S1, E2 | When It Ends

Spread out across the cafeteria, the remaining survivors sit with their friends and loved ones at different tables as the sound of groaning outside passes by the locked doors every few minutes. “We can’t just sit here and wait for someone to come get us” Wyatt says aloud, waiting for a response that finally comes from Lou. “Well we can’t just storm the school and take out all the boonies, Wyatt” the man responds, holding his head up with his hand. “So what are we supposed to do? Wait for help that isn’t coming and starve to death?” Wyatt asks, only to find himself cut off by Ally.

“We’re in a cafeteria, Wyatt. We’re not going to starve to death” the girl replies, watching as Wyatt stands from the table and walks over to the wall, flicking a light switch to absolutely no result. “The power’s out. We’ve got no electricity and the doors to the cafeteria space are locked. No way in and no way out. We’re stuck here without a plan” the man says, now returning to his seat and sitting beside Jenn, fast asleep.

“What do you want me to do, Wyatt?” Lou asks, sounding half-asleep himself. “I want you to figure something out. We can’t stay here all night waiting for help” Wyatt replies, watching as Lou exhales and stands from his seat, wiping the crumbs from his eyes and walking into the center of the room. “Alright ladies and gentlemen, let’s figure out what we need before we go strategizing for death sentences” Lou says, panning around the room as everyone places their attention onto him. “Food” Jules says, laid out atop the table speaking towards the ceiling.

“We’ve got to get inside that cafe” he concludes, turning his head towards Lou and looking at him nod before another voice calls out from the opposite side. “We need the electricity on” Jenn says, awakening from her slumber. “The food won’t be worth a damn thing if there isn’t something keeping it cool.”

From off to the side of the room, a distressed voice belonging to Vincenzo calls out, “Weapons.” With everyone turning their attention to him, Lou silently nods before repeating the term and telling everyone to get ready to start scavenging. “There’s safety in numbers, so let’s all get this knocked out in one go” Lou says, watching everyone scramble around the room to grab what they can. “Head for the power supply, grab what we can along the way and we’ll start digging into those doors when we get back” Lou commands, walking over to Vincenzo and taking a quick seat beside him. “We’ll leave you here to be with her. Take a load off, we’ll be back soon, okay?” Lou asks, watching the man nod to reply as Lou and the rest of his group crowd at the doors in the back of the room and quickly charge free from them and into the hallway, disappearing behind the concrete walls as the doors finally inch closer together before locking into place behind them, setting them free into the overrun building.

= RISE and REVOLT is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series from Season 1 onwards belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media =

“Remember, stay close and shout when you see something” Lou says, cautiously navigating around corners and through doorways, entering into small slots exposed to human interaction and dodging through corridors at the sound of grunting. Continuing through the stuffy and dark hallways, not assisted much by the quick setting of the sun, Lou leads his group further forward before coming across a lone member of the undead.

Armed with the metal rod, Lou goes to lead until he feels the soft hand of Jenn grab him by the arm and lightly tug him back, silently insisting on using the large axe in her hand to dispose of the undead. Lightly grazing the surface of her shoe along the floor, Jenn creeps up on the undead and brandishes her axe, readying it just behind her right ear before a chair flies from off to the side and cranes the undead in the head, sending Jenn backwards and tumbling to the floor.

Emerging from one of the rooms beside the now downed undead corpse is a man with buzzed brown hair, who takes the chair and begins to bludgeon the undead to death, sending a sharp ring with each impact of the metal on the ground throughout the building as the skull is finally rendered to mush. Not having realized what he’s stumbled upon, the man spits at the corpse and turns to return to the room, only to catch the sight of Lou’s group out of the corner of his eye, surprising him enough to drop the chair and send another ring throughout the building.

“Oh shit, sorry! I didn’t see you guys there!” the man exclaims, not one for keeping quiet as Lou and his group motion for him to stay quiet just before a line of the undead make their way around the far corner of the hallway, separating Lou’s group from the easiest route to their intended destination.

“Oh shit!” the man says, waving his hand towards Lou and the others, “Get in!” as he disappears around the corner and down a narrow stretch of hallway just ahead of Lou’s group. Running at the quickest speed their feet can take them, Lou and the survivors hurry up to the man, catching up as he opens the door to a portion of the building usually off limits to the student, leading the survivors into the dark, sanctioned-off sectors as the door seals shut behind them.

