“Where are we going!?” Vinny calls out, asking to anyone that can hear him for insight, finally earning an answer on the third attempt. “We’ve got to create distance!” Jules shouts, only for Vinny to rip through the group with what seems to be the most obvious conclusion to him. “Why aren’t we just leaving?” Vinny asks, getting the group to slow their run, in the clear from danger for the time being.
“I’ve got to go get Lou!” Ally says, returning to her run before her arm is taken by Jenn, telling her to stay back and stand down. “Ally, you need to be in charge of this group. I’ll go get Lou, you get these guys somewhere safe!” Jenn shouts, ordering Ally to stick to the plan before running off down the hall to cut her way through the horde from behind. “Why is no one answering me?” Vinny asks, getting annoyed at his solution being ignored. “We’re not leaving, Vinny!” Terry shouts, stopping the conversation by asking Ally where they should go. “The building’s been infested again, we’re all gonna fucking die here if we don’t get out!” Vinny argues, met with Halston’s assurance that they’ve been through worse. “We’ve cleared this place out once, we can do it again!” Halston argues, met with Vinny reminding her of the amount of times the place has almost been swarmed over the past few days before it finally happened. “Stop living in the delusion that we can save this place, we need to go now!” Vinny shouts, demanding someone work with him, only to find himself as the odd man out as per usual. “Vinny, we’ll talk about this later, we’ve got to get somewhere secure!” Terry shouts, met with Vinny’s argument again. “When are we gonna talk about this? When you join Margo and Wyatt up in heaven? We don’t have time, we need to go now!” Vinny pleads, ignored again as Ally directs the group to the library. “You comin’ Vinny?” Terry asks, watching the man shake his head and run off, splitting away from the group now looking to seel themselves inside the spacious central book space. “Why does this place hate the concept of fire exits?” Vinny asks himself, slamming the doors to the cafeteria shut as the horde begins to catch up. Entering one of the stairwells, Vinny seels the double doors shut behind himself and watches the dead stack up against it, trying their best to enter to no avail. Hurrying up the stairs, Vinny enters a quiet and somewhat cozy hallway before running towards the other end, zipping down the stairwell towards that way and closing the double doors to it before the dead can get to them, officially sanctioning himself off from harm for the moment in the hallway barely traveled since the outbreak first began. Walking through the hall, Vinny enters Margo’s former homeroom from the year prior, taking a seat at her desk and looking at the whiteboard, reading “CPB English - Block 3.” Catching the breath stripped away from him chasing after the delusion that this can be contained again, Vinny stares at the teacher’s desk and looks at the front of it, noticing a report he’s seen before. Removing himself from the seat, Vinny walks over to the desk and takes the report from beneath a magnet, reading off a paper Margo wrote a year prior. “How to be a Leader, by Margo Fink” the headline reads, almost being enough in itself to keep Vinny from reading any further. Regaining his composure and getting his emotions in check, Vinny reads the first page of the report, discussing what makes people worthy of being a memorable leader. Before he can make it past the first page, Vinny finds himself in a fluster of tears, fighting the emotions back as best as he can before he’s forced to return the report to its original place. Taking a deep breath, Vinny looks back to the whiteboard and grabs a piece of chalk, erasing the “CPB English - Block 3” wording from the center and replacing it with a quote from the page. “Those who fight for what’s right will often not find their work appreciated until they’re long gone, but the impact of their actions will outlive them in ways most people dream of being remembered. - Margo Fink, c. 2017.” Dropping the chalk, Vinny looks towards the window at the sun beginning to fade on yet another day, only to pick the chalk back up and draw a heart around Margo’s name, allowing him to leave the room and embark on his next journey, leaving the quote behind to remain existing in whatever infamy it elects to remain existing within the boundaries of. = 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 = Crammed within the door as the undead flood outwards, ripping into a silent Monica now dead in a puddle of her own blood and guts, Lou stares blankly at nothing whilst the weight of the horde pushing through starts pulling him back into reality. Finally taking a few more shoves into the wall, Lou moves his eyes in a conscious effort and takes a second to realize where he is, and what is happening. “Oh, no no no no, no no no” Lou whispers to himself, trying to do what he can to push the door back before finally seeling the few remaining undead within the gymnasium. Looking out at the main foyer, Lou watches the undead still unaware of his presence flood the building, only the few tearing into Monica remaining. Looking around, Lou hears his name faintly called from the hallway to his left, prompting him to rush towards it, fighting his way through the line of the undead in its direction before noticing one of the many classroom doors force itself shut. “Hey! Over here!” Lou shouts, taking his hammer and slamming it against the metal lockers, drawing the horde back in his direction, allowing the person calling him to reappear from the classroom and begin fighting through the horde to get to him. “Basement hallway! Go there now!” Lous orders, hurrying down the stairs as the person hurries to the opposite stairwell. “Come on!” Lou orders, slamming the hammer against the brick walls and steel bannisters in an effort to draw the horde down before reaching the hallway below, finding Jenn rushing to his aid from behind. Together, the pair lay into the undead, doing their best to lower their numbers, only for the sheer amount to make the dent made seem like nothing at all. “This way!” Jenn shouts, pulling Lou back in acceptance of having to retreat, only to find a horde of the undead beginning to flood into the opposite end, trapping the pair. “In here!” Jenn shouts, pulling Lou into the classroom once used to imprison the Avant family. Blocking the closed door with the desks lining the room, Jenn and Lou find themselves entombed in the windowless, second exit-less room, kept from freedom by a growing pack of the undead stationed at their only hope of escape. | “Lock it, lock it, lock it!” Jules shouts, watching Terry and Halston lock each door shut, and the windows within them become overwhelmed with the sight of the undead crowd. “What the fuck do we do now?” Terry asks, trying to loosen his bad arm as the group takes their focus to Ally, waiting for the command of their new defacto leader. “Halston, you have your keys on you?” Ally asks, watching Halston pull the keys to her truck out and chuck them to Ally, who tosses them right back. “Keep those, Vinny may be right about one thing… We might not be able to contain it this time, we’ll need to be ready to move if we have to, just like we’ve talked about.” “One problem with that plan” Jules states, pointing animatedly at the doors, “We’ve got no way out of here.” Looking around the room, it doesn’t take long for Ally to find her next course of action. “Sure we do” Ally responds, walking over to the back of the library, spotting the garden at the center of the building, surrounded by walls on every side. Picking up one of the many wooden chairs, Ally hurls the seat at the glass and shatters it into thousands of small bits, now lining the floor. “Ally, the garden’s surrounded on every side. We can’t walk through” Halston says, joining the group as they walk up to her. “Who said anything about going through when we can just go over?” Ally asks, listening the one of the doors in the library push in enough to buckle under the weight and cave in, allowing the horde to resume it’s chase after them. “Hurry!” Ally says, working against time now that it’s thrown them a curve ball. Running to the other end of the garden, now looking like an enclosed pit as the horde begins to invade, the group begin their attempt at climbing a tree just next to one of the high walls. “Up, up, let’s go!” Ally shouts, taking the lead and beginning the climb with Jules just behind her. Attempting to follow after them, Halston takes the third leap as Terry trails behind, unable to cling onto anything for too long before his arm gives out. Finally reaching the rooftop, Ally helps Jules up as Halston begins climbing back down, realizing that Terry isn’t going to make it up. “Let’s go you guys, move it!” Ally shouts, noticing the horde threatening to close the gap. “Ally!” Halston shouts, throwing the keys to her and telling her to wait as long as she can before leaving. “If the horde starts closing in, leave whoever isn’t there behind! Go now!” Halston shouts, helping Terry up as they begin taking the fight to the horde, eventually realizing they won’t make it much longer. “Look out!” Ally shouts, keeping the pair on their toes as they find themselves backed up closer to the wall, and closer to the edge of peril. “Halston!” Terry calls, pulling the woman with him as he runs towards a window and leaps through it, splitting himself open further than he already was as Halston climbs through the opening, running off into the school with Terry whilst Ally and Jules are helpless to do much other than watch the horde switch their focus towards them. “What do we do now?” Jules asks, angered at being forced to watch his best friend action-movie his way to safety whilst he and Ally stand atop, safe for the moment. “You heard Halston” Ally replies, walking off to the other end of the roof, “What do you mean ‘you heard Halston’? Did you not just see what happened?” Jules asks, confronting the woman before finding her turn around and stare him down. “What do you want to do, bigshot? Do you see what they’re running away from? Do you wanna go fight that? Be my guest and sentence yourself to death, or let’s get to the truck and guarantee that at least we survive.” Looking at Ally differently than he has before, Jules finds the sense in her words and follows her along, hoping to find a way back to the truck that doesn’t include shattering their ankles. | “Alright Vinny, you’ve got this” the man says, taking in a few deep breaths and stationing himself outside one of the set of doors before pulling one open long enough for a single undead to enter. Grabbing the corpse by the throat, Vinny seels the door shut and forces it up the stairs, pushing it into Fink’s old homeroom before dropping it to the floor and using a pair of scissors to carve into its stomach. “Here we go” Vinny mutters to himself, reaching inside the undead’s throat and slathering himself in the remains, fighting the urge to vomit with every drop added to his skin. Finally sporting a full coat, Vinny reaches atop the desk and grabs a stapler before using it to bash the corpse’s head in, leaving it as nothing more than a blood-spurting crater. Walking back to the double doors, Vinny slowly pulls the handle open, allowing the horde stationed to enter as he staggers through and disappears back into the cafeteria. “Who’s there?” a man shouts, watching the blood-soaked Vinny turn to see Terry, Halston and the still-restrained priest taking a second to figure out who it was. “Where’s everyone else?” Vinny asks, marching to the kitchen and blowing past the trio. “Ally and Jules are hopefully at the truck, we haven’t seen Lou or Jenn since they split” Halston replies. Picking up whatever cans of gasoline he can carry, Vinny makes his way through the cafe, watching Terry and Halston chase after him in hopes of figuring out what he’s doing. Reluctantly stopping, Vinny places the canisters down and tells both Halston and Terry to get out of the school as soon as they can. “Why? What’s going on?” Halston asks, only to be met with nothing further than “This place can’t be saved. It’s time to ditch it, just get out as soon as you can. Promise me that?” Nodding in compliance, Vinny thanks both Terry and Halston for what they’ve done for him and for not giving up when they easily could have. Despite Halston not being able to put much together, Terry gets a gut instinct and walks up to Vinny, putting his arm around him and telling him that he’s made the group proud. “What is happening right now?” Halston asks, watching Terry return to her as Vinny escapes through the backdoor, making a break for the music gallery. “What are you not telling me?” Halston asks, only to be met with Terry reciting the plan to her. “Vinny’s right. We can’t keep thinkin’ this place is goin’ back, we need to get going right now” Terry says, finally convincing Halston to stop the questioning and make for the cafeteria exit. “Hey! You can’t leave me here!” the priest calls out, begging the survivors to release him. “Give me a fighting chance!” the priest begs, growing closer to the verge of tears as Terry returns to him, kneeling before him and requesting the chance to confess his sins. “What? Right now?” The priest asks, hurriedly trying to get himself free. “You’ve said it yourself, there’s no time too filled to confess your sins, please grant me this request” Terry says, removing himself from his typically guarded way. “Alright, fine… Make it quick” the father asks, allowing Terry to go on. “Father, I seek guidance. I wronged someone that didn’t deserve it, and now they’re out to get me back just the same. What should I do?” Terry asks, dropping any slang or short hands, trying to resemble the priest’s typical clientele as best as he can. “Well, my son. Eh… Don’t you believe the person you wronged deserves to balance the scale?” the priest asks, fumbling over his thoughts in hopes of speeding the process along. “So you’re saying they should do onto me what I’ve done onto them?” Terry asks, smiling towards the father with his hands folded. “Eh, sure. Sure, my son” the priest says, “now untie me!” Unfolding his hands and patting the priest’s knees, Terry stands to his feet and looks the father in the eyes. “I’m glad you understand, bro!” Terry says, leaving the priest behind as the man screams for his freedom, met with nothing more than silence as Terry and Halston open the double doors and fight through the few undead that go after them rather than the priest trying to force his way out of his restraints. “Back! I said get back!” the priest shouts, noticing the crowd of the undead beginning to flood into the cafeteria before he pushes the chair backwards, crashing to the floor as the undead inch closer. “Get back! Get back! No! No! NO!” the priest shouts, his words and pleas for help echoing throughout the hallway until they turn into shrieks of pain and wails of horror once his reanimated victims take their revenge. “Move it, move it!” Terry shouts, burying a knife below the chin of one of the many undead, dropping it to the floor with a thud. “The doors!” Halston shouts, pulling Terry towards the front doors and barely sneaking by a final wall of the undead to break into the outside, catching their breath in the main yard as Ally and Jules leap from the roof and into a pile of bushes just beside them. “What the hell!?” Terry shouts, jumping towards Halston in his best Jeff Winger impersonation as the pair they broke from earlier climbs from the shrubbery and tells them to hurry to the truck. “What’s going on?” Terry calls out, rushing with the pack towards the main parking lot, where they look down a mountain and out at the practice football field. “Holy fuck!” Terry says in disbelief, watching a horde of thousands of the undead begin to finally reach the school from their long walk out of the city. “It’s a crowd!” Jules says, his words fluttering like whispers, only to be corrected by Halston. “No…” the woman says, earning the audible attention of the group, “That’s a horde” the woman says, following Ally to the truck. | “Hurry up!” Jenn shouts, watching Lou stood atop the teacher’s desk, hammering away at the floorboards of the classroom just above. “What’s up there anyway?” Jenn asks, watching the first ounce of the fading sunlight begin to spill into the room. “Yes, keep going!” Jenn shouts, climbing atop the desk and doing as she can to increase the gap. As the pair do their best to solve the most unconventional problem this school has seen to date, the latch on the door begins to buckle, singing like a bell as the locks begin to give away. Finally having broken through enough, the pair begins to reach through and tear the boards above away, trying to fight through the building itself. Ringing even more, Lou takes notice of the lock, determining that the moment to break through is now or never. Putting both hands on the edge of the boards, Lou dangles from the support above and forces his body weight down, pulling enough down to create a massive gap in what’s above just as the door gives way. “Give me a boost!” Lou shouts, lunging upwards and squeezing through the gap before reaching down and telling the woman below to take his hand. Reaching up, Lou begins to pull before screeching in pain once he feels an old nail dig into his skin, penetrating his arm as the horde below break through, climbing over the desks and aim for Jenn. “Lou!” Jenn calls out, signalling that the horde is gaining on her, and pushing Lou into a do or die situation. With the nail still buried in his arm and no time to pull himself off of it, Lou begins pulling Jenn up, gashing his arm open the length of the nail and screaming in horrifying pain, finally pulling the girl through in the nick of time. Grasping at his arm on the floor, Lou is helpless to do much more than try to stop the potentially fatal amount of blood pooling from his arm whilst Jenn seels the classroom door shut and tends to Lou. “Holy shit, Lou!” Jenn says,, noticing the grave appearance of the gash, threatening to send Lou into septic shock. “Hey, Lou! Lou!” Jenn shouts, “Stay with me!” she pleads, watching his eyes sputter as his body trembles, beginning the process of a seizure. “No, no no! Lou, stay with me!” Jenn says, slapping the man to try to get him to stay awake for a few more moments. Looking around the room, Jenn realizes Lou’s previous estimation was off, and it wasn’t a classroom they tunnels into at all, but rather, the nurses storage unit near the main hallway. Running over to cabinets and drawers, Jenn thinks up what could stop a septic shock before finding some gauze and a syringe. “Penicillin!” Jenn shouts, remembering what she needs to look for, only to face the problem of not knowing where it is. Fighting the seizure as best as he can, Lou mutters out “top shelf!” with the strength he has remaining, doing his best to keep his eyes locked onto Jenn as she rummages through the compartments and pulls the necessary bottle out. Taking the gauze and quickly wrapping the wound after disinfecting it, Jenn fills the syringe to its highest capacity before injecting the man with it, watching to see what happens. After a few seconds, the seizing begins to slow down, and Lou begins to regain control of his body, slowly reaching up to Jenn, who takes his arms and wraps them around to form a loose hug. “Oh thank fucking god” Jenn says, dropping her ass to the floor and throwing herself back, laying down next to Lou as his condition becomes more manageable. “What did I do?” Lou asks, watching the woman brush it off, telling him not to worry about it. “No, give me something to talk about so I don’t pass out” Lou replies, waiting for the woman as she thinks over her reply, only to ask what Lou thought he did. “I don’t remember” Lou states, putting a look of confusion on Jenn’s face. “What do you remember?” Jenn asks, rising to a seat and looking at Lou, who stares at the flickering lights above before they finally go out, with the generator having finally run out of power. “What do you remember, Lou?” Jenn asks again, this time her question earns an answer from the man, who finds himself in a weird stage of calmness, entrenched by the darkness above as the sunlight outside begins to die out. “I-” Lou begins, unable to say anything further, just repeating the same thing five times, the sadness in his voice showing further with each attempt. “Lou, what do you remember?” Jenn asks, putting her cheek on Lou’s face as tears begin to fall on either side of his face with the memory all coming back to him. “I killed Greg” Lou replies, surprising Jenn, who had yet to know. “You killed the kid? When?” Jenn asks, struggling to think of viable questions to ask. “The catwalk. He pulled my gun and tried to shoot me” Lou replies, even further dazing Jenn, her original assumptions now coming unravelled like a ball of yarn in the clutches of a cat. “What do you mean he tried to shoot you?” Jenn asks, watching through the dark as the man staggers to a seat. “The gun didn’t have any bullets. I took them all out” the man replies, his words slurring as if he were eight bottles in. “I tried to tell him he could change, but he didn’t wanna” Lou replies, rubbing his eyes and catching his breath as it begins alluding him again. “He tried to push me off, but I moved out of the way. I thought he’d fall, so I went to walk away… But he started climbing back up” Lou says, wiping the tears from his eyes as Jenn finally realizes what’s happening. “You blacked out?” Jenn asks, watching, despite surrounded by the darkness, Lou look to her with fear in his eyes accompanying the tears. “He begged me to help him up” Lou says, leaning into Jess as she pulls him into an embrace, telling him that it’s okay. As the time begins to fly, the silence surrounding the outside becomes disrupted by the sound of a blaring car horn, hoping that anyone would hurry through the doors at any given moment. Pulling Lou away, Jenn tells Lou they’re almost free. “We’ve got to get through one final corridor and we’re set, okay? Can you do that?” Jenn asks, watching the man nod and use his good hand to pick himself up, and pull the hammer from his belt loop. “Okay, are you ready?” Jenn asks, watching Lou nod in agreement, taking a deep breath and bursting through the door, helping lead Lou into the final corridor between themselves and home. Swinging for the fences, dropping corpses left and right, and refusing to give in until their dying moments, Lou and Jenn fight forward until they’re finally confronted with the main doors, only separated from them by a massive final horde. Car horn still blaring, Jenn and Lou do their best to fight, only for their efforts to be quickly outmatched, forcing them back further and further before they leap into the secretary’s station and duck behind a wall, hoping for the miracle of short attention spans to be their saving grace. Still growing in volume, the horde doesn’t show any sign of easing up, forcing Lou and Jenn to begin accepting the inevitable and hold each other’s hands in anticipation of the end. Ferocious and unabashed at their efforts, the horde’s volume is met with an equally loud crashing note from within the depths of the school. With the sounds of someone slamming a brass chord with the might of Hercules, the horde’s focus diverts to the bowels of the school, where the sound soon stops and is replaced by the beautiful opening chords of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” As the horde begins wandering off, Lou and Jenn refuse to let up on the opportunity, leaping over the wall and braining a number of the undead still in their path before exploding through the front doors with intent, hurrying for the truck. As they reach the vehicle, Lou and Jenn look back towards the school and find one lit flame within the art gallery, prompting them to rush over to it and find a sight of horrifying beauty. Joined by everyone in the vehicle bursting from the confines, the group watches Vinny at the piano beside his tiki torch reciting the tone that saved their lives. Sat on the bench as if nothing had been happening, Vinny disregards the slamming on the window behind, crying tears of joy at the piano now sporting Fink’s report atop it. Continuing to play, Vinny hears the growling of the horde close in, threatening to interrupt his moment. “You didn’t think I was going to allow you to steal my moment, did you?” Vinny mocks the horde, daring them to continue their march as they finally appear around the corner. As if they were bursting through a marathon ribbon, the horde pull a string free, tied to the sprinkler system, and trigger an onslaught of gasoline to spew from the ceiling, dousing the horde with every ounce he filled the tank with. A tortured smile spread across his face against a backdrop of his friends beating at the bulletproof glass behind him, Vinny takes his free foot and places it on the stand of the tiki torch, laughing before kicking it over, sending the fire down a pool of gasoline and lighting the horde in flames. Burning the walls, the ceiling and anything else in view, Vinny soon finds himself gleefully surrounded by the flames, feeling the structural aspects of the building beginning to buckle. Realizing that he isn’t keen on concluding his piece early, Ally, Halston, Terry and Jules retreat back to the vehicle, pausing to look back at Lou still trying to call out for the man to escape. Before long, the skylight above shatters from the heat, raining bits of glass down as the concrete columns supporting it quickly begin to sink, and the roof begins to collapse. “Lou!” Jenn calls, pulling Lou before he gets caught in the collapse, only to find the man continuing to plead for Vinny to free himself from the death sentence he knows he handed him. “Vinny, please!” Lou shouts, begging as the roof finally buckles, slowly cratering down and crushing everything beneath it, burying it beneath a mountain of scrap and bulk, forcing Lou to accept the sights before him. Having given up the fight, no longer being able to see Vinny beneath the rubble as it continues piling on, Jenn finally pulls Lou into the truck and taps on the back window, signalling for Ally to get the truck moving as the horde finally reaches the parking lot, just barely missing the group as the school goes up in a raging inferno, spreading like cancer, and burying the ghosts that met their demise there within it. “You got anymore penicillin?” Jules asks, watching Jenn silently hold up four fingers into the air, assuring that there’s at least something to fall back on. Remaining silent, the tension is finally alleviated by Ally looking for a radio station that does anything other than repeat a state of emergency signal. “Do we have to listen to this shit?” Terry asks, leaning against the window with his hand held in his hand as the group becomes inducted into the world of every other survivor. Finally, the spirits of most of the vehicle’s occupants are lifted when they strike satellite radio gold. “Attention listeners, please stay tuned for an important announcement” the radio call begins, earning the full attention from everyone in the car. “The following is an automated signal from the SS Euronam.” With her finger raised, Ally keeps the group patiently waiting, leaned forward in their seats and leaning inside the back window for those in the truck bed, listening for the next set of words as the truck rides into the unknowns beneath the night sky. Within moments, the silence in the air, noticeable for miles, is broken by a single word, fluttering through the stereo system, and dictating the group’s outlook on the world engulfing them as each air listens in. “Congratulations.”
