Name: Valentina Vetrov
Age: 10 (And a half)
Occupation: Grade School Student / Child Actress
Family life: Valentina was born to a Russian immigrant father and an American mother. She was by no means the only child of the family however, being the third to be born. First came an elder brother then an elder sister. Her short life before the outbreak was, by all means, ideal. Upon settling in, his father became a successful owner of a small-medium business using his experiences in Russia, allowing her mother to raise and accompany Valentina without difficulty. Her parents never argued, never fought beyond the occasional minor incidences that only served to further reinforce their marriage. Although the children were never as close to one another as their parents, they were there for each other whenever they were needed most.
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Silver
Height: 4 feet 8
Weight: 65 pounds
Blood type: B+
Immune: No
Gear:
Purple Hello Kitty bag (A little frayed and torn but usable)
Barbie sleeping bag
Vertov's tactical torchlight
x1 Spare AA battery (unfortunately, the torchlight needs 2)
Assorted kid's clothes (some new, some old and some torn)
Lieutenant Hugh's water canteen (normally fastened to her belt or bag)
Lieutenant Hugh's Combat Knife
Steak Knife (which she found to be just right for her)
Improvised knife (normally hiding somewhere in her clothes)
Valerie's Taurus Model 85 .38 Snub-Nosed Revolver
x1 .38 cartridge loaded in her revolver (It had become a thing for her to just save a bullet)
x30 Assorted random ammunition (mismatched bullets that she found but couldn't put into her revolver)
Normally wears a pink but dulled jacket over a yellow singlet. A pair of blue jeans and boots. An eyepatch she found somewhere but couldn't remember (all the better to cover her right eye). Lieutenant Hugh's ID Tags.
x1 Sealed bag of cashew nuts
x1 Can of corn beef (which she couldn't open yet)
Daddy's First Aid Kit (By now half-full with a bottle of antiseptics, a few rolls of bandages and band-aid)
Mommy's 'Little Red Riding Hood' (Which she no longer reads but couldn't get rid of)
Picture of herself and family (At the bottom of her bag, forgotten)
Note: This is a photo of her dating to before The Rising that lies forgotten at the bottom of her Hello Kitty bag
Bio: Once upon a time in a hospital ward, a girl was born. It took her parents and even two children months to decide upon a name, and she was christened Valentina. Valentina was born slightly premature, and sickly ever since, but with the nurture of her parents, she grew to catch up with her siblings and other kids just in time for Kindergarten. Life had never been down for her ever since. She met many friends each time she entered a new class. She loves to learn, and her parents encouraged her so.
She wanted to be like her mom and dad at the same time. Life at home and out was happy, and she rarely cried. She was bullied the first year she was in gradeschool, but her brother, Vertov, chased the bully away, and she was happy again. In school, she enjoyed stage acting, and got pretty good in it. With a strong father and a mother who was herself an actress of a few years, it was only natural that Valentina had never had much trouble in school, and became an actress herself because she thought it was fun. She was able to audition and land a few roles in a few television commercials featuring cereals, and a supporting role after that in a 2016 summer thriller movie 'Sharks Below The Line', which did well in its opening weeks.
Life was good. Valentina was so happy. Then it happened.
14 February 2017 was her 10th Birthday. Little Valentina and neither her family would know that the day she was born would be the day the entire world would be cursed.
27 February 2017 was the day she lost the sight in her right eye. While travelling with her father to the nearest gas station to purchase supplies, a gas tanker truck collided with it. She did not die as her father was able to get them both to a safe distance. "Cover your eyes, Valentina!" Her father warned her, but she did not listen, but was instead mesmerised by the explosion. It reminded her of her time on the set of her first movie, it did. A small shard of glass flew into her right eye. While it caused no permanent scar, Valentina could barely bring herself to look into a mirror anymore, for her right eye was no longer silver but milky white like the dead eye of a walking corpse.
7 March 2017 was the day she lost her elder sister to a horde of ravenous reanimates that assaulted their home. Valerie was trying to hold the front door closed and shooting out the front window with a revolver when one of them broke half the door down and bit down on her neck. It became obvious to the family that they could not hold their family suburban home. While the others were busy nearby reinforcing windows and were spared the sight but not the sound of her fate, Valentina was there at the stairs, afraid and helpless, and with her one good eye she saw it happen. Valeries was able to buy the family time to take what they can and escape by pushing through the relatively thin herd at the front door to distract the reanimates.
