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Clive

Clive is the large-animal handler who trained the ape-men of Jan Martense's gold-mining operation beneath Dahlonega, Georgia, and who guides the task force out of the mines in Appalachia 09.
Type NPC
Aliases The worker; large-animal handler; animal handler
Affiliation Jan's Conspiracy; Spud Hut
Status Alive at the end of Appalachia 09; said in Walkers 01 to have helped the team survive the mines
First appearance Appalachia 09
Played by Andre

Description

Clive is a man locked in the kennel security office beneath the plant. He later appears in a face shield and the upper half of a bear suit, carrying a 12-gauge shotgun, a clicker and ketamine powder. He says he has not seen the sun in two months. He is cooperative but defensive (Appalachia 09).

Background

Clive says he worked at zoos and on big-game preserves in Central Africa, has handled elephants and hippos ("Don't work with hippos"), and went to Michigan State. He mentions a Minneapolis zoo with some bitterness. Jan hired him for a third of the gold, and the first rule of the job was "Don't ask questions about the ape-men." He has spent the last two months underground training a new shift (Appalachia 09).

History

The Things in Appalachia

Clive is first met in the sealed sub-basement under the Spud Hut Georgia Regional Distribution Center. Kurt and Andrew follow a voice in the dark past a straw-floored kennel to a locked door, where a man begs to be let out and insists that "the shift" must be brought back. He asks whether "the rejects got out". Kurt hotwires a forklift to burst the door. The man returns in a face shield and bear suit with a shotgun, and the party takes more bear suits, shotguns, pepper spray and air horns from his stock (Appalachia 09).

He explains the operation: ape-men dig the gold because they do not talk and can recognize gold. They arrive looking about six and are full-grown in about two months, and the operation has run a year and a half. He trains them with clickers and positive and negative reinforcement, and keeps them addicted to ketamine so that they focus. A shift of twenty-five must be led back and fed within twenty-two minutes. Defending the work, he says "Again, I'm not a moral philosopher. We eat meat." When the Biz asks whether the ape-men are people, he calls them "solidly morally ambiguous" (Appalachia 09).

When told about the missing kids, the truck driver and the Spud Hut workers, Clive is dismayed: Jan told him he had "taken care of" the escapees. The party tells him Jan tried to kill them. Clive had been locked in by the security lockdown when the power went out and guesses that Jan did it on purpose (Appalachia 09).

He gives his name only after the party finds the "crack in the air" and its gas pipe. He insists the ape-men are not people, compares training them to teaching elephants to paint, and says he urged Jan to sell ape-men. Kurt points out that nobody asked where the ape-men came from. Andrew grows surly with him. In the tunnels Clive sets out treats for the shift, but the shift has not had its ketamine, so the party packs Combos with a ketamine paste. He warns of Big Bob and sprints through the dark with no light when the party runs (Appalachia 09).

After Big Bob dies, Clive says he once dissected a dead ape-man and found an adrenaline gland about twice the size of a fist, and that he will "kinda miss Big Bill" (Andre corrects the slip to Big Bob). When Huell, the Biz and Andrew press him about jail, Kurt tells them to stop turning their only guide against them, and jokes about recruiting him into the CIA. Clive leads them past four more corners to an unguarded ladder that emerges in the woods outside the plant. He explains that the handlers relied on the ape-men's fear of dark tunnels and lit only the routes they wanted (Appalachia 09).

Epilogue

The finale of the arc (Appalachia 10) was never recorded. In Walkers 01, Kurt tells the imprisoned Jan that the animal handler is "how we managed to survive the mines, for the most part", and that until Jan tried to kill them, the handler "said you were the best boss he ever had". Jan answers that hiring the handler halved his take and doubled the risk of a leak, and that he brought him in only because he could not handle the ape-men himself. The handler is never named in that episode (Walkers 01).

Relationships

  • Jan Martense: his employer, whom he admired until Jan locked him in with the shift (Appalachia 09).
  • Kurt: shields him from the others' questions and is his main ally in the party.
  • Andrew: grows surly with him over the ape-men.

Memorable quotes

Quote

"Look, look, man, I just work here, and the first thing that Jan told me when he was hiring me for the job was, 'Don't ask questions about the ape-men.'" Andre (as Clive) (Appalachia 09)

Quote

"Again, I'm not a moral philosopher. We eat meat." Andre (as Clive) (Appalachia 09)

Trivia

  • Andre once calls Big Bob "Big Bill" in Clive's voice and corrects himself.
  • Clive's name is spoken once, midway through the session; before that he is "the worker" or "the man with no name".

Appearances