Welcome to the Waco Wasteland! (Homebrewish PA Campaign)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Background
2. Links
3. Selected Homebrew Rules
4. Settlements
5. Factions
6. Ruins

1. BACKGROUND
The Change
Late in the Year of Our Lord 2012, somebody (or something--but obviously somebody),* accidentally or intentionally, opened a portal to another world located near the intersection of 7th and Wood. Within days, armored personnel carriers with FEMA markings swooped in and set up camp around the portal, which they dubbed Anomaly 0. At first, the only effect of the anomaly seemed to be a horrible swirling fire that couldn't be put out. Within a month, however, Derivative Anomalies began appearing--people with wildmagic abilities. These first incidents--known collectively as The Change--were seemingly random and entirely unintentional. Those who had been affected (or infected, as some would have it) with magic did not know or understand their new abilities and had no idea how to control them. Over time, some individuals began figuring out how to control these new powers--and that's when things really started to go south. In the worst cases--in China, for instance--dictatorial governments suddenly found themselves facing a power they had no idea how to fight or even contain, and that power was wielded by some very pissed off people (the Uighur Retribution was particularly bloody). But governments like these do not cede power easily. China began a policy of ruthlessly eliminating whole villages on mere suspicion of magical talent, but the real problem was North Korea.

*It was Clint.

The Fall
For years before The Change, the North Korean government had been experimenting with a mutant strain of the cordyceps fungus, hoping that it could be tamed and turned into a way of ensuring the utter subjection of a carefully infected drone class who would lack all individual will. As China began carpet bombing its own people, North Korea began pushing its scientists for a weaponized version that could turn the growing class of furious magic-wielding rebels into a new--and completely loyal--class of magic-using shock-troopers. In desperation, they ended up deploying the earliest possible strain.

Perhaps, without magical interference, it would've worked as intended; perhaps not. What we know is that the interaction with magical elements resulted in the horror show that our modern world has become. The infected do not respond to commands; they seek only to spread and kill and consume... and in the early stages of infection, they retain the full strength, speed, and intelligence of the human body. The North Koreans expected their enemies to lose their will to fight; they found instead that all their enemies lost was their restraint.

Now of course the North Korean scientists built in a failsafe: despite their apparent intelligence, the original infected test subjects did a terrible job of sustaining themselves (picking proper food, drinking at the right times, etc). Their single-minded devotion to spreading the fungus to fresh hosts crowded out all other considerations. Thus, without their handlers, the test subjects would starve or dehydrate in a matter of days. But as the days and weeks wore on, it became clear that the magical effects were somehow sustaining the infected. Over time, the constant wear and tear inflicted on the muscles and bones of the infected would tell; they would lose their speed, their agility, and the brain too would begin to breakdown, resulting eventually in the more familiar dumb shamblers of zombie lore… and yet there the decay seemed to stop. And once they reached that stage of decay, the infected did not seem to require sustenance of any kind. They would simply... exist until destroyed.

In desperation, the North Koreans turned to the nuclear option--not asking the South or the US for help, but the literal nuclear option--in an effort to stem the hordes. But of course, no matter where it's landing, a nuke launching from North Korea is going to provoke a response, and years of bluff and bluster meant that no one was willing to trust the Supreme Leader’s insistence that the nukes were actually aimed at themselves. Moments after the initial launches, US nukes stationed in the South were in the air. At some point, the Chinese followed the North Korean lead and it's not quite clear where it went from there. Nuclear exchanges were recorded between Russia and China, India and China, India and Pakistan, Iraq and Iran (turns out they did have WMD after all!), Iran and Israel, and Iran and Saudi Arabia. Not much is known about the rest of the world (except Africa--they’re basically fine), but Asia has for all intents and purposes gone quiet.

It’s not clear exactly how the infection spread across the world. I’ll leave that for the scientists to piece back together. But spread it did, and with unprecedented ferocity. The United States, being so heavily armed and filled with rural areas and survivalist sovereign citizens, tended to fare better than a lot of places (if by "better" you mean there were a bunch of murderous heavily armed people who will kill you even faster than a zombie...). The government blared "shelter in place" warnings everywhere, but as the weeks and months wore on it became clear: ain't no cavalry coming. Rumor has it that the US government--or what’s left of it--has reformed around an Emergency-Powers Enabled National Security Council that has managed to hold on to a narrow corridor from DC up on through Boston. There’s talk of a Department of National Reclamation, supposedly formed to take back the country, and a far spookier Directorate of Sanitation and Quarantine.

Die Neue Welt
But that’s all words in the wind and who knows if it’s true. In the rest of America, people have to find a way to fend for themselves, and begin rebuilding on their own. It was early 2014 when Rick Perry declared the Republic of Texas from his reinforced bunker on Galveston Island. About a year after that, rumors started reaching Texas of an independent technopower in the West calling itself simply The City... but none of that matters much to y'all--the survivors who have banded together in Brazos Landing. Because it's summer 2018 now and things have more or less settled down. I mean, there are zombies everywhere, but the rigormortis has started to set in and the magical fungus can only do so much. They tend to be shamblers, and you can outpace them at a quick walk--though they're just as dangerous as ever when you get close. And the fresh ones are just as fast, just as deadly, and most importantly just as smart as the infected of that terrible first wave. But while They own most of the country, there are tiny pockets that have managed to hold out and even take up rudimentary trade.

If you're still alive, you've probably figured out how to manage the odd zombie and if you're lucky enough to live in one of the settlements, then the old mundane needs and wants have returned--especially the wants. But the manufacturing capacity for those wants is gone--maybe not forever, but for the forseeable future. That's where people like y'all come in--crews that accept contracts for specific gear out there, in the Bush, among the dead: Fixers. People have problems, and you and your crew Fix them--for a fee.

The Crews
You’re not murder-hobos; you’re a Fixer crew. For one reason or another, none of you seem to be cut out for civilian life, so you make your living in the Bush: caravan trading from settlement to settlement, scavenging the wasteland for goods to sell back home, and—the most lucrative but often the most dangerous—taking jobs on contract to recover specific items. Fixer crews are like companies, complete with names and reputations and sometimes even logos. The post below will be your little slice of HR--in particular, the list of employees (i.e., you and whatever NPCs you hire) and the cut each employee gets on successful completion of a job.

