The Sun Flares were an abnormal, unpredictable event that occured years before the events of The Maze Runner. They ravaged the planet and turned the area between the two Tropics into the wastelands known as The Scorch. Shortly after the Sun Flares came, a deadly virus was released as population control, as the planet was overcrowded. As the virus was released at the same time as the Flares, the virus came to be known as the Flare.