Post by Zoe Mitchell on Jan 15, 2018 9:41:56 GMT -5
Full Name:
- Zoe Mitchell
Aliases:
-Zoe
-Mitch
Avatar Photo: Face Claim: Ksenia Solo
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Age:
- 15/03/1993 (almost 24)
Gender:
- Female
Appearance:
- 5'5", very pale blue eyes (almost white), blonde mid length curly hair. Zoe is very leanly built but she is stronger than she appears. Same goes from her height for she is long in body and limb. Usually wears a black wool hat, fingerless gloves, battered black jeans, long sleeved t-shirt with sleeveless grey hoodie over the top, black leather biker boots (with laces) and a camo parker. Whilst she has no initially visible scars, Zoe has the general small nicks and scars one would expect having survived so long at the end of the world. Her only large scars are from a knife wound to her upper right arm, from a bullet scraping across her ribs and back on her left side and a large scar across her right thigh from a metal pipe.
Occupation (studies and job before the outbreak):
- College Drop-Out (aged 17)
- Worked as a Bartender before moving to America. (17-19)
Hometown (city, state, country):
- Glasgow, Scotland, UK (Living in America when outbreak happened)
Relationships (relatives, friends,...):
- Mother - Status (Unknown) Location (Scotland)
- Father- Status (Unknown) Location (Scotland)
- Older Sister, Jennifer - Status (Unknown) Location (Scotland)
- Younger Sister, Gabrielle - Status (Unknown) Location (Scotland)
- Boyfriend, Edward Ward - Status (Last Seen Alive 12/08/2017) Unknown Location but in America (PC)
- Daughter, Roxanne - Status (Alive and 2 weeks old) Location (With Zoe) (NPC)
- Friend, Marcy Jones - Status (Alive but captured) Location (Glasgow, Kentucky) (NPC)
- Collie dog, Leeroy - Status (Alive) Location (with Zoe) (NPC)
Weapons (currently in possession):
- Glock 17 - 9mm - 17 round clip (currently full)
- Serrated Hunting Knife (comes in a sheath with belt attachment. Wooden Handle)
- Pocket knife (switchblade)
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Items (clothing, backpacks, first-aid kits, etc...):
- Camping Backpack
- [in backpack] Spare vest top, sweater and jeans. Fist Aid Kit (basic). Spare clip (full). Bottled water (2) and sleeping bag.
- Baby Bag, over arm strap.
- [in bag] Baby clothes, nappies/diapers, dummy/pacifier(2) , spare baby blanket, bottles (2)
- [hanging on backpack] Billy cans (2), torch/flashlight, lighter
- Baby sling.
Mode of transportation:
- Truck
List 3 or more good personality traits:
- Can be brave
- Independant
- Compassionate
- Adaptible
- Straight-talker
List 3 or more bad personality traits:
- Can be bad tempered, irritable
- Commitment issues (Aside from Edward and Roxie but it's more in general than relationships)
- Hides her fears by joking about (will grow out of this)
- Can be immature
- Natural thief (very good at liberating possessions from their original owners)
List 3 strengths:
- Bold (feels the fear but does it anyway)
- Appears calm in stressful situations
- Can compartmentalise well (strategic)
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List 3 flaws:
- Often feels the need to bolt
- Puts her foot in her mouth (can be defensive around new people)
- Insecure
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Describe your character's life before the Apocalypse:
-Zoes life had always been a bit of a drag. Always a lot of time moving but nothing actually changing. She came from a lower-class family, being the middle sister off 3 girls. Her parents both worked, at least until her father got ‘laid off’. Then it was all left on her mothers shoulders. As he slowly wasted away with a can of beer in his hand, her mother worked herself hard to support her children. When she was 9, her father finally got up of the couch and walked out the door, trouble was he never came back. Not that Zoe cared, it had already come out that he had gotten fired for drinking on the job. She shouldn’t have even known that but raised voices had a habit of carrying. With her father gone, her older sister, Jenny, got a job and helped raise her sisters alongside their mother. Things became stable, more or less.
Tension had always been a part of home life, no more so than when Zoe became a teenager. Jennifer pushed her academically which she tried to achieve if only for her sisters sake. Sure she liked to read, she liked to learn, but she wasn’t a genius. Nor was she interested in that. She preferred music, singing in particular but she did teach herself to play guitar and piano, using the schools instruments. Her music teacher even got her a place in a college. Still, she couldn’t settle and felt like she was just living her life to please others, so at 17, Zoe dropped out of college, moved out of her childhood home and got a job in a bar. Basically, she dropped out of her old life and began building a new one for herself. Though they hated her decision, her mother and older sister tried to keep the peace but the only one who truly made her feel at home was with her younger sister, Gabrielle.
