Season One Finale “She’ll be fine, she just needs to rest for a bit”
Though much is muffled, these words are heard in their entirety as Alex begins stirring up from her daze. Through quiet and barely noticeable grunts, Alex lifts herself to a halfway-seated position before Kennedy rushes over to her bedside with the look of pure joy written all over her face. “Hey Kenny” Alex says through a wide smile before being approached by Jaime, allowing her to rest the palm of her hands on both of her children’s cheeks for the first time in what feels like ages. Standing directly behind Jaime, Jordan watches on with a slight smile on his face at the reunion between the girls before Alex reaches out for him and wraps him in a hug, thanking him for keeping Jaime and Kennedy safe in the process. Beginning to slowly walk out into the hallway, Kayla and Chevy are halted in their tracks as Jaime calls out for them, motioning for them to come over. As they start slowly walking up to the newly-reunited family, Jaime explains that it was the two of them that suggested opening the backdoor whilst everyone else argued against it. “They saved your lives” Jaime says, prompting Alex to struggle to her feet before embracing the two of them as well, thanking them for keeping everyone safe as well. As Alex breaks the hug, Chevy nods his head and flicks the free hair from his face whilst Kayla begins to show the signs of a slight smile forming in the corner of her mouth. “How’s David?” Alex asks, only for her answer to come in the form of the man walking through the doorway and up to Alex, hugging her before telling her that he was happy for her. “I don’t mean to be the one to break up this lovely moment” Chevy says from the back of the room, “But we’re still a little over an hour away from getting flooded out by acid rain, and all of the windows in this place have been blown to dust.” “How long have I been out?” Alex asks, “A little bit less than an hour” answers Kayla. “Healthy or not, we’ve gotta start getting on the move. This building may not be too stable for much too long” David says, only for the sound of shattering glass to begin ringing out from the main lobby, drawing the attention of everyone. “What the hell-” Jaime says before Jordan rushes ahead of the group and up to the doorway before disappearing into the hall. Hurrying after him, Chevy, Kayla and David follow in search for the source of the noise, only to find nothing but smoke and dust in the area of the building once used as the entrance. “Probably just a window falling out of place” David says, only for Jordan to shrug off the notion and continue walking forward. As he nears closer to the gaping wound of the front of the building, he begins squinting at a building in the near distance in hopes of seeing past the plumes of smoke. As David and Kayla look on, Chevy begins cautiously walking forward, only to suddenly break out into a sprint before lunging full-speed into Jordan, tackling him to the ground as a gunshot rings throughout the air, missing Jordan and Chevy by a few feet before piercing the stomache of David, and ripping through and out the other side. As Chevy and Jordan slide into one of the many damaged marble pillars, Kayla hurls herself at David and drops the two of them to the ground and behind a pile of concrete chunks from the collapsed building as a second gunshot intended for David imbeds itself into the ground. Standing to their feet, Jordan and Chevy both take cover behind broken tables and folding chairs as Chevy arms himself, firing two rounds into the direction of the shooter, only for his attempts at scaring the individual responsible to be met with another gunshot aimed in his direction. “Stay back!” Jordan shouts at Jaime, her sister and her mother as he notices them rush from the cover of their back room, giving them enough notice to duck out of the way of yet another round fired off into their direction. “Anyone know where he’s shooting from?” Chevy yells out, only for a fifth bullet to be fired directly into a massive mirror-like wall at the back of the lobby, shattering it into pieces as if to assure the continued lack of an answer to the question. However; luck finds Chevy’s way as a panel of glass relatively unharmed still shows the burst of light from the end of the rifle across the street and through the smoke a few stories up well enough for Chevy to briefly prop himself up from behind cover to send a shot directly at the gunman, however unphasing him as yet another shot is sent into the mirror-like installation at the back of the lobby, this time forcing enough damage to obstruct Chevy’s view completely. Regardless, Chevy still has his sights on where he knows the gunman to be, allowing him the brief moment to duck from behind cover and send a second shot at the gunman, this time earning an audible grunt of pain from his direction, which allows for Chevy to order Jordan out from cover and back to Jaime and her family. “How’s he looking, Kayla?” Chevy calls out to no response. “Kayla?” Chevy calls out again, once more earning no response. As Chevy’s eyes begin bolting open, his face begins shaking with anger before he bursts up and out of cover, dodging one bullet after another before throwing himself behind the collapsed debris both David and Kayla take refuge behind. There he finds Kayla unconscious with a deep gash on the back of her head, suffered after crashing head-first onto downed chunks of concrete she was unfortunate enough to find break her fall. Ripping his jacket and shirt off, Chevy musters through the cold as he begins wrapping the short-sleeved T-Shirt around his girlfriend’s head, applying enough pressure to hopefully stop the bleeding. Once bullets continue firing again, Chevy leaps from cover and sends another two bullets flying in the direction of the gunman, earning yet another grunt of pain twice before the sound of a gun crashing against the pavement begins ringing aloud. Noticing the moment, Jordan hurries through the lobby and into the street before navigating his way through the thick cloud of rubble. “Jaime!” Chevy calls out, immediately bringing Jaime rushing up to his side as the two begin helping both Kayla and a badly-wounded David into the safety of the lobby hallway. Without anything visible and no landmarks to help him find his way, Jordan appears lost in the hope-draining cloud of disparity. With nothing to go off of, Jordan continue stumbling forward in hopes of walking into something that can help him eventually until he feels a hand grab him by the shoulder and forcefully spin him around. Turning, Jordan notices a gas mask before the reality-inducing strike of a punch to the face knocks him onto his ass. Trying to help himself back to his feet, Jordan feels the brunt of a few, swift kicks to the stomache continue to keep him down as he notices the man appearing to be dressed from head to toe in complete army garb. Suddenly, the combat-driven maniac drops onto Jordan before beginning to rain one punch after another onto the poor soul lost in the dust. After a few attempts at shielding himself from the strikes, Jordan propels his knee from the ground and straight below the belt of the individual attempting to deliver his fate to him, draining him of his power long enough for Jordan to get a direct strike to the throat in, dropping the soldier-like lunatic to the ground beside him. Finding it within himself, Jordan staggers to his feet before noticing the man attempting to propel himself forward and lunging at his helmet, tugging and pulling at it before finally freeing it from the man and placing it over his own head. Suddenly, Jordan finds himself in the drivers seat as he drops the man to the ground with a final knee strike to the face. Keeping an eye locked onto the man, whose face he still cannot get a fair enough glimpse of, Jordan slowly stumbles backwards before tripping over something and collapsing onto the harsh pavement below. Looking forward, Jordan notices the rifle laying out in the middle of the street before attempting to reach for it, only to be kicked in the mouth by the rejuvenated man in return for his actions. Rather than retrieve the gun, the man decides to return to the towering position, taking a stance over Jordan and raining down one strike after another in hopes of taking out the resilient man on his second attempt. However; after a few well-placed blocks, Jordan frees one of his arms enough to reach into his belt loop and retrieve a hidden blade, which he picks the perfect opportunity moments later to drive directly into the side of his would-be killer. Finally able to catch his breath, Jordan rips the knife from the side of the madman he had escaped by the skin of teeth with his life by fighting off, and crawls over to the gun, picking it up and rushing out of the thick smoke with it in the direction of his group. Crawling on the ground, the still unrecognizable man slithers back to the building he started firing from minutes earlier and disappears through the shattered front doors into a pitch-black void of nothing. Rushing forward with every ounce of strength he has, Jordan hurries through the blanket-like smoke in the direction of his group until he runs into Jaime, who grabs onto his arm and leads him the rest of the way. Finally rushing back into the lobby, Jaime and Jordan hurry to the back room and regroup with their fellow survivors, who quickly ready themselves to evacuate the building before the sound of marble cratering into the lobby floor begins spelling out the imminent future of the office floors above them. “We gotta get out of here, now!” Chevy shouts at the top of his lungs, carrying a still-unconscious Kayla in his arms before beginning to lead the group’s attempt at evacuating the area. As the seven survivors burst out into the backlot of the building, Windows begin shattering overhead as the top three floors begin caving in. Escaping out into the smoke-filled streets, the remaining floors of the office building crumble to a heap into the ground floor whilst the survivors barely manage to escape into the early morning with their lives intact. | “You fill a void in others that aren’t devoted enough to fill the void within you, Jaime.” Tapping her long, press-on-like nails against the edge of the armrest of the chair she finds herself sinking further into with every waking breath, Jaime allows herself the ability to refuse the acknowledgment of Kate’s presence. Despite, or rather in spite of this reaction from the woman seated before her, Kate continues preaching to the choir as if the events unfolding were bound to reveal themselves as true, psychological miracles. “You hate yourself and you don’t want to allow anyone to fill that void in your heart because you have deemed yourself too unworthy of that fulfillment.” Pressing the skin of her thumb up to her soft, supple lips and facing her attention to the window beside her, Kate simply keeps her eyes devoted to keeping attention on Jaime’s expression through the corner of her eyelids. “You… You only allow yourself the fulfillment of helping others through their troubles because you have convinced yourself that the only way towards redemption is by allowing your own personal suffering to be the positive light in the worlds that other people revolve around.” Remaining unphased, Jaime remains seated with her eyes deadset on remaining planted on the thick coating of plaster the dry wall in front of her is covered in. “You are the sacrificial lamb bringing happiness and joy to people that you believe deserve it more than you. And that, Jaime…” Pausing for a brief moment as she notices the woman finally place her eyes in her general direction, Kate allows a smile to establish itself across her face before concluding. “And that, Jaime… is the one thing that you believe will allow you to both suffer and redeem yourself at the same time.” Eyebrow raised, Kate has her attention. Like a starving fish noticing a worm dangling precariously in the midst of the sea, Jaime takes the bait. She bites. “And what would that be then, Ms. Kate?” Leaning forward, arms planted on both armrests, Kate’s smile becomes completely impossible to ignore. “A martyr.” As neither side decides to give in and break the silence between the two parties, Kate and Jaime simply stare at each other for eons awaiting the first sign of one or the other ready to be the first to give in and start reeling in the line. However, it would be neither woman claiming that victory, or rather loss, as the sound of mother nature bestilling her wrath upon the earth would hoist above that designated trophy with the sudden, booming roar of thunder. Suddenly, a few single raindrops ringing against the metal air conditioning unit would turn into a rainstorm just out of reach from the two women remaining engaged in silent warfare. | “Where do we go now!?” Kennedy asks, still struggling alongside her mother in hopes of keeping David on his feet. With each step kicking up the dirt of a building having claimed the lives of, perhaps thousands, the seven survivors lucky to still retain their lives suddenly duck down into a long, winding alleyway in hopes of alternative salvation. “Keep moving!” Jordan shouts, lugging with him the rifle and gas mask of the man having recently come so close to taking their lives away from them. “Behind here!” Chevy shouts from ahead, only to collapse into a large, prison-yard like backlot directly beside a rundown factory. Following suit, the rest of the group hunkers down behind the frost-covered metal doors of a loading dock in hopes of it serving as a safe enough shelter to avoid gunfire from. After a few moments of rest, Chevy’s most-likely concussed girlfriend begins groaning from beside him, reaching for the back of her head despite Chevy’s warning to avoid aggravating the still-fresh wound. Moving his hand behind her head, Chevy smiles as he notices his girlfriend return the favor by placing her hand over his. Moving his lips to hers, Chevy brings his opposite hand to her cheek before sinking further into the kiss. | “So what do you do for fun?” Asks the woman to his right, wearing sunglasses large enough to conceal her eyes, but small enough to notice her eyebrow raised. Laughing, a clean-shaven, leather jacket-less Chevy improvises. “I make other people smile.” Giggling and responding in a sarcastic way, Kayla goes silent for a brief second before asking “Seriously?” and earning a chuckle of her own from her still somehow rugged-looking date for the day. Walking past a well-lit ferris wheel, and noticing a few children rushing past them with water guns in tow, Chevy looks back towards the woman beside her and assures her of his genuinity. “Your method of fun is to make people… Smile?” Nodding with his lips puckered, Kayla cannot truly determine whether or not the man beside her is offended or selfless enough to allow her to laugh at the expense of his past time. “Indeed, it is.” Mouth agape, Kayla’s lower jaw closes before she nods and begins looking around the park until she feels the gentle nudge of Chevy’s elbow prodding at her own. Pointing in the direction of a dunk tank employee, Chevy explains his true reasoning. “You see that guy in the tank? Do you think he’d rather stand around and wait for some poor sap to stumble across his ring toss game rather than sit on a chair and wait to get thrown into a tub of lukewarm water on a hot, Los Angeles-like summer day? Of course he does, who the hell wants his gig?” Laughing, Kayla continues nodding in assumption that the explanation was over, only to be caught by surprise as Chevy further explains. “But he sits there with a smile on his face and high-fives the kids trying to soak him in the bubbling tub of what is most likely half rainwater because he knows those kids want to have a good day.” Pausing for a moment and taking Kayla by the hand, only in order to stop her in place as the same man being discussed is dunked once again and yet still gives the children a high-five and congratulates them on their accomplishment. Watching further, the kids skip away with their parents and smile further down the pier this carnival-adventure is taking place on with their days having been made. “You see, people can go through hell on any given day.” With another pause, Kayla turns to face Chevy, who returns the favor by doing the same to her. “Mountains can crumble, disasters can hit, and tears can be shed… But there’s always a brief moment of joy in every one of those hardships when you’re made to feel human again, and people treat you as nothing less. Of course, you’ll relapse back into the reminder that everything around you is falling into total disrepair… But you won’t feel alien to the sensitive touch of the good that humanity is always going to be capable of.” Staring into each others eyes, a slight, yet noticeable smile on both of their faces, Chevy breaks the moment short when he looks to the ground and begins shaking his head, apologizing for getting too deep and making the moment uncomfortable. However, before he can be made to feel like any more of a good-hearted optimist, Kayla leans into him and shares a kiss, one that breaks the uncomfortable worry of having been responsible for ruining a good moment before the roaring sound of thunder is overheard, with sparse raindrops quickly followed by a rainstorm forcing the couple to rush for cover. | Suddenly, the roaring sound of thunder breaks the kiss between the two as Jaime reminds everyone of the impending acidic-rain threatening their survival. Looking around the area, Jaime notices the empty factory entry way directly in front of them before suggesting they take cover inside as they wait the rainstorm out. After a few moments of looking around for anyone to suggest a better idea, the group begins readying themselves to take temporary residency within their newly-decided upon sanctuary. However, after a few steps towards the building, David collapses to his knees and remains clutching at his still bullet-penetrated abdomen. Kneeling beside him, Alex lifts up his shirt to reveal a massive loss of blood before the man falls onto his back on the asphalt below them gasping for air. “David, you need to keep fighting, okay?” Alex asks, only earning repetitive “I can’t” responses growing fainter with each failing gasp for air. “Think about your daughter, David. Think about what she would need from you if she were here right now!” Shaking his head and trying to speak through the blood slowly filling his mouth with each attempt at breathing, David quietly and faintly explains. “I couldn’t save her… When I had the chance. I wouldn’t be able to help her now… Even if I wanted to.” Not buying it for a second, Alex continues to plead. “David. David! You helped me get this far. You fought all this way for something to believe in and here it is! You need to keep fighting, David!” Shaking his head, and reaching towards Alex with his hand, unable to stop crying tears of both sadness and joy, David faintly responds. “Fight now… Or no fight now… I’m still going to die.” Now sobbing uncontrollably, Alex fights back the tears streaming from her eyes and down the smooth cheeks now blushing a bright red from the cold to repeatedly plead for David. “I need you. I still need you.” | “SAY IT!” The voice of a man, pissed off beyond recognition begins ordering at a woman with tears streaming down her face powerful enough to begin erasing the makeup from directly below her eyes, revealing bumps and bruises. “I… I…” The hesitation in his voice is not enough, and it never was enough. Lifting his foot in the air and holding it there for long enough to add that much more pressure when dropped, the man crushes the hand of the woman below the sole of his boot and against the hardwood flooring of their living room. The woman, screeching in pain, desperately pulls at her hand in hopes of freeing it from the boots crushing weight as the demand of her is continued to be heard throughout the halls of their home in rage-filled fits of screaming and shouting. “I NEED YOU! I WILL ALWAYS NEED YOU!” The woman shouts over and over again, hoping that each attempt will be enough to convince the man towering above her to free her from her shackles. Finally, the man lifts his foot, and the woman’s hand shoots out from beneath it like a rocket, finding comfort within the chest of herself as she tries to keep the shattered bones within it from spilling out of the contusion-like cuts plaguing her skin like patterns on a quilt. Speechless, and allowing for her gasps for pleading-less air to do the talking for her, the woman raises her face towards that of the man above her. It’s Alex, and lowering his face towards hers, Robert places his finger to his lips and ushers for Alex to quiet down. In the hospital room, Alex is placed in a massive cast, covering the entire length of her hand and most of her forearm as she is being released from the emergency room. In the car on the ride home, Robert drives with one hand steering as the other rests below his chin. No words are spoken, and the environment still feels hostile despite the time that has passed. Tearing up, it’s Robert that breaks the silence first. “I just can’t figure you out, y’know?” Remaining frozen like stone, staring on at the road as if to admit her current state of mind is just counting down the yards to go before she can return to her home, Alex just sits there as Robert keeps talking. “You do this… thing to me… You just won’t stop aking me angry and I don’t know why you keep doing this.” Now sobbing at his diluted, unstable and delusional conclusions, Alex just stares onwards with her mouth agape until she notices the car begin to slow before coming to a stop on the side of the road, forcing her mouth further open as tears begin streaming down her face once again, just at a slower pace this time. “You know that you piss me off and it’s like you just don’t care. You just keep asking for this and make me feel horrible about myself. Like this is what you wanted!” Silent, Alex continues to listen as Robert asks the same question over and over again. “Is this what you wanted?” Finally, Robert screams the question one final time before Alex completely breaks down in tears, responding with one simple word over and over again through the tears streaming onto her lips and the saliva packing itself in her mouth. “No.” There the two sit, sobbing for two very different reasons before Robert reaches out and rests his arm behind Alex’s head before nestling his head into her shoulder and whispering to her. “I can’t afford to lose you now.” | “Please, David. Please try to fight.” Spitting the blood pooling in his mouth, David plants his hands against the remorseless asphalt surface and struggles mightily against the fight of his life draining away to pick himself up to his knees. “Are you ready?” Jaime asks over to the gravely wounded man, who slowly nods through the pain of every muscle in his body growing stiff. Stranding to their feet, the group begins confidently marching towards the front doors of the “Wavering Hills Industrial Workhouse” before a faint plea for attention emanates from directly behind them. “Hey! Hey you guys!” From the entrance of the alleyway, a man in street-casual attire lugging a backpack over his shoulder begins rushing towards the group with a creepy smile across his face. Noticing the possible danger looming, Chevy releases the gun from his back and aims it towards the man, ordering him to refuse any steps further. “Woah! Okay! No worries over here!” The man says, raising his hands into the air with his smile still remaining, only being slightly hidden behind an ingenuine look of concern. Slowly inching to the side, Chevy hands a still-weak Kayla off to Jaime whilst keeping the gun pointed on the man. “What do you want?” Chevy asks, simple and to the point. “Well” The survivor says, “to find some place to safe to stay and wait out the rainstorm. That’s a good start.” Growing increasingly protective, Chevy keeps discussions pinpointed towards the brass tax. “Find somewhere else. The factory is ours.” Still raising his hands into the air, the mans concern grows lesser, and an expression eerily similar to confidence begins showing itself. “Oh, come on. You can’t spare any room for one more person?” “No, it’s too dangerous right now to let your guard down. We’re not going to, and neither should you. Find somewhere else and hope you get lucky.” Chevy keeps his eyes still, locked onto the possible threat with full attention. Suddenly, his eyes squint as the man adds another branch to the conversation. “I have supplies. You’re welcomed to treat yourselves to it.” Suddenly, the group’s attention is peeked, and the obvious question is asked by Alex. “Anything medical?” Chuckling quietly before responding very light-heartedly, the man responds. “That’s what most of the bag is for!” Now smiling from ear to ear, the man latches onto Alex’s attention before asking. “Bandages, rubbing alcohol, disinfectant. You name it, I’ve got some of it.” Still propping Kayla up on her feet, Jaime struggles to keep the woman at bay as she refuses to accept any further help, now grabbing onto the wall at the side of the stairway for support, freeing Jaime for long enough to get a good look at the mans face. Squinting her eyes, she notices something about the man that seems familiar. Despite the feeling, Jaime cannot quite remember where she knows the man from. Going to reach into his bag, Chevy orders him to stop any further movements, prompting the survivor to place his hands into the air once again, this time high enough for the mans shirt to begin rising above his stomach. Taking a closer look, Jordan notices a bandage covering a rather large wound on the mans side. Subtly inching closer to the man, Jordan looks towards his feet to see combat boots on. Suddenly, the picture becomes clearer. As Jordan continues inching closer, Chevy and Alex agree to allow the man the brief opportunity to reach into his bag and retrieve the bandages and rubbing alcohol he claimed to have. However, before the man can retrieve anything from his bag, a voice from behind the group speaks up. It’s Jaime taking a few steps forward and calling out a name. “Eli, right?” The mans attention returns to the woman whose voice called out the name, prompting another eery smile to spread across his face like a wildfire before breaking the brief pause to continue reaching into his bag. “We’ve met before, right?” Jaime asks, with Eli nodding in response. “Yes… Yes we have.” Turning back to face the woman, still sporting a glasgow-smile like expression, Eli pulls his hand out of his bag and aims a gun towards Jaime, only to be tackled from his side by Jordan, causing the gun to fire off at Chevy being knocked off course, and sending a bullet through his hand, forcing him to drop the gun to the ground. With the sound of gunfire ringing through the lot, Jaiime orders both Alex and Kennedy to carry David into the factory. Struggling on the ground, Jordan and Eli begin trading blows at each other before Eli kicks the gas mask-wearing man off of him and retrieves a blade, pulling Jordan to his feet as he holds him hostage at knife-point ordering Jaime to drop the gun he now finds her to be wielding. “You’ve taken lives before, Jaime… I know that… But you’ve never done it yourself. I also know, you’ve never used a gun before, so drop it or risk causing another one to be lost as well.” Staring down the woman in front of him, Eli continues to wear the smile as he awaits Jaime’s decision. Slowly inching her finger to the trigger, Jaime lets out a long, deep breath before pulling on it, only to find no bullet leave the chamber. Pulling once more, she realizes that the gun is jammed, and holds no power over the man balancing the life of her boyfriend on the tip of a blade. Smiling at the revelation, Eli begins laughing hysterically. As his laughter dies out, Eli shrugs and lets out a