Jessie Arden

"I'm not going to tell you lies, I'm going to tell you the truth! Everyone’s fate is different, and death isn’t some magical fairy tale either! Death is real! And I need to save Cloey. I owe her my life!"

- Miranda moments before her death

Miranda Jessie Arden (better known as just Jessie Arden) is a main character of The Dead Sanity and a significant POV in its third part. Originally from Maine, Jessie was a college student who studied medicine and science who was later saved by Cooper Anderson on one of the first post-apocalyptic days. She eventually joined her friend and sought refuge at a nearby evacuation camp.

She eventually separated herself from the group and ventured out on her own, only to be found in a deadly car accident by Cloey Patterson. Because of her injuries, she was kept in a hospital in New York City, and later became one of Chris' closest assistants, and became a nurse at the refuge and safe zoned hospital. However, when Jessie grew aware of Chris' thoughts and psychotic breakdown, she attempted to escape from the hospital with Cloey and Jasper, only to be caught by the delusional doctor who took Cloey hostage. In her debt, Jessie reunited with her original group and set out to save Cloey before it was too late.

Appearance
Jessie was a slim woman who stood about 5’ 8”. She had dark auburn hair that appeared almost brown, and light freckles on her face. She had blue eyes and wore glasses from time to time, and had short hair.

Personality
Jessie was friendly, loyal and considerate about eveyrone’s feelings. She was very sympathetic and compassionate who cared deeply about people’s feelings and the greater good. However, Jessie changed drastically during the apocalypse, becoming more independent and more self-determined. When she met Chris Norman, she feared the worse and was the first time she felt scared in years.

Part 1
During the lockdowns and raids across the state and country, Cooper separated himself from Ryan in search of Jessie, who he knew was still at her house. Knowing things were just about to get bad, he drove over there only to find her surrounded by zombies, and quickly heled her to fight them off. Once they saved their own skins, Cooper explains to Jessie that they need to get to the safe zone just up in high Maine, but Jessie assumes it's just another lie from the government. They quickly escape, and Jessie makes Cooper save one of her friends, CJ, who she got a call from moments before and was locking himself in his basement with another one of their friends, Amy. They quickly head over to his apartment and go down in the basement, where they round up CJ and Amy.

Together, they drive back down to the highway and are interrupted by Ryan and Jam, who almost collide into them with their car. Surprised, Jessie questions what they are all doing, and Ryan explains the highway was overrun and has been taken down by zombies. Upset, they come up with a new plan and are determined to get to another, but secret, safe zone up in the mountains. Cooper also explains that they are going to save Zoe from her house, which he had originally planned on doing.

On their way to Zoe's apartment, Jessie rides in the front with Cooper, who notices Jessie writing in her notebook. He laughs at first, and then asks her why she writes in a journal. She explains to Cooper that ever since her mother passed away, she likes to write down her thoughts and experiences in a journal, as they make her feel more complete. Cooper then changes his mind and tells her it's a good idea.

Taking the wrong route up to Zoe's neighborhood, they are ambushed by zombies, and notice a building up ahead. Over the walkie talkie, Ryan (who is the driver in the other car) tells Cooper and the others to make a run for the building on his command. Once his command is made, they all dash for the building and are shoved inside by an unknown man. With everyone safe and secure, they are greeted by three strangers: Max Roth, Lloyd Travis, and Lunette Turner. They explain what they did was stupid and should have took more caution. Ryan then introduces the three to their group.

Eventually, the three tell the group about the camp up in the mountains and explains to them that they came from there and are on a lookout for supplies. The group also admits that they are on their way to the camp, while the three tell them that there are some military personnel up there as well. However, Cooper and Jessie explain they have to go and get their friend who is stuck in her apartment first, who needs their help.

The building is eventually ambushed and the group jump into their transport truck and take off to save Zoe. When they get there, they also end up picking up Ella Blake and her young son, Steve Blake, who were stuck in her house as well.

Over the course of a month, Jessie remained at the camp up in the mountains and attended to chores and cooking. But one night, the camp is finally ambushed by zombies, causing the survivors to flee the following morning. During the attack, only one of Jessie's friends were killed, which happened to be Ary. Before fleeing, Max remembers Andrew talking about another safe camp he received recent contact from, which was in New York City. the group decides to head there.

When the surviving group runs into an abandoned mall, they scavenge for everything that they could use. Jessie stays behind at the truck to watch Steve and Mark, the kids. Soon, a herd of zombies come their way, the group is delayed when Cooper, Amy, KiKi, Zoe, and Lunette trap themselves in the mall in order to make sure the zombies are not able to come in. Eventually, Ella and Sam save the group and realize Amy and KiKi were killed beforehand.

