ORLOV, arkady vladimirovich

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“We live in a world of shit. Always have. The apocalypse hasn’t changed that. It merely heralds the ascendance of death over life. It is the culmination of what humanity has been progressing towards since one cave-man discovered he could use the pointy end of a stick to make another suffer.”

The son of poor Russian Immigrants Arkady accompanied his parents across the sea to America, and New York City, ripped away from all he knew at a young age. His parents made their living by operating a small deli, and lived above it in a small, squalid apartment. Arkady's home life was dysfunctional, and thats putting it kindly. His father drank too much and would neglect him and his increasingly-troubled little 8-year-old brother, Grigory. The harsh, brutish man spent all his time running the deli, shouting at his sons, working them constantly during the day, and drinking himself into a stupor at night. His mother was sickly and demure, never standing up for her children; a shell of a woman. Arkady's parents neglected their education: they had to learn English from the streets and in school. Friends never came easily, and his parent's inability, or unwillingness, to learn English meant he had trouble speaking with, let alone connecting with his peers. He was always the outsider, day-dreaming about the stories about the "good old days" in the Old Country his father would drunkenly slur to him.

Arkady always did decent enough in school, despite his parent's complete lack of support or interest in his education, or even the boy himself. Intelligent, with piercing blue eyes, the young man could could not shake the despair that hung over him; never could get over the unfortunate hand that life had dealt him. Without the money to continue his education, or the connections to find work, he has spent the last few years after graduating high school working in his father’s Deli, supporting the family, and doing his best to take care of his neglected younger brother. Hell, the kid barely spoke to Arkady, let alone anyone else. In the most recent occurence in a string of disturbing behavior, Girgory had been expelled from the local public school for repeatedly stabbing a classmate in the eye with a pencil (while giggling), and his parents hadn't bothered to continue his education.

Arkady has known little outside of his neighborhood, but experienced discrimination and hate at every turn. He had few friends, mostly just deli customers his own age (no free time to be had when you have to run the damn place yourself) and none of them very close. Arkady is deeply resentful of the way his immigrant parents were drived to dispair, and of his lack of upward mobility. This resentment festered, and developed into a deeply dismal view of the world, and of the people around him. He wanted anything but to become his parents, but the process was already underway.

During the first days of the apocalypse Arkady’s parents attempted to take them to a military safe-zone. When told the safe-zone was full, and evacuation was already underway, Arkady’s father, drunker than ever at the end of the world, got belligerent with a soldier, yelling at him in Russian like he did with his sons. He was shot in the scuffle. Turned away from the help they so desperately needed, their mother, sick with grief and unprepared for the ordeals ahead, charged the fence in despair and was gunned down. Arkady always felt she knew what she was doing. She was weak, and ended it all, rather than face any more hardship. The woman had had a hard life, but with her selfish action, the brothers now had no one else but eachother.

Left on their own, Arkady and Grigory managed to get a ride with a group of survivors heading West. They were singled out because of their youth, lack of basic survival skills, and strong accents. Their rations were routinely stolen, they were subject to constant derision and beatings by their fellow group members, and their merciless leader. Yet somehow, they scraped by, living-on, when so many others died horribly. The young brothers witnessed horrific things on the road: people reduced to their basic, animal instincts, scrambling for survival. People stabbed, beaten, shot, over a little bit of food, or a temporary shelter. Folks being eaten alive left to the growing tides of undead, their screams fading into the distance, but never from your mind. They were forced to participate in unspeakable brutality and cruelty, both to survive, and at the command of their increasingly inhumane group-leaders. Grigory, already a sullen, taciturn child, spoke less and less, until it was impossible to get as much as a word out of him. Arkady thought every day would be their last, and death was everywhere, a constant presence, and an unbearable stench. The brothers became accustomed to it, in their own way.

Over the months, their rag-tag band grew fewer in number, and more desperate. Eventually, upon reaching the Smoky Mountains, dirty, tired, and disorganized, Arkady knew their days were numbered if they stayed with the group. So, one night, during another desperate, senseless raid on an unsuspecting group of survivors, Arkady and Grigory made a run for it, taking as many supplies as they could carry. In the confusion and darkness of the tall pines, Arkady lost his brother. Whether he was dead or alive, he couldn’t say. After, Arkady numbly wandered the forest, waiting to die, until he was picked up by a band of capable survivors, and brought back to a death-worshipping group which would eventually be known, and feared, as Reapers.

Arkady found new purpose, and was easily indoctrinated into the Reaper religion and society. His burning resentment of people, validated by the things he saw and experienced, being beat down constantly by an unforgiving world, made his acceptance of the death cult come easily. Life was nothing but pain, sorrow and loss. Soon, he was as fanatical as the rest, and dedicated himself to his new-found cause. Promoted to his current rank, he unwittingly stumbled upon his younger brother, somehow still alive in the deep forest, filthy and feral. Reunited at last with his older brother, the young, half-mad Grigory follows Arkady everywhere. The traumatized child knows nothing except his loyalty to Arkady, and a vicious, animalistic survival-instinct. Together, the pair set off to deliver the unbelievers from their suffering, and pave the way for the natural ascension of Thanatos, the god of death, and his undead servants.