Ben Appleby (Remake)

***"It's coming along, but it'll still be a while till it's done."***
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## Biographical Information

### Age

17 *("It Begins")*
18 *("A Long Road Ahead")*
18-19 *("What We've Lost")*
19-20 *("No Time Left")*

### Occupation

High school student *(Pre-apocalypse)*
 Former supply runner for the Clarkson Survivors *(Post-apocalypse)*
Lead worker for Wolf Dam *(Post-apocalypse)*

### Residence

Sylvania Ski Resort
Clarkson High School *(formerly)*

## Appearances

### Death Episode

"Call to Arms"

"*Henry...it's **done**. It's up to you now. [...] Don't. **Don't say it**. I know, okay? [...] You know...**it's not that bad**. It's kinda...**peaceful**. Having said that, don't go and get yourself bitten, okay? **It sucks!** [...] But...it would suck **a lot more** if...if I hadn't known **all of you**. So...write that up somewhere, okay? Look out for Jim for me, will ya? Tell him...tell him that in the end...**I was okay**. Okay? **Okay...***"
—Ben's final words before the destruction of the dam[src]

**Ben Appleby** is a main character and a survivor of the outbreak in *Strain Zero*. He is a British student at Clarkson High School in the United States, and bands together with his fellow students as they fight to secure the school and clear out the dead. Despite recurring bouts of manic depression, Ben always manages to find enough motivation to keep going, lending his knowledge of engineering and crafts to secure and improve the lives of his friends.

Presumed dead for nearly a year following a suicide attempt, Ben resurfaced at a ski resort high in the Sylvania Mountains, where he tearfully reunited with Henry, Holly, Emma and Justinas before rejoining their group during the Iron Bandits' attack on the resort. Once the united group defeated the bandits, Ben joined them on their long trek west to find "Greencole".

During the group's ordeal in the ruins of Fargo, Ben took on leadership responsibilities for the portion of the group that was kept captive at the Black Building. With the help of a friendly Innocent and the cover of a herd, Ben led the escape from the prison and subsequently encountered the Domers, later raiding the Fargo Depot with Henry and fighting in the Battle of Briarwood.

Five years after establishing Greencole with the Pioneers, Ben has taken up the role as lead worker in the group's efforts to repair and restart Wolf Dam.

## Overview

### Personality & Traits

The archetype depressive personality, Ben struggles to motivate himself in times of stress and difficulty, preferring instead to give up. Although he possesses a vast intelligence and an obvious talent for engineering, he often cannot find a way to fuel his natural ability. However, after the outbreak, Ben realizes the value of both his own life and those around him and becomes a far more motivated person, desperate to keep those around him safe. Nonetheless, he repeatedly shows evidence of emotional instability, causing his moral compass to slip during times of violence and despair.

Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Ben displays all of the classic symptoms: prolonged periods of severe depression followed by days or weeks of elevated mood, which can sometimes worsen into hypomania. During depressive periods, Ben becomes unresponsive and idle; during manic episodes, he becomes impulsive and finds it difficult to concentrate. During *Season 1: Remake*, it is only the fear of letting his friends down that pulls him out of these depressive and manic episodes, and as a result he is closely attached to his friends; when the group suffers any sort of loss, it usually affects Ben the most. His condition culminates in an attempted suicide by jumping from a moving train; against all odds - and, apparently, his own wishes - he survives.

Since his unexpected return in *Season 2: Remake*, Ben has noticeably changed due to his suicide attempt, expressing regret for doing something so drastic and adding that he has a newfound appreciation for life, no matter how horrible it can get. Although he continues to have bad lows, he appears much more invigorated despite the personal hardships he continues to face. His close brush with death has emboldened him to take more risks and shed the cowardice that defined him in the first season, and he develops into one of the group's most integral members.

The group's ordeal during *Season 3: Remake* has allowed Ben to take on more responsibilities, including leadership during the group's escape from the Black Building.

### Skills & Abilities

Possessing a creative mind hampered, or perhaps enhanced, by bipolar disorder, Ben has a natural talent for crafts and engineering. His mind is remarkably inventive, and he is usually able to come up with solutions on the fly. He is able to craft crude water purifiers; connect a circuit; repair, or at least maintain, a car engine; and build homemade bombs. Ben's ability has been proven no better than by his leadership of the Wolf Dam repair effort.

