Background

On March 9th, 1988 Greyson Curtis Benford entered the world in to the arms of Garland Raymond Benford Sr. and Abigale May Benford from West Chester, Pennsylvania. Greyson was the third child to an aging Vietnam War veteran, and only child to his mom thanks to circumstances his dad was always reluctant to share. Between his older half brothers, Ray and Francis, and their dad, his childhood was as 'normal' as it could be... for a Benford that is. Growing up in a small town of little relevance, Greyson led a somewhat different life than most others of his generation, yet perhaps not among those that survived what was to come. His father, like his father before him, ran a gunsmithing business he inherited after he came home. This was the trade Greyson grew up with and had throughout his young years as a constant factor. With his dad probably violating some child labor laws along the way Grey grew in to the trade semi-reluctantly at first. He found refuge in school and books, with a few friends to boot, when helping his dad in the day to day became burdensome to the child... as it had grown to be when Grey's oldest brother moved south to Virginia, leading to slightly more work for the kid. Between school and what effectively was work sold as 'quality time' with his dad and older brother Francis, life moved as it always had. Slow, stale, stagnant in some ways to an outside observer... but simple, quaint, and sorely missed in the years since. The complexities of a global world and the local region within the confines of a house, a school, and a business lost on the young mind that grew in those bounds. Ultimately life would change as it always does, innocuous enough to start... Once Grey turned 10 in 1998? The beginning of the end of the old world started... at least to him in the years since. The odd spread of daisies through the fields, unattended lots, and the forests around home were weird to him. Life continues as normal in large part, with Francis leaving home to go to Richmond, where Ray had gone, to pursue a degree in nursing. All the while milestones in little Grey's life were reached, ultimately worthless in the modern view of things. What held worth was a beauty to this year as the flowers grew, a time just before the collapse, a morbid charm that when the next year came around with it's bellowing, mournful calamity tore asunder almost all that the child knew to be normal. Pulling any goals from him, any long term aims held by a naive mind, dashed to pieces on the ground that forms the basis of reality. Wholly not ready for what was to come, as who expects a kid to be ready for the end of the world... and adapt to it. The summer of '99 is not one Grey could forget. From vague normalcy to hell on earth in the span of months. Grey and his dad joined a community in town near the family shop. It formed in to it's own quarantine zone in time over the year, with a tense attempt at normalcy permeated by the onslaught of the collapse in full swing threatening it day in and day out for all within it. Be it fluke or by luck, the two survived this mess, keeping to the family trade. The trade that kept them fed and gave them contacts to utilize, protection from the infected, and more important than ever their continued survival. The shop turned from a burden to strength for Greyson... in time, of course. Many a harsh, distinctly grim, day went by, death always a constant as their numbers in the QZ were whittled down violently in those first months. As winter set in that kept the infected at bay there was time to fortify, prepare, attempt to contend with challenges for the year to come. With the surge of people going north... it brought it's own problems to the QZ, like Grey's older brother Francis and a girl he had met in his time down south helping in a FEMA camp... and a rival that would prove to be the key to a future problem. In the intervening years life continued on. The world continued to change, shaped, molded, and claimed by the deadzones, with groups filling the gaps. In Grey's neck of the woods his QZ was within the bounds of what remains of the US Government. The West Chester QZ remained loyal throughout. Here he and his dad, and for a time Francis until an argument caused him to leave in '02, lived as things got worse or adapted outside of the walls. Etching out a life in a vital industry kept them afloat, expanding as refugees made their way northward or to other locations. From a glorified gunshop to a makeshift arsenal for regional groups to order from as they combated the expansion of the deadzone to the south and bandit groups, or one another in the not-so-rare case of conflict. Benford Gunsmiths was happy to arm them nonetheless. Profits were good, connections strong, and survival was comfortable enough… until it came to an end just after Grey turned 18. A regional competitor decided enough was enough as survival shifted to profit margins and political power in the region. In one fell swoop of late March ‘06? The Benford company and family was reduced in a horrid event to a scattered few. In the aftermath Grey was hidden by a family friend, joining their caravan company as a guard to get him out of dodge. Left to pick up his scattered pieces at too young an age, he drifted about with the caravan… not seeing particularly violent fights, but the ‘average’ few here and there… as it was never a truly safe job. That would be the status quo for a kid who had a fair deal in a world of nothing to… well, nothing besides what he carried. Until a letter arrived from a courier. A letter from Francis’s partner, Camila… based out of Knox County. With nothing left ‘at home’ he struck west with a caravan. With hopes of maybe seeing family again his journey west begins… culminating in joining a patchwork caravan composed of a fallen settlement and other strangers met along the way.