Gabby had always been her best friend even though there were several years between them, nothing would change that. Over the next year, Zoes life was unstable as could be, crashing at one friends for a while, before bouncing to another. Even her jobs she changed every few month, slowly making her way through the party district until she found a job in a bikers bar, run by a guy who had noticed her around and thought she needed a break. He gave the apartment above the pub to rent, since he had alternate accommodations and after a couple of months she was finally settled in her own skin. She lost some of the offensiveness and actually began to enjoy life again. Things were settled, until a guy walked into the bar who she just couldn’t keep her eyes off of. He was hot, but he had a chip on his shoulder. She could see as much from across the bar. Guys like that were trouble looking for a place to happen.
When he came over, she was friendly, chatting and smiling whilst she got him his drink. She expected that to just be that but he didn’t move away and they carried on chatting. Zoe always thought it was funny, she hadn’t been looking for anyone, she dabbled with boyfriends but tired of them too quickly to ever keep one around long. Edward was different. The more time they spent together, the more was stripped away and she realised there was far much more to him than being the one to keep an eye on in case he was trouble. They had been together for a while when he broke the news to her about his inheritance, as well as the question she hadn’t been expecting; would she go with him? She still couldn’t understand her answer even after they had gotten on the plane. It would just be a year or so, then she would bounce and leave him with his dream. It was all about the travel for her, or so she kept telling herself.
The ranch was a dump, a literal dump, at least in her opinion, but it had good bones and after some TLC and a lot of sweat and broken nails, it actually began to look more than habitable. Homely even. And to her great surprise, so was Edward. Without even meaning too, she had fallen for him and the idea of taking off just seemed less and less appealing until she came to realise she actually cared about him. Maybe even loved him. In the end, she decided that that was enough to work with and she finally settled. Joey taught her about the horses and she used all the various bits of random knowledge in her head to fill in any of his gaps, like the plumbing and such. Her old boss had given her some training in a bit of everything, none of which she would have thought would have been actually useful to her, but it was. She loved animals and found a comfort in them that she had never experienced before. His Aunt had left quite ab bit off livestock so there was never a boring day, life was coming up rosey. Hard to imagine right?
What happened to your character on Outbreak Day?:
- Cassidy had been camped out on the sofa, next to Edward, when the news came in on their new TV. Some sort of virus. There had been rumours of it having to do with cattle, which made things difficult when they had a whole herd basically sitting in the field next to the house. It didn't surprise her when Joey got up and said they should move the herd to one of the back fields, farther from the house. She'd gotten used to the riding, even enjoyed it and weren't half bad if she didn't say so herself. The day was one of those crisp Winter days, where the air bit and the grass crunched beneath them. That and the sound of the breathing was all that could be heard. The world was basically still and yet beautiful because of it.
Once they had had gotten the cows situated, they headed back home, stopping briefly for a picnic Joey had brought along. The ride together was sweet, romantic even. They picked an empty field, tied the horses and set out a pretty typical picnic, kinda like you'd imagine your grandparents doing when they were kids. They talked and ate, enjoying each others company, reliving there early days. It was about that time that he pulled out a silver locket, engraved and inside there was a picture inside. The line he delivered with it was so cheesy that she was grinning even before he started laughing. She joined in, accepting the necklace and putting it on. God he was ridiculous, but then, that's what she liked about him. Besides, she could act like a kid when she wanted herself.
The ride back didn't take too long, dusk only just settling. Edward took off in the truck to get all the usual suspects. She, on the other hand, re assumed her position on the couch, remote in hand. After an hour or so, she moved out onto the porch, sitting on the step for a smoke. It wasn't that she couldn't smoke in the house, it's just that the night air could be quite refreshing. Besides, he'd been away a while and she was getting a bit antsy. Zoe'd only gotten through half before she heard the familiar rumble. As he parked and got out, she called over, "Maybe this is the end off the world", followed by a snort of laughter. Edward didn't find that too funny so she left him to sorting out the groceries. They sat on the sofa for a while after and he told her about what happened when he was shopping. People were going mad, it was just a virus. Nice of Edward to help out the old lady though. Zoe stayed up for several hours after he had gone to bed and she ended up falling a sleep on the couch, a heavy throw over her, remote nestled against her chest.
Describe your character's life after the Apocalypse:
- Edward was glued to the TV for weeks after that first one, the day they had abandoned the cattle in the back field. She knew that it had been eating at him and that he was determined to find evidence that it wasn’t because of the cows. The only news they had wasn’t exactly news, no information on the virus itself, just that it was spreading. Zoe came to decide that she agreed with him, it wasn’t the cows. Joey began patrolling the area on horseback, though she wasn’t entirely sure why he thought it was necessary. Also, thanks to his bleeding heart, they had began looking after a neighbour. If she were being truthful, the old bint was actually nice to be around. Whenever Edward was away, patrolling or shopping, she spent a lot of time in that old house. They chatted, she did odd jobs, even pulled her hand out and started cooking. She was pretty good at it when she put the effort in. Messy, but good. The woman was old in that extreme way, where her face was a map of lines and her hair a thin, white puff on top of her head. Frail and bent like a tree in the wind.
