Post by Dr. Cassidy Grey M.D on Jan 17, 2018 1:37:40 GMT -5
Full Name:
- Dr. Cassidy Grey M.D
Aliases:
- Cas
-Cassy
-Grey
-Dr.Grey
Avatar Photo: Ellen Pompeo
-
Age:
- 02/01/1984 (34 years old)
Gender:
- Female
Appearance:
- Standing at 5’6”, what she lacks in height she makes up in attitude. Cas has piercing blue eyes, shoulder length blonde streaked hair and a resting bitch face. Her scrubs and coat have long since been replaced with a black vest top, tan sweater, light blue jeans, a puffy black coat and a pair of black and white sneakers (usual clothing). Has several minor scars to arms, legs and torso.
Occupation (studies and job before the outbreak):
-Attended Boston University School of Medicine
- Completed her Internship at Massachusetts General Hospital
-Completed her first and second year of residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (She was almost through her third year when the world collapsed)
Hometown (city, state, country):
- Winchester, Boston, Massachusetts
Relationships (relatives, friends,...):
- Mother and Father - Status (deceased)
- Husband, Daniel Reid - Status (deceased)
-Daughter, Alice - Status (unknown) Location - (Was visiting her Grandma in France when the Outbreak took a hold)
-Best Friend, Dr. Sally Kendall M.D - Status (last seen alive) Location (Unknown)
- Auntie Elli (mothers side) - Status (Unknown) Location (Unknown though she lived in Ohio)
-Mother-In-Law, Clarice- Status (Unknown) Location (Her house in the south of France)
Weapons (currently in possession):
- Hunting knife, smooth blade, metal hand with rubber grip (comes with belt attachment)
- Colt Revolver, 6 rounds (full)
- Crowbar
-
-
Items (clothing, backpacks, first-aid kits, etc...):
-Backpack
-[in backpack) Sleeping bag, bottled water (3), energy bars (5), flashlight, box of bullets (30), spare clothes.
- Emergency Medical bag (with shoulder strap)
-[in medical bag] First Aid Kit (advanced) Sterile surgical instruments (2 of each), sterile needles and meds (painkillers, liquid broad spectrum antibiotics, local anesthetic)
-
Mode of transportation:
- Black Range Rover
List 3 or more good personality traits:
-Compassionate
-Driven
-Risk Taker
-Survivor
-Tough Skinned
List 3 or more bad personality traits:
- Struggles with her emotions
-Strong Headed
-Selfish in relationships
-Bad Temper (prone to moodiness)
List 3 strengths:
-Survivor
-Strategic
-Fights for what is right
List 3 flaws:
-Strong Headed
-Can become very emotionally detached to people
-Bad temper
Describe your character's life before the Apocalypse:
-Cas’ life was quite typically in once sense, but far from it in another. Her parents were loving and supportive, her childhood a good one, at least for the first part. By the time she was 10, she knew they didn’t love each other. Though they had tried to conceal it, the fighting was not something that could be ignored. It was always the same thing; her father worked too much. He was a surgeon, head of Cardio at Mass Gen, off course he was busy. Cassidy understood that but couldn’t understand why her mother didn’t. It went on for two more years before her mother packed them both in a taxi, leaving her father alone, before flying across the country to go to and stay at her mothers sisters. Cas liked her Auntie Ellie but she hated being away from her father. They stayed for 4 months and it was only because of her being difficult that they went back.
Her parents learned to find each other again after the break and as she grew, she focused on her studies, determined to become a doctor, just like her father. High School flew by, bringing with it all the usual dramas of boyfriends and friendships falling apart. Med School was far better, though it had dramas of its own. She made a friend, Sally, who’s sense of humour was as twisted as her own. They quickly became close and were soon inseparable, both earning internships at Mass Gen. An unexpected loss almost caused her to lose everything only 4 months into the programme. Both her parents, coming back from one of their weekly dinners, were killed in a head-on collision. Her father died in the impact, her mother at the scene after the paramedics arrived. The whole hospital felt the loss of her father, but none of their pain could compare with her own. It was just a dinner, something they did every week, how the hell had everything gone so wrong? She stayed in bed for a week, frozen. The only ones who visited were Sally and the Officer who had been called to the scene.
