Liam Kendall (D-913)

You may be looking for the Liam Kendall of a different universe.
Liam Michael Kendall (b. July 7th, 1997) was the false protagonist of Apocalypse. An eighth grade student at Algonquin Heights Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin. Liam was the president of the Algonquin Dragons activities club, a board game/geek culture group at his school consisting of his close friends and classmates: Lyla Painter, Nick Brooks, Kelly Burnham and Kurt Heywood.
Despite his age and predepositions, Kendall would become the courageous leader of a group of teen survivors in the supernatural pandemic that destroyed the United States of America in the fall of 2010, ultimately sacrificing his life to ensure their escape from the town of Red Cedar, Minnesota.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Liam was the only son of Lori Vanover and Vincent Kendall. His father was abusive towards his mother and left when Liam was just a toddler, leaving his mother to raise him alone. Liam spent a large portion of his early years moving from place-to-place, including motels and a women's shelter, although Liam and his mother eventually found what would become their permanent residence. Lori was overwhelmed by the responsibilities of single parenthood and soon succumbed to an addiction to opioids which rendered her largely absent from Liam's life even when present physically.
As such, Liam grew up learning to fend for himself. He taught himself to buy groceries, do household chores, cook simple meals, and manage his schoolwork without parental guidance. Despite the neglect at home, Liam distracted himself by escaping into the realm of books, video games, and his own vivid imagination. Liam's childhood interest in astrology and budding creativity led him to develop a lifelong passion for science-fiction franchises such as Star Trek and Halo.
In elementary school, Liam was often outcast and by his peers for his social ineptitude, obscure interests and inconsistent hygiene. His awkward demeanor, lisp and pudgy stature led him to be the target of intense bullying whilst his teachers did little to intervene and equally lambasted him for his poor grades, depressive episodes and inconsistent attendance. Nevertheless, in second grade Liam would become close friends with Nick Brooks, as time went on Nick would defend Liam from physical attacks by fellow students and later introduce him to tabletop RPG games through Dungeons & Dragons, another avenue to which Liam was able to escape the pressures of reality and explore his creativity. 
The glimpse of light in Liam’s childhood was his uncle, Christian. An enigmatic yet compassionate figure in Liam’s life, providing a guidance and companionship that his mother could not. Christian lived in Minnesota, so while his presence was often infrequent, he would always take Liam camping in the backwoods during the summer for his birthday: an annual experience Liam was greatly fond of.
In the woods, Liam learned skills far beyond those of most boys his age as Christian taught him how to hunt, fish, drive a truck, forage for edible plant life and handle firearms safely. These trips were not only about survival skills; they were a form of bonding. The time they spent together forged a deep connection, with Liam looking up to his uncle as a role model and mentor.
===Algonquin Heights===
Starting in 2008, Liam began attending sixth grade at Algonquin Heights Middle School, Liam's social circle began to expand. He and Nick would join the Algonquin Dragons club which introduced them to Warhammer 40K, he would also befriend fellow classmates Lyla Painter, Kurt Heywood and Bianca Graham.
His friendship with Lyla would develop the quickest due to their shared home issues and creative natures, as such Lyla would be convinced into joining the Algonquin Dragons in seventh grade. Kurt and Nick grew to be close friends over their time in shop class and began joining Nick and Liam in the online matches of Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 that took place after school.
Lastly, Bianca, a member of Algonquin's student council who assisted in the school's breakfast program, took an innate interest in Liam, coming from a similarly low-income drug-impacted black background and held sympathy towards Liam for his social quirks and struggles and would take time in coaching and assisting him with communicating and proper social etiquette.
Over the remainder of sixth grade and amidst the confusion of puberty, Liam would develop his first notable crush on Bianca, he would later attempt to profess his feelings to her in a grandiose display on the last day of school but his feelings were unrequited and Liam's behavior had considerably damaged their friendship moving forward.
===Tragedy===
That summer, Liam would notice the shift in his uncle during their trip into the wild for Liam's twelfth birthday. Over the span of the previous year, his uncle's mental health took a toll for the worse. A devout libertarian, Christian's extant distrust of government and life-long interest in the extraterrestrial had been exacerbated into extremism by fringe conservative talk radio, pseudoscience and online conspiracy websites. As Christian devolved into overwhelming eschatological paranoia about forced into FEMA camps and the 2012 doomsday conspiracy, he began to stockpile weapons and hoard non-perishables and other supplies.
While it took only a mild dispute to convince Christian not to listen to the radio during their trip together, Liam grew concerned upon arriving at his uncle's lodge where he could visibly observe the extent of his uncle's mental decline. Liam attempted to best of his ability to ignore many of the signs that had him gravely concerned for his uncle's well-being and enjoy what was supposed to be a getaway from the stresses of his life at home. 
