ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.

What will you do to survive?

It took two years for the plague to spread worldwide. It started in California, a seemingly harmless new energy soda on the market that should have gone through a few more tests, causing some side effects when drank. Consumers would begin feeling tired all the time, drained of energy, lose interest in anything but sleeping, and die of "a heart failure". Soon the product was recalled, but not before more than 10,000 people had died. Or so we thought. One by one, they awoke.
Dug out of the ground with inhumane strength. Began to chase after humans with a speed that nearly matched a car. And then rip them apart with their rotting, soda-soaked teeth.
It was that simple. As soon as you came into contact with the drink, wether it was from a zombie bite or having a single lick of it, you'd wind up as a super zombie a couple days later.

2016, and the world is corrupted. There is no TV or radio, no internet or cell phone service, and no cure. Few survivors remain, all with their own secrets of how they avoided the sickness, how the fend off the killers, what they've done to stay alive. Will the remaining humans band together and try to bring back what they know, or survive only for themselves and killing anyone or anything who got in their way?

Character skeleton:
Name:
Age:
How they've avoided plague:
Life before and after apocalypse:
Personality:
Appearance:

Name: Lisabeth "Echo" Hadley

Age: 19

How they've avoided plague: Her father was called crazy for prepping for a Doomsday. She's used one of his many bunkers to stay safe, and survive. She gets around on a mutant vehicle, which is basically her fathers old go-cart, which she rigged to a solar bettery.

Life before and after apocalypse: She had a pretty normal life before the apocalypse, she was a pretty normal kid. She had dreams of becoming a psychologist, but after the apocalypse, she disappeared into a bunker, while the rest of her family died off.

Personality: I'm not really sure, but I think she has a "no-shit" complex, where she doesn't really like to joke around or anything.

Appearance:

Spoiler:

Name: Pobby
Age: 10
How they've avoided plague: For some reason, none of the zombies are attracted to him. This is a miracle, for if they were, he’d be dead in minutes. He can’t come even close to ever out-powering or out-running any of them.
Life before and after apocalypse: Before, Pobby lived with six siblings and two parents in India. They were in extreme poverty, but his father was a genius. Everyone in his family became zombies, and Pobby somehow wound up in the United States.
Personality: Pobby is very quiet and a good listener. Though he’s very young, he seems to know a lot about this world, and is incredibly honest in a child-like way. He is usually found walking in the middle of the broken streets of cities, sometimes among hordes of zombies not even seeing him existing, clutching a small black teddy bear. He doesn’t seem at all phased by the rotting, disturbing zombies around him.
Appearance: Pobby is very short, with caramel skin and black curly hair in need of a cut. He looks like he could use 10 pounds. His face is very narrow and gaunt, overpowered by big, hungry brown eyes.

Name: Kitty, Lovee, Cat, Tabby...is called something else by anyone who sees her. Her real human name was Iris.
Age: Was 15 before the change.
How they've avoided plague: She was one of the people to try the first few cans of the energy drink, and instead of becoming a flesh-craving super zombie, she became a cat. Iris has no idea why. Zombies avoid her because they don’t eat cats.
Life before and after apocalypse: She lived with her single mom in a small apartment and led a very typical, unexciting life. Ironically she had a cat herself, whom she now spends her days with, searching for food amongst the zombies and other wild animals. She's very friendly and approachable.
Personality: It’s clear that there’s something different about Iris even though she’s a cat. She kept her human eyes, which look unsetting with her cat body. She can make more sounds than most cats, some resembling words.
Appearance: Iris is a small, slender black cat, with soft human blue eyes. Her lips curve into a natural innocent smile. Her fur is short and soft.

Name: Shane Cooper

Age: He's nineteen years old, but he doesn't care anymore, and lost count. Almost twenty.

How they've avoided plague: Running. Hiding. Staying there for a few days, then running and hiding again. He is a wanderer, not going anywhere in particular. All he is doing is surviving. That's it. And, when it all started, he got lucky with timing. He has cavities and yellowed teeth from lots of past pop drinking, but had to avoid soda after getting yelled at his mom, who couldn't afford the dental costs. Turns out that that saved his life.

