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.
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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!
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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!
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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","CONTENT"] Liam was more than confused as he stared at his phone’s screen with the number of a local hospital popping up. Did his brother get himself into trouble again? Nevertheless, he didn’t have a good feeling about it but he picked up. There wasn’t much of a choice. A call from a hospital would usually imply something important was going on and he was needed for that matter to be solved. Whatever that was.
He answered his phone before it had a chance to go to the mailbox, listening to the voice on the other end in sheer disbelief. Blinking at the black screen once he hung up, Liam tried to gather his thoughts. Even though someone like him should be prepared for worst-case scenarios, personal issues always hit differently - harder. Especially when it concerned his wife.
Without further thought, he rose from his chair, threw on his leather jacket, and grabbed his car keys. "I’ll be right back." he called over to one of his unit members before storming out of the police department’s main building. The time that passed between getting into his car, driving over to the hospital which wasn’t too far away from the station, and pulling up into the parking lot felt like just a few seconds. He sat there, engine off, keys out, hand resting on the door handle of his car.
He should know what to expect once he walked through these doors. This wasn’t the first time… but it wasn’t supposed to happen again. Swallowing hard and letting out a frustrated sigh he got out of his car, booted heels carrying him over to the emergency room. He pulled the black LCPD mask over his nose before entering and made use of the sanitizer offered at the front desk. "I’m here for my wife. Olivia Ford? Someone called me earlier." One of the nurses, wearing full protective gear, showed him the way and he followed silently.
There was a wave of disappointment that washed through him from head to toe as he opened the door, spotting her blonde hair on the bed. Liam paused in the doorway before announcing his arrival with a knock on the frame.
"We haven’t seen each other for so long and this is where we have to meet again?"
Light filtered in through her closed eyelids and Olivia groaned. Her body ached in the familiar way that it did when she had come down too hard. Her head swam, her arms and legs felt like they were filled with lead...but the bed beneath her felt just a little scratchy. And when she turned her head there was a sound like the pillow was wrapped in paper. That's when the smells invaded her. It smelled like copper and cleaning solution and lemon. The smell is what brought her to her senses. "oh God, no!" Liv shot up, trying to pull at the IV in her arm as the need to get out of the hospital became urgent.
Somewhere a nurse was calling for aid and then there were hands on her shoulders as two of them pressed her back down onto the bed and explained that she was at the hospital, she had overdosed, but that she would be okay. Liv grit her teeth and cursed at them, trying to fight back but far too weak to do much. Instead it left her flailing a little bit and giving up after a moment when her vision blurred and dizziness forced her to press her head back against the pillow with a paper case. Her arm was bleeding from where she had pulled out the IV and the two nurses that had held her down were strapped her arms and then feet down so that they could place the IV again in a new spot.
Olivia refused to look at them as she spoke, asking how long it had been and when she could leave. They explained that it had been 12 hours since she was found and that they had called her husband.
The thrashing began again.
She started to cry and hated herself for it. "He didn't need to be called! You didn't have my consent for that!" they said that he was her emergency contact and that it was procedure and she shook her head angrily until the iv was back in and then jerked against the restraints to be released. They made a deal, she promised not to touch it, and then they released her. She rubbed at her wrists, where they were red from her pulling, and then laid back as the nurses set out to leave her be. That's when the dread settled in. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and not at all hearing the movement at the door. Only when Liam spoke did she realize he was there.
She stiffened a touch and opened her eyes. For a second she watched him, not even really believing he was there. Any lesser of a man wouldn't have come. She wished he hadn't. Olivia curled her knees up, a subconscious attempt to make herself appear smaller so that maybe he would overlook her, and spoke, "I didn't ask them to call you. They shouldn't have called you." she reached up and pushed at her hair, suddenly very aware of her appearance, likely dishevelled and shameful, "but if you're here...maybe you could help me get out of here? I'm fine, it's all just a misunderstanding."
[attr="class","CONTENT"] Liam had his gaze fixed on her, even though she seemed trying to avoid him. The longer he looked at her, taking in her feeble appearance as she sat there on the hospital bed, the dryer his mouth started feeling. There were so many things he wanted to say in that moment, so many words that bounced around inside his head, so many thoughts he kept for himself. But as he looked at her he couldn’t bring himself to say anything at all.
