The Enemy is a post-apocalyptic

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction

Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...

 young adult horror novel written by Charlie Higson

Charlie Higson

Charles Murray Higson , more commonly known as Charlie Higson - also Switch - is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer...

. The book takes place in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 after a worldwide sickness has infected adults turning them into something akin to zombie

Zombie

Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...

s. It was published by Puffin Books in the UK on 3 September 2009 and by Disney-Hyperion in the U.S. on 11 May 2010. The Enemy is the first in a planned series of six. The second novel, titled The Dead

The Dead (Higson novel)

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...

, was published on 16 September 2010.
The third novel in the series, titled The Fear

The Fear (Higson novel)

The Fear, released on September 15, 2011, is the third novel in a series by Charlie Higson.The Enemy is a post-apocalyptic young adult horror novel which book takes place in London after a worldwide sickness has infected adults turning them into something akin to zombies. It was published by Puffin...

, was published on 15 September 2011.

Plot summary

The book begins a year after a worldwide sickness has infected all the adults, turning them into zombie-like creatures. The surviving children have formed a number of groups throughout London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in order to better combat the threat posed by the adults and to increase their odds of survival. A young survivor named Small Sam is kidnapped by infected adults and taken away. He and several other children have made a base within the confines of a Waitrose

Waitrose

Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...

 supermarket. The other children led by a boy named Arran and his second-in-command, Maxie, have increasingly grown tired of the children being killed one-by-one. The adults are becoming smarter and as a consequence the children are being picked off more frequently.

A scavenger party, composed of Arran and several other boys Achilleus, Ollie, Freak and Deke, explore a building with a swimming pool and they find a vending machine

Vending machine

A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

, but it turns out to be a trap. During the battle, Deke is killed and Arran is bitten by an adult woman. He becomes sick from the bite, and they only just manage to escape.

Later that night a boy in a patchwork coat named Jester arrives at the gates of the building and asks for the group's help. He tells the group he has come from Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...

, where a group of kids are based in a safe environment. He claims that if they travel there, they will all be safe as well. The majority of the group like the idea and soon set off through Camden

London Borough of Camden

In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...

 to the palace, along with another group of kids from a Morrisons

Morrisons

Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The company is usually referred to and is branded as Morrisons formerly Morrison's, and it is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies...

 supermarket who share the same feeling. A loner named Callum decides to stay behind on his own, afraid to leave to confines of his base.

Meanwhile, Small Sam awakes in a grown-up base made at Arsenal Stadium

Arsenal Stadium

Arsenal Stadium was a football stadium in Highbury, North London, which was the home ground of Arsenal Football Club between 6 September 1913 and 7 May 2006...

. He escapes and heads back to Waitrose to find only Callum, as the other children have left. Callum explains that the other children are headed for Buckingham Palace, and Sam sets off to catch up with them.

Sam is unable to catch up with the other kids and is chased by adults into the London Underground

London Underground

The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 and gets as far as King's Cross

Kings Cross, London

King's Cross is an area of London partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district located 2.5 miles north of Charing Cross. The area formerly had a reputation for being a red light district and run-down. However, rapid regeneration...

 when an older, uninfected man named Nick appears with a sawed-off shotgun

Shotgun

A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

 and saves him. Nick has been living in the tunnels inside a train with his wife, Rachael. The couple aids Sam, but appear to have sinister motives behind it. Later Sam discovers he is chained up with 3 other children whom the couple have found, and it seems the couple are cannibals. With the help of a young boy known only as "the Kid" Sam escapes. However, Nick chases them outside but then gets infected and dies. Sam and the Kid go on, eventually making it to safety at the Tower of London, where another group of kids have taken shelter.

As the Waitrose and Morrison's group travels to Buckingham Palace they are attacked by a pack of grown-ups, led by one wearing a St. George's Cross shirt. The children win the fight, but Arran has gone out of control because of his bite wound, and gets carried away with killing the adults. As a result he is mistaken for an adult and becomes fatally wounded by an arrow, which was shot by a girl named Sophie from another surviving group of kids. Maxie comes to Arran's aid but he dies in her arms. The group teams up with Sophie's group and after a few more skirmishes they eventually manage to find Buckingham Palace.

The group of kids meet David King, the leader of the kids at Buckingham Palace who seems to have things well worked-out, but turns out to be hiding the truth of his plans. The Waitrose and Morrison's group are pressured into going to a park opposite the palace to peacefully talk with a group of kids, called the "squatters," about joining them at Buckingham Palace. However, after their leader, Just John, refuses, fight breaks out. After a tough fight in which Freak dies, they capture John and take him back to the palace.

John and David come to an agreement: Achilleus and Just John fight to the death over the territorial ownership of the park. They fight, and Achilleus wins.

Callum becomes overly upset at his loneliness, despite having stashed things like a music player which he hid from other kids, and becomes upset when he remembers having to kill his own mother after the epidemic. He loses hope slowly as adults led by the Saint George zombie break into the store and kill him

Maxie and Ollie find that they don't trust David because of how he acts, and his obsession with taking over London. Maxie expresses her concerns to the rest of the group and they decide to escape. David and Jester attempt to stop them, but they all manage to escape, and continue to roam London.

Meanwhile, the Saint George zombie continues to grow smarter and to lead his army of adults through London, searching out more kids. He craves more power and destruction, and wants to kill and eat every last child he can find...

