Background

Neel was born in Singapore to and spent most of his early childhood there with his Indian grandparents, since both his mom and dad were busy in their emergency clinics as physicians. The much spoilt Neel would one day find himself on a flight to the United States at the ascent of his teenage years, where he grew withdrawn and reserved, all amidst a fiercely rebellious phase. He found solace in creative outlets like writing and crocheting, the latter a consequence of him obsessively trying to impress a girl in art class. The pre-outbreak young adult Neel was this med school student with no real direction of where his place really would be in the world, so post an argument with his parents, he dropped out from university and moved to Long Island, NY where his uncle ran a workshop in which Neel found sanctuary between all the repair jobs and tools to work tinker with. As Neel grew older, his uncle offered him to hand over the business, much to his parents' dismay, who would rather have their son become a doctor. They would visit him, trying to make amends with their untoward son. Frustrated with their elitist charades, Neel once again ran away to a friend's place in Braddock island who was a budding fashion designer and a serial camper. Neel had the most transformative growth here as a person as he'd spend every other night with his friend, all while working minor repair jobs and trying his hand at tailoring, which was not as easy as he thought would be even with all the crocheting experience he had from his childhood days. Understandably upset and worried in the backdrop of a newfangled zoonotic outbreak, Neel's parents decided to once again meet him in person to hopefully arrive at a peaceful resolution, while ensuring he is safe. Unfortunately during their journey from New Jersey to Braddock island, they, along with several others were met with a tragic death, reduced only to a brief, vague, headline in the next day newspaper. "Cruise carrying 6 unidentified adults and 2 children found abandoned about 3 miles off the cost of Braddock Island". This ambiguity was enough to throw Neel in an anxious spiral so he dialed them at once, only to receive a network unavailability prompt. That very second he set out to the coast to get more answers, but to no avail. Naturally, he reached out to the local governmental bodies, only to receive vague, dismissive responses asking him to check a week later. After a couple of months of asking around and visiting the office to get any answers, one day early in March he was stopped by and summoned by a higher-up. They told him the real reason for him being continually deferred was that the outbreak from a couple of months ago had become a severe nationwide threat. Institutions were already on the brink of collapsing if experts couldn't figure out much about the nature of this outbreak and dealing with this new, menacing disease was the absolute priority. "Well screw you and your stupid damning virus and I hope everyone dies for all I care", said a livid Neel, as he stormed out of the building. After a week or two of ruminating, all the while the outbreak kept claiming numbers increasingly as per the reports, Neel decided to respond to a local news request asking for volunteers for "rehabilitating the sick". Having come to terms with the fact that his family was gone, he decided to participate in the volunteering efforts. A couple of months in that camp were a real test of his patience, dealing with spontaneous verbal outbursts from the admits who seemed to get worse rather than better. It all came crashing down when one winter night a loud scream was heard from one of the shelters. Glaring trails of red leading to ruptured and almost dismembered looking admits were a sight Neel had never expected to witness, and yet there he was. As Neel lay paralyzed in shock, the door behind him opened and an arm grabbed him as he turned around. It was the morbid sight of head of the volunteer camp project, covered in blood and menacingly reaching further towards Neel. He shoved her away and ran outside, towards the woods with no thought other than dissociating himself from even a hint of humanity. A week into his solitary survival situation made Neel realize he'd overestimated himself and needed to actually reach out to someone "normal". As he loitered around for half a day, he noticed tire tracks and decided to pursue them.