During their drive, Jessie demands Max pulls over and he does so. Jessie grabs her bag and her journal and proceeds to walk away, before being stopped by everyone. Jessie explains she doesn't want to go to New York City because she believes nothing good will come. She wants to go on her own, but everyone respects her wishes and Max gives her a pistol. Jessie then thanks Cooper for saving her, and the group drives off.

Part 2
When the group arrives in New York City, they stop at a small shack and spend the night. In the middle of the night, Cooper explains to Zoe that he worries about Jessie every night and wishes her well.

After the group fights off Remus, Jam believes Jessie to be dead, as he chats with Lunette.

After Cooper separates himself from the group, he goes up the road and notices a car coming by. In shock, he hides behind a tree and hears a book fly out the window. Once the car is out of sight, he comes out to examine the thrown book, only to find that it's Jessie's journal. He doesn't know what to do, but knows that she might have been in that car.

Part 3
Many days after separating herself from the group, Jessie takes control of a car and accidentally crashes into a tree, where she is found by strangers and taken to a hospital near New York City.

Days after her accident, Jessie awakens only to find that she is in a hospital dressed in red scrubs. Dr. Chris Norman greets her when he walks in to check on her, and examines her closely. He then tells Jessie what had happened, as her memory of what happened had been lost due to the crash. She tries to recollect and put together the memories in a way that they made sense, and eventually does so. She, soon after, meets Cloey Patterson, one of the four scavengers who had saved her from the accident. She thanks Cloey and is asked to get some food in the cafeteria. Before she leaves the room, Chris tells Jessie not to wander.

Jessie later connects with Cloey and gets hints about her dark past. She also finds out Cloey was a musical artist, alongside many others. She eventually fell attacked to her song “Dallas Girl.” Eventually, Jessie is asked to see Chris after she starts her chores. They have a small talk, and he asks Jessie about her day and the place. Concerned, Jessie still has no clue where she is, and asks Chris of that. He the escorts her to the staircase that leads to the roof, and, as they do so, she stumbles upon a sealed shut stair case that lead downstairs. When they arrived up on the roof, Jessie noticed they were up high and saw all the zombies lurking down in the city. The hospital was surrounded by a giant wall that didn’t allow them to get in. She is also told they are near New York City, and is shocked to hear the news. She then realizes that nobody in the hospital knows how to protect themselves, and when Jessie is about to recommend training, Chris starts shouting and becomes unstable. In shock, she is asked to leave the roof.

Terrified and fearing the worse, Jessie packs her things and gets ready to leave the building. She heads for the sealed shut staircase, only to hear growls and zombified noises coming from the other side. She quickly opens it to find zombies coming out, hundreds of them. She pulls out her pistol and starts shooting some of them, before eventually dashing past them and down the stairs, barely making it out. Kylo and Jasper follow her out of the building after the zombie situation was taken care of.

Knowing she is near New York City, she pulls out the map Max had gave to her before she separated, and heads towards the safe zone. However, when she arrives, all she finds are corpses and zombies locked inside the gates. Jessie panics and starts crying, thinking all her friends are dead and coming to the realization she’s the last survivor from her group. Jasper and Kylo then take her and bring her back to Chris.

Back at the hospital, Chris lashes out at Jessie for her dumb decision, and tells her, because of her plan, that six residents were killed and infected. Jessie then sticks to her decision and tells Chris off, saying that she wouldn’t have tried to escape if he wouldn’t have been so psychotic. Chris then says it happens sometimes, but it’s not him. Jessie, annoyed, walks away and is forced to give up her gun, map, and weapons. Jessie also takes notice of a zombie on the ground that is reanimated, but looks like it turned within the past week.

Later, still in stress and upset about her friend’s deaths, Cloey tries comforting Jessie and explains to her that she had lost something too. Cloey then explains to Jessie that she once had a mother who abandoned and tied her up in a garbage bag years ago, and, since has had emotional and attachment issues, and couldn’t bare to know that Jessie had snuck off like that, as she explains she felt heartbroken, as she found herself attached to the college student. Jessie assures her that she won’t run off like that again, since there’s no point. Cloey, Jasper, and Jessie then go out on a supply run and scavenge some goods for the community.

With Chris growing worse and patients getting randomly sick, Jessie believes Chris has something to do with it, and refuses to eat any of her food, and sneaks some of the food she earned from the supply run. Later, she attends to Xavier after finding that he is ill, and comforts him. He starts to show flu-like symptoms, but Jessie knows it’s not the flu. When Dr. Chris Norman and his assistant Scarlet aren’t looking, she sneaks into his office to find any evidence against him, and reasonings for why she should leave. To surprise, Jessie find a bag full of ricin and realizes that he had been poisoning the residents, and maybe even the caretakers. She quickly runs back to Xavier’s room, only to find him dead. In panic, she packs up quickly and warns Jasper and Cloey, who take off with her. They quickly take a jeep outside the wall and drive away. In shock, Jessie questions the two, and Cloey admits that Chris has severe mental problems and believed zombies do have a conscious, but didn’t realize he’d kill people for it. Soon after, Chris, Kylo, and Scarlet head out and chase the escapers.

