Quinn was born in 1971 in Palo Alto, California, the only child of
Jonathan and Linda Scully, both Biology professors at Stanford University.
Under pressure from her parents and her father in particular, Quinn found
herself soon overachieving as fast as she could, but uncertain exactly which
subject she wished to concentrate on, despite her father's frustration and
insistence that she make up her mind. After all, he kept telling her, it was a
competitive world out there, especially for a woman in the sciences.
Feeling her future had been decided for her and knowing that if her GPA was
all right, she could get into Stanford because of her parents' positions
there, Quinn decided to add an array of sports to her college resume: soccer,
track and swimming were the three that she was particularly fond of, and the
only child earned herself a reputation for being an ambitious go-getter who was
funny, smart and easy to get along with, though often distant at first and
the owner of an acrid tongue.
Stanford put a lot of strains on her that she was not prepared for, however.
High school had come so easily for her, both socially and educationally
here, she had none of her old friends and an entirely new set of educational
challenges. This was where she first began taking speed now and then to get
through midterms and finals. She graduated with her Master's and went on to
pursue her Ph.D. in Georgia, working to become a forensic pathologist through an
academic program with the Center for Disease Control. She was more than a
little surprised to find that she was not the only person "writing her own
prescriptions" or taking a diet pill or two to get through crunch times at the
lab, but since it wasn't something that happened often, she wrote it off.
She received her Doctorate in 1998, remaining in Georgia with the National
Center for Infectious Diseases at the CDC as a forensic pathologist. Her
mother fairly consistently pestered her for grandchildren that Quinn simply had
neither the time nor the inclination for her father had brought her up to be
a scientist, not a mother. She wondered how her mother had pulled off both
roles so well, and often felt her own life lacking - she was uneasy dating at
all, despite being branded "easy to get along with" in college. Being funny
and being good at relationships were two different things, she had found out,
and she was still parsing these two things out when the superflu struck.
Being at the CDC when Captain Tripps reached out across the globe was a
terrifying thing, indeed. What was most terrifying to see, perhaps, was the
purposeful piecemeal breaking-down of communication. The virus itself was
shifting in horrifying ways that none of them had ever seen before, and could not
stop. It was, after all, a virus. And it appeared that the government,
terrified to learn the real truth, was keeping crucial bits of information from
the scientists, and the administrators at the CDC, likewise, were fearful of
passing on what they had learned to the government. But when the lock-ups had
begun.....well, that was when Quinn checked out. After visiting a pharmacy
and stocking up on Benzadrine, that is.
She knew her parents were dead, of course they had ceased to answer the
phone and in her heart, she knew they were gone. She learned that her own
employers were locking up survivors for study and, when all of them died at the
branch she was at, she ran. She never thought to look for survivors where Stuart
Redman was locked up in Vermont communications were so poor at that point
that she had not received word of him. She simply assumed all were dead there
as they were in Georgia.
She holed up for some time in a mountain cabin until the dreams, the
nightmares became to much for her. Finally, she came down to town to arm herself
with more amphetamines and weaponry. She knew she would have to go to Boulder,
to seek help there she was not strong enough to stay here alone. For all
her strength throughout her life, she now wanted nothing more than to be with
people who could help her, who could keep those dreams away. Because the
drugs aren't working so well anymore, and who knew when they would become
real....
