Stepping out from his bedroom, Sebastian walks the halls cloaked in his morning robe, an unaltered expression from what he usually starts his mornings wearing. “Good morning” Sebastian salaams as he steps into the kitchen, a succinct incredulity at the vacant room he wanders into. His eyes curiously gazing around the room, Sebastian takes note of the lonely sector he’s introduced his presence to, the walls a husk of the life they once always hosted.
The unusual desolation off-putting, Sebastian guides himself back toward the direction he entered, stepping into the equally-tenantless living room, where he finds the body from the night before still laid upon his rug, dead from the bullet Lou had callously fired through its skull. Quelling the sick feeling that boils within his core, Sebastian takes a stride across the room, paying no mind to the corpse on his floor. The closer he comes to the bedrooms a cabin’s length away, faint voices begin to catch his ear, their fledgling conversation seeming to bring tension upon those taking part. “He’s trying to leave” a feminine voice declares from behind Sebastian, his body spinning with the rest of his head. Stood in the corner of the hallway, her back pressed against the wall, Courtney crosses her arms as she looks at the floor. “Adrian’s trying to leave” Courtney repeats, adding context through a dissatisfied voice, her tone lone, “he doesn’t think it’s safe here anymore.” Furrowing his eyebrows, Sebastian looks back at the one bedroom door that remains open, the sunlight peering through its windows spilling into the halls. Without a word, Sebastian takes off from his stand, approaching the conversation’s source as Courtney follows, comforted by the presence of a similar mindset. “My daughter and I are not staying here!” Adrian exclaims, the veins in his head running trails through his skin, the man’s hands shakily fumbling over a set of suitcases. “Where are you going to go, Adrian?” Rudy asks through a calm voice, the only survivor whose voice refuses to lift. “I told you, my brother-in-law has a cottage on Swartz Bay” Adrian replies, hastily running a zipper over the clothes-stuffed bag, “I’ll teach Marta to fish and hunt, and we’ll wait this chaos out there.” “You’ve got to climb the mountains down to, and through, Victoria to get there” Silvano responds, his hand resting against the man’s bedframe. “Exactly!” Sonya bellows, desperate to speak sense into a man unwilling to accept it, “and Lou’s already told that the city is overr-” “I don’t give a FUCK about what LOU SAID!” Adrian snaps, his eyes practically bulging out from his skull. “You should” Sebastian interrupts, stepping through the open door with a blank expression, no fear of hassle in his complexion, the group parting amidst his arrival. “Who the fuck are you to tell me what I should do!?” Adrian exclaims, his frustration with the other survivors simmering, it’s concentration setting upon Sebastian, “I trusted you to keep my family safe!” “That’s what I’m trying to do, Adrian!” Sebastian emphatically replies, his voice rising out of necessity as opposed to anger, presenting a strong perseverance. “Bullshit! That’s fucking bullshit!” Adrian exclaims, knocking his luggage aside as he steps into Sebastian’s face, “you took the side of a murderer instead of me! You told me to murder a kid