Safe from the running, Lou and his people settle down and catch their breaths, just as Wyatt speaks up, waving his finger at the man. “Logan. Biology. Fourth block” Wyatt says, his words being separated by his desperate pleas for air. “Yeah” Lou says, walking angrily towards the man. “And he almost got us fuckin’ killed” the angered man shouts, grabbing Logan by the collar and shoving him against the wall. “I’m sorry!” Logan shouts, trying to convince Lou to let him go before Ally manages to calm her boyfriend down well enough for him to let go and return to the center of the hotel-like entry area.

“Logan” Ally says, leading his eyes to her, “Do you know where anyone else is?” Ally asks, watching as Logan shakes his head increasing in speed. “Just Heath, Health Wahlman. He’s stuck in the maintenance room out back. I haven’t heard from him in hours” Logan replies, watching as Halston informs him of their goal to get where Heath’s supposed to be. “We’ll head out there!” Logan replies, somewhat excitedly. “We’ll go for it once the crowd st-” he attempts to continue, with both he and the rest of the group interrupted by the sound of the undead cluttering at the door.

“Fucking wonderful!” Lou says, collapsing into one of the couches stationed at the front of the room, holding his hands behind his head and shaking his head in frustration. “Logan, what happened out there?” Jenn asks, “To all of them? What… What are they?”

Taking his eyes away from anyone in particular and looking to the ground, Logan just stares at nothing as everyone begins to take interest. “Logan? What happened?” Lou asks, standing from his seat and walking to the distressed man. “They’re… They’re dead” Logan says, keeping his eyes away from anyone else in the group as they all stare at each other in confusion. “What do you mean they’re dead? How’d they die?” Lou asks, using his hand to guide Logan’s face up to the rest of the group so he can look at them as he explains.

“They poisoned them” Logan says, watching as the group becomes more mortified than annoyed or frustrated, trying to understand what Logan is attempting to say. “Who poisoned them?” Lou asks, watching as Logan struggles internally to explain any further. “Logan, look at me, okay? Who poisoned them?” Lou asks, locking eyes with Logan and lifting his eyebrows, welcoming Logan to answer.

“The priest” Logan says, stumbling over his words in an effort to say further. “The communion. They put something on it” Logan says, his voice dropping in volume the further he speaks. Throughout the group, eyes roll and breaths are thrown into the air. “How do you know?” Ally asks, only to be outshined by Wyatt, who angrily asks one further, “And why didn’t you take it?”

“I was just told not to take the communion!” Logan shouts, causing the battering on the door to grow in volume as the heavy, locked door continues to refuse to budge. “Gnervo told me to pretend to be sick and go to the bathroom a few minutes before mass started! That’s all I know, I swear!” the man says, clearly traumatized by the situation and struggling to explain it in detail. “Gnervo told you not to take it?” Wyatt asks, less angered and more compelled.

“More importantly” Halston adds, “Why did he know about it?” Pacing around the room as Logan returns to silence, Lou struggles in his own head to piece anything together. “Listen, let’s not get all hung up on things that can’t be undone, let’s just focus on figuring out what he means by ‘dead’” Lou says, almost immediately inciting Logan to get annoyed, shouting at him. “I mean they’re dead!” he shouts, prompting Lou to slowly return to him. “Bullshit! They’re out there walking around. They’re not dead!” Lou retorts, only to be immediately one-upped by an angered Logan, who shouts, “They came back!”

Now confused, the room experiences almost every emotion easily imaginable in the space of nearly five minutes. “What do you mean they came back?” Lou asks, now having fully come face to face with Logan once again. “They just came back! I don’t know why! They just did!” Logan pleas, watching as Lou turns away from him again before taking a seat away from the center of the room. “They didn’t have a pulse when I found them, and then they came back. That’s all I know!” Logan continues, watching the eyes of the group stagger around the room before Halston looks forward to the door with immediate concern.

“Halston?” Terry asks, placing his hand on her shoulder to get her to turn back to the group. “Halston, what’s up?” Wyatt asks, concern in his voice now showing as Halston’s expression begins to raise worry amongst the group. “If they came back” Halston begins to say, immediately being cut off by Lou, who finishes her statement on her behalf with a stern shout.

