Benjamin Thomas Parish is seventeen years old, has brown hair, and is very tall.  It is said that he is 6 inches taller than Cassie and four inches taller than Ringer.  The first we hear of him is through Cassiopeia Marie Sullivan, or more commonly known as Cassie.  Anyway Cassie tells us in the book that he was on the football team and that he had a killer smile, and that she would rather not talk about it.  While explaining everything in her backpack, she comes across her plastic bag of photo’s, she even says this about one of her photograph’s, “One of Ben You-Were-Some-Kind-of-Serious-Gorgeous Parish, clipped from my yearbook, because Ben was my future boyfriend and/or husband –not that he knew it. He barely knew I existed.” (Cassie pg.16) She also said that Ben had a little sister, she said, “his little sister was on the sidelines at every game, and when we took district title, Ben ran straight to the sidelines hoisted her on his shoulders, and led the parade around the track with her waving to the crowd like a homecoming queen. (Cassie pg. 35) It was shown there that Cassie had a crush on Ben before the Others came, but he was unaware of her feelings, it also showed that Ben was a very caring big brother.

Cassie’s friend Lizbeth Morgan tried to convince Cassie to tell Ben of her feelings, but Cassie of course said she wasn’t going to do that.  Cassie’s dad then came so she told Lizbeth that she would call her when the phones began to work again, of course the power never would come back on. In the movie Cassie says that when her dad came to take her home that was the last time she ever saw Ben Parish, and that he is probably dead just like the rest of the people in that room.

The next time we hear more about Ben is from himself, except now he goes by Zombie, the reason for him being called that is because he is slowly being taken out by the 3rd wave.  The 3rd wave is the Avian bird flu, except the Others modified in making it unstoppable.  Ben knows he is dying and he doesn’t need to be told that, but people continue to remind him.  Such as his tent mate, and friend, Chris; “Dude, I think you’re dying,” (Chris pg. 106) Ben knows he can’t argue with him because what Chris says is true, I mean Ben even says “Head, hand, feet, back, stomach, legs, arms, chest—everything hurts.  Even blinking hurts.” (Ben pg. 105) He begins to think about how much his life has changed; “Six months ago my biggest worries were passing AP Chemistry and finding a summer job that paid enough for me to finish rebuilding the engine on my ’69 Corvette.” (Ben pg. 105) Chris then shakes Ben from his thoughts and asks him if he wants anything because he is going for supplies. Ben tells him that he wants water.  Chris leaves and Zombie has a feeling that that is the last time he will ever see him.

After about a minute or two alone, he begins to hallucinate and he sees his little sister.  He knows that he is hallucinating because she is wearing the same locket around her neck that Ben has around his.  She begins to talk to him, and when she does, it is appears to be short phrases such as, “Bubby, why did you leave me?” (Sissy from Ben’s mind pg. 109) and, “You ran away.  Bubby, why did you run?” (Sissy from Ben’s mind pg. 109)  Zombie shakes her from his thoughts, as he hears a gun fight start outside.  He is then rescued by two men who take him to Wright-Patterson.  Wright-Patterson is the army base that the small tent camp is outside of.  It is also known as Camp Haven.  Ben is then put in the quarantine section of the hospital.

Inside the Zombie Ward he is treated by Dr. Pam, at which time Ben gets an armful of morphine and a lot of other powerful drugs.  Dr. Pam tells Zombie that he only has a 1out of 10 chance of living.  For a while it looks like Dr. Pam may be right, because the first two days his fever soars to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.  He also breaks into a cold sweat, thanks to the Others, even his sweat is even flecked with blood.  All of a sudden things start to look up for Ben, on the third day his fever breaks, on the fifth he is able to hold down liquids, and he even says that, “On the sixth day, Dr. Pam declares the worst is over.  She orders me of all my meds, which kind of bums me out; I’m going to miss my morphine.” (Ben pg. 113) He is then taken out of quarantine and taken to a large hanger near the entrance of the base.  As Ben begins to look around he sees signs of a recent battle, Zombie also sees a black area of where tent city used to be.  He then looks around some more and sees soldiers painting huge red circles, on the shiny concrete.  Dr. Pam takes Ben into a room, she then inserts a tiny pellet that is the size of a grain of rice, Pam then goes on to explain that it is a tracker.  Ben is then wheeled into a room, and he is strapped down to a chair, Dr. Pam calls it “Wonderland”.  While he is in Wonderland he relives a lot of his memories including the one where he abandoned his family.  Ben then relives his dad telling him to take care of his mother and his sister.  His next memory is running with his sister up the stairs, but he is knocked down the stairs.  They then take his sister from his arms, and when Ben goes to grab her, he grabs her locket instead.  He hears her screaming her nickname for him, but it abruptly stops, he then turns and runs never looking back.  When he comes too Ben keeps on thinking about what his father said to him before he died, also about how he ran away when his family needed him.  Dr. Pam then asks him if he would like to see one.  Ben who wasn’t really listing is very confused on what she is talking about but, he lets her show him anyway.

