Ed Carter

Ed Carter is a character from The Enemy series and is a main protagonist during The Dead, The Sacrifice and The Hunted; he also appears in The Enemy, The Fear, The Fallen and The End; making him one of the few characters to appear in all the books. He is recognised by a scar that runs from his eye to his chin on the side of his face.

Before the Disease
Ed was a student at Rowhurst, a boarding school in Kent, and was once part of the football and cricket team. He is stated by Jack to be good at almost everything he does and was popular with girls, who liked him for his looks. Despite this, he had little to do with them due to it being an all boys school. He was best friends with Jack, Bam and Malik before the disaster. He had an older brother called Dan, and he and his family once went to Australia. He is described as being clever without being cocky or stuck up and always respected the people around him. Because of this he never really found himself in any trouble with ot her students.

Before the Books
The books cover most of Ed's time during the disaster. Two weeks before his first chronological appearance the disease first appears, and Ed along with the other boys of Rowhurst become trapped within the school with only Mr. Hewitt, the coolest teacher at Rowhurst, to help them.

The Enemy
Ed appears briefly during The Enemy, though he is unnamed, and is only recognisable to readers by his scar. He along with Kyle and Jordan find Small Sam and The Kid walking outside the Tower of London by themselves, and tells them they will be safe there. He is the only one to approach them. After taking his helmet off his scar startles the two children at first but then they are reassured by his soft, brown eyes.

The Dead
Note; the action described within The Dead takes place a year before the action in The Enemy.

During The Dead, Ed first appears cowering behind an overturned table, whilst Jack tries to kill Mr. Hewitt, a teacher at Rowhurst. They then flee through the corridors until they find Bam and some other rugby players. The group then head towards a door and have to defend themselves until the children on the other side open the door. That night Ed and the other kids from Rowhurst decide to leave the next morning as they are running out of rations and the teachers are always coming back in an endless stream.

The following morning they attempt to make their way out of Rowhurst. Whilst trying to escape, Jack smashes a plank of wood with a nail in it into the head of Monsieur Morel, the French teacher at Rowhurst. As they are all running across the field to get out of Rowhurst, Jack stops Ed. Jack point's out that there is a girl in a window. They run back and wonder why she doesn't just exit through the doors, but realise that there are teachers blocking it. Ed and Jack pick up a wheelie bin and smash the windows with it. They proceed to help her escape from the building and eventually, the three of them catch up with the others. The girl reveals her name to be Frederique and she has her pet cat with her, Dior.

The group then go to a church where they find a group of kids who have suffered from what appears to be carbon monoxide poisoning due to living in an area with little ventilation and extensively using candles. After opening the doors to give them air, the leader Matt is talking to Ed about "The Lamb" and "The Goat". Ed laughs at the idea, angering Matt. After a while, Ed and Jack talk on the bell tower. Although Jack and Ed made a promise to always stay together in the new world they're living in, Jack reveals that he is going to London with Matt and his acolytes, while Ed and the rest are planning on travelling to the countryside. Ed says goodbye to Jack and sets of with Bam and the rest.

The group decides to have a look in the Fez thinking it would contain weapons like chainsaws and such. As they proceed to the Fez, they are ambushed by younger, faster grown-ups. They suffer heavy losses including Malik, who turns out to just be badly injured, according to The Hunted, Johnno, The Sullivan Brothers and all the field house boys. Ed, Bam and the rest of the group are about to die when they are saved by someone in a bus. Ed is reluctant to get on because the coach driver is an adult but eventually agrees because he realises he is not sick. After Ed gets on, Bam, a heavily injured Piers and the rest of the survivors hop on board.