It was in the first weeks of February that Zoe realise just how much Joeys instinct had been right on the money with the whole patrolling thing. She wouldn’t have believed his story if she hadn’t seen the body with her own eyes. It was clearly rotted by several days if not longer, certainly not a fresh corpse by any means. They burned the body and after that, Zoe kept the pocket knife she’d hung in the barn for when they needed it in her back pocket at all times. Joey, on the other hand, put a lot of time into practising his archery on horseback. He even got pretty good at it, managing a couple of headshots with the corpses that wandered onto the land every now and again.
Mid March saw a turn in the Mrs. Birches health, the elderly woman becoming so ill that they take her in to live at their ranch as she was so weak she couldn’t move farther than from her bed to her toilet. They couldn’t even take her to the hospital. The virus had become a pandemic, quickly gaining in size, threatening to become an all out epidemic. Hospitals all over the country were so overflowing with patients that it was liable she would die before even being seen too. They felt it was kinder to leave her where she was, where she would at least be comfortable and taken care off. It took a week for her to pass, which she did in her sleep, her strength finally failing her. She spent most of the time sleeping. They had sat with her for the last three days, becoming so tired that they had fallen asleep and not realised she had been dead until several hours after. After checking for her pulse, and having found no breath, Zoe went to get a sheet to cover her with. She had barely gone out the door when she heard Joey scream, then saw him grab a lamp and smash it over the head of Mrs. Birch, who had sat up and was trying to bite him. Without thinking, Zoe grabbed her pocket knife and stabbed the woman through the eye.
They now realised that the cows had nothing to do with the virus, for Mrs. Birch never ate beef because it was too much for her false teeth. Plus she had had no bites, merely dying from old age. That could mean everyone could have it. They went back for the cows, but the damned fence had broken and all but one dairy cow had escaped. Edward went in search of more while she took the one they had back to the barn. Edward came back with another, saying he had found two but one had been attacked so he’d put it down. Once the cows were situated in the barn with the horses, they had returned to the house. They had buried Mrs. Birch out in the side field, and now had to clean away the evidence of her passing. Zoe wasn’t sure how she felt about her first kill, for she had been fold of the old woman, yet she had killed her in an instant out of some base defence mechanism. At least they now had a source of milk to go alongside the eggs from the chickens and they even had some pigs and sheep. They were ok. Edward even started a vegetable patch.
In April, they decided to reinforce the fences with wooden panelling. The virus was now world wide, and they now understood the nature of the virus. If you were bitten, or died for any reason, you would come back. After that, the only thing you wanted was flesh. They’d gone to get more panels from a D.I.Y store in town only to find that it had been abandoned. It wasn’t the only one. They still needed the supplies and so she got them in through the back, picking the lock. They needed to make their land secure and it was going to take them a long time to complete it.
It was in May when the world went black, the TV and phones being cut off, the internet just gone. It was like that for hours before they managed to get anything on the small radio his Aunt had left behind, which was an announcement that the government was fallen and that the military had taken over the situation and that they should remain indoors. A few days after that, the power grid was shut down and they knew, with the amount of deaths globally and now this, that the end had come. Come July, they needed supplies and they began scavenging. Soon enough, they had to clear a general store of walkers to get the precious cargo inside. Zoe got into a bind, one walker coming at her from behind as she struggled with the one in front. She span around and got it in the temple. The handle got wrenched out of her hand as it fell and the other one pinned her to the wall, it’s mouth biting at her face as she held it back. Edward got it in the head with his pocket knife just in time. It was hard but they got all the stock back to the ranch.
The following months went by in a hazy routine, the days and months blurring together. Having cleared the nearby houses and stores,they had gathered up a decent supply, enough to see them well into Winter. It wasn’t until November that they ventured further out, having to stay away from the farm for more than a day or more. In January they came across their first survivor and he wasn’t friendly. He was clearly unhinged and was holding Edward at gunpoint, shouting nonsense at the top of his lungs. Zoe didn’t think twice. She moved so she had a clear shot and then fired, hitting the guy right in the chest. Stepping over him, she put a second round through his skull before pulling out her knife and dealing with the walkers the noise had attracted.
