The Kill Order is a novel written by James Dashner, the same man that wrote The Maze Runner books. If you have read the first 3 Maze Runner books then you would know that the entire world is slowly being killed off and turned into a dystopian wasteland by a virus called “The Flare”. The virus feeds off of the victims brain and drives them to the brink of insanity, soon enough turning into bloodthirsty monsters which are soon referred to as “Cranks”. In the quotation I’m about to show, it has an old friend, the Toad, returning but seems to have gone crazy and in need of help.
The Toad dropped to his knees and held the lit match closer to his face. He looked gaunt, and his eyes were moist and haunted.
“Are… You okay?” Mark asked, hoping his friend was just tired.
“I’m not,” the Toad answered, his face quivering as if he were about to cry. “I’m not, Mark. I’m not okay at all, There are things living inside my skull.” (p.81)
And
“I have things in my skull. I need help getting them out of there. Before they eat my brain and start heading for my heart” (p.82)
Both of these quotations show the character the Toad, experiencing symptoms of The Flare, having it thrive on his brain. Later in the story he proceeds to do inhuman screeches and wails, and he gets violent and angry. The whole reason I showed this is because it gives us good insight on the mutating process the virus has on the brain, driving someone mentally ill. And a little theory of mine is that the violent intentions to soon come might have been from the voices in his head, maybe telling him to.