Aberrant: Dead Rising - Olivia Shepard

[LydaLynn]

Name: Olivia Shepard

Age: Early Thirties

Height: 5'0"

Weight: 96 lb

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Gray/Hazel

Skin: Porcelain

Occupation: Medical Researcher

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[LydaLynn]

Olivia Sheppard was born to upper middle class parents. An only child, they wanted everything for their darling daughter. Bombarded by Mozart in the womb, there was never a moment of her life that wasn’t structured and planned. Olivia would grow up to be an important doctor. Olivia would discover the cure for cancer. Olivia would do every amazing thing her parents could think of.

Enrolled in private schools with after school tutors and targeted studies in medicine and science, Olivia was never given the option of personal choice. After all, she was only a child, surely she would understand when she was older. What Olivia understood was that she was different. She wasn’t allowed friends or play, they might distract her from her studies. Even her imaginary friends were stripped from her at an early age.

Her parents were caring, if distant, and her tutors were carefully instructed in their duties. Olivia felt like an outsider in her own life. In her daydreams she wasn’t really a part of her family, or even the planet. She was an alien here to study the humans. Of course, an alien who looked human on the outside but was different on the inside. She often imagined that if someone dissected her body, like she dissected frogs and pigs, they would discover just how different she was. But no one ever looked to the inside of little Olivia.

It wasn’t until Olivia became a teenager that someone finally interacted with her on a human level. She was fourteen and a freshman in college. Finally out from under her parents controlling influence, Olivia branched out and took studies they might not approve of. The idea that she was an alien still in her mind, though disproved by science, her heart wouldn’t relinquish it, hoping that somewhere out there would be a people like her who would accept her despite her differences.

Olivia had plans of her own, even if she had to be a doctor, surely she could also be an astronaut. After all, they would need medical staff on long journeys in space. And space was one of the great unexplored, and scientific research in space was still in its infancy. She could talk her parents into the idea, if they knew she would make great scientific discoveries, she was sure.

So Olivia added some astronomy courses to her other studies. And it was there that she met Allen Butcher. Allen was a young man in his early twenties who was fascinated with space and the complicated dance of celestial bodies in its vast expanses. Olivia reminded Allen of his little sister who had been killed by a drunk driver just a few years before. Always serious and reserved, but needing love. But Olivia wasn’t just reserved, she was isolated. So Allen befriended her, treating her like the sister he had lost.

Olivia slowly learned to interact with others, learned that among the right crowd, she was no more alien than any other nerd, geek or scientist. Finally fitting in with a community of her own, Olivia kept her parents happy, continuing her medical studies, while also studying the science she was interested in. College went by with a blur of busy, happy, fulfilling days.

However, when Olivia tried to continue her chosen path, she discovered something rather important. Astronauts must be at least 62 inches in height. Olivia, was rather shorter than five foot two inches. Sure she could still propose studies to be performed in space and study the results, but it wasn’t the same.

Allen, however, had never planned on joining NASA, instead hoping to study at an arctic research station where the view of the stars was unobstructed. Once he obtained a grant for his studies, he invited Olivia to join the research team. She not only had the necessary scientific background, but she would also be able to act as the team’s medical staff without taking the place of a skilled researcher. Promising that she could perform some research of her own in the extreme cold of the arctic, which could mimic some of the properties of space, Allen was able to persuade Olivia to join the team.

Most of the scientists were thrilled to have this opportunity to study at the literal end of the world, but none cared for the environment. None but Olivia. Sure it was cold, but it was like an alien planet, if she was careful to keep the station behind her, she could walk forever without seeing any signs of humans. Of course, walking forever wasn’t really possible. The most she could comfortably manage was two hours before the cold started affecting her.

Olivia enjoyed being outside and often volunteered to de-ice the telescope or reset the antenna. The only thing she didn’t enjoy was gathering core ice samples. Despite knowing that it was likely safe, given how many core samples had been taken without incident, Olivia couldn’t shake the idea that an ancient plague could be laying dormant in a layer of ice, just waiting to be released.

But when word came by radio that a plague had started in the warmer parts of the world, Olivia wished only that she was there to help those afflicted. Most of the scientists dismissed the early news, thinking it would all be resolved in short order and would only be a minor hiccup compared to their world changing research. But listening to the reports, Olivia knew just how bad things had to be if the reports they were hearing were getting out.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the researchers to follow Olivia’s way of thinking. In the middle of a report about the ‘animated dead’ victims of the disease, the radio went out. Bundling up, Olivia went out to repair the antenna before Allen noticed the reason for the interruption was solar flares.