Life could throw you a curveball, and it was up to you what you did with it. She got up off her behind and went back to work, even went out for a date with Officer Reid. It was silly, but his actually giving a damn caught her off guard so she decided to give him a try. Eventually it was more than a try and despite herself, she began to have feelings for him. In fact, Sally and Danny saved her, they really did. Through the loss and grief and all the crap that people dying brings, like the family home and all the relics inside. Shifting that lot was no party, nor was it a quick affair. Eventually she moved back home, but she wasn’t alone as Daniel moved in with her. His apartment was only rented and he was more than happy to give it up. Before she knew it, scars had begun to seal her wounds and she found herself facing both her first year as a resident as well as a wedding. The former was something she was ready for, the latter not so much.
The only reason she did it was because despite all the days at a time she had spent at the hospital, the arguments her parents used to have never happened. She had been ready for it, even waiting for it, yet it never came up. His own job kept him so busy it never bothered him because he was away a lot too. Plus he was studying for his own exams. D Day came and it was white and traditional just for him. His mother even came down from the house in France she had bought when she retired. Cas had been prepared for a dragon of a mother-in-law. Took her aback when his mother actually liked her. They exchanged vows and had a party and by 2 am she was back at the hospital, scrubbing in for a solo surgery. It was just an appy but it was her appy, to do by herself. Sure an Attending was present, but she got to do all the slicing herself. Made all those frills worth it. The residency was hard to begin with, only to be made harder by the fact that she found out she was pregnant not long after the wedding.
Babies had never been something she’d thought about and having found herself faced with that, she was terrified. Daniel was over the moon. His enthusiasm quickly catched on though and though she got ridiculously uncomfortable, she was also excited. The pregnancy was smooth sailing, which only made her ansy. Sure enough, her labour had trouble written all over it. Four days and a near miss with a C-Section, only because she stubbornly refused it, and Alice was born. That little squished potato had to be the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Clarice came down for a few weeks to help out. She got very attached and so Daniel and she agreed that she could have her for 6 weeks the following March, accompanied by the long term nanny the had already waiting. Becoming a mother had never been something she had expected, but upon becoming one, she found she loved the task. She didn’t wait too long before going back to work. She loved her daughter but she couldn’t ignore her career and there was only so long a surgeon could stay out of the OR before going mad.
What happened to your character on Outbreak Day?:
-Cassidy was at the hospital, which was no big surprise. She was only 26 hours into her shift and had been running the ER for 8 of those. It was 3 in the morning, she had just dealt with two counts of slipping and falling and one of a guy who had fallen of his roof trying to put away the Christmas decorations. Mid Winter was always their busiest time and tonight was no different. The Pit was crawling with people; doctors, patients, annoyingly loud friends and family, interns who couldn’t stop dropping things. Place was crazy and she was the one in charge. When two paramedics came in with a matching set of body bags (car slid of the road and crashed into a telegraph pole, they died on impact). Thinking that that one was just too close for comfort, she announced TOD on both and called to take them to the morgue, already heading back out for the ambulance that was arriving with actual live people inside. She ended up in the OR after that, assisting the head of general surgery. Not once did her mind wander to the bodies she had sent to the morgue, though in the weeks to come, she’d have wished she had.
Those DOA’s were just the start and when she did find out about how they’d attacked the morgue tech and ripped him apart. Shame the whole hospital had been sworn to keep it under wraps by the government. Them, and every other hospital out there.
