Lance Carpenter

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0146146/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Lance Carpenter is a character first introduced during the squat mission. He is an anarchist who, before the apocalypse, had occupied an unused building and turned it into a home. Several homeless and people in need found shelter there and each provided what little they had for each other. Lance is old and has no fighting skills, so when the apocalypse hit he was hidden in the basement of the squat and the younger members stayed and  fought the leeches, eventually falling to them. ance came out of the basement days later and killed his leeched comrades whho tried to eat the children he took care of. He and the other few survivors stayed in the squat ever since, until food started becoming scarce, when they started rationing. When Danny was younger, Lance took him in the squat and treated him as his child, to the point where Danny considered the squat group his only family. At the time though, he was ungrateful, and stole Lance's RV, setting off to live on his won and chase his dreams in Washington.

Lance and the remaining survivors are eventually found by Danny and other members of th group, when Dany leads them to the squat. Danny remembered they had lots of supplies there, and convinced them to go look for them. In truth, he wanted to see if there were any survivors, and if there weren't, to put the people he loved out of their misery. The survivors then joined the group and Lance forgave Danny for stealing his RV, saying he was only a boy at the time who couldn't think clearly. Then he said he was grateful that he came back for him.

Lance also became good friends with James and Christine, with whom they often discussed issues related too history and society. Although as an anarchist he hated authority and often came at odds with William and the other military, he came to like them as after the apocalypse and with few people left alive, he liked every living person he met.

"LIfe is like an onion. You explore it by peeling off its layers one by one until there's nothing left. Sometimes you cry. But you must always move on to the next layer. We will mve past this one"

During the elections, Lance called out to the people to sabotage them, don't go to vote, and demand that the decisions are taken by everyone. A few people followed him, and seeing them as dangerous and anti-democratic, he was restrained for a couple of days. After the elections though, the first thing tthat was done was release him and he was considered by everyone a vital member of the society. Lance was then respected and everyone who was elected agreed to still hold the democratic meetings at least once a week and whenever there was need for something like this

When the million leechers attack the deadlands, Lance wants to stay behind, but Danny pleads with him to leave in the freighter. Danny resorts to insults to make him leave, saying that he will have them all killed if he stays, being an old fuck, and that he doesn't have to always save everyone. Lance realises Danny is worried about him and although he doesn't like it, he boards the ship after telling Danny to be careful. Later they reunite at the new location they go to.

When he was first found, the group was in an abandoned house where Lance found a guitar. He then took it and started singing. He played the song "Don't stop believing", and dedicated it to Chloe and Danny, two kids that left their families and went for something better. During the performance, Jason joins in and starts playing the piano. The two continue singing and playing until the end of the song. Williamm thinks about stopping them, since noise attracts leechers, but Christine grabs him by the arm and hugs him. By the end of the song, everyone is hugging someone and they all enjoy the show. Except for Jack who hugs a beer.

Lance, Danny, Adan and Chloe do a family dinner every week. Lance says this is one of the most important things to him, but the youngers sometimes skip it and find other things to do. Danny respects this most of all, and tries to be there for Lance. At some point, Lance and Danny agree to open the dinner to the rest of the group as they consider them family

He dislikes and is disliked by the pilots. William doesn't hear him though as these men are the ones that saved what is left of humanity

During the deadlands, during the political crisises, he says it is a dangerous period to be right. All his life, he was hated for sayign some right things. Saying something right is like raising a mirror to someone who is wrong. And a man who is wrong, he hates another one who is right, and with a passion.

During the aprising against the cartel, he will leave the community, saying he cannot leave under someone else's rule, and that since they cannot win, he wants to go live out in the wild alone, for as long as it takes. William will try to convince Danny not to go after him, but Danny is convinced when he reads a letter left to him by Lance, saying that he was bitten, and is leaving to die by himself. He asks Danny to take care of Adan, Joleene and himself. Danny will be torn apart from this, and won't understand Lance didn't say goodbye. Later, the scheme between him and William will be revealed. Lance overheard a conversation between some of the cartel's people, and realised they came from a community which was a prison for minors, and eventually other people joined from other communities, who were inside for minor crimes. Lance travels to that community, lies about being on the road, joins it, and slowly gains their trust before revealing their greater scheme to them. he and William agreed that he should investigate this community and see if they were wiling to betray the empire and join the resistance. Lance is successful in doing so, and the community joins their forces. When he is reunited with the group, Danny is happy he is still alive and well, and Lance apologises, but says he lied because they wanted Danny to not follow him.

During the deadlands, the community he joined before will follow them. At some point, when the government will be deeply corrupted (when Jay's nephew will be murdered and go missing), Lance will play a major role in the uprising, and his people will be the ones to enter the building and capture the politicians. After that, some will be killed while others will be imprisoned and exiled. William, who will have joined them due to his son also being among the ones who killed the boy, will be captured and thrown into jail, despite Lance's deepest regrets.

Dialogue when they talk about the people in charge.

Lance: We don't need them

William: Having these people (the politicians) back, having the constitution back, the senate, is a step in the right direction. We are getting closer to making things the way they were before.

Lance: Things were bad before. We don't need a world like before. We need to build a new one. THis is an opportunity William. An opportunity to become even better.

William: Do you listen to yourself? You refer to the worst tragedy the world has faced in the known history as an opportunity. This "opportunity" you are talking about made me do things I couldn't imagine even in my worst nightmares. I killed. I fought for survival. I made choices I didn't want to make. I lost my son. I became an animal.

Lance: I am not saying what happened is right, or good. I am saying it happened. I watched my children too get eaten while I heard their screams, but didn't open the door to put them out of their misery because I needed to protect those still alive inside. So don't you dare talk to me about loss or hard choices. You wanna live in the past? Fine. You wanna remain an animal? Fine. You wanna hate the world for what happened to your son? Fine. But you let the past cloud your judjement about the future, I won't be the man standing by your side. You still have children, we all ahve children, whether we gave birth to them or adopted them. Are you telling me that the best you can do for them is have those damn politicians decide their fate? This isn't just some talk about how we would like society. This is right here in front of us. We need to make this choice. For us, and for our children.