PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:

Erik is a lean man and tall man of mixed Finnish-Hispanic heritage , his arms bearing scars left behind by careless accidents while working. He's kept his dark hair short for a long while. He has a stubble on him presently, seeing no real reason to shave it. All-in-all he's quite handsome and his healthy lifestyle has only further accentuated that, despite being thirty-nine years old. A noticeable feature of his are his expressive eyes.

He's a man built for survival. The month at the cabin was hard on him, but he survived. He's well-built and his true strength lies in his athleticism. He was a track runner during his time in school back home, and kept it as a hobby to the present day.

PERSONALITY:

Erik is a man of some intellectual capacity, always ready to to do work and make something of himself, to a large degree. He's ambitious, very much-so. To someone who doesn't know him, his ambition might be off-putting, but in truth he's using it as a coping method. Dreaming big, achieving those dreams and then moving on. He's the talkative sort, though primarily to pass the time. Perhaps because of his attractiveness and his talkative nature, he seems a charismatic sort, a quality which he has not used for some time.

Why? Because behind the veneer of a good-natured gunsmith lies a deeply angry and sad man. His family is most probably dead. He never saw his parents' fate, nor his daughter's... and hope was a dangerous thing now. His late wife though... well, the less said the better.

The problem lies in the fact that Erik finds himself again and again directing that deep anger, that sadness... that hatred, toward things of worth, but what if and when he runs out?

BACKSTORY:

The Gadolin family's history is a long one, assuming one cared about chemistry or physics, for the family traces its lineage to Johan Gadolin, a prominent Finnish chemist of the 18th and 19th century, one who lived to the ripe old age of ninety-two and had nine children.

None of that really mattered, of course, aside for Erik, who considered Johan a personal idol of his. Regardless, Erik's family moved to the United States, settling in Kentucky in the 1930s.

His father, John, a third-generation immigrant was connected quite seriously to his own grandfather's home country of Finland, and would often bring the extended family with him on trips there, being a quite generous man. He could afford to be, for he had become quite rich.

You see, John was a chemist, a university graduate with a bachelor's degree in industrial chemistry. A profession that brought the Gadolin family much prosperity. He married his high-school sweetheart, Jennifer Velázquez and Erik would prove to be their only child.

As a result, Erik grew up in privileged circumstances in Riverside, but he never found himself quite fitting in. Of course, he made the effort, he would have been a bad son if he hadn't. He went to church with his family, to social gatherings and to various parties, some of which he hosted himself, with his 'friends'.

All those trips to Finland were a refuge for Erik. One which he relished. For a time he considered moving there, living out in the forest, away from all the hustle bustle. After he graduated from High School he even planned it all out, yet that would all come crashing down when he was approached by a girl, Yumiko Yanagi, who came to him with an earnest offer, but a bizarre one to Erik. She wanted to hang out, but as it turned out, her idea of hanging out involved shooting... lots and lots of shooting.

Yumiko was a transplant of sorts, with her mother having moved to Kentucky with her American boyfriend. She had a dual citizenship between Japan and the US. Her dad, the Japanese one, was apparently some sort of big-shot back in Japan. Yumiko herself however was an enthusiast in all things American and a professed gun-nut.

At first Erik considered her a gold-digger. Why else would a pretty girl approach someone like him? In hindsight this was quite the sexist way of seeing things, but Erik had grown up in quite the traditional family, for better or worse.

Unfortunately for Erik, he became smitten with the girl, despite his initial misgivings as Yumiko proved to be able to break down all his barriers. She even considered him to go into the firearm business, with her big dreams of running her own gun store... and Erik would be her ever-loyal gunsmith. How could he say no?

So that is what he did. He studied, he learned and became an expert in the field, with a particular focus on the internal workings of firearms. Switch out the firing pin there, grease it all up inside, shave that part off, oh and of course pawn off the woodworking parts to his co-students. A good leader delegates, after all, as his father always told him.

Before Erik even noticed it, a decade had passed, he'd been approved by the ATF, his girlfriend and later-to-be wife would gain a license to sell, own and maintain firearms. She became a firearm distributor, and with his father's somewhat reluctant backing, the two opened a rustic shop in West Point.

The two would marry in 2011, having been in a relationship for a long time, yet Yumiko's sudden pregnancy would force their hand. Only two months after their marriage a beautiful girl would be born, whom they would name Lily, after Yumiko's favorite flower.

Together the family of three would prosper, with little Lily growing up around her father, as he toiled away in the back of their store, fixing guns, engraving them sometimes and generally living a peaceful life, despite all the firearms the family was around. Of course, Erik and Yumiko kept up their shared of hobby shooting.

That all would come crashing down in 2019 when Yumiko was diagnosed with breast cancer, a thing that would ultimately crush the two, as their idyllic reality broke apart. Erik would take over Yumiko's duties at the state as she battled the cancer. Yet, despite her best attempts, and Erik's desperate pleas to a God he had never really believed in, Yumiko would pass away only two years later, surrounded by family.

Suffice it to say, this devastated Erik and drove him to focus on his work, leaving his ten-year-old daughter to be cared for and raised by his parents and the occasional hired nanny. He focused on his work, and came home late, perhaps out of the sheer pain his daughter's looks gave him, for they were painfully reminiscent of his late wife.

Of course, there came times when he tried to rekindle their relationship, but Lily was soon to be a pre-teen, and things hardly looked favorable. Regardless, Erik did try his hand at bringing her to hunting trips and the like, remembering her interest in them when he and Yumiko had gone on them.

One such attempt came in August third of 2023, as Erik had left for rural Kentucky, Muldraugh, to be specific, to prepare for a hunting trip of a few days. He had even rented out a cabin, and had been preparing it... that is, until the fog came in.

The screams, the inhuman noises and the unknown would force Erik to remain inside, despite his desperate wishes to leave, to find his daughter and parents, for she had been staying with them in Riverside. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for his continuous survival, he was fully able to stay where he was, staying alive with the canned food that had been stocked up at the cabin by its owners.

A month and more passed by, and the noises subsided, and Erik grew ever more melancholic, as the radio told him no good news. He had failed his family. For a time he resigned himself to either starving to death is his remote hidey-hole, but as food ran out, and desperation rose, eventually he was forced out to his car.

Outside was... almost impossible to see, but what he did see were... for the lack-of-a-better term, monsters. Zombies, perhaps, who roamed the woods. They ran faster than most people, and Erik was forced to put down a few with his rifle. It was cathartic, watching their rotten blood spill, but it would prove a costly mistake, as that sounds would draw far worse things than simple undead to him.

Erik would scarcely see them, before he got inside his car, but he did hear them. Sheer fear drove him to drive away as fast as he could, but luck was not in his favor, as he began to run out gas.

Just barely he managed to make it to the main road, and from there, he followed the lights to the Crossroads Mall, which seemed to be inhabited. He would not be able to make it to his parent's house, he realized then, but then again, it was doubtful his family still remained there anyway.

So, despite his misgivings, he stopped at the parking lot, got out and ran like hell toward that damned mall...