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Watching helplessly, well-restrained as his mother cradles her daughters corpse in her arms, Greg tries to call for his mother to no response, left to watch her disappear behind a wall as Halston and Lou drag him down the basement stairs and into a coat closet, locking the door behind them and leaving him stranded in the dark.
“What the fuck just happened?” Halston asks, trying to catch her breath without care of hiding the disbelief that everything could have fallen apart so quickly. Without the need for words, Lou reaches out and pulls her in close, holding her to his chest as the woman stares into nothingness, seemingly forgetting the concept of blinking. “Lou” Ally calls out, reaching the bottom of the stairs and rubbing Halston’s back. “What the hell are we gonna do?” Ally asks, the shock in her voice well hidden behind the confident face of knowing exactly what direction needs to be taken. Before getting the chance to respond, the desperate pounding on the closet door and groaning of aimless apologies from the deafened child locked away creates a sinister vibe, pulling the plug on normality for good, and bringing the three survivors near down with it. “Get Terry to the nurses station, he says the paint isn’t that bad, so let’s take his word for it” Lou starts, slamming his foot on the closet door to shut the kid up, aggravated near the point of flipping out, but only making the groaning worse. “Someone keep an eye on the fucking priest, and don’t take any eye off of that mother, I want multiple people looking after her at all times.” “What about the kid?” Halston asks, looking helplessly at Lou as everything feels like it’s crumbling around them. “I’ll take care of the kid when it gets to that” Lou replies, immediately raising alarm bells for Ally. “Are you gonna kill him?” the woman asks, watching the indecisive expression on Lou’s face do all the answering necessary. “Whatever you do, I’ll support you on it” Ally replies, being met with the same response by Halston. Returning to the top of the stairs, Lou directs Terry to the nursing station and puts Vinny in charge of looking after the priest. “Jules, you do what you can to wrap that gunshot up. It went clean through, so we don’t need to start digging. Everyone else, hold your places” the man commands, attempting to walk off to the housing sector before being interrupted. “Where are you going?” Jenn asks, watching the man stop and turn towards her. “I’ve got some decisions to make… I’m gonna grab a drink” Lou replies, disappearing behind corners and leaving the group to look over the shattered mess of a web untangling at the seems in the entryway of the school. Standing around, the group just stares at each other in hopes of some sort of sense being made from this ordeal. “Well” Jenn says, breaking the silence and looking at each survivor in the room, “You know where you’re supposed to be… Get there.” Without any further question, the group dissipates, leaving the core of Jenn, Ally and Halston remaining to oversee the grieving mother, still splintered into a flurry of thousands of emotions, all of which broken, clutching to her daughter and staring intently at her, praying she’ll just wake up and come back like nothing happened. = 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 = Sat at the bar, downing a glass of scotch, Lou sits alone until Ally comes walking in, taking a seat next to him. “Didn’t I tell you where to be?” Lou asks, acting stern but adding a layer of sarcasm over it, earning a laugh from Ally before turning to a playful annoyance as she takes his bottle and pours herself a glass. “Ever hear of the bartender making the drink?” Lou asks, sliding the bottle onto his side to the pair’s amusement. As they sit together, just enjoying each other’s company, Ally turns to him and waits for him to do the same. “We were just kids a few days ago” the woman says, prompting the man to turn back to looking intently at his glass. “Just walking through the hallways, always being overlooked by the adults that thought they were above us.” “Well, without disrespecting their memory, we’re the ones that are still here!” Lou exclaims, raising his glass and cheering with Ally, laughing about it. “They never really thought we were much, did they?” Lou asks, watching the woman shake her head with the enthusiasm of a cheerleader. “I’m sure they always thought we’d amount to something eventually, just didn’t realize we were already starting to become something without them truly realizing it.” Without replying, Ally stares off and mutters a question, turning to see Lou’s response. “Why do you think Gnervo chose us?” the woman asks, earning a genuine attempt at thought from her boyfriend, who would have an answer before long. “I don’t know if he really had a reason, but I do think it all worked out pretty well” Lou replies, smiling at Ally. “Vinny and Fink had their whole future planned out, Wyatt and Jenn had their aspirations, but were cautiously optimistic. Terry and Jules knew the importance of picking the right people to be around, Halston was the one kid the teachers would trust to lock up the school if they had to, and you’re ready for whatever life throws at you because you never let it take you down.” Noticing the obvious exclusion, Ally asks why Lou thought he fit into the puzzle. After a few seconds of coming to an understanding with himself over his importance, a role he doesn’t seem to like acknowledging, Lou downs the rest of his drink and looks to Ally, confident in his conclusion. “I was just waiting for something to fall into my lap and give me a purpose” Lou begins, turning the glass over onto its lid before smiling. “That’s exactly what the world did.” Burying down the rest of her drink, Ally looks to Lou and tells him to take his eyes to her in return. “I love you. I know I say it way more than most, but I truly love you. We’d all be dead in the water had it not been for you, and that’s not something that can just be changed by denying it.” Taking Lou’s hands into her own, and giving him a quick kiss, Ally tells Lou to begin accepting his role without feeling the need to deny it. “You had the total package but were just missing this one thing, and now that one thing is in place. You’ve got it all, and there’s no one that can take that away from you. So if anyone is getting in your way, it’s going to be yourself. Don’t let that happen.” Standing up and going to walk away, Ally feels herself pulled back in, embracing Lou as he wraps his arms around her and gives her a kiss on the head, reciprocating the message of love back. | “You good bro?” Jules asks, taping over the final loose end of the bandaging as Terry assures him that the strength feels more natural than before. “It’s still sore like a motherfucker, but it’s better than it was. Good looks” Terry replies, high fiving Jules as Lou enters the room, taking a seat opposite both men. “What’s good, Lou?” Terry asks, noticing a look of intent on the man. “How you holdin’ up, hotshot?” Lou asks, examining the shoulder himself and making sure the wrapping holds on tight. “Better now. That little motherfucker just had to go and mess shit up” Terry replies, earning a nod of agreement from everyone in the room. “How ‘bout you?” Terry asks, “It looks like you’re making the final decision on the little brat.” “You think he deserves to die?” Jules asks, only to be met with an argument well-rooted by Terry. “He took a life, bro… Of course he deserves to die” the man says, pausing to look at Lou, “Unless Lou don’t want to.” Taking a breath of frustration, Lou sits back in his seat before being assured by Terry that this decision isn’t one he envies Lou for having to make. “The kid may be a piece of shit, but you’re the one pulling the trigger. If you can’t do it, you best believe I ain’t gonna hold it against you” Terry reminds him, met with the same response by Jules. “The problem is, this isn’t the only time we’re gonna have to make this decision, y’know?” Lou says, arguing to himself in a way to help with the decision. “If it isn’t the kid, it’s gonna be someone else. We’ll have to do it eventually now that shit’s hit the fan.” Joining the other two in taking a seat, Jules tells Lou that they’ll be behind whatever decision he makes. “You’ve got us this far, I ain’t gonna start complaining now” Jules says, being cut off before anyone can say something more by Jenn popping her head in and asking for Lou. “What’s up?” Lou aks, dusting himself off before following Jenn to the mother, still in a state of shock and slowly coming to a stop just over her. “You wanted to speak to me?” Lou declares, watching the woman slowly turn to look at him, having fallen so far so quickly. Through breaks in her voice making clear the level of pain within her, Monica asks one time, without pulling punches. “Are you going to kill my son?” the woman asks, fighting the urge to burst into tears again. Without much to speak further on, Lou reads the room and responds with a simple, “I don’t know yet.” The tears beginning to fight their way to the forefront once again, Monica begs through a faint tone, “Please… Don’t” before the tears win out and she returns to burying her face to the side of her daughter’s. Trying to think of something to say to alleviate the pain, Lou snaps back into reality and realizes that kind of ask is just not possible, so he turn and walks off, leaving the women, Jules and an injured Terry to look over the mother again. | “I don’t envy him” the priest tells Vinny, only for their conversation to be ended with Lou bursting through the double doors and taking a seat before the priest. “I’ll leave you to it” Vinny replies, getting up to leave before Lou tells him to stay put. “I’d rather you heard” Lou says, granting Vinny enough of a reason to stay seated. “Come to confess your sins, child?” the priest asks, smugly sporting a grin before Lou kicks him in the shin, prompting him to cool it with the subtle jabs. “What was it like?” Lou asks, watching the confusion over the nature of the question take over the priest like a plume of smoke revolving around a downed skyscraper. “What was what like?” the priest asks, immediately being answered with the obvious. “Killing hundreds of people. I don’t mean the saving of them, I mean knowing you were actually killing four hundred people. What was that like?” Lou reiterates, watching the priest enter a genuine response, one not existing off of the backs of a subtle put-down. “Well, it was… Well, I don’t quite know what it was” the priest replies, noticing the man’s head drop in disappointment. “I suppose knowing that the people who died mostly didn’t know it was going to happen was a little other-worldly” he restates, catching the puzzled look of Lou. “As if they all passed out and dropped in horror because of what I did. It didn’t feel real. It was like a trance of sorts.” “Like an out of body experience?” Lou asks, being shot down by the man, adamant of it feeling like something else. “No, it wasn’t like I was watching myself do something… I was living in it. But it was like a dream I was waiting to snap out of, but just never did.” Looking remorseful for his actions, the priest chokes up a bit, catching both men off guard at the sight. “But they would have suffered so much had I not done it” the priest says, uttering the same point he’s made a few hundred times by this point, but finally making it feel true for the first time. “You wouldn’t even be practicing your graduation ceremony right now had things not changed, and now you’re conflicted as to whether or not to take another man’s life. I don’t envy that, but I truly do believe that it grants me assurance that I did the right thing.” Standing up to walk away, Lou makes for the door before turning around and looking at the priest. Assuring him that the problem was not that he did what he did, but it was that he took the choice away from the people that should have been trusted to make it. “They had the right to choose whether or not this world was for them, but you didn’t even give them that. You hid it from them until it was too late, and that is where the problem lies” Lou argues, getting in the priests face and tearing down the man that makes him up. “They should have been given the chance to say goodbye to their friends and their family, utter their final words as anything other than ‘help me’, and get to see the sunlight one final time, but they didn’t. They died on top of each other, surrounded by their friends’ corpses, cramped in a box and lumped over benches. That’s not saving anyone, that’s ripping them out of this world and discarding them into the next. That’s why you should be ashamed” Lou concludes, slapping the man across the face before walking for the door. “Some people aren’t meant to be given that choice, Lou!” the priest shouts, watching the man walk away without stopping, screaming at him until he has finally disappeared. “It’s in the best interest of some to be saved, even if they don’t believe it!” the priest continues, finally watching Lou walk away, leaving him alone with the man that severed a piece of his finger less than a day ago. “Looks like you really got to him” Vinny jokes, taking a bite out of an apple and holding it towards the priest, mocking him before pulling it away and taking another bite. | Following Jenn outside as the daylight begins to fade, Halston helps her carry in canisters of gasoline into the art gallery. “Need a hand?” Halston asks, taking a few canisters as Jenn unloads them. “We’ve still got shit to get done, and I think we’ve got enough people looking over the broken mom” Jenn replies, following Halston up the stairs. “Mind if I fill the truck with one of these?” Halston asks, deviating from the course with Jenn as they finally make it to her truck. Filling the tank, Jenn and Halston hop into the front seat and blast the air conditioner, sending the cool air over their faces like a momentary trip to the Arctic Circle. “Of all the things I wish we had, it’s a working central air system” Jenn mutters, pulling her hair into a ponytail and pushing her face as close to the vent as she can. “This truck is like my fucking life” Halston exclaims, being met with Jenn asking what present it was for. “It wasn’t a present” Halston replies, smiling towards the girl who takes longer than she should be proud of to get it. “Now you see why it’s so important!” Halston jokes, sitting back and embracing the air. Sitting amongst the sounds of cool air ripping by their ears, Halstoon turns on the radio and attempts to hold to the hope of finding any operable station. Without success, finding nothing more than emergency broadcast signals, the woman makes one last ditch effort by switching to satellite radio, where she strikes an unexpected pile of gold. “Swedish death metal?” Jenn asks, genuinely puzzled before joining Halston in an overexaggerated head banging session. “What the hell are we even doing at this point?” Jenn asks, stopping the session before turning the radio off and returning to the cool air. Looking at each other for a second, the girls kick back their seats and aim the vents down at themselves, hiding in the shade as Halston turns the music on to a lower volume. “What do you think’s happening in L.A right now?” the woman in the driver’s seat asks, looking over to Jenn closing her eyes in hopes of somehow managing to fall asleep. “I think they’re waiting to throw us a big party” Jenn responds, out of energy to a laugh-track like applause. “Very clever, I look forward to it” the girl replies, getting the same result from Jenn. “What about you?” the woman asks, getting comfortable. “I hope Steve Buscemi pops out of a giant birthday cake with Skrillex’s face on it” Halston replies, finally getting Jenn’s eyes open. “Why the fuck is Steve Buscemi there?” Jenn replies, only to be met with “I mention Skrillex and your first instinct is to question the presence of Buscemi?” from Halston, completely shutting her up. “Fair point, I should’ve thought about that one!” Jenn laughs her way through saying. “Can I be honest?” Halston asks, keeping her eyes directed to the roof as Jenn lays onto her side, facing her. “I’m just glad you’re wherever I am” Halston replies, surprising Jenn. “Why is that what you’re glad about?” Jenn asks, watching Halston laugh it off as if it wasn’t obvious. “You’re one of the coolest, speak-your-mind badasses I’ve ever met. You saved Lou’s ass when most people would have it the other way around. You’re the only other person anyone in this group would gladly take orders from, and to know that the person I looked up to in high school is fucking the end of the world like it’s her bitch with me is awesome.” Flattered, Jenn repeats the notion of being who Halston looked up to in school. “Of course you were! If Lou was the guy everyone was enamored by, you were the chick everyone was enamored by.” Turning her head to meet Jenn’s eyes, Halston tells her that she was what Halston wanted to be. “I wanted to be the cool chick everyone liked being around, but I just fit in more with being the person everyone relied on. It gave me more satisfaction, but I vicariously lived through you, looking at what I could have been from another perspective. It was insightful and charming.” “I guess I never really looked at myself like that” Jenn replies, only for Halston to point that out as proof. “There’s an old saying I always hear. You’ll get two kinds of guys in a bar, the first one walks in and talks all this shit about running the bar. But the second guy will walk in, not need to say anything, and just nod at everyone who already knows that he runs the bar without him needing to say it.” Pausing for a moment to playfully tap her arm, Halston tells Jenn that she’s the second one, and she doesn’t even typically know it. As the two girls look at each other, both flattered by the reaction of the other, Jenn moves in and plants her lips on Halston, causing the latter to break the kiss quickly and suddenly dart back. “I’m… I’m sorry” Jenn says, realizing the error in her ways as Halston promises that it’s no big deal. Now with things awkward, Jenn turns down the air conditioner and suggests they get back to hauling the canisters in, exiting the vehicle as Halston agrees. Removing her keys, Halston puts her hand on the handle and pauses for a moment, looking at Jenn in her rear-view mirror for a second before smiling, still flustered, but happy at the occurrence regardless before joining the woman. | With the total abyss of darkness around him, Greg is granted the ability to hear something more than just his wails of sorrow when the locks within the door to his confines begin turning. Introduced to the light once again, the kid peaks through the sharp white light to find Lou standing in front of him, ready to deliver his sentence. “Where are you taking me?” Greg asks, trying to give Lou a reason to lower the gun from the back of his head. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” Greg continues, trying to get something out of the man determining his fate to no success. As he takes the silence for fact, Greg begins weeping, apologizing for his actions and promising that it would never happen again. Continuing to make no difference, Lou directs the boy up a flight of stairs towards a catwalk over the gym, motioning him towards the center of the walkway before telling him to look down. Already with a fear of heights, Greg shakes his way towards the edge and looks down, spotting the hundreds of undead below lined up for a peak at the hallway they used to infest. “What do you see?” Lou asks, dropping any tone and strictly asking for Greg’s take. Mumbling for a few seconds, Lou silently lifts the gun back to Greg’s head and elicits a response, no doubt in hopes of it sparing him a few more seconds. “I see a bunch of monsters!” Greg replies, the tears starting to stream again as the undead take notice of the pair’s presence. “What else?” Lou asks, watching the boy quivering as if he were stuck below the air conditioning unit. “What am I supposed to see?” Greg asks, wiping away the snot from his nose as Lou lowers the gun for a moment, allowing the kid room to breath, though not replying. Taking the silence as a dead end, Greg takes another look despite his instincts begging him not to. “I see a bunch of dead people” Greg replies, looking to Lou, who asks what they’re doing. “They’re looking at me” Greg responds, watching Lou hold the gun back to his side, holstering it before standing beside Greg. “They’re all looking at you, yes?” Lou asks, earning nothing more than a nod from the boy on the edge of peril. “Do you notice how they’re all doing it together? Not straying from course, but following what the other does?” Lou asks, putting his arm around Greg’s shoulder, and telling him to relax. “That’s the difference between us and them, they’d follow each other off a bridge if confronted with one, while we’re meant to keep each other from jumping off the bridge to begin with. That’s our responsibility, that’s what will help us win.” Telling Greg that the world isn’t going to be fair or play nice, Lou reminds Greg that it takes strong people to keep the fight going. “If you’re going to live in this world, you’re going to need to be able to be trusted” Lou says, inspiring confidence in Greg, who looks at him with a look of determination, ready to take a new fight to the world. “They’re monsters, but they used to be just like us. They’re like that now because they didn’t have what it took to fight this new world head on. Where do you belong in this world? Down there, or up here?” Watching the boy nod and reply with the latter, Lou pats Greg on the back and brings him in for a hug, telling him to keep the fight alive for the right reasons. Turning back to the staircase, Lou is stopped by the gun from his holster being put up to his head by the boy he gave a second lease on life. “What did we just talk about?” Lou asks, furious at the events turning as quickly as they did, watching the boy’s grin take shape once again. “It doesn’t matter, this world isn’t one for you” Greg replies, ordering Lou to get on his knees. Reluctant, Lou does as told and reminds Greg that his mother is still heartbroken over his sister, only for Greg to assure him that she’ll get over it. “She still has me, that’ll be enough” the boy replies, pulling the hammer on the gun and readying it to fire. “Any last words?” Greg asks, putting the gun against Lou’s forehead and watching the man’s eyes grow to hold destain. “Please don’t do this” Lou requests, only for Greg to lean towards him and look him in the eyes, assuring him that it’s already been done. Without further hesitation, Greg pulls the trigger and hears the gun click, refusing to fire any bullets as none remain in the chamber. Pulling the trigger three more times, Greg hits the gun in hopes of it simply being jammed as Lou stands to his feet with his head hung in disappointment. “What’d you do with the bullets?” Greg asks, demanding answers and still holding the gun at Lou as if it would make any difference. “If Halston is to be believed, that gun fired its last bullet in the stairwell of the bell tower saving Wyatt. She just didn’t use the gun enough to recall that it only held five bullets, not six. It’s been out of ammo this whole time, you just never cared to test me like I tested you.” Putting his gun over the barrel and pulling the gun away from Greg, Lou takes off after the boy, who doesn’t get far before being taken to the ground and beaten by Lou, busting open his nose and his lip. As he struggles for position on top of the boy, Greg manages to get one good kick in below the belt, easing the weight off him and getting back to his feet. As Lou does the same, Greg rushes towards him in an attempt to push him over the railing, watching the man sidestep the attempt and send the boy clutching to the metal supports, dangling over a pit of undead anxiously awaiting their potential meal. “Help! Give me another chance!” Greg pleads, quickly losing grip from the sweat building beneath his palms. “I tried, Greg. It’s not safe for you to be in this world, kid” Lou replies, picking up Halston’s gun and placing it in his holster before walking away and leaving the kid to his situation. Suddenly, Lou hears the smacking of the catwalk surface and turns back to see the kid managing to climb back onto the walkway. Returning to the spot as the kid struggle to find a grip to pull himself the rest of the way up, Lou listens to the kid pleading for him for one thing. “Save me!” Greg pleads, stopping Lou for a moment, presenting him with the same conflict on interest he’s been fighting all day. “Please, save me!” Greg continues to plead, looking up at Lou as he draws the gun and puts one final bullet in the chamber. Realizing the meaning behind this action, Greg continues desperately trying to force his way back to safety as Lou enters some trance, unresponsive to any voice or demand with his gun drawn towards the kid. “No!” Greg groans through the strain of the physical demand before Lou fires a round into his head and watches his body drop to the court below, quickly being engulfed by a swarm of the undead. Staring blankly at absolutely nothing, Lou looks at the splatter of blood on the catwalk and walks back to the staircase, leaving the evidence of Greg’s death behind as he goes. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Lou rounds a few corners before being confronted by the now terrified mother and the entirety of his group, minus the priest. “What was that?” Ally asks, noticing her boyfriends refusal to respond continue to take over before finally being captured by the mother. “Where is my son?” Monica asks, lowering her daughters body back to the ground and stirring to her feet. “Where is my son!?” the mother asks again, frantically looking for answers the man refuses to respond with. “Lou?” Vinny asks, joining the group in panic over the way their leader holds himself, fixated on staring off into whatever deep space he’s lost his mind in. “Where is my son!?” the mother asks again, her frantic need to know turning into screaming, only further worsening Lou’s state. Removing the gun from his holster, Lou shatters the window to the gym door and whistles, capturing the horde’s attention as the woman looks on, clinging to hope that this isn’t his answer. No longer asking, instead retiring to the acceptance of the unspoken truth, the woman drops to the floor in a silent hysteria, staring at the doors as Lou places his hand on the wooden board. “Lou, what are you doing?” Halston asks, joining Terry in trying to walk up to the man before being forced to retreat as the man swipes the board loose and pulls open both doors, hiding himself behind one as the horde swarms back into the building to reclaim what is their death right. “Lou! No!” Ally shouts, forced to retreat with the rest of the group further into the school. Hoping to do some good, Vinny takes Monica’s arm and tries to pull her to safety, only to find her as nothing more than dead weight, refusing to move, and being left behind to be devoured by the massive horde as Vinny runs off, placing the battle between the living and the dead back into play. Blade in hand and turning the corner from the confines of his lifeless tomb, a questionable man lurks through the doorway of Lou and Ally’s quarters and stares down a preoccupied Lou, blade readied. Watching the man ruffle through jackets strewn about the floor, the man with the holy cross dangling from his neckwear quietly closes the distance. Lifting his weapon into the air, everything stops for a moment as a voice asks “what the hell?” through the eerie silence. Behind both the blade-wielding man and her victim-in-waiting boyfriend, Ally looks on at both turn to face her, noticing the man with the blade as the priest that had overseen the mass on the day of the outbreak.
