The Death Cure

Gally reveals they have one member of the Right Arm named Charlotte Chiswell, who worked as an engineer for an arms manufacturer. Charlotte knows a way to make weapons useless because they run on computer systems. She can remotely jam them, which will take a couple hours once a device is placed inside WICKED. Vince suggests Thomas go ahead of their attack team to plant the device so in order to shorten the time between dropping off the Immunes they have gathered, planting the device, and attacking.

Thomas agrees to be dropped off a couple miles away to hike in. He asks to be shown how to plant the device, and Vince tells him Charlotte will show him. Charlotte explains how to plant and activate the device and tells Thomas it will take an hour for WICKED’s weapons to become useless. Gally suggests Lawrence bring a pilot and Thomas to Jorge’s Berg. Brenda visits him before he leaves and kisses him, asking him to not get killed.

Lawrence drives Thomas and the pilot toward the city. About an hour from the hangar, Lawrence slows the van because several cars ahead of them are driving in circles. He then speeds up. The pilot tells him to stop, but Lawrence tells her to shut up. “The van swerved with a screech....The drivers of the cars…had stopped, and three of them were lined up facing the oncoming van. Lawrence didn’t slow down. Instead he turned, heading for the larger gap between the car to the right and the one in the middle” (237). One of the cars guns it toward them.

The car hits them, and the van spins. It only stops when it meets a cement wall. When Thomas recovers, he looks out the window to watch the cars speeding away and a Crank standing, staring at him. The Crank is Newt.

“Newt looked horrible. His hair had been torn out in patches, leaving bald spots that were nothing more than red welts. Scratches and bruises covered his face; his shirt was ripped, barely hanging on to his thin frame, and his pants were filthy with grime and blood. It was like he’d finally given in to the Cranks, joined their ranks fully” (239). Lawrence starts to drive away, but Thomas tells him to stop the car. He explains one of his friends is out there. “‘You think that thing out there is still your friend?’ the pilot asked coldly. ‘Those Cranks are way past the Gone. Can’t you see that? Your friend is nothing but an animal now. Worse than an animal’” (240).

He tries to convince Newt to come with him, but Newt is mad that Thomas did not do what he asked in the note. Newt accuses Thomas of thinking only of himself. Newt attacks Thomas to the ground and yells at him repeatedly, telling Thomas to kill him. After several promptings, Thomas pulls the trigger on his gun.

“Thomas had closed his eyes when he did it. He heard the impact of bullet on flesh and bone, felt Newt’s body jerk, then fall onto the street. Thomas twisted onto his stomach, then pushed himself to his feet, and he didn’t open his eyes until he started running. He couldn’t allow himself to see what he’d done to his friend. The horror of it, the sorrow and guilt and sickness of it all, threatened to consume him, filled his eyes with tears as he ran toward the white van” (244). He gets into the van and Lawrence drives. They get to the hangar and fly away.

Lawrence wakes Thomas up to let him know they are about to drop him off. They land in a small clearing. Lawrence points which direction he should head in. Thomas jumps out and feels numb. “He’d shot his own friend in the head” (247).