Over the next two years, they saw many ups and downs. They brought people in, worked to defend themselves on runs. They lost people too, when their ranch was attacked by those looking out for themselves, once again finding themselves on their own. They found more people, which helped them survive a small herd of walkers that had broken through the fencing. They repaired the fencing and worked to make it sturdier, eventually having to extend the side of the house due to the amount of people that had joined them. By the second year, there numbers had fluctuate then fell until it settled at eight. Things were good, as the end of the world went. There fencing was tested and sometimes failed, with larger groups of walkers making it through and threatening their sanctuary. Each time, they killed the biters and fixed the fencing with whatever they could find. By midway through the fifth year after the outbreak, they believed themselves safe, secure, and changed in a most vital way. None of them were who they once had been. The world had changed, they’d had to keep up or join the ranks of the dead.
So comfortable were they that none were prepared for the world ended for a second time in their lives. It happened late at night, when a mist had fallen over the lands. The night was unusually cold for the time of year, yet they still milled around the house and finished off odd jobs with the animals. Edward had taken one of the people they’d brought in out on horseback for a last patrol. It was quiet as Zoe waited on the porch for them to come back and so she was the first to see them racing out of the woods, shouting something that she couldn’t hear. It didn’t take long for to figure it out though. The whole treeline was teeming with walkers, the herd so large that they encompassed the whole stretch of woods. There was no way they could clear that many. Zoe called the alarm, setting the wheels in motion that they would all meet at the gas station 3 miles out from the ranch. As Edward tor away on the horse, Zoe grabbed her emergency bag and chucked it in the truck. Calling the dog over, she threw the collie into the passenger seat, got in behind the wheel and took off herself. All around her the others were doing the same.
They crashed into a second herd a mile out and all got separated, but at least they knew where to meet. By the next morning, she was alone at the gas station. So she waited, and waited. No one came. No one. By the third day she had lost hope, believing if Edward had survived at least that he would have come by then. It wasn’t until she was attacked by to walkers, that she realised she couldn’t wait any more. Her leg had gotten injured in a pipe when a walker had pushed her back and with blood running down her pants and more coming her way, she bolted, choosing to save her life whilst she still had one to save. Leeroy wasn’t left behind though, that damned dog being the only person she had left. It wasn’t until she had stopped and treated her wound that she realised she had lost her necklace but with a cut this deep she had enough to deal with and it wasn’t the only thing. She was pregnant and had been for some time, she’d just been convincing herself that she wasn’t. Zoe had wanted kids but she hadn’t wanted them so young, nevermind raising one in such a fucked up world. And now she would have to do it alone, which was terrifying. How would she even get through the birth?
The weeks went by and she got bigger, still living more or less out of the truck. Zoe stayed in a state of blind panic mixed with the deep urge to stay alive until she came across someone she was so glad to find. Marcy was a godsend, she really was. She was older than Zoe, and the pair were polar opposites. She had short dark hair, tall and strong looking. It was in attitude that they matched and she saved Zoes life in more ways than one. She was a country girl who had joined the army only a year before the world fell and the mentality simply stayed with her. Having been at the births of animals she felt like she could handle Zoe when her time came and she certainly did. They had been surviving together, living rough or camping out in houses when they could, right through to Winter. It was then that her time came. She thought the pain would kill her, like she was being ripped in half but when that little bloody bundle was placed in her arms, all the fear went away. This was hers and she would do anything to protect the life she had brought into the world.
She christened the baby Roxanne and she was beautiful, blonde hair and blue eyes, though Zoe wasn’t sure whether it would darken like her fathers. She was very weak after the birth and protecting them both was a concern for Marcy, one she had expressed already. Marcy went out scavenging for food one night and she didn't come back. By morning Zoe was thinking the worst when a knock came at the door. A group of men and women waited outside, the lead one explaining that they had found Marcy severely injured and they had taken her back to their camp for treatment before looking for her companion. Too tired and stressed to think with any kind of logic, Zoe packed up their supplies and allowed herself to be taken back to their camp. It was actually a compound, fenced in and filled with, more people than she had seen in years. They said there were about eighteen of them, though small parties were often on raids. They gave her and Roxie a room, even Leeroy was welcome. Things should have been good, only, they wouldn't let her see Marcy. They insisted she was too weak for visitors. After the third time this happened, Zoe decided she would see for herself. Find her she did, though that wasn't the only thing she found. They had the dead stored up, though for what she wasn't sure. Marcy wasn't in the sick bay either, though that took some work to find out. In the west corner of the compound was a block of cells and when she sneaked in, she found her friend.
The female was injured, though the bruises to her face and arms were not as worrying as the reason they were there. Marcy was glad Zoe was ok though she was surprised to see the new mother. They had wanted to know who Marcy had been travelling with and where her companion was. Marcy had refused to give up the information but it seemed to no avail. This place was wrong, the people in it liars. Now she and her daughter were trapped here as much as her friend.