breath of disappointment. “Welp” Eli says, “I guess it’s less fun than I had imagined it when you’re helpless to do anything about it.” Running the blade to his throat, Jordan feels the pressure on his jugular build before he is swept off of his feet and sent crashing against the ground alongside Eli. A few inches out of reach, Jordan crawls away from the man who has now almost killed him multiple times before noticing the dumpster that had been sent flying into them that ultimately kept him alive. Behind that dumpster is Kayla, who emerges from cover and bursts at full speed towards the stairwell, motioning for everyone to get inside whilst they still could. Flying through the front doors, the remaining survivors dive into the main hall before pulling the doors shut and hoping that the locks installed do their jobs long enough. Gasping for air, the group begins rushing further into the factory whilst Kayla and Kennedy stay ahead of the pact keeping an eye on the door. Still in the lot, Eli pulls himself to his feet and retrieves his gun from the ground, slamming it against the stone wall beside it a few times before reloading a new cartridge into it. Marching up to the front doors of the factory, Eli begins laying in kicks to it as the rustic locks begin slowly bending under the pressure of each boot delivered. Noticing this, Kayla and Kennedy both return to the group and begin looking for places to hide until settling upon a rundown locker room. Looking through, Kayla directs Kennedy straight ahead, where she fits her into a stuffy locker at the front of the room. “Hey, listen to me. I’m going to be in the locker right next to you, okay? You and I aren’t going anywhere without each other, and I will not leave you behind. I need you to stay calm, okay?” Taking a deep breath, Kennedy nods in response before offering his fist out to Kayla, who returns with a fistbump before closing the door and taking residency in the locker directly beside Kennedy just as promised. A few seconds after the locker doors shut, the doors finally cave in and Eli slowly begins stepping further into the building. Keeping an eye aimed down the hallway, Jordan and Jaime both hide out in a janitors closet directly opposite the entrance Eli finds himself scouring. Before closing the door, Jordan looks to the other side of the room and nods at Alex and David, who crouch behind a conveyer belt leading out from one of the manufacturing sections. Located further down the hall is an empty office that Chevy finds himself hunkered down in, halfway between the main foyer and the rest of the group not named Kayla or Kennedy. Cautiously looking at every end of what’s visible from his perspective, Eli continues further into the building with each step crunching down on shattered bits of glass. “Come out, come out. Wherever it is you may be, little chickens” Eli says aloud, hoping to antagonize someone enough for them to show themselves. “Oh, are we shy?” Eli asks, “Do we not like talking to people we perceive to be strangers?” After another brief pause, Eli sighs before grabbing a metal folding chair and placing it down in the main foyer, directly opposite of the end of the populated hallway. “Okay, fine. I guess I should introduce myself.” Releasing the magazine from his gun before loading it once again, Eli calls out for one person in specific to take great notes on what he is about to say. “I truly hope David is listening… I think I have something to say that he might like to hear… Something that makes it clear to him just what kind of people he is surrounding himself with. Maybe the broad and biker guy will take interest too.” Leaning forward in his chair, Eli bites his lip and rakes his teeth against it before starting. “My name is Eli. Many people call me Elijah.” Using his gun as a sort of laser pointer, Eli begins waving it around in the air before beginning to loosen up into a more animated sort of character. “But David” Eli says before taking a moment to glance down into the seemingly never-ending hallway. “David may recognize me by my full, legal name… Elijah William Northcutt.” Still clutching at his wound, David hands tremble anxiously at the revelation of the mans true identity. He turns to face the woman beside him, watching her as she starts piecing two and two together as well. “And your… beloved leader… Your fearless director of operations… Killed my daughter.” Turning to face his girlfriend, Jordan looks on with a blank face as Jaime simply looks on anticipating his next statement. “You see… Jaime owned a company that, well, became pretty popular. It let high school classmates talk to each other about whatever it is they so chose… But amongst many other things, ladies and gentlemen, allowed you to let everyone know when and where you or someone else was hosting a party.” Looking towards the hallway, noticing an open door amongst the many closed ones lining the walls, Eli takes an educated guess and speaks directly in its direction. “There was a whole part of the app that was solely dedicated just... for... that… And you better believe me when I tell you… Kids took advantage.” Staring at the wall in front of him, Chevy bites his lip, clutching at a large metal plate, anticipating Eli to continue his conversation with the empty air. Meanwhile, Kennedy stares through the slits of the locker door and directly at the gun-wielding, vengeance-seeking, fate-controlling psychopath at the front of the building with a look of distress, whilst Kayla feels the dread of knowing something bad is bound to happen with every wave of frost-like air that enters through her only viewpoint to the outside. “And my daughter was one of them.” | “USC Medical Center Emergency Center, please hold.” Patients with various injuries and illnesses line the walls of a crowded emergency wing from one side to the other, as coughing and groaning overwhelm any other sound for what feels like miles. Suddenly, storming through the automated doors in a hurry is a man dressed in professional attire carrying a briefcase, heading straight for the front desk. “My daughter was in an accident, I was told to get here ASAP” the man pleads, with the woman stationed at the desk motioning for one of the coworkers behind her to attend to the mans predicament. “Sir, what is your name?” the woman asks. “Elijah” the man says, stuttering for a moment to answer in a clearer fashion. “Elijah Northcutt. My daughter is Stacey Northcutt. I was told she was in an accident.” Before the woman could register his name, a nurse walks out from the emergency area and overhears Eli asking for his daughter. “You’re looking for Stacey Northcutt?” Turning to the woman in a panic, Eli confirms. “She’s in surgery right now, follow me.” Walking alongside the woman, Eli’s walk becomes a blur, and time begins slowing down as he plays back mental images of his daughter when she was younger, playing on the swing and leaving the car for her first day of school. All the while, Eli keeps thinking of her saying the same thing over and over again. “Thanks dad, love you.” Suddenly, Eli is seated in a chair, his left leg bouncing erratically and his fingers dancing around each other like the physical manifestation of a nursery rhyme. With each surgeon that steps into the waiting room, Eli’s attention is pulled directly onto them, regardless whether or not they are the individual responsible with his daughters operation. Eventually, the clouds in the sky darken and the sonic boom-like ringing of thunder barricades the outside with mother nature’s anger. After a brief few moments, the rain begins pouring down over the city, cascading the windows of the waiting room enough to blur the sight of the world below, confining the waiting room to its own, personal dungeon of misery. Just after the rain begins falling, and Eli’s attention is enraptured by the wrath of nature’s vendetta, the light tapping on his shoulder breaks Eli’s haze back into the moment as the surgeon, whose uniform is stained with blood, asks Eli to step to the side with him. Shielded behind the automated doors of the surgeons wing, the man stained in the blood of Eli’s daughter gives Eli the update he has spent hours waiting to get. “I’m going to be honest with you, as I am with everyone else. Your daughter has lost a lot of blood, and suffered many injuries that, alone, would be difficult to rehab. All together, the surgery bought her time, but it doesn’t look like she has much of that left. Her friends died at the scene from what I hear, and she’s lucky enough to say goodbye.” Now broken down into tears, but unable to speak more than gasp-like wales, Eli turns to face the window to his daughters room, seeing her hooked up to machines, and is horrified upon the surgeon’s final statement. “It’s unlikely she’s going to make it through the night.” After a few hours pass, and still no response from Stacey, Eli gives in. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me to be. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there to keep you safe when you needed it the most. I’m sorry you’re in the pain you’re in and it’s all my fault.” Clutching at his daughters hand, just needing the touch of it one final time, the pit of Eli’s stomach turns as he faces his daughter for the final breaths she takes in her life and concludes through streaming tears, mirroring the rainfalls cascading the windows of the room around him. “It’s okay to let go now. It’s okay to stop fighting.” Planting one final kiss on her head, Eli places his forehead to his daughters and says his final goodbye. “I love you to the end and beyond.” A few seconds afterwards, her pulse fades away and Eli falls apart, noticing the singular tear falling from his daughters eye whilst still holding her hand close to his heart. | “I never knew pain like I knew pain then. It changed me. Once Stacey was gone, nothing mattered anymore.” Turning to face his girlfriend, Jordan notices the singular tear falling from her own face before quietly embracing her. Looking up from the ground and staring towards the end of the hallway, Eli makes his own statement resounding. “You see, David… No one else went through the pain you and I did. You didn’t even get to say goodbye to your daughter, I at least got that. How can you not hate these people for what they took away from you… For what they took away from us?” Smirking an evil, manipulative smirk, Eli places the barrel of the gun to his mouth and bites down on the head before losing his temper and screaming at the echo-inducing hallway. “WHY SHOULDN’T THEY FEEL THAT PAIN, TOO?” Shooting to his feet, Eli reaches the chair behind him and throws it down the hallway, watching as it thuds and scrapes against the shattered glass and rough concrete ground before coming to a complete stop at the conveyer belt, directly in front of both Alex and David. Now fully annoyed, Eli starts slowly walking down the hall aimlessly, just counting on stumbling across someone eventually. “What makes them any better than us, Dave?” Taking the stock of the gun, Eli shatters the window of a sealed office door, startling anyone within earsight, but not luring anyone from their cover. “What makes them any more worthy of life than us, buddy?” Again, Eli takes the stock of the gun and shatters yet another office window. “Why should they be happy while we’re forced to suffer?” Once more, Eli uses the stock of his gun to shatter another window. “Why should they be f-” Eli starts, only to be cut off as creaking metal begins making itself heard from his original position at the main foyer. Starting in that direction, Eli begins storming in a rage until a voice calls out to him. “Hey!” Turning back towards the end of the hallway, Eli is stunned when he sees Jaime standing confidently, hands by her side, issuing him a challenge. “You’re such a role model? Such a good father that just wanted the best for his daughter? Is that what we’re going with? Well then, let’s see how collected you can be in such trying times like these. You like to talk? Okay, let’s see how well-spoken you are with a captivated audience.” Tilting his head to the side before using his gun as a pointer once more, Eli begins nodding. “Credit to where credit is due. You’ve got quite the pair of balls on you, don’t ya?” Crossing her arms, Jaime waves her hand as a challenge for Eli to accept. Before Eli can talk, Jaime asks him the first question. “When was it that you first lied to yourself and started blaming me for your inability to teach your daughter the do’s and dont’s of the road?” Taken back, Eli is left speechless as Jaime continues. “When was the first time you realized that you failed as a father and didn’t have the balls to send one through your skull because of that guilt?” Shaking his head and breathing in deep, Eli is left without words once again. “When was the first time you realized that you were never fit to be a father and were destined to watch your flesh and blood sing with the angels before you ever even had the chance?” Prodding the bull, Jaime understands completely that she is within moments reach from getting the horns in return. Directly after her prior statement, Eli finds the words he needs to begin attempting to control the situation he has sunken into. “Shut up” Eli says quietly under his breath. “When did you realize your daughter was dead because you were too worthless to get there first?” The straw that broken the camels back just rung throughout the vacant factory, and the aftermath that follows would follow soon after as well. “SHUT UP!” screams Eli, now aiming the gun directly to Jaime’s head. “GET ON YOUR KNEES!” Eli orders, with Jaime obliging without a fight. As she finds herself on her knees, awaiting her payment for all the damage she had caused, Jaime asks one final question. “When was it that I became the scapegoat for how the world works?” This question, as simple in nature as it is, brings everything to a stand still. “Wh- What?” Eli asks, puzzled further than he ever imagined himself able to be. “What? You think I was the one that handled how the site worked?” Jaime asks, smiling humorously and between bursts of laughter. “You… You made it. You created it.” Now laughing maniacally, Jaime tears the world from beneath Eli’s feet. “Yeah, me and 15 other people!” With anger overwhelming Eli, his hand begins shaking and the sound of the trigger being pressured begins ratling with the rest of the gun. “I wasn’t responsible for half of the stuff on that pile of bullshit, I was just the face they packaged it with.” As Eli begins loosening his hold on the trigger, Jaime steadies the gun by placing her forehead against the barrel of it. “But if I’m being honest” Jaimes says, looking up at Eli before finishing. “With you as a father… Stacey’s probably better off dead.” Eyes bolting open, the rage consumes Eli once again as he reaches his finger to the trigger, only to be brought to the ground in a heap as two-hundred and fifty pounds of bloody man crushes him below. Busting open his stitches from the impact, Eli turns himself over to notice Jaime picking David up from the ground and directing him to the end of the hallway. Soon after Jordan and Alex follow, Jaime prepares to do the same, only for Eli to grab a hold of her by the ankle and refuse to lighten his grip. In trouble, Jaime attempts to kick Eli away, only for Eli to sweep her off her feet and send her crashing into the floor below. Reaching into his pocket, Eli retrieves a blade, the same one Jordan used on him earlier and attempts to drive it directly into Jaime’s chest, only to be delivered a kick to the face straight from the boot of Chevy, who uses another kick to send the knife flying out of Eli’s hand. Lowering himself over Eli, Chevy begins raining one shot after another down on the crazed vigilante-of-sorts before one of his strikes are caught by the man below him, who presses his thumb against the bullet wound Chevy sports on his hand, forcing him off long enough to pick up his gun. Turning to aim the gun at the battle-tested badass, Eli notices Jaime rushing up towards him late enough to be sent flying through drywall into one of the storage areas at the back of the building. Tumbling to the floor, Jaime is quick to her feet as she returns to the race towards the gun, only to be tackled back to the ground by Eli, who begins raining down one punch after another to the woman before he feels a sharp pain entering his fully-reopened wound, only to find it to be due to the blade he previously dropped imbedded into his side by Jaime’s younger half Kennedy. Stumbling to his feet, Eli reaches to the blade and attempts to pull it from his side, only to be cracked over the side of the head with a piece of brick by Chevy’s tougher half Kayla. Dropping to the ground, Eli groans in pain as Kayla and Kennedy help Jaime and Chevy escape back into the main foyer. Rushing up to the front doors, the four realize that Eli kicking the doors in busted the locks, and therefor jammed the only exit on the side of the building. Prying at the twisted metal, Alex finally frees the hinge from it’s stubborn position enough for people to begin slipping through one at a time. First exits Kennedy, followed by Kayla and Chevy. Directly after the outlaw couple is Jordan and Jaime, who are then followed by Alex. Turning to face the man that made the escape possible in the first place, Alex is stunned when the door slams shut, and David begins shaking his head through the glass pane. “W- What are you doing!?” Alex cries, with David placing his hand against the glass in response. “If I’m gonna go, I’m gonna try to take some of the problem out with me.” Shaking her head, Alex simply repeats the same word through bated breaths in response. “No!” Trying to pry at the doors in hopes of somehow getting them open, Alex finds it to no use as David signs off. “Just keep fighting forward. You got to see your kids.” Placing her hand up to the glass to match his, David finishes. “Now I’m gonna get to see mine.” Pulling his hand from the glass, David returns it to his stomach before shouting out for Eli to get out from cover and finish things like a man. Rushing into the main foyer, David aims for the hallway before he is caught off guard and tackled to the ground by Eli, who positions himself atop David before driving the blade of the knife into his chest. Keeping it buried in his chest, Eli starts twisting the knife as blood continues pouring out. “I’m sorry you got caught in the crossfire” Eli says, “You’re probably the only one I wish wasn’t having to face this.” As David reaches his hand to his cheek, Eli whispers reassurance. “At least you don’t have to say goodbye to her when you get up there” Eli says, “You can say ‘hello’ again.” Twisting the knife a final few inches, David’s life leaves his body and his hand drops to the ground. Placing his fingers to David’s eyes, Eli shuts his eyelids and tells David to be at peace. Turning back to face the factory entrance, Eli sees Jaime staring at him with eyes like daggers before rushing off. Hurrying to the factory door, Eli tries budging at the metal as he watches the group of survivors rush off into the distance. Finally, after a few more moments of twisting and pulling, Eli relieves the door from it’s restrictions and slips through the cracks before rushing off in chase of the group. | “Jordy” a faint voice says from behind a locker door, grabbing the attention of Jordan, who slides the hunk of metal inwards to reveal a dark haired young lady carrying two math textbooks and another soft cover book. “Yes, Megan?” Jordy replies, only to find himself in a face-to-face confrontation with two concert tickets practically taped to his eyebrows. Unmoved and unwavering, Jordan sarcastically asks a follow up question. “Am I allowed to at least try to see what you’re showing me?” “Killswitch, tonight.” Rolling his eyes and returning to his current task of placing textbooks back into his locker, Jordan is easily picked apart as Megan immediately picks up on his clues. “You said the next one was my choice” she says, with the least effective attempt at hiding the disappointment in her voice of anyone in the history of mankind. “I know it’s your choice, but aside from the fact that I don’t like screamo, I’ve got three tests Monday alone. I don’t have time for anything other than studying!” Mouth open and tongue licking the corner of her lips, Megan replies. “Okay, for a start… Killswitch is not screamo, they’re metal. There’s a big difference” Making a face and shrugging his shoulders, Jordan listens to the second point. “And number two, everyone has time for something other than studying. You just don’t want to lose it as an excuse.” After both parties pause for a moment, Megan gives in. “Fine, if you don’t want to go, I’ll take Mark instead.” Turning to his girlfriend, Jordan questions her once again. “Mark?” “You’ve got a problem with Mark?” asks Megan. Shutting his locker door, Jordan faces his raven-haired girlfriend once again. “Uh, yeah… Yeah, I’ve got a big fuckin’ problem with Mark.” “And why is that?” Megan asks, leaving Jordan to stand in shock. “Because he wants to fuck you. I think that’s a good enough reason.” Now shocked herself, Megan nods before shooting down the prior mentioned reason. “He just wants to spend time with me.” Now shocked once more, Jordan responds with a sarcastic vigor, “He wants to spend time with your vagina, not you.” Noticing her opportunity to go for the jugular, Megan finds the cold spot in her heart to take a shot right back. “Even if that was true, at least he’d want more to do with me than you do.” Now visibly hurt, Jordan shakes his head in disgust before turning to leave. Before he can do so, Megan grabs his attention once again. “Am I wrong?” Turning to face her, Jordan simply answers with, “Yeah.” Placing her hands to her hips and biting her lips in anticipation, Megan asks, “So you don’t want to spend time with me because you’ll be too busy studying and that’s it, right?” Again, Jordan answers simply. “Yeah.” Shaking her head in clear disgust, Megan swipes the loose hair away from her face before responding. “Then why are you going home without your books?” Going to respond, Jordan realizes there is no explanation, because the truth was that he just wanted to be home for the weekend alone. Speechless, Jordan closes his mouth and goes limp, knowing he screwed up. “Megan” Jordan says, only for the girl to hurry past him and brush his shoulder on her way down to the first floor on the verge of tears. After a few hours, Jordan finds himself sitting in silence reading a book, something he’s often found himself the target of harassment for doing. Suddenly, he hears the sound of knocking on his bedroom door. Noticing, Jordan calls out to the person behind his door to come in. Slowly gliding open, Jordan watches the door reveal his mother and his father, both moving slowly and diligently before closing the door and sitting at the foot of his bed. “Are you guys, okay?” Jordan asks, noticing his parents struggling to find the words to say. “Jordan, we... “ his father says, unable to piece together the words necessary to say what needs to be said. “Dad, what’s going on?” Struggling even further to find the proper words, Jordan’s mother places her hand on his father’s shoulder before looking at Jordan. Suddenly, the roaring sound of thunder comes marching into earsight and rain begins pouring over the house. The sudden storm brings about a silence further adding to the suspense, but allows for Jordan to understand the gravity behind what could be to come. Softly, and concerned, Jordan simply asks. “Mom?” | “Keep running! Don’t let up!” Chevy commands, hurrying ahead of the group alongside both Jaime and Kayla before two gunshots ring off in the distance behind them. Knowing the situation at hand, Chevy spots a campsite through a few groups a trees in the distance, and begins marching the group towards it. Ducking over fallen branches and slippery leaves, killed by the sudden harsh winter-like temperature, the group rushes like wind towards their only true opportunity to survive before finally making it to the site. “What now?” Kennedy asks, only for Chevy to be cut off by the ringing sound of gunfire faster approaching. “Where the hell are you?” Eli shouts out, following the trail of footprints leading into the small woodland area beside the road and up to a campsite. Now getting in position to fire, Eli slowly approaches the small, makeshift camping area ready for whatever comes next. “You’re not fit to live in this world, let alone run it in your image. It’s people like you that turn beauty into disaster, Jaime!” Eli shouts, finally moving past the final tree before finding himself centered in the immediate middle of the camp, looking around for the next sign of retaliation. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, Jaime. Thinking about how you didn’t create it, and instead, just got packaged with it. I’ve been thinking about it nonstop. And I’ve come to realize something important, Jaime…” Continuing, Eli slowly pulls out a switchblade from his shirt collar and begins slowly encroaching the tent directly opposite the entry path to the camp. “You may not have been responsible for the evil that was created…” Eli steps up to the front of the tent and readies his hand back, filling his lungs with air before swinging down his hand with the force of a thousand suns. “But you knew well enough to endorse it!” Slicing away at the cloth, Eli takes the tent down into a heap, only to find it empty, nothing more than a thin-layer mattress and some rigid pillows. Noticing the surroundings filled with more than enough tents, Eli continues this blind game of whack-a-mole through bated breaths. Turning back to the entrance, Eli begins making his way to another tent, continuing to speak further. “I had waited my entire life to be a father, and right the wrongs that mine never had the balls to do. But you, Jaime. You were one of the only hands responsible for taking that away from me!” Eli shouts, bringing the blade down over another tent, slicing it to the ground to find it vacant once again. Now growing impatient, Eli skips the pageantries and slices away at the tent beside it, finding that one to also be unoccupied. “I wanted to do right in the world, Jaime. I really did. But it was people like you that invaded it, and flooded the good in it with your enabling evil.” Turning directly opposite his latest takedown, Eli makes for another tent on the other side of the campfire. Inside, Alex holds Kennedy in her arms as Kayla stands ready with a shank in one hand, and her opposite hand rested on Kennedy’s leg in hopes of it providing comfort. “But there are some that enable that kind of evil, Jaime. And then there are the few that dig deep enough to force it to take over. And you, Jaime… You are…” Eli is cut off by the sound of a cough coming from one tent over his intended target. Inside, Alex holds her hand over Kennedy’s mouth to avoid another, but it’s too late for redeeming mistakes. Turning towards the tent over, Eli shows the sadistic smile once more overwhelming his face as he continues. “You, Jaime… Are the most selfish form of evil.” Lifting his arm into the air, Eli starts to swing at the tent until he is taken down by Jaime, who falls from the trees and comes crashing down on the night’s most dangerous opposition. Scuffling on the ground, Eli hits Jaime in the face with an elbow, forcing her off of him before beginning to crawl towards the gun on the ground. Reaching for his ankle, Jaime tries to stop his progress until it’s too late, watching as Eli takes a hold of the gun and turns to his back to aim down at her, only to be tackled on the ground and down a hill by Chevy, who falls alongside the resilient criminal all the way to the bottom, taking the gun down with them. Finally, after what seemed like a tumble for the ages, Chevy and Eli both crash into the ground below before watching as the life-ending machine flies off a few yards away from the bottom of the hill both men find themselves stuck at. Rather than crawl for the gun, Chevy gets up and dives onto Eli, attempting to throw punches at him to no avail, as Eli gets his arms up to block well enough to hit Chevy with a low blow, taking him down and allowing Eli the opportunity to reach for the gun. Writhing on the ground whilst trying to fight onwards to survive, Chevy tries to catch up to Eli until he realizes it to be too late, as he now finds the reaper of the night holding him at gunpoint rather than the other way around. Smiling and laughing to himself, Eli watches on in amusement as he states as clearly as he can. “I didn’t want anyone else to have to get hurt, but tough guys like you won’t make me lose any sleep tonight” Eli says before reaching ahead of the gun and pulling the trigger, dropping Chevy to the ground in a thud as the smoke escapes through the barrel of the gun. Crawling out of the tent and up to the lip of the edge, Kayla watches Chevy collapse to the ground before letting out a scream of horror, only to be forced back to the center of the camp as Eli begins sending rounds up towards the edge, pushing the opposition back. “You think it ends here, huh? The blood on my hands is of your doing, Jaime!” Eli shouts, steadily climbing the loose dirt of the hill beneath his feet before finally reaching the top to find a vacant campsite once more. After a few momentary steps into the camp, Eli lets his senses do the work for him, allowing himself to duck an attempted stabbing from Kayla, who he climbs on top of holds at gunpoint. “Stop!” Jaime shouts, drawing Kennedy and Alex out of their respective tents, leaving Eli smiling through the anticipation of his inevitable actions. “Oh lord” Eli says, now breathing erratically as he becomes overjoyed with the knowledge of knowing what he has desired for so long is finally coming to life. “I guess I’m playing god now, aren’t I?” Eli asks, only to notice the lack of response from the rest of the group. Finally, it dawns on Eli that there’s one member of the group missing, forcing him into a position of paranoia and heightened sense, allowing him the chance to hear the ruffling of a tree branch above him before taking aim and firing two shots, throwing Jordan of course and sending him dropping to the ground with authority. Now more off-kilter than before, Eli takes aim at the Morris family in front of him and orders them to remain still, threatening to shoot the next person that moves a muscle. “I’m in command now! I choose what you do, and I tell you when to do it! You operate under my command!” Eli shouts before attempting to order Kennedy away from her family, only to be interrupted by the sound of tree branches splitting beneath the feet of someone climbing up the hill behind him. More aware and in the moment than before, Eli turns around and aims the gun towards the lip of the hill, awaiting the source of the noise to reveal themselves. However, the camp is sent into shock when, from the dark underbelly intended to be used as his makeshift gravesite, Chevy marches forward, unphased by the gunshot. In awe, Eli’s lip quivers in the cold as he intends to fire towards Chevy again in spite of the shock, only to feel the piercing tip of a sharpened toothbrush handle press into his still-open wound, digging further inwards enough for Eli to succumb to the pain and throw himself off of Kayla, who crawls towards and into the arms of a still very-healthy Chevy. “Stop!” Eli shouts from the entry to the camp, still waving his loaded gun around at the group of valiant survivors. “No one move!” Eli orders, only for Jaime to demand he stop. “No! No!” Eli shouts, “I have lived a life of hell every day for the past number of years because of the creation you were responsible for! You took away the life I worked my existence to make possible and never faced the repercussion for your actions!” As Eli continues waving the gun around, convinced it is now or never to enact the vengeance he has dreamed of for years, Jaime breaks the silence by getting on his level. “You’re right.” Hand ceasing it’s rapid shaking, gun no longer being used like a laser pointer, Eli is left confused as his head tilts as physical proof that he has no idea how to respond now. “I was the embodiment of evil for… For too long. And I never had to pay for my actions because… Well, because heroes get to have some things swept underneath the rug in order to keep hope alive.” Now slowly stepping forward, Jaime continues, trying to get closer to the man ahead. “I don’t want to hurt you anymore than I already have. Will I in order to keep the people around me safe? Yes, I will. But I don’t want to cause you more harm than I already have.” Finally stepping within reaching distance from the man still holding the gun directly at her, Jaime continues, trying to break through to Eli in hopes of finding something redeemable to him. “A very smart woman, probably the only person I’ve ever trusted enough to tell anything to without worry once told me that I had a choice to either make my voice heard, or let other people figure it out for themselves.” Slowly reaching her hand out to the gun, Jaime takes the barrel and raises it to her forehead. “Jaime!” Alex shouts, only to be drowned out by the woman destined to be the one thing she always expected to be deep down. “A martyr. It’s something I’ve always been fine with becoming. That’s why this isn’t my decision to make… It’s yours.” Eyes locked fully on the two at the front of the camp, Kayla and Chevy stare on in anticipation whilst Jordan, Kennedy and Alex look on like they were dressed in the dread looming throughout the woods. Suddenly, the crashing sound of thunder enraptures the camp as sparse raindrops begin falling through the leaves of the trees, with one falling its way onto Eli’s arm, causing him to momentarily jump from the pain, as it burns the surface of his skin. “The acid rain! It’s gonna come down quick!” Chevy shouts, only for Jaime to order everyone down, keeping them in place before looking Eli in the eyes, watching as he begins tearing up knowing the decision on the line. “Lower the gun and prove that there is still good left in you to provide for a world that needs it desperately.” Watching Eli’s eyes grow closer together as he battles with his own internal dilemma as to whether or not he has any good left in him, Jaime presses her head closer against the barrel before concluding. “Or pull the trigger and prove that you’re too broken for this world, and can’t be trusted to change.” Extending her arms out as acid raindrops begin dropping onto her skin, Jaime closes her eyes and allows Eli to make the choice himself. Biting his lip and allowing the tears to pour from his face, Eli’s body begins trembling and the gun in his hand begins shaking with an increasing pace, faster and faster before he makes the decision. *click* A brief moment of silence ensues, and Eli’s eyes bolt open as the smile drains from his face. *click* *click* The sound of the trigger being pulled and the mechanisms within the gun go off as per usual, but nothing fires. After the third click, Jaime opens her eyes and sucks in a deep breath before letting it out. No fourth attempt is made, as both parties involved know... The gun’s out of ammo. After another eternity of silence, neither Jaime nor Eli move a muscle until Jaime breaks the silence. “I’m sorry.” Revealing Eli’s hidden dagger in her hand, clutched by the ring-like handle surrounding her middle finger, Jaime lowers her hand before lifting it up towards Eli, driving the dagger directly into his stomach, only to rip it from the wound and drive it in again, and again, and again. One after another after another until Jaime knows there’s no chance of survival. Finally, Jaime drives the dagger in one final time, Smiling in his final moments, Jaime whispers to the deathbed-laiden man, “Say hello to your daughter again.” Laughing with every ounce of power he has left to offer, Eli shakes his head and cuts back. “As I said… You live... to make yourself feel better... about the deeds... you commit… Because… deep down… You’re still the most… selfish form of evil.” Letting a smile of her own show, Jaime shakes her head and begins twisting the knife in much the same way Eli did to David before returning the favor. “Evil… Probably… But selfish?” Finally twisting the knife enough to see the blue begin to stain Eli’s face, Jaime concludes. “Far from it.” Finally, Eli’s hand drops to the ground, and Jaime rips the knife from his abdomen, collapsing to the ground and gasping for air. Finally, the group surrounds her and hurries her over to a tent where Jordan stays tending to her. Making a break for another tent, Chevy and Kayla hurry into their own cover beneath one of the other few intact tents, falling on top of each other hard enough for Kayla to notice the metal plate stuffed underneath his shirt and behind his belt loop responsible for saving his life, still having Eli’s bullet lodged in the center. Meanwhile Alex and Kennedy climb into Jaime’s tent and seal up the entry just as the rainfall begins pouring down on the camp, leaving only Eli out to rot beneath the burning wrath of mother nature’s newest destructive cocktail. . . . | . . . “So… Now what?” The quiet campground has its silence broken with the ringing echo of the most important question of the night being asked by the man with a leather jacket on and an unlit bud in his mouth. “I mean… We’re no safer out here than we were back in town” the man says, finally placing the flame of his flip lighter to the end of his cigarette. “Someone? Anyone? No idea? Okay…” Finally, the blonde snaps out of her daze to fill the void left by the events immediately prior to their escape from the city. “North. Like we talked about” the woman says, sticking to the hope that if salvation can’t be under their nose, it must be found somewhere. “If we’re not going to get answers, we’ll need to find them ourselves” the woman says, directing her attention to everyone in the group one at a time. “The best chance we have is to get out of the center of the chaos. If that means finding a place up North safe enough to figure things out, then I’m heading North.” “Ehem” a brief interlude comes from the leathered-man and his dirty-blonde haired girlfriend, “We’re ALL going North.” After a brief pause rises through the camp, smiles form on each person’s face as Jaime begins readying to finalize the group’s decision. “Then it’s settled” the blonde says, her boyfriend resting the palm of his hand in hers and her mother resting the palm of her hand on her cheek. “We head for North at dawn!” Smiling, Chevy removes to bud in his mouth and raises it in the air to cheer to the first true group decision, with everyone else cheering out like a pack of wolves howling at the moon in hopes for a fresh new start in a world so cold. With the night sky providing a pitch black, scenic view for all to enjoy, the air is clear and the stars seem brighter than they ever have before. No nightlife to ruin the surreal beauty of true nature and no billboard towering overhead trying to push consumerism at its worse down the throats of the masses. All is simple and all is bliss. Until it’s not. From behind the trees, one simply light flickers on, hidden behind the small dimensions of an office window. Suddenly, the one light turns into hundreds, and an entire wall of pure white light begins flooding the skyline. Finally, the last few yards of the building left to be illuminated are given the privilege, and the only sign of electricity for thousands of miles spells out one simple name. “Cedars-Sinai Medical Center”.
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“The world isn’t going to stop being scary just because we’re tired of its crap, Jaime. And if you were to ask me, I’d tell you the world only gets worse because we’re so tired of it. Life has never been fair, and the world will never be either.”
Jaime, tentatively listening, rests the palms of both of her hands against the top of a circular table she finds herself leaning against. “Thanks, Kate. That really makes me feel better about myself.” Letting out a giggle, Kate subtly throws her hands into the air before responding, “That’s not my job.” “But that’s what I pay you for” Jaime says, only to be met with a resounding denial. “Sure, but if that’s the case, you’re paying me for the wrong reasons. Therapists don’t exist to make you feel better, that’s why we have doctors. Therapists exist to help you find the person you want to be” Kate says, “My job isn’t to help you be able to beat off to a picture of yourself more competently, my job is to make sure you like what you see when looking at it.” “Awesome advice, I’ll be sure to deposit that one into the spank bank” Jaime says, smirking afterwards. “Alright then, smartass. Since you’re so special that you can do my job without putting in the hours for a degree, why don’t you tell me what you want me to do?” Kate asks. With her smirk turning into one of a cornered smile, Jaime responds playfully, “You’re a piece of work, ya know?” Crossing her left leg over her right, Kate folds her arms in front of her before saying, “That makes two of us… I’m just the one getting paid for this.” Now, with both women smiling for different yet similar enough reasons, Jaime’s head lowers before she takes her hand and moves the free-flowing hair from her face to behind her ear. “I guess- I guess…” Jaime says, but never concludes before being interrupted by Kate. “I guess, what?” Kate asks, watching as Jaime’s smile lowers into one of a slight frown. “I guess I just don’t want to feel alone.” Noticeably inhaling, Kate refuses to speak for a moment, allowing the silence in the room to begin becoming more apparent as the weight of the statement just uttered falls upon the two women more and more with each click of the second hand on the clock hanging loosely on the wall between them. As the silence begins growing more unbearable, Jaime begins noticeably becoming more overwhelmed by it, made even more clear by her looking in the direction of Kate from the corner of her eye through deep yet quieted breaths. Noticing the effect the silence is having on Jaime, Kate leans forward in her chair, allowing each crack and squeak from her chair to momentarily quell the silence, one brief second after another. “Well?” Jaime finally says, though hidden under the faintest of breaths, the word rings like a coin dropping on a marble countertop throughout the room. Jaime turns her head slightly towards Kate, the free hair previously tucked behind her ear now dangling in front of Jaime’s eyes once more. “What else?” Kate asks, coupling her hands together as Jaime licks the corner of her mouth. “I don’t know” Jaime says, looking intently at Kate, who raises an eyebrow in her direction. Uncoupling her hands, Kate drops her fingers to the hardwood surface of her desk and begins tapping her fingernails against it, with the tapping sounds repeating exactly one second apart over and over again. “Please” Jaime says faintly, with Kate continuing as if nothing was ever said, breaking the silence with an eerily-sequenced combination of taps and clicks. “Kate, stop” Jaime says, now widdling with her hands like a meth addict and Kate slows down the pace of her tapping, no longer matching that of the clocks. “What else, Jaime?” Finally slowing down her tapping until the final tap rings through like an atomic bomb detonating, Kate watches as Jaime finally begins breathing steadily and halts the widdling of her hands, finding an inner clarity as the clouds cover the sunlight outside, shielding a portion of light from coming into the window as the room grows cold. Subtly, Kate pulls a lighter from her desk drawer and lights a flame towards an incense beside her computer monitor. Dying out the flame once the smoke begins wafting throughout the room, Kate watches as Jaime opens her mouth an prepares to speak, watching as the smoke from the incense begins fanning in front of Jaime’s face. “I just want to do the right thing.” - “You did the right thing.” Jordan drops the blade in his hand to the ground below as Chevy, Kayla and Kennedy all notice smoke beginning to flood the streets from afar. Noticing the smoke herself, Jaime looks back to her group, now standing anxiously awaiting the opportunity to get off the streets as they begin picking up their belongings. “Alright” Jaime says, wiping away the tears and snot from her face, “The sanctuary is only a few blocks away now. Now’s our shot to get out of here!” “But the smoke is coming from there!” Kennedy says before being cut off by Chevy. “Just because there’s smoke coming from that direction, doesn’t mean there’s a problem, it just means there’s a fire of some sort.” Kayla interjects immediately afterwards, “It’s either a dangerous fire or a bonfire of sorts under control. Either way, we’ve traveled this far, we can’t just run away now. Especially without knowing what’s behind these buildings ahead.” Looking down, Jaime whispers to Jordan to let him know that they have to start moving. Though he doesn’t vocally respond, Jordan nods his head and begins looking around for the pocket knife on the ground, closing it up and reluctantly placing it back into his pocket. Standing to his feet, Jordan and Jaime begin returning to the group as the five survivors begin rushing down the street, passing one survivor after another every few paces or so before turning the final corner to see a sea of humanity extending their arms upwards at the armed militants standing guard atop perches above a large metal fence. Off to a barricaded onramp, a large fire is being fueled by desperate survivors trying to get the attention of the guards with the tired from cars and clothes of the backs of deceased corpses sprawled out over the ground. Near the entry point of the base, armed guards begin arguing over whether or not to open the gates for guards to put out the fire based on the possibility of survivors using the opening as a way to force themselves into the camp. As all of these events unfold beneath their eyes, the five survivors stand put in their places, unknowing of what to do. “Hey, Jaime?” Chevy calls out from behind, prompting Jaime to turn her head in Chevy’s direction despite keeping her eyes glued on the crowd of people. “What do we do now?” Chevy asks, only to be met with a two-word response. “Don’t know.” | Walking intently along a crowded backroad, Alex and David carry on moving forward without speaking a word to each other. Eventually, Alex begins peering out of the corner of her eye at the man accompanying her on this journey before breaking the silence. “So what do you do for a living, David?” Taking an elongated gasp of air, David answers unspecifically. “What is it that I don’t do?” “I don’t know, who the fuck are you? Shouldn’t you know what you don’t do better than I would?” Alex answers through subtle laughs as David becomes all smiles. “Well, I do a lot of bar shows with cover bands in need of a keyboardist, and I spend a fair amount of time teaching a yoga class at a fitness center in town. But most of the time I spend in a day is at a desk in the back of a credit union filing through an endless mountain of paper work.” “So you’re a typical Los Angeles resident with less money, but an actual job?” Laughing, and now finding comfort in having a conversation with the woman, David nods in acceptance of the new way to briefly describe his profession. “What about you, raven hair? What reason do you have calling L.A. home?” Pondering, Alex takes a brief moment to respond before saying, “I used to work in sales for a few years until I moved here with my ex husband.” “Ooh, married were you?” David jokingly asks, “Yeah, he put the ring on this finger” Alex says, flipping David off much to the humor of both. Quick on his feet, David zings back saying, “Gosh, with such a way of making things as vividly clear as that there’s no wonder the marriage didn’t work out!” Wide eyed and mouth agape, Alex simply says, “Wow!” before quietly nodding to herself. “Okay, I’ll add that one to the bank of zingers I owe you!” Alex says, prompting David to begin laughing as he jokingly puts his hands in the air, admitting the he has one coming. “In all seriousness though, what happened?” David asks. With her smile turning into a simple gaze forward, Alex leans her head to the side as she begins answering. “He left us a few months ago. Just decided that he had enough and walked away.” “Us?” David asks, with Alex looking at him with confusion on her face. “Whose us?” David asks. “My daughters. Jaime and Kennedy.” “Oh. So he walked away from the kids, too…” David says, “I’m sorry. I- I didn’t know the wound was that fresh.” Facing back to the man beside her, Alex begins assuring David that it’s no problem. “Everyone around us- Including myself- Kind of knew it was heading that way. We were just counting down the days at one point until the day came.” “So he was the asshole kind, I assume?” David asks, and after a brief moment, Alex raises an eyebrow and responds, “Tell me about it.” After a few paces forward without speaking, Alex continues explaining. “My oldest, Jaime, is nineteen now. She finished high school early and decided to focus on a few projects of hers that had some… moderate success to say the least. So she skipped college for a year to focus on those until she eventually started getting people interested in this school-centric app for high school and college kids. Every school had a profile for their students to sign into, and you could talk to your own friends privately or people from others schools publically.” Before she could further her explanation, David briefly cuts her off. “Out Source?” Smiling as her head drops down to the ground, “Yeah. Yeah, Out Source” Alex says, continuing to nod to herself before admitting, “I guess it’s safe to say she struck it big. Proved to her mom that the creative ones could find a way to sneak around college.” Smiling and laughing to themselves for a few steps, David opens up further, allowing Alex a peak behind the curtain. “My daughter... She- She was always on that thing. I mean- night and day, day and night, that thing was always running!” “Daughter? I didn’t know you had a kid, too…” Alex says. “Yeah, I did! If it makes you feel any more accomplished as a parent, she thought your daughter created this generation’s version of Facebook. So, congratulations on that one!” David says jokingly, only for Alex’s smile to wipe from her face as she stops walking, instead opting to stand in her place before David takes notice a few paces later. “Everything okay?” David asks. “You did?” Alex asks in response. “I- I’m sorry?” David questions. “I asked if you had a daughter” Alex says, “And you said you did.” After a brief moment of silence between the two, David’s smile begins slowly disappearing as well before Alex elaborates. “You didn’t say you do, you said you did” Alex says. After another brief moment, David takes in a breath before scratching his head and opening the curtain a bit more. “Barbara. With- with my first wife. We divorced a year after she was born, and she died from cancer a year later. So, it was just Barbie and I since, well since pretty much the beginning, I guess.” After a few brief moments of silence between the two, looking into each other’s eyes, David continues through the tears beginning to form. “She went to a party last November and was supposed to ride with her friend Stacy, she was something like a straight-A student, so I didn’t have a problem with it. The name ‘Stacy Northcutt’ was always in those little newspaper articles listing honor role students, so I didn’t bat an eyelash. I- I guess Stacy thought she was sober enough to drive.” Another few moments of silence pursue until David continues. “That was probably the first test she didn’t pass…” Slowly stepping closer to David, now with tears forming in her own eyes, Alex listens as David moves along through the pain. “One half of a mile and a freefall down a ravine later, and everyone that got in that car only ever left it in a body bag.” Now no longer smiling, even in pain, or being able to speak another word, David tries to keep his composure before losing it as Alex wraps her arms around him and embraces him, letting him drop his head into her shoulder as she faintly apologizes for his loss through her own inability to speak through a shared pain. Hiding behind a car off the back road and abandoned in the grass beside it, Eli wipes away a singular tear as he listens into the conversation from behind his cover. Eventually, Eli reaches down into his pocket before pulling out a folded piece of paper, which shows a news article printed out from the local news website with a picture of Jaime’s face under the headline, “Local Teen’s Social Media app earns $10M in first year.” Now wiping the tear from his own eye, Eli refolds the piece of paper and places it back into his pocket before overhearing Alex and David begin resuming their journey to the sanctuary, and departing his cover to keep up pace with them behind the cover of the treeline. | “Over here!” Jaime shouts to her group, pointing them in the direction of a car dealership with a broken window at its front before leading them forward. As they approach the building, Chevy begins stepping forward in front of the group before shattering the rest of what was left of the window with his jacket-covered right arm before the five begin piling into the building. Finally able to stop for a moment, Chevy and Kayla rest up beside a vintage Corvette placed on display in the front of the store, whilst Kennedy props herself up next to a secretary's desk. Standing behind a metal beam bordering the windows, Jaime watches the outside for a moment as the cluster of people begin showing more than just a mob mentality, with everyone huddled together in a chant directed towards those inside the safety of the base, “LET US LIVE!” repeatedly. Turning back towards the store, Jaime notices Jordan walking slowly towards a back room in an almost trance-like state. “Chevy” Jaime calls out, getting the man’s attention as he finishes wrapping his jacket around Kayla’s to keep her warm. “Yeah, what’s up?” Chevy responds, with Jaime walking towards him. Extending her arm outwards, Jaime hands Chevy the pocket knife that Jordan used to kill the woman in the street before asking him to keep a watch on the window to make sure no one gets inside. Looking down at the pocket knife before rolling his eyes in an anxious state, Chevy replies by placing his finger over his mouth an motioning for Jaime to keep quiet before reaching behind his back and pulling the barrel of a gun out just enough for it to be unnoticed by anyone other than Jaime and Kayla, but noticeable enough for Jaime to quietly nod her head. Whispering, Chevy replies to the defacto leader of his group. “I was reaching for it slowly back on the street… But Jordan got to her before I did.” Pausing for a moment after opening his mouth, showing signs of contemplating what he’s about to say next, Chevy shakes his head before accepting the reality as he continues. “I… I trust you. You haven’t given me a reason not to yet. Don’t tell anyone unless you have to, but only then. I don’t mind using it… But I don’t want to have to unless someone’s in trouble and it’s the last chance we have. Got it?” Jaime, letting out a small smile, places her hand on Chevy’s shoulder before nodding and motioning for the window as she begins making her way to the back, and Chevy begins walking up to the front of the store. Turning the knob of a back office slowly before pushing the door in, Jaime steps into the room slowly and shuts the door behind her as Jordan sit on the bed, slouched over with his hands folded in front of him. Looking at her boyfriend, Jaime notices a tear fall from his face to the floor below as Jordan