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
CHARACTERS
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"]Your lips feel warm to the touch You can bring me back to life On the outside you're ablaze and alive But
[attr="class","dilyric3"]you're dead inside
[attr="class","dibody3"]
After months and the reappearance of Lara Demetri’s suspension had been lifted and he collected his badge and duty weapon at the station earlier today. It was a strange feeling to be back. It was even more strange to walk into a different units’ office. He had been with the narcotics unit since passing the detective’s exam. They were more like family than anything else. Transferring was like starting over again but at least it would help him to those cases approved for investigation, something his old unit wouldn’t have been able to do without evidence to anything drug-related.
His first official day back would be tomorrow so today he would opt for a solitary investigation just like he had done the past few months. The number of victims was growing and they still haven’t found any connections or traces. The victimology was still too random and the last known one he found out about was another student. Considering the job issue these days he could imagine someone offering them money for something which a lot of people would be desperate enough now to take for anything. It would explain the number of ordinary people.
Students who used to work in the service industry which was affected the most by both the curfew and the power cut but also housewives who want to support their husbands who lost their jobs or whose hours have been cut by doing home office. The homeless were just regular easy targets but having the need for a mixed pool of victims they needed other options. However, all of it was just theories Demetri had come up with during his time suspended and from the little clues he was able to collect.
There was no evidence, no clear modus operandi, nothing even slightly suspicious. The places the victims were last seen mostly had CCTV recording but they always moved towards a blind spot the cameras didn’t catch. It seemed carefully planned and executed despite the lack of everything - but then again, it showed how professional they worked. It wasn’t just any organized crime-related case.
Hazel eyes scanned the list of addresses and shop names on his phone, a list of CCTVs he needed to check. Now that he was officially put back to his position with the police force it made work much easier though. Having to convince store owners and car owners to show him or make a copy of their records was difficult. Almost none believed him when he told them he was a detective without a badge. Most of the time a bit of money was solving the issue but sometimes even that would get declined and he needed the help of an officer friend.
He walked down the street, his gaze moving towards the numbers on the buildings until he spotted the one he was looking for - a carpenter store. Without hesitation he pushed open the door and entered the store, taking out his badge to flash at whoever was working there. "LCPD. I need to look at your CCTV you have on the door." he said, pointing at the camera in the corner seemingly recording everything happening outside of the storefront.
Adrien had been busy. Working to the point that his hands ached and his feet were sore every day when he almost crawled back to his place. Ever since the raids a few months back, Lethford had been trying its best to rebuild. City Hall, the general hospital, the police station, and many more places. He had personally worked in each one. And while he was skilled at what he did, he also knew that the store needed actual help.
So two days a week, he'd be stuck in the store to help behind the counter with setting up appointments and just general overview of the place. Gives others a break from being stuck behind the counter. And today, he had one of the young kids in the store working. Which didn't really mean much in the way of socializing. The kid was constantly on his phone texting or playing games or mindless scrolling through some social media site. It was also comical that Adrien felt the need to call the guy a kid, seeing as he was only five years younger than Adrien himself.
Adrien was in the back of the shop when he heard the door open, a bell above the door sounding. He didn't make any effort to move out of where he was. The kid out front should be more than capable of answering the questions they were used to hearing at this point. 'Are you guys still working?' 'When's the next available appointment?' 'Do you have all the supplies you would need?' 'I want it done now!' Yes, weeks out at this point, yes or we can order them, and get out. Simple answers to all those questions.
There was a small conversation, Adrien not actually able to hear the words used but that there was an exchange happening between the kid and another man. Little did Adrien know, the kid was actually out there stumbling over his words and telling a police officer that he didn't have access to CCTV information to be able to review these tapes. And the fact that the kid seemed to also forget that there was someone else in the shop. After a moment, Adrien decided he was curious enough to get up and pop his head around the corner.
"Everything alright out here?" He asked, looking over the man on the other side of the corner. "Uh, he says he's with the police... and wants to see the cameras. But like, I don't know how those things work." Adrien blinked at the kid for a moment. It was a camera... it wasn't rocket science. He stared at him for a moment before looking to the other man again. "Adrien," He said, coming around to offer a hand over the counter. "You are with Lethford police? What do you need the tapes for?"
