Vernon (Video Game)

"I don't feel much. I mean, I don't feel enough. Shouldn't I be broken up over what happened to her? That's how I was when I lost my daughter, when I lost my friends in those first few weeks... but now... it's like I just take something like this in stride. Like, this is what our world is now, and we'd better just get used to it."

- Vernon to Lee about Brie's death. (Determinant)

Vernon is an original character who appears in Telltale Games' The Walking Dead: Season One, along with Brie, Clive, Boyd, and Joyce.

Savannah, Georgia
Hardly anything is known about Vernon's life prior to the outbreak, besides the fact that he was a doctor in the city of Savannah, and knew Brie and the other morgue survivors for a few years prior to the outbreak, as he was the head of a cancer support group. He had a brother who lived in Macon, and he also had a daughter, but she died within the first week of the outbreak.

"Around Every Corner"
Following the zombie outbreak, Vernon's daughter was killed by the epidemic. He, along with the rest of his support group, moved into Crawford, seeking a safe haven from the walkers. Crawford's leader, however, began eliminating certain "liabilities" in his town, including the sick and elderly. Unfortunately, Vernon fell in both categories, and was targeted, along with the rest of his support group. After the deaths of half of his group due to Crawford, he fled along with Brie, Clive, Boyd, and Joyce. They discovered an abandoned fallout shelter, as well as a morgue, where they hid from Crawford and the zombies.

After Lee arrived, Vernon held Lee at gunpoint. Despite Brie's incessant prodding, Vernon is unable to bring himself to shoot Lee. He will either have his gun taken away calmly or by force before Lee asks about their circumstance. Vernon tells him about Crawford and how he was a doctor. Lee can ask for Vernon's help in navigating the sewers or offer to find his own way back. However, Vernon will be pressured by Boyd to help him if Lee does not ask for assistance. Lee can either choose to threaten them all with death if Vernon does not help, or he can choose to lie about having medicine to help their sick, or he can choose to be honest and say how he needs to get back to Clementine, or simply be silent and answer Vernon's question about having a wounded man in his group. After a prolonged goodbye with his group, Vernon leads Lee out of the sewers and back to his hideout.

Upon arriving at the mansion, they encounter Molly, who is scavenging through the kitchen. Vernon asks who she is, to which Molly feigns offense at Lee for not explaining that she saved his life. (Determinant) Christa joins them in the kitchen and begs for Vernon's help with Omid. Christa leads him to a semi-conscious Omid, and Vernon agrees to assist him.

After Kenny reports on the boat missing fuel and a battery, the group deliberates on whether or not they can investigate Crawford for the missing items. Vernon staunchly rejects the idea, citing that none of them knew what Crawford was about. Vernon then, however, options sneaking in as a way to grab the fuel and battery as long as they helped him retrieve some medicine as well. He leaves the mansion and returns to the morgue to tell his group what they were planning. He returns after nightfall per the stipulation of their plan to sneak in, bringing along Brie to help break into Crawford's base. If Lee chose to bring Clementine to Crawford, Vernon objects, but Kenny resigns the argument and allows Lee to do as he felt best.

After exiting the sewers and moving to cover near the Crawford school, Vernon raises his suspicion of there being something wrong when he discovers that there are no guards patrolling. When Lee and Christa spot one, Lee and Kenny move to deal with him from behind. The guard, however, ignores Lee's threats (Determinant) and attacks Lee in a fit of growls. Vernon is shocked that there was a walker inside the walls, and when dozens of others move in, Vernon and Lee usher everyone into the building the school.

Vernon realizes that it is better that there were walkers in the community rather than armed guards. Brie leads them to the classroom on the third floor used as an administrative office for Crawford. Vernon and Brie check the layout map of Crawford in the classroom, directing Lee to the battery in a place called Herman's Auto Garage. He and Brie also direct Kenny to find the fuel outside the playground. Vernon goes with Christa to find the necessary medicine in the school's nurse's office. While there, he assisted Christa in searching for medicine, while the others went looking for fuel and a battery. He and Christa were trapped in the nurse's office by walkers until Lee rescued them. He watched the two tapes about Anna Correa and found the combination to the medicine safe.

Right before the group left Crawford, he asked if Lee and his group had originally traveled by train to get to Savannah, even though he had no prior knowledge of the group. Vernon notes this observation as he and Lee's group descend the bell tower. Kenny demands to know why he asked, but Vernon brushes his question aside and descends the ladder.