remains sitting there unmoved. “Hey” Jaime says, but is cut off immediately thereafter by her boyfriend, who looks up at her and responds with an almost pre-prepared line. “I didn’t do the right thing. I don’t know what you thought was the right thing, but it wasn’t that.” Watching her boyfriend’s eyes swell up with tears, Jaime takes a seat beside him and drops her head into his chest as Jordan continues trying to fight the tears back. Noticing his girlfriend nestling her head into his chest, Jordan places his arm over her and pulls her in closer, dropping his chin to the top of her head as she begins whispering. “You were protecting us” Jaime says through muffled sobs of her own, “You kept us safe… You kept us alive.” With yet another tear flowing from his eye and down the skin of his cheek, Jordan begins catching his breath and recapturing his composure. “She just saw her kid die” Jordan says. “And seconds later… I- I stabbed her over and over and over again until she went too.” Thinking of a response, Jaime is fruitless to find the words necessary for this moment as Jordan continues. “And she looked into MY eyes as she went. No one else’s other than mine.” Now closing her eyes to keep the tears from further staining Jordan’s shirt beside her more than the woman’s blood already has, Jaime sinks further into his chest as she places a hand up onto his shoulder, clutching to him as she whispers through the pain. “I’m sorry.” Now closing his own eyes in response, Jordan takes his free hand and places it onto that of his girlfriends as he softly kisses the top of his girlfriend’s head repeatedly. Suddenly, the two overhear a knock at the door before allowing the source of the knocking to enter the room. Opening the door, Kennedy walks through and tells Jaime that Chevy wanted to speak to her. “Yeah, alright. I’ll be right out” Jaime says, prompting Kennedy to return to the lobby as Jaime and Jordan begin wiping away their tears and sharing a genuine kiss before Jaime gently asks her boyfriend a question. “If we’re going to live in whatever shit show this world is starting to become, there are going to be tough decisions we’ll have to live with having to make. This won’t be the only thing you’re going to be asked to carry with you.” As Jordan shakes his head and looks into Jaime’s eyes, she finishes the question with her hands placed on both sides of his face wiping away the remaining tears. “Please never leave me alone here.” With his lip quivering, Jaime wipes away a final tear from his face as Jordan simply nods his head in response before he and Jaime begin walking back out into the lobby. . “Chevy?” Jaime calls out as she enters the lobby once more, only to be met with the jacketed man motioning for her to walk over to the window alongside him. Taking cover behind the metal borders, Chevy quietly points to a militia truck trying to make its way through the crowd of people and back into the base, only to be surrounded by the horde of people desperate to reach safety. “What am I supposed to be looking at?” Jaime whispers to the man beside her, only to be met with a response from his girlfriend instead. “Our way inside” Kayla says, with Kennedy stepping up to the window as well, pointing at the three guards stood on top of the base’s makeshift cover tower. “Do you see where they’re standing, Jai?” Kennedy asks to her older sister, with Jaime noticing the skywalk beside them, with the buildings it’s attached to being contained within the campsite. “Okay, so they’ve sanctioned off buildings from the outside. What’s the way inside you’re talking about?” Jaime says, with Jordan speaking up from behind the group. “Just because they sanctioned buildings off… That- that doesn’t mean they were thorough about it.” “EXACTLY” Kayla says pointing in Jordan’s direction, getting Jaime’s attention for a moment before she is tapped on the collar bone by Chevy, who then points in the direction of a building split in half by the border wall itself. “It’s guarded” Kayla says, walking up beside Jaime before continuing, “But if we can sneak inside through anything and get onto the other side of the building, we’ll be inside the camp.” “So… You want to break in?” Jaime asks, only for Chevy to shrug with his eyebrows raised. “Listen… I’m not totally thrilled about this either. But at the end of the day, this crowd isn’t getting in by standing outside the gates and neither are we.” Popping his knuckles, Chevy slowly turns towards Jaime before looking her in the eyes and leaning his head to the side. “If we want to get inside, we’ll need to do it ourselves.” “Are you in?” Kayla asks, with Jaime turning towards the woman still wearing Chevy’s leather jacket. “I know I am” Kennedy says from beside her sister, with a second nod of approval coming from Jordan. Looking around to see Chevy and Kayla remaining strong by their idea, Jaime looks back to the building in focus before nodding to herself and answering. “Clean sweep. What’s the plan?” | Now inside of the city, David and Alex find themselves traversing through the turns and corners of downtown Los Angeles, all whilst trying to navigate their way through crowds of people moving towards and away from the direction of sanctuary. As the pair watch dozens of people fly past them from each direction, David finally chooses to take the arm of one man running opposite of him. “Hey! Hey kid! What’s going on over there?” David asks, only for the kid to swipe his arm away from him before stopping for a brief moment and responding. “Look man, that place is a fuckin’ war zone! If you ain’t getting in, you ain’t getting in! Best try your luck someplace else!” Hurrying off into the night, the man disappears from David and Alex’s view as the pair find themselves in the middle of a road taken in two directions, towards hope and away from it. “We have to get off the streets!” David shouts to Alex, only for the woman to remain clutching to hope despite the sounds of anarchy surrounding them. “I have to find my kids!” Alex shouts, only for David to cut to the truth with her. “You don’t even know if they’re in there! I get that you have to try, but you can’t be reckless about it! Don’t get yourself hurt before you can get to them!” Losing grasp on any rebuttal as each moment passes, Alex slowly begins sinking into a position impossible to combat against whilst David stands by the same. “I promise, when there’s an opening, we’re getting inside there no questions asked!” David says, providing a point too emphatic for Alex to find an argument to. “Fine! Fine! Where do we go?” Alex asks, allowing David to search around the area as the two continue rushing down the street. Finally, the group comes across an intersection propped up in front of the sight of a raging tire fire just near the walls of the sanctuary. Scouring the area, David notices a car surrounded by defenseless and desperate survivors just out of reach from the soldiers beyond the wall to safely get to them. Looking back, David calls out for Alex as to point her in the direction of the mob. “I think we both may be able to get our way!” Pointing in the direction of the stranded vehicle, David delivers the plan like a confusingly wrapped Christmas present to the woman beside her, stating that the best chance they have of getting into the sanctuary would be to assist the drivers in getting through and into the walls. “We’ll be trampled to death trying to make it through there, we stand no chance!” the desperate mother pleads, only for David to shake his head and shrug, admitting that he has no other ideas. Suddenly, as the two begin slowly approaching the horde of people, the sound of metal buckling and windows shattering begins surrounding the entertainment-mecca of the country in a screeching cry of impending carnage. Just beside the self-inflicted inferno stands a tower, it’s exterior side closest to the fire appears blackened from the scorching heat. As the metal continues pleading for the evacuation of all life from the area surrounding it, knowing of its own impending demise, the building begins leaning further and further towards the ground below much to the horror of the people below and around it. Frozen in terror, Alex watches as the tower begins plummeting to earth until she is ripped by the arm by David, who drags her out of reach from falling debris and into a backlot as the tower finally comes cratering into the streets directly above the stranded military vehicle and the individuals responsible for making it so. Smoke and dust from the fire that created the situation at hand begin flooding throughout the streets of downtown Los Angeles as the walls to the sanctuary come crumbling down in a wallowing heap. Suddenly, the streets beyond fill with smoke, and the alleyway in which David and Alex are forced to take refuge in begin serving as a sort of viewing area with the scenes of blinding debris flooding throughout each entry and exit as the world beside it is covered in the remnants of what once was another contributor to the LA-skyline As car alarms blare, and screaming of a sort different from fifteen minutes ago begins flooding everything, the silence following the roaring screams of a building moments away from impact begins bringing a truth-filled sickness amongst everyone. After a few brief moments, the sound of whirling helicopters begin swirling about overhead, immediately followed by the sound of metal crashing into yet another building, shattering all windows in the process begins roaring throughout the chaos-filled streets before crashing into the ground at blinding speed and exploding on impact, sending even more heat to crawl its way through the maze of nightmares. Suddenly, the world becomes a blur to Alex, now stricken with the reality that she has absolutely no clue what she is. To her, she could realistically just be a ghost, stranded in a slower reality to that of her own as she is forced to suffer with the possibility that everything is over. However, she is pried from this moment of desolation by David as he begins tugging at her arm. Slowly looking to her left, she watches the man beside her move his mouth, seemingly repeating the same words to her over and over again, but she cannot understand what she is saying. Looking past him, she notices a wall of smoke cover anything within viewing distance, creating an eggshell-like blanket of nothingness of either side of her. Looking forward, she notices the tiny bits of rock and concrete dust and cover the lip of the wall providing her some sort of shelter before looking down at her knees, scraped and bloodied by the friction of the concrete she had been dragged to safety over. As her hearing slowly begins returning, like water draining itself from your ears, Alex notices and can make out the faint sounds of what David is trying to say. She is finally able to barely make out what David is trying to say. “Are you okay?” “I… I…” Alex is only able to muster, still blanketed by the existence of shock. Looking around him quickly, David wraps Alex’s arm over his shoulder before attempting to stand to his feet, only to collapse to the ground in a heap as his back gives out, accidentally tossing Alex to the ground below herself. Suddenly, both are dropped to the ground, helpless and unable to move before the sound of choking on dust begins grabbing the attention of the two. Feeling the cold surface of the gravel below her, Alex lets a singular tear fall from her eye as she begins accepting these moments as the final moments of her life. Her mouth begins shaping a frown as she slowly begins whispering to herself. “Be… safe… girls…” Closing her eyes to find peace within her final moments, Alex hears the rushing steps of shoes hurrying over crushed rock before she is lifted to her feet by two people. As one of the individuals finally gets her stable enough to stand on her own, the second rushes over to David to do the same for him. Feeling herself moving, Alex keeps her eyes tightly shut in refusal to allow any hope of living without her children’s safety being assured, as death to her would be a greater fate than life without her children. Hearing the banging of feet on a metal door, a cool rush of air floods over Alex’s face as the door swings open, and the two still unknown souls carry them into safety. After a few moments, the pain of each step against the floor is alleviated as Alex is approached with the touch of soft, clean sheets and the foam of a mattress comfort her body. Suddenly, the dark and black void in her complete view is obstructed as the red highlight of a flashlight aimed directly into her face becomes impossible to ignore. With all of her strength, Alex brushes away help and anyone around her before noticing the hands of her arms, and the faces tucked into her neck and head, and begins attributing it to something other than being assisted. Suddenly, Alex opens her eyes and accepts that the feeling of pain will not bring her the sweet, somehow soothing release of death. But she now no longer cares. Her sight lifts her of that desire, as she comes face to face with the two people she had fought so hard to find. Her frown turns into one of a pain-filled smile as her hearing returns briefly for yet another moment, long enough for one word to flood its way in through her ears and embed itself into her brain. “Mom!” “And how does that make you feel, Jaime?”
A room small in stature, but comfortable enough for the sunlight to peer through the narrow windows along the walls hosts a therapist, sat behind a desk peering at a cross-legged Jaime in front of her. “Are we really gonna resort to therapy cliches now, Kate? I’ve been coming here for two years and you’re really trying to bail on me now?” Extending her arms outwards in a sarcastic manner, Kate lets out a slight chuckle before elaborating. “Knowing the truth about something that everyone keeps lying to you about can have various effects on a person” Kate says, pausing for a moment to sit back into her chair as her hands cup together. “You know exactly what’s happening, but either no one else realizes that you know or no one cares, so they just lie to you about it and you’re fully aware that they’re lying. Different kinds of people react to that sort of response in different ways, so my question remains… How does that make you feel?” Planting her elevated foot back onto the ground from atop her leg, Jaime begins leaning forward in her chair towards Kate’s desk, opening her mouth to initiate a response but unable to speak as her thoughts begin forming sentences. “Like garbage. Like I’ve got an all-capable stick of unlimited resources and still no way to help.” Leaning even further forward, Jaime’s eyes begin motioning back and forth to each side of her eyes as she begins thinking of what to say. “I- I mean, I know she knows, that I know, what she knows. But I know, that she knows, I can’t do anything about it.” Extending her arm out for the plastic cup of water in front of her, Jaime takes a sip to stop the dryness in her throat as she continues. “But that just makes it even worse” Jaime finishes, now fully slouched over forward as Kate begins folding her arms, before taking a breath and responding. “You were the popular girl in high school. The girl that everyone wanted to be around, and yet you never wanted to be around them. You never shied away from speaking your mind and standing by your statements with logic and wit, and everyone took notice of that in the best way. You were in a situation where you had all the power.” Jaime’s eyes go from focusing on the desk in front of her to the white-bloused woman in front of her as Kate continues. “But now you’re stuck in a similar situation with the opposite scenario, and the biggest difference is that you have none of the power. You’re stranded in a world with no voice, and no way for your words to carry weight. So from my view of the playing field, you have two choices in play.” Leaning forward to come within a foot of Jaime’s face, Kate makes her point simple and clear. “Either find another way to make your voice heard, or let others figure it out for themselves.” - In comparison to the freeway they travel right now, that office room in the back of the therapy clinic feels like paradise. Car horns blaring at nauseum and families abandoning their vehicles in hopes of getting further on foot surround the makeshift group of five on their search for the nearest offramp. “Should be about another two miles ahead” says Chevy from the back, grabbing the attention of Kennedy like a plane crashing into a pillow factory. “Oh hey guys! The biker dude actually talks!” Kennedy shouts from the middle of the group, earning Jaime’s response of a simple turn of the head and raised eyebrow. “What? He had the chance three miles ago!” Jaime stands by her expression, forcing Kennedy to continue walking with the group after a sigh of displeasure. Turning to his girlfriend, Chevy swats the blonde-haired woman on the arm before pointing towards Kennedy and saying, “She is the exact proof of why I hate kids.” Kennedy, not too pleased at this remark, turns to the man like a fish out of water without his motorcycle and asks, “Why? Because they make you feel like less of a man than she already does?” pointing towards Kayla. “Precisely” Kayla says, extending her fist out as Kennedy takes her up on the offer, giving her a fist bump before turning back to the front of the group. “Traitor” Chevy says under his breath, being met with the response of “Guilty” by his better half as the five continue their way forward. Now finding themselves being entrenched within a crowd of people now all taking after the first group of people to do it, and abandoning their cars in hopes of making it further on foot, the group begins huddling together as they walk past people trying desperately to find their way to the nearest point of safety. “Y’know, I never thought of a parking garage as a place to wanna find yourself in” Jordan says, pointing towards a parking garage off the side of the road before continuing, “But can we please at least try to pretend like we know where we’re going?” Continuing onward, Jaime at the front of the group leading them forward says aloud, “We know where we’re going, we just don’t exactly know how to get there.” “Jaime, your parents house is five miles away and your dad doesn’t take too kindly to anyone being there, let alone two strangers and a dude he doesn’t even like.” Scoffing at the notion, Jaime jokingly responds, “My father loves you, he just thinks you’re… A little…” Jaime says, but is unable to finish when Jordan interrupts. “What… Faggy?” Jordan says, forcing Jaime to stop and turn towards him with an expression of surprise. “Not at all the word I was going to use!” Jaime says, only for Jordan to respond, “Not the word you chose, but definitely the word he chose the last time I was there!” “My father… He’s just-” Jaime says, only to be interrupted by Kennedy this time. “A fucking dirtbag?” Kennedy says, stopping Chevy and Kayla in their tracks before Jaime subtly nods her head in agreement before turning around and attempting to continue moving the group forward. “Jaime, we have to be honest with ourselves” Jordan says, tugging at her arm to get her to stop moving as she turns around to face him. “There are people weltering like spoiled milk on a hot day and dying from a seizure fit after choking on their own blood everywhere you look. We can’t just pretend like the second we get back to the house that everything is going to be okay. Something is wrong and we can’t just stand around and hope whatever it is doesn’t happen to us!” Before Jaime can respond, a voice is heard from behind the group coming from Kayla, asking one simple question to anyone that can hear her. “What the hell is he talking about?” Jaime, Jordan and Kennedy all turn to face the gorgeous blonde with her hands dropped to her sides and her long-haired boyfriend with his hands tucked into his pockets and his shoulders extended further out than his neck as the two begin the process of understanding why everything is going to shit. “You- You don’t know?” asks Jordan, squinting one eye as Jaime drops her head to the ground. “What are we supposed to be knowing, exactly?” Chevy asks, still stuffing his hands into his pockets as he awaits an explanation. “People are poison” Kennedy says, only for Jordan to quickly cut off Kennedy by elaborating. “Whatever’s going on, it’s causing people to start getting this rash-like blisters all over their body” Jordan says, with Chevy tucking his head down and Kayla on the verge of either tears or panic before Jordan continues. “Their skin starts burning up like cotton in a fire. They start scratching at their skin until they just… Until they just drop.” “Jesus fuck” Chevy says under his breath before Kayla begins tearing up and looking around the sky for nothing in particular. “We thought you guys already knew” Jaime says, only for Chevy to begin raising his voice into a shout directed right towards the three individuals in front of him. “WE KNEW PEOPLE WERE GOING BATSHIT! WE KNEW THEY WERE RUNNING FROM SOMETHING! WE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE RUNNING FROM!” Chevy screams, causing Kennedy to begin slowly stepping back before being cradled in Jaime’s arms. “Neither do we! Look- Look. All we know is that something is causing this and it’s something common. If it were something rare, it wouldn’t be this bad” Jordan says, only for Jaime to cut him off and continue, still holding Kennedy, “One way or another, people are dying and everyone else is scared. So until we figure out wha-” Jaime continues before being interrupted by a notification on her phone, which everyone other than Chevy and Kayla get as well. “What’s that? What’s going on?” Chevy asks, with Kayla rushing over to view Jordan’s screen, which reads in bold text. /\ “STATE OF EMERGENCY. TO ALL RESIDENTS IN THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY. PLEASE SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY AND DO NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH ANYONE SICKLY. FAILURE TO COMPLY COULD RESULT IN INFECTION. DO NOT DRINK WATER. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN DEATH.” \/ “Holy fuck” Jaime says through bated breaths, with Kayla hurrying back to Chevy and diving into his arms and she whispers to him what the message reads. “Damnit” Jordan says, turning towards the barrier along the sides of the freeway before leaning over it and watching out at the people below rushing towards any shelter they can find. The screams from the surrounding crowd grows louder with each person that reads the warning, but the group of five on the freeway stay mostly silent whilst stuck in place, mulling over the new information afforded to them. As everyone begins trying to get their breathing back on track, Chevy swallows the spit in his mouth before asking aloud to the group one question without hesitation. “Okay” Chevy says, “Where do we go from here?” | Sirens ring throughout the neighborhood, echoing through the trenches of the small suburban roads as police vehicles screech past turns and dead-ends, stopping at every few yards of the street as officers begin charging up the front lawns of each home. Every house looks abandoned, with zero light originating from within the homes and zero sign of life to be found. But one home is noticeably occupied, and it’s easy to notice passing by. Alex stands on her front patio with both of her hands raised at both sides of her head. Awaiting the inevitable, three police officers begin storming towards her with a very noticeable hurry to their actions before storming directly past her and into her home, almost as if they didn’t even see her standing in front of them. Suddenly, a fourth officer comes running up to her with a stethoscope, thermometer and flashlight in his hands before immediately holding the latter up into her eyes, forcing her to close her eyes tightly out of instinct as muffled sounds fill the void-like silence around her. Those muffled sounds are directions being uttered, directions by the officer directly in front of Alex, trying to calmly persuade her to open her eyes and place the thermometer under her tongue. Finally getting the hint, though still somewhat unable to clearly follow the directions, Alex does as she is asked and the officer begins hushing down in order to read the tools in front of him. Flashing the light in both of her eyes, gathering the reading from the thermometer and listening to her pulse from the side of her neck, the officer begins quickly packing everything up and hurrying back to his patrol car, exiting it only after spray painting a symbolic yellow “x” at the front of the Morris family home walkway.. Just as he closes the door to his vehicle, three officers exit Alex’s home and storm down her front lawn to their respective vehicles as the officers join the swarm of other emergency vehicles exiting the neighborhood. Suddenly, her front lawn is vacant again. The silence is back, and there is nothing breaking it this time. The wind is beginning to pick up every so slightly as the air begins feeling crisp and chilly. The occasional breaks of silence from officers kicking in doors to homes around her come around every now and then, but her home in void of all life other than her own again. Whilst still chilly, the air is calm once more, and Alex is left looking out into the road and the yellow “x” spray painted on the front of her walkway. Looking around her immediate vicinity, Alex watches as officers begin dragging bodies out from the homes surrounding her own, with family friends and casual acquaintances alike being pulled out just the same as the others. With each home that a body is taken out of, an officer is right on the scene to spray paint a large yellow “x” much the same as the previous officer had done to hers. However; these yellow symbols are spray painted across the doorways of those same homes, with the doors to them being shut and jammed before the job was considered done. Once jamming the doors, the officers would just simply dump the bodies in a pile next to any others found in the homes before driving off as if nothing had happened. That was it. No further examination and no questions asked. They simply find a body, dump it in the front yard, mark the homes accordingly and leave. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something is not right. Now the chilly air only adds to the cold sweat Alex begins feeling, with each drop of perspiration gliding down her smooth skin before dropping to the equally-cold cement patio beneath her feet. Jaime is with her boyfriend and Kennedy is far past done by school at this point, and the sun has already set on the day in which she brutally near-beheaded her husband in their own bed. To Alex, this is a nightmare far removed from anything close to reality. But it’s also closer to reality anything in her reality could ever be, so she’s left standing there wondering whether or not this is all real or fake. One way or another, real or fake, her children are her top priority now. If they haven’t already come home by now, it’s because they’re in trouble or hiding away somewhere. So as the moon begins to grow brighter with each minute the sky grows darker, Alex storms back into her home as the motion censors turn on the lights to the living room. She bursts into the kitchen before noticing the light already turned on, and the sink at the end of her countertop having it’s handles removed from it, as well as a rubber-like lock placed over it’s faucet. Brushing it off as worth less of her time than the situation at hand, Alex pulls out her cellphone to begin texting Jaime, only for it to die just as she goes to send the text. Slapping her phone a few times before throwing it across the room in a fit of anger, Alex takes a seat at the kitchen table before flipping open her laptop. Opening up her browser, she begins trying to get into her email account before noticing an emergency alert at the top of her inbox. /\ “STATE OF EMERGENCY. TO ALL RESIDENTS IN THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY. PLEASE SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY AND DO NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH ANYONE SICKLY. FAILURE TO COMPLY COULD RESULT IN INFECTION. DO NOT DRINK WATER. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN DEATH.” \/ Looking over to her sink, remaining in the state that she found it in, Alex lets out a few deep breaths of concern, with each breath becoming more rapid than the one before it. Regardless, she still needed to get in touch with her daughters, at the very least ensuring that they’re safe. Alex scrolls through her contact list, finally finding both of her daughters and adding them into the email. She then begins slaving away over her keyboard, making sure she hits on the most crucial points for her daughters to take away from the information. Don’t drink the water, don’t worry about their mother of their father, and most importantly… Don’t come home, Alex was going to find them and get to them. As she presses send, she notices a prior tab at the top of her browser with an unusual amount of notifications visible. Noticing it as a weather service website, Alex clicks on it and refreshes the page. After waiting a few seconds for the internet to catch up, the page finally refreshes to a headline plastered at the top of the very front page. /\ ACID RAIN INCOMING ON THE WESTERN COAST OF THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES, ALASKA AND HAWAII. SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY! Acid rain will be falling over the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming close to 2am PST. Please seek shelter immediately, as the rain could begin falling anytime before then. \/ As Alex goes to click on a link to a further detailed article on the matter, the page and remainder of her browser disconnects from the internet as Alex looks to the corner of her computer to notice the internet connection icon showing that the computer has been disconnected from the internet. Giving up hope on getting any connection to the internet back, Alex shuts the top of her laptop before heading upstairs to her bedroom. Opening the door, she flips on the light to reveal the full extent of her actions, causing her sickened expression of worry turn into a wicked look of evil and pleasure in her work. Turning the corner, Alex grabs a moderately-sized backpack and begins filling it with essential supplies. Medical aid, perishable foods and safety equipment are stuffed into the bag before Alex heads for her front door. However; she stops moving forward after placing her hand on the handle and looks over towards her liquor cabinet, walking over to it and grabbing two bottles of rum. Placing one in her bag, Alex takes the other and hurls it at the glass shelving and mirror ahead, shattering everything as bottles break and her reflection is no more. Finally moving back to her front door, Alex places her hand on the knob before swinging it open and walking out, slamming it emphatically behind her as the automatic lights turn off and allow the darkness to fill the room. | Helicopters begin flying out over the busy Los Angeles streets, with lines of light illuminating from the vehicles still stranded in dead-stop traffic filling the freeways from bumper to bumper. Suddenly, the lights in every building downtown go off at once, with street lights and electronic signs following soon after. The city is dark and cold, and all life stranded within its bounds are left in the dark as people begin hurrying from their vehicles and safety in hopes of either finding answers or people that have them. In front of a large rundown shed in the mountains, sitting on a plastic lawn chair, a man overlooks the scenes unfolding… with a smile. Beside him, a beer that he occasionally takes a swig or two out of. And as each passing moment brings yet another scream of terror from the people below the hill in which he sits atop of, spectating the chaos from afar, his smile grows a little further towards each ear. Taking off his sunglasses, the eyes stare coldly at the sight before him. His breathing is calm, but his gaze towards the city screams of cruel intentions. Suddenly, he takes a final swig of his beer before throwing it down the hill in front of him and standing to his feet. Using his hands to dust off his pants, the man turns towards a motorcycle with a trailer attached behind it and loads three coolers into it to add to the already massive group on board. He then turns back towards the top off the hill and takes a hold of the lawn chair with one hand before throwing it down the hill as well. Finally, he steps forward a few more steps to a telescope, standing sturdy overlooking the town. Without any hesitation, the man takes one foot and kicks the telescope down to the bottom of the hill with the remainder of his discarded supplies. Trekking back over to his vehicle of choice, the man hops onto his motorcycle and begins driving down the dirt road opposite of his campsite. Bits of dirt and rocks are spat out from beneath the vehicle’s back wheel, being sent over the lip of the hill and crashing below, falling over the newly-trashed telescope. The telescope, cracked lens and all, has a singular piece of tape over the side of it with a name written in bold black marker. “Eli” | With the sky continuing to grow dark, and streets beginning to grow desolate of any vehicles, Jaime, Jordan, Kennedy, Kayla, and Chevy find themselves on a quiet back road heading back into town. Stopping for a brief moment as they continue their hike towards safety, the group watch as two helicopters overhead fly directly past each other, coming within inches of clipping each other as questions continue to loom. Kayla is the first to raise one of those questions. “What happens if there is no safe haven? What happens if the city is just as empty as these stupid fucking roads?” Kennedy turns back, staring down Kayla through squinted eyes, drawing yet another question from the blonde-haired beauty. “Is… Is there something I can help you with?” Kayla asks, with the educationally-liberated teenager turning her head subtly to the right as Jaime and Jordan stop ahead of the group and turn back. “Did you finish the second grade?” Kennedy asks, causing Kayla to turn towards her boyfriend with an eyebrow raised, only to be met with a speechless shrug before turning around and nodding her head. “So you know how to fucking put two and two together, great! I’m sure we’re not the only ones!” Kennedy says, only to be interrupted at the end as her name is called out in a stern voice by her older sister ahead. “What? Do you seriously think we’re the ONLY ONES that think there will be some kinda help in the city?” Kennedy asks, with Jordan interrupting to remind everyone that anything is possible now. However; this response isn’t exactly met with optimism from the aggravated teen. “Then you’re a fucking idiot” Kennedy says, with her name beng called in a louder voice from her sister as Jordan begins hanging his head towards the ground. “Ken, I know you’re pissed. Guess what? So is literally everyone around you, but you don’t see us bitching about every little thing. Cool your fucking jets!” Jaime demands, only to be met with an equally loud voice berating her and her demands. “Go to hell, Jaime. Who the fuck put you in charge of me?” Kennedy says, “Are you my boss? Are you my mother? No, so quit acting like you are!” As Jaime goes to respond, Chevy’s voice calls out from behind and interrupts the sibling rivalry unfolding in front of everyone. “Both of you, knock it the fuck off!” the aggravated biker shouts. “You need to quit acting like a five year old and grow up. You’re speaking with the vocabulary of a twenty year-old, so quit crying like a damn baby and grow into your lexicon” Chevy says, looking at Kennedy, and bringing the girl to silence for the first time since the start of their journey. “And you!” He begins once more, this time looking towards Jaime. “I’ve got no problem following your lead, but it’s getting dark out and if you haven’t noticed yet, we’re stopped on another car-accessible road, and that wasn’t working out too well for us last time. This isn’t just you and your buddies walking through town, this is a group of people looking to you to be a leader.” Chevy then steps forward, walking past Kennedy and Jordan without any hesitation before stepping face to face with Jaime, looking her in the eyes before finishing. “So either take this opportunity to step up and be a leader, or step back and let us lead ourselves instead of slowing us down.” Upon conclusion, Chevy and Jaime continue to stare at each other without speaking, whilst the rest of the group stands in their original place and watches the two in front of them. Finally, the silence is broken as Jaime swallows the wad of spit in her mouth and looks to speak, but before a word can leave her lips, the lights in buildings all around the group suddenly die out, and street lights all around them follow suit directly afterwards. Suddenly, the sky seems a little bit darker, and the air feels a little more tense as the group surveys the area for any sign of life to no avail. “Jaime” says Jordan, causing Jordan and Chevy to both turn and face him. “We’ve got to get somewhere quick.” Jaime then turns her head towards nothing in particular for a few moments before turning back to face the group, with Chevy looking her right in the eyes as she breaks her silence. “Let’s get moving” Jaime says, turning around and heading down the street, with Jordan, Kennedy, Chevy and Kayla following suit. | It’s dark, it’s getting cold, and no one has the ability to just take a breath and come down from the adrenaline rush of knowing our certain demise looms over each of us, like a dark cloud anxiously awaiting the chance to flood out any positive hopes. Without water, we die. It’s as simple as that. So where’s the hope? Where’s the drive to push forward? Why is there a desire to regroup with family just to spend your last moments sharing each other’s final breaths? Why is there a desire to b around your loved ones knowing that they’re suffering just as much as you are? For Alex, it doesn’t matter if her daughters are bound for the same impending fate as her own… It just matters that she be with them as they all await the same thing, and cope with it in the process. That’s why she finds herself in the driver’s seat of her car winding through turns and backroads in hopes of finding some place safe to bring her children back to. However; there’s a snarl in that effort to the same degree as everyone else. Dead stop traffic as far as the eye can see. Alex slows down from cruising speed as she entrenches herself on bumper-to-bumper traffic on the main road into the city, placing her car in park with the confirmation that there is no budging to this roadblock in hopes of getting a better view of the situation at hand. Placing her hand on the handle, she pushes her car door open enough to slip out and begin walking forward. With each step, Alex can feel the cool, brisk air grazing her skin as her breath is seen as clear as day breezing past her. Squinting her eyes, she can see the red lights of cars for what seems like miles, all leading back into downtown. Suddenly, she notices the near-center of the city surrounding itself with lights, forming a barricade-like structure in a circle-like fashion. No cars are entering, and no cars are exiting. It’s just one big pit. But for a city as live with all forms of entertainment such as Los Angeles, this seems like one popular fucking pit. With this apocalypse-like thing going on right now, the kind of crowd this pit is drawing would make clubs specializing in the L.A Nightlife quiver in jealousy. So… There must be SOMETHING drawing this crowd… Right? And if it’s known enough for every person within a one-hundred mile radius to take notice… Surely her daughters know it exists. Surely they know it’s here. They have to… Right? Alex may not have confirmation, but she notes that it’s worth checking out. In a time as desperate as this, it’s surely something promising safe haven. And her daughters have ben raised correctly, they know what to do when the going gets tough. If there’s any place she’s got a better chance of finding her children than not, it must be this utopia. So screw the comfort of a heated-vehicle and the safety of an enclosed space, if this traffic isn’t going to move with her, she’s going to move in spite of it. Let the cold weather be damned… Alex is on a mission and a stalemate between vehicles and the concept of moving forward is not going to deter her from setting out on this mission. If she can’t do it on wheels, she’ll do it on foot. As the cold continues to blanket the light-absent, dread-filled city of Los Angeles, Alex moves forward with a few groups of family and friends alike moving around her in the same direction. The trees rustle with more force after each passing minute, and the wind causing it grows more chilling along with it, but Alex continues moving. The light of the sun is all but gone, and the moon is almost the only thing illuminating the city. It’s hard for Alex to notice any cars without their lights on, and every skyscraper just seems like one big shape as no window is noticeable from a distance. So it’s not surprising when Alex continuously fails to notice the man walking at an almost mirrored-pace with from just behind the treeline. Keeping up pace with Alex, adjusting his glasses every now and then with little care of the rest of his disheveled look, the man simply walks forward with his eyes latching onto the woman and no care for whatever stands in front of him. As the man kept pace with Alex, his steps became a little more sporadic. He’d meet the same pace, but his steps were growing closer to those of Alex’s. His steps would continue to grow closer and closer before they’d eventually begin matching Alex’s, mirroring her every step perfectly as they continued on and continued moving. The twin-like movements would come to a screeching halt as a voice would call out from behind the two. “Hey, sir!” yells a man with a brown bag in his hand, causing Alex to stop and thereby the man as well. Both Alex and the man would both turn back to peer down the road until the two noticed the man calling for the individual in the woods. Swallowing a ball of spit in his throat, the man would walk out from behind his treeline-defense and into the open road towards the man, with Alex now continuing forward and returning to her intended direction. “Hey man, you’ve got a name, right?” The bag-carrying man asks. Before answering, the individual in question adjusts his glasses, fixing them to an even point before saying, “Eli.” “Eli… Sweet. Uh. Okay, so… I know everyone’s, like, crazy and shit. But like, you stopped and shit. So thanks. You, uh. You’ve got any money on you?” Shutting his eyes and letting out a muffled sigh of frustration, Eli simply nods as his lips pucker and tilts his head back slightly, quietly suggesting the man follow him. Doing so, Eli and the man walk back off of the road and into the forest. Not much for words, Eli just leads the man forward to the sound of the desperate drunk’s incoherent ramblings in the background. Suddenly Eli’s forward progress is halted when he lunges forward and falls onto the ground. “Oh dude, you ‘right?” The drunk asks, with a now dirt-covered Eli nodding and repeating “Yep, yep, yep” over and over again. As Eli stands to his feet, the man asks “You need me to getcha some help?” only to be answered with a cracking blow to the side of his head, dropping him onto the ground. “AH, SHIT MAN!” the drunk says, clutching at his head and looking above to see Eli gripping onto a rock in his right hand. Removing his hand from his head, the drunk looks on at his blood-covered palm before looking back to Eli. “WAIT!” shouts the man once before his vision cuts to black and Eli rains down five more shots on the man, grunting with each shot louder and louder before shooting back to his feet. Admiring his work for a moment, Eli throws the rock over his head and kneels down to the brown paper bag, revealing the still open-eyed drunk and the slightly-fractured skull, just barely allowing enough of a view of his blood-covered brain as Eli returns to his feet with the glass bottle in hand. Walking away from the scene of his crime, Eli walks back out into the road. Looking forward at the sanctuary-like circle in the middle of downtown, a smirk engulfs his face before he throws the glass bottle with all of his might down the road in the direction of the sanctuary. Waiting for a few moments, Eli listens closely for the sound of shattering glass and a car alarm before moving forward down the middle of the road. With car lights flashing and the sound of a screeching banshee littering the streets, a well-built man carrying a flashlight runs down the road and up to a now windshield-less convertible and begins checking it’s interior, with no one around and no end to the noise in sight. Rushing over to the other side of the car, the man extends his arm around the edge of the windshield and unlocks the driver’s side door. Before entering the vehicle, he overhears a woman call out to him as she rushes forward. “Do you need help?” the woman asks, causing the man to stop in his tracks and look forward. He notices Alex rushing up to the front of the car and stop in her tracks, awaiting his response. “Um, yeah. Yeah, do you have a pair of scissors or something?” the man asks, watching as Alex pulls a pocket knife out of her pocket and extends her hand. “Even better! Thanks!” The man says, ripping open the fabric beneath the steering wheel and cutting at a bright-green wire for a few seconds until the noise stops and the two wait for a few seconds for their hearing to come back down to earth. After a breath of relief, the man exits the vehicle and closes the pocket knife back up before returning it to its original owner. “Thank you” the man says, with Alex shaking her head and stating that it was no problem. “Well, best of luck” the man says before beginning to walk forward, only for Alex to stop the man with a question. “What was that?” The man asks, causing Alex to repeat the question. “I helped you really quickly, so would you mind helping me really quickly?” Turning back to face the woman with a resistful grin on his face, the man plants his hands on his hips and asks what services of his she is requesting. “What do you know about that light-filled mosh pit thing down there in town?” Looking towards the city skyline, the man responds, “The army camp?” After placing her hands halfway into her pockets, Alex stands her ground. “Yeah, what’s going on down there?” Shaking his head and grasping at straws, the man responds begins explaining. “Well there are millions of people who were told that they can no longer use one of the necessities for human life for whatever reason and that’s not really going over well with everyone.” After a rief moment, Alex cuts him off. “Really? That wasn’t evident at all. I would have never assumed people were taking the idea of dying soon in a BAD way. Thank you, Socrates!” “Well, no. My grandfather was Socrates and my father was always the Aristotle of the group. So technically I’d be the Aristotle…” The man says before noticing Alex beginning to fain a yawn. “Nevermind. Long story short, there are two types of people. The people that need to get back to their loved ones and spend the rest of their time with them and the people that are heading for the army camp to find safety for themselves. That center down there is filled with the latter.” Looking off at the city and nodding, Alex responds. “Well, Ari-Who Cares, you might want to open your eyes to the third kind of people.” “And what kind of people does that third category apply to?” the man asks. Alex turns back to face him with her hands remaining in her pockets, “The people looking for both.” Stepping up and patting the man on the arm, Alex thanks him for his help and begins walking forward before she too is stopped by a question. “Mind if I tag along?” The man asks, forcing Alex to turn around before adding, “If we’re going the same way, I wouldn’t mind someone to make the road trip a little less lonely.” Biting her bottom lip in a sign of consideration, Alex answers. “I don’t even know you’re name, and that’s not a good sign that I’ll be able to trust you.” Cracking a smirk for a moment, the man responds. “David. I’m assuming you’re Alex since you took the time to carve it into the handle of that knife you can use on me if I try to pull anything.” Now cracking a smile herself and pairing it with a subtle laugh, Alex responds. “If at any point, and I mean at any fucking point, you start singing Tom Petty… I’ll spare no exception to straight up gut you where you stand.” Smiling, David raises his hand to his face and swipes the hair out of his eyes as he and Alex begin marching forward towards the city, only to leave behind an individual standing behind a car a few paces back without knowing. Slowly walking out from behind his vehicular cover, Eli watches as the two walk before slowly following in their direction, stepping over the shattered glass beneath his feet on the way forward. | Though muffled, words can be heard the farther into the city everyone goes shouting louder than the screams surrounding it. Demands that everyone remain calm and gathered in an orderly fashion reign over a crowd of thousands clambering to get within the walls of sanctuary in downtown Los Angeles. Though on edge, Jaime doesn’t let the sounds of pleading and begging from men, women, and children alike stop her from leading her people forward. Her boyfriend being the closest to her in proximity, Jordan trails behind Jaime with his left hand in his pocket and his right hand swinging with his body’s motion. Kennedy trails just behind him, checking her phone after every few minutes in hopes of something to end the shitshow around them just popping up on her phone’s interface. Just behind Kennedy, Chevy walks with his arm wrapped around Kayla’s back, holding her into his side as, for the first time since they met, the group is silent, solely focused on getting to sanctuary. Looking down at his girlfriend, and noticing her grip on his right arm, Chevy whispers to Kayla, asking if she’s okay. “What happened back in that alley? With the cops?” Kayla asks, “I didn’t see it. Well- I saw some of it. Once the guy stood up he walked off and I couldn’t see him until I heard the shot.” Taking a brief breath, Chevy uses his free hand to scratch his head. “He charged at the cops. They did what they needed to do.” Swallowing the saliva gathering in her mouth, Kayla tightens her grip on Chevy’s hand just slightly before digging her head further up to Chevy’s chest. “We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Looking down to Kayla, only seeing the top of her head, Chevy squints quickly as if Kayla was stating something extraordinary, only to ease his eyes after a brief moment and begin thinking silently to himself. After a few moments, Kayla whispers Chevy’s name, bringing her boyfriend to completely shut his eyes before opening them back up and shaking his head. “No. We’ll find something downtown.” Chevy says, drawing Kayla’s ire. “You don’t think that, Chevy. I know you” Kayla says, “You’re hoping that’ll happen. But- but you don’t think it’s gonna.” “Well why did you ask me, then?” Chevy asks, prompting Kayla to raise her head up to face Chevy. “If you thought there was no way out of this, too… At least, we’d focus on spending our last few days together instead of finding some non-existent solution.” Suddenly, Chevy’s face turns sturdy, sticking by his earlier assessment. Looking back into Kayla’s eyes, he places his free hand to her cheek and glides his thumb over her smooth skin before stating as plain as day to his girlfriend, looking her in the eye through every second, “We’re going to live.” Despite not bringing awareness to it, Kennedy, Jordan, and Jaime all overhear the conversation, and Chevy assuring his girlfriend of their ultimate survival brings a momentary smile to their faces collectively, almost as if those four simple words breathed new life into the group entirely. Kayla lowers her head back into Chevy’s chest as the group continues marching forward with a purpose. As the march towards safety continues, the group is forced to a halt as gunfire begins ringing through the streets, and the sound of gunshots bounces from building to building, echoing throughout the city like a pin dropping in a tight hallway. Suddenly, a rapid burst of automatic gunfire begins ringing through the streets as the screaming of desperate civilians looking for safety grows louder. “Jaime!” Jordan calls from behind her, rushing up and placing a hand on her shoulder. “We have to get out of here!” Jordan orders, only for the calls of a woman to force the group to turn their direction opposite of the way they were heading. The calls from the woman turn into orders, as each member of Jaime’s group raises their hands into the air at the sight of the barrel of a gun pointed directly at them. “Put everything you have on the ground, NOW!” The woman demands, the gun still shaking in her grasp as she coddles a young child by her side. One by one, each member of Jaime’s group begins lowering their belongings onto the ground in front of them. A few dollars, a cell phone every now and then and a pocket knife are placed onto the ground by the time it becomes Jaime’s turn. She and her boyfriend are the final members of the group to have not ridden themselves of their belongings. Jordan begins preparing to empty his pockets until he sees the woman raise the barrel of her gun in Jaime’s direction, ordering her to keep her hands where the woman can see them. “Ma’am, all of my things are on the pack on my back” Jaime says, but the woman won’t have any of her explanation. “No! Someone else will take the bag off for you!” The woman screams, causing Jaime’s hands, still raised into the air to grow steady, almost frozen in place as Jordan looks on and tells the woman that he’ll take the bag off for his girlfriend. “Hurry up and do it then! I- I don’t have time to waste!” the woman shouts, allowing Jordan to slowly walk up behind Jaime. “It’s harnessed it, I have to unclasp it!” Jordan slowly explains, with the woman telling him to hurry up, only for her shaky hands to accidentally pull the trigger, sending a bullet twenty feet above the group, causing them to duck as the window of a downtown office building shatters to the ground below just behind the five survivors. “Hey! What the he-” Jordan goes to say, only for the woman to become more erratic, waving the gun around in their direction whilst ordering them to stay where they are. “Okay! I’m unclasping the backpack!” Jordan says to the woman, only to be cut off when a young man, no older than his early twenties rounds the corner, only to be forced to a stop as the gun begins being aimed in his direction. “You! Give me what you have!” The woman orders, staring down the man, who finds himself unable to move or respond. Jordan watches the scene in front of him from behind his girlfriend, watching on as the woman’s sole focus is placed on the new individual introduced into the situation. Suddenly, the child beneath his mothers feet drops to his knees, vomiting a pool of blood as he clutches to his throat. Noticing this, the mother becomes more incensed than before, ordering both the new man and Jaime’s group to give to her what they have. Eventually, the woman collapses to her knees to cradle her young son, now screaming in agony as blisters begin overwhelming his skin, turning him beat red as his slithering begins to slow down until his body becomes