Username: czechmate46
Character Name: Joseph Reed
Age: 38
Gender: male 
Appearance: [img=https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2511/3779603628_085c8927af.jpg]

Personality: Joseph can be described as a rather reserved and calm man. He is a man of few words and picks his battles. However, as a result of this, he finds that he gets little say in group settings and is ordered around by the other members. He prefers to travel on his own, however he does grow lonesome at times. Before the outbreak, he could be best described as passive aggressive and gentle. Come the outbreak, he was forced to resort to violence which disturbed him greatly. Joseph is a man who is in touch with his thoughts and likes to write them down on paper. Currently, he is scared that he will become a monster with all the killing he is doing. He also scares himself by his increasing aggressiveness. Nonetheless, Joseph is still a gentle giant. Yet he may not remain that way. 

Background: Joseph Reed was born to an English professor and a stifled housewife in the city. He had a relatively easy childhood and had a few close friends throughout his years. However, he was constantly living in the shadow of his father. Being the Reed’s only son, Joseph’s father had high and strict expectations of him. Joseph was to go to university right after high school and become a professor just as his father was. This all changed when Joseph was 21, two years into his degree when he met the love of his life. A farm girl named Margaret. She was young, beautiful, and free spirited. Needless to say, Joseph dropped out of school a year later to marry her. They owned a ranch together where Margaret would teach Joseph everything about farming, raising livestock, shooting, and hunting. When Joseph was 25, he and Margaret had a son named Tom. The following 13 years leading up to the outbreak, the Reed’s focussed on being a family and running their ranch. 
The virus was delayed in making it’s way to the Reed’s ranch. As they lived out almost in the middle of nowhere in a small rural county, they had heard little of the outbreak. They had no idea it had gotten so out of control or the devastating effects of the virus. 
One late afternoon, Joseph and his wife had realized that their son had not yet returned from earlier on that day when he told them he was taking one of the horses for a ride. Margaret insisted that Joseph stay behind while she went to look for him in case Tom came back to the house while she was out. A few hours later, the sky was beginning to darken and now neither Margaret nor Tom had returned to the home. Joseph was beginning to grow anxious and decided to go out and look for them in his truck. He had no avail and returned home hours later. He continued to search the next day. If he did not find them by nightfall, he planned to call the police. In the afternoon, he went to the stable to search by horseback this time. This is when he found his wife and son - but not in the way that he had expected. They frothed at the mouth and staggered about, moaning, appearing to not have any control over their own mind or body. At the sound of Joseph opening the stable door, they attacked him, as well as another undead that was believed to be the one that infected them. How he got into the stable is a mystery. Joseph tried to find some way to subdue them without using his gun but all three were overpowering him and he could tell that they were not of a sound mind. He realized they had the virus he had faintly heard about. He had no choice but to use this gun to lay them to rest. This action still haunts him. 
After this altercation, Joseph decided to pack up as many belongings as possible and set out to find help. However, since the virus took so long to reach his ranch, it was quite some time into the out break before he headed out. He started off by vehicle, using his truck. But since the outbreak, gas has become harder and harder to find and the sound of his truck is a magnet to the undead. He is thinking about ditching the truck, seeing as he is nearing his first large city. Since he left his ranch, he has been traveling along the lonely rural roads and passing through farm towns, looking for survivors who are not hostile and grabbing food, supplies, and weapons wherever he can. 

Equipment: hunting rifle without ammo, hand gun with ammo, crowbar, journal and pen, truck, wallet, two crates of canned food recently obtained, flask, half carton of cigarettes, lighter, two water jugs, half gallon of gas. 

Other Notes: Joseph does smoke, although has slowed down as cigarettes are hard to come by now a days. He is a light drinker. He writes in his journal most nights. He can swim but is not that strong of a swimmer. He does not have any triggers, so to speak, but often sees visions and day dreams of his wife. He is notably strong, as he is a larger build. He has many nature survival skills as well (such as hunting, starting a fire, setting a trap, etc.)