The Girl with All the Gifts

M.R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts began as a short story (“Iphigenia in Aulis”) and was adapted into a 2016 film for which Carey also wrote the screenplay. The novel, which Carey wrote concurrently, was published in 2014. It is a post-apocalyptic horror tale that fits uneasily into the zombie/science fiction literary genre. While The Girl with All the Gifts incorporates plenty of genre tropes—cannibalism, disease, high-speed chases, feeding frenzies—the core of the story is the heartfelt relationship between a young girl and her beloved teacher. Carey has written both prose fiction and comic books, and he has worked on several of Marvel comics’ flagship titles, including X-Men and Fantastic Four.

Plot Summary

Inside an underground bunker known as Hotel Echo, Melanie, age 10, attends class with a group of other children. Armed soldiers escort the children from prison-like cells to the classroom, where they are strapped into chairs. Melanie is a “hungry,” a zombie infected with an unknown pathogen, and she and the other children are test subjects under the purview of Caroline Caldwell, a biologist researching the pathogen. In particular, Caldwell seeks to learn why the infection behaves differently in the children (who can think and speak, unlike the other, adult hungries). Melanie’s favorite teacher is Helen Justineau, an empathetic soul who grows close to her students despite warnings that the children “belong” to Caldwell.

Melanie has never seen the world outside the bunker, but she deduces its dangers: hungries roaming the landscape in constant search of prey, and “junkers”—survivalists gone mad who live in the wild, steal food, and kill anyone who gets in their way. Sergeant Eddie Parks is the military commander who ensures Hotel Echo’s security by maintaining the perimeter fence and keeping hungries and junkers outside.

As Caldwell dissects the brains of the children, searching for the key to a vaccine, a young soldier named Private Gallagher notices a small group of junkers near the perimeter fence—unusual behavior since they tend to stay far away from civilization. Parks is suspicious, and one day, just as Caldwell is about to remove Melanie’s brain for study over Justineau’s protestations, a series of explosions takes down part of the fence. An army of hungries and junkers swarms inside. Overwhelmed, Parks, Gallagher, Justineau, Caldwell, and Melanie flee in a Humvee. The base is lost, all other personnel devoured by the hungries, and Caldwell’s hands severely injured in the attack.

The Humvee sustains damage in the escape. The group drives as far as they can, but eventually they abandon the vehicle and proceed on foot. Their destination is Beacon, a heavily fortified city south of London and the only place not overrun by zombie hordes. Distrust pervades the small group of survivors: Justineau is protective of Melanie and wary of Parks and Caldwell; Caldwell views Melanie as her property and sees Justineau as an obstacle to her research; Parks simply wants to deliver the group safely to Beacon and sees Melanie as a predator to guard against.

They make their way through dangerous open spaces, evading junkers and hungries along the way. In the town of Stevenage, they take refuge in an abandoned hospital where they barely escape an attack of hungries. There, Caldwell notices uncharacteristic behavior in some of the hungries, so she harvests brain tissue from one, hoping to continue her research when they reach Beacon. As hungries surround the hospital, Melanie, wanting desperately to protect Justineau and to prove to herself and the others that she is more than just another mindless predator, suggests a plan to help them escape. Wading through the pack of hungries unnoticed, she makes her way out to the street where she creates a diversion to lure the pack away. As the zombies take the bait, the survivors escape the hospital with food and water for their journey.

As the survivors reach the outer exurbs of London, they are extra vigilant—high density urban centers tend to be epicenters of hungry populations. Along the way, they discover a disturbing new phenomenon: fungal growths erupting from the bodies of dead hungries. They also find “Rosie”: a high-tech, armored, mobile laboratory sent out to study the pathogen in its early days. It sits empty and abandoned by the side of the road. Caldwell is ecstatic because she can continue her research, and Parks is happy about Rosie’s store of weapons and the protection it offers. If Parks can repair the generator, they can drive Rosie the rest of the way to Beacon. While Parks works on the generator, Justineau and Gallagher forage for food. Melanie is nervous about being left with Caldwell, but the doctor swears she will not touch her until they reach Beacon. Parks, now beginning to trust Melanie, sees her as an asset and vows to keep her safe.

Meanwhile, the group has run out of e-blocker, a gel that blocks human scent; without it, Melanie fears she will not be able to resist her hunger. She asks Parks to let her out to roam freely. As she explores the city, she encounters a group of hungry children, feral but organized. Repulsed by their carnivorous behavior yet wistful about their sense of community, Melanie resolves to control her cannibalistic impulses so she can create her own family with Justineau.

Melanie returns to the mobile lab, spinning a yarn about junkers rather than children. Gallagher, fearing both junkers and hungries, flees through the city, but a gang of children ambushes and eats him. While Parks, Justineau, and Melanie search for Gallagher, Caldwell, dying from her infected wounds, locks herself inside Rosie to continue her research. When she sees several children watching her, she lures one into Rosie’s hatch and closes it, trapping him in its hydraulic door. The other children attack, and Caldwell drives furiously away, leaving the others behind. However, a massive wall of fungal growth on the outskirts of London blocks her, stretching as far as she can see in either direction.

Melanie, Parks, and Justineau eventually catch up to Caldwell, but she refuses to admit them. While Melanie explores the fungal wall for a way through, Parks and Justineau find shelter for the night. They make love in a loft but wake when a group of children attack. Parks is bitten but saves Justineau from a similar fate, and together they find their way back to Rosie. There they find Melanie next to the body of Caldwell, who has finally succumbed to her injuries.

Melanie suggests burning their way through the wall, which she knows will open the pod spores, sending them into the air and infecting the rest of the population. Using Rosie’s flamethrower, she and Parks incinerate the tendrilled wall. Parks begs Melanie to kill him before he turns into a hungry, and she obliges. With her and Justineau the only survivors, Melanie gathers the feral children outside Rosie, where they sit obediently amid a devastated landscape and await lessons from their new teacher.