[attr="class","dilyrics3"]Your lips feel warm to the touch You can bring me back to life On the outside you're ablaze and alive But
[attr="class","dilyric3"]you're dead inside
[attr="class","dibody3"]
Demetri’s eyes wandered around the store while he waited for the clerk at the front desk to finish his ramblings about not knowing how to get the footage for him. Trying to suppress a sigh his gaze flickered back to the boy. He didn’t seem like he could be much help being as helpless himself as he was. "Is there anyone else I can speak to?" he asked, but before the boy could answer someone else appeared behind the desk.
"You are with Lethford police? What do you need the tapes for?”
He watched the man put out a hand, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly at the usually common gesture. He wasn’t going to say anything about it, comment on it, or make a remark… instead he just kept silent and offered him a small head nod as greeting rather than shaking a stranger’s hand. "Detective Hawtrey. We are currently investigating a couple of cases. I can’t really disclose any information to you but we are collecting the CCTV footage of all stores and cars for evidence." he stated, giving the other employee a quick once over before brushing his jacket aside to show his badge. He nodded at the camera pointing at the entrance door and windows.
His hand moved up to the small pocket at the top of his shirt, taking out a small note book and a pen. "How long do you safe your footage? I would need anything dating back to the beginning of the year." Demetri asked, clicking the pen to start scribbling down any notes.
Leaning slightly back he looked over to the other side of the store. His view was blocked by several shelves but nothing out of the ordinary. He turned back to the two guys in front of him, dark eyebrows raised in mere curiosity. Tracking down suspects, victims, anyone, through video footage was a lot of work and he was already not feeling too eager to watch hundreds of hours of civilians walking up and down the street. Perhaps he could save time if there was another possibility. "Do you have a backdoor?"
Adrien let his hand linger in the air between himself and the policeman. At first, he was a little put off until he remembered that hand shakes were no longer deemed acceptable by the department of health. He made a small 'ah' sound and pulled his hand back, stuffing both of them into his pockets as if to help remind himself that this was not the good ol' days. Handshakes could transmit disease now, and with the fact that Lethford was the hot spot, well, it was extremely unacceptable. And this guy looked like he didn't have any cares in the world to be dealing with him.
He stood casually as this Detective Hawtrey went on his little spiel on the fact that he needed the tapes and that, of course, it was classified as to why. Giving the bare minimum information and yet just enough to make it sound official. And then the brush aside of his jacket to flash a badge. Adrien narrowed his dark gaze on it for a moment. It seemed official enough, didn't look out of shape or that it was picked up from an online party store. And in the next movement, there was a pad of paper and pen out. He felt like they were straight out of a tv drama.
"How long do you save your footage? I would need anything dating back to the beginning of the year."
He clicked his tongue at that. "Hate to disappoint you Detective, but we only save it for thirty days before it's taped back over." It wasn't like they were some big retailer that needed to keep footage for a long time. And even some of them didn't keep things longer than ninety days either. But thirty days was better than nothing right? He would like to think so. "I can burn you a copy of what we do have." As long as the guy had a business card or something so he could keep it on file who he had given such tapes to.
"Do you have a backdoor?"
Adrien looked back where Demetri was, his line of sight was also block, but in the way back, there was an 'emergency exit' as well. "Emergency exit." He offered, nodding his head in a 'follow me' gesture before he started his own pace towards the door. It didn't have an alarm bar that would set off a loud noise if opened, but it was marked as one and had a bright green 'exit' sign above it. "Pretty sure there's a camera that points at the back door from the outside as well. If that interests you at all." He said, pushing the door open for the detective to take a look at the back ally and whatever else he might want to look at.
[attr="class","dilyrics3"]Your lips feel warm to the touch You can bring me back to life On the outside you're ablaze and alive But
[attr="class","dilyric3"]you're dead inside
[attr="class","dibody3"]
Demetri let out a frustrated sigh. Of course, it was either that or the cameras were broken. They were most of the time presented with an excuse that the cameras weren’t working. He kind of expected it already but he kept a tiny bit of hope in case they did function. "Thirty days." he repeated after Adrian, tapping the pen against his notebook. "That’s fine. I’ll take a copy of it anyway." Better than nothing, he thought, even though he would have preferred more months. At least it was a start. Perhaps he was lucky enough to find something on it anyway.
