Iron Mike

**J. Michael Wilcox**, more commonly known as **Iron Mike**, is a major side character in *Days Gone*. He is a survivor of the Freaker outbreak and the leader of the Lost Lake encampment in the Iron Butte region of Oregon, United States.

## Biography

### Background and Early life

Mike was born in 1941 and grew up around Hood River County, Oregon. As a child, he played in the northern caves with his father who fancied himself as a geologist and would spend hours explaining how the caves were formed by lava many years ago.

As a young adult, he worked as a forest serviceman for several decades, managing the wilderness in the Cascade range, upon where he gathered a distinct knowledge of the area including mercury mining which occurred in the early 1900's.

Mike also met and befriended a young man named Jack, the future President of the Mongrels Motorcycle Club. He once took him fishing.

He later met and fell in love with a woman named Elizabeth where the pair eventually married and lived together for 30 years. However, Mike never desired to have any children of his own as he found them aggravating, which caused a heavy strain between him and Elizabeth for some time, despite them doing things they loved together, such as hiking trails and mountain climbing very often.

Tragically, Elizabeth was later diagnosed with cancer and eventually passed away, leaving Mike heartbroken.

### 2017 Freaker outbreak

In the early months of the apocalypse, Iron Mike was part of Sherman's Camp, which was made up of surviving law enforcement and civilians. Eventually, two factions formed in the camp, creating an increasingly hostile situation within the settlement. A meeting was set up between both sides, as it was believed that everyone had run out of ammunition, but it was quickly discovered that one faction still had ammunition. Everyone killed each other, save for Mike and Nora, who barely escaped the carnage with their lives. This incident deeply scarred Mike, making him to repudiate violence.

Sometime after the Sherman's Camp massacre, Mike formed another group in Lost Lake, which had the goals of pacifism between all survivors in mind, still shaken from the carnage in Sherman's Camp. Among his core members were Skizzo, Rikki Patil, and Addison Walker. Deacon St. John and Boozer eventually joined Mike's camp and helped it greatly. Mike and Deacon became close at this time. However, Deacon's violent way of handling situations led to a falling out between the two, with Deacon telling Mike to "go fuck himself." Shortly after, Deacon and Boozer left, and they were banned from returning there.

### Events of *Days Gone*

Two years after the end of civilization, Iron Mike established a fragile peace with the Rippers, but some members of his camp, especially Skizzo, were very skeptical and disapproving of this agreement.

Deacon and Boozer have been avoiding Iron Mike's Camp for over a year, doing jobs for other settlements. Eventually, after Boozer's arm is burnt and he contracts blood poisoning, Deacon is forced to take Boozer there. Initially uneasy with returning, Deacon is gradually accepted back there, as word of his good deeds has reached the safe zone. Deacon eventually tells Mike of his plan to reduce the Freaker population greatly by destroying their caves. Mike quickly warms up to Deacon's idea and they set out to find explosives across the region.

The two stop at Sherman's Camp to retrieve a map with the locations of registered TNT owners. There, Mike shows Deacon how everyone killed each other and explains how this brought about his basic belief in pacifism. After taking the map off the body of the police commissioner, the two are ambushed by Marauders and are forced to kill them all. When they return to camp, it becomes clear that Mike and Deacon have a much better understanding of each other than before.

## Appearance and personality

Iron Mike cares very much for his settlement. Being a survivor of Sherman's Camp left him traumatized and guilt-ridden in which he admitted to Deacon that he often wished that he hadn't walk out the massacred town alive. The incident at Sherman's Camp made Mike try to foster a co-operative and somewhat pacifistic mindset in regards to other humans where possible, refusing to start a fight where possible, even being willing to give people a fair trial for their crimes. Mike's unwillingness to throw the first punch leads him to being somewhat naive, especially in regards to the Rippers, who he still believes can be reasoned with, which despite his intention has lead to members of his camp being killed. Despite not wanting to start fights, Mike is willing to take up arms against immediate threats, such as marauders in order to defend himself. He is hard-willed and courageous.

Iron Mike does have a complicated relationship with Deacon St John, as he is grateful to Deacon for saving those in his camp and those who he cares about, but disapproves of the way that Deacon handles some bounty jobs and

## Gallery

Iron Mike during *We've All Done Things*Iron Mike during *We've All Done Things*Iron Mike during *Flow Like Buried Rivers*Iron Mike during *You See What They Did*Iron Mike during *Do You Have My Back?*Iron Mike during *Do You Have My Back?*
## Trivia

* His weapon of choice is "The Sheriff" revolver.
* While walking with Deacon in Sherman's Camp, Iron Mike mentions surviving with a woman named Nora. Their relationship is not explained and she is never mentioned again.
* It is revealed in *The Art of Days Gone* book that Mike was part of the group that massacred the residents of Sherman's Camp.