## Post-Apocalypse

### Season 1: Remake

#### "It Begins"

A trio of weathered survivors break through a boarded up window and climb into a ruined, desolate supermarket in the city of Upswitch, Sylvania. The lead scavenger, Henry, commands the other two, Sarah and Ben, to fan out and to collect everything that they find or may have left behind previously. Ben hears a noise in a back room and proceeds down a narrow bloody hallway, armed with a Glock and a flashlight.

Breathing heavily, Ben discovers a pool of fresh blood on the carpet near a broken door. Peaking inside, Ben discovers a walker eating a freshly-killed dog. Exhaling heavily in shock, Ben makes enough noise to attract the walker, which growls and reveals itself to be a "runner", a freshly reanimated walker. Ben slams the door on the runner's arm and runs back through the hallways, yelling at the top of his lungs to warn Henry and Sarah. The runner catches up to him and grabs him; Ben lifts his flashlight, forcing the walker to bite it, and shoots it in the head. Henry lifts the walker off Ben and lifts him to his feet. The trio stand back to back, guns raised, once they hear the growls of runners and roamers fast approaching.

The three make their way back to the hole through which they entered, only to find a cluster of walkers blocking their exit. With the doors sealed and walkers flooding the building, the three of them are forced to head into the atrium, where a crashed military helicopter rests. The three climb up onto the top of the helicopter and onto the blades, using the height to jump for a cable to pull them up to the roof. Henry lifts Sarah up to the cable, but the extra weight causes the blade to snap, sending Henry crashing to the ground.

Months earlier, at lunch, Ben sits down with his fellow exchange students - best friend Henry, James, Holly, Alex, Jess, Sarah and Aaron - and falls asleep during their conversation due to severe insomnia. All around them, teachers and older students are coughing and growing pale. Later, while the group rest at their student house, they are joined by Russian student Justinas, who has been away with the Army Cadets.

The following morning, the exchange students are suddenly rushed out of their classroom as the military turns up at the school. One by one, the adults begin to vomit blood and transform into agile, ravenous creatures that begin to attack and devour the younger students. The exchange students are pushed into a supply closet by a teaching assistant, who is promptly killed by an adult.

Many hours later, the group emerge to find the halls abandoned and bloodied, and Henry is forced to kill a ravenous Mr Dawid with a metal pole. Looking over his body, the group realize that Mr Dawid is slowly decomposing and is, technically, dead. The group are able to fortify a few hallways and classrooms, where they find a military radio broadcasting an evacuation signal. Meanwhile, James discovers a young girl, Emma, comforting special needs student Daniel and takes them in.

A week passes and nobody comes to rescue them, and the emergency evacuation signal is now playing on a loop. Realizing that they will be in the school for a long time, the group makes a plan to recover weapons and building supplies to fortify the school and secure more living space. With the rest of the group terrified and panicking, Henry takes command and assigns everyone a task, with him and Justinas heading out to find weapons. Ben aids the others in finding wood to board up the school's windows.

Returning to the school, Henry and Justinas find the secure zone under attack by zombies. Using a back entrance, the two are able to get to the others before the zombies break through. Handing out the weapons they found, Henry leads the group in a counterattack of the zombies, slowly clearing them out once they discover the zombies can be killed by shooting them in the head. Empowered by their victory, the group decide to call the creatures "walkers", finding "zombie" too ridiculous and terrifying to say.

### Season 2: Remake

Despite sustaining severe injuries from his jump, Ben survived his suicide attempt, much to his own shock. Crawling from the ditch into which he had landed, Ben managed to limp along the train tracks until he found a station. Taking shelter inside an abandoned house, he slowly healed from his wounds before driving the short distance to Port Collier. Although he found the train that the group had used, he saw only smoke covering the city. Assuming his friends were dead, Ben took the train further alongside the tracks until it ran out of fuel completely. Treking on foot, he somehow ended up in the Sylvania Mountains, where he encountered Terry, Joshua and Kate at a ski resort. Accepted into their fold, Ben developed a new lease on life thanks to the paralysed Joshua, who had managed to remain alive and upbeat despite his inability to walk.

