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Season 1 Finale.
} The following events take place between the months of April and December 2030, and the 18th January, 2031 { > 25th December, 2030 < “Sophia?” Morgan groggily calls for, her voice breaking through restraints in a groan-like moan as she rolls over in bed, her arm draped over the empty side of the mattress where she’d expected her daughter to be. “Sophia?” Morgan repeats, opening her eyes at the empty spot on the bed, a moment to process the lack of her daughter’s presence required. “Sophia, honey?” Morgan calls again, pushing herself up to a seat in her bed, looking around the room, finding herself alone. “Sophia, honey, where did-?” Morgan begins again, looking to her window as flashing red and blue lights arrive on the scene, traveling the long dirt driveway before arriving at their destination. “Sophia… What did you do?” Morgan mutters to herself, throwing the covers off her person and hurrying down the stairs, the minimal moonlight that peers through the blinds allowing her to spot her daughter, curled up in a blanket beside the front door. “I’m sorry, mom” Sophie replies, curling further into a ball on the ground as the police exit their vehicles, a flurry of officers running for the front door. “How could you do this?” Morgan remarks, a tone holding more wrath than she’s ever allowed Sophie to hear, her hand reaching for the gun on her waistband and firing three shots through the window. In a moment of terror, Sophie bolts away from the wall and attempts to run further into the home, her mother’s order stopping her in place. “Don’t move!” Morgan shouts, another two shots being fired through the window before the gun is taken back toward Sophie, the young girl holding her hands up at her mother’s will. “I tried to give you everything!” Morgan groans, tears running down her face as her voice takes on a growl, her face shriveling as the acceptance of what her daughter has done settles in, “-how could you take it all away from me like this?” “Mom, we couldn’t get away with this for much longer” Sophie replies, admitting that she knew her mother would never allow things to go back to normal after her last attempt at leaving. “That’s bullshit- we were happy!” Morgan remarks, she and Sophie ducking upon return fire from the officers outside, another two shots being fired out at the unit from within. “Stop!” Morgan shouts, giving the officers their orders, ones that are met with similar demands, none of which she follows. “How could things have ever gone back to normal after this?” Sophie asks, challenging her mother to consider the options at their disposal, “how could we have ever viewed each other in the same way again?” Head tilted to the side, Sophie lets the tears and snot run from her face, her head shaking as a somber smile comes over her. “We could’ve done it! we found a way before!” Morgan replies, her tone now carried in a whisper-like reflection, “we would have done it again!” Ducking additional return fire, Morgan lets out another five bullets toward the officers, a second plea for them to stop leaving her lungs. Her arm trembling, Morgan sucks in a deep breath and looks into her daughter’s eyes, one final demand being made. “Turn around and close your eyes, honey” Morgan demands, her daughter breaking into tears, pleas cut short before they can even be properly made. “Turn around!” Morgan shouts, her daughter’s silent face hanging with the rest of her head, her slow turn suggesting the end of her time on this earth, “...and close your eyes.” Sucking down the last gulp of air, Sophie whimpers one more plea for her life, the sounds of what follows suggesting a dark answer. “Mom… please” Sophie tearfully begs, the shaking of the gun’s inner mechanisms rattling with the anxious aim of her mother’s arm, the trigger being noticeably rested upon. “I’m sorry, honey” Morgan remarks, the last word of that coming out with a hum, her eyes closing tightly as she squeezes down, an empty click answering her action. Eyes shooting open, Morgan looks to the gun, her daughter immediately taking notice of this empty follow-through, a quick second attempt at pulling the trigger coming up fruitless immediately thereafter. Her face shaking with rage, Sophie turns to look at her mother, the older woman immediately glancing away from the gun and toward her daughter, a shake of her head out of disbelief the only thing she can answer Sophie with. A deep breath escaping her lungs, Morgan and Sophie duck further return fire from the police outside, Morgan running to the kitchen with Sophie close behind, the knife she takes into her hand quickly being knocked away. “No!” Morgan shouts, she and Sophie battling for possession of the weapon in the moonlight-bathed kitchen, the knife clattering along the floor and into the living room. “Please!” Morgan shouts out of desperation, Sophie running toward the knife before she can even get upright, the control she has on the situation quickly fading. Ripping the knife up from the carpet floor, Sophie turns toward her mother and side-steps the oncoming woman, her mother toppling onto the ground. In firm control, Sophie kicks her mother in the side of the stomach, prompting the older woman to turn onto her back, the sight bringing an instinct over Sophie she could have never expected to have. “No!” Morgan shouts again, her daughter’s knees pressing down on both of her arms to keep them at her side, her face staring into her mother’s own. Her grip relentless, Sophie kneels atop her defenseless mother, audible shouts from beyond the home heard clearly Nowhere left to turn, nothing left to explain herself with, Morgan lets out a succession of three words as her final plea for release. “Let me go!” Morgan shouts, an animalistic howl sending the words through the air, Sophie’s eyes widening as if they were urged by the flip of a switch. With one deep breath, Sophie’s red hair blows away from her eyes and leaves the view of her mother completely undisturbed, the blade in her hand, held just beside her face, swinging down with merciless force. As if stabbing at a head of lettuce, Sophie listens to the blade sink into her mother’s chest with a hollow hum, the growl of a voice from the woman beneath her quieting instantly. Eyes wide, a light splatter of blood covering the bridge of her nose as she removes the knife, Sophie feels herself unable to stop, her vengeance unadulterated and uncontained. With her own resounding wail, Sophie brings the knife down again, removing it from her mother’s chest before swinging down once more, repeating the process as she watches the life slowly leave her mother’s eyes. Soon covered in blood, her hands and face stained red, Sophie pulls the knife from her mother’s chest cavity, holding it above her head before letting it fall to the ground, toppling to the side and falling onto the carpet just before the officers break through the front door. “Two people- both wounded!” an officer shouts into his radio, a fleet of law enforcement flooding into the home with their guns drawn, a smile emerging upon Sophie’s face, her red locks strewn about the floor, arms fallen to her sides as she stares wildly toward the sky. = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > 18th January, 2031 < Puffing her cheeks, Sophie lets a deep breath leave her lungs as the red light on the camera goes off, it's clear bulb facing her, both Andrew and Caden ready to consider this day one to put in the past. “So that’s it?” Caden quips, his shoulder shrugging, hands folded in his lap upon returning the clipboard to the girl sat before him, “that’s your story?” “That’s the story” Sophie replies, flashing the boy a weak smile, his eyes wandering to the depths of the room, unable to stare directly into those of Sophie’s own. “I think we’ve all had enough of this for one day” Andrew exclaims, patting Caden on the shoulder as he passes him, both arms wrapping around his daughter and pulling her into a hug. “Yup” Caden remarks, pushing himself out of his chair and walking up to the door, Sophie’s call for him the only thing keeping him from leaving. “Caden- come back!” Sophie exclaims, the boy stopping himself in the doorway, Andrew turning around to see Caden begrudgingly turning back, looking at the girl. Spreading her arms, Sophie waits for her friend to return to her, Andrew stepping aside to allow the kids to hug out their past traumas. Visually not interested in the embrace, Caden walks into Sophie’s arms and feigns the best hug he can, his voice carried like a whisper, hidden from Andrew’s ears. “Let’s go for a drive” Caden speaks into Sophie’s ears, the girl’s expression remaining unchanged as the embrace is broken apart. “Hey dad- can I drive back with Caden?” Sophie asks, her father, seeing no problem with this, easily agrees. Flashing the older man a smile, Sophie follows Caden to his vehicle, the pair climbing in without a word, silence pre-empting the drive. “Why did you wanna go on-” Sophie begins to ask, her question brushed aside and ignored by Caden, the boy interrupting her before she can finish. “Don’t speak yet” Caden replies, the girl’s unamused expression worn without a care of who sees it, the friendly expressions the pair have exchanged throughout the entire day giving way for something less welcoming and more ire-driven. Allowing the car to continue forward on its own, Caden breaks through the automatic guide by pulling his seatbelt over his chest, his hand easily gliding to and turning the key in the ignition, cutting the warning short. Following a brief countdown, the control of the car is given to Caden, Sophie sat in the passenger’s seat, without her seatbelt, watching on without a care, only pulling her restraints over when the car begins telling her to. Veering off the main road, Caden pulls onto the nearest exit, a vast sea of unused farmland surrounding them in every direction, their vehicle directed away from Jefferson City, now toward Illinois. As minutes pass, Caden finally slows the car to a roll, its speed continuing to decline without a question raised by his passenger, finally stopping just beside a large field, the spot of no particular interest to either occupant. “Where do you want to-” Sophie begins to ask, again cut short on her delivery by the driver, Caden telling her to follow him without a word until otherwise instructed to speak. With a grimace, Sophie opens her door and emerges from the vehicle, Caden carrying only one thing in his hand, a large, battery-powered light, as his feet direct him into the field. Remaining silent as told, Sophie follows the boy further into the open expanse, their feet refusing to stop until the moment Caden turns around, the light placed upon the ground between them, turned on to illuminate the sky. With an exhale, Caden turns toward Sophie, looking her in the eyes as the light between them brightens their faces, the only thing visible in the large field being themselves. “Where did I go wrong?” Sophie remarks, Caden shaking his head as if to tell her she has yet to be given permission to speak, the girl refusing to indulge his silent-wishes any longer. “I’m not an idiot, and you know me too well for this not to be obvious” Sophie replies, Caden’s face dropping, giving up on his efforts to quell her voice, letting her speak freely, “so what was it? You’ve clearly realized something by now.” Feet pressing into the snow, Caden tucks both hands into his pockets, his breath fluttering through the air as he nods, both through his mouth and nose. “The lack of ability to tell the date was a good start… I saw plenty of ways to figure out what month it was when I was there” Caden remarks, his first example already a fair one, “not to mention, of the multiple times I broke in… Not once did I see any cameras… The police didn’t find any either, so…” Her head hung, Sophie nods to herself, Caden continuing to speak, nothing he says adding onto the realization Sophie’s come to further than what already has been. “Pair that with the investigators finding no sign of a struggle, the bunker largely clear of DNA- the same with Morgan’s van… I figured it out a few hours ago” Caden concludes, nodding as Sophie looks at him with a guilty smirk, “you’re lying about everything.” Chuckling to herself, Sophie swipes her red-colored hair over her ears as she nods, genuinely pleased with how convincing she managed to be. “You’re damn right I am!” Sophie replies, breaking out into a laugh as Caden looks on with disgust, his nostrils flaring as Sophie takes in the sick joy of her supposed accomplishment. “How can you be happy about this? About any of this?” Caden asks, the girl changing her attitude, looking toward the boy with a puppy dog visage, pretending his reaction brings a tear to her eye. “I want the truth… No dicking around” Caden remarks, the girl bringing her over dramatic reactions to a minimum, “what actually happened? What the hell has been going on for the last nine months?” With her hands in her coat, Sophie lowers her head, giving into the question raised as the story begins for its start once more, the honest events of her year finally prevailing from the secretive confines the girl had sentenced them to. > 3rd April, 2030 < “Wh- What the fuck!?” Sophie shouts, curled in a ball against the wall of the bunker, Morgan sat in a chair directly ahead of her, her voice as soothing as she can muster it to be. “Honey, calm down… Please, calm down!” Morgan pleads, her daughter quickly hushing herself to a peep, her eyes squinting in an effort to get a better look at the woman. “Why do you look familiar?” Sophie asks, her mother beginning to let a smile peer through her lips. “I’m… I’m your-” Morgan begins, trying to find the courage to say what both girls are thinking, Sophie being the one to fully introduce her own mother to her. “Your my mom” Sophie blurts out, Morgan finding a smile breaking through her lips, a nod being offered in return to the girl, her eyes immediately retreating into empathy, “I’m so sorry to have done this, sweetheart!” Pushing herself up, Sophie holds the back of her head, stumbling into the wall as her mother races out of her chair to help keep her daughter still. “I gave you a worse shot than I thought I would, honey… I didn’t mean to” Morgan explains, flustered at how quickly she’s being forced to react to things, her anxiety causing a need for events to slow rather than speed up, “I just didn’t know what else to do.” “You kidnapped me?” Sophie replies, her mother staring into her eyes without anything to respond with, a few wordless gasps leaving her lungs. Finding her own footing, Sophie pulls away from her mother, looking toward the older woman with judgmental eyes, her head still clutching at the back of her skull. “I… I just sort of reacted” Morgan remarks, already aware of how poor that answer is, “it was a spur of the moment sort of thing, Sophia.” Lip quivering, Sophie walks through the bunker and out into the yard, Morgan following quickly behind her, making sure to stay close by. “You live here?” Sophie asks, looking around at the majestic scenery of the wide, lucious farmlands surrounding her in each direction, “like… this is your house?” “Yeah, I… Uh… I inherited it from your grandfather when he passed a few years ago” Morgan replies, her hands coupled together by her lap, “it was where I went to cure my addiction back when he was still around.” Turning to the woman, Sophie asks what her addiction happened to be, the foremost answer offered being ‘drugs.’ “I wasn’t in a good place to be anything for a long time, if I’m being honest” Morgan explains, making it clear that she was grateful to have brought Sophie into the world, “but I was in no place to be a mom at twenty… I wasn’t in any place to be anything until a couple years back.” Nodding, Sophie looks toward the large home, asking if there happens to be a second bedroom somewhere within, a question that Morgan briefly laughs at. “It’s a pretty big house… I’d expect at least a second bedroom if I’m looking at it from this angle” Morgan jokes, a brief chuckle escaping her lips as Sophie glances back to her, the amused reaction ending quickly. “Was that where you planned to keep me?” Sophie asks, her mother looking at her with a concerned look, head glancing down toward her folded hands, little to answer with. “You don’t really have a plan, do you?” Sophie questions again, her mother quickly looking back up to her, the answer offered in her following silence. With a nod, Sophie listens to Morgan begin to explain how the pair could go about their business and forget about how any of this happened, Sophie’s wide stare toward the home and silent reception the only thing Morgan is speaking to in that moment. “Don’t do that” Sophie remarks, Morgan stopping her plan in the tracks she’d laid for it, the older woman asking her daughter what she meant by those words. “I mean, don’t try to come up with a way to fix this” Sophie replies, a brief smirk in the corner of her mouth as she continues to look at the home prompting her to turn back to her mother, “we might not need to worry about that.” > 18th January, 2031 < “So you were the one that suggested you stay?” Caden inquires, Sophie’s silent nod giving him the answer, her following words only helping to tie up loose ends. “You see, I knew I wasn’t in any danger” Sophie explains, making it known that a mother would never just lose a connection with her child after a short while apart, “regardless of how or why they’d come back, that instinct to just ‘protect, protect, protect’ would kick in right away.” “So you used her… Why?” Caden asks, Sophie’s shrugged shoulders admitting that there is no clear answer for why she did it. “I’m tired of thinking about college, and finding work after school, and everything about the future” Sophie explains, her friend shaking his head as he rolls his eyes, refusing to find common ground with the girl he’d once considered his closest friend, “this was my ticket out… This was my way to forget about everything and anything… I got to be alive for the first time.” “Yeah, and you did it at the expense of everyone else” Caden remarks, Sophie’s enthused expression immediately settling down upon Caden’s rebuttal, “I mean, did you ever think- even for one second- about how any of this was affecting me?” Her face going cold, Sophie bites into her bottom lip, shaking her head at Caden before responding with just one word. “No” Sophie replies, Caden’s eyes moving away from anger and closer to hurt, not truly wanting to ask his next question. “Do you- now that you’ve heard about it first hand- even care?” Caden wonders aloud, his question answered with the same shameless head shake. “No” Sophie replies, the boy’s head dropping, eyes looking back up to the girl’s face, recognizing her lack of expression tell the story of something unspoken as of yet. “Are you happy about that?” Caden asks, the answer again, for a third consecutive time, being “no.” “I don’t know why, I truly… truly don’t… But I don’t care” Sophie remarks, her words coming off cold, less compassionate than anything she’s ever said to him, an outright admittance to her lack of regard for his feelings. “I think I want to, but I don’t know if I can” Sophie explains, a chill being sent down Caden’s spine, a truth neither had once been privy to now beginning to present itself. “Do you care about anyone?” Caden asks, the girl’s face remaining stoic, her expression unchanged before, no head shake or nod presenting itself this time around, only the answer. “No” Sophie replies, a defeated breath leaving Caden’s lungs, his heart sinking as the questions left in his mind begin to ask themselves through the power of his own voice. “Was it you that I saw on Halloween night with the fireworks?” Caden asks, finally receiving a single-worded answer different from the one he’d heard multiple times by that point. “Yes” Sophie remarks, the same tone as there had been in the answers previous, a nod coming off Caden. “And that notebook?” Caden asks, Sophie’s shrug preceding this answer. “Just something to use for a visual in court” Sophie replies, her story having not only been crafted as a way to garner sympathy, but as a way to future proof any legal repercussions. “And I assume it was you at the supermarket that Izzy convinced herself she saw?” Caden remarks, an impressed nod coming from the young girl. “Yeah, I was there that day… the second redhead was just a lucky break if nothing else” Sophie replies, Caden nodding again. “And Christmas night?” Caden asks, the holes in Sophie’s story filling, and the points of interest all making sense now aside from the final moments of her ‘capture.’ With a satisfied smirk, Sophie nods to herself silently, pressing her fingers together and giving the air a french kiss. “It was a real masterpiece” Sophie replies, smugly taking delight in her recollection. > 25th December, 2030 < In the middle of preparing dinner, Morgan races to her front door at the sound of knocking, a tall white man stood on her porch with an empty pepper grinder in his hand. “Can I help you?” Morgan asks, answering the man’s call for her presence with a cheerful tone. “I’m sorry to bother you on Christmas, I live a few miles out and I ran out of pepper” the man explains, quickly let into the home, following Morgan into the kitchen with a gracious look. “The store’s a way out, I figured it’d just be easier to stop here real quick and see if I can cut the trip short, y’know?” the man humors, a flattered Morgan assuring him that his presence is welcomed honestly. “I thank you for that” the man remarks, taking a full pepper mill from the woman’s hand, her words assuring him that she has plenty to go without a bottle. “Well I thank you greatly” the man replies, giving her a nod before approaching the front door, a set of footsteps climbing down from the second level, putting a worried face on Morgan. “Mom, is dinner almost ready!?” Sophie calls out, leaning over the banister and peering toward the kitchen, both Morgan and her neighbor-by-definition stopping to glance back at her. “I’m star… Oh” Sophie stops, the tall man squinting toward her with a modest smile, his head tilting to the side as if to question himself. Saved by the elapsing timer going off beside the stove, Morgan leads the man through the front door, quickly trying to shovel him as far away as she can, locking the door behind him the moment it shuts. Racing down the stairs, Sophie rushes over to the stove and turns the dial, the door being pulled open and the turkey removed from within. “Fuck! Do you think he noticed me!?” Sophie shouts, a panic setting in as Morgan looks toward her, arms stretched toward each side of the door, her back keeping it pressed shut. “I don’t know, honey… I don’t know” Morgan remarks, desperate to catch her breath as Sophie fans the smoke away from the kitchen, her mother nodding in her direction, “I think it was a close one.” > 18th January, 2031 < “So I guess it wasn’t just a ‘close one’?” Caden interjects, Sophie assuring him otherwise. “Apparently, he didn’t recognize me, he just thought I looked like another one of his neighbor’s daughters” Sophie explains, visually taking disappointment in not having given the moment more time to breath, annoyed she cut her stay with Morgan short by jumping too far too soon. “If only I had stayed the fuck upstairs- none of this would have happened!” Sophie argues to herself, holding blame against her own shoulders for something far different than what boils Caden’s blood, this visual disturbance in something other than her own disappearance enraging Caden, who keeps his composure well-contained. “So how did that night actually end?” Caden cuts in, refusing to let Sophie continue to flatter herself with the memory of her most devious scheme. Lowering her eyebrows, Sophie nods toward the boy, her lips puckered in an effort to hold back the smile she knows Caden has grown too aggravated to see any longer. > 25th December, 2030 < “Sophia?” Morgan calls out through a whisper, leaping off her pillow at the sight of Sophie trying to sneak out of her room, a weirdly shaped object held firmly in her hand. “What’s going on?” Morgan asks, reaching toward her nightstand to retrieve her glasses, the sight of the signal jammer completely powered down left for her to find, the open-drawer left there to taunt the woman, explaining what is happening without Sophie needing to do so herself. “Why?” Morgan asks, her daughter immediately bursting out of the room and running for the stairs as the den flashes with red and blue lights. “Sophia- no! Wait!” Morgan shouts, dashing out of bed after the young girl and chasing her into the living room of the home, calling for her to stop. Peering through the window, Sophie finds a fleet of officers emerging from their vehicles, her mother’s disbelief-stricken self entering the kitchen. Raising the gun to the window, Sophie fires three rounds outside, her mother quickly turning around the counter with a knife in her hand. “Don’t move!” Morgan shouts at Sophie, hoping to keep the young girl from getting herself shot in the midst of this chaotic scene. “Stop!” Morgan shouts at the officers the moment gunfire is returned, Sophie’s opportunity to further paint her mother in a poor light taken, an additional set of shots fired back. “Please, honey… You’re going to get yourself killed!” Morgan continues to plead, ducking away from another round of return cover, Sophie firing additional shots back as Morgan continues to plead for a halt to the gunfight. “There’s no way this ends without the two of us dying tonight, mom” Sophie replies, shaking her head as she presses her hand to the doorknob, “I can’t look my father in the eyes again- Not when he realizes what I did.’ “Stop, you’re gonna get hurt!” Morgan wails as gunfire persists, Sophie firing a final five shots at the officers outside, finally storming toward the door, her hand reaching out for the knob. “Turn around!” Morgan exclaims, her daughter inches away from presenting herself, armed and dangerous, to a swarm of police ready to shoot at anything that moves. “You’re out of bullets” Morgan explains, Sophie’s hand gently falling from the knob as she turns back, shaking the gun to hear nothing of use. “The clip holds twelve bullets, honey” Morgan explains, tears streaming down her face, Sophie’s head hung toward her, the last option at her disposal having been expended. “It’s over” Sophie mutters to herself, a defeated tone carried in her voice, as her mother places the knife down upon the kitchen counter. “Honey, we’ll get through this” Morgan exclaims, wrapping her arms around Sophie and pulling her close, her chin pressing against the top of her daughter’s head. At a loss for words, Sophie begins imagining just what kind of life she’d be facing once she leaves for home, the truth she’ll have to own up to rendering her completely ruined in the eyes of the world. In a sudden moment of clarity, Sophie’s eyes fall away from her future and return to her past, attention set solely on the discarded knife. A switch flipping in her head, Sophie shoves her mother away and grabs the blade with both hands, her foot lifting into the air and forcing her mother back, the older woman falling to the ground. “Sophie, no!” Morgan exclaims, both hands raised into the air as her daughter mounts, the weapon lifted horrifyingly above Sophie’s red hair. “Sophie, please!” Morgan continues, her daughter’s empty apologies being offered, the only way out unscathed presenting itself to the young girl at this moment. “Let me go!” Morgan shrieks, the blade swinging down with force before the final of the three words can even be uttered, her chest oozing blood before her lungs can empty. “I’m so sorry!” Sophie continues, lifting up and lunging forward with the blade over and over, covering her tracks with each incision she makes. Only when the final breaths leave her mothers lungs does Sophie snap out of her haze-like fog, the sound of the incoming officer's feet shuffling against the patio putting her back into the moment. Throwing herself off Morgan, Sophie collapses to the floor, a brief few seconds of silence filling the air before the large men swarm the home, breaking through the door with ease. Unable to hide her satisfaction, Sophie lets the brief inkling of a smile peer through her lips, the blood covering her face and hands keeping her warm amidst the midwinter chill. > 18th January, 2031 < “You killed her to cover your own tracks?” Caden remarks, Sophie’s shoulders shrugging with both hands still in her pockets, “you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do” she responds. Biting his bottom lip, Caden shakes his head, leaving the light behind as he walks past Sophie, the girl left standing with her light in the middle of the field. “Who are you gonna tell?” Sophie asks, her hand clutching onto something beneath the cover of her coat, an exhausted Caden replying in kind. With his head held toward the sky, Caden lets out a long breath before turning back, his face finding Sophie’s, both young adults keeping their hands tucked safely in their pockets. “Myself- every night- for the rest of my life” Caden replies, refusing to be the one to spill the beans of Sophie’s master plan. “You’re going to get discovered someday, and someone other than me is going to be the person that reveals everything” Caden continues, a smirk on his face, “but I’ll be there with a big smile on my face.” Lips puckered, Sophie looks away from Caden and nods to herself, the boy remaining stood there, recognizing the look on the girl’s face, her desire to ask him another question written all over. “Are we still friends?” Sophie asks, the boy watching her eyes lift back to her, his legs carrying him back to the car, their time apart over the last year having provided the young man with an already-comfortable distance. “I hope you rot in hell, Sophie” Caden remarks, the woman’s face scrunching with anger, Caden taking his turn to disregard her feelings the way his once-friend had with him, “never speak to me again.” Pulling away, Caden returns to his vehicle, Sophie still standing in the middle of the field beneath the cold, starry night, her face surrounded by light as Caden’s car speeds off, returning to the road. Fuming, Sophie turns back, watching the boy’s rear lights veer off into the distance, leaving her on her own, the way she had intended for it to be. Eye twitching, Sophie looks toward the sky and lets out a frustration-induced scream, howling into the chilly night. == Generation Alpha ==
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} The following events take place between June and December 2030 {
