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.
The hospital was still busy as always, but today Nicholas was needed elsewhere. Because of a surge in infections in a neighbourhood it had been decided that a pop-up testing site would be needed there. And so Nicholas had been temporarily released of his other duties and had become part of the staff of the new testing site. While he was worried the care for the patients in the hospital would suffer because there would now be even fewer doctors and nurses available, he also knew it was important to test as many people as possible. That way they could prevent the disease from spreading further, fewer people would end up in the hospital and fewer would die. And that last point was the goal of all of this. Why everyone in the hospital was working so hard, why they were setting this testing site up as fast as they could, even why he became a doctor. All so at least one more person would make it.
The site itself wasn’t operational yet. At the moment everyone was working hard to get everything organised. Tents had been set up and right now fences were being placed that would keep everyone who needed to be tested in line and would keep groups from forming. Boxes with masks and disinfectant had just arrived and Nicholas was inspecting the equipment needed for the tests. For once there seemed to be no problems at all. Everything was going as planned and all the medical stuff was ready to be used.
Thinking that everything was going well had to have jinxed the situation somehow because just at that moment he recognised a familiar face behind a mask. Annika? Blinking a couple of times proved that he wasn’t just imagining things. It really was his sister. For a moment Nicholas just stood there. He didn’t know why she was here; he hadn’t even known she was in Lethford. After what seemed like an eternity but couldn’t be more than a few seconds he walked up to her. “I didn’t know you were in the city,” he said carefully, not really knowing where they stood with their relationship. They had never been that close and after Anya’s death even that small bond had been broken. He didn’t know if he was doing any good by talking to her, but he also couldn’t just pretend that he didn’t recognise his sister.
Annika liked the safety of the office. There were fewer people, fewer problems, and fewer headaches. She hadn't been thrilled when she'd been tasked with heading out into the city to catalog one of the impromptu testing sites, but they needed counts on supplies and population both and that ended up falling on her desk.
So she was out with a storage clipboard held close to her chest by one gloved hand, garbed in a light grey pantsuit and jacket, the necessary mask so she wasn't breathing in any gunk, and also with her hair tied in a loose ponytail that she was too preoccupied to fix.
She really didn't want to be out here.
Annika had just finished questioning one of the medical staff--taking notes on that clipboard--when a familiar figure walked over. Of course Nicholas would be here. Because she wasn't in a sour enough mood already.
His "didn't know you were in the city" got narrowed eyes from Anni. "You don't know a lot of things," she shot back. Her voice was low and laced with venom. She was here for work and had to be civil, which meant trying not to cause a scene.
It went without saying why he was out here, but her own motive likely wasn't so clear. "I work for the city," she clarified, less to be open and more to satisfy questions before he asked them. "Doing counts and checking papers. Nothing I need to take your time for." She looked down at her clipboard. "Figure you're busy enough, y'know?"
She wasn't totally dismissing him, but she wasn't happy being corralled into the same space, either.
Ever since the pandemic had started something always seemed to go wrong. There wasn’t enough medicine or he got stuck in an elevator. Today, however, everything seemed to be going well—a bit too perfect even. The feeling that something was about to happen because no way would he ever be as lucky as to have everything go perfectly was proven right when he looked over the site and suddenly his sister stood there—his sister that he hadn’t seen in so long and that he’d been afraid he’d never see again. Her appearance into this seemingly going alright day wasn’t bad news or anything like that, but, well, he didn’t think she would appreciate seeing him.
And that thought was immediately proven right by her narrowed eyes and hostile tone. She was right though: there was a lot he didn’t know. Even before she disappeared three years ago he’d honestly barely known her. He looked down for a moment. Why was it always so difficult between them? “There’s always more to be done,” he confirmed. A silence stretched between them until it became too much and he had to break it again. “How long have you been here?” Nicholas wasn’t so stupid as to not realise she wasn’t really happy about seeing him, but she was his sister and he couldn’t not talk to her now that she was finally here.
Anni couldn't tell if her brother's observation was meant to be disarming or just diplomatic. If he was upset that she was angry with him (still), then he wasn't really showing it. But doctors tended to have a certain steadiness about them and Nicholas was no exception.
She looked down at her clipboard, going over her checklist to ensure she'd already gotten everything she needed in the right order. There were a few more things to verify, but none of it was important enough to tug her in another direction just yet--not unless she wanted it to.
Nicholas asked how long she'd been "here," and she assumed he meant the city in general. "Since last spring, roundabout," she said. "I was doing work with a federal branch until then. But everything got--" she hesitated, finishing a little more softly, "--scary."
Was she going to explain the real reason she'd come back? No. But her answer was still honest. It just wasn't specific.