22 March 2017 was the day she lost her elder brother, Vertov, in a firefight against scavengers who found them taking refuge in a suburban home on the fringes of their own neighbourhood. Valentina knew one of the scavengers who was her neighbor and at one point, her babysitter. She was shocked as she saw her fire a rifle at Vertov and slew him. While her family was able to fight them off, the damage was already done. Valentina learnt that day that people could turn bad, really bad.
13 April 2017 was the day Valentina and her family was overrun and taken captive by a large group of bandits. Upon being bound and brought to their hideout, a few bandits, out of boredom, decided to toy with them, with vengeance for the many bandits the father managed to take out being a secondary goal. Despite her parents' pleas, one of the bandits took out a combat knife and carved a half-frown scar down the left side of Valentina's cheek and forced her parents to watch. The physical trauma was excruciating, but the sight of her parents breaking down and tortured was far worse. Had it not been for the timely intervention of a national guard detachment still loyal to the federal government, the results would have been far worse.
5 May 2017 was the day Valentina lost her mother to the Reanimates. Her parents were drafted for service by the national guards who saved them after they were brought to camp. "The monsters surrounded us, honey, when we were trying to save a girl about your age trapped under a rubble. I'm sorry." The lieutenant responsible for Valentina's mother had said. When Valentina reacted little instead of bursting into tears like how the lieutenant expected, the battle-hardened soldier knew: The girl was scarred not just in body, but in spirits as well, and no amount of stitches and therapy with the camp medical officer could save her completely.
20 May 2017 was the day the national guards camp was overrun. She saw her father play the hero in holding back the waves of reanimates with the M4A1 handed to him, then a Beretta, then a bayonet, and finally his fists. She saw his knuckles rip again as they pounded rotting flesh, and his father slowly torn apart as he fought with all his strength. He succumbed after giving Valentina a final look and mouthing for her to run. Valentina did not want to. She'd had enough. She'd never really smiled like she used to for months, not since her elder sister was devoured. Had it not been for the timely intervention of the same national guard lieutenant who lead her mother into battle, her story would have ended here and now.
11 June 2017 was the day she fell under the hands of a biker gang. Before then, she'd been adopted and protected by Lieutenant Hugh, but they were alone. His unit was scattered by the horde of Reanimates. The soldier was once a father himself, a really good one, and against all odds, he would somehow manage to coax a smile or two from Valentina with a cunning but kind-hearted web of talking to her about her lost family, talking to her about his lost family, and some stories of hope and a future to make her feel better. The soldier taught her a few tricks to survive on her own - how to use a knife, how to fire a revolver or pistol, and what to do behind enemy lines, though there were no more enemy lines but a whole globe. However, while travelling to a supposed safezone, Lieutenant Hugh was gunned down and killed instantly even as he was holding Valentina's hand and guiding her along gently. The leader of the biker gang forced a brand on her stomach and took her to his tent, but little did he knew that she had a shiv hiding in her jeans all along, courtesy of Lieutenant Hugh. With fiery rage erupting for the first time in Valentina, she avenged her last and final friend by thrusting it into his throat. When the deed was done, she managed to sneak away from camp.
Ever since Lieutenant Hugh's death and her vengeance, Valentina wandered on her own, indescribable tormenting pain lying like a swelling ocean beneath her tattered body. Blaming it on the world, she took to surviving by stealing supplies and even in some cases killing in the process without remorse. She'd learnt what would have been the worse lessons to learn had it been the 'wrong time', but it was the right time where murder, deceit and selfishness was the norm. Her acting skills came in handy at times to this purpose. Having been done so much wrong, she could no longer feel as much anymore, with rage and sadness becoming her new happiness, and the happiness of yesteryear, the new pain and sadness.
Overtime, as she wandered the ruins, she had managed to find several of what she called 'sleep spots', safe places that only she could access due to her size and knowledge, as most of them were located in ventilation shafts or blocked off rooms. Driven by the basest instinct to survive that she herself would not understand nor care about, she would hide caches of supplies - normally things she already carried, things that were too big and impossible to use because of her size, or even useless trinkets she saw and liked, that ultimately sated her existence for mere moments. There was very little food, however - there was never enough. But what was in even greater short supply was her family... For although she could be considered successful in this new environment, it was an empty existence without Vertov, Valeries... Her Dad and Mom...