S1, E4 | New Reality

Shocked at the sight before her, Ally slowly inches from her placement towards Lou, watching him inch towards her much the same. Before long, the two come face to face with each other, questioning themselves as to whether or not this is all a dream or simply reality, but putting aside the question as they embrace each other, wrapping their arms around the other. “What… How did” Ally starts, unable to find the words to use.

“I don’t know. I… I just remember swinging and something falling on me” Lou replies, breaking the embrace to look at Ally. “One thing led to another, and I just remembered the dead walking away from me, like they didn’t want me anymore. I was covered in blood and… And that was it.”

“No bites? No scratches? No anything?” Ally asks, hurriedly checking Lou for any of the prior mentioned, finding nothing just as he did. “Nothing. I just got up and walked through. It’s like they didn’t even notice me” Lou says, visibly still stunned by the whole ordeal. “How… How is that possible?” Ally asks, nearing the same level of shock at the situation as Lou. “Wait, why didn’t you just come back to the cafeteria?” Ally asks, watching Lou shrug.

“I don’t know. I… I just knew they didn’t want me anymore so I just kinda went with it” Lou states, walking over to the generator and checking the ventilation unit just above. “I didn’t know how long it would last, so I tried to take advantage of it as best as I could” Lou says, walking beside Ally out of the room until one of the undead turns the corner and begins growling at the pair.

“Hold on” Lou says, grabbing Ally’s arm and lowering it for her, keeping the hammer at her side as Lou walks forward, alone. Continuing to growl as Lou closes the distance, stumbling forward just as the dead does with his hand gripping at the metal rod on his belt loop, Lou finally meets the undead halfway and walks right past it, turning around to watch as it makes for Ally. Without hesitation, Ally lifts the hammer before she finds the end of the metal rod stuck through the neck of the undead, protruding outwards as it continues growling, desperately reaching for her to the best of its own abilities.

“Don’t kill it! I have an idea!” Lou says, forcing the corpse to the ground and ripping the rod to each side, widening the length and width of the wound as blood begins to spurt onto the ground. With the heel of his shoe, Lou presses down on the back of the undead, sending more blood spewing onto the floor. “Oh, what the fuck” Ally says, holding her head back in disgust at the sight. Finally, once he deems there to be an adequate amount of blood, Lou rips the rod free from the dead’s throat and skewers it through the back of the head, finally ending its misery.

“What the fuck are you doing that for?” Ally asks, watching Lou stare horridly at the puddle of blood without response. “Lou?” Ally asks, watching the man turn his head to look at her through squinted eyes and an ashamed grin. “Ally, I’m gonna ask you to do something..” Lou begins to say, looking back to the puddle of blood and then back to his girlfriend, looking at him with concern.

“And I don’t think you’re going to enjoy it.”

= 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 =

“Well, at least they got the power on” Wyatt says, taking another swig from the bottle as the horde continues to grow louder and more disruptive, the door beginning to slightly warp with the continually added pressure. “We’re gonna die in here” Halston remarks, slapping her legs before standing from her seat and returning to the window, leaning against the wall beside it and staring at the door, slightly pushed inwards.

“Don’t start believing that” Wyatt requests, watching the girl continue to stare at the door, shaking her head in disapproval. “That door can cave in at any fuckin’ second, and we’d be open season for a horde of dead without enough bullets for the both of us.” Halston replies, prompting Wyatt to attempt to respond, only to be fixated on one glaring statement.

“What do you mean by that? You gonna kill yourself?” Wyatt asks, watching Halston smirk and shake her head in disappointment. “I ain’t willing to get ripped apart by a horde of dead cannibals seven stories in the sky, that’s for sure.”

“We’ll find a way out of this” Wyatt says, taking concern with Halston’s fading hope and standing from his spot on the ground, stumbling into a wall from th effects of the wine. “When? When are we gonna find a way out of this? When you finish with your bottle or when the door can’t hold anymore? How the fuck are we gonna get out of this?” Halston says, turning her words into shouts of anger the further she goes along until Wyatt takes her by the head and pulls her in, holding her close and whispering, “We’re not gonna die up here” into her ear, gradually calming her down.