> June 2030 < “Ow, shit!” Izzy exclaims, colliding with the wall as she enters the sandwich shop, Caden having accidentally brushed shoulders with her. “I’m so sorry!” Caden abruptly exclaims, the woman looking toward her watch, accepting his apology before it can completely leave his lips. “Did I break it?” Caden asks, his focus switching onto the property wrapped around the girl’s wrist once he realizes she’s fine, Izzy assuring the boy he has little to worry about. “No, when I hit it against something, it takes itself off vibrate” Izzy replies, flipping through the options on her screen to return the device to its prior setting. “I’m fine, seriously” Izzy explains, looking up at Caden once she’d fixed her accessory, a smile coming over her face as she walks with him to the front counter. “So, I thought I was going crazy last week” Izzy explains, just beginning to tear into her smoked ham sub, Caden letting a smirk come over his face. “Oh yeah?” Caden remarks, Izzy using the tip of her thumb to wipe away any lettuce hanging from her mouth. “I followed Mr. Carrion to Sophie’s mom’s house last week” Izzy admits, the boy looking at her as if she were confessing to an armed robbery. “You what!?” Caden says beneath his breath, Izzy discussing it like it was nothing new. “I figured I’d keep a look out from a distance in case things went south” Izzy replies, placing her sandwich back into the paper wrap it came in, “anyway, she lives on some farm out in Gentry apparently.” Puzzled, Caden repeats the name of the city, Izzy’s confirmation preceding an in-depth explanation of the home. “It’s got this bunker beside it, a long-ass dirt road driveway” Izzy continues, shaking her head, picking her sandwich back up, “it’s a weird place.” Confused, Caden squints toward the girl, beginning to ask himself questions surrounding information he’s only now become privy to. “Why are you telling me this?” Caden asks, appreciative of being kept informed, but curious as to the information’s importance. “Because her mom lives in a weird fucking place” Izzy remarks, laughing mid-chew, stopping to swallow before concluding her point, “but I also didn’t stay for very long.” Still confused, Caden rolls with the punches, asking for the girl’s reasoning, surprised by what he hears. “I wanted to see if my signal was bad, which it was, but I didn’t know if it was because she had some jammer or because she lives in the middle of nowhere” Izzy explains, her head bouncing from one side to another as she explains her reasoning for visiting the local supermarket. “Wait, I’m confused. You thought there was no signal, so you left to go pick up fruit snacks and a bottle of Gatorade?” Caden replies, his humorous conclusions pre-empting the girl’s more disturbing confession. “I wanted to know if the whole part of town just had bad reception” Izzy explains, slowing her words down as she recalls finally making it to the parking lot, “I drove around for a few minutes, and then I saw someone that I thought looked like Sophie.” “Hold on, looked like Sophie, or you thought was Sophie?” Caden asks, a great difference between the two options presented. “I thought she was Sophie with bright red hair” Izzy remarks, Caden’s sudden hope depleting as soon as it had arrived, “I thought I was going crazy, but I needed to find out!” Disappointed in recalling what she perceives to be her failure, Izzy admits that she came up empty handed. “I got judged by some old white dude in the produce aisle just to startle some random redhead” Izzy concludes, shaking her head as she tosses her sandwich down, “total lost cause.” Having gone a few minutes without eating his food, Caden sits in his chair, both elbows pressed against the table, holding the sandwich up. “So, again… Why is this important?” Caden asks, again clarifying his appreciation for being kept up to date, “do you think her mother did this?” Shrugging, Izzy admits that she doesn’t know, the only proof she has being the home that the older woman lives her days in, coming up short in everything other than the home’s appearance. “I think it’s weird to have a farm when you don’t plant crops, especially when you have a bunker built above ground” Izzy explains, her head shaking as she makes her decision, “but I don’t really have any proof to point fingers at Sophie’s mom.” With a sigh, Caden gently leans forward, pressing his teeth to the soft bread and tearing off a piece of his sandwich, his eyes gazing at a far-corner of the room, contemplating what his own assumptions are. = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > July 2030 < “Thank you for driving her, Caden” Andrew exclaims, pulling Olivia away from his arms and setting her down on the floor, his hand held out to the boy, “you’ve been so much help over the last few months.” With a nod, Caden tucks his hands into his jean pockets and admits that he’s just coping with Sophie’s absence the way everyone else is. “Still, you’re doing more than I’d ever let myself ask of you” Andrew replies, his hand placed upon the boy’s shoulder, “you’re a good kid.” A meager smile, Caden gives Andrew a nod, staying quiet until the older man walks around his countertop, the conversation switching at Caden’s request. “Anything new on Sophie?” Caden asks, Andrew facing a cutting board with chopped red peppers whilst looking at the kid through the corner of her eyes, a gentle shake of his head. Meeting Andrew’s silence with his own, Caden nods to himself, Andrew quick to admit that the months are not easy to get through. “I don’t really sleep much anymore, and I haven’t let Olivia out of my sight in months” Andrew admits, Caden leaning over the counter, watching the man cut the vegetables, “I keep waiting by the phone hoping for answers.” Leaning back, Caden unfolds his arms and places his hands against the countertop, head tilted to the side as he contemplates to himself. “What kind of proof would work?” Caden asks, suddenly taking the discussion to a more hopeful path, Andrew’s surprise to the question brought on by his uncertainty. “If I need to be more specific- what kind of proof would help get Sophie back?” Caden clarifies, Andrew slowly setting down his knife, turning toward his daughter’s long-time friend and leaning against the platform beside him. “I’m not really sure honestly” Andrew remarks, refusing to look Caden in the eyes without giving him something more solid to hold onto for hope, “I suppose something to connect all these pieces we’ve got.” With a sarcastic laugh, Caden nods to himself, turning away from Andrew and returning to his original seat, the expression questioned. “Do we really even have pieces?” Caden asks, his face scrunched as his more pessimistic tone begins to show, “we have small details and little else.” Shaking his head, Andrew picks up the knife and returns to cutting the red chunks beneath him, refusing to give up on hope. “We know when she was taken, when she disappeared, where she was taken from” Andrew begins, rattling off these bits of information as if they make or break the case. “And yet, we have no suspects, no supposed location, and not to mention- no presumed status” Caden retorts, immediately catching the strong will of Andrew. “She’s presumed living- no reason to think otherwise” the father quickly interjects, the tip of the knife’s blade pointed at the Nurse’s only son, Caden not phased by the display, his hope still visibly disappearing. “Is there no reason to think otherwise?” Caden replies, challenging Sophie’s father on an account of his hope, the draining of his own making it difficult to see why others would keep their own intact. “She’s been gone for four months, the trail’s colder now than it had been before, and we haven’t even gotten as much as a sighting since she went missing” Caden quickly points out, Andrew’s father continuing to let him speak, “is there really no reason to think otherwise?” Placing the knife back onto the countertop, Andrew rests both hands against the cutting board, his eyes firmly placed upon Caden just as Olivia runs into the room. “Caden’s still here!” the small girl exclaims, pointing out the obvious, a gesture not even Caden can keep a defeated face on for, a feigned smile coming over as he kneels down, his hand raised. “High five!” Caden exclaims, Olivia slapping his hand with all her might as Andrew approaches them. “I’ll have your dinner ready in a jiffy, ‘Liv” Andrew explains, gently nudging her back the way she came, Caden slowly climbing back to his feet, pulling himself up with the hold of his chair. “I can’t lose hope with that one depending on me, Caden” Andrew explains, putting both hands on the boy’s shoulders, one on each side, “and with Sophie still out there, you can’t lose hope with her depending on you.” Tilting his head, Caden lets Andrew pat him on the back before walking off, not wishing to give the younger boy a chance to retort, his own hopes already made inexplicably clear. > August 2030 < “Why are you coming home so late?” George asks, Caden placing his car keys in a bowl beside the front door, the older man having patiently stayed up through the evening awaiting his son’s return. “I had to give a friend a ride” Caden remarks, George’s arms crossed, head tilted back as he nods at the statement. “You gave a friend a ride to Gentry?” George adds, his son’s face falling with the rest of his head, the obvious question raised from there. “What were you doing in Gentry, and what friend that lives nearly four hours away were you giving a ride to?” George replies, his son approaching him with his hands held out. “Don’t try to explain yourself, answer the damn question” George remarks, refusing to acknowledge anything but the truth. A frown on his face, Caden puckers his lips, walking past his father with the same response offered. “I was giving a friend a ride” Caden replies, his father’s hand reaching out just as he climbs the third stair, pulling him back by the arm. “What were you doing in Gentry?” George asks for a third time, his son looking him in the eyes for a moment before angrily ripping his arm away, a subtle growl hidden beneath his deep breath. “I was giving a friend a ride, dad” Caden remarks, turning away and walking back up the stairs, his father left behind in a loss for words. “You’re grounded!” George calls out, making it clear to leave his son with those final words before he can disappear around a corner. “I know” Caden shouts back, storming into his room and slamming the door shut as his father is left shaking his head out of disbelief in the foyer. “What the hell was all of that?” Rebecca asks, emerging from her shared bedroom to look down at George, the man still dressed in recreational attire, his face simmering with rage. “Caden drove all the way out to Gentry this afternoon” George replies, his wife halfway down the stairs before this information is relayed to her, feet stopping where they left off as her eyes widen. “Gentry?” Rebecca repeats, shaking her head as if to illustrate her confusion, “what the hell was our boy doing in Gentry?” Walking up to the front door, George takes Caden’s keys and tucks them into his pocket, his arms thrown out by his sides as his shoulders shrug. “He said he was ‘giving a friend a ride’, Reby” George remarks, obviously not buying the answer he was given, “I don’t know for sure what he was doing, but I can almost take a guess.” “You can?” Rebecca replies, honestly unable to say the same about herself, carrying her awoken legs to the couch to sit beside her husband, “what guess is that?” With a deep exhale, George looks his wife in the eyes and answers her question, “I think he was visiting Sophie’s mom”, Rebecca left more confused than she originally was. “Why would Caden be meeting up with Sophie’s mom?” Rebecca remarks, shaking her head at the notion, and wanting to disregard the assumption without reason to do so. “Because I think- maybe- he thinks she has an idea of where the girl went?” George replies, his own sentence structure lacking certainty, head pushed forward the longer he speaks, trying to make sense of the conclusion himself. “I don’t know… The kid hasn’t been the same since she’s gone and I think it’s really starting to get to him” George remarks, falling back into the embrace of his cushiony couch, his wife’s arm reaching over his neck and pulling him into a hug. > September 2030 < “It’s good to see you out of the house!” Izzy exclaims, a smile on her face as Caden enters the sandwich shop for the first time in weeks. “Nurse!” a man calls out from behind the counter, earning Caden’s attention in time to toss him a sandwich-filled bag. “It’s on the house!” the sandwich maker exclaims, a thumbs up sent into the air as Caden voices his appreciation. “Why did you get in trouble anyway?” Izzy asks, Caden remaining silent until he has the chance to sink his teeth into the sandwich, “you’ve been radio silent since then.” Enjoying the bite as it was intended to be experienced, Caden replies with his mouth full, all electronics having been confiscated upon the start of his punishment. “I drove out to Gentry and my dad caught me” Caden remarks, Izzy quick to look at him with wide eyes, her immediate response being to ask the boy to repeat himself. “I drove out to Gentry and my dad caught me” Caden responds, Izzy leaning her head down as if she were hiding from the sight of someone else, her voice lowering with her crown. “You drove out to fucking Gentry? Why the hell would you do that!?” Izzy asks, the boy across from her responding to her confusion with the same unamused tone she once gave to him. “I wanted to see what that woman was doing for myself” Caden replies, his voice carrying a whisper, much like Izzy’s own, “she wasn’t home, so I sort of did what I needed to do.” Attempting to speak, Izzy quickly shuts her mouth, pulling her head back and looking at the boy with a confused look, a simple shrug from her friend suggesting that, to Caden, this isn’t a big deal. “Please, for heaven’s sake, tell me you didn’t break into that woman’s home” Izzy remarks, Caden giving her a guilty smile, his shoulders shrugging, amused at the fact that, by technicality, he’s not saying anything. “Oh my god, you broke into that woman’s house!” Izzy grunts into her arm, looking out the window while unable to look Caden in the eyes without a flurry of mixed emotions coursing through her mind. “What else did you expect me to do?” Caden replies, Izzy quickly turning back to him with her answer, a rather reasonable one as far as she’s concerned, “not break into the woman’s house!” Clicking his tongue, Caden rolls his eyes, leaning back in his chair as Izzy begins to explain what would happen if he were caught. “I wasn’t caught, and that’s the point” Caden explains, both sandwiches returned to their paper shell, the conversation taking priority. Following a momentary silence, accompanied by the sounds of horns honking in the street just beside them, Izzy continues the dialogue. “Well?” Izzy asks, Caden looking at her for a moment, puzzled, responding with the same, “well?” Rolling her eyes, Izzy presses her hands to the table, leaning forward with her eyes kept on Caden, “well, what did you find?” Placing his lips together, Caden finds himself unable to keep his smile contained, it’s spread from one side to the other taking the place of words, which find themselves unneeded. > 31st October, 2030 < “It was a better idea to use my car for this” Izzy explains, her tires kicking up dirt as her headlights illuminate a large, metal bunker. “I will agree to that now, later, and any other time between and after that” Caden remarks, making a moment out of this point in time, taking his left hand away from his knee and placing it over the gear shift, where Izzy’s hand resides. Slowing her car to a stop, Izzy looks at Caden and smiles, the figure in the next seat over returning the expression as her hand gently puts the car into park. “There’s a soft spot in the front door that we can get at with something dull and flat” Caden explains, popping his door open and setting his feet upon the ground. Quick to follow, Izzy emerges from her vehicle and lightly pushes the door shut, keeping behind the boy in case something unforeseen were to occur. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s home” Caden says, glancing back at the woman, quick to point out the fault in that assumption. “She could be trying to make it look like she’s not home” Izzy replies, lowering closer to the ground, following the boy toward the front patio, “I’m just saying, if I had a house like this, I wouldn’t be wanting little kids to think I’m just sitting around all night passing out candy like they’re food stamps!” With a chuckle, Caden shakes his head, climbing the steps before approaching the front door, his fist tapping against the sleek surface and awaiting a response. “Why is it that you’re the older one, but I’m the one that has to walk ahead of you?” Caden quips, easing the tense situation with light-hearted banter, a gesture which Izzy quickly refutes. “I have an early birthday- that doesn’t mean I have to have an early death date” the girl jokingly remarks, a few seconds of further silence giving Caden the assurance he was looking for. Reaching into his back pocket, Caden retrieves a pressed butter knife, its smooth edges being slid between the door and its frame, running down the length of the wood as if it were cutting through jam, finally coming to a stop at the locking mechanism. Biting into his bottom lip, Caden adjusts his stance and bites down on his tongue, a few added inches of leverage allowing the singular pop from within the frame to grant Caden the access he was searching for. Twisting the doorknob, Caden holds the door open from Izzy, who appreciatively bows upon passing him, her dim flashlight immediately shining on the lower-positioned living room. “Her living room is like one of those sunken fire pits!” Izzy exclaims, finding that cool for some weird reason, her light immediately bouncing off the flat television screen. “You’re sure she doesn’t have security cameras?” Izzy whispers, which confuses Caden, who reminds her that they’re alone. “I spent an hour in here last time, I’m pretty sure she’d have come after me if she did” Caden replies, picking up picture frames and other decorations, inspecting them out of interest. “She doesn’t have any of Sophie when she was little anywhere” Caden points out, finding that odd for a woman who’s brought a child into the world, “you’d think she’d have a picture somewhere.” Shrugging, Izzy flashes her light into the kitchen whilst Caden makes his way upstairs, explaining it away as guilt. “She hasn’t been around Sophie for years, right?” Izzy wonders aloud, “we punished ourselves by sitting at the green for months- maybe she’s doing the same.” “Yeah, maybe” Caden remarks, finally making it to the top of the stairs, his light shining down both ends of the hallway, each door on the second level open for inspection. Taking a step toward the big room at the end of one hallway, Caden is surprised by the sound of crackling fireworks just a few yards away, freezing him where he last stepped. “What the fuck was that!?” Izzy calls out, running toward the window nearest-facing the source of the crackling sounds. As if he were just called for by an omniscient being, Caden lunges down the stairs, nearly crashing into the wall at the bottom as he joins Izzy beside the closest window. “You said no one was home!” Izzy points out the error in Caden’s ways being made unmistakably clear. “Now it’s time for us not to be home” the boy replies, Izzy quickly taking that declaration as a statement to hurry back to the car, the younger friend still stood by the window despite her ongoing-escape. “You coming!?” Izzy calls out, turning back to find Caden stood silently beside the window, not having moved since originally declaring the time to leave being in that very moment. “Caden!?” Izzy calls out through a whisper, again receiving no response. Taking it upon herself, Izzy dashes up to the boy’s side and grabs him by the arm, yanking him the way they entered. With an astonished look on his face, Caden glances back and forth between Izzy and the window, eventually giving into the girl’s demands, accompanying her on their escape. Leaping into the car, Caden catches his breath, watching the colorful explosions in the sky just above as Izzy pulls her car onto the main road, the quickest exit to return them to Jefferson City being the one she embarks upon. > November 2030 < “Hey George, I’m sorry to bother you” Andrew greets, standing on the Nurse’s doorstep by surprise, the father assuring the man that he’s of no bother. “Is there something I can help with?” George asks, both Rebecca and Caden emerging from the bowels of the home at the call of Andrew’s presence, overhearing the conversation from afar. “I just wanted to ask well in advance, because of plans and everything, if you’d like to spend Christmas with ‘Liv and I this year?” Andrew asks, surprising George. “Are you sure?” George asks again, Andrew quickly doubling down on his offer, mentioning that the Stewart’s had accepted the invitation earlier in the day as well. “I don’t want to make you think that you have to, I just wanted to offer the invitation” Andrew explains, his gesture quickly challenged by Caden, only one concern on his mind. “Can Izzy come?” Caden inquires, the question putting a smile on Andrew’s face. “She’s a wonderful girl, Caden… Of course she can come” Andrew remarks, the answer enough to convince the boy. “Alright, we accept” Caden replies, both George and Rebecca laughing at the ease in which he accepted the offer. “We spend Christmas, every single year, standing by the television watching movies” Caden recalls to his parents, an eyebrow raised, genuinely interested in whether or not his parents would like to continue that tradition or spend it with friends instead. “It looks like Caden’s made up his mind, so I guess we have to” George remarks, graciously accepting the offer at Caden’s behest, who responds with a thumbs up. “Alright, I’ll have dinner ready and everything!” Andrew exclaims, rubbing his hands together as he wishes the family a good night, returning to his home. “Well that was awfully nice of him” Rebecca exclaims, as certain of his reasonings as Caden and George, choosing to look past them. “We don’t do much for Christmas anyways” George replies, shrugging at the notion, “if he wants to not be alone with half of his kids for the holidays, who are we to say no?” > 25th December, 2030 < “Your house is a lot more impressive when I have more than just the kitchen to remember it by, Mr. Carrion” Izzy explains, a glass of soda in her hand as she stands in the archway between the living room and the kitchen. “I have plenty to be proud of, Izzy” Andrew remarks, patting the girl on the shoulder as his doorbell rings. “I got it!” the girl quickly exclaims, taking the hosting duties out of Andrew’s hands as she dashes to the front door. “Welcome to Christmas” Izzy joyfully blurts out, not really caring about the holiday, just happy to be spending it around the same people she’s been around for the better part of the last year. In a single moment, her enthusiastic expression fades into one of annoyance, the Stewart’s stood at the door with gifts in their hand, Logan the first person she lays eyes upon. “If you two could refrain from killing each other, that would be appreciated” Hugh mutters, tilting his head at Izzy, not minding her presence as much as he once had. “Welcome to the world, Logan… It’s different from your box, I promise” Izzy jabs, the boy giving her a sour face, gently nudged further into the home by his mother, who looks down at the soda in her hands. Looking further into the home, Anne takes the glass from Izzy’s hand and replaces it with a packaged glass of wine, wishing her a happy holiday. “You’re my favorite, now!” Izzy calls out, the joke being centered in honesty. “Can I at least be number two?” Caden asks soon after, pulling the girl in for a hug. “You’re giving her a run for her money” Izzy replies, her shorter frame making it impossible to rest her chin on the boy’s shoulder without standing on her tiptoes. Quickly losing her balance with the heavy shoes she wore out of the house, Izzy tumbles forward, both she and Caden tripping into the wall, slamming their arms into the doorframe, luckily catching themselves enough to save the wine from being spilled. “You alright?” Caden asks, an exaggerated face sported by his girlfriend, who fans her hand back and forth, her watch almost popping off as she does so. “Yeah, you just kinda landed on my hand, dork” Izzy remarks, quickly pulling back into a hug from the boy, who uses the festivities as an excuse to move inward, pressing his lips to Izzy’s own. “What was that for?” Izzy asks with a smile, Caden subtly shaking his head with his lip pressed between his teeth, “for Christmas.” With a nod, Izzy lets the answer fly, returning the gesture back, this time a more confident kiss shared just between the two. Almost on cue, Andrew’s voice begins to call out from the kitchen just a few feet away, both Izzy and Caden walking to the sound of it, the boy’s arm wrapped over the back of his girlfriend’s neck. “I just wanted to thank each one of you for everything this year. I don’t think I’d be able to get out of bed- having gotten sleep the night before or not- without you all” Andrew explains, a few glasses being lifted, a few others applauding, Logan stood by his father’s side, uncertain as to how to respond. “I just wanted to let you all know that, and you being here is so appreciated” Andrew concludes, “so, thank you again.” Lifting his own glass into the air, Andrew sets the tone of the evening, a silent and small gathering all following his lead, Izzy and her wine-holding self included. “You have two new messages” an automated voice exclaims from amongst the crowd, the source uncertain at first, all eyes traversing around the room in an effort to seek it out. “From Sophie ‘Geography/Political History’” the voice reads aloud, the small grouping of voices immediately falling silent, Izzy looking to her wrist to notice her watch’s voice speaking of its own volition, the device’s malfunction the least of her cares. “I’m in the green and waiting… Are you on your way?” the watch concludes, Izzy quickly looking at her arm, questions beginning to flutter through the room. “What’re you doing!?” George’s voice calls out, alarm bells having been raised the moment the missing girl’s name was mentioned. “It’s my watch! They’re texts!” Izzy blurts out, unsure herself as to what is happening, “I think they’re from Sophie but I don’t know what’s happening!” Panicked, Izzy rips off her watch and hands it to Andrew, the man having lowered himself from atop his chair and hurrying to her side, taking the watch into his own hand. “They’re just coming in- I swear!” Izzy exclaims, her fears put aside quickly, the man already aware of her lack of insight. “From Sophie ‘Geography/Political history’” the watch continues to blurt, the crowd patiently waiting to hear more. “Is that you in the beige van at the end of the street?” the second message reads, not a single voice lifting above the crowd that now stands with their eyes widened. “Beige van!?” George calls out, Andrew’s eyes darting over to his side of the room, both men looking at each other with a fearful expression, their legs carrying them to the same corner of the home as the crowd follows quickly thereafter. “Beige van, right!?” George repeats, the crowd following him as he follows the patriarch, a small end table in the back of the room suddenly becoming the hub of the party. “Beige fucking van” Andrew reads aloud, looking to George, both men coming to a realization. “What’s happening!?” Logan calls out, lost without a rope to hold onto, both men looking back to the small group gathered behind them. “Morgan took Sophie” Andrew murmurs, the words leaving his lips in a whisper, the man both too dazed and too angry to speak properly, a noticeable silence falling over the home. “Morgan…” Andrew whispers to himself again, trying to make sense of everything in real time, the sudden shock of the revelation that springs out of nowhere beginning to set in, his declaration bringing a spark of panic over the home. “Morgan took Sophie!” Andrew exclaims, finally finding his voice, the power kicking in when it mattered most, not much time passing before the Nurse father directs Hugh to contact his police service. “Tell ‘em Sophie’s mom took her- tell ‘em to tear every goddamn thing up in that house looking for her!” George shouts, the man already dialing the number of the private emergency line. “wWe’re getting her back!” George exclaims, turning the man toward him, his certain tone completely disregarded by the translation-lacking man. “Move! Out of my way!” Andrew grunts, pushing past George in an attempt to run out to his car, the man pulling his arm back, explaining that he can’t drive whilst under the influence. “I have to go!” Andrew shouts, frantic to leave the home despite George’s reluctance to let him, the alcohol in his system making another option impossible. “I’ll drive!” Izzy shouts, placing her glass of wine atop a bookshelf, George quick to point out her age. “You just turned sixteen, you can’t get behind the wheel of a manual!” George exclaims, Andrew finally settling down upon the offer from Izzy. “What’re you gonna do, Mr. Nurse!?-” Izzy calls back, already pushing herself through the front door, Caden pulled by her hand “-arrest me!?” Recognizing this dilemma, George rolls his eyes and groans toward the heavens, the girl’s illegal use of a car far outweighed by the desperate man slipping out of his reach. “Goddamnit, fine!” George exclaims, letting go of Andrew, the heavier man dashing through the front door and quickly following after the departing set of youth, George quick to follow. “Keep close to the phones!” Mr. Nurse shouts to the remainder of the party, leaving them behind to accompany Andrew, his own son, and the teenage driver through the backwoods of Missouri. == Generation Alpha == } The following events take place between June and December 2030, and the 18th of January, 2031 {
> 18th January, 2031 < “In December of 2030, you made a decision that would lead to your freedom” Caden explains, Sophie nodding in expectation of what question follows, “what, in the months that preceded, led you to make that decision?” With a smile, Sophie nods to herself, a smooth breath leaving her lungs, slipping through her lips. “I recognized a lie that snowballed” Sophie responds, Morgan’s false track of time having given Sophie slight clarity, “I didn’t believe anything without proof now.” Her full stay very awkward to describe, Sophie likens the willing half of the time spent with her mother to a bird that, even with its cage door open, remains within its confines most of the time. “I think there was a weird part of me that liked being somewhere different, not really sure of what was coming next” Sophie admits, reflecting on the stress she’d apply to herself in her schooling, “it was nice to not know what the future held while also being okay with it.” Leaning half of his body against the doorframe, Andrew asks his daughter why she’d put such stress on herself to begin with, a question Sophie had never given a second thought. “College is too costly, trade jobs are getting swept up in the thousands, and I’m nearly halfway through high school already” Sophie quips, truly of the belief that she’d never viewed school as anything less than a job that required perfection, “none of that mattered.” “You, in this ‘bird and open cage’ analogy, were the bird” Caden clarifies, his assumption quickly agreed to, “it’s not that you didn’t want to leave the cage, it’s that you didn’t see a reason to.” Finding it more difficult to agree on the second half of that statement, Sophie filters out the easy from the difficult. “I liked not having to worry about the future, but it’s not like I always thought I had a choice” Sophie explains, “sometimes I just forgot exactly what was going on.” Recalling multiple collections of weeks where she’d go without thinking of how to escape, Sophie makes it clear that she forgot the situation’s true gravity for large chunks of time. “Forgetting there was a future was easy. I didn’t really have a clue for the first time- and it felt natural” Sophie continues, looking toward the pair watching her, “then I’d suddenly remember ‘oh yeah, I was kidnapped’, and I’d go back to looking for clues for a few days.” “Your mind just- what? Blocked that part out?” Caden asks, watching Sophie squint back to him, nodding. “Yeah, I think so” she replies, biting into her bottom lip as the original question is recalled, its recollection bringing her to the main purpose behind her sit-down questionnaire. “I spent the summer and fall figuring out what was true, and what was false” Sophie adds on, finally getting to the climax of her story, “eventually, I’d find it.” = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > July 2030 < “Are you sure you’re okay?” Morgan asks, her makeup done and outfit prepared to leave the house, Sophie left beneath the covers, putting on a sickly voice. “Go to your appointment, I’ll be fine” Sophie remarks, a cold cloth over her face, her words doing little to ease Morgan’s spirits, the older woman continuing to loom over the room. “Seriously, I’ll be okay” Sophie doubles down, telling her mother to get herself taken care of, a gesture which finally convinces the matriarch. “Okay, you know where-” Morgan begins, cut off by her daughter’s insistence that all is fine. “Okay, I’ll be back in one hour” Morgan proclaims, closing Sophie’s door on her way out, the smile from her daughter satisfying her enough to let her proceed. Waiting a few minutes, Sophie peers her head over the ledge to her window, finding her mother’s beige mini-van pulling out of the garage and hitting the dirt road, leaving Sophie to her lonesome. Throwing her blanket off the bed, Sophie races from atop her mattress and hurries out of her room, feet carrying her like the wind down the long staircase. With a thud, Sophie’s feet make contact with the hardwood flooring, her body twisting toward the living room, hand quickly reaching for the router and ripping the cord from behind it, any recording devices transmitting her feed powering down with it. Walking into the kitchen, Sophie begins to rummage through the cabinets, different sets of plates and bowls occupying some cupboards whilst others host coffee mugs and other accessories. Coming up short in her efforts, Sophie glances around the home, the main level bathroom door being left wide open. Stepping into the cramped, tiled and sunlight-covered restroom, Sophie’s hands reach out for the cabinet, a little knob on the window pulled to reveal small, empty shelves. Stunted for a moment, Sophie’s mind places its focus upon her mother’s bedroom, the space also containing a personal bathroom solely for Morgan’s own use. Dashing up the stairs, Sophie power walks to her mother’s bedroom and reaches for the knob, a single twist finding reluctance, the room proving to be off limits, her lack of a key presenting a challenge. The floor beneath her sock-covered feet beginning to buzz, Sophie realizes her mother has quickly returned from her trip, the garage door slowly rising just one floor below. With a groan, Sophie runs back downstairs, her strut turning into a sickly drag, one hand pushing herself off every wall she stumbles into. “Why are you out of bed?” Morgan asks, quickly hurrying through the garage entrance, Sophie looking at her with a puzzled response. “I was going to make soup?” Sophie replies, answering her mother with the best acting she can manage, perplexed at the woman’s arrival whilst dazed by her condition. Morgan’s attention completely brushing Sophie aside, the woman’s first instinct upon returning being to hurry to the living room. “Did you unplug the router?” Morgan calls out, Sophie groggily following after her mother, half-heartedly apologizing for the accident. “I must have hit it on my way down, sorry” Sophie remarks, noticing something about the situation to be off, her worries immediately becoming what potentially looms over her every move. “That’s alright, honey” Morgan replies, quickly returning the cord to the slot in the back of the machine, her arm wrapping around her daughter’s neck as she brings herself down from the climactic rush of adrenaline, “I’ll get the soup going- you just get back to bed.” > September 2030 < “What was your childhood like growing up?” Sophie asks, sat on a log opposite her mother, a marshmallow on the end of a stick held over a raging bonfire. Puffing her cheeks, Morgan blows a stern breath through her parted lips, a cup of hot chocolate held in her hands, head shaking at the amount to recall. “It was a lot different