Describe your character's life after the Apocalypse:
- Things were chaotic for both her and Daniel. He’d moved up in ranks and so when all the reports came in about attacks, he basically lived in the station. Same with her at the hospital. With the epidemic and the casualties, the staff were worked to the bone, crashing not just in the on call rooms but also but out in the halls, on spare gurneys (which had turned into gold dust). She was actually glad when March came around, though she hated being that far away from her little girl. At least she would get to spend some actual time around family. Everyone thought she was mad for doing it but a promise was a promise and she hadn’t accounted at the time how it would feel like her heart was being ripped out as she saw Alice and her nanny off on the plane. The weeks passed and things got worse and not in that gradual way, one second, they were handling things. Badly, but they were managing. Then the Army got involved and things went south.
The epidemic was widespread, and not just isolated to America. Planes were grounded in April and that’s when Cassidy started to truly panic. Her baby was trapped in France in the middle of this mess. Her husband only saw more of her because he kept getting injured. By the end of April, they both knew what was coming, everyone did. It was just a matter of the world catching up with them. Daniel was at the hospital when things went black, literally. The power went and then the generators came on, the whole hospital on pause. Then the shooting started, inside the hospital. The soldiers were trying to control the crowds, only they were failing. There had been many camps set up for refugees and they wanted to move the people from the hospital to the closest one. When the Doctors started refusing, insisting the patients couldn’t be moved, chaos broke out. People were shouting, the doctors actually fighting with the soldiers. Cassy was frozen in place, people pushing past her, Danny tugging on her arm. Her eyes were locked on the Sargent with his gun up, barrel aimed at at the Chief of Surgerys head. The Chief was trying to argue a point, so animated in his attempts that he never saw it coming. One second he was throwing down his clipboard and the next he was on the floor.
Sounds finally flooded her ears and time sped up and Cas found herself she no longer had legs, only her husband was holding her up. Pulling herself together, she span on her heels, heading for the front entrance. It was blocked by those fleeing the bullets that were now flying in every direction. Sally nearly knocked her down as she slammed into the back of her. Embracing her best friend, she decided they would try the ambulance bay. She was distinctly aware of the two hands in her own, tethering her to the present. People were escaping that way but were being blocked by the dead that had been drawn by the shooting. They couldn’t be helped and she tore past them, unaware of Daniel firing his gun at the infected in their path. They needed a car, fast. That was the only thought in her head. The car, Dannys squad car, he’d parked in round the back, like he always did. They could make it. They would make it. Only when she hit the cold metal did she realise she only had hold of one hand. Screaming Sallys name, Cassy span around but Daniel grabbed her around the waist and all but threw her in the back.
The doors were locked and though she screamed and swore, even tried to attack him through the barrier separating them, he didn't turn around. They had to go back! They had to, they couldn’t just leave her. Her screams turned to sobs and then she was just curled up on the floor, lost in flashes of the last hour. How had things gone so terribly wrong? Once, the tears for Sally passed, they were replaced by ones for Alice. She would never see her again. Her baby was thousands of miles away, in the middle of this horror, and they would never be together again. Hope was gone, what was the point of continuing? She was fracturing, falling away, disappearing. Dr.Grey had seen family members do this before, when they were given news of the worst. But Dr.Grey was gone now. Everything was gone…
It was several weeks before she came back to herself. It started slowly, random flashes of life, brief but clear. There was no sense to them though. Riding in the car, then in a house but not her own, car again. Daniel was growing a beard. He looked nice with a beard. Then they became longer, she began to understand what was happening around her, saw the lines on her husbands face. The lines she’d helped put there. He’d lost a wife and a daughter that day and had to be the strong one until she came back. It was that, the sudden acknowledgement of the pain she’d caused in the one person she had left, that woke her up. She began doing things, interacting with him, becoming alive again. The ‘walkers’ as Danny had come to call the dead came as a bit of a shocker and she was surprised she even had it in her to kill them. Daniel explained to her how the military had tried to and failed to get the situation under control, even though they resorted to bombing the highly populated areas. He’d managed to escape them by fleeing to the outskirts of Boston. Since things had died down, he was moving them back to the suburbs, taking as wide a route from the carnage as he could.