- Zoe Mitchell
Aliases:
-Zoe
-Mitch
Avatar Photo: Face Claim: Ksenia Solo
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Age:
- 15/03/1993 (almost 24)
Gender:
- Female
Appearance:
- 5'5", very pale blue eyes (almost white), blonde mid length curly hair. Zoe is very leanly built but she is stronger than she appears. Same goes from her height for she is long in body and limb. Usually wears a black wool hat, fingerless gloves, battered black jeans, long sleeved t-shirt with sleeveless grey hoodie over the top, black leather biker boots (with laces) and a camo parker. Whilst she has no initially visible scars, Zoe has the general small nicks and scars one would expect having survived so long at the end of the world. Her only large scars are from a knife wound to her upper right arm, from a bullet scraping across her ribs and back on her left side and a large scar across her right thigh from a metal pipe.
Occupation (studies and job before the outbreak):
- College Drop-Out (aged 17)
- Worked as a Bartender before moving to America. (17-19)
Hometown (city, state, country):
- Glasgow, Scotland, UK (Living in America when outbreak happened)
Relationships (relatives, friends,...):
- Mother - Status (Unknown) Location (Scotland)
- Father- Status (Unknown) Location (Scotland)
- Older Sister, Jennifer - Status (Unknown) Location (Scotland)
- Younger Sister, Gabrielle - Status (Unknown) Location (Scotland)
- Boyfriend, Edward Ward - Status (Last Seen Alive 12/08/2017) Unknown Location but in America (PC)
- Daughter, Roxanne - Status (Alive and 2 weeks old) Location (With Zoe) (NPC)
- Friend, Marcy Jones - Status (Alive but captured) Location (Glasgow, Kentucky) (NPC)
- Collie dog, Leeroy - Status (Alive) Location (with Zoe) (NPC)
Weapons (currently in possession):
- Glock 17 - 9mm - 17 round clip (currently full)
- Serrated Hunting Knife (comes in a sheath with belt attachment. Wooden Handle)
- Pocket knife (switchblade)
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Items (clothing, backpacks, first-aid kits, etc...):
- Camping Backpack
- [in backpack] Spare vest top, sweater and jeans. Fist Aid Kit (basic). Spare clip (full). Bottled water (2) and sleeping bag.
- Baby Bag, over arm strap.
- [in bag] Baby clothes, nappies/diapers, dummy/pacifier(2) , spare baby blanket, bottles (2)
- [hanging on backpack] Billy cans (2), torch/flashlight, lighter
- Baby sling.
Mode of transportation:
- Truck
List 3 or more good personality traits:
- Can be brave
- Independant
- Compassionate
- Adaptible
- Straight-talker
List 3 or more bad personality traits:
- Can be bad tempered, irritable
- Commitment issues (Aside from Edward and Roxie but it's more in general than relationships)
- Hides her fears by joking about (will grow out of this)
- Can be immature
- Natural thief (very good at liberating possessions from their original owners)
List 3 strengths:
- Bold (feels the fear but does it anyway)
- Appears calm in stressful situations
- Can compartmentalise well (strategic)
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List 3 flaws:
- Often feels the need to bolt
- Puts her foot in her mouth (can be defensive around new people)
- Insecure
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Describe your character's life before the Apocalypse:
-Zoes life had always been a bit of a drag. Always a lot of time moving but nothing actually changing. She came from a lower-class family, being the middle sister off 3 girls. Her parents both worked, at least until her father got ‘laid off’. Then it was all left on her mothers shoulders. As he slowly wasted away with a can of beer in his hand, her mother worked herself hard to support her children. When she was 9, her father finally got up of the couch and walked out the door, trouble was he never came back. Not that Zoe cared, it had already come out that he had gotten fired for drinking on the job. She shouldn’t have even known that but raised voices had a habit of carrying. With her father gone, her older sister, Jenny, got a job and helped raise her sisters alongside their mother. Things became stable, more or less.
Tension had always been a part of home life, no more so than when Zoe became a teenager. Jennifer pushed her academically which she tried to achieve if only for her sisters sake. Sure she liked to read, she liked to learn, but she wasn’t a genius. Nor was she interested in that. She preferred music, singing in particular but she did teach herself to play guitar and piano, using the schools instruments. Her music teacher even got her a place in a college. Still, she couldn’t settle and felt like she was just living her life to please others, so at 17, Zoe dropped out of college, moved out of her childhood home and got a job in a bar. Basically, she dropped out of her old life and began building a new one for herself. Though they hated her decision, her mother and older sister tried to keep the peace but the only one who truly made her feel at home was with her younger sister, Gabrielle.
