Jess Black (Remake)

***"It's coming along, but it'll still be a while till it's done."***
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## Biographical Information

### Cause of Death

Shock, blood loss and exhaustion *(alive)*
Shot in the head by Holly Parker

### Occupation

High school student *(Pre-apocalypse)*
 Former supply runner for the Clarkson Survivors *(Post-apocalypse)*

### Family

Alex Sutton - ex-boyfriend *(deceased)*
Alex Junior - son *(deceased)*

## Appearances

### Death Episode

"All That Remains"

"*Shut the **fuck up!** For weeks now...all you've done is complain! Where's **your** fucking intuition? Where's your courage? [...] No! Shut up! **He's** the reason we're still alive! He has kept us going! He's the one who's been heading out into the city to make sure we don't starve! He's been looking out for us - for **you** - all this time! And all you do...is stand there and go on about what **should** have been done. What **could** have been done. So why don't you **just fucking do it?!** [...] Do you know the first person I told when I found out? **Him**. Because I knew, no matter what, that he would know what to do. Because **I trust him** to make the right decisions. Can I even trust **you**?*"
—Jess yelling at Alex after revealing she is pregnant with his child[src]

**Jess Black** is a main character and a survivor of the outbreak in *Strain Zero*. She is a British exchange student at Clarkson High School in the United States, and bands together with her fellow students as they fight to secure the school and clear out the dead. Four months after the outbreak, Jess fell pregnant with Alex's child and became a primary focus of the group, who dedicated themselves to preserving both Jess' life and that of her child, seeing in them a hope for the future.

## Overview

### Personality & Traits

At the start of the outbreak, Jess is shown to be cowardly, easily terrified and anxious. However, as it becomes apparent that civilisation has effectively ended, Jess undergoes a personality shift to become a feisty, sometimes overconfident, and endearing young woman who refuses to be a burden to the group. She strives to ensure that her unborn child will be healthy, and wonders whether her baby should even be born into such a horrible world.

## Post-Apocalypse

### Season 1: Remake

#### "It Begins"

At lunch, Jess is joined by her boyfriend Alex and her fellow exchange students: James, Henry Holly, Sarah, Ben and Aaron - and wakes Henry up when he drifts off due to his insomnia. All around them, teachers and older students are coughing and growing pale. Later, while the group rest at their student house, they are joined by Russian student Justinas, who has been away with the Army Cadets.

The following morning, the exchange students are suddenly rushed out of their classroom as the military turns up at the school. One by one, the adults begin to vomit blood and transform into agile, ravenous creatures that begin to attack and devour the younger students. The exchange students are pushed into a supply closet by a teaching assistant, who is promptly killed by an adult.

Many hours later, the group emerge to find the halls abandoned and bloodied, and Henry is forced to kill a ravenous Mr Dawid with a metal pole. Looking over his body, the group realize that Mr Dawid is slowly decomposing and is, technically, dead. The group are able to fortify a few hallways and classrooms, where they find a military radio broadcasting an evacuation signal. Meanwhile, James discovers a young girl, Emma, comforting special needs student Daniel and takes them in.

A week passes and nobody comes to rescue them, and the emergency evacuation signal is now playing on a loop. Realizing that they will be in the school for a long time, the group makes a plan to recover weapons and building supplies to fortify the school and secure more living space. With the rest of the group terrified and panicking, Henry takes command and assigns everyone a task, with him and Justinas heading out to find weapons. Jess, Alex, Sarah and Ben climb some scaffolding to try and access the roof; however, they discover a runner roaming the roof. As it charges Alex, Sarah reveals a gun and shoots the zombie dead after several attempts. When the boys ask her where she got a gun, Sarah shrugs and says "I'm American". The trio laugh, but stop when they hears the snarls of zombies in the distance, attracted by the sound of the gunshot.

Returning to the school, Henry and Justinas find the secure zone under attack by zombies. Using a back entrance, the two are able to get to the others before the zombies break through. Handing out the weapons they found, Henry leads the group in a counterattack of the zombies, slowly clearing them out once they discover the zombies can be killed by shooting them in the head. Empowered by their victory, the group, by Jess' decision, decide to call the creatures "walkers", finding "zombie" too ridiculous and terrifying to say.

#### "A Long Road Ahead"

Eight months have passed since the events on Andre's farm, marking one year since the global outbreak. Since their confrontation with the Family, the Clarkson Survivors have been living off the canned food they recovered from the farm, but once again are running low. Despite seemingly being the only survivors remaining in Renton, every house and street appears to be cleaned out. **Jess**' pregnancy has advanced significantly, and she is in her final few weeks.

## Death

### Killed by:

* Shock, exhaustion and blood loss *(alive)*

Hours after giving birth to her son AJ, Jess succumbs to infection and blood loss while holding her son in her arms. She later reanimates and kills her own child.

* Holly Parker *(zombified)*

Upon discovering what has happened, Holly uses her last bullet to shoot Jess in the head.

## Appearances

### The Walking Dead: Strain Zero

#### Season 1: Remake

* "It Begins"
* "Friend Or Foe"
* "A Long Road Ahead"
* "Around Every Corner"
* "All That Remains"

## Trivia

* Jess is responsible for the Clarkson Survivors referring to zombies as "walkers" after she refused to call them by their original term, finding it "too unsettling".
* Jess is the first character confirmed to be pregnant following Outbreak Day in *Strain Zero*.

## References

1. ↑ *Strain Zero* begins in 2003
2. ↑ The Clarkson Survivors in *Strain Zero* are each seventeen instead of sixteen as in the original series