“Mark shivered with cold, something he hadn’t done in a long time.”

From James Dashner’s The Maze Runner: The Kill Order.

Life is pretty terrible for Mark and Trina since the apocalyptic solar flares made the world a dangerous, violent, and deadly place.  However, things in the unrecognizable America are growing more desperate as an unexplainable virus is spreading across the eastern part of the country.  Those who are infected turn from decent people to raging, evil almost-animalistic freaks that have no control over their desires to hurt others.  In an attempt to stay alive, Mark and Trina form an uneasy alliance with retired soldier Alec, Lana, and her friends as they make their way across the country in search of safety.   After surviving terrible people and natural disasters, the small group finds themselves living in North Carolina where their safety is shattered by attacking bergs (military helicopters) that shoot residents with darts.  Mark and Alec board a berg in an attempt to stop the attack, but a crash results in them having to make a 3-day trip back home.  When they return, they discover that everyone hit with a dart died after displaying new symptoms.  Desperate to stop further attacks and save lives from the infected darts, the four friends take off to find the attacker’s base.  Along the way, they find the young abandoned Deedee who has survived a similar attack, but the closer they get to their destination, the more clear it becomes that nothing is as it seems.

The fourth book in Dashner’s Maze Runner series is the first prequel that allows readers to see the events that led to a world that would allow for WICKED, the Maze, and a virus in need of a cure.  The new characters are interesting and the adventures are thrilling, while also completely different from the previous three books.  The Kill Order will appeal almost exclusively to fans of the series, but it is an undeniably fast-paced book that will keep readers guessing until the very end.