Strictly speaking, he wanted more than that. As the leading natural historian in the Kamchatka Peninsula, he wanted a son who would follow him into the military and inherit his vast knowledge of outdoor life. He wanted a son who would learn to shoot, learn to speak Itelman, uncover ancient settlements, and leave his mark upon Kamchatkan history. Alas, no such son was forthcoming.
The dearth of sons was not for lack of trying. Over twenty years and two marriages, Aleksandar Demidov sired thirteen daughters, and he soon decided that it was they who would carry on the family name.
There is a word for what life was like in the Demidov household. It roughly translates as "boot camp."
Galina Demidov, the second youngest, was the family disappointment. She had no love for the outdoors, no interest in history, and not even the slightest inclination toward automobile maintenance like her younger sister. She was very proficient with firearms, but dashed her father's hopes when she declined to follow that skill into the military or competitive shooting. If anything, the driving goal in her life was to get as far from Vilyuchinsk as possible.
This became possible when her third-eldest sister (A veterinarian at the Bronx Zoo, and the world's leading expert on ursine biology) got her a green card to work in the states. Shuffling paperwork as her sister's assistant bored her, and she soon got herself transferred to Park Security. The freedom to work night hours, she felt, made up for slight cut in pay.
Free from the reminders of her father's expectations and her failure to live up to her sisters' examples has had quite the effect on Galina. She's bought her own pistol, joined the local IDPA chapter, and was shopping for a better job in a different state when the Zombie Apocalypse hit.
The Demidov sisters are nothing if not resourceful, and holed up in the zoo's garage while the rest of the staff ran for their lives. It wasn't the most defensible location, but a grizzly bear chained up as a guard dog covereth a multitude of sins. The sisters spent half a week preparing for the journey back to Kamchatka, where the high ratio of illegally owned automatic weapons to citizenry would deny the hordes of the undead a foothold. They ground two of the antelopes into jerky, dried and smoked shark steaks from the aquarium, and converted a pickup into a Zombie Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle.
Unfortunately, before they could finish their preparations, "Pooh", violent and feverish from his injuries, broke free of his chains and forced the Demidovs to flee on foot. They were separated and lost, and have yet to find each other again.
Galina refuses to leave Manhattan until she's found her sister. She's seen indications that Anita was alive as recently as two weeks ago, and is confident that the two of them will meet up soon enough.
