Up until the day he 'died', Lucas Hart's life played out like a bad country song. He was born on July 1st, 1958 in Texas and lived a fairly quiet life up until he was ten years old. His family was poor, but good and showered him and his older sister with love and affection perhaps to replace what they could not offer their children in material things. Then, when Luke was ten, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died within six months of the diagnosis and his father soon followed, committing suicide only two weeks after his wife's funeral.
Luke and his 12 year old sister Nikki were shunted off to their grandmother's house. In contrast to their parents, she was not the most caring or attentive of parental figures. She instead seemed to treat her grandchildren with a sort of gentle neglect. She made sure that they were fed and clothed and had a roof over their head, but beyond that, the kids raised themselves. Nikki took off to North Carolina to live with her boyfriend when she turned eighteen, leaving Luke to fend for himself in a town where he never seemed to fit in.
He was taunted by the 'good old boys' and treated like an outsider because instead of getting piss drunk on a Saturday night, he would stay at home and read or work on his car. Luke didn't let them bother him and instead just maintained an easy-going, relaxed demeanor. Then, one night, Luke was walking home from picking up dinner for himself and his grandmother when they started in. They knocked his bags out of his hands and that seemed to set Luke off. Later, he would say he blacked out because he couldn't quite remember what happened. By the time he was finished, the ringleader's face was little more than bloody mush.
The Sheriff arrested Luke, but instead of booking him for any crime, he placed a phone call to Nikki. He liked Luke and knew he was a good kid who had simply been pushed too far. Three days later, Luke left Texas and transplanted himself into North Carolina. Nikki's boyfriend had recently left her with their three small children and she could use the help.
Luke seemed to find a direction for his aimless life in North Carolina. Ryan, Molly, and baby Lisa became his world. He took care of them and filled in for the father that had abandoned them. Luke worked a good third shift factory job so that he could be with the kids during the day while Nikki worked at her waitressing job. The five of them fell into a simple, comfortable life. Luke was actually happy for the first time in a long time.
Then, in October of 1983, that all changed. Nikki, Luke, and the kids were driving home from a Halloween carnival. It was raining hard and Luke was distracted with the kids in the backseat. Suddenly, a drunk driver veered into the lane and struck the car head on, sending it careening off the road and into a ravine. The impact instantly killed everyone in the car, but, a short time later, only Luke pulled his body out of the wreckage and managed to climb the hill to flag down help.
After seeing the twisted ruin of the vehicle, no one understood how Luke had survived. Least of all Luke. And, what was more, he didn't want to survive. Three times he tried to kill himself in the year following the accident and three times he awoke later without a mark. It frightened him and he couldn't explain it. Then, eighteen months after his family was killed, Luke finally got an explanation for the things that were happening to him.
His teacher was a patient woman who explained immortality to him and taught him the basics of sword-fighting so he could defend himself. His teacher only stuck around for a little over a year before she left as well. From there, Luke wandered up and down the East Coast, taking odd jobs here and there, but never staying in one place too long. He preferred to be alone without any attachments to tie him down.
Then the Flu came. Luke was living in Virginia when it broke out and found himself pressed into service as a make-shift nurse at first and then later as a gravedigger when the bodies started to stack up. After the last person in the hospital breathed their last rattling breath, Luke started to dream