The Economy
Fiat money is basically worthless now that most government has collapsed. The Republic has begun printing money (slang: RTD or Republic Scrip), and compelling its subjects to accept it, but outside of the Houston Fortified Zone, it’s more or less a joke. So most things run on barter, but with trade picking up, there are some things that have begun to replace the Old World currencies--chiefly, cigarettes and bullets. They’re small, they’re more or less easy to transport, and they have real-world uses instead of being a glorified IOU. I’ll try to draw up a rough conversion table, but these things are by no means standardized, even within the same settlement. The general rule is that bullet value is a function primarily of bullet-power, modified to some degree by its scarcity. So, typically: .22 and .38=less valuable, .308 and 7.62=more valuable. 12ga shells pack a great punch, but they’re also relatively common--and shotguns are loud, which attracts the dead, further depressing the value of the shell.

Very Rough Conversion: 1,000x(.22)=100x.38=10xShell/5.56/7.62=1x.308/.50AE

Jobs
Jobs can range from the mundane (siphoning gas tanks is a good example) to the more difficult (trek out to a distant location and retrieve specific salvage) to the very difficult (zombie clear-out or faction vendettas). You will always have a choice of jobs and can even elect to venture out without a set objective on a random salvage run to see what you can find.

Coda: Facebook Everywhere
In the summer of 2008, Google greenlit a special project, initially codenamed Google X and later renamed Project Loon. The purpose of the project: to bring the internet to everyone, everywhere. In late 2010, Mark Zuckerberg announced his plan for Facebook Everywhere--a competing project aimed at the same goal; in particular, Zuckerberg envisioned a series of solar-powered internet relays mounted to a network of high-atmosphere balloons and low-orbit satellites intended to provide basic internet access to the whole world--through Facebook. Within two years (before the final collapse, but well into the Old World’s concluding drama), Facebook launched the first prototypes providing widespread internet access to rural North America. As the unrest from the Change began to spiral out of control, Google and Facebook began working together, and as the Crisis deepened, Zuckerberg became more and more personally obsessed with the project, rightly convinced that it could be the hope for any kind of technology surviving a doomsday scenario.

Whatever he may have achieved in Asia was lost in the self-inflicted nuclear holocaust that consumed the continent--what the EMP blasts didn’t knock out, the dust clouds have obscured. And because of that pesky globalist cuck, The Weather, the dust problem was not limited to the Asian skies--for two years any connection to FaBE was spotty at best, even in rural America where it was supposed to work the best. Five years on, however, the skies are clearer and the signal is stronger. The real limiting factor now is electricity--but anyone who manages to find that (well, and a FaBE-equipped set of Google-glasses or a laptop) and has a direct line to clear skies has a whole world at their fingertips--or rather the decayed husk of most of North America, which is all you can really access.

2. LINKS
Special Rules and Lore (Link)
Table of Gear, Feats, and Skills (Link)

3. IMPORTANT HOMEBREW RULES
(A.) Infection
Coming into direct contact with the infection (a bite, gore sliming your skin, zombie blood on an open wound) triggers an infection check (Fortitude save against variable DC based on type of contact). The roll is taken by the DM, in secret unless the PCs have a blood testing kit available (in which case Will Points can be added to change the outcome). Ghost symptoms are possible up to a certain point; the intense fear of zombification is so psychologically powerful that the mind can compel the body to mimic the early stages purely out of fear. The period between when ghost symptoms should end and full turning is not long--sometimes only seconds. Critical success reveals immunity. Critical failure… is special!

(B.) Will-to-Survive
Each character gets 1xWIS-modifier points of Will per job. These points may be used in lieu of a roll to ensure an automatic success in a difficult situation. This is meant to help balance the fact that this game-world is really fuggin dangerous. Will can be gained beyond your initial points by detrimental-but-in-character roleplay. For example, let’s say that a bantering NPC the party needs to talk to insults a “Proto-Tribal” PC. The PC can choose to restrain himself for the good of the group…or he can say “fuck it” and  avenge the insult, despite putting the group at a disadvantage. The DM would then reward the player with an extra will point. Basically, it’s an incentive to encourage in-character behavior, even when it would be detrimental/not-powergamey to do so.

(C.) Sanity
You have 15 points of Sanity. At various times, you will be asked to perform Will checks to prevent Sanity loss. If you hit 10 Sanity, you must add another permanent Weak Spot of your choice to your character. If you hit 5 Sanity, I will add a Weak Spot of my choice to your character, and it will be more severe (e.g., alcoholism or drug addiction). If you hit 0 Sanity, you will go insane. While this does not end your game, it will make things… interesting. Be warned that insane characters will be much better at melee, but much worse at ranged combat. There are only two ways to recover Sanity: (1) blowing off steam (at the risk of forming substance dependencies) and (2) developing relations with your dependents. Both occur at the end of every Job.

(D.) References
You get your CHA modifier number of references each Job. References are contacts that can supply you with information or resources in a pinch (i.e., when you’ve failed a roll). The catch is that references have to be paid back at the end of the Job… or else.

(E.) Dependents
These are people who, for one reason or another, cannot or will not take care of themselves, and who therefore depend upon you to provide for them. You must spend resources on maintaining dependents, but dependents are also your tether to reality: at the end of each job, every dependent you take care of restores some of the Sanity you lose out in the field. Adding dependents is therefore expensive, but important. Examples: children, stay-at-home moms, elderly parents, disabled friends, junkies.

(F.) Small Businesses
If you manage to amass enough capital, you can start a small business. I'm very open to creative ideas, but my basic thought is that this could be a good way to provide your dependents with jobs/something to do while keeping them dependent on your actions. Thus, one suggestion would be to open a general goods store where you sell the goods you salvage while out on jobs. Whatever the idea is, you should somehow be involved, whether it's just escorting trader caravans, bringing in scrap metal to a blacksmithy, or finding medicine for a clinic. Of course, attempting to operate a small-business comes at a cost: weighing yourself down and trying to multitask may make things more difficult while you're out on a job.  