As the coach travels along, Ed spots Jack, Matt and the other Acolytes walking along the side of the road and tells the driver of the bus, Greg, an adult, to pull over. They are let on board and it is quickly decided that they will all go to London. On the Bus is Greg, an adult butcher, who claims to be immune to the disease and his son Liam, who is shy and embarrassed by his father. Whilst on the bus Ed and Jack chat with some girls; Brooke, Courtney and Aleisha and Wiki, Justin and Arthur talk to Liam, who reveals that his father killed a few kids and ate their meat, which helps the nerds better understand the disease. Then, the group of kids go to sleep comfortably. The next morning they wake to find that Greg has killed Liam and when they try to stop him he attacks them. They all make it off except for Ed and Kwanele, who doesn't want to ruin his clothes with all of Piers' blood, are left to carry Piers off the bus and take him with them. Once Piers gets caught on the handle of the door, Kwanele leaves Ed to carry Piers by himself, which couldn't be done, so Ed is forced to abandon him.

Ed and Kwanele make their way back to the rest of the group and they find that they are at the Imperial War Museum, in South London. They quickly make it to the doors and find that other kids are already surviving there. They get taken to the leaders of the War Museum, and Jack and Bam get to a bad start with Jordan Hordern the Museum's leader, so that he will only speak to Ed. They eventually make the deal that they can stay, as long as they find their own food. Jordan Horden then lets them choose some weapons from below the Museum and Ed picks a rifle with a bayonet.

The following morning they travel to the coach and raid it, taking all the food back with them, and enjoy it for the rest of the evening. The following day they realise they are going to need more food and so, along with DogNut, a boy from the Museum crew, Ed, Jack, Bam, Brooke, Courtney, Aleisha and Justin begin to set off to find more food. Just before they leave however Frederique joins them. They follow DogNut's directions to a Tesco, a few roads away from the Museum. They find it empty, but also find a truck around the back stacked with food. They manage to drive it part way back to the Museum before Jack reveals he is leaving to go home, and Bam goes with him. Ed is conflicted but in the end, decides to go with his friends and gives Brooke a kiss goodbye.

Ed, Jack and Bam make their way towards Jack's home, but on the way come across the Oval cricket stadium and find around its entrances many ambulances and army vehicles. Before they go to investigate why the Oval is so surrounded they scavenge the area. Ed picks up a few handguns and clips and gas masks, whilst Jack takes a machine gun. Upon entering the Oval they find that it is stocked high with dead bodies, and only too late do they realise that not all the bodies are dead. They become trapped within the stadium by sickos and make their way to a different entrance/exit. Jack ends up firing his machine gun and accidentally hits gas canisters, causing an explosion that tears apart the stadium, caving the floor in, which takes Jack and Bam down, whilst Ed is flung into the stands.

Ed eventually manages to locate Jack and Bam only to find Bam has accidentally shot Jack, mistaking him for a sicko. The group decides to move on and reach Jack's house, and along the way are attacked by a group of sickos. Bam is pulled down, and Jack is weak from his injury and unable to fight. Ed snaps and precedes to kill the group of sickos. Just as they are getting themselves together, Greg attacks and kills Bam by surprising him with his meat cleaver, and wounds Jack by slicing his chest open. Ed is forced to fight him off and is hit across the face with Greg's meat cleaver, which causes a long cut across his face, disfiguring him. He manages to scare off Greg by mentioning Liam, who Greg had suffocated.

Ed then carries Jack along the roads of South London to his home. Once there he finds some food and takes Jack up to his room, and lays with him on his bed as he dies. He eventually falls asleep and the next morning wakes to find Jack dead. He stocks up on food and gets a map and then burns Jack's body before riding a bike through the streets, to make his way back to the Museum. Along the way he becomes surrounded by sickos and is saved by a group of boys in red blazers and caps, lead by a boy called David King. David helps Ed back to the Museum, and once there negotiates with Jordan for some guns. Whilst there Ed learns that Frederique has the disease and visits her in an enclosure she is being kept in and speaks to her. She eventually attacks him, and feeling sorry for her, Ed and DogNut set her free into South London.

The whole time the sky is slowly darkening and the fire spreads through South London. This prompts Ed to get his kids together and move them across the Thames into North London. He asks Jordan and DogNut to join him, but they decline, stating that the Museum is their home. David joins him along with his kids, who guard the truck as they make their way slowly through the streets, as crowds of kids all try to make their way into North London.