than yours, I’ll say that much” Morgan remarks, a chuckle leaving her, not much better to offer than that. Despite the obvious lack of interest in recalling her past, Morgan’s early life is called back into question, Sophie’s unwillingness to let her need to know die prompting her mother into an uncomfortable recollection. “Well, my parents weren’t really parents growing up” Morgan begins, thinking to her earlier years and failing to remember many moments where her parents weren’t busy doing something other than being in her life, “it was weird being taken to school by the neighbors, honestly.” “My grandparents didn’t take you to school?” Sophie asks, a smile radiating from Morgan’s face as she shakes her head. “No, mom and dad worked in an office- They’d be gone before I’d even wake up” Morgan replies, vividly remembering one day in her past, the only such day where she remembers her parents being with her on a workday. “I had gotten pulled out of school really early in the morning ‘cause I lived in New York at the time” Morgan explains, biting her fingernail as she speaks, “we watched the planes hit the second tower, and everything else that came after that.” “Yup” Morgan jests, puckering her lips as she nods, almost letting out a chuckle, “they didn’t have time to be parents, and I didn’t really have time to be a kid.” Head hung, Sophie looks up to her mother, the older woman wiping her face with her finger, a sad look in her eyes. “I’m sorry” Sophie mutters aloud, the woman looking at her with a smile, putting up a strong face so as not to disappoint her daughter, “it’s not your fault.” The campgrounds silent for a moment, Sophie pulls the blanket over her tighter, feeling the warm cotton press against the sides of her face, the wind blowing her hair in all directions. “What about you?” Morgan asks, admitting that she can’t accept her daughter’s apologies for an absentee set of parents when she did the same to her, “how’ve the last twelve or so years been?” With a sigh, Sophie shakes her head, admitting that the answer has changed through the years. “I’ve been so focused on school for a while now- I haven’t really spent much time at home” Sophie explains, her hopes a great difference from the wants of other kids her age. “A bunch of my classmates work from home, so they don’t really leave the house a lot” Sophie explains, admitting to finding herself jealous of them at times, “but dad always wanted me to have an actual life.” With a chuckle, Morgan nods in agreement with her ex-husband, admitting that she would have wanted much the same. “He may have his reasons, but mine are pretty fair too” Morgan explains, the little time she spent in her youth before getting pregnant always residing fondly with her, “there’s nothing like having a group of friends you can rely on. It’s important.” With a shrug, Sophie agrees with her mother’s statement, another moment of quiet coming over the camp in the ironic seconds that follow. “Do you have any friends?” Morgan asks, the need to ask brought about by the fact that she’d been responsible for taking her daughter from them, the question itself laughed at by her offspring. “I have a couple friends… Mostly the kids that go to school in-person like me” Sophie replies, a smile coming over her a few moments later, one noticed by Morgan. “And who might it be that brought that smile on?” Morgan asks, a smirk coming from the corner of her mouth, Sophie’s cheeks beginning to blush pink. “I have a friend that lives next door… His name’s Caden” Sophie remarks, the mention of the boy’s name bringing a nod over her. “It’s not a relationship like that- don’t get carried away” Sophie clarifies, another smile coming over as she thinks back to her birthday earlier in the year, “he’s just a good person.” Fixing her hair, Morgan tells her daughter that she once said the same thing about Andrew when she was younger, having convinced herself that he was merely a good friend despite their relationship evolving as time went on. “Even when you’re young, you really notice when people look out for you” Morgan explains, clearing her throat as she takes another marshmallow from the bag, jabbing it onto the edge of her stick, “sometimes you end up getting really close to them.” Figuring she’d never convince her mother otherwise, Sophie allows Morgan to draw her own conclusions, her eyes struggling to stay open as the night fails to get any younger. “I’m gonna go to bed” Sophie says, leaving her seat at the log, blanket still covering her shoulders, Morgan’s smile partially fading, still remaining somewhat present. “I’ll be heading to bed in a couple minutes, too” the woman replies, not wanting her daughter to feel guilty for leaving her on her own. “Goodnight, honey” Morgan calls out, her daughter having already taken a few steps back to the house by that time. “Goodnight, mom” Sophie remarks, her head turned over her shoulder halfway through her walk back, the smile on Morgan’s face illuminated in the fire’s light. > 18th January, 2031 < “We spent a lot of nights like that” Sophie explains, one leg having returned to its state of resting over the other, hands folded in her lap once again, “it was the most normal I could feel, so we did it as much as possible.” With a smile, Sophie thinks fondly of those memories, thoughts that quickly fall by the wayside when her eyes recognize the room she’s sat within, the memories brought about through cold, lonely beginnings. “It was so easy to forget that I was a prisoner, because it started feeling like home” Sophie continues, Caden’s eyes closing, his pupils rolling around behind his eyelids, not pleased with the statements made, “but I kept having to remind myself that it wasn’t.” Opening his eyes again, Caden glances at his clipboard, no longer paying attention to the questions being asked, instead deciding to beat his own drum. “Tell me about halloween” Caden inquires, Sophie’s eyes quickly darting toward him, her eyebrows lowered in confusion. “Why halloween?” Sophie asks, recognizing the question to be completely original to Caden’s own moment in time. “I just want to hear about halloween” Caden replies, his arms coupling together, each hand wrapping around his arms, holding the crossed limbs against his chest. “Morgan and I stayed in and watched movies” Sophie remarks, her head tilting to the side, curious as to the boy’s reasoning, “why?” With puckered lips, Caden lets a breath leave his nose, shaking his head in refusal. “No reason” the young man replies, picking up the clipboard and reading the next question to himself, beginning to struggle with finding the courage to raise his own questions. “When did you-?” Caden begins to say aloud, Sophie interrupting him to ask a question of her own, a genuine intrigue being had over the contents of his question. “Why is halloween so important?” Sophie wonders aloud, Caden’s mouth freezing, the words he was using being let out like escaped whispers. With a deep breath, Caden lets the clipboard fall to his lap, looking back up at the girl with a confusingly distant smile. “Like I said, ‘no reason’” Caden remarks, eyes falling back onto the clipboard while Sophie reluctantly allows the boy to pass the question off, waiting for another time to ask. “When did you confront Morgan about the Huntington’s?” Caden asks, the answer quick, her responses being offered with a cold tone while her father stays out the interaction, noticing it to be unusual, deciding it not to be his place to interrupt. > 2nd December, 2030 < “Are you being honest with me?” Sophie asks, one leg kicked over the other, having taken Morgan’s seat in the living room, a manilla envelope sat in her lap. “What?” Morgan asks, caught by surprise at first, entering the home with a collection of grocery bags, all sat upon the kitchen counter, the woman expecting Sophie to have been asleep by the lack of light from the home’s interior on her drive up. “What are you talking about, honey?” Morgan asks, watching Sophie push herself out of the chair in the back of the living room, walking up to her mother with the envelope in her hand. “You’re not sick, that’s what I’m talking about” Sophie replies, tossing the folder onto an empty spot on the granite finish, her mother watching the envelope slide to a stop before looking toward her daughter, “you never have been.” Mouth agape, Morgan begins to speculate amongst herself how Sophie could have discovered the truth, a brief “how-?” leaving her lips before her daughter interrupts. “I told you never to lie to me again, and here we are” Sophie explains, her mother shaking her head with an apologetic look on her face, trying to calm her daughter down in silence, “but you’ve been lying to me this whole time.” “Honey, please listen to me” Morgan asks, watching her daughter turn to walk back to her room, a frantic tone in her voice, worried that the world she’d spent months building was all coming down with a thunderous collision. “No, mom! I’m done hearing you out!” Sophie shouts, turning back toward her mother, both hands held out by her sides, “what would have happened when you weren’t dead by next summer? How were you going to talk your way out of turning yourself in?” “I was hoping we’d be on better terms by then!” Morgan remarks with a somber reflection, watching her daughter walk away with her head shaking in disapproval. “Sophia, honey!” Morgan calls out, watching her daughter turn around the banister and begin walking up the stairs to her room, her hands quivering, body trembling anxiously as the end draws itself unexpectedly near. Her breathing beginning to grow varied, hurried in a way, Morgan begins to lose sight of her composure, the logical reasonings behind her actions being lost in a clouded uncertainty. In a moment much like the flipping of a switch, reasonability becomes replaced with necessity, a need to keep everything she’s known under control sparking a moment of action. Biting into her bottom lip, Morgan turns around and hurries for the banister, her legs turning to carry her into her locked bedroom. With the turn of a key, Morgan gains entry to her bedroom and quickly makes a dash for the closet, one reach behind a set of colorful sweaters affording her all she needs to alleviate the situation. “Stop packing!” Morgan shouts, turning toward Sophie’s bedroom to find her daughter stuffing clothes into a suitcase, her hands raised to her head as she finds herself at gunpoint. “Mom- what are you doing?” Sophie asks, her voice carrying worry, the fear for her life beginning to present itself as the primary reaction to this moment. “We have not gone through the last eight months just to lose it all like this!” Morgan says in a shout, tears running down her face, “you’re not going to throw it away like this, Sophia!” Each finger stretched as far away from one another, Sophie slowly approaches her mother with a soft voice, showing the woman empathy as a way to maintain survival. “Don’t come any closer!” Morgan shouts, her shaking arm steadying in a split second, the sight immediately prompting Sophie to begin expecting these moments to become her final moments. “Walk to the bunker” Morgan suddenly demands, her daughter’s expression showing a defeat that had been lost four months prior, a plea for her freedom being made once more. “Walk to the goddamn bunker, Sophia!” Morgan shouts, her stern and declarative voice presenting itself once again, the only option Sophie has being made resoundingly clear to her. Left without another option, Sophie shuts her eyes tightly and nods her head, showing herself through teary eyes, down the staircase and through the front door. “Please, don’t do this mom” Sophie pleads, the begging failing to resonate with the armed woman, Sophie’s actions being the catalyst for these events as far as she is concerned. Forced to unlock the bunker herself, Sophie flicks on the lights and allows the mostly-tarped room to be bathed in cold, white lights. “Walk to the back wall” Morgan orders, Sophie’s bare feet leaving the grass and returning to the concrete finish, her breaths sparse and gasp-like. After a few seconds, Sophie finds herself facing the back wall again, the door to the bunker slowly creeping shut, the latches on the outside locking back into place, the once familiar room now appearing as common as it once had. Sniffling, Sophie lets the tears fall the rest of the way as she reaches into her waistband, the near perfect-conditioned notebook resting between her pants and her lap. Placing the journal upon a tarped-over table, Sophie turns toward the bunker door, the silence that surrounds her in every direction bringing on a sudden burst of rage. Breaking out into a sprint, Sophie runs into the bunker door and begins slamming her fists against the metal backing, the room quickly being filled with a set of echo-carried collisions, Sophie’s pleas of “let me go!” the only thing keeping the chamber from sounding like a war zone verbatim. > 25th December, 2030 < “You’re going to have to earn my trust back” Morgan explains, sitting just before the bunker door, her gun resting atop her right leg, the only thing between Sophie and her snow-covered freedom. “I knew you wouldn’t have stayed if you knew I wasn’t sick” Morgan mutters, laughing at herself for falling for her daughter’s empty words, a poking of fun that Sophie quickly argues against. “It wasn’t you not being sick, it was you lying about it that set me off” Sophie explains, her face dirty from the lack of a shower, her imprisonment in the bunker over the last three weeks having redirected her toward the right path for the final time, her need to escape being the only thing held of high importance. “I guess we’ll see about that” Morgan replies, tucking her firearm into the pocket of her heavy fur coat, “you’re lucky it’s Christmas.” With a smile, Sophie pushes herself onto her feet, her notebook carried in her arms, pressed closely against her chest, “I won't let you down this time, mom.” Satisfied with her own ability to control the situation, Morgan nods to her daughter, shoving her own chair back into the corner of the room before leading herself back to the home. When her mother’s back turns toward her, Sophie’s smile turns into a frown, her eyes breeding hate as she follows along, biding her time before making her ultimate move. As the late evening progresses, Sophie finds herself still awake, her head above the covers of her own bed, the pain in her eyes presenting the desire of one to finally finish the work she began long ago. With a deep breath, Sophie throws the covers off her body, emerging from bed and walking up to her bedroom door, the shock collar that returned to her neck allowing a reprieve of Morgan’s fear toward a midnight escape. Walking down the hallway, Sophie stares at her mother’s bedroom door, the unimportant shade of white bathed in the moonlight that pierces through the windows of adjacent rooms, its presence calling for Sophie to approach it with her hand raised. In a moment, Sophie presses her knuckles to the door, resting the balls upon the soft wooden surface before lightly tapping against it, her only goal being to now wait for an answer from the other side. With a gentle squeak, the door opens to present a robe-dawning Morgan, awoken from her sleep to find her daughter looking at her with a sad expression. “What’s wrong, honey?” Morgan asks, her daughter stood in the hallway with her head slumped down, the sight bringing a confused loss for words upon Morgan. “Where do we go from here?” Sophie asks, looking up at her mother with tears streaming down her face, a depressed look accompanying the puppy dog eyes of hers. “What are you talking about, Sophia?” Morgan remarks, the weep from her daughter preceding a sudden embrace, Sophie wrapping her arms around her mom’s waist. “I’m sorry for getting mad at you, I just want things to go back to the way they were” Sophie pleads, leaving Morgan, unsure of how to react, to return her only daughter’s embrace. “Oh honey, we’ll get there in time” Morgan replies, her chin pressed against the top of Sophie’s head, a tear coming from her own eye, “we got there before, we’ll do it again.” “Yeah, I know” Sophie remarks, Morgan pulling away to look into her youth’s eyes, the young girl’s face tightly pressed between her mother’s hands, “no secrets this time, right?” With a smile, Morgan swipes Sophie’s hair over her ears, giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead, “no secrets this time” Morgan assures, returning to the embrace. “Can we-” Sophie begins, stopping herself amidst a coughing fit, her hand raised to her mouth, waving as she hunches over, gasping for air amidst the sudden attack. “Water- I need water” Sophie grunts, led to Morgan’s bed by the older woman in order to keep from toppling over to the floor, Morgan quickly dashing out of the room to the downstairs sink. Waiting for a split second, Sophie continues to cough into her hand, at one point forcing herself to gag on her own lack of saliva, finally giving her the opportunity she had been looking for. Continuing to feign her coughing fit, Sophie runs over to her mother’s nightstand, opening the first drawer she finds before finding herself stunned into silence. Forgetting to continue her coughing spell, Sophie’s face is covered in an onslaught of blinking green lights, the multi-pronged device sat right before her, completely unattended. With a moment of reflection, Sophie looks around the room, her mother’s bed and the home she’s grown close to for the last half of a year all being able to disappear with one flick of a switch. Running back toward the stairs, Morgan’s presence brings on a moment of decision, Sophie quickly looking away from the door and back to the machine, her finger resting on the one switch separating her from freedom. Taking in a deep breath, Sophie lets out an accomplished smile, her thumb pressing down on a single button, rendering the machine powerless, the lights all vanishing in the blink of an eye. Shoving the drawer shut, Sophie climbs back onto the bed and moves her hair in front of her face, feigning a few deep breaths as Morgan finally returns, a large glass of water in hand. “Thank you” Sophie says through a scratchy throat, lifting the glass behind her hanging hair and up to her mouth, lips pressing to the rim as the water flows down her throat. “Thank you” Sophie says again, pretending to catch her breath as she returns the glass to her mother’s hand, hair being pushed away from her face and back over her ears. With a smile, Sophie looks into her mother’s eyes, the older woman standing over her with the half-empty glass in her non-dominant hand, a third expression of appreciation, this one more satisfied than the rest, concluding their interaction. “Thank you.” == Generation Alpha == } The following events take place on 26th June, 2030, and the 18th of January, 2031 {
> 18th January, 2031 < “Feel good to be back in the seat again?” Caden asks, returning to his place behind the camera while Sophie returns to the uncomfortable luxury of the spotlight seat. “As good as it can be in the situation provided” she replies, pulling her hair over her ears and tying it into a ponytail, Caden reading off the next question, intrigued by the open-endedness to it. “Speak about the months between leaving the bunker and learning the truth” Caden asks, watching Sophie’s head nod. As she attempts to speak, Sophie finds herself interrupted by Andrew, who cuts into the dialogue with a question of his own, prompting a change in her approach. “Can we talk about the day we barely missed each other first?” Andrew questions, a spoken wonder that jolts Sophie into action. “Yes, we can” the girl remarks, walking to the corner of the room and pulling a chair up beside her own, returning to her seat whilst patting the unoccupied stool beside her. “Come on, dad” Sophie calls out, her father’s hand waving at the gesture, appreciatively declining the offer, rescinding his request. “You’ve spoken it already, don’t back out on it now!” Sophie replies enthusiastically, showing a joy she had been slowly allowing to present itself throughout the day. Having made his bed, Andrew accepts the demand to lay within it, dragging himself into the cold interior of the bunker as the sun begins to set outside, joining his daughter in front of the camera. Looking at her father with a small smile, Sophie mouths the words ‘thank you’ in his direction while he wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls her close, the gentle embrace putting a smile on Caden’s visage. = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > 26th June, 2030 | Andrew’s Perspective < “I don’t know what I’d be thinking if I were in your position right now” George huffs, a statement Hugh laughs at from the backseat, both men following the same logic Andrew fails to grasp. “What do you mean?” Andrew inquires, Hugh quickly pointing out the odd circumstances behind his first interaction with his ex-wife in over a decade. “It’s not common to just show up unannounced all of a sudden like this” George explains, “that’s not including the ‘lost child’ component.” “I haven’t been giving it much thought, truth be told” Andrew explains, sitting in the passenger’s seat, his elbow resting against the rim between the door and the window, his head laying against his hand. “You might wanna start thinking, we’re getting damn near close to the place” Hugh mutters from the backseat, “it’d be best to prepare for every kind of reaction.” “I’m gonna keep it simple” Andrew remarks, his non-dominant hand pressing against his knee, “I’ll tell her about Sophie, ask if she knows anything, see what she says and figure out where to go from there.” Letting the man dictate where this encounter goes, Hugh and George resign themselves to the role of spectator, only interfering with the conversation if it takes a less approachable turn. Sliding to a halt in the loose dirt, George’s car parks itself in what appears to be the driveway of a moderately well-off property, three doors opening to reveal the three aforementioned men. Taking the lead, Andrew approaches the front steps first, each foot pressing down on the loose wood, each plank squealing beneath the weight of his boots as George and Hugh follow closely behind. Finally stood at the front door, Andrew lifts his hand into the air, fingers balled into a knuckle, hesitant to knock. From within, he hears a set of footsteps approach the door, his knuckles haven’t yet pressed upon the entrance. Confused, Andrew remains standing on the patio with his fist raised into the air, George quickly stepping in to finish the knock on his friend’s awestruck behalf. Within seconds, Andrew is confronted with his past on completely new territory, his ex-wife, a decade older than when he last saw her, opening the front door to a surprised greeting. “Andrew?” Morgan exclaims, her voice muttering the man’s name, both perplexed and pleased to find him waiting for her answer, “how long has it been?” “Twelve years, Morgan” Andrew replies, wrapping his arms around the woman as she walks into his chest, her arms wrapping around his waist. “Who are your friends?” Morgan wonders aloud, her hand waving toward Hugh and George, who quickly introduce themselves. “They’re trying to help me with something that I think you should know about” Andrew explains, looking toward the inside of the woman’s home, partially expecting her to welcome them in. “May we come in?” Andrew asks, assuming the offer wasn’t going to come unless suggested. “Um, now’s not really that great of a time” Morgan remarks, both Hugh and George nodding to each other, suspicious of the woman before they can even be introduced with more than a word. “Morgan, please… it’s something I think we should talk about someplace other than your front step” Andrew explains, the woman nervously glancing back at the home multiple times before giving in. “Sure, as long as it’s not for too long” Morgan replies, stepping to the side to allow the three men into her home, closing the door shut behind her. A distance away from the house, a second car slowly creeps up to the parked vehicle in the presumed driveway, a single arm dangling out of the driver’s window. Glancing at the home from a distance, Izzy squints toward the sights she’s watched unfold, an eerie feeling sinking in as she reaches for her phone. Looking at the top of her screen, a slight smirk comes across Izzy’s face, the connection completely dead. Shaking her head, Izzy looks around for a nearby cell tower, coming up short in her efforts, unable to prove the cause to be anything more than coincidental. Recalling a supermarket on her way into town, Izzy pulls her vehicle around and returns to the open road, her sights set on the closest place with a signal. > 26th June, 2030 | Sophie’s Perspective < Slamming the door shut, a newly red-haired Sophie approaches the front entrance of the nearby storefront, her hands outstretched, reaching for the closest trolly. A distance away from the small collection of parked vehicles, Izzy’s car patrols the lot, the phone in her hand until the red-haired woman comes into her sights, curiosity settling in. Tossing her phone into the passenger’s seat, Izzy swings her car into a parking spot, emerging from her vehicle with eyes set on the redhead. Locking her doors, Izzy approaches the market, her eyes following the woman roughly thirty feet behind, eyes narrowed, the familiar frame of the lady making her suspicious. Carrying herself through the front doors, Izzy listens to the chime of the entrance go off, her hispanic skin tone prompting a few eyes to glance in her direction. Looking off at a random passerby staring at her through the corner of their eyes, Izzy shrugs and continues on her walk, the redhead disappearing behind the shelves. “Ma’am?” a random employee calls out, catching Izzy by surprise, her presence called into question by the local staff. “Are you following that woman?” a man asks, the woman looking him up and down, asking why he would be asking. “Why?” Izzy remarks, each response coming with her own personal brand of rebelliousness. “Because, if you are, I have reason to fear for that woman’s well being” the man replies, leaving his designated station to approach the teenage girl, her posture stiffening, Izzy unwilling to give up her ground. “Fair enough” Izzy remarks, noticing the importance of picking and choosing her battles while backing away with her hands in the air. “I was suspicious of her parking in the lot and wanted to make sure she wasn’t intoxicated” Izzy replies, backing away from the man with her signal of surrender, “I’ll lay off, though.” Returning the way she came, Izzy looks over her shoulder to find the man retreating, his eyes still traveling with her, only stopped when she rounds the nearest shelves, expecting to end up opposite the young redhead she’d been following. Much to Izzy’s surprise, the aisle she enters remains largely vacant aside from an abandoned cart, its interior overfilled with contents. Nodding to herself, Izzy ventures down the aisle, keeping her distance from curious eyes before looking around the corner at the end, her eyes darting toward every bright-red object she stumbles across. Turning toward the less-ventured side of the store, Izzy glances down each aisle, finding a lack of the person she hopes to discover with each glance, just another empty aisle following another. Growing impatient, Izzy wanders down one aisle, traversing the empty walkway whilst staring into the next aisle over, glancing through the small openings in the shelves toward those occupying the other side. Shaking her head, Izzy takes a second glance through the opening, the flowing red locks of a woman on the other side finally falling into view, her eyes widening upon the reflective sight. Like a predator finally having caught a reasonable view of her feast, Izzy follows the figure down the opposite way, walking at an equal pace to the woman on the other side of the divide, their stroll taking them directly toward the same end of the lane. Quickly hurrying her walk, Izzy turns the corner and awaits the woman’s reveal on the other side, her hopes lowering the moment the redhead finally appears. Not familiar with her appearance, Izzy considers the search a failure, her mind playing tricks on her, wishful thinking outsmarting her again. “Sorry” Izzy mutters aloud, stepping aside to allow the stranger an unimpeded return to her shopping. > 26th June, 2030 | Andrew’s Perspective < “How’s Daria and the kids?” Morgan asks, leading the trio into the home, her hand gesturing for them to take a seat in the living room. “Well, there’s a few layers to that” Andrew remarks, his voice fading as he considers how to answer. “Olivia’s doing well” Andrew begins, his youngest daughter’s whereabouts being the easiest to speak on, “her specialists say she’ll be able to start regular school after next year.” “Oh wow, that’s great!” Morgan replies, a smile on her face as she takes a seat on the couch, “I bet Daria’s rubbed in how wrong I was for the last few years?” With a light chuckle, Morgan sinks into her seat, Andrew’s head hung as his hat presses into his hand, the tone taking a somber approach. “Daria didn’t make it past the birth” Andrew remarks, watching Morgan’s swell expression switch to empathy, “she just wanted to make sure I gave ‘Liv a good life.” “Oh, Andy- I’m so sorry” Morgan replies, watching her ex-husband take the seat opposite her, a convincing condolence offered to the man. “What about Sophia? How’s she doing?” Morgan asks, stumbling upon the true nature of the man’s visit, though, already having secretly assumed that the moment she answered the door. “So- that’s actually why I’m here” Andrew remarks, the woman’s face growing cold, the worry beginning to present itself. “Sophie’s missing” Andrew blurts out, no lead up to the declaration, nothing offered before to soften the blow, just the brunt force of the statement being voiced aloud left to serve its purpose. “Wh… What?” Morgan asks, a smile coming over her face accompanied by a weak chuckle, playing it off as a joke, “you’re kidding, right?” His head still held forward, Andrew’s eyes drift to the top of his head, the woman looking toward him with her smile slowly fading, the amusement beginning to dissipate from one moment to the next. “Andrew, you’re joking” Morgan replies, her question sounding more like a warning, though her ex-husband refuses to go back on what he’d said. “Missing like she was taken away? Missing like she ran away?” Morgan continues, offering options before concluding, “missing how?” “She was taken from school three months ago” Andrew remarks, the widened eyes of Morgan shooting a fear down his spine the way it used to when they were married. “Three fucking months ago!?” Morgan shouts, her mouth agape as she stands out of her chair, the man returning to his feet with arms out. “No, don’t touch me!” Morgan shouts, swatting his thick fingers away from her arms, “why are you only telling me this now!?” “I only just found out where you were yesterday!” Andrew replies, the woman immediately calling his bluff. “I’ve been on the radar since the day I was born, Andrew!” Morgan shouts, pulling away from the man as Hugh and George hold him back, fearing for his safety, “did you not find me until yesterday, or did you not try to find me until yesterday?” Opening his mouth, Andrew fails to come up with an answer, the man’s mind racing with a reply that he doesn’t want to say aloud, but soon forces himself to. “I didn’t try until yesterday” Andrew remarks, the woman’s angry posture turning into a stoic disassociation, her eyes looking upon Andrew like he were a failure. “Get out” Morgan suddenly says, refusing to share her home with the man any longer than she already has. “Morgan, please” Andrew replies, failing to find common ground with the woman, her refusal to hear him out roughing the last remaining path Andrew had to walk along. “Get out, Andrew!” Morgan shouts, her finger lifted toward the door, pointing him in the direction of the exit, “never come back!” With a sigh, Andrew hangs his head and turns away, both George and Hugh trying to talk him into staying. “She’s not going to talk now- forget it” Andrew remarks, admitting his failure to the pair of men, both of which look at the woman with a curious glance, uncertain over what emotions were genuine and which were not. Giving into the request, George and Hugh accompany him through the front door, the locking of the divider behind them not sitting well with the unconvinced pair. > 18th January, 2031 < “That was the first day I started questioning exactly what Morgan had been telling me” Sophie explains, looking into thin air with her head shaking, “it was the first time I caught her in a lie.” One finger raised, Caden asks the woman to explain her stance, how she couldn’t have had proof of Morgan’s many lies until that day. “Well, even that day, I had gotten lucky” Sophie clarifies, “I had whatever freedoms I wanted now… She trusted me. That store was the start of the end.” “Did you know Izzy was looking for you?” Andrew asks, looking at his daughter beside him, the girl locking eyes with him and nodding. “I knew after I was leaving the store, and when I was sitting in the van” Sophie replies, recalling the moments she saw the woman, who it took a moment to recognize, returning to her vehicle. “I was confused, because I didn’t know why I’d be running into Izzy in the middle of Gentry of all places’ Sophie explains, “so it took me a second to think.” “And what did you think about?” Caden asks, interrupting the dialogue, presenting Sophie with questions to answer on both fronts, the answer to the most recent question intriguing the boy with the clipboard. “I thought about going up to her and saying something along the