Life before and after apocalypse: Shane was basically a loser. One of those nobodys in his high school. Always playing videogames in his free time and yelling at the screen. He had a few close friends though, that he would often hang out with Kaylee, and Bruce. Bruce died just a week after the incident from getting eaten alive, and Kaylee turned from a bite she did not tell him about. She was the girl he loved, and he had to kill her.
He also killed his parents, after his mom became a zombie and attacked his dad. He bludgeoned his mother and then killed his dad out of fear, even before he could turn.

But, Shane did find a little girl when Kaylee was alive. She is May. They were their own little family, until Kaylee turned, and now it's just Shane and May. She is his whole world now.
Him and May are now pretty tough after two years of skipping from place to place. They have had to kill many; human, and zombie.

Personality: Pretty badass and awesome. xD He's toughened up, a lot. Rarely trusts anyone now, just May. He's rough and protective, so good luck getting through his shields enough to become a friend. His heart is guarded from losing so many.

Appearance:

Spoiler:

Name: May Valentine

Age: Eight

How they've avoided plague: Her parents were protective, and never let her drink soda or really eat much candy and sweets. Her parents both managed to keep her safe for a few days, but they lived in a dense part of the city, and were quickly overwhelmed. She is only alive now because Shane happened to stumble upon her as she was bawling over her father's corpse.

Life before and after apocalypse: May was spoiled. Brought up by rich parents who did almost anything for their dear little daughter, but also made her eat healthily with a strict no sugar diet. Though her father would sneak her a chocolate piece every once in a while.

Her parents were kind, and when things went to hell, they quickly let survivors into their home to shelter them from the chaos on the outside. Turns out though that one of the survivors they let in was bitten. The survivor turned and suddenly started attacking everyone, and May's father grabbed her and ran, tears in his eyes over his now dead wife.

He collapsed not too far away from his home, with a bite of his own. May stayed with him and weeped. Then Shane came along, took pity on her, and pried her away.

She now follows Shane wherever he goes. She gives him support and knows how to use a gun, after being taught by him. Her and Shane now stumble around the broken world, just for the privilege of life.


Personality: She's...quiet. All of the world's messedupness has made her more mature than she should be for her age. Though, she always seems to be trying to cheer up Shane.

Appearance: Crap, the picture I was using for her stopped working for some reason x_x. Basically, she is a small, skinny girl. Her hair is a dull, curly blonde and a few teeth are missing or crooked. She has blue eyes and a soft face, though the softness is now lined with sharp features, her cheeks hollowed because of lack of a good diet, since her and Shane make sure to ration as much as possible.

Pobby was having a nightmare. He was running through a field, trying to reach his father, but no matter how fast he ran, he got further and further away. His father stared him down, slowly bringing flame to his black teddy bear...
"Mishoo!"
Pobby sat up. Mishoo the teddy bear was squeezed between white knuckles, unharmed. Pobby brought her to his chest, remembering what it felt like to hug his mother, feel her warmth. Looking around, Pobby remembered he'd dozed off against the wall of a deserted bank. Not many zombies were around here, things were quiet and this town had never really been populated.
The nightmare left Pobby lonely. He decided he wanted to look and see if there were any survivors around. They always reacted differently to Pobby. He looked down at his stomach, remembering the time one in particular had convinced himself that Pobby's immunity to them lay inside of his stomach, and he'd attempted to cut him open and rip him apart. He'd so narrowly escaped, thanks to an unseen hungry zombie.
Living in a world like this did strange, strange things to people.

Iris was so, so hungry. Hungry was a constant in her life. Not even food cured the hungry. She wasn't sure if it was a cat-thing or a result of never managing more than a few rotten crumbs a day. Most likely the latter.
Owen, the cat she'd had before her change, walked just in front of her, never shy to show dominance in their duo. Iris wish she knew how cats communicated, the meaning behind the meows and tail flicks, but she was only in a cat body, not a cat mind. So they stuck together, mostly Iris' choice, and hunted together, slept together, sometimes shared food together. They defended together against the other strays who'd also survived despite their owners becoming mindless, brain-craving cannibals.
Survivors that Iris ran into were never nice. They mostly kicked her away, scared that she might make noise and attract zombies. Sometimes, the desperate ones tried to catch and eat her. Nevertheless, whenever Iris saw a human, she'd approach them. It was in her nature, regardless of her body or circumstance.