4. SETTLEMENTS
The Yard (La Salle Self Storage)
Short description: a fortified clearinghouse for buying, selling, trading, hiring, and commerce of all kind; produces almost nothing itself, but takes a cut of every transaction that takes place within the walls. Saw a huge increase in business after the fall of The Hub.
Needs: you to behave yourself.
Supplies: a neutral ground and protected trade
Fixer Crews:

Fort Russell (Dorm)
Short description: a natural defensive position with an interior courtyard; housed a disproportionate number of nursing majors who now ply their trade as the closest things to doctors most people will see.
Needs: Water, wood, clothes, meat, ammo
Supplies: Minor Crops, BU Salvage, Nursing-for-hire
Fixer Crews:
- The Dirty Third (Penland refugees who mostly run Fort Russell security and occasionally take Fixer jobs)
- The Troubleshooters (former CompSci majors who specialize in electronic data recovery jobs)

The Lofts
Short description: not sure if viable, but well-fenced and the building itself is solid as a rock; still, BU itself is a high-danger zone, so perhaps not ultimately attractive enough to merit a settlement
Needs: Water, wood, clothes, meat, ammo
Supplies: not sure
Fixer Crews:
- The Delivery Boys (two former delivery drivers and a former cook for Shorty's Pizza who got caught out in the shit together)

Bell’s Hill (Elementary)
Short description: Check this place out on the map—a natural fort, though far from water.
Needs: Water, wood, meat, ammo, food
Supplies: Greenhouse flora (esp. Citrus), Recovered materials (slowly tearing down unnecessary parts of the building), limited medicine (from school nurse’s supply), clothes leftover from massive Old World clothing drive
Fixer Crews:

Trendwood (Apartments)
Short description: a well-fenced and tightly packed apartment complex immediately adjacent to large farming plots—though those are not themselves fenced in
Needs: water, clothes, meat, ammo
Supplies: foodstuffs
Fixer Crews:

Brazos Landing (Brazos Village + The Landings)
Short description: easily defensible and most importantly near the water—one of the few reliable sources of Brazos water
Needs: clothes, meat, ammo
Supplies: Water, wood
Fixer Crews:
- The Saints (see full settlement profile)
- Slimjim's Full Service (see full settlement profile)

5. FACTIONS
Republic of Texas
When it became clear that there weren’t no cavalry comin’, the remnants of the Texas government (re)established the grandly named Republic of Texas . The surviving elements of the Texas National Guard pulled back to the Galveston Island Defensive Line before pushing their way out and brutally, but successfully, reclaimed southeastern Houston up to the Buffalo Bayou Line—chiefly in order to secure the chain of refineries that grace the southern bank of the Buffalo Bayou. The seat of power, however, remains back on the highly defensible Galveston Island. Despite the name, the Republic controls little more than half of Houston and a handful of National Guard outposts scattered throughout the state that have pledged their allegiance. But y’all bumpkins don’t know much more than rumors about any of this. All you know is that the Commissioners the Republic sends throughout the state are known to be sources for salvage jobs—and they pay well, almost always in gasoline.  

The City
The rumor-mill claims that, with the DC Government hiding safely behind East Coast enclaves, the tech-lords of San Francisco have taken matters into their own hands. But these things are far-away, no more real to you than the Beijing Crater or the Amsterdam Abattoir.  

North Waco Ranchers
These fellas were basically just waiting for something like this to happen and they seem to be enjoying themselves, maybe a little too much. They’ve banded together to help protect the herds from raiders and roving hordes. They’re willing to trade—but get a reference first, and don’t make any sudden movements...

Tribulation Force (Branch Davidian Compound)
Y’all don’t know ‘bout them RAPTURE CONVERTS—but they’re out there, waiting for the rise of Nicolae Carpathia and feeling like we all pretty much deserve what’s happening. And, y’know, show ‘em where they’re wrong, amirite?

FEMA (Center Apts)
Shortly before the bust, the fall, the End, the whatever, EVENTS and PLACES happened in Waco that led to the establishment of a FEMA center. A heavily armed, definitely not a front, and totally not the wild-dreams-of-a-paranoid-sovereign-citizen-come-true FEMA center. That still exists and is occasionally resupplied by airdrop by God only knows what power. They may have settlement needs, but they have a nasty tendency to shoot on sight. Happily, they keep to themselves... for now.

Department of National Reclamation
You’ve only heard of it in rumors, and typically with derisive nicknames (like “Dreck”). Supposedly, the regnant National Security Council created the Department in the Aftermath as a centralized directorate charged with retaking America, one block at a time.

DNR - Directorate 7: Special Sanitation and Quarantine
These rumors are even wilder, but mothers do love to tell their misbehaving children about that, “if you aren’t a good boy, the Snakes will find you and take you away.”  

Raider groups (Various)
You know some people got to be dicks about things and stuff.  

6. RUINS
The Big O
Attempted to turn Floyd Casey into a fortress, but the attempt to dig up the field proved a failure. Without a source of domestic agriculture, the huge size of the O meant that it could not support the number of people it would take to defend it.

The Hub
Built up in the old Treasure City Flea Market, the Hub was able to run for years on stored up stuff left over from the Old Days. The Fall of the Hub is still obscured by tall-tales and horror stories, and no one knows exactly why or how the thriving community went under.  

Scott & White/Hillcrest
Not a former settlement, but a hospital probably has good stuff still, right?

BRAZOS LANDING
The Ol' Homestead

Dramatis Personae
Robbie, 35, handyman-cum-superhero, Chief of Brazos Landing
Brett, 28, former Engineering Major and AFROTC dropout, Chief of Brazos Landing Security Team
Skyler, 28, former Mechanical Engineering Major and Mario Kart Tri-State Champion, Chief of Maintenance Team
Hunter, 26, former Environmental Sciences Major and Chief of Brazos Landing Agriculture Team

Map

Red - Chain Link Fence (basically a picket)
Orange - Car Walls
Yellow - Piping for Jerry-Rigged Water Pump
Green - Cultivated area
Red Star - Administrative Building

History
When The Shit Popped Off, Brett (Engineering, '13), Skyler (Mechanical Engineering, '13), Hunter (Environmental Science, '14), and Chaz (Women's and Gender Studies, 13') were smoking weed and playing Mario Kart with their next-door neighbor, Robbie, a 30 year-old high-school dropout, occasionally employed handyman and self-appointed (unofficial) super of the complex. Robbie was also the group's sometime-purveyor of small amounts of marijuana, which is how he came to be playing Mario Kart with a bunch of 21-year-olds at 11:00 at night. When their other neighbor (and the group's all-purpose antagonist), pissed-off-Vietnam-Vet-Frank, began banging on the door of Apartment 401, they assumed he was just there, once again, to complain about the music or the smell or whatever else it was. Hunter, Skyler, and Brett sat, frozen in horror, as an infected Frank tore Chaz into pieces at the door--only Robbie had the presence of mind to put down Frank, and shortly thereafter the newly reanimated Chaz. When the police dispatch lady on the phone told him that the standing orders were to shelter in place, use deadly force against attackers, and remove all dead bodies immediately, Robbie's blue-collar survival instincts kicked in. He ordered the terrified bros to lock the door behind him and barricade the windows and proceeded to ransack Frank's house for everything of value--food, water, containers, and anything that could be construed as a weapon, from knives to bats, and Frank's hidden cache of shotguns and shells he definitely did not have permits for. He brought those back to the boys' place, put out some containers to catch rainwater on the balcony, and told them all to hunker down to weather the storm. Armed with Frank's shotgun, he then went back out into the shit and did what he could for the remaining residents of the complex, helping them secure their apartments and promising to check in on them in the morning.

