Runner Five

• Overview
• History

Runner Five
Aliases /Nicknames	Employee Five (by ANNIE) Runner 93 (briefly) Patient Five (hallucination) Five Still Alive (by the Blackpool Rollercoasters) Speedy Gonzales (by Brent Valmont) Legs (by Brent Valmont and Miroslava) Abel Five Prisoner Five (by ANNIE) Undergraduate Five (by ANNIE) Insect Five (by ANNIE) Passenger 5 (VR8 Train to Oban)
Affiliation	Abel Township Mullins Military Base (formerly)
Occupation	Abel Township's Runner 5 Head of Runners
Status	Alive
First appearance	S01 M01 Jolly Alpha Five Niner
Last appearance	S10 M30 Only Lovers Left Alive
Voice actor	Voiceless

Runner Five is the designation given to the silent protagonist and player character of Zombies, Run!

This person is Abel Township's fourth Runner Five, after Sergeant Ellis, the unnamed second Runner Five, and Alice Dempsey.

Runner Five has no canonical name, race, gender, nationality, or sexual orientation, as they are meant to be a blank slate for the player to project their own identity onto.

History

See Runner Five/History

Personality

Because Runner Five has no dialogue, it's difficult to know what their exact personality is. But from their actions and behavior, it's clear that Five is very loyal to their friends and allies. Five will often put themself in danger in order to help others, even without being ordered to. Other characters sometimes mention how brave Five is.

Five rarely disobeys orders given by their operator or commanding officer. When they do disobey, it's almost always because someone is in imminent danger, or because Five is being influenced by an outside force such as Moonchild.

Five has many friends in and around Abel Township. Several characters think of Five as family, including Sam, Maxine, and even Janine.

Five is respected by the other runners in Abel Township, to the point where they asked Five to become the new Head of Runners in Season Three - a position which Five eventually accepted. Janine notes that there is a sense of camaraderie between Five and the other runners.

Five likes playing games with their friends. They often play Demons and Darkness with Sam, Maxine, and Paula. Five is pretty good at Street Fighter - or at least good enough to consistently win against Sam.

Five never speaks while on missions and has a reputation for being a quiet person. Despite their lack of dialogue, Five still communicates with and responds to their fellow runners during missions, most likely through nonverbal means such as gestures and facial expressions. Many people seem to view Five as a confidante and tell Five important information, secrets, or personal stories from their pasts. Five is known to be a good secret-keeper.

Five has been known to hold a grudge, as shown by their rejection of Simon upon meeting him again in Season Three. But Five is also capable of forgiving people who have wronged them, evidenced by their eventual friendships with Nadia, Amelia, and Peter.

Although Five seems to enjoy their work as a runner, the stress and trauma of the job does affect them. Sam notes that Five often has nightmares. From Season Four onwards, particularly stressful situations will sometimes prompt Moonchild to speak up and guide Five's actions.

Five feels guilty for the actions they took while under Moonchild's mind control. The destruction of the Comansys ships weighs heavy on them due to the many deaths it caused, and other characters try to be careful about mentioning that particular incident around Five. When Five mistakenly thought that they had killed Sam, a combination of their overwhelming emotions and the anti-mind-control drug Simon injected them with sent them into a hallucinatory state. After recovering from the mind control, Five made Janine promise to kill them if they ever got mind-controlled again, in order to stop them from hurting anyone else.

Five has demonstrated an impressive amount of willpower and constitution on numerous occasions. Five has been able to continue running and carrying out their orders even after being tortured or drugged.

