Eric Matthews

> *"There’s no police left… there’s no army, no hospitals, no food… nothing good anymore. And there’s nothing you can do. There’s no point… in anything. Nowhere to go and nothing to do when you get there. Nothing to look forward to. There’s nothing good."*
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> - Eric Matthews, recounting Tracy Dantis' shared futility in ***Life After: The Basement***
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**Eric Matthews** is a major character in ***Life After: The Basement***.

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

## Appearance and Character

Eric has buzzed black hair and suffers from what appears to be an unrequited or unstated crush on Mia.

From the outset, he is clearly fanatical in his belief that the existence of the undead in this town, at this time, is the result of the illicit machinations of the local and federal government in cooperation with a major multinational corporation. Like many conspiracy theorists, he suffers from an obsessive confirmation bias, jumping to any conclusion that supports his thin hypothesis and rejecting anything that could conceivably contradict it. Though some of his paranoias are legitimate, he is too blinded by his obsession to treat them rationally.

Once confronted with ensnarement by serial killer Mason Dantis, Eric's terror eclipses whatever specious conclusions he had been projecting, causing him to psychologically unravel in spectacular fashion.

## History

Very little is known about Eric's past; it can be presumed that he and Mia 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.

## 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.

An 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. 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.

Mia jolts Eric back into consciousness; they have been caged in dog crates in Mason's basement, finding a severely beaten and malnourished woman chained to one wall and a female zombie chained to another. 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, terrified that Mason is going to try to rape Mia. 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. As Eric screams in pain, his penis is severed. It is also strongly implied that Mason burns Eric's flesh and rapes him.

When Mason stops to see what's happening in the other room, Eric gets his hands on a red-hot fire poker and stabs Mason between the shoulders with it, quickly taking his pistol to kill him and the female zombie. At this point, Eric realizes that Mia has been shot dead. Seeing that Tracy has been bitten, Eric makes an overture at shooting her, but she manages to convince him to spare her life for Jimmy's sake.

Eric relents and allows Tracy to free herself while he cradles Mia's corpse, rambling about the futility of their situation before mumbling that Tracy might find sanctuary with an acquaintance of his at the Delaware County Community College. After imparting some basic first-aid instructions, Eric indicates that Tracy has about two days until she turns into a zombie, and that the gun he's going to leave her with only has one bullet left before he shoots himself in the head.