Caught off guard by the sight before him, Lou reaches for his hammer and ducks a desperate lunge from the priest, tripping him to the floor before kicking the blade from his hand and lifting the hammer into the air, stopped only by the insistence of Ally. “Stop! Don’t kill him!” Ally shouts, only to be met with resistance from Lou as he assures her the world no longer has a place for religious devotion. “Not that! He can help us!” Ally pleas, met with more reluctance. “What can a killer priest help us with?” Lou asks, only to finally find himself sold on the concept with one further response. “He might have some answers” Ally returns, catching Lou’s intrigue and finally convincing him to play nice. Tied to a chair and cleared of all weaponry, the priest fiends himself in the center of the cafeteria, surrounded by the group of survivors all anxiously awaiting any answers he has to give. “This is ludicrous, you’re committing a felony!” the priest argues, amusing Lou as the man walks up to him and takes a seat in front of him. “For a start, you made an attempt on my life, you’d be prison bate before you could say ‘amen’, going onto number two, if this is what your god deems as acceptable, I prefer Satanism.” Rolling his eyes and taking immense disrespect from the response, the priest allows Lou to continue making his points. “And finally, there is no such thing as felony. Everything’s gone!” Lou concludes with humor, laughing at the priest for believing anything different. “I could kill you right now and simply move onto making lunch for the people here that actually deserve to be fed. So if I were you, I’d hold off on the tone with me.” Aggravated into silence, the priest looks away and refuses to further acknowledge Lou, pretending as though he doesn’t exist. “Fine, if you’re not going to answer to the man you wanted to kill, how about the woman who stopped you” Ally says, taking over for Lou and taking a seat at one of the tables next to the priest. “You’re not adults, you’re children!” the priest exclaims, laughing off the notion that they’re in control of the narrative. As the priest continues his humorous trail, laughing at each person he notices, Vinny walks up and pulls out the priest’s blade, slicing off the tip of his left index finger whilst the holy father’s laughter turns into screams of pain. Unable to last any longer, Vinny covers the priests mouth, muffling the sounds, looking the priest in his eyes and lifting the blade to his cheek. “If that’s what you choose to believe, you’re better off looking at us as savages” Vinny replies, placing the tip of the finger in his mouth and spitting it back into the face of the priest as the group watches on unwavered. “You little devils wont get away with this!” the priest shouts, boiling with rage but unable to place it anywhere other than his words. “What is it you think we’re trying to get away with?” Lou asks, finally catching the priests attention as the narrative finally falls within their control. “This world!” the priest remarks, “If it’s as broken already as you perceive it to be, you’re not long for it!” Growing annoyed with the assurance that they’re dead to rights, Jenn gets up from her seat and makes for the cafe. “If we’re gonna do this tonight, I need coffee. Any takers?” the woman asks, watching every hand in the room other than the priests burst into the air like a rocket. “Coming up!” Jenn says with enthusiasm as the priest continues laughing. “What is it with you guys? Why do you think you’re all grown up? Think you dictate how the world will operate from here on out?” the priest asks, a genuine question finally being asked. Clenching his fists and alleviating the anger that comes with the backstory, Lou skips no pleasantries. “I’m not going to ask you to look at us any differently than you had before everything went to shit, but I will inform you of one thing… We’ve already seen more loss and experienced more hurt in the past few days than many of these pompous, privileged, spoiled parents to their spoiled brats ever had. If there are places in this world, we have earned ours. So it will be within your best interest to remember that if there is anyone determining your place in this world, it is us... Because we hold rank over you. Now answer our questions or we will allow you a one-way ticket to meet your maker, have I made myself perfectly clear?” Even some members of his group caught off-guard by the straightforward heart worn on his sleeve, Lou watches the priest drop his head in acceptance of at least the situation as it stands. “What do you wish to know?” the priest asks, waiting for Lou or anyone else to let their questions be asked as Jenn comes through with coffee for everyone. “Let’s start with what happened to the kids” Lou replies, waiting for the priests answer. “They were spared the horrors of the rapture” the priest replies, earning an immediate eye roll from most of the group. “So you killed them?” Halston asks, allowing the priest to correct her statement, “I saved them.” “You believe that those kids… Those children, were saved? What if their salvation was heading through the thick of it, not being spared from it?” Lou asks, only for the priest to tilt his head back and groan, humored at the suggestion. “Come on… Do you really expect me to believe that you’re happy ‘surviving’ in this world?” the priest asks, only for Lou’s simple response of, “We’re alive” to humor him even further. “No. You’re already dead... you’re just waiting on your turn in line” the priest argues, prompting Lou to stare at him, trying to maintain his composure. “You’re not alive here. This isn’t surviving, this is suffering being masked as survival. Just because you’re alive here, doesn’t mean the world is worth living in.” Attempting to get up and walk away, Lou is drawn back in by the priests call for his name. “Lou, is it? Let me ask you a question, Lou… Have you ever taken a life?” the priest asks, stopping Lou in his tracks as the rest of the group watches on in anticipation. “I have not… At least not as many as you’ve taken” Lou replies, keeping his back turned to the priest. “Well, live long enough in this world and I’m sure you will. Just remember, the lives you take are actually the lives you save. I’ve saved hundreds of lives, and I’m sure you’ll get the same privilege as I have some day.” Without having to see it, Lou can feel the chill-inducing smile being directed towards him, the priest audibly taking enjoyment in the knowledge of his role in this world. Opening his mouth to respond, Lou thinks against it and takes a sip of his coffee before walking out of the cafeteria and leaving the priest to use his words to entertain himself. = 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 = “This is bullshit!” Greg shouts, screaming into the empty hallway without caring if anyone hears. Reaching through the open slot, he tries opening the door from the outside with no luck, only aggravating himself further. “Can you please calm down?” Charli, the only one sitting on her cot, asks towards the man, growing angrier every second. “Shut up, Charli! You got us into this mess!” Greg shouts, flipping his sister off as she looks away whilst Monica coddles him. “Just relax, we’ll get out of this” Monica replies, calming her son down as Charli watches on, disappointed. Finally, a round of knocking at the door catches the alert of the family, who watch Halston walk through the door and slide a box of food over towards the center of the room, stuffed with any other necessities. “Wait!” Monica shouts as Halston attempts to leave, walking up to her before stopping in her tracks as the gun at Halston’s side targets her as precautionary. Taking a breath and taking a few steps back in solidarity, and watching Halston ease her hold on the gun. “Is there anything we can help you with? Even if you need to hold us at gunpoint for us to do so?” Monica asks, her voice resonating with the sound of a woman, conquered by the events at hand. “Not as of right now, at least as far as I know…” Halston begins, stopping for a moment to watch the woman nod in compliance, looking disappointed, and prompting Halston to add, “But I’ll ask around. See if anything pops up.” With that, the woman’s eyes brighten ever so slightly once again as the two return to their opposite sides of the room. Closing the door and locking it shut, Halston walks off into the end of the hallway and barely overhears the sounds of an aggravated Greg scolding her for trying to place nice. Leaving the argument for them to handle, Halston ignores whatever words are said and walks off to the parking lot. Catching the first glimpse of sunrise, Halston walks over the car lot, watching Jenn drain any car that isn’t Halston or Wyatt’s own, filling cannisters to the brim with gasoline. “Planning on making a break for it?” Halston asks, getting a rise out of Jenn as she looks over to her with a lifted eyebrow. “Not with all the gasoline I’ve had to spit out getting it” Jenn replies, laughing to herself and getting the last few drops from a beaten down Grand Am. “No, I figured we’d either need the gas to get out of here at worst scenario…” the woman says, taking a seat beside a truck and readying the process once more. “... Or need a fire starter at best!” Jenn concludes, sucking on a thin plastic tube until taking a burst of gasoline in her mouth and spitting it onto the floor as if it were toothpaste. “Nice” Halston remarks, making light of the concept of having to steal gas to survive. After a few seconds of silence, Halston goes to walk away before being called back by Jenn, who leaves the tubing in the canister and walks to the woman, looking at her and anxiously thinking about whether or not to ask her a question. “What’s up, Jenn?” Halston asks, watching the woman trail her eyes towards her and take a moment to collect herself. “Did he feel bad about it?” Jenn asks, watching the woman look down in shame. Without hearing the response, Jenn nods her head and goes to walk back to the truck, only for Halston’s reply to bring her to a stop. “He felt awkward… Like he knew he shouldn’t have done it, but he didn’t want to make the situation any worse.” Upon hearing this, Jenn smiles in the corner of her mouth, pain still present as she nods and returns to work, allowing Halston to return to the school. Approaching the steps back towards the main lot, Halston takes a second to look back at Jenn as she returns to her job as if nothing ever happened. Still feeling guilt, even if Jenn doesn’t seem to care about it as much as she did that it existed to begin with, Halston walks away with her head hanging low, letting Jenn get back to work. | “I don’t want to have to keep wasting my time asking you this” Ally says, staring down the priest as the man restrained to the chair refuses to look at her. “Why did you try to kill Lou?” Ally asks, earning no response from the prisoner, staring away from the group as everyone around slowly loses their composure, one thread after another. “Where is Lou? This guy isn’t talking and I’m not sitting around being ignored by a murderer I could have more fun killing” Vinny says, walking over to the kitchen an vanishing behind the walls. Audibly rustling through an assortment of different metals, Vinny returns with a large butcher’s knife readied, earning a brief moment of fear from the composed and deranged captive. “I’m going to ask you one more time, father” Vinny says, holding the knife to the priest’s throat and daring him to continue with the silent treatment. “Why did you try to kill Lou?” Vinny asks, slowly adding pressure on the blade to remind the priest that there will be no silence left to be had if he continues to waste time. “Vinny, stand down” Lou says, returning to the cafeteria and walking over to the two, standing in front of the two as Vinny refuses to give up his position. “Vinny” Lou calls again, taking a few seconds before Vinny finally removes the knife from the man’s throat and returns to his station, allowing Lou to take his seat back. Finally turning back to face Lou, a response not shared with anyone else surrounding him. “He’s why” the priest says, catching Lou off guard, knowing the group’s leader expected a continuation of silence. Referring to Vinny, the priest tells Lou that the laws of nature are applicable to everyone, regardless of whether they know it or not. “Those children would have turned out just like him. Violent and despondent, ready to kill for the thrill of it. He’s not saving anyone, he’s filling his own greed. He’s just further along than you are, but you’ll all fall victim to it eventually!” the priest says, his enthusiasm gone by this point and replaced with assurance. “I know you think you’re doing a good thing, but this cataclysmic event holds no room for good or bad anymore, just what’s necessary…” The priest begins, looking at Lou, and noticing his intrigue in what he has to say next. “...That kind of world slices through our humanity like butter, and it’s no world worth the effort of living in.” Head dropping to the floor, Lou makes it his turn to sit in silence, allowing the priest to think whatever he pleases in that time. Watching the man seated to the fore of himself, waiting for what he has to say next, somewhat expecting it to be telling of his immediate future. “Would you have killed all of us?” Lou asks, surprising the priest, taking a line of conversation he had yet to expect. “There must have been something you noticed that kept you from killing yourself as well, unless you’re selfish and just thought your job wasn’t done to give yourself some direction. So would you have killed all of us?” Taking a moment to think it over, the priest stares off at the group around him, watching them intently locked on, looking for the answer that could have held control over the further existence of their lives. “Most likely” the priest replies, prompting a sea of heads dropping down, including Lou’s own. “So why didn’t you kill yourself? At the mass, there must have been something that kept you from it” Lou argues, watching the priest shake his head with confidence. “Suicide is a sin” the priest replies, earning a chuckle from Lou, staring at the man the kind of way you would a misbehaving child. “And homicide of any sorts is not?” Lou asks, saddening the priest, who mutters his response again. “I saved them” the priest says, watching Lou shift his mouth to the side and walk away shaking his head, stopping at the double doors before turning back to the priest and responding a final time before walking free. “You can dress it up whichever way you want, father. You murdered over four hundred people, and I’m sure the afterlife will not take kindly to your excuses as well as we have.” | As the day reaches its official midway point, and Ally finds herself navigating the simple layout of the school before coming to a rest near the cafeteria by the sound of a piano echoing throughout the belly of the building’s interior. Drawn to the sounds of the single-handed symphony, Ally is led to a spacious, modern art gallery beneath a skylight just behind the music room, overlooking the main yard of the school. Behind the piano, Vinny recites Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”, unknowing of the woman’s presence, continuing to play as she leans against a wall and admires the beauty of the wonderful music penetrating into the broken world. “Sounds great, Vinny” Ally says following the songs conclusion, putting a smile on Vinny’s usually contained face. “Oh, thanks. I knew people would hear it, I just didn’t think anyone actually come down. You know, just letting the music kid do his thing?” Vinny responds, laughing to himself as Ally walks up and takes a seat on the bench next to him. “Perfect Day?” Ally asks, watching the man nod with an eyebrow raised. “Fitting for a world with anything but, huh?” the pianist replies, making light of the world around whilst returning to his comfort, one the beauty of which remains untouched, protected by the joys left. “You play?” Vinny asks, watching the woman humorously shake her head no, the rapidity of which speaking enough. “Tiki torch fan?” Ally asks, pointing to a tiki torch next to the piano, unlit. “No one sleeps around here as far as I know, so I’ll come down and play when it’s dark out. It certainly helps” the man replies, more positive than he has been since the world came to intermission, genuinely happy to be back where the world still makes sense to him. “Well, even if you don’t like the world, at least it still has a piano waiting for you” Ally replies, looking to Vinny, still smiling. “This world will never make sense to me. I don’t think I’ll ever make sense to it, either. But I also know that I’m lucky to have something like this to make me feel at home again.” With that, Vinny goes to return to his craft, only for the sound of gunfire deep inside the school to ring throughout the entire building in such a way that the beauty of music, nor the humanity of a happy conversation can mask. Rushing from their seat and hurrying down the hall, Vinny and Ally stumble into Lou, who rushes with his gun at his side, hurrying towards the basement. “What the hell was that?” Ally asks, not receiving much of an answer from Lou, only acknowledging that he heard it just as they did. “Who’s with the family?” Ally asks, bringing a realization onto her boyfriend. “Terry’s down there” Lou replies, adding in a crucial piece of information to go with it, “He’s got one of the guns!” Turning the corner to face the top of the staircase, and flanked by Ally and Vinny as Jenn rushes through the backdoor just as they pass it, Lou leaps down the flight of stairs and lands at the bottom, hurrying without a care for his own safety into the basement corridor, where he finds Terry, bleeding against a set of lockers opposite an open classroom door. “What happened?” Lou asks, ripping off a piece of Terry’s sleeve and wrapping it around his shoulder. “The fuckers jumped me!” Terry shouts, grunting in pain as Lou tends to a bullet wound with a clean exit path, trying to stop the bleeding as best as he can. Soon, Halston and Jules meet up with them, figuring out what happened fairly quickly. “Halston, Jules, I need you two to keep pressure on this wrap and get Terry back to the cafeteria, don’t let anyone in until they knock. We’ll knock six times if we’re alone, and we’ll knock nine times if something’s wrong. Go!” Lou shouts, “Everyone else with me!” hurrying off down the hallway. Getting to the top of the stairs, Lou and his group rush past the lecture room debris, checking inside every room and through every door. “If you find them, you give them one warning. They’re armed, be careful!” Lou shouts, coming to the end of one hallway to find a pair of feet vanishing behind a wall at the end of another. Without saying a word, Lou leads the charge downwards, making the chase and reaching the end of the hallway, finally getting the family in sight. “Stop!” Lou shouts, watching Vinny pop off a warning shot to no use, eventually watching the family disappear back towards the main foyer, leading them in a circle. Finally reaching the front of the school once more, Lou and his group take aim at the family, now noticing a reluctant Monica and Charli standing beside an armed Greg, who plants one hand on the wooden plank keeping the gym doors closed. “Not another move or I’’ll flood this place!” Greg shouts, brushing off his mothers hand as she tries to persuade him to surrender. “No! They’re gonna let us go or I’ll kill all of them!” Greg orders, telling his mother to stop persisting and let things play out. “Greg, step away from the door!” Lou demands, he and Vinny holding their firearms at Greg and creating space between the two to make a double-shot unlikely. “Greg, step away from the door right now or we will shoot” Lou shouts, watching the stubborn child refuse to give up his ground. “I’ll kill you first!” Greg responds, only to be met with the truth. “You’ll fire one shot and we’ll have you buried before you can pull the trigger twice, Greg. Stand down, this is your last warning!” Lou demands, looking over to Vinny as he takes a stance and readies to fire if necessary. | “I’ve got to pee, mom!” Greg argues, walking to the door and knocking, requesting to use the bathroom. “Hey, you!” Greg shouts, amusing Terry as he sits on one of the cheap plastic chairs beside the door. “What do you want, kid?” Terry asks, picking whatever he can get out of his teeth. “I need to go to the bathroom” Greg replies, prompting the guard to roll his eyes and reluctantly unlock the door. “Go” Terry says, stepping aside for the boy to walk into the bathroom before following him in and standing against the door. “Is that necessary?” Greg asks, noticing the humor his overseer takes from this. “With a little brat like you? Yup” Terry replies, further annoying Greg as he unzips his pants and uses the urinal. “Did you like school” Greg asks, the attempt at conversation annoying Terry, who goes along with it, simply for it being a better option than the sound of piss. “Not as much as you must have” Terry replies, confusing Greg. “Why do you think I liked school?” Greg asks, noticing Terry’s laughter to himself from the mirror behind him. “I’m a black dude in a private school. You think there’s a whole bunch like me?” Terry asks, watching Greg turn his head away from the mirror. “You know why black dudes always become friends with each other? ‘Cause we’re pretty much always outnumbered. It’s like finding the dude on the same team as you in a crowd of different jerseys. It’s nice to know you’re not alone” Terry replies, earning a slight amount of sympathy from the kid. “You’re white. Anywhere you go, there’s a bunch of other people like you. You’re all the other jerseys, you’ve never gotta go far to find your teammates. Nd you never really need them, either. It’s easier for you, so no matter how much you may hate school… You like it more than I do” Terry concludes, leaning up against the door and picking his teeth again. “I’m sorry” Greg replies, the sound of genuinity in his voice surprising Terry. “Yeah, sure… Whatever” Terry replies, playing it off like he doesn’t care, but visibly not having expected the reply. “Just finish up” Terry says, listening to the urinal flush and rumble once most of the water has been drained. Turning towards the door, Terry stops him almost immediately, asking him if he’s ever heard of washing his hands. Without a response, Terry stares at the kid, at first wondering if he’s actually trying to figure out what it meant, only to realize one of the kid’s hands behind his back. Without hesitation, Terry pulls his gun and attempts to take aim, only for the hidden scalpel behind Greg’s back to swing towards Terry’s head, forcing him to duck as the blade breaks on the door. Knocking the gun out of Terry’s hand, Greg ducks a punch and watches the newly-disarmed man bury his fist into the concrete wall, occupying him long enough for Greg to get the gun and fire one shot off, taking Terry to the ground with just a line of blood across the back wall to show for it. Seizing his moment, the boy takes the keys off the man and frees his family, demanding that they follow him. Stunned at the sight of her child holding a gun and sporting a streak of blood on his shirt, Monica begrudgingly takes Charli and stands beside her as they run off, following Greg’s lead. “Hurry!” Greg calls, realizing the almost out-of-body run being expended by the rest of his family. “They’ll kill us if they find us, we’ve got to move!” Greg shouts, stepping behind his family and shoving them forward, issuing them no other choice but to hurry the pace. After a few corners have been turned, the family ignores their warning to stop and ducks behind a wall as a shot fires into the brick wall. “The gym!” Greg shouts, leading his family to the door and grabbing onto the wooden plank between the handles with his gun drawn at the group. “Not another move or I’’ll flood this place!” Greg shouts, brushing off his mothers hand as she tries to persuade him to surrender. “No! They’re gonna let us go or I’ll kill all of them!” Greg orders, telling his mother to stop persisting and let things play out. “Greg, step away from the door!” Lou demands, he and Vinny holding their firearms at Greg and creating space between the two to make a double-shot unlikely. “Greg, step away from the door right now or we will shoot” Lou shouts, watching the stubborn child refuse to give up his ground. “I’ll kill you first!” Greg responds, only to be met with the truth. “You’ll fire one shot and we’ll have you buried before you can pull the trigger twice, Greg. Stand down, this is your last warning!” Lou demands, looking over to Vinny as he takes a stance and readies to fire if necessary. “Even if you shoot me once, I’ll still be able to pull this blocker out. I’ll kill everyone here if you don’t let us leave!” Greg demands, watching Lou and Vinny taking aim, immediately bringing the feeling of dread over Monica, who rushes in front of Vinny and begs them to lower their weapons. “Please, don’t shoot! He’s just scared!” Monica argues, coming to the aid of her son, much to Greg’s displeasure. “Mom, st-” Greg begins to say, only to be hit over the head with a rock thrown from his side. Once staggered, Halston runs in and tackles the boy to the ground, struggling to get the gun away from him, as the remainder of the group hurries to catch up. Noticing his attempt falling apart, Greg knocks the woman’s hand away and pulls his gun over to her head, preparing to shoot and placing his finger to the trigger until the sensation of an animal-like bite into his neck jolts his hand and sends his arm upwards, firing one shot next to his ear, temporarily deafening him. Weakened enough, Halston slams his hand into the ground and knocks the gun from his grasp, turning him over onto his stomach and holding his hands back as the boy is left helpless to do anything other than watch, incapable of hearing his sister collapse to the floor as blood flows from the new bullet hole in her trachea. Screaming in horror, though unable to be heard from her son, Monica catches her daughter and follows her to the ground, using her free hand to try and plug the hole to no avail, only dousing herself in her own daughters blood as the girl uses her hands to plead for help, unable to speak over the blood she chokes on, with her motions growing weaker and weaker until they finally come to a halt, and the girl bleeds out in front of a captivated and horrified group. Halting his struggle on the ground, Greg watches the inaudible shrieking in horror played out through Monica’s expressions, clutching to her daughter and violently shaking her in hopes of miraculously bringing her back. In a pool of her own blood, Charli drops to the ground as her head drops to the side, locking her lifeless eyes with a deaf Greg, who stammers over any reaction before letting out a scream of horror he can’t even tell the pitch of. “Everything you own on the ground, now!” the woman demands, waving the gun towards the overpowered group, who slowly lower their weapons and remove everything they have from their pockets, dropping them to the ground. Hiding his fury beneath a face of complete cooperation, Lou stares the woman down, his glare being noticed enough for the woman to smirk and raise the gun from his chest to his head. “What’s the look for?” the woman asks, watching the man with his hands still as water in the air. “You’re going to regret what you’re doing here” Lou replies, taking one of his free hands and flipping her off with it.
