Clyde

"Gavin this is Clyde."

- Benny introducing Clyde to his comrade in Brightmoor

Clyde was the name of a man who lived in the town of Brightmoor, near River's Edge. A tall, imposing man, Clyde is good-natured enough, although quite strong. He worked in a deli in Brightmoor by April of 2007, and when the local area was attacked by a disease that turned people into man-eating creatures which were nicknamed bees due to their tendency to travel in swarms, he stayed hidden in the deli, until the town was visited by two survivors who lived down south from the town, Gavin Murphy and Benny, whom he seeked help from.

Start of the Infestation
Clyde worked in a deli in a parking lot surrounded by obscure bussinesses, this particular one a "few doors down" from a gorcery store. While he worked in the location, he and his boss heard news a nearby areas, River's Edge and Hampton, for instance, being overwhelmed by "bees," and shortly afterword soldiers started travelling through Brightmoor in order to reach those towns and quarantine them, which brought quite a bit of business to the deli as the military men ate so much.

One day after the business had started to slow down once more, Clyde and his boss were relaxing in the store when a large group of about twenty bees came outside, which caused a surge of panic from the patrons of the grocery store, who raced outside into the mob and most of whom were eaten by the monsters. It was around this time that Clyde's boss grabbed a pistol from the store and ran out into the crowd, firing shots in order to kill some of them, until he became surrounded and killed himself. Clyde locked the store door and took some supplies into the office and locked himself inside, and sometime while he was there the bees dispersed.

Gavin and Benny
Some time later, Gavin Murphy and Benny, two survivors from a nearby town turned up in Brightmoor to meet up with fellow survivor Rickett, who they had agreed to meet there. In the meanwhile, they raided the stores, and Benny found Clyde, who asked him for help. Benny then introduced the man to Gavin, who thought that perhaps Benny and Clyde were going to attack and kill him, as revenge for him nearly murdering Benny earlier that day when he mocked his sister, Addison. The three then set up camp in one of the stores.

Gavin quit most of this doubting when Clyde became timid and easily scared out of his fear of death, and the fact that he had never had to work so hard for survival. He became only more frightened when Gavin sent him to get supplies from the truck outside during the nightime, and he had a close encounter with a number of bees, who, by waving a flashlight around outside, he attracted to the store. This infuriated Gavin, who asked him repeatedly if he wanted to die, which caused a great wave of panic over the man.

Later on, still during the hours of darkness, Benny woke his sleeping comrades, and told them that a large pack of bees was outside. The trio went to the roof of the store they were in via a staircase inside a storage room, and, by the light of a passing car, in which they believed was Rickett, saw that a pack of sixty or seventy of the monsters out in the parking lot.

Death
While Benny was being bait to distract the bees from his partners so that they could reach Rickett's truck, they had a gun and a baseball bat, and took out several bees, until Gavin became overran by instinct and began to shoot anything, not having time to think about anything else. At this time, Clyde touched him in the back, and without thinking he whirled around and shot him, causing him to fall backward, dead, and be devoured by bees.

Physical Description
"Gav, Clyde was enough bait for the both of us."

- Benny

Clyde was a large man. He stood about six feet tall and had broad shoulders and a large gut, and sported short black hair, along with a few days worth of stubble and a goatee.

Personality and Traits
Even when Gavin Murphy put a gun to him, Clyde remained reasonably calm, and talked about his hometown being infested with bees and seeing his boss commiting suicide with relative ease, and even when catastrophe surrounds him, he still managed to be fairly optimistic and give one of his hearty laughs. This persona quickly gave way to a more timid, susceptable one, however, as fear overtook him.

Boss
Clyde seems to have been at least a good acquantance with the man who ran the deli in Brightmoor at which he worked, although he could not have been to attached, as he was able to freely talk about the man's suicide.

Benny
"Screw that. I'll send your puppy."

- Gavin Murphy to Benny when he needed someone to get supplies from outside when a swarm of bees was nearby

Benny, a fellow survivor of the bee infestation, discovered Clyde hiding in the deli in which he worked, and let Clyde come along and meet his partner, Gavin, when Clyde said he needed help. For this reason, it seems likely that Clyde felt some gratitude toward Benny, and perhaps even an inkling of respect, although it is unlikely he will keep this opinion as Benny becomes more aggresive, which, as of yet, he has not done. In fact, Benny is surprisingly cordial toward Clyde, going so far as to comfort him when Gavin Murphy was being cruel. In fact, their relationship is reminiscent of that between Gavin and Maria, a survivor that he felt obliged to.

Gavin Murphy
"Welcome to survival, Clyde. You’re going to have to do a lot of shit whether you like it or not."

- Gavin

Clyde's relationship with Gavin Murphy, a survivor of the bee infestation and former citizen of River's Edge, is sketchy at best. Although the two have no reason to hold a personal grudge, during their first meeting Gavin pointed a gun toward the man, prepared to kill, which likely frightened or angered Clyde, although if so he did not show these feelings. At the same time, Gavin feared Clyde, thinking that perhaps he had teamed up with Benny, with whom he had had a scuffle with earlier that day, and was going to attempt to kill him for revenge.

However, with the pass of time, Gavin began to see Clyde was not a very strong-willed person, and finally decided that he would be able to push him around and worry more about Benny, but vowed to sleep with his hand on the trigger of his gun just in case.

Later, in a feverish attempt to escape the town of Brightmoor, Gavin accidently shot and killed Clyde, mistaking him for a bee.

Behind the Scenes
Clyde is a character based on an actual man of the same name who won a contest set up by Dead Meat authors, Chris and Patrick Williams, in which whoever wrote the best review of the serial novel got to see themself as a character.

Author's Comments
"And Clyde, well, he’s Clyde. This is new to him. He’s not used to having to work for survival. I wonder how he’ll handle himself if the swarm hits. And no, Clyde’s character is not a reflection of the contest winner’s personality. We’ve only used the winner’s physical description and first name. The personality is our creation and we’re using it for narrative progression, so please don’t interpret that incorrectly. The real Clyde’s a great guy who has been very patient in the long wait to see his character in our book."

- Patrick Williams

Appearances

 * Dead Meat, (Chapter 23:Who's Next?)(First appearance)
 * Dead Meat, (Chapter 24:Who's to Blame)
 * Dead Meat, (Chapter 25:The Waiting Game)