The Flare (virus VC321xb47) is a man-made disease. It is a virus that slowly eats away the brain, and eventually turns victims into blood-thirsty and insane humans who consider cannibalism to be an every day objective. People who get the Flare are called Cranks. Every major city in the world (that has not been wiped away by the solar flares) has a special territory for Cranks known as the Crank Palace. [1]
The Flare was discovered by Katie McVoy, a scientist of the Post-Flares Coalition (PFC), after she researched the biological weapons that AMRIID had in containment. McVoy believed that the disease worked quickly and painlessly to shut down the brain of its victim and that the infection rate would slowly weaken as it spread to different hosts, eventually stopping altogether. However, after Chancellor John Michael approved the systematic release of the disease, its true effects soon became apparent.
The public was led to believe that it was freed from containment when the Sun Flares destroyed parts of the earth, but that is not the truth. It was revealed in The Death Cure's exclusive files, and in The Kill Order, that the governments of the world created and released it as a population control method. This was due to the need to control the general populace during the turbulent times of the sun flares, as well as to cut population, due to the destruction of food resources by the sun flares.
A small percentage of the populations were labelled as Immunes - people that are not affected by The Flare. WICKED attempted to use the Immunes to find a cure by looking at how the brains of the Immune people reacted to certain situations, as well as the physical make-up of the brain of the Final Candidate. People immune to the Flare include Thomas, Minho, Brenda, Jorge, most of the Gladers and some of Group B. Immunes were very rare, comprising less than 1% of the Earth's population.
Victims
- Newt
- Janson
- Jackson
- Winston (movie)
- Group B member
- Thomas' parents
- Brenda (movie)
- The cult that Deedee is from
- Many other people across the whole globe
Trivia
In the book The Game of Lives (Book three of the mortality doctrine), in the epilogue, James Dashner describes the protagonist as a Flare infected Crank.
References
- ↑ Crank palaces are filled with Flare-infected people who have just arrived and are at an early stage of the disease, and others who are past the Gone and have become completely mad and cannibalistic).