He’d swapped his squad car for her truck before they had left their house, as well as gathered supplies from the station, as many of the remaining officers had done. Daniel taught her how to shoot, even giving her his own revolver. It wasn’t long after that Cassidy began to adapt to the new world order, such as it was. At first, she believed that the only things to fear were the walkers, but as Winter approached, she learned that humans could be just as dangerous. They had come across people before, survivors like themselves, scavenging and crashing in houses to survive. Had even helped some, but then came the ones that liked to shoot first and ask questions later. Yet, Cassy couldn’t pull the trigger on any of those occasions. She would have her gun up but she just couldn’t do it, her oath wouldn’t let her. She had vowed to do no harm. The walkers were one thing, they were already dead, void of almost all brain activity. But these people were living and breathing and she just couldn’t do it. It wasn’t smart but it was all she knew. By Spring, they were not alone, having joined with a small group (only six but they were alive). Cassy had saved one of them and so they had been invited along.
That first Winter had been tough on them both, but she was beginning to worry about Daniels health. He’d had a bout of pneumonia in early February that had left him with a cough that had remained with him since. They travelled together for several months, having moved out into the more rural areas of Boston, closer to the New York borderline. The herd came upon them in the night, whilst they slept in the camp they had made a short distance from the cars. They heard the cans they had strung up, but it was all too late. The group hadn’t been that organised, most of them having just managed through luck. Guns were being fired, people were shouting and Daniel was tugging on her, telling her to run. They struggled with some walkers near the cars, Cassy jumping in the drivers seat, shouting through the window to hurry up. Two of their companions raced to one of the other cars, driving off in a hurry. After killing the infected he had been struggling with, he dove into the passenger seat and she tore off before he had even closed the door. As they made it into the clear, the adrenaline made everything move at top speed. One minute she was relieved, but then she looked over at him.
He was holding a hand to his side and looking at her with an apology in his eyes. Blood was seeping from between his fingers. The sight made her own go cold, and the chilliness made her calm. After telling him to keep pressure on the wound, she drove like a madwoman. She was looking for a place to stop, so she could help him. In the back of her mind, she knew what that was, there was no help for him. Still, when a garage came up, she jumped out and checked it was clear. Once she had killed the two dead that had gotten trapped inside, Cassy got him out of the car. He allowed her to take him inside but he stopped her from getting her med kit, the one she had always kept at the house for emergencies. This was a fucking emergency! She lifted his shirt and saw the hole ripped out of his side. Her own hands pressed on the wounds but it didn’t help. Daniel pressed his bloody hands to the side of her face and kissed her only her forehead before telling her to leave. And she did. The last thing she told him was that she loved him. That had to account for something. The last image she had off him was of him pulling his gun out of his holster. It burned in her brain for hours as she drove, drove away from the last thing she had left.
Things were foggy again after that, her mind and body going into survival mode. It followed the pattern that had began over a year ago, keeping her alive though she failed to thrive. The ghost of Cassidy travelled all the way into New York. She stayed there a while before she was found a larger group that brought her into the fold. They needed a doctor and it seemed she was the last one on call. Getting to do her work again was what saved her, as much as the people. And life went on as such for nearly three years. The group grew and even seemed to thrive. Life was livable again and though she had lost everything, she came to realise that she could live through the pain. Wounds healed and eventually scarred over, all they needed was time. Cas knew that, she just hoped that such held true for emotional trauma as well as physical. She had long stopped expecting good things to last, instead choosing to enjoy them when she could.
Another group wanted what they had, and since they had more guns, they got exactly what they wanted. Once again Cassidy saw everything she had worked towards be torn apart, only this time she didn’t freeze. She grabbed her weapons, emergency med kit, her ‘just-in-case’ backpack and split, same as all the others that didn’t have a bullet in them. The Doctor in her wanted to stay and help, to save lives as she had been trained to do, but logic decreed it a bad move. She got away, but only just. Even after she had managed to get slip past the humans, she still had to get through the walkers that had been drawn by the gun fire. Then to her car and then...east. She had no idea why, but east seemed promising. Had to be better than this hell hole. It just had too.