“Back up!” the nearly-40 year old woman demands, pushing the group back as her children pick everything other than the fire axe up and place it into bags they carry over their shoulder. “All of you, get in there” the woman orders, this time more calmly than before, directing the group towards the lecture room. “Why?” Lou asks, only for the harsh demand to be repeated, offering the group no further choice. Following Lou’s lead, the group slowly walks towards the room and walks down into the center of the spacious area before the woman shuts and locks the door, barricading it with brick between the handles. “If I see you anywhere other than in here, I’ll shoot you on sight, got it?” the woman asks, waiting for a reply from inside as Lou slowly marches up the steps and to the opposite side of the door. “We’re not gonna give you the chance” Lou replies, whispering through the cracks towards the barely-visible outline of the woman’s ear. After a second of silence, the woman fires one round through the top of the door, forcing the survivors to duck for cover before she and her children run off, leaving the group to fend for themselves. “What the hell just happened?” Terry asks, watching Lou turn to find the group looking to him for direction, awaiting his reply. “They just stole our shit and ran off” Jules replies, attempting to continue until Lou puts his hand out and signals for him to stop. “I’m gonna take that more as a dare to find a way out.” “What are you talking about, Lou? She could’ve blown your fuckin’ head off” Jenn retorts, watching the man smile and laugh to himself before walking down the stairs and taking a seat at the teacher’s desk as the puzzled survivors look on. “If she wanted to kill us, she would’ve done it when she had the chance. She wanted to leave us alive” Lou replies, sifting through the cabinets of the desk in a random search effort. “Why would she leave us alive? We just got jumped before we even knew what to do” Terry says, walking to the desk and confronting Lou, who ignores him and continues his pointless search. “LOU!” Terry shouts, slamming his fist on the metal surface as Lou immediately leaps from his seat and gets in Terry’s face, refusing to break eye contact as Terry’s entire mood changes, as he surrenders the position to Lou, backing up and rejoining the rest of the group. “We’re two days into the chaos, that’s not enough to drain a middle-class mom to murder. She wanted the building, not us… She didn’t have it in here to kill. She’s hoping that we’ll do that ourselves by leaving us down here, so we’re not going to let that happen.” “If she’s crazy enough to drive us into isolation, she’s crazy enough to kill if she needs to” Ally responds, only for Lou to shake his head and visually refuse the notion. “Did any of you see an extra clip on her? Anything to say she’s planning on running out of ammo? Those little kiddy backpacks her kid’s have don’t have any strength to carry that kind of weight. She’s not looking to fire and she doesn’t want to get one.” “Hold up!” Jules says, waving his hand towards Lou, “What’re you getting at? You said she was challenging us to get out, why wouldn’t she fire if we succeeded?” Lou shakes his head, rolling his eyes and walking in front of the desk. “Follow me very closely” Lou says, holding his hands out and speaking with them as he continues, “She wants us to get out, but that doesn’t mean she wants us to get out ourselves. She shot one bullet from an automatic rifle than can fire in bursts, she’s not trying to make us afraid, she wants us to take her seriously. She wants us to get her to let us out because she wants to know her family will be safe around us. If we can convince her of that, we’ll be let out.” “We’ve just got to get her to trust us” Ally guesses, watching her boyfriend point towards her with a snap, “Bingo!” Lou replies, watching the group slowly grow convinced, looking towards each other for assurance from the others. “Let’s make some friends, you guys” Lou says, earning the agreeance of everyone in the room as the older-looking classroom finds its inhabitants learning a more modern approach for a change. = 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 = Having scattered around the room, Lou’s group paces around the room, sits in their seats looking around, or sitting by the door awaiting any potential sign of life from the other side. Beside the door sits Lou, Jenn, and Ally just talking to each other to pass the time. “What happens if the school falls?” Jenn asks, only to be met with denial from Ally. “I’m serious. What happens if something comes along that keeps us from living here anymore?” Jenn reiterates, looking to Lou for an answer, finding the man struggling to come up with any. “What did Wyatt say you were gonna do? I heard he wanted to leave before it was too late” Lou asks, looking towards Jenn, who shakes off a sudden moment of sadness before answering like nothing was out of the ordinary. “He just wanted to drive into the city. Figure out what was going on down there and find out if there worth staying for.” “He wanted to go into the city? The dead must be crawling all over that place by now” Loou says, only for Ally to correct him. “Not a whole of dead yet… I read about a ton of riots down there before my phone died, probably more of that than the dead.” “Either way, that was his plan. I don’t really have a better one” Jenn says, fiddling around with her thumbs as Lou leans his head against the wall. “Wyatt and I watched the lights go out over downtown last night” Halston says, walking up to the trio and taking a seat near the middle. “Everything went dark, it didn’t look like much had changed from outside after the sun went down, so the riots have probably turned sour by now.” “We’ve got to start preparing for what comes next, Lou” Terry says from within the room, staring at the chalkboard from his seat without switching his sight. “If this crazy bitch can just stumble onto this place, who knows what else will.” Still pacing in the middle of the room, Jules looks towards Terry and acknowledges his point. “I know we’ve got a ton of rooms, but we’ve got a lot less space than we think… Especially with that horde in the gym.” “He’s right” Vinny says, sitting atop the desk and dangling his feet over the edge. “We can play nice until the space runs out. Even then, we’ve got two main problems. Either someone comes along and overthrows us for this place, or we let one of the sick inside and all start falling like dominos.” “Well, we’ve got all these concerns, but we’re not coming up with any answers. Someone will come along and try to take whatever they want no matter where we go, at least we know we have electricity and running water here” Lou reminds everyone, only for Jenn to immediately fight the point made. “How long until we run out of fuel to keep it running?” “I mean, we know it’s not fair to ask you to fix everything and not try, Lou… But we’ve got nothing more than this, and we’re already about to lose it two days in” Jules says, walking up the stairs and taking a seat atop one of the desks. “We know something’s not right, that’s obvious. No one came to pick up their kids, the busses left without coming to the door, the entire power grid’s gone down, and whatever news we got before the phones died didn’t look good. We can’t pretend like this place is a fucking safe haven anymore, Lou.” Before John can respond, Jenn adds in with her head tucked towards the ground, “Especially when we’re being held prisoner in it.” With the warm yellow light infiltrating the room from the thin light tubes in each corner of the room, Lou looks on and turns his focus to the harsh white light coming from beneath the door as he plays out their options in his head before a voice originates from beyond the room. “Everything’s dead” a girl’s voice calls out, earning the attention from everyone as they all cram near the door. “What do you mean by ‘everything’s dead’?” Lou asks, speaking as calmly as he can despite the hours spent waiting for any response having drained most of the energy from him. “Everything. They’re zombies, they’re everywhere” the girl says, her words indicating a refusal to say anything other than the most forward response. “Who are you?” Vinny asks, his voice remaining the most unchanged from the group, still lacking the sound of emotion but remaining focused on the major goal at hand. “I’m Charli. My mom’s name is Monica, and my brother’s Greg. We didn’t really expect you guys to be here, we just thought it’d be more of the dead.” “Charli?” Ally calls, “How’d you guys figure out this was all happening?” After a pause, Charli takes a noticeable breath and takes an audible seat beside the door. “We were waiting for dad to come home when we started hearing the riots. They were all over the news, people just went nuts. It was chaos.” For a moment, Charli takes a second to breathe, trying to regain her composure to not think about it. “Cops were executing people in the streets until they all started shooting back. Some came back and others didn’t, but it was all a blood bath before we could figure out anything.” Clearly shaken just recalling the events, Charli gathers her thoughts as the group remains silent on the other side, offering her whatever time she needs. “My mom spent the whole day packing and waiting for dad, but he never showed up. So we started for Tuscon this morning, saw the lights on here and figured we’d stop and get what we need.” “What are you gonna do with us when you’re gone?” Halston asks, catching the attention of the group for a moment by the gravity of the question alone. “She told us to take the board out from the gym doors so you won’t get to follow us if you get out” Charli says, earning a face palm from the group inside despite not realizing it. Suddenly, from within the school, the echoing of Charli’s name being called captures the attention of everyone, swiftly forcing Charli to apologize for what they’re doing out of guilt before disappearing into the building as the group’s entire demeanor changes. “So much for playing nice with them, Lou. What the fuck are gonna do now?” Terry asks, only to be pat on the back by Vinny, who directs Terry away from the group to settle down. “Alright, I’ll admit that I didn’t see this coming. But if we want the dead to stay in that gym and not get shot doing so, we still have to play nice… We just need to change the approach a little bit.” “How do we do that? We force the door open and the crash is gonna be enough to turn us into duck hunt” Jules says, watching Lou’s eyes dash around the room as if he were following a fly zipping through the air. “Halston, still have your gun?” Lou asks, jumping to his feet and rushing for the bottom of the stairs. “Yeah, but I’m out of bullets” Halston replies, watching Lou drag the desk from the center of the room to the top of the stairs, one foot at a time. “That’s fine, just don’t let her know that” Lou replies, pushing the desk onto its side and making it center with the door. | “What the hell’s that, mom?” Greg asks, the sound of metal crashing into heavy wood rings throughout the school and alerts the scavenging family towards the back. “What’s going on?” Charli asks, appearing from one of the classrooms and following the rest of her family, watching her mother draw the rifle forwards and aim at whatever moves out of place. Slowing down as they approach the end of the hallway, Monica turns the corner and watches the door periodically protrude outwards as the brick between the handles begins to crack and brittle. “Stay behind me, kids” Monica orders, turning to come face-to-face with the door, watching as the slamming continues to escalate, growing more violent with each passing second before the brick finally splits, and bits of the block fall to the ground in chips as the heavy desk gets shoved forward, erupting through the doors like a bat out of hell and closing in on Monica, who shoves herself and her kids out of the way as it flies into the lockers, and stumbles to the ground. Quickly pushing herself to her feet and taking aim, she watches Lou grab her son by the neck and pull him in front of him, holding Halston’s revolver to his head and telling Monica than anything fired will result in a ‘two-for-one special.’ “Let him go!” Monica orders, only for Lou to flip her off and tell her to drop the gun and kick it towards the group as she watches in horror. “NOW!” Lou demands, forcing the woman’s hand as she removes the gun and shoves it over to a patiently-waiting Halston. Once in possession of the gun, Ally and Vinny rush over to Greg and Charli respectively and remove their bags before returning to Lou’s side. “Let him go!” Monica shouts again, the desperation in her voice more noticeable now as she grows close to tears. “Here’s how this is going to work” Lou says, slowly pulling the gun away from Greg’s head as he makes his commands clear. “I’m going to walk your son over to you, and you are going to walk with your hands in the air, not moving them for even a second, to the cafeteria at the end of that hallway, do I make myself clear?” “Yes, fine! Just give me my son!” Monica shouts, holding her hand out to Greg as Lou slowly allows him to take it, reuniting him with his mother as Halston and the group hold the family at gunpoint and direct them down the corridor. | Sat beside each other, shoulder to shoulder with their hands laid flat atop the table, Monica and her children look on at Lou as he holds Halston’s revolver in his hand and holds the barrel in Monica’s direction. Silent and waiting anxiously for the first words to be uttered, Monica watches the man before her stare a hole through her without sign of over what he might have to do. Taking his eyes away from the woman for the moment, Lou looks towards Vinny and watches the man walk up to the family, handing them an assortment of packaged fruits and vegetables with a plastic fork. “Are you gonna poison us now?” Monica asks, the mixture of fear and distress speaking volumes to the man as he stares her in the eyes, his expression baring the cold of winter. “If I was going to kill you, I would have done it back there in the hallway” Lou replies, his words carrying the weight of a man looking to keep his people safe at all costs. Reading Lou as best she can, Monica pieces together the little information she has on him, trying to figure out what his motives are to very little effect. “Why do you care about this place so much?” Monica asks, looking around the room at the survivors surrounding her, their weapons ready if necessary, “Shouldn’t you kids hate school?” Before long, Monica begins thinking over her words, picking them apart before turning her focus back to Lou. “God, you’re just kids!” Monica says, only for Lou to immediately shut any further resolutions down with one of his own, “And yet, you tried to kill us.” “Family comes first” Monica replies, watching Lou look towards the people surrounding him, watching their faces covered with natural concern, but still ready to do what surviving requires. “Look around you, Monica” Lou says, holding one of his hands out and panning it around the room, locking her eyes onto each individual she had locked away, ready to leave for dead. “We’ve got no families coming for us, no safety on the horizon. We’re all that we have left, so what do you think that makes us, if not ‘family’?” Listening to the man, Monica drops her head to the ground as her hands stay put atop the table, putting the shoe on the other foot. “You walked into what is forced to be our home, locked us away and were ready to leave us for dead just to take our shit and leave. Don’t give me the ‘family comes first’ bullshit, there’s no morality in what you did… Only destruction for the sake of destruction. You’re no better than the dead fuckers that brought the world down!” Before Monica can respond, her son begins to raise his tone, shouting at Lou as the man opposite him turns towards him, amused by the idea that the kid believes his voice carries weight. “It wasn’t the dead that brought the world down, it was all of us! They just started it!” Greg shouts, pulling a smile out of Lou, intrigued. “We haven’t left this building since the shit hit the fan, kid. We had no part in what happened out there, and according to your sister, we’re the only ones you tried to bring down with you. It wasn’t all of us, it was people like you.” “Face it, Monica” Lou says, turning back towards the woman, helpless to stop her son from continuing to talk, as any physical effort would elicit a riot from the people with the power to do something about it. “No, you look at me!” Greg shouts, pulling Lou’s eyes back onto him again, watching the leader of the group, more on edge than he typically tends to be, dart his eyes to him without missing a beat. “You said it was people like me, so if you want to cut someone down, you can cut me down” Greg says, the second half of his statement bringing him to his feet and bringing the weapons into play. Hand outwards, Lou signals for the group to lower their weapons, rising to his feet to meet Greg just over the table. “Fine, Gregory… I’ll do that. I’ll tell you just how much I hate that you’re the same kind of person you blame the world coming unglued on. And I’ll tell you just how necessary it is for people like you to be put down before you get the chance to burn everything left standing.” Lifting one hand off the table, Greg taps Lou’s arm and replies, “Do it!”, daring Lou to pull the gun on him. With a smirk and without a chance to react, Lou lifts his hand and puts the gun straight to Greg’s forehead, only to be surprised by Greg doing the same thing, holding a small handgun of his own to Lou’s forehead. With the smirk of telling someone to eat shit, Greg looks at Lou and asks, “What’re you gonna do now, big boy?” challenging the man to take part in his bloody game of human chess. Lifting his eyebrow, Lou takes his free hand and grabs Greg’s elbow before burying his thumb downwards, sending the gun off as it flies upwards and places a bullet through the ceiling. Without offering a chance to respond, Lou takes his gun and smacks Greg’s out of his hand, sending it across the room before putting his own back to Greg’s head and reciprocating the same grin. “Your move” Lou responds, watching Greg look down both Lou himself and the gun to his head before slowly taking a seat in a moment of fear, leaning up against his mom. Hurrying over, Ally grabs the gun off the ground and finds a nearly-full magazine. “Check the girl!” Ally orders, watching Jenn walk up to the daughter with her axe readied before Charli puts her hands into the air and slowly retrieves the same model gun from her boot, cautiously handing it over to a surprised Jenn. “That was dumb, Greg” Charli says, only to be shouted at by the man more hidden behind his mother than visible by Lou. “You’re an idiot, Charli. Why would you give them the gun?” Greg asks, only for Terry to respond on Charli’s behalf. “She doesn’t want to get her family killed like your dumbass” the man replies, helping Jenn figure out how to check the magazine. “Well-” Greg attempts to reply, only for Lou to shout “Shut up!” at Greg, causing him to jump and hide further behind his mother. “Look at your pussy ass, hiding behind mommy while your big sister sits there like a fuckin’ champ!” Terry jokes, only to be intrigued when Charli corrects him by simply saying, “Younger.” “OH!” Terry says, walking over to Greg and ordering for him to get up and move to another seat, separate from his family. “So it’s your younger sister making you look like a pussy!” Terry exclaims, bringing a moment of humor to Lou’s survivors in different levels as he sits Greg beside Vinny, who stares him down with a look of hatred for life itself, causing Greg to bury his head in his arms. “I don’t know what you want me to say!” Monica shouts, catching the group’s focus, and specifically earning Lou’s attention. “I can apologize to you for everything over and over again, but maybe that’s not what you want. Maybe there’s nothing I can give you, just tell me what you want and I’ll go and be out of your hair!” Thinking it over for a moment, Lou looks towards the group around him and takes a second to look back towards Monica, her genuine desperation leaving little doubt of her true motives laying on in her words like a heart would lay upon a sleeve. | “In here” Lou says, leading the way of the trio and standing beside an open door to one of the few classrooms in the basement without windows. Followed by firearm holding Halston and Vinny, and axe-wielding Jenn, the family looks into the classroom and walks inside, finding small cot-like beds set up near the back. “We’ll feed you three times a day, have someone stationed outside your door for any requests including using the bathroom or needing medicine, and have a few gallons of water taken down for you every other day until we figure out what to do with you” Lou says, walking inside after the family, staring around the room. “So we’ll be here until you kill us” Monica says, looking forward as she does, and only turning to face Lou after the question has been asked. “Give us a reason to believe you won’t be a danger to us, and we won’t have to” Lou replies, watching the woman wipe a lone tear away from her face and nod in compliance. “Okay” a defeated Monica replies, taking the containers of fruits and vegetables from Vinny before placing them atop one of the many desks scattered around the room. “Get some rest, we’ll be down here at sunrise” Lou replies, walking for the door and leaving through it, closing and locking it behind him. Beside him on the floor is the pane of glass removed from the door itself, allowing a narrow opening between the Avant family and the free world. As he walks off, leaving Vinny behind to guard the family, Jenn walks up to him and tries to pull him aside to talk. “Yes?” Lou asks, joining Jenn in one of the classrooms as she shuts the door behind them. “Are we actually going to kill them?” Jenn asks, her concern being unmistakable from everything between her voice and her posture. “I haven’t decided yet… Obviously…” Lou replies, watching Jenn nod off the sarcasm. “Lou, I know you think this is what’s best, but-” Jenn starts, only for Lou to cut her off, curious as to her meaning. “Do you not think this is what’s best?” the man asks, watching the woman shake her head slowly, weighing the options. “I don’t know, Lou. I don’t know what options we even really fucking have right now, but I know it wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world” Jenn replies, watching Lou look away from her. “I’m just saying that killing an actual person isn’t the same as putting down one of the dead… It may not feel like it, but that’s the truth, and I don’t want you to start thinking of it any differently” Jenn concludes, watching Lou look up to her again and nod in agreement. “I know, that’s why I’m not big on the idea of it either” Lou replies, walking to the back of the room and looking through the window just barely above the ground. “But if this world is gonna carry on the way it has, we’re gonna have to get used to this kind of thing” the man responds, leaning against the counter and looking towards a reluctantly accepting Jenn. “We need to remember that she would have left us for dead if we didn’t stop her, so if the shoe is on the other foot, we need to be ready to deliver justice if necessary” Lou concludes, walking over to Jenn and putting his hand on her shoulder, with his other caressing her cheek. “I know this shit ain’t great, but we’ve got to do things we don’t like having to do sometimes to remain alive. I don’t want to start killing people out of habit, but when people need to be put down, we need to do what’s necessary.” Nodding with her head turned away from Lou, Jenn tucks her head into his chest as he hugs her and tells her that everything will work out the way that it’s meant to. “This shit sucks, but we’re all stronger than it… Let’s not start losing that, okay?” Lou asks, feeling Jenn continue to nod as her hair brushes up and down his chest. Breaking the embrace, Lou pats Jenn on the shoulder before walking for and exiting the door, leaving Jenn behind. Once alone, Jenn pulls a sleek, metal block from her pocket and lifts the lid to it, striking a flame that illuminates the dark room she’s in, staring into the still flame as the lack of air circulating through the room allows it to stand up straight. After a moment of blinding herself with the light, Jenn nods and flips the lid back over to kill the flame, descending into the darkness again. | “Yo, Lou” Terry calls, catching up to the man as he returns to his quarters. “What’s up, Terry?” Lou asks, looking down through the revolving chamber of Halston’s pistol as Terry goes on. “I just wanted to say ‘sorry’ for getting’ out of hand earlier” Terry replies, catching Lou’s glance out of the corner of his eye. “You thought you were gonna die in the place were were sitting, I don’t blame you for being pissed off” Lou replies, nudging his arm with his elbow in a friendly manner. “So, if I ask you a question, you know it’s not just because I’m heated about it, right?” Terry asks, prompting Lou to stop in the middle of the hallway, looking towards Terry with assurance. “Of course, what’s up?” Lou asks, watching Terry nervously rub the back of his head. “Why are you the group’s leader, if you don’t mind me asking?” Watching Lou tilt his head and think to himself, Terry reitreates. “It’s not like I’ve got a problem with it, I just know that there’s something you’ve got that we don’t.” “Do you mind if I ask why you’re curious about it?” Lou responds, watching Terry look away in an effort to put aside harder feelings that resonate with him strongly. “I just can’t stop thinking about what it was like after you went down. We all just… watched it happen. No one knew what to do, or where to go. We just froze.” “I’d like to think someone would know what to do eventually” Lou says, immediately being shot down by Terry, shaking his head in denial. “I didn’t like Wyatt’s plan to leave, but he was the only one to speak up. Now he’s gone, and I don’t think anyone else would take charge if they had to” Terry says, looking behind Lou to watch Halston briefly pass by at the end of the hall. “I just don’t want to worry about us becoming sitting ducks like that, y’know?” Nodding, Lou thinks it all over for a second before looking to Terry as he eagerly waits a response. “I think I was the only one to make the decisions no one knew how to make yet” Lou replies, staring away from Terry as he continues doing the mental math in his head. “I’d like to think that I’ll make it long enough for those decisions to be made more easily by everyone else. Like you won’t have to depend on me to be the only voice in the room.” “What if you don’t?” Terry asks, genuinely concerned that the best outcome relies on Lou not falling into the level of trouble he’s already fallen into. “Well, if I don’t mak it long enough…” Lou begins, looking up to Terry and nodding to himself, “... Then the person that deserves to be the leader the most will stand up and start taking my place.” Patting Terry on the shoulder and walking off, Lou retires to his quarters as Terry walks away in the direction of his own, walking past a room with a door wide open and out of sight. Barely any light from the moonlight above, the room remains almost invisible to people passing by, as barely enough light slips in from the hallway, leaving the inners a baron black. Suddenly, appearing through the dark interior is a small blade, with light reflecting off its surface from the hallway light above before the lights go out, and the blade plunges into darkness once more. For once, the entry double doors to the cafe remain open for the first time since the outbreak began, but depression lines the room inside regardless. More loss and further devastation ravaging the people within it, sheltering their emotion to remain as well-composed as they’d like the people around them to believe them to be. As their new reality rises in the form of the sunlight peering over the hills, the group of survivors remain silent, waiting for a sign that there is some normality left to be uncovered in the black and white world.