motionless, laying with his hands over the top of his chest in his mothers lap as she begins lamenting over the fresh cut of her son’s inhumane end. “Jordan” Jaime whispers, “She’s not gonna let us go.” Jordan looks to the ground, noticing the pocket knife below Kennedy’s feet, with the youngest of Alex’s daughters staring down the woman with a cold and calculated stare before looking back up at the woman. Slowly, Jordan begins stepping out from behind his girlfriend before his attention is grabbed by the random man beginning to take a few steps backwards to run back in the direction from which he came. Jordan takes a mental note of this and begins kneeling down and reaching out for the pocket knife, which he unfolds quickly and quietly as he subtly hides it behind his thigh. Jordan’s eyes then grow as cold as Kennedy’s stare, complimenting the chill in the air nicely as he takes a final look at the man, now turning around and bolting for the alley he originated from, prompting the woman to raise her gun towards him and take two shots, hitting the brick of a post office building with the first shot, and the man straight in the back with the second, bringing him to the ground. As the man dropped, everything became muffled for Jordan. His eyebrows clenched as the sound of the man’s thud against the ground became resounding. Suddenly, he notices the woman’s view turn to himself. Taking the opportunity, Jordan begins rushing towards the woman, who struggles to free herself beneath the weight of her son, offering Jordan enough time to close the distance. Each step feels like an explosion to Jordan, who raises his arm and lunges forward as the woman stands to her feet and faces in his direction, plunging the blade of the knife directly into the neck of the heavy-hearted, yet dangerously unpredictable woman, forcing her hand to tighten its grip on the trigger, sending a bullet straight downwards into the chest of her son’s corpse as Jordan takes her to the ground. Freeing the blade from her neck, Jordan repeats the process. Plunging and freeing, plunging and freeing, plunging and freeing as the woman’s mouth pool with blood and the gun in her hand falling further and further from her grasp with each new gash. Finally, the gun drops fully onto the ground beside her as Jordan frees the blade from her jugular for the final time. The final signs of life drain from the woman’s eyes as he blood drips from the blade in Jordan’s blood-stained hands like water from a gutter in a rainstorm. Finally, as Jordan’s surroundings begin returning to their normally perceived state, his eyes begin finding warmth returned to them, as his expression goes from that of a man on a mission to one of a man realizing the actions he has just committed. Behind him, Chevy and Kayla watch on as the latter’s lip quivers from a mixture of the cold air and the sights she bare witness to. Meanwhile, she is held firmly within the grasp of her lover, who finds himself clutching to Kayla with every ounce of strength he has. Kennedy watches on, trying to bring her body to step back in response, but simply remains standing in place, unable to do anything. As Jordan looks around at the aftermath surrounding him from all angles, a singular tear falls from his eye as he slowly turns to face his girlfriend. With her hand over her mouth and her eyes emboldened by the sight in front of her, her eyes grow even wider as she sees her boyfriends face once again. Blood staining his own neck and the shirt he wears on both the neck and cuffs, Jaime steps forward slowly before kneeling down beside him. Watching as he struggles to speak, trying to lift his hands close enough to his face to wipe away the tears, Jordan whispers to her through the sorrow in his soul. “S- She- She- She w… She was gonna- Was gonna hurt you.” Jaime’s eyes now fill with tears as she reaches for Jordan’s head and pulls into her chest, assuring Jordan that everything is okay. “You…” Jaime says, pausing for a moment to lower her face to the top of Jordan’s head before beginning to whisper. “You did the right thing.” “So… Now what?” The quiet campground has its silence broken with the ringing echo of the most important question of the night being asked by the man with a leather jacket on and an unlit bud in his mouth.
“I mean… We’re no safer out here than we were back in town” the man says, finally placing the flame of his flip lighter to the end of his cigarette. “Someone? Anyone? No idea? Okay…” Finally, the blonde snaps out of her daze to fill the void left by the events immediately prior to their escape from the city. “North. Like we talked about” the woman says, sticking to the hope that if salvation can’t be under their nose, it must be found somewhere. “If we’re not going to get answers, we’ll need to find them ourselves” the woman says, directing her attention to everyone in the group one at a time. “The best chance we have is to get out of the center of the chaos. If that means finding a place up North safe enough to figure things out, then I’m heading North.” “Ehem” a brief interlude comes from the leathered-man and his dirty-blonde haired girlfriend, “We’re ALL going North.” After a brief pause rises through the camp, smiles form on each person’s face as Jaime begins readying to finalize the group’s decision. “Then it’s settled” the blonde says, her boyfriend resting the palm of his hand in hers and her mother resting the palm of her hand on her cheek. “We head for North at dawn!” | / earlier / | “Mom! we have to leave in, like, five minutes!” yells Alexandra’s youngest daughter mid-flight down the stairway of their home. “Jamie’s taking you to school, Ken. She’ll be down in a second” responds Alex, currently burying her face in her purse, shuffling through in search for her daughter’s inhaler. “Why does Jamie have to take me? I thought she was hanging out with her boyfriend again” Kennedy responds, putting on a scowl as she stares off to the side. “Mom has some things to take care of, honey. I’ll be there at the end of the day to pick you up, though.” Marching down the stairs with a louder step than a drill sergeant comes Jamie, the eldest, carrying a brown sachel over her shoulder as she reaches towards the bowl placed on a shelf beside the front door where her keys currently lay. “Come on, squirt. I’m not waiting around for you” the eldest calls over, only to turn around to watch as the youngest runs out through the door in an attempt to get the front seat before her older sister could deny her request. “Okay then” Jamie says, turning towards her mother and asking whether or not Kennedy has a ride home. Alex finally finds her daughter’s inhaler, turning to Jamie and tossing it right into her hand, only for Jamie’s expression to begin souring as she looks at her mother. “Mom?” Jamie asks, with Alex asking what the cause of her seeming concern is. The two remain silent, looking directly at each other without a hint of movement until Alex takes a deep, yet brief, inhale as she rushes towards the mirror hung up over the shelf beside the front door. “You go, sweetheart. Just stay safe, okay?” Alex says to her eldest, with her daughter hesitantly turning back towards her car with a dissatisfied and somewhat fed-up look on her face as Alex turns back to the mirror. Rushing up the stairs, Alex makes a quick turn into the bathroom in hopes of looking for her case of makeup, one she has been forced to write “Emergency case” over to assure herself of its use, only to be unsuccessful. Alex continues to hurriedly begin looking through the shelving of the towel closet in search for her makeup bag, finally coming across it and closing the towel closet door, only to see her husband, dressed from head to toe in raggedy pajamas, staring on at her with a look of anger. “Good morning, darling. Is there something I can…” Alex begins to ask, only to be interrupted as her husband begins stepping through the doorway. “You woke me up” he says, syllable by syllable before planting a firm slap to his wife’s face as she begins trying to apologize. “And what did I tell you about covering up your marks?” He shouts once more before taking the sole of his foot and returning it to the surface of the floor after laying in a stomp to Alex’s shoulder. “Cover those up and clean the room, bitch” Robert says before walking out of the room and down the hall, towards the main living space of the home as Alex cowards in fear hoping her husband will not return. Catching her breath through her muffled sobs, Alex takes her hand and places it on the rim of the sink, helping herself back to her feet before looking in the mirror, noticing a bright-red handprint plastered against her cheek. Regaining her composure, Alex places the pad of her makeup brush to her cheek, as well as the black eye that began this entire chain of events to begin with. Covering up any sign of the damage done by her loose-cannon husband, Alex wipes away a tear from her eyes before turning her expression from sadness into one of an empty-happiness, with a meaningless smile and lively eyes overwhelming the inner torture she feels herself containing. Breaking once briefly, losing the ability to smile as she focuses on the makeup powder around her eye, she returns to a frown before taking in a deep breath and bringing her smile back before turning to the door and exiting the bathroom. | As the sun beams down on a busy downtown, a man in a hefty leather jacket scrolls through his phone looking at the headlines. Catching up on news stories, he instinctively reaches to the pocket of his jacket for a package of cigarettes, taking one out before reaching for a match to light it. Before he can strike the flame-starter against its box, a woman in a white t-shirt carrying a bag in her hands walks out of the cafe front the man was leaning up against the wall of and swipes the cigarette from his mouth, allowing it to fall to the asphalt below. “What the hell was that for, Kay?” The man asks, raising both hands from his sides into the air, letting them equal out at neck height as the dirty-blonde haired woman turns around to face him with a smile. “You never told me anything about wanting a bagel with sour cream and a side of tobacco smoke, how was I supposed to know?” The woman responds, with the man’s arms falling back to his sides as he sighs with a smirk forming in the corner of his mouth. “Come on, Chevy. Let’s get our move on.” The blonde woman turns and begins walking in the opposite direction of the leather-jacketed, sour cream bagel-having man, causing the smirk to turn into acceptance as the pairing make their way to a motorcycle parked on the side of the curb. Hoping on, Chevy helps Kay onto the bike before riding off down the road and towards the inside of the city. As the pairing continue their path down the road, they are forced to a near-screeching halt behind a larger-SUV parked in the middle of the road. Using the moderate horn on his motorcycle, Chevy tries to get the attention of the driver of the vehicle, only for his efforts to prove futile as there remains no movement from inside the vehicle, and no movement from the car itself. “This is bullshit” Chevy says as Kayla clutches to him with a stronger grip as the two proceed to drive around the parked vehicle, with Chevy flipping whatever driver of the vehicle as they pass by. Continuing forward, Chevy and Kayla eventually make it to their originally planned destination, a bookstore in an area on the outskirts of the downtown area. Parking his bike and setting up the kick stand, Kayla disembarks from her lovers two-wheeled death trap before starting for the door. As she reaches out for the handle, a woman beats her to the punch, opening it to let herself out whilst in the middle of fighting a coughing fit. Watching the woman walk past her, she returns to looking at the door as Chevy approaches her from behind and takes the handle of the door in his hand, holding it open for his biking partner. “What a gentleman” Kayla says in a sarcastic tone before Chevy silently bows with one arm to her as she enters the building, with Chevy following right behind. Walking through the tables of books set on display at the front of the store, Kayla manages to eagle-eye her friend in the corner of the room taking a seat on a chair hidden away behind a stack of damaged books. “Marcy!” Kayla says semi-enthusiastically, earning the attention of her brunette librarian friend, who makes an attempt at standing to her feet, only to be forced back into her seat. “Are you alright?” Kayla asks, brushing a strand of hair from her face, and relocating it behind her ear as she reaches her hand out towards the woman. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little hot is all” Marcy responds, with Kayla kneeling in front of her and lifting up her sleeve, revealing a trail of bright-red blemishes acting like a sore from the top of her elbow to her shoulder. “What the hell are these?” Kayla asks, gently grazing Marcy’s skin with the tip of her index finger, only for Marcy to quickly shove Kayla’s hands away before returning her sleeve to its former position. “Stop, don’t touch it” Marcy says, drawing confusion from Chevy and Kayla, with the latter asking for a reason. “It burns” Marcy responds, “Anything that touches it makes it burn worse.” “What do you mean ‘it burns?’” Kayla asks, only for Marcy to admit that she doesn’t know what it means, only saying that the best way to describe the pain is like a fire-burning sensation constantly. “Let us take you to the hospital then” Chevy says, only for Marcy to respond by telling the pair that she can’t leave her job before the end of her shift, as she desperately needs the money for school. “School’s going to wait, your health isn’t” Chevy responds, only for Marcy to continue shaking her head, denying the help as she stands from her chair through grunts of pain before walking back to the front desk. “So, what did you guys need?” Marcy asks, bending down to retrieve a carry bag filled to the brim with containers and baggies. “Just the weed” Kayla answers, with Marcy asking for the usual amount. “Here it is” Chevy says, forking over the cash as Marcy extends her hand to hand the pair six baggies, all of which filled with as much marijuana as they could hold, only for the bags to fall to the surface of the desk as Marcy swings her opposite hand back to her arm, holding it through silent screams of pain. Kayla begins trying to comfort her friend as Chevy looks back to her arm, noticing the red-patch of inflamed skin spreading down towards the middle of her forearm. Noticing this, Chevy taps his girlfriend on the shoulder before pointing at the wound, causing Kayla to become scared. “Marcy, we’ve got to get you to the hospital!” Kayla begins saying louder with each plea to help Marcy, only for her worry to be retaliated to as Marcy throws the baggies of weed to her clients, shouting at them to leave the store. Briefly trying to continue pleading to help Marcy, Kayla is forced to resign to the fact that Marcy will not be helped, with Chevy and herself beginning back towards the front door of the store. Thinking it over once more, Kayla turns around to walk back into the store to try to help her friend one last time, only to be met with Marcy slamming the door shut in her face and locking it from the inside. Turning to her boyfriend, Kayla notices Chevy already on the phone awaiting for an answer, only to get an unresponsive tone from the machine trying to process his call. Noticing the confusion in Chevy’s face, Kayla asks who he was trying to call, with Chevy responding that he was dialing 9-1-1. Chevy tries once more to place a call into emergency services, once again to no response. “9-1-1 is supposed to run no matter what” Kayla exclaims, with Chevy nodding in agreement, though continuing to show confusion in his face. “Let’s start heading home, we’ll try again there” Kayla says, walking towards the bike and beginning to take her seat, only for accidentally kick over her cup of coffee resting on the back-most cup holders, forcing Chevy to quickly reach for napkins and begin padding off the bike. “Shit, sorry about that” Kayla says, with Chevy shrugging his shoulders mid-pat down and telling his girlfriend that it’s no big deal. “Let’s head back to the cafe and I’ll buy you a new one” Kayla offers, with Chevy reminding her that she doesn’t have to buy him a new cup of coffee, “I know, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to” Kayla responds, forcing Chevy to turn his head towards her and smile as she begins giving him the puppy dog look. Chevy sighs before placing his arm on the console of his bike, resting up against it before responding, “Fine” to his girlfriend, who immediately returns to her smile before hopping back onto the bike as the two make a u-turn and head back up the road and towards the cafe. | As an empty middle school parking lot, void of any sign of life or joy, sucks the youth away from the children previously dropped off at it at the start of a bright and sunny day, an SUV barrels over a speed bump before coming to a screeching halt directly outside of the life-stripping center of pseudo-education. Being thrusted into their seats by the force of the sudden stop, Jaime adjusts her hair in the driver’s seat mirror as Kennedy turns her head to face her sister with a look of pure confusion as she wonders how the two made it to their destination alive and in one piece. “What… Was that?” Kennedy asks as her sister simply places her thumb in the air and begins waving goodbye without uttering a single word. Turning her look of confusion into one of tiredness, Kennedy opens the door and begins to exit the vehicle before turning around and facing her sister once again. “Drive safely, please?” Kennedy asks her sister, who turns back to face her younger sister before sticking her tongue out in the most childish way imaginable. Kennedy proceeds to let out a small, yet noticeable laugh, causing Jaime to begin exploding into laughter herself, causing Kennedy to do the same. The two girls smile to each other as Kennedy’s feet remain hanging out of her sister’s car door whilst a woman in a full suit and high heels begins walking out of the building and straight for the car. Placing her hands on her hips with a stern, fun-emptying look on her face, the woman simply stands a few yards away from the vehicle awaiting Kennedy’s arrival into the physical building itself. Turning back to her sister, Kennedy forces a smile as Jaime extends her fist, which Kennedy answers by returning the fist for a fist bump before exiting the vehicle and closing the door behind her. Watching her sister walk into the building, Jaime turns the radio onto full blast before texting her boyfriend that she was on her way. Repeating her earlier action of carelessly refusing to acknowledge the existence of speed bumps, Jaime drives her way out of the school drop-off area before beginning her way to see her boyfriend. | Back in the school, Kennedy is given a slip for detention for being late by the principal, who then stands from his seat to make his way to the loud speaker. Walking through the hallways, Kennedy continues walking to her locker and past school room after school room of children screwing around and throwing wads of crumbled-up loose-leaf paper at each other as information about the upcoming school dance and fundraising campaigns are read off. Eventually reaching her locker, Kennedy puts in her combination and begins placing her things away. Looking through her locker, decorated in with three purple frog stickers, Kennedy finds a book with the name “Simpson” on it before looking into the room behind her where her classmate should be seated. Only today, he isn’t seated in the room, and furthermore, each seat directly opposite of his usual seat is also abandoned by the children in the class room. Taking a few short steps forward to look further into the class room, Kennedy notices all of the children swatting at each other and itching, unusual in comparison to each of the other class room’s Kennedy had encountered on her post-detention walk of shame. Continuing to assess the class room, Kennedy notices the teacher, Mrs. Warren, looking oddly concerned as she lightly scratches her wrist beneath the top of her desk, as if she was trying to hide herself doing it. Thinking of this as more than just an odd departure from the usual morning activities, Kennedy begins walking past her home room and down the hallway towards her guidance counselors office. Walking through the door to the cut-off guidance counselors area, Kennedy turns the corner towards her counselor’s office door, only to notice it unusually closed with a note written on the whiteboard attached to the door’s outer side reading, “Out sick, any concerns are to be brought to Vice Principal Isaac.” Noting how unusual this turn of events were, Kennedy turns another corner towards the second guidance counselor’s office, only to see the same result and a note directing any concerns to Vice Principal Isaac. As Kennedy continues looking around the small, yet unmissable guidance area, she hears a roll of tape being used from outside of the room. Returning to her original entry point, she notices the custodian being accompanied by Vice Principal Isaac, taping off the door with bright and unmistakable red tape. “HEY!” Kennedy shouts from inside, causing the custodian and her designated guidance counselor-by-default to stop their efforts to sanction off the room from the remainder of the school as both people quickly peel away the tape and open the door, entering into the room and grabbing Kennedy by the wrist, pulling her out into the hallway before quickly closing the door once again and beginning with the tape again. “WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN THERE, YOUNG LADY?” Vice Principal Isaac shouts from the top of his lungs in the middle of the echo-inducing hallway at the terrified and confused thirteen year old girl, causing a stand-still for the rest of the school and hallway, which grows quiet as students approach their individual doorways to look on at the events unfolding. “I… I… Just wan… Just wanted to tell Ms. Nara that I have Simpson’s book” the girl says, forcing Vice Principal Isaac to close his eyes and take in a breath of relief before continuing with a much softer tone. “I’m sorry, it’s just a little scary almost trapping one of our students in a room as scar… As alone as this one.” Catching onto the Vice Principal’s break in his words, Kennedy begins trying to question Vice Principal Isaac’s original wording, only to be cut off before she could truly begin saying anything by Vice Principal Isaac asking to see the book. “Why do you wan…” Kennedy begins asking, only to be cut off once more by the principal returning to his echoed shouts as he demands once more with conviction to be handed the book. Without Kennedy even reacting, the sheer shock from the principal’s bipolar-like conversation with her causes Kennedy to drop the book in the spot she stood, with the vice principal desperately throwing himself to the ground to take possession of the book before beginning to quickly walk off in the opposite direction of Kennedy. Rounding the corner, the vice principal disappears behind a brick wall as Kennedy remains standing there, with only the whispers of gossip of the children immediately to the right and left of her filling the room. The custodian proceeds to also walk away after patting Kennedy on the head, leaving the young girl alone and frozen in place in the middle of the hallway. | “Are you coming or not?”, “Hello?”, “Where the hell are you?” light up Jaime’s phone screen in white-text bubbles under the contact name “Jordan” as the eldest of Alex’s daughters sits in the driver’s seat of her car overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, but with an expression of frustration overwhelming her as she continues to look around the outer area of her car in hopes that a vehicle, or truly anything will show up. With one last effort to contact her boyfriend, Jaime texts one final “Respond now or I’m coming to your house to check up on you” before adding on “You’re never this silent” after the fact. After another minute of waiting, raising her attention to the skyline for the first time in ages, Jaime’s attention is caught by a fleet of five helicopters flying in formation over the downtown Los Angeles area, which Jaime clearly notices as nothing but suspicious. Continuing to watch their flight pattern, Jaime watches them continue to fly in their formation before flying behind a skyscraper, obstructing Jaime’s view as the helicopters never appear on the opposite side. Completely filled with confusion, and some well-justified worry and concern, Jaime glances back down, only to be met with no answer from her lover once again. Frustrated, Jaime tosses her phone into the fold of her passenger seat and takes her car out of park, reversing it onto the dirt hill and coming to a stop when she is face to face with the dirt road she took to enter the area. Jaime then proceeds to throw her car into drive, only to keep her foot planted on the brake pedal as she watches a man carrying a cantina of water and a telescope walk over the edge of the road and into her view. Squinting to make sure she truly didn’t recognize the man walking in her direction, Jaime keeps her foot planted on the brake pedal whilst rolling down her window just slightly to allow a conversation with the man to become a possibility. Walking further up to Jaime’s vehicle, the man waves in her direction before jogging up to her driver side window and introducing himself. “Eli, nice to meet you!” Caught slightly off guard by the man’s kind demeanor, Jaime introduces herself in return before apologizing for her worried expression, explaining to the man that she didn’t know what to expect when he arrived over the lip of the road in front of her. “It’s no worry” says the doomsday-preparation looking man, “This place is rather remote, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking I was a serial killer or any sort of that jazz.” Noticing the man consistently breaking his view from the business-to-take-care-of Jaime, the girl asks whether or not the man is looking for or out for something. Itching his neck, glistening from the sunlight reflecting off of his sweat, the man simply explains that he’s trying to get away from the city life for a little while, as whilst the place is remote, it is the perfect cite to get away from civilization for a few days. “Well, I wish you the best of luck in your travels” Jaime says as the man begins to show a slight smile, thanking her in return for her best wishes and wishing her luck on checking up on the person she is concerned for. “What? What do you mean by concerned?” Jaime asks, which the man begins waving his hand to, explaining that her rushed mannerisms when talking to him gave away that she was worried about something other than the identity of the man she was communicating with, and he knew she was trying to leave as soon as possible. “I won’t keep you any longer, you’ve clearly got someone or something you need to get to, so I’ll let you get back to your business. Thank you for the wishes, however. It’s nice to see someone remembering how human everyone around them is” the man says before beginning to walk off further down the trail he originally set out to travel. Turning her head away from the window and further into the car at a much slower pace than before, Jaime begins remembering her original intentions before rolling up the car window and beginning to proceed down the dirt road she began for minutes prior. Picking her phone back up from her passenger seat, Jaime texts her boyfriend one final time, with a quick “omw” popping up from her side of the conversation before Jaime tosses her phone back into its originally-thrown place once more and begins heading for her boyfriends home. | As the sunlight