Mia Muxworthy

> *"Look… I don’t think the universe exists on a basis of reasons… it’s causality without meaning. Evolution is causality… but it doesn’t have significance because we attained consciousness. Imposing meaning on a void is like looking down the barrel of a gun after someone pulls the trigger and asking why the bullet wants to kill you. Just because you see a face on Mars doesn’t mean it’s there."*
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> - Mia Muxworthy, debating Eric Matthews in ***Life After: The Basement***
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**Mia Muxworthy** is a major character in ***Life After: The Basement***.

By the time of ***Life After: The Basement***, it is implied that Mia has spent significant time researching and developing a conspiracy theory that explains why the zombie apocalypse began in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, aided by her friends Eric Matthews and Chris Lequire.

## Appearance and Character

Mia has long brown hair, a sharp, angular face, and feline eyes. Whether she knows it or not, her friend Eric seems to have a crush on her.

Contrasted with Eric, Mia seems grounded when it comes to their ongoing investigation; rather than accept any apparent confirming evidence as proof of malfeasance, Mia is far more likely to remain neutral in the presence of new information, preferring to let the facts speak for themselves rather than automatically aid in conjecture she's trying to prove. While Mia is less intrinsically paranoid than Eric, her willingness to assume an absence of malice ultimately lulls the two of them into ensnarement by serial killer Mason Dantis.

Despite being captured and understanding the dire gravity of their situation, Mia remains level-headed under pressure, attempting to affect a rational escape plan while Eric grows increasingly unstable and descends into hysteria.

## History

Very little is known about Mia's past; it can be presumed that she and Eric had been friends before the apocalypse, using their considerable expertise to craft homemade silencers for their firearms while cultivating an encyclopedic knowledge of the area before his conspiracy theory began to take root. It is unknown when the two became acquainted with Chris, but they've clearly been working together for awhile. Eric implies that he and Mia have sacrificed a lot in the pursuit of this theory, which is the only thing that gets Mia to shed a tear. At some point before the story, Chris gives Mia a falcon transmitter, which she has surreptitiously sewn into her shirt collar so he can find them incase of an emergency.

## Recent Events

### *Life After: The Basement*

Two months after the zombie outbreak in Newtown Square, Eric and Mia find themselves on the verge of unveiling a devastating truth: that the apocalypse is of local origin, centered around the dubious construction of an understaffed wellness center in close proximity to a multinational business conglomerate with ties to state and federal government agencies. While Eric is wholly convinced of the overarching conspiracy, Mia is less willing to draw conclusions from what she views as thin evidence, exposing a rift between the two of them. Their impending argument is interrupted by Chris.

When Chris demurs at some of Eric's conclusions, Eric cites the Johnstown flood tax as a justification for the conspiracy, but Chris is unswayed by his convictions, passively indicating that Eric's reach exceeds his grasp. Lequire's quick departure reopens a debate on the cause of the outbreak; Eric is fixated on some indefinable yet definitive proof, but Mia argues that there may be nothing to give them a satisfying conclusion to their efforts.

The following morning, Eric and Mia are beset by a small horde of undead; at this point, Eric asks Mia to activate the falcon transmitter. Forced to improvise a plan, they bumble onto the property of Mason Dantis, who quickly takes them in and offers to house them for the foreseeable future. Echoing his earlier paranoia regarding the scope of the conspiracy surrounding the arising, Eric is unable to shake his suspicions, urging Mia not to discuss the issue and refusing to accept anything to drink besides a bottle of water. Set at east by meeting a toddler named Jimmy, and much to Eric's chagrin, Mia regales Mason with some generalities of their mission after he brings them something to drink. After sharing some of her iced tea with Eric, the two of them pass out.

Having been caged in dog crates in Mason's basement, Mia wakes up first, jolting Eric back into consciousness to find a severely beaten and malnourished woman chained to one wall and a female zombie chained to another; Mia suspects the zombie is missing college student Rachel Dobowitz. When pressed by Mia, the woman, who identifies herself as Tracy, indicates that she has no knowledge of the outbreak. Shattered by the horrors of their situation, Eric quickly comes unraveled despite Tracy's insistence that they plan their escape. Eric descends into a full-blown panic when Mason returns, unlocks his crate, tases him, and drags him into a back room with a furnace.

With Mason distracted, Tracy and Mia try to hatch a crude escape plan over the growing sounds of Eric's terrified screams in the next room: Mia has to upend her crate so she can get close enough to release the zombie with the hope that she can hold her chain until Mason returns. Though she successfully frees the zombie, Mia fails to hold the chain, resulting in Tracy getting bitten. Hearing the commotion, Mason reenters the room, whereupon the zombie promptly emasculates him. Frenzied, Mason rips a pistol from his ankle holster and fires off two wild shots, the second of which instantly kills Mia.