She then helps Ben back into the wheelchair, and wheels him into another room.  Dr. Pam then assures Zombie the he can’t see them, and all this time Ben is trying to think on what Pam means by he.  She then presses a button and it reveals, Chris, Ben’s friend who took care of him when he was in tent city.  Dr. Pam then tells Zombie that Chris is an Other and the only way to stop them is to kill the host.  Ben then proceeds to kill Chris; it has a lot to do with avenging his little sister.  After that he is taken to the Convalescent wing, and he says that it is a lot better than the Zombie ward.  In this wing, he is given his own room, and with that it is very quiet.  Ben finds that when he closes his eyes he keeps on seeing himself killing Chris, and Zombie realizes that he can’t look at himself in the mirror.  One day Ben looks outside his window and sees a bunch of people, mostly little kids, coming in on old yellow school buses.  With that Colonel Alexander Vosch comes in to talk to him.  He tells Ben that he needs to live because Zombie has pretty much given up on living.  Vosch then goes on to tell Ben if he thinks he is ready to die, and that there is no reason for them to live, then he should tell the little kids that.  After Vosch gets done talking to him, Ben realizes he must live.

We then cut back to Cassie, who has taken shelter at Evan Walker’s farm house, where he is telling her about his girlfriend.  Evan has this conversation with her, “’How about you”’ he asked.  “’Did you have a boyfriend?’” “No. Well, Kind of.  His name was Ben Parish.  I guess you could say he had this thing for me.  We dated a couple times.  You know, casually.’” (Cassie and Evan pg. 168) Cassie lies to Evan about Ben, but it doesn’t even matter because she finds out that he read her journals.

Meanwhile Ben has been becoming less and less like himself and more and more like a zombie.  Well if you’re in a squad you need to have a nick name, and his becomes Zombie.  He even says, “BEN PARISH IS DEAD” (Ben pg. 213), what is even sadder is that Ben says that he doesn’t miss his old self.  Ben has become a person who has lost all emotion, his killer smile, and warmth.  He is also being trained by Senior Drill Instructor, Sargent Reznik.  Ben explains what life is like under Reznik in this passage, “From day one he’s made it his mission to make my life as miserable as possible, and he’s pretty much succeeded. I’ve been slapped, punched, pushed, kicked, and spat on.  I’ve been ridiculed, mocked, and screamed at until my ears rang.  Forced to stand for hours in the freezing rain, scrub the entire barracks floor with a toothbrush, disassemble and reassemble my rifle until my fingers bled, run until my legs turned to jelly…you get the idea.” (Ben pg. 213) Zombie is then put in squad 53 with Flintstone, Tank, Dumbo, Poundcake, Teacup, Oompa, and Nugget.  One day Reznik is grilling Nugget for being soft, which causes Ben to stick up for him.  Ben, and everyone else, thinks that he is going to get into trouble for sure, but instead Ben gets promoted to squad leader.  Reznik then orders Nugget to follow Ben around to learn how to walk, talk, and think like him.  Zombie then goes on to tell us what a typical day is like at Camp Haven, he says that the day starts at five in the morning and ends at nine at night.  Ben becomes like a big brother to Nugget, and after one night, Ben begins to say Nugget’s prayer with him.  One day there is a drill and Ben and Nugget are behind the rest of the squad because Nugget is scared.  This shows that Ben cares about him a lot, because if he didn’t, he would have left Nugget behind and not stayed with him.

