| The Dead (The Enemy 2) | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Charlie Higson |
| Country | United Kingdom and the rest of Europe |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Enemy |
| Genre(s) | Horror, Young Adult, Thriller |
| Publisher | Puffin Books |
| Publication date | September 16, 2010 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 450 |
| ISBN | 978-0141384658 |
| Preceded by | The Enemy |
| Followed by | The Fear |
The Dead is a post-apocalyptic young adult horror novel written by Charlie Higson. The book takes place a year before the events in The Enemy. It was published by Puffin Books in the UK on 16 September 2010. The third novel in the series, titled The Fear, was published on 15 September 2011.
Contents |
The Dead begins a year before the events in The Enemy and two weeks after a worldwide sickness has infected all adults, turning them into zombies. Two fourteen-year-old boys called Jack and Ed are trapped with a group of other schoolboys in the Rowhurst boarding school, in a remote village, a few miles from London.
After escaping from an adult siege of their school, Jack and Ed rescue the French teacher's daughter, Frederique, and attempt to contact several boys inside a church. Alarmed that there is no reply from inside the church, they break in and find that the boys hiding inside are unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning. They manage to revive them. Matthew, a boy who has possibly suffered brain damage from the carbon monoxide, believes himself to be the messenger of the Lamb of God and believes that he must go to St Paul's Cathedral in London. The group splits, with Matt and his "acolytes", including Jack, attempting to go to London, and the rest deciding go deeper into the countryside.
The group heading for the countryside are attacked by older, infected teenagers shortly after parting from the rest. They are saved by the timely arrival of a motor coach driven by an adult named Greg Thorne. He is a butcher who claims that he is immune to the disease. With his young son Liam, Greg has acquired a bus and is collecting children to transport them all to London. Several other children are on the bus. Greg turns the bus around to find Jack, Matthew, and the Lamb of God believers, who are all still journeying towards London.
Greg explains that, before the epidemic, he was staying with a farmer and his family, but he had had to kill a father and the older children, and indirectly remarks that he had to kill a crazy child because of the loss of his family and is seen to be eating dried meat. The bus halts for the night. Greg realizes that he has become infected and can no longer protect Liam, whom Greg strangles in his sleep.
The next morning, Greg is inexplicably wearing Liam's glasses. Jack and Ed confront Greg about Liam's death. The bus is assaulted by several adults, and the group escapes from the bus and make it to the Imperial War Museum in south London.
The kids clash with the leader of the museum group, Jordan, who refuses to let them stay in the museum, but he compromises and lets them stay as long as they collect food for themselves. A group sets off, and they explore until they find a Tesco truck with a partially decomposed corpse inside. Whilst they are attempting to get the truck to run, Frederique comes under attack by several adults. They fight off the adults and are surprised to find that she is unharmed. The group manage to drive the truck back to the museum while Jack, Ed, and another boy, Bam, set off to find Jack's home, where he has been planning to go since the beginning of the infection.
Meanwhile, Matt's religion has gained believers in the museum. They rename the religion Agnus Dei, Latin for "Lamb of God". Matt foretells that the Lamb will look like a boy and will have a shadow that is another boy, who must be sacrificed. Meanwhile, Frederique attacks Froggie, biting into his arm. She reveals that she is sixteen years old and has been infected the entire time, with her diseases taking longer to infect her. She is locked in a storeroom by several of the kids.
Jack, Ed, and Bam make their way to the Oval Cricket Ground. Outside the cricket ground are ambulances, army trucks, and skips filled with dead bodies. The boys explore, finding and keeping several weapons. The entire stadium is full of diseased corpses that were going to be burned, but the soldiers were themselves infected or killed before they had a chance. The boys are then pursued by adults through the stadium. Jack has a sub-machine gun he found from a dead soldier and, whilst trying to fend off an adult, he shoots a propane tank, causing it to explode and causing an avalanche of bodies. Jack and Bam are buried underneath the bodies and debris. Bam mistakes Jack for an adult and shoots him with a shotgun. Jack is badly wounded but able to stand. Ed finds them, and the three boys leave, continuing their search for Jack's house. They continue towards Jack's home but are ambushed by adults in the street. The three boys manage to kill all the attacking adults, but Greg appears, now fully infected, and kills Bam with a meat cleaver. He then slashes Jack's chest open and cuts the side of Ed's face from forehead to chin. Greg is about to finish off Ed, but Greg flees when Ed mentions Liam.
Ed drags a dying Jack to his home and tries to heal his friend's wounds. However, Jack is too far gone, and Ed takes Jack to his bedroom and spends the night with him. In the morning, Jack has died from his wounds. Ed cremates his friend's body and leaves, headed back to the museum.
Soon Ed is ambushed again by adults. He is rescued by David King, Pod, and their group. They all travel to the museum. David warns Ed that a fire is spreading northward, towards the museum and that they should move.
At the museum, Ed confronts the infected Frederique, who attempts to attack him. She escaped from captivity by gnawing through her own thumb to get out of the handcuffs. He defeats her and manages to banish her to the streets rather than killing her. He holds council with David and Jordan, and they decide to move to North London. Jordan decides to stay in the museum with several others.
Ed and David lead their kids in the Tesco truck and attempt to cross north across the River Thames, fleeing the rapidly spreading fire. Every other kid in South London is also trying to cross the river, and they all struggle to do so due to a commotion between kids further up the bridge. But a huge wave of adults come up behind the kids from the south, and Ed and several other fighters hang back to fend off the infected to protect the other kids. Frederique reappears and attacks Aleisha, injuring her, and Ed shoots Frederique with a pistol. Ed is helped by another boy named Kyle, and, although the fighters initially seem to be overwhelmed, they are rescued by Jordan and his crew, who had been forced to abandon the museum by adults and the fire.
They realize that they must flee, but the way back to the bridge is blocked by a horde of adults. The kids manage to take control of a sightseeing cruise boat moored in the river. They pilot it downstream towards the Tower of London, but Matt hijacks the boat in an attempt to reach St Paul's. He accidentally crashes the boat into the bridge, and it splits in half, causing a number of kids to drown, including Aleisha. Matt and the survivors of his acolytes are last seen disappearing under a bridge, standing on the top of half of the ruined boat.
Jordan, Ed, Kyle, and the survivors find lifeboats and make it to the river's north bank. They make their way to the Tower of London and enter it by climbing the drainpipes. Inside they find a group of about thirty kids already inhabiting the castle. Frustrated at the leadership of the current leader, Jordan takes control, with Ed as his right-hand man. Of the original group from the bus, only Ed and Courtney remain. The others are either dead, missing, or still with the Tesco truck.
Greg finds himself in Trafalgar Square, where he has lost his shirt. He puts on a St George t-shirt from a souvenir stand and decides to get revenge on those who he holds responsible for Liam's death.
One year later, Ed, Kyle, and Jordan are guarding the Tower of London. Small Sam and The Kid arrive. The Tower group are shocked to see that Sam and The Kid resemble the Lamb and the Goat as portrayed on the Angus Dei banner.