Background

Maria grace was born in the 1980's she grew up in New York deep in the heart of the city. She had enjoyed the hustle and bustle of everyday city life; it had always made her a survivor allowing her to adapt to any situation that came her way. There was a beauty among all the noise something she would later miss once the virus had hit. Born and raised in the projects she grew up in a Hispanic household were the flow of Spanish and English was the norm, born to a mother who was a nurse and a father who was a locksmith. From a young age she would help her father around his shop, always patiently watching him from afar she would try to copy his movements while picking locks behind the register. Her father would always smile proudly at her, saying she was born with a pick in her hand. As she grew older the familiar shop that was once her fathers was now finally her own. She had finally proved she was able to handle such an enormous task, of not only upholding a family legacy but of finally taking the steps towards financial freedom. She had been excited for this new journey to finally give back to her family for all the love and support they had poured into her, or at least she had been, that was until her mother's sudden sickness. When the daisies first appeared, she would be enamored by their brightness and strength, always making sure to pick some for her mother as she would walk the streets to and from home. How much she would regret that decision once the truth behind their innocent facade was revealed. The worst day of her life was when the first outbreak hit, with her mother's illness at it's worse, all hope felt lost as she sat holding her mother's hand while tears fell on the hospital floor. As the day grew into night she waited with her father on the doctor's final diagnosis. While awaiting the news is when they heard several sudden loud screams and banging. Looking at each other they both stood worried that something serious had happened, unsure whether to flee or to stay. Little did they know the other patients who were infected had died and shortly turned into mindless, flesh-hungry monsters, one of them being her own mother... In the sudden chaos that had erupted, during her hospital visit, she had come to find out the city had flipped on its head over night. The madness was not only secluded to one area but throughout the whole city itself. No one was safe from the infected as they walked the streets, the red stop light casting an eerie glow as they marched to a soundless beat. Only days ago, the streets had felt alive, now only silence reigned only broken when screams of a new victim would reach any left who can hear it. Had her father not saved her that day she would never have made it as far as she had. Standing in the threshold of her family's shop, she remembered the countless hours she had spent, learning the art of locks and keys. The skill now a lifeline also felt like a double edge sword, one that would be a constant bittersweet memory. Of simpler times, before the daisies, before the virus and before the infected. As days turned into weeks, weeks into months and months into years, Maria had utilized all of her skills to the best of her abilities. She was a survivor through and through, but no matter how many locks she would open or how many medical books she had read, she had finally run out of what she needed in her city. It was time to finally move on, to continue to pull through she would need to finally branch out and find other areas to thrive. The dark streets of the city had shaped her, but now it would test her resolve. In this new world the distant moans of the infected were a grim reality of what awaited her. But with a surge of strength, she stepped forward ready to face this world head on. Marching forward she headed for Knox County, thanks to an unknown broad cast she heard while foraging, she decided to take a chance with the promise of safety from the dead. Heading Southwest she moved only in daylight figuring it would be safest she traveled the journey, with fear and paranoia as her constant companions. Using the very skills her father engrained in her had paid off, it allowed her to sneak her way from cars and houses mostly undetected, she had finally traveled the perilous journey, one of fear and fright.