Project Hail Mary: Outbreak - SuperBloodyColtLandGentry
@goofyahhcomiover Bestie, I locked tf in.
My SuperBloodyColtLandGentry (Jesus, that's a mouthful) Zombie Apocalypse AU character profiles/story:
Ryland was at school when the outbreak started. He barricaded his room and quickly called the principal and told her to send the school into lockdown after an infected crashed into one of his windows (but didn't break through).
Due to his quick thinking, the school was able to sufficiently barricade themselves and became a fortress of sorts, with everyone congregated in the gymnasium.
After a few weeks, a chopper landed on the roof and military officers came in demanding to speak with a Dr. Ryland Grace. When he went to go talk to them, he was taken at gunpoint to the helicopter and flown to a nearby military base where he meets Eva Stratt.
He's told that he is needed to find a cure to this infection. The only problem? He needed to go out to collect samples from infected, as well as from an unknown young woman who was spotted weeks ago covered in various healed bite marks and who showed no signs of infection.
Initially, he refuses Eva Stratt's decision:
"I'm just a school teacher, my kids need me!"
"Your students will be taken care of, Dr. Grace. Right now, the world needs you."
Eventually, he is all but forced into going. After all, this mysterious, immune woman could be a once in a lifetime scientific discovery! And also, y'know, she could get them a cure for the world or something.
And his bodyguard-soldiers seem pretty cool. And why is one of them kinda handsome...
Status: Infected (but not fully?)
Simon grew up in a doomsday cult obsessed with the apocalypse, but ran away at 18 to join the military. Now that the apocalypse has happened, he's starting to think that maybe his old cult wasn't as crazy as he thought.
Gets assigned to "Project Hail Mary" as a guard for this dorky scientist dude named Ryland Grace.
When the two leave the military compound, they are also joined by two other soldiers, Yáo Li-Jie and Olesya Ilyukhina. The reason their squad is so small is that groups larger than four tend to attract hordes easier.
Unfortunately, a week into their expedition, they are attacked by an infected, and Yao and Ilyukhina are both killed while Simon is bitten on his left arm.
Simon manages to kill the infected and drag himself and Grace somewhere safe. He tells Grace that the arm has to go to avoid infection.
Grace amputates. He pukes several times during and afterwards.
The two can't risk returning to the military base, as the way back is swarming with infected, so they continue on, collecting tissue samples from various infected that they find dead along the way.
As the days roll into a week, and then two, Simon begins to notice strange things happening to him. For one, he feels stronger than ever despite being down a limb, and two, he feels a strange hunger that cannot be satisfied by food. In fact, even the thought of food turns his stomach. But that recently killed human....
No, what the hell is he thinking? Him? Eat a human??
But the hunger persists, and his cheek begins to itch, and itch, and itch, until one day he wakes up to Grace's scream and when he asks what's wrong, Grace points at his cheek, and when Simon feels it with his hand, he finds two rows of long sharp teeth jutting out like a second mouth.
Turns out, the infection had spread, despite the loss of his limb, but it seemed.... docile? Like sure, he craved human flesh, and the undead hordes no longer targeted him, but he wasn't a mindless corpse like the other infected.
And how come this cute dorky scientist was looking at him with a crazed-look in his eye. Why is he pulling out a syringe and his portable microscope??
Simon reluctantly lets Grace take some samples from him.
When they get back on the move, they notice that it's significantly easier to move around, for Simon at least. He's faster, stronger, and the undead hordes pay him no mind. So Grace will hang back while Simon will go get supplies or scout ahead.
While out walking, a blur jumps out from an alleyway and lands in front of them, startling them both and...
Is that a girl carrying a fire axe?
Mental Health: 85% || 100%
Kara woke up hungover after a three day alcohol binge to the world in chaos. And honestly? She doesn't really give a shit.
Gets her hands on a fire axe and goes to town on the undead, essentially. Krypto helps.
It also doesn't hurt that apparently, she can't be infected. Who'da thunk?
She travels along with Krypto for weeks, avoiding infected hordes and military soldiers with surprising ease despite the fact that 9 times out of 10, she's drunk off her ass on whatever liquor she's managed to scavenge from the stores.
Hey, just cause it's the end of the world doesn't mean she can't have a good time.
Until one day, she stumbles across this weird blond dude and HOLY SHIT WHY WAS HE WALKING WITH AN INFECTED??
Before she can use her axe to kill the undead, the blond guy jumps in front of him and frantically explains that his friend wasn't actually infected, but he was, but he really wasn't, but- aaaaaaand Kara is confused.
Turns out they had been looking for her because her DNA could be the missing link to the cure they've been searching for.
Grace's current equipment is insufficient to do what he needs, so she agrees to go with them to a local hospital/research center.
And hey, why were there shadows moving around on the upper floors?
Court was with Claire when the outbreak started. He was able to call in a few favors with some people in the CIA to get her and her uncle out, but unfortunately, her uncle is killed by an infected, leaving him to care for Claire.
They're taken to a refugee camp, where he's tackled by a British woman who thinks that he's her husband. When he explains that he isn't, he learns that the woman's name is Jody and that she's... MARRIED TO HIS LITTLE BROTHER COLT?!?!
She tells him about how the two of them got separated at the airport and how she wants to go find him but the military won't let her leave.