Characters

• Arran Harper - The first leader of the Waitrose group and the novel's main character in its early pages, but he soon dies. He is fatally bitten by a zombie woman whom he believes to be his actual mother and, soon after, is shot by an arrow from Sophie's bow. There are hints that he has feelings for Maxie, but, as he dies, he is unable to follow those feelings.
• Blue - The leader of the Morrisons group and one of the novel's main characters. He explains to Maxie that he was once a bookworm, fat, and not so good with fighting. But after the disease started to affect the adults and the early kids had all been killed off by the grown-ups, Blue had to learn to fight and become a very strong leader. He tells Maxie that he likes her but is worried because of her feelings for Arran.
• Bernie - One of the Waitrose group, an emo, and twin brother to Ben (see above).
• Big Mick - The best fighter from the Morrisons group.

• Ben - One of the Waitrose group, an emo
  Emo
  Emo is a style of rock music and its associated subcultureEmo may also refer to:- Businesses :* Emo , an Irish oil company and filling station chain* Emo Speedway, a racetrack in Emo, Ontario...
  
  , and twin brother to Bernie. Greatly interested in engineering, the twins set up the defense system around the Waitrose. When they arrive at Buckingham Palace, they try to make plans for heating and such, but David disregards them. At the end of the novel, the twins are among the group who escape David's rule of the Palace.
• Achilleus - The strongest fighter in the Waitrose group. He can be moody and sarcastic, but he is a valuable member of the group because of his fighting skills. He blames Freak for the incident at the swimming pool that cost Deke and Arran their lives.
• Callum - A Waitrose boy who is extremely agoraphobic and refuses to leave with the other children. He survives on his own for a while but eventually succumbs to bitter loneliness and lets the adults kill him after they break into the store.
• Carl - One of the squatters in the park. He is a pirate-looking boy and seems to be Just John's second in command.
• David King - The leader of the Buckingham Palace group. He is a power-mad teenager who attempts to restore the British monarchy
  Monarchy of the United Kingdom
  The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
  
  under his personal control.
• Deke - A boy in the Waitrose group. He is Freak's best friend and, before the epidemic, always hung around with him. During the swimming pool episode, Deke dies after suffering a punctured lung from a broken vending machine glass, and grown-ups take him away to eat him.
• Ella - A young girl in the Waitrose group, Small Sam's sister. She constantly misses her brother.
• Freak - A boy in the Waitrose group. He is Deke's best friend and, before the epidemic, always hung around with him. Well liked by most of the kids, he becomes one of Maxie's closest friends, but he struggles to get on with Achilleus, who blames Freak for the deaths of Arran and Deke in the swimming pool episode. Just John fatally stabs Freak as he saves Maxie.
• Henry - a boy in the Morrisons gang.
• Jester - David King's right-hand man in the Buckingham Palace group. He is the boy who walks to meet the Waitrose and Morrisons groups and persuades them to undertake the trek to the Palace, where life is, seemingly, better.
• Joel - A little boy who carries around a puppy called Godzilla. He is killed during an attack in Regent's Park.
• Josh - A boy in the Waitrose group. After Achilleus, Josh is the second-best fighter of the group and claims he isn't scared of anything. He is killed by infected monkeys.
• Just John - The leader of the squatters in the park. He is nearly killed by Achilleus, and he and his group are cast out of the park.
• The Kid - A nine-year-old boy who saves Small Sam from Nick and Rachael.
• Lewis - A boy in the Morrisons group and one of its best fighters. Lewis has an Afro and always looks sleepy, but he has surprisingly good reactions. During the journey of the combined Waitrose-Morrisons group to Buckingham Palace, he commands the left flank and becomes a supporting character towards the end of the novel, striking up a friendship with Achilleus.
• Maxie - A girl in the Waitrose group, one of the novel's main characters. After Arran dies, Maxie takes on the leadership of the Waitrose group, but her memory of Arran keeps her from staying mentally strong. She overcomes this and becomes a good leader after Ollie privately tells her that he believes the Waitrose kids need a leader to look up to and to make hard decisions. He tells her that she can be perfect for this role. At the end of the novel, she is among the group who escape David's rule of the Palace.
• Ollie - A boy in the Waitrose group and a central character in the novel. Ollie is red-haired, a skirmisher, sharp, and quick-witted; he is, generally, the brains of the group. He says that he lost his little brother during a riot and wants to stay alive as the last member of his family. At the end of the novel, he is among the group who escape David's rule of the Palace. The reader then learns that Ollie turned fourteen after he left the Palace.
• Saint George - The zombie in the St. George shirt. He is far more intelligent than most adults, even to the extent of remembering some words and keeping some ability to plan for the future. Toward the end of the novel, the reader learns that Saint George can still think has created a plan to hunt down and devour all children.
• Small Sam - A nine-year-old boy in the Waitrose group, Ella's brother, and a main character in the novel. He becomes separated from the group and is desperate to find Ella.
• Sophie - A girl from another group, which merges with the combined Waitrose-Morrisons group on its way to Buckingham Palace. Sophie accidentally shoots the wounded Arran with an arrow, killing him. At the end of the novel, she is among the group who escape David's rule of the Palace.
• Whitney - The second-in-command of the Morrisons group and a central character in the novel. After the Morrisons and Waitrose groups merge, Whitney strikes up a good friendship with Maxie.