The detective nodded and proceeded to follow the guy towards the back of the store, his gaze moving up to the exit sign. He glanced over his shoulder towards the entrance, which was blocked just like the emergency exit was earlier, taking notes or rather scribbling a quick outline of the store, marking the entrance and the exit as well as the front counter. He made sure to take mental notes of the interior as he walked to the back but nothing really stood out to him. The store itself didn’t spark much interest in him either way. It was the outside that was important.
He pushed past the brunette, stepping outside into the alley. Looking left and right first to take in the alley itself he stepped further out before turning around to look up at the camera he mentioned. "I'll take a copy of this one too. Do you know how much of the backdoor it captures? Or how much of the area around it?" he questioned, writing down some more notes before he put the notebook back to where it came from, keeping the pen in his hand.
His attention went back to the alley as he moved towards a duo of trash cans, opening the lid. He grimaced ever so slightly at the smell coming from the trash, scrunching his nose before putting the lid back on. Demetri dropped down into a crouch, poking something on the ground with his pen to roll it over. "Did you see any suspicious activity around here? Anything that could have possibly stood out? A fight between someone? A vehicle?" he asked, twisting his upper body so he could look at him.
• Adrien gave a small shrug of his shoulders. “System overwrites the previous month as it goes. I told the owner he should switch it to sixty or ninety days but I am still pretty new here. So my suggestions are pretty much falling on deaf ears.” He told the police officer. He could imagine how annoying that could be. If he was asking for such a long time period, he was sure that he was getting a lot of the same answers. Camera system is broken, it doesn’t go back that far, etc.
He didn’t pause long anywhere, even when Demetri seemed to linger back a little. His pen making quick marks on the page of his notebook as he went about. He was sure that he was probably taking down either an inventory or cliff notes of either what he was saying or what the place looked like. It wasn’t anything spectacular. But it was his place of work.
Adrien nodded lightly when he mentioned wanting those tapes as well. “It covers mainly the back door about probably just short of halfway of the alley there.” He pointed to about the spot he was guessing the video actually cut off. He only had seen this angle once or twice. just when they had an issue with a delivery and needed to confirm times and what not. So he wasn’t exactly an expert on it.
His eyes were trained on the detective, who was apparently going to do a whole investigation now instead of just taking the videos and going. Guess thats why he was not just some average joe cop that had come to collect them. He leaned his shoulder into the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest. “I mean, with this day and age, everything can fit that bill, Detective.” He said with one shoulder shrugging softly. “We had some issues with delivery a few weeks back. Truck driver said that there were people blocking the start of the alley and they couldn’t get through to be on time. But I am not sure how true it was. They were over an hour late.” Sounded like a pathetic excuse to him.
[attr="class","dilyrics3"]Your lips feel warm to the touch You can bring me back to life On the outside you're ablaze and alive But
[attr="class","dilyric3"]you're dead inside
[attr="class","dibody3"]
‘So my suggestions are pretty much falling on deaf ears.’
That made two of them. Although, it wasn’t because Demetri was new. He wasn’t. And he wasn’t just a nobody in his former unit but still… due to the lack of evidence and victims his superior subsequently decided against opening a new case for it. It wasn’t much of a big deal at the beginning when everything seemed to have just started. But as months passed even them slowly came to realize it could be more than just some strange coincidences and even though, they haven’t discovered a body and there still was no sign of clear victimology or modus operandi, the Missing Persons Unit took that case and made it a top priority. He was hoping they could find some clues soon.
Demetri narrowed his eyes at Adrien, eyebrows softly drawn together in a questioning look. "A delivery truck?" he repeated, and even though his tone was raised as if he had asked a question he was more talking to himself than to the guy at the door. Scribbling down the two words on the paper he thought about the possibilities.
A delivery truck. Did it make sense? Maybe. It would be fairly easy to disguise a truck or any vehicle as some sort of company car. Add a uniform with self-made prints ironed on it, a name tag from the dollar store, and some empty boxes posing as packages. But it would also be too flashy, people would surely remember - just like Adrien did. However, even if the company was fake and not trackable there could be enough witnesses and CCTV footages to find them, and run their faces through the system.
He got up from the squat, turning around to look into the direction the brunette had pointed at earlier. "Do you know if there are any homeless or junkies frequenting this area? Did that truck driver mention who was blocking the alley?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder for a moment. His eyes moved from the ground to each side of the alley and last but not least the far end of it. There wasn’t much to see. It wasn’t big, quite narrow, he wondered what size that delivery truck was.
