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!
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THREAD MODERATION
MEDIATOR
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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!
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.
The woman stepped aside while he got closer to the shelves with medication. He knew where what he needed was and so it would be easier and faster for Nicholas to just get it than for her to help. His eyes went over the different boxes until they settled on the right one. It was quite a small box compared to the rest and easily fit into the palm of his hand. Just as he grabbed it the woman announced she was going to take her leave, but stopped in the middle of her sentence. A gasp made him turn around and see the aftermath.
Almost everything that had been inside the trash bags was now on the floor. Bandages, gloves, boxes with medication. Angry sounds—of which he recognised a few as Spanish cusses—left the woman’s lips as she tried to get everything back into the bags as quickly as she possibly could. Nicholas bend down to help her pick everything up. A couple of boxes had landed near his feet. As he picked one of them up his eyes fell on the date written on top. “This isn’t expired yet.” It almost sounded like a question. He grabbed another box close to him and examined it. The expiration date was also still far in the future.
His eyes hardened as his brain came to the only logical conclusion—the same conclusion it had come to when he’d first seen the woman: she was taking the medication. For what he didn’t know, but he could get her to explain that later. First, he needed to get between her and the door and keep her from leaving.
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.
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.
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.
The others didn’t look like they would panic but he still told them not to. It was a habit as a doctor and a way for Nicholas to take control of the situation. The elder of the two men, however, clearly didn’t appreciate the words. It was hard not to react to the other acting like a child by rolling his eyes but he managed to ignore it. The explanation about the backup generators made sense even though it contradicted the information he had been given. Nicholas had to confess he didn’t know anything about generators and the other seemed like he did.
“Two what?” Nicholas retorted with furrowed brows. The other was getting on his nerves and his annoyance was starting to show. He still tried to hold the emotions back as much as possible, but that was made difficult by how tired he was. The long work days had wrecked his sleep schedule which left him more emotional then he otherwise would be. The sleep deprivation, however, didn’t keep him from knowing that challenging the other would only make their time stuck in this elevator that much more awful and he really wanted to get out of here without making an enemy. And so he backed off with a “Never mind.”
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.
It had been a long shift already and it was far from over. But luckily the hospital had quietened down a bit as the sun went under and Nicholas would be able to go to his office to get a few hours of rest before it would all start again. Now he wasn’t constantly looking after patients, his eyes kept fluttering closed and it was getting hard to keep them open. He really loved his job, but at times like these he really wished he could have a regular sleep schedule.
He decided to take the lift instead of the stairs; he’d had more than enough exercise today already. Two other men also went inside. Luckily, the lifts in the hospital were all quite large and so they could keep the necessary distance from each other. Opposite of him was a young man in military apparel. It was hard to tell anything more about the other two with the masks hiding their face. Slowly the lift went up. Until the lights flickered and the lift shrieked to a stillstand. Then, total darkness, followed by the weak orange glow of an emergency light. He was startled, but quickly recovered his composure. He was so used to hiding his real emotions from patients that it was little more than a reflex to slip the mask on. “No need for panic,” Nicholas spoke up. He was seemingly the only one here who worked at the hospital and so he took it upon himself to address the situation. “The backup generator should start up any minute.”
What she said seemed to add up, but he still asked: “Who told you to?” The question had two purposes behind it. First, to actually find out who told her. But secondly also to see whether she could answer. The woman seemed to be genuine, but that first sight of her putting medicine in a trash bag had raised enough red flags for him to still be slightly suspicious of her. He’d quickly learned that you shouldn’t trust people too easily during a pandemic—but then again, he’d never been quick to trust anyone. Panic and not knowing what was going to happen really could bring out the worst in people. The nurse before him might look perfectly normal and innocent, but you could never know for sure.
The woman acknowledged that they could still be used elsewhere and for a moment Nicholas thought she’d agreed with him. But then she said the hospital would not like to get sued over expired medication, after which she went back to throwing boxes into her bag. He couldn’t help but laugh at the mention of Karens looking for new victims they could get fired by complaining to the manager. Those people were always fun to laugh at, that is, when they weren’t around to get you fired... “Do you really think anyone has time for lawsuits at the moment?” he asked a bit incredulously, though it was a genuine question. With the pandemic he didn’t really think people would have the time nor energy to invest in something like that. But then again, maybe the Karens were so bored that they were even more on the lookout than usual; trying to keep themselves busy complaining so they wouldn’t have time to think of how the world was breaking down.
