Background

Zaryn and her sisters grew up impoverished in the then-soviet city of Yekaterinburg. Born to a seamstress and engineer, they grew up in relative wealth, insofar as what that meant for the region. Her elder sister was married and moved with her husband - an engineer like her father- to the city of Pripyat in the '80s for her husbands job. This suited Zaryn fine, her sister was always harsh and cold. Her younger sister, ever the dreamer, always had her eyes glued to a television and boasted she would see the world, much to the teasing of her family. Zaryn, however, was proud when her sister escaped to America. She got occasional letters during her studies as an engineer, a skill and passion her once-distant father imparted once he discovered their shared interest. Then one day, out of the blue, her sister sent her mail which sounded as if she was in trouble, and almost begged her elder sister to come to her aide in the west. Reluctant to accept, she nevertheless booked passage, despite recent talk of unrest. By the time her plane was in the air, all planes were told to land at the nearest airport. Frustration and fear at the lack of knowledge grew to terror and madness as Zaryn, a stranger in a strange land, sought to still make it to her sister. She had promised. Escaping a collapsing society, keeping a car running with dwindling resources and simply surviving... to travel to the area her sister had told her to come to, a hastily added 'Braddock' to the end of her note. She had learned hard lessons, and was hardly shocked at the bio-hazard sign that faced her on the side of the shore next to the gate she needed to pry open. But, dead or not, she wouldn't rest til she had fulfilled her promise...