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Out of the locker room, a blood-covered Lou and a blood-soaked Ally walk haggardly throughout the basement hallway and up the main flight of stairs, entering into a dead-infested section, coming to a slow halt momentarily as they embrace the change in environment. Lightly tapping Ally’s hand, Lou leads the way down the dead-riddled hallway, watching as each corpse takes their chance to glance at him, sizing him up before returning to their limbo as the pairing continue on.

As they move further along, they spot a fresher corpse just standing in place in the middle of the hallway, torn apart worse than the other undead. Moving forward, Lou keeps his eye planted on the corpse as it begins to slowly turn its head with whatever muscles haven’t been devoured from his throat, revealing him to be the corpse of Logan, staring Lou down and beginning to walk forward.

As Logan’s corpse bumps shoulders with Lou, the metal rod gripped firmly in Lou’s hand inconspicuously pierces Logan’s chin and drops his lifeless remains to the floor, sending a resounding thud reverberating below their feet. Taking notice of the sensation, the undead lining the hallways look to Lou and Ally’s general vicinity, freezing them in place for a moment out of fear.

Without hesitation, Ally and Lou stand still and watch as the horde of the undead begin to walk towards them, only moving when Ally taps rapidly on Lou’s hand. Thinking silently, Lou takes Ally’s hand and holds it tight, calming her as best as he can as the dead begin to close in. As seconds turn to minutes, the dead finally walk past Lou and Ally and aim for Logan’s corpse, allowing Lou and Ally the assurance to continue walking, this time slightly picking up their speed.

Back in the cafeteria, the remaining group members sit around and talk about their next measures to take with the power having been returned, only for their conversation to be stunted by a subtle, slow and methodical knocking at the double doors. “The dead knocking now?” Terry asks, picking up a spatula from the table and following the group to the doors.

Holding her finger to her lips to quiet the group, Jenn reaches out for the doorknob and opens it slowly, looking out to see the blood-covered Lou and Ally with their own fingers pressed against their lips, stunning the survivors inside. Without wasting a moment, Lou and Ally both hurry through the opening as Jenn slowly closes the doors behind them, watching them hurry to the water fountain just to the side and wash away whatever blood they can get out of themselves and their clothes.

“Where the hell have you been?” Jenn asks Ally, noticing the second person beside her, but not recognizing him until most of the blood is wiped away from his eyes and nose. “Holy shit, Lou?” Jenn asks, walking forwards as the rest of the group begins to notice the man’s identity as well. “We thought you died out there!” Jules shouts, watching as the magic-trick operating man wipes away whatever remaining blood he can with a few paper towels lying around. “I thought I was too for a second” Lou replies, stripping his shirt off and throwing it across the room.

“What the hell happened out there?” Terry asks, only to be one-upped by Jenn, looking to Ally and asking, “What the hell were you thinking by going out there? You could’ve got killed!”

“Nah man, fuck all of that! Why the hell you both covered in blood?” Jules asks, watching Lou shake his head in circles in a mocking fashion. “Why this, why that, why blah blah blah” Lou says, tossing the towel into the hands of Terry, who quickly and comedically tosses it to Jules, who then proceeds to rid of it with Lou’s shirt across the room.

“We’ll answer those questions later, where’s Wyatt and Halston?” Ally says, interrupted by Lou almost immediately. “They’re in trouble” Lou says, catching everyone’s attention, including Ally’s. “What do you mean ‘trouble’?” Vinny asks, watching Lou take a moment to catch his breath. “When I figuring out why I blended in with the dead, I noticed Wyatt and Halston get trapped in the secretary’s space. I assumed they went for the stairwell so I made for the basement. I don’t think they went down it, though.”

“Wait wait wait wait wait” Terry says, waving his hands around the air for no apparent reason. “Nigga, you can’t just answer a big ole’ bunch of questions by giving us even more fuckin’ question. You get that, right?” Terry asks, leaning in towards the man as he smirks and nods. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but I think they’re up in the bell tower” Lou replies, pausing for a moment as Jules turns to whisper to Terry, “We’ve got a bell tower?”

