69 Name: Ryan Matthews Age: 17 Height: 5' 10’’ Weight: 167 lbs. [hider=Equipment:] internal frame backpack 10 ft. paracord bracelet survival guide BSA handbook compass waterproof match box (with 84 matches) emergency hammer survival shovel swiss army knife stuff sack sleeping bag 32 oz. nalgene (w/ mouthguard) (full of water) roll of duct tape light my fire spork pair of scissors waterproof solar-powered watch official ultimate frisbee hand-crank radio hand-crank flashlight mountain bike small notebook pair of work gloves 10 ft. x 10 ft. tarp half used roll of trashbags (68 left) 20 ft. of rope eno hammock (w/ straps) 2 pens 4 medium-sized karabiners 2 flint bars and strikers pair of hiking boots pair of cargo shorts 3 t-shirts 5 pairs of socks 5 pairs of boxers pair of jeans BSA uniform (w/ neckerchief and slide) [/hider] Weapons: 2 tomahawks (w/ sheaths) 7.5 in tactical knife (w/ sheath) Previous “Occupation”: high school sophomore, Boy Scout, ultimate frisbee team member Appearance: [img=http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/3b/d2/38/3bd23882660774eb1f0a9789dde7423b.jpg] His Boy Scout uniform is pretty small for him, but he keeps it because the uniform and the frisbee are the only things he has that give him a connection to home. He has three plain V-neck T-shirts (one charcoal, one black, one dark) that he switches off between. He wears hiking boots that are a little small on him and long black socks. He has a single pair of cargo shorts and a pair of jeans. Ryan is mostly lean muscle and is very athletic from all of his time running in ultimate frisbee. Bio: Ryan Matthews was born in Dallas, Texas, on May 23, 1997 to Bill and Theresa Matthews. He had two siblings, Jillian, 2 years elder, and David, 4 years elder. Ryan joined Cub Scouts in Kindergarten and met his best friend Dylan Thomas. The two grew up together in school and moved up from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and both earned the rank of Eagle Scout. They even held their Court of Honor together. In addition to the many other merit badges that they had to complete to earn Eagle, they both did the Wilderness Survival badge and the Emergency Preparedness badge. Ryan was a class clown in school and didn’t care much for grades, but made a plethora of friends and was well liked by almost everyone, for being a funny and kind-hearted person. Ryan played on the varsity ultimate frisbee team his freshman year of high school, while Dylan joined the marching band, but the two still managed to remain best friends. Ryan had a huge passion for the outdoors and spent almost all of his free-time with Dylan and other friends, camping, exploring, hunting, or playing ultimate frisbee. The apocalypse started when Ryan and Dylan were on a BSA high-adventure backpacking trip in New Mexico the summer before he started junior high. Because no one was allowed to use their electronic devices while at camp, no one knew about the evacuations until it was too late. When they made it back to base camp, they found a horde of Boy Scout zombies. Only Ryan, Dylan, and another scout managed to escape. The three scouts survived on their own for a while until they found a Jeep and ventured back home to Dallas. When they arrived on the outskirts of the city, they realized that everyone was either turned or gone. They then decided to hike north in search of other survivors. They survived on their own for a while until they ran into a scavenging group that brought them to a yacht out on Lake Texoma in Oklahoma via kayak. The group lived on the yacht for a few months, periodically going ashore on kayak to look for fuel, food, and other supplies until their scavenging party was ambushed by a group of survivors. Ryan panicked and hid and was the only one to survive the attack and watched in horror as the not-so-friendly group of survivors killed Dylan and his other friends from the yacht, took the kayaks and hijacked the yacht. Ryan fled in search of a new home. Ryan traveled north because something inside him felt like it was the direction to go. He traveled through the forest. Every night he would climb up in a tree and sleep in his eno high enough so that the walkers couldn’t reach him. He hunted game with snares and tomahawk and just continued to travel north, thanks to his compass until he got to the edge of the forest and the plains found a small town. He scavenged the town for supplies and found some food, water, an emergency hammer, a pair of jeans, a roll of duct tape, and a bicycle. He continued to travel north on bike until he found a farmhouse. He was running low on food and water, so he decided to raid the farmhouse, but only to find that there was a band of survivors living there. He quickly made friends with the band of survivors and was absorbed into their band of misfits. It was Ryan who had first heard the message from Canada. He had been fiddling around with his hand-crank radio, when the voice came on and talked about the place in Canada. He excitedly told the rest of the group, anxious for a chance at a regular life and the possibility that his family may still be alive out there. Ryan carries the weight of having no idea of the whereabouts of his family. He has no idea if any of them are still alive. He knows that he will probably never see any of his family ever again, but he refuses to truly believe it. He still yearns to find them. Ryan also carries around the guilt of the death of his best friend and the death of his other friends on the yacht. He knows that he couldn’t have done anything, but the fact that he panicked, hid, and fled instead of fighting and trying haunts him.