The hole in the ozone was one of the reasons the telescope at the station was so desired for research, but it meant that more radiation from the sun penetrated this area of the world. During a solar flare the radiation levels were dangerously high. Had Olivia not already been distracted and distraught from the news they’d been hearing, she would have stopped to check and make sure it was safe to go out. As it was, the stark white and numbing cold seemed inviting and the need to fix the antenna great.

But it wasn’t just the radiation that was a problem, the ice, normally stable underfoot, was slicked from the slight melt that came with the flare. It wasn’t until after Olivia had reset the antenna and was on her way back to the station that she slipped. Knocking her head on the ice as she fell, Olivia lost consciousness.

Allen longed to go out and get his friend, but had to wait for the flares to die down, so Olivia lay there, exposed to the elements and the deadly sun for nearly half an hour before Allen and another scientist could rescue her. For two days Olivia lay unconscious, running a high fever, with the scientists looking on helpless to give her aid. After all, she was their medic.

When she finally woke, Olivia felt fine, different, but fine. She wasn’t hungry, but it wasn’t completely unexpected. Forcing herself to eat, Olivia ran a few tests to make sure she was truly recovered. The results . . . Well, she ran them three more times before she finally just sat, staring at the numbers. With no one there who would understand what she was seeing, and the radios ominously silent, Olivia had no one to consult with. She ran the same tests on the other researchers to ensure they were healthy and that the abnormalities in her results hadn’t spread. But everyone else fell within acceptable limits, and if their blood pressure was high, they were experiencing quite a bit of stress. The supply plane was overdue.

With rationing and use of the experimental hydroponics garden they were able to stay at the station for two months before they had to admit they would have to leave. Olivia was able to hide the fact that she didn’t need to eat anymore and no one seemed to notice, or maybe they were just happy the food wasn‘t being used as quickly. The few radio broadcasts they were able to pick up painted a bleak picture of the rest of the world, but there would be food there. Deciding to leave while they still had some supplies, the team packed up and moved out. Olivia packed her notes and research into her mutation, including slides and studies and the supplies she would need to continue her studies.

The snowmobiles lasted until they got to the next station. What greeted them was horrible. The empty silence echoed as they opened the doors. Exploring, they found the scientists who should have been living there. Quick autopsies revealed they had taken their own lives. Searching the building, they found food and gas and data on the plague that had consumed the rest of the world. They spent a week at that station, burying the dead and gathering supplies. During that time, Olivia studied the information on the plague that the scientists had left behind.

None of the other scientists with Olivia and Allen had enough medical knowledge or even biology to understand what Olivia learned from those notes. And so they voted to continue, knowing they couldn’t stay in the frozen expanses without some way to get food and no one was willing to even contemplate the solution those from this place had taken.

And so they set out again. They soon had to abandon the snowmobiles. Olivia wasn’t able to keep hiding the changes she had undergone. But knowing that her ability to survive the cold was useful, she stopped trying. Over the next few months they were able to make their slow way down out of the blinding white ice. A few other research stations had swelled their numbers, but Allen and Olivia wouldn’t leave anyone who wanted to join them behind. One station had revealed a hostile group who were more concerned with protecting their things and keeping everyone away than joining the migrating scientists.

It wasn’t until the reached Canada that they saw their first zombie. After that, the sightings were more and more frequent. Not everyone survived the encounters. Occasionally they would come across a compound of survivors, but no one wanted to take in more refugees of the plague. Though the found more than a few who were willing to relieve them of their supplies. Olivia was happy when the bandits left her research material alone.

She was able to collect more data as they traveled, and she always stopped at hospitals and pharmacies to collect medicines. During one of those forays she discovered the hard way that she was immune to the disease. She also met other mutated people, though their mutations were more grotesque and they all seemed to believe them to be the result of surviving the plague. Whenever possible, Olivia gathered samples from these people. She couldn’t study them now, but she hoped to be able to some time.

And so the small convoy of scientists traveled, picking up strays that needed the safety of a group and fleeing from zombies and territorial compounds. They only want some place to settle down and help build a community to fight back against the zombies and the darkness that threatens to destroy civilization more thoroughly than the virus destroyed humanity. As they move into Oklahoma they begin to wonder if they can ever find such a thing.

[LydaLynn]

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