“Yes, we have a bell tower. And since it hasn’t been used in a few years, there’s definitely no fire exit included. If we wanna get to ‘em, we’ve gotta get through the horde” Lou says, watching Vinny turn around and throw his hands up into the air. “What’s the matter, Vinny?” Lou asks, watching turn around with anger spread across his face. “For all you know, they’re dead and we’ve seen five people eat shit. It’s over, Lou. Let’s get used to that!” Vinny says, walking back to the cafe.

“Listen shithead” Lou says, angered by the response and answering by walking after Vinny. “You’re still fucking breathing, it’s not over until that changes. So get your shit together…” Lou shouts, catching up to the man and putting his hand on his shoulder, pulling him around to face him. “And let’s figure this out!” Lou concludes, immediately met with a stern right hand from Vinny afterwards, throwing him backwards into the cafeteria tables. “Vinny, what the fuck?” Jenn shouts, running up to him and shoving him backwards, not phasing the man at all as he just stares down at Lou with a sadistic grin.

“What the hell is your problem, V?” Jules shouts, looking through boldened eyes as the man flips him off and goes to walk through the cafe doors, angering Jules enough to chase after him, only for Terry to hold him back. “Leave him” Lou shouts, brushing Jenn and Ally off as he brings himself back to his feet. “He’s lost his girlfriend and his future, he’s just mad” Lou says, starting to walk back towards the double doors before taking a second to turn back and antagonize Vinny a slight bit. “Besides, he’s a Julliard kid” Lou says, meeting Vinny’s grin with one of his own, “He lives for making a scene.”

“What did you mean when you said that you ‘blended in with the horde’?” Jenn asks, walking after Lou alongside the rest of the group. Turning around with a smile through puckered lips, Lou says nothing to reply other than nodding at Ally’s response of, “Here we go again.”

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“Do you think they’ve forgotten about us yet?” Halston asks, watching Wyatt stood at the door, looking out through cracks in the splintered wood at the angry horde. “I’m sure they just think we’re dead and are moving on” Wyatt replies, stepping away from the door and taking a seat beside the newly empty bottle.

“What options do we have?” Halston asks, slowly dropping herself back to the ground, watching Wyatt stare helplessly into the dry bottom of the bottle, pouring out the remaining drops as he slowly shakes his head from one side to the other. From her waistband, Halston retrieves her pistol, pulling out the magazine to show the final bullet remaining before letting out a sigh of sorrow and tilting her head back against the wall.

“It’s not going to come down to that” Wyatt says, looking at Halston as she takes her glance up to him. “You can’t be sure of that” the girl replies, watching Wyatt objectfully nod in agreement to. “True enough. But I can be sure that I won’t let you put that bullet in yourself as long as I’m around” Wyatt says, bending one leg downwards to rest his arm on. “You saved my life” Wyatt says, watching Halston narrow her eyes. “If you need it, I owe it back to you” Wyatt replies, smirking at the girl as she looks towards the ground.

After a few minutes of silence, Halston and Wyatt both stare at each other with eyes filled with hurt, nothing more than the sound of wood splintering under the weight of the undead to ease the air. Watching Wyatt, so collected in such a dire situation, so at ease with his impending fate relentlessly burying its weight in the door, Halston stands from her feet and walks over to the man before dropping to her knees beside him and pulling him in for a kiss. “Halston?” Wyatt says, the kiss being broken for a moment before being pulled back in and returning the advancement.

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“Ready?” Lou asks, stood opposite Jenn at the double doors and looking out at the group of survivors, readying their weapons. Counting down from three, Lou and Jenn open the double doors and allow Terry the opportunity to catch a member of the undead, unsuspecting of his presence, by the neck and throw him into the cafe.

Angered by the events, the undead turns to face the man before it is pierced through the throat by a kitchen knife by Ally, who twists and tugs the knife through its throat, dropping blood to the floor. “Ah this shit’s nasty, bro” Jules says from the side, looking away as he tries not to throw up as the double doors close once more, sealing the group in with the undead. “Jules, the tongs” Lou orders, watching the sickened man hold the piece of metal out for Lou to take as he scurries over to the corner to throw up.

Calling out for Ally, Lou watches the girl hold the dead down and turn it onto its back, reaching for whatever’s within arms reach of it to no avail. Taking the blade, Ally makes a large incision on the corpse from the top of its chest to the bottom of its stomach and pulling the skin apart, revealing its rotting intestines.

