Characters / Wake the Dead

Characters from the Choices: Stories You Play story Wake the Dead.

Main Characters

Your Character/Ash Archer

The protagonist of the story

• The Leader: Becomes leader of the colony after the death of Brynn.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Their first and last names are customizable, with the defaults being Ash Archer.
• Heroic BSoD: They go into this at the start of Chapter 17 after seeing Brynn as a zombie, feeling that they could have done something, anything, to prevent this.

Troy Hassan

Ash's childhood friend, and black market dealer.

• Childhood Friend Romance: Having grown up with Ash in The Tower, he becomes this should you choose to romance him.
• Fake Defector: In Chapter 11, he pretended to abandon the group, before busting through the window and knocking one of the Raiders out.
  Ash: You came back!
  Troy: Wait, did you really think I was leaving?
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Subverted. In Chapter 11, he accepted Sledge's offer to walk away and leave Ash, only to ambush the Raiders.
• Stepford Smiler: Implied to be this, keeping a lighthearted attitude even when he’s not feeling the best.

Shannon Fox

A scientist trapped in a laboratory Ash explored during their birthday

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite her lack of fighting abilities and somewhat timid and insecure personality, she displays complete fearlessness when dissecting and analyzing gruesome zombie corpses that made even veteran zombie killers gag or throw up. Her analysises and investigations if you decided to pay for them would be extremely crucial to uphold the base for the zombie war.
• Damsel in Distress: Twice. Ash first discovered her in a sealed room in her laboratory. In Chapter 8, she and Minna Arbogast are cornered by zombies, and you have to first rescue one over the other. If you choose Minna, Shannon will be traumatized by the event.
• Happily Adopted: Shannon was taken in by the Tower Research team as a baby when her family was killed by zombies. She feels more connected to her adopted family than her birth family.
• The Smart Guy: Is the intelligent scientist of the main scouting team.
• Sole Survivor: She was the only living member of her science team when she was discovered.

Elijah "Eli" Sipes

A lone inhabitant of a cabin in the forest who joins Ash and co. shortly after meeting them

• Aloof Archer: His primary weapon is a bow and is emotionally distant towards others.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Chapter 2 he saves Ash and their group from zombies with his trusty bow.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: If you choose to go with Eli in a premium scene in Chapter 3, Ash saves him from a drone and makes it clear that he will never let him forget it.
  Eli: Never gonna live this down, am I?
  Ash: Nope.
• The Stoic: He doesn't emote much, and is a loner by nature.

Angel Savage

A lone resident of an abandoned mall outside of Red Meadows/Olympus

• Burn the Undead: She sets fire to a bunch of zombies with a flamethrower in Chapter 14.
  Angel: Ahahahahaha! Burn, you bastards! BURN!
• My God, What Have I Done?: If you accept her request to bring her zombie parents to the colony, they'll kill Mack in Chapter 14, causing her to feel guilty.
• Trap Master: Being by herself in an abandoned mall for years has allowed Angel to become one. Unfortunately, the group falls into one of her traps at the end of Chapter 3.

Tower Escapees

Brynn Archer

Ash's older sister

• Big Sister Instinct: Upon discovering that Ash was targeted for execution by Marcus Blackstock, she quickly brought them out of the Tower along with several others.
• Elite Zombie: At the end of Chapter 16, she has been turned into a Zombie Queen.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Her first and last names are customizable, with the defaults being Brynn Archer.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sacrifices herself in Chapter 2 so the rest of the group can escape the Tower and zombies.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Chapter 20 involves Ash trying to convince her that deep down she's still their sister even after being turned into a Queen Zombie. Succeeding has her join Ash for the final battle against the Queen.
• Taking the Bullet: Is shot multiple times in chapter 2 after covering Ash from being shot by Blackstock’s guards.

Dirk

A resident of the Tower who escaped with Ash and co.

• Accentuate the Negative: No matter what Ash chooses for the Hard Choices, he will continue to complain and always has a negative thing to say about what Ash does.
• Driven by Envy: Hinted at to be part of the reason why he betrays Ash. He becomes increasingly resentful of Ash and at one point sarcastically calls them the “great Ash Archer who can do no wrong.”
• Eye Scream: If you save Shannon by smashing the glass window, the noise alerts more zombies, and they claw Dirk's eye and kill Jeb.
• Face–Heel Turn: After several chapters of him getting more and more fed up with Ash's leadership, he overthrows them and replaces them with "someone stronger, someone who can take charge".
• Hypocrite: He objected to the Raiders helping Olympus, claiming that they'll betray the colony. Yet he betrayed Ash later on.
• In Vino Veritas: In chapter 13, when Ash talks to him, he drunkenly admits he wishes Ash died instead of Brynn.
• Nostalgia Filter: A part of him regrets leaving the Tower despite Marcus Blackstock's dictatorial leadership.
• Redemption Equals Death: If you spared him after his betrayal in Chapter 18, he sacrifices himself to save Ash from Queen!Brynn in Chapter 20.
• Number Two: Acts as Ash’s second-in-command, being in charge of maintaining the colony in their absence.
• Regretful Traitor: If you are nice enough to him and make enough decisions in his favor, he shows regret for betraying Ash in Chapter 18.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He spends the first couple of minutes of Chapter 18 berating Ash for their poor decisions (and optionally for not listening to him). These include bringing zombies into the colony, allowing the daughter of a man they were trying to ally with to be injured, leaving Shannon trapped and scared (causing her to develop claustrophobia and possibly even PTSD), sparing the life of a tyrannical king (who is still planning to get back at Ash), bringing Eli back to the colony after he was bitten (and optionally refusing to turn their gun on him, even when it seemed like the cure had failed), and wandering off to rescue some colonists who were already dead. If you smashed the glass in Chapter 1, causing him to go blind in one eye, he even says that he should have known that Ash would bring him nothing but trouble.
• You Should Have Died Instead: In Chapter 13, he says this to Ash, wishing that Brynn was alive instead.