It soon becomes evident that the sickos are also trying to escape the fire and make their way into North London, and so Ed leaves the truck, along with Courtney, Aleishia, Mad Matt and his Acolytes and bands up a small force of kids who go to the back of the crowds and try and hold off the sickos, so more can make it across the river. During the fighting, Ed meets a boy named Kyle, and they are both the most powerful fighters out of the whole group and manage to kill many sickos. They eventually get forced back into the gardens of a church and are about to give up when Jordan Horden and his crew show up, revealing that the War Museum had caught in the fire. They all slowly make their way onto a small pier and get into a large boat, and slowly make their way along the Thames. As they make their way along the river Matt and Archie attack Jordan who is steering the boat and Ed is forced to try and take control of the boat. They end up hitting a bridge regardless and the boat quickly begins to sink. Many die as the ship sinks, including Aleshia, but Ed, Jordan and others manage to make their way into the lifeboats and tie them together into a loose raft. They then drift their way down the Thames for a long period until they eventually come to the Tower of London where they manage to hit land, and make their way to the Tower, during which time Jordan Horden puts Ed in charge of the kids who aren't in his crew. DogNut and Kyle climb the draining and they quickly make their way into the Tower, where they meet other kids already surviving there. Jordan quickly establishes himself as the leader and everyone goes to bed.

''The next section is set in time with The Enemy, and before and after The Fear. The events described here take place roughly a year after the previous events of the book. ''

Ed is on duty on the walls of the Tower when DogNut speaks to him, offering that they go together across London to find where the rest of their group went. Ed declines, stating that the kids at the Tower are his family now and that it is up to him to look after them.

It skips a few days, and Ed is on duty at night as it rains, as head of the guard, with his team as they block up one of the Tube entrances, as there is a nest of sickos under there. As they are blocking it, Jordan Horden comes to Ed with a few of his guards and tells him to hurry up, as there are sickos all about, Ed agrees when a guard reports that there are some kids walking down the road to the Tower. Ed, Jordan, Kyle and one of Jordan's guards go and check who it is and hides. As the two boys come closer they mistake them for the Goat and the Lamb who they saw on Mad Matt's banner. Eventually, Ed comes out and greets the boys, and offers them a safe place at the Tower. As he walks them back to the Tower he thinks of Mad Matt's banner.

The Fear
Ed appears briefly within The Fear, seeing DogNut off on his adventure. As they say their final goodbye, Ed tells DogNut he can have Brooke, as he believes she is now scared of him and his scar.

Ed is referenced multiple times within the book by other characters.

The Sacrifice
Ed first appears in The Sacrifice leading Small Sam and the Kid around the Tower of London, before Jordan calls a meeting with every kid at the Tower. There, they sentence a boy named Brendan to death. Ed argues, along with many others on the boy's behalf and asks for another way. Jordan changes his mind and exiles the boy instead.

Ed then continues to take the two boys he is in charge of on a tour around the Tower and he explains to them his role as Captain of the Tower Guard. He eventually takes them to a room in the Tower and explains to them Matt's religion and how similar they look to the kids on the banner, he also further explains to them how this has startled some of the kids at the Tower.

The following morning, as Ed struggles to completely wake up while eating breakfast, he receives reports from Kyle that there are some trapped kids across the road. Ed quickly establishes a team of his guards and they make their way to the trapped kids. Ed plans an attack and they quickly execute it, Ed, Kyle and a girl named Adele invade the building and kill all the sickos, they then free the girl trapped inside and as they make their way back Ed realises one of the people he killed was, in fact, a girl. He feels sick but continues on and they all eventually make it back to the Tower.

For the next few days Ed continues his duty and soon finds out that Sam, the Kid and the girl he saved, Tish have all left. He goes to Jordan Hordern and arranges to have a war game that evening, so he can discuss plans. Jordan Hordern agrees, during the war game, to let Ed take a group of kids from the Tower to find and rescue Small Sam, but that they can only be from his regiment.

The following morning Ed makes his team consisting of; Kyle, his bodyguard, Will and Macca, both good crossbowman, Hayden the fastest girl in the Tower, and Adele a good fighter. They set out into the No-Go-Zone and it isn't long before they have a fight. They eventually run across the bud of the Thames before coming back onto the roads.