On the road, the car runs out of gas and they are stuck just outside a small store that has already been looted. Jasper starts fixing the car up right before Chris and his friends show up, who hold the three at gun point. Chris, still psycho, only asks for Jessie, in which he attempts to take with her, before Scarlet points a gun at Chris instead. She explains to him that he’s crazy, before quickly realizing that there are no bullets in her gun, and is shot in the head by Norman. Kylo and Jessie take the back seat and drive off instantly.

On the road, Jessie quickly grabs a knife out of her back pocket and stabs Kylo in the neck and then attempts to do the same to Chris, who only shoves her and causes the knife to go out the window. She then slams his head against the glass window on the side of his door and he passes out, before quickly taking the wheel and then crashing into a tree.

Jessie awakens and realizes she has been reunited with her group. In confusion, she says hi back to everyone, and realizes that CJ and some others have died since they last met. She gets a little emotional, but then passes on. She then realizes a car pull up in front of them, and it happens to be Jasper and Cloey, who reunited with Jessie. In that moment, Jessie remembers Chris might still be alive and starts to tremble in terror. The group then acknowledges and says that they had him recovering in a corner. Just after that, Chris sneaks a gun and takes Cloey by his side. He tells everyone to get back, and he takes the meep and drives back to the hospital and tells them not to follow him. Moments after, Jessie tells the group they need to rescue her, but Cooper tells her that she’s already dead. Jessie then tells them that Cloey saved her life, and now she must pay the favor. The group then agrees to save Cloey and Jessie takes the wheel of the transport truck, Cooper sitting up front with her.

During the drive up to the hospital, Cooper gives Jessie her journal back, hooch he leaves on the dashboard. Cooper then explains to Jessie that he worried about her, thinking her for dead. She then explains her story, and so does Cooper.

A few of the group (Cooper, Jessie, Lunette, Sam, Ryan, Zoë, and Max) head up to the hospital wing only to find everyone dead and Chris holding Cloey to gunpoint. Jessie originally panics, but then realizes the group has more firepower than him. Not thinking it though, he tosses Cloey over to the group and is hugged by Jessie. The group prepares to leave Chris alone before Jessie decides to confront him. Not realizing Chris has a gun, Miranda whispers in his ear “you monster” before stabbing Chris in the lower neck, and then him shooting her in the eye, causing her to fall to the flooor and bleed out. The group then shoots Chris and he dies as well, and they carry Jessie out on a stroller.

Part 4
After Jessie's sudden and shocking death, her corpse is wrapped in bed sheets and buried under an old tree on the side of a road. Her glasses were removed from her face, and taken by Cloey. Jessie's journal was taken by Cooper, who began to start reading it when the group arrived at the mall.

At the mall, Cooper reads though Jessie's journal and learns a lot about her past and her experiences at the hospital (she had written her experiences on spare paper and shoved them in the journal when she got it back).

Part 5
Jessie will be mentioned in part 5 and will appear in a dream.

Powers
This character has no physical powers.

Abilities

 * Archery: Jessie was skilled with a bow and arrow during some of her early training up in the mountains. She was noted for her gifted talent and was recognized as one of the best shooters of the group.
 * Sneak and strike: Jessie showed great excellence as a sneak fighter who actually snuck up on her enemies when they least expected it, and resulted in her death.
 * Shooter: After proving she’s an excellent archer, Jessie moves up in the ranks of shooter. Since her practice up in the mountains, Jessie has been recognized as one of the best shooters of the group.

Weapons

 * AK-47: For a short time, Jessie carried an AK-47 and was used as her primary weapon.
 * Semi-automatic pistol: Jessie was given this type of pistol before her separation, and she used it during her time in New York.
 * Various knives: Jessie carried around knives and used them against her enemies during sneak attacks.

Equipment

 * Backpack: Jessie carried a backpack.

Other items

 * Glasses: Because she didn’t have the greatest eyesight, Jessie was prescribed with glasses and had used them since.


 * Personal journal: Since her mother’s death, Jessie had written in her journal almost every day, up until her death. She wrote about her experiences, thoughts, dreams, and emotions.

Trivia

 * Jessie was named after two real-life people.
 * Jessie’s name was originally owing to be just Miranda, but was changed because of relationship difficulties.
 * Jessie’s favorite Muppet is Animal.