Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2015 20:35:02 GMT -5
Full Name: Marko Josevich
Aliases: Mark, Jose, "Sarge"
Age: 28
Race: Caucasian
Gender: Male
Appearance: Brown-haired and grey-eyed, Marko's your average 28 year-old American male, if your average 28 year-old had to deal with the stress that is the zombie apocalypse, that is. No means a bodybuilder with a godlike physique, Marko is still relatively muscular due to his military training, and has enough scars to prove that he hasn't been living under a rock for the last 2 years. Around his eyes are the telltale signs of a man who hasn't slept well for a long time, with wrinkles and those nasty signature purple eyebags. Then again, who can sleep well these days?
Alignment: Good enough, he'll always try to help others, but knows what needs to be done.
Occupation: Staff Sergeant in the ever-proud and explosion-loving United States Rangers; non-commissioned officer, with his own squad
Where they are from: Boston, Massachusetts
Relationships: Ma and Pa Josevich (deceased), his sister (unknown), no spouse or little Markos
Weapons:
_Your standard issue M4 carbine, marvel of American engineering, which is out of rounds. Still makes for a good whacking stick if in a pinch
_Beretta M9 pistol, which is slightly less empty.
_His trusty companion: The age-old military combat knife
Items:
_Military backpack
_A canteen of water
_Some canned food
_More canned food
_Personal affects from his squadmates
Personality: Before the apocalypse, Marko was always easygoing yet clever and were well respected by his colleagues, both the other officers and his men. He was only occasionally funny, was by no means charismatic, but instead was the kind of leader who inspired through example, and it was effective. Unfortunately, that made him over-confident and too sure of himself even if he never showed it.
The apocalypse hit him hard. After his losses in New York, he became a much less cheery person. He's more serious, takes bigger risks, he started to be more reckless. He is broken and bitter and desperate. His younger, more idealistic self now replaced by a driving need to prove, to "redeem" himself, not in the eye of god or anyone else, but his own eyes.
Special Skills and Strengths:
-Marko has had extensive military training and is an especially good shot.
-He has experience leading others, and is clever and crafty.
Weaknesses and Flaws:
-Marko is haunted by the deaths of his squadmates and his role in it, which makes him prone to the occasional mental breakdowns and night terror episodes
-He is used to bottling up emotions in order to maintain morale among the squad, and likes to release them at inappropriate times. This may have caused the death of his squad.
Prior to the Apocalypse: Marko was born to a poor family in Boston where he grew up with his older sister. Mr. Josevich Senior was a military man, having served in Nam, so it made sense for Marko to eventually join the forces too. However, that wasn't the case. In fact, his father tried to stop him from joining up, but due to their poor financial situation, Marko had little choice. His family barely had enough to get his sister through college and putting him through as well would have starved them. That, and the army didn't seem that bad and the time, teenage rebellion and all.
Marko joined up at the age of 18, training to be no more than another grunt at first. The Rangers were a little better than the army, at least. He steadily rose through the ranks, eventually attaining his own command. Ever since then, he had served several tours of duty in the Afghan and Iraq war and earned himself a few medals. Marko was clever, and one hell of a shot. There were a few casualties under his command, of course, as it was inevitable. It had bothered him, but he always told himself not everyone can be saved. Marko was confident he was ready for anything, that there was not a single enemy he cannot either brute force or outsmart. He was wrong.
Post Apocalypse: His leave was interrupted by a phone call telling him to report to base to deal with what seemed like the zombie apocalypse. Of course, his first reaction was to laugh. It just all seemed so ridiculous at the time, since the plague hadn't spread to New York yet. Nevertheless, orders are orders. Taking the first taxi in the morning, he was shocked by what he found when he arrived: That there was an actual military operation, that it wasn't someone's horrible idea of a prank, that the dead were walking. He and his troop along with several other squads were deployed in a "safe zone" inside the city, with orders to protect the civilians until evacuation.
The first several weeks of fighting was harsh, but it was nothing compared to what happened after. Soon, without reinforcements or supplies, things started to get desperate. There were arguments and there were fights, even among the soldiers themselves, the hunger and exhaustion taking its toll on the mind. Worst thing was, there was no communication whatsoever. No radio, no internet, nothing to tell if they were the only ones left or if there were any chance of relief, if evacuation was ever a possibility. Everything only added to their hopelessness. Marko did whatever he could to calm his own troop, but he wasn't god. Words could only do so much.
And then things went to hell. Some stupid son of a bitch fired a gun inside the base, and brought a sea of undead crashing upon their fences. Between the panicked civvies and the soldiers' gunfire, it was chaos. Marko kept his cool at first, actually managing to keep his unit alive for the first few minutes. That was before he realized they were surrounded and there was no hope of getting out alive. He gave the orders, tried out every idea he had. None worked. The dead kept coming. One of his men went down, then another. Marko panicked. He froze when his men needed him to lead them the most. He was so sure of himself, and here he was. He simply stood and watched as his entire squad was devoured one by one.
Yet he survived. Saved. Some other soldiers managed to hijack a humvee and were getting the hell out of dodge. They would have been deserters, had there actually been a US Army left. He split when the jeep ran out of gas in the outskirts of the city. He still has nightmares about what happened that day. He could have saved them, but he didn't.
"^"