Drake Merwin

Drake Merwin Jr. is the secondary antagonist in the Gone Series. He is described as a sadistic boy that enjoys the pain of others around him. His arm is burnt off by Sam Temple after he attempts to kill Little Pete. This results in the Gaiaphage replacing it with a whip-like tentacle. Drake rises up against Caine and is killed, but the Gaiaphage keeps him alive, sharing the form of Brittney. He serves the Gaiaphage until it becomes Gaia Soren-Ladris, and his body falls apart when the FAYZ ends and burns.

However, satellite footage captures Drake alive in the desert, raping and killing anyone he comes across - Thomas Peaks speculates that this is because he was altered physically. Peaks recruits Drake to his cause, discovering that Drake has finally overpowered Brittney. He is placed in hydrofluoric acid by Astrid Ellison and sunk to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Description
Drake is a tall, slim, and lithe human male. Sam describes him as a "smiling, playful, mean-eyed kid" with shaggy, sandy-blonde hair that later turns to dirty blond or light brown (and is referred to as "dark" in Lies). His eyes are either gray or pale blue and are often described as steely or icy, and soulless. Astrid states the expression in his eyes is "lizard-like." Drake is often described as having a shark-like smile; a smile that shows "too many teeth" with "too little humour." Orsay thinks his face would be handsome, were it not for his cold eyes, and Penny describes him as "attractive" but "in a dangerous way". Due to his arm having been burnt off by Sam in Gone, he now has a tentacle-like appendage that is ten feet in length with a whip-like tip instead of a right arm (created by Lana and the Gaiaphage in Gone), and Brittney's head is melded into his chest after winning control over their body.

Drake is one of the overreaching antagonists throughout the series. Unlike Caine, who displays complexity and eventually becomes a hero, Drake remains evil all throughout the books, displaying his cruel tendencies even before the start of the FAYZ. He is sadistic, murderous, and psychopathic and revels being in a position of power. He has been shown to be overconfident, untrustworthy, and treacherous, and many believe he is not completely sane. Unlike Caine, who only kills to achieve a means, Drake kills for the sake of killing, and because he relishes in the pain of others. He also holds no loyalty - causing both allies and enemies to distrust him.

It is implied that Drake is also a misogynist. He has shown an inordinate amount of loathing for strong, independent women like Diana and Astrid, frequently fantasizing about the ways he would torture them. He also expresses disgust for sharing a body with Brittney and desires revenge on Sam and Caine for hurting him.

Powers and Abilities Even without powers, Drake was considered one of the most lethal characters in the FAYZ. The son of a highway lieutenant, Drake was already skilled in hand-to-hand combat and was considered an expert wielder of a gun. After the loss of his right arm, his power only increases as it is replaced by a tentacle capable of strangling grown men and whipping people to death.

Thanks to Lana, Brittney, and the Gaiaphage, Drake is almost immortal and can only be killed if every last cell is destroyed; otherwise, he can regenerate from any part of his body. His perception of pain is incredibly numbed due to his immortality. Formerly, he and Brittney shared a form and only one of them could exist at a time, but Drake's consciousness eventually overpowers hers and now she has been reduced to a head growing out of his chest.

Appearances
Drake's father, a Highway Lieutenant, taught him to shoot. Drake was close to his father, and was distraught when he died; shooting became his way of remembering him. When his mother remarried, Drake's new stepfather would beat his mother every day in front of him. When a young boy named Holden made fun of Drake for looking so depressed all the time, Drake shot him in the leg with an air rifle, which cheered him up. Holden nearly died and Drake was sent to Coates.
 * Before the FAYZ

Drake felt helpless because he couldn't stop his mother from being hurt, so he picked on other kids to make himself feel more in control. He even does worse things, such as microwaving puppies, when he finds that he enjoys it. When Drake saw Caine use his telekinesis, he saw an opportunity, and so he and Caine found more people with powers. When the FAYZ happened, Drake got his hands on a gun again and dragged all the freaks who weren't loyal to Caine out of bed in the middle of the night before cementing their hands.

Drake arrives in Perdido Beach with Caine Soren and the other Coates kids a few days after the adults disappear. Drake is appointed as Town Sheriff and is given permission to do whatever he feels is necessary. He comes across a fight between Orc's crew and Bette, Edilio, and Sam. Drake orders both sides to stand down and when Orc doesn't, Drake makes him but frees him of charge. Drake is later given the task of capturing (and later killing) Astrid and Pete Ellison. He is thwarted by Sam, but after tying Andrew down, Drake captures Sam's entire side. However, Sam burns Drake's arm so badly that Diana has to cut it off. Drake captures Lana to heal him, but after Pack Leader intervenes, Drake is instead given a whip hand by the Gaiaphage. Drake heads back to town to join the Thanksgiving battle and fights Orc to a standstill. He refuses to leave, and so Caine drags him away.
 * Gone