The result is that Brazos Landing is one of the few settlements in the Waco Wasteland that has been continuously inhabited since The Shit Went Down. In the days that followed, the bros rallied and began helping Robbie hold down the fort. Robbie's new sense of purpose (apparently coming out of nowhere) inspired the bros and they assumed a default position of leadership in a community that still, for the most part, hid behind their own doors or else tried to get out of town. After an early failure of the chain-link fence to hold back a small horde of walkers, the group decided to use leftover cars in the complex to fortify the gaps between the buildings--to use the buildings themselves as the outer wall, fortifying all the exterior windows and doors as best they could with furniture and scrap metal. When the Ain't No Cavalry Comin' realization hit them, they turned to Hunter for his experience in urban food renewal efforts. After a harrowing and almost disastrous series of expeditions to Waco's various urban agriculture outfits, the group secured a sufficient amount of hardware and seeds to begin small-scale cultivation. Their most recent most was jerry-rigging a 250ft pipe-and-pump system to draw water directly out of the Brazos in order to reduce the amount of time anyone would have to spend outside the walls.

The history of the settlement has not, however, been without conflict. Robbie was generally liked even before his heroic actions during the night of the fungally-reanimated-magical-dead, but the boys had never been particularly well-known or well-liked in the community, and nobody likes taking orders from a bunch of 20-something bros. And yet, most of the people who have remained have very little in the way of marketable skills in the post-apocalypse, and the boys' knowledge of agriculture and engineering has been vital to keeping the community alive.

Politics
The fact that Brazos Landing has been inhabited continuously since the Flood has been both a blessing and a curse. Mostly a curse. In the more recently inhabited settlements, the former owners were dead or gone. Goods and property could be portioned out by executive committees and the re-nascent market economies were always subject first and foremost to the needs of the community. The settlers themselves tended to support this plan, as they had no particular attachment to a given piece of property when their group decided to settle down. In Brazos Landing, however, the Apocalypse did not have the same cleansing and resetting effect on human psychology. All the old pathologies are still present in humans everywhere--the Zombies didn't turn us all into good Commies. But the people of Brazos Landing never had to leave their stuff behind. The cars Robbie and the boys commandeered to construct the Car Wall weren't just abandoned vehicles--those were their cars; this is their apartment or their supplies or their... well you get the point. The point is, the people of Brazos Landing chafed far more than their counterparts elsewhere at the spirit of emergency powers and military command that necessarily dominated the Aftermath.

The upshot is that, in the first place, there is a stronger sense of individualism and private property than you might expect to find at other settlements of comparable size. Despite Robbie's initial acts of valor, the early tensions between the Apartment 401 Boys and the other inhabitants soon led the boys to contract out their knowledge, rather than offering it for free. It was Brett and Skyler who designed the water-pump; it was Hunter who designed the purification system. And it was Robbie who led the crew into the Wastes to find the parts they needed when the other residents wouldn't pony up. And so, sure, they charge for fresh water. And sure they pay the security team from their own pockets. And sure they now take a "security tax" from all the other residents to defray the costs, because, dammit, nobody else was chipping in. In the second place, there is, even in this small community, a clear caste system. The Apartment 401 Boys are on top, and the original inhabitants--with all their holdover antediluvian amenities and strange continuity of life--are solidly in the middle, owning a number of small enterprises and looking down on Wasteland refugees. Those refugees constitute the lowest class of Brazos Landing life--but they also enjoy something of an alliance with the Apartment 401 Boys as counterweights to the middle class. The Boys frequently declare Free Water days for the refugees and almost the entirety of agricultural and defense work is done by refugees armed and supplied by Apartment 401. The obvious instability of this situation has led a number of younger members of the middle class to sign up for defense work--if only to get some guns in the hands of "their kind" in case things go sideways.  

Current Debates
Some people in the settlement have been agitating for the settlement to expand out to enclose the Brazos Village apartments next door, which, lacking a fence, did not fair as well as their immediate neighbors. Others argue that it's too much risk of overextension without enough reward to justify it (mostly extra housing and a little bit more space for agriculture).

Economics
The antediluvian population of the Landing was around 500 souls. The Flood claimed a quarter of those lives and another two hundred and change left the settlement in the early days in the hopes of finding something better. The ones that remained were split between more and less cooperation with the boys and their projects; some elected to help out and link their fortunes to the settlement's fortunes as a whole, while the majority withdrew into isolated units--engaging in trade and coming together to fight off hordes, but otherwise keeping to themselves. As the old world supplies began to run out, the general dearth of farming knowledge meant that they had to trade with the Boys for food--and after the construction of the Pump, for water, too. This led many of the old families to start up little businesses of their own. For some it was clothing repair; for others it was quality cooking; still others made contact with the first generation of caravaneers and used their remaining pre-Fall goods to open general stores. A former schoolteacher offered to do what she could to keep the remaining kids reading and occupied. particularly lucky (or insane) owner of a gas-powered generator, multiple undamaged plasma-screen TVs, and a hoarder's collection of DVDs even set up a make-shift two-screen movie theater ("The Brazos Landing Galaxy 2"). In the early days, he also rented out the generator directly, for everything from charging cell-phones to keeping lights on (this practice tends to attract both the living and the dead and has since come to be frowned on with some severity). With the advent of the scavenger crews, however, gas-generators have become slightly more common; having lost his monopoly, he mostly focuses on the "theater" now. In general, all such businesses are owned and operated by the original inhabitants. The refugees tend to arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs, whereas the original inhabitants had access to houses full of pre-Fall capital.

In terms of trade, the big export is purified water. Traders will also sometimes take the "processed" wood planks put out by Big Jim's Big Wood (Big Jim got dem power tools!). And sometimes insane people make the pilgrimage to the "Galaxy 2" for the sheer experience of getting to watch a movie and pretend like the world hasn't gone to hell.

As mentioned above, the refugees tend live 2-to-a-room, 4 (or 6) to a unit, either paying rent to to the middle class or working at a discount rate for the Boys, doing jobs that don't require capital--agriculture, defense, and, yes, scavenging crews. Speaking of, there are two competing Fixer crews working out of Brazos Landing:  The Saints (a group of Mormon missionaries whose two-year assignment was for none other than central Texas) and Slimjim's Full Service (a Fixer crew that got its start scavenging gasoline from abandoned cars).