“No one’s coming” Lou says, shattering the silent, yet fleeting hope that someone will march into the room and allow them all to go home. “Someone could show up” Jules says, his words become muffled by the exhaustion taking over his body, but still present enough to confirm the final fleeting seconds of hope. “No. No one’s showing up” Lou admits, pulling his hand from Ally and taking a seat atop the table. “Everyone look around the room” Lou requests, watching the exhausted survivors do just that, taking in the sights of their friends as they become their family. “We’re all that we have left, you guys… This is it” Lou says, watching both the hurt and the joy come over the group in waves, hitting like a freight train each time. “It may not look like much, but that’s not important right now. What’s important is that we understand that things will only work if we let them. Our lives are just as important as the lives we’ve got around us right now.” Whatever energy remains now is being dedicated to Lou, with everyone in the cafe placing their attention towards him, and expending the last of the power they have towards showing that they’re all aligned on the same agreement. “We’ve lost too many people to just give up now. But before we try to fight, we need to remember who’s on our side… And that starts right now. So go get some sleep, and we’ll figure the hard shit out at a later time. Until then, get some rest and we’ll move on from there” Lou concludes, watching everyone stand from their seats and head off into the undead-free building, with Vinny being the only one remaining. Noticing the refusal to depart his position, Lou kisses Ally and tells her that he will meet her in homeroom before walking over to Vinny and taking a seat beside him. “Jules told me what you did for him down there” Lou opens, watching Vinny trace invisible lines across the table with his finger as he does so. “He knows he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. He’s grateful, and so am I.” “That’s great” Vinny responds, lacking enthusiasm and refusing to split his attention away from the table. Clearing his throat and folding his hands on the table, Lou starts speaking to the man, “I know this is hard” before he is cut off, Vinny sharply turning his head towards him and stopping him before he can get another word out, not out of anger or hatred, but out of a weird stage of content. “I know you’re not one to think of school as anything more than some scheme by the people in power, but some people care so much about it because it was all they were forced to focus on. They were never allowed to think that grades didn’t matter, because it was all their lives revolved around” Vinny says, watching Lou close his mouth and nod in silence. “And for those people, this kind of thing isn’t a bump in the road like it is for you… It ends any meaning of what life is for them. Their plans, their dreams, their goals are all thrown away like the years spent on them meant nothing… Because they always were nothing. And now there’s proof of that.” Taking in what Vinny says, Lou is helpless to do anything other than look Vinny in the eyes and symbolize to him that all he can do is listen. “I don’t want to live in this world… Not because it’s easier to give up, but because this isn’t my world. I spent- no… I wasted my time in my world focusing on things that mean nothing anymore, and now… they’re just as much of a memory to me as Margo is. This world is perfect for people like you and Ally, people that are great at what they do, but don’t revolve around it. You’re not like me, what the world used to be was what you lived in, it was everything for me that it wasn’t for you. You didn’t belong in my world, Lou… And I don’t belong in yours” Vinny concludes, standing from his seat and disappearing into the abandoned school without a further word from Lou, who just sits there with his hands folded, taking it all in. = 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 = Spending her best efforts to pry open one locker after another with a crowbar, Halston’s grunts manage to catch the ear of Terry, who happened to be walking towards the area armed with a pillow and a jacket. “I thought breaking into shit was a black thing?” Terry jokes, earning little more than a subtle shake of the head. “You ever get tired of that?” Halston asks, the question acting more along the lines of a throwaway statement, not typically intended to be answered. This, however, doesn’t stop Terry. “Nah. If my black ass ain’t hurt by black jokes, none of y’all should either. There’s your little pass to laugh” Terry says, the animation in his voice growing the longer he speaks, earning a more genuine laughter from the woman, still set on prying open whatever pieces of metal she can get into. “Why are you ripping lockers open?” Terry asks, shifting the question amidst genuine curiosity, mixed with slight confusion. “If all we have is each other and what’s been left here, we might as well see what all the chompers left behind” Halston replies, her statement falling near deaf-ears as Terry becomes too engulfed with laughing over the term ‘chompers.’ “What do you call ‘em?” Halston asks, watching Terry squint his eyes and respond in full comedy mode, “They’re a bunch of dead niggas, why would we give ‘em names?” Meeting Terry in the middle of comedy boulevard, Halston plants her hands to her hips and responds, “Maybe some people would like to not call them ‘dead niggas’, that’s a pretty good start!” Chuckling, Terry walks away and pats Halston on the back as she returns to her efforts, but not before disappearing around the corner with the final word. “You might want to start opening the lockers they actually give the students, these don’t belong to anyone!” the man shouts, just as the door swings open to reveal more nothing inside, leaving a smile upon Halston’s face as she takes her crowbar and walks away, slamming the locker door shut in the process. | As he enters his original homeroom, Lou glances towards the floor to find Ally laid atop a makeshift bed of puffy coats, much to his own amusement. “Sleepy?” Lou jokes, laying beside a halfway-to-sleep Ally as he wraps his arms around her, holding her close. “It’s been a long day” Ally replies, the exhaustion in her voice being noticeable by anyone with an understanding of people. “You just rest now” Lou whispers, giving her a peck on the back of the neck as she drifts to sleep just as the sun begins to really start appearing over the hill. As his eyes begin to shut, the light behind his eyelids begins to become rapid, like fluttering explosions upon the surface of the sun, forcing his eyes to shoot open before long, looking around to notice the building surrounding him reduced to rubble, and the explosions of light becoming bursts of blinding fire amidst the night sky. With little more than the remnants of walls around him, Lou stands from the makeshift bed and hurries through the doorway, running throughout the corridors in search of anyone. As he peers into broken classrooms and shattered hallways, he sees nothing more than the corpses of those he cares about littering the floor like garbage. Before long, Lou stumbles across Ally, struggling to breath and reaching out for him, tempting him to come to her. As he tries to break free of his frozen, statue-like placement on the ground, his grunts become screams of desperation, helpless to fend off an oncoming horde of the undead surrounding him, closing in on his position and ripping into him with the first chance that they have. The shock, Lou throws himself awake, grunting loudly as he re-enters the land of the conscious with Ally on her knees, reminding him to breath. “It was only a dream, Lou. That’s it” Ally says, repeating the same thing over and over again whilst holding his head close to her heart as the sun sets on another day. | “How’re you holding up?” Vinny asks, leaning against the door frame of Jenn’s makeshift home, watching her use a few rocks from outside to sharpen the head of her axe before her sight if taken by the man. “As well as you’d think” Jenn replies, the hurt being hidden behind a mask of confidence, but threatening to spill through with the passing of each, individual word. “I know I didn’t get to send you my condolences before, so I thought I’d do so now” Vinny says, taking himself away from his hopeless mindset to bring himself down to the level he used to be at not long ago. “Thank you” Jenn says, looking to want to say more, but unable to bring herself to do so. Entering the room, Vinny looks around to notice the desks around the room split into chunks of metal and downgraded wood. “I see you and I both got over it the same way” Vinny says, earning a slight laugh from both himself and the woman in distress. “Look, Jenn… I’m not gonna tell you that it’ll be alright because I’m the last person to take that seriously from… But you’re stronger than I am, this’ll be just another bump in the road for you, you’ve just gotta remember that you’re stronger than what the world throws at you.” As Vinny finishes, the tears beating Jenn into letting them flow finally begin to fall from her eyes, and the hair on her head begins dancing with her pain-filled nods of compliance. “I appreciate it” Jenn responds, struggling through her words as the pain in having to say them begins running her over like being caught beneath the waves of a tsunami. Realizing that there needs to be some time to herself, Vinny turns around to leave, only for his attention to be requested by Jenn, as she asks a question to him once he’s turned around. “How did you get over it?” the woman asks, catching Vinny off guard as a non-verbal hint for him to come back in. “Um… Well, as strange as it sounds… The hurt stopped when I put her down the second time” Vinny says, somewhat striking himself off guard with gravity behind such a statement. “It was like-” Vinny begins, looking to explain further before Jenn finishes his thought for him with, “Taking down the monster she became?” “Yeah… Exactly” Vinny replies, staggered by the shared experience between himself and the woman, almost able to crack a smile amongst his realization of it. “Thanks, Vinny” Jenn says, wiping her tears away as the small, yet noticeable smirk of Vinny becomes more apparent. “Anytime” the man replies, taking the moment to appreciate the interaction before leaving the room, leaving Jenn and her sharpened axe alone beneath the light of the sunset. | “Jules?” Lou calls out, stepping outside of the school building for the first time since the outbreak first went down and approaching the man sat back in a beach chair watching over the sunset. “What’s up, Lou?” Jules asks, relaxing to the sight as Lou approaches him with amusement. “Havin’ fun?” Lou asks, taking a seat on the ground beside Jules, who seems more relaxed than Lou’s ever seen him to be. “I guess so. I realized I never really looked at the sunset, so now that there’s nothing to stop me… Here I am.” Amused with his own actions, Jules smiles towards the sun as if it could see him, embracing the warmth of the light on his face as it slowly descends below the horizon. “Does this have anything to do with Vinny getting you out of that pile up back there?” Lou asks, taking his eyes away from the sunset to watch Jules’ response. “Yeah, a bit” the man replies, slouching back into the seat without a care in the world. “Listen, I’m not gonna lie and say it didn’t affect me, ‘cause it scared me a bit to know that it could’ve all went down a lot differently… But I’m also not gonna get myself paranoid about something that’s just gonna get more common the longer we run from it” Jules replies, removing his eyes from the sunset to place them onto Lou for the first time. “What about you?” Jules asks, watching surprise come over the man beside him. “What about me?” Lou asks, laughing with Jules. “You didn’t think about that horde mess? Didn’t see shit differently after?” For a moment, Lou thinks over his own reaction, not really having chosen to give it much thought until now. “Not really. Whenever my time comes, there’s not going to be much I can do to argue with it” Lou replies, pausing for a moment before concluding to give his own belief a slight amount of additional thought. “I’d like to think I’ve made peace with it by now” Lou responds, though the backing behind his conclusion leaves much to be desired on the part of Lou’s convincement in his own words. “That’s why you’re the leader” Jules says, the heavy-statement slipping from his tongue as if it was another regular sentence, catching Lou’s eye as Jules self-reflection returns his view to the fading sunset. Sat silently admiring the view, the two men are oblivious to the rest of the group walking up from behind, with Vinny’s verbal adoration for the sight being the trigger for their refocus of attention. “Want to watch the sunset?” Lou asks, patting the ground beside him as an invitation immediately accepted by Ally. Afterwards, the rest of the group takes their place on the ground, one by one, all looking out over the sunset together. | The sound of her shoes crunching the broken bits of glass beneath her feet, Jenn slowly walks throughout the secretary’s area with her axe in hand, looking towards the cramped hallway space before finally turning the corner to be confronted with it head-on. Slowly progressing through the claustrophobia-inducing concrete walls before finally reaching her intended destination, the sweat in the palms of her hands smearing over the handle to the axe as she pushes the door to the spiral staircase open. Creaking through the motion in large part due to the rustic metal, the sharp sounds echoing through the vertical tunnel-like space, stuffy in nature and still lit by the singular, dim light just over her head. Swallowing the fear-induced ball of spit forming in her mouth, Jenn slowly makes her way down each step of the staircase, taking the long way down into a near-pitch black conclusion. From the fading sunlight, a barely-noticeable splash of light shines through the narrow glass window in the heavy metal door, allowing the smallest glimpse into what lays behind. Even from the near-top of the staircase, Jenn can see the splash of light spilling into the dark base of the tower-like spiral, driving her closer towards hating her descent as much as it does forcing her to desire the closure as a necessity. The conflict within her mind does her no favors, as her descent remains time-consuming, each step being carefully taken with determined destain. Stopping halfway down, Jenn takes in a breath and lets it return to the world, sending the hair in her face flying outwards for a moment as she does, finally speeding her descent up, and coming to the bottom of the stairs within the next few seconds. Once there, Jenn takes a second to assure herself of the necessity in her choice before finally peering into the glass slot, watching the barely-visible outline of two bodies laid out upon the ground, with one having both legs broken to such a degree that the bone protrudes out of it’s pant leg. Closing her eyes and nodding to herself, forcing her mind to accept the nature of what she’s about to witness and get it over with before it’s too late, Jenn snaps into a lock of focus and pushes the knob of the door in. Pulling it free, with the mechanisms in place snapping and popping into place, Jenn looks towards the two bodies as only one shows any signs of movement, forcing her to brandish her axe in a defensive position, regardless of the level of the impending threat. As seconds go by without assurance, the face of Wyatt’s reanimated corpse looks towards her and growls at her presence, reaching out with whatever power his body remains holding to take hold of Jenn, who has given up on trying to force herself to feel anything. Noticing Wyatt’s inability to move, Jenn puts the axe to her side once again and drops to her knees beside Wyatt, holding his head down to look into his eyes. Faded gray and lacking any sign of a life he once had, Wyatt’s eyes refuse to lock onto Jenn, instead looking at the hand she has placed over the top of his skull. “Look at me” Jenn asks, knowing that he won’t do as she asks, but still feeling the need to so regardless. “Look at me” she asks again, still captivated by his corpse’s refusal to acknowledge her apart from what he wants. “Look at me!” Jenn shouts again, slamming his head into the floor, splattering blackened blood upon the concrete. “Goddamnit, Wyatt! Look at me!” Jenn shouts again, slamming his head into the ground over and over, requesting the same thing each time to no avail. “Look at me you son of a bitch!” Jenn continues to shout, repeatedly forcing his skull, now showing bone, into the concrete without any further hesitation, just doing so without stopping. “Look at me!” Jenn continues shouting, the blood beneath his skull becoming a pool with each thud, and her cries becoming more desperate the longer her pleas go unnoticed. Finally, Jenn stops slamming Wyatt’s head into the ground, holding it in place as his growls, now somewhat muffled, persist alongside his still directionless eyes. Thrown well past the brink of composure, Jenn picks her axe from the ground and lifts to her feet, raising the blade over her head and burying it into his skull, finally ending the groaning and growling, and finally ending whatever chapter of life the man had entered into. Upon the mixture of crunching and squishing of the head of the weapon imbedding itself into Wyatt’s skull, Jenn struggles to force it free before finally dropping to her ass on the ground in a heap of tears. Head buried in her knees and her arms locked around the front of them, Jenn lets whatever emotions wish to flow do exactly that. Alone in the dungeon-like setting, Jenn throws the world around her away for a moment of solace, the handle of the axe still propped in the air, waiting to be retrieved for the moment. | Returning to a spot in the girl’s locker room, Halston lays herself out on a couch in the teacher’s spot just beyond the changing area. Closing her eyes, she places her hands behind her head and tries to ignore the eerie silence before hearing the mechanisms of the locker room door open, alerting her enough to get up and aim her gun. “Woah!” Ally says, holding her hands out as Halston lowers the gun. “I noticed someone had taken over the locker room, I just wanted to come down and figure out who it was” Ally says, walking through the doorway as Halston lays back down. “I know he was Jenn’s boyfriend, but he died saving you. I don’t know what you’re feeling in regards to it, but I just wanted to make sure you weren’t blaming yourself.” Watching Ally walk into the office and take a seat in one of the chairs, Halston shakes her head looking at the ceiling. “I shouldn’t be alive right now… He shouldn’t be dead” Halston says, only being cut off by Ally, refusing to sympathize with her line of thinking. “Yeah, but you’re not dead. Wyatt’s dead and there’s no changing that, so let’s not waste time wishing the roles were reversed when we can get things that mean something done instead.” Caught off guard by the response, Halston peers at Ally with resentment. “And what did you do when you thought Lou was dead?” Halston asks, watching the smile spread across Ally’s face the moment the question is asked. “I took my anger out on the one’s I thought caused it. I cleared out a portion of the crowd and made my way to the generators… Lou beat me to them.” “So, should I go head into the gym and start taking heads?” Halston asks, challenging Ally to meet her in the same position. “It wouldn’t be smart, but neither was what I did… So I can’t sit here and tell you not to without being a hypocrite.” Still not having heard a response she likes, Halston ends the bickering and lays herself back down. “Look, what happened was tragic… But it’s not going to end until this is all over. So, until then… Let’s try to hold it off as long as we can, okay?” Ally says, standing from her seat and patting Halston on the shoulder before leaving, but not before walking by Jenn as she enters the office. “Hey” Halston says, less enthusiastic, but without the content her voice directed towards Ally. “Would you be missing anything by chance?” Jenn asks, watching Halston look towards her with confusion. Without being able to respond, Halston watches Jenn pull her bra out from behind her back, looking at both it and the woman in front of her with worry. “You fucked my boyfriend?” Jenn asks, her voice lacking the anger the kind of statement would usually hold, instead speaking as if she was poking fun at her. “Jenn, I’m so sorry… I-” Halston begins, only for Jenn to nonchalantly throw the woman’s bra back to her and take Ally’s newly-vacated seat. “Don’t bother apologizing, I knew what I signed up for with him” Jenn says, kicking her feet up onto the table to Halston’s surprise. “You’re not mad?” Halston asks, watching Jenn shake her head. “I’m disappointed in you, but I’m mad at myself” Jenn says, pulling her hair into a ponytail. “Wyatt was a great guy… Honestly! He was… But he never knew how to be committed to anything. I’ve been trying to convince myself that it wasn’t who he really was for so long… But I’ve gotta come to grips with the fact that I was hoping for a long shot.” “I didn’t mean to hurt you” Halston says, fumbling over her words in a way to give her statement sense, only for Jenn to continue. “I- I know you didn’t, Halston. I know that. I’m not saying that if I was caught in a life or death situation, my greatest feeling would be ‘horny’, but I can’t expect anyone