- Dr. Cassidy Grey M.D
Aliases:
- Cas
-Cassy
-Grey
-Dr.Grey
Avatar Photo: Ellen Pompeo
-
Age:
- 02/01/1984 (34 years old)
Gender:
- Female
Appearance:
- Standing at 5’6”, what she lacks in height she makes up in attitude. Cas has piercing blue eyes, shoulder length blonde streaked hair and a resting bitch face. Her scrubs and coat have long since been replaced with a black vest top, tan sweater, light blue jeans, a puffy black coat and a pair of black and white sneakers (usual clothing). Has several minor scars to arms, legs and torso.
Occupation (studies and job before the outbreak):
-Attended Boston University School of Medicine
- Completed her Internship at Massachusetts General Hospital
-Completed her first and second year of residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (She was almost through her third year when the world collapsed)
Hometown (city, state, country):
- Winchester, Boston, Massachusetts
Relationships (relatives, friends,...):
- Mother and Father - Status (deceased)
- Husband, Daniel Reid - Status (deceased)
-Daughter, Alice - Status (unknown) Location - (Was visiting her Grandma in France when the Outbreak took a hold)
-Best Friend, Dr. Sally Kendall M.D - Status (last seen alive) Location (Unknown)
- Auntie Elli (mothers side) - Status (Unknown) Location (Unknown though she lived in Ohio)
-Mother-In-Law, Clarice- Status (Unknown) Location (Her house in the south of France)
Weapons (currently in possession):
- Hunting knife, smooth blade, metal hand with rubber grip (comes with belt attachment)
- Colt Revolver, 6 rounds (full)
- Crowbar
-
-
Items (clothing, backpacks, first-aid kits, etc...):
-Backpack
-[in backpack) Sleeping bag, bottled water (3), energy bars (5), flashlight, box of bullets (30), spare clothes.
- Emergency Medical bag (with shoulder strap)
-[in medical bag] First Aid Kit (advanced) Sterile surgical instruments (2 of each), sterile needles and meds (painkillers, liquid broad spectrum antibiotics, local anesthetic)
-
Mode of transportation:
- Black Range Rover
List 3 or more good personality traits:
-Compassionate
-Driven
-Risk Taker
-Survivor
-Tough Skinned
List 3 or more bad personality traits:
- Struggles with her emotions
-Strong Headed
-Selfish in relationships
-Bad Temper (prone to moodiness)
List 3 strengths:
-Survivor
-Strategic
-Fights for what is right
List 3 flaws:
-Strong Headed
-Can become very emotionally detached to people
-Bad temper
Describe your character's life before the Apocalypse:
-Cas’ life was quite typically in once sense, but far from it in another. Her parents were loving and supportive, her childhood a good one, at least for the first part. By the time she was 10, she knew they didn’t love each other. Though they had tried to conceal it, the fighting was not something that could be ignored. It was always the same thing; her father worked too much. He was a surgeon, head of Cardio at Mass Gen, off course he was busy. Cassidy understood that but couldn’t understand why her mother didn’t. It went on for two more years before her mother packed them both in a taxi, leaving her father alone, before flying across the country to go to and stay at her mothers sisters. Cas liked her Auntie Ellie but she hated being away from her father. They stayed for 4 months and it was only because of her being difficult that they went back.
Her parents learned to find each other again after the break and as she grew, she focused on her studies, determined to become a doctor, just like her father. High School flew by, bringing with it all the usual dramas of boyfriends and friendships falling apart. Med School was far better, though it had dramas of its own. She made a friend, Sally, who’s sense of humour was as twisted as her own. They quickly became close and were soon inseparable, both earning internships at Mass Gen. An unexpected loss almost caused her to lose everything only 4 months into the programme. Both her parents, coming back from one of their weekly dinners, were killed in a head-on collision. Her father died in the impact, her mother at the scene after the paramedics arrived. The whole hospital felt the loss of her father, but none of their pain could compare with her own. It was just a dinner, something they did every week, how the hell had everything gone so wrong? She stayed in bed for a week, frozen. The only ones who visited were Sally and the Officer who had been called to the scene.
