At the Gathering, Thomas explains that during the Changing he saw hundreds of flashes of his lost memories. He tells the remaining Keepers that the Maze is a trial that was never meant to be solved. The winners—or survivors—will go on to do something important. Thomas then says that the Creators stole every one of the Gladers when they were children, thinking that they were justified in doing so, and that their names are just nicknames, like Thomas for Thomas Edison, Alby for Albert Einstein and Newt for Sir Isaac Newton. Thomas says that the Creators wanted to test the kids to see if they would keep trying to solve the Maze despite the obstacles placed in their path. Though everyone is confused and some, like Winston, do not believe his story, Thomas continues. He confesses that, although the Maze itself cannot be solved, there is a way to escape that is made possible with the code. He knows how to solve the code because he was with the Creators when they put the code into the Maze.