#### "In Harm's Way"

Ben first appears in this episode at the ski resort, along with Terry, Joshua and Kate. Initially, they are arguing with Drew's group once they are spotted, but as soon as Ben sees Henry, Holly and Justinas once more, the argument ends and Henry's is allowed inside the ski lodge.

Joshua invites the group to dinner; at their table by the fire, Ben reveals his story: despite sustaining severe injuries from his jump, he survived his suicide attempt, much to his own shock. Crawling from the ditch in which he had landed, Ben managed to limp along the train tracks until he found a station. Taking shelter inside an abandoned house, he slowly healed from his wounds before driving the short distance to Port Collier. Although he found the train that the group had used, he saw only smoke covering the city. Assuming his friends were dead, Ben took the train further along the tracks until it ran out of fuel completely. Treking on foot, he somehow ended up in the mountains, where he encountered Terry, Joshua and Kate in the ski resort. Accepted into their fold, Ben developed a new lease on life thanks to the paralysed Joshua, who had managed to remain alive and upbeat despite his inability to walk. He expresses regret for his suicide attempt and listens to the others as they each reveal what has happened in the past year, including the fact that they are being chased by bandits. Nonetheless, Ben invites both groups to stay and rest.

Early the next morning, Henry and Drew wake everyone up; Henry tells everyone to prepare for a fight, while Drew tells them to prepare to run. The pair briefly argue over their differing tactics until Joshua says that Terry has not returned from a hunt. Ben decides to head out and find him, and Henry, Boy and David agree to join him.

Ben, Henry, David and Boy find a wounded Terry limping back towards the lodge; once he spots them, he shouts at them to run just before a hail of gunfire cuts him down. Taking cover, the four watch as several vehicles approach from the path, firing randomly towards the lodge. Up the mountain, the others are forced to take cover as the lodge is peppered with bullets. Although the walkers are killed, the group are forced to surrender as the heavily-armed bandit convoy arrives at the lodge, surrounding it. William Carter reveals himself and taunts Drew about Becky's child. Angered, Drew spits at Carter's feet and comments about his face injury; in response, Carter raises his shotgun and shoots Drew's friend Gareth in the stomach, killing him. Carter orders his soldiers to bind the group, and is even able to quell Justinas when he threatens to kill Becky. Carter recognises Holly and demands to know where Emma is; outside, Emma avoids the bandits and meets Henry, Ben, David and Boy in the bushes. She reports what's happened as the five of them move toward the lodge to devise a plan.

Inside, Carter continues to demand Emma's location, revealing that she caused trouble during her captivity and wants her to serve as a soldier. Holly lies and says that Emma died; seconds later, one of the bandits is killed by a gunshot to the head. From outside, Henry demands that the bandits stand down, otherwise Carter is next. Carter laughs in response and orders his men to cover him; while he men fire in Henry's direction, Carter selects a random captive and chooses Joshua. Wheeling him out to the centre of the lounge, he drags Joshua from his wheelchair and shoves him onto the roaring fire.

William demands that those outside surrender, otherwise more captives will die. Ben, overcome by the loss of Terry and Joshua, begs Henry to stand down. Henry turns to David, telling him to take Boy and Emma and run before whispering a plan in his ear. David reluctantly agrees and flees with Boy into the trees, while Henry and Ben surrender. Forced inside the lodge, Henry is recognised by Carter, who tells him he will be punished for all of the bandits he killed. The bandits then place black bags over the heads of the group and force them into several trucks before the convoy drives down the mountain.

#### "What We Deserve"

Having been captured by the bandits, the two groups work together once more to break out, taking guns and supplies with them. They flee west to an abandoned camping ground, where Becky suddenly goes into labour during an argument. Agreeing to help and taking charge, Henrydivides the group into teams, each of which will go in search of necessary supplies. Teaming up with David, Edwards discovers a young child with a bite mark in a nearby lookout tower, and later his sister, a Russian girl named Laika. Taking Laika in, Henry volunteers to put the boy down and buries his body in the river.

That evening, the group demonstrates their ability to work together by fending off an entire herd while Becky gives birth to a baby girl. Becky asks Henry for names, he suggests the name "Sarah".

