OUTBREAK: ZERO is a semi post-apocalyptic pandemic roleplay set in the fictional city of Lethford, USA. Current season: Winter, 20/21.
March 2020. The world is in pandemonium as one month ago, GHNv-20 was confirmed, five months after the beginning of norovirus season. The number of the infected are in the higher hundred thousands, and the death toll is at an estimated 250,000, with about seventy percent of the rest of the population experiencing mild to moderate illnesses connected to the S. pyogenes bacteria.
The fear of the unknown has caused mass hysteria and panic.
In an attempt to provide a semblance of safety and control, military personnel patrol the streets, even here in Lethford City, and the police force is trying to keep up with the rising street violence, assault, and theft.
Welcome to OUTBREAK: zero. Will you survive?
HAYANA
SITE OWNER + HEAD ADMINISTRATOR
Hi! I'm Haya. I'm pretty much your girl for everything! If you have any questions regarding our plot, membergroups, etc. don't hesitate to ask me. I'm also in charge of coding, graphics, anything skin related, and advertising/affiliates.
GENERAL INQUIRIES
CODING
GRAPHICS
ADVERTISING
CHARACTERS
ADDI
ADMINISTRATOR
Hey! I'm Addi. Hit me up if you need help with anything. I'm always for plotting so don't be shy. I like coffee, booze, and working out. I'm back from a long hiatus the dead so if you need anything, best ask the others until I get back into the groove of things!
GENERAL INQUIRIES
APPLICATIONS
THREAD MODERATION
MEDIATOR
CHARACTERS
FINNLEY
GLOBAL MODERATOR
Hi hello! My name is Finnley, or Finn, call whichever and I'll be there for you (yes like the FRIENDS theme song). I am in charge of the claims and helping with miscellaneous things. Let me know if you have any questions!
GENERAL INQUIRIES
CLAIMS
DIRECTORY
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STAFF NAME
OPEN MODERATOR POSITION
outbreak
/ˈaʊtbreɪk/ zero /ˈzɪərəʊ/
a sudden occurrence of something unwelcome, such as war or disease. number, no quantity or number; nought; the figure 0.
[attr="class","dilyrics3"]two paper moons hanging on the night ceiling sometimes to be seen, or unseen
[attr="class","dilyric3"]as it please
[attr="class","dibody3"]
A yawn escaped her lips, eyes staring blankly at the road ahead of her. She was sitting in the passenger’s seat, her partner driving. Small hands were cupped around the plastic container filled with iced coffee. The ice cubes jiggled and clinked against the cup as they drove over bumps. Another night, another shift never-ending shift.
Artemis checked the GPS coordinated given to them by dispatch. It wasn’t even in the city but outside of it in Lethford Heath, the suburbs. She sighed, before taking a long sip of the cold beverage. Even though she was basically surviving on coffee it would never be enough to keep her awake. The days were long, the shifts difficult and hard. Her eyelids felt heavy and she could have sworn she fell asleep for a second.
As they arrived at the address, the junkyard, she unbuckled her seatbelt, placed the coffee into the cup holder next to her, and opened the door. Dispatch wasn’t able to give them the exact location of the caller nor did they know what injuries or issues they had. The call ended before the 911 operator could ask for more information and they had the call traced back to this place. They didn’t even know if it was a serious call or not but taking these times into consideration they wanted to make sure and went to have a look.
Artemis took off her light jacket before exiting the nice, cool ambulance, jumping out of the vehicle. A wave of heat greeted her and she already missed being inside the car with the air conditioning on. It was great that cars weren’t affected by the power outages, not that the essential businesses were anyway. But if they had to drive around in the summer’s heat without air conditioning? It would be impossible.
Her eyes scanned the surroundings but all she could see was junk, huge piles of junk. Trashed cars, all sorts of debris, kitchen appliances stacked onto each other like a game of Jenga - a pile of cars stacked onto each other like a game of death Jenga. Art was sure they would tipple over once someone just breathed into that direction. Just to make sure she took a few steps away from it, better safe than sorry.
The darkness made it quite hard to see anything, even though the headlights of the ambulance were illuminating the area around it a little. She grabbed her flashlight and turned it on.
Shining her flashlight through the trash she called out loud. “Hello? Is there anyone who called 911? Hello? Anyone here?”
Greg did not work as an E.M.T in an official capacity. He was not supposed to be here, as far as his the hospital was concerned. As usual, his career was not what kept him up tonight. His work for the clinic sent him down unexpected new paths. He found himself performing duties that were unquestionably outside his purview, willingly. So here he was, following up on a tip he’d received from Carmen about someone who might be injured in the junkyard. He didn’t ask how she’d found out; the answer was never going to comfort him, so why ask?
