Melanie

Melanie is one of the main characters of the novel. She is a 10-year-old girl who has been infected by a fungus. Instead of the fungus taking over her brain, as it has in other people who have been infected, Melanie is very intelligent and high functioning. Like the other hungries, however, when Melanie smells the pheromones of another human or blood, the fungus takes over and causes an almost irresistible desire for her to want to bite and feed on people and animals. It is through the transfer of salvia into the bloodstream that the fungus is spread. Because Melanie is one of several children who seem to have some sort of partial immunity to the fungus, she has been brought to a refurbished army base on which a scientist is trying to find a cure or vaccine for the fungus. During her time in captivity on...