lines of the truth,” Sophie remarks, looking to the floor on her right, a moment of silence dawning over her, “but then I realized that I hadn’t actually figured out what day it was.” Recalling the bare interior of her mother’s home, Sophie explains that there was no television, a lack of electronics entirely, and a paper calendar set in the year 2031 months prior. “If there was anything that could have told me the time of day, Morgan got rid of it as soon as she spotted it” Sophie remembers, a smile coming over her face when she recalls reading the receipt for her items in the parking lot, the date of 26th June, 2030 prompting her eyes to widen. “And that was it?” Caden interjects once more, “the moment you saw the date, you knew your mother was lying about everything?” Looking toward her friend, a disappointed Sophie shakes her head in refusal, clarifying his discovery. “I knew she had lied about some things” Sophie explains, her reason for deciding to stay with her mother not having been due to the time passed since she was introduced to captivity, “I needed to prove she wasn’t sick.” “You could’ve come home” Andrew replies, his daughter looking at him, a somber feeling of guilt for having allowed this suffering to continue building within Sophie’s core, “why did you choose to stay?” Still not convinced his daughter had a good reason, Andrew remains persistent about discovering the truth, wishing to make sense of his daughter’s choice. With a shake of her head, Sophie admits that she didn’t have a reason that makes up for the search she let continue. “I looked down at the receipt, and Izzy’s car was gone by the time I looked up” Sophie recalls, a weight pressing down on her chest in that moment just as it had in the parking lot, “I just decided to move on.” Shaking his head, Andrew presses his back against the chair before standing from his seat and returning it to the corner, the climbing mood of the room they began with plummeting back down to its somber tone, Sophie left to her own as Andrew returns to the doorway. “Let’s get back to the questions” Caden exclaims, the conversation derailing too greatly for him to be okay with, eyes reading the next line before his mouth can speak it. “What was it like when you went home, Sophie?” Caden asks, forced to specify the name, Andrew’s lack of a presence in front of the camera any longer making it necessary. > 26th June, 2030 | Sophie’s Perspective < “Hi honey!” Morgan exclaims, racing out of the living room to meet her daughter in the kitchen, the entry from the garage slamming shut behind a returning Sophie. “How was-?” Morgan begins, interrupted by her daughter looking at a receipt, a question as to what’s happening prompting Sophie to read the date again. “26th June, 2030” Sophie repeats, her mother beginning to realize the error of her ways, “it hasn’t been a year- it’s been three fucking months.” “Honey, I can explain” Morgan calmly tells her daughter, Sophie left having none of it, the possibility of an explanation being shot down as quickly as it was offered. “I don’t want the excuses… you’ve been lying to me about how long it’s been since the day you took me!” Sophie shouts, her mother quickly trying to explain herself anyway. “You wouldn’ have stayed if you knew how long it’d been!” Morgan shouts, both hands outstretched toward her offspring, who begins walking after her. Tilting her head, Sophie dulls out her mother’s explanation, not hearing a word of it, instead choosing to inspect her mind, recalling every detail she’s given her and reading further into it than she once did. In a moment of clarity, Sophie’s stoic expression brings a silence over her mother, worry beginning to creep into Morgan’s head that the situation has become too big for her to control. Backed against her counter, Morgan slides her hand into a drawer and reaches her fingers around the handle of a knife, her daughter continuing to advance upon her, silently staring at her with a deranged look. “Honey, please calm down!” Morgan shouts, the four words being the first Sophie's heard since going into her trance, ears perking up to her mother’s words, the young girl finally realizing that she’d backed her kidnapper into a corner. “I would’ve stayed because you’re my mom” Sophie suddenly mutters, Morgan’s eyes widening with surprise, confused and appreciative of the gesture. “I chose to stay, and you chose to keep lying to me” Sophie explains, pointing out her mother’s pleased reaction to see her come back when she never had to, an open road for her to explore without ever having to turn back. “I could’ve driven back home and explained everything, but I chose not to and you noticed that” Sophie explains, “and what did I get for it in return? I get lied to. How is that supposed to sit well with me?” Letting go of the knife’s handle, Morgan places both hands out before her, illustrating the dissatisfaction she has with herself, apologizing profusely. “Honey, I’ll never lie to you again, I swear!” Morgan remarks, watching as her daughter slowly nods, pleased with this result. “Okay” Sophie replies, nodding to the woman and slowly backing away, her feet carrying her toward the staircase that leads to her room. “Goodnight, mom” Sophie says, the entire conversation having been tense from start to finish, Morgan’s uncertainty over her daughter’s convincing white-washed by her pleasure to be on what appears to be the same page. Turning toward the empty insides of her bedroom, Sophie’s back presses against the door as the perfectly-conditioned notebook waits for her on the comforter. With a smirk, Sophie climbs into bed with her eyes staring out through the curtains beside her window, the moonlight covering her face. No longer in a position to be lied to, Sophie puts on a concerned smile, satisfied with the new position she holds in the home, finally in the perfect position to obtain the truth. > 18th January, 2031 < “So that’s what it was about?” Andrew asks from the far corner of the room, shaking his head in disappointment, the girl knowing and accepting her father’s position, “leverage?” With a deep breath, Sophie admits part of her reasoning to have been for just that, the ability to question her mom with assurance that she’d receive the honest truth. “But there’s another side of me that couldn’t leave out of the blue like that” Sophie admits, that part never having been truly identified. “She’s your mother” Caden interrupts, both Andrew and Sophie looking toward him immediately, an unpleasant, yet understanding tone reflecting in his voice. “That’s not why” Sophie remarks, adamant about this refusal in a way she had yet to be throughout the duration of their questioning in the bunker, this refusal more out of desire for it not to be true than desire for it being recognized as true. “Isn’t it?” Caden replies, arguing his side whilst watching the girl’s face shrink up in realization of its many truths, a difficult opinion to argue against, despite her best wishes. “She didn’t choose to leave your life, she was kicked out of it- for better or for worse” Caden explains, Sophie’s eyes falling the more he continues speaking, “she gave birth to you, she’s related to you by blood, she nursed you into this world… She’s your mother, and you accepted that deep down.” Parting her lips, Sophie attempts to speak before falling silent, her mouth held open despite the lack of words coming out, her father waiting for the rebuttal from afar. Slowly putting her lips back together, Sophie looks at the boy across from her, one lifted eyebrow and a shrug offered from his clipboard-occupying body. “It’s okay, Sophie” Caden mutters, the girl beginning to realize how correct he is, feeling a great deal of disappointment in herself for playing a part in this. “Whether it was your mother or not, you’re a victim… And you were manipulated with every chance Morgan got- right?” Caden explains, a somewhat judgmental look in his face as his head shakes and teeth appear in an empathetic smile, “none of that changes the fact that she’s your mother.” Hanging her head, Sophie accepts the conclusion as the truth she never wanted to admit, finally facing her reasons for staying, challenging them with enough strength to hold herself accountable. “She was going to die without ever getting to know me” Sophie remarks, looking up at Caden and her father, a pain hidden behind the consonant sounds leaving her lips, “how was I supposed to be okay with that?” Finally facing her fears, Sophie admits her undeserved empathy toward her mother, feeling like abandoning Morgan in her final year would be like killing the woman herself. “I wouldn’t have been okay with that, right?” Sophie asks, looking to her friend for answers, Caden lifting himself out of his chair to kneel beside the girl, his hand resting upon her shoulder. “You would’ve blamed yourself either way” Caden admits, speaking from his own personal experience, Andrew left watching over this encounter, disappointed in himself for understanding so easily. “It’s okay to admit that you stayed because she was your mom” Caden explains, acknowledging the future gain of leverage, admitting that the root reason doesn’t have to be one she spends her life running away from. “Morgan didn’t deserve your care, but you gave it to her anyway” Caden says, pulling Sophie’s face toward his own, forcing her to look at him, “that doesn’t make you the bad guy here.” With a single tear, Sophie nods to the boy’s explanation, her head pulled into his shoulder for a hug as Andrew walks in soon after to join the embrace, barriers falling just in time for the most crucial pieces of the story to proceed. == Generation Alpha == } The following events take place through the months of April, May, and June, 2030, and the 18th of January, 2031 {
> April 2030 < “Caden, honey?” Rebecca calls out, gently pushing his bedroom door in, finding him laid on his side, head sunken into the pillow, “I know it sucks, but we can’t keep missing school.” Already having spent the last two weeks speaking very little, Caden sighs as he turns his body toward his mother, his point offered. “I can’t go back to that school if Sophie’s not there” Caden replies, his mother folding her hands by her lap, “it’s just not possible.” Her head hanging as she approaches her son’s bed, Rebecca takes a seat beside Caden’s feet and places her hand on his knee, looking him in the eyes as she speaks with a soft voice. “You’re not wrong, honey” Rebecca explains, knowing how little her son’s drive to return to normal is, “but we have no clue how long Sophie’s going to be gone for… You can’t just put your life on hold until she gets back.” Looking away, Caden’s eyes travel to the window just beside his bed, the sunlight draping the yellow house just beside his own home and partially covering his own face. “We don’t even know if she is coming back” Caden replies, his voice carrying defeat, at loss for hope of any kind. “We can’t start thinking like that honey, it’s only been two weeks” Rebecca remarks, quickly interrupted by her son, who counters her argument, almost wanting to feel like hope is futile. “The Stewart’s told Mr. Carrion that they didn’t have a lot to work with right after it happened” Caden explains, pushing himself up to a seat just beside his pillow, looking his mother in the eye, “what do you think’s gonna to happen the longer she’s gone?” Putting her lips together, Rebecca hangs her head, swiping the loose hair over her ear, unable to argue the logic in her son’s stance. “The moment I get out of the car at that school, I’ll be a zombie” Caden explains, his mother letting him continue to ramble, “just walking the halls pointlessly, one class to another, not learning anything, not doing any work.” With a sigh, Rebecca pats her son’s knee, offering him a sympathetic smile, before doubling down on her stance. “You have to go to school” Rebecca replies, her son’s eyes rolling as he slumps back into his pillow, “we’re doing everything we can, and you need to do that too.” Leaving his room, Rebecca pushes the door open and turns to walk down the hallway, a final glance at a motivation-less Caden slithering out of bed prompting her to freeze in the moment. Her hands pushing against the doorframe, propping herself up, Rebecca watches her son, a smile coming over her face. “What’s wrong?” Caden asks, looking at his mother’s confusing stare, the woman gently shaking her head from one side to the other. “Nothing, sweetheart” Rebecca remarks, flashing her son another smile, just appreciating the certainty that he’s safe in that moment before returning to her morning routine. Dragging himself through the halls of the building hours later, Caden wanders through the school before finding his room, entering a familiar class with a different aura than it’s ever had before. “Good morning students!” Mrs. Danielson exclaims, a roar of greetings through the speakers in the back of the room far out-matching the in-school students. “Welcome back” Izzy whispers toward the loss-for-hope boy, her fist held out in a gesture Caden would allow to go unanswered. “Thanks” Caden replies, both hands remaining fixed to his desk, Izzy’s hand slowly retreating as an in-home student begins to speak up. “Where’ve you been, Caden?” a familiarly obnoxious voice calls out, prompting the returning student to turn around, glaring at the small box he finds carrying a smug smile. “Logan, please raise your hand to speak” Mrs. Danielson calls out, attempting to stop the outburst before it can have the chance to begin. “But he’s been gone for weeks!” Logan exclaims, watching Caden’s unamused stare offered to him, his face slowly moving over his shoulder, “what’s wrong with wanting to know where he’s been this whole time?” “Fuck off, Logan!” another online student calls out, taking Caden’s side in the inevitable conflict, “his friend was stolen.” Without a care for the predicament, Logan’s sheltered response begins to light a fire under Caden, Izzy reaching out for the boy's arm as he removes himself from his seat, quickly having it swatted away. “She shouldn’t have gotten stolen then!” Logan shouts, watching Caden approach the monitor at the back of the room, “I wouldn’t have let myself get stolen!” Nostrils flaring, Caden watches the multiple different boxes begin to talk over themselves, his mind going to dark places, eyes never once leaving the box presenting Logan’s screen. As the online students split into two halves, one side arguing in Logan’s favor, the others arguing in the favor of Caden and company, the in-school student approaches the speakers and reaches behind them, his fingers sliding around the back before a wire is caught between his fingers. With a smile, Caden rips the wire out and immediately silences the at-home students, not a single voice being carried through the stereo set, their silent boxes continuing to light up, signaling speakers that can no longer be heard. “Caden Nurse!” Mrs. Danielson shouts, looking up from her desk to find the boy standing beside the speaker setup, his eyes drifting toward her side of the room. “Thank god one of us had the gall to do it!” Mrs. Danielson shouts, her voice also unable to be heard by the students at home, her feet carrying her away from her own desk. “Now go to the bathroom to make it look like you’re in trouble” Mrs. Danielson whispers to Caden’s ear, taking the cord from his hand and pretending to be uncertain of how to resolve the situation. With a smile, Caden nods to himself, picking up his books and leaving the room, the woman feigning trouble with the equipment, an easy silence coming over the classroom for the first time in too long. = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > 18th January, 2031 < “Every day school would be dismissed, I would sit in the green and look at the street for an hour” Caden explains, his face bathed in the white hue of the fluorescent tubes, leant slightly to one side through the duration of his time in the chair. “Why?” Sophie asks, her moment to interject presenting itself, the question she raises one that Caden himself doesn’t have a definitive answer to. “I don’t think I had any real reason, honestly” Caden remarks, a smile on his face recalling the torment, helped now that it has come to a resolution, “it’s not like I expected you to just show up one day, straight out of thin air.” Squinting her eyes, Sophie kicks one leg over the other, head tilted to one side. “Were you hoping I’d just show up one day?” Sophie asks, the question raised with a slightly humorous tone, though rooted in a genuine intrigue. “I hoped you would” Caden replies, his eyes widened and hopeful, slowly narrowing as his mind moves on, “but you never did.” With a sigh, Caden looks toward Andrew, explaining that the man with his arms spread in the doorway was the figure responsible for finding the answers that would lead to Sophie, a truth that allows Caden to hold himself to a lesser standard. “I just went to school every day” Caden explains, his voice becoming soft, almost presenting itself as a whisper at times, “I went to school while everyone else stayed up, day and night, looking for you.” Her head hung, Sophie stops the questions for a moment, leaning forward in her seat with her arms draped over the clipboard. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to stop living your life because of me” Sophie interjects, watching Caden look up to her, grateful eyes returned. “That’s why I didn’t stop” Caden remarks, a smile appearing from behind the cover of his lips, allowing him to wipe a tear away from his eye, “but I never stopped thinking about you.” Clearing his throat, Caden recalls the nights he’d lay awake, watching the moonlight cast shadows over the side of the house just outside his window, becoming familiar with each pattern the longer his sleepless nights would become. “It felt wrong to feel comfortable in my own bed when you were gone” Caden explains, looking away from the camera, eyes directed at the ground, “it felt like I wasn’t worthy of a bed.” Leaning back in her chair, Sophie lets Caden continue to speak, his ramblings carrying him inadvertently into the next question, where he recalls the first full month of her captivity. > May 2030 < “You sight-seeing, or are you waiting for something?” Izzy calls out, approaching the green, her words being directed toward Caden, who looks at her in surprise at first. “I’ve been sitting here every day since I came back” Caden replies, sitting at a stone-carved picnic table, eyes looking from one side of the road just ahead to the other, “haven’t you noticed?” With a chuckle, Izzy throws her bag at the table and takes a seat beside Caden, her hands folded atop her denim-fashioned backpack. “Yeah, I have… You spend every afternoon here” Izzy remarks, Caden not laying his eyes on her following the greeting until she concludes her statement, finally earning his attention, “...I’d know that because I spend every morning here.” “You spend every morning here?” Caden asks, looking at the woman in almost disbelief, prompting Izzy to pull her head back. “You’re aware that there are people that wake up earlier than twenty minutes before school, right?” Izzy jokes, citing her mother’s early schedule as a reason to be out of the house sooner than anyone else. “I’m here about an hour before school starts every single day” Izzy explains, pausing for a moment, “and then I sit here and wait.” “Did you do that before Sophie went missing?” Caden replies, looking toward the girl, who squints as she looks ahead, the shade still allowing brief spots of blinding sunlight to engulf the green. “I’d sit in my car and listen to music” Izzy remarks, earning a chuckle out of Caden, one that she shares with him, the mood coming down as the laughter dies off, “now I feel like I owe it to her… To spend my mornings here, just waiting for the doors to open.” With a nod, Caden looks back to the road, traveling the asphalt back and forth, pretending he’s watching a car drive forward, then stop, then reverse and repeat the process all over again. “Honestly, it doesn’t get easier, it just gets more numbing” Izzy mutters, prompting Caden to look toward her for context, “you just sit here and wait… Not for any reason, but you just choose to. It doesn’t change anything, doesn’t make it better or worse. It just makes it common.” A breath of air leaving through his nose, Caden hangs his head, nodding in agreement with what Izzy illustrates, viewing their respective stays at the green as a punishment of sorts, a sentencing to limbo. “What do you think’s gonna happen when she comes back?” Izzy asks, Caden’s face not once turning toward her, instead hanging to his folded hands without a word, not wanting to admit out loud that the possibilities of such an occasion not happening do, indeed, exist. “I don’t know” Caden replies, his voice soft in a way that Izzy had not heard often, a genuinity presenting itself in his honest answer, “it’s really hard to imagine something like that.” Without another word, Caden sits in silence, continuing to glance toward each end of the road, the wind ruffling through the leaves above. Calmed by the sounds, Izzy remains silent herself, allowing her stay beside Caden to continue without another word, the breeze bringing ease upon the pair. > 18th January, 2031 < “Izzy and I began talking to each other more often” Caden explains, immediately clarifying that nothing had ever gotten romantic or sexual, “it was merely a typical, ‘we both have a lot of guilt in common’, kind of thing.” With a smile, Sophie remarks “it’s okay” in a soft tone of voice, her head tilted, watching Caden’s expression sour out of guilt. “Okay, we relied on each other a lot” Caden explains, Andrew mustering a smile as his daughter chuckles, “we sort of- loosely- became dependent on each other.” With a nod, Sophie conceals her smile, her intentions set on asking the next question, even with a smirk peering from between her lips. “We shut ourselves away from everyone else!” Caden explains, doing his best to give reasoning behind their curious relationship in the months since, “we only had each other to rely on eventually.” “It’s fine, it’s totally fine!” Sophie replies, quelling the conversation before finally succeeding at bringing up the next question, “when, if ever, did you feel like I wasn’t coming back?” His humor-laiden smile quickly fading away, Caden hangs his head in guilt once again, this look something that Sophie takes notice of. “It’s okay- I don’t blame you” Sophie mutters, Caden’s eyes looking up toward the girl on the other side of the room before the rest of his head does. “The start” Caden remarks, Sophie’s eyebrows quickly perking up, Andrew tilting his head in confusion for a moment. “It’s not that I ever thought ‘that’s it, she’s never coming back!’ at anypoint” Caden clarifies, putting his back against the seat as he takes a deep breath, “but you vanished into thin air, and it felt a lot like you left little behind to find you with.” “You thought there wasn’t enough to follow?” Sophie asks, unsuccessfully trying to add substance to the claim. “No, I felt like…” Caden begins, pausing as he rolls his head, looking away from the camera, locking his eyes on Sophie in order to finish his point, “it felt like you had disappeared in such a split second that, with everything you just left behind, nothing was going to go back to normal.” Letting her crossed-leg fall back to the floor, Sophie allows Caden to continue, the boy explaining that it didn’t feel like she’d ever come back. “It was so sudden that I couldn’t imagine what coming back would be like” Caden explains, citing how different she and the people around them would be perceived and cared for, “nothing would have been the way it was, and I couldn’t imagine what such a change would look like… Which meant I couldn’t imagine what you coming back would look like.” Tilting her head, Sophie places the clipboard on the floor, watching Caden lean forward, his elbows pressing against his knees, attention firmly on the next question asked, visibly one not listed on the sheet. “When did you think I was gone for good?” Sophie asks, Caden’s eyes falling, his hands coming together in his lap. “June” Caden replies, Sophie letting out a sigh beneath her breath, unable to be heard by Caden or her father, “that’s when your dad started losing hope.” Turning around, Sophie looks to her father, his head hanging low, never having lost hope completely, but agreeing that June would have been one of its lowest points. “In three months, Izzy and I started looking at the Stewart’s as close friends rather than the wealthy assholes that raised Logan” Caden explains, the bond between Sophie’s family and his own increasing in such a short amount of time as well, “three months felt like eight years.” Nodding, Sophie agrees with the point made, her friend leant forward in his chair, thinking of his next words carefully. “Izzy said your dad never stopped looking for you, but he had run out of most of his options by June or so” Caden explains, loose hairs hanging over his forehead, “at that point, I tried to stop tormenting myself.” > June 2030 < “Hey, where’d you go yesterday?” Izzy asks, purposely bumping into Caden in the halls between classes. “I went home- had to catch up on homework” Caden remarks, the curious inquiries rattling through Izzy’s head bubbling to the surface through her words. “You not hanging out at the green anymore?” Izzy asks, surprised when Caden replies in kind. “Like you said, Mr. Carrion’s running low on places to look, and Sophie’s been gone for three months” Caden explains, shoveling a book into his bag, “I’ve gotta start drawing a line between waiting for Sophie to come back, and tormenting myself for playing a part in her going missing.” Pulling the boy by the arm, Izzy stops in the middle of the hallway, asking him if that’s what he viewed their post-class visits as. “I mean, that’s why I started sitting there after school… Isn’t that why you started sitting there?” Caden remarks, Izzy affirming his assumption. “That’s not the only reason I stop there after school now, though” Izzy replies, a smile coming over her face, a hint of embarrassment presenting itself, “I like spending time with you there, too.” Mouth agape, Caden looks down both ends of the hallway before pulling Izzy off to the side, explaining his stance. “I like spending time with you, too… I absolutely do” Caden explains, wrapping his left hand around the single strap of his backpack, “but I started sitting there as a way to keep myself from forgetting about her… It feels more like I’ve been punishing myself by sitting there, and I don’t want to just keep punishing myself until she comes back.” Lowering her head, Izzy thinks to herself before making a new suggestion, one that sits well with the boy before her. “Let’s hang out somewhere else after school then” Izzy suggests, a small sandwich shop around the corner immediately coming to mind. “I know what you’re saying, and I think the same thing” Izzy explains, finding common ground with the boy, “as much as I want Sophie to come back, I can’t keep punishing myself until she does either.” With a nod, Caden agrees to meet at the shop by the day’s end, walking away from the girl with a bad feeling in his stomach. > 18th January, 2031 < “It all felt rushed, there’s no hiding that” Caden explains, parts of his memory from the time being lost due to how quick everything was unfolding, “but I knew I needed to slow down.” Crossing his arms, Caden wraps his fingers around each of his biceps, pulling his folded limbs close to his chest as he sits back in his seat, feet planted firmly on the concrete ground. “You were gone for almost six more months after that, and it felt like you could have been gone for a lot longer back then” Caden explains, finally locking eyes with Sophie again, “I wouldn’t have survived waiting there, every day, without being able to move on.” Forming a smile with her puckered lips, Sophie reaches down and picks up the clipboard, reading off the next question before doing away with the list again, another better-suited question popping into her head. “Did you ever wish I wasn’t going to come back?” Sophie asks, the face of Caden shrinking, his head pulled back as he questions whether or not she’s serious. “I’m not asking if you wanted me to never come back, just if it would’ve been easier at any point if I didn’t” Sophie explains, again met with the same response from Caden. “Things had changed a lot in a short time, but I always wanted you to come back” Caden remarks, “I still couldn’t get a good night’s sleep until we found you.” Nodding to herself, Sophie reaches down for the clipboard, reading the next question silently to herself, only for her thought process to be interrupted by a question of Caden’s own, met at her own game. “Did you think there was anyone that didn’t want you to come back?” Caden inquires, watching Sophie’s eyes freeze upon him, the clipboard wavering in the air, held between the fingers on her one hand. “I wondered” Sophie replies, admitting that plenty of less-flattering thoughts ran through her head whilst she was cooped in a box with nothing to do but think to herself. “It’s like what happens when someone dies… a lot of people wonder what their friends and family would do after they’re gone” Sophie explains, shrugging her shoulders, her head shaking with them, “I just wondered every now and then if people actually wanted me back.” “Everyone wanted you back, Sophie” Andrew quips from afar, his daughter turning her head over her shoulders, eyes placed upon him. “I know… And I know no one stopped fighting for me” Sophie explains, lips parting as she thinks to herself, recalling the questions she’d wondered, specifically about the people she cared most deeply for, “but it sounds like, with how fast everything began changing, it would have been easier if I stayed gone.” “Is that what you’re getting out of this?” Caden asks, watching the girl’s head turn back toward him, his eyebrows raised, trying to make sense of what the girl is saying, “that it was easier when you were gone?” Looking down, Sophie thinks to herself, both Andrew and Caden waiting patiently for her answer, surprised at what they hear. “Once upon a time, yes” Sophie remarks, not feeling happy with her answer, but responding with it out of honesty, “just, not anymore.” “We always wanted you back, honey” Andrew replies from behind again, Sophie not turning toward him this time, instead, her eyes frozen to the ground. “I know, dad” the girl remarks, a pain carried in her voice, eyes returning to the boy before the camera. “When was the first time you thought ‘we might have a lead now’?” Sophie wonders, speaking aloud the next question on the clipboard, trying to redirect the conversation back to its original intent. “That same day at the shop” Caden replies, the intrigue visually present in Sophie’s change in expression, “Izzy just sort of had this lightbulb go off in her head.” > June 2030 < “How does it feel?” Izzy asks, halfway through with her meatball-filled sandwich, Caden left looking through the window, unsure of how to respond. “Good to start trying to forgive myself, but bad for breaking my routine of not forgiving myself” Caden remarks, still feeling the lingering sensation in his core, a burning guilt eating away at him, “it’s easier to deal with since you’re here.” Charming Izzy with the one liner, Caden continues to enjoy his lunch while the girl speaks about random findings she notices through her daily activities. Rambling on about the school campus and how empty it is, Izzy makes a quip about easier access to the internet in recent months, something Caden comes to full agreement on. “Total fucking deadzone in that place forever!” Caden groans, mentioning his appreciation for whatever fixed the problem. “We’re right up the street from a cell tower, how thick do those walls need to be to shut off every little bit of connection?” Izzy mutters, her point immediately argued against by Caden. “It wasn’t the walls, the internet would’ve worked outside if it was” Caden replies, taking another bite out of his sandwich, Izzy immediately raising the million-dollar question. “Then why the fuck was it so fucking awful!?” Izzy asks aloud, a shoulder shrug from Caden allowing a moment of silence to come over the table. In a second of questioning, Izzy’s humor-filled face begins to sink into curiosity, a question looming over her that Caden can read in her face. “What’re you thinking, Iz?” Caden asks, the girl looking up at him, having been staring off at nothing while a question is raised. “When did the problems stop?” Izzy asks, Caden looking off to think, not sensing anything off about the question at first, nor noticing any ulterior motive behind it either. “A couple months, I guess?” Caden remarks, shrugging his shoulders as he sinks his teeth into his sandwich once more, “why?” he concludes. “Because Sophie disappeared a couple of months ago” Izzy replies, watching Caden’s bite suddenly halt, his teeth still in the bread when his eyes narrow. “Wait, are you saying the connection was fucked up because of Sophie?” Caden asks with no urgency or humor. “Doesn’t it seem super fucking weird that the problems would stop just after one of the students was nabbed?” Izzy asks, leaping out of her seat in a hurry as Caden remains at the table, thinking of his answer. “Where are you going?” Caden asks, watching the girl quickly hurry for the exit. “I’ve gotta go see Sophie’s dad!” Izzy exclaims, walking through the front door with the sound of the bell just overhead accompanying her exit. Left confused at his table, Caden finishes his meal and approaches his own car, allowing the guide to take him back home. On a backroad with minimal traffic around, Caden rests in the driver’s seat, watching the scenery pass him by from the comfort of his leather-finished chair. Thinking about the point Izzy had made earlier, Caden begins to lose himself in memories of himself and Sophie, thinking back to fond thoughts. Overwhelmed by the recollections running through his mind, Caden thinks of the request made toward him months prior, hand gripping at the seatbelt. Pulling the strap over his chest, Caden discards the car’s warning of the vehicle’s shift into manual mode, quickly reaching toward the key and turning it in the ignition. Accompanied by a countdown, Caden presses his foot lightly against the pedal and takes control of the car, the steering wheel clutched in his grasp. With a smile, Caden presses his finger upon the button of his door, lowering the window to allow a cool wave of air running through his hair, his phone beginning to buzz at the appearance of a phone call. Leaning back in his seat, Caden continues to press the pedal further toward the floor, pushing the car to higher speeds, gently turning the wheel with slight turns in the road, imagining the sounds of Sophie’s joyful cheers as he continues to direct the vehicle. Looking out at the sky, Caden finds the calming orange waves through the vast blue expanse, puffy clouds scattered throughout the air. The inside of his vehicle bathed in the glowing sunlight, Caden continues to disregard the buzzing phone, feeling his hair whip in the breeze, the roaring sounds of the wind that swept past his window bring a smile to his face. In the moment, for the first time in a long time, the knot in Caden’s stomach untangles, allowing him to feel freedom again. == Generation Alpha == } The following events take place through the months of April, May, and June, 2030, and the 18th of January, 2031 {