Gabby had always been her best friend even though there were several years between them, nothing would change that. Over the next year, Zoes life was unstable as could be, crashing at one friends for a while, before bouncing to another. Even her jobs she changed every few month, slowly making her way through the party district until she found a job in a bikers bar, run by a guy who had noticed her around and thought she needed a break. He gave the apartment above the pub to rent, since he had alternate accommodations and after a couple of months she was finally settled in her own skin. She lost some of the offensiveness and actually began to enjoy life again. Things were settled, until a guy walked into the bar who she just couldn’t keep her eyes off of. He was hot, but he had a chip on his shoulder. She could see as much from across the bar. Guys like that were trouble looking for a place to happen.
When he came over, she was friendly, chatting and smiling whilst she got him his drink. She expected that to just be that but he didn’t move away and they carried on chatting. Zoe always thought it was funny, she hadn’t been looking for anyone, she dabbled with boyfriends but tired of them too quickly to ever keep one around long. Edward was different. The more time they spent together, the more was stripped away and she realised there was far much more to him than being the one to keep an eye on in case he was trouble. They had been together for a while when he broke the news to her about his inheritance, as well as the question she hadn’t been expecting; would she go with him? She still couldn’t understand her answer even after they had gotten on the plane. It would just be a year or so, then she would bounce and leave him with his dream. It was all about the travel for her, or so she kept telling herself.
The ranch was a dump, a literal dump, at least in her opinion, but it had good bones and after some TLC and a lot of sweat and broken nails, it actually began to look more than habitable. Homely even. And to her great surprise, so was Edward. Without even meaning too, she had fallen for him and the idea of taking off just seemed less and less appealing until she came to realise she actually cared about him. Maybe even loved him. In the end, she decided that that was enough to work with and she finally settled. Joey taught her about the horses and she used all the various bits of random knowledge in her head to fill in any of his gaps, like the plumbing and such. Her old boss had given her some training in a bit of everything, none of which she would have thought would have been actually useful to her, but it was. She loved animals and found a comfort in them that she had never experienced before. His Aunt had left quite ab bit off livestock so there was never a boring day, life was coming up rosey. Hard to imagine right?
What happened to your character on Outbreak Day?:
- Cassidy had been camped out on the sofa, next to Edward, when the news came in on their new TV. Some sort of virus. There had been rumours of it having to do with cattle, which made things difficult when they had a whole herd basically sitting in the field next to the house. It didn't surprise her when Joey got up and said they should move the herd to one of the back fields, farther from the house. She'd gotten used to the riding, even enjoyed it and weren't half bad if she didn't say so herself. The day was one of those crisp Winter days, where the air bit and the grass crunched beneath them. That and the sound of the breathing was all that could be heard. The world was basically still and yet beautiful because of it.
Once they had had gotten the cows situated, they headed back home, stopping briefly for a picnic Joey had brought along. The ride together was sweet, romantic even. They picked an empty field, tied the horses and set out a pretty typical picnic, kinda like you'd imagine your grandparents doing when they were kids. They talked and ate, enjoying each others company, reliving there early days. It was about that time that he pulled out a silver locket, engraved and inside there was a picture inside. The line he delivered with it was so cheesy that she was grinning even before he started laughing. She joined in, accepting the necklace and putting it on. God he was ridiculous, but then, that's what she liked about him. Besides, she could act like a kid when she wanted herself.
The ride back didn't take too long, dusk only just settling. Edward took off in the truck to get all the usual suspects. She, on the other hand, re assumed her position on the couch, remote in hand. After an hour or so, she moved out onto the porch, sitting on the step for a smoke. It wasn't that she couldn't smoke in the house, it's just that the night air could be quite refreshing. Besides, he'd been away a while and she was getting a bit antsy. Zoe'd only gotten through half before she heard the familiar rumble. As he parked and got out, she called over, "Maybe this is the end off the world", followed by a snort of laughter. Edward didn't find that too funny so she left him to sorting out the groceries. They sat on the sofa for a while after and he told her about what happened when he was shopping. People were going mad, it was just a virus. Nice of Edward to help out the old lady though. Zoe stayed up for several hours after he had gone to bed and she ended up falling a sleep on the couch, a heavy throw over her, remote nestled against her chest.
Describe your character's life after the Apocalypse:
- Edward was glued to the TV for weeks after that first one, the day they had abandoned the cattle in the back field. She knew that it had been eating at him and that he was determined to find evidence that it wasn’t because of the cows. The only news they had wasn’t exactly news, no information on the virus itself, just that it was spreading. Zoe came to decide that she agreed with him, it wasn’t the cows. Joey began patrolling the area on horseback, though she wasn’t entirely sure why he thought it was necessary. Also, thanks to his bleeding heart, they had began looking after a neighbour. If she were being truthful, the old bint was actually nice to be around. Whenever Edward was away, patrolling or shopping, she spent a lot of time in that old house. They chatted, she did odd jobs, even pulled her hand out and started cooking. She was pretty good at it when she put the effort in. Messy, but good. The woman was old in that extreme way, where her face was a map of lines and her hair a thin, white puff on top of her head. Frail and bent like a tree in the wind.
