The Wages Are Death ((OOC))

This is an RP between Hermione and myself, centered around a zombie apocalypse scenario. Here's the basic info:

Location: Buena Amistad, New Mexico. A city in a desert, fairly large with a population of 104,000... used to, anyway.

Time: a week post-infection.

The Infection: A biological disease not native to Earth that came crashing down on Roswell, New Mexico birthed the conspiracy-rich Area 51. Though theorists only got half of the facts straight - the crash object was not a UFO with aliens but a meteor containing dangerous bacteria that secreted dangerous substances - they were correct that the government was doing something. They intended use the virus on their enemies to wipe them out. However, they delayed because the United States needed a cure to ensure their plan, research that required a long time to understand the building blocks of the disease and create a cure for their own people.

After Soviet Russia disbanded, they locked down the operations, but renewed them after 9/11. With their technology much more advanced than in the mid-1900s, they found the cure and enacted their plan to wipe out the terrorists worldwide - indeed, all enemies of democracy and freedom. First, they unleashed a minor epidemic worldwide and called it "swine flu", in truth a weakened version of the regular flu that died out on its own after a week of acute symptoms (several were overwhelmed by it and died, though) and distributed a "cure" for it, in reality a vaccine for the alien disease. After they felt sure they had vaccined everyone, they spread out the disease and with their enemies tearing at each other, they thought it was a success, their public unaware of their deed.

Thing is, their arrogance kept them from realizing that there were some that wouldn't get the cure within their own borders. There were those, such as illegal aliens, who either did not get the vaccine or got it from sources outside that of the government (they may have gotten the ACTUAL vaccine to the flu). These people became infected... and "accidents" began to happen. Responding with great alarm, they sent squads to various cities, only for those squads to be overwhelmed and killed by the population's infected. Within a week, the chaos had settled and humanity had been decimated to only a few.

Some of these few live in Buena Amistad, New Mexico...

The Infected: The infected will be extremely violent. They can run, have incredible strength, and makes harsh screaming noises. Infected live to feed and spread, though at times they concentrate on one more than the other, "mercifully" eating their victims until there is nothing left for the disease to reanimate, sometimes just biting them and then turning back. Their psychology is a distortion of animal instincts: eat and multiply. They will have gray skin with patches of black and glowing green irises with black eyeballs, blood constantly oozing from their mouth and skin, slowly being sweated out. An average infected will ooze out a quarter pint of blood, and this blood is extremely deadly if it enters something's system, but not infectious enough to be transmitted by contact with the skin. They replenish by eating, but do not need to. They have very stiff posture and twitch radically. They mostly depend on sound and sight to find their prey. These infected have extremely high heart rates and body temperatures and die if the heart rate drops below 120.

After a week, the infected change. Their dead bodies rot and slow down. However, they can still move relatively fast, at a brisk walk's pace. Though they lose speed, they gain a horrifying trademark: as they rot, they release nauseating gases that are a hundred times more potent than those of a naturally decaying organism. It only goes out for about five feet before dissipating into the atmosphere, but it is invisible to the eye. These fumes make creatures that smell it gag and enter a systematic psychological shock from the sheer odor. Their eyes begin to water and their vision blurs, long enough for the creature to reach and bite them. However, they can be resisted, as it does not paralyze their body, and a person strong enough can easily run away. Too many zombies in one place, however, and the concentration of the fumes will cause the person to lose consciousness, turning them into an easy meal. The zombies, by appearance, also change, their skin now completely black, all saggy and loose on their muscles. Their bodies have stopped secreting blood, though coagulated stains still remain, giving them maroon spots all over. Their eyes have changed color to a dark yellow and their jaws drop down. Their posture is painfully stooped. Their heart rate is next to only five beats per minute and their body temperatures are approximately 10 degrees Celcius.

After six months, the changes are monstrous. Their skin has completely been shed off as the rot progresses, revealing disgusting jet-black muscle tissue, organs, etc. underneath. Their eyes have turned red and they crawl and flop to move, making it difficult for them to mobilize, but no less determined and should not be underestimated. The reason they are so sluggish is because they don't need to be fast. The fumes have now turned into a concentrated form of the alien disease with a radius reach of ten feet. One breath of this and the person will become infected within three minutes. The only cure is prevention through a gas mask. Skin protection is a must because the diesease will stick to anything organic (including clothes made from plants) and while it cannot enter the person it can spread through him as a carrier, not to mention that that person will be at risk of infection, forcing them to wear a gas mask. The infected still try to bite, so a gas mask will not make one immune. They have no heart rate and their body temperature is whatever the external temperature is. Keep in mind that the warmer it is, the faster they can move and sub-zero temperatures will not stop them.

After a year, the zombies become nothing but black, harmless ooze that will be reabsorbed by the environment, nurturing the soil to allow plant life to grow. The disease does not affect plants but it does affect animals, killing them outright. Most animals can sense an infected from miles away, though, and will run away, making cities barren and anywhere that is not inhabitted thickly populated by animal life. Unfortunately, animals can still be ambushed if not careful and become food for an infected.