"How, um... You... You've been all right?" That sounded exactly as awkward as it felt. Of course, just because she was still angry and didn't trust him, it didn't mean Anni didn't care. If she knew Nicholas was keeping his head above water, she could leave this testing site with a little less...what was it? Guilt? Regret? Worry? All three?
Like she said: there were a lot of things he didn’t know about her. Anni showing up here without him even being aware that she was in the city proved that more than right. And while Nicholas didn’t know if she would answer him, he needed to know how long she’d already been here. Since last spring, came the answer. “That’s a long time,” he couldn’t help but reply. He almost couldn’t believe she’d been here that long and hadn’t even tried to contact him. If they hadn’t run into each other here on accident Nicholas probably wouldn’t have ever heard from her. He tried to turn his feelings off and listened to her until she ended with how things had gotten scary. His expression immediately softened at that and every seed of anger he’d felt before was buried again. He didn’t say anything though; he didn’t know what he could say.
Had he been alright? “Euh, yes,” he answered a bit awkwardly. “Busy, but I’m alright.” How could he talk about his feelings with her when he barely knew her? He couldn’t tell her about the endless days and nights at the hospital, the panic that was slowly seeping through every crack and settling in his bones, the deaths that happened almost every day. These were all things he would have told her if their relationship had felt like they were siblings, but it didn’t and so he kept quiet. “How are you holding up with everything going on?” was all that came out after some silence.
It'd been a long time, he claimed, her being here. And yeah, it was. It was a long time for both of them to be within the same city limits and not encounter one another. But that wasn't chance. It was design.
Hers.
If working for the federal government had taught Annika anything, it was how to stay beneath someone's radar. She knew her brother well enough to fly beneath his. But she'd returned to Lethford knowing fully well he was still here.
And that? That, too, was design. The world was scary. But Nicholas wasn't. Family wasn't. Home wasn't.
The response he gave her, something shallow about being "busy" but all right nonetheless, it was nothing more than to fill the void. To give an answer, but not a meaningful one. Anni didn't blame him. He was an open book as much as she was an open door.
There was quiet--just enough to settle strangely despite the ambient noise of the people moving around them. For a second, she got stuck there--just looking at him, balanced precariously between telling him what she really wanted to say deep down and telling him what would spare her the headache later on.
She sighed.
"Fine." It was the latter. "I--" She bit her lip and looked down, reading her papers but not really reading them. "Things are fine." She looked back up. "City keeps me busy enough that I probably wouldn't notice even if they weren't." She shrugged, but the gesture wasn't convincing. It was a lie. Nothing about anything was fine. Even being back here wasn't fine, because despite the years that'd passed, the dust still hadn't settled.
"I'm at City Hall most days," she added, reluctance in her voice as if she'd almost thought better about mentioning it. "Got a small place over in Mason Heights. Surviving--"
She nodded her head toward a group of citizens next to the closest barrier. "--Like them. Like you."
Another silence stretched between them. It was almost unbelievable how they had grown up together but still felt like strangers; how instead of just being happy to see each other again, an awkwardness coated everything they said. When she finally did speak her answer felt as empty as his. Just a standard reply that everything was fine. It wasn’t like he should have expected anything else. Just like he barely knew her, she barely knew him.
He nodded as she told him she was at City Hall on most days. Her tone told him she wouldn’t like him showing up there, but Nicholas still stored the information away because just maybe there was still a way to fix the bond between them.
His gaze followed the direction she nodded at and settled on a group of people next to the closest fence. “It feels like that’s all we can do lately—surviving.” The words left his mouth before he’d really thought about them, but they were true. With all the work at the hospital, he wasn’t even getting enough sleep, let alone time for anything else. “And it doesn’t seem like anything’s going to change anytime soon.” With the rate at which people were getting infected and the speed with which research for a vaccine or cure was going, the virus would be staying around for a lot longer than anyone dared to say out loud.
With the state of things, she could've afforded to be more open. This was her brother, and she was hardly acting like family. But she couldn't force it. She couldn't force herself to feel something she didn't, and right now all she had in bulk were lingering feelings of anger, frustration, and distrust. Her time away with the government had cooled these things but not snuffed them out completely.
Nic's words about things "not changing any time soon" were true enough. A dismal reminder, it was, of why she'd come back home in the first place. She sighed, working her jaw a bit beneath the mask and watching a few of the other medical personnel do their work some distance away. More quiet.
"I've gotta head back," she said. It was a lie of opportunity, but she was uncomfortable and her desk was calling to her. "I'll see you?" She wasn't going to specify when or how, because she didn't care to invest in that kind of commitment. If anything catastrophic happened, he had enough information to find her, now. But she was just as content keeping to herself just as she'd been doing.
That's what she was going to tell herself as she left the testing site, anyway.