to be thinking straight when they don’t expect to survive what they’re in.” Confused at the lack of hatred in Jenn, Halston remains silent in hopes of not giving Jenn any reason to hate her for what she did. “Did he-” Jenn begins, choking up before she can fully ask as Halston sits up and leans closer to Jenn, watching the tears form again. “Fuck” Jenn exclaims, wiping away the tears with the sleeve of her sweater before Halston hands her a box of tissues. “Nevermind” Jenn says, wiping away the tears as Halston promises her she can ask whatever she wants. “No” Jenn says, stopping the tears from falling, and handing Halston the tissues back. “I’d rather not know” Jenn says, nodding to Halston before getting up and walking for the door. “Just don’t fuck any of my future boyfriends, okay? Jenn asks, the joking manner in her voice being dulled out from the pain in her voice. “Of- Of course!” Halston replies, her assurance being enough for Jenn to walk away, leaving a confused Halston alone once more, questioning to herself what exactly just happened. | Walking into the cafeteria one at a time, the group scatters to different tables to take a seat as Lou stands at the center of the room. Looking out at the different expressions lining the room, some filled with sadness, others filled with content, more filled with worry and one, Vinny’s, as blank as a check. “It’s been rough” Lou says, watching the eyes in the crowd filled with grief and hurt as they line their sights with the man. “None of us know what’s going to happen or when this’ll all be over. But the buses cleared out yesterday afternoon and not a single parent has shown up to take someone home, so there’s no one left for us to depend on. And if we’re being honest, we don’t even know how bad the rest of the city is.” Stopping, Lou stands in silence as the group watches on, playing whatever he can dream up inside his head as everyone stares at him, waiting for a follow-up. “Lou?” Ally calls, snapping him back into the moment as his eyes meet hers. “We know nothing, and that’s not likely to change” Lou says, walking over to the windows and aiming his hand out towards the lawn. “We’re holed in a school so far away from downtown that most people in the city don’t even know this place exists, and that’s not going to change just because shit hits the fan. So let’s start admitting to ourselves that this is the only thing we’re sure of. Us and this place, that’s it.” His tone becoming more commanding, Lou begins taking charge with his hand still furiously aimed at the outside as the sun finally falls below the hills the rest of the way. “This could be a virus, this could be an illness, this could be a spectacle that we’ve got no control over because here’s what we know… We’re going to need food, we’re going to need clean water, we’re going to need whatever we can find to defend ourselves, and we’re going to need to figure out what the hell is going on. We can think of ourselves as zombie-slaying badasses all we fucking please, but the truth is, we’re all scared and worried that the end-of-days people talked about for so long is actually here.” Walking to the back of the room, Lou pulls up a plastic chair and drags it to the center of the room, setting it in the middle of the two rows of tables and sits facing it’s back, leaning on the neck of the chair in solidarity with the remaining survivors. “I told you earlier that the people and the place around you is all we have left, and we’ve already lost three in just the past day. We look out for each other before anyone else now, and that doesn’t change regardless. We all fight for each other and we all do what we can to make sure everyone is safe, and I know that I’d go down swinging if it meant getting everyone one of you to safety… Because THAT is more important to me than living a life that someone else deserves more.” Saying that, Lou notices Vinny’s attention swept towards him, the conflicted survivor seeming to look determined for the first time since everything began, locking onto Lou’s every word. “So here’s what we all need to do. We need to get every gas cannister we can find and fill them with all the gasoline we can get before the well runs dry out there. We need to hit every store in the next few miles that we can for anything that will help us… Food with more protein than a bag of Doritos, weapons that aren’t ammo-less guns and spare metal spikes, and information on what is happening and how to get ahead of it. Until then, this place is safe as long as we keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. If we need to go in the dead of night, let’s always be ready to get moving. If we get overrun by something, the horde escapes or a new one comes around, let’s get ready to move and evade. Any threat comes our way, let’s make sure we keep each other out of their reach, regardless of what comes for us… We can survive here, and we can defend this pl-” As he attempt to finish his throat, the sounds of a door opening in the main foyer and quick footsteps dashing through he hallways alerts the group like a blast in an echo-chamber, prompting everyone to grab their closest defense and hurry in it’s direction. Down there!” Lou calls for the group, leading them in the direction of the freshman hallway, where they catch the brief figures dancing around the corner further into the building. “Go go go!” Lou calls, racing through the halls with his metal spike in hand, held beside his head and ready to strike. The air ripping through his hair as it crashes beside his ears, sending the fluttering sounds of wind bellowing throughout his head, Lou and the group turn the corner and stop dead in their tracks. “Stop! Not another move!” a woman shouts, a rifle drawn directly at Lou with two teenage kids behind her, themselves armed with kitchen knives. “Don’t make me shoot” the woman demands again, prompting Lou to place his hands into the air, dropping the spike to the ground as the survivors behind him reluctantly do the same. 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. | 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.” | “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. | “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. | 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. | 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. | “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. | 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. | 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. Frozen in place, just staring blankly at the double doors, Ally and the remaining group of survivors look to each other, each expecting an answer to make sense of the events that just unfolded. As time continues passing, the growling outside becomes less and less noticeable, and Lou continues to not hurry through the doors, the truth begins to sink in like an explosive floating to the sea floor, left to inevitably erupt and send waves flying in all directions.
Finally, breaking the shock and silence, Ally begins to break down, her breaths turning into weeping and growing more rapid. Before long, her weeps begin to turn into crying, and the group huddles around her, Vinny not included, trying to calm her. “He’s not dead, he just can’t be dead” Ally says, her pleas to any entity that can hear her going unanswered, as the door remain sealed with Lou on the other side of it. “What do we now?” Terry asks, “Where do we go from here?” Other than Jenn, the group breaks the embrace, pacing the floor as they approach their next move. “Nowhere” Vinny replies, forcing the group’s attention upon him. “This is where the future dies” the man continues, walking over to the cafe doors and trying to pry them open with whatever he can find. “That doesn’t have to be true” Jules says, only for his hopeful statement to be shattered beneath the weight of the cracks on wood of Vinny’s ball-peen hammer. “It is. Get used to it” Vinny orders, continuing to take the weapon to the door, continuing to force the barrier between themselves and food inwards, one shot at a time. “This is where it all ends. Nothing’s going back too the way it was after this. This…” Vinny stops, pausing both his words and his swings as he turns around to notice the entire group staring him down. “This is all that’s left.” “Well then we’ve got to figure out where to go next. Lou’s gone, Logan’s gone, Fink’s gone. What do we do to make sure no one else drops?” Terry asks, raising his tone to ensure the matter is seen as important. With no one else answering, Wyatt takes it amongst himself to take initiative. “We’ve got to get out of this place” Wyatt says, earning the group’s attention. “It’s obviously not safe here, so we’ll head out someplace safe. But before we start thinking about where to go or when to go, we’ve got to get inside that cafeteria and take whatever we can so we’re not rummaging through whatever stores have been burned to the ground.” Directing Terry and Jules to assist Vinny in taking the door down, Wyatt moves back to Ally and Jenn. “Ally, I know this is hard, but I need you to stay strong, okay? Everyone here is looking up to you just as much as they would have Lou, so the two of you need to help me figure out how to keep these guys safe, alright?” Still shocked from the loss, Ally nods her head before taking a seat beside Jenn as Wyatt walks over to Halston. “Can I talk to you for a second?” Wyatt asks, walking over to the end of the cafe with the woman. “What’s up?” Halston asks, taking a seat in front of him. “You have an SUV, right?” Wyatt asks, watching the girl nod. “Yeah, but my keys are still in my locker.” “Your locker’s downstairs, right?” Wyatt asks, watching Halston nod once again. Nodding slightly, Wyatt glances at the group taking their force to the heavy cafe doors before moving his glance over to Jenn and Ally. “Okay, get ready. We’re going out to get them” Wyatt says, watching as Halston takes in a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll be ready when you are” Halston replies, standing from her seat and grabbing a screwdriver from one of the center tables. “Listen everyone, I want us all to be on the same page” Wyatt shouts, waiting for the group to centralize their focus onto him. “Halston and I are going to make a quick run to her locker to get her keys. From this moment on, we move in small groups. Less for the dead to grab onto, and fewer people to spread your attention to.” Walking to Jenn, Wyatt gently takes the axe and turns back to the anxious survivors, still riding a high from the efforts on the door. “When you get in there, take whatever you can and pack it into whatever you can find. When we get back, we’ll start figuring out the next steps. Until then, stay inside and stay alive, got it?” All responding with their own variation of agreement, the group continues their work as both Halston and Wyatt slip through the first set of double doors and enter back into the warzone, their bodies being hidden by the slowly closing doors until their entrance is sealed shut, and their focus becomes reset. = 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 = “Keep an eye out, they can spring up out of nowhere” Wyatt whispers, sneaking around the corner to the main foyer and catching sight of four members of the dead. Standing upright, Wyatt takes the axe and lifts above his head before bringing it down atop one of the corpses, splitting it’s head in two as the blade buries itself within, allowing Wyatt to softly guide the corpse to the ground with less than a thud. Taking her own turn, Halston sneaks up behind the second corpse and grabs it by whatever strands of hair remain in it’s head, pulling the skull back before burying the point of the screwdriver through the eyeball and gently guiding it to the ground, much the same as Wyatt. Creeping up behind the third corpse, Wyatt lifts his axe into the air and inches closer to the corpse, however, he finds himself unable to swing the blade down before another two members of the undead round the corner, audibly growling as they spot Wyatt and Halston, bringing it to the attention of the prior two undead. “Act now, think later” Wyatt orders, burying the blade in the corpses head before ripping it free with enough force to send blood spraying across the hall, setting him up for a baseball-style swing on the second, separating the head from the rest of the body as the skull crashes into a potted plant near the main doors. Charging the first corpse, Halston buries the screwdriver in its eyeball and reaches up to do the same to the second, only to find herself pinned against a glass window and in peril. Without thinking, Halston drops the screwdriver as she clutches at the neck of the corpse and reaches for her pistol, sending a bullet out of the top of the corpse’s skull as the pane of glass behind her shatters from the sound, sending her falling backwards into the secretary’s office. “Halston!” Wyatt shouts, hearing the noticeable groans of the undead before leaping through the open space and tending to the girl, who finds herself bleeding from her back. “You good?” Wyatt asks, helping the girl to her feet. “Do I fucking look good?” Halston responds, grabbing at her back with one hand and approaching the front door, only to find the horde now having sealed the pair inside the office, taking over the space just outside the window and flooding in through the door. “Come on, let’s go!” Wyatt shouts, noticing Halston staring blankly at the horde in front of her and pulling her back, disappearing around the corners of the room as the horde begins their pursuit. Amongst the horde, as it wages a chase after the duo, one undead corpse in specific stands still, not jockeying for position ahead of the undead, instead opting to stand back and watch the horde do its work before breaking from them and taking another direction. | “Got any plans once we’re out of here?” Terry asks, looking over to Jules as he helps him run the cafe table into the door, hoping to use whatever force it has as a battering ram. “I’m gonna head home, try to find my family.” “You think your family’s still there?” Vinny asks, burying a flathead into the slot nearest the doorknob in hopes of prying it open. “Why wouldn’t they be?” Jules asks, pausing his efforts for a moment to focus on Vinny. “L.A’s a big city. A lot of people, they might have wanted to get out while they could” the man says, the tool in his hand chipping the paint clean off the metal frame. “They wouldn’t leave me behind” Jules responds, leaning forward to start pushing the table again, only to be stopped by Vinny’s response. “They might not have had a choice.” “What are you talking about?” Terry asks, more confused than Jules at this rate. “Check your phones recently?” Vinny asks, watching as the group begins loading up whatever social media or news platforms they can find, each source flooded with videos of roads being blocked off and surges of traffic across small toll stations all across the country. “It’s everywhere” Vinny says, returning to work as every survivor around the room becomes entrenched in their phones, locked onto discussions about everything going on in the world. “I’ve got not service” Jules says, trying to reach his family. “Facetime’s down too” Jenn says, still with an arm over Ally, who’s grown silent. “It’s like I said, everything’s gone to hell. They may not have had a choice” Vinny repeats, refusing to take his sights away from his work again, digging further and further in before metal finally snaps, and one final run of the cafe table sends the door flying in with a resounding thud. “Let’s get in there before Wyatt and Halston get back” Terry shouts, glancing down at his phone before chucking it halfway across the room, leaving it behind in the world before. “I’ll be back” Jenn whispers to Ally, getting up and rushing over to the group of men swarming the inside and grabbing at whatever they can find. Still stunned by the events, Ally slowly moves her focus to the group of four before sending it away and to the direction of the double doors. Now engulfed by anger, Ally stands to her feet and walks over to cafe doors, picking up the ball-peen hammer and walking back to her original position. Stood in front of the double doors, Ally takes one final glance at the group, still scavenging for whatever they can get their hands on before turning back to the doors and opening them, walking out into the chaos of a dark, barely lit hallway as the doors seal behind her. | “Where are we?” Wyatt shouts, knowing the horde is fast approaching whilst they find themselves caught in a crossroads, lost in a narrow hallway of concrete walls. “Down here!” Halston shouts, entering a stairwell with Wyatt before backing up against the shut door as the undead begin attempting to force their way through. “Where does this lead?” Wyatt asks, watching Halston continue struggling to hold the door back, one member of the horde having got his arm through. “Wyatt!” Halston shouts, prompting the man to hurry around her and swing the axe down with enough force to remove the arm and allow the door to shut once more. “What are we gonna do?” Halston shouts, both she and Wyatt growing more unable to keep the door shut as more undead begin to get fingers and limbs through the opening, some coming within inches of Halston, who’s forced to duck away from them. “Go up!” Halston shouts, counting to three before both she and Wyatt give up their strength to the horde and burst for the stairs, climbing the spiral further and further up until their vision, already obstructed by the lack of light, becomes even more weary, causing them to trip over themselves and over the stairs as they climb further. “Where does this place go?” Wyatt asks, finally using a flashlight from his pocket to illuminate the area. “The bell tower!” Halston replies, readying to take another step, only for her foot to be caught by one of the undead having caught up to her. “Cover your ears!” Halston shouts, pulling her gun and firing a shot through the undead’s skull, sending blood onto the crowd just behind it. At the last moment, Halston gets up and dodges another tackle from the undead, catching up with Wyatt as her ears begin to ring from the gunshot. Finally at the top of the stairwell, the only thing between their entry to the bell tower’s platform and the horde is a boarded off door that seemingly hasn’t been touched in decades. Knowing that Halston cannot hear, Wyatt hands her the flashlight and points towards the horde as he begins walking back down the flight of stairs. Armed with the axe, Wyatt swings lie a baseball bat and sends one of the undead cratering to the ground below before kicking another back down the way in which he came from. With her hearing returning slowly, Halston keeps the light pointed at Wyatt, amidst a battle with the undead and begins shoving her back into the decrepit wood. Shoving it enough for the moonlight to begin sneaking through the cracks being made, Halston watches on as Wyatt takes the battle to another level, using the undead as shields for other portions of the horde, battering them away with their own bodies as they trip and fall as far as the growing horde will let them. With a few more tries, Halston finally shatters through the door, stumbling onto the platform as the moonlight takes over for the flashlight now rolling down the roof. Staggering to her feet, Halston rushes for the door and watches Wyatt, her shadow taking away some of the moonlight just before he is taken down by other members of the horde. “Fuck you!” Wyatt shouts, grabbing the axe by the shoulder and using the blade as a knife of sorts. “Wyatt!” the man can hear being shouted from above, looking up to see Halston watching on as he grows further pinned below the horde. “Go! Get out of here!” Wyatt shouts, ordering the woman to save herself as he begins the process of accepting his fate. Refusing to lose anyone else, Halston readies her pistol and takes aim at the horde, knowing the danger of shooting so close to Wyatt. Climbing further stop him, Halston maneuvers around her own shadow blocking her line of sight and sends two bullets flying in a state of panic, the first burying itself into Wyatt’s shoulder, and the second shooting straight through the skull of the undead ready to take a bite out of his cheek. Badly wounded by the shot, Wyatt’s strength becomes limited, and the second undead climbing atop him inches closer to his stomach, only for its attempts to be thwarted as Halston picks it off without hesitation. Biting into Wyatt’s boot, the third undead is the final of the undead picked off before the girl races down the stairs and helps Wyatt to his feet, sending a few more shots into the crowd to further the distance. Finally back to the platform, Halston takes Wyatt’s axe and uses it to lock the door just moments prior to the horde catching up to them. “Holy fuck, are you alright?” Halston asks, kneeling down beside Wyatt and checking on the bullet in his shoulder. “I’m alive, that’s good enough” Wyatt replies, turning slowly as Halston breaths a sigh of relief. “It went right through, all we’ve got to do is patch you up and you’ll be alright.” “Here’s the problem” Wyatt says, pausing to look out at the night sky alongside the girl, with the lights of downtown Los Angeles just dying out the second they begin to do so, signalling the end coming near. | Illuminated only by the moonlight slipping through the classroom windows on each of its sides, the hallway Ally begins traveling, armed with the flathead are ominously bare and void of life. Stepping over bodies of fresh corpses, none of which appearing to belong to that of Lou, Ally walks around corners and into stairwells, confidently and without fear. Rounding on corner, Ally finds herself sectioned off from the end of a very long hallway by roughly ten members of the undead, simply roaming without much to care about. Rather than ducking for cover, Ally begins to walk closer to them, storming forward before grabbing one of the undead and implanting the flathead through the soft spot in the base of their skull, sending the driver upwards and into the brain. Ripping the tool free, Ally lets the corpse drop to the ground in a thud, which alerts the remaining undead to her location. Filled with rage, Ally storms forward without care and begins swinging the flathead like a knife, burying it in one eye ball after another and cleaning house of whatever roaming corpses may remain before rounding another corner and ducking into another stairwell. Now into the basement, Ally walks down a long corridor without any life and aims for the locker rooms at the very end of the hallway. As she walks past one classroom, a lone undead takes notice of her presence, and begins to walk after her, prompting Ally to roll her eyes. Turning around to face the corpse, Ally uses her leg to sweep the balance from beneath the corpse, dropping it to the ground. Following that, the somewhat possessed girl plants her foot on the throat of the corpse and begins pushing down, adding more force with each second as the growling turns into near-silent hissing, with the girl atop the corpse staring blankly at the former student as it reaches towards her. Before long, Ally removes her heel from the corpse’s throat and buries the flathead into its eye socket, killing it before turning around to return to her task at hand. Entering the locker room, Ally turns corners on her way to her destination, encountering one undead at a time and quickly picking it off like the effort was nothing. Finally, she nears one door in particular labeled “MAINTENANCE” that has not only been opened, but has been propped open with a door stop, something that catches Ally by surprise. As she inches closer to the door, she hears a noise coming from within the room, causing her to lift the flathead into the air beside her head and ready herself to use it. As she enters through the doorway, she notices a figure at the end of the room stood directly in front of the emergency generator. Trying to get a better look at it, Ally begins leaning in, her flathead still readied by the side of her head. As she walks forward, her foot knocks over something metallic, the chime of the piece earns the figure’s attention and catches it by surprise. Due to the shock, the figure’s hand slips and pushes a lever upwards, restoring electricity to the building, powering on the fridges and walk-in coolers in the cafe as the survivors begin stockpiling whatever they can find, surprising them. In the bell tower, Wyatt and Halston watch the lights in each classroom begin to power on, surprising them as well. In the maintenance room, Ally is partially blinded by the light engulfing the room, now buzzing with machines powering on and rattling together. Removing her hand from her face, Ally looks forward to see the figure turn around and face her, a can os gasoline in its hand. Staring at her, his face covered in blood, is