When he arrived, he found the victim. Greg winced. He was drifting in and out of consciousness, and Greg tried to talk to him to keep him lucid. If he was in this condition when Greg had arrived on the scene, who knew how bad it would get by the time help arrived? There were going to be some tough questions to answer. Greg made the call as he got to work patching up the wounds. He kept the details vague on the phone, just firing off the important information before getting back to his patient.
Greg finished adjusting the man’s position, asking him to recall basic facts. No signs of head trauma, but chest trauma was no picnic either. There wasn’t much blood, ruling out the more unsavory options- hopefully, this had just been an accident. Carmen wouldn’t associate with anyone really bad, he told himself. Whoever funded the clinic cared about the humanitarian costs this pandemic had on places like Lethford. They wouldn’t do something like this. Fraud, maybe. He thought it was probably fraud.
Greg checked the man’s breathing, examining for signs of penetration. No bleeding, no visible wounds of any kind. He couldn’t rule out internal trauma, but that wasn’t his job (none of this was his job). Nothing wrong with the breathing yet, no obstruction in the airway…it looked like it could just be musculo-tendinous, but he needed a second opinion. He qualified as a medical professional, but this guy needed a doctor. Greg jumped at the sound of a voice calling out from among the heaps of junk. He stay there, relatively unmoving, hands up in the air, calling out into the darkness. He really hoped this wasn’t going to make the evening news.
“I’m over here! He’s breathing, no sign of blood loss or head trauma, but we need an ambulance, stat!”
[attr="class","dilyrics3"]two paper moons hanging on the night ceiling sometimes to be seen, or unseen
[attr="class","dilyric3"]as it please
[attr="class","dibody3"]
Artemis wrinkled her nose at the slightly disturbing smell of garbage rotting away in the summer heat. But it wasn‘t like she was unfamiliar with it. In fact, she had smelled worse... especially during her time with the police force. Rotten trash was nothing in comparison to rotten corpses. She was about to make a call on the radio to ask dispatch if there was a possibility of this being just some kind of prank call because unfortunately, those happened quite often. Kids thinking it’s fun to call 911 with no real emergencies happening and wasting precious resources for anyone who could need real help. It was awful and horrible at that but maybe she just needed to search the place some more… there still was a chance someone really needed help.
And it didn’t take much longer until she heard someone answer her.
“I’m over here! He’s breathing, no sign of blood loss or head trauma, but we need an ambulance, stat!”
She looked around to see where the voice was coming from amidst the piles of metal scrapes, rusty things and trash. As she pointed her flashlight into the direction she thought was the right one her chocolate eyes caught sight of two figures on the ground. Rushing over to the brunette kneeling beside someone she reached for her radio to make a quick call to Cass who was most likely somewhere on the other side looking.
Looking over her shoulder there was no sign of her partner and Art didn‘t have much with her as they would usually find the other again once needed. She was hoping the radio was working and that he would be nearby. A drop of sweat rolled down her temple. Lifting her upper arm she wiped it away with the sleeve of her shirt.
“Are you the one who called? What happened?” she asked the guy who had called her over, before looking back at the one on the ground. “Sir, can you hear me?” Her fingers went to his throat to check his pulse, her eyes glanced over his body real quick before she unsnapped the stiff-neck to put around his neck. Unresponsive. Her head whipped around, scanning the area in the dark. Even the small flashlight couldn‘t help as she tried to figure out if there were any indicators around as to what happened to him. „Were you with him or did you find him like this?“
Greg glanced up, eyes blinking blearily in the harsh light of her flashlight. He nodded, keeping his hands close to his body but clearly visible. The position would become sore if he had to maintain it for too long, but probably not for the amount of time it would take her to finish questioning him. Just as long as she didn’t decide he was a threat.
“I got a call about this one. An EMT friend, said that she’d heard chatter about a commotion down here. It’s- not really official business, right, but we need to do what we can these days.”
Greg looked appropriately embarrassed by this fact of life: he just had to help, didn’t he? First-line healthcare workers were all that stood between everyone else and death at the hands of this pandemic. She could excuse a little vigilantism. He had obeyed all the other precautions, and he had everything in order. He was allowed to be out here. There was no reason to question the details too much, he hoped. Because if she did, she might wonder what kind of call he’d gotten, exactly.
