The Kill Order is a 2012 young adult dystopian science fiction novel written by American author James Dashner and published on August 14, 2012, by Delacorte Press.

Set thirteen years before the prologue and the events of The Maze Runner, the main story of the novel begins in New York City, when the world is hit by catastrophic solar flares.

The Tsunami ends up being made of searing hot water due to the solar flare, killing most of the survivors in New York and giving Mark PTSD.

The story resumes one year after the tsunami near Asheville, a small North Carolina town in which Mark, Trina, Alec, and Lana now live.

Alec and Mark manage to subdue and take over a Berg, but its pilot crashes the vehicle in order to avoid answering their questions.

Lana and Trina explain that after the initial death toll, people started living a little longer before they die, and symptoms of infection also changed.

Mark and Alec manage to escape from the cult but find that a forest fire has been started and that Trina, Lana, and Deedee are gone from their campsite.

They eavesdrop on a conversation and realize that the disease is widely known as "the Flare" and caused by a virus that shuts down the thinking part of people's brains.

As Mark starts to lose his sanity, he recognizes that Deedee is truly immune to the virus and should be sent to the safety of the PFC base in Alaska.

Mark plans on delivering Deedee by using a teleporter, called a flat trans, inside a PFC base in the safe part of Asheville.

Mark and Trina manage to bring Deedee to the flat trans and send her through it to safety at the Alaska PFC base.

Mark orders Alec to crash the Berg into the flat trans building to prevent the infected from escaping Asheville.