The Scorch Trials

The Scorch Trials is a 2010 young adult post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction novel by the American author James Dashner and the second book of The Maze Runner series. It was published on 18 September 2010 by Delacorte Press, follows The Maze Runner and is followed by The Death Cure. A film adaptation was released on 18 September 2015 by 20th Century Fox.

The plot begins in a dormitory, where Thomas is sleeping with the other teenagers who escaped the Maze and were collected by a group of rescuers. He is woken by a telepathic communication from Teresa, the only girl among them, and the arrangement that seemed like a rescue turns out to be the start of a second controlled test. The people who collected them after the Maze are not rescuers, and the second test has been adjusted against them, with other groups competing for the same chance to survive.

The deadline is two weeks across a ruined landscape, and the novel's pressure comes from the organisers adjusting conditions rather than from the environment alone. The Scorch is the burned-out section of the world, and the two weeks allowed for crossing it is the only structure the novel offers.