Greg watched as she checked the patient. No response. He cursed his luck silently. Carmen wouldn’t lead him astray. Her clinic did important work, and this was just a blip. Nothing to worry about. He was helping people, not propping up something worse. They were serving the community where the usual institutions had failed them. His platitudes didn’t help, though. He needed to talk to her as soon as possible.
At the police officer’s question, he refocused on the issue at hand. Patient, on the ground, possibly dying of unknown, invisible injuries. He needed real medical care. Greg cleared his throat. No touching his hair, or his face- he’d trained the impulse out of himself even though it had once been so natural. He shook his head.
“I found him like this. After I came to the junkyard, I found him on the ground. My first thought was that maybe the EMTs just couldn’t afford to make the stop, divert from their usual route. I don’t think he’s having trouble breathing, which rules out some serious issues, but not them all- he needs a second opinion.”
[attr="class","dilyrics3"]two paper moons hanging on the night ceiling sometimes to be seen, or unseen
[attr="class","dilyric3"]as it please
[attr="class","dibody3"]
‘I got a call about this one. An EMT friend, said that she’d heard chatter about a commotion down here. It’s- not really official business, right, but we need to do what we can these days.’
Artemis narrowed her eyes at him for a moment. An EMT friend? If she was still working for the police she would be a little suspicious by now but since she wasn’t, and she was a paramedic, it wasn’t really her business to stick her nose into - not that it would keep her from doing it at some point anyway. But the only thing that was important and mattered to her at this moment was the unconscious man in front of her.
Nevertheless, she listened to him and nodded along, trying to make sense of this situation.
‘I found him like this. After I came to the junkyard, I found him on the ground. My first thought was that maybe the EMTs just couldn’t afford to make the stop, divert from their usual route-’
Artemis suppressed a sigh at the mention of EMTs not being able to afford the stop. It was true. They didn't have enough manpower to cover all calls but they tried. “I don’t think so. We received the call and immediately came here. My partner’s somewhere around here too. He could help but I don’t think we have that much time to spare.” she said, brown eyes flickering between the head and the torso of the man. She slipped on a pair of gloves, which she honestly had forgotten to do before touching the man to check his pulse. A grave mistake these days.
She hovered above him, gently opening each eye and shining her flashlight into it to see if the pupils reacted, then looking at his ears and nose for any blood. Mumbling a bunch of words as she went through her mental checklist of things, Artemis then proceeded to cut open his shirt with the scissors she had at hand, her gaze following down the line to his navel as she looked for bruising. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she was at least 80% certain he wasn’t suffering from any internal bleeding.
“Any idea if he took something? There’s some heavy stuff going around these days.” she asked Greg, looking at him for a brief moment before taking her flashlight and patting down the man’s pockets. She could feel a plastic bag beneath one of them, carefully lifting the fabric and picking out the tiny, clear bag which seemed to be filled with some sort of pills. Nothing she had seen before, nothing she could recognize as official medication but also ruling out known drugs.
Holding it up to further inspect it she held it in front of Greg. “Have you seen this before? You… didn’t take any of this, did you? Look, I’m not a cop. I’m here to help. So feel comfortable to tell me anything you know, otherwise it’ll make it more difficult to save this guys’ life.”
Greg stood firm, trying to look appropriately innocent. He was just a citizen trying to help someone out- the lie benefitted from being mostly true, really, as most of what he displayed was concern for the patient. He nodded when she mentioned her partner, but didn’t interrupt. Better that he not have to deal with more people right now. He still didn’t have a full picture of what could have happened here- just guesses. Besides, she was right; they didn’t have time to wait.
Greg waited, feeling somewhat useless as Artemis checked the patient. It looked like she had the right training, he noted gratefully, despite not being a medical professional. His own skills didn’t quite stretch to emergency situations, so they were both testing themselves under live pressure. At her question, Greg’s heart raced- was that why he’d gotten the call? If his suspicions about the clinic were right…Artemis found a bag of pills, cementing his fears. He needed to find out who exactly he was working for.
“I don’t really know who he is. I’m a nurse, so I checked for what I know to check for. I didn’t think of searching his pockets, sorry. Or maybe I’m not, if that’s evidence.”
Greg racked his brain for whether the victim’s condition could be a symptom of drug abuse. It seemed more likely to be violent crime- he’d known that they were comfortable with grey areas but this- but he wasn’t an expert on this kind of injury. He hoped it had been prescribed, although he didn’t think he should expect it. He examined the bag, squinting at the pills under the flashlight.
“Benzodiazepine is my guess. Prescribed for anxiety, seizures, and withdrawal.”
