Randall Dean Clark (born February 5, 2053) was an American soldier prior to the
Great War. He served in
Canada during its annexation, describing the experience not as frightening, but "just sickening, the criminality of it". He had a wife and son in
Salt Lake City, both of whom were killed when the city was destroyed in the war. When the bombs fell, Clark was driving home from one of his frequent solitary hiking trips in the wild. Guilt over the fact that he did not die with his family would haunt him for years to come.
A first indication of Clark's unsentimental practicality and ability to choose the best course of action in the face of grim realities was shown in his mercy killing of an old couple who had been blinded by the flash of the nuclear attack. His truck rendered useless by the EMP blast associated with the bombs' detonation, Clark hiked back to
Zion and took shelter in a cave. Fortunately for him, the cave in question was a
USGS research site that the associated scientific team hastily abandoned after the bombs fell, probably trying to get back to their families. The abandoned food stores left by the team proved invaluable to Clark, as the radiation levels outside forced him to remain in the cave for several months. The duration surprised him, as the Army had told him that nuclear fallout took only 2–4 weeks to clear.
Once it was safe to go outside, Clark was astounded by the new life forms that had developed, not the least with his sightings of other humans in Zion. His first encounter with a group of
feral ghouls left him questioning his own sanity for a time. In his observations of a group of Spanish speaking refugees, having initially been skeptical of these new inhabitants, he ended up feeling compassion when one of the men broke his leg. Clark secretly called for help and left medicine. He tried to intervene directly when a
Vault 22 expedition, escaping their mutagen infected
Vault, established a camp in Zion and killed most of the refugees. Clark, unable to save the captives from their fates at the hand of the Vault 22 dwellers, eventually drove off the intruders using traps, explosives, and his own
rifle from the War, along with a recovered set of
Desert Ranger combat armor. A holotape that the player can find in a duffle bag at the
Vault 22 dwellers' guard camp, entitled
BEWARE - A VENGEFUL SPIRIT STALKS THESE CANYONS, indicates that by the time the Vault 22 refugees finally fled Zion, there were only 34 of them left alive out of an original 118. The holotape also claims that they had to defend themselves from the local tribals, but it mentions nothing of cannibalism or starting the assault on the tribals. Most of the rest had been killed by Clark, to whom the Vault 22 refugees had begun to attribute supernatural powers.
Clark's computer journals detail his memories of his first family, as well as his developing relationship with Sylvie, a vault dweller from the
Vault 22 expedition, who was caught in one of Clark's bear traps when escaping from the infection. Over time, Clark and Sylvie became romantically attached and Sylvie became pregnant. Tragically, his new son, Michael, died as the result of a
breech delivery, and Sylvie, who had been "put out" with chems, never woke up. Clark's new-found reason for living was once again shattered. The loss of a second family drove him to regularly contemplate suicide, but he never found the courage to go through with it.
It would appear Randall suffered from
survivor's guilt, a mental condition where a person perceives himself or herself to have committed an injustice by undeservedly surviving a traumatic event that others have not survived. In Randall's case, he initially blamed himself for surviving the Great War while his first wife and son,
Charlotte and
Alex, did not, and later felt guilt for not saving Sylvie or Michael, though he had no training in obstetrics and had prepared as well as he could. This hypothesis is further reinforced by the aid he provided to the group of child survivors he encountered near the end of his life, as many victims divert their survivor guilt into helping others deal with traumatic situations.
Eventually he acknowledges humanity's "blind drive onward," becoming a godlike figure to a new group of children who enter the valley, the ancestors of the
Sorrows tribe the player interacts with during the game. He remains unseen to this group, but leaves them notes and other messages preaching the value of kindness and mutual care. He assists them materially as much as he can, passing weapons manuals, medical books, and practical supplies on to them, always remaining concealed. In late 2123 he develops a terminal lung disease, which he assumed was cancer. Reluctant to shatter the illusions of the children by revealing himself, alive or dead, as merely a battered old man, he leaves them his last messages, personalized for each of the child survivors, assuring them that although he will be silent in the future, he will be "still watching and still caring." On January 23rd, 2124, realizing his end is near and having decided that he doesn't want another birthday, he climbs up
The Red Gate to a place where the children will be unlikely to find his corpse and allows himself to die of exposure, looking up into the sky during his final moments. He died 13 days before his 71st birthday, surviving 47 years after the Great War.
In his
last account, he attributes his long years of survival as a result of him not wanting to let his loved ones go. Their memories in his mind are the best and "only life" he could have provided them with. He concludes that, at the end of his life, the children, and the innocence that they represented, were "a gift" after all the troubles he endured in Zion, and bids farewell to the place one last time.