> 18th January, 2031 < “Did you ever find out if she was telling the truth?” Caden wonders aloud, interjecting his own question into the conversation. “About which part?” Sophie replies, her eyes falling onto the boy opposite the room from her, the camera no longer her primary driven focus. “The Huntington’s” Caden replies, the girl’s eyes falling to the concrete floor beneath her feet, “she was treated for it, but never diagnosed with it… So did you ever find out?” Slick lips parted, the fluorescent lights above reflecting off their now-glossy coat, Sophie sits in silence, the only answer coming from her shaking head. From one side to another, Sophie refuses, prompting a follow up question to be raised regarding the same tone. “Do you think she was lying about it?” Caden asks, the girl’s face turned away from him, but her eyes steadily held in his direction, “or was that one of the things you believed?” With a smirk, Sophie kicks her foot over her leg and leans back in her chair, not caring about the presence of the camera for the first time since taking her seat back. “I don’t really know anymore” Sophie replies, crossing her arms as her eyes veer toward the far corner of the room, “she told me so many things, some true, some not… I stopped being able to figure out which was which.” With a nod, Caden looks back to his clipboard, Sophie concluding her point without his eyes returning to her. “I’m pretty sure that was the point” Sophie explains, Caden reading the next question to himself as she finishes, “ultimately I wouldn’t ask questions anymore.” Squinting, Caden reads the next question to himself time after time again, lost as to what the paper is referring to.”Call in the third party?” Caden finally reads aloud, looking toward the girl, confused. “Dad” Sophie calls, watching her father’s head pull up, Sophie’s eyes already upon him just as Caden turns around, the man soon realizing what he’s being asked of. “No- honey… I can’t” Andrew responds, his daughter standing out of her chair without a word, approaching her father with one hand held out. “It’s okay” Sophie says, her voice soft and understanding, “but if I can come here, so can you.” With a sigh, Andrew tries to refuse the request, shaking his head until his feet find themselves atop the concrete layering, his body moving further into the room with every pull. Not wanting to partake in the sharing of conversations any more than he already has, Andrew begrudgingly allows his daughter to lead him toward her chair, his hips lowering onto the seat before the camera, head darting toward all sides of the room before his eyes latch onto the lens. With a nod, Sophie takes a few steps away from her father before walking back to the door, where she stands in the afternoon sunlight, both hands pressed against the doorframe. With her shadow casting onto the ground of the room both her father and best friend occupy, Sophie watches over Caden’s further inquiries, the next question putting her own upon the man himself. “What were the months before the summer like?” Caden asks, Andrew’s struggle to answer interrupted by the woman in the doorway, who pushes her father’s attention to the camera. “Please speak into the camera” Sophie asks, her father’s disgruntled face relaxing, not wishing to go against the wishes his daughter holds, giving into the frustration of the situation and turning toward the camera, answering to the best of his abilities. = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > April 2030 < “You need to settle down a bit, Andy” Anne explains, taking a seat beside the concerned father, a glass of wine in his hand. “I know you’re going through a lot, and I know that prick in the suit really deserved those shots” Anne explains, shaking her head in recollection of the last few weeks, “but you’re gonna put yourself in the grave before we can find Sophie if you keep running like this.” Dressed in a baggy sweatshirt and sweatpants, a soak-covered Andrew returns the glass of wine to the woman’s hand, thanking her for the consideration. “At some point, I’ll be out there running and I’ll catch the sight of her” Andrew explains, the woman beside him looking away, knowing nothing she can say will derail his intention to find Sophie. “Andrew, it’s been nearly a month since she was taken” Anne explains, her hand pressing against the man’s chest, feeling the heat of his breath run down upon her face, “if she were somewhere out there, she’d be found and right back here by now.” Taking in heavy breaths, Andrew looks down at her, challenging her statement, taking it in the least-intended way. “So you’re saying she’s not getting found” Andrew replies, watching Anne shake her head until her neck becomes stiff, eyes wide once Andrew follows up his statement, “that she’s dead now?” “No, that is not at all what I am saying” Anne responds, gently pushing the man back onto the couch,”if it were Logan out there- in trouble like that- no matter how much time had passed, he’d never be dead to me until there was a body.” Rejoining the man on the couch, Anne pulls Andrew’s face toward her, making sure he maintains eye contact as she speaks. “You’ve got a daughter to look out for, one that I shouldn’t have to remind you needs extra attention” Anne explains, “you can’t just go out running for six hours at a time with the stress you’ve got without the risk of dropping dead on the side of the road.” Sinking into his seat, Andrew watches Hugh and George round the corner, joining Anne and himself in the foyer. “Wrenich decided not to press charges, my wallet is making sure of that” Hugh explains, placing the headset phone back into its holder, “but you’re not allowed on school campus for the rest of the semester.” Shrugging, Andrew shakes his head, not really caring about the consequences he’s been handed. “I assume Anne’s been trying to convince you to cool it down?” George calls back, Andrew turning to look at the man. “Is she speaking for her own opinions, or the opinions of everyone here?” Andrew asks, George and Hugh both remaining silent, giving him the answer non-verbally. “You’ve still got a kid here that needs you, and none of us are trained enough to know about autism” Hugh explains, promising to pay for whatever services are best-suitable, “but you’ve gotta stop running from your problems and start running back to her.” Approaching the father with a folded piece of paper, George lets the note fall into Andrew’s fingers, unfolding to reveal a pencil-written note in Olivia’s handwriting. Reading it silently to himself, Andrew’s posture goes from defensive and readied to softened and defeated, folding the note up once more and tossing it to the floor once done. Without another word, Andrew shakes his head, walking through the front door and leaving the group of parents on their lonesome. “Honey?” Andrew calls out, entering his home and throwing his jacket over the hook in the corner of the doorway, a thunderous set of footsteps coming in from the living room. “Daddy!” Olivia shouts, running into her father’s arms, nearly knocking over a light in the process. “Hey princess” Andrew replies, watching Elaine appear soon after, following the young girl she’s taken on more responsibility toward. “Thank you for spending extra time with her, Elaine” Andrew says, his daughter still held tightly in his arms, thankful for the work she’s done. “I know none of this is easy for you, Andrew” Elaine responds, her hand caressing his shoulder as he stands up, daughter carried in his arms, “I’m happy to help however I can.” Nodding, Andrew pulls the woman into his arms and gives her a hug, pressing his face into the nook of her neck, whispering ‘thank you’ again whilst holding back tears. “Hey, everything’s going to work out” Elaine replies, pulling away from the man, looking into his eyes with her hand on his cheek, “she’ll be back in her own bed soon enough, I promise you that.” “When is Sophie coming home?” Olivia asks, unable to understand the weighted emotions carried with such a question, her intentions well-meaning. With a sigh, Andrew pulls back from Olivia, looking her in the eyes and telling her the same answer he’s given since the first time the question was asked. “Soon, honey” Andrew responds, swiping her hair over her ear with a smile, “we’re working on it, okay?” > May, 2030 < Downing the last drop in his cup, Andrew waits in a silent room, children’s toys everywhere his eye can turn toward, a door that opens in the far corner of the room capturing his attention. “Andrew Carrion?” a woman calls out, prompting him to leave his seat, following her into the depths of the building he occupies at the moment. “Thank you for coming in on such short notice” the woman explains, “I assume you’ve already been given the basic rundown of how things will work?” With a silent nod, Andrew follows the woman into a dimly-lit room, a large window with two chairs sat before it in the front of the space, one chair already occupied by Elaine. With little vocal interaction, Andrew takes his coat off and places it over the back of his seat, watching his daughter play in the room they’re left to look into. “Olivia Amari?” a polite woman calls out, entering the room to find herself attacked with a large hug from the well-behaved youngest daughter. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Ms. Olivia” the woman greets, “do you remember my name?” With glee, Olivia answers the woman with accuracy, something her father takes joy in seeing from beyond her sight. “You’re Doctor Julia!” Olivia replies, a smile radiating from the medical professional, who holds her hand out for a high five. “Do you remember what we were talking about last week?” Julia wonders aloud, pulling a small chair out of the corner of the room and taking a seat on it, a leather-bound notebook carried in the space of her elbow. “I think we were talking about Sophie” Olivia responds, congratulated on her accuracy once more. “Do you remember what else were talking about?” Julia asks, watching Olivia quickly recall the second portion of their discussion. “We were talking about dad, but we talk about dad a lot, right?” Olivia replies, all in quick succession, something that lessens the genuine joy in Andrew’s smile from beyond the two-way mirror. “Do you remember why we were talking about your dad?” Julia asks, the rapidity of Olivia’s responses being something she’s trained at picking apart in a moment. “Because he doesn’t spend time with me anymore, and I don’t like that” Olivia responds, continuing to ramble, “because I miss my sister and my dad keeps running away too, so I only have Ms. Kirkpatrick.” The last of his smile fading away, Andrew continues to look on, Elaine not speaking a word, instead allowing him to fully confront what his preoccupation is doing to the daughter he still has to care for. “Do you want your dad around more?” Julia asks, Olivia quick to respond, a depressing truth being offered. “I miss my dad, but I miss my sister more” the young girl replies, sitting in a chair, fidgeting with her hands, unable to stand still, “my sister hasn’t been home in a long time and I don’t think she’s coming back.” Closing his eyes, Andrew listens into the rest of the conversation, unable to look at his daughter without being confronted with both ends of the truth. “Why don’t you think your sister is coming back, honey?” Julia wonders aloud, letting the girl speak, her ramblings eventually leading her toward different avenues of dialogue. “Because she hasn’t been home in weeks and that doesn’t happen a lot” Olivia responds, continuing to ruffle with her hands, “like, she goes to school after I leave and she comes back in the afternoon or at night, and Caden always brings her home.” “Do you like Caden?” Julia asks, Olivia shrugging at the question, answering it as best as she can. “He’s with my sister a lot, but he’s not with her anymore” Olivia explains, her hands still swirling around each other, “he’s nice, but we’re not friends. Sophie and Caden are friends, but I’m Sophie’s friend. Not Caden’s friend.” Tilting her head, Julia asks why Olivia believes she’s not Caden’s friend, a question that circles to a more depressing unfinding. “Because I don’t play with Caden, Sophie does” Olivia replies, explaining that she never sees her sister without him unless she’s home, “if she’s not with Caden, she’s not with dad, she’s not with me- I don’t know where she is.” Folding her arms in her lap, Julia proceeds down another question, one that brings a yet-unexplored possibility into question. “If Sophie’s not with you, dad, or Caden, where do you think Sophie is?” Julia asks, puzzled by the answer. “With my mom” Olivia responds, prompting Andrew to open his eyes, looking into the room with a squint, almost unsure of what to think. “Dad says my mom isn’t the same mom as Sophie’s, but I know we don’t” Olivia replies, her voice, despite discussing heavy topics, remaining as lively and preppy as it always has, “maybe she decided to bring her home.” Turning to Elaine, Andrew finds the woman’s confused eyes already upon him, a curious look in her face. “Where is Sophie’s mom right now?” Elaine asks, a question that takes Andrew a moment to answer. “I’m not really sure… I haven’t heard from her in twelve years” Andrew responds, looking back into the session room with his eyes squinting, a new thought having popped into his head. | “Mr. Amari!” a young girl shouts from the side of the street, earning the man’s attention as he exits his vehicle. “You look familiar” Andrew calls back, watching the girl approach him, hands tucked in her pockets, “aren’t you the kid that robbed the Stewart’s house?” With a smirk on her face, Izzy shakes her head in refusal. “I went to pelt their kid with eggs, not steal their pelt rugs… Let’s get that clear” Izzy replies, inquiring about the search. “Caden not keeping you informed or something?” Andrew responds, pulling out his house keys as he opens the backdoor to his vehicle, Olivia rushing out to jump into Izzy’s arms. “Ah- small child- why?” Izzy yelps, both hands held in the air as the girl wraps around her like a snake, Andrew quickly running over to pull her away. “Is your kid a monkey? Do I look more like a tree than I realize?” Izzy asks, a quick explanation doing enough to satisfy her. “You don’t like kids or something?” Andrew asks, the young girl approving of his findings. “I’m an only child and my mom doesn’t shelter me like every other kid” Izzy explains, returning her conversation to the previous point, “and no, Caden isn’t keeping me informed… He’s not really talking about it at all, to be honest.” Nodding, Andrew admits that he’s sorry to hear that, asking the young girl of her interest. “My mom never taught me about these kinds of things until after Sophie went missing” Izzy explains, Olivia dashing through the front door the moment it opens, allowing Andrew to look back at the woman, “now, especially since she’d still be here if I hadn’t been a few minutes late… I don’t know, I feel guilty.” Closing his lips, Andrew lets out a sigh before welcoming the girl in, a gesture Izzy takes with appreciation. “I don’t blame you if that’s what you’re wondering” Andrew explains, throwing his keys upon the granite countertop and walking toward the fridge, “none of us saw what happened coming.” Her head hung, Izzy occupies one of the chairs at the kitchen table, looking off at a framed photo of the trio on the wall, eyes growing sad. “Is it bad if I blame myself, though?” Izzy wonders aloud, watching the older gentleman close the fridge, stopping his intentions of making a quick dinner to look at the girl as she continues, “-because it’s really hard to forgive myself for letting it happen.” Resting a carton of eggs and a cup of olive oil on the counter, Andrew takes a seat beside the younger girl, both hands pressing themselves against the top of the table. “I’ve sat at this island over a hundred times in the last month, wondering what I could’ve done anything differently” Andrew explains, the irony of this encounter beginning to feel more like fate, “the problem is, the only person responsible for this is the person that took advantage of my daughter being alone. No one else.” Turning away from the man, Izzy begins to feel the weight of responsibility push upon her shoulders, the alleviation of the man’s blame doubled down on by her own hand. “How am I not responsible somehow?” Izzy asks, trying to give herself no easy exit, “even just for showing up two minutes later than I should have?” Finding common ground, Andrew places his hand upon the girl’s arm, looking into her eyes to ensure his response isn’t brushed off. “I could’ve taught my daughter to look out for things like this… To not trust the world like she does” Andrew explains, his head shaking as he approaches his point, “I didn’t take her, I didn’t run off with her, I’m not the one that took her from any of us… And neither are you.” As a tear runs down her face, Izzy flashes a smile before nodding, looking away and standing up from her seat, thanking the man for their conversation. “I don’t want anyone blaming themselves for something they shouldn’t” Andrew replies, a genuine smile coming across his face, feeling like he’s helped make a difference, “I’ll let you know if I find out anything else… Help keep your mind at ease.” With a sniffle, Izzy wipes away her tears and nods toward the man, walking for the front door. “Hey, before you go…” Andrew calls out, stopping the girl in her tracks, feeling weird for asking, “has Sophie ever told you about her mother?” Looking off at a random spot of the house, Izzy shakes her head in declination. “She’s mentioned having a different mom than her sister, but never anything specific” Izzy responds, shrugging her shoulders, “honestly, I think I’ve always just assumed her mom’s been dead.” Tilting his head, Andrew asks the girl why, his will to fight in the past only further validated through Izzy’s response. “It’s not often you see a dad get custody of the kid when the mom’s still alive” Izzy replies, her shoulders shrugging again, “I assumed that’s why she lived with you instead.” Giving the young girl a smile, Andrew thanks her for the conversation, the pair silently ending their discussion with Izzy’s exit. Sat at the counter, Andrew looks at the quiet interior of his kitchen, dimly lit by the chandelier above, a moment of reflection coming through. Reaching into his pocket, Andrew presses a tab on his screen and lifts the phone to his ear, waiting to be tapped into the next line. “Hello?” a man on the other end responds, greeted by Andrew’s voice. “Hey, Hugh… I’m sorry to call so late” Andrew explains, quickly forgiven by the call’s recipient, “would you be willing to see if you can look up the whereabouts of a someone for me?” Answering brief questions from Hugh, Andrew offers the little information that he has. “Morgan Amari, roughly the same age as me, would have been living in Topeka around September 2018” Andrew describes, a brief description of her appearance following. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but your officers asked if I knew anyone that could be responsible a couple weeks ago” Andrew explains, “I couldn’t think of anyone at first, but Sophie’s mom is one of the few people I could think of.” “Thank you” Andrew concludes, lowering the phone from his ear and hanging up, his feet carrying him to the depths of the home. Stopping at a small nightstand in the space between the kitchen and living room, Andrew answers his daughter’s call for him. “I’ll be right up, sweetheart!” Andrew blurts out to Olivia, reaching down and gently opening a drawer, a framed photo resting within it. “Carrion-Comiski family portrait, September 2020” the photo reads, a very pregnant woman depicted standing beside a four-year old Sophie, sitting on her father’s shoulders. Puckering his lips, Andrew holds back tears, pressing the picture to his chest as his daughter gently climbs down the stairs. “Honey!” Andrew greets, wiping his eyes and returning the photo to its original place, shutting the drawer, “What did you want me to se-?” Stopped, Andrew finds himself wrapped in Olivia’s arms, the girl pressing her head against his chest as he kneels down, a gesture the man begins to tear up at, returning in kind. > 18th January, 2031 < “That was your first hunch?” Caden questions, Andrew timidly replying in kind, the uneasy silence in the room making it difficult to feel warmth. “That was the first I thought of it being a possibility” Andrew replies, nodding to Caden as a tear rolls freely down the side of his face, “but it wasn’t a hunch… I didn’t expect to hear anything of value back from the Stewart’s.” “What did you expect?” Sophie quickly interjects from the doorway, both Caden and Andrew glancing toward her when asked, Caden turning back to the other gentleman. “I assumed there’d be something verifying a date of death, maybe a few other entries into rehab every now and then” Andrew explains, nodding to himself as he continues, “I didn’t expect to hear anything that would point me toward being suspicious of her. As it turned out, I was right for the most part.” > June 2030 < Answering the knock at his door, Andrew lets Hugh in, the man bringing a case of beer alongside him. “I know you like the cheaper stuff, but I figured you’d like something more top-shelf.” Taking a seat at the granite countertop, Hugh tosses a manilla envelope ahead of himself, Andrew looking at the thin appearance of the document, beginning to worry that his new clue may be dead in the water. “That doesn’t look like it’s full of direction” Andrew quips, a finding Hugh doesn’t have much luck arguing against. “She doesn’t seem to be too fond of being on the grid by the looks of it” Hugh responds, pulling a few sheets of paper from within the package. Letting them fall upon the table, Hugh looks down the listing of public records as Andrew sits beside him, nothing jumping off the page too heavily at first. “Says her license, health insurance, and other documents have all been renewed in the last year, that she owns a small plot of land up near Iowa in Gentry, but doesn’t appear to live there from her mailing records” Hugh explains, shrugging his shoulders at the rest, “not much more than that.” Eyes running down the rest of the mostly blank paper, Hugh explains that the remaining specifics are nothing to help their cause from there on. “She drives a 2011 beige minivan, uses a home phone number, and collects income for disability in the state of Missouri… So she still lives here” Hugh concludes, “that’s all we’ve got.” Putting his head in his hands, Andrew lets out a sigh, shaking his head in refusal as Hugh pats him on the shoulder. “Should we give her a call? Maybe let her know about her daughter going missing?” Hugh asks, his suggestion immediately declined. “No, she’s been out of Sophie’s life for thirteen years and deserves to be” Andrew replies, cupping his hands together and placing them against his chin, “she didn’t care then, she’s not allowed to care now.” With a nod, Hugh returns the papers to their envelope and hands the document to the man, leaving them for him to do as he pleases. “Andrew, I don’t wanna be hopeless here, but we’re low on options” Hugh explains, “we had very little to start with, and the trail’s only getting colder.” Turning toward the man, Andrew looks into Hugh’s eyes as he begins to well with tears, “it’s only a matter of time before this gets shuffled to the cold case section.” Eyes falling, Andrew feels Hugh’s hand pat him on the shoulder, the man promising to continue offering whatever he can to help the man find his child. With a silent nod, Andrew thanks Hugh for what he’s helped with, the doorbell ringing just as their conversation begins to wrap up. Quickly regaining his composure, Andrew walks to the front door, doing his best to make it look like he hadn’t just been on the verge of breaking out into tears. “Izzy?” Andrew calls out, opening the door to reveal the younger girl on the front step, her phone carried in her hand as she lets herself in. “Oh, hi Mr. Stewart” Izzy solemnly greets, the older man looking at her with less-than-enthused eyes, “I have a theory.” Shrugging, Hugh leans against the counter whilst Andrew welcomes whatever she has to offer. “Okay, gotta be honest, this might be a stretch, but it’s a good one!” Izzy exclaims, watching Andrew take the seat beside Hugh, both curious as to why she holds her phone up like it’s a small child. “After school, there’s usually no service whatsoever… Like that cell tower over the apartment complex at the end of the street just doesn’t exist” Izzy explains, both adults following along so far. “Since Sophie’s been gone, there’s no problem with the service anymore” Izzy explains, both Hugh and Andrew leaning forward, intrigued by what they’re told, “Sophie had my number and was supposed to text me after school, but I got no text… Maybe whoever took her was jamming the signal?” Taking interest in the lead, both Hugh and Andrew realize that premeditation is no longer a question. “Whoever was there needed to be smart enough to jam the signal- if they intended to interfere with it” Andrew explains, a lead that Hugh only furthers travels down. “Even more than that, they must have been there constantly” Hugh explains, the only explanation for the never-ending interference being the one he’s come to. “So they were purposefully going after Sophie!?” Izzy exclaims, a brand new conversation nearly ready to be opened, Hugh the only party objecting to such definitive conclusions. “They may have been going after anyone, we can’t prove Sophie was anything other than someone they just happened to get lucky in finding” Hugh explains, turning toward Andrew with his sights on the envelope, “either way, we might want to pay your wife a visit.” “You think Sophie’s mom did this?” Izzy wonders aloud, both Hugh and Andrew glancing back toward her, a shrug coming from both. “She has a motive, Andrew” Hugh explains, his eyes glancing back toward Izzy, “and based on whatever you told this one, it seems like she’s the only solid lead we’ve got right now.” “This one has a name, and that one has a point, Mr. Carrion” Izzy responds, a smirk coming over her face, “if she could have done it, there’s no reason not to go find out!” Looking back to the envelope, Andrew considers the little he knows, looking back to Hugh in acceptance of his suggested plan. “I guess we’re going to Gentry” Andrew replies, a pat on the shoulder coming from Hugh, the plan cleared. > 18th January, 2031 < “You still didn’t expect to get much out of the trip, did you?” Sophie calls out from the doorway, both arms leant against each side of the frame, her father looking at her with a depressed glance. “I expected it to be another dead end… I had no clue how on the nose I was” Andrew responds, shaking his head away from the camera, “and we were still so far away from getting those texts.” “Don’t go too far ahead, that’s for a later question” Caden interjects, not wanting to lead the dialogue too far ahead too soon. “We missed each other by just that much” Sophie replies with a faint voice, almost coming off as a whimper as she shakes her head, “thank god for Izzy.” “She was the one that kept us going after you” Caden responds, chuckling to himself as he recalls the moment they found their greatest piece to the puzzle, “we would’ve never found you without her.” With a nod, Sophie re-enters the room propper, tapping Caden on the shoulder and directing him toward Andrew’s seat, her father being gestured to return to his doorway. “As you said, let’s not get ahead of ourselves… There’s more story to tell” Sophie replies, a genuine pep in her step as she feels the halfway point come and go, “more specifically, your story, Caden.” With a sigh, the boy nods to himself and hands the girl his clipboard, a feeling of propper ease coming over the room as the questions change hands, Caden carrying himself to the seat before the camera. Lowering himself back into the chair, Caden watches Sophie sit in his previous seat, his hands folded in his lap as he looks into the lens, the girl’s smile fading as the next question is read aloud. Hearing the question spoken, Caden lifts his chin and speaks with a clear voice. “Caden, what was life like after I was gone?” Sophie asks, the boy answering with one word, unmistakable from any other. “Hell.” == Generation Alpha == } The following events take place through the months of April, May, and June, 2030, and the 18th of January, 2031 {
