3 Protagonist's Obstacles | The Scorch Trials

Pages read 357/357

The three obstacles that Thomas encountered are 1) stuck in  a place in the middle of the desert where all the cranks live (Cranks are ordinary people who are slowly going crazy because of the Flare, a deadly disease which spread throughout all of Earth) 2) being kidnapped by the girls' group then tricked by Teresa and Aris who lead him into a room full of gas, and 3) being surrounded by human-like machines made by WICKED.

The first obstacle came around just before the middle of the book, where Thomas and the rest of the group came upon the cranks liar and decided to ask for help. Though before they asked for help, the leader, or the main crank called Jorge jumped the Gladers and Minho (one of the Gladers) decided to attack him. Jorge got angry and wanted to kill him but the rest of the group refused. They made a compromise to not kill Minho, and in return the Gladers would bring Jorge and one more crank to the safe haven where a cure would be given to them by the WICKED team. Jorge chose Brenda, the smartest crank, and the next thing the Gladers knew: they were calmly sitting down and finally eating real food. In the middle of their meal, the whole place crashed and the group had to separate. Thomas went with Brenda in one direction, and Jorge with all the other Gladers went the other direction. They tried to get back together but Thomas and Brenda stumbled upon one crank that tried to kill them, which ended up being killed by Thomas. After killing the crank, they moved on. Not so far from the dead crank, other cranks from a room in which a party was held forced Thomas and Brenda to join. They gave both of them a beverage and said if they don't drink it, they will kill them. Of course, the beverage was poisoned. The rest of the group and Jorge found them and escaped the room while the cranks were asleep.

After sitting outside the room for a good hour, Thomas seemed to be in trouble again. Teresa came along with the rest of group B (the girls' group). Thomas knew Teresa because she was once a part of the guys group, until Aris replaced her. She dragged Thomas out with threatening to kill him right away if anyone tried to save him. She punched him a couple times, put him in a bag, dragged him up a mountain with the help of a couple more girls, and let him out of the bag once they were out of sight. WICKED had given the girls' group an assignment to kill Thomas: it's either them, or him who lives. After a while, the girls realized it was all just another test, a part of the trials and it didn't matter if they kill him or not. The bigger number of people getting to the safe haven, the better. After they decided not to kill him, all the girls and Thomas continued walking to get to the safe haven. Teresa asked Thomas to come with her to talk and so he did, even though he had doubts and felt mistrust and betrayal. Out of nowhere, Aris from the guys' group appeared. Teresa and Aris dragged Thomas to a room full of gas and left him there until he woke up and got out himself. After that had happened, Teresa and Aris explained it was just another assignment given to them by WICKED, to see if they have the guts to make Thomas feel betrayed and never trust Teresa again, and also to trick him into thinking they were planning to kill him. If they didn't do all this, Thomas would be killed by WICKED.

The last obstacle came around just before the end of the book, making it that much more intense. Group A and B, along with Jorge and Brenda, got together and tried to make it to the safe haven in time. They got to a place where they saw a bright orange flag. While wondering what that might mean, around them appeared pods which came out of the ground. In each pod, there was a human-like machine made by WICKED. These creatures had no eyes, nose, or mouth, and were beige and disgusting. They appeared just seven minutes before the time they got to get to the safe haven was out! There was one creature for each person to fight. Two people died, a boy and a girl, none of which Thomas, or anybody, knew much about. After defeating WICKED's machines, there was only fifty seconds left! Just after the machines were defeated, everyone saw a vehicle identical to a space-shuttle lifting off the ground. All of them ran as fast as they could to get inside, and everyone got inside safe and sound. They found their safe haven, even though they were expecting it to be a building, but it isn't over. The cure will be given to them as soon as they got to WICKED's lair, but they aren't free just yet. Phase three of the trials is starting soon... will anyone make it out alive?

Thanks for reading! If you want to find out more about what happens, read "The Scorch Trials", and if you want to know what happens next (in phase three of the trials), read "The Death Cure". Trust me, it's very intense and exciting. I loved every single page of this book!