Dr. Lisa Calloway

Board-certified. Morally compromised.

Background

Lisa didn’t ask to be the answer. She just couldn’t stand watching people die when she could do something about it. A former trauma doctor with a mind wired for patterns, she treats survival like triage: assess, prioritize, cut. Every life she couldn’t save is a calculation she still runs. She leads with precision, protects with silence, and keeps her scalpel sharp—for science or survival.

Survival Stats

Series: Salt & Bone
Age: 33
Alignment: Lawful Good (even now)
Occupation: ER doctor, forced into pathology
Injuries: Bruised ribs, flank stab wound
Weapon of choice: Scalpel, syringe, unflinching logic
Fight / Flight Response: Freeze → calculate → act
Communication style: Direct. Measured. One eyebrow raised.

It’s not optimism. It’s practicality.

Key Connections – File Notes [Redacted]

Jack Reynolds

Main character

The last person Lisa expected to survive the end of the world with. Protective, infuriating, and impossible to ignore. She trusts him more than she should.

Friend

Protagonist

Calvin Calloway

Lisa’s son

Lisa’s reason for everything. Bright, sensitive, and endlessly particular. She knows the world will never be soft enough for him—so she sharpens herself instead.

Family

Dependent

Sylvia Torres

Lisa’s best friend

The only person who knew what Lisa had been through before the outbreak. Fierce, grounded, and not afraid to call her out. Lisa would kill for her.

Friend

Dependent

Alexandra “Lexi” Torres

Sylvia’s daughter

Sharper than she lets on. Lisa sees herself in her: guarded, watchful, loyal to a fault. If anything happens to Lexi, someone will bleed for it.

Family

Dependent

Classified Excerpts – Access Required

EXCERPT A – CAPACITY CHECK

It made sense. Too much sense.
Jack hadn’t flinched at blood. At screams. At infected tearing themselves apart. He hadn’t hesitated with the shotgun when one of them lunged at us.
But here, surrounded by black water with no visible bottom, no control, no footing—he was unraveling.
[LINE REDACTED]
His pulse was racing—radial artery bouncing under my fingertips. Skin clammy. Fingers cold. His eyes were squeezed shut, the muscles in his jaw clenched so tight I could see the tendons flex under the skin.

EXCERPT B – INCIDENT LOG

A patient broke loose from bay four. His gown was torn, trailing behind him. Blood smeared his jaw, his hands, one forearm where a cannula had been ripped out. Security was three steps behind.
Dr. Cross stepped forward.
[LINE REDACTED]
The man lunged.
No pause. No warning. Not even momentum. Just violence, direct and sudden.
His teeth sank into Dr. Cross’s throat.
[LINE REDACTED]
A spray of blood hit the wall behind them. Arterial. Bright and fast.

EXCERPT C – SKILLS TEST

The wound on the bison’s haunch was severe. Necrotic. Maggot-infested.
[LINE REDACTED]
There was something buried in the tissue.
I slid gloved fingers into the inflamed edge of the wound.
[LINE REDACTED]
I worked slowly, probing deeper into the pus-slick cavity, past the sloughing muscle.
[LINE REDACTED]
I pulled it free, slick with rot.
Then, I turned back to them, the object in my open palm.
“A tooth?” Jack asked.
“Bicuspid,” I confirmed.