> 18th January, 2031 < “It wasn’t easy for me, either” Sophie mutters, her shoulder just brushing against Caden’s as they pass each other, their eyes set on their original seats, “hearing what it was like for the two of you… For everyone else.” Looking away from the girl, Caden thinks of what to say, the proper words eluding him at every turn, prompting him to remain silent as he walks the rest of the way to his chair. Pausing for a moment, Sophie stands where she last stepped, Caden already taking his seat whilst she remained in the middle of the room. “I hate this” Sophie says aloud, her words finding Caden’s ears just as he takes his seat, “I hate doing this.” Without reassurance to offer, Caden fumbles through his bag of phrases, finally settling on a question to the statement offered. “Why are we doing this, then?” Caden asks, Sophie’s eyes turning with her head, finding Caden with ease. “Because it’s necessary” Sophie replies, shoulders limply shrugging, “I’m going to need to remember everything.” Closing his eyes so the girl can’t see him roll them, Caden begins to speak, quickly interrupted by the formerly imprisoned. “You might not-” Caden begins, his words that follow being destined to silence, allowing Sophie to refute him, “but I might.” Folding his hands atop the clipboard, Caden plays with the cap to the pen in his hand, watching Sophie turn back to her chair, walking the rest of the way. Looking at the clipboard, Caden reads the next question in silence, repeating it in his head before stumbling off track. “Why did you tell me that?” Caden asks, calling the conversation back to Sophie’s stated feelings on the task as a whole. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the next question” Sophie remarks, her eyes not having looked at the camera yet since changing seats, her conversation being one meant solely for the moment. “That doesn’t matter, answer it anyway” Caden replies, Andrew’s subtle calling of his name doing nothing to help the annoyed reflection in his tone. “I said it doesn’t matter, Mr. Carrion” Caden remarks, looking at the older man over his shoulder before turning back to the girl, “answer it.” Biting into her bottom lip, Sophie lets the slight tension in the room dissipate before answering, partially using the silent moments to convince herself of the answer. “So you know you’re not alone in it” Sophie replies, the irony bringing a further silence of the room, the one where the same couldn’t be said for her. = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > April 2030 < “Good morning!” Morgan calls out, the sky behind her a pitch black, the stars still out in full force.”It’s the middle of the night” Sophie remarks, still curled into a ball in the back of the room, her mother approaching the restraints she’s locked to with a key in her hand. “It’s the end of the night, actually” Morgan replies cheerfully, placing the key in the metal configurations and pulling the long chain toward her. “I decided you should be sleeping in your bed more” Morgan explains, pulling the chain through its loop until it can extend no further, at which point, she twists the key again and relocks the restraints. With a smile, Morgan turns toward her daughter and waves her hand around the width of the room, as if to inform her offspring that she now has full access to it all. Confused, Sophie takes her mother’s gesture as genuine until proven otherwise, slowly pushing herself off the floor, leaning against the wall to get the blood flowing in her legs again. “The closest house isn’t for miles and miles” Morgan explains, taking her opportunity to get out of her daughter’s reach while she still can, stopping a few yards past the exit. “If you call for help, no one will hear you” Morgan explains, watching Sophie stagger toward her, “it also means you can come outside.” Glancing back at the mechanism upon the wall she’s chained to, Sophie cautiously walks forward, quickly getting further than she’d been allowed before. Like a zombie from a movie, Sophie drags herself further forward, finally reaching the door, her hands placed upon each side of the frame as she glances back, finding a few feet of chain left to exploit. Closing her eyes, Sophie breathes in the air before letting go of the frame, carrying herself out into the open air, her eyes staring into the sky as if it were the first time she’d ever seen it. Pulling her feet out of her shoes, Sophie runs her finger down the top of her socks and places her feet upon the dirt. A smile coming over her face, Sophie’s visage falls back upon her obnoxiously happy mother, that joy immediately beginning to fall. Stepping as close to her mother as her chains can allow, Sophie comes within a few inches of her mothers mein, her voice fading in and out. “Why did you do this?” Sophie asks, looking at the woman with a cold stare, not an ounce of pleasant emotion shown, “why am I here?” Her eyes wandering down to her daughter’s chest, Morgan’s sights fall upon a necklace, her face brightening with a smile. “Where’d you get the necklace?” Morgan asks, trying her best to redirect the conversation, something Sophie sees through easily. “I asked a pretty good question, why aren’t you answering it?” Sophie remarks, her mother’s hands rocking back and forth, not truly sure where to rest. “Because…” Morgan replies, the chipper tone in her voice doing it’s best to test Sophie’s patience, “...I don’t really have a good answer.” “Okay, what’s the closest you can get to one?” Sophie asks, her voice rigid and tough the more it smoothes out, her stance presenting a woman resilient to anything other than answers. “I missed my daughter and made a bad choice” Morgan remarks, something resembling hope being brought back onto Sophie, provided with proof that her mother is aware of the wrongdoings. Without much of a retort, Sophie remains silent for a second, inspecting her mother for a moment before squinting at her, another question popping into her head. “What’s wrong with you?” Sophie asks, Morgan’s expression immediately changed into one of a judgmental parent. “Sophie, don’t talk to me like-” Morgan begins, interrupted by her daughter, a clarification being made. “No, I mean literally… There’s something mentally wrong with you” Sophie replies, looking back to the cell she’s been put into, “you’re one person sometimes, another person the next. Is it a medical thing?” Hanging her head, Morgan scratches at her arm, the smooth breeze pushing her hair back for her. “I’m a… I’m a high functioning psychopath” Morgan remarks, her daughter pulling her head back, confused, “it’s a clinical diagnosis, but it doesn’t make me crazy.” Lips parted, Sophie looks at her mother in astonishment, the amount of questions running through her mind barely contained within her head. “How can you say that?” Sophie questions, her mother’s head tilting, “I’m your daughter and you have me locked in a cage like a dog- do you understand that?” Her head jolting in different directions, Morgan looks for a way to suggest otherwise, a gesture which Sophie doesn’t take kindly to. “No, don’t explain it away like it’s nothing… I can see that’s what you’re trying to do” Sophie mutters, backing herself away from her mother, “that’s what it is… No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.” Turning around, Sophie looks toward the ground, returning to her prison before tripping herself over her shoes. “Oh honey!” Morgan calls out, watching her daughter crash into the ground, rushing up to her. “I’m fine!” Sophie shouts back, holding her hand out whilst dragging herself back inside with the other, fist clenched. Without another word, Sophie slams the door shut on herself despite her mothers pleas for a different result. “Don’t come back!” Sophie shouts, her ear pressed to the door itself, hands forcing it to remain shut. Disappointed, Morgan locks the bunker door shut and returns home, the smile on Sophie’s face behind the door wide and true. Looking down to her balled fist, Sophie opens her fingers to look at the decent-sized stone clutched in her grasp, her ticket out of the horror show she resides in seemingly purchased. | Sat beside her front windows, Morgan looks out at the bunker, just as she has for the last few hours, the divider propped up slightly in case she can hear her daughter’s voice cry out. Anxious, Morgan stands away from the view and walks for the front door, her eyes set on the bunker, the early morning just beginning to allow its sun over the horizon. Unlatching the entrance, Morgan pulls the door open, beginning her visit with an apology. “Sophie, I’m sorry that we-” Morgan begins, the spot her daughter would usually occupy empty, just as the room is. “So- Sophie?” Morgan repeats, her tone soft, words stuttering as she begins to panic. “Sophie!?” Morgan shouts, turning her back to the bunker, the only evidence of her daughter’s presence being the broken chain left in the middle of the floor. Running around her property with her daughter’s name being called for, echoing throughout the air, Morgan goes into a frenzy, the bunker door left wide open in case her daughter happens to wander back. Seeing this unfold from beneath her bed, an unchained Sophie, only restrained by the cuff on her ankle, waits until her mother disappears around the house before making her escape. Her chance given, Sophie hurries out from under cover, racing through the open door and dashing through farmland. Having spent the last few hours pacing around her bunker, Sophie’s legs carry enough strength to lead her miles away, the only barrier in her way as of this point being the lack of cover she has available to her. “Sophie!” Morgan shouts, finally having rounded the house to see her daughter’s figure tearing through the open field, nothing stopping her aside from her own stamina. With a smile on her face, Sophie dashes through the land, refusing to break her stride until she runs across help. In a split second, the soaring sensation of freedom is snatched away by a single pulse, the cuff around her ankle zapping her with enough electricity to take down a small bear. Leg having gone as limp as the rest of her body, Sophie throws herself forward, unable to stop her momentum until she slams into the dirt, coming in and out of consciousness as the rock falls from her hand. Quickly fading, Sophie hears her mother’s calls near closer and closer, forcing her to make peace with being returned to imprisonment just before she loses consciousness. | Slowly returning, Sophie feels a numbness course through her body, as if every limb she had was asleep. Pulling herself up, Sophie sits against the wall, a brand new chain now locked around her neck, Morgan replacing the covers of her bed with warm sheets. “Shock collar?” Sophie asks, already having accepted the answer before it had been confirmed. “You scared me today, Sophie” Morgan explains, her back turned toward her daughter, still in the process of replacing Sophie’s sheets as she outlaws her actions. “You are not to leave this premises- it is forbidden” Morgan explains, still teetering on the edge of outright kidnapper and distressed parent in her own mind. “I don’t like having to do this to you, but you leave me no choice!” Morgan explains, finally looking over her shoulder at her helpless daughter, “case and point… Today.” Frustrated, Morgan ruffles through the sheets, aggravatedly trying to fit them to the bed before giving up, tossing them on the floor and kicking them at her daughter. “I was going to bring you home!” Morgan shouts, her daughter curled into a ball against the back wall, “I was going to bring you inside and get you settled into your new room- but you fucked it all up!” Holding back tears, Morgan places her hand against her face, trying to collect her breathing until her daughter speaks out. “It’s not mine” Sophie remarks, her mother’s face immediately darting toward her, lost for context, “the room” Sophie continues, “...it’s not mine.” “What are you talking about? Of course it’s your room!” Morgan responds, mustering a smile amidst the tears, “I had it all decorated and ready for you!” Wrapping her arms around her knees, Sophie rests her head against the wall, eyes staring up at her mother, disgust written all over her own face. “It’s not my room, Morgan” Sophie replies, her mother’s speechless expression only accompanied by her daughter’s further defiance, “it never will be.” Seething, Morgan reaches around her back and retrieves a pistol, its barrel aimed at her daughter, the situation immediately turning on its head. “We are a family goddamnit!” Morgan shouts, her fear-stricken daughter immediately putting her hands in the air, standing down, “whether you like it or not- this is your life now!” “Okay, Mo-” Sophie remarks, stopping herself before being able to get her mother any further aggravated than she already is, “Okay mom… It’s my life now.” Her face flooded with tears, Morgan lets a smile break through her lips as she shakes her head, refusing to buy into what her daughter’s selling this time. “No, you don’t believe that yet” Morgan replies, backing away whilst leaving Sophie to make her own bed, “but you will soon enough.” Returning the gun to her waistband, Morgan slams the bunker door shut, locking the hatches and leaving Sophie to her own. Slowly lowering her arms, Sophie returns them to her shins, pulling her legs close as she begins to hold back tears, the fear she holds beginning to truly set in, an uncertainty over what is to come feeling worse than death. > May, 2030 < Yanking the bunker door open, Morgan bathes a dark room in light, her daughter still curled up against the wall in the back of the room. “Let me go” Sophie mutters, those three words the only set the young girl is willing to speak, everything else falling along the lines of pointless as far as she’s concerned. Rolling her eyes, Morgan flicks the lights on and enters the room with a chocolate cake, a birthday candle in the form of the number one lit atop it. “What’s this?” Sophie asks, her statements and questions asked swiftly, almost coming out as a whistle at times. “It’s a cake for you” Morgan explains, watching her daughter’s face only further scrunch in confusion, “to celebrate our anniversary!” Looking at her mother with a weirdly disassociated glare, Sophie asks for more context, which Morgan is happy to supply her with. “We’ve been together for a year! I thought we should celebrate!” Morgan exclaims, her daughter’s eyes widening, face easing to the point of dread. “W- what?” Sophie remarks, her mother’s expression chilling her to the bone, the haunting manifestation of glee in another person’s sorrow forcing her stomach to twist in knots. “It’s been a year since you’ve been home!” Morgan answers, her voice carrying little weight, “the time’s flown by!” “I… I’ve wh-” Sophie begins, looking toward the deepest corner of the room, unable to stare at her mother’s face without wishing for the release of death. | Pushing the bunker door in, Morgan enters Sophie’s holding area, head turning toward the bed, where her daughter lays uncomfortably still on her side. “Sophie, honey… I need to tell you something” Morgan explains, the still perfectly-conditioned notebook resting by her daughter’s side, its cover traversed by the back-and-forth glide of Sophie’s index finger, “they’ve called off your search.” Looking toward the wall beside her bed, Sophie lets a single tear fall down the side of her face, her finger pushing the notebook away before the tear can land on it. “Let me go” Sophie whispers, pulling her head away the moment her mother lays her hand against it. “Don’t touch me” Sophie says as she crawls aside, hearing her mother’s footsteps carry through the door and onto the sand-covered asphalt. Turning onto her back, Sophie feels a tear slide down her face, the droplet landing on the unchanged sheets beside her head. Looking toward the ceiling with her eyes wide, Sophie hears her mother’s front door close in the distance, allowing a surge of tears to break their way to the surface. With a convulsive twitch, Sophie screams at the top of her lungs, a guttural moan presenting itself, carrying out the little remaining hope left with it. | > 18th January, 2031 < “She made trips in constantly, once every few hours” Sophie explains, struggling to understand where her mind was at the time, even with the benefit of hindsight, “it just felt like a daily thing at the time.” Folding his hands, Caden presses his lips to his knuckle, watching Sophie continue to traverse her mind, stowing away memories being unlocked at will. “I didn’t know if she’d kill me or not, but the search getting called off took that off the table mostly” Sophie explains, looking toward Caden and her father, “I knew she’d want to ‘mend things’ before she got that desperate.” Looking back to the clipboard, Caden attempts to ask the next question, his words interrupted by a fleeting thought just popping into Sophie’s mind. “I made it three hundred and forty-five feet” Sophie mutters, Caden and her father looking up at her, lost for meaning. “The charge zapped me when I crossed the 110-yard threshold, so I probably flew for another five yards before I stopped” Sophie explains, returning the conversation to her failed escape, “I ran for three hundred and forty-five feet of freedom.” Without a second look at the clipboard, Caden asks the question next laid out on Sophie’s list. “When did your mother tell you about Huntington's diagnosis?” Caden wonders aloud, a question that urges Andrew to look up for the first time in a while. > 3rd June, 2030 < The metal squealing as she opens the bunker door, Morgan calls out her daughter’s name, finding her on the bed once again, a similar position to where she normally is. “I… I have some news” Morgan explains, flicking the lights on, earning an immediate response. “Turn them off” Sophie calls, her mother doing as requested, hoping to have a civil conversation. “Let me go” Sophie asks, immediately resorting to her usual response, her mother’s failure to immediately refuse her demands prompting Sophie to break out of her sheltered haze. Without a word, Morgan drifts to the side of the room, gently dragging a chair from the small table beside Sophie’s bed and taking a seat upon it. “I don’t have long” Morgan mutters, her daughter turning over onto her opposite side, looking at her mother’s face, the emotion on it confusing her. “I’ve been getting treatments for the last few years” Morgan explains, detailing her battle with Huntington’s, trying to clarify what she can understand, “I’m not myself, and I’m only getting worse.” Not feeling sorry, Sophie pushes herself up to a seat, wrapping her arms around her legs as she looks into Morgan’s face, the fear in her eyes coming off awkwardly. “The courts wouldn’t let me have visitation, and I couldn’t let-” Morgan continues, stopping herself momentarily, Sophie looking on without much to react with, “-I didn’t wanna go without seeing you.” Shaking her head, Sophie takes the woman’s claims as an excuse, immediately challenging them. “Is that supposed to excuse everything you’ve done to me!? Everything you’ve been doing to me!?” Sophie asks, her mother only able to hang her head. “It was supposed to explain why I needed to make it right” Morgan replies, looking at her daughter with teary eyes, forcing the young woman to a state of empathy. “I’m so sorry” Morgan blurts, dropping her head onto her daughter’s legs, Sophie’s refusal to brush her away coming from a place of conflicted feelings. “How long?” Sophie asks, the world of uncertainties she’s surrounded with only solved by asking questions. “What?” Morgan remarks, Sophie repeating her question. “How long do you have?” Sophie replies, looking into her mother’s eyes, watching the tears fade away. “Less than a year… Maybe” Morgan remarks, her daughter pulling her face away, unable to look into the older woman’s eyes. “I just wanted to be around you… And I couldn’t… Ever” Morgan explains, looking at the side of her daughter’s face, “you can never be without your child as a mother without it killing you every day.” Biting her lip, Sophie shakes her head in a refusal to give into her mother’s sad story, the good natured heart within preventing her from feeling a deep-rooted sadness. “I just wanted to spend the time I had left with you” Morgan explains, pulling her daughter’s face toward hers, the tears streaming down both of their faces, “I wanted to make you happy like your daddy made you happy.” Lip quivering, Sophie looks down at her knees, her hands grasping at her shins while she musters up the courage to respond. “If you wanted to make me happy, you’d let me go” Sophie replies, the hope draining from her mother’s face, replaced with unaccompanied tears. Sobbing into her arm, Morgan lifts her head from her elbow and nods, reaching her hand into her pocket and removing a key. Without a second thought, Morgan places the small, metal masterkey inside her daughter’s chain collar and lets the set of links clatter upon the ground, freeing the girl of her restraints. “I don’t have a key for the collar, but it’s been off for months now” Morgan explains, wiping away the tears and snot from her face, handing her daughter the accompanying button. “Go home” Morgan whimpers, dropping her head into the mattress, not wanting to see her daughter walk away. > 18th January, 2031 < “Why did you buy it?” Caden asks, Sophie’s eyes drifting back toward him, the question one that wasn’t listed. “I don’t know” Sophie remarks, no response good enough for why she accepted her mother’s reasoning. “I think you do” Caden replies, watching the girl’s eyelids part further, his inquiry continuing, “did you really believe her, or were you playing the long game?” “Was I calling her bluff?” Sophie remarks, reiterating the boy’s question for him, forcing herself to do some introspection. “I’d like to say I knew what she was planning, but I don’t think I can” Sophie replies, running her hand over her smooth, collarless neck, “I’m pretty sure I fell for it. Hook, line and sinker.” Leaning forward, Caden places his clipboard to the side, challenging her thought deeper whilst making it clear that he’s going off script. “In that moment, all you knew was one thing” Caden explains, watching Sophie’s nod assure him that she knows what he’s going to ask, “why did you turn back?” With a deep breath, Sophie puckers her lips, explaining the reason behind her choice, a single truth holding the responsibility for why she went back. “She’s my mother.” > 3rd June, 2030 < Pulling herself off the bed, Sophie walks past her mother, glancing back just once before walking through the door, feeling the warm, mid-day air touch her skin. Bathed in light, Sophie looks toward the field she once failed to escape through, eyes filled with hope once more. Walking the direction she once failed to fully travel, Sophie is watched on by her mother, who stands in the bunker’s doorway, watching her young return home. One foot in front of the other, Sophie continues to move forward, looking back only once to see her mother in the bunker, refusing to chase after her. In a moment of uncertainty, Sophie feels a rumbling in her gut, an instinct telling her to stop walking. Looking down to see a partially-legible divot in the dirt from where she tumbled months before, Sophie looks off in the distance, the strange feeling that her freedom isn’t as it appears coming over her, though, not making itself clear. Turning around, Sophie looks toward her mother, something the woman hadn’t expected to see, only further puzzling the older woman when she finds her daughter’s figure returning. Head tucked down, Sophie continues to walk back, her hair blowing in the wind, face illuminated in the orange glow of the sunlight above. “If you’re not dead within a year, you turn yourself in for my kidnapping… No questions asked” Sophie explains, “-and you leave me everything in your will.” Unable to hold back a smile, Morgan says three words before watching Sophie walk toward the front steps of the main home. “I already have” Morgan mutters, watching her daughter carry herself through the front door, a sensation of profound accomplishment coming over her. With a nod, Morgan closes the bunker and locks it shut, hurrying back to the home, finally having gotten the second chance at family she had so desperately craved. == Generation Alpha == } The following events take place on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of April, 2030, and the 18th of January, 2031 {
> 18th January, 2031 < Looking closely at his clipboard, as if he didn’t understand how the question was to be read, Caden attempts to decipher the words left before him. “What’s wrong?” Sophie asks, noticing the pause in questioning, her assumptions accurate. “I don’t understand the next question” Caden replies, continuing to read the lines repetitively. “Say it out loud” Sophie replies, prepared to help the process along, a gesture Caden takes kindly to. “The questioning switches now to the other perspective, okay?” Caden replies, the added inkling of cooperation accounted for in the end making this question impossible to ask like the rest. “Switch chairs with me” Sophie replies, already standing by the time her words leave her lips, shooting down Caden’s question as to why, insisting he does as asked. Not wanting to defy his friend’s wishes, Caden sheepishly stands out of his chair and approaches Sophie’s former seat. Halfway across the room, Sophie places her outstretched fingers upon the man’s chest, holding him back from reaching his destination, another request uttered. “Give me the clipboard” Sophie remarks, pulling her hand away and holding it in front of Caden, who gently lays the board upon the palm of the young woman’s hand. Taking his seat, Caden glances at the camera whilst Sophie occupies his own, crossing her leg and folding her arms atop the board as if it were a table. “What were the next days that followed like?” Sophie asks, watching the confusion come across Caden’s face like a disease. “Wait, are you questioning me now?” Caden replies, Sophie’s silent nod answering his question. “No, this isn’t my retelling, or whatever it is, I don’t wanna do this” Caden remarks, shaking his head and standing up. “Please, Caden… It’s important” Sophie replies, the constant stress of this sitdown interview straining every limit they have to offer each other. “Why is this part important?” Caden remarks, both hands on his hips, believing himself to be warranted an explanation. “Because I need to hear every little detail” Sophie replies, the expression dropping on the boy’s face. “You don’t know what’s in your future” Caden remarks, his point immediately brushed aside, it’s importance not being cared for by the woman in the driver’s seat. “I need to hear everything, regardless” Sophie replies, the young man ahead of her letting out a sigh before slowly lowering himself back into the chair. “What were the next days that followed like?” Sophie asks, watching Caden turn his attention toward the camera, answering with the best he can offer whilst maintaining an uncomfortable and disassociated view of the lens. = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > 3rd April, 2030 < Pressing his knuckles against his neighbor’s door, Andrew patiently waits for a response from inside, a few lights from deep within the home beginning to turn on and allowing his wait to be put to ease. “Mr. Carrion, it’s the middle of the night” the patriarch of the family answers, his wife following closely behind. “George, Rebecca- I’m really sorry to wake you” Andrew explains, the concern on his face noticeable, “but it’s really late, and I’m still waiting for Caden to drive Sophie back.” Understanding the worry he can read in Andrew’s expression, George eases on his hardened approach, partially infused by his confusion. “What are you talking about?” George remarks, his confusion now shared upon the concerned father at his doorstep. “Caden- he was bringing Sophie back after school” Andrew replies, struggling to understand why such confusion surrounds their conversation, “I figured he’d taken her out to eat for her birthday, I didn’t know why else they wouldn’t be back yet.” Only helping raise his worries, Andrew peers past George and toward the staircase just beyond the doorway, a groggy Caden stepping down the steps. “Caden’s been home since the end of school” George remarks, pulling his eyes away from Andrew and placing them upon his son. “Caden, were you supposed to drive Sophie home after school?” George wonders aloud, beginning to share concern with Andrew upon his son’s answer. “Yeah, but she changed her plans after fourth period” Caden replies, wiping the exhaustion from his eyes, “she went to go egg Logan Stewart’s house with Izzy instead.” Squinting his eyes, Andrew interrupts the conversation between father and son, asking a question of his own. “Who’s Izzy?” Andrew asks, the simple answer being given, a random classmate he’s never met being responsible for bringing home the missing daughter not sitting well with Andrew. “Call that Izzy girl” George remarks, a confused Caden opening up his phone before pressing his fingers to the screen. “I didn’t say text the girl, did I? Call her!” George exclaims, his wife rolling her eyes as she shoves her feet into loose-fitting shoes. Pressing her name on the screen, Caden awkwardly presses the phone to his ear, hearing tones going, waiting for the voice on the other line to answer. “Hey, this is Caden. Are you still with Sophie? She’s not home yet and her dad’s here. Text me back” Caden ends, looking back to his father to inform him of the voicemail left. “Where does that Logan kid live?” Andrew asks, nothing specific being readily available. “Those Stewart’s are rich pricks, I’m sure they’ll be in one of the suburbs” George replies, directing his wife to stay with their son as he accompanies Andrew to the car. “What’s going on!?” Caden calls out, failing to understand why his parents are in such an equal rush. “Caden- honey- go back to your room” Rebecca explains, pulling him away from the door and turning him toward the stairs, “I’ll let you know when we find out.” > 18th January, 2031 < “You didn’t find it odd that I never came back?” Sophie asks, taking over the duties she left for Caden, only interrupting when something can be explored further. “I didn’t understand it at the time” Caden remarks, looking away from the camera, shaking his head toward his friend, “we were never really taught about that kind of thing.” With a deep sigh from the doorway, Andrew interrupts, his voice dry, as if it pained him too greatly to speak. “No one teaches ‘stranger danger’ anymore… No one thinks they need to” Andrew explains, his head still aimed toward the ground, shaking with disappointment, “second biggest mistake of my life.” Not related to the recording, Sophie turns around, looking her father in the eyes, her apple-red hair flowing over her shoulders the way her blonde locks used to. “What was the first?” Sophie replies, watching her father’s head pop up for a moment, his eyes holding back tears. Shaking his head, Andrew pulls his glance away from Sophie’s, lowering his chin once more to allow the questioning to continue. Wanting to ask her father again, Sophie holds off, turning toward Caden and returning to their original question. “What were the next days that followed like?” Sophie asks, the young man across from her nodding, his head turning back to the camera. > 3rd April, 2030 < Slamming his door shut, Andrew hurries up to the front step of the Stewart residence, the door already left wide open, a sight that brings an unintentional wave of panic over the man. Hurrying through the front door, Andrew’s chase comes to a screeching halt, finding a handcuffed student seated on the red-cushioned couch, an older man and an older woman looking over her, the man clutching at a fire poker. “What the hell is going on in here!?” Andrew calls out, immediately lifting tensions through the roof. “Who the hell are you!?” the man exclaims, his weapon aimed toward the unarmed man and the familiar face that enters just behind him. “I’m Sophie Amari’s father” Andrew remarks quickly, scanning the room for his daughter, “where is she?” Unconcerned, the man approaches Andrew with his weapon, demanding he leave his home immediately. Without a second thought, Andrew grabs the midst of the fire poker and pushes it aside, sweeping the rich patriarch’s feet out from beneath him, keeping a hold on his weapon. “Where is my daughter!?” Andrew shouts, swinging the metal stick around and aiming the sharp end towards the man’s throat. “I don’t know who you’re talking about!” the patriarch shouts, immediately supported by his wife, who explains the situation in a way that lends context. “We caught this one breaking into our house!” the woman exclaims, her finger lifted towards a restrained Izzy, “we’re waiting for the police to show up!” Looking toward the woman with content, George mocks her from a financial pillar below, scoffing at her statement. “You get some kid running through your house and you call the private police?” George replies, shaking his head at the disbelief. “Do you think you’re the president? She’s a kid, not a terrorist! Call the enforcement agency!” George shouts, watching Andrew let the older man back to his feet slowly. “We’ll do as we please with our money” the woman remarks, judging the pair of intruders, “why are you in our home!?” Handing George the fire poker, Andrew explains his case to the family, suggesting Izzy has the only answers he’s looking for. Confused, and already in no position to be accused of any worse than breaking and entering, Izzy defends herself. “Sophie bailed on me!” the girl shouts, not wanting to be responsible for whatever she might be up to, “whatever she’s doing right now, I’m not sitting in limbo for it!” “Back up, what do you mean by ‘she bailed on me’?” Andrew replies, his heart skipping a beat when Izzy responds. “I went to pick her up at the green after school and she wasn’t there” Izzy replies, cooperating in hopes that she’ll get off easier for doing so, “I haven’t heard from her since we made plans.” “Why did the two of you want to pelt my son with eggs?” the older woman asks, Izzy taking too much delight in answering with honesty. “Because, Hugh and Anne” Izzy remarks mockingly, “the two of you raised a douchebag.” Rolling their eyes, the older couple turns back to the pair of adults in their doorway. “You don’t know where your kid is?” Anne inquires, prompting Andrew to hang his head, subtly shaking in refusal to believe that he’s approached a dead end. “I’m calling the police again” Hugh exclaims, pulling his phone out, brushing off the proceeding apology from the intruding men. “Not for your break-in, we’re gonna find your kid” Hugh replies, not a moment of resistance from anyone other than Izzy. “You’re gonna help them?” Izzy asks aloud, “isn’t that kind of below you?” Not thinking highly of the wealthy pair, Izzy continues to insult the homeowners, finding herself surprised when the matriarch approaches her with a key, unlocking her handcuffs. “Go home and get back to your parents” Anne remarks, her grudge with the younger woman completely lost to more pressing matters. Confused, Izzy grabs at her wrists, wrapping her hands around the cuff marks with words aimed for the wealthy parents. “So the whole ‘wealth-dynamic’ ends when a kid runs off?” Izzy inquires, earning the ire of every parent other than Andrew, “it’s that easy?” Shaking her head, Anne tosses the girl her carton of eggs, telling her to go home once again. Taking her freedom when offered, Izzy walks through the door, making a passing comment to Andrew, passing on her best wishes. “She’s 5’9, fifteen years old, has blonde hair and brown eyes, right?” Hugh calls out from the kitchen, Andrew’s face forming a brief smile in the moment, the certainty bringing a sense of relief. “They’re putting a B.O.L.O out on her now” Hugh informs Andrew, returning to the room with his phone in his hand, “if she’s anywhere out in public, she won’t make it through the night without them finding her.” “And if she’s not?” Andrew replies, Hugh’s face losing much of the certainty it carried once the question is raised. “We’ll use what we have to look for her” Hugh answers, little else to offer besides resources. With a nod, Andrew lets out a deep breath, thanking the family for their help. “We’re wealthy, not heartless” Anne replies, a sorry look on her face indicating a genuine empathy for Andrew’s troubles, “we’ll let you know what we hear back.” Nodding, Andrew thanks them for their help, shaking their hands before departing the home in favor of their own, which he arrives to minutes later. “Where’s Sophie!?” Olivia cheerfully asks, running into her father’s arms, wrapping her own around his neck, pushing the side of her face into his shoulder as he props himself up on one knee. Opening his mouth to answer, Andrew puts one hand over the back of Olivia’s head and holds her tightly, beginning to lose control of the grave worry that consumes him. “I don’t know, sweetheart” the man says through a whisper-like sob, keeping to his knee as he cries into her shoulder. > 4th April, 2030 < Climbing down the stairs, Caden approaches the kitchen, one corner turned before he finds a largely-occupied room, faces he’s not used to seeing inhabiting it. “Mom, dad? Why are the Stewart’s here?” Caden asks, his dislike for their son not forming a dislike for them as much as others would, though their presence remains equally questionable. “Where was Sophie?” Caden asks, both of his parents approaching him without an answer, only raising more questions. “You said they’d find Sophie last night” Caden explains, still not receiving an answer, though, the prior statement begins to bring a swell of emotion upon Andrew, which Caden spots out of the corner of his eye. “Where the fuck is Sophie!?” Caden shouts, shoving the answer-less arms of his parents away, the sorrow in Andrew paling in comparison to the swell of rage within Caden. “What happened to her!?” Caden shouts further, refusing to keep his voice down, his parents refusing to make him, and the remaining guests refusing to think less of him for it. “What happened!?” Caden demands, his face scrunched up with anger, his parents unable to answer with anything to stop what he feels in that moment. Stood in the middle of the room, crying, feeling responsible for having let this come about, Caden asks one more question in a moment of fluster. “What did I do?” Caden whimpers through stunted words, prompting Andrew to push himself out of his chair, allowing him to walk up to Caden and pull him into a hug. Overwhelmed with emotions themselves, the Stewarts and Nurses watch the sight, knowing there to be no blame on Caden other than what he puts on himself. > 18th January, 2031 < “I don’t know what I would have thought if he didn’t hug me” Caden remarks, his face no longer pointed toward the camera, head unable to imagine where he’d be had he not been forgiven in that moment. “That’s what it was… It was an ‘I don’t blame you’” Caden explains, having viewed it as nothing less since that day, something that brings visible relief over the man in the doorway, clutching to the frame around him for support, “I needed it… We all needed it.” “We hadn’t known where your mother was for most of your life” Andrew calls out to Sophie, prompting the girl to turn toward him, “last we heard, she skipped town from rehab when you were two.” Looking away, Sophie takes in these new revelations, putting them aside in an effort to bring herself back to the question asked earlier. “What was the biggest mistake?” Sophie asks, her father’s disappointment in his answer as present as it was before, but his reply being given nonetheless. “Marrying your mother” Andrew responds, his gravelly voice reflected by the echo around him, an answer that satisfies Sophie, despite her cold expression suggesting otherwise. Turning back to Caden, Sophie asks him to continue. “What were the next days that followed like?” Sophie wonders aloud, returning Caden to the painful world he’s been tasked with reimagining, this hassle visually wearing him down, his posture becoming less held-together, face tired and weary. > 4th April, 2030 < “Why do you keep Logan inside all the time?” Andrew asks, hands folded, holding his chin up, a question the wealthy couple have been asked many times before. “We say it’s for convenience a lot” Anne remarks, Hugh not wishing to speak on personal outlooks, the topic coming off as uncomfortable to him, prompting him to remain silent, “I think- deep down- it’s to avoid this.” Puzzled and intrigued, Andrew nods, looking at the couple through the corner of his eye, raising a fair question. “Why is that one of the concerns you hide?” Andrew replies, admitting that most people would use that as their first answer rather than their last. Looking down, Anne fiddles with her thumbs, the answer one she hasn’t given much thought to before. “We’re the ones with the connections” Anne remarks, looking to Andrew with shame, “we can’t look scared when we have power like that.” Flashing a smirk, unable to feel much other than sorrow and grief, Andrew looks to the couple, uttering a phrase that brings a chuckle out of the pair. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown” Andrew replies, Hugh holding a disappointed grimace, his wife nodding her head in agreement. “People hate you for what you have, look down on you when they can, and view everything you do through multiple dimensions” Anne explains, letting out a concealed sigh, “it’s how the world works.” Finding common ground despite the large discrepancies between them, Andrew and the Stewarts are caught by surprise when a knock at the door presents itself. Racing down the stairs, Caden intends to be the first to the door, his father following closely behind, holding him back to allow his mother to be the one to answer. “Come in, please” Rebecca invites, a small team of private police entering the home with their hopes set on talking to Andrew. Pointing himself out, Andrew approaches the officers, his hope for good news quickly fading into the same limbo he’s been left to experience. “Can we speak to you in private, sir?” the police proceed, Andrew following the officers to a less populated corner of the home. “There’s not much left behind for us to go off of here” the officer explains, watching the life leave Andrew’s face, “the last anyone saw of her was a student that spotted her in the courtyard yesterday afternoon.” “But that’s good!” Andrew explains, the small window of time where she could have been taken would narrow down the possibilities greatly as far as Andrew would assume. “It would be very good if we had any operable cameras in that area” the officers reply, confusion beginning to return. “It’s a school yard! They don’t have cameras!?” Andrew remarks, the cold shake of the officer's head bringing on disbelief. “When the state senate struck down camera-qualifications, schools took them down to cut on costs” officers reply, sharing the father’s annoyance, “the best we can do is ask everyone around what they saw, but we’re not holding out too much hope on that.” With a groan, Andrew clenches his fists in an effort to calm himself, the officers before him trying to help guide his breathing down. “Andrew, we need you to think for us, can you do that?” the officers ask, an anger-driven Andrew nodding in response, agreeing to the request. “Child trafficking cases aren’t very common, they’re just not feasible like they used to be” the uniformed men explain, watching Andrew’s body grow relaxed, “most cases like this are committed by people that know the victim- which might be a factor here.” Tilting his head to the side, Andrew begins to wonder where the officers are going, his wonder quashed in the span of the next few seconds. “We need you to think of anyone that would do something like this, and we need to know everything about them you can recall” the officers explain, watching the flushed look on the man’s face arrive. > 18th January, 2031 < “And what did you say, dad?” Sophie asks, turning back toward her father with a look of suspenseful hope, the first true emotion she’s shown all day. Puckering his lips, Andrew looks to his daughter, feeling a deep-ridden failure to have performed his duties as a father. “I said-” Andrew begins, his voice coming off as a whisper, its contents heard throughout thanks to the echo that carries it, “I said ‘I can’t think of anyone’.” Her eyes moving to the narrow corner of her face, staring upon a blank wall, Sophie recognizes this as the moment she was doomed to the fate that awaited her. “So… If I didn’t-” Sophie begins, stopping herself and squeezing her eyes tight, a single tear streaming down her face, only beginning to speak upon skipping a piece of her response, “-I would have never gotten out?” Opening her eyes, Sophie looks back to her father, who lets tears flow freely, no longer making any attempt to stop them. “I wasn’t there when you needed me” Andrew replies, looking around the room his daughter was held prisoner in, unable to enter it fully. “It’s not your fault” Sophie remarks, surprising her father, whose lip quivers as he struggles to accept that statement as the truth. Mirroring the gift of forgiveness her father had given Caden, Sophie returns the gesture back to him, admitting that she likely would have done the same. “No one’s hands are clean in any of this” Caden replies, interjecting himself into the conversation, prompting Sophie to turn back to him, offering him her full focus. “We all played a hand in this, without knowing it and without being able to change it” Caden explains, making peace with it all in the moment, “we’d all change it if we could.” For a few seconds, the room goes quiet, Caden and Andrew solidifying their own opinions whilst Sophie silently harbors her own. “I wouldn’t” Sophie suddenly says aloud, earning the quick attention of both her father and best friend. “I would’ve never learned what I needed to if none of this happened” Sophie remarks, the same cold contrast in expression as her mother worn upon her own face, “I needed to learn.” > 5th April, 2030 < Removing himself from his car, Andrew confidently walks through the schoolyard his daughter had stood upon just two days prior, his intentions set on meeting those that oversee it. Pulling the door open, Andrew notes the lack of a lock or monitoring of the building, its entrance just as unguarded and free to move through as it was when he was a kid, before the time of monitoring every single step a student would or wouldn’t take. His arms waving from one side to another with each strut, Andrew scans the walls, not minding the students he would stumble across every now and then, finally finding a sign indicating the location of the main offices. Shoving the glass doors in, Andrew storms into the office with a fury, the lady at the front desk confused by this sudden presentation. “Who’s in charge of this institution?” Andrew asks, his words not missing a beat, the fright in the woman’s posture lending credence to her lack of immediate answer. Lowering his voice, but keeping on the stern tone, Andrew repeats his question, watching the woman reach for the phone at her desk. With ease, Andrew takes a pair of scissors from a cup of supplies and severs the landline, repeating his question for a third time. Without a word, the woman points to a room at the end of the hall, quickly hurrying for the phone from another desk once Andrew begins walking away. Fist raised, Andrew slams his hand against the door, demanding an answer from who occupies the inside. Without a sound from the other end, Andrew looks into the glass window and sees an empty office, prompting him to turn back. Just as he walks through the hall, Andrew finds a well-dressed man entering the office, greeting the frightened woman before acknowledging her scared state. “What’s wro-” the man begins, his eyes falling on Andrew before he can finish that question. “Who are you?” the man asks, looking at Andrew like he’d just kicked a puppy in the face. “Sam Wrenich, right?” Andrew replies, his finger raised toward the older man, “the president of this place- right?” Without a verbal answer, Andrew judges his accuracy by the nervous look spread from one side of Sam’s ear to the other, pleased with what he finds. With a nod and a smile, Andrew balls his hand into a fist and lays one shot into the man’s chin, sending him flying back into a row of chairs neatly placed along the wall. Pulling the door open to the secretary’s screams, Andrew drags Sam into the hall by the tie, a group of students bleeding out of their cramped classrooms. Yanking Sam to his feet, Andrew presses the man against a set of lockers, another shot sending the man straight back to the ground. Not yet satisfied, Andrew reaches down and starts dragging the man toward the bathroom, his intentions to continue the beating thwarted when a small group of teachers tackle him to the floor. “You should be protecting my daughter!” Andrew shouts, a dazed Sam crawling away with his hand pressing against his own jaw. “You let them take my daughter, you miserable cunt!” Andrew shouts, placing the blame on Sam’s shoulders, whether warranted or not. Restrained, the distraught father refuses to fight back, his anger not held against the teachers just doing their jobs. “These men are more than you’ll ever be!” Andrew shouts, continuing to lay on the insults as the sirens near, waiting for the consequences to his actions. == Generation Alpha == } The following events take place on the 4th and 5th of April, 2030, and the 18th of January, 2031 {
> 4th April, 2030 < Pressing her knees against her own chest, Sophie leans against the cold metal wall at the back of the room, her foot chained to a makeshift restraint anchored to the wall. The palms of her hands pressing against her eyes, Sophie begins to develop a headache, a result that doesn’t phase her, as her actions are made in an attempt to awaken from what she can only hope to be a terrible dream. Nothing around her to drown out the noise, aside from the faint buzzing of the light tubes above her, the sound of a voice from beyond the door captures her undivided attention. Slowly pulling her hands away from her face, Sophie looks toward the cold, metal door ahead of her, well beyond what her restraints would allow her to reach, hearing the faint voice gradually sound louder as it approaches nearer. When thrown a water bottle earlier, Sophie failed to see the figure's face, only recognizing the voice from somewhere she could not recall. “Let me go!” Sophie calls out, her voice not loud enough to be described as a shout, but not soft enough to fall out of her captor's reach, prompting an immediate silence from the other side of the door. “Do you hear me!?” Sophie exclaims, her voice growing louder, though not as loud as what she would follow with. “LET ME GO!” Sophie shouts, emphasizing the final word in her plea for release, a guttural ‘o sound’ being prolonged until her voice becomes exacerbated. Nothing loud enough to conceal the sounds from just outside the door other than Sophie’s breaths, hesitant footsteps begin to present themselves to the imprisoned young girl, almost unsure of whether or not to present herself. “I know you can hear me now!” Sophie says through bated breaths, hearing the footsteps stop immediately, her kidnapper’s attention completely set on her, just as Sophie’s own is when offered back. “You have me chained up, and you’re either gonna kill me or keep me alive… Both of which you’ll need to show yourself to do” Sophie continues, not a single footstep interrupting her, “just get it over with now.” After a few seconds, the sole of a shoe slides across the ground just outside, proving to Sophie that her abductor is just as conflicted about the situation as she is afraid of it. After another few seconds, the doorknob of the barrier between Sophie and the outside world clicks very subtly, only further adding to the tension of the moment. Knowing her captor's hand to be close, Sophie barks out another command, her orders being answered just as the final word leaves her mouth. “Just open the fucking door!” Sophie shouts, watching the rectangular entrance swing open quickly, blinding the pre-conditioned inmate with an overwhelming light from the outside world. Pulling her arm over her face, Sophie shields herself from the painful sights, her eyes directed toward the floor from behind her cover, allowing her to watch as the entrance closes up once again, returning her to the conditions of her space’s increased-occupancy. Slowly removing her arm from her face, Sophie looks to the front of the room, expecting to see the empty interior she’d become accustomed to, only to be surprised upon seeing the familiar figure adding to the landscape. Dropping her arm the rest of the way, Sophie’s mouth hangs open, her eyes widening as one word leaves her chapped lips. “Mom?” Sophie mutters, the face she finds finally making sense of the familiarity she has with the voice. As if she had forgotten what role she plays in this current situation, Sophie’s mother begins to smile, her face sporting a happy expression upon hearing her title spoken from her eldest daughter’s mouth. “Mom?” Sophie says again, again struggling to get to her feet, this call of her mother’s title holding more fear and anger, something the older woman doesn’t pick up until a few moments later. “Mom, what the fuck!?” Sophie shouts, collapsing to the ground once more upon failing to adequately stand, now resorting to pulling with all her remaining strength at the restraints she’s held back by, desperate to break free. “Don’t be mad!” her mother empathetically pleads, both hands held out as if that would calm her offspring, the reality of her actions only beginning to set in. “What the fuck!?” Sophie shouts again, frantically trying to break the chains she’s locked into, which pushes her mother into action, her efforts to calm Sophie down being shoved away by her desperate victim. “Let me go!” the young girl cries, her voice growing higher the more her throat begins to hurt, each cry for help only further adding to the stress her vocal chords begin to undertake. Panic beginning to creep in, Sophie’s mother begins to pull back from her daughter’s person, realizing that a failure to act will result in her daughter breaking out from the ties that bind. In an act of desperation, Sophie’s mother takes her dominant hand and forces her daughter’s head against the metal wall behind her, the brief scuffle ending as quickly as it had begun. Slumped over, Sophie drops to the floor, her mother frantically pressing her fingers against her neck to feel for a pulse, the discovery of which offering her a wave of relief. “Okay Morgan… What do we do now?” Sophie’s mother begins asking, her own inner thoughts being spoken aloud, the deed she has to maintain control not yet having been completed. Making her decision, Morgan pushes herself to her feet and runs for the door, quickly bursting out of the room and running for her car. Laid on her side, Sophie sleeps peacefully in her unconscious daze, a state of being which proves to be one of the only times she can expect such serenity for the moment being. In the distance, the sound of chains being unloaded from a trunk begin to rattle upon the asphalt, their travel closer toward Sophie’s confinement suggesting the next stage of Morgan’s plan to already be in effect. = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = > 18th January, 2031 < “I need to take a breather” Andrew mutters, removing himself from the room and walking out into the open air, leaving Caden behind to continue the line of questioning. Sitting in silence for a few seconds, Caden looks up at Sophie, her eyes blankly staring into the lens, mouth remaining silent as her ears listen out for the following question. “When you woke up, what did you find?” Caden asks, convincing himself that blurting the questions out will make the answers hurt less. “Chains” Sophie replies, hands still loosely draped over each other in her lap, legs remaining crossed, face cold and stiff. “I had two cuffs tied around my ankles, and one really thick chain wrapped around those” Sophie replies, her face remaining blank in expression, frozen toward the camera while her eyes drift to the side of the room, a metal hook on the wall close to the floor remaining in sight as she continues, “they were held to that hook for the rest of the spring.” Looking off into empty space, Sophie begins to list the other simple things she had seen, nothing different from before aside from her restraints. “It was the same room, the same lights, the same silence” Sophie continues, eyes finally sliding back toward the camera, the fluorescent lights reflecting off her glossy lips, “the same thoughts to match.” Squinting his eyes, Caden continues with his previously made requirements, inquiring further into the thoughts provided. Finally breaking her expression very briefly, just to allow her lip to furrow before returning to its original place, Sophie acknowledges the thoughts. “I wanted to die” she explains, the statement bringing a cold rush of air over the back of Caden’s neck, “I thought anyone that would question Morgan would just believe her… I’d be trapped there forever.” “Why would they have believed Morgan?” Caden asks, digging deeper into the statement before backing off, almost disappointed in himself for interrupting as quickly as he had. “Because she was the mom in that situation, and most people don’t question what women say” Sophie replies, her head tilting as she answers the remainder of the question with her head turned toward Caden, “she got unlucky with the legal system once before… That kind of miracle doesn’t happen twice.” Wrinkling his nose at that answer, Caden glances back toward the clipboard, silently reading the next question to himself, having less trouble asking this one compared to the rest. “What do you remember from that day?” Caden replies, feeling like the worst part had already passed, the less hearty stuff now to come before the rollercoaster that their questionnaire would end with eventually began. > 4th April, 2030 < “Answer me!” Sophie shouts, a bandage covering the back of her head, stitches keeping a wound shut, her own blood dried on the wall behind her. Desperate for an answer from the woman responsible for her abduction, Sophie calls for the attention of anyone, at this point no longer caring who it is that answers, just longing for the response of someone who does. Left to her own thoughts, Sophie scans the room for the thousandth time since her consciousness returned, the same basic essentials left by her mother in the places she last left them. Isolated from the outside world, Sophie is left with little to pass the time she’s now uncertain of, not an ounce of daylight or moonlight to judge by. With a plethora of light, Sophie looks to her side and picks up a notebook, its cover perfectly smooth and pages perfect, not a bend to be found. Taking the notebook into her hand, Sophie runs her palm over the pristine cover, keeping her composure under control with the help of the sensation of unbridled perfection. Beside the notebook, a package of brand new pens were left, the entertainment she’s left with at least tasteful to her interests. With a loud breath, Sophie gently places the notebook back to the place it was left in, covering it with the assortment provided to her, not wanting to let the perfection of the new journal be disturbed in any way. Drowsy, Sophie slowly lowers herself to the floor, resting the side of her head atop the concrete finish of the room. Closing her eyes, Sophie lets the day pass on, hoping that the following wakeup call will put an end to her troubles. > 18th January, 2031 < “I lost track of the days immediately” Sophie explains, her voice carrying weight, but feeling free enough to speak without the pain carried by memory. “By the time I was let out of the room, I thought I had been in there for six years” Sophie explains, citing her mother’s frequent trips in and out to be her only clue as to the time of day. “It was a lot less time than that, but I didn’t know that back then… I didn’t know that until recently” Sophie explains, “she knew that… She used that.” “How did she use that?” Caden asks, his voice lowered, keeping a disassociated tone in his reflection, sounding sickly at times. Looking away from the camera, Sophie’s eyes drop to her hands, which anxiously fiddle with themselves, fingers uncomfortably wrapping around other fingers, her wrists beginning to wear tension like jewelry. “She told me that I would quickly lose track of time the longer I was in there a few days later” Sophie explains, “said that days would feel like months.” Her top set of teeth pressing into her lower lip, Sophie brings her stress down by running her right thumb over the knuckles on her left hand, the smooth skin as close to the perfect cover of the notebook she can find. With patterned breathing, Sophie’s subtle wheezing comes to an end, her head halting its rush of thoughts, and her eyes soon return to the camera. “From what she told me, I can sort of piece together how long I was in there, and how long she said that time was” Sophie explains, stopping herself for a moment so as to not lose control over her emotions, “she said the first week was actually two months.” Biting his own tongue, Caden stops himself from interfering, allowing Sophie to continue of her own volition, something she wastes no time in doing. “She said the second week was another month and a half, and the next two weeks were four months a piece” Sophie explains, recalling her own regression into insanity. Glancing back to the board atop his knee, Caden asks the next question listed, one written in lighter ink than the earlier ones. “When did you stop feeling anything and why?” Caden asks, his voice completely failing him just as the last word is uttered, disappearing when he needed it most. “After the first six weeks, which Morgan had made seem like a year and a half” Sophie replies, pausing for a moment, only continuing with a broken statement, one that suggests why she stopped feeling anything. “She said they had ended the search” Sophie continues, unable to persist speaking without the need to clear her throat, “no one was looking for me anymore.” > 5th April, 2030 < Awoken from the sound of the metal hatches just outside unlocking, Sophie jolts out of her sleep and backs herself against the blood-stained wall, covering her face before the light can blind her again. The door closing behind Morgan, Sophie becomes concerned, the flood of light not having accompanied her mother into the room. “Let me go” Sophie says again, this time with a tired tone, her cares only being with her longed-for freedom. Head hung, Morgan walks to the corner of the room and drags a chair along the concrete ground, earning an unpleasant sound from the uncapped legs. Sitting down, Morgan looks at Sophie, the girl repeating her request, hoping for an answer worth holding onto hope for. “I can’t let you go sweetheart” Morgan replies, quickly challenged for her reasoning. “I am your mother” Morgan reassures, almost astonished at the idea that Sophie would argue with her, as if she had lost complete sight of the picture, “I don’t need a reason to want to spend time with my daughter!” Lowering her arm from her face, Sophie looks toward Morgan with great disdain, her expression suggesting a readiness to kill the woman that brought her into the world right then and there. “You’re my kidnapper” Sophie replies, immediately earning herself a harsh tone from Morgan, who lifts a finger to her, as if to warn her to tread lightly. “You are my daughter- you will not speak to me that way” Morgan responds, her attempt to further her own dialogue cut short when Sophie defiantly sends a wad of spit hurling toward her eye. Dumbfounded, Morgan lunges out of her chair after a moment of thought and sends her hand crashing against the side of Sophie’s face. The time between their last encounter having grown them apart greatly, the feeling of Morgan’s hand across her face sends Sophie into shutdown, almost as if she were beaten into docility. “Do not treat me like one of your friends- I am your mother” Morgan shouts back, her daughter curled into a ball before her feet, allowing her own frame to tower over that of her offsprings, her back arched in a leant pose, one that suggests the midst of a scolding, one finger still raised. “You’ve locked me in a basement and chained me to the wall” Sophie replies, immediately finding her concerns to be considered pointless, ramblings of a moody teenager as far as Morgan is concerned. “I can’t have you hurting yourself, Sophie” Morgan replies, her daughter looking toward her with a confused expression, “you get yourself hurt like that, and you expect me to let you keep doing it?” Jaw lowered, Sophie looks at her mother as if she were a product of an institution, trying to figure out what is cycling within the older woman’s head. “Are you saying I was the reason why you clubbed me over the head?” Sophie replies, an amused scoff coming from her mother’s face, the following response sending Sophie into a full-blown panic. “Stop being dramatic, honey” Morgan retorts, waving her hand in Sophie’s face, “I’m your mother- I could never.” Extending her hand to the chain restraining her to the wall, Sophie watches the unconcerned response in her mother’s body language, feeling the dread of what she’s truly dealing with. “I’m your mother. I have to do what I think is best for you honey” Morgan explains, her eyes looking along the chains depressingly, “even if it’s something more extreme.” Shaking her head, Sophie lunges at the chain, crawling to the deadbolts she’s locked to before desperately yanking at them in hopes of her escape. “Honey, I told you this is for your own good!” Morgan shouts, strolling over to her daughter and attempting to intervene. In a state of panic, Sophie turns away from the chain and looks her mother in the eyes, a survival mechanic taking over in a moment of absolute necessity. Taking the length of the chain tightly into her hand, Sophie pulls the string of metal around her mother’s neck and begins to pull, her knee pressing against the small of Morgan’s back, giving her leverage. Quickly losing strength in her tired knees, Sophie begins to gradually lose her leverage as quickly as she’d gained it, allowing Morgan’s own instincts to kick in. Pushing herself back, Morgan crushes her daughter between her own body weight and the metal wall behind her, a wave of relief coming over as the pull of the chain around her neck dissipates. Slumped on the ground, desperate to catch her breath, Sophie gasps for air whilst watching Morgan crawl out of reach, her hands pulling her closer to the door. “I told you this was for your own good” Morgan mutters beneath her breath, pulling herself to her feet once at the door. “Let me go” Sophie mutters through bated breath, her mother’s hand flicking the lightswitch off, leaving her victim in the dark. “Let me go!” Sophie shouts again, watching her mother stagger through the doorway, slowly pulling the door shut on her way out, enveloping the entire room in a pitch black nothingness. > 18th January, 2031 < “Can you show the camera the scar?” Caden asks, satisfied with the ability to check that question off the list. With ease, Sophie pulls the collar of her shirt with her thumb, pressing the edge of her top to the very start of her cleavage, exposing an entire chest full of scratches and markings, her throat etched with an ever-present marking of a chain imprint. I woke up the morning after not being able to breath” Sophie explains, slowly returning her collar to its original placement, the space between her thumb and index finger gently pressing against her neck. “She wanted to scar me the way that I scarred her” Sophie explains, eyes squinting as she challenges herself on that prior statement, “or, at least I think that’s why she did it… She never really told me.” “Why do you think she did it?” Caden asks, catching Sophie by surprise, her silent response of lifting her chin forward gesturing for a question more specific. “I meant, what do you think was the true reason for why she choked you?” Caden reiterates, an easy answer, a sufficient answer, and the honest answer all resulting in different responses, all of which are offered by the woman sitting before the camera. “Easy answer? She’s crazy and she was mad at me” Sophie replies, nostrils flaring as she responds, her facial tone settling down when she approaches the second half, “sufficient answer? An eye for an eye.” Face now souring, Sophie contemplates for a minute before answering, her mind knowing what her mouth ultimately says, but never wants to speak. “Honest answer?” Sophie begins, pausing to look away from the camera, nodding to herself in assurance, confident in her reply, “she couldn’t help it.” Head hung, Caden places his clipboard to the side, capturing Sophie’s attention. “I need a breather” Caden explains, brushing the back of his head with his hand as he stands from his chair, walking for the door as Sophie turns off the camera. > 5th April, 2030 < “Can we talk?” Morgan asks, opening the door just a slight amount, the lack of light inside prompting the interior to brighten with a single line the size of the crack in the door. “Let me go” Sophie replies, refusing to indulge her mother’s unstable thought processes, her request being brushed aside by the older woman, who keeps the lights off and enters of her own volition, the wide-open door bathing the room in sunlight. “Let me go” Sophie repeats, an answer only coming from her mother’s lips the second time around. “No, I can’t do that” Morgan replies, immediately challenged in a less vulgar fashion, her daughter still testing the waters of what she can and can’t get away with. “I can’t let you leave me again” Morgan reassures, her face falling into disappointment, “you’ll tell your father and I’ll never get to see you again.” Her arm covering her face, Sophie braces herself from the harsh light, keeping her head covered from Morgan’s view. “I’m not staying with you” Sophie replies, her answers brief, even if not by choice, by necessity, her energy depleting with every hour spent in her confinement. “Honey, I can’t lose you again” Morgan responds, eager to see her daughter’s face, her following request being denied outright. “Sophia Anne, let me see your face right now” Morgan exclaims, a stern voice prompting the girl to slowly begin to lower her arm, defiance being something she no longer has the power to keep up. Puffy red eyes first emerging from cover, engulfed by sunlight, the remainder of her tired face brings a smile to Morgan’s mouth until her neck appears from cover, a bright red line from one side to the other, capped off with a white outline of chain links in the middle. “What happened to your neck?” Morgan asks, her daughter shaking her head as her eyes shut tightly, her face being buried back into the fold of her arm. Tears flooding down her face, Sophie sobs into her elbow as her mother kneels down by her side, the touch of her open palm resting upon her knee momentarily, which prompts Sophie to pull away. “I genuinely can’t tell if you’re being serious or not” Sophie replies from within her arm, unaware of the concern in her mother’s face. “What are you talking about?” Morgan queries, her voice somber and concerned, a response that prompts Sophie to lift her head, a lost look on her face as she shakes her face. “You woke me up by choking me with the chain” Sophie replies, her mother’s face sporting disbelief, Morgan immediately refusing such a claim. “I would never do that to you!” Morgan replies, pulling away from her daughter out of shock, horrified at such a notion, her heart melting at the quiver of her daughter’s lip. “Why did you do this?” Sophie asks, the first question she carries with her finally being brought up, raised to the only woman that can answer it. “I- I don’t know” Morgan replies, the defeated look in Sophie’s face as she rolls her eyes and collapses backward only adding to the overflow of emotion propping Morgan up, “it was a spurt of the moment reaction! I thought it was fate!” “So you lock your own daughter in a dungeon and refuse to let her go?” Sophie cuts back, quickly calling her mother’s decision into question, “keeping me here is only going to make this worse for you.” Shaking her head, Morgan looks away from her daughter, refusing to think about the consequences to her actions. “No, no… I’ve covered all the bases” Morgan replies, returning to her feet and beginning to frantically pace around the room. “No one’s coming to look for you here” Morgan explains, a smile of satisfaction coming over her face, a reaction opposed by Sophie's own, her head shaking. “I texted my friend just before you picked me up” Sophie replies, a small smile of pride coming over her face, “I may not have said much, but I mentioned seeing a beige van at the end of the street.” As quickly as her smile appeared, it vanishes from her face upon the retrieval of a surprise gadget from Morgan’s back pocket. “Signal jammer… It’s been following me everywhere for the last seven years!” Morgan replies gleefully, “it was running when we ran into each other at the green! That text never went through.” Lip quivering again, Sophie lets out a gasp, the realization slowly dawning upon her that no one has an idea of where she is. “No, no honey! This is a good thing!” Morgan pleads, dropping to her knees and crawling up to her daughter, a gesture which causes Sophie to pull away. “I’m not going to hurt you!” Morgan explains, a cornered Sophie having nowhere else to turn away, her mother’s hand slowly stroking her hair behind her ear, “I just want us to be a family again!” Eyes watery, Morgan looks at her daughter with an empathetic glare, Sophie’s head finally pulling away from the wall, her expression quickly turning to one induced by rage and fueled by defiance. Her strength fleeting, Sophie replies in the tone of a whisper, only one word being used to perfectly illustrate exactly what opinion she has on the proposed proposition. “Never” Sophie lets float from her lips, the disappointed look on her mother’s face as she shakes her head bringing deep satisfaction within the core of the frightened young victim. “I hope that will change over time” Morgan replies, nodding to her daughter before staggering back to her feet, turning for the door without another word from Sophie. Having given up the hope of peacefully being allowed to leave, the captive survivor watches her mother stroll through the doorway and flick the light on, returning her daughter to an existence free from never-ending darkness. “Goodnight, Sophia” Morgan mutters back, her daughter refusing to answer, watching the older woman walk away through cold, judgmental eyes. Hanging her head, Morgan shuts the door and locks it behind herself, letting her footsteps across the rocky asphalt precede the silence she leaves her daughter with, a treatment equal to what her daughter provided to her. == Generation Alpha == Series Premiere