He only remembered he actually had a reason for being here when he got asked whether he needed anything from the room. The nurse who’d asked him to get the medication for her might be wondering where he was—though she would probably be too busy with work for that. “Yes, I did need something.” He moved further into the room—and closer to the woman—so he could look at the shelves. The medication he needed was on a shelf right next to where the nurse was looking for anything that was expired. “I know where it is,” he declined her help with a smile, and let his eyes go over the different boxes; it only took a few seconds before his gaze landed on the one he needed.
Looking from the woman to the bags Nicholas didn’t really know what to make of this. At first his brain wanted to convince him that there was an explanation, that there was a perfectly good reason why she was throwing medication in a trash bag, but his thoughts quickly started going in different directions. She could easily be stealing the drugs—she wouldn’t be the first—to use them herself or sell them. Or she could be taking them for any other reason imaginable. As he saw her eyes going from the bags to the shelves with medication, his first observation was that she looked suspicious and his earlier thoughts seemed confirmed. But wouldn’t anyone who didn’t expect someone to come in react like this? It seemed like a pretty normal reaction to be surprised. It was the situation that he had found her in that seemed suspicious. In the end he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and a chance to explain herself.
With a gesture at the shelves, she explained that she was sorting through the medication; throwing anything away that had expired. As she was talking, a tube got held up to him—too fast and far away for him to read anything though—and thrown away. He met her gaze. It was hard to read people now that everyone wore masks, but she seemed friendly. And her explanation did answer most of his questions, though not all of them. “From what expiration date are you starting to throw them away?” While there was a reason there was an expiration date on the packaging, a lot of medication could actually still be used after it expired. In normal circumstances he would completely agree with getting rid of it as medical waste, but at the moment they really couldn’t throw anything away without thinking about it twice. “We can’t really afford to throw away anything we could still use at the moment,” he explained, coming closer to take a look at the shelves. “Some of these can probably still be used even if they’re expired. Especially if they’re only a few weeks too old.”
While he would normally be in his office meeting with patients at this time of the day, Nicholas once again found himself caring for the many patients that had flooded the hospital ever since the outbreak had started. He sanitised his hands and adjusted the mask that he’d been wearing for way too long but couldn’t change because of the shortage, and entered room 132. The patients inside had only been hospitalised a day ago and needed regular check-ups. And so he monitored their vitals, administered their medications and asked how they were doing; acting as though he wasn’t in a hurry to get to other work. He didn’t want patients to notice it and definitely didn’t want it to affect his job, but there was so much to do in the hospital that he couldn’t take the time he wanted to give people the care they needed and deserved.
When he left the room, a nurse got a hold of him—she looked tired and overworked; the bags under her eyes beginning to grow—and asked him to get some medications from one of the storage rooms. With a smile, he assured the woman he would get it for her. Everyone was so busy since the outbreak and while he certainly had enough work to do himself, he was happy to take some work off her shoulders. Plus, the storage room where he needed to be wasn’t far away and he knew what he needed. This wouldn’t take long.
The door of the storage room was closed. Not too strange, but not usual either. What he saw when he opened the door, however, made him blink a couple of times before he believed what was happening. A woman in scrubs, she must have been a nurse or at least looked like one, was filling a trash bag for medical waste with medication from the shelves. Nicholas stood still in the doorway, taking a second before he finally spoke: “What are you doing?” She definitely wasn’t taking the medication to use it somewhere in the hospital—she wouldn’t put it in a trash bag if that were the case. This looked shady and the woman in front of him had a lot of explaining to do.