Demographics
There are roughly 150 original inhabitants still remaining and an almost equal number of new arrivals, bringing the total population to just under 300. There are somehow two Evangelical congregations that meet on Sundays in the "Events" room of the administration building, and a wandering Catholic priest drops by irregularly, maybe once every other month, to hear confessions and hold a living room Mass for the handful of Catholics in the settlement. An Anglican rector once visited, but it didn't go well.

GROSZ
Home Settlement: Brazos Landing
Logo Description:
Structure: Hierarchical/Democratic

Crew
Handle (Percentage)

Hannah Krumrey
Cut: 34%
Consumables: Crossbow Bolts (24); .45 ACP (7/7)
Stress: 15/15
Detachment: 15/15
Trauma: 15/15
Loot: Main Grill Component (5 lbs), Gas Mask (1 lb), Map with Markings (Locations: Safe, Trail off Road)

Juan Cardenas
Cut: 33%
Consumables: 9mm rounds (14/17, 4 more clips); Shotgun shells (4/6); First Aid Kit (8/10 charges)
Stress: 15/15
Detachment: 15/15
Trauma: 15/15
Loot: Grill Base (15 lbs)

Reggie
Cut: 33%
Consumables: .308 rounds (6/6, 2 more clips); Facebook Everywhere Glasses (9/10 charges)
Stress: 15/15
Detachment: 15/15
Trauma: 15/15
Loot: Gas Canister (10 lbs)

Small Business:

Hannah Krumrey
Character Sheet: Link
Age: 24 (19 at time of the Shit Popping Off)
Race: Just… just so white
Class: Sorcerer (Undead Bloodline)
Appearance: 5’7”, 118 lbs, blonde
Clothing: bright colored tank tops and tees, low-rider jeans, pumpkin spice boots
Days without Grooming: 0

Weak Spot: Obsessed with own appearance
Soft Spot: Caring for animals
Tough Spot: Wary

Dependents: Kappa Kappa Gamma Sisters - Amy Reingold, Rebecca Clarke, Laura

Backstory:
Hannah was your typical Baylor legacy girl. Her parents had met at Baylor, her paternal grandfather had gone to Baylor. She was blonde, pretty, Baptist, and sorority-bound. She had tried out for the cheerleading team her first semester and only barely missed the cut. She started going to UBC and in the fall of her Sophomore year was preparing to rush Kappa Kappa Gamma. She was popular, pretty, and seemed set for graduation as an education major and maybe a marriage proposal in the next three years.

All that changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

After the anomaly happened, Hannah began to change. She started having headaches and strange soreness all over not unlike growing pains. She found herself running fevers seemingly unconnected with any illnesses. One night at a rush event with an associated frat, a frat guy felt her up, and as she concentrated on how gross he was being, he suddenly started vomitting, lost his balance, and fell in his own sick. Hannah would later pinpoint that as the first time she used her newfound powers. For a bubbly girl-next-door like Hannah her powers were more an embarrassment than anything else, and once her prospective sisters found out that she was infected with them, they kicked her out of Rush.

While Hannah was devastated at her ill-fortune, events would soon transpire to reveal just how fortunate she was. As the world fell to pieces and the undead began to roam the land, it became clear that besides just being able to make people feel like crap, Hannah had a special talent for killing the undead with her powers, or at least debilitating them. A few of the surviving sisters who had once rejected her for her powers now fled to her for protection from the menaces of the apocalypse. Her ability to cripple pursuers, undead or yet-to-be-dead, kept her and her friends just ahead of the various dangers that manifested as the world spiraled into chaos.

As things began to settle, Hannah also found that her winning personality and frankly the lack of expectations other people had when meeting her gave her a leg up. She didn’t look like someone with spooky powers, and her natural sorority girl bearing tended to disarm people. To a point. Of course being an attractive woman in the apocalypse carries some particular dangers with it as well. But fortunately for Hannah, she has been able to avoid any such predations till now.

Her friend Rebecca unfortunately was not so lucky. She and Amy, the two Kappa sisters who have survived with Hannah the last few years, have come to rely on her heavily. At first, Hannah felt vindicated and not a little self-righteous to have these two who helped vote her out need her protection. But before long, vindication turned to pity and something close to genuine friendship. Rebecca still bears the scars, physical and psychological, from her experience, and Amy (God bless her heart) just does not possess the common sense necessary to live well in the Wasteland. Laura is a 9 yr old that the girls found wandering Waco after her parents were murdered by bandits. She is 11 now, says almost nothing, and is terrified of strangers. So Hannah supports them and herself by using her unique abilities with scavenging parties.

Over the last five years Hannah has developed a knack for negotiation in the Waco settlements, but she will always be an outsider because of what she is both in terms of being a necromancer and because, frankly, there are not many people like her who survived. So she has many contacts, but few friends. With her parents almost certainly killed when Dallas burned (Highland Park did NOT fare well) and most of her friends dead or lost, she feels very alone, although she puts on a smile and a bubbly front.

Hannah is obsessed with her appearance, a trait some might call vain but which she calls being civilized. She picks up nail polish, hair product, soaps, etc anywhere she can. And while she makes concessions for the realities of the wastes, if she goes more than a few days without being able to wash her hair, she gets… irritable. She doesn’t wear impractical things, but she always wants to be looking as good as she can at all times.

She also has a soft spot for animals, especially dogs, and will go to great lengths to make sure that she does whatever she can for any animals she comes across. The strays in Waco who haven’t joined the roving packs of feral dogs know that wherever she is, there’s probably a meal for them there.

Being an attractive young woman in the apocalypse, besides knowing how to use her skills as a necromancer, Hannah has survived primarily by being wary of everyone she meets. This does not mean she’s prickly, merely that she is aware that everyone she meets wants something from her, be it her supplies, her talents, or herself, and she is realistic about gauging what each person might do to get it. She trusts her gut, and doesn’t mind putting her own safety over social decorum if her gut is telling her that the person she’s dealing with is a bastard.

Also my vote is that we call the Brazos Landings home. I'll wait to see about other characters before I suggest crew names.

Character Sheet: Link

Reggie was a specialist in supply company in Afghanistan for a tour. He drove trucks, fixed Bearcats and carried a rifle. He grew up in East Texas, and was learning planes at TSTC when things went sideways. He had family in the area, almost all of whom died, one way or another. He takes care of his grandmother and a nephew, 7, who live with him.

