Flare is a lethal virus that has many stages but the outcome is death. There isn’t a cure but there is a substance that slows down the process of the virus. The Maze Runner however only takes place in an artificial maze which is a testing facility for an organization ironically named as WICKED (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Department). WICKED’s goal is to do anything to find a cure for the Flare and preserve the human race. WICKED’s intentions were good but they ran inhuman tests on human subjects, particularly one’s who are immune to the Flare virus. One of the tests takes place in a huge Maze that the main character arrives in. Thomas, the main character who is a 16 year old boy, finds himself in a dark elevator underground, ascending to the surface where the center of the Maze is which is called the Glade and the people.

          Once he reaches top, he is blinded with artificial sunlight and meets a group of other humans which are the rest of the Gladers. Thomas gets to know them and discovers that everyone in the Maze was sent from the elevator and didn’t know what was going on. Thomas eventually goes exploring and talks to a lot of people. Thomas finds out that there are evil monsters that run around in the maze when the walls that seal the glade from the maze close at night. The problem present in the story is the Gladers are trapped in the maze and they need to find a way to escape. The day right after Thomas enters the Glade, another person joins them and this time it is a girl which never happened in the entire history of the Glade. The girl is Teresa and she tells everybody that everything is about to change. Teresa then slips into unconsciousness and goes into a coma. Thomas learns about the different jobs he can be assigned to and discovers an interesting job known as the runner which is an extremely dangerous job that a Glader can be assigned to. Minho, the lead Runner in the story eventually shows Thomas the maps they created to map out the entire maze. After Thomas chooses to become a Runner, he gets attacked by a boy named Ben who has undergone the Changing which is the process you go through after you have been stung by a Griever. A griever is a dangerous and feral creature that is active in the maze at night. Ben is then sentenced to be banished from the Glade after what he did to Thomas.

           During a running mission, with Alby and Minho, Alby gets injured and Minho is desperately trying to bring him to the entrance of the Maze before the doors close. When they are near the entrance, it is nighttime and the doors start closing. Thomas, who is a Hero darts between the closing walls and tries to save them. He has no luck and all three are trapped in the maze. Surprisingly, by hiding and tactically running away, Thomas, Alby, and Minho survived a night in the maze, something nobody has ever done before. It is learned that Alby was stung by a Griever and when he got back, suffered from the Changing. By going through the Changing, the person is able to know more about how they got into the Glade and what happened to the world. People who have gone through the Changing, realized that Thomas had a role in constructing the maze and he was sent to the maze for a purpose. Soon, after Teresa wakes up from her coma, she and Thomas realize they can communicate telepathically.

          A few Gladers are very suspicious of the two and keep a close watch on them. The same day when Teresa wakes up, the doors sealing the Glade from the maze don’t close and everybody is panicking. Everybody is hiding in their shelters when Grievers storm the Glade, ravaging the entire area. In the struggle, a Glader known as Gally dies and the building which holds all the maps of the maze the Gladers created was burned. However, the maps inside the building were not real and Thomas was able to get a hold of the real maps. When Thomas analyzes the maps, he realizes there is a sequence of letters present which makes certain words. Thomas decides he has to go through the Changing to find out more information and gets stung by a Griever. Thomas finds out a way to escape the maze after recovering from the Changing and he tells the remaining Gladers there is a synthesized cliff in the Maze that they have to jump off of. The cliff is just an illusion and a way for Grievers to go to when it is day. There is a sealed door at the bottom of the cliff that they have to unlock using a specific code which Thomas deciphered. A group of Gladers lead by Thomas, Teresa, and Minho decide to head out and escape the maze. The rest of the Gladers stay behind. The group escaping run into very dangerous situations and they try their best to fight their way to the escape destination by using their wooden spears. A few Gladers die trying to escape but eventually Thomas and the rest of the group get to the coded door, put in the code and rush in. The group goes down a tunnel and end up in a huge underground bunker. A woman greets them and congratulates them. Soldiers escort them out on a helicopter and kill the woman. The soldiers drop them off at a dormitory style building where they are taken care of and in a safe place. A big lesson in the Maze Runner is to always work as a team and communicate with other people. Without teamwork and communication between the Gladers, they would have never escaped and would probably live in the Glade, independent for the rest of their lives.