Bertram

### Early life

Bertram grew up in the outskirts of Beckley, a mining town in the south of Appalachia. Like so many families his was also in the grasp of the large mining companies. His father worked for Hornwright Industrial as a corporate spy, he was instrumental in making sure that Garrahan lost the war between the two companies. He had even managed to get his hands on the EX-17 plans but decided to keep them hidden. His mother was a musician who was always playing music when the young Bertram came home from school. When the windows of their little apartment were open he could already hear her beautiful notes fill the streets long before he got home. Both his parents loved their only son dearly. In high school he was an average kid, wasn't especially good at math or science but he managed. His mother inspired him to attempt many instruments, the harmonica had always been his favorite. It was easy to carry around and you could play almost any song you wanted. His mother gave him a golden harmonica with his name engraved in the top for his 18th birthday. He was very good at PE. He probably inherited all his agility from his father who could hide himself like a pro, (which he was) this made for some very fun games of hide and seek. After high school he worked for a while in Sal's grinders but on his twentieth birthday he got a lottery ticket for his birthday from his uncle. His twentieth birthday was the day he became a millionaire. He gave away half a million of his winnings to his parents who bought a nice lake house at Summersville lake where they lived happily until the bombs fell.

Bertram was however beginning to take more notice of the world and being young and easy to influence he became obsessed with government conspiracies and cover-ups. He told everyone he met the new plague was made by the government and that aliens were real and they were called Zetans and looked green and had been observing us for centuries. With his newfound wealth he built a bunker in the blue ridge mountains and began radio transmissions to warn the people. With tensions in the US rising and others being jealous of his money he got often made out for a communist and became more and more recluse over the years. He bought a Mr.Handy to go shopping for him and eventually he barely left his bunker anymore. The final 5 years before the bombs dropped most considered him either dead or a deserter. Only those few who listened to his broadcasts knew he was still there.

### Nuclear war

One Saturday Bertram was sleeping in, his program was still looping music and he was only planning to start his usual broadcast in the afternoon. He was awoken by a very gentle rumble, and another one, and a few seconds later a third and a fourth. Some were stronger than others but they were very distinct. Confused he jumped out of bed and opened the hatch of his bunker. In the distance he could see the old world disappear and a new one taking form. With huge black and yellow clouds he could see everything he warned the people for come to reality. Unmoving he watched the fireworks. Then right before a shockwave would hit him he closed his hatch again and screamed. Everything he had known had just literally turned to dust.

### The aftermath

After cursing the government, the Chinese and those who hadn't listened to him and crying a whole lot he came back to his senses. He rationed out supplies for himself and stayed inside for as long as he could. After a few months he had to send out his Mr.Handy to scavenge for him. This worked for several weeks until even he didn't return anymore. Now he was completely self reliant. With the meager supplies he had left, his revolver and his radio transmitter he ventured out into the wasteland.

### Building a new life

With the glowing green snow falling from the cold winter sky he has his first contact with radiation. At first he avoided it. He had a geiger counter from his bunker but the thing proved itself useless, it was screaming wherever he went. So it didn't take long until it ended up in the green snow. He wandered the mountains for years, hunting and eating berries and roots. After being inside for so long he felt like a new person wandering the outdoors. It might have been the radiation or the fact that he'd stopped rebreathing his own air but he felt happy.

In 2080 he had already been well on the way to becoming a proper ghoul. He could go longer and longer without proper food and each time he looked at his hands they seemed to lose some more skin. Eventually he had to make his way down from the mountains. He hadn't seen any other humans in so long that a part of him didn't expect to actually find living humans in the small towns and cities.

The first town he came upon had barely a few dozen people and most were in bad shape. They greeted him with a gun pointed at his face. He held up his hands and for the first time in years he spoke, his now raspy decaying voice scared him at first but the townspeople seemed to be used to it. So he convinced them that he had no evil intent and they let him in. He learns that people call him a ghoul, most did't thrust him and avoided touching him. They told him most of his "kind" quickly became nothing more than ravenous animals. To him it was obvious he wasn't anything like that, so he never saw a problem in helping towns defend themselves against the hordes of his "kind". Once a caravan he was travelling with got ambushed by a swarm of ghouls. He defended his travel companions to his last bullet but when they eventually got overrun he noticed that he didn't get eaten. The other ghouls just ignored him.

With this newfound skill he proved himself an invaluable part of any towns protection. He could safely go scout out hordes and could place mines right in front of ghouls without much danger. This kept him travelling between the towns of the forest for a fair few years. The townsfolk quickly learned his name and began greeting him like a hero. Until one day he was out scouting and spotted a very strange ghoul, it had weird green growths all over its body. He tried to approach it like he would any normal ghoul but at the last second he saw this one was holding a shotgun. The weird ghoul turned to him, screamed something about him being "not us" and fired on Bertram. With his quick reactions he easily put a bullet in it's head and got out unharmed. When he told the people from the closest town about the weird ghoul nobody believed him. They were sure it was one of the many cryptids in the area or maybe just someone playing dress-up.

### A second apocalypse

Everyone he had gotten to know over these past years, the friends he had made, the connections he had formed would once again crumble to dust before his eyes. Huge creatures suddenly roamed the skies, spreading their green disease over the misty mountains. Bertram tried to do what he could but he was just one man. Thinking the world of man had come to an actual end he retreated once again to his old bunker. He began broadcasting again. Occasionally he still mentioned the old government, how they were still operating. How they were almost certainly once again the cause of this new apocalypse. But this time he wouldn't preach fear and caution anymore, this time he filled the air with beautiful music and new world hope.

After a fair few years he once again began venturing outside. The streets were filled with black statues of what once were people. He saw green hulking men and many more raiders, he saw little blue robots skittering around and painted eye-bots and protectrons asking for help. The world had once again changed for the worse. Using his stealth and trusty pistol he managed to stay safe and eventually find good people again. They were even more suspicious, some even spat at him or yelled insults. He just kept his head down and tried to help out where he could. His good name had been largely forgotten.

Like before he used his scouting skills and ghoulish abilities to aid humanity. He was on patrol laying mines for an incoming group of ghouls he had seen a few days ago when he suddenly heard one explode behind him. He drew his revolver but didn't see anything. When he got closer he saw a little fox that had passed out from the explosion. It had also lost his front left leg. He quickly grabbed the poor thing, put a bandage on the mutilated leg and ran to the closest town. The doc there treated the leg and Bertram made a little prosthetic leg for his new fox friend. He fed it until it was strong again and now the little guy never left his side again. Bertram named his new friend Fred. Freddy the Fox and Bertram the ghoul would become the first duo to explore all of Appalachia after the second apocalypse.

Bertram was last seen heading south, out of the forest. The people of Flatwoods would tell you that he went looking for his uncle, or any other member of his family still alive in Beckley.