Redrick Schuhart

Redrick Schuhart, also known as Red, is the main protagonist of the 1972 science-fiction, post-apocalyptic novel Roadside Picnic, written by . He serves as the main protagonist of Sections 1, 2, and 4, and a minor character in Section 3.
He is a former employee of the International Institute of Extraterrestrial Cultures, who is revealed to be a regular, albeit illegal stalker at night, in the search of alien artefacts to profit on it, as seen in the first two chapters of the novel.
==Appearance==
Red is a 23-year-old (later 28, and later 31) adult male, who is known to have bright red hair, hence his nickname. But the rest of his physical appearance is never described fully in the novel.
==Personality==
Red, on the surface, is often seen with a highly protective personality, especially towards his own family, including his wife Guta and his daughter Monkey. He is not above using violence and fury towards others, when his entire family is harmed, such as the time when he lashed out at the orderlies and doctors by throwing them out of his home, after they attempted to examine his zombified father and taking him to be studied.
He often has moments of being a physical wreck for most of the time, due to his frequent experiences of visiting the Visitation Zone as an illegal stalker. He is later known to be misanthropic, as a result of losing his friend Panov in one of his visits to the Zone, causing him to descend into a life of alcoholism.
==Background==
Red is a former lab assistant and employee of the International Institute of Extraterrestrial Cultures, a scientific organisation who studied the mystery behind the Visitation Zone, located at the edge of Harmont. In most of the times Red was a stalker at night who illegally visits the Zone, in search of mysterious artefacts, known as swags, as means of gaining profit, which led to him being arrested multiple times for trespassing.
However, after his friend Kirill Panov died from one of his legal visits to the Zone, it led to Red descending into a life of alcoholism, leading him to frequently travel the Zone and continue his illegal visitations into it to continue his own job. Later his wife Guta gave birth to their own daughter, who later turned out to suffer from mutations as time went by, as a result of him going through the Zone multiple times.
This experience led him to travel into the Zone for the final time with Buzzard Burbridge's son Arthur Burbridge to locate the Golden Sphere, a highly enigmatic artefact that is rumoured to grant to make a person's wish come true, in order to make his daughter go back to normal again. However, as that happens, a mysterious anomaly guarding the Sphere known as the Meat Grinder appears in front of them. Red allowed Arthur to run into the anomaly, without warning him of the anomaly's true nature, which ended up killing him in the process that allowed Red to grant his wish.
After Arthur was killed by the Meat Grinder, Red would soon utter the same words Arthur had said before his death: "Happiness for everybody, free, and may no one be left behind!" What remained for Red after uttering his wish in front of the Golden Sphere remains a complete mystery.
==Relationships==
===Allies===
* Kirill Panov † (employer and friend)
* Tender
* Richard Noonan
* Gutalin Noonan
* Ernie
* Creon
* Raspy
* Arthur Burbridge †
* Buzzard Burbridge
===Enemies===
* Captain Quarterblood
* Hell Slimes
* Meat Grinder
==Trivia==
* The titular protagonist of the 1979 film is heavily inspired by Red.
* In the cancelled 2016 show of the same name, Redrick was portrayed by .
* It is unknown if Red was killed from his wish through the Golden Sphere, or was spared, after Arthur was killed by the Meat Grinder, thereby making his fate ambiguous and open to interpretation.
* Red temporarily appears as a minor character in Section 3 of the book, since Richard Noonan takes place as the chapter's main protagonist.
==External Link==
*
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