Aberrant: Dead Rising - Jules WhiteElk

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

Julia, usually "Jules" to her friends, was a resident of Towaoc, Colorado when the world ended. Her neighborhood fled up into the mountains, were they held out for a while. Eventually, the remenents of the town were overrun. Jules lost her youngest child, her daughter, as well as her children's father, her boyfriend. Her only family member left is her son, Benjamin, whom fled with her and whom she guards with her life.

She's not sure how she killed all those zombies; it seemed impossible, but then the zombies were pretty impossible, so she tries not to think about it. Since then, she's heard rumors of "super-humans" that have been kicking zombie-ass. Jules can't think about that; she's too busy feeding herself - a harder proposition than it used to be - and Benjamin.

At first, the two had it pretty good; they had supplies and a vehicle. They made it to Tuba City, where Jules' mother lived, only to find that it had already been overrun. They lost their car there, but managed to hook up with a caravan that was going to a group they'd heard was setting up outside Gallup, New Mexico. They found that group, but things went south when the leader demaned tribute, on his terms. Jules decided that his terms were unacceptable, and she left with Benjamin.

It should have been suicide. A woman and a five-year-old boy alone, on foot, should have been dead many times over. But they found food. They found a horse. And then they found Angel Fire, New Mexico. There, another caravan was settled, and they stopped for a while. Then the zombies came, and it went away, and Jules and Ben were on their own again, though with a horse for each of them.

They lost the first horse and found Zeke, the German Shephard/Husky mix who became their backup zombie detection. Because though she didn't want to admit it, Jules could smell them coming too. But Zeke was a good cover for her, and for things she didn't want to consider. And that was where they found Cal, alone and hiding from the zombies. He gladly came with them, rather than stay alone.

And on they wandered, avoiding settlements and cities alike, trying to find a haven they can call their own.

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

Followers

Calvin Waters was a young man with a troubled past. He’d run with rough people in his past, before the zombies. They were a defacto gang, though not a member of one of the established groups in the Santa Fe area. Cal was a generational criminal; his father was currently in prison; Cal didn’t know anything about him other than his name and the crime he’d done that put him away. His mother was mixed up in drugs and other trouble; when he was nine, his grandmother had swept into his life and taken him and his two siblings away. From that point forward, Grams had been Cal’s caretaker, keeping him and his sisters fed.

He’d been with his posse when the trouble started. Zombies were enough to scare the young man straight. Unlike the other brothers in his gang, who mocked the idea that these zombies were real, Cal believed. Abandoned his friends, he ran home to help his grandmother. She and his sisters were gone, with no clue as to their whereabouts. Cal knew that had he been there, he’d be with them now. He looked for them, but couldn’t find them anywhere. Finally, he had to assume they were dead.

He left Santa Fe after stealing a motorcycle. By then, the worst of the crisis was past and he only had to keep ahead of the zombies. His plans were to survive, but he didn’t count on the sheer loneliness of that plan. For several weeks he wandered, alone and on foot, until he met a woman with her child. Jules and Ben were as road-weary as he, grieving the loss of their own lives. But Jules let him travel with them, if he promised to protect Ben. Happy to no longer be alone, Ben agreed.

Tynesha Waldron was a street-walker, coming to that profession through being a runaway. Her mother’s boyfriends used to abuse her, so it seemed like she was just getting to choose who used her body. She was picked up for prostitution when she was seventeen and incarcerated in New Mexico.

That prison became Paradise; Tynesha became the property of a man named Miles. He was kind enough to her, using her for sex and requiring her to share the cleaning of his living quarters. She adapted well enough to this hell. It was no different than the life she’d had before, only her pimp paid her in safety and security instead of money and protection.

When Paradise was liberated, Tynesha joined the girls in the Red Tent. It was all she’d ever really known and it was comfortable. She might have never left had she not had too much to drink at a party and run into Cal. The young man took her to his tent and let her sleep in his bed, while he slumbered on the floor. No one had ever treated her with this kind of respect before and she wasn’t sure what to make of him. That resulted in her spending more time with the young man, and with his guardian of sorts, Jules WhiteElk. It was the two of them working together that taught the young woman to seek what she wanted from life, rather than what she’d always known. Jules in particular was a good role-model for her and Tynesha left the Red Tent to find her own path in life.

Zeke, a three year old German Shepard/Husky mix