It was in the first weeks of February that Zoe realise just how much Joeys instinct had been right on the money with the whole patrolling thing. She wouldn’t have believed his story if she hadn’t seen the body with her own eyes. It was clearly rotted by several days if not longer, certainly not a fresh corpse by any means. They burned the body and after that, Zoe kept the pocket knife she’d hung in the barn for when they needed it in her back pocket at all times. Joey, on the other hand, put a lot of time into practising his archery on horseback. He even got pretty good at it, managing a couple of headshots with the corpses that wandered onto the land every now and again.
Mid March saw a turn in the Mrs. Birches health, the elderly woman becoming so ill that they take her in to live at their ranch as she was so weak she couldn’t move farther than from her bed to her toilet. They couldn’t even take her to the hospital. The virus had become a pandemic, quickly gaining in size, threatening to become an all out epidemic. Hospitals all over the country were so overflowing with patients that it was liable she would die before even being seen too. They felt it was kinder to leave her where she was, where she would at least be comfortable and taken care off. It took a week for her to pass, which she did in her sleep, her strength finally failing her. She spent most of the time sleeping. They had sat with her for the last three days, becoming so tired that they had fallen asleep and not realised she had been dead until several hours after. After checking for her pulse, and having found no breath, Zoe went to get a sheet to cover her with. She had barely gone out the door when she heard Joey scream, then saw him grab a lamp and smash it over the head of Mrs. Birch, who had sat up and was trying to bite him. Without thinking, Zoe grabbed her pocket knife and stabbed the woman through the eye.
They now realised that the cows had nothing to do with the virus, for Mrs. Birch never ate beef because it was too much for her false teeth. Plus she had had no bites, merely dying from old age. That could mean everyone could have it. They went back for the cows, but the damned fence had broken and all but one dairy cow had escaped. Edward went in search of more while she took the one they had back to the barn. Edward came back with another, saying he had found two but one had been attacked so he’d put it down. Once the cows were situated in the barn with the horses, they had returned to the house. They had buried Mrs. Birch out in the side field, and now had to clean away the evidence of her passing. Zoe wasn’t sure how she felt about her first kill, for she had been fold of the old woman, yet she had killed her in an instant out of some base defence mechanism. At least they now had a source of milk to go alongside the eggs from the chickens and they even had some pigs and sheep. They were ok. Edward even started a vegetable patch.
In April, they decided to reinforce the fences with wooden panelling. The virus was now world wide, and they now understood the nature of the virus. If you were bitten, or died for any reason, you would come back. After that, the only thing you wanted was flesh. They’d gone to get more panels from a D.I.Y store in town only to find that it had been abandoned. It wasn’t the only one. They still needed the supplies and so she got them in through the back, picking the lock. They needed to make their land secure and it was going to take them a long time to complete it.
It was in May when the world went black, the TV and phones being cut off, the internet just gone. It was like that for hours before they managed to get anything on the small radio his Aunt had left behind, which was an announcement that the government was fallen and that the military had taken over the situation and that they should remain indoors. A few days after that, the power grid was shut down and they knew, with the amount of deaths globally and now this, that the end had come. Come July, they needed supplies and they began scavenging. Soon enough, they had to clear a general store of walkers to get the precious cargo inside. Zoe got into a bind, one walker coming at her from behind as she struggled with the one in front. She span around and got it in the temple. The handle got wrenched out of her hand as it fell and the other one pinned her to the wall, it’s mouth biting at her face as she held it back. Edward got it in the head with his pocket knife just in time. It was hard but they got all the stock back to the ranch.
The following months went by in a hazy routine, the days and months blurring together. Having cleared the nearby houses and stores,they had gathered up a decent supply, enough to see them well into Winter. It wasn’t until November that they ventured further out, having to stay away from the farm for more than a day or more. In January they came across their first survivor and he wasn’t friendly. He was clearly unhinged and was holding Edward at gunpoint, shouting nonsense at the top of his lungs. Zoe didn’t think twice. She moved so she had a clear shot and then fired, hitting the guy right in the chest. Stepping over him, she put a second round through his skull before pulling out her knife and dealing with the walkers the noise had attracted.
