character :: Heidi Brooks
Heidi survives by making a safe place, not simply looking for one. When the SHTF, the first thing Heidi did was nest down with her father Paul and little sister Hadia at their high-rise apartment in downtown, Los Angeles. As the one of the counter-sniper members of SWAT, Paul had sparked the love for sharpshooting in his daughter quite young, and good thing, too: the world had gone to hell. Soon, supplies ran thin and the family had to brave the overrun apartment building below them: and only Heidi would make it out alive. The final gift Paul can give his eldest daughter is the chance for survival; after having already been bitten by his freshly turned daughter, he presses Heidi through a crack in the front doors of the lobby, throwing his rifle at her feet. He locks the door from the inside as the dead press against the hinges, looking to feed: and from that moment on, Heidi were alone. She wanted just one look at her father and her sister, just one more –
Heidi had nothing left as she stared out into the world, shell-shocked and numb. There were less of them out here, but still more than she could count: she needed shelter. It’s what her father would do. So, with all of her life on her back, Heidi struck it out into the world alone; by nightfall, she found herself an overrun supermarket that called to her. For the next six months, Heidi cleared that store of all the dead, pushing every shelving unit to the front of the building that had once been covered with glass windows. She found a way into the attic where she made a home for herself, and later the roof for a perfect sniper’s nest; alone she remained. She spent her time taking stock of her resources, applying concrete to the steel skeletons reinforcing the glass windows, and working out generators and water filtration systems.
if not for survivors?
By the time the first survivor made his way through the zombies in the parking lot, Heidi didn’t know what to think. She didn’t want to bother with other people, but here he was: older than her father, looking beaten and bruised. She wanted to turn him away, but a gut-wrenching thought made her take Ted in: what is left if not for survivors?
Now, months into the infectious siege, Heidi seeks to collect those the disease left behind. Begrudgingly, she has become the person that people go to for advice; oddly enough, in this world, that made you a leader. She spends her time on top of the roof, the hot sun creating blemishes on her light skin, staring through her scope at her old apartment building so far away. Some days, when the light is just perfect, she thinks she can catch a glimpse of them through the open windows…all she wants is one more look, and maybe then she’ll be satisfied.