He has good mechanical ability, can point a gun, swing a machete, and remembers his combatives. He is a little too linear of a thinker for negotiation, but he’s a good man in a fight, and smart enough to know when not to start one.  Along with a fighter, he can be a fixer and builder for his crew.

Weak spot: has a chip in his shoulder about being a plain, side would say simple, man.
Soft spot: is a sucker for the Grand Old Flag.
Tough spot: his life is lived in clear, bright lines: loyal/disloyal, us/them; if this makes Reggie decisive, it makes him uncompromising.

Name: Juan Cardenas
Character Sheet: Link
Age: 29
Race: Sephardic Jew, but everyone thinks he’s just a Mexican or something
Class:Bard/Paladin(Jew)

Weak Spot:Drugs just all the drugs
Soft Spot:Young women
Tough Spot: He’s a criminal and it’s not a secret

Dependents: Rachel Cardenas -Sister, Randall “Rowdy” Thompson -supplier, Tyler Stockton - band mate

Born into a secular (I mean Juan...really Mom and Dad?) Sephardic family in Waco, Texas. Juan Cardenas grew up fairly affluent. His father was a dentist and his mother gave private violin lessons, he had a very comfortable and loving childhood.

In highschool he played football pretty well but didn’t love it. He also didn’t particularly love school not showing a great aptitude for academic work. What he did love was music, learning the piano at a young age, he transitioned to Guitar in his early teens and began writing his own songs in high school. The music made him popular with the ladies, while the football made him popular in general. In the high school party scene he discovered that while he enjoyed alcohol, he loved drugs, by the end of high school all he cared about was playing music and getting high.

At 16, he and three friends formed an alt-rock band and within a few years were a staple on the Central Texas bar circuit. College was never in his future and upon graduating high school he moved out of his parents' home and focused on Music.But while the band became fairly popular around Waco, it’s Waco and Wednesday nights at Treff’s weren’t going to pay all the bills.

He began to sell the drugs he loved so much. He started small with Weed and MDMA, Baylor kids were always good customers, but quickly discovered that while Music was his love, the lifestyle afforded by his drug use was something he very much enjoyed. His choices estranged him from his family, and all contact with his parents was through his younger sister, Rachel. A brilliant, charismatic girl she was born blind, but worked hard to overcome the disability and one of the proudest moments of Juan’s life was her acceptance to Baylor as an Honors Student.

At 22, Juan met, Randall “Rowdy” Thompson, an expert Meth cook with a very chequered history. Juan became one of Rowdy’s bigger dealers and his business grew quickly. He began to let the music slip as being a drug dealer became his focus. His clientele became more diverse and he found himself selling in much worse areas. Rowdy taught him to shoot and Juan began carrying a firearm with him everywhere he went. His relationship with his supplier grew to the point where Rowdy became almost a surrogate father. One night while drinking he admitted to his Jewish ancestry, “Like I give a fuck,” Rowdy replied. “This,” he said pointing at his prominent Swastika tattoo, “was about surviving behind the fence.” For his part, Juan, while he had his share of run-ins with the law, nothing serious ever stuck.

A couple of years later Shit hit the fan, in the confusion that followed both of Juan’s parents were murdered. Juan fell into a drug filled stuper for a few months, holing up and hoping that he might die. Once he realized that he did not have the will to end his own life, and that Rachel needed him, he found himself doing something he could not remember ever doing in his life. Juan preyed.

He began to study Judaism intensely and slowly became devout. Now Orthodox, he tries to let his religion be the guiding light in his life. However, prayer and textual study doesn’t cure addiction and Juan hasn’t been able to stay consistently clean for any extended period of time. He has discovered that his skills and street smarts have become highly desirable by local scavenging teams and has been able to make a decent living in this world. Oddly enough his music is also often welcome in the hovels and hamlets he visits as a reminder for people of the world that no longer exists. Although he always carried a weapon as a drug dealer, he never had to use it. He has since the Apocalypse and he’s very good at it. But skill doesn’t equal will and outbursts of violence often leads him back to drugs. As a formerly well-known dealer he has a lot of connections but he isn’t particularly widely loved.

Rachel, as a CL in Memorial, was not at home when their parents were murdered, however, as smart as she is, this is not a world for a girl with a serious disability and much of what Juan does is for her. She went the other way on religion and now often mocks Juan’s faith but the love between them has grown in tragedy and hardship.

Rowdy’s place was attacked in the aftermath, but Juan arrived and saved the man’s life (and took the first of his own) Rowdy suffered a TBI and doesn’t speak anymore but he can still cook.

Tyler Stockton was Keybordest in Juan’s band and was in truth the actual musical genius in the group, but while Juan is a high functioning drug addict, Tyler is not. Pretty much always high, Tyler is utterly dependent on Juan for his existence (and drugs).

Juan found himself drawn Hannah Krumrey because he sees in her the woman Rachel could have been without the blindness, he likes her but is often annoyed by her take charge attitude. He doesn’t trust her abilities as he is not convinced it is a gift from God.

Juan is personable and good with people, his music is often a welcome respite and he has good first aid and combat abilities. Unfortunately, he is an addict and any encounters with drug caches are going to cause problems.

I'm good with Brazos landing, I think that for Juan he was a bit of a freelancer but decided (soft spot) he wanted to work with Hannah and so he joined her crew. And I think as of right now it is decidedly her crew.

Robbie approached the the guitar-strumming man with some trepidation. He tried to mask his nerves with a winning smile, but it didn't take, "Johnny C, we've known each other for a long time, man. Now listen I know your crew is your living and I'm not trying to step on that. But I'm just asking you too keep us informed on what you see and find out there. Hannah doesn't like us and isn't always forthcoming, but I know that you know that our leadership is good for the community. We need to stay informed, so just do me this sold."
He waited for a response, not receiving one, he carried on, "Well good talk, catch you around."

I sell the little shit molly a couple of times and he thinks we're friends. Hannah doesn't like them for a reason, but this place probably doesn't have a better option. I might have to keep that in mind

Goofy story interlude ended, I like the politics of the place, but I think the Scavenger squads (how many live here?) should be a little outside the community and the boys control. Not completely since obviously they live there but their risk taking and the service they provide makes them seem different. Just my two cents

I was thinking of leaving the amount of initial competition up to y'all, but I can add a couple of crews to your settlement if you like. As for living outside the settlement, if y'all want a little base somewhere outside the walls, that's fine (with the understanding that outside the walls is much less secure and stuff may happen). Your dependents, however, all have to live inside the settlement because they're... dependent. They can't really take care of themselves and outside the walls shit is dangerous. So maybe you have a back-up or safehouse outside the walls, but you'd have some story hurtles to jump through to explain why you don't live with the people you're ostensibly taking care of.

