9/12/12
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
 Pages 1-26

1) In the beginning of The Scorch Trials, Thomas and the Gladers are in the safe house that they were brought to after they escaped the Maze. Teresa, in another room, waked Thomas up from his slumber by speaking to him telepathically. After their conversation, Thomas felt very close to her despite them being away from each other. He began dreaming of himself as a child by his mother. She spoke him saying that he should never forget how much she loved him. He replied asking is she was going to become like his father, like one of the crazy people on the TV. Thomas was startled when Teresa called out to him, saying that something's wrong. For some reason, Thomas is trapped in sleep, and cannot wake up. Then Teresa seems to be ripped away from him, and he feels her presence disappearing. He then wakes himself up, and sees the Gladers running around the room. The windows have been smashed in, and people infected by the Flare, "Cranks", are hanging on the bars that are protecting the boys inside. Newt, Minho, and Thomas find each-other and  decide to use a fire extinguisher to knock bust open the locked entrance to the room. They do this, and are confronted by darkness. Minho leads and walks through a hallway to find the light switches, the rest of the boys following. The lights are turned on, and the Gladers are disgusted by what they see. They're rescuers, all of them, hung by the necks from the ceiling, bloated and purple. They've been dead for some time. The room smells terrible. Thomas is determined to find Teresa and begins looking around. He finds the only other room in the building with a sign in front of it with these words on it: "Teresa Agnes. Group A, Subject A1. The Betrayer." Someone fetches the fire extinguisher and Thomas bashes the locked door in. The room is empty, but the bed is unmade. They here the toilet flush, and Thomas thinks it to be Teresa. He rushes to the door as it opens, but is surprised to see a boy come out of the bathroom. Thomas grills him with questions. The boy's name is Aris, and came from the Maze. He got transported the safe house the same night as the other Gladers. After asking several other questions, the Gladers figure out that Aris is from a different Maze. He is a counterpart of Teresa. Everyone else in his Maze was a girl, so it was inverse to the Glade. He was the trigger for his Maze to start falling apart. He had a telepathic connection to a girl who was killed. He even spoke to Thomas, telling him that his best friend, Rachel, was killed.

2) "Wake up! he yelled at himself. Wake up!
          Then something disappeared from inside him. There one instant, gone the next. He felt as if a major organ had just been ripped from his body.
          It had been her. She was gone.
          Teresa! he screamed out with his mind. Teresa! Are you there?
          But there was nothing, and he no longer felt that comforting sense of her closeness. He called her name again, then again, as he continued to struggle against the dark pull of sleep" (Dashner 5-6). This quote is significant for several reasons. The first one would be that this is the first real dramatic thing that happens in the story. Because Teresa is one of the main characters, you can expect her not to be dead, but it makes you wonder where she is, and what happened. You might also see this later in the story, as the Gladers might have to go on a quest to find her. Also, Thomas will obviously always have Teresa on the mind. They had finally gotten close and thought they were safe. She even was talking to Thomas as whatever happened to her was happening. This will probably haunt Thomas for the rest of the book until he finds Teresa.

3) If I were to connect to this section of the text in any way, it would probably be the feeling that Thomas has right in the beginning of the story. He gets to the safe house, and for the first time in a while he feels safe and sound. He can sleep well. In some ways, I feel similar to this when I'm at my house on the Island. I grew up in that house and always feel safe and comforted when I'm in it. I can always sleep better in that bed. I've recently moved to a different house in the county, and it never really feels the same.