Unfortunately, things would take a turn for the worst on the second day of the trip, where, while on the forest road to a nearby hunting trail, Liam would be startled by a brown bear crossing the road and as a result swerve into the opposite lane, nearly colliding an oncoming driver who appeared beyond the bend. While Liam sat shaken up, Christian would exit out of the vehicle and get into a heated argument with the other driver who had not seen the bear, this dispute was exacerbated by the driver's ethnicity and his threats to inform the authorities would escalate, leading Christian to pull a gun on the man. Appalled and abhorred by his uncle's actions, Liam intervened and demanded to be driven home immediately. Liam would spend the remainder of the ride without saying a single word. Christian would later attempt to apologize for his behavior later over voice mail, but feeling a mix of disgust and guilt, Liam lacked the ability to call him back.
One dark autumn day, Christian would take his own life. The loss was devastating for Liam, leaving a void that nothing else could seem to fill. With his mother only further consumed by her addiction, Liam was left to deal with his grief by his lonesome.
===Moving forward===
In seventh grade, Liam would be elected to the role of club president of the Algonquin Dragons club following the graduation of Travis, the previous leader. He would also manage to successfully convince Lyla to join the group whose membership numbers had dwindled to himself, Nick, and two eighth graders: Clara and Hubert. Lyla's creative nature and illustrious drawings lent themselves to several very engaging campaigns over the course of the year.
Over the remainder of the school year, Liam would begin spending more time with his friends after school and on weekends in order to combat his overwhelming depression and distract himself from spending much time at home, and more importantly alone. Kurt would introduce Liam to marijuana and he, Nick and Liam would frequently get high during long weekend couch gaming sessions or even between classes.
Eventually, Lyla began to allow Liam to sneak over in the late evening to hang out, as her mother had worked late shifts and didn't get home until after Lyla had already left for school. On several occasions this would lead to Liam even staying the night, with the two making breakfast for one another and leaving for school together in the morning.
July 2010 marked the first summer following his uncle's passing. On his birthday, Lyla would call and invite Liam over late at night. The two would then climb up onto the roof of their school and get intoxicated for the first time off a bottle of whiskey that Lyla had stolen off an older cousin at a family reunion. Liam would --for the first time-- confide in her about the loss of his uncle, having remained silent and closed off about the topic due to not wanting to bother or worry any of his friends. The loss of such close family was something all-too-close with Lyla who had lost her brother little under two years prior.
As summer came to a close, Lyla would invite Liam out once more as she and her family travelled to a remote destination on the coast of Lake Michigan for the last weekend of August. At night, Lyla would wake Liam up and the pair would sneak down to the pitch-black beach where the two would lay down and stargaze. Lyla would soon fall asleep on Liam's chest, and as Liam reflected on the past year through the vivid night sky, he would come to realize that he had developed strong feelings for Lyla in the time they spent together.
===Apocalypse===
On the morning of September 13th, 2010 after staying up the previous night watching Deep Space Nine, Liam would awake later than usual due to the widespread electrical interference disrupting caused by The Other his alarm clock, barely squeezing in a shower, he would leave for school.
===Revival & Death===
===Legacy===
==Personality==
==Physical Appearance==
==Appearances==
Appearances for Liam Kendall
* Apocalypse (first appearance, dies)
* Reawakening (referenced)
==Killed Victims==
This list shows the victims Liam has killed:
* Alexander King
* William Doyle
* Colton Ritter
* Joaquin Marshfield (indirectly caused)
* Numerous counts of zombies.
==Relationships==
For a more in-depth look at Liam's relationships, read here: Liam Kendall/Relationships
==Gallery==
==Further Notes==
*Several influences for the character of Liam Kendall include Bill Denborough and Ben Hanscom, Keiichi Maebara, Shinji Ikari, Sam Winchester, Mike Wheeler, Pheobe Spengler, Oskar Eriksson, Jess Aarons, Tsukune Aono, Vladimir Tod and Takashi Komuro.
* Initially, during Liam's brief "death" at the stories midpoint, a short novella entitled "Hell Chapter" would've taken place, seeing Liam awaking in an alternate post-apocalyptic world and paradoxically encountering a future incarnation of himself, whom would explain to his younger self their mutual predicament of continuous rebirths into parallel worlds upon death.
* In the earliest drafts of Apocalypse, after escaping the town, the season would've ended with scrapped antagonist Theodore Moore, the commander of a rogue Army unit, shooting Liam in the head in retribution for the death of his men. This was later scrapped in favor of a sacrificial ending for the character and an extended third act to close out the narrative, as the initial ending contributed very little shock value and left several character subplots unresolved.
** In the first draft of this extended ending, Liam, having transformed into a Wendigo, would've killed Joaquin Marshfield. However, with additional feedback from Kevil, this was later scrapped, as Cooper believed the death both stole agency from Lyla and negatively impacted her growth as a character.
* In earlier drafts of Reawakening, following the story's shift to a post-Apocalypse setting, Liam would've been referenced several times by Joseph Stieker and his group, receiving a name-drop as early as the first issue. These references were scrapped when the roles and characters of Joseph, Ajay, and Meraj in Apocalypse's main story were replaced with Derek, Wilfred and Vishal.
==Sources==
Category:1997 births
Category:July births
Category:2010 deaths
Category:D-913 residents
Category:Madison, WI residents
Category:Wendigo
Category:Apocalypse characters
Category:Caucasians
Category:Athiests
Category:Students