Adam Vonn

## Adam Vonn (character)

**Adam Kennedy Vonn** (born August 14, 1980) is the lead character in Meteor.

## Biography

#### Childhood

Born in Northridge, California to Judith Hines and Wesley Vonn, his mother was a 17 year old high school student of Native American and German descent and his father was a 25 year old substitute teacher of Irish and Italian descent. Adam's father was fired from his job and disappeared while his mother was still pregnant.

Adam was raised by his grandparents Franklin and Estelle Vonn until the age of 5, when his mother took him to live with her new husband, James Cullen. Soon after, she became pregnant and gave birth to her first child with her new husband, a son named James Jr. Adam and his stepfather did not get along due to Adam's dislike of sports and interest in astrology. His stepfather also saw him as an unhealthy influence on his stepbrother, finding Adam's interests morbid and unhealthy for a child his age. Along this time, Adam began showing signs of great intelligence but underachievement in school. His mother gave birth to two more children over the next three years, sons Jared (b. 1987) and Jordan (b. 1989). Adam and his stepfather began to clash more and more often over Adam's grades in school and his supposed unhealthy interests. Adam's mother and stepfather had also begun fighting over her growing alcohol abuse and his belief that Adam wasn't being disciplined enough.

After Adam was nearly thrown out of school at 12, Frank and Estelle petitioned the court to gain custody and give him a stable home. Despite Adam badly wanting to live with his grandparents, they were denied as Judith promised that she would take better care of Adam and make sure his needs were met. Judith entered treatment for alcohol abuse and James offered Adam a handshake deal that they would start over as "friends".

In middle school, Adam showed an immense aptitude for the then-emerging computer technology and poured his energy into learning and understanding the origins of what would become the internet. After improving his grades enough to satisfy his teachers, Adam showed an aptitude for science by independently studying astronomy, astrophysics, and the statistics of natural disasters. At home, his mother had relapsed on alcohol and his father had begun an affair which soon resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. Much of the care for his younger brothers fell to Adam, who grew increasingly resentful of his parents.

Just after starting high school, Adam's mother found out about his stepfather's affair and the confrontation resulted in James leaving the family and moving in with his mistress, whom soon became pregnant with a second child. Adam's mother attempted suicide and was declared unfit to care for her children. Adam and his stepbrothers were split up and placed in foster care despite their pleas otherwise.

#### Halloween 1995

Soon after his 15th birthday, Adam began working part time at a grocery store in Gardena, CA. After closing the store and emptying trash into a dumpster, Adam was physically accosted by a homeless man. In turn, Adam struck the man with a long iron bar used to close the dumpsters. The force of the blow was enough to kill the man and Adam was quickly determined to have been acting in self defense. His foster parents believed that the incident was a sign from God that Adam needed to be baptized and embrace religion. When Adam resisted, his foster parents attempted to have him detained and forcibly "de-programmed" and a supposed Exorcist was recruited.

After surviving a 20 hour session of verbal abuse and physical detainment, Adam fled his foster parents and went to his grandparents. With their help, he became legally emancipated and declared an adult at sixteen years old. While staying with his grandparents, Adam became increasingly proficient in the use of computers and networking while showing marked improvement at school. Although his grades improved, the stigma of the "Halloween Murder" made him a social outcast and fueled his interest in human mortality.

#### The Summer of 1998

During the spring and summer of 1998, the movies Deep Impact and Armageddon were released, depicting a meteor expected to hit the Earth with catastrophic consequences. After seeing both movies, Adam's interests focused on the likelihood of an asteroid hitting the planet, the idea of an Extinction Level Event, and the theoretical aftermath. On his 18th birthday, his grandparents helped him purchase a high quality computer with the understanding that he would "rally" and finish high school strong.

When his senior year of high school began, Adam's GPA was 2.1 overall. At Christmas 1998, his GPA for the year was 3.9 and his grandparents rewarded him with a car of his own. By the time he graduated high school in 1999, Adam's senior year GPA was 3.89 and scored a 1480 on the SAT. Several colleges were willing to consider his improvement in school, test scores, and demonstrated aptitude more than his overall GPA. However, when Frank Vonn died unexpectedly of a heart attack, Adam was hit hard by the loss. A week later, Estelle Vonn died in her sleep.

#### The Cast Away

With the sudden loss of his grandparents, Adam retreated from the world. Working a series of menial jobs, he began working on an improvised computer program which he called CodexVonn. Processing dates, locations, weather patterns, and other variables taken from recorded earth impact events, the program acted as a theoretical warning system for the planet. From 2000 to 2014, Adam spent his free time recording patterns and recurring sequences that emerged as the system ran constantly.

During this time, he ignored attempts by his mother and step-brothers to contact him. Co-workers attempted to engage him socially but he maintained a polite distance, turning down promotions that would take time away from his "work". Privately, several co-workers wondered if he should have been seeing a therapist.