Trivia

• Runner Five has good eyesight.
• Players noticed early on that there seemed to be an unusual amount of sports bras picked up during their runs. This turned into an ongoing joke about Runner Five having an obsession with collecting sports bras.
  • In Week 1 Workout 2 of the 5K Training, Sam encourages Five to pick up sports bras on their runs, as Alice always talked about how important a good sports bra was.
  • In Season 1 Radio Mode, a listener calls in to complain about the sheer number of sports bras being brought in by the runners. Jack says that the problem seems to be with one runner in particular *cough*Runner Five*cough* and Eugene describes it as a fixation.
  • One of the old achievements was called "Bra Hero". It was earned by collecting 100 sports bras.
  • In Season 2 Radio Mode, Abel Township hosts a series of games, one of which involves seeing who can put on the most sports bras at once. Jack and Eugene say this was inspired by one of Abel's runners, "naming no names".
  • In the Season 2 Halloween mission "Horseplay", Jody dresses up like Five for Halloween. Her costume features multiple sports bras.
  • One of the teenagers in Abel complains that the runners "never bring anything good back. It’s all sports bras and toolkits."
  • Not even Five's alternate universe self Quintus (from the Rule Britannia series) is immune. One of the supply items they can collect is an apodesmos (ancient Minoan bra).
• Runner Five has a good poker face, according to Runner Eight.
• Due to Runner Five having no voice actor and no dialogue, other characters sometimes remark on how quiet Five is or come up with reasons for Five not to speak.
• Runner Five has a tendency to hallucinate. These hallucinations usually take the form of voices.
  • In Season 2 Mission 20: Toxic, Runner Five is affected by chemical fumes and begins hearing Archie's voice, despite her recent death.
  • In Season 3 Mission 5: Walk of Life, Runner Five hears the deceased Runner Eight talking to them at her funeral.
  • Five hears Runner Eight again when they are in danger of drowning in Season 3 Mission 32: Dynamite.
  • Season 3 Mission 44: Welcome Home (Sanitarium): Five hallucinates the sound of a terrifying beast chasing after them as they are falling under Moonchild's mind control.
  • Season 3 Mission 47: Comfortably Numb: After nearly killing Sam while under mind-control, and then being injected with an anti-mind-control drug, Runner Five experiences their most vivid hallucination yet, imagining themself as a patient in a psychiatric hospital and interacting with several of their dead friends (and foes).
  • Beginning in Season 4, Runner Five frequently hears Moonchild talking in their mind. However, in Season 6 this is revealed to not actually be a hallucination, but rather a form of Moonchild that literally exists inside Runner Five's mind. That being said, this Moonchild sometimes takes advantage of her presence in Five's mind to make them hear other voices, such as Archie and Runner Eight.
  • In Season 9 Mission 30: Crossing the Line, Runner Five is shot full of powerful tranquilizer. They manage to stay conscious, but all the while they are hallucinating the voices of their friends.
• Runner Five often carries a spare headset in their pack. They offer this headset to people they encounter while out on a mission, so that Sam can speak to them as well.
• Runner Five is definitely not a dog.
• Because Runner Five is the main protagonist, they appear in almost every mission of the main storyline. But there are some missions where they don't appear at all:
  • Season 1 New Canton Race Mission Etymology: 10K
  • Season 2 Mission 24: London Calling
  • Season 2 Mission 45: Going Underground
  • Season 9 Mission 1: Cry for Help
  • Season 9 Side Mission 2: The Killing Moon
  • Season 9 Side Mission 3: Maghreb Vaccine Run
  • Season 10 Mission 1: Two Kinds of People
  • Season 10 Mission 2: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
  • Season 10 Mission 3: Another Invented Disease
  • Season 10 Mission 5: Go West
  • Season 10 Mission 6: Extinction
  • Season 10 Mission 7: Danse Macabre
  • Season 10 Mission 8: Jailhouse Rock
  • Season 10 Mission 9: Don't Turn Your Back
  • Season 10 Mission 12: Wing and a Prayer
  • Season 10 Mission 14: Channel Hopping
  • Season 10 Mission 27: Portrait of Yesterday
  • Season 10 Mission 28: These Walls We Built
• Alternate universe versions of Runner Five appear in several New Adventures.
  • Specialist Five is sent to investigate a space colony that has gone dark in Venus Rising.
    • Specialist Five returns in Titan's Shadow.
  • Roman auxiliary Quintus attempts to stop a war between the Romans and the Picts in Rule Britannia.
    • Quintus returns in Pax Germanica and Finis Africae.
  • Worker Five uncovers a deadly plot in A Study in Ichor.
  • Operative Five is sent to investigate the Starship Hephaestus after a transmission failure in Negative Space.
  • Stoker Five is caught up in the search for Atlantis after their ship is destroyed in Mystery At 4,000 Fathoms.
  • Assistant Five is captured by pirates in Abel's Buccaneers.
  • Five leads the Fellowship of Sacrifices in Endless Sea.