Along the way, they notice odd sickos which are pointing towards something they don't understand and that only girls can hear the odd frequency they make. They eventually make it to the Houses of Parliament, where they meet with its leader, Nicola.

Ed discusses with her his mission and asks for her help, and finds out DogNut made it to the Natural History Museum (but doesn't know DogNut died), and figures out Mad Matt is still alive and is living at St. Paul's Cathedral. He also notices that Nicola seems to fancy him. He quickly sets off for the Cathedral, regardless of the sickos and crosses the Thames with his team to make quick time towards the Cathedral.

His team crosses the Millennium Footbridge to St. Paul's Cathedral. Ed becomes raged and is ready to kill Matt when he finds out about The Kid's sacrifice. But ultimately he has them lead him there. When they can't find The Kid, Ed gets ready to leave and is joined by Brendan, Tish and a little girl named Charlotte, but sickos break into the Cathedral walls and it's left to Ed to lead his team to safety.

Ed makes it to a small building with his team and discovers that the Kid is alive along with a sicko named Wormwood. Wormwood stops the sickos attack and they all manage to make it part way across the ramp before Wormwood has to release his hold. The sickos continue to chase them and Adele is killed on the ramp, and when they make it to the Millennium Footbridge, Brendan and Tish stay behind, to hold the sickos off and state they'll catch up later, but they never do, because they became overwhelmed, and died.

Ed and the rest of his team manage to escape, and Ed sends Hayden to the Tower, to explain what happened and when he'll be back. He then keeps his promise to Sam and journeys to the Natural History Museum.

Along the way, Wormwood notices a pack of sickos chasing a boy, and so Ed takes his team to save the boy. It is revealed the boy is Shadowman and he leads them to his safe house where they stay the night. It ends with them all laughing at Wormwood as they sit by the fire.

The Fallen
Ed and his crew finally arrive at the museum and he is devastated to discover that DogNut is dead and, to make it worse, Ella is no longer there. However, he is reunited with Brooke.

Personality
Ed is at first cowardly, scared of fighting, and always avoiding confrontation with the grown-ups. He is kind and caring and is good at chatting with girls and meeting new people, unlike Jack who is constantly nervous. As the story continues he gets more and more tension, until finally, after Jack is injured and Bam killed he loses control and finally fights back the adults. All his worry, fear and anger comes out and he attacks the sickos. From then on he is empty. He is cold when fighting sickos and sees it happening as if he was someone else. But he still retains his kindness and caring for others.

Appearance
He is described as handsome, with light (floppy) hair, soft brown eyes, and quite tall. He is considered good looking by multiple characters such as Brooke and Nicola. He eventually loses his looks when Greg strikes his face with a meat cleaver, giving him a scar running from his mouth to his forehead, which distorts his face. Because of this scar, many characters find him scary or ugly, and most have no physical attraction for him, other than Nicola, but Brooke later seems to be attracted to him anyway.

Ed starts of the in The Dead as fourteen, a few weeks from his fifteenth birthday, and by the Sacrifice, he is already sixteen. As of yet he has shown no signs of the disease and remains normal.

During The Dead
Rifle - Ed uses an old military rifle with a bayonet fixed at the end as his main weapon for much of the novel. It eventually breaks during the Battle of Lambeth Bridge.

Jack's Sword - Ed briefly uses Jack's sword as a weapon, to great effect.

Hand Gun - Ed possesses a handgun for the third part of the novel and is a good shot with it. It is revealed in a later book that it ran out of ammunition, but he keeps it as a reminder of his days in South London.

Mask - Ed uses a gas mask when travelling through the Oval, to keep from breathing poisonous fumes.

A to Z - Ed carries an A to Z to locate where places are.

During the Sacrifice
Mortuary Sword - Ed uses a large Mortuary Sword as a weapon and is an effective killer with it.

Club - Ed carries a club as a backup weapon.

Armour - Ed wears armour throughout most of the Sacrifice, which is made up of a breastplate and various other pieces.