Then one evening, they lose Tank.  They have a term at the camp that if someone goes psycho, they say that they have gone Dorothy.  Zombie says this about Tank, “And it hits me: This is murder, what they’re doing to us.  A very slow, very cruel murder, killing us from our souls outward, and I remember the commander’s words: It isn’t about destroying our capability to fight so much as crushing our will to fight.  It is hopeless.  It is crazy.  Tank is the sane one because he sees it clearly.  Which is why he has to go. (Ben pg.239) The next morning Tank is gone; it is said that he was taken to the hospital for a psych test.  No one really talks about Tank anymore.  That is until Dumbo and Ben are in the crematorium once again and the find Tank’s dead body.  Ben and Dumbo decide to keep it between themselves givin how close Flint was to him.   Tank’s replacement comes two days later and her name is Ringer, she tends to show the boys who is boss.  Ringer also says that if any of the guys in the barracks touch her, she will kill them.  After a week of having Ringer on their squad they go up to 19th place, by week three they are up to 5th.  Ringer on the other hand really wants to be squad leader, so Ben makes a deal with her that if she helps him become a better shooter, and they graduate, he will step down as squad leader.  Ringer begins to teach Ben about shooting, and here is how one of the lessons went; “The target’s head disintegrated with a satisfying Crack! Oompa gives a shout and pumps his fist into the air.  I forget myself and grab Ringer around the waist, swinging her off the ground and twirling her around.  I am one very dangerous second away from kissing her.  When I set her down, she takes a couple steps back and tucks her hair behind her ears. ‘that was very out of line,’ I say.  I don’t know who’s more embarrassed.  We’re both trying to catch our breaths.  Maybe for different reasons.  ‘Do it again,’ she says.  ‘shoot or twirl, which one?’  Her mouth twitches.  Oh, I’m so close.  ‘The one that means something.’” (Ben and Ringer pg. 252)

Thanks to Ringer and the squad’s hard work, they graduate, get new uniforms, and the get some new technology to fight the Others with.  The only bad thing is that Nugget is too young to leave the base and has to stay behind. To make Nugget feel better Ben decides to give Nugget his sisters’ locket.  Zombie then promises to come back for him.  Vosch then promotes him to Sargent and Reznik congratulates him and he calls him Ben, which surprises him because he didn’t know that Reznik knew his name.  Squad 53 then is taken off Camp Haven’s premises and sent off to war.  While on their way to the war Ben tries to get Ringer to smile again, but it doesn’t work.  Also the find out that Reznik, Vosch, and the army are the Others.  They kill Reznik, and Oompa dies from being shot. Flint doesn’t believe them, because he doesn’t get why the army would train them just to kill them.  He then makes a leap for the counsel Ben is holding and presses the button for his tracker and it kills him.  Ben then realizes that Nugget is still at the base and knows he must go back because he made a promise and he is going to keep it.  Ringer tells him that it is suicide and he says “I ran one time’ I finally say.  ‘I’m not running again’” (Ben pg. 318) He then goes back, but first he had to take a bullet in the torso so that way the army won’t suspect anything.  Vosch doesn’t believe him fully and says in six hours, when the drugs wear off, they are going to plug him into wonderland.  Alright he has six hours to find a way to Nugget and get both of them out of there safely.

Ben then finds a way to take out his doctor, and he dresses up in his uniform. Finally, he is off to find Nugget.  When Ben finds Nugget, Zombie finds out he is with his sister Cassie.  In the movie he recognizes her first but in the book she recognizes him first.  The army then finds and captures them. Ben and Cassie are on one side of the room and Nugget or Sam is on the other and he is hooked up to the machine that was used when Ben killed Chris.  Evan though, is one step ahead of the army, he hacks in and makes sure that it can’t kill Sam.  Evan then says, that he is going to blow the place up in ten minutes and that he will find her.  When Ben, Cassie, and Sam are running away Ringer and the rest of Squad 53 come and rescue them in a car.  Ben then goes and comforts Cassie when he sees she is shaking by putting his arm around her.  To find out what else happens to Ben Parish, Cassie and Sam Sullivan, Ringer, and Evan Walker go to Barnes and Noble or any other book store and get the trilogy.