Lou. Stunned at the sight of each other, the two just silently stare for a few moments, and the flathead in Ally’s hand drops to her side. | With the growling remaining present on the opposite side of the door, Halston and Wyatt are forced to remain trapped atop the cramped platform with little more than a 360-degree view of the gaps between the top of the treeline to keep them occupied. “Watch your step, there’s shit all over the ground” Halston says, stepping over chunks of metal and taking a rest beside Wyatt, leaning up against the inoperable bell. “If the world’s gonna end like this, I’m glad it’ll still be pretty to look at” Wyatt says, taking a swig of a bottle of wine left inside the tower long ago. “Hasn’t that shit gone bad yet?” Halston asks, taking the bottle into her hand. “One thing about wine you can count on… Is that it always gets better with age.” Shrugging her shoulders, as if to say ‘fuck it”, Halston tilts her head back and takes a swig from the bottle, puckering her face and shaking her head before handing what’s left to Wyatt. “Not a fan?” Wyatt asks, immediately upstaged by Halston replying, “What the fuck?” through a scrunched nose and a rapidly shaking head. Laughing, Wyatt continues to lean against the bell as Halston wipes her lips, taking the bottle with his the arm belonging to his wounded shoulder, wrapped in a makeshift bandage from Wyatt’s shirt. “Not much of a drinker?” Wyatt asks, taking another swig. “Definitely not. Never get the chance” Halston replies, licking whatever is left on her lips as she continues looking out at the scenery surrounding her. “What do you mean by ‘never got the chance’” Wyatt asks, watching Halston walk towards the window to embrace the view from a closer position. “Too busy with school work to go out to parties... And my parents would never let me drink, so I never really started” Halston replies, prompting Wyatt to stand from his break and join Halston beside the window. “What about you?” Halston asks, watching Wyatt take to the bottle again. “Never thought school taught me as much as whatever else I could find. Didn’t take it seriously regardless of how my grades turned out.” Looking over to the man, Halston looks at him, watching his lean against the concrete supports. “School’s meant to teach you what you need to learn. You won’t learn more online than you would at school” Halston responds, taking notice of Wyatt’s laughter. “What?” Halston asks, watching Wyatt place the bottle upon the windowsill and reply. “That’s bullshit. School doesn’t teach you what you need to learn, it teaches you what it wants you to learn.” Looking at him as if he were joking, Halston returns her view to the night sky for a moment before Wyatt speaks again, regaining her focus. “Seriously. Why do you think they never mention community college or trade schools? The things that’ll help save you money? They just keep pushing these expensive colleges down your throat like syrup. They don’t want you to be smart, they want you to keep shoveling money into the system so it can sustain itself. It’s bullshit.” Shrugging her shoulders, Halston smirks and points her focus back out to the city. “Look, you can believe what you want to believe… But the school system isn’t beneficial, and it only operates to push people towards whatever options benefit the system, and not them.” “Give me one example of what school wont teach you” Halston replies, watching Wyatt smirk and reach for the bottle, taking a big swig before holding up his fingers, putting them down with each example he gives. “Cooking, balancing a budget, understanding how the housing market works, how to fill in a job application, how to properly sanitize dishes without the risk of them developing bacteria” Wyatt says, ultimately stopped by Halston repeating the last example in the form of a question. “Yeah, when you wash dishes, you need to make sure there’s enough distance between them so they can dry off, and whatever spots are wet don’t stay that way long enough to develop bacteria. Thanks for proving my point!” Wyatt exclaims proudly, watching Halston roll her eyes in defeat and take a seat in the corner of the bell tower. “You know another thing I bet you didn’t learn from school?” Wyatt asks, watching the girl glance up at him, still licking her lips from the aftertaste of the wine. “How to shoot a gun” Wyatt replies, taking a seat beside her and correcting himself in a joking manner. “Well, with that first shot, maybe they did… But the three after that definitely not” the man says, earning an elbow to the side by the girl as the two just stare at the opposite wall. “Where’d you learn?” Wyatt asks, watching Halston shyly glance at the floor, folding her hands together between her legs. “My dad” the girl replies, leaning her head against the wall and staring up at the scaffolding above. “He thought I should learn before it was too late. He didn’t want me running into trouble without something to defend myself.” “Wait… So that’s… That’s your gun?” Wyatt asks, now surprised as he watches Halston nod. “You brought it on campus?” Wyatt asks, watching the girl shrug. “We’re a private school, we don’t have metal detectors. I can get away with it pretty easily” she says, her voice growing fainter as she begins to feel bad for her actions. “Why? I mean.. Why’d you bring it?” Wyatt asks, watching the girl’s head drop down. “It reminds me of him” Halston replies, not noticing Wyatt stare up in a moment of realization. “That’s right” the man replies, turning to face the girl, still sinking her head down. “I know I never told you… But I’m sorry you had to go through that” Wyatt says, placing his hand on the girl’s shoulder and lightly rubbing it with his hand. “It’s never easy losing someone you love” Wyatt continues, watching Halston take the pistol from the ground beside her and hold it in her hands. “It was hard… But things just happen sometimes” Halston replies, her voice no longer faint, but lingering pain being easily noticeable. “There’s nothing you can do” The girl responds, prompting Wyatt to pull her in and hold her next to his chest, embracing her as she exhales in breaths of hidden-away sadness. “I’m sure he’d be very proud of you right now” Wyatt says, getting smile on Halston’s face as she sinks her head closer to Wyatt. “What do you think’s gonna happen now?” Halston asks, her free hand tracing random patterns along Wyatt’s chest. “I don’t know” the man replies, lifting his hand to look out at the night sky. “I just know this place isn’t safe for us… Any of us.” 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!” | 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. | “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. | 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. | “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. | 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. Series Premiere “Good morning students and faculty. Please rise for your morning prayer” a voice calls out over the intercom, prompting each of the students seated in their desks to stand to their feet and bow their heads with their hands folded together. Delayed in his reaction, one of the kids in the middle of the assortment of desks stands to his feet and just looks around the room.
Waiting for the principal to be done with his request to the afterlife, the kid continues to stare around the room before locking eyes on one person in specific. Hands folded and head tucked downwards, a girl near the front of the room smirks and turns her head in the direction of the guy with his eyes locked onto her. After a few proceeding moments, the prayers conclude and everyone returns to their seats as the girl at the front of the room walks to an empty desk directly beside the man and strikes up a conversation with him just as the morning announcements begin getting underway. “And your thoughts are?” The girl asks, watching the guy attempting to squirm father into his chair than possible. “My thoughts on what?” the guy asks, turning to face the girl with a smile on his face. “This cannibal thing” the girl replies, watching as the guy looks back to her, genuinely puzzled, but intrigued. “What cannibal thing?” the guy asks, leaning forward as the girl pulls out her phone and opens up to a news article on her phone with the link to a photo before handing it to the guy. Skimming through the article with a different photo breaking up each paragraph, the guy reads portions aloud to the girl with a sense of humor, treating it as a joke. “Wounded individuals healing over time and coming back hostile? Separate reports of hallucinogenic-induced tendencies towards the nobility of human life when aggravated? Patients falling ill crashing into a primal-like rage with violence and other indescribable acts deemed as indecent and unpropper?” Pausing for a moment and pointing at the screen in his hand, the man turns towards the girl and continues. “Is this some Onion article masqueraded as world news?” “Oh, come on Lou. This is real!” the girl says under her breath so as not to be overheard, pulling her phone from the man’s hand as she does. “Ally, that’s almost as real as god. Give it a rest with this conspiracy stuff, okay?” Lou replies, dropping back into his seat. The morning announcements continue over the loudspeaker, the quality of the audio remaining awkward and embarrassing. “And I would like to further illustrate that our school will always stand by our students and do whatever we have the power to do to ensure they remain safe and well looked after.” Chuckling to himself before opening his math textbook, Lou watches Ally slump back into her seat in disappointment. “Due to concerns from parents and guardians, we have decided to end today’s first Friday mass following the receiving of communion, and we further ask all of our students and faculty to return to the gymnasium immediately following to await an announcement from Principal Thurgood. Thank you.” Turning to face Lou, Ally watches him pull out his phone and begin texting his mother. “What’s wrong?” Ally asks, watching as Lou shrugs the message off. “She just said the state is preparing to let school out early since everyone’s panicking about something.” “It’s that cannibal thing” Ally replies, almost sarcastically before Lou chuckles to himself and stands to his feet. “I’ve got to get Wyatt his math book back, I’ll spot you out in the auditorium” Lou says before leaning in to give Ally a peck on the cheek. “Love you” Lou says, walking off as Ally smirks and returns the favor. Walking through the door and into the somewhat narrow hallway, Lou heads to the absolute end of the space and approaches a taller guy taking off his jacket and unloading it in the thin locker space. “Your book Lachman” Lou says, holding out the book for Wyatt to take. “Thanks Jack.” Turning around to leave, Lou goes to walk off until Wyatt calls out for him. “Hey, Lou?” Wyatt says, prompting Lou to turn around and return to Wyatt. “What’s up?” Lou asks, watching Wyatt turn to him with an envelope in his hand. From behind, Ally pokes Lou in the side and walks into his arms as Lou takes the envelope. “Happy birthday, you big dumbass!” Wyatt says with a smirk as he watches Lou open the note. “Happy birthday, you lovely dumbass. Sincerely, Ally” Lou reads, smiling as the girl in his arms refuses to remove herself. “Are you gonna let me kiss you or are you my jacket now?” Lou remarks before Ally does just that and kisses her boyfriend just before Wyatt pats him on the shoulder. “So, any miracles in store for some future to fall into your lap or what?” Wyatt jokes, only for Ally to build upon the statement. “Yeah, what’s up with this no college thing? You’re the only person that I know that isn’t going off to college in the fall” The girl says, watching as her boyfriend rolls his eyes and playfully tries to remove his girlfriend’s hand from his arm. “College just isn’t my thing” Lou says, only for another guy and girl to make a remark passing by. “College isn’t the only option! You could do theater…” the girl says, watching as Lou turns to watch her and her boyfriend walk away before responding, “Thank you, peanut gallery!” “No problem!” the girl shouts back, strolling further down the hallway and disappearing into the growing crowd of people on their way into the main foyer. “Seriously, Lou. I know it’s great to go with whatever life throws at you, but you’ve got no plan and we’re at the witching hour!” Ally adorably pleads. “Ally, no amount of arousal is going to change the fact that I’ve got literally nothing to offer the world” Lou says, only to be met with an immediate counter from Wyatt. “Bullshit, you always know what to say and people follow you blindly because of it. Do something with that!” Wyatt says, watching Lou roll his eyes and meet the suggestion with sarcasm. “And what do you suggest? I walk into a mall and make a big speech?” “Well it’s better than sitting at home while everyone else is at college!” Ally counters, only to be met with an instant refusal. “College just takes your money and tells you pointless shit you can learn in twenty minutes online. It’s a waste of time and effort that I ain’t bothering with.” “Well you’ve got to think of something!” Wyatt says, attempting to continue before he is interrupted by someone walking up to the two. “Who’s got to think of something and for what?” the voice asks, with a girl walking up beside Wyatt. “Hello, Jenny” Lou says, drawing out the vowels. “Happy birthday you stubborn son of a bitch” the woman retorts confidently as she fist bumps the birthday boy. “Alright, we’ve talked about your laziness enough for one day” Ally says, turning her focus back onto her boyfriend. “Let’s celebrate your birthday!” Just as the two attempt to kiss, the loudspeaker calls for the senior class to make their way to mass. “Damn cockblocks” Lou mutters under his breath, being met with a playful smack on the chest by Ally as the pair walk alongside Wyatt and Jenny down the hallway with the remainder of the senior class. = RISE and REVOLT is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media = “And in this world, there will be many obstacles” the priest states, his sermon bringing most of the students that don’t want to be there to begin with to a near-sleep as the day crosses into eight o’clock. Seated near the back, in a row almost completely to themselves, two guys have a conversation quietly until one of the two begins looking anxiously around the auditorium. “Come on Terry, let’s get out of here” the first guy says, slowly standing to a crouch. “Where you goin’ Jules?” asks the first guy, watching him wave his hand in his face and signalling for him to come along. Sitting beside each other in a packed row, Lou and his group of four sit and await communion until they are signalled to the end of the row by a teacher. Climbing over one student after another, the group of four finally makes it to the end where Lou is pulled aside by the teacher in question. “What’s up Mr. Gnervo?” Lou asks, watching the usually composed but now slightly thrown off teacher give him simple and easy instructions. “I need you four to do me a favor, okay? Go to the music room and wait there for an hour. I’ll be in to get you, and if I don’t come to get you in an hour, just start heading home, okay?” Watching the man’s mannerisms, hands shaking and sweaty and eyes unable to stay fixated on one thing for too long, Lou nods in agreement and takes his group out of the auditorium without saying much. Finally, once through the doors into the main foyer, Lou tells the group what he was instructed to do by Gnervo. “Why an hour? Aren’t classes starting in twenty minutes?” Jenny asks, trying to connect the pieces no one seems to be able to put together. “Listen, I don’t think any of us know what to make of it, so let’s just do what we’re told and not try to get into trouble, okay?” “Yes sir, birthday boy, sir!” Wyatt says, mockingly, placing his hand to his head and saluting the efforts made. Turning the corner, Lou and his group stumble upon Terry and Jules, walking in their direction with seemingly no predetermined destination. “Lost?” Lou asks, watching both men just silently shrug their shoulders. “Skipping church?” Wyatt asks, somewhat cocky before finding his ribs hit with an elbow from the woman to his left. “Trying to at least. You gonna tattle or some shit?” Terry says, watching Lou simply shake his head to decline before waving his hand as a signal for Terry and Jules to come along. Reaching the end of the hall, the group of six enter the music room and find both the peanut gallery from before chatting by the piano in the center end of the room. “You get the golden ticket too?” Ally asks, watching the two, Pete Vincenzo and Margo Fink walk over to a filing cabinet and retrieve a bottle of Evan Williams and an assortment of plastic cups. “Did we travel to the 80’s or some shit, what the fuck is going on?” Lou exclaims, both in confusion and jubilation as his cup is the first one poured. “How did you get away with this?” Jenny asks, her question coming from a state of impression. “We’re going to Juliard in the fall. We live in this room, we’ve got it all mapped out” Fink replies, turning to the group after filling their cups and looking straight towards Lou, “Happy birthday to the one and only!” Fink shouts, earning a cheer from the rest of the group. Suddenly, the door to the music room is pushed open once more, and emerging from around the corner is another girl, traveling in alone. “Halston! Welcome to the party!” Lou shouts, raising his glass and earning an applause from his peers as Halston finds her own cup and meets the liquid-courage requirements. “Wait, why are you guys down here? Isn’t the church thing still going on?” Vincenzo asks, watching as everyone in the group turns to face Lou. “Honestly, I have no idea” Lou says, leaning forward and holding the cup by the rim. “Gnervo just pulled us out and told us to sit here and wait for him” Lou explains, watching as everyone other than his core group of four look around in confusion. “He told you guys to leave too?” Halston asks, with the group then turning their attention to her. “He told me to wait for him here for the next hour. Said he needed to tell me and a few others something important” Halston explains further, creating an even bigger sense of confusion on everyone. “Well, what are we waiting for then?” Terry asks, watching Fink and Vincenzo shrug their shoulders. “We’ve got nothing to do with it” they reply, the rest of the group giving their own signal of confusion and unawareness in accordance. After a few moments, the sound of shuffling in the other room grows louder and signals that the mass is just getting out. “Well, whatever it is he’s got to say, I would guess that an hour free from class isn’t gonna do any harm” Lou jokes, watching the group around him nod. “I’ll raise a glass to that!” Wyatt says, doing so accordingly as the remainder of the group follows along. “To Lou! For being the golden ticket to getting shitfaced!” Ally exclaims, earning a cheer from everyone as they settle in to wait. | Despite the sound of laughter bouncing off of the concrete walls for anyone with a functional set of ears to hear, the group of young adults sat in a circle spreading the length of the main floor continues to enjoy the time being had, laughing and sharing stories about what made high school worth the effort of surviving in their own eyes. “Anyone got plans for the fall?” Vincenzo asks, looking around the room in search of a volunteer. “SDSU over here” Terry says, lifting his cup to his lips. “USC for me” Jules follows, playfully tipping Terry’s cup higher up enough to get a few drops of whisky to drop onto his collar. “Jenn? Wyatt?” Fink asks, looking over to the two curled up together in the uncomfortable plastic seats. “I’m off to Colorado State and this guy over here…” Jenn starts, slowly lifting her hand before placing it over the nose of the man just above her, “Is staying here in Cali.” “I’m heading off to Cal-Berkeley, gonna major in astronomy” Halston says, taking a swig from her cup as Lou looks on in a cheerful wonder. “Astronomy, huh?” the birthday boy asks, purposefully utilizing a sarcastic tone as Halston leans forward, placing her cup to the floor below and asks for his own future planning. Biting his lip and folding his arms together, Lou sits back in his chair and shrugs his shoulders whilst shaking his head. “I’ve got nothing” he says, lifting his eyes to the woman ahead of him, who squints her own in response. “You’ve got no plan?” Halston asks, this time with a slight tone indicating her judgment. “No plan. Just going with the flow” Lou reiterates, smirking with the corner of his lip whilst panning across the room, noticing everyone refusing to state their own opinions on the matter by lowering their heads and taking another swig. “Is that a problem for you all?” Lou asks, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes, aware of the poor attempt to conceal their thoughts, with their true belief being written across their face like graffiti over the side of a white wall. “I mean, there’s so much movement in your eyes I’d think you were trying to communicate via telepathy. Something you have to say?” Lou asks, looking around the room for a volunteer. “I think you’re just being stubborn” the voice besides him says, with Lou turning to see Ally shaking her cup around in a circle. “I don’t think you want to hear what anyone has to say” she repeats, this time turning to look Lou in the eyes. “And I think you refuse to make a plan because you know how much life sucks and don’t want to be a part of it yet” the girl concludes, watching Lou’s eyes drop as he grinds his teeth together, the tension showing in the outline of his jaw. Waiting for his response, Ally sits up and watches her boyfriend look around the room, his eyes pacing in circles like they’re taking part in a race. Finally, he breaks his silence and stands from his seat, making for the door. “It’s been three hours. I’m going to look for Gnervo” Lou says, disappearing through the door as Ally goes after him, leaving the remaining members of the group to look around the room at each other until they all collectively join the girl in going after Lou. “Lou, you cant run from this forever!” Ally shouts, her words bouncing off the narrow walls like a tennis ball as they, too chase after Lou. “Watch me” the stubborn man states, walking into the open cafeteria to find it void of life, not a soul to be heard from. Catching up to the man as he stands as still as a statue, Ally tells Lou to face his future. “The future is coming and you need to figure out what to do with it” Ally says, only to find Lou unresponsive, not paying any attention to her words as the rest of the group catches up to them. “Lou?” Wyatt calls, finding the man looking around the area with a blatant look of confusion on his face, in an almost trance-like state, silent and perplexed. “Lou, what’s up?” Terry asks, putting his hand on Lou’s shoulder and coming face to face with him, hoping for it to break him from his silence. “Something’s wrong” Lou answers, slowly walking forward from the entry to the cafeteria and further into the front of the school. “What do you mean ‘something’s wrong?’” Halston asks, following the group in the direction Lou’s deciding to take them. “Look around” Lou says, pointing to any direction as he explains further. “No one. Not a student, not a teacher. It’s just empty” Lou says, continuing to walk forward as the group begins to follow him into his state of confusion. “They’re all probably in class” Ally says, just as Lou comes to a stop directly in the center of the main foyer. Turning to his right, Lou points at the front office, pointing out the empty desks and overall lack of life. “Does that include the office workers too?” Lou asks, turning to his girlfriend, now starting to visibly worry as he leads the group further forward before coming to another stop just next to the entrance to one of the main hallways. “Lou?” Jenn asks, watching him face the gymnasium entry, unusually shut off from the main foyer, with the doors closed and locked. “Quick. Find something heavy. Something to defend yourself” Lou says aloud, turning the group’s worry into concern. “WHY?” Ally asks, fully enraptured in the fear being manufactured by the scenery around them. “I’ve got a bad feeling” Lou responds, simple and straight-forward as Jenn doesn’t waste a moment further, walking over to an emergency panel and opening the door to it, retrieving a bright-red fire axe before joining back with the core group. Slowly, Lou walks forward and reaches for the handle, his hands subtly shaking before he notices and take in a breath, easing their tension and pushing down on the latch to it, pulling it open to reveal the inside. Frozen still, Lou shakes free from his fear and uses his foot to guide the stand at the bottom