First name: open Last name: Davis Age: 30-31 Membergroup/job: open Face claim: open
THE BASICS
Meet the oldest of Nicholas’ sisters who’s not just his sister but also his best friend. They can say anything to each other, sharing both worries and fun moments, and are always there for each other. They have always been very close but grew even closer after their mother died. When Nicholas went to medical school they didn’t see each other a lot and mostly spoke over the phone. What she did during this time is entirely up to you. Now they both live in Lethford city and see/speak each other regularly.
PERSONALITY
I imagine she’s probably the kind of person who speaks her mind and doesn’t care that much about what other people think of her, but I’m really open to any suggestions!
First name: open Last name: Davis Age: 22-26 Membergroup/job: open Face claim: open
THE BASICS
Meet the youngest Davis sister. She’s significantly younger than both her older siblings and this might have contributed to the distance in their relationships. She moved out of the house when she was 18 years old, leaving Lethford city behind her. Now she’s back in the city. Why did she leave and why is she back? Maybe she wants to restore the connection with her siblings and she purposely seeks them out. Maybe it’s entirely something else and she runs into one (or both) of them on accident. Depending on why she’s in Lethford city and how she gets into contact with Nicholas we can see how the reunion goes—whether it goes awful or not that bad at all.
[attr="class","ozappbox"]CARE FOR GHNv-20-PATIENTS
[attr="class","ozappbox"]32
[attr="class","ozappbox"]PANSEXUAL
[attr="class","ozappbox"]UNKNOWN
[attr="class","ozappbox"]LETHFORD CITY
[attr="class","ozappbox"]TESS
[attr="class","ozappcont"]
[attr="class","ozapptitle"]PERSONALITY
At first glance Nicholas is a very extroverted and happy person. He seems to always have a smile on his face and he’s always there to talk to. But although he is quite content most of the time, he also has a lot of hidden insecurities that make him wonder whether he’s good enough, or whether people actually like him or are just hiding the fact that they find him annoying. Because of this he often has a hard time with relationships or making deep friendships. He knows that these thoughts are mostly irrational, but still he finds it hard to ignore them. With the pandemic a new worry often takes over his thoughts: ‘what if I or the people around me get infected?’
Because of his job he can handle most stressful situations fairly well and he has developed the ability to stay calm under pressure. He is very self-assured of his own capabilities and will take charge of a situation if he knows he’s best suited to do that. When he knows he’s not, he will step aside and let someone else take the lead. When he cares about something he will be very passionate about it and spend all his time on it. He is very driven and makes it his goal to be able to give his patients the best care he possibly can. He is also very family-oriented and would do anything for his family or friends; no—or little—questions asked.
[attr="class","ozapptitle"]BIOGRAPHY
The beginning of Nicholas’ life wasn’t very eventful. He was born into a loving family that was completed with the arrival of his little sister. As soon as he went to school, however, things started to change. For some reason the other children didn’t like him very much and he was bullied throughout elementary school. With a new school luckily also came new classmates. He was pretty popular from high school on, but he could never stop the voices in his head that kept telling him that no one actually liked him.
Everything changed when he was sixteen and his mother got diagnosed with cancer. Nothing that mattered before seemed to matter to the same degree now. It was all so trivial when you realised that a person could get sick like that at any given moment. Not much more than a year later, the family’s whole world fell apart when she died. After that it was difficult to continue with life, but with each other's support Nicholas and his sister and father managed. This was also the moment that Nicholas decided that he wanted to be a doctor. It had been so difficult to lose someone he loved and he didn’t want anyone else to have to go through that. Before, he hadn’t really known what he wanted to do later in life, but now that he had a goal he put all of his energy into achieving it.
Getting into medical school hadn’t been easy, completing it was even harder. It took a lot of hard work and studying, but he put all his time and effort into it and succeeded. After finishing his studies he moved into an apartment not too far from Lethford hospital and started working there. Meanwhile his father moved out of Lethford, wanting to start a new life away from the memories of his late wife. Nicholas completed residence in Lethford hospital and still works there now. With GHNv-20 taking over the hospital, his usual work as an oncologist is put to the side and he has taken on more and more duties to work with GHNv-20-patients. Work days are longer than they have ever been and it is becoming difficult to treat every patient with the same quality of care as before the virus. Everyone in the hospital is doing the best they can—let’s hope it’s enough.