Shane

Empty.

That word right there carries so much weight nowadays.
Everything is empty.

The people are empty, walking husks.

Cars are empty instead of filling the streets with gas.

Buildings are empty, and they never light up anymore.

Feelings. All the feelings are simply...empty. I don't care about anything anymore. Except for May. If it wasn't for little May... I would have killed myself a few months after this shitstorm started. Just a pull of the trigger, and bam- I'd be empty. Like them.

But this was the one time I was grateful for emptiness.

I look at the narrow street in front of us, the breathing of little May right next to me, a shotgun gripped firmly in my hands while she guards my other flank with a pistol. I peer over the tipped over dumpster we hide behind, looking at the street ahead.

It's empty.

I guess that's a blessing, of sorts. We got into the town just a few days ago. It seems to be pretty deserted. We have walking into a few of the shambling corpses since arriving, but really, there aren't that many to be found. Guess we caught a lucky break.

"..Shane?" calls a little voice. A voice that obviously belongs to a small girl, though it sounds not...right. Her voice doesn't have anymore of its innocence. It's the voice of a girl who's seen way too much, a girl who's survived through hell on earth.

I look away from the empty street and turn to her, raising a finger to my lips to indicate for her to lower her voice. "Hm?"

"Shane, this town is kinda cool. It's not like the big cities and stuff," May says urgently, though she has lowered her voice to a hushed whisper.

I nod. "...Yeah. Not as many walkers," and as I say that, I feel myself smiling, then reaching out and gently tugging on her hair, pulling out a slip of paper that got caught in her messy curls.

"D'you think there are alive here?" she replies, swatting my hand away lightly.

I just sigh. We haven't run into a survivor in...I can't even remember how long. I just know that at first, you'd run into them often, and maybe team up. Then they all slowly got picked off, one by one. Then the longer things stayed shitty, the shittier the people became, too. Most of them are thieves and scavengers now. Not caring about the other survivors, and just concerned with staying alive.

I guess you could say that that is what May and I have turned into. There's no time to be generous, not anymore.

I can feel May still staring at me as I peer back at the street. "Well, do you?" she repeats, a slight tone of hope in her voice.

"......Maybe. Let's go."

I stand up, holding the shotgun out. Time to look around. See what-or who- we find.

Iris rubbed her nose along the dirty Twinkie rapper. Her tongue lapped against it, only getting a little sugary satisfaction. Maybe her body disagreed with her human foods, but Iris still couldnt stand the smell of wet cat food. Which didnt matter, like she could find a sealed container of food lately. Her diet consisted of whatever she found laying around, or got from Owen.
"...lets go."
Talking. Voices. Rises and drops of tones in conversations, laughter, sobs. She missed them all so much. It's so rare to hear human's speaking, unless you counted the endless moaning of zombies. No, that can't compare. Iris' heart sped up as it always does when she heard survivors.
She looked up from the wrapper on the street, scanning the area. Of course they weren't in plain sight; they weren't trying to make it easy for zombies to find them. Sometimes Iris watched survivors die after she found them. Desperately make a run, only to be inevitably outran by energetic dead, ripped apart as if their bones are play-dough. Its a sight she would never get used to.
Iris walked in the direction that she thought she heard the voices, gracefully hopping over garbage and... no, that last one was definitely an arm. She caught a finger twitching from the corner of her eye, and her trot quickened with fear. Owen didn't follow, as usual.
She hoped these ones weren't the kind who considered a cat a meal instead of a friend.

Shane

I walk carefully down the street, keeping my back pressed to a wall. I won't just walk right in the middle of the street. This place might look empty, but I'm not that stupid to stop being cautious.

"..."

