Dylan Peake

Dylan Peake, known to most as Shadowman, is a main character in The Enemy series. He features in the books The Fear, The Sacrifice and The End. He doesn't belong to any particular group, though he has strong ties to Jester who is a Buckingham Palace kid.

Before The Outbreak
He was a quiet kid and learnt to be invisible to avoid attention and kept gatecrashing. It mentions in the book that he used to creep around his home and spy on people, and that he eventually became so good that no one noticed him. He is likely upper class as his family is described as coming from a richer part of London. He got his nickname Shadowman from starting a band with his friend Jester, though they never got further than creating their names. There were six of them in the 'band'; Shadowman, Jester, Cool-Man, Big-Man, The Fox and Go-Girl. Cool-Man, Big-Man and The Fox died in the early days of the disease and Go-Girl had left with a different group of kids to go to the countryside, it was later revealed that Go-Girl was in fact at Windsor, when talking with Ella at The Games in The Hunted, this leaves only Shadowman and Jester from the original group.

During The Sickness
Shadowman is a kid surviving in London. He doesn't view himself as belonging to any particular group, but he is friends with Jester, who works for David at Buckingham Palace and so does jobs for Jester and David in return for somewhere where he can crash if he needs to. They praise him for his skills and abilities and like to use him for spying and infiltrating. He is particularly valuable for his ability to survive and adapt and is the most streetwise kid at the Palace it seems. He lives from settlement to settlement, not staying in one place for too long, and each place he stays at he uses a different identity.

During The Fear
Shadowman first appears in The Fear when he watches over as DogNut and his crew meet Ryan and the hunters for the first time. He watches them whilst they are unaware of his presence. It is revealed during this chapter that he is currently infiltrating the Squatters camp in St. James's park and finding out about them for David and Jester.

Shadowman is next seen in his tent at the Squatters camp, preparing his equipment. He leaves his tent and goes to talk to a boy named Paddy(Patrick) he knows there and whilst there is spotted by Just John, the leader of the squatters. He is then held at knife point by John, before being given a beer by him. He then leaves quickly, disappointed in himself for being seen.

Later that day Shadowman goes to Buckingham Palace and has a discussion with Jester, who tells him about his plan to go North and look for other kids surviving in London. Jester asks him to come, but Shadowman sounds skeptical about him going, though Jester insists that he has to. Shadowman does indeed join Jester on his search for more kids within London, and along with three other kids, Alfie, Tom and Kate, they begin looking. They make it to Euston Road before eventually running into grown ups. They have a few quick fights before having to flee from the slowly amassing adults.

After some running they eventually make it to King's Cross Station and end up having to fight some more. During the fight Jester accidentally knocks Shadowman out, leaving him concussed and unable to carry him flees with the others leaving Shadowman for dead.

For two hours, Shadowman is then forced to crawl and drag himself along the floor away from a remaining stranger, who also cannot walk, and onto a building site. Once there he manages to kill the stranger but is then found by six new strangers. Before he can make his final stand the strangers are all killed by four fathers. Shadowman is than taken captive by them and taken to the Arsenal football stadium. Whist there he cannot manage to escape from St. George and his stranger army. But due to some confusion caused by Small Sam, Shadowman manages to escape to a near by house where he finds a stash of equipment, including a machete, knives, crossbow, and survival gear. From there he decides to follow the stranger army so he can prepare and warn the others.

Whilst following the stranger army he witnesses the deaths of Tom and Kate, and of Callum, the boy from Waitrose. He is also attacked during the night by one of St. George's lieutenants, One-Armed Bandit. He manages to kill the One-Armed Bandit and his squad of sickos.

Shadowman's part in The Fear concludes with him watching as St. George leads his army away from the site of the battle that took place in The Enemy, and decides on the appropriate name for the army - The Fear.

During The Sacrifice
In The Sacrifice, Shadowman is still following The Fear, St. George's stranger army. He starts near Hampstead Heath and follows the army to the Wembley Tyre Centre, he stays in the cab of a truck, until he slinks up into an apartment building. While watching The Fear, he notices movement off to the side. He decides to check it out, and doesn't find anything at first, but he notices three kids, two boys and a girl behind a car. He quietly gets there attention, and a boy turns and fires his crossbow, but Shadowman manages to duck behind the wall. Shadowman tries desperately to tell the kids that this group of strangers are different.

