THE WITHERED SERIES Character Interview Session 1.

Today we are sitting down with Avery Whitlock, our heroine from WITHER, book 1 of the WITHERED SERIES.

Interviewer: “Growing up on the streets is a hard way to live.  Do you think learning to fend for yourself at a young age really helped prepare you for the apocalypse?”

Avery: “Sure.  Not everyone grows up in a Leave it to Beaver sort of home. My mother wasn’t exactly the best role model.  She worked a lot, had a thing for bad guys and drowned her sorrows in the bottom of a bottle after my dad skipped town.  My brother left not long after we moved to St. Louis so I was on my own a lot.

You learn some valuable lessons when you have to take care of yourself. Sometimes you do things that other people would snub their noses at just to eat.  Sometimes you trust the wrong people.  You learn by trial and fire.  I guess that made me tougher than most girls when facing our new world.”

Interviewer: “Why do you think you stuck by your mother’s side after the world started falling apart?  In the beginning you could have escaped without much trouble, yet you remained.”

Avery: “I’ve asked myself that question more times than I can count.  Obviously there was no love shared between my mother and I.  She and I were pretty much strangers in the same home.  I avoided her and she liked that.  It wasn’t until her accident that left her in a coma that I actually spent any time with her. 

Part of me thinks maybe I stayed for closure.  Maybe I just wanted her to wake up and admit that she’d wronged me. I don’t know…it doesn’t make sense, but then again, when has bitterness ever done so?”

Interviewer: “You went through quite at lot those first few days.  Can you tell us a little about what you were thinking?”

Avery: “Honestly, I was shitting my pants most of the time and praying no one noticed.  I’m not so good at letting people in, or needing them for that matter. I’ve always been a bit of a loner. I like my space. I like to be on my own.  After Cable, the marine that saved my life at the hospital, got me back on my feet I was too stubborn to consider that he might actually be a good guy.  So I did the idiotic thing and tried to make it on my own.”

Interviewer: “And how did that work out for you?”

Avery: “I got kidnapped, twice.  Yeah, it could have gone better.”

Interviewer: “So then Cable saved you again?”

Avery: “Yeah. He’s got this really annoying hero complex but after a while you sort of get used to it.  Actually, I guess that’s not really being fair. Cable’s a good guy and those are really rare in this world, especially now.  I owe him a lot and that’s hard  to admit.”

Interviewer: “So with the world changing rapidly around you, how did you decide what the best course of action might be to stay alive?”

Avery: “People.”

Interview: “Can you elaborate on that?”

Avery: “Look, when you’re out there and your ass is on the line, you need someone there to watch over it for you. You can’t do it on your own. Well, you probably could for a short time but eventually you’re going to slip up.  I had to learn that even though I may not have wanted people in my life, I did need them.”

Interviewer: “So I’ve heard rumors about a possible budding relationship between Cable and yourself?  Any truth to it?”

Avery: “No comment.”

Interviewer:  “Interesting.  One final question.  After all that you’ve been through and seen, do you think the world has a chance of coming back from this apocalypse?”

Avery: “I really hope so…cause its freakin’ messed up out there right now.”

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WITHERED SERIES CHARACTER INTERVIEW SESSION 2

Interviewer: What were your feelings when you first got your orders to deploy to St. Louis MO to help control the rioting?

Cable: ” Some pretty messed up shit as going down all over the place.  St. Louis, New York, LA…didn’t really matter where I was deployed. People were dying and I was sent to stop it.”

Interviewer:  Did you find it difficult to remain positive while you watched the world fall in decay?

Cable: “People do bad things, especially when they feel endangered.  It doesn’t take much to really see a person’s character when their life is on the line.  I’ve taken down some pretty vile creeps, but those aren’t the ones who surprise me. It’s the mom who turns on her own child, the brother who leaves her sister behind, the priest who sacrifices people on the streets and claims its salvation.  It’s sick.”

Interviewed: Our readers would like to know why you chose to stick by Avery’s side when you had justifiable reason to believe that she was turning.

Cable: “Most guys probably would have left her behind, but I’m not most guys.  No matter how twisted this world gets I have to believe that there is still good in it.  Still hope that the world can go back to the way it was before.  If I’d left her behind, I’d be no better than the people I try to keep in line on the streets.”

Interviewer: Did you always know that you would head south?  Was there a specific reason for that direction choice?

Cable: “Let’s just call it a feeling.   I just…I guess I felt drawn there.  I know that doesn’t make any sense, but it’s the truth.”

Interviewer: Could the location of your brother have had anything to do with it?

Cable: “Lenny?  Yeah, I guess its possible. Maybe I wanted a familiar face around while we tried to figure things out. Lenny is a good guy. Someone you can depend on.  He’s a survivor.”

Interviewer: Is there any one person in your group that you worried about the most?

Cable:  “Some people have that look and feel about them that sets off warning flags.  Sal Jenkins had sleazy written all over him.  I definitely slept with one eye open when he was around.”

Interviewer:  You don’t seem like a man of many words.  Have you always been like that?

Cable:  “Yeah. I spend a lot of time thinking, watching people.  You can tell a lot about someone when you pause long enough to just watch.”

Interviewer: Is that why you felt so strongly about Avery? You saw something in her that she didn’t, right?

Cable: “It’s easy to be blinded to the truth. Sometimes the walls we build aren’t to keep people out, but to keep themselves from being seen. Avery is a tough girl, but she’s got weak spots just like everyone else.  She see’s them as weakness but in reality its what makes her strongest.”

Interviewer: Do you think there will ever be a cure?

Cable: “Sure do.  That’s not what I’m worried about.”

Interviewer: What are you worried about then?

Cable:  “That there won’t be anyone left alive to use it!”