Cassidy

• Dying Moment of Awesome: A premium scene in Chapter 5 allows you to give her a glorious death after she's bitten by a zombie.

Mack

• Sacrificial Lion: His (potential) death in Chapter 14 at the hands of Angel's zombie parents is used to show just how far down the line the choices you make can have an impact.

The Tower

Marcus Blackstock

The leader of the Tower

• Disc-One Final Boss: He appears in Chapter 18 to take over Olympus with Dirk's help, only to be killed by Ash with relatively little effort.
• Expy: Of The Governor from the series Wake The Dead is based on. Both are authoritarian figures who sacrifice their own people for "the greater good", when really he just wants to get rid of people who question his authority.
• Groin Attack: In Chapter 18, while Marcus is strangling Ash, Ash can knee him in the groin.
• Gun Struggle: He's killed this way in Chapter 18 while fighting for his gun with Ash.

Jeb

• We Hardly Knew Ye: He only appears in the first chapter regardless of your choices, and is not seen again. One outcome has him killed off barely five minutes into the story.

Officer Jeong

• Devoured by the Horde: In Chapter 9, Ash can kill her this way in the Tournament by pushing her into a group of zombies who tear her apart.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In Chapter 9, Ash can kill her this way in the Tournament if they have the multi-machete or glaive equipped.
• Laser-Guided Karma: She was one of Blackstock's guards who helped him feed Tower dissidents to the horde. She can be killed this way as karmic payback.

Sunflower Creek

General

• Actual Pacifist: They don’t use violence on anyone, not even zombies.
• Honor Before Reason: They stripped Feather of his status as elder for killing a zombie that nearly killed May.
• Hypocrite: Despite being so opposed to violence that they view killing a zombie to save a child's life as a cardinal offense, they still allow the Raiders to kill zombies for them.

Feather

A former elder of Sunflower Creek

• Martial Pacifist: Feather doesn’t like to use violence, however, he killed a zombie in order to save a child, May.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He rightfully shames the rest of the Sunflower Creek elders for stripping him of his title for doing the right thing.
  SC Elder: You broke a cardinal rule^note killing a zombie, regardless of circumstance. You're lucky you're allowed to stay here at all.
  Feather: And you'd rather I had let a child^note May die. Despicable.

May

A child Ash befriends in Sunflower Creek

• Sole Survivor: She's the only person hypnotized into the Reno hive queen's lair who didn't die.

Skyweld

Walt Arbogast

The foreman of Skyweld

• Heroic Sacrifice: Chapter 19 has Walt throw himself into battle with a Soldier zombie, taking it out at the cost of his own life.
• Papa Wolf: He's protective of his daughter Minna and becomes furious if she gets amputated as a result of not saving her first during a warehouse raid.

Minna Arbogast

The daughter of Walt Arbogast

• An Arm and a Leg: In Chapter 8, if you save Shannon instead of her, she gets bitten by a zombie, and ends up needing her arm amputated. In future chapters, she sports a mechanical arm.

Ironmount

General

• Genre Refugee: Compared to the militaristic Tower, the hippie commune of Sunflower Creek, the Scavenger World-like Skyweld, and the Mad Max-esque Raiders, the knights and citizens of Ironmount would fit more in Choices' more fantasy-based stories like The Crown & the Flame and Blades of Light & Shadow. Justified, in that they're descended from a Renaissance faire that was going on when the plague started.
• Simple, yet Awesome: In their charter, they realized noise draws in zombies, so they eschew firearms in favor of medieval weapons like maces, flails, and polearms.

