Willadeene

Backstory

Born to a very stereotypical Southern Belle woman named Pearl and a hardy rancher named Casey, Willadeene had her feet planted into two very different worlds. Raised with the politeness and views of a Southern Belle groomed to become a good mother and house wife, but also the hardiness and grit of a rancher. Whilst manners became second nature for her, she enjoyed ranch life and enjoyed a hard day's work of labour. She was the perfect mix of manners and hard working, never complaining about what she had to do and doing it without question. The only thing that sometimes got in her way was her height. She stopped growing at quite a young age - and never got any taller than 4'7" much to her parents' surprise considering they were both tall people.

However, Willadeene never let it get her down and she didn't let her height get in her way or use it as an excuse. She still lifted bales of hay and handled the horses and cattle just as well as everyone else on the ranch. And despite her mother's wishes for her to find a comfortable home with a man outside of a ranch, she had every desire to take over the ranch and run it on her own.

Just before she turned 18 years old, Willadeene told her parents she was moving closer to the city to go to college for a few years, study, get a feel for city life and get rid of that curious, adventurous spirit in her before she came back to take over the ranch and settle down. Her parents didn't argue, encouraging her to do so, helped her find an apartment outside of campus and helped her pack her things. It was a bittersweet farewell, with promises she'd visit every holiday she got. She kept that promise to the best of her ability.

But a year after moving to the city, and enjoying every moment of it; studying, making friends, experiencing new things and having fun despite missing home, everything changed. The toxins hit. It was Christmas, unable to catch any flights in time to go back home before new years, she sat on her sofa, cuddling her German Shepherd, Hansel, when her eyes started burning, and she remembers the excruciating pain even today, remembered blacking out from it, her dog howling beside her. When she came to, she didn't know how long she'd been out for. Hours or days, but a smell hit her nose immediately. Unpleasant and sour. Reaching blindly, her hands found the very cold, very dead body of Hansel, curled beside her. The sight was grotesque, for it looked like he'd scratched at his eyes and bit into his own legs and stomach, killing himself. It caused her to throw up any remaining contents of her stomach.

Her eyes were still burning, but she ignored that as she sobbed over her dog. She sat there for a few hours before she stumbled to her bathroom, numbly washed her hands, covered in her dog's blood, and rinsed out her mouth with mouthwash. She heard screaming from outside, and, terrified, she locked everything and stayed inside. However, a few days later, unable to reach her parents or anyone else, she'd had enough and left her apartment in search of an explanation. Only to see a sight she never could've planned for. Bodies everywhere. People... mutated, for a lack of a better word. Limbs deformed or skin looking like it'd been seared. One girl, around her age, seemed to twitch, and Willadeene instantly went to rush to her side, ignoring the grotesquely long arms, the wrong pigmentation of skin, and how she seemed too long. Only for a strong hand grasping her and pulling her into a solid wall of muscle as a gun shot rang out. Peering behind her, the mutated girl had a bullet hole in her head.

And, holding her, was a young man, a few years older than her and over a ft taller than her. "You idiot, what were you thinking?" As he lead her back to where he and some other boys were staying, he explained what had been happening; people suddenly began mutating and attacking everyone. A very cliche apocalypse scenario, is what Willa had thought at the time. But she quickly learnt it was all too real. She also learnt, the guy who'd saved her was called Collin, and there were seven other boys. Three other boys just as big as Collin, named Beau, Seth and Eric, two boys she recognised from one of the fraternity houses, Oliver and Devin, a boy who was normally seen studying - or being bullied, Timothy, and then Percy, the boy who she'd never seen with anyone else. Even now, he just leaned against the wall in the corner, hood pulled over his head and watched.

The boys, unable to just leave her there by herself, all decided she'd stay with them. In return, she would prepare whatever meals she could for them. It was a struggle, feeding eight large men, but they always managed to scavenge ingredients for her. She'd also sew their ripped clothes, and apply first aid if needed. Their life on the move was hard and tiring, but rewarding. All the boys became like family to her. And though she constantly worried about her parents, and her sickly younger sister, Elaine, she pushed on. For they were all in similar situations and she refused to bring them down. They came across other small groups, but they either parted ways after swapping materials, or the boys would have to fight them off if they were aggressive and tried to attack them. Along the way, Percy seemed to become Willadeene's personal protector, always standing near and keeping watch, making sure to grab her if she tripped, as common as that was, or pull her from harm's way. He didn't say much, but his quiet, steady presence always calmed her. And Collin always made sure to bring her new clothes he found for her. He was almost the Dad of the group, always looking out for the others and both he and Willadeene fussed over everyone, whilst Oliver and Devin did their best to keep the mood light and fun. Beau and Seth were the muscle, Timothy the brains, using his smarts to make traps and plan where they should go. And then there was Eric.