As for the Boys' control, part of the point of the backstory is to explain why not everything in the community is directly under the Boys' control. A lot more private property/market transaction-y sort of culture developing, at least when compared to most other compounds/settlements. In short, living in the settlement doesn't necessarily put you under the Boys' control--especially if one of you lived their in the Good Ol' Days.

I meant outside the community in a spiritual and communal sense more so than a physical one. But yeah maybe we have a safe house that no one knows about

Oh I just misunderstood. Yeah, I'm assuming y'all are definitely on the fringe--wouldn't have such a shit job if somebody was looking out for you! From y'all's backstories, I'm assuming that at the very least you (and probably not Hannah) were not an original member of the settlement. Reggie might've been--TSTC isn't very far away--and his skill-set is probably redundant/out-shined by the Apartment 401 Boys, which might explain why he's wandering out to fight zombies and scavenge shit instead of starting up a mechanics shop or something to that effect. So it's possible that Juan and Hannah had teamed up some time in the past, arrived at Brazos Landing as refugees/newcomers, but didn't like the Apartment 401 Boys and gravitated toward the disaffected members of the middle class. Maybe that's how y'all started finding scavenging jobs around here?

I'll update the settlement post with some new ideas.

Character Sheet

Michael Portis

Age: 27 (22 at time of the FNA)
Race: Mixed White and African-American
Class: Monk (possibly Brawler) (MMA fighter - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Kickboxing)
Appearance: 6’0”, 180 lbs, muscular, shaved head, tattoo sleeves down both arms
Clothing: Black Tapout teeshirt, gymshorts, Nike crosstrainers, cloth handwraps

Weak Spot: Warrior Pride
Soft Spot: Kids
Tough Spot: Tough

Dependents: Girlfriend - Eva Rodriguez; 1 year old son D’antonio Portis

Backstory:
Michael Portis had been training at Blitz Sport in south Waco, hoping to try out for Bellator when he was 22. It would have been a long shot, but he had real talent at grappling and had improved his striking considerably.

All of that changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

Michael’s parents and brother both died in the early days of the cataclysm. Michael has survived by joining groups of survivors who had useful survival skills and acting as their muscle and/or workhorse. He has picked up a few survival skills along the way, but this is still his main means of getting along. Rarely has he ever resorted to stealing to get what he needs, less out of a moral compunction against it and more because it would be unwise to develop a poor reputation since he has lived in the same place since the disasters.

Michael’s father was an optimist and a religious man. Michael in contrast had little time for that sort of thing before the disasters and even less for it after. His father always insisted on seeing the best in people, which Michael saw as naive bordering on foolish. This doesn’t make him a cynic. Fighting has taught him that everyone has their own aims and desires, and if you can figure out what those are, you can find a way to work with people if at all possible, or beat them if necessary. He fights not out of rage but for the love of fighting and to feel capable of protecting himself. Especially as a mixed race kid in rural Texas.

Over 5 years, Michael’s only goal has been survival, a daunting enough goal in the immediate aftermath of the apocalypse. However, as life has begun to find a new sense of normality, Michael has found some stability as well. He has a serious girlfriend, Eva, with whom he has had a son, D’antonio. D’antonio is a year old, and child and mother both rely on Michael for support, which he is happy to provide. His budding family gives him a sense of purpose beyond simple self-improvement.

Michael loves fighting as a form of both self-mastery and mastery of one’s environment. He takes an enormous amount of pride in his abilities as a warrior and consequently never backs away from a challenge. He figures the harder the challenge, the stronger he has to be to overcome it. This has on more than one occasion been a serious threat to both his health and well-being and that of others.

That aspect has made him tough. Through trial, error, and more than a few close scrapes, he has managed to survive zombies, magic, radiation, and everything else by just refusing to let it all best him. He’s a stubborn bastard, and while that has allowed him to figure out how to kill a zombie with his bare hands and stay alive, it also made him more than a little callous. While Eva loves him dearly, she sometimes tells him that he comes across as cold and unfeeling, and she’s not wrong. It’s not that Michael doesn’t feel things. But after losing his family early on (killed in Hempstead in the early days by racists taking advantage of the chaos), almost all his friends and coaches at Blitz, and just dealing with the day-to-day of living in a nightmare hellscape, he has learned to bury his feeling deep and not let them out unless he needs to punch something really, really hard.

So crew names. Here are some ideas I have: The Walking Not Dead (TWD first aired in 2010), the Misfit Marauders, the Pinkos (because of my trademark tee shirts), and G.R.O.S.S.

I'm open to ideas. I think maybe we got our start specializing in scavenging working electronics (batteries, parts, comfort items, etc.) as well as specializing in undead pest control.

Krumrey's Kool Gang or you know...KKG?

Krumrey's Kool Kids has a nice ring... In any case, recall that you are attempting to get hired in Central Texas Hill Country. Like, postapocalyptic hellholle Hill Country, but I'm pretty sure they still wouldn't vote for a Democrat. So maybe not Pinkos :p More seriously, pick whatever you want, but I reserve the right to make your potential employers hate you for your name.

In any case, while you're deciding, I wanna explain the way jobs work: you roll Networking checks to find out about jobs. Networking on its own is a skill, but you can also add half of any other skill that you convince me makes sense. One obvious one would be "Knowledge (local)." You'll always find at least one job, but successful checks will reveal more. You can also contact references to see about more jobs, but those are probably better used on other checks. For the first run, Reggie and Juan failed their rolls, but Hannah heard an extra rumor. Also, I was already planning to give y'all at least a little bit of choice, so y'all will now have three or four jobs to choose from. Gonna try to get those jobs up soon, so pick a name 'n shit!

I say GROSS it is! I think Reggie makes sense as a Landing Resident, and he was absent from some of the founding time, trying to get surviving family out of Corsicana.

Also, sorry to have stalled this out -had a truly rough week, but back in the saddle.

I'm ok with GROSS, and I like that Reggie is a native, he may not be the most charasmatic in the group, but he may be more liked locally than peppy sorority chick or emo drug dealer

JOBS
Quick explanation: I was already planning on giving y'all a choice of jobs (=2). Hannah and Juan succeeded on their networking rolls, which gave y'all two more options (=4). The contact person is the person who has discovered the job and will handle initial communication (though after the initial roleplay contact, you can usually hand off the negotiations to whomever you want). Hannah gets one of the default contracts because she's apparently the big boss lady. Reggie gets one of the default contracts because he's a native to the settlement and knows more people. Then Hannah and Juan get one more each for their rolls. Keep in mind that other crews can bid on jobs and that stuff marked "estimated" means what it says. Rolls (networking, knowledge, intimidate, basically whatever you can think of) can be made on just about whatever you want to give you an edge or refine your estimation.

