PJ Shamp (Eden Rising)



"If there's one thing the biters have retained from their lives as humans, it's an innate love for Journey. I mean, I have never met one person, alive or undead, who dislikes Journey."

- PJ, in reference to the band Journey

Padget John Shamp, commonly known simply as PJ, is a main character in Eden Rising. Although his epilepsy restrains him physically, PJ is a true technical prodigy, very interested in fixing up old cars and old electronic equipment and making new accessories for his weapons, cementing him as a useful tinkerer for the group. He is under the care of Manila Shea, but it's known that as a child, he lived with his mother Gillian and her fiancé Declan.

During the apocalypse, a twisted example of fate ended in PJ accidentally killing his own mother and Manila took him in. He and Manila reluctantly stayed at The General's camp until Tom's group arrived. Manila and PJ saw their chance to start their plans for revolt. The pair form an initially-uneasy alliance with Tom's group, although after the death of the tyrant, Manila and PJ permanently joined Tom's group. Here, PJ became a surrogate little brother and son to the group, especially to Ash. He also became close with Darla. PJ reunited with Declan, the only father figure he ever had, right before the group made it to the sanctuary known as Eden. A few months after reuniting with, and bonding with, Declan, PJ witnessed him tragically get shot down by Eddie, a deranged resident. This loss left PJ devastated.

Personality
A young, sympathetic survivor, PJ has a quirky, sarcastic and crude sense of humor that keeps him upbeat and charming. Curious, sweet and with a hint of rebelliousness, he has an independent spirit. PJ is constantly trying to look out for the people he cares about - and that's a long list of folks. Epilepsy and poor vision physically ail PJ, but his intellect and intuition help balance out these downfalls.

He often finds his intuitive sense of optimism challenged, but PJ always comes out of any situation with a sense of humbleness and gratitude for the lessons he's learned along the way, making him stronger with each passing challenge in his life. He finds comfort and a great outlet for his creative mind in creating gadgets in attempts to boost morale and better the quality of living among his people.

History
Pre-series= PJ and his mother Gillian escaped their apartment together and were brought to a camp that believed the virus was airborne and infected individuals were exposed to it by breathing. When this theory was disproved and civil war broke out among the group, Gillian took PJ and left the group to live on their own. Much like Ash and Ben's story of survival, Gillian and PJ lived by being quiet. They avoided confrontation with infected and humans at all costs. One incident occurred where they were looted and beaten by thieves, who took a supply of the pills PJ needed for his epileptic seizures. Gillian made sure to stock up on these by continuously looting drug stores.

While taking refuge in a construction site, Gillian noticed a shadow outside as it poured rain. Gillian set off to confront the individual while telling PJ to stay put and attack them if they came by him, giving him a rock as a weapon. This stranger compassionately gave Gillian, who was barefoot with no coat in the freezing rain, her coat and shoes. Not recognizing the figure in the rain due to the harsh weather and the unfamiliar rain coat and moccasin shoes she wore, PJ beat his mother over the head with the rock until she was dead. Slowly realizing what he did, PJ passed out.

Guiltridden, this stranger, a woman named Manila could not abandon the boy. She instead brought him back to The General's camp, where she lived. PJ suffered from post-traumatic amnesia and only believed his mother disappeared. Manila led him along with this lie, hoping to continue blocking out his memories.

Sometime later, PJ regained his memories and started holding a grudge against Manila for hiding the truth from him. The two began to hatch a plan for taking over the tyrant's camp and murdering him, tired of living under such harsh conditions.

When Tom's group arrived at The General's camp, Manila and PJ instantly drove them into their plot for overthrowing The General. It all came to fruition, and when everything fell into chaos and The General was finally dead, the pair joined Tom's group and fled with them.
 * -|Season 1=

Arriving at the airport with Tom's group, Manila began cementing herself as PJ's guardian. The two went through their tough moments together, as PJ's epileptic hallucinations kept bringing back memories of his mother's death. The two fought over the soldier Michael, with PJ wanting to shoot guns with him, and Manila found him to be a bad influence on the boy. After Michael's group of soldiers try to kill the survivors, PJ and Manila partake in a shootout that ends in all of the soldiers' deaths.
 * -|Season 2=

Throughout their time at the airport, PJ and Darla have become close friends. Ash also looks down at PJ like a little brother, so the three are tight-knit. Running low on his supply of pills, PJ begins to have epileptic-induced hallucinations of his mother while on a run for food with Ash and Darla. These hallucinations slowly begin to unlock his memories. When the trio returns to the airport, PJ manages to forgive Manila for hiding his past from him, recognizing her motives weren't sinister, and the two start to open up to each other more.