After they managed to escape from Crawford, Vernon provides the antibiotics and ensures Omid is well. He asks Lee to step outside, where, depending on Lee's interactions with him in the past and whether or not he was lied to, he will either be openly hostile to Lee and question how his group could ever let him make any decisions or he will say Lee is a good man. Vernon, regardless of his view of Lee, states that he can clearly see how much he cares for Clementine, and suggests that he take Clementine with him back to the morgue for safety, as getting on a boat would not keep her safe. Lee can either ask for more time to deliberate, concede that Vernon may be correct or roughly reject the offer and subsequently force him against the wall, threatening to kill him if he tries to take Clementine away. Either way, Vernon will depart the house alone to take his medicine back to his group.

When Lee discovers Clementine to be gone the next day, he immediately assumes Vernon had taken her because of the offer he had made. He and whomever he brings with him to the morgue enters the sewers and find the fallout shelter empty. When they enter the morgue, they also find it empty. Lee calls for Vernon to show himself, but nobody arrives. Lee suddenly receives a call for help from Clementine on the walkie-talkie. He answers the call promptly, but when Clementine does not respond, he challenges Vernon. A voice answers the radio, but he announces that he is not Vernon.

"No Time Left"
Vernon does not appear in this episode, but his actions after disappearing are revealed. Following his return to the morgue, Vernon informed his group of Lee's group's boat and of his intention to steal it. After formulating a plan, the group departed the morgue, taking all of their supplies, and moved to the manor house that contained the boat. Upon arriving, if any occupants of the manor were left behind by Lee in his search of Clementine, they were beaten at gunpoint by Vernon and Clive before being locked inside the backyard shed. Boyd and Joyce moved the boat outside and escaped the area before Lee returned. Alternatively, if no one stayed to guard the boat, then Vernon steals the boat uncontested, leaving a note inside the shed to detail their reasons. Vernon will either be apologetic in his note for abandoning Clementine in the city or be vengeful against Lee for threatening him the day before.

"400 Days"
The remaining survivors of the cancer group, excluding Vernon, find protection at Gil's Pitstop and join up with Shel, Becca, Stephanie, and Roman. One day, they catch a stranger red-handed attempting to steal their supplies. While the group debates on whether to kill or let the man go, Joyce warily speaks of their past run-ins with outsiders and insists that having dealt with such people is a direct cause of losing both Brie and Vernon. If Lee doesn't threaten them at the morgue, Boyd blames Vernon for the business of having forcibly taken the boat from Lee's group and feels guilty for it. He states from that moment on, their group began to fall apart.

Death
Killed By In Shel's Story, Vernon's group confirmed his fate.
 * Unknown Causes

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Vernon has killed:
 * Possibly numerous counts of zombies.

Brie
"You don't think by now I've got you figured? You don't strike me as someone who has a lot of consideration for others. Look at what you did to get me to come here with you in the first place, you expect me to believe you give a shit that it wound up costing Brie her life?"

- Vernon blaming Lee about Brie's death if threatened or lied. (Determinant)

Vernon and Brie knew each other before the apocalypse as she was part of his cancer support group, they became good friends since then as they stayed together after the apocalypse, she accompanied Vernon and Lee's group to Crawford where she was killed by zombies in "Around Every Corner". Although Vernon was upset by her death, what upset him more was how easily he accepted it. If Lee threatened Vernon, he blames him for costing her life. If Lee was honest with Vernon, he assures him that there was nothing he could have done, and was glad she died for something meaningful.

Lee Everett
"You're a good man, Lee. You've been protecting these people as best you can so far, and they look up to you. Rightly so. But it's different with a child. You might have brought her this far, but sooner or later she might ask you for more than you can give her."

- Vernon telling Lee his opinion on him and his ability to protect Clementine. (Determinant)

Lee's relationship with Vernon can vary greatly depending on the choices the player makes. If Lee was honest with Vernon when they first met, they have a generally cordial relationship. However, if he lied to or threatened him, Vernon will regard him with more hostility, and doesn't have much trust in him. Additionally, if Lee drops Ben from the bell tower, Vernon will question his morals. Regardless of these choices, Vernon will still offer to take Clementine at the end of "Around Every Corner", citing either Lee's immoral actions or inability to provide for a child that isn't his blood as reasons she won't survive long with him. Lee can either calmly ask for time to consider this, or angrily rebuke the offer. Vernon leaves mysteriously the next morning, which leads to Lee believing he kidnapped Clementine. He travels to the morgue that he met Vernon in, only to discover that he and his group had left. Vernon's group had actually stolen the boat they were planning to use, either beating up the people that stayed at the mansion while Lee searched for Clementine or leaving a note saying he regrets leaving them behind. Lee loses whatever respect he had for Vernon, as he stole the only hope he had for getting out of Savannah.