Eric grew more impatient, more frustrated as the months went by. And soon, he was casually touching Willa whenever he got the chance. Her hands, her shoulder, side, leg, where ever he could touch her without her reacting, he would. And he tried making passes at her, tried getting her to reciprocate. But Willa never did. The other boys kept an eye on Eric, but said nothing for he'd done nothing toward her, and Percy was constantly by her side, making it hard for Eric to try anything, for the tall, quiet man had no problems with getting physical with any of the boys in their group. But when Percy left for a few minutes, Eric pulled Willa away from the others when they weren't looking and tried to coerce her to sleep with him. Willa outright refused, and she can remember the feel of his hand gripping her arm to the point of pain when she said no. It didn't take more than a whimper from her before all seven of the other boys were between them, Collin punching him square in the nose as Percy pulled her into his chest, arms around her protectively, gently.

The boys were ready to kick Eric out there and then, but Willadeene, the bleeding heart she was, said he could stay. Apprehensive, the boys allowed it. It seemed to have done the trick. Eric backed off, barely said anything to her, and stayed away from her, in fact. For a few months, it stayed that way, and the other boys soon relaxed. He didn't try anything when she was left alone, he did his work quietly. Everyone thought the issue was over. And after they'd found a mostly intact house to camp at for a few days, the boys went out scavenging and scouting, whilst Willadeene stayed to clean and put together some food for the boys. Only, half hour later, a hand grasped her shoulder, spun her around and shoved her against the wall, heading cracking against it painfully as Eric stared down at her. Too dazed to react, she blinked beyond the pain in her eyes, stumbling after him as he dragged her to one of the rooms. As she shook away the shock, she tried to pull away, but she was a small 4'7'' girl, and he was a 6'2'' football player. He threw her on the bed roughly, muttering something about how she owed him this, that he deserved this after waiting so long. He tore at her clothes, threw off her underwear. She can still remember crying, begging him to not do it, remembered struggling to get away, even tried kicking him and fighting back, but she could do nothing as he fumbled with his pants one handed, his mouth on her chest, her neck.

Until, something warm and red splattered onto her chest and face, and suddenly, Eric slumped over on top of her, crushing her behind his weight. Stunned, confused, relieved, Willadeene had no idea what was going on, until her eye saw the large fragment of broken glass jutting out of the side of Eric's neck. And, behind him, was Percy, hand cut up from handling the broken glass, his eyes wide, breathing hard. But as he made eye contact with her, he immediately helped her get out from underneath Eric's body, asking if she was alright, checking her over for any injuries, not bothered by the fact she was naked. Ascertaining she was fine, he realised how it could come across, pulled off his jacket, helped her put it on, and pulled her into his arms as she sat there, shaking. The other boys came back together, unaware of the situation, and were all shocked at the situation, anger flickering in Collin's gaze toward Percy for killing Eric. Then he saw Willadeene curled in his arms, crying quietly, and, understanding dawning, and his anger moved to the dead man. None of them asked what happened, Collin, Oliver, Devin, Beau and Seth all took the body away, as Timothy came over to comfort her.

Things slowly went back to normal, the boys trying their best to keep the mood light and help Willa move past the incident. Percy barely ever left her side after that, and she often sought out his warmth by holding his hands, or resting against him, and he never minded. Then, a total of 2 years after everything went to Hell, Willadeene's eyes, normally having always felt hot since everything, got worse. She'd randomly have attacks of intense pain, like someone was sticking a hot fire poker into them, or they'd get incredibly itchy and aching. The boys were confused as to what was happening, but, considering all of them had gotten their 'powers', or changed physically, they eventually figured it had to do with her changing as well, though they weren't sure why now. All they could do was keep her from scratching at her eyes, or using ice or water to keep her eyes cool whenever an attack happened. It was hard for them to watch as Willa would end up curled against Percy, panting and crying until she eventually wore herself out. But they stuck with her, she was part of their family and they refused to leave her just because shit got hard.

And with every attack, her vision got worse. Until, six months of periodic attacks, she was completely blind. It terrified her, and scared the boys, but they helped her as best they could. She'd helped them when they were hurt, she'd kept them alive and taught them many things, they weren't about to abandon her when shit got hard. Even after going blind, she still had a dull ache, and they often felt hot, and there were moments she got flickers of something, getting her hopes up that perhaps she'd be able to see again. Three months later, her 'Liquid Sight' became strong enough that she could see all forms of liquids at all times. And, though she had no peripheral vision anymore, she was grateful for any form of sight.

Three years of being with the boys was when she was separated from them. All but Percy had gone off to find food and materials and scout for the mutated humans, but another small gang came across the pair. Too many for Percy to fend off, Willadeene could only watch as one man held her back, as the other members laid into Percy. To this day, she can remember him struggling to get up, yelling at them to let her go. Until a solid hit to the head ended his struggles and he crumpled to the ground and didn't say another word. And Willadeene fought with all her tiny body had to get back to his prone form, but it was all for nought as the group took her with them.

When they finally stopped, they tied her hands behind her back and threw her in a makeshift cage. TBC