Life could throw you a curveball, and it was up to you what you did with it. She got up off her behind and went back to work, even went out for a date with Officer Reid. It was silly, but his actually giving a damn caught her off guard so she decided to give him a try. Eventually it was more than a try and despite herself, she began to have feelings for him. In fact, Sally and Danny saved her, they really did. Through the loss and grief and all the crap that people dying brings, like the family home and all the relics inside. Shifting that lot was no party, nor was it a quick affair. Eventually she moved back home, but she wasn’t alone as Daniel moved in with her. His apartment was only rented and he was more than happy to give it up. Before she knew it, scars had begun to seal her wounds and she found herself facing both her first year as a resident as well as a wedding. The former was something she was ready for, the latter not so much.
The only reason she did it was because despite all the days at a time she had spent at the hospital, the arguments her parents used to have never happened. She had been ready for it, even waiting for it, yet it never came up. His own job kept him so busy it never bothered him because he was away a lot too. Plus he was studying for his own exams. D Day came and it was white and traditional just for him. His mother even came down from the house in France she had bought when she retired. Cas had been prepared for a dragon of a mother-in-law. Took her aback when his mother actually liked her. They exchanged vows and had a party and by 2 am she was back at the hospital, scrubbing in for a solo surgery. It was just an appy but it was her appy, to do by herself. Sure an Attending was present, but she got to do all the slicing herself. Made all those frills worth it. The residency was hard to begin with, only to be made harder by the fact that she found out she was pregnant not long after the wedding.
Babies had never been something she’d thought about and having found herself faced with that, she was terrified. Daniel was over the moon. His enthusiasm quickly catched on though and though she got ridiculously uncomfortable, she was also excited. The pregnancy was smooth sailing, which only made her ansy. Sure enough, her labour had trouble written all over it. Four days and a near miss with a C-Section, only because she stubbornly refused it, and Alice was born. That little squished potato had to be the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Clarice came down for a few weeks to help out. She got very attached and so Daniel and she agreed that she could have her for 6 weeks the following March, accompanied by the long term nanny the had already waiting. Becoming a mother had never been something she had expected, but upon becoming one, she found she loved the task. She didn’t wait too long before going back to work. She loved her daughter but she couldn’t ignore her career and there was only so long a surgeon could stay out of the OR before going mad.
What happened to your character on Outbreak Day?:
-Cassidy was at the hospital, which was no big surprise. She was only 26 hours into her shift and had been running the ER for 8 of those. It was 3 in the morning, she had just dealt with two counts of slipping and falling and one of a guy who had fallen of his roof trying to put away the Christmas decorations. Mid Winter was always their busiest time and tonight was no different. The Pit was crawling with people; doctors, patients, annoyingly loud friends and family, interns who couldn’t stop dropping things. Place was crazy and she was the one in charge. When two paramedics came in with a matching set of body bags (car slid of the road and crashed into a telegraph pole, they died on impact). Thinking that that one was just too close for comfort, she announced TOD on both and called to take them to the morgue, already heading back out for the ambulance that was arriving with actual live people inside. She ended up in the OR after that, assisting the head of general surgery. Not once did her mind wander to the bodies she had sent to the morgue, though in the weeks to come, she’d have wished she had.
Those DOA’s were just the start and when she did find out about how they’d attacked the morgue tech and ripped him apart. Shame the whole hospital had been sworn to keep it under wraps by the government. Them, and every other hospital out there.