‘I didn't ask them to call you. They shouldn't have called you.’
A scoff left his lips before he stepped inside the room, closing the door behind him. Suddenly all the words that couldn’t manage to make it out of his lips started blurting out like a waterfall. Frustration, anger, sadness, disbelief. Everything just overcame him all at once. A cocktail of emotions he definitely didn’t expect.
"Yeah, you’re right. They shouldn’t have called me. Do you know why they shouldn’t have called me? Because you aren’t supposed to be here." he repeated after her, the words leaving a bitter taste behind as he spoke. Turning his head to the side, avoiding to look at her, Liam pursed his lips, firmly pressing them together. "Why?" he breathed, still not looking at her. "Why?" he repeated, this time louder and more audible. He didn’t care if anyone would hear it if anyone would listen in. All his attention was solely on her.
It had been so long since he saw her and the first thing they would do was to fight? He didn’t plan to. He didn’t want to… but he couldn’t hold it in either. Maybe you could help me get out of here. Her words echoed through his head. Liam sighed and then he laughed in disbelief.
Feeling the need to slap himself his hand reached for his face, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he pressed his eyes shut. Breathe in and out. Anger wasn't the way to go but the ridiculousness she uttered just didn't help him to let go. "But of course, everything you care about is to get out of here. To do what? To OD again? Do you know what it felt like to get a call out of nowhere telling me my wife was found overdosed, barely alive, in some dirty alley when she is supposed to be somewhere safe?" he blurted out sharply, holding up the discharge papers the nurse had handed him earlier so he could fill them out and sign it together with Olivia.
Instead, he closed his hand around them, partly crumbling them together and angrily throwing the papers on the floor. "Look in the mirror. Look at yourself. Do you really think anyone is going to believe that you’re fine?"
The ache and fatigue that consumed her was a feeling that Liv was used to. It was too familiar, it was pathetic how well she could call exactly how the next few days would unfold. Unless she could end the detox before it really ramped up. But that would involve getting out, connecting herself with one of the dealers that she hadn’t burned her bridges with, and filling her pockets with those little pills that made the world blur at the edges and all of the mental pain go away. It would all start leaking back in at the edges of her mind if she stayed sober for too long. And even when she was high sometimes it got in. And when it did she end up making big mistakes, like the one that had her waking up in the hospital and Liam there staring her down from the door.
She hated him right then. She hated the disappointed way he looked in on her, the pain in his eyes. He was so controlled, so in charge and contained. Se could remember fighting with him, the intensity that he pulled out of her and the times she would scream at him to just let it all go and go crazy!! But he wouldn’t, not really. There was always control. Liam had to have control. Maybe that’s why his wife ran to something that made her spiral so violently out of it. Then again, that would be shifting the blame of her addiction to him and for the few days she had been in rehab she had heard that was a common practice of addicts: shifting blame. All he could do was scoff at her in that way that made her insides twist and warm. She was glad she hadn’t been looking at him when he stepped into the hospital room and closed the door behind him.
Liv still didn’t look at him, simply shaking her head when he explained that she shouldn’t be there. ”Oh you’d prefer I was left for dead, huh? You’re sweet, Liam.” She mumbled it, shooting back darts about the lack of care he took for her. It wasn’t true. But a lot of times the things that she spat at him in a fight were just off center, hinting at some sort of truth but never landing right on it. She usually aimed to hurt him, not make sense. He was getting worked up already though and his questions of why weren’t answered. Instead, she folded in on herself more, curling up into a fetal position on her side and lowering her eyes in shame. At the end of the day, she knew exactly what she’d done. And she knew he was right, but it would take a lot more than his bravado to make her admit it.
This was hard on him, she could see that as he unloaded on her and accused her of running off to rebound back into a hospital bed. But the moment he said she should be somewhere safe she glared, pushing up on an elbow so that she could shoot back at him, ”Somewhere safe?? Like that facility? Is that it? Olivia has issues, she’s sick, so just put her up somewhere she can’t see anyone, can’t talk to anyone that knows anything about her. At least there she isn’t your problem, right?” There it was again, the half-truth. It had been awful there, and she had been left feeling abandoned. She pushed herself up, looking him over as he crumbled up the paperwork and frowning at it there on the floor.
