Author's note; I realise that this book has many more characters than other books and as there are so many personalities, it may get a bit confusing. So I've complied a list of characters so far. I can't say this list won't get bigger in the future as there are some nameless characters that have been mentioned along the way as well as the army officer who hasn't made it to the list!

Ps. I have now added some other information as I managed to confuse people when it came to the numbers I placed next to roots info for each character.

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; Long, black hair and black eyes, 10k years of age. A very calm and collected person, also elegant and genteel. Very gentlemanly and masculine of presence, although his appearance is somewhat androgynous.

He is our MC!

Roots; Fire (major(1)) , Air (minor(2)), ? (body(3))

; around 100 years of age, long, black hair and dark eyes. Round, sunny face and bright appearance. Is much more energetic and positive in personality. Dislikes being alone. He is Ren Zexian's last disciple.

Root; Earth (1)

; Oldest of the Cultivator's at 15k years of age

; female Cultivator and Yu Zhang's apprentice

; Became a zombie on Earth, now deceased.

; Autistic. Traits include, not being able to meet another's gaze, sensitive to sound and touch. Slight OCD's such as having preferred routines, liking cleanliness (with the exception of when he is gardening), won't wear the same clothes two days in a row. Obsessed with his garden, plants and gardening. Dislikes crowds and being stared at. Cannot lie.

He is our ML. He has chestnut brown hair, which is about shoulder length, sapphire blue eyes and he is of average height and small of frame.

Roots; Water (1), Plants (2), Blessed (3)

; Abandoned/lost child of the village. Doesn't or rarely speaks. Golden blond hair, doe brown eyes. Very attached to her dog, Aslan. Her adorable personality has made her very much loved by the occupants of the House.

; Lucy's loyal hound. Large, black and was possibly a mongrel before his mutation. He has fog abilities and is able to turn himself and others (usually Lucy) into fog to move about quickly and without barriers.

; Leader of the First Squad. Has tanned, weathered skin, although he is only in his early thirties. Brown hair, sturdy frame. He can be fairly crass and straightforward. Respected by his squad. Former construction worker.

Root; Lightning (2)

; flawless, pale skin, light, blond hair and is fairly good looking. But he can be a major arsehole, stubborn and temperamental. He is a former lawyer and avid reader. He's taken on a role of logistics for the House.

Root; Water (1)

; short, round faced person with a bright personality. Very lively and fun. He has flax coloured hair. Happens to have some skill at sewing and knitting.

Roots; Gravity (2), Spark (3)

; large, imposing man with very dark, rich skin tone. He is friendly and capable.

; best friend of Shaun, very protective of his best friend. Can only cook stir fries reasonably well.

; dark skin tone, former construction worker. Likes to tinker with cars.

; Leader of the second squad. Former police sergeant. Is not attractive, his face is weathered and lined and can be deemed scary (by Nathan), but despite being gruff, he is a good man and gives off the feeling of being reliable. Respectful and respected. He is in his early fifties and has a soft spot for his young girlfriend and newborn son.

Root(s); Unknown and dormant.

; former police officer. Comes across a bit of a joker.

; former police officer. Sees herself as 'one of the guys'. Doesn't want or allow others to treat her any different from her comrades just because she is female.

; former police officer. A quiet, deep thinking sort of person. Is slow to accept change, but his loyalty is unwavering.

; former thug and criminal. In certain person's words, he is 'built like a tank'. Likes to work out his body a lot, loyal to Jonah as the man has earned his respect. Is known for having a questionable temper, but usually manages to keep it under control of late.

Roots; Rock (2), Sand (2)

; wheelchair bound due to an accident when he was younger, but not the sort of person to let it get to him. Tends to be light hearted. His best friend is Paul.

Root; Metal (1)

; slim, average height. Former I.T technician.

; petite and waif-like of frame, she has green eyes, high cheekbones and sandy brown hair and very pretty. She is Jonah's girlfriend and mother of his baby. She is spoiled and a bit petty. She also seems to prefer when she is the centre of attention and her cousin acts as her foil. As she feels no longer useful, her mood has soured and much of the blame has fallen unknowingly onto Ren Zexian's shoulder's.

Root; Ice(2)

; cousin of Brooke. She is also Brooke's opposite in stature being very curvy and plush of build. She has similar brown hair, slightly darker in colour and brown eyes. She loves food, cooking and eating! She is very motherly of personality and looks after and cares for other people, often at the expense of herself.