Catch and Release
Contact: Hannah
Target: your discretion
Short Description: A weirdo scientist reaching out remotely from the Republic of Texas is looking for a crew to, I shit you not, somehow attach tracking devices to at least twenty walkers, without killing them. The team must then release the walkers into "the wild."
Estimated Payout: High  
Estimated Danger: High

File Retrieval
Contact: Reggie
Target: Social Security Administration building
Short Description: A local rep from the Republic of Texas is looking for a crew to head out to the old SSA building to retrieve some old files.
Estimated Payout: Medium
Estimated Danger: Medium

Phone Retrieval
Contact: Hannah
Target: National Sanitation Foundation Test Facility
Short Description: A worker left his smart phone at work during his frantic escape from the Apocalypse. He would like you to go and get it.
Estimated Payout: High
Estimated Danger: Low

Drug Running
Contact: Juan
Target: Bosque Farms (near Shivers & Associates)
Short Description: One of Juan's "buddies" has a shipment he needs delivered to a settlement across town.
Estimated Payout: Medium
Estimated Danger: Medium

HIRING POOL
There is usually a small pool of unemployed Fixers in larger settlements. There are three hanging out in the local bar. You can hire any, all, or none of them--but your own percentages will have to be recalculated accordingly. A larger selection of hires and commerce in general can be found at The Hub. You may roll Networking or related checks to determine if you know anything more about them (e.g., spots, background, work history, etc.).

Mia
Short and slim woman of ambiguous, likely Mediterranean, ethnicity, with a shaved head. She’s wearing light leather armor and appears to have a silenced pistol in her hip holster. Her tone is all business: “Just Mia. I’m small. I’m quiet. I can get in and out without being noticed. You need me more than I need you--and that is going to cost you.”

(35% cut; stealth rogue)

Mia's Picture:

Curtis
Lanky and awkward, with a mess of stringy dirty blond hair. He’s wearing an old Gold Rush t-shirt, jeans, boots, and a gas mask clipped to his belt. He appears to have a machete and a small-caliber pistol.* He is very nervous: “W-w-what’s that? Y-y-yes, I’m looking for w-w-work. I mean, I’d work, I’d do work, if you had some. What do I d-do? I’m good with locks and picks and lockpicks and keys and computers and I’ve always been able to get into p-p-places, places p-people don’t want me to be. And I’m cheap! I swear! I don’t eat much, I don’t take up much room… but you guys will have to protect me. You can protect me, right?”

(15%; support and access)

*i.e., not the assault rifle pictured below

Curtis's Picture:

Jack
“I’m muscle.” This terrifying black man stands 6.5 feet tall, with biceps the size of your head. He has a daikatana strapped to his back and boasts a full suit of scrap-metal armor. You nod, stupefied, and say, “No kidding?

(25%; melee tank)

Jack's Armor--not Jack himself:

So, Nigel Really wants Jack, but Juan is rolling a basic Charisma check to get Mia down to 25% because he's smitten, he will then try to introduce her to the crew if successful.

Roll: Are you shitting me, 2 +1 =3 so that's going to be a hard no

Write it up, my dude. What approach did you try with Mia that failed so horrifically?

"Mia."
"Juan"
"How's life?"
The woman stared back at him blankly, eyes rendered disconcertingly large by her shaven head.
Disconcertingly but Mind-numbing beautifully
Well, Juan has dealt with junkies for years and if she thought a vacant stare would break him down, she could guess again. Finally Mia sighed.
"How's life in a hellish wasteland swarming with animated corpses?"
"Sure"
"It's fine, be better with a little more work." She said, shrugging her shoulders.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about actually"
"You don't say?"
"Yeah, you're expensive, i know it's cause you are so good, but I think if you would be willing to come down to a more reasonable figure I could get you into the perfect crew for you."
"Oh, has a new crew appeared?"
"Well, no I meant G.R.O.S.S."
"Did you?"
"Yes, I did" with this Juan tried his most-winning smiled. Mia merely stared back at him. Ok, we're doing this again. After a few minutes Mia sighed once more So sexy.
"Why would they be perfect."
"Well because of Hannah, of course"
"The annoying magic bitch," Mia said turning to face Juan, "What the fuck is perfect about that?"
"Well there's not a lot of Woman fixers, so I figured y'all might like to work together."
"Seriously?"
"Well, Yeah"
"Wow, just...Wow!"

"Wow, just...Wow!"

Mia smiles curiously at Juan in mock-stunned silence for a minute or two before cocking an eyebrow and looking down with a grin.

"You know, Juanito, I think we can work together. My price is 35%. You go tell Hannah you negotiated a special price. Off you go!"

Mia: 30% >>> 35% cut; stealth rogue

Mia:

((OOC: Spent wayyyy too much time on the internet today trying to find a perfect image for Mia, but there is a surprising dearth of shaved-head-olive-skinned-pretty--but-badass-zombie-apocalypse-survival-girl characters. I liked the clothes on this girl, so imagine a shaved head and, if you like, a different face.))

Fing, I'm borrowing you're character for a second if you hate it I will delete it:

"What do we think of Mia, I think she could be a decent addition to G.R.O.S.S" Hannah said bouncing into the room with her normal verve"
"I kinda think we should go with Jack" Juan replies staring morosely into into his coffee...esque beverage, "I once watched him kill a viral with a fucking motorcycle, and not the way you think."
Hannah looks at Juan, head cocked to the side.
"He threw it at the mafuggah"
"Ah right," She pours herself a cup of tea, it's real and cost way too much, "It's just that Mia is so sneaky and that could be useful"
"I mean Reggie is sneaky...kinda" Juan replies shrugging, "and it's not like any of us can, you know, defend an entire breach by ourselves."
"I just thought maybe..."
"Jack" Juan says firmly, straightening up, "just go with me on this"

“ I am, too, sneaky!” Quipped Reggie, walking out from the back room. “You dig her for the next job?Good enough for me.”

"Whatever, we don't need anyone for this job, I know I guy who needs some stuff transported, it's decent pay and we can pick a time to decrease potential risks." Juan says, once Reggie has settled in.
"What are we transporting" Hannah asks
"It's Juan's guy, It's drugs." Reggie interjects while sniffing the cup of "coffee" he'd just poured himself.
"Juan?"
"Yeah...but it's cool and the payout will be good"