Literary Analysis The story takes place before the first book in the series The Maze Runner. It showed how the flare attacked the earth and destroyed most of the earth nearer to the equator. It started with Mark and Trina meeting strangers Alec and Lana. Mark is a seventeen year old boy from Newport and is living in the sun flare burnt world with his neighbor Trina and two military veterans. Trina was mark's neighbor and he has a crush on her. Alec is a military veteran and saved mark and Trina shortly before the tsunami. Lana is a nurse from the military and is in close relations with Alec. They know that a tsunami is gonna flood the city and run to the Lincoln building. They hijack a yacht that floated up to the building they were in and take it to land. They find a camp to live in for the next couple of months. One day berges fly over the camp and shoot darts and the campers and start killing them with a disease. While running away from the camp they find a little girl named deedee she is immune to the flare disease and was cast away from her village. They take over one of the berges and fly it to is base. During all this Trina, Lana, and deedee are taken captive by people infected by the flare. Mark and Alec rescue them but realize they have the flare. They fly her to the PFC and save her so they can use her to find a cure for the flare. (Wikipedia)
Symbol or Theme One of the most important themes throughout the kill order is friendship and teamwork. In the very beginning of the book, Mark and Trina are in a subway when the flares hit New York. They become friends with Alec and Lana the war veterans who help them survive by sticking together and making it to safety in the mountains. Finding these friends and working together during all of this was crucial to the survival of Mark and Trina. Also, by finding friends during this world crisis, it makes it easier to stay sane and work as a team. When Mark and Alec were rescuing Trina, Lana, and Deedee from the cranks, they had to work together and strategically make a plan to rescue them. Without their friendship they created during the story and the teamwork needed to rescue them they never would have been able to save Trina and Deedee.Another important theme during the kill order is altruism. After Trina, Lana, and Deedee are kidnapped by the cranks, or the people infected by the flare, Mark and Alec put their lives behind and go to rescue Trina, Lana, and Deedee. Once Mark and the others find Deedee and figure out that she is immune to the flare they make it the number one priority to protect her and to get her to a safe place. While flying in the berg Mark has the idea to go to the PFC that he heard about from inside of the base Mark and Alec broke into. They then show extreme altruism when they stop the cranks from getting into the PFC by crashing the berg into the only entrance after putting Deedee into the PFC. While crashing the berg they all die knowing that the PFC may have the only way to find a cure for the flare. Later in the epilogue it is revealed that Deedee is a lot more important than was thought to be. She is renamed and called Teresa, a main character in the books that take place in the future.