“Vinny!”

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Sat beside the lifeless body of his former love, Vinny runs his fingers through her hair, talking to himself as he does so in order to find some coping mechanism to keep himself grounded. “It was all coming together” the man says, Fink’s hair unknotted and loosely flowing as his fingers run through them. “New York in the fall, theaters all after, It was supposed to be smooth sailing” Vinny says, muffling his sobs under his breath to keep from breaking into tears again.

“It’s all gone so fast!” he says, burying his head against hers as he tries to subdue the crying. “There’s no point now” Vinny says, propping his head up as he stares at Fink, having run out of words and fixated on the last few he spoke. “There’s… There’s no point now” Vinny repeats, staring blankly at his girlfriend’s corpse as he fights the emotionless sorrow within.

Having brought himself to the verge of breaking, Vinny stands from his seat and begins pacing the length of the cafeteria, staring out at the windows growing darker as the sun continues to fade below the horizon. After a few minutes of this pacing, Vinny stands beside the window and locks his eyes onto the sun, staring at it slowly fade out of sight as he waits for whatever to come next.

Behind him, off at the end of the cafeteria as he continues staring out at the scenery, Fink’s eyes open and her groans start off silent as she stumbles off the table. Still locked onto the sight, Vinny’s too blocked off from the situation at hand to notice his reanimated girlfriend stumbling forward with almost no noise at all, creeping towards him with each level the sun outside dims. Finally, Fink turns the corner with a clear sight towards Vinny, who turns to watch in horror as his girlfriend inches closer towards him, no longer the woman he once knew.

At the last moment, Vinny ducks his girlfriend’s arms as he lunges for him, watching as she stumbles to the floor and crashes into the wall whilst he climbs back up to his feet and looks to do what he can to get out of her sight. Backing his way through the cafeteria, Vinny’s movement is slowed by his focus being thrown towards the alure of watching this situation unfold, his girlfriend’s bone-white eyes paired with her severely faded pupils forcing him halfway between consciousness and an anxiety-field delusion of questioning the validity of the sights before him.

Finally, as Fink closes in, Vinny ducks another lunge from the undead and shoves her to the ground, backing up onto the theater stage and watching as his girlfriend makes another break for him, stumbling into the wall of the stage and being thwarted by the change in elevation, leaving Vinny no further choice but to sit there, watching the lifeless eyes of his girlfriend accompanied by her animalistic growling. The sight for sore eyes bringing him to an expressionless gaze as he prays for a change of the situation to eventually come his way.

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“What do we do!” Halston shouts, her words aimed at the group’s leader, who demands his group begin to understand the situation. “There’s nothing we can do as long as that group’s outside the door! We’ve just got to hope she doesn’t come back soon or Vinny takes care of it!” Lou replies, watching as the entire group resentfully retreats into acceptance, except for Jenn. “Vinny’s not gonna hurt a fly, let alone his girlfriend” Jenn says, staring out at the wall as the group centralizes their focus onto her.

“Let’s not count Vinny out yet” Lou says, only for Wyatt to cut him off. “Lou, the second she comes back, it’s over for him” he says, watching Lou throw his hands into the air and begin raising his voice. “His girlfriend just died four hours ago, cut him some slack!” Lou replies, watching Wyatt stand to his feet and chop back at the statement. “It doesn’t matter what he lost, it matters that he’s no getting over it!” Wyatt replies, watching as Lou responds, “Why shouldn’t he?”

Before Wyatt can reply, Logan cuts in and finishes Wyatt’s point for him. “Because mourning for too long gets you killed” the survivor says, watching as the group turns their attention to him. “If you let emotions get in the way, they’ll end up taking you down” he reiterates, noticing the tension in the group and doing his best to get out in front of it. “What’s going on now doesn’t have to rip humanity away from us” Lou responds to almost immediately be sniped down by Logan’s response. 

“It does if you want to survive.”

Opening his mouth to argue, Lou finds himself stunted by the claim and stands in his place, his finger continuing to be raised into the air and directed at Logan. Waiting for his response, the group anxiously sits patiently in hopes of Lou finding their humanity worth something.

