Background

Shannon was born and raised in New Mexico, where life was quiet on the outside but tense at home. Her relationship with her parents and her performance in high school were poor as she grew into a teenager with an artistic spirit and little interest in the conventional path her parents pushed her toward, things got worse during her final year of high school, when disapproval turned into constant fights, and at the age of 19 Shannon had had enough. She decided to move to Florida with her friend Jonathan to live on her own terms, there, she shared a house with two other guys who had similar interests, Dylan a board game geek, and Eric, who was growing a small business selling small amounts of weed to make money and to share with his roomies, work in which Shannon would later be included, learning basic things about farming and selling. The group decided to study in college and live together, and they did so for some years. One day, Jonathan had the idea of taking some time to relax and travel. Shannon wasn’t sure at first, but the others convinced her. Everyone prepared and loaded Eric’s van with supplies and drugs, and set off to travel through different states, they slept in the van and sometimes camped near forests, where Jonathan occasionally used the rifle he had stolen from his father to try hunting and try teach Shannon, even though he never managed to catch anything. Things were going well until strange events began to occur, no matter where they went, strange noises or voices could be heard. At first, they thought it was the weed or mushrooms, but soon they realized it was something else. While driving one day, a sudden loud noise began, seemingly coming from many directions, as they continued toward a city, things became complicated, what looked like living corpses were walking along the road, and the closer they got, the worse it became. Once in the city the same creatures were everywhere, attacking people, one of them tried to get into the van through the window, but Dylan kicked it away and pulled the window up before shouting at Eric to drive. The group continued without a clear direction, following roads with less traffic. Eventually, they decided to stop near a lonely road and listen to the radio to understand what was happening, they heard reports about strange events and a new menace involving living corpses, which seemed to be far worse in highly populated areas. They decided to keep moving avoiding big cities, but eventually the van ran out of fuel, Shannon and Jonathan went out on foot while Dylan and Eric stayed with the vehicle, just in case and after walking for half an hour, hoping to find fuel or help, all they found was a sign indicating the distance to Knox County. They returned to the van, and as a group, they realized the distance was too long to reach without fuel so they took all the supplies and weed they could carry and decided to continue on foot, leaving the van locked behind just in case they could return for it in the future then they started walking towards the only place near, Knox.