Heather Connolly
She/Her
31 years old
Typical
105 kg
Personality
Heather is intense, outspoken, and fiercely driven. Years working in emergency medicine have made her comfortable operating in chaos, and she has little patience for hesitation when lives are on the line. She speaks her mind openly and will challenge anyone she believes is making the wrong call.
While she genuinely wants to help people, her compassion often comes out harshly. Stress and exhaustion have sharpened her temper, and when pushed she can become confrontational or outright aggressive. She is stubborn, strong-willed, and not afraid to raise her voice if someone’s actions are putting others at risk.
Heather is not particularly interested in authority or hierarchy. If someone proves themselves competent she will respect them, but titles mean very little to her now. Survival situations tend to bring out her commanding side, and she often finds herself taking charge whether people want her to or not.
Despite her rough edges, Heather remains deeply committed to preserving life whenever possible. She carries the emotional weight of every person she cannot save, and that burden drives her to keep going even when she is exhausted.
Appearance
Heather has shoulder-length brown hair usually tied back for practicality, hazel eyes, and a fair complexion dotted with light freckles. Her build is average, though long hospital shifts and poor sleep have left her posture slightly tired and worn. Dark circles under her eyes hint at years spent working through sleepless nights in emergency rooms. Her clothing now reflects days of travel and survival — practical layers, worn shoes, and whatever supplies she has managed to carry with her.
Background
Heather Connolly grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where she saw firsthand how access to healthcare could determine whether someone lived or died. Her mother worked as a nurse in a community clinic, and Heather often heard stories about patients who waited too long to seek help because they couldn’t afford treatment.
Those experiences pushed her toward medicine early in life.
Heather Connolly grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where she saw firsthand how access to healthcare could determine whether someone lived or died. Her mother worked as a nurse in a community clinic, and Heather often heard stories about patients who waited too long to seek help because they couldn’t afford treatment.
Those experiences pushed her toward medicine early in life.
By the late 1980s, Heather was deep into medical school and eventually specialized in emergency medicine, drawn to the intensity and immediacy of the work. The emergency department was chaotic, unpredictable, and exhausting, but it was also where she felt she could do the most good.
Her career shaped her personality. Endless nights, packed waiting rooms, and impossible decisions hardened her into a blunt and sometimes difficult coworker. Heather had a reputation for arguing with administrators and pushing back against decisions that she believed would harm patients.
In early March 1993, Heather had been driving through Knox County after visiting a colleague who had recently transferred to a small hospital in the area. She had planned to return to Louisville the next morning.
She never got the chance.
On March 9th, while on the road, she heard the deep pounding that seemed to echo across the sky. Traffic slowed as people began pulling over, staring upward at strange lights forming in the distance.
Then reality seemed to tear open.
Heather witnessed one of the rifts from the roadside, a violent distortion in the air that appeared without warning. The panic that followed was immediate. Vehicles collided, people ran in every direction, and creatures began emerging from the tear.
She fled with the rest of the crowd, abandoning her car and running into the surrounding countryside.
Over the next several days, Heather tried to make sense of what had happened while moving from place to place. Small groups of survivors formed and broke apart quickly as fear and confusion took hold. Some people spoke about a large underground shelter in Louisville, but reaching it meant travelling through dense areas filled with the undead.
Heather chose not to risk it.
Instead, she has been surviving by moving constantly through rural roads, farms, and small buildings throughout Knox County. Her medical knowledge has allowed her to treat injuries and infections for herself and for the occasional survivor she encounters.
But staying with people rarely lasts long.
Arguments, desperation, and difficult decisions tend to follow wherever groups form, and Heather has never been good at keeping quiet when she thinks someone is wrong.
For now, she continues to move, carrying what supplies she can manage and searching for somewhere that might actually be safe.
Or at least somewhere that hasn’t fallen apart yet.