There were multiple trash cans and containers along the sides of it, some of them thrown over with their contents spilling out. He saw pieces of old food around them, looking as if something dragged it away and gnawed on it. Strays. There really wasn’t anything uncommon to see.
His pen touched the paper again, sketching a quick outline of the alley and marking viable exit spots. Letting out a soft sigh the detective turned his attention back to the carpenter. "That guy working at the front desk earlier…" he started, hazel eyes fixing on Adrien, "He seemed a little nervous when I arrived." Demetri commented, clicking his pen before putting it as well as his note pad back inside the pocket those came from. "Is he always like this?"
Adrien was suddenly finding this to be quite draining, this interaction. He wished he had stayed in the back and not come out to help the new kid in the front. With everything he had already said, he now pictured that he would be a rather frequented place. Whether from Demetri here or some other cop or detective. His boss was going to chew his ear off about it. He should have only offered the tapes and called it a day. This was beyond his job description, beyond his pay grade. As he watched the questioning roll through his face, he knew that a slew of questions were going to be fired his way.
A soft shrug of his shoulders happened and his face was towards the ground, none of his annoyance showing as he thought about the question. "I'm not really the best one to answer those things. I just moved here a few months back. Just started working here a month or so ago." He told him. He was still not used to the regulars or even the neighbors around the shop. "So about those tapes?" He asked, pointing a thumb over his shoulder to try and encourage him to come back inside and let Adrien do what he had said he was going to do. Which was collect those.
"Is he always like this?"
Adrien narrowed his eyes lightly, that was quite forward to ask someone like him. Someone who had no rapport with the man. He looked briefly back inside at the kid that was busying himself with restocking something on a shelf. "He's a kid." He started before his eyes turned back to Demetri to give him a somewhat hard look. "Sometimes people flipped badges in others faces makes them nervous. Anything can and will be used against them, isn't that part of the statement you all had to memorize at some point?" He hit him with that statement. Clearly making it known that he didn't like the tone.
He took a step back inside, more determined now to get those tapes and hand them over. The quicker he did, the quicker this could be over. "Besides, he just started working here. He has no idea how half this stuff works." He tried to soften his tone at that point, because with how he was reacting, he had a feeling that the questions were about to turn back to him. And he really didn't want to play twenty questions. "And to your earlier question, the driver only said it was a few people. Didn't elaborate and we didn't ask as we were scrambling to get that delivery inside."
[attr="class","dilyrics3"]Your lips feel warm to the touch You can bring me back to life On the outside you're ablaze and alive But
[attr="class","dilyric3"]you're dead inside
[attr="class","dibody3"]
A little disappointed the detective lowered his arms, taking one last look at the alleyway before tucking in his notepad and pen back into a pocket. Bummer, he thought to himself. For some reason, no matter where his investigations and tips led him they always ended up being not useful. In this case, a potential witness ended up being useless. He wasted his time, and the guy’s time most likely. “Sure, the tapes… both cameras and all the footage you have if you don’t mind.”
Demetri gave him a small shrug at Adrien’s answer to his question. It might be just a kid to some but a potential suspect was a potential suspect. Criminals didn’t always look like one would imagine them. No, they came in all sorts of appearances and variations. Some might look rough, tough, and be the size of a bear. Others might look like a nerd returning from their weekly game card match.
Unless proven otherwise Demetri wasn’t going to let go of any possibilities. “You seem like you’re not a big fan of the police, hm?” he wondered quietly, shaking his head softly. “Look, this is a very serious matter. I don’t care about your thoughts on it but I do appreciate the help.” And just because the kid just started working there didn't mean he wasn’t up to no good prior to this job.
He returned the carpenter’s hard look at the following remark, lips forming a thin line as he bit back a harsh answer forming on the tip of his tongue. Of course, he couldn’t forget he was ‘on duty’, and since his last suspension he couldn’t afford even just a brawl with a citizen. Hell, especially not with a citizen who seemed to be out for law enforcement officials these days anyway.
Without hesitation, he followed the guy inside. “Do you mind if I stay here while you get those tapes?” he asked, although it wasn’t really meant to be a question. Hence, he didn’t bother to wait for an answer as he made his way over to the front desk where the kid was. He said something to him, glancing over his shoulder towards Adrien, and said something else before sliding over his card with his police department information and phone number, leaning against the counter while he waited for the tapes. He thought about bugging the kid some more but he doubted he would be able to tell him much.