Over the next two years, they saw many ups and downs. They brought people in, worked to defend themselves on runs. They lost people too, when their ranch was attacked by those looking out for themselves, once again finding themselves on their own. They found more people, which helped them survive a small herd of walkers that had broken through the fencing. They repaired the fencing and worked to make it sturdier, eventually having to extend the side of the house due to the amount of people that had joined them. By the second year, there numbers had fluctuate then fell until it settled at eight. Things were good, as the end of the world went. There fencing was tested and sometimes failed, with larger groups of walkers making it through and threatening their sanctuary. Each time, they killed the biters and fixed the fencing with whatever they could find. By midway through the fifth year after the outbreak, they believed themselves safe, secure, and changed in a most vital way. None of them were who they once had been. The world had changed, they’d had to keep up or join the ranks of the dead.
So comfortable were they that none were prepared for the world ended for a second time in their lives. It happened late at night, when a mist had fallen over the lands. The night was unusually cold for the time of year, yet they still milled around the house and finished off odd jobs with the animals. Edward had taken one of the people they’d brought in out on horseback for a last patrol. It was quiet as Zoe waited on the porch for them to come back and so she was the first to see them racing out of the woods, shouting something that she couldn’t hear. It didn’t take long for to figure it out though. The whole treeline was teeming with walkers, the herd so large that they encompassed the whole stretch of woods. There was no way they could clear that many. Zoe called the alarm, setting the wheels in motion that they would all meet at the gas station 3 miles out from the ranch. As Edward tor away on the horse, Zoe grabbed her emergency bag and chucked it in the truck. Calling the dog over, she threw the collie into the passenger seat, got in behind the wheel and took off herself. All around her the others were doing the same.
They crashed into a second herd a mile out and all got separated, but at least they knew where to meet. By the next morning, she was alone at the gas station. So she waited, and waited. No one came. No one. By the third day she had lost hope, believing if Edward had survived at least that he would have come by then. It wasn’t until she was attacked by to walkers, that she realised she couldn’t wait any more. Her leg had gotten injured in a pipe when a walker had pushed her back and with blood running down her pants and more coming her way, she bolted, choosing to save her life whilst she still had one to save. Leeroy wasn’t left behind though, that damned dog being the only person she had left. It wasn’t until she had stopped and treated her wound that she realised she had lost her necklace but with a cut this deep she had enough to deal with and it wasn’t the only thing. She was pregnant and had been for some time, she’d just been convincing herself that she wasn’t. Zoe had wanted kids but she hadn’t wanted them so young, nevermind raising one in such a fucked up world. And now she would have to do it alone, which was terrifying. How would she even get through the birth?
The weeks went by and she got bigger, still living more or less out of the truck. Zoe stayed in a state of blind panic mixed with the deep urge to stay alive until she came across someone she was so glad to find. Marcy was a godsend, she really was. She was older than Zoe, and the pair were polar opposites. She had short dark hair, tall and strong looking. It was in attitude that they matched and she saved Zoes life in more ways than one. She was a country girl who had joined the army only a year before the world fell and the mentality simply stayed with her. Having been at the births of animals she felt like she could handle Zoe when her time came and she certainly did. They had been surviving together, living rough or camping out in houses when they could, right through to Winter. It was then that her time came. She thought the pain would kill her, like she was being ripped in half but when that little bloody bundle was placed in her arms, all the fear went away. This was hers and she would do anything to protect the life she had brought into the world.
She christened the baby Roxanne and she was beautiful, blonde hair and blue eyes, though Zoe wasn’t sure whether it would darken like her fathers. She was very weak after the birth and protecting them both was a concern for Marcy, one she had expressed already. Marcy went out scavenging for food one night and she didn't come back. By morning Zoe was thinking the worst when a knock came at the door. A group of men and women waited outside, the lead one explaining that they had found Marcy severely injured and they had taken her back to their camp for treatment before looking for her companion. Too tired and stressed to think with any kind of logic, Zoe packed up their supplies and allowed herself to be taken back to their camp. It was actually a compound, fenced in and filled with, more people than she had seen in years. They said there were about eighteen of them, though small parties were often on raids. They gave her and Roxie a room, even Leeroy was welcome. Things should have been good, only, they wouldn't let her see Marcy. They insisted she was too weak for visitors. After the third time this happened, Zoe decided she would see for herself. Find her she did, though that wasn't the only thing she found. They had the dead stored up, though for what she wasn't sure. Marcy wasn't in the sick bay either, though that took some work to find out. In the west corner of the compound was a block of cells and when she sneaked in, she found her friend.
The female was injured, though the bruises to her face and arms were not as worrying as the reason they were there. Marcy was glad Zoe was ok though she was surprised to see the new mother. They had wanted to know who Marcy had been travelling with and where her companion was. Marcy had refused to give up the information but it seemed to no avail. This place was wrong, the people in it liars. Now she and her daughter were trapped here as much as her friend.