Infected die differently depending on their stages: the early ones can die if their hearts or heads are shot or if they experience enough corporal shock, the mildly mutated ones can die only from a headshot, head trauma, decapitation, or other massive damage to the torso, and the heavily mutated ones are nearly immortal with only complete removal of the head as the option to killing them.

---Character Sheet---

Name: Steve Bricker

Profession: Musician

Physical Description: Medium-length, greasy black hair reaches down to the base of his neck. His jaw is hard and rectangular and he has a few wrinkles on his forehead. Steve's nose is hawkish with a slight curve downward at the end and his cheekbones are low. His eyes are narrow with brown irises, his eyebrows close together and flat, with only a slight rise at their edge to give them detail. Steve is 5'10'' and has an athletic build. He doesn't wear anything fancy, usually just a plain white shirt, tennis shoes, and a pair of jeans, though he does have a few shirts with the logo of his favorite music bands. He generally keeps a very rough "rusty razor" style beard and has a coarse, harsh voice worn down by life and smoking habits. Although his general hygein is fine he looks filthy to the general onlooker, a side effect of his nicotine addiction and his generally stressful lifestyle.

Background: Native to Salt Lake City, Utah, Bricker was the son of a Mormon couple. Unhappy with his parents' religion and lifestyle, he fled south after turning 21 and scrapped out a living with his guitar in Buena Amistad. To defend himself from people who might have been looking for him (his parents were wealthy), he practiced martial arts and learned to use a rifle and handgun at a shooting alley.

Bricker rented a small studio apartment in southern Buena Amistad. He began to save his money and eventually invested on heavier equipment, writing his own songs. However, a scam led to his work being stolen by another artist. He filed against the man for plagiarism, but failed because he was much better funded. Embittered, Steve turned back to his work, closing himself away from society.

Personality and Relations: Steve has avoided any relationships of any kind because his life was hard enough on its own without having to worry about someone else. Despite his dislike for his childhood expriences under his parents, he did keep a basic moral code thanks to it, though nowhere near as extreme. Steve is at times very paranoid, and while not a conspiracy theorist, he is very stringy with his trust, thinking someone is going to get him again (what with his work being stolen once already). He also kept a healthy diet and regular exercise to relieve stress and learn to cope with the difficulties in life. While he is a talented musician, he refuses to tie himself to contracts because that meant forsaking control over his own destiny, something that he kept in mind also from his parents' controlling tendancies over him. He is a man of few words, prone to not laughing or smiling too often, and whose sole passion is to express himself through music in ways he never could in his life. He is not very culture-savvy outside of music, but he does try to keep up with modern preferences to know what to write and where to perform so as to make a living. He is, at the time of the outbreak, 31 years old.



Hermione will post her character sheet, then we will proceed.

Name: Alexandria "Alex" Rodriguez

Profession: Exotic dancer

Physical Description: Long, shoulder-length, curly black hair, with fringed bangs. Her face is soft, most of her features small which make her look younger than she really is. Her eyes are a bright hazel, but turn green if looked at in a certain light. Alex is 5'4", small build, but athletic from years of taking Taekwondo. If she isn't at work, she's usually caught in a pair of blue jeans, tee-shirts, tennis shoes, or whatever is comfortable to relax in. She hates dresses even though her job makes her wear some really skimpy ones.

Background: Alex lived her whole life in Buena Amistad. At the age of 19, however, her parents passed away, giving her full rights to their house. Not wanting a huge house to herself, she sold it, and got her a nice little apartment in the middle of town. At 20, she got herself a job as an exotic dancer. Not something her parents would enjoy if they were alive.. but she had to do something to survive and pay rent. Of course, during her breaks at work, she'd go to visit some family in another country. It was the only thing she could do, not having friends nearby to have some fun with.

Many people thought she was a whore, slut, whatever name they could come up with to insult her. Little did they know, she's a virgin, could kick someone's ass in a fight, and was more classy than anyone she knew. Cursing and such didn't matter. She cursed like a sailor and nobody cared.

Finally at 21, she's still living on her own. Having friends and company over didn't matter to her. As long as she had a roof over her head, and food on the table, she didn't care for company. She spent most of her life being by herself, so what should it matter if she was still that way. People may call her non-social, but she'd just ignore them anyway.


Personality and Relations: Alex is a free spirit. Or at least, that's what she likes to call herself. Her parents had a cruddy relationship, and she didn't really trust men. That's one of the reasons she took up Taekwondo. She could kick some serious ass if someone messed with her. Alex didn't care to have someone to date, because she'd think they were after her just for the sex. She was very paranoid in that department. She could be sweet if she wanted, but if the situation called for it, she'd be rude, angry, and snap at someone if they looked at her wrong. She is quiet, polite, and caring. But get on her wrong side, and she's rude, a smartass, and downright horrible. You may call her crazy. She secretly likes to cuddle with a special someone, hold hands.. but she's not going to get any of that seeing how much she hates men.

Personal quote: Prove that all men aren't alike.. and I'll give you a chance.