↪ b a s i c s ;

N A M E: Brandon Allen Pearce A G E: 23 P L A C E   O F   O R I G I N: Loleta, California G R O U P: V. A. Medical Center O C C U P A T I O N: Hunter F C: Charlie Heaton

❝ I have come one step away from everything. And here I stay, far from everything, one step away. ❞

↪ p e r s o n a l i t y ;

P O S I T I V E   T R A I T S: creative ; independent N E G A T I V E   T R A I T S: withdrawn ; hot-tempered

↪ b i o g r a p h y ;

L I F E   B E F O R E   T H E   O U T B R E A K:

Born in a small tucked away town known for it’s Cheese Factory, Brandon Pearce was an only child born to parents, Samantha and Coy Pearce in 1994. A bundle of joy for a newlywed couple who were high school sweethearts.

Growing up in a small town meant you knew everyone, and everyone knew you. You couldn’t walk down the street without receiving a friendly smile or wave, or ‘Hey, how are your parents doing?’. It was a comfortable place that was close to the coast, and Brandon and his friends spent countless hours on the beach. It offered adventure and possibilities, which was more than could be said bout their small stuffy town

One Winter day during Christmas break when the kids were all twelve-years-old, Brandon and his friends made the trek to the beach. Each of their parents warned them not to turn their back on the water considering the ocean was unpredictable and ‘sneaker waves’ were common, and they’d sweep you off your feet before you could even blink. But boys will be boys and one of Brandon’s friends dared him to go out towards the water until a wave started to come creeping up to the shore and then run away, and although he was hesitant, Brandon eventually agreed to the dare after watching another friend do it and make it back unscathed by the cold water. Long story short, Brandon was unfortunately swept away into the freezing water of the Pacific Ocean and pushed under and into the dark waves, his friends watching in terror as one of the four ran to look for help. Luckily, Brandon was washed up onto the shore and able to crawl away from the dangerous waves that were threatening to sweep him away once again.

Being exposed to both the cold water and weather, Brandon caught pneumonia as well as a severe ear infection from the water in his right ear that remained trapped there as he lay on his side on the sandy shore of the beach. Ultimately the infection leads to Brandon growing almost completely deaf in that ear, but that was something he’d have to live with considering he’d nearly lost his life.

Banned from going to the beach without adult supervision, that lead to a strain on Brandon and his group of friends, not only that, but since Brandon spent a few months recovering and being grounded – he was detached from his friends until the next year and by then they were slowly being distracted by the weight of 7th grade as well as the distraction of girls and exploring dating.

Brandon slowly became more of a recluse and turned to video games for comfort, not to mention it was hard to adjust to the loss of hearing in his right ear, others often teasing him, snapping their fingers by his ear, or whispering behind his back knowing he’d hardly be able to hear them.

Losing his friends wasn’t the only shockwave that shook Brandon’s world, his parents began arguing behind closed doors and eventually got a divorce. And the once sweet, adventurous young boy was slowly dwindling down a path of depression.

Still a minor at 15, Brandon was urged to pack his bags and move out to Wyoming with his mom, to live near her older sister, Danielle, who’d moved out there not too long before the arguing between his parents began.

It was hard to settle into a new town, in a new state, and this only fed, Brandon’s reclusiveness.

He began rebelling against his mom by staying out late and staying away from the house in general. And although he would stay out of trouble (his outings mostly consisting of visiting the local bookstore where he’d read comics and read any book that piqued his interest) he stopped doing his homework, and this led to his grade dropping and his mom forced him to go to counseling until he graduated high school and was no longer considered a minor.

Some may say that Brandon was simply a selfish teen who needed a dose of reality, his counselor concluded that his behavior was normal for a child of divorce, and although the counseling didn’t solve the behavioral issues completely, he at least managed to graduate high school with a passing overall grade. Skating by in his own world, where he refused to align himself with many people.

L I F E   D U R I N G   T H E   O U T B R E A K:

Brandon had plans to go back to California and live with his dad, go to college at Humboldt State and reconnect with people he’d known most of his life. His mom, although upset she and her son had disconnected from one another over the years after she and his father divorced, she was still supportive of Brandon and wanted him to have a good life, so if he wanted to go live with his dad, she was going to support that decision even if it did break her heart.

