Born into a fairly established middle-class family in village in Yorkshire, Barry always wanted to move out of his comfort zone as a child and later a young man, spending most of his time outdoors by himself or with his father and uncle. He learned to shoot and camp from a young age but also tended to excel in school. He took a particular interest in Biology and Chemistry and eventually attended the nearby University of York to study them further, it was here at university where Barry met his future wife, Anita, a young woman from Norway also studying Biology at the University. In 2017, he graduated from University and a year later in 2018, married Anita. 

After University, Barry found it hard to find work despite his excellent qualifications and fell into a state of alcoholism and never ending boredom, often spending hundreds a week whilst only bringing in small amount of money doing jobs around his home in Leeds and the surrounding area. Eventually, he began to tend for his Grandfathers estate in North Yorkshire, becoming a Gamekeeper and helping to control the rapid deforestation from the large amount of deer in the area. Barry often lived separate from Anita who found excellent work with an international biology research company in Leeds, putting a strain on their relationship. 

In early 2019, Anita was offered a job she could not refuse from her company, becoming lead researching in a team studying wildlife in Northern Scandinavia, close to the city of Nyheim. The couple, after little hesitation, decided to move in order for Anita to take the job opportunity of a lifetime. Barry quickly became accustom to life in his new found home and was mesmerized by the wilderness that now  surrounded him, often taking any job for local landowners he could, not for the money but for the sheer enjoyment of the work. The move out to the North seemed to only be a positive one, both repairing the strained marriage with his wife and dragging him out of his pit of self pity to finally begin enjoying himself again. Later in the year as the virus began to spread, much restrictions did not bother Barry or his wife who tended to stay away from most large settlements with his wife's research team. The virus had very little effect on their lifestyles, until later in 2021...

On September 14th 2021, during the initial spread of the 21NS virus, Anita and her co-workers were down in Oslo for an important status meeting on their operation. Barry was isolated doing work for a local farmer when he heard the news of what had been happening within built up areas. Anita was unable to leave the city which infuriated Barry, but his anger later grew into heartbreak and despair when he realised he could do very little from 500km away. Travelling to the nearby town of Trondheim to attempt to make a way to Oslo, he witnessed the horrors of the virus first hand, nearly losing his life when he first confronted some violent individuals in the suburbs. For the next couple of months, he tried heading south by himself, at very slow pace and with great difficulty. Eventually, he gave up hope and loitered around isolated villages and towns trying to scavenge what he could as people fled and perished.

Sometime at the start of 2022, Barry ran into a group of people who had headed up from the south, explaining that they were heading towards the city of Nyheim where they would find relative safety under PLIKT and what remained of the Norwegian Armed Forces. Craving others to be with, Barry asked if he could join them on their journey and the group immediately obliged. Barry and his new found friends were soon split after a group of deranged gunmen fired upon their vehicle on their long ride to the city. With multiple of his friends dead, Barry made the decision to leave the injured, grabbing a rifle and a bag of food from the car and ran off into the woods, knowing he was only a few days walk from Nyheim...