“Let me tell you all something” Lou says, turning around to face the entire group and ensuring that they all pay attention. “If keeping the dignity and respect for whatever life may come is D.O.A in this world, then this is a world I don’t want to be a part of” he concludes, turning to face the people around him, watching as smiles start to creep onto their faces. “Now we can sit here all day long and argue the pros and the cons of being good and bad, but right now, we need to figure out how to get outside right now before we’re all too late” Lou says, watching as his group begins to stand from their seats and join him.

“So let’s get the fuck out of here” Lou finishes, holding his hand up as the remainder of the group, including Logan, do the same and join him.

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Still stranded on the stage, watching helplessly as his girlfriend continues desperately reaching for him, only to find him just out of reach with every attempt. Out of eminent danger, Vinny sits upright and crosses his legs, staring at Fink with a look of loss on his face as he just remains sitting there, silently. “What happens from here?” Vinny asks, knowing he’ll only get unintelligible groans and hisses in response, but no longer caring at this rate. “Where do we go from here? What happens to college? What happens to working?” the man continues to ask, throwing his attention from both the world outside through the thick-plated windows and his unrecognizable girlfriend.

“What have we been working for?” Vinny asks, monologing to himself as his anger begins building and his patience for the corpse of his girlfriend before him lessens with each refusal to acknowledge his words. “What happens, Fink?” Vinny asks, his angered now boiling over the edge before he throws himself to his feet and walks over to the curtain behind him, tearing it down without hesitation before throwing himself to the ground and coming as close to Fink’s face as he can without repercussions, screaming at her. “What happens now!?” Vinny shouts, completely losing it before standing to his feet and kicking Fink in the face, sending her crashing back to the floor with a thud.

Enraged, Vinny stands at the edge of the stage, staring down at the woman’s body as it struggles to stand again, his chest heaving from the blistering anger within as foam-like spit begins shooting from his mouth.

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“Everyone got the plan?” Lou asks, making sure everyone’s understanding of the situation as they all nod in response, lining up beside him against the wall as Lou reaches for the doorknob. “Whatever happens, guys” Lou begins, looking back at the people behind him as they await his conclusion. “Thanks for being here with me” Lou concludes, watching as his group smiles through their thick expressions of concern before the handle turns and Lou pulls the door open, letting the horde of the undead flood into the room, walking off throughout the main foyer portion and becoming nearly-unnoticeable as they blend in with the dark of the early night sky just outside.

“Move!” Lou shouts, leading he and his group away from the wall and through the thinner portion of the horde, squeezing through and ducking past attempts at being taken down by whichever corpses remain in the midst of a heated attempt to survive. Laying in massive shots with whatever weapons they could fashion, Lou’s group sends the horde back, getting them to the ground and rushing over them as they inch closer to one of the main hallways in the school, breaking through the undead now swarming around them, with the numbers on every side increasing as the growling grows to a crowd-like roar.

In the back, Logan is halted in his tracks, separated from the rest of the group as he fixates on one member of the undead in particular, watching the reanimated version of his friend Heath closing in on him. “Logan!” Ally shouts, having become the only member of the group aware of Logan’s failure to follow, but quickly finds herself hopeless to do anything other than watch as a chunk is ripped from Logan’s arm by the jaw of one of the other members of the undead, with Heath serving the fatal blow, ripping into Logan’s throat as he collapses to the ground, disappearing beneath a pile of the starved undead and forced to be left behind.

“Keep going! Keep going!” Lou shouts, using a ball-peen hammer to cave in the skulls of the undead as the group continues slowly inching closer to the cafeteria. Focused on the undead ahead of him, Lou is burdened with enough tunnel vision to keep himself from noticing a member of the undead closing in on his side. Just as he turns around, nearly out of time to avoid the attack, the undead corpse is sent crashing into the lockers as the top of its skull is split from the rest of its body by the head of Jenn’s axe, having come in handy.

Rounding the final corner, on the home stretch of their race to base, Lou and his group find themselves cornered, closed in by walls of the undead at both end of the hallway, stranding them in the center. “This is it!” Lou shouts, prompting the group to lift their weapons high as both ends of the horde begin to close in. “It’s been a pleasure, friends!” Lou exclaims one final time before going to work, leveling out anything dead and walking with the head of the hammer as the remainder of his group slashes, jabs and pierces, lowering the count of the undead as best as they can.

