The Death Cure

by James Dashner

After being held in solitary confinement, Thomas is eventually released by Janson (Rat Man in the prior novel), the assistant director of WICKED. Janson tells the Gladers (Group A) and Group B that most of their number are immune to the Flare while some are not, reading out names of people who are not immune to the Flare. Thomas is devastated to hear his friend Newt is not immune. The Gladers are offered the chance to remove the mind-control chips in their heads, thus restoring their memories, but at the cost of Thomas' ability to communicate telepathically with Teresa and Aris. Only Thomas, Minho, and Newt choose not to undergo the surgery, as they do not trust WICKED and Thomas does not want to know who he was when he helped create the maze. All three of them escape from WICKED with the help of Brenda and Jorge before their chips are removed.

Brenda and Jorge are revealed to be working for WICKED. Thomas initially feels betrayed, but Brenda convinces him to forgive her. Soon after, the Gladers discover everyone who had undergone the memory-restoration abandoned them. Newt gives Thomas a note and tells him to open it "when the time is right". The five then travel to Denver to find Hans, a former WICKED researcher, who can remove their mind-control chips. There, a man in a black-suit directs them to an address where Gally is waiting for them. Gally has joined a rebel group called the Right Arm, and explains that WICKED is capturing every Immune they can find to prepare another cycle of the Trials. He also reveals the decaying cities are home to many who suffer from the Flare, but take an illicit drug called Bliss which slows down brain functioning and helps relieve the pain Cranks feel from the Flare.

The group finds Hans, who removes Minho's control chip. However, WICKED uses Thomas' chip to force him to resist the procedure: Brenda, Jorge, and Minho have to hold him down in order for Hans to perform the surgery. Afterwards, while the group visits a café, a security guard apprehends Thomas in order to sell him to bounty hunters that will take him to WICKED. Janson intervenes in holographic form, sending a police vehicle to rescue Thomas and tells him that he must return to WICKED "to save Newt." Thomas and his friends find a note saying Newt has been taken to the Cranks. Minho convinces them to go to the Denver Crank Palace to rescue Newt, where they bribe the guards to get in. When they meet Newt, he angrily orders them to leave and the other Cranks chase them out. Thomas then remembers Newt's note and reads it, discovering he had begged Thomas to kill him. Thomas despairs over not having read the note earlier.

After returning to Denver, Thomas sees that Newt has succumbed to the Flare. Thomas answers Newt's pleas by shooting him in the head as an act of mercy. The group then discovers Teresa and the other Immunes have been captured. After knocking out the guards, they discover that the guards were led by Vince, the leader of the Right Arm, who explains they are infiltrating WICKED's headquarters. Inside, Thomas discovers how Janson tried to use his attempt "to save Newt" to compile data for the cure by examining the physical structure of Thomas's brain, which will kill him. Thomas is forced to begin the deadly brain surgery, but is able to plant a device that disables WICKED's weapons, allowing the Right Arm to begin storming the facility.

Thomas wakes up to find a note from Chancellor Ava Paige, head of WICKED, explaining there are already enough resources from the Trials to make a blueprint for the cure, and that his brain is not needed after all. Paige reveals the location of the Immunes whom the Right Arm "sold" to gain access to WICKED, and gives directions to a "safe place" where Thomas should take them all. Thomas and his friends re-enter the Maze and find the captured Immunes. However, they learn the Right Arm intends to destroy, rather than occupy, WICKED headquarters. Explosions rock the Maze and falling debris kills some of the Immunes inside. Triggered by the commotion, the Grievers come out of storage, but Teresa shows Thomas how to shut them down. However, she dies from falling debris in an effort to save Thomas's life. Fleeing the building, the Immunes escape through a Flat Trans portal that leads to a lush paradise.

; The Epilogue The book's Epilogue is written in the voice of Paige. She reveals that after the catastrophic solar flares, the Flare was deliberately created and released by the government as a form of population control. However, the government and WICKED found themselves unable to control the plague. Paige came to realized that they would never be able to find a cure for the Flare and that WICKEDs efforts were futile. She realised the only hope of preventing humanity’s extinction was for Immunes to start their own society away from the rest of the world. Chancellor Paige devised a plan with Brenda and Jorge to send them to a safe refuge, where they could restore human civilization. That is why, as she states, "WICKED is good."