The kids make fun of Shadowman, calling him a "noob" and saying "zombies" are "zombies", and they're still stupid. The three kids, Jaz, Ricky and Johnny then kill a small group of strangers, saying they've been following them for awhile. Shadowman finds this hard to believe, seeing as The Fear had been in the tire centre all day. He comes to the conclusion that more strangers had joined The Fear, and Shadowman helps clear a path to escape as they're surrounded, but the kids stay. Shadowman then sees the dark mass of The Fear moving about and emerging into the street, ready to kill.

Jaz, Ricky, and Johnny realise too late that Shadowman was right, and a father wrenches Ricky's machete from his hand, and cuts his arm off at the elbow. He is swarmed by strangers and Johnny is bitten in the leg, causing him to drop his spear. Shadowman helps Jaz and Johnny get to their Lexus. When they are nearing it, Shadowman remarks "Just don't tell me your friend back there has the key", Jaz replies by swearing. They get into the Lexus however because it was unlocked, once inside they lock themselves inside and relax for a second. He gives Johnny some medical supplies and introduces himself as "Carl", Just John's lieutenant at the squatter camp.

It's decided that Shadowman will circle around, grab the key, and circle back before the main body of The Fear arrives. He gets out leads some of the strangers away, he makes his way back to his apartment building and goes upstairs. He throws up in front of the door and thinks about leaving Jaz and Johnny, but then remembers what he felt when Jester had abandoned him; and ultimately decides to carry out the plan. He sneaks back down and kills some strangers near Ricky's remains, and notices a stranger in a strange position. It stood there, very still, arms out, head up, and Shadowman thinks of the word Sentinel.

He leaves the stranger and looks for the key, he takes Ricky's undamaged Stab-proof police vest, finds the key, and picks up Ricky's crossbow. Going back to the Lexus, he notices more sentinels and has to avoid the mass of adults by cutting through side streets. He again thinks of backing out when he sees about thirty strangers around the car, Jaz spots him and honks the horn. He takes his chance to run in, he fires Ricky's crossbow and then batters strangers with it and drops it while swinging his machete. He spots Bluetooth holding Johnny's spear and makes it to the car. Jaz tells him to slip the key to her through the slightly lowered window. He unlocks the doors with the key and yanks the door open, losing his machete and causing Jaz to spill out. Bluetooth lunges and stabs the spear into Jaz's shoulder. The spear is yanked out and Shadowman helps Jaz into the car.

He batters strangers away and finally shuts the door. He gets Jaz into the drivers seat while he puts pressure on her wound so she can drive. Jaz is wailing that the spear had "zombie" blood on it, and that she was going to die. Bluetooth begins striking the windshield with the spear and Jaz hits the accelerator. She busts through the mob of strangers and they get away. However Jaz is driving alarmingly fast and she runs through a group of strangers a few streets over, the car takes all of them out, but it unfortunately flips again and again.

Shadowman wakes up in the turned over car on top of somebody and hears footsteps around the car. He blacks out and later wakes up in a strange room. His body is cut, bruised, and aching. He finds out that he's in IKEA and he finds Johnny sitting in a wheelchair in a makeshift backyard. He finds out Jaz didn't make it, and that Johnny wouldn't be walking anytime soon. The leader of the IKEA kids introduces himself to Shadowman, Saif is a tall, good looking and fit looking boy with glossy black hair tangled into something like dreadlocks with an assortment of lucky charms, ribbons, bones, and plastic figures tied into them making him look like a character from Pirates of the Caribbean. He states that Johnny crawled back to IKEA and saved Shadowman's life. He then goes on about how great he's made IKEA for his group, and ends with saying Shadowman ruined it.

Saif blames Shadowman for Jaz dying, and Shadowman says that a "zombie" cut Ricky's arm off, and that Bluetooth stabbed Jaz with a spear. He then feels like an idiot, and Saif and his friends question him about naming a "zombie", and concludes their chat by telling Shadowman that he expects to see him gone. Saif and his friends then go to shoot at a sentinel. Shadowman exchanges some words with Johnny and then goes to talk to Saif again. While the kids are shooting at the mother with their crossbows, Shadowman is trying to explain that the "zombies" are getting organised. Saif doesn't believe Shadowman, and tells him that a war party of twenty-five kids are going to go kill the "zombies". Saif then kills the mother and tells Shadowman that when they come back from collecting their arrows, he expects Shadowman to be gone.