Root(s); Unknown

; Teenager, of mixed Chinese and Indian heritage. He has soft black hair and brown eyes. He has an eidetic memory, from even before the apocalypse.

; still nameless! Born of Jonah and Brooke.

Rather than using the traditional Chinese Zombie Apocalypse standard of abilities and crystal cores, mine has taken things inspired by the cultivation world, seeing as I was trying to blend the two, thus the ability users have roots, which come with their own grades. You will find similarities between the cultivation information in this book and in Learning to Live as a Cultivator. Mainly as I see no point mucking around creating two separate systems, when the notes from my first are intact and available!

I have tried to blend in much of the information, but am clarifying things here as I still managed to confuse people! (I think it is easy to get confused with stuff in Cultivation novels!). I will also add this stuff to LTLAC in the future.

In other cultivation books, there are fancy terms for levelling, like Moon stage, Sun stage, transcendent stage... Er... what's the order of that? So to make it simple, I used terms that basically mean first, second, third, fourth... etc. These are real words in the English language! However, I have added, for this novel and in the future LTLAC, some of the things you may have come across in other books and have added explanations here.

Core formation is as it sounds, it is the time a Cultivator forms his inner core. (Unlike other z.a. Stories, cores are not used for levelling as this would be, to Ren Zexian, like stealing the cultivation from a Cultivator and placing one on the devil's path. Plus zombie cores hold a lot of poison yin energy, which he theorises, could actually harm the Cultivator badly)

Primary (a cultivator's first level after their roots awakened and they begin cultivating.)

Secondary

Tertiary

Body tempering is the transformation of the body, making it stronger, sturdier, physical impurities completely removed and ageing lessened considerably. Once this phase is complete, a cultivator can expect a very long life and no need to eat food, diamond like skin in both toughness and clarity. No longer likely to contract illness, plus all five senses greatly improved. Any physical impairment would also be fixed.

Each level has a low, mid and peak sub level. Each sub level is like reaching another initial level.

Quaternary

Quinary

Senary

This is tempering of the mind; greater intelligence and reasoning, greater memory, much quicker of thought and greater mental senses; i.e. to danger, to atmospheric changes, to general moods. Any mental impairment, in theory, would also be fixed, but in Ren Zexian's world, this has yet to be proven.

Each level has five sub levels. We'll call them stars as this term is used in at least one of my favourite cultivation novels!

Septenary

Octonary

Nonary

Soul Tempering Phase is considered the true path to immortality. In a middle realm, it is as rare as Phoenix teeth to reach this stage, however it is believed that there are those able to complete this path and reach the Heavens.

Each level has seven sub levels, making this the hardest phase to conquer.

Denary

Onodenary (this is made up, because apparently, an equivalent for eleven does not exist)

Duodenary (however, this word does exist!)

Who knows what, if anything, comes next!

Roots represent peoples abilities, so they are mostly elemental. However, I have added more well known abilities in the mix and have placed what Ren Zexian calls them and what Earthlings would rename them. The numbers are what I noted next to character's names.

1. Is a major root, major roots have the most control over their elements and can 'create' their element from 'thin air'. I put these as quotes as who knows the true mystery of this lol!

There are five major roots being Wood, Fire, Earth, Water and Metal.

2. Is a minor root. Minor roots are not as powerful as major roots, partially as they only encompass a part of the ability found in Major roots. They also are considered to derive from major roots. For example Water is the major root, Ice is a minor root. Water root owners can create and manipulate water including turning it to steam or ice. Ice root cannot control water, just manipulate it, but they can change existing water to either steam or ice. The name does not mean they can just deal with ice.

Examples of minor roots; Grounding/gravity, lightning, ice, sand, rock, air, plant, spirit, fog, sword/steel, dark, light...

3. Is a body root. In Ren's old world these are considered waste roots. These roots affect only the user. So the water equivalent of 'mist', their owners can perhaps breathe under water and not get wet in rain. Hence considered a bit useless.

Examples of body roots; Blessed, thunder/sonic, spark/static, smoke, diamond, curse, iron, mist, bone, feather/speed, stone/power, star, lava...

There are naturally exceptions to the rules such as Dexter's lightning and LTLAC Leon's Star root.

There probably are mutated roots, there is a LTLAC background character with a mutated root that allows her to heal others. I haven't decided on whether I will include a spatial root, seeing as there are spatial bags. Still some sort of teleportation ability has also not being crossed off the list. If there are any roots you guys would like to see, feel free to mention!