James Layne
Born into the foster system and bounced from home to home, James learned to depend on nobody but himself at an early age. He found he had an affinity for mechanical things at a young age, cutting his teeth on his first dirt bike when he found the wreck laying abandoned in a ditch on his way home from elementary school one day. The feeling he got in his chest when that tiny engine sputtered to life for the first time was unforgettable, and stoked a passion inside him for horsepower and speed. He set out on his own at the age of sixteen, supporting himself through a mix of hustling, street racing, small time kitchen jobs and the odd repair gig. With only two other people in the world he considers friends, he finds himself in the crosshairs of the local police and the United States military after trying to do the right thing.
Ian Hughes
From the outside, Ian’s life would have appeared idyllic to the average person. His parents still married after several decades, a spacious home in a decent neighborhood, all of his material needs met without issues. Though he never wanted for anything like clothes, or toys, or really anything money could buy, he learned early on that Mom and Dad couldn’t be counted on for much else. He grew up with a television for a babysitter, and later turned to the internet to find kindred spirits in the pages of GitHub and Slashdot. Code became a second language, and helped him land James as a friend when he used his skills to make more than a few unpaid fines disappear from the county database, springing him from lockup and saving his van from the crusher.
Cain Mescal
Raised in Dulce, New Mexico by his father’s family, Cain grew up learning to hunt and live off of the land as soon as he was able to walk. In school, he never found much joy from literature or the other standard curriculum, preferring instead to spend his time in shop class and the art studio. When he was thirteen, he stumbled into the world of punk rock and metal when his cousin gifted him a few old cassettes, landing him as a fixture at the local venue as soon as he was old enough to get a job in the kitchen. His sense of humor and ability to fit into any social situation belie his private spirituality and his ties to his tribe. More than once, he has pulled on those experiences in order to help James and Ian see the bigger picture when all they knew at the time was fear and anxiety.
Uncle Ted
A little old, a little ornery, and all redneck, Ted has been the only man in town the boys could really trust. Seemingly made of bad decisions and home brewed whisky, one would be forgiven for expecting this somewhat backwards, incredibly outspoken scrap yard owner to have completely ruined the three friends for the rest of society. In fact, through offering them odd jobs at the yard and casually letting slip when a car club was due in town and would be ripe for picking off on the strip, he had managed to instill in all three of them a sense of pride and accomplishment. He was instrumental in teaching James a trade he could take with him and make a living from, even if James didn’t know that’s what the gift of the old, broken down van was for.