Background

CHILDHOOD Being born in England in the late 80s as an only child in a middle class family, Ryan lived relatively 'normal', not struggling but not quite going on a vacation every year. London's economic recession definitely wouldn't help the thing, especially seeing that Ryan's mother out of work due to the high loss of jobs in the London areas, his dad managed to keep his job as a mechanic, which gained his family a steady income which they could live on, which wasn't the case for other families in his neighborhood. during his younger years as a child, he would pay more attention to his fathers job, which had gained Ryan's interest, which worked out well, he wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the box...however he was a useful junior mechanic, or so his dad told him, if holding a flashlight could be classed as being a mechanic... he trundled his way through primary school, barely keeping a grade C average, the only thing he got a higher grade was in PE, but that'd never be useful...right? regardless of his grades, his dad had been saving up extra money to take them all on a trip to the USA, for 2 weeks. the first week of his holiday was amazing...but only for the first week PRE OUTBREAK the second week of Ryan's long waited for vacation is when things started to spiral, the daisy that had popped up all over a year prior had spread nearly everywhere the eye could see, nothing was too bad, just lots of illnesses all around, delayed flights, shops closing, things just in general slowing down, but Ryan was oblivious, he thought he got even longer on holiday, but his parents knew this wasn't too good, all the sickness would mean getting home would be harder, but they didn't show their concern for Ryan, just somewhat sheltering him from it all as best they could, but it got to a point where they couldn't hide what was happening... POST OUTBREAK 1999-2009 being on vacation in Florida, Ryan and many around him got shipped to one of the QZs in Florida, it was strange, Ryan wanted to go home, but he couldn't, his parents would only tell him they can soon, but soon never came, and Ryan learned that some things he had back home were turning to rare luxuries, so he and his family, as well as the families he and his parents had made friends with would have to make do with what they could, and it went on like this for a while, but in the summer of 2000 riots began which led to a eventual takeover of the entire QZ, which was a especially scary time for Ryan, turned out to be okay, new Miami wasn't so bad, sure it was hard, but it was okay, his father had a few jobs around to help maintain mechanical engines, and anything he could really with the help of their new family friend, Lorretta, or Lori as Ryan would say, she was lie another part of the family, which was a nice change, but she was a strange lady in Ryan's eyes, somewhat crude at times, but she had a strange charm, plus she knew engines, just like his dad, and whenever they both could, they'd teach Ryan, it was a handy skill to have and what better did he have to do? and time went on, things in new Miami weren't exactly comfortable, but its better than being a walking daisy, but it wasn't all good, the marauders would come sometime in 2005, threatening the way of life everyone at new Miami had worked for, so much to after Ryan's parents, and a few more were all caught in a caravan attack and killed, some families devised a plan to leave to Boston. it'd be a long, dangerous and tiring journey, but if the government was still around, it was there. And Ryan and Lori, who was now taking care of him by herself considering she had became close friends with his parents over the time in new Miami, she felt somewhat indebted to look after him she did, they joined the planning, they discussed about how to go about it, eventually leading to planning to skirt through the Alabama gap, between 2 rather large deadzones, not to mention the marauder territories on the south, and the fungal followers up north, there was a rough path to follow, which was important to stick to... POST OUTBREAK 2010 they had planned to leave around march time, and hope to get to Boston for April, as planned they would be cutting through the Alabama gap, in-between the Appalachian, and eastern deadzones, following it up north passing the fungal followers area, into where the remnants of the federal government was, some people had second thoughts about the route, some so much they decided not to go, but Ryan and Lori had nothing for them in new Miami, and hopped somewhere else had something better for them, but fate had other plans Once they had left new miami, they were suppose to head north east, through the Alabama gap, but instead they accidentally went north west, past the marauder territory, which ended up being moderately okay, until the end entering the central coalition area, they had been ambushed on the road, which left lori and ryan with a choice, they could help the caravan, or take a horses and run...which im sure they would both admit they arent proud of it, they ran with 2 horses, leaving the caravan and its members to defend themselves, as ryan rode on the saddle behind lori, he felt awful, so much so he looked back to see things he wish he hadnt, which led lori telling him not to look back, and to think about other things, which was hard for him to do, how could they just leave...it was hopeless to stay and fight, so they did what they could to survive. after a few days, or hours, they werent fully sure, they had made it to the knox gap, on the other side of the Appalachian deadzone than they had planned, just as a decently sized horde of infected had caught them off guard, they had been forced to head further into Kentucky, with the pair getting separated during the chaos, with lori telling ryan to take the horse and getting somewhere safe, ryan had to make a dash, and if lori told him to he knew no better to listen. here he was, stranded, alone. lost...