of the door, propping it open as he walks in, followed by the group shortly thereafter. Once inside, the group is bathed in the artificial light from above as they pan all around the area, from the bleachers to the court itself. Strewn around the place like flies at the base of a light, the entire student body, comprised of students, teachers, other faculty and board members lay dead all around, just corpses amongst corpses with not a single sign of life to be found. Speechless, frozen in horror and stunted by shock, their eyes simply ponder around, looking at the hundreds of bodies laid to a mysterious and cruel demise in what is presumed to be their final resting places. “Wh-” Lou attempts to say, only to cut himself off by noticing one person near the center of the court. As the only member of the group able to walk more than a few steps without stopping in place, Lou climbs over body after body before finding one man dropped almost in the exact center of the logo at midcourt dressed in a blue sweater vest and beige khakis. Reaching down, Lou pulls the shoulder of the teacher over until he’s resting on his back. His eyes, white and lifeless stranded in a permanent look of shock. “Is… is that-” Jenn asks, her words prompting the rest of the group to look at Lou, just standing over Mr. Gnervo’s corpse with his head tilted to the side. After a few moments, Lou lifts his eyes from the corpse below him to the other hundred’s scattered in random places around the gym. “Someone did this” Wyatt says aloud, with the rest of the group turning their focus to him. “This was deliberate. Someone did something” he states, assuring everyone of his stance on the matter. “The question is who, and why?” Vincenzo suggests just as his girlfriend adds in, “And how.” As Lou begins to make an attempt at speaking, a noise breaks through the air from the corner of the space, just barely recognizable but notable enough to grab the attention of the few living souls in the portion of the building. “What’s that?” Jenn asks, being the first to notice it, and subsequently the first to bring it to everyone’s attention as they aim their focus towards the corner of the room. Emerging from below a pile of the dead, a brunette woman slowly stands to her feet and turns to face the core, eyes a pearl-white and skin a moldy-yellow. “Sam?” Halston calls out, quickly walking towards the girl until she is caught by Lou, who holds her back and moves her behind him. “Lou, what the he-” Halston goes to say, only for Lou to look at her, straight in the eyes and slowly shake his head. Turning back to the young girl, Lou begins to slowly make his way forward as the girl begins tripping over the loitered corpses surrounding the area in as quick of a dash towards him as she can muster. All of a sudden, Lou hears Ally shout his name out from behind, prompting him to turn around and watch as another member of the pile of dead stand to his feet, taking up the middle of the space between himself and Halston. “Mr. Gnervo?” Halston asks, watching as the man growls and hisses in the girl’s direction, slowly inching towards her as Lou begins a sprint to him. “Mr. Gnervo?” Halston says again, this time with a more affirmed tone as the man inches closer towards her. Slowly returning back to the group, walking backwards and trying her best to navigate the mountain of bodies around her, Halston reaches her hand out towards the corpse currently closing the distance between them before tripping over one of the dead below and falling back onto the court. “Mr Gnervo!” Halston shouts one final time as the distance between the pair grows short enough to touch each other until the man is sent crashing to the floor beside her, tackled down by Lou as he yells at her to get up and run. Still growling, more aggravated than before, Gnervo begins chomping down at Lou’s hands just beside his face until the man atop him begins bashing his head down with authority, shouting for him to give up. Refusing, and continuing to inch his jaw closer to Lou’s hand, Gnervo keeps up the fight until a voice shouts Lou’s name out, and the man throws himself from atop the undead. With no restraint, Gnervo places his hands to the ground and makes his attempt at standing to his feet before the swing of an axe buries itself deep within his head, dropping his now limp corpse back to the rest it had recently returned from. Gasping for breath, Jenn plants the heel of her foot atop the former-faculty member’s skull and rips the axe from the bone, sending a line of blood through the air with it. “You good?” Jenn asks, watching Lou nod before noticing Sam continuing her march closer to them. Without hesitation, Jenn walks forward and lifts the axe into the air before bringing it down like a guillotine and splitting her head in two, dropping her to her knees before she drops further forward to her final resting place. “Hey! Guys!” Wyatt shouts from afar, prompting both Jenn and Lou to look around the room from their respective positions, noticing other corpses beginning to take a stand and lock their focus upon them with seemingly one purpose for it. “Run! We’ll catch up!” Jenn shouts, ordering for the group to make their escape. Continuing to pan her view across the room, Jenn is caught off guard when she hears her name called out from below. Suddenly, she turns to watch a member of the undead come within inches of her before being dropped to the floor with a thud by Lou, who proceeds to hold it down by the neck as she takes a third swing, cutting the skull clean in half as the axe buries a portion of it’s tip into the wooden court. “This way!” Lou shouts, noticing their original entry blocked by the undead taking chase at their group and directing the axe-wielder towards a set of doors leading to the locker rooms below. Charging forward to beat the undead to it, Lou and Jess kick and shove the undead away before barely making it through the double-doors and keeping their backs to it in order to keep it shut for as long as they can. “What’s the plan, now?” Jenn shouts amidst the barrage of growling from the pile of undead increasing in strength and numbers with each second passing. Struggling to keep the door shut, Jenn turns to the man beside her and watches him catch his breath. “Lou?” Jenn shouts, watching the man nod his head whilst keeping his eyes locked on the stairs ahead. “I’ve got it!” the man shouts, raising his hand with three fingers raised, lowering one each second until both he and Jenn bolt forward, flying down the stairs as the undead begin flooding through in chase. “Hurry!” Jenn shouts, just barely leaping from one set of stairs to another as an undead topples down the stairs mere inches from her heals. Turning the corner, Lou and Jenn both run into the heavy metal doors and wave their hands around the base of it, only to realize the lack of a handle to enter. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Lou shouts, throwing himself into the door to reach at the possibility of it being forced open to no avail. “Lou!” Jenn shouts, prompting the man to turn around and watch as the horde of undead begin closing the distance, bringing the duo into panic. With no further options, both Jenn and Lou throw themselves into the door, hoping for it to open before looking up and noticing a man peering at them through the tiny window in the center of the door. “Hey! Let us in!” Jenn shouts at the man, whose eyes shoot open at the realization that she’s seen him just before he turns and runs off, leaving Jenn and Lou to the property of the horde. Fuming, Lou throws himself at the door, taking note of the weight behind each push becoming easier and easier until one final push sends the door flying open as metal bars and mechanisms shoot from their places and line the floor like debris. Collapsing to the floor, Lou grimaces in pain as he can feel the drop in his shoulder from the dislocation as soon as he is picked up by Jenn, aware enough to pick up one of the metal rods beside him as they continue their way onwards. Navigating through the cramped spaces, bouncing off lockers and stumbling over chairs as their momentum sends them flying into each room, Jenn and Lou freeze in their tracks as they watch the man from just before hurry through the locker room exit. “There!” Jenn shouts, leading Lou towards the doors and exploding into the basement hallway. Once through the doors, Jenn and Lou watch from afar as the man is cornered by another pocket of the undead, taking turns sinking their teeth in his arms and neck as he continues to put up a valiant effort to survive to little effect. Armed with a baseball bat, the man lifts it into the air to swing the way he has a number of times before, only for two members of the undead to latch their jaws into his ribs, weakening him enough for another to tear into his jugular, serving as the death blow as the man begins slowly dropping to the floor as the life within him begins to be ripped free. “Come on!” Lou shouts, directing Jenn down the long hallway as they escape trouble for the time being, caught in the lifeless space, free to take refuge for the moment. Collapsing back into a line of lockers, Lou drops to the ground clutching as his shoulder and catching his breath. “Alright” Jenn says, dropping to her knees and grabbing a hold of Lou’s right arm. “This is gonna hurt” she says, watching Lou’s eyes shoot open in response. “Wait. What, what are you-” Lou begins to say, only for his response to be brought to a halt and replaced by screaming, echoing throughout the area like a sonic blast as his shoulder pops back into place just as the undead turn the corner and aim for their direction. “Come on” Jenn says, lifting Lou’s arm over her shoulder and helping him to his feet as they make a break for the opposite end of the hallway, speeding away from the horde. Climbings the stairs and entering the hallways of the floor above, Lou and Jenn kick doors open and gaze around corners in search of the remainder of their group in hopes that thy’re still out there. “Wyatt!” Jenn shouts, hoping to hear an answer in return before finding her mouth covered by Lou’s hand, propping her gently against the lockers. “You’ve got to stay quiet, Jenn! We can’t draw any attention to ourselves!” Lou whispers as his hand is shoved away by the girl. “We can’t just look for them forever!” Jenn counters, “My boyfriend, your girlfriend are still here somewhere looking for us. If any of us turn the wrong corner, we’re dead. You get that?” “Of course I get that, Jenn. But even if they can hear us calling for them, it won’t make a difference if those things are between us. You get THAT?” Lou argues back, watching the girl retire to silence, accepting the facts laid out to her. “Then where would they go?” Jenn asks, watching Lou look around each corner in hopes of getting lucky. “If we can’t call out for them, let’s think about where they’d go” she reiterates, stopping in the middle of the hallway as Lou takes a moment. “Alright. They went in the opposite direction as us, right? So that’s the cafe, the auditorium, the music rooms, the art rooms. Any of those places” Lou says, watching Jenn sigh in frustration. “What? What’s wrong?” Lou asks, watching the woman turn to him in anger. “They might not even still be here! What if they left, drove out and thought we were dead!” Jenn retorts, watching as Lou confidently shoots down that idea. “Why do you think they’re still here?” jenn asks, watching Lou smirk and lift his eyebrow as he turns to face her. “If we thought they were dead, they would have thought the same thing. We’re still looking for them” Lou says, watching Jenn catch onto what he’s saying. “So they’d still be looking for us, too” Jenn concludes as Lou begins to nod, continuing forward. Rounding a corner, the two turn down yet another hallway, this one with no sign of life just as the one prior. “Clear” Jenn says, lowering the axe in her hands as the two head down. Midway through their walk, a lone undead walks past the end of the hallway in the direction of the cafeteria before turning to see the two stopped in their tracks. On the hunt, the undead begins his walk towards the two as Jenn lifts her axe once more, only for Lou to lightly tap her arm as he brandishes his metal rod, walking forward and closing the distance between himself and the corpse. “Sorry Cait” Lou says, staring down the woman’s walking corpse and grabbing it by the neck before taking the road and pressing it into her eye, burying it in her skull before the reach of her arms fades and the corpse drops to the ground with a thud. | “Come on!” Wyatt shouts, leading the group away from the gymnasium through the main foyer and back in the direction of the music room. Separating from the rest of the group, Halston dashes off to the side and enters into the secretary’s office, shutting the door and hiding behind it as she peers over the side and watches the horde taking after the rest of her group as she catches her breath and regroups. Rushing through the corridor they arrived into the chaos through, Wyatt, Ally, Vincenzo, Fink, Terry and Jules hurry back into the music room and seal the entry behind them, ducking behind any amount of cover they can find as they watch the horde catch up and pass them by. “Where’s Halston?” Terry asks, looking around the room as everyone in the immediate vicinity begins fearing the worst. “It’s fine. They would have stopped chasing us if they got her. She’s out there somewhere” Ally assures the group, intending to calm but instead eliciting fear to everyone. “If she’s out there, she’s not safe” Vincenzo says, finding himself cut off by Wyatt as he further explains that there isn’t anything they can do right now. Suddenly, Fink looks behind the group and shouts “The doors!” before bolting to the opposite end of the room, shutting the two back entrances of the music room just as the undead circle the corner, locking them shut as the horde on both ends become aware of their presence. “Now what?” Jules shouts, his eyes circling the room to find every exit point blocked by the horde of the undead, only growing in numbers. “What do you mean ‘now what?’, we’re trapped!” Terry shouts in return, walking towards Jules. “Don’t talk to me like that, boy I’ll fuckin’ rinse your ass!” Jules retorts, watching as Terry gets in his face and takes a swing before tackling him to the floor. “Hey hey hey!” Wyatt shouts, ripping Terry from atop Jules and sending him across the room. Standing back up, Terry marches towards Jules before Wyatt catches him out of the air and throws him to the ground again. “Yo, don’t you touch me, nigga!” Terry shouts, this time charging at the much bigger Wyatt, who responds by dodging the man flying towards him as he crashes into a drum kit near the back of the room, sending a ring throughout the room, only further angering the undead outside. “Stop it!” Ally shouts, watching as Jules stands up and goes to charge at Terry, only for Wyatt to impede his progress by shoulder tackling him into a pile of guitar cases, knocking them onto the floor as Ally demands the fighting be stopped once again, this time bring her voice to the verge of breaking. “Don’t you fucking tell me to stop!” Terry shouts, climbing out of the wrecked pile of symbols and pads, “You fuckin’ white people telling me what to do, I’ve had a-fucking-nough” he continues as Wyatt puts his hand out, signalling to both that he will keep them apart. “This has got nothing to do with race you fucking shithead! We’re all fucked the same!” Wyatt shouts before finding himself getting backed up by Ally. “If we don’t stop fighting and figure out how to get out of here, we’re all gonna fucking die. So pull yourselves together for fucks sake!” The girl shouts, bringing the three men, as well as the remainder of the group around her to silence. “Halston’s somewhere out there, and Lou and Jenn are who-the-fuck knows where. If we want to get back to them, let’s figure out how to get out of here first. Any fucking ideas?” Ally asks, her anger shining through like light spilling into a room with each syllable. “Noise?” Fink asks, “These things started running after Lou and Jenn when they told us to go. If they’re attracted to noise, let’s figure out how to make some noise.” “That’s not a bad idea” Wyatt says, walking towards Fink. “How can we make noise without drawing them right back to us. All we’ve got is right here!” Terry says, watching Wyatt begin to dig through the filing cabinet off to the side of the room. “What the fuck are you lookin’ for?” Jules asks, half out of breath and stumbling over guitar cases towards Wyatt. Refusing to answer, Wyatt keeps digging aimlessly, hoping to find the magical answer as Ally calls for his name walking up to him. “There’s got to be something here! There’s got to be something, fuckin’ anything!” Wyatt shouts, driven by hope but finding it harder to come by as things progress. After a few moments, the horde at the end of the room becomes slightly quieter, and the undead faces in the windows are no longer taking up the space. “What the-” Terry says as he approaches the window, watching the horde march to the open-glass walls overlooking the front grounds of the school yard where the school busses are beginning to line up. “Hey, guys! Guys!” Terry shouts excitedly, with the group walking over to join him in observation. “The busses are distracting ‘em!” Jules says joyfully, looking at the opposite end of the music room to watch the horde dissipating on that end as well. “They’re leaving!” Fink says, walking towards the front doors. “Guys, we’re in the clear!” the girl says again, watching the group walk from the back of the room towards her. Backing up in the direction of the front doors, Fink puts her hand on the brick wall just beside a stairway leading into the auditorium. “Come on, hurry up!” Fink shouts just as something from inside grabs her hand, forcing her attention to it. Without knowing until it’s too late, Fink watches an undead sink its teeth into her arm, ripping her skin from bone as she screams in both agony and horror. Suddenly, thr group shoots back into action as Vincenzo runs forward and punches the rotting corpse in the face, sending it crashing back into the brick wall as Fink drops forward into Ally’s arms. Angered, Wyatt looks around the room and rips the lid to the piano open, tearing from it a snapped piece of piano wire before hurrying over to the undead and wrapping the wire around the undead’s neck and pulling it back. “Wyatt!” Ally shouts, struggling to pay attention to both the wounded girl in her arms and the man strangling the undead as his knee presses up against the small of it’s back. Soon, blood begins to spew out of the makeshift incision in the undead’s neck and it’s growling begins to turn into hissing as slowly, but surely, the corpse’s head rips off and drops to the ground with the rest of its body at the bottom of the stairs. Catching his breath, Wyatt looks forward in shock as he overhears Jules shout his name. Turning to the side, Wyatt watches another member of the undead make his way through the curtains from the staging area as it quickly inches closer towards him. Without anything to defend himself, Wyatt crawls backwards down the stairs before watching Vincenzo come in at the last moment with a wrench and crack the corpse over the head with it, taking it to the ground as it continues struggling to reach out at the distraught and anger-infused man. Snapping like a pencil being pressured by the weight of two thumbs, Vincenzo bludgeons the undead corpse as its head caves in, spilling blood into a puddle. After a short few seconds, three other members of the undead make their way through the curtain and are all quickly disposed of by Vincenzo, who finds himself embroiled by the desire to kill. Finally to his feet, Wyatt walks over to the wrench-wielding man and puts his hand on his shoulder, only to be forced to duck as Vincenzo turns around and lifts the wrench into the air, only to snap out of his daze at the last moment upon realization of it being Wyatt. Back into reality, Vincenzo leaps down the stairs and drops to his knees beside Fink as she bleeds out, her wound being bandaged by Terry’s shirt, having taken off the pink button up to find himself just down to a sleeveless white tank top and black dress pants. “Fink, hey Fink!” Ally pleads with the girl, too in pain and shrieking from the sting to respond with words. Finally, as she sees Vincenzo beside her, she forces her pain to the side and clenches her teeth to stop from screaming further as he tells her to relax. “We’re not safe here” Wyatt says, directing everyone to get whatever they can find and follow him out of the music room. Helping Fink to her feet, Vincenzo wraps Fink’s arm around his shoulder and helps her walk as the group exits through the front doors and makes their way out, trekking through the narrow corridor on their way back to the main foyer. Turning around the corner, they stop in their place as both Lou and Jenn do the same just ahead. After that, both members of the group embrace with their reunited ones before noticing Fink’s wounds. “What happened?” Lou asks, only to be met with a simple, “She got bit” from Ally as the two turn to rush off together. As they do, they watch as another lone member of the undead begins walking towards them, growling as they do before the group ready the weapons they have. *pop* Before long, blood splatters from the undead’s head as it drops to the ground, revealing Halston, hidden behind it’s figure with a gun pointed straight forward. “Where the fuck did you find a gun?” Lou shouts in a horrified confusion as the girl rushes up to approach them. “Can’t remember” Halston responds, turning the group around into the cafeteria and sealing the doors on both ends behind her as they lay Fink out upon the top of one of the tables. “Check the place, make sure nothing’s hiding in here” Ally orders, tending to Fink as Vincenzo stays by her side. After a few minutes, Lou and Wyatt both come back to the group, “It’s all clear back there, we’re alone” just as Fink begins unwrapping Fink’s wound, telling her to allow it a chance to heal, only to notice puss and infection beginning to visibly form at the sides. “I’m gonna pull this the rest of the way, okay? Try not to yell” Ally says before doing so, without a peep coming from Fink, who lays across the table with her eyes shut. “Fink?” Ally says, watching as Vincenzo peels her eyelids back to look at her eyes as he checks her pulse. “Nothing. I don’t feel anything” Vincenzo says, starting to panic as tears well up and Ally tries to do what she can. “Ally” Lou says in a distraught tone, “Ally, CPR isn’t gonna help her” Lou says, watching his girlfriend try desperately to bring Fink back. “Ally” Lou says again, this time taking a seat by his girlfriend and placing his hand on her shoulder as she begins to cry, refusing to give up on the lifeless girl. “I. Just. Can’t. Let. Her. Die” Ally says, speaking one word with every chest compression as the rest of the group looks away in sorrow. Finally, the chest compressions slow down as Ally knows there isn’t any coming back, eventually stopping altogether as Lou pulls her head into his chest. Beside Fink, Vincenzo stares at her, broken as tears flow from his eyes, down his cheek and onto hers as he rests his forehead against his lost love. Dropping her head at the table, Halston looks around to see Terry and Jules pacing around and Wyatt slumped against the wall with his girlfriend beside him as they begin to accept the circumstance. Repeating the word “no” to himself faintly as Ally and Lou look on, themselves distraught at the sight in front of them. Looking up for a brief moment, Vincenzo looks at Lou and Ally, sitting in comfort with each other before losing his composure and completely breaking down, turning his head away from Lou and Ally as the pair take the hint and stand from the seat and check on the rest of the group, leaving Vincenzo to mourn as Terry pulls Lou by the arm and looks him in the eyes. “What now?” Terry asks, watching Lou shake his head as if he had misheard him. “Why are you asking me?” Lou asks, only to be given a response by Halston, who turns to face the two with her head being propped up in her hand. “Because you’re in charge now” the girl says, watching as Lou looks to her before turning to Terry, who only assures him of the truth in her statement. “Believe it or not, we’ve always followed you anyway” Wyatt says, climbing to his feet as Jenn walks beside him. “If anyone’s gonna lead, it might as well be you” he continues, watching as Lou becomes surrounded by the rest of the group joining beside each other, everyone other then Vincenzo looking at him in wait of their next move. Panning around the circle, Lou looks at each member around and nods his head, panning his eyes to each point of exit in the room before finally answering them. “Let’s get comfortable.” |