Josh Carter

"Looks like we got ourselves into a real sticky situation."

Josh Carter is a playable character in ObsCure. He is a student a a journalist in Leafmore High, a protagonist in ObsCure and is the second one introduced out of the four students in the intro.

Personality
Josh is depicted as shy, but very optimistic, kind-hearted and bright. According to the Teacher's Notebook, he gets mainly B grades and is a hard worker. He enjoys reading science fiction novels and making movies, suggesting he has a creative and imaginative side. He is very curious and likes trying to find the latest scoop.

He is known to be nosy, often getting on people's nerves with his constant need to record and investigate things. He was once caught searching around in one of the professor's office.

He is slightly flirtatious with Shannon Matthews and may have a crush on her, though he displays a very polite attitude even after she rejects his offer to take her home. After the events of Obscure, he is shown distraught, further displaying his very soft attitude. Shannon then goes on to comfort him, getting more physical than needed. He may also be attracted to Ashley Thompson as he seems to be recording her breasts in one scene with his camera, though it is unknown if this is accidental.

Aptitude
Due to his investigative nature, he is able to tell if there is anything left in the area, such as items, weapons or puzzles that are needed to completed to progress. Because of this, he is very useful when investigating an area, as using his ability will ensure the player that they got everything they needed from the area. Using his ability in an area where the player has nothing left to do will prompt Josh to say his famous line "There's nothing left for us here!".

While not being a great fighter, he runs slightly faster than Shannon and Ashley.

Events of Leafmore High
Josh is introduced in the gym. He is seen recording Kenny Matthews, Stan Jones and a couple of other students play basketball for the school newspaper, while Shannon is watching the practice from the bench. When the players leave for the locker room, Josh offers to take Shannon home, which she declines.



The following day, Shannon and Ashley Thompson tell Josh that Kenny had disappeared. Josh comes up with the idea of exploring the school after-hours to search for him. At 6:12pm the three are seen hanging in the cafeteria, having no leads on where Kenny could be. Josh brings his camera along, so he could record the investigation and tapes for a few minutes until Mr. Garrison startles the students by making a noise in the hallway. Mr. Garrison having no idea that there are students still in the cafeteria, he locks them up in the administration block of Leafmore High.

Josh, along with Shannon and Ashley break out of the cafeteria and they start searching for a way out. They eventually end up finding a key to the attic of the administration block, which they decide to explore. Up there, they are attacked by three Biters. The player can smash the window or run away through the door, fight or avoid the monsters. Mr. Walden comes immediately to the player's aid in the former two cases and will always save the player if they are about to die. Mr. Walden smashes the attic window, killing the monster. He further aids the students by telling them that the monsters are sensitive to light and will die in direct contact with sunlight. He then leaves, but not before opening the door to the courtyard for the students, where the students head to.



While heading outside Josh interviews annoyed Ashley and frightened Shannon before his camera battery runs out. He seems surprised about it, as if it shouldn't have run out so fast. Ashley tries calling the cops to rescue them, but she can't get any reception on her phone. Having no other choice, they follow Walden's advice and pursue the school's headmaster Herbert Friedman to let them out. They head out to the classrooms, and Friedman's office on the second floor of the building. In the first classroom on the first floor, they meet Stan, who is still in school hacking into the professor's notes, trying to change his grades, as he is already failing a few classes. They convince Stan to join them, as he is too locked up in the school full of roaming monsters. Josh and the others start to notice how the school is slowly falling apart, as the hallways are starting to get more destroyed from the roaming monsters and infected students.

The students find guns and bats to protect themselves with and follow a post-in note in Friedman's office to the school library. They inform Friedman about the monsters and being trapped in the school. The headmaster sends them to see Mr. Garrison, so he can let them out, meanwhile Friedman locks himself up in a room behind the library. The dark sets in, lights in the courtyard turn on and students feel the staircase in the administration block collapse. They reach the janitor's room just after a monster kills Mr. Garrison and crawls back into the vent. The students pick up the shotgun in the janitor's room and they decide to have a look at the security cameras. They discover Ms. Wickson, the school nurse, being locked up in the infirmary waving at the cameras for help. Then they watch VHS tapes only to discover that Friedman is the one responsible for Kenny's disappearance. They learn that Friedman took Kenny's bag and lured him into a secret passageway in the basement behind the school and locked him in there. They also find out that someone else was there last night investigating, and that he got chased away by the monsters, and that he accidentally let them out of the basement, which explains why they roam around the school building. On the second VHS tape, they see Kenny still alive and decide to rescue him. But first they rush in through the cafeteria to restore the lights to the block and rescue Ms. Wickson. After reaching Ms. Wickson, the students ask her about Kenny. She appears frantic and starts talking nonsense, but giving slight hints that she may know that happened to Kenny.

The students use a handwheel they found in infirmary to access a hidden door in the administration block, which is now in complete ruins. They learn that there are secret basements hidden underneath the school and figure out that that's where Kenny must be. They encounter Mr. Walden again, who frantically searching for Friedman. They inform him that they've seen Friedman in the library and that they need a key to the auditorium. Mr. Walden gives them the key and runs out. The students use the ladder under an elevator shaft to access the basements. While climbing down the ladder, the elevator falls, and if the player forgot to use the safety mechanism on the elevator, the elevator will crush whoever is in player 2 spot.

