N A M E: Cassandra Riley Young
A G E: 25
P L A C E O F O R I G I N: Phoenix, Arizona
G R O U P: None
F C: Rachael Taylor
❝ I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. ❞
↪ p e r s o n a l i t y ;
P O S I T I V E T R A I T S: athletic ; self-sufficient
N E G A T I V E T R A I T S: selfish ; distrusting
L I F E B E F O R E T H E O U T B R E A K:
Born in the countryside of New South Wales, Australia as Riley Danica Bennett, Cass’ family was was impoverished, but happy and loving. She was closest to her fraternal twin sister Zara, but loved her two brothers just as much, and spent her first few years happily playing with them, even attending tennis lessons that her parents saved up for, upon discovering she was a natural. This all changed, however, when she was about five years old. An older, wealthy American couple had come to visit Australia, both for a vacation, and with a desire to adopt. They were wealthy, the woman a former athlete and now well-known socialite, and the man a wealthy CEO, in search of a child to both carry on their legacy, and bring them good press. Instead, while touring the countryside, they found Cass while she was at tennis practice. Her skill impressed them right away, and not only was it clear that she had athletic potential, but there was also obvious potential for immense, valuable beauty. They justified themselves by her thin frame and scrappy, too-large clothes, deciding that she would be better off in a secure, wealthy home; and besides, out here, she would never be discovered, while they could insure she become a success.
So they took her. Days after they first saw her, they snatched her up after a practice, flying her back with them to their home in Phoenix, Arizona, and while after she realized they weren’t taking her home, she questioned them, she was young and confused, and with enough time and attempts on their part, she was eventually (within months) convinced that they were in fact her family, and had been her parents all along. They were wealthy enough that it was easy to forge her the proper documents, and soon enough, she went from being Riley Danica Bennett to being Cassandra Riley Young, daughter of millionares Julian and Allison Young. They had one other child, Jaden, who was a year younger than her, but who had already been determined as a disappointment, without notable skill or value to his parents. Cassandra, on the other hand, was immediately given a private tennis coach and a modeling agent, and before long, she was appearing in kids clothing catalogues and at the top of her age group in tennis matches and tournaments. By the age of 12, she was so good that she started competing in the Women’s Tennis Association tour, and at 15, she won her first Grand Slam title. She won three more in the next year, and at 16, was the no. 1 ranked women’s tennis player in the world.
At the same time, her modeling increased, transforming from children’s catalogues to sexier shoots for both sports magazines and clothing advertisements from Calvin Klein to Victoria Secret. Not only was she internationally famous and loved, but she was earning huge amounts of money, piling up in her bank account. Unfortunately, her home life was far less successful. Her relationship with her brother was strained, his jealousy resonating through their large house, and her relationship with her father was almost non-existent. Her mother, on the other hand, behaved as if she was her pimp, so focused on making her into the household name that she was by any means necessary, caring little how Cassandra felt about it. And while she enjoyed tennis, and winning, she wasn’t exactly fond of the modeling, disliking how the photoshoots made her feel exposed. She was even less fond of her tennis coach and manager. She had always been bothered by him, and by the way he looked at her, but it wasn’t until she was fourteen, and for the first time at a tournament alone with him, that the reason for his attentions to her became evident. It happened several more times before she worked up the courage to try and tell her mother, but the woman brushed her aside, paying no attention to what she was saying.
It was only months later, when her coach was over for a dinner with the family, and as her mother announced that she was to go on her next European tour of tournaments alone with her coach that she came to the realization that her mother knew. She knew it and didn’t care. Was practically helping to pimp her out. So Cass leapt up from the dinner table, and went to locate one of the family shotguns, and upon her return, filled with both fear and anger, proceeded to shoot both her parents and her coach, killing them all but leaving her terrified brother unharmed. The trial was televised worldwide; people were fascinated by the teenage international tennis star accused of murdering her parents, and despite her fame, despite the story she told of what her coach had done, she was tried as an adult and found guilty of 2 counts of 2nddegree murder, and one count of voluntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to 37 years in prison, with a chance for parole in 22 years.
With her face being so well known, and with Cass being so young, prison was extremely difficult, at first. She became the target of some of the other prisoners, although the crimes of which she’d been convicted did earn her some respect from some of the other women. Nevertheless, it took her several years of experiences to gain enough respect from the other prisoners so that they would leave her alone, but eventually, the attention slowed enough so that she could carry on her imprisoned life in relative peace.
L I F E D U R I N G T H E O U T B R E A K:
When the outbreak struck, the Arizona prison Cass was in was isolated from it for quite a long time, the guards first keeping the infected out before abandoning posts. It was then that the prisoners took over control, setting up camp in the prison and keeping infected out with guns and fences. Cassandra stayed for a while, feeling as if she had nowhere to go, but months passed, and she realized she felt trapped and miserable there, so she left, taking a shotgun and as much ammo as she could get her hands on. Outside the prison, on her own, the long forgotten skills learned in the Australian countryside came to use, not that she could remember where they’d come from. She survived on her own from place to place, settling in an area or home until its resources ran out, or until it was overrun with infected. She moved in no particular direction, having no particular aims but to survive, though she still sometimes longed for the connection she felt she’d missed out on in her life.
L I F E A F T E R T H E O U T B R E A K:
Cass joined up with a few different groups of people here and there, but eventually left them all, whether they died, someone recognized her, or she simply determined it was best to move on. Eventually, she came upon Cheyenne, and the city had enough supplies and places that seemed safe that she picked herself a building, and situated herself on a top floor apartment, collecting as much food supplies as she could. There, she spent her days counting ammo and supplies until eventually, she discovered that there were others living in the city. By then, it was only a matter of time until she would work up the courage to show herself to one of them, to see if there was a group of people worth living amongst, or if they would all know and remember who she was.
CASSANDRA RILEY YOUNG is played by JULIA. (23 ; she/her ; EST)
