Zone One

The Lieutenant is the highest-ranking official at Fort Wonton, a military base forged in what was once New York City’s Chinatown. He presides over all the soldiers and civilians residing within the base and is the main point of contact between Zone One and the officials in Buffalo. Throughout the novel, the Lieutenant appears only in Mark’s flashbacks as he was in Buffalo during the three days leading to the fall of Fort Wonton and killed himself before he had the opportunity to return.

The Lieutenant’s death proves to be a shock to team Omega, who have grown fond of their leader. An eccentric man, his unlikely compassion for the stragglers endears him to Mark. Upon first meeting the Lieutenant, Mark was taken aback by the Lieutenant’s tangents and jokey demeanor as the leader prodded the recruit about his favorite type of cloud. The Lieutenant seemed skeptical about their mission, although his position demanded that he relay the circumstances convincingly. He lamented that official orders to kill the stragglers, the remaining non-hostile skels, have turned everyone into “batshit killing machines” (122). He described the stragglers as “mistakes” and that their crimes were only that “They don’t do what they’re supposed to” (119), suggesting that their lack of hostility should demand some sympathy.

During team Omega’s impromptu memorial for the Lieutenant, Kaitlyn recalls the Lieutenant’s actions during a mission to sweep the subway tunnels. The Lieutenant had decided to accompany team Omega, instead of the other team, despite his instincts that they were headed towards danger. While the Lieutenant had expressed his regrets about his decision, Mark wagers that their leader chose to go with Omega that day because he had decided “To save those who could be saved” (263). Tasked with making tough decisions such as this, the Lieutenant possessed his own secret burdens that only became apparent in hindsight to those around him. As a result, his suicide was a large indication for Mark of all hope for reconstruction lost.

A member of team Omega, Gary is described as having “granite complexion, [and] gray and pitted skin” (26) and looking no better than the skels they encounter. He had been chastised by previous superiors about his dirty appearance, but he refuses to keep clean. He defends his unkempt appearance as it came from working at his father’s garage after dropping out of school, and he desired to maintain his “original grime” (27) as a sweeper.

Gary generally earns Mark’s disapproval with the flagrant ways in which he treats the skels. During their sweeps, Gary takes special glee in the violence that he enacts towards the skels. He is a frequent instigator of the game “Name that Bloodstain!” to commemorate the bloody aftermaths of the team’s kills. Before joining Omega, Gary had followed the examples of Marines before him, who took pleasure in mutilating and beheading the skels. His behavior eventually leads to his demise when a joke with a seemingly-harmless straggler goes awry and he gets bit. He dies before his transformation into a skel.

Despite Gary’s inappropriate behavior, Mark possesses affection for his teammate. Gary is known for broadcasting his lavish plans of moving to a Spanish island after the reconstruction efforts are complete in Zone One. When Gary dies, Mark finds an image of Corsica, France in his departed friend’s hand. Mark is bemused by this image as Gary had unwittingly been holding onto a picture of the wrong country the whole time. The image suggests that despite Gary’s rough exterior, his silly hope to live on an island shows a level of humanity that the current world does not permit.