”I can’t go back to that place, Liam, it’ll kill me faster than living on the streets will.” The inflammation in her voice was gone, replaced by desperate sincerity, ”You don’t know what it was like in there. They kept me so isolated..And with this virus...those kind of places are a breeding ground for disease and..” She pulled her knees up to her chest, keeping her eyes on the floor where the papers were, whispering, ”I’m sorry, please don’t make me go there. I can be better, I just need...I-” But liv lost steam and rested her forehead on her knees as she whimpered, ”I can’t go back..”
[attr="class","CONTENT"] Liam folded his hands and put them up against his lips as he took a deep breath, inhaling all the anger and irritation he felt at her response. "You know that’s not what I meant." he exhaled, trying to keep it together for the sake of someone doing so. His heart rate and blood pressure were steadily rising with every word they exchanged. Biting his tongue, that’s what he tried to do. It was something completely out of character for him. If it was Liam he would reply with just the same amount of deleteriousness.
The damage was already done, why not pour oil into the fire? He was perfectly fine acting like that towards his brother, his parents, his coworkers. For Olivia, he tried… his best… but failed more than miserably. The longer he looked at her the more detrimental his choice of words was going to be. The more she spoke to him, the more he wanted to retort back. But what exactly was the use of the two of them continuously fighting and arguing even after they decided to separate? They had yet to divorce but truth to be spoken… it was already a done deal even though no papers had been signed yet.
"Olivia." he said as she started her rant. "Olivia!" he repeated, this time his voice louder than before. He stared at her, just like he did so many times now. Being able to just look at her seemed to be something out of a dream these days. Surreal. That’s what it felt like. Life seemed to be so normal and then it hit hard, slapping lemons in your face as if there was no tomorrow. Then there was the pandemic and everything seemed to just turn into a living hell. Work, his private life, everything. But he couldn’t compete with what his wife was going through.
He shook his head, dismissing everything she told him as he listened to her. Holding his elbow with one hand, the palm of his right hand covering his mouth, Liam slowly walked over to the end of the bed. "I never said you’re a problem! I want to help you as much as I can but I can’t do it alone. And the way you’re acting tells me that I would undoubtedly be dealing with it alone. I’m not the one with a drug problem, Olivia. You used to work for the Department, dealing with people who are just like you. You out of all people should know better." The words felt like acid leaving his mouth, burning his throat, tongue, the roof of his mouth, his lips. Gargling with poison would be a more pleasant feeling.
And he regretted every word he just said. He stood by the bed, grasping the bar attached to the end. He gripped it tight, his knuckles turned white, almost seeming to protrude the skin. Looking to his side, he pressed his lips together. His gaze fell upon the table for visitors, a box of gloves placed on top of it. "So why can’t you just… for yourself, for me, for everyone that cares about you.... snap out of it?!" Breathing suddenly seemed to be the hardest task for Liam. There was this weird feeling once you’re aware of your breathing or blinking where you just try to control it even though your body was supposed to do it by itself. Liam tried very hard not to take the whole room apart, to lash out at the people around him. Oh how he wished this whole bullshit would be happening to anyone but her.
Gloomy eyes wandered back towards the blonde on the bed, covering her face. The sudden lack of strength in her voice made him shudder and for a moment he felt bad for talking to her the way he did but after all these moments he didn’t know any better. He wasn’t trained to negotiate, to feel, and empathize with someone. He didn’t know what she was going through. Nevertheless, he was going through a hard time just as difficult as hers. Maybe it didn’t affect him physically but it sure took a toll on him mentally. "What you’re doing is killing you. Maybe not right now, maybe not soon but someday it will and I really don’t want to be the one to receive that call or to have officers standing in front of my door telling me that my wife was found dead." he said, a mildly softer tone applied to his speech but there still was a hint of harshness that he just couldn’t get rid of no matter the agony both felt.