beams in through a closed window with its curtain raised to its highest point, Alex scrubs away with a soap pad on the floor of her husband’s bedroom, trying desperately to rid of the beer stains that overwhelm the hardwood of the floor. Every corner is covered in balls of dust, and every edge of the wall is hidden behind build up of dirt and muck. Continuing to scrub as strands of hair fall in front of her face, Alex stops moving completely as her husband walks through the doorway with a beer in his hand, causing the hair on Alex’s skin to stand. “You should have gotten to this sooner” Robert says, raising his foot to shove Alex over and onto her side before continuing forward and hopping into bed, his feet flying into the air as he sinks into the comfortable mattress, whilst his wife places her elbows and knees onto the cold surface of the hardwood floor to pick herself back up. Continuing to scrub away, Alex stares off at the soles of her husbands feet hanging off of the edge of the bed whilst reminiscing of their memories from the start of the marriage, only for each happy memory to be clouded with an overlapping loop of each slap, kick, push, punch and headbutt that her husband delivered to render out any positive recollections. Breaking back into reality, Alex finds herself scrubbing a small puddle of soapy water before swallowing the buildup of saliva in her mouth and grabbing a rag to wipe away the water in front of her. Dropping her rag to the ground, Alex stares off around her room before picturing it in two different ways. One on side of the spectrum, the room is bright and lively, filled with the memories of the couple happily married and playing with their children on the mattress her husband currently rests atop of. And on the other side of the spectrum, the dark and eery bedroom she currently finds herself scrubbing the filth away from, full of each memory of the lights going off behind her eyelids as her husbands hand whips through the air after finishing its contact with her cheek. Continuing to remain there, on her knees and staring off into nothing, she imagines herself being cradled by her husband after he was elected to the California Senate, only for that thought to be hidden away behind the reminder of being wrestled to the ground by that same man after being framed for corruption and being forced to resign from his office, and become black-balled by every political medium existing. She imagines her husband and herself buying the home they had always talked about owning as nothing more than a dream, only to remember that they now find themselves in financial turmoil as the house is constantly on the verge of being foreclosed. Alex remembers the joy of going out to dinner with the love of her life and sharing a bottle of wine on their first date night in what felt like forever at the time, only for her husband to be forced to tell the children that they couldn’t go to dinner because their mother felt sick, hiding the truth that she was too bruised to appear in public after he wailed away at her with an empty bottle of Jack Daniels. Now, she finds herself kneeling in front of the bed her husband currently sleeps on, having passed out from a mid-day drinking binge that she can not only do nothing to stop, but is also constricted so heavily that she is forced to sleep in her youngest daughters room, because her husband likes the elbow room too much to afford her any amount of comfort, consciously or unconsciously. For years, she has suffered the abuse and pain because it comes from the man she still loves, but finds herself hating just as much as she finds herself feeling bad for, no matter how much he hates the latter due to how emasculated in makes him feel. No matter how much she may hate her own life because of his, she stands with him through it all because she just cannot afford to let go of the memories that they once shared with each other, no matter how much he has ruined them since they occurred. As sunlight brightens and darkens the room, and Alex remains on the floor revisiting new highs and lows with each passing minute, the flipbook-like story of her life unfolding like crumbled paper in front of her is brought to a grinding halt as her ears and eyes become focused on the feet of her husband, the only things visible from her position on the ground, as each of his snoors become louder than the ones prior. With her eyes twitching, and lonely tears stream down Alex’s face as her frown turns into a blank stare of unadulterated rage, the mother of two and wife to half of a man places her hands on the ground and pushes herself onto her feet as her eyes fixate on a paint scraper lying on the top of the bedroom dresser. With her range of sight now capable of seeing her daytime-drunk husband passed out with a half-empty bottle of beer dribbling out of the glass and seeping into the mattress, Alex feels the rush of emotions irradiating from the anger building within her, overwhelming her as she can feel herself loosing sight of what is right in front of her. Every second she is awake is a second that she spends in a house dominated by a stranger, a stranger that cares for themselves and themselves only, and Alex is resided to living a life revolving around nothing but accepting that as the truth. This could be where it ends, this could be where she puts a stop to the existence that she is living. Maybe a jury would sympathize with her, and perhaps a judge would see through the surface to understand just what kind of life Alex is living, after all, is prison truly any worse than what she goes through right now? It may seem harsh, but it is a question that needs to be asked at some point. That point is now, and Alex is aware of exactly what her answers are. Stammering back into the now, with the previous seconds wiped clean from her memory, Alex stands at her husband’s bedside with that paint scraper gripped tightly into her hand. On one side, all she needs to do is drop the piece of sharpened metal to the ground and continue to fight for her children’s sake, but on the other side, freedom is just a few gashes away. “What am I doing? What am I thinking? Has it really come to this?” Alex thinks to herself, gripping the paint scraper harder than she would the edge of a cliff if she were dangling off the side of it. Whether she spends the rest of her life rotting inside of a prison cell or rotting inside of this broken home is all decided by just how broken she is in this very moment, and just how splintered her composure has become. Seeing the person someone swears to love until death tears them apart, through sickness and health, cradle a bottle of liquor with more care and compassion than their own children is strong enough to break anyone. Why should Alex be any exception? Why should anyone be immune from that level of mental gymnastics? What makes Alex so special? Why does Alex get a pass? Those questions could repeat themselves inside of the now paint-scraper wielding time bomb until the day Alexandra Morris dies, but as with everyone else that this truth applies to, Alex will never receive the answers to those questions that she desires. So now the inner dilemma unfolds in current time, and the paint scraper that Alex holds in the air, crushed beneath the weight of both hands can either come crashing down into the throat of the abusive deadbeat beneath her, or be dropped to the ground in an effort to accept the crushing reality that there is no escape from this awful truth without mustering up the courage to elicit the change desired. Though the decision is tough, rough, rigid and unfair, the cool breeze blowing through the crack in the window above the head rest of the booze-soaked bed gives Alex the confidence to make the decision she feels is best. So… Alex makes her decision. | Always busy is the traffic in Los Angeles, but it’s rarely ever as busy and congested as it currently is today. Cars driven by people already hours late to work are stuck in barely one mile-per-hour traffic, cooking under the harsh summer sun of California’s most noteworthy city. Despite this, Chevy and Kayla use the advantage of controlling a two-wheeled vehicle in their favor, dicing through halted midways between cars before finding themselves travelling off an exit route and back towards the coffee shop they had departed a few minutes earlier. As the blaring sound of horns from individual cars grows quieter with each passing foot, Chevy and Kayla find themselves back to the front of the cafe in almost no time at all, and this time with a cell signal. Shifting his foot around to extend the kickstand of his slick and pristine motorcycle, Chevy looks forward down an unusually barron Los Angeles main road to see helicopters flying behind tall skyscrapers in what appears to be a conscious effort to remain as hidden as possible to any misinformed interpreter. Taking a precise interest in the events unfolding in front of him, Chevy begins taking a few short and brief steps forward in hopes of getting a better look. With almost every sound around him being dulled by the allure of the mysterious circumstance surrounding this helicopter appearance, Chevy completely forgets his immediate surroundings walking forward as the muffled cries of his name grow slightly louder after each attempt, continuing to unknowingly walk further into traffic. Finally, as the sound of his name being called returns to its regular volume, Chevy is ripped from the road he was subconsciously walking further out into by Kayla, who throws the two of them back onto the sidewalk meer moments after Chevy would have been taken out by a bright red pickup truck barreling down the road amidst a sudden rush of traffic. As the two stammer back to their feet from their brief stay on top of the shade-covered, almost frozen-cold concrete sidewalk, Kayla shouts at the top of her lungs, demanding to know what had Chevy’s attention so closely locked that it was almost worth dying over. “The, the fucking… The fucking helicopters, dude. They’re just doing that whole, military formation, thing. It was fuckin’ weird!” Dusting herself off from the small bits of rock now stuck to her arms, Kayla cautions Chevy to prove to have passed the second grade and keep an eye out for oncoming traffic, terms of which Chevy agrees to comply to. “So are they going to help her?” Chevy asks, bringing about a brief moment of confusion to Kayla, only for the blonde-haired coffee spiller to suddenly recall the conversation of calling the police moments prior. “They’re not picking up. I tried twice, but I just got dead air” Kayla says, shoving her phone back into her jean pockets. “I thought you said we had service here?” Chevy reminds Kayla, only for Kayla to respond by telling Chevy that the bars didn’t matter, as the line was still unreachable regardless. “What the fuck is going on here?” Kayla asks aloud as Chevy looks back over to the Los Angeles skyline, only to turn back around in confusion as to what Kayla was referring to. “The fucking helicopters? The surprise traffic that almost, y’know, fucking killed you? That weird smell in the air? I mean, what the fuck is that smell?” Trying to think of an answer for his girlfriend, Chevy’s thought process is interrupted after catching a wiff of the same smell Kayla was referring to moments prior, causing him to cover his nose before briefly chocking on his own desire not to throw up. “I mean, it is Los Angeles… This place always reeks of something… It’s probably just some sewage problem again” Chevy says, trying to persuade Kayla to not acknowledge it and just try to avoid breathing through her nose as much as she can. “Let’s just get the coffee like we came here to do, get back to the house and chill out. At least home won’t smell like a mass grave.” After a nod from Kayla, the duo begin making their way towards the entry point of the cafe, with Chevy holding the door open for his motorcycle partner to enter first. Facing away from the inside of the cafe, Kayla lets out a scream of horror the second she enters the building, triggering Chevy to rush into the building immediately afterwards to stumble across the same exact sight his girlfriend had just screamed all of the air her lungs could contain over, standing frozen in shock as the terminology he had used moments prior to describe the stench of the smell came to life in its literal form. A mass grave of every day, hard working Californian citizens littered the cafe’s tables and floors covered from head to toe in the same rash-like blisters Marcy had been covered in when they visited her minutes earlier. As Chevy stands there frozen without budge, Kayla places her hands from her nose to her mouth, trying to the best of her abilities to not scream once more in fear of whatever caused this scene being able to come back for a second round. “Wha… t… fu…” Kayla tries to fill the absence of sound with words in any order available, but is unable to finish any thought she begins to say aloud as her eyes shift around the room at each and every corpse laid out and strewn around the building. Finally shifting his head an inch to the left, Chevy breaks his frozen place to begin walking further into the cafe, stepping over bodies, spilled drinks and coffee-stained books before finding himself in the middle of the room, in the center of the one sight no individual ever wishes of being in the center of. But this is the extent of their current situation, surrounded by the bodies of those who died under mysterious circumstances in what appears to be the same exact time as those around them. This mass pile of those who used to live a normal, every day life, is the one that Chevy and Kayla currently find themselves trying to process the legitimacy of. “You… You see this… R-r-r-right?” Chevy asks over to his girlfriend, sickened to the core before keeling forward and throwing up on the ground before her. Not even caring about getting a response from his girlfriend, Chevy walks over to her, stepping over the bodies of those no longer with them before wrapping his arms around her and placing his nose up to the top of her head. Welcoming the embrace, Kayla buries her head as far into her boyfriend’s chest as she can manage, but remains locked on the sight of the dead before them. “Al-Alright” Chevy says, slowly letting go of his grip on a still-horrified Kayla before continuing. “We- we have to get- to get out of here” Chevy says before turning Kayla towards the front door and keeping an arm stationed over her shoulders. Once finally on the outside, Chevy looks around the road they currently find themselves facing rush hour-like traffic with no regard for Californian traffic laws. “Where’s… our bike?” Kayla says from beneath her boyfriend’s arm, causing Chevy to notice that their motorcycle is no longer stationed in the spot it was left in. “Alright, we’ll have to walk” Chevy says, directing his girlfriend and himself down the sidewalk of the road, shifting to the right as a dark blue SUV comes barreling down half of the sidewalk behind them, forcing the pair to duck into a very tight alleyway for their own safety. “Okay, if we follow this to the otherside, we’ll be able to get into the old rubber factory parking lot. That’s gated off, so we’ll be able to regroup there” Chevy says, laying out the plan accordingly. The duo continue walking, with Kayla eventually picking up the pace and returning to her regular self as she and her boyfriend continue forward, only for the faint sounds of a police siren to grow louder with each step the couple takes. Continuing forward, Kayla’s eyes lock onto another helicopter flying almost directly above them, this one differing from the helicopters that Chevy saw a few minutes prior as the doors are noticeably open, with an armed guard taking in the view from his vantage point. “Just around this corner, Kay” Chevy says, only for the two to stop in their tracks at the loud sound of coughing coming from their intended destination. Ducking behind an emptied dumpster, the couple notices the coughing turn into gasps for breath, with Chevy peering over the side of the metal cover the couple currently finding themselves hiding behind to better understand the source of the noise. Peering out far enough for everything above his chest to be exposed, Chevy notices a sickly homeless man in the midst of a horrendously-sounding coughing fit on top of a pile of garbage bags. “Why me, you fuck?” The homeless man screams towards the sky through pockets of saliva and mucus in his throat. “Why not these privileged rich cunts all over the place you FUCK!” the man continues, stopping briefly afterwards to scratch away at a red patch of blisters on the back of his neck before continuing his quest for answers from the higher power he intends to speak to. “He’s got the same blisters!” Chevy whispers to Kayla, continuing to point out the bottle of vodka the man has grasped in his hands. “It’s from booze?” Kayla asks, only for Chevy to squint in the direction of the homeless man before shaking his head at a small, yet increasing rate. “No, I don’t think everyone in that cafe was spiking their coffee” Chevy says, continuing to look forward before noticing the flashing lights from two police cars reflecting off of a brick wall in the same spot directly in front of the only entryway to the alley. “Those cop cars just stopped at the top of the alley” Chevy points out to his girlfriend, who begins peering through the crack behind the dumpster to her right, with only the homeless man in her view. As the couple’s breathing begins to pick up and slow down at random, two police officers with their guns drawn begin entering the alley, walking at a steady pace towards the greater parking lot area. Turning the corner, the officers lock their sight onto the unpleased homeless man now spouting bible verses at the same rate a child cries from loud noises. “Sir, could you please stand to your feet?” One of the officers asks, allowing the man to respond with the rather rude request of, “How’s it about you cup my balls and blow me!” As Chevy and Kayla continue to look on, the officer’s tone shifts into one of command, repeating to the homeless holy spirit-whisperer that the original request was more of a demand. “Go fuck yourselves with a stick pigs!” the homeless man responds, causing the officer to climb onto the elevated platform currently inhabited by the unruly homeless man in order to confront him, only to find himself dodging a punch thrown from his intended opposition, leaving the homeless man to miss and stumble off of the loading platform. “Drop the gun and fight like a man you fags!” the homeless man demands, staggering to his feet before charging towards the second officer, who ducks that punch in a similar fashion to the way his partner had moments prior, sending the homeless man crashing into the brick wall instead. With the first officer remaining on the loading dock, he takes quick aim at the homeless man after watching him stagger back to his feet for a third time before putting a bullet into the back of his head. Watching the events unfold, Chevy watches the homeless man drop to the ground as blood begins trickling out of his head before ducking back behind the dumpster and wrapping Kayla back into his arms. “What the fuck is going on?” Kayla asks, only for Chevy to begin shaking his head, telling her to remain quiet and calm whilst the officers spoke amongst themselves. “The neck, look at his neck” one of the officers would order his partner to do, only before telling him to watch out for the people with the rashes. Taking in this information, both Chevy and Kayla remain sitting silently behind the dumpster as the first order instructs his partner to always shoot to kill as long as they have those rashes. As the two officers continue to talk amongst themselves of how much this perceived mercy killing puts a damper on their day, a distant scream from a few streets away draws the officer’s attention in the opposite direction to that of Chevy and Kayla, forcing them back out of the alleyway, into their cars, and out of the area. Still coming down from the events that have unfolded over the past half hour, Chevy and Kayla sit silently holding each other’s hands with more of a grip than they have ever held anything before, catching their breaths and regaining their composure. With nothing more than the sounds of cars speeding by and screams in the distance, Kayla is the first to break the couple’s silence by reminding Chevy that they need to get out of the area. “Yeah… Yeah let’s go” Chevy says, with the two climbing to their feet before heading in the direction they originally came from in hopes of finding a secondary exit from the cramped passageways. | Sitting at her desk and staring out at the window directly to her left, Kennedy peels off small bits of an eraser on her mechanical pencil as the teacher of her class is amid an effort of diligently typing away on her computer whilst her social studies students socialize with each other in celebration of class being lecture-free for the day. Kennedy has always been more mature than those in her age group, and whilst it was nice to have a day in which she wasn’t forced to learn about the history of a country she’d never go to for eighty minutes at nauseum, she knew that there was more to it than a disinterest in the physical geography of the Maldives. Something was wrong, or at the very least, something was out of the ordinary. She had been reprimanded by her vice principal for an honest mistake, and whilst most of the teachers were present for the days schooling, most of the interchangeable staff were not. “Look at Kennedy!” a says from the middle of the classroom, gaining no sort of response from the girl admiring the beauty of the landscape outside. “She’s probably gonna cry now that she got yelled at by Isaac!” the barely-teenage twerp says before chuckling to himself, only for the teacher at her desk to break her stream of consciousness away from her laptop to call out the boys name, quashing any further insults the tucked-testicles boy could have offered. Despite the teacher ending any efforts the boy may have had towards insulting Kennedy, Kennedy was not satisfied in how lackluster the conversation concluded. Seeing as the school was in shambles today and there was no bright spot over the horizon for the day to pick up in spirit, Kennedy acted accordingly as if it were her last day to be alive. Standing to her feet and sliding out of the confines of her miniature jail-like desk, Kennedy walks around the front of her desk and towards the middle of the classroom, shoving her way past a small crowd of similarly squeaky-voiced pre-teens before coming face to face with the obnoxious waste of his parents hard earned money before laying into the kid. “Y’know, I would cry about being yelled at by my principal, but it makes me happy to know that your parents cry knowing they gave birth to you more than I ever could.” With the disruption creating a silence from any student other than Kennedy much in the way an atomic bomb creates a cloud of dust after being dropped, the teacher would take full notice by calling out Kennedy’s name with twice the amount of effort as that of Kennedy’s current verbal barbecue. “Also, you’re not cool or funny, just gross and too sweaty for anyone to come within two feet of you.” As Kennedy continues to lay into the brat in front of her, the teacher interrupts each break in Kennedy’s flurry of onslaught with a call of her name, each louder than the ones proceeding it. “Your ego is about as thin as the mustache you’re trying to sprout to compensate for the lack of hair on your balls” “KENNEDY!” the teacher calls… “Your voice sounds like a boy cheerleader got kicked in the balls by a drummer with a metal boot on” “KENNEDY, STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!” the teacher tries once more, but to no avail as the finishing touch was just over the horizon… “And I know you think your dick is gonna grow, but it’s called a micropenis for a reason… There’s no hope, kiddo.” “RETURN TO YOUR SEAT RIGHT NOW, KENNEDY! YOU’VE GOT YOURSELF ONE MONTH OF DETENTION, DON’T PRESS YOUR LUCK!” Turning around to her new target, Kennedy begins walking back towards the front of the classroom in the direction of her teacher, only to shift her direction to the right as she heads for the door of the classroom. “KENNEDY, RETURN TO YOUR SEAT RIGHT NOW OR I WILL CALL YOUR MOTHER!” the teacher tries one final time to restore order with what would most likely be the death-blow to any middle school reign of terror, only for Kennedy to place her hand on the knob to the classroom door and turn it to the right before turning back to her teacher in order to assure herself that she’d have the final word in this argument. “Go ahead, maybe it’ll be important enough for my father to stop beating her…” Kennedy says before exiting the room, slamming the door on her way out before making her way down the school’s hallway. | As California mysteriously burns itself to the ground in the greater downtown area, the quiet and somewhat serene Los Angeles suburbs act as a sort of retreat from the chaos of the city life, void of all hectic traffic, noisy bypassers and foul smell. Driving through the spacious and desolate streets of this random neighborhood, Jaime stares on straight out at the road in front of her before pulling into the narrow driveway of a three story home overshadowing that of her own. Turning off her car and exiting her vehicle, Jaime could feel the isolation in the air in a way that she couldn’t whilst driving through the neighborhood. The air was warm and the breeze was not only noticed by being felt, but by being heard. Despite being a weekday at the start of the school year, it was unusually quiet around the neighborhood in a way that felt more ominous than peaceful. Whilst walking up to the front door of the monolith in front of her, Jaime took another second to stop in her place, looking around the neighborhood in an effort to find any sign of life, the likes of which appeared heavily lacking with each step taken to the front door. Associating this with a mere slow point in the day, Jaime sets aside her worries and continues to the front door of the home. Stepping up to the welcome mat, straightened out all nice and neat, Jaime takes another quick moment to brush her hair behind her ear before ringing the doorbell and waiting for a response. After a few moments, Jaime would continue to be left waiting for a response. The air was quiet aside from the occasional breeze, and there was not a single child playing around in any front yard, so the fact that Jaime was hearing nothing coming from within the house slightly concerned her. It was one thing for her boyfriend to be gone or out with his family, but for the same thing to be the case for virtually everyone in the neighborhood was not even bordering coincidental, and to Jaime, it seemed more along the lines of foreboding. However; after another minute or so, the sound of something within her boyfriends home falling to the ground in a thud brought Jaime’s attention square on a second-floor window slid halfway open with nothing but a screen separating the outdoors from the inside. With complete attention devoted to this second story window, Jaime’s concern drew into worry as whatever was inside that house was trying its undoubted best to keep her from knowing its presence. If this was Jordan’s parents trying to keep a low profile, that would be one thing. Whilst they like Jaime and Kennedy, they hate Alex’s husband Robert, who was always the rudest figure at any gathering he so obviously was not wanting to attend. Perhaps if this truly was Jordan’s parents trying to keep a low profile, they knew something about a visitor that they did not want to confront at their front door. But if this was Jordan, the bigger question would be the reasoning behind trying to keep hidden. Was there a problem