They were on their way to the airport when news of the outbreak interrupted the music that was playing on the radio. Immediately Brandon laughed, was this an attempt to re-enact the fear that grabbed a hold of the world when radio stations began to pretend H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds was actually happening in the 30′s as a Halloween special?

His mom, however, didn’t find it as humorous as he did, and all it took was a moment of distraction for her to merge slightly onto the right-hand lane of the highway and collide with another car that had been in her blind spot, forcing both of the cars off the road and into a ditch after the car flipped multiple times, Brandon immediately lost consciousness after banging his head against the car door window (which ultimately ends up saving his life).

The ambulance had been called by a witness to the accident, but all ambulances were already out on call due to the multiple incidents involving the outbreak.

Brandon woke to a killer headache and the weight of his body pulling at the seatbelt as he and his mom remain upside down after flipping over into the ditch. He looks over at her, she’s covered in blood but he can still see her chest rising and falling with slow, even breaths.

Brandon and his mom managed to make it out of the car, however, the other driver of the car they’d collided with hadn’t been so lucky, and that was the first time they both realized the radio broadcast wasn’t a joke.

Both of them were in a daze after that, seeing the man upside down, reaching out towards them, a shard of glass protruding out from his neck, his eyes white as if he had cataracts, and the sickening sound of the growls that emitted from the man were animalistic. It was truly a nightmare to witness.

But they managed to hobble towards a neighborhood in the dark, where they broke into a house (Brandon’s idea) and set up camp for the night. They were weak and injured and his mom was growing weaker by the second.

L I F E   A F T E R   T H E   O U T B R E A K:

Although he’d never tell you, Brandon ended up having to kill his mom once she fell asleep that first night and woke up as something completely different. That alone was enough to change Brandon from the rebellious young adult he was turning into. At first, he was riddled with anxiety and depression, he’d holed up in the house with the body of his mother who he’d tucked away in the closet so he wouldn’t have to see her. He wanted to die, but every time he went out to look for supplies and ran into trouble, his flight instinct kicked into high gear and he managed to get away or fight his way out of a sticky situation. Essentially he was on auto-pilot, doing what he needed to do to survive no matter what it took.

His weapon of choice was a sturdy tree branch he carved a point onto at the end.

The last thing he wanted was to find a group of people to be with, he hated the idea of being responsible for others in a world collapsing into ruin, but he’d happened along the Cheyenne VA Medical center by chance. He’d been holding out in the woods nearby when he watched two people with guns walk underneath the tree he’d set up camp in for the night, and he followed them, intending to see where they came from with intention to steal from them, he was low on food and from the appearance of the two walking underneath him they seemed to be in rather good physical shape, whilst he was wasting away from the lack of meals.

He didn’t get far in his excursion into the building he’d followed the two in before he was spotted and although he didn’t want to be a part of a group, he eventually came back to the building after managing to escape and live on his own for a couple more weeks before he gave in and went back. Agreeing to be a part of the group as long as he didn’t have to work with many others, being a Hunter was the best gig.

He could do his own thing, but his plan was to eventually leave the group and head out towards California and try and find his father if he was still alive.

Saturday, we got into an argument in the morning :( Basically I'm dumb and suck butt sometimes. But then we got over it and I went and got my cartilage pierced :O It hurt a wittle bit, but I didn't cry cause I'm a champ obvvvvs! There's not a whole lot to do in Wildwood other than walk the boardwalk, go to the beach and get drunk. My friends from Raritan were down there, and we met up with them that night.

Basically, me, Katie and Madi were wrecked by like, 6pm. What's really good. Katie jumped out of a window, me and Will won beer pong (I only remember making one cup), Will tried to feed me pizza and I somehow got it all over him, we went to buy shot glasses and took some shottts, Katie asked for pizza like, 10 different times, we locked Madi, Katie and their boyfriends in a bedroom because they were drunk :P And me, Will, Tina and Scott went to play skeeball. I was a bit drunk bahaha, but it was all goood. I wanna go back again. Ok, that's all.