“Alright everyone” Lou says, glancing at a disturbed Jenn, who stares at him with a disgusted look, “Dig in.”

One by one, the group takes turns reaching into the corpse’s stomach and covering their hands in blood, smearing it on their face, arms and legs in some instances until it begins to drip from them. “You sure you don’t want in on this, Vinny?” Lou jokes, staring up at the man sat staring at the cafe table, watching the animal within the group reveal itself.

“Alright, wha-” Jules begins, pausing as he catches a whiff of the stench surrounding him and heaves, “What ne… next?” Jules asks, shaking his head to snap out of the moment. “Jules, I want you in the gym checking out the path towards the locker rooms. I want no undead getting past the back entry” Lou says, tossing Jules the kitchen blade. “When you’ve cleared everything out, I want you making as much noise as you need to draw the dead inside, then you’ll make a break for it through the back. Got it?” Lou asks, watching Jules choke on the stench again, only able to give him a thumbs up.

“Good enough, everyone else is with me. Got it?” Lou asks, watching the group nod in compliance before each head out of the cafeteria and into the horde outside with the carved-up undead held by tongs ahead of them.

Staggering forward to mimick the undead, Lou and his group part ways with Jules, who staggers onwards into the gym as the remainder enters the secretary area, slowly inching through the crowd of the undead until they finally reach the stairwell, looking up past the monstrous crowd and to the door. “Here goes nothing” Lou whispers to himself before leading the group up the staircase.

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Putting their clothes back on and regaining their breath, Wyatt and Halston both silently trade glances at each other as the racket from the undead continues to clutter the air. After every article of clothing has been placed back onto their bodies, Wyatt and Halston both stand in place, silent for a few minutes before Wyatt finally breaks the silence. “Spurt of the moment thing, won’t happen again” the man says, watching the woman vehemently nod her head, “Absolutely agree… One-hundred percent!”

Now resorting to just looking at each other, speechless and worried to say anything before the other, the two just remain fixated on the door as the wood continues slowly warping, bringing both into an unspoken sense of dread. “This is really it, isn’t it?” Halston asks, looking to Wyatt as he glances around the room, looking for an answer to a prayer without luck. “Probably” Wyatt replies, leaning against the walls as Halston stares onwards, also waiting for an answer that will never come.

As the minutes passing remain long and the crowd outside grows louder, Halston slowly pulls her gun from her waistband and stares at it, holding it in her lap as Wyatt looks on, watching the events unfold. “Who gets it?” Halston asks, not breaking her eye contact from the firearm as Wyatt takes another glance at the door. “I’m not gonna let you be the one that gets ripped to pieces up here” Wyatt says, watching Halston’s eyes rise from the gun. “You take it” Wyatt replies, still seated as his head hangs.

“That door isn’t gonna hold on much longer” Halston says, taking the focus of both individuals to the wood now splintering more rapidly than before. “We better get this over with now, huh?” Wyatt asks, rising to his feet as Halston does the same. Walking over to each other, meeting in front of the door, now sending small slivers of wood across the room every few seconds. Finally face to face, the two embrace amidst the roar of the horde. “Thank you for being here with me” Halston whispers, tears flooding her eyes as she begins to realize that this is the end.

“Thank you for letting me” Wyatt replies, tears now coming into his as the embrace splits. Looking to each other, Wyatt and Halston nod to each other as the girl slowly raises the gun to her head and places her finger to the trigger, shutting her eyes as the tears between her eyelids force themselves down her cheeks. “Good bye” Wyatt struggles to say through the pain and horror in his eyes, watching the girl break her eyes open again and turn her head towards the ground at the foot of the door.

Noticing the sound of a piece of paper struggling against the dirt on the floor himself, Wyatt leans down and picks it up as Halston drops the gun to her side. “What is it?” Halston asks, watching Wyatt’s eyes shoot open before turning their attention to the door. Making for the entry to the tower, Wyatt looks through the cracks having formed from broken wood in the center to see the crowd of the undead, spearheaded by a blood-drenched Lou with his fingers pressed to his lips.