While in the basement, the students encounter the second phase of students transforming into ArbolTrebol, who are much tougher and stronger that the regular Evolved Infected. They fight through and manage to reach the prison where Kenny is being held. Kenny fully aware of the situation, warns them to watch out for their headmaster, who arrives to gas the students with a smoke grenade and capture them all. In prison, the person next to Kenny finds a bar with a hook, which Kenny uses to free everyone alive. Kenny falls down after ill, and reveals that everyone was infected by Friedman and if the sun hits, they will transform and become like the monster killed earlier. Kenny suggest to meet up with Ms. Wickson, believing she can help them out. They use a big pair of bolt cutters to retrieve their items and weapons.

They find Ms. Wickson all bloody and beaten up (presumably by Mr Walden). The students once again ask Ms. Wickson for help, telling her they've been infected. On her dying breath, she reveals to them that there is an antidote that can save them and that it's hidden inside Friedman's secret lab, which can be accessed through the garden entrance of the basements. Having no other leads, the students decide to cut down all big padlocks on the schoolground with the bolt cutters they stole. They reach the dorms, which have been abandoned for decades as there were rumors of people disappearing there. While there, they recover a safe with Alan Gardener's diary and library office key inside.

In the diary, Alan reveals that Herbert had a twin brother named Leonard Friedman who went missing. He reveals that Leonard and Ms. Wickson were married and that the two, along with Herbert, were at least one hundred years old. The Friedman brothers managed to make themselves immortal and immune to aging after experimenting with a flower they brought back from Africa, Mortifilia. They kidnapped and tested the serum on the students. Watching a film reel earlier in the game showed that Leonard tried testing the serum on himself, but he got horribly mutated. Alan points the students to the direction of Friedman's lab, revealing that it's behind a big door in the basement that can be opened by finding four statues with hidden mechanisms on them that can be used to open the door. Alan attempted to find out what was behind the door, before he himself became a guinea pig of the school headmaster (confirmed by a note found earlier in the game).

With the new acquired key, the students break into Friedman's hidden office and retrieve one of the statues needed to open the big door and reels wheel they decide to go look at. On their way back to the courtyard, they encounter Mr. Walden again. They tell him that there is an antidote to the infection and when they show him the map to the basement, Mr. Walden becomes crazy, coughs up a huge amount of spores, revealing he is long infected. In a crazed state, Mr. Walden takes off with the basement map and locks the students in the library. However, they quickly find their way out.

After watching the reels wheel, they find a code, that they use on a gate in northwest part of the school to enter the gardens behind the school. The path leads them to the same house that Kenny encountered the previous night. They enter the basement through there and use the statues they've collected to open up the big door. Mr. Walden is there in time to see the big door open and enters it. He threatens Herbert Friedman who is holding a briefcase containing the antidote, with a gun. Friedman refuses to give it to him, claiming Walden is too infected to be cured. Walden, clearly loosing his mind, shoots Friedman in the chest and takes his briefcase. Just after he injects himself with the antidote, he is impaled by horribly mutated Leonard Friedman. Leonard then tosses Walden's body around the room before slamming it onto the door.

The survivors arrive to the scene just in time to see Herbert die from his chest wound. This enrages Leonard, who decides to punish the students severely. The students, however, shoot Leonard's roots holding the roof and acting as support beams. By destroying some of the roots, the roof begins to collapse, crushing Leonard and making the way for students to reach the ground floor. It is revealed that Leonard was situated right beneath the gym, that is seen in the beginning of the game. The survivors inject themselves with the antidote, but then Leonard is revealed to be still alive. The students continue to defend themselves long enough for the sunlight to completely burn Leonard's skin and organs off, leaving behind only a skeleton. With his death, the roots dry out and the students are finally safe.

At the end of the game, Josh is seen crouching and has obviously been shaken by the events. Shannon then comes to comfort him, pulls him back up and gives him a hug.

Post-ObsCure


It's unknown what exactly happened to the survivors after the Leafmore incident. He did not enroll in Fallcreeck University, unlike Kenny and Shannon. Stan is seen keeping a photo of the original five survivors of the incident in the van, showing that he still cares about the group, including Josh. There is a hidden tape in Obscure 2, that Shannon and Stan can witness if the collect all small keys throughout the game. The tape shows Ashley and supposedly Josh (assumed to be the cameraman) exploring the ruins of Leafmore High. While filming in the main hall, Ashley disappears from the frame. The cameraman becomes frantic and gets attacked and overpowered by Leonard Friedman's son Jedidiah. Josh's fate is unknown, but it is presumed he is dead.

Trivia

 * Josh is the only main character from the first game, whose ability will not be mentioned by other characters.
 * The voice actor for Josh, and voice actress for Ashley have both lent their voice roles to a similar series, Resident Evil. Ashley's actress voiced The Red Queen in Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, and Josh's actor voiced Steve Burnside In Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Additionally, Josh's voice actor's younger sister, Eden Riegel, voiced Sherry Birkin in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6.
 * Interestingly enough, Josh resembles Steve Burnside.
 * He bears a likeness to Henry Townshend of Silent Hill 4: The Room in terms of appearance. However, Josh has a more social and louder personality than the quiet and emotionally detached Silent Hill protagonist.