Drake takes charge while Caine is in a coma, and leads a successful raid on Ralph's with his newly-trained soldiers. After Caine puts his new plan into motion, Drake sends Bug to scour the power plant. He falls asleep and Orsay Pettijohn enters his dreams, but Drake sees her, realizes he is dreaming, and forces himself to wake up. He captures her and brings her to Caine. Later, when Caine attacks the power plant, Drake takes down Josh and Brittney and tries to set a trap of wire that will kill Brianna; however, Jack makes him take it down. Drake sets the trap anyway, and when Jack finds out, Drake pretends that Brianna is already dead, causing Jack to "go all Aragorn" on Drake. Drake loses the fight but is saved by Caine, who orders him to start a diversion.
 * Hunger

Howard sees Drake and alerts Orc to his position; Orc stops Drake from shooting Dekka. Drake is given the task of killing Sam by Caine, who knows that Drake will soon challenge him and hopes that Sam will kill him. However, Drake threatens to cause a nuclear meltdown if Sam does not take Drake's whipping, and Drake nearly kills Sam but is stopped when Brianna cuts his whip hand off. He returns to Caine as his whip hand regenerates and greets the coyotes when he arrives at the mine shaft, intending to serve the Gaiaphage but seemingly kills Diana after she goads him. Caine, in return, kills Drake. However, the part of his whip hand that was severed crawls onto Brittney.

The Gaiaphage uses Lana's power to give Drake regeneration, and he regenerates from his whip, attached to Brittney. However, Drake's consciousness does not destroy Brittney's like the Gaiaphage expected, and so Drake and Brittney become the same entity, constantly replacing each other. Drake kills a kid by whipping him to death and is spotted by Caine, Diana, and Sam in the fire of Perdido Beach, but does not appear again until he threatens Mary Terrafino. Drake is almost killed by Sam, but Sam can't bring himself to also kill Brittney, so he puts Drake in Orc's basement.
 * Lies

Drake manages to goad a drunk Orc into breaking the basement ceiling, freeing him. He enslaves Jamal and quickly discovers that almost no one is around to challenge him except for Brianna, which leads to the church battle. He wins and finds the mine shaft, and tries to unblock it so he can go to the Gaiaphage. The bugs help him in return for eating Jamal, and he is given them as an army by the Gaiaphage on the condition that he brings it Nemesis. Drake defeats Brianna again and tries to take down Sam, Dekka, Jack, and Toto, but they escape. He tries to defy the Gaiaphage to get revenge but fails, and is sent to Coates Academy to fetch Nemesis. However, Orc, Astrid, and Jack both try to stop him. The bugs take care of Orc and Drake nearly strangles Jack after a short fight, but Astrid seemingly kills Little Pete. Drake returns to the mine shaft.
 * Plague

Given the task of retrieving Diana, Drake tries to get the help of the coyotes, but they only lead him to Lake Tramonto on the condition that he feeds them, so Drake kills Howard. Brittney takes over and boards Diana's boat, which also has Atria, Roger, and Justin on board. Drake regains control and scares Atria away, easily defeats Roger, and captures both Diana and Justin. Jack tries to kill him but Drake fatally wounds him and joins forces with Penny and the newly-born Gaia Soren-Ladris to try and open the barrier. Sam, Caine, Quinn, and Dekka successfully stop them, and Drake flees with the others when the barrier turns transparent after accidentally running into it.
 * Fear

Drake now has the job of feeding Gaia, which he is becoming increasingly irritated with. Brianna cuts him up and scatters the parts all over the FAYZ, but Alex Mayle finds his head. Gaia cuts off Alex's head and attaches Drake's head to the body, also giving him his whip and the task of capturing Astrid. However, Drake decides to betray Gaia, because he believes she is becoming soft and weak. He whips Astrid but she manages to delay him and escape, finding Sam, who decides to take Drake on one last time. Just when Drake is about to finish Sam off, his head falls off and his whip detaches. Sam throws his head into the fire.
 * Light

Although it is thought Drake was burnt by Sam, one piece of him had remained from when Brianna chopped him into pieces. The one-piece was unable to come and attach itself to Drake as it had been eaten by a swordfish, which excreted him. He took an entire year to grow back, and when he did, Brittney was on his chest, instead of the two switching bodies after periods of time. He tortures, murders and rapes for years until a satellite spots him, and Thomas Peaks goes to recruit him. Drake agrees, as the Dark Watchers want him to and because he wants to kill Dekka. He is defeated by Dekka's new morph, however, as well as by Armo, but is not killed by either. After Vincent Vu emerges and fights Peaks, Drake is as nonplussed as the other side. It is unknown what he does after this, as he does not escape with Peaks.
 * Monster

Drake brings Peaks to a cave that he has been using as his lair, with bodies hanging from crosses inside, which he starved to see how long they last. When Peaks eventually leaves, he exits the cave and is hit by a missile and blown to pieces. He partially regenerates, swearing revenge on Peaks. He makes the decision to go after Astrid.
 * Villain

Hero

Drake heads after Astrid, seeking to torture her. However, upon arrival at her apartment, she attacks him in morph, ripping off his whip arm before cutting him up and encasing him in a box filled with hydrofluoric acid. She orders this box to be sunk to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Gallery

 * Trailers