Overdose, drugs. The word echoed in his mind as if it someone was continuously whispering it into his ear, each time adding more misery into it. Swallowing down the response sitting on his tongue he looked around the room, huffing out of his nose. He couldn’t stop feeling restless inside these four walls. But he thought it was best for her to be away from the streets, be in hands of people who knew what they were dealing with because he unquestioningly didn’t know how to deal with it. "I would do anything to help Olivia, just… just tell me what I can do to help you. If the last facility wasn’t great. Maybe we can find another one. But I can’t let you be by yourself… I-" Liam hesitated, pausing his gaze on her if she was looking or not. "I can't trust you right now."
Was she baiting him? Maybe. But they were at the point in their relationship where any attention was good attention. This was how they had fallen in love, after all. Wasn’t this what brought them together? Bickering? The fighting that turned into teasing that evolved into flirting and then passionate hate-sex in the bathroom at bars after shift? And then the evolution to pining for each other even when there wasn’t passion and annoyance involved…. Olivia didn’t know how to fix them but it felt good just to feel something wafting off of him. Even if the only attention she got from the man was negative, she’d take it.
Olivia was desperate to be seen, it was what had driven her toward the numb feeling that the pills gave her in the first place. Her parents had died and everything had changed. There wasn’t anyone to call and unload her day on, to confide in, all of the roles that she should have depended on her husband for had been put onto her Mom and Dad. Liam was happy not having to be that person, and she was thrilled to keep that burden off of him. How different would their lives have been if she had demanded he be that confidant and safe place rather than the halfway-there confidence they’d settled on?
He moved to the end of the bed and she watched him as he explained that he wanted to help. She didn’t buy it, though. And when he threw at her all of the experience she had with junkies it stung. That dagger was dug in deep long ago and with his words he twisted it. But what might have pulled tears from her in the past only hardened her heart a little more. And her voice was even as she spoke softly, ”At least you finally admit that I’m no different than any other junkie to you.” She closed her eyes as he continued to snap at her, to fight, and she let his attention run over her like a reward, all while tearing her apart inside. It was self-loathing that made her do this to him. She made him this way, she asked for this with the way she treated him. What else was he to do?
”I’ll get right on that, babe.” The fight deflated out of her. She got what she wanted, he gave it to her. His undivided attention was hers. If only it hadn’t cost her everything, because she knew the drugs had her. She was theirs now. Olivia didn’t have a choice any longer and they would send her there over and over again until someone failed to find her and death finally took her. She shrunk into herself, retreated away from the negative attention as it hit it’s peak. But he was there. At least he was there. She reminded herself that she still loved him, still wanted him. Even more than those seductive little pills, Liam was even more intoxicating...when he was at his best. But when had he stopped being enough? She knew what her loss was, her parents drove her away, but what had it been that pulled him from her and taken him away?
Liam lost a little bit of his fire, too, and she shifted a little bit so that she could look at him as he said what they both knew. She might have bit at him about being inconvenienced by her death, about how her overdose might screw up the life insurance policy, but she didn’t. Her body still ached, and she was still hoping to leave. Olivia’s voice was raspy, barely audible as she spoke again, ”I’m sorry, Liam..You’re right..and I’m sorry, you don’t deserve this.” She shifted a little bit, folding her legs so that she was sitting cross-legged on the bed and laying her hand beside her face up as though to offer it to him, though she didn’t extend it too far so that his rejection wouldn’t have as significant a blow. He would have to move closer to her in order to take it. And if he didn’t, well, then they could both pretend he hadn’t seen it.
He offered help, tried to give her options, and she kept her eyes on him, ”I don’t want to be like this anymore. I don’t but...but if I just quit, if I just snap out of it that could kill me too, you know. Send my whole system into shock.. She sighed and shook her head, ”I need to work, and I need to have a life...those places won’t work, not for someone like me.” Olivia frowned a little, ”I just need...a slow wean, a system to get off of it over time, to rebuild my life and wean off the drugs all at the same time…” She shook her head a little bit at him, ”That kind of place doesn’t exist.”
[attr="class","CONTENT"] ‘At least you finally admit that I’m no different than any other junkie to you.’
A sentence that carried no meaning for a stranger hit him as hard a bullet. He hated the way she twisted his words around in such a negative way they became poison. To him, to her. Liam wanted to throw his hands in the air, throw that ugly vase on the table in the corner to the floor or perhaps out of the window even. It was frustration rather than anger that erupted from within like a volcano. Although he was used to their constant fighting, something which seemed never-ending no matter how it appeared to have ended. It was always just pausing, ready to continue the next day, the next moment, the next breath. "I admit nothing." he muttered, loud enough for her to hear through clenched teeth. "And you’re not. You’re my wife for crying out loud."
