Background

Their life before the outbreak feels just like a distant dream. Her name was Anežka Jeřábková and she lived in Czechoslovakia with her parents and two brothers. The world was simple and good, their days spend in the sun and forest, picking mushrooms and berries with her grandma, drawing or playing violin. In 1999 the whole family travelled to Florida for a wedding of an uncle that emigrated during the communist regime. It was just as the pollen pandemic started to ramp up and while the family dismissed it as a hoax, it would forever change their lives, leaving them stranded in America. They soon found their place in one of the northern QZs, forming a little Czechoslovakian community there. And for time, the life was good. The kids went back to school, with additional courses in survival skills as well as English. But, in 2001, a tragedy struck as both Anežka and her mother Lucia got to the second stage of infection. They were rushed into hospital, but only Anežka survived the surgery. That is something her older brother Jiří never forgave her for and their father David would not recover from, finding solace in alcohol. In 2003 their QZ slowly crumbled due to infighting and increasing number of raids from the marauders. It was during one of those raids that Jiří grabbed his siblings and escaped, not even bothering to search for their father. During the next year Jiří got involved with a gang called the Howlers and eventually joined them, quickly working his way up through the ranks. Anežka and their younger brother Matúš were brought along to their base. Even at their young age the Howlers had a use for them - they would drop them off by a settlement, let them gain their trust, all the while the siblings fed intel back to the gang. Them being Czech proved to be an advantage, as Jirka could give them instructions over the radio without needing a code. Anežka, now being Ania or Princess, proved to be surprisingly good at this and started to do solo infiltrations, sometimes for weeks at a time. But she didn't waste time and learned, usually by helping around the local clinic or letting people teach her. In between them she stayed with the Howlers, slowly being taught all the necessary skills - how to shoot, fight and cook drugs - all the while working alongside their medic. Not that they ever respected her, or really wanted among them, seeing her as too soft the gang. It was August of 2008 when she got recognised and captured during one of these. She managed to hold her own during the interrogation and even fed them false information, that made it so much easier for the later raid. The Howlers didn't take kindly to her capture and instead of a plain raid, they burned that settlement to the ground. So there she stood battered and bruised in the rouble with her capturer on his knees and pleading for his life. And then Jirka pressed a loaded gun into her hand and nodded to that man. "Time to earn your crown, Princess. It's you or him." He whispered into her ear as he stepped back and something in his voice made her believe each word. She didn't want to do it, but she didn't dare to risk their punishment as she knew all too well how brutal they could be. So she made the choice. That man's face haunting her dreams for months to come. That marked her transition to a full member and earned her her tattoos, neither of which she wanted, but was too scared to protest against. The gang started calling her weasel, in that same mocking tone as they did for Princess, and even wanted to tattoo one on her as well. As she got deeper and deeper into the gang, one thing became clear, this in not something she wants, but also not something you can just walk away from. She started to plot her and Matúš's escape, but the gang's leader, simply called the General, found out and confronted her. The talk quickly turned violent and he grabbed her by her face. It shook her to the core, as she knew all too well she stood no chance against him. She got away with just a warning that day, but she knew she'd be watched. Their interactions only got more tense and more violent as time progressed, with both her brothers only laughing at her bruises. So she begun plotting again, quieter, smarter and sneakier. Making sure she had a bike ready was the easy part, as she helped hotwiring them before, the supplies easy enough to grab. It was General himself that was a problem. She hatched a plan to sneak sedatives into his drink and even succeeded in that. But it was not enough, not nearly enough to knock him out, only to slow him down. And he was pissed, about to ruin the whole plan, to ruin her one chance to escape. So she made that snap of a moment decision, her knife hand moving faster than her thoughts. She managed to stab him six times before he properly reacted and the two of them fell to the ground. She won that fight, thanks to sheer luck, those sedatives and General's surprise, and left him lifeless on the floor in a puddle of his own blood with her necklace still clutched in his hand. There was no time to wash her hands, or even to grab those supplies, she needed to move and move fast. She managed to escape, just barely so, before the chaos took over the base. And that head start has proven enough for her to escape. Though she knew all too well they wouldn't just stop hunting her. That night Anežka Jeřábková was gone and Claudia Moore emerged in her stead. On the way she had few close calls in the Alabama gap, but managed to make it to Ohio. She was hungry, tired and plain desperate when she first bumped into the Fungal Followers. They took her in, cleaned her wounds and fed her. It was like a dream come true at first, but soon the hippie like cult started to feel suffocating and more importantly, risky. So she convinced the leaders to send her after the last batch of missionaries in Knox.