PJ encounters a horse outside the premises of the airport gates one day. Seeing how much the prospect of having a horse excites Darla, PJ decides to follow it and bring it back to surprise her. When he returns, he finds that Darla left alongside Ash, Gwen and Manila, who he learns was stabbed by an unknown assailant and is left in critical condition. PJ, alongside Kitty and Rory, dug graves for those the assailant killed, including Sidney. Grimly, PJ leaves one more grave open, just in case Manila doesn't return alive. PJ manages to contact Eden just as Tom, Leigh, Ash, Gwen, and Manila return -- bringing Gareth and Declan, too. PJ and Declan remember their past, this is the man who raised him as a child before disappearing from his life. It's an awkward, but happy, reunion for these two.

PJ comes up with a plan to get rid of the zombies that invade the airport, by luring them into the watch tower using the radio's noise, and then burning down the tower to simultaneously act as a signal fire for the plane that will bring them to Eden. PJ nearly dies in the effort, but is recognized as a hero by everyone as he and the others get on the plane and head to Eden.

An indeterminate amount of time since the season two finale has passed. PJ has moved in with Declan, while Manila has gotten her own place. However, recently, Manila has gone missing. Manila and PJ have spent time recently building a motorbike, and even in her absence, PJ snuck into her garage to help fix it for when she returns home.
 * -|Season 3=

Throughout Eden, PJ has shown to be highly recognized as a sort of 'folk hero' for his role in getting his group of survivors to Eden. His awkwardness doesn't mix well with this newfound fame, and Darla have hit rough straits. PJ has shown obvious signs of a crush, and with an initiative going around to get younger people sexually active to start repopulating the world, PJ is teased for not getting Darla pregnant yet while many of their fellow classmates are already expecting. PJ and Darla get into a fight and are forced on a journey outside of Eden to gather scrapmetal with Ash as their chaperone. On this journey, PJ, Darla and Ash are ambushed by pirates. PJ is shot in the leg, and he tells Darla to run before kissing her and admitting his love for her. She flees, while PJ and Ash surrender and are taken captive by the pirates.

The Serpent brought the boys to his island, and PJ's leg was patched up. He reminded The Serpent of his now-deceased son, and The Serpent claimed his son could sing and play piano, and begged PJ to sing him a song. PJ sang "Here Comes the Sun", the song he used to sing with his mother all of the time. The Serpent brought PJ to a yellow house where Noel was forced to "babysit" him. PJ and Noel watched the SlaughterBowl, a game show in which contestants take part in an obstacle course and kill infected and humans alike, the islanders' form of entertainment. PJ was shocked when Ash was a participant, but was relieved when Ash survived. PJ waited in fear for The Serpent to return, but he didn't that night so Noel brought him upstairs and he went to bed.

Declan, Gwen, Tom, Leigh and Victor rescue Ash and PJ from captivity. They bring Tamsin, a friendly girl from the island, along with them after she proves her worth by quickly gunning down and killing Noel to protect PJ and the others.

Back at Eden finally, Declan and PJ were walking to the suites. They discussed their dates, and PJ's upcoming reunion with Darla. While Declan struggled in his advice with sex for PJ, bullets ripped through the air. Eddie, a disgruntled citizen who just lost his brother and was manipulated by Chandra MacPherson to shoot up the dome, claimed Declan as one of his victims. Declan's body fell on top of PJ, shielding the traumatized boy from being shot by Eddie too. But when Eddie walked away and PJ looked into Declan's eyes, he quickly realized the only dad he knew was already dead.

PJ had to put down Declan by smashing his head in with a rock, mirroring the way PJ accidentally killed his own mother and Declan's fiancée, Gillian. PJ was completely catatonic after this, not responding to anyone, only softly singing "Here Comes the Sun" to himself. Tom and Leigh discovered him in the park, and Tom later took PJ to the clinic. Here, he had a bittersweet reunion with Manila, who had been missing for a while.

Killed Victims

 * Numerous counts of infected
 * Unnamed pirate
 * Gillian Shamp
 * Hernandez (Reanimated)
 * Rosalie (Reanimated)
 * Declan O'Day (Reanimated)

Trivia

 * PJ's theme is "Little Situation" by The Ongoing Concept.
 * It was a recurring joke that whenever someone questioned what "PJ" stands for, PJ would get annoyed and refuse to answer.
 * This ended, however, when PJ's name was revealed to stand for "Padget John" in the season 2 finale "The Second Coming (That Which We Have Wrought)".
 * His first name, "Padget", is a variant form of the name "Page", which refers to a young boy in training to be a knight. This is very fitting considering his role in the series.
 * PJ was featured in the first UFSW Hunger Games, one of three characters from Eden Rising to do so, alongside Leigh and Ash.
 * PJ placed 12th in the Games, shot by Billie in Issue 10.