His home was destroyed and parents killed by a mercenary group when he was 9. The mercs took him and the other kids from his town and put them through challenges like being left alone out in the desert in order to get rid of the weak. The survivors were experimented on in order to manufacture strong and resilient soldiers. They were then trained to be either mercenaries (this group was called the Alphas) or sent off to work in the mines (called the Betas). Marcus was put into the Beta group because of his amazing physical strength, and spent 3 years doing intensive labor and watching people get crushed by collapses and rock slides. Finally, he decided to help out with a rebellion that the other workers were planning to stage. They needed a diversion so the rest of the workers could escape towards a town a few miles away, and Marc volunteered since he knew he was likely to be able to last the longest in the miles of desert that surrounded the mines. They all agreed he'd join up with them again later, but everyone knew they'd probably never see him again. 

On the night of the rebellion, Marcus led the guards in the opposite direction of the town and into the seemingly endless desert. And when the sun peeked over the ridge the next morning, Marcus was left alone with reluctant blood on his hands and an injured leg. After a few weeks of traveling towards distant storm clouds on the horizon, he found himself on a cliff overlooking something he'd never seen before: the ocean. There were a lot of wrecks on the shore, and he decided that after he recovered a bit using supplies from the wrecks hat he'd try and regroup with the other miners. But, before that could happen, he was swept away in a violent storm and stranded out at sea. By that point he was starting to think that the universe just had it in for him. 

He finally met the rest of the protagonists after 3 days of drifting. He decided to protect them and has stayed with them ever since. 

Marcus has always been valued purely for his brawn (he's physically the strongest one on the team), so he's convinced himself that he's dumb. However, though he hasn't had a lot of formal education, he has good intuition and is very emotionally perceptive. He's very trusting and caring, sometimes to a fault, and will sacrifice his own happiness in order to cheer others up. 

Best Friends: Allison, Eli

Family: Reuben (older brother) (they aren't related by blood but since they grew up together they're practically family)

Likes

- dogs

- chocolate

- baking/cooking

- making friends

- laughing

- hugs

- boxing

Dislikes

- being ignored

- caves

- people being mean to his friends

- spiders

- heights

- needles