Johnny gets Shadowman another machete before he leaves and Shadowman tells him to talk to Saif about his war party. Shadowman eventually makes it back to the apartment building and realises that The Fear is still there. They then move out of the tire centre and Shadowman investigates it, and finds a stranger who recognises Shadowman as a fellow stranger by his smell. Shadowman kills the stranger in anger, and then he hears the sound of engines, Saif had already set out. Shadowman follows after The Fear seeing more sentinels and finds Bluetooth leading a group of strangers behind The Fear. He goes around them and spots a crane in a construction site.

He climbs to the top of the of the crane and looks around the expanse of London. He spots The Fear, and then Saif's war party. Five vehicles, two pickups, two big 4x4's, and a sports car with Saif on it. The motorcade lays into Bluetooth's group and kill the weaker members, as the others, including Bluetooth, slip away unnoticed. They then keep going towards The Fear, when Shadowman looks back to The Fear, he finds that they're gone. Just a few strangers standing behind trees at a roundabout. Saif's gang rolls up to kill the hiding strangers. They get out of they're vehicles and Shadowman curses them. Suddenly The Fear came out of several buildings, completely swarming the kids. Shadowman watches in horror as the kids get massacred, but he is relieved when one of the 4x4's gets away, although he is unsure how many got away, and who.

Shadowman then weeps and curses Saif for getting those kids killed, and making him watch as more kids were killed. The Fear finish their meal and get going again. After they leave, Shadowman notices a kid in one of the cars. He packs up his stuff, and climbs down the crane, but slips near the bottom on some slippery rungs due to the rain, wrenching his right knee. He then slowly makes his way to the boy in the car, the boy doesn't respond and Shadowman breaks into the car, and finds the boy dead. He then keeps going after The Fear and then realises he can use the car. As he turns around, he sees Bluetooth and his gang, who he'd forgotten about, approaching from behind him.

He then makes a run for it, sloppily due to his right knee. He comes up with a plan after awhile and urges the faster ones ahead of the others so he can pick them off one by one. After running a few miles with the strangers hot on his tail, he kills a father with a stick and uses it as a crutch. He eventually makes it to Piccadilly Circus, where he is saved by Ed, Kyle, Will and Macca. They kill the adults except for Bluetooth, Shadowman says that he wants to kill him. He approaches Bluetooth and knocks his machete away with his stick, and hacks off his head, Shadowman then says; "That's for Jaz" and weeps in the street.

He leads Ed's crew to his safe house in Trafalgar Square and introduces himself as Dylan, being too tired to lie. He then swaps information with Ed about the quickly organising adults and the sentinels or pointers as Ed calls them, Ed believes what he says about The Fear and seems interested. Shadowman seems to like the term sickos when referring to adults after Ed says that that's what they call them.

Shadowman is last seen in The Sacrifice laughing with the others and Wormwood after Kyle hands him a beer and puts a hat on Wormwood's head.

During The Hunted
In The Hunted, Shadowman gets bolts in return for the beer the gave them. Not much happens in this book.

During The End
In The End, Shadowman meets Ryan and the Holloway Kids asks them if they know a kid named Jester. They all have met him since Jester (Patchwork) was the one who led them to Buckingham Palace. Shadowman goes to confront him, telling Pod it’s Ryan Aherne and Jester comes out. Shadowman asks what’s up but Jester hadn’t recognised his voice so he didn’t know who it was until he saw him. Jester is shocked and greets him awkwardly due to what happened at Kings Cross Station. Since Shadowman had twisted his ankle, he was limping with his cane and pulled out his crossbow, pointed at Jester. He tells him to come with him and see St. George’s army. When Jester refuses, Dylan slaps him twice, causing Jester to cry; he wasn’t used to being hit. Shadowman says he’ll walk behind so he can be able to shoot Jester.

Once they are outside, they don’t see strangers except for a few sentinels and Jester is afraid while Shadowman trails behind, threatening to shoot his arse if he tries running. Once they see the army, Jester gets even more scared and wants to run but since Shadowman can jog-limp, he insists on staying.

