Thomas was a quiet kid who lived in a small town in Illinois, just off the outskirts of East St. Louis. He was the average stereotypical geek, usually playing Dungeons and Dragons or talking about the next video game that was releasing with the few friends he had throughout high school. He had his fair share of bullies, giving him his fair share of struggles and hardships, which only made his insecurities and lack of confidence gradually worsen. He continued to push through however, pulling himself back together many times with the help of his friends, whether they were in person or online, and family. 

In Senior year he started working as a cook for a small family restaurant to get some money to buy him a car, or any set of wheels to get around easier. Not only did he learn how to cook, but He was also taught many life lessons with the help of his older coworkers who came from many ways of life. He was given advice from many people who came from many different backgrounds and was able to see the world through the eyes of many people’s shoes. His coworkers slowly started to become his second family, a family who doesn’t always see eye to eye with each other, but a family who were always there for each other no matter how heated arguments would get. Thomas would eventually graduate from high school and start his way into the world, afraid of what's to come, but ready for the challenge.

A year would pass since his graduation, fortunately keeping most of the same friends he had from high school as well as gaining a few more. He continued to work as a cook but was actively looking through colleges online to help get him what he really wanted, a career where he could be creative, a career that would make all the countless hours telling stories with his friends over a table for hours at a time mean something. He eventually got accepted into Webster University, where he would begin the beginning stages of learning how to become a screenwriter, something that would hopefully let him show the world his mind. He continued as an average student, going to classes on a regular basis, free from distraction, until he met a girl by the name of Chloe Bell. 

She was stunning, the way she would walk into class captivated him time after time, causing him to spend less time in class learning, and more time thinking of her. They never met before, but something about her was fascinating, and Thomas couldn’t get her out of his head. They eventually met however, during a group project where they had to create a story revolving around a dystopian world the teacher would make up. The two were distant at first, but as the other group members began to slack off and blow off the assignment, the two of them became closer as they tried their best to salvage the story. They went from classmates working on a project, to best friends with many of the same interests. They started going everywhere together, doing everything with each other, eventually introducing her to his friends and him to hers. They might not have created the best script for the project, but they did end up creating one hell of a bond between them.

To Thomas, this was all new to him, since Chloe would be his first ever girlfriend, his first ever love. They had their ups and downs, and many fights, but they managed to work through them as they continued their lives together, eventually moving into a small apartment together near school.

They continued to follow their paths of their careers, even with the gradually worsening pandemic. Their regular classes slowly turned into online classes, eventually causing them to stay indoors days at a time to get their piling schoolwork done. They had many long nights of staring at the ceiling listening to sad music together, but at least they were together. Eventually the pandemic would begin to waver up and down through its severity, causing the lockdowns to slowly disappear and have life slowly start becoming normal. They started seeing their family again, going on vacations, trying to live normally.

Now that the lockdowns started to end, the university started going back to normal, eventually letting in person classes resume. The two of them still kept a few classes together, making carpooling to school easier. They began to do better in school, eventually landing them onto a list of students that were considered promising in the field. They were then given an assignment to help write a documentary of Nyheim, and how it was formed many years ago, and with all expenses paid, the two of them took the chance to not only to get their name as writers a little bit of fame, but to travel somewhere out of the country together.

The small troop of classmates, including Thomas and Chloe, eventually stepped foot onto the soil of Nyheim. The two of them along with the others were overjoyed with traveling to somewhere new, only for that joy to slowly wane as the pandemic began to rapidly come back. What was originally a one week stay slowly turned into several weeks, as the virus began to spread like wildfire. This was different however, not just a name change. The virus began to change people around them, causing others to act in wild outbursts of anger and violence. The two of them were ordered to stay in their respected room during most of the weeks, only allowed to leave for essentials. The hallway their class took up began to be barricaded as more and more people were becoming infected. Thomas and Chloe realized that they were witnessing the end of the world, and all they could do was watch it slowly close in on them. As more classmates were becoming infected, as well as the teacher, the remaining survivors were ordered to move into quarantine. Life for Thomas and Chloe began to weigh heavy on them, only having each other as they huddled under their little tent that was provided to them at the little quarantine camp. 

A photo taken of Thomas and Chloe by their professor
 

The camps around them began to fall, as well as the connection to the outside world as the internet and broadcasting stations stopped working. Radios became their main connection to the other camps, but each camp slowly disappeared. The soldiers that protected them slowly began to get sick as they slowly brought more survivors in, leading them to close their doors off to people in need, and slowly spread their disease throughout the camp. To try and prevent this, people with major signs of infections were forced out of the camp, given some food to survive, and something to protect them.

