PRAISE FOR
JAMES DASHNER
AND
THE MAZE RUNNER SERIES
More Than 3 Million Copies Sold!
A New York Times Bestseller
A USA Today Bestseller
A Book Sense Bestseller
An Indie Next List Selection
A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of the Year
An ALA-YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book
An ALA-YALSA Quick Pick
“[A] mysterious survival saga that passionate fans describe as a fusion of Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games, and Lost.”—EW.com
“[A] nail-biting must-read.” —Seventeen.com
“Wonderful action writing—fast-paced … but smart and well observed.”
—Newsday
“Breathless, cinematic action.” —Publishers Weekly
“Heart pounding to the very last moment.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Exclamation-worthy.” —Romantic Times
“Take a deep breath before you start any James Dashner book.”
—Deseret News
BOOKS BY JAMES DASHNER
The Mortality Doctrine Series
The Eye of Minds
The Maze Runner Series
The Maze Runner
The Scorch Trials
The Death Cure
The Kill Order
The 13th Reality Series
The Journal of Curious Letters
The Hunt for Dark Infinity
The Blade of Shattered Hope
The Void of Mist and Thunder
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2011 by James Dashner
Cover art copyright © 2011 by Philip Straub
Cover typography by Joel Tippie
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
Originally published in hardcover by Delacorte Press in 2011.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.
Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/teens
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows:
Dashner, James.
The death cure / James Dashner. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Sequel to: The Scorch trials.
Summary: As the third Trial draws to a close, Thomas and some of his cohorts manage to escape from WICKED, their memories having been restored, only to face new dangers as WICKED claims to be trying to protect the human race from the deadly FLARE virus.
ISBN 978-0-385-73877-4 (hc) — ISBN 978-0-375-89612-5 (ebook) ISBN 978-0-385-90746-0 (glb)
[1. Survival—Fiction. 2. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D2587De 2011
[Fic]—dc23
2011022236
ISBN 978-0-385-73878-1 (tr. pbk.)
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.1_r2
This book is for my mom—
the best human to ever live.
Contents
Cover
Books by James Dashner
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
The Kill Order Preview
Eye of Minds Preview
About the Author
CHAPTER 1
It was the smell that began to drive Thomas slightly mad.
Not being alone for over three weeks. Not the white walls, ceiling and floor. Not the lack of windows or the fact that they never turned off the lights. None of that. They’d taken his watch; they fed him the exact same meal three times a day—slab of ham, mashed potatoes, raw carrots, slice of bread, water—never spoke to him, never allowed anyone else in the room. No books, no movies, no games.
Complete isolation. For over three weeks now, though he’d begun to doubt his tracking of time—which was based purely on instinct. He tried to best guess when night had fallen, made sure he only slept what felt like normal hours. The meals helped, though they didn’t seem to come regularly. As if he was meant to feel disoriented.
Alone. In a padded room devoid of color—the only exceptions a small, almost-hidden stainless-steel toilet in the corner and an old wooden desk that Thomas had no use for. Alone in an unbearable silence, with unlimited time to think about the disease rooted inside him: the Flare, that silent, creeping virus that slowly took away everything that made a person human.