Describe your character's life after the Apocalypse:
- Things were chaotic for both her and Daniel. He’d moved up in ranks and so when all the reports came in about attacks, he basically lived in the station. Same with her at the hospital. With the epidemic and the casualties, the staff were worked to the bone, crashing not just in the on call rooms but also but out in the halls, on spare gurneys (which had turned into gold dust). She was actually glad when March came around, though she hated being that far away from her little girl. At least she would get to spend some actual time around family. Everyone thought she was mad for doing it but a promise was a promise and she hadn’t accounted at the time how it would feel like her heart was being ripped out as she saw Alice and her nanny off on the plane. The weeks passed and things got worse and not in that gradual way, one second, they were handling things. Badly, but they were managing. Then the Army got involved and things went south.
The epidemic was widespread, and not just isolated to America. Planes were grounded in April and that’s when Cassidy started to truly panic. Her baby was trapped in France in the middle of this mess. Her husband only saw more of her because he kept getting injured. By the end of April, they both knew what was coming, everyone did. It was just a matter of the world catching up with them. Daniel was at the hospital when things went black, literally. The power went and then the generators came on, the whole hospital on pause. Then the shooting started, inside the hospital. The soldiers were trying to control the crowds, only they were failing. There had been many camps set up for refugees and they wanted to move the people from the hospital to the closest one. When the Doctors started refusing, insisting the patients couldn’t be moved, chaos broke out. People were shouting, the doctors actually fighting with the soldiers. Cassy was frozen in place, people pushing past her, Danny tugging on her arm. Her eyes were locked on the Sargent with his gun up, barrel aimed at at the Chief of Surgerys head. The Chief was trying to argue a point, so animated in his attempts that he never saw it coming. One second he was throwing down his clipboard and the next he was on the floor.
Sounds finally flooded her ears and time sped up and Cas found herself she no longer had legs, only her husband was holding her up. Pulling herself together, she span on her heels, heading for the front entrance. It was blocked by those fleeing the bullets that were now flying in every direction. Sally nearly knocked her down as she slammed into the back of her. Embracing her best friend, she decided they would try the ambulance bay. She was distinctly aware of the two hands in her own, tethering her to the present. People were escaping that way but were being blocked by the dead that had been drawn by the shooting. They couldn’t be helped and she tore past them, unaware of Daniel firing his gun at the infected in their path. They needed a car, fast. That was the only thought in her head. The car, Dannys squad car, he’d parked in round the back, like he always did. They could make it. They would make it. Only when she hit the cold metal did she realise she only had hold of one hand. Screaming Sallys name, Cassy span around but Daniel grabbed her around the waist and all but threw her in the back.
The doors were locked and though she screamed and swore, even tried to attack him through the barrier separating them, he didn't turn around. They had to go back! They had to, they couldn’t just leave her. Her screams turned to sobs and then she was just curled up on the floor, lost in flashes of the last hour. How had things gone so terribly wrong? Once, the tears for Sally passed, they were replaced by ones for Alice. She would never see her again. Her baby was thousands of miles away, in the middle of this horror, and they would never be together again. Hope was gone, what was the point of continuing? She was fracturing, falling away, disappearing. Dr.Grey had seen family members do this before, when they were given news of the worst. But Dr.Grey was gone now. Everything was gone…
It was several weeks before she came back to herself. It started slowly, random flashes of life, brief but clear. There was no sense to them though. Riding in the car, then in a house but not her own, car again. Daniel was growing a beard. He looked nice with a beard. Then they became longer, she began to understand what was happening around her, saw the lines on her husbands face. The lines she’d helped put there. He’d lost a wife and a daughter that day and had to be the strong one until she came back. It was that, the sudden acknowledgement of the pain she’d caused in the one person she had left, that woke her up. She began doing things, interacting with him, becoming alive again. The ‘walkers’ as Danny had come to call the dead came as a bit of a shocker and she was surprised she even had it in her to kill them. Daniel explained to her how the military had tried to and failed to get the situation under control, even though they resorted to bombing the highly populated areas. He’d managed to escape them by fleeing to the outskirts of Boston. Since things had died down, he was moving them back to the suburbs, taking as wide a route from the carnage as he could.
