Prologue
Thomas watched the construction from his bedroom window with mild interest. The people of his city had grown fearful after the events in the Maze where so many lives had been lost, including Thomas' friend Teresa. For decades, they had suppressed their urges to fight back against the creatures wandering the face of the scarred and forgotten earth.
"Cranks," they were called; people afflicted with the manmade virus called the Flare, which rooted itself in an infected victim's mind until they went completely insane. Before the Maze, Thomas had helped in trying to discover a cure for the Flare, but instead was used as a test subject. But that had been many years ago. Thomas was now an 80-year-old man.
He inwardly chuckled. "Where has the time gone?" his raspy voice asked the wall to his left. The wall remained silent; everyone remained silent these days.
"Thomas?" an old woman's voice echoed behind him.
"Elise," Thomas acknowledged her presence without bothering to turn around to look at her.
"Thomas, speaking to the wall is going to get you in trouble with the crank-control," Elise said softly. She inched forward until she could take his hands in hers. "Your fingers are like ice!" she exclaimed worriedly.
Thomas batted her away. "Woman-" he began in as threatening a voice as he could manage before breaking into coughs as he fervently tried to finish his sentence. Elise put a motherly arm around his shoulders and led him back to his bed.
"Don't worry about whatever they're building," she whispered as she pulled a sheet over Thomas's spindly legs and kissed his forehead tenderly. "I promise that I'll tell you everything that happens-"
Elise was interrupted suddenly by an earth shattering crash from outside. Thomas was on his feet in a second, streaking for the window. As he got close, Elise heard him gasp in horror. She too looked out the window to witness the terrible accident. The primitive crane that the townspeople had concocted had collapsed, crushing a portion of the building project. More importantly, figures of people lay scattered about, some getting up, some lying prone on the ground, and some partially underneath the wooden beams of the destroyed structure. Thomas let out a vicious cry.
"Don't they know what they're doing? Don't they care? They are killing themselves, Elise. Killing with ambition, with pride, with dreams they cannot ever hope to achieve. I can't stand them…the people of this earth. I wish I had died with Newt, or Minho, or Chuck all those years ago. Why couldn't Gally have killed me when he had the chance?"
Elise saw tears of pain and anger rolling down her aged husband's hollow cheeks.
"I can't live in this world," Thomas continued. "At least, not anymore." He leaned over and kissed Elise sweetly on the cheek. "I love you," he whispered.
And upon saying that, Thomas fell to the floor, dead.