Scott Patterson, born in 1980 in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a private in the United States Army before the Fall. Patterson was stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, and was ordered with his unit into Denver to try and contain the swarms of the dead there. They found the highway choked with traffic and civilians being torn apart, and witnessed the bombing of Denver by the Air Force. Deciding to defect, he and his unit took their Humvee and made their way across the country, dying one by one until only Patterson remained. His mind shattered by what he has seen and the guilt he feels for turning his back on the civilians in Denver, Patterson wanders the land a broken man. He is found by Gloria Palermo and her patrol, and will speak to noone but Cortland Briggs. It is Briggs that he tells about the Fort Collins Seed Vault, and agrees to accompany the Gardeners across the country as a guide.
Patterson holds an ulterior motive, and wants nothing more than to get to NORAD and bring justice to those who sent the orders to kill innocent civilians instead of helping them.