“Keep moving!” Lou shouts, directing the group, now back-to-back in a makeshift circle down the hallway and closer to the cafeteria. Finally, continuing forward, the group reaches the double doors of the cafeteria and swings them open, only able to enter one at a time due to the strength of the horde. Halston enters first, followed by Ally, Wyatt, Jules and Terry. “Come on!” Ally shouts, ordering for both Lou and Jenn to get back into the cafeteria, only to find another chain of the undead entering from a third point just next to the cafeteria, surrounding the two warriors.

“Go!” Lou shouts, ordering for Jenn and her axe-swinging self to get in, only for her to refuse to let Lou get overrun alone. After a few moments of silence, Lou breaks from his fight with the undead and runs at Jenn, putting his hands up and throwing himself at the girl, sending her flying through the double doors as his momentum takes him into the center of the horde, fighting off the clutches of the swarm as he disappears into the sea of undead, surrounded on all sides as Ally screams his name in desperation, only able to watch as Lou swings at whatever moves resiliently, refusing to go down without giving it whatever he has left. His swings keep going until the circle closes in further and further before he lets out one final battlecry and disappears beneath the weight of the horde.

“Lou!” Ally shouts one final time before the door is pushed completely shut from the weight of the horde, and Lou disappears behind the wall just as quickly as it had formed. Stunned into silence as her eyes are widened, Ally stands unresponsive as the group looks around at each other, wondering if what they just saw was real or just a figment of their imagination.

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Slowly walking down the steps and to the floor of the cafeteria, Vinny keeps his focus locked onto Fink as she rises to her feet, turning to her former lover and reaching out for him, desperate to take him down in a manner that Vinny will not allow for. Fuming, watching as what he once saw his girlfriend as is stripped and dismantled, Vinny puts aside his adoration and takes Fink by the face, throwing her down and sending her head bouncing off the wooden blocks of the stage’s wall.

“You’re not Fink” Vinny shouts, shoving aside one of the many cafe tables and letting it roll away, clearing the floor for himself to get work done. “You’re not her” Vinny shouts, kicking her back, sending her into the stage before she comes right back for him. “You’re not her!” he shouts again, kicking her backwards once again to much the same result. Throwing breath in and out of his lungs, Vinny watches Fink come back at him again before shouting “You’re not her!” one final time, louder than the two prior.

Without any further hesitation, Vinny grabs Fink with both hands, by both the throat and the top of the head and shoves her against the concrete wall. “You’ve. Got. To. Go” Vinny shouts, each word coinciding with his dominant hand slamming his girlfriend’s skull against the wall, splattering blood upon the white paint. 

With no further words, Vinny continues slamming Fink’s head against the wall before throwing her to the ground, watching as she continues fighting to her feet. Hands covered in blood from the impact, Vinny slowly walks forward and raises his foot, slamming it against the side of Fink’s head, shattering whatever bones remain intact against the floor as some begin spilling out of open wounds in her rotting skin.

Still trying to get to her feet, Fink remains valiant in her fight towards Vinny, who has now decided that it is time to put an end to this, walking over to their spot in the cafe and retrieving the wrench from prior. Returning to Fink, Vinny slowly comes to a stop and watches Fink’s malformed remains stammer towards him, still growling and hissing as bone fragments protrude from her head.

“I’m sorry” Vinny says, the sorrow in his voice returning for the brief moment before he takes the wrench to Fink’s head, sending her to the ground. Almost disposed of, Fink is helpless to do anything more than lay out upon the cafe floor as Vinny climbs atop her and continues to rain down blow after blow until the response finally halts, and Vinny drops the wrench into the pool of Fink’s blood spilling out onto the ground.

Within the next fifteen seconds, the double doors at the end of the cafe swing open, and members of Vinny’s group spill into the room one by one before Jenn is sent sliding across the floor whilst Ally calls out for Lou. Before long, the double doors are forced shut beneath the weight of the horde, and Vinny watches to see the sorrow begin to fall over the group, stunned into silence as the majority just look around to each other for explanation.

“What happened?” Vinny asks, still knelt atop Fink as the group stands in silence, frozen in place, and staring at the sealed door as the horde grows quieter.