Kyle Ford

* Season 3
* Camouflage

### Occupation

Former armoury assistant at Hometown (Post-apocalypse)Former leader of Riverpath (Post-apocalypse)

Leader of The Living (Post-apocalypse)

### Series Lifespan

'A House Divided' - 'Ol' Dead Eyes'

> *"We're gonna become what they fear most [...] No...we're gonna wear their skin,"*
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> -- Kyle to the group on how they will defeat the Michigan Militia
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**Kyle Ford**, affectionally known as **Kye** and later as **Ol' Dead Eyes**,is the current protagonist and later an antagonist, as well as a survivor of the outbreak in *LoreTale's End of Days*. The armoury assistant for the Hometown community, Kyle was close friends with Jennifer Stoffman and one of Stoffman's biggest critics. With the onset of a second uprising in the community, he was able to escape with a small group as the community fell.

During the group's journey east, Kyle finds and becomes the guardian of a little girl named April. As the group arrives in Riverpath, he rose to the position of Jennifer's right-hand man. After the Michigan Militia destroys Riverpath, resulting in the death of Jennifer, Kyle's darkness takes over. He becomes the leader of the survivors and leads the group's war against the Militia.

In the series finale, it is revealed that Kyle had been driven completely insane by the chaos and trauma he had experienced in the apocalypse and that April, the girl he had been taking care of, had merely been a hallucination, a maniacal representation of his own broken mind. He became convinced that his new method of survival - dressing in the skin of the walkers and acting like animals - was the true way to survive in the New World. With the Michigan Militia brutally wiped out, he killed Bas, who refused to follow Kyle's new philosophy on survival and set out with his followers to cause havoc across the wilderness, transforming into a nightmarish monster and starting a new journey.

## Overview

### Personality

Kyle is an affable, good-natured, diplomatic and adventurous young man and is generally compassionate and kind-hearted. However, though capable of keeping a cool head in the face of latent panic, when the situation becomes potentially disastrous, Kyle is often seen to panic and, possibly subconsciously, defer the decision-making to a more sure-spoken person. It could be that this is due to his relatively young age and consequential inexperience of handling dire situations, but can generally handle fear with a sense of duty and motivation rather than freezing up. He is shown to be self-reliant and resilient to hardship.

Kyle is shown to be more logically driven than emotionally driven when making tough choices, much like his good friend Jennifer. Kyle is also easily agitated and highly protective, which is shown whenever his people are threatened, and it is clear that he would go very far to ensure their safety. He is compassionate and altruistic, taking on the responsibility of looking after April.

However, after the Michigan Militia attack and destroy Riverpath, resulting in the deaths of many innocents and Jennifer, Kyle shows a far darker side. He begins to show strong leadership qualities, taking control over The Living and persuading the group to wear the skin of lurkers in order to ambush the Michigan Militia. While not devolving into a person of pure savagery, Kyle is more than willing to commit inhuman acts in order to terrify the Militia and keep up the superstitions surrounding The Living, including disembowelling members of the Militia and hanging them on trees.

After the Militia is defeated, Kyle is revealed to have been driven completely insane, driven mad by the trauma and chaos of the apocalypse. It is revealed that April had been a hallucination of his fractured mind the entire time and he had totally given in to the darkness and savagery within him. He embraces a new philosophy on survival: when the world ended, humanity died with it, so the surviving humans should embrace their animal natures and give in to their baser instincts. With Sebastian unable to accept Kyle's philosophy, Kyle murdered his friend, banishing the very last shred of his humanity. He subsequently murdered the last members of the Living who refused to follow this new way of life, transforming his militia into a cult that now shunned civilization and humanity.

## Pre-Apocalypse

Nothing is yet known about Kyle' life before the outbreak, other than he was born in North Carolina.

## Post-Apocalypse

### Hometown

At some point during the first two years of the apocalypse, Kyle made his way from his home state of North Carolina to Iowa, and eventually to Hometown. His mild skills with guns allowed him to become the assistant to the community armourer, Justin. At some point, he became good friends with Jennifer, cousin of Hometown's leader Stoffman. After the First Hometown Uprising, he became one of Stoffman's biggest critics.

## Killed Victims

* One unnamed Hometown guard
* Gerrard *(alive and zombified)*
* Katie Banks *(before reanimation)*
* Jennifer Stoffman *(out of mercy, before reanimation)*
* Cain
* Sebastian Monroe
* 12 unnamed members of the Michigan Militia
* Numerous counts of zombies

## Relationships

### April

> *"Don't worry, April. I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you. I'm gonna look after you, okay? I'm your man,"*
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Although they have not known each other for long, the relationship between Kyle and April is strong, with Kyle swearing to protect the innocent and traumatized April and April seeing Kyle as a father figure.

However, in the series finale, April is revealed to have been a hallucination ever since her introduction, a mania-induced representation of Kyle's broken mind.

## Trivia

* Kyle is a fan of flannel shirts.
* His preferred weapon is a Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver, as well as a hammer axe.
	+ This axe is the same used by Reginald in '*An Iron Fist*'.
* He is the first character in the series to directly kill a human.
* Kyle has a passion for history, showing a particular interest in the American Civil War and the Pacific Theatre in WW2.
* He is the first character in *End of Days* to demonstrate wearing lurker skin as a camouflage technique.
* Kyle is the first protagonist to become an antagonist.
* It has been confirmed by EDStudios that Kyle and the Living will make a return in the Extended Universe as antagonists. Five years later in 2021, it was confirmed that Kyle will appear as "Ol' Dead Eyes" in the 10th Anniversary Special of *The Walking Dead by EDStudios*.

## Behind the Scenes

* Kyle's lurker skin camouflage was inspired by the Whisperers, an antagonistic force in *Image Comic's The Walking Dead*.