The camp began to become divided, some believing the actions of the people protecting them were just and in good intention, as others began insulting their way of doing things, claiming their actions as only making things worse. Thomas and Chloe started getting caught in the middle, as well as a small group of survivors just trying to live peacefully. Things began to get heated as the two sides started going from exchanging words to showing acts of violence.

As tensions grew high, people stuck in the middle began to leave, causing the higher ups to close off the doors, forbidding us to leave, only causing the people against them to act more violent, eventually causing a small and short civil war to burst out within the camp.

It was a cold, foggy night as Thomas and Chloe huddled together in their tent for warmth. The camp outside their enclosed tent was quiet, until glass was heard breaking, and the warmth of fire started to surround them. They quickly bursted out of their tent as the flames tore it to embers, only for them to see many other tents succumb to the fire as well. The revolution started, almost killing them in the process. Thomas started leading Chloe away from the fighting, zig zagging through the burning tents like scared animals in a forest fire. They were knocked around by others fighting, infected and normal people alike. It didn’t take long for people to start letting off shots at each other, causing bullets to whizz past them as they scrambled for safety. They were stuck in a warzone that came out of nowhere, and just like with the outbreak, they couldn’t do anything to stop it. Their cries of reason fell on deaf ears during the rising tension, and now their cries of fear were heard by no one. As they were running to the outer wall, a few soldiers stopped them in their tracks before they could get past the large, makeshift gate. Chloe was pinned to the ground, as Thomas was wrestled against the stone wall, getting beat with batons and metal weapons. Suddenly a shot rang out near them, and as his beating suddenly stopped after a second shot, he looked up to see Chloe shaking in her shoes, eyes wide with adrenaline, holding one of the soldier’s shotguns. Chloe quickly shuffled over to Thomas to help him up, but quickly let go to turn around, and raise the gun at a small group of people who were approaching. These people were not soldiers however, but people they became close to in the rising tensions, people just trying to survive, caught in the crossfire just like them. Thomas slowly got to his feet and helped lower the gun in Chloe’s hands, who was terrified and ready to pull the trigger for a third time. The two, with the help of the group, managed to force open the gate and gain their freedom, or so they thought.

The noise and lights started catching the attention of the infected that surrounded them, making them come out of the tree line that encircled them by the hundreds. Thomas and Chloe, as well as the group, began to bolt to an opening in the trees, a hole in the horde that was beginning to form. They slowly pushed their way through the trees and brush that blocked their path of freedom, killing the infected that stood in their way. A few of the group succumbed to the infected, only causing more to divert their attention to them as their blood gurgling screams caused enough distraction to get to safety, but in time, they made it to safety.

Thomas and Chloe got their freedom and started traveling with the group that helped save them. Life only got harder as they tried to adjust to the outside world, forcing them to move around a lot. Their numbers would dwindle from starvation and dehydration, or skirmishes with other groups trying to find the same thing they were looking for. Time continued on, and while Thomas would go on to live, Chloe wasn’t as fortunate. Chloe started to feel sick, and eventually started showing signs of the virus as they traveled. The group caught onto this and started becoming antsy, as they did with anyone in the group that became infected. Tensions began to form between Thomas and the group, until Chloe declared that she would leave to prevent the spread. After a heated argument between Chloe and Thomas, Thomas decided to stay behind with Chloe after being told to go with the group. The group of survivors went on without them, and tensions between Thomas and Chloe began to vanish as she became sicker. Although Chloe wanted Thomas to be safe with them, she’s happy he stayed by her side. Thomas continued to care for Chloe in the abandoned little house they found themselves in, teaching himself how to hunt and survive for both of their sakes.

Chloe would eventually pass in Thomas’s arms, and as Chloe’s body was tied down to the bed after her death, Thomas pulled up a chair to the end of the bed and sat down, waiting for Chloe to go from his love to a monster. It took a long couple of hours, until he saw her head slowly rise, as nothing but groans and hisses started coming from her mouth. Her lips were cracked, and her eyes were bloodshot, and as she looked up at his face, tied to the bed, all Chloe did was snarl and scream at him. Thomas raised his pistol, and with tears in his eyes he squeezed the trigger, ending the monster she became. Thomas ended up burying her behind the house, and with little supplies, he left to roam on his own.

Thomas is alone now, and with no direction on where to go. He has no map, barely any food, and a small compass to tell him where north is. Thomas roams Nyheim searching for a purpose, trying to help rebuild life to what it was before the outbreak, living to fight another day for Chloe’s sake.