Relationships
Jack - Ed's relationship with Jack is described as close and strong before the disease, but for most of The Dead we see a tense relationship, with Jack mocking and angry at Ed for not fighting. Towards the end and Jack's death, we see their relationship fix itself and they reconcile as Jack slowly dies. Due to Jack's death, which Ed see's himself responsible for, he hopes to save as many kids as possible and he never leaves one behind if he can help it.

Bam - Ed and Bam are friends, and are joking around constantly. Because of Bam's good nature, there is never really any tension between the two of them. Ed is sad when Bam is killed but has little time to be upset as he must get Jack to his house before he dies.

Malik - He is one of Ed's good friends and sees him when the group visits the church. Malik fills Ed in on what happened during their time in the church. He accompanies Ed to the countryside, where he is presumed to have been killed by the ambushing adults. Ed is upset by his death. In The Hunted, when Ed realised that Scarface was Malik he cried for the first time since Jack died.

Jordan Hordern - Little is known of Ed and Jordan's relationship other than they both have respect for each other, Ed respecting Jordan for his leadership and Jordan for Ed out of his skill as a fighter. Both have different moral beliefs and different views on rightful punishment.

DogNut - Ed and DogNut are quick to form a friendship and share jokes with each other, though it has been shown that DogNut can on occasion get on Ed's nerves. When DogNut was killed in The Fear, Ed did not find out until the end of The Fallen when he found himself at the Natural History Museum and Brooke reveals what had happened.

Brooke - Brooke and Ed both start out with a good relationship, Brooke attracted to Ed and Ed enjoying her company, but it quickly deteriorates when his face his cut by Greg, and she becomes repulsed by his face. She reveals to DogNut and Courtney that she never wanted to see him again but now wants to find him so she can apologise for how she reacted to him. She later acquires a scar, and the two meet at the end of The Fallen and later bond in The Hunted when she kisses him. The two are seen to have a connection and it is known that Brooke has feelings for Ed, and it is implied that these feelings are mutual. This leads to them having a close relationship during The End, after spending a lot of time together during The Hunted.

Frederique - Not much is known about their friendship, due to the fact they don't converse much, but it can be seen that Ed pities her after she is found out to be infected. As the decision is made to force Frederique out of the museum, Ed feels guilt in being the one to kick her out. Later on, when Aleisha is attacked by the infected Frederique, Ed shoots her despite feeling regret, but quickly moves on due to the battle at hand.

Kyle - Ed and Kyle have a relatively stable relationship, although they are completely different. Kyle serves Ed loyally and will kill anyone or anything that tries to attack him, and Ed respects Kyle. Their friendship is based mostly on the fact that they are both the most vicious fighters. Ed finds Kyle's humour for the most part crude and cruel. Despite all this, Kyle views Ed as the only person who will ever be like him, whether he likes it or not, because deep down both of them are monsters.

Small Sam - Ed and Small Sam have both shown to like each other, but Ed still see's Sam as a little kid despite his past feats, and so can't let him leave the Tower until they hear word from DogNut. Ed continues to care for him and eventually is willing to risk his life to rescue him. Their relationship can be seen as close and brotherly-like.

The Kid - Ed likes The Kid, but sees him as odd and so mostly speaks with Sam, despite this, he is however upset and angry over The Kid's apparent death and is happy and relieved when he finds him alive.

Matt - Ed once felt sorry for Matt but has since grown to hate him and loathe him, for the deaths of multiple kids and for kidnapping Sam and the Kid. Ed believes he could make an exception of no kids being hurt for Matt due to his disdain for the boy.

His crew - Ed values his crew for multiple reasons;


 * Will; his intelligence and skill with the crossbow make him valuable.


 * Macca; is a skilled crossbowman and good at also fighting close up.


 * Adele; a skilled fighter, she is one of the Tower's toughest. As well as being good with little kids.


 * Hayden; the Tower fastest runner is valuable in being a messenger between Ed's crew and the kids back at the tower.

Wormwood - Ed is wary of Wormwood as he is an adult, but is in awe of the sickos powers over the other adults.