Clementine
"I'll take her off your hands. Take her back with me, to my people. We're well supplied, well hidden and many of us have had kids of our own."

- Vernon to Lee regarding Clementine.

Vernon and Clementine were never seen directly interacting, but it can be assumed through most of his actions that he had developed a strong care for her as a child. When he and Lee first meet in the morgue, if Lee uses Clementine as an excuse to get Vernon to guide him back to the mansion, Vernon will volunteer as he was unwilling to let another person lose their daughter without doing anything. Upon deciding a plan to find the supplies they needed, Vernon rebuked the idea because he knew Crawford would rebuke and possibly hurt or kill Clementine if they tried negotiating. If Lee chooses to take her with him to Crawford, Vernon will try to talk Lee out of it. At the nurse's office, Lee can choose to ask him for his opinion on taking/leaving Clementine. Finally, Vernon offers to take care of Clementine for Lee.

In "No Time Left", if everyone went with Lee to search for Clementine, Vernon leaves behind a note in the shed explaining his remorseful feelings of abandoning Clementine in Crawford and taking the boat.

Boyd
"Vernon and the boat are the reason the group fell apart, not trusting strangers! Vernon was out for the boat the whole time! And the SECOND they left that boat unattended, we just stole it! THAT's when our group fell apart."

- Boyd about Vernon and the boat. (Determinant)

Vernon and Boyd were never really seen interacting much due to Boyd staying at the morgue while Vernon and Brie went to Crawford with Lee and the others. When Lee and the others went looking for Clementine, Vernon and the others took the opportunity to steal the boat, beating anyone who stayed at the house. Once Boyd, Joyce and Clive arrived at the pit-stop. Boyd later revealed that he blamed Vernon for their group falling apart as Vernon wanted the boat the whole time and planned to steal it when it was unattended, it is unknown whether the others agreed or disagreed with the plan and just followed Vernon as he was their leader.

Kenny
"I'll make that bastard wish the cancer got him."

- Kenny's vow to kill Vernon.

Kenny seemed distrustful of Vernon since the two first met. He questioned why Vernon wanted to bring Brie on the Crawford raid, and acted impatient whenever having a conversation with him. When Vernon left the house the morning after infiltrating Crawford, Kenny suspects Vernon of being responsible for Clementine's kidnapping. Later, when Vernon's group stole the boat, Kenny completely loses any sympathy he had for him, swearing revenge on Vernon should the two ever cross paths again.

Ben Paul
"You chose to let that boy die back in Crawford. I've got to wonder about the morality of the kind of man who would do something like that."

- Vernon to Lee about letting Ben die. (Determinant)

Vernon and Ben are never seen directly interacting. However, when Kenny charges at Ben after Ben confesses that he gave the bandits supplies, which led to Duck's (and indirectly Katjaa's) death, Vernon attempts to restrain Kenny along with Lee. If Ben dies in Crawford, Vernon can potentially scold Lee for it, expressing concern over Lee's morality and Clementine's well-being.

Season 1

 * "Around Every Corner"

Trivia

 * Vernon stealing the boat in "No Time Left" is highly hypocritical, since in "Around Every Corner", he openly criticized the plan of Lee's group. This could have been an attempt to remove any suspicion for him, or maybe his decision to take the boat was spurred by the horde of walkers entering the city, as the sewers were overrun by the time Lee arrived.
 * Vernon is one of the seven doctors in the Video Game. The others are Diana, Logan, Carlos, Jonas, Eleanor and Paul.
 * Of the seven, he is the first doctor to appear in person.
 * Vernon is one of six characters confirmed to have outlived their children, the others being Kenny, the stranger, Rufus (Determinant), Fern, and Conrad.
 * Vernon is the only member of the cancer patients who doesn't appear in more than one episode in any way.
 * Vernon shares the same character model as Save-Lots Bandit 3.