User:Benny O'Shea

I was just a normal guy when the infection started. I was just minding my own business, learning some songs for that semester's musical project. We were going to do some obscure musical and my teacher wanted me to be the male lead. It was supposed to be a good semester.

I'll never forget that day though. We were rehearsing some cheesy "Please Never Leave Me" song and then Felicia, the girl playing the female lead, started acting funny. Next thing I know, I'm running out of the university with an axe from the prop table and my shirt rouged with blood. I couldn't believe what had happened, the entire campus was filled with shuffling masses of flesh, each one with a blank stare in their eyes and their bodies already beginning to decompose. But how could they keep moving?

I didn't care at that moment though, I cleaved through the nearest one with my axe and ran. I ran like never before, I ran harder and faster than I ever did in Cross Country or Track. I got to my house and my parents were dead, both of them mauled, but Raphael was nowhere to be seen. I ran again. I passed up countless buildings before I stopped. On the first day, I was tired, hungry, cold, and utterly alone. I spent the night in St. Alcuin's Church, hunched up against the pews for warmth and listening to the groans and screams of terror outside. Thank God for the pews though, those things kept that church safe from the zeds for sure. Me and another guy, I can't remember his name and I doubt it really matters anymore, we made sure that the barricade would hold. Then we slept.

When I awoke, I couldn't tell whether it was morning, day, or night. The other guys was screaming his head off and when I woke up enough to survey my surroundings, the barricades were down and three zombies were having a lovely meal. I tried to fight them, but I could just take down that one zombie. I ran again, this time to the warehouse near the Pitman Mansion. I hid there for God knows how long, scared of my own shadow and clinging on to my axe like it was my life line. Then, I say some particularly interesting people actually entering the mansion through a walkway on top of the warehouse. I followed them when my curiosity overwhelmed my fear and was greeted by Buddy and the others with open arms.

Now, they're the closest thing I have to family, except maybe Raphael. Whever he is. But still, they were the ones who taught me the ropes and helped me stay alive this long. They took me in, nurtured me and taught me everything I need to survive, and protected me and even brought me back from the jaws of death when the PTS invaded. Needless to say, I'll gladly fight and die to protect my family.