The group continue to head west until they become trapped in a mountain pass near a power grid station. Instead of continuing to run, however, the group decides to stand their ground and ambush the bandits. After a final face-off between Henry, Drew and Carter, the group declare victory and return to the bandit camp to collect supplies for the road. While there, they discover Carter's young son, Lawrence, and, refusing to leave him behind, Bethany decides to raise him as her son. The two groups decide to band together permanently and head west to find a new home, with Henry as their leader.

## Death

### Killed by:

* Zombie *(caused)*
* Himself *(caused, suicide)*

Having joined Henry's secretive effort to fight Delta Force, Ben sneaks out of Graystone and is bitten by a walker. Revealed to be a "slow turner", he decides to keep working on Wolf Dam and sabotage it as part of Henry's plan. As he starts to succumb to the infection, he says his final words before being swallowed by the crumbling ruins of the dam.

## Killed Victims

* Mikhail *(caused, alongside Justinas & Mike)*
* 2 unnamed Innocents
* Numerous counts of zombies

## Relationships

### Sarah Terringham

Though they not shown to interact many times, Ben and Sarah had a close friendship; before and after the outbreak, Ben often confided in Sarah and credited her for keeping him alive.

Sarah's death in "*A Long Road Ahead*" appeared to be the final trigger for Ben, with him committing suicide later the same day.

### Henry Edwards

"*I...**I wanted to die**. I wanted nothing else. I thought it was the **right thing to do**. For **me**. [...] But I didn't. **Fate did its cruel thing**. A **ditch**. A single soft piece of ground...**saved me**. [...] It's a cruel world we've been forced into. Maybe one day things will change, but that's a **long way away**. For now, **we just have to live**. Every **second**. Every **moment**. Appreciate **every ounce of pain**. I know that now,*"
—Ben explains his new lease on life upon his reunion with the group[src]

Henry and Ben are good friends who bonded over their shared passion for history and academics. Henry considered Ben one of his best friends, alongside James and Alex. Unlike the others in the group, Ben preferred to stay out of important discussions, but Henry always considered his input nontheless.

Henry was emotionally distraut after discovering Ben's suicide note and tried to convince the others to stop the train so they would fetch his body, this being one of the few times that Henry has completely broken down.

Henry was shocked upon seeing an alive Ben at the ski resort and hugged him tight, glad to be reunited with his friend.

## Appearances

### The Walking Dead: Strain Zero

#### Season 1: Remake

* "It Begins"
* "Friend Or Foe"
* "A Long Road Ahead"

#### Season 2: Remake

* "In Harm's Way"
* "What We Deserve"

#### Season 3: Remake

* "No Time Left"
* "Monsters"
* "Consequences"
* "One Way Out"
* "Fools and Dead Men"
* "Hopes and Fears"
* "Same Stitch"

#### Season 4: Remake

* "Miles"
* "Hellfire"
* "Divide"

## Gallery

Ben in *Season 1: Remake*Ben in *Season 2: Remake* & *Season 3: Remake*Ben in *Season 4: Remake*
## Trivia

* While not chronologically, Ben is the first character shown in *Strain Zero* to kill a zombie.
* Like Henry and Alex, Ben wears a bulletproof police vest in *Season 1: Remake*. The vest is absent upon his return in *"In Harm's Way*".
* His primary weapons in *Strain Zero* are a Glock 22 and a hunting knife.
	+ Following his suicide attempt in "*A Long Road Ahead*", his Glock is in Emma's possession and his knife is now carried by Henry. Upon their reunion, Henry returned the knife to Ben.
* Ben was the second character to commit suicide in *Strain Zero*, the first being Lisa. However, his attempt was unsuccessful, and he returned in "*In Harm's Way*". He is the only character to survive a suicide attempt.
* Ben remains the only surviving Clarkson Survivor that is yet to directly kill a named antagonist.
* Ben is revealed to be a "slow turner" after being bitten in "*Dissent*".

## References

1. ↑ *Strain Zero* begins in 2003
2. ↑ The Clarkson Survivors in *Strain Zero* are each seventeen instead of sixteen as in the original series
3. ↑ Henry is chronologically the first to kill a zombie when he kills a reanimated Mr Dawid with a metal pole in "*It Begins*"