Court tells her that if she promises to take care of Claire, he will get out and find her husband (and also hopefully, his other little brother, Ryland.)
She agrees, and so he leaves Claire, promising that he'll be back, before stealing a guard's uniform, weapon, and humvee, and escapes the camp to find his brothers.
He spends weeks searching and killing any infected he comes across, checking each very carefully to ensure that one of them isn't his brother. Either of them.
Until one day, he's exploring an old abandoned building, and suddenly, there's a battle cry and he's tackled from above. He quickly throws off the attacker, only to see... HIS BROTHER??? HOLDING... what is that, like, a guitar-spear-gun thingy?
Unfortunately, his brother now has a jagged gash cutting across his back from a protruding piece of wood or metal or something. Fortunately, there's an abandoned hospital/research lab nearby that surely has medical supplies to be able to treat it.
Colt was separated from his wife Jody upon their plane's arrival back to the United States after finishing Metalstorm, right as the outbreak was occurring.
Jody gets sent to one refugee camp, and Colt gets sent to another.
Well, he can't have that. He just got her back, goddamnit.
So he sneaks out in the dead of night and attempts to make his way to her camp. Problem: He doesn't know where it is.
So he wanders. Helping people out, asking if they know of another refugee camp nearby.
When he hears of one two cities over, he resolutely decides to journey there. On foot. Hooooo-boy.
While hiding out in an abandoned building, he hears staggering footsteps downstairs, a thud, and a groan.
An infected was inside and it was beginning to climb the stairs.
Well, he certainly wasn't gonna wait for it to come upstairs and kill him.
So he grabs the laser bayonet he had taken with him from the set of Metalstorm, charges towards the railing of the stairs and throws himself over, tackling the infected from above.
Only to promptly get thrown off and sent flying, his body scraping over an exposed piece of wood or metal or something and leaving a giant gash across his back.
And then suddenly his older brother is standing over him, panicked and apologizing.
Well, it's a good thing there's a hospital/research lab nearby.
The two make their way there and Court helps to bandage him up.
As the two begin to explore the halls, they are caught off guard when the doors at the other end of a hallway fly open and a group charges in. They're expecting the undead and instead:
What the hell was his twin brother doing here and oH MY GOD THAT'S AN INFECTED KILL IT KILL IT--
Or not. Why is it not attacking Ryland??? AND WHY IS IT LOOKING AT HIM LIKE A LOVESICK PUPPY?!
Speaking of puppies. Why is there a random blonde girl with a dog here?
What the hell is going on????
Suddenly, they all hear barking from a room down another hallway.
Rocky, a Jack Russell Terrier, and Adrian, a large black mastiff. Madly in love with each other. Concerned for their stupid humans, hostile towards threats; both infected and uninfected, but largely unbothered by the apocalypse.
The two had found shelter in the hospital/research center after having spent weeks on the street. The infected didn't usually go out of their way to attack dogs unless they were really hungry, and even then, dogs were immune, as it was a largely human-oriented virus.
Rocky is obsessed with his partner, and Adrian is equally as obsessed with their tiny little boyfriend.
When they smelled the scent of humans, they began to bark to get their attention. When the group opened the door to their room, they also caught the scent of an infected, but its scent carried a distinctly human quality to it, so clearly it must be friendly.
Rocky and Adrian decided in that moment: These were their humans now. They were gonna stick with them.
Using samples of both Kara and Simon's DNA, Grace is able to synthesize a cure for the virus.
Unfortunately, the cure can only be used on those who've recently been bitten. If the infection is over a week old, the virus is ineffective.
Grace is secretly happy about this, because he likes Simon's new mutations. He likes his new strength, and speed, and endurance, and mouth aaaaaand holy moly he has a problem.
The group then follows Court to his humvee he had parked a ways away, and they all head back to the military compound, where scientists immediately begin creating a cure that can immunize everybody and prevent future infections, which allows the military to better deal with the hordes of infected.
The group is flown to the refugee camp with Jody and Claire, and Colt and Court are both reunited with their loved ones.
The group decides to set out on their own and make their way back to Grace's school.
Simon acts as their scout, surveyor, and first line of defense, while Colt and Court back him up as the second line of defense. Rocky is good at scrounging up small game for the group to eat, while Adrian acts as a great guard dog. Although, should anyone with ill-intent approach their humans, both will go into defense mode.
Eventually, they make it back to the school, and Grace reveals that Stratt gave him permission to administer the immunization to everybody there.
And slowly but surely, the world starts to heal.
Scrapped Colt bullet points that I found too funny not to share:
He's attempting to find Jody. Instead he found his older brother whom he thought was in prison, his twin brother, his twin brother's bodyguard (Boyfriend? Unclear), a random college girl and her dog, and two random stray dogs. All in all, not the weirdest cast of characters he's seen, but it's certainly up there.
Good at scouting along rooftops and hand to hand combat.
Also, shoutout to @goofyahhcomiover! Thank you for coming up with this AU and inspiring me to write for it (and all other AUs). I know you said that you had brain worms for it too, but the brain worms infected me earlier and I had to get them out so here we are.
It's at times like these I wish I was good at drawing, because I have such clear concepts for what all of the characters look like in this AU BUT I CAN'T DRAW THEM.
Also, obligatory, "this got out of hand."
