Lad

“Wow!  You really think they would let me be a real part of your caravan?”

BACKSTORY

The wasteland, as full of despair and decay as it is, has one place rumored to be paradise.  It's a gated community, a very exclusive settlement known as Summerset Steppes.  This is the promised land where one particular couple goes, abandoning their young son Michael in the process.  In his attempts to follow them, he wanders into the wasteland, nearly dying from the heat and the mutated wildlife he encounters.  Only a chance encounter with a caravan worker named Convoy delivers him from the shadow of death.

Convoy and his fellow aid workers take Michael in, and from there, the boy is granted a new life.  Not just in terms of the days of driving around post-apocalyptic California, delivering vital supplies to the towns that need it.  Nearly everything about Michael and his life changes, right down to his name.  He takes up the callsign "Lad", a reference to an affectionate nickname Convoy refers to him by.  But he finds himself a new enemy as well, a jealous member of the caravan named Angel, who really doesn't like splitting provisions five ways.

PERSONALITY

Lad's a sheltered child who was kept well away from the wastes by his parents, back when they still cared.  As he sees more and more of the way life is on the outside, though, he's appalled by what he sees...undrinkable water, slavers, anti-mutant bigotry, murderous bandits.  Rather than discourage Lad, these hardships become his focus, and he does whatever he can to undermine them, in even the smallest of measures.  This is chief among the reasons why he loves the caravan life so much.

Another major contribution to Lad's happiness is the people he rides with.  He comes to see Ace, and especially Convoy, essentially as parental figures.  He comes to adopt many of their values, but one that sticks especially well is Convoy's pacifism.  Whenever possible, he prefers to see conflicts come to peaceful ends, even those with angry animals.  At the same time, Ace's example teaches him about authority and leadership.  He gains a lot of optimism from all his company, though, believing that hard work and empathy are the key to making life better.