Normally Eric wears button down shirts, blue jeans, a belt and his lucky red ULL hat when he isn't in survival mode. He has dark brown hair, a trimmed beard, and dark blue eyes. He is thin and in shape mostly due to innate athletic ability rather than hard work.

Name: Eric Michael Vance

Age: 23

Height: 5'11

Weight: 168 lbs.

Occupation: College Senior (Computer Science major)/Comic store worker

Personality: Eric is a humorous young man who enjoys everything nerdy, especially when it comes to Star Wars and DC Comics. He is a practicing Catholic, refuses to drink or smoke due to bad experiences with his parents as a young child, and has above average intelligence. He enjoys life and is planning to move out of Louisiana once he graduates from college.

Skills:

• Growing up in Louisiana Eric is a good shot with most guns, especially rifles and his trusty SMITH & WESSON’S M686 SSR Revolver that he keeps in his truck.
• Eric is a good talker and problem solver. He is often seen as one of, if not the leader of his group of friends.
• He is good with all things having to do with computers. Mostly that means his friends call him over when their's is broken. He is also pretty good at fixing things.

Flaws:

• Eric struggles with a slight anger problem. While he normally has it under control it still rarely gets the better of him.
• He can be quite stubborn in certain situations. He normally believes his way is the best way, and while he is usually right this trait can lead to mistakes.
• Sometimes he can be too trusting of people. He always looks for the good in people first. A few months ago this was a good trait, now it is dangerous.

Bio: Eric was born in central Louisiana to local parents. As a young child his father was an alcoholic forcing him and his little brother, Adam, to listen to his parents arguments for years. Occasionally his father could be abusive but it never quite got to the point of being dangerous.

He went to private Catholic school all of his life and got involved in the church at a pretty young age. Once his parents split he and his brother bounced between the two houses for several years. This didn't really affect him much as he was still fairly young and he simply got used to this way of living.

It wasn't until junior high when his father stopped drinking and started to share more interest in his sons' lives. He began to share the love that he had with comic books as a child which in turn brought the interest to his son. Gradually Eric began to spend more and more time with his father and even got him to get somewhat involved in the church.

He went through high school with above average grades only staying out of the top of his class because of a few C's here and there. Mostly because he was lazy. During this time he began work at a gas station where he became accustomed to being around 'normal' people. Perhaps because of his first job he decided that he wanted to do something better with his life. He decided that he wanted to move out of Louisiana and possibly join the military.

After Eric graduated from high school he started attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he met and fell in love with a girl named Samantha Hebert. (Pronounced A-Bear). They dated throughout his years in college and are still together now.

When the war broke out he, like many other people, began to get scared. His plan was to join the Army as a computer specialist as soon as he got his degree but with the war he started to have second thoughts. Still undecided about whether to join the war effort he decided to get away for a few weeks, especially with talk of a military draft coming in a few months on the news. He and his friends decided to go to Samantha's native City of New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

Name: Samantha Anne Hebert

Age: 22

Height: 5'7

Weight: 145 lbs.

Occupation: College Student (Cinematography Major)

Personality: Sam is a sweet girl who worries more about movies and television than anything else. She fancies herself a movie critic and is quick to point out any flaws in their making. She is also quite into nerd and pop culture. She is one of those girls who know's she is beautiful and uses that to her advantage. She is much more manipulative than anyone gives her credit for and is actually pretty cynical at times.

Skills:

• Sam is pretty good at reading people and telling whether they are lying or not. She likes to watch people to see what they are like.
• She's very good at batting her eyelashes. She can manipulate people when she needs to or get out of tough situations.
• Sam took self defense classes as a girl is capable in close quarters fighting. While she obviously has trouble taking on large men she can handle herself quite well.
• Sam is very intelligent and she knows it. She is a problem solver and picks up on things quickly while barely trying.

Flaws:

• Sam can't swim and is afraid to learn. Her friends like to give her hell about this but she still refuses to get in water that she can't stand in.
• She has a tendency to rely on her friends. She does not make a very good loner and normally needs at least one other person to keep her confidence.
• Sam grew up in money and has a hard time living without it. She enjoys the finer things in life.

Bio: Sam was born in New Orleans with a wealthy doctor as a mother and a wealthy lawyer who happened to be a city councilman as a father. Her parents always seemed too busy to deal with her and her younger brother, Kyle, was the obvious favorite. Despite this she grew up having whatever she wanted and the family maid always kept the room clean.

When she started going to school she could have easily got involved in the party crowd. It seemed like everyone wanted to be her friend, or at least wanted to be friends with her wallet. Luckily though she was always more interested in movies and pop culture. She fell in with a "loser" group of nerds, mostly males who eventually fell in love with her. Though she had no feelings for any of them she could always been seen hanging around them.

During high school she had a pretty good life. (Despite having two boyfriends that cheated on her after she told them she didn't want to have sex with them yet.) She made straight A's throughout and had a good group of friends. When she graduated she was the classes' valedictorian.

She attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for college as it was one of the only schools in the state that would let her study movies. There she met Eric Vance and had fallen in love within a few weeks. They have been together since and she hopes it stays that way. When the war broke out she begged him to forget his plans to join the military. With the draft coming however he might be forced into service anyway. He told her that he wanted to do something fun to get away for the weekend. She decided that it was time for her friends to experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Name: Helena Forsyth

Age: 26

Height: 5'8

Weight: 138 lbs

Occupation: Helena graduated from college a few years ago with a teaching degree and now teaches 3rd grade. She loves her job and loves kids.