He’d swapped his squad car for her truck before they had left their house, as well as gathered supplies from the station, as many of the remaining officers had done. Daniel taught her how to shoot, even giving her his own revolver. It wasn’t long after that Cassidy began to adapt to the new world order, such as it was. At first, she believed that the only things to fear were the walkers, but as Winter approached, she learned that humans could be just as dangerous. They had come across people before, survivors like themselves, scavenging and crashing in houses to survive. Had even helped some, but then came the ones that liked to shoot first and ask questions later. Yet, Cassy couldn’t pull the trigger on any of those occasions. She would have her gun up but she just couldn’t do it, her oath wouldn’t let her. She had vowed to do no harm. The walkers were one thing, they were already dead, void of almost all brain activity. But these people were living and breathing and she just couldn’t do it. It wasn’t smart but it was all she knew. By Spring, they were not alone, having joined with a small group (only six but they were alive). Cassy had saved one of them and so they had been invited along.
That first Winter had been tough on them both, but she was beginning to worry about Daniels health. He’d had a bout of pneumonia in early February that had left him with a cough that had remained with him since. They travelled together for several months, having moved out into the more rural areas of Boston, closer to the New York borderline. The herd came upon them in the night, whilst they slept in the camp they had made a short distance from the cars. They heard the cans they had strung up, but it was all too late. The group hadn’t been that organised, most of them having just managed through luck. Guns were being fired, people were shouting and Daniel was tugging on her, telling her to run. They struggled with some walkers near the cars, Cassy jumping in the drivers seat, shouting through the window to hurry up. Two of their companions raced to one of the other cars, driving off in a hurry. After killing the infected he had been struggling with, he dove into the passenger seat and she tore off before he had even closed the door. As they made it into the clear, the adrenaline made everything move at top speed. One minute she was relieved, but then she looked over at him.
He was holding a hand to his side and looking at her with an apology in his eyes. Blood was seeping from between his fingers. The sight made her own go cold, and the chilliness made her calm. After telling him to keep pressure on the wound, she drove like a madwoman. She was looking for a place to stop, so she could help him. In the back of her mind, she knew what that was, there was no help for him. Still, when a garage came up, she jumped out and checked it was clear. Once she had killed the two dead that had gotten trapped inside, Cassy got him out of the car. He allowed her to take him inside but he stopped her from getting her med kit, the one she had always kept at the house for emergencies. This was a fucking emergency! She lifted his shirt and saw the hole ripped out of his side. Her own hands pressed on the wounds but it didn’t help. Daniel pressed his bloody hands to the side of her face and kissed her only her forehead before telling her to leave. And she did. The last thing she told him was that she loved him. That had to account for something. The last image she had off him was of him pulling his gun out of his holster. It burned in her brain for hours as she drove, drove away from the last thing she had left.
Things were foggy again after that, her mind and body going into survival mode. It followed the pattern that had began over a year ago, keeping her alive though she failed to thrive. The ghost of Cassidy travelled all the way into New York. She stayed there a while before she was found a larger group that brought her into the fold. They needed a doctor and it seemed she was the last one on call. Getting to do her work again was what saved her, as much as the people. And life went on as such for nearly three years. The group grew and even seemed to thrive. Life was livable again and though she had lost everything, she came to realise that she could live through the pain. Wounds healed and eventually scarred over, all they needed was time. Cas knew that, she just hoped that such held true for emotional trauma as well as physical. She had long stopped expecting good things to last, instead choosing to enjoy them when she could.
Another group wanted what they had, and since they had more guns, they got exactly what they wanted. Once again Cassidy saw everything she had worked towards be torn apart, only this time she didn’t freeze. She grabbed her weapons, emergency med kit, her ‘just-in-case’ backpack and split, same as all the others that didn’t have a bullet in them. The Doctor in her wanted to stay and help, to save lives as she had been trained to do, but logic decreed it a bad move. She got away, but only just. Even after she had managed to get slip past the humans, she still had to get through the walkers that had been drawn by the gun fire. Then to her car and then...east. She had no idea why, but east seemed promising. Had to be better than this hell hole. It just had too.