After this, they go to IKEA to meet Saif. Saif and Dylan have a short glare at each other and then they group up, forming an army of their own. He tells Jester to notify David about the meeting most of the groups in London are having, except for Just John’s squatter group. During the meeting with all the groups in London, Shadowman tells them that the grown-ups that aren’t as far gone as the others might have weapons, or tools that they pick up. He goes with Yo-Yo and spies on Matt’s religion, when the blood moon and blood red sky he predicted suddenly occurs. As he makes his way down, he finds Matt, ‘praying’ and beating himself with a belt. He was actually communicating with the Nephilim. Shadowman surprises him by saying, “You’ve been bitten.” Matt gets shocked and asks why he’s here, and Dylan pulls his pants down revealing a bite mark on his arse. He then promises not to tell any of his acolytes.

He comes back to Yo-Yo and gets escorted to a house by the hunters (Ryan’s group). They break into the house and jam the door so the horde of strangers won’t get in as easily. Him and a hunter rhythmically hit the approaching strangers. The hunter gets pulled down and Shadowman cuts through the group with his machete and saves him. He is bleeding on his head but other that that, he’s fine. Shadowman quickly gets back to killing and notices how they are retreating. Instead, the strangers built a sicko-stair and climbed upstairs. Yo-Yo quickly gets taken by the mob and they start retreating as the hunters begin attacking again. Shadowman curses himself for letting her die and spends the night alone in the place he hid in during The Sacrifice.

The Battle of Hyde Park unfolds as St. George’s army approaches, and Jordan’s crippled alliance stands their ground. Dylan Peake ‘kidnaps’ Ben and Bernie and takes them to one of the stadiums full of gasoline tanks. They hotwire cars rigged with the explosives into St. George’s army.

Ed decapitates St. George and Shadowman cheers. St. George‘s corpse stands and attempts to slice Shadowman with his cleaver, but Dylan is shocked and quickly pulls his crossbow and fires. This leads to St. George bursting.

Appearance
Dylan, or Shadowman, is described as having dark hair, and having white skin. He is quite dirty as tends not to wash as he likes to mask his scent. He constantly wears a cloak with hood, that is camouflaged so as to help hide him from people, he also feels it helps mask who he is. He has a small laptop bag which is constantly with him and in which he keeps most of his equipment. He is aged 15.

Personality
Shadowman has a odd personality within the books, and he seems to prefer to have a fake identity with people and hide who he truly is. He doesn't identify as Dylan Peake, but as another one of his many different characters that make up the character known as Shadowman. Shadowman prefers his own company, and doesn't mind not fitting in with the other groups of people. He also seems to find the Palace a cage and doesn't feel comfortable spending too much time there.

He is also shown to be watchful and on guard around strangers. Whilst these attributes would seem odd to most people, Shadowman sees these as great additions to his skills and helps him distance himself from people and give him the ability to be anyone he chooses, however it is revealed in The Fear that before the outbreak he was friends with Jester.

Equipment
Shadowman uses a variety of equipment within the series, such as his laptop bag, his knife, his machete and many other items

His machete - he gains this in The Fear, when he escapes the Arsenal football stadium, and hides in an attic of a house. This is also where he finds some of his other equipment. He is shown to be very successful at using the machete and can kill strangers effectively with it.

His club - Shadowman uses this club towards the beginning of his chapters in The Fear, mainly after he joins Jester on his mission, though he loses it when Jester knocks him out with it. Before he loses it, Shadowman is shown to have skills at using it in combat.

His knife - Shadowman loses his first knife around King's Cross Station, but gets three more in the survival stash that he finds.

His crossbow - Shadowman finds this along with twenty bolts, three knives, and a machete in the attic of a house near the Arsenal Football Stadium. He is shown to be proficient at using it and can take out targets successfully with it. He is also shown to be very mindful of his use of ammo with it, taking care to not waste any of it. He forgets this on one occasion and uses the crossbow to fire bolts at a crowd of strangers, causing a bolt to get stuck in the shoulder of the unnamed lieutenant of St. George, giving him the name Spike. He also killed the big, tall mother controlling many sickos in The End, thus shutting down most of the army.

Other equipment includes - A mini A-to-Z, a compass, a cigarette lighter, a box of matches, a couple of small candles, a sewing kit, a knife sharpener, a first aid kit, emergency food supply, a paperback book, a thermal vest, a cloak and some socks.