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Walking through the doors at the back of the gym, Jules cautiously descends the staircase into the locker room, keeping behind whatever cover he can stumble across. After a few paces into the boys locker room, Jules comes across two members of the undead back-to-back and whistles to gain their attention, allowing himself to stick both through the head with the metal rod, earning a two-for-one discount of sorts as they drop to the floor.

Scanning the rest of the area, Jules heads down a cramped corridor with a blown out light, engulfing himself into the darkness as he keeps his eyes darting to each side. Rounding one final corner, Jules notices three undead all restrained by the neck with wiring, reaching out for him as best as they can. “You poor bastards” Jules says, reaching for the curtain and pulling it closed, hiding the undead behind it before walking back for the gym and making a break for the commentary desk.

“Alright, which of you sons-a-bitches gonna turn this bitch on?” Jules asks himself, pressing each button he can, lighting up the scoreboard in all assortments.

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“Ready?” Wyatt asks, counting to three as Halston removes the axe and allows the door to swing open, welcoming Lou, his group of survivors and a particularly angry undead in the cramped, glorified coat closet before finally forcing the door shut once more. “Where the hell did you come from?” Wyatt asks, only being brushed off by Lou, who orders both Wyatt and Halston to dig into the undead’s stomach and smear the blood over exposed inch of their body.

“Why?” Halston asks in complete confusion, only to do so as Lou repeats the order. “Halston, how many bullets do you have in that chamber?” Lou asks, kicking the wall once Halston tells him of the final remaining bullet. “Alright, if push comes to shove, use it discreetly. The rest of you, just move as they would. They won’t notice you if you don’t give them a reason to” Lou reiterates before nodding to Jenn, giving her unspoken permission to remove the axe once more and carry it by her side,watching the door swing open to allow the dead inside.

Pushed to the walls, the camouflaged survivors struggle past the horde and confine themselves to different spots in the tower, pushing aside any claustrophobia or fear of heights as some are pushed to the windows, forced to bare the sight of being seven stories high in a bell tower not designed to hold this much active weight.

As the load increases, the groaning in the air is finally stammered by a loud and horribly obnoxious buzzer resonating throughout the concrete stairwell like a a malfunctioning hearing aid. “Come on you motherfuckers!” Jules shouts from the gym, leaning a rock against the buzzer before running from the commentary table and throwing himself down into the backway exit. “That’s good enough for me” Lou whispers, subtly fist-bumping Ally at his side as the horde redirects back down the stairs.

Now with the looming threat having been removed from the space, Lou takes the ball-peen hammer and brains his group’s undead escort before dumping him down the opening below the bell and following after the horde. “Lou!” Halston says from the back, prompting the group to turn and see her stranded in the corner, separated from the group as the floor between them hangs on by a thread. “Oh shit” Jenn says, watching the decaying wood rise and fall like a heaving chest undead the absence of pressure.

“Lou, what do we do?” Terry asks, watching the girl pull her gun from her waistband and put it to her head. “Halston, no!” Lou shouts, watching the girl hold her hand outwards, begging Lou not to walk forward and risk getting himself killed. “Halston!” Wyatt says, gently pushing Lou away from the collapsing wood. “We’re gonna figure out how to get you out of this, okay?” Wyatt asks, watching the girl, dread spread across her face as she begins to accept her fate.

Without another word, the weight of the bell now dangling freely begins to push its way down as the tower begins to shake. Knowing the necessity to move quickly, Wyatt shouts Lou’s name as he leaps towards the woman, shoving her across and into the arms of Lou as the bell finally falls, taking the rest of the platform downwards into a column of darkness as Wyatt disappears into the abyss, with nothing more than dust being kicked up into the air to prove that there ever even was a platform to begin with.

Shouts of disapproval and refusal to believe in the sights just having unfolded go overwhelmed by the sound of the buzzer as they all stare straight downwards, able to see nothing through the darkness. Thrown against the bannister, Jenn shakes her head from side to side in disbelief, Halston and Lou tear up understanding the nature of Wyatt’s actions, and the remainder of the group stand still as statues, accepting the consequences of the world around them.

Letting out a breath of frustration, Lou turns towards the group and pulls both he and Halston back to their feet. “Come on, let’s finish this” the leader says, leading the charge of the survivors as they all follow after him, one by one down the long, winding staircase.