“Please state your name, your date of birth and age, today’s date, and the generation you belong to” a soft voice asks, the man who makes the request taking a seat beside a filming camera, his eyes kept forward. Sat in a cold, outdated school chair, a girl in a sideless shirt and denim pants wipes away tears from her tired, red eyes. Feet crossed over each other, her light boots firmly placed on the floor, the girl places her attention on the camera, responding to what she’s been asked. “My name is Sophie Amari, my date of birth is the third of April, 2016, and I am fifteen years old” the girl replies, pressing her lips together as her folded hands unclasp, allowing her to wipe persistent tears. Sucking in a breath of fresh air, the young girl looks around the room, hoping her mind can be taken away from the thoughts flooding her head if only her eyes would find something else to focus on. The room surrounding her being sturdy in appearance, Sophie’s sights travel from one end of the steel-reinforced room, not a window in sight, the only light source coming from fluorescent tubes and the open door just behind the young man equal in age, where an older gentleman looks on patiently. “Sophie?” Caden calls out, regaining her attention for a moment, her eyes shooting back to him before falling with her head hung. “Caden, we should just let her be with her-” the older man in the doorway begins to speak, immediately interrupted by the girl. “No, dad… I asked him to do this” Sophie answers, watching her father’s worried demeanor fade into something sadder. “I’m sorry” the man replies, head hung and arms folded, keeping himself from having to look at the sights, “please, continue.” Turning back to Sophie at her father’s request, Caden repeats the questions remaining unanswered, directing her to respond with her attention to the camera. Her mouth becoming dry, Sophie faces the lens before the questions can be reiterated, making herself comfortable with staring into the overlooking recorder. “What is today’s date, and what is the name of the generation you belong to?” Caden repeats, his eyes kept upon the girl, who’s focus remains upon where it’s requested. “Today’s date is the eighteenth of January, 2031” Sophie answers, quickly becoming overwhelmed with emotion once again, forcing herself into silence once more. Placing his clipboard to the side, Caden removes himself from his chair and waves off the girl’s father, approaching her himself. Resting his hand upon Sophie’s shoulder, Caden climbs down to his knees and tells the girl to look him in the eyes, her puffy face struggling to maintain eye contact. “We don’t need to do this” Caden assures, beginning with the reminder he’s already uttered multiple times by this point, arguing upon it just the same as he had each time prior. “We do… we do” Sophie replies, her hand falling from her face as she nods. Accepting her answer, Caden rubs the ball of her shoulder with his thumb and sheepishly returns to his seat, not wishing to continue with the request, though, forcing himself to do so at his friend’s behest. With a sigh, Caden lowers himself into his seat and picks his clipboard back up, eyes falling upon the girl again. With a deep breath, Sophie turns away from Caden and looks back into the camera, preparing herself for the final piece of her opening statement. “Please state the generation you belong to” Caden repeats, Sophie’s eyes going cold, no other preliminary question to save her once this answer is given, the floodgates soon open themselves with a roar. Refusing to live in fear of this impending line of questions, Sophie bears through the final inquiry with an emotionless stare, her thoughts turning off as if she had just chosen to flip a switch. “I belong to the Hidden Generation...” Sophie answers, both Caden and her father looking on with bated breath, knowing what waters will rush through the open channels with the conclusion to Sophie’s response, “...Referred to as ‘Generation Alpha’.” = Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = } The following events take place on the 3rd of April, 2030 and the 18th of January, 2031 { > 3rd April, 2030 < “Happy birthday to you!” an older man and a younger daughter sing, surprising a semi-groggy Sophie, who remains partially tucked beneath her bed covers. Without warning, the younger daughter races past her father, who instinctively pulls a tray of food back in the nick of time, watching his eldest offspring be taken into the embrace of his youngest. “Thanks, Liv” Sophie mutters, looking to her father as her chin is pressed into her sister’s shoulder, “and thank you, dad.” Without a word, the girl’s father leans in and presses a kiss onto the top of her head, his younger daughter being taken into his arms and lifted over his head to a chorus of giggling. “Let’s let the birthday girl eat before she gets ready for school!” the man amusingly tells the child above his shoulders as he departs the room, his attention immediately called for. “I still have to go to school!?” Sophie calls out, watching her father look over his shoulder with a smile. “I went to college in the middle of a pandemic, so you’ll be going on your birthday, cupcake!” the man calls back, the disappointment on Sophie’s face quickly vanishing upon the second look at the preferred breakfast assortment residing in her lap. “Sophie, Caden’s gonna be here soon!” the father shouts into the depths of the home, a half hour passing between his wishes for a happy birthday and the counting clock. “You could always save yourself the trouble of getting us ready for school if you let us home it!” Sophie replies, adjusting her top as the doorbell rings, prompting a shift of all three heads in the room. “I got it!” Olivia shouts, racing for the door with little resistance from her sister or father. “Hi Ms. Kirkpatrick!” Olivia shouts, her arms wrapping themselves around the waist of the uniformed lady at the door. “Hello, Olivia… How’s your morning, Andrew?” Ms. Kirkpatrick asks aloud, watching the home’s patriarch approach her with a sealed lunchbox. “It’s busy, Elaine” Andrew says with a warm smile, letting the container’s strap slip from his fingers to the woman’s. “Why don’t you get yourself buckled in the car, and I’ll meet you out there in just a minute?” Ms. Kirkpatrick enthusiastically mutters to Olivia, watching her dash to the van without another word. “How’s she been doing lately?” Andrew asks, whispering toward the woman away from Sophie’s ears, “I’ve been asking for updates, but none of the teacher’s have been getting back to me reliably.” With a pleased look, Elaine brings on good news, taking a few steps into the home to ensure her voice gets within range of the man’s ears. “They say there’s little reason in their eyes to expect her to need the care after next year” Elaine answers, a happy look coming over Andrew’s face. “Does that mean what I think it does?” Andrew asks, keeping himself from breaking out into a shout of excitement as Elaine affirms her declaration. “They think she’ll be ready for actual school in about a year’s time!” the woman answers, the relief over Andrew’s face being enough to bring a smile to her own. “It’s about time!” Sophie calls back, their whispers not having been enough to keep their words from her ears, “it’s already hard to tell she’s autistic apart from the hugging.” Amusedly rolling his eyes, Andrew pats his daughter on the shoulder and tells her to finish getting ready before turning back to the woman and thanking her for all she’s done. “I’m ready, Ms. Kirkpatrick!” Olivia shouts from the backseat of the large van, prompting Elaine to use that as her cue to move on with her day. “I’ll see you this evening, Elaine!” Andrew blurts out from his door, shutting it behind himself upon concluding with, “have a good day at class, honey!” > 18th January, 2031 < “What do you remember about that day?” Caden asks, a bright, orange light recently added to the limited space to better illuminate Sophie’s face, his question being a soft introduction to the following line of dialogue. “It was my birthday, Olivia and dad woke me up with their singing and served me breakfast in bed” Sophie replies, both arms folded in her lap as one leg lays across the other, her dominant foot pressed against the floor whilst her other dangles from atop her thigh. “I was-” Sophie begins, choking up for a moment before subduing the urge to stammer over her words, “I waited for you to drive me to school, and left when you blew your horn at me… Like you always do.” His clipboard lacking a pen, Caden looks at the paper held to the board and asks the next question on the sheet. “Why did your father insist on you going to school that day?” Caden asks, Andrew immediately looking at his daughter, fearing what she’d answer with. “He was born in 1996 and had me when he was a few months away from turning twenty…” Sophie begins, her empathetic eyes falling upon the man she knows blames himself for what is still to be asked. “...He went to college during Covid and didn’t like the lack of interaction with others- just like most people that experienced it” Sophie answers, wiping her hair behind her ear, “he wanted me to be around people as often as I could, but he didn’t really have a say in that.” “Why not?” Caden interjects, specific notes on the sheet of paper in his lap demanding his interruption at specific points of interest, this point being of said intrigue. “Because most people I went to school with homed it” Sophie replies, “their parents didn’t want to waste time taking their kid to school, so they had them do it online and saved the trouble.” His intentions being to bring the conversation back to the start, Caden is interrupted when Sophie continues speaking, her introspection of society bringing him to silence. “That’s why we’re called that, y’know? Why you and I are in the ‘Hidden Generation’” Sophie explains, a smile forming in the corner of her emotionless face, “we do everything from home now, so the world never gets to see us. We’re hidden from it...and the dangers...” Biting his lip, Caden watches Sophie’s head fall, her face tilting toward the floor, all three people in the room immediately knowing what she’s bound to add. Just as expected, Sophie ends her brief tangent with the same truth Andrew and Caden had begun to expect, re-entering the conversation immediately thereafter at Caden’s behest, “...Well, not all of them.” > 3rd April, 2030 < “No one should have to go to school on their birthday” Caden explains, his statement made amidst an already-ongoing conversation, hands folded in his lap as he sinks further into his driver’s seat. “We’re thinking the same thing” Sophie answers, the side of her head resting against the back of her seat, her feet pressing against the edge of the cushion beneath her as her eyes fall upon the man behind the wheel. A silence coming over the two teenagers, Sophie interrupts the early-morning quiet with a question rooted in nothing good. “Have you ever taken this thing out of auto?” Sophie asks, a wide-eyed Caden looking at her with a look of refusal. “Number one, that’s illegal. Number two, my parents will get the alert. Number three, I don’t know how to drive!” Caden replies, listing all of the reasons to let the car do the navigation for them, all of which appear to be decent ones at worst. “The road is empty!” Sophie enthusiastically shouts, her hands spread toward the street ahead, not a car within the nearest few hundred feet. “Again, my parents have phones, Sophie!” Caden answers, almost laughing at the suggestion, “not to mention, I don’t know how to drive!” Putting on a pouty face, Sophie tilts her head to one side of her body and sports a soft voice, trying her best to goade her friend into defying the rules. “Please, Caden… It’s my birthday!” Sophie replies, her legs crossing as the teen driver begins to visually give into her pleas. “Fine, but only because it’s your birthday” Caden answers, the upset look shifting to one of joy instantaneously. With a deep breath, Caden pulls the seatbelt over his chest, the sensors in his seat immediately prompting a warning sign to appear on the dashboard. “Warning, shifting to manual intervention will require a five second haste period” the car’s guide blurts out, automatically pushing Caden’s seat forward until it senses his foot’s presence on one of the pedals. “Please engage ‘manual mode’” the guide requests, an excited Sophie watching as her friend wraps his fingers around the ignition-occupying key. In a moment of bravery, Caden turns his wrist, a single pop in the ignition beginning a pre-arranged set of five beeps, counting down from five. Hands clutching the steering wheel awkwardly, Caden pushes his feet down on the pedal until his foot is practically on the floor itself, causing the engine to roar. “Oh my- shit!” Caden shouts, a rush of laughter coming from Sophie as he lets off the gas, watching the vehicle slowly climb down from its regular speed. “Push down slowly!” Sophie exclaims, guiding her friend toward a higher speed the way she’s seen in videos, the process easier once the vehicle is already in motion. His hands simply keeping the wheel within his palms ahead of the straight-pointed road, Caden puts on a smile, the day beginning with his first true encounter with the open road. “This is awesome!” Sophie shouts with child-like glee, watching the scenery pass her as Caden returns the vehicle to its automated mode, his phone buzzing just before doing so. “Shit, my mom’s calling me!” Caden shouts, pulling his phone to his ear and unbuckling himself from the seat. > 18th January, 2031 < “You played it off really well… Seriously” Sophie explains, a nod coming from her friend, one with little joy, yet obvious appreciation. “He said there was a driver ahead that was driving weird, and he wanted to slow the car down in case they got too close to them” Sophie explains to her father, watching an amused look come over her his face, suggesting there have been worse things to be worried for than some childish fun with a good ending. The laughter coming to an end, Caden moves onto the following question listed, one that takes him a moment to muster up the courage to ask. “What- uh,” Caden begins, stumbling over himself as his eyes read the question faster than his voice can speak up to ask it. “It’s okay, Caden” Sophie explains, her eyes finally removing themselves from the camera lens, placed upon her friend as he looks up toward her, “I want to.” A puff of air leaving his lungs through his nose, Caden nods briefly before looking down, memorizing the following question before returning his gaze to her. “Sophie” Caden begins, the start of the following question prompting the girl to return her attention to the camera lens, “what was your last day of school like?” > 3rd April, 2030 < “Good morning, class!” a teacher loudly calls out, her voice echoing amidst the largely empty room, only a handful of students walking through the doors by the time the bell sounds. “Good morning, Mrs. Danielson!” a full class shouts, the sounds of their voices being distorted by the stereo at the back of the room falling short of the ability to present the feedback equally. “Everyone scroll to your textbooks and flip to page one hundred and thirty-eight” Mrs. Danielson calls out, the six students seated in real desks shadowed by the projected screen in the back of the room with a higher-capacity video call. “Does anyone have any questions about this week’s test?” Mrs. Danielson calls out, watching a few hands rise on the screen, all of which ignored by Sophie’s voice right beside her, not a hand raised before she had begun speaking. “Is the test going to be handed out on paper, too?” Sophie asks, her question answered with a response that she hadn’t been hoping for. “No, it will be on the app, sweetie” Mrs. Danielson replies, her fingertips placed atop Sophie’s desk as another student on the video call requests her attention. “Happy birthday, Ms. Amari” Mrs. Danielson whispers, only addressing the online student once her wishes for a pleasant day have been offered. “Raise your hand, Logan” Mrs. Danielson answers, her instructions falling on deaf ears, Logan’s question being raised the moment he recognizes her attention being given. “Why don’t the classies have to raise their hands?” Logan asks, a question which Mrs. Danielson is more than happy to answer. “Because they made the effort to come into school instead of doing it from home” Mrs. Danielson replies, taking joy in voicing her preference for in-school attendees, “they get to speak freely.” “Isn’t that discriminatory?” another student asks, beginning to present a fleet of voices coming through the speakers at once, resulting in the sound of distortion filling the room. “One at a time, none of us can hear you if you’re all speaking at once!” Mrs. Danielson answers, earning little cooperation in return. Her eyes rolling, the woman returns to her desk at the front of the room and sits in her chair, her hands rummaging through her purse before emerging with two pills for her headache. “If they wanna talk so bad, they should actually show the fuck up” one of the in-house students calls out, earning agreement from the small number of her peers. “Language, Izzy” Mrs. Danielson replies, not disagreeing with her statement, instead correcting her usage of choice words. Scrolling through the screen, Mrs. Danielson presses a button and refreshes the entire room, one video feed popping up in little windows at a time. “Alright, the next time any of you at home speak without being called on, you’ll all lose voice privileges for five minutes” Mrs. Danielson explains, earning a few groans and eyerolls for her troubles. “Logan, would you like to raise your hand and then ask your question?” Mrs. Danielson proceeds to ask, a disgruntled teenager doing as instructed, asking the same question, which is answered in the same fashion. “Isn’t that discriminatory?” Logan asks, a gesture which Mrs. Danielson scoffs at beneath her breath. “Discrimination is done by people using power against people they deem to be inferior to them” Mrs. Danielson answers, pacing around the front of the room with her hands folded behind her back, “I can’t discriminate against any of you, students that get to choose whether to learn from home or in person- a choice that I don’t get to make” Mrs. Danielson concludes, “any rebuttal?” Her eyes watching one hand after another lift into the air, Mrs. Danielson takes a deep breath, preparing for a long class, an ongoing dread that Sophie shares a great deal of with her. > 18th January, 2031 < “It turns out, people don’t like when they don’t get to have convenience and superior treatment” Sophie scoffs, her cold exterior far from the lively attitude her father and close friend know her to have. “I’ve had a lot of time to think” Sophie continues, neither her father, nor her friend willing to step in and end her ramblings, preferring it more when they don’t have to talk. “I love my dad, and I know he’ll always be my biggest supporter” Sophie explains, her eyes directed toward her father for a moment before finding the camera again, “but we’re all people… We need critics.” Looking toward the ground again, Sophie takes in a remembrance of the world, recalling its current state and beginning to question the way life is experienced in it. “No one leaves their homes anymore… Everything’s done from the comfort of their own bedroom” Sophie remarks, a small smile rekindling in the corner of her mouth. “Our parents will never be anything but our biggest supporters at their very core” Sophie explains, licking her lips before looking back into the camera, “no one has critics now… Critics don’t exist, and parents can live forever without their kid being anything other than a perfect, undisputed work of art.” Her eyes returning to Caden, Sophie uses the glance to suggest a move onto the next question, a gesture which only helps to further lessen Caden’s spirits. Looking down at the paper, Caden quickly averts his eyes, looking off into the corner of the room. “I’m okay with this, Caden” Sophie calls back, knowing where the hesitation comes from, the man’s rebuttal confusing her at first, her thoughts not having included the response of everyone else. “What if I’m not okay with this?” Caden replies, holding back the tears forming in his eye, the memories of a simpler time making the following months even worse to look back on. “I need you to be” Sophie answers, seeing the white markings of Caden’s teeth on his lip, his posture presenting someone without much power to continue. Removing herself from her seat, Sophie approaches Caden, who watches each step she takes, his eyes looking directly up at her face. Crouching down, Sophie places her hand against her friend’s shoulder, looking him in the eyes before explaining again that she needs him to follow through on his promise. “It’s tough for the both of us, but I need you to do this for me” Sophie explains, watching Caden’s lips pucker, pulling themselves into the corner of his mouth, “I need this.” Nodding in silence, Caden agrees to continue, prompting the girl to wipe away a tear from her smile-adorned face, her feet carrying her back to the seat she had just left. Preparing herself, Sophie looks back into the camera, preparing for the next question to be asked. “Okay…” Caden says, mentally preparing himself for the next question, mustering up the courage to ask it all in one quick line of speech, “how did your next eight months begin?” > 3rd April, 2030 < “Hey, hold up!” Izzy’s voice shouts, prompting the pair to turn back, immediately asking for what she needed. “I got Logan’s address out of the attendance book before class started” Izzy confesses, bringing a smile upon both friend’s faces, “I wanted to know if you guys wanted to egg his house after school?” Looking toward each other, the difference in expression becomes instantly noticeable. “I’d love to, but my mom wants me to come back home right after I drop Sophie off” Caden explains, citing the earlier driving experience as the cause for his parent’s concerns. “Oh, come on! It’s my birthday!” Sophie replies, trying to gode Caden into defying the rules one more time, her efforts ultimately proving fruitless this second time around. “I can’t… She’ll keep me from using the car” Caden answers, his priorities set on keeping benefits he has rather than squandering them. “I totally would if I could, though!” Caden clarifies, his eyes set on Izzy as he answers, prompting her attention to be redirected toward the celebratory lady. “What about you, Sophia?” Izzy inquires, her eyes falling upon Sophie with hope, the enthused expression on her classmate’s face suggesting she’d found herself an accomplice. “Yeah, I’m in!” Sophie replies, her answer prompting Caden to roll his eyes. “I hope you don’t get yourself in trouble” Caden answers, spinning himself, his feet carrying him away from Sophie, who responds to him as he walks away. “It’s my birthday, my dad can’t get mad at me!” she shouts back, her humorous answer being the final thing spoken to the man before the end of the school day. “Meet me by the green out in the front” Izzy explains, promising to make this a birthday she’d never forget, “hit the grocery store, do our duties, and then I’ll bring you home.” “Sounds like a plan!” Sophie replies, splitting away from Izzy and walking off, their plans coming across as nothing less than bulletproof. A few hours pass and the final bell rings, dismissing the students for the rest of the afternoon. “Enjoy the remainder of your days, everyone!” an older teacher calls out, the four students in physical attendance packing their bags as the online students power their cameras down. Bursting through the front doors, Sophie immediately spots Caden just as he slumps into the driver’s seat, a crowd of exiting students that barely numbers in the double digits making it easy to spot him out. “I’ll see you back at home, Caden!” Sophie shouts, noticing her voice to have failed to reach her friend’s ears, his door already having slammed shut by the time she ends her sentence. Stood in the lot for another few seconds, Sophie watches Caden’s car slowly roll out of the parking lot, navigating the narrow roadways before finding the main street, a single left turn allowing Caden’s presence to vanish from her sight. Now standing in an empty front lot, Sophie turns her attention toward the green, the one strap of her backpack draped over her shoulder rattling as her bag shuffles from one side to another, each step taking her closer to her destination. “To Izzy, I’m in the green and waiting… Are you on your way?” Sophie speaks aloud, waiting for a moment before a voice from her wrist speaks back to her. “Okay, I’m texting Izzy ‘I’m in the green and waiting, are you on your way?’” the electronic register speaks back, putting a humored smirk on Sophie’s face, “do you want me to send it as a message?” Complying with her watch’s request, Sophie lets the text send off toward its target, allowing her to look around, a blooming spring painting the green in various colors. Head turning toward one side of the grassy null, Sophie squints toward a beige van parked on the sidewalk a few yards away from her, peaking the young girl’s interest. “To Izzy, is that you in the beige van at the end of the street?” Sophie says aloud again, immediately granting her watch permission to send the text. Her attention fully placed upon the car, Sophie doesn’t move for a few daunting seconds, each tick of a clock beginning to feel like minutes of pins and needles shooting down her neck. Soon after the text is sent, the van begins to slowly wheel itself forward, a sight that brings a look of relief upon Sophie’s face. Picking her backpack up, Sophie walks away from her seat on the green and approaches the van, making it to the side of the road just as the van slows to a stop. “Hey, thanks for driving me” Sophie says without a second thought, pulling the passenger’s door open and climbing inside as her watch begins to speak once more. “Messages failed to send, would you like me to try again?” the watch exclaims, prompting Sophie to stop everything, her eyes frozen in place upon the device on her wrist, realization beginning to set in that Izzy hadn’t responded to her voiced appreciation. Keeping her eyes away from the driver’s seat, Sophie’s body begins to tremble, an ominous feeling coming over her as she slowly tries to lower herself away from the vehicle. In an instant, Sophie pulls her hand away from the passenger’s door and begins to return to the pavement below, a stiff blow to the back of her head bringing any attempt at escape to a stop. With a grunt, Sophie’s head is thrown toward the door, the side of her face crashing against the edge of the window frame, the second impact being the one that put her into unconsciousness. In a hurry, the driver escapes the vehicle and opens the sliding doors to the backseat, all whilst Sophie begins to fade in and out of clarity. “What-? No!” Sophie growls, putting up a minimal fight at best, the concussion brought on from the consecutive shots giving her no hope for safety. With minimal effort, the assailant wraps a pair of handcuffs around Sophie’s watch-adorned wrist and throws her into the backseat, clasping the free end of the cuffs to a piece of the metal interior. With force, the assailant slams the van door shut, running back into the front seat and speeding off into the mid-day. As minutes pass, the empty street becomes occupied once more, a flashy car coming to a screeching halt just beside the green. Windows rolling down, Izzy calls out for Sophie, confused when she receives no answer, finding not a single soul for miles. > 18th January 2031 < Clearing his throat, Caden looks back to the clipboard, his eyes glancing at the young woman to find her continuing to stare into the camera lens. Just beyond Caden, Andrew peers into the distance of the room, unable to look at his daughter without a piece of him shattering into fragments. “And, when you woke up…” Caden begins, again being choked up before he can ask the question. Without turning her sights away from the camera, Sophie tells Caden to ask it, keeping her instructions simple and unable to be misinterpreted. With a sigh, Caden nods to himself, continuing to ask as Sophie wishes for him to. “...When you woke up, what was the first thing you remembered?” Caden inquires, Sophie describing an awfully familiar figure stood in the same doorway her father occupies in this very moment. “Their face was covered by their shadow, but I recognized their voice” Sophie explains, her eyes falling upon her father. “She said…” Sophie begins, struggling to go on herself, now choking up over her own recollection for the first time, tears beginning to run down the sides of her face. “She waited for me to wake up, and then she slid a bottle of water over to the bowl of food she left for me” Sophie explains, her response challenged by Caden as he was instructed to do. “You said she had said something” Caden explains, Sophie clarifying that she said her first words to her just before locking her into the bunker-style room she sits in now. “What did she say?” Caden asks, watching Sophie’s pain-ridden smile appear, a single finger swiping the tear away from her cheek just as it threatens to leave her skin in favor of falling from her chin. With an unapologetically cold tone, Sophie answers with two simple words, a pairing that brings her great sorrow. “Happy birthday.” == Generation Alpha == |
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