Personality: Helena is a slightly shy but lovable woman that everyone thinks is sweet and kind. She doesn't have many close friends but those she does she is loyal to. She tries to be optimistic about things and not be overly depressed when she is proved wrong about people and their motives. While she is a nice person overall she can be naive at times and when not working curses like a sailor. It is a habit that she got from her father who was a truck driver whose colorful language was a staple for her growing up. She hates dishonesty and hypocrites.

Skills: Helena is good at shooting. Her father taught her to shoot when she was 5 years old and she goes to the gun range at least once a week to practice.

Helena can speak several languages: English, Japanese and Spanish. She is currently trying to learn Russian and German as well but she is not picking them up as fast or as easily as she had hoped. She loves learning of any kind and languages are one of her passions.

Helena has a great sense of direction and rarely gets lost. If she has been to a place once then she can get there again. She excels at reading maps and loves cartography.

Flaws: Helena is too trusting and naive at times. She can be easily misled but once she catches someone lying or manipulating her then there is hell to pay

Helena has a truly evil temper once angered. She is very slow to anger but if she ever gets really mad it is like the Hulk and she flips.

Helena cannot understand when something is truly dangerous until she is thrust into the middle of something. This is partly due to her naivety and her optimism. While this is not a bad thing overall, it could prove fatal now that things are going south.

Bio: Helena was an only child. She grew up in Texas with her stay at home mom and truck driver father. She was truly a daddy's girl and believed the sun rose and set in him. She was devastated when he got into a fatal accident when she was a teenager. She acts like him for the most part except for being as outgoing and street smart. For a while after his passing she acted up and got into trouble. Her grandmother had a talk with her and got her back on track by explaining that while her father was gone she should honor his memory by not forgetting what he had taught her and to get a degree like he had always wanted for her. It took a bit but she was able to turn things around and graduated with honors. When she graduated from high school she went to college in Austin at UT. It was there where she met her boyfriend, Jimmy. It was love at first site for her. She covertly showed up at all the places he frequented until one day he confronted her and after a discussion he asked her out on a date. They dated all through college and even after when she got a job back in her hometown. He moved there to be close to her. He had gotten a job as an architect at McMillon and sons and was becoming quite accomplished. They had made plans to go to Mardi Gras together as a romantic getaway. A week before they were supposed to go she found out that he had been lying to her and seeing another woman. She found his cell phone with texts from a woman that were far from innocent and confronted him. He denied being involved with anyone but with the texts as proof She did not believe him. Plus he looked guilty as sin when they spoke as well. She broke it off with him and decided to go to Lousiana by herself instead. She took her ticket and told him to shove his where the sun did not shine and left that very night for Louisiana. She needed the time away to get over her broken heart. She hoped that when She got back home she could get her life back on track and begin to get over Jimmy.

((edited))

Name: Katie (Kate) Mansfield

Age: 20

Height: 5'5

Weight: 120 pounds

Occupation: Student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Personality: Katie is a party girl at heart. Throughout most of her teenage years she spent her time going to any party she could get into instead of important things, like studying. She is a very social person and knows how to talk too most people, she is usually very confident and knows what she wants. She can be quite manipulative and uses what she has too get what she wants. Katie will try anything once. She's a glass half full kind of girl. A loyal girl to her friends, but also loves gossip. Katie is a mixed bag.

Skills: Katie is an amazing actress and knows how and when she can use this too her advantage. She knows how to cook meals and so can offer that service to any group she is with. She is agile so she can run fast and climb with relative ease.

Flaws: She isn't strong at all and tries to make up for this with her agility. She isn't the smartest girl either, having only just scraped a pass in maths and English at school due too her not caring about it. Used to be an addict.

Bio: Katie was born on the 23rd of October 2000 in East London to a working class family on one of the more rough council estates. Growing up was okay for her, the first ten years of her life were relatively comfortable. She didn't have excessive amounts of toys or clothes but she had all she needed and there was always dinner on the table. She finished primary school in 2011 and started secondary school that September, and this was the start of most of her problems. For her 13th birthday her older sister gave Katie her first joint. She loved it. She started smoking weed and drinking regularly at the age of 13, whether or not she was at a party or sitting in a park with her friends. She started getting herself into trouble at this age and her school grades went down dramatically. She didnt care about school or the qualifications she needed. This carried on until she was 16 and had only just passed maths and English with a Low C. Most other subjects she had failed, one or two she had managed to scrape a C. The only subject she excelled in, Drama, is where she pushed a C, managing to get an A+ in fact. By now her parents and the school had realised she had problems and they tried everything too sort her out, but nothing was working. For two years until she was 18 the same thing continued until her older sister managed too get her an audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. They were amazed with her acting ability, but would only accept her if she came clean. She agreed, and six months later started at the school. Now, in 2021, she has been in control for a year and a half. She still has the occasional joint but hasn't had a drink since, although sometimes its still hard too say no.

The college organized a trip too New Orleans for the students and she went with them, arriving on February 19th and staying for a week. On the day before they go home, her and her friends decided they wanted to visit the Mardi Gras celebrations.