King Trent

The self-proclaimed king of Ironmount

• Asshole Victim:
  • Zigzagged in Chapter 9. If you choose to hand him over to his people, they behead him on the spot for all he's done. Aliyah, however, is upset at losing her childhood friend and is more grateful if you choose to spare him.
  • Played straighter in Chapter 18, when he's revealed to be part of the group of traitors that sold Ash out to Blackstock. If you choose to have the traitors executed (Trent included), only Feather protests (and that's more to do with his pacifist nature in general than anything).
  • In Chapter 19, he gets killed by a group of zombies while trying to flee the battle (after he was spared twice, no less).
• Dirty Coward:
  • He hid at a stable when zombies attacked Ironmount.
  • Should he be spared all the way to Chapter 19, he tries to run from the battle, only to trip over his cape, and be Devoured by the Horde. The achievement you receive if this happens has the description "He died as he lived... a coward".
• The Farmer and the Viper: If you spare him in Chapter 9, he joins Dirk in betraying you to Blackstock.
• Manipulative Bastard: He forces people to fight in the arena for his amusement, then lets zombies in to make it interesting.
• Off with His Head!: He is beheaded by his people if you choose to hand him over to them.
• Red Shirt: No matter what choices you make in the story, he will die. Handing him to his people in Chapter 9 will cause him to get beheaded then and there. Sparing him causes him to join up with the traitors and will die with them in Chapter 18 if you choose to execute them all. Spare him again, and he'll become zombie breakfast during the Solstice in Chapter 19.

Aliyah

The reigning champion of Ironmount

• You Are in Command Now: After the zombie attack on Ironmount in Chapter 9 that renders Trent unfit to lead, she assumes the position of its leader.

The Raiders

In general

• Theme Naming: All of them got their nicknames based on the weapon they used during their trials.

Sledge

The leader of the Raiders

• Hypocrite: Despite her philosophy, she still comes to her group's aid when they need help (one of their members got bitten by a zombie, and was cured by an experimental drug), even though said philosophy dictates that it's their own loss if they can't fight for themselves. Ash can call her out on it in Chapter 12.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In Chapter 15, Sledge rightfully tells Ash that Dirk is useless and that their people need them at Olympus after Ash insists on leaving Dirk in charge while they rescue a handful of colonists who were captured and most likely dead.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Starting from Chapter 12, there are options to earn romance points with her, and she becomes an official LI in Chapter 13 after you sway the Raiders over to your side.
• The Social Darwinist: She is a strong believer in "survival of the fittest", even saying that people who aren't strong enough to defend themselves don't deserve to have what they have.
• Took a Level in Cynic: When Sledge was younger, she believed in groups uniting and working together, much like Ash does, until she discovered that a colony she worked for was using her people as cannon fodder against zombies. After they took the colony's supplies and left them for dead, Sledge began operating under her current mindset.
• Villain Respect: If you fought well against her in Chapter 11, she concedes that you're a worthy opponent.

Knuckles

• Good Old Fisticuffs: He punched a Soldier zombie to death (after immobilizing it first).
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Boots' Blue. He's violent, hotheaded, and openly threatening, while Boots is more passive.
• Straight Gay: He's in a relationship with Garrote and shows no gay mannerisms.

Garrote

• Straight Gay: He's in a relationship with Knuckles and shows no gay mannerisms.

Boots

• Finishing Stomp: Though he doesn't like to talk about it, it's heavily implied that he killed a Soldier zombie in this way.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Knuckles' Red. He's levelheaded and intimidating, while Knuckles is more aggressive.

Hatchet

• Ambiguous Gender: They are one of the few canonically non-binary characters in Choices.

Zombies

Drones

Ordinary zombies

Scouts

A larger zombie type that scours for targets and signals the others with piercing shrieks.

• Fragile Speedster: Shannon’s autopsy of a Scout reveals that some internal organs, particularly the liver, kidneys, and parts of the intestine, are gone in favor of increased muscle mass, which allows it to move with frightening speed. However, this leaves some vital organs exposed, and attacks to those areas will slow it down.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Their long, worm-like tongue is their most notable feature. It presumably helps them signal other zombies.
• Vagina Dentata: The male variants have vertical mouths lined with sharp teeth.

Soldiers

A giant zombie used by the Raiders as part of their initiation rites

• Attack Its Weak Point: Its pustules are its weak point. Attacking this during the Raiders' arena battle will earn you a point.
• Giant Mook: They're the largest and strongest zombie type.

Sirens

A humanoid zombie with the power to hypnotize others

• Pheromones: They lure their prey in with a sweet scent before attacking them.

Queens

The queen of each zombie hive

• Attractive Zombie: The Reno Queen looks like a tall, attractive woman and has chitinous skin rather than the typical rot and gore.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: They're still sentient ^note Rather than dying, future Queens are put to sleep as they transform, but the parasite brainwashes them to believe that the zombie hive is their family and that they want to spread the parasite. Strong humans can fight the brainwashing, but they will become even stronger Queens if it ultimately succeeds. Brynn fought the brainwashing for three whole days, and she can overcome it entirely if you make the right choices in the last episode.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Reno Queen seemed to genuinely care about her "children", especially Brynn, talking about them in very fond terms and appearing sincerely hurt by Brynn overcoming her conditioning.
• Faux Affably Evil: They're sentient and capable of holding a conversation, and the Reno Queen is perfectly willing to have a polite chat about her motivations. However, she refuses to negotiate a peaceful solution and is just as much of a violent cannibal as any other zombie.
• Spikes of Villainy: They have spikes on their heads and shoulders.
• You Can Talk?: They're the only zombie type that can talk.