Indubitably she couldn’t just snap out of it as he demanded her to but yet she agreed. Liam shook his head, hands moving up to his temples, holding the sides of his face. He pressed the palms of his hands against his cheekbones, drawing them towards the middle past his eyebrows and down the bridge of his nose, folding them in a prayer gesture, down his chin and his throat where his short-clipped fingernails left a line at the pressure he applied. He unfolded his hands, proceeding to scratch his forehead. Then he sighed.
His back was turned towards the door. Liam didn’t really care if anyone would hear their little dispute. It was something between the two of them anyway. Nothing anyone could solve. Not even with therapy or whatever. It took some willpower but he looked at her, again, even though he felt like tearing his gaze away he held it as steady as he could. His iris shifted rapidly as he tried to read her. "Why… why do you always have to make it sound like it’s some kind of joke to you?" he asked her, stepping closer and walking around the bed. He couldn’t hide the disappointment in his face, although, it was a mix of hers and his own. "Why can’t you just take it seriously? Because I do. I’m serious. I take it seriously. I take everything about this seriously. Because it involves you and I desperately want to take you seriously if only you could do the same for me." His head spun a little. He couldn't take count of the number of times he had said why when it was the one question word he would use the least. But with Olivia, it seemed to be the one question he would always have. Why?
Her hand was there, just in his reach. Liam rubbed his own against his jeans because it was cold. The coldness that was all too familiar about him. But he refused to let it be cold for her now. He wasn’t a bad person. He just wasn’t the best either. "I know I never was the one to show that I cared, to show my emotions but I care. I do. I care about you. I care about everything you do. Even the smallest thing. And I want to make it all up to you now." And it could be too late. It probably was. But he gave it a try. He had to. If not for his sake but for hers. He wasn’t sure what their relationship would become, what would be left at the end of it all. If there was anything he could save but he wanted to give it a try. Their struggle had to come to an end at some point.
Maybe it was his strict upbringing. His life, destined to be a soldier like his father, the opposite of his brother. Liam had a hard time showing his emotions if it wasn’t anger. He was quick to explode but he couldn’t show earnest sadness, anguish, discomfort. He was used to shoving those aside because he was told exposing those would make him weak. With the two of them secluded in a room with no one else but them inside he let his guard down, even just partly and temporarily. He would never admit doing it or would never be caught doing it with someone else, not even for family like Luca. But he did it now, at this moment... he unveiled his heart for her.
It took so long for him to reach for her hand, to take it into his, but eventually, he did and he was afraid she might take it back before he could but did it. As her hand, her fragile and delicate hand, lay inside of his he squeezed it softly, scared to break her. His beaming eyes found hers and he gave it yet another squeeze. "But you don’t give me the impression like you care about yourself. This isn’t about me, Olivia. This is about you. I’m not addicted to drugs, you are. You are. My life doesn’t depend on it, yours does. And as much as I would love to switch with you, to take away all that pain and agony from you. All the torture you’re going through. I can’t. But if I could… if I could-" Liam paused, hesitating. It all threw him off. This wasn’t like him but it was also an exception. An exception he would only do for one person - and that person was Olivia. She was the only one capable of cracking that mask of his.
"Tell me how?"
Swallowing hard he wished for a glass of water. His throat seemed dry after his grand speech, a desperate attempt to make things right. She apologized to him, twice, but knowing her too well it didn’t feel genuine. Was she mocking him again? The sudden sputter about how he didn’t deserve this… sometimes he wondered what was going on in her mind. I don’t want you to be like this anymore either. I want the old Olivia back. The one I married. The one my heart would yearn for at night. But after all he couldn’t say those words out loud. He could say so much, but he failed with this. Liam squeezed her hand again, not taking his eyes off of her. "We can find a solution. I’ll talk to your doctor. Maybe you don’t have to go back. Maybe there’s another way but until then-" his voice trailed off, the corners of his lips twitched as if he attempted the faintest of smiles. "I would sign those papers if only…"I could trust you.