that Jaime didn’t know about? Jordan always keeps his phone on him, so no answer after over an hour like this is completely uncharacteristic of him. If that was the first sign that something unusual was going on, then whomever it was inside of his home trying to keep hidden from the girl at the front door was the second. As the expression on her face turns from worry to dissatisfaction, Jaime takes another approach upon her second attempt at ringing the doorbell, this time knocking on the door with authority. “I know you’re inside, open the door now” Jaime says aloud, not pausing for a moment before she hears someone call her name from the other side of the door. The voice belonged to Jordan, who sounded very much like himself, only with extreme duress in his voice the likes of which Jaime had never heard from him. “Jordan? What’s going on?” Jaime asks, with Jordan slowly opening the front door to meet Jaime. “Why didn’t you show up at the hilltop? And why aren’t you answering your phone?” Jaime asks, with Jordan apologizing in between bated breaths of trying to figure out what to say to his girlfriend, who is currently fuming with both anger and concern at this point. Trying to get inside, Jaime is met with Jordan trying to cut off her entry into the home. Trying to shift herself to the left, Jordan meets her in the same way and begins trying to keep her from getting into the house. “Jordan, what the fuck is going on? Tell me right now or I swear to god I’m gonna-” Jaime begins demanding, only for Jordan to stop her before she could finish her thought by telling her to quiet down. Jordan takes a few second to take in a few deep breaths before telling Jaime that while he is going to let her in, he needs to make sure that she understands what she is seeing once she steps inside is not his fault. “What do you mean it’s not your fault? What the fuck did you do?” Jaime asks, with Jordan trying to explain that she isn’t going to like what she sees inside, only to give up and simply move out of the way to allow Jaime to enter for herself. Stepping into the home, Jaime looks around to find nothing more than the living room and kitchen area of the home in the way she had seen them countless times prior. Before she could take more than five steps into the house, Jaime would be caught off guard by Jordan taking her hand and slowly leading her through the dining room area and up to the stairway towards the second floor. Once at the top of the stairs, Jordan leads Jaime down a darkened hallway before telling her to brace herself for what she is about to see. Turning the corner of the hallway, Jaime looks into the room belonging to Jordan’s parents, both of whom lie dead on the ground beside their beds covered from head to toe in rash-like blisters that Jaime had never seen before. Stepping backwards and out into the hallway, Jordan places his arm behind his girlfriends back before pulling her into his chest, shielding her eyes by moving her head towards his face. “Wha- What happened?” Jaime asks, with Jordan stating that he simply woke up and did his morning routine, but by the time he went to tell his parents that he was heading out for the morning, they were writhing in pain on their bed. “I tried calling the cops… I really did… But they just wouldn’t answer” Jordan says, with Jaime noticing the tears beginning to stream down her lovers face after each reminder of the day’s tragic events, only for Jordan to admit that by the time he had given up trying to call law enforcement, they had already passed out and stopped breathing. “The entire mo- mor- morning I just tri- tried to figure out what hap- what happened. I just don- don’t kn- know.” As Jordan continues to try and bring himself to remember what happened, Jaime spares him the painful details by placing her hand on his cheek and giving him a light peck, telling him to look on the bright side, which Jaime says is that his parents aren’t hurting anymore like they were. “If I had jus- ju- just figured out wh- what t- t- to do, I co- could ha- have helped them” Jordan says, struggling to keep his eyes away from the scene of his parents laid out on their bedroom floor. Sniffling and gasping for breaths whilst trying with his heart to not look back into the room, Jaime places her hand on his ear before pulling his eyes down to her face, telling Jordan to breath and know that she is with him through whatever happens next. “Whatever we do next, we do together. Yo- you and I until the end, and this is not the end. We will get through this, okay? I just need you to trust me, okay?” Jaime says before laying another kiss onto Jordan, breaking apart before telling her boyfriend exactly what the plan is going forward. Before any plans could be made on what to do next, Jaime’s phone begins ringing, causing the moment to end. Noticing Jordan struggling to not look back into the room, Jaime leads Jordan down the hall and away from his parents room before picking up the phone. “Hello?” Jaime responds first on the phone call before hearing a man claiming to be Kennedy’s Vice Principal Damon Isaac. “Is this Alexandra Morris?” Isaac asks, with Jaime responding, “No, this is her daughter Jaime. I assume you’re calling about Kennedy? I’m the immediate line of contact due to my mothers… Constantly changing schedule. How might I assist you, Principal Isaac?” “Well, Ms Morris, I was calling in hopes that you or someone in your family could pick up Kennedy early from school if that is, at all, possible?” Looking up at her boyfriend with confusion in her eyes to complement the tears streaming down her face, Jaime responds by asking Isaac whether or not Kennedy is in trouble. “No ma’am, it’s just that a number of students in the school have contracted a sort of rash from each other, and we believe it would be in both Kennedy and the rest of the student’s best interest to cancel classes for today.” “Okay, yeah sure. I’ll be there as soon as I can” Jaime says before hanging up the phone and telling Jordan that the new plan is simple. “We go get Kennedy, take her back home and head for the police station, got it?” Jordan nods his head in agreement, following Jaime down the stairs and out of the front door, hopping into the bright red pickup truck with his girlfriend and leaving his family home in hopes of finding the help he needs to make this nightmare of a day a thing of the past. | “Kennedy Morris to Vice Principal Isaac’s office. Kennedy Morris, please meet Vice Principal Isaac.” Despite the loudspeaker requesting one thing, Kennedy has little interest in pleasing the school’s wishes, instead opting to walk through the hallways between brief moments of peering through long glass windows of classrooms closed from the empty and silent hallway. Each step that Kennedy takes is a step that brings her closer to corner after corner abandoned in favor of being sheltered by large wooden doors. Finally, Kennedy rounds the corner towards the main foyer of the school building, walking past shelves of sport trophies and awards the school had collected over it’s sixty plus years of existence. But the display cases are the last thing on Kennedy’s mind, as the only thing she carries alongside her in her journey is a book with the name “Simpson” written on it in dark black sharpie marker. Eventually, Kennedy finds her way to the door of the school’s nurses office, which she originally intended to walk into in order to deliver the Simpson child his book back, only to find that the door is already completely opened and surrounded by emergency responders, emergency responders that no one in the school other than Vice Principal Isaac and the school nurse were aware were in the building. Overwhelmed by confusion, Kennedy slowly sneaks her way along the wall opposite of the nurses office to get a clearer picture of what the emergency responders were tending to. However; what Kennedy sees is less of an effort to help a sick or ailing child, and rather an effort to remove the body of a recently-deceased one. Just as the medical workers begin zipping up the body bag containing the young student, Kennedy is able to catch a glimpse of the boy minutes away from being carried out of the school for the final time. There, on the stretcher, lies Heath Simpson, one of Kennedy’s only friends in the school. Heath, with a face completely unrecognizable from a time before it was covered in blisters, is finally sealed into the body bag right before the medical workers begin making their way towards the front doors of the school. In an effort to avoid being caught as an onlooker, Kennedy quickly dashes to the opposite side of one of the brick walls, heading down the hallway between gasps for air trying to understand what exactly was happening, and whether or not what she had just seen was truly real or just a figment of her own imagination. Suddenly, Kennedy’s attempts to regain her composure by breathing are thwarted as she begins having trouble getting air in. If the shady secrets currently unfolding in the school are the biggest problem that she is facing, then this current asthma attack comes in at a real close second. Realizing that her inhaler is still in her locker on the opposite side of the school building, Kennedy begins trying to figure out exactly what to do now. She has two main choices, the first being that she could try to make a run for it and retrieve her inhaler on the opposite side of the school. The second option, this being a little more dire, would be to fight through the attack and hope that at some point she can find a way to catch her breath. There is little time to waste, and knowing how crucial making this decision now is, Kennedy begins running on instinct. Hurrying back to the end of the wall and peering over the edge, Kennedy takes note of Vice Principal Isaac and the school nurse talking over precautions to ensure that the students do not find out about Heath’s death. Selecting her moment, Kennedy walks into the main foyer before beginning to walk towards her locker, unsurprisingly catching the eye of Isaac. Within moments of Isaac calling for Kennedy to stop, Kennedy hits the jets and begins hurrying in the direction of her locker, with Isaac taking chase after her soon after. Hurrying down one hallway after another, Isaac comes within inches of Kennedy before collapsing to the ground from exhaustion, luckily tackling Kennedy to the ground in the process. After fighting her way out of Vice Principal Isaac’s reach, Kennedy rushes around the corner to her locker before putting in the combination. However; just after she swings the metal door open, Isaac slaps her hand away from the inhaler she was inches away from reaching and throws her to the ground. As Kennedy tries lifting herself back to her feet, Isaac simply stands in place overlooking the girl he has taken to the floor twice realizing the exact extent of the concern he has for the still unknown situation he is facing. Whilst Isaac stands as still as a statue, Kennedy desperately tries climbing to her feet, only to find herself without the strength to get the job done. As Isaac comes to grips with the truth he has involved himself with, Kennedy begins entering survival mode, looking to somehow find a way to get back to her locker. “This whole school is falling apart, stop making matters worse!” Vice Principal Isaac shouts towards Kennedy, hoping his demand will help quell the situation as he walks towards the fear-stricken girl, only to lean down in an attempt to grab onto her, which Kennedy takes as an opening, pushing the sole of her shoe into the face of her insane-seeming vice principal, allowing her to crawl to her locker through abnormal breaths and retrieve her inhaler, finally ending the suffocating battle she had just taken part in. “You little brat!” Vice Principal Isaac shouts before walking back towards Kennedy, only to have his leg kicked out from beneath him, taking him off of his balance before he crashes head first into the locker, laying him out in his place. As Kennedy climbs back to her feet, she begins catching her breath whilst Isaac tries to stop the bleeding from the open wound on his head until one of the many classroom doors swings open with a resounding thud as a young blonde teacher rushes into the hallway begging for help from anyone. Rushing up to the entry to the classroom, Kennedy watches as young students collapse to the floor, one after another, writhing in agony as their skin is buried beneath bright red blisters. Watching one child fall after another, scratching until they bleed in hopes to relieve the pain, forces the young teacher to collapse to the ground in sheer awe as Kennedy continues to watch on. Eventually, rushing up to the doorway, Isaac watches on in horror as his students burn to death from the inside before crashing to the classroom floor in a bloodied heap, finally ending the miserable final minutes of existence for the poor, young souls. With Isaac frozen in terror, Kennedy takes it amongst herself to rush to the end of the hallway and pull the fire alarm, sending shockwaves through the school in hopes that the classroom doors would swing open, allowing students to evacuate to perceived safety. But none of the doors open. Standing in place for what seems like an eternity at the end of the hallway, Kennedy watches on at every single door in the hallway, but none of them open. Just as Kennedy’s face begins to read dread, Vice Principal Isaac turns to face the rest of the hallway, realizing the same thing that Kennedy just has. Turning to face the classroom door on the opposite side of the hallway, Isaac charges forward and rips open the heavy wooden entry point before realizing that the same fate had occurred for all students and teachers in that room as well. Still standing in the same place she was before the horrifying truth was truly realized, Kennedy makes her first move further into the hallway before coming to a sudden stop as Vice Principal Isaac begins walking to the same location as his teenage counterpart. Opening the door to the classroom she had just left less than twenty minutes prior, Kennedy and Isaac enter to see a sea of humanity as each child as well as their teacher lays dead on the floor covered in the same red blisters. “K- Kennedy?” Vice Principal Isaac asks, turning towards the girl he had just tackled to the ground twice, only for the girl to as in response, “What about the others?” As the fire alarm siren continues to blare, the vice principal and the youngest Morris daughter begin somberly walking down the hallway, peering into the vivid scenes of each classroom, all having suffered the same fate as the last. “Let’s get you out of here!” Vice Principal Isaac says in a hurry, accepting the fate of each student in his school other than the lone survivor beside him as the pairing begin making a break for the front of the school. Rounding corners, heading down one hallway after another, the duo finally find their way to the front of the school, making a desperate break for the front doors before crashing through to the sweet taste of freedom in the air as the cool breeze dances on their skin. Looking towards the sky, Kennedy covers her eyes to look towards the sun, which stays in its place the way it does every day at this time, only to lower her head to the same sight that Vice Principal Isaac currently sees, a crowd of worried and concerned parents awaiting their child’s exit from the building. Slowly walking forward, Isaac and Kennedy begin walking towards the parking lot with some parents asking for the location of their children, but the majority remaining silent in hopes that others will come out after the two in front of them. “Kennedy!” comes a loud and remarkable shout from the crowd, drawing the attention of the girl still wielding her inhaler. Suddenly, Jaime and Jordan rush through the crowd and up to the two before being rushed into by a joyful Kennedy, just happy to see them again. “Are you okay? Why did they let class out early?” Jaime asks, with Jordan looking around at the sea of still-concerned parents. “They’re all dead.” Kennedy states plain and simple, no follow up and no additional information, just the barren fact that every student in the building is dead. “What the hell did she just say?” Asks one of the parents overhearing the conversation, with another shouting aloud what Kennedy had just said. As the word travels at close to light speed around the sea of parents, their contained worry turns into one of unbridled worry as questions begin being thrown in the direction of Vice Principal Isaac. Jaime, Jordan and Kennedy all look at each other, holding each other in their arms as the sea of parents continue to shout before the cries for answers turn into shrieks of confusion and horror. Breaking their huddle, the three reunited individuals turn their attention back to Vice Principal Isaac, who begins gasping for breath before beginning to dig into his chest. Desperately ripping at his button-up shirt, Isaac finally musters the strength to rip it open, only for a quickly-growing path of blisters to begin climbing their way from his stomach and all the way up his body, causing him to scream out in pain as he tries with all of his might to dig his finger nails further below the surface of his skin. The crowd of parents look on, stunned and shocked beyond response as they watch their newly-deceased children’s Vice Principal collapse to his knees as the blisters grow up his neck and begin overwhelming his face, causing Isaac to begin digging at his eyes, neck, and anything he could get his hands to between nightmare-inducing, frequency-like scrams of pain. Finally, after a few torturous seconds, Isaac collapses to the ground in a heap, with blood pouring out of the wounds he had created and opened himself, thus forcing members of the crowd of parents to throw up in the places they stood whilst others began rushing towards the front of the school, where they will have to come to grips with their own horrified truth. “Come on, we don’t want to be here when they find what they’re gonna find” Jordan says, helping both Jaime and Kennedy to their feet as the trio climb into their truck and begin heading for the exit of the school lot, where more parents and guardians begin driving into to face much the same truth as the parents already there. | “Jaime, look out!” Jordan shouts from his seat beside Jaime as his girlfriend barely misses a man in the middle of the road, forcing his girlfriend to rip him back onto the curb below their feet as the trio in the car continue their way at the top of the army of vehicles desperately trying to make their way downtown. With sparks coming from the bottom of their car with every impact against the concrete, and rubber burning from the tires as the asphalt tries to keep up, the group continue aiming for home until they are stopped by a herd of crashed vehicles, forming a maze in the middle of the famously-cluttered street, ensuring that any car crossing has to earn their path across first. “Just pull off onto this road up ahead” Jordan says, pointing towards a one way street and directing the trio into unfamiliar territory. Jutting out into the desolate back road, Jaime begins taking note of the buildings surrounding the streets, all with their backdoors facing the narrow-gapped road. “It’s an alleyway” Jaime says aloud, realizing that it was only a matter of time before they came to a dead end. Sure enough, one right turn and a few feet forward confirmed Jaime’s claim, forcing the trio to begin backing out. Switching gears into reverse, Jaime props herself out over the console of her truck to begin navigating through the alleyway, only to come to a sudden stop as a dumpster crashes over the lip of the road beside the alley directly behind the truck, stopping the vehicle in its place. “What was that?” Kennedy asks aloud, prompting Jordan to pull down his window and peer out from the vehicle to notice a drunken homeless man fist punching the air in pride for his work. “Hey asshat!” Jordan shouts in the man’s direction, forcing him to begin running off into the distance as Jordan rushes to the back of the car in hopes of clearing the path. “Jordan! Stop!” Jaime says, slamming her car door shut and walking towards her boyfriend. “We’re not getting that thing out of the way, we’ve got to do this ourselves from here!” Jordan, still shaken from the sight of his parents and the events at the school, scoffs at the notion of walking and continues trying to clear the way. “Do this ourselves, Jaime? We just drove with enough cars to look like the running of the damn bulls on a six lane road going one direction! No one is following the law and the second we step out of line, we’re getting mowed the hell down! We’re not going on foot!” Noticing the debacle outside, Kennedy unbuckles her seatbelt and climbs out of the backseat, walking over to assist Jordan in moving the dumpster, still to no avail. “Jordan, we don’t have a choice. Unless we find something along the way, we’re doing this. And if we want to start getting on the move before it gets worse than this, we need to move now!” Jaime demands, foring both Kennedy and Jordan to stop in their place gasping for breath as they begin giving up on getting the dumpster out of the way. “Which way are we going?” Jordan asks, only for the answer to be locked away within Jaime as the sound of gunfire begins originating over the lip beside the three. Racing over to her sisters arms, Kennedy tucks herself away next to Jaime as Jordan begins scouting the area, unable to find the source of the shots. “We need to get moving now!” Jordan shouts, following Jaime and Kennedy as they begin racing back to where they entered the alley. Rounding corners through the alleyway, the three finally rush up to the end of the alleyway just in time for two cars to crash head-first into each other directly in front of them, forcing some cars just quickly maneuver past them, and others to ultimately find themselves as another obstacle in the already-plentiful vehicular maze ahead. Stopping in their tracks; Jaime, Jordan and Kennedy are forced to leap off to the side and up against the cold concrete wall on the side of the alley as three cars turn into the alley in hopes of avoiding the oncoming mess, forcing the group out into the street. Dashing down the main road, the three finally reach an overpass in hopes of crossing to the other side, only to be forced to throw themselves backwards as an oncoming car misses them by a few inches, crashing through the guard rails and falling to the earth forty feet below. “That’s it, we need to find someplace else!” Jaime shouts, directing the three back to their original starting place, only to find the entry to the alleyway blocked off by two wrecked cars crammed into the already-unrelenting entry. “What do we do now?” Jaime asks, with Kennedy pointing out an off-ramp blocked off by a capsized eighteen wheeler, blocking off all possible traffic. The group then begins the rush towards their pathway to safety, only for Jordan to deviate from the group and rush into the middle of the road into oncoming traffic and tackle two people out of the way of a truck mowing into the graveyard of vehicles, saving their lives with inches to spare. Quickly returning to his feet, Jordan helps the man and the woman to their feet before directing them back to his group, where the five individuals make a mad dash over to the off-ramp, climbing over debris and wreckage before emerging onto the other side of the road, safe for the meantime of any possible vehicular-demise. “Thank you, I… Just… Thank you!” The woman says, only for Jaime to cut the pleasantries off prematurely as she directs the five further down the off-ramp and into dead-stop traffic. “What’s your name?” Kennedy shouts backwards to the two new faces of their band of traffic-survivors. “I’m Kayla, and that’s Chevy” the woman says in response hurriedly before asking for the desired location she and her boyfriend were blindingly rushing to. “Residential area over in the hills, behind the trees and shit” Jaime commands before asking, “You coming along or deviating somewhere?” Looking over to each other as they hurriedly walk beside the group, Chevy and Kayla nod to each other in understanding before Kayla responds, “I guess we’ll stick around for a little bit if you don’t mind.” “Good, I hear misery loves company” Jordan says in a sarcastic manner, prompting Kayla to respond, “Well I’m fucking miserable… Glad to tag along” as the group continues forward, walking off down the highway to the blaring sounds of car horns and anger-filled swearing as the sun begins setting. | When the sun sets, the moon allows for the night sky to show it’s beauty for a few minutes in the form of a light-blue landscape capped off with clouds too far removed from the sun to be their usual pearly-white selves. Whilst this light blue landscape is usually present to signal the end of a long and grueling day, Alex opts for a more somber tone and feel. Taking her few minutes beneath the beautiful blue as one to relax, she decides to take out a Radiohead album pressed onto vinyl and allow it to spin before throwing something off into her bathroom sink. Allowing the music to fill the air usually greeted with screaming and the sobering sounds of agony, Alex takes a seat at her home’s minibar before pouring herself a glass of aged rum and kicking it back. As the music begins to climb to it’s crescendo, Alex notices the red and blue flashing lights directly outside of her home through her living room window. As opposed to confusion, Alex greets the lights with a pain-filled smile before returning the glass to it’s countertop space before letting out a breath of acceptance and raising the record player to its highest volume. Slowly walking towards her front door, Alex unlocks the deadbolt before opening the one barrier between her home and the outside world as police cars are stationed outside of her home, and others drive in and out of the neighborhood’s small and quaint street. Stepping out onto her front porch, Alex closes her eyes at the sound of the music escaping the boundaries of her home before raising her hands in the air as officers begin swarming the home to her front door. Whilst being swarmed by police, the home manages to remain quiet and peaceful, with each room and hallway void of any light and noise beside the music. The bathrooms have no running water aside from the one in Alex and Robert’s bedroom, which runs continuously with no end in sight. The bedroom remains quiet, but to anything or anyone that walks into it, there’s an unsteady feeling that reeks of uncomfortability. The light of the bathroom spills out onto the walls of the homes master bedroom through the crack in the mostly-closed bathroom door. Despite not being much, the light allows for a single sock-covered foot dangling off the end of the bed to be visible to anyone, which is even more noticeable when you take into account the rest of the room being almost pitch black. Whilst the light coating select portions of the room makes anything covered in the darkness that much darker, it also ensures that the sock-covered foot stands out more than anything else in the room. The rest of the body is covered in the emptiness that is the light-devoid room, but still seems normal. Like it belongs. The two feet are covered by white socks, the legs are covered by their stained, yet still office-like slacks, and the white T-Shirt is ruffled from the stomach down. But there’s blood on the chest and collar, as well as the rest of the bed around it. Further up, Robert’s head rests almost removed from the rest of his body as most of his neck is cut through down to the bedsheets below it, and his still open-eyed head shows a still-open mouth with blood pooling up and over his lips. In the bathroom, the blood-stained sink runs water down onto a blood-covered paint scraper, turning the water red on it’s way down the drain. |