Silence. Everything is so quiet. May says she can't really remember when things were...loud. When you'd constantly hear the hum of a car engine, the tweet of a bird, or some stranger laughing in the distance.

...When was the last time I laughed? When was the last time I saw a bird, or a working car? Was all of that just some distant dream? The world is not meant to be this quiet.

I dwell on this for a moment as I quietly walking along the wall of shops. There is a cloth wrapped around my shoes, to silence my footsteps, so not even that can be heard.

Then...something. A noise. It is very very faint, but it causes every muscle I have to stiffen, and my hand to fly out and grab May's arm.

I hear a soft...a soft pit-pat? Is that what it is? It's quick, and very light. It does not sound like a zombie for it isn't accompanied by moans and dragging feet, but it is a noise, and in this world, any noise other than one you yourself makes is dangerous.

May

I follow Shaney, clutching the gun and looking around. I miss people. There's one shop across from us- a dress shop! Oh, I can only dream of all the lovely gowns in there! A few are even still in the window, and I smile at a sparkly, long red one.

Someday I'll be big and I can wear that sparkly red dress. And I know I will get big, because Shane will protect me. He'll always protect me. He's like...he's like a papa, and a brother, and a friend, all bundled into one guy. The zombies can come and they can chase us, but we will get away like we always do. I'm not really scared as long as I have him and my gun.

Though, my smile fades when he grabs my arm, and I feel my eyes get big. No. Nonono. What does he see? Is there a zombie out there? I just...I just want to rest.

I stop moving and dare a peek around the corner, only to see-...a...a...no way...

Is that a cat?

A real life kitty?!

Iris was starting to think she'd imagined the voices, or just come across survivors who were exceptionally good at hiding...

Ah. Iris saw a little head poke out. She quickly sprinted in the direction, eager for people. Company that wasn't a smelly, matted former house cat.

What an interesting duo, Iris thought to herself when she turned the corner and spotted them against the wall. A girl, her face spelling out surprise, and a man who's expression gave Iris the feeling that he didn't trust his own shadow.

She decided to rub against the girl's leg, keeping her eyes down, and make an attempt at a meow.S he made the sound based off what she heard from other cats, not from instinct. Sometimes she wish she felt more attached to this body, that she could satisfy and understand and follow instincts the way she did in her human body. But these furry legs and this shaggy tail wasn't her, it was simply the bones and ligaments that followed what she desired.

Shane

The noise turned out to be nothing more than a cat. Impressive that it is still alive.

I frown though, reaching out with one of my legs and nudging the cat away with one of my feet right before it goes to rub up against a delighted May.

"Shoo."

May

I can't help but to smile wide as the kitty comes over to us. Oh, I remember my cat from home! She was fluffy and soft... the zombies got to her, though...

I elbow Shane when he nudges her away. "Oh c'mon, it's just a cat."

"Just walk away from it, May. We have to find shelter for tonight," he murmurs, looking grumpy as usual.

"Butit'ssocute."

"Maybe we could eat it."

"Goodness, no!" I whisper feverishly, bending down and holding a hand down to the shaggy cat, and I can almost feel Shane's dissaproval as he sighs.

Iris

I looked between the two as they disputed over my presence. Sometimes still being human in my head was painful. Rejection hurt, even if it was logical to leave me alone, or to eat me. Maybe I was a cat... but I'm a person, too.

I come closer to the extended hand, giving her fingers a nudge with my nose. I don't dare lick the girl. My mouth is full of the same poison as a zombie's. I wonder if she'd become a cat if she came in contact with it, too, or a zombie. But these are questions to which I'll never have answered, even if I could ask them.

I look into her eyes, and let out a surprisingly normal, loud meow. There. Very catlike. I can make other sounds, too, but not really enough to resemble words, and I don't need them creeped out by the mutant cat yet. Sometimes the eyes get them, though.

"Uung.." comes a voice that is much, much too close behind me, most likely around the corner.

Did I just endanger them? A quick inspection tells me the boy might outrun one, but in a one-on-one fight, this little girl wouldn't even get a start. I panic as only a human would; freeze in place. Hold my breath. Hope that they're at least carrying weapons..