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Rushing down the stairs, Jules hurries through the narrow corridors in near-total darkness before finally reaching down the final stretch and aiming for the doorway to the outside. “I’m sweatin’ like a fuckin’ pig” Jules says to himself, wiping away sweat with his free hand before noticing a large amount of the blood on his face coming off with it, leaving most of his face uncovered just as a few snapping sounds down the hall steal his focus for a moment.

“I gotta go quick” Jules says, running for the door before the curtain to his right is ripped from it’s hooks, and the three hanged undead students try to bite at him through the curtain. “No motherfuckers, I said no!” Jules shouts, using the tarp to climb free from beneath the free-for-all pile relatively unscathed except for a light blow to the back of his head from the cement floor.

“Son of a bitch!” Jules shouts, pulling the metal rod from his sleeve and whacking each undead over the head, though not well enough to keep them downed for good. “Die you pieces of shit, die!” Jules shouts, grunting with each shot as their skulls slowly cave in with each blow. Within moments, Jules takes another swing and takes the undead to the ground, only to find it latching onto his leg, taking away his defense as he’s brought to the ground again.

With his other leg, Jules counters the undead by trying to kick it away, only to soon find that his new problems are attempting to make the climb on top of him. With each hand at the throats of both undead atop him, Jules has no defense remaining, trapped beneath the weight of the three undead with little more than hope and prayers.

Shouting with all that he has, Jules attempts to use his strength to free himself some time without success, forced to wait time out until the inevitable occurs. Within the next few moments, Jules hears the door he was aiming for swing open, the metal latch in the center ringing throughout the corridor as it rests itself, and the efforts ot the undead at his foot are quarrelled, followed shortly thereafter by two blades into the side of each skull gripped in his hand. Allowing the bodies to drop to his sides and freed of the danger, Jules notices Vinny stands over him with his hand extended. “Come on, the group needs us!” Vinny shouts, picking Jules up as he gives him his hand and leads him out of the basement.

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Catching up to the horde, Lou’s group waits for every undead they can see to flood into the gymnasium before closing and locking each door, tying them shut with multiple zip ties and cornering the undead as the buzzer continues sounding. “Ally, the breaker!” Lou shouts, directing his girlfriend to rip the circuit breaker in the secretary’s office open and remove power to the gym, silencing the buzzer.

Finally having sealed each entry, Lou and his group ready themselves for the final responsibility of the war, picking off whatever stragglers remain. From each end of the main foyer, a few undead head in the group’s direction, only to be dropped one by one. Eventually, the numbers begin increasing, and the undead from the opposite side of the building begin catching up to the group, cornering them at the front doors much as they had upon the group’s return to the cafeteria.

“I’m not going down this time” Lou says, watching the horde begin to piece together that the living are indeed that before picking them off one by one. Somewhat split from the group, Ally backs up towards an undead she has yet to notice, only to turn at the final possible moment, barely able to light the flathead upwards before the sound of running begins originating behind it. “Surprise, motherfucker!” Jules shouts, leaping up and dropkicking the corpse to the ground as Vinny rushes up and buries the blade into the side of it’s head, assisting the group in the final leg of the fight.

“Almost there!” Lou shouts, huddled around his group, now stood in the center of the foyer shoulder-to-shoulder as the final undead go down, leaving the group alone in the silence, all groaning and growling muffled by the heavy doors. Catching their breaths and dropping their weaponry in the center of the newly-cleared foyer, Lou and everyone around him stand in a defeated victory, having lost so much in an effort to take everything back.

“Where’s Wyatt?” Jules asks, watching the group, especially Jenn and Halston, stare blankly at the ground in response, telling Jules all he needed to know just by the sight. “Well… What do we do now?” he asks, watching the group slowly turn their focus to Lou, who stands in place, catching his breath and taking in the moment.

As the groaning becomes overtaken by the unspoken sorrow in the foyer, Lou looks towards Jules in the corner of his eye and barely shakes his head, watching Jules tilt his head downwards as Vinny closes his eyes and looks towards the heavens. “So… what now?” Terry asks, looking to see the group surrounding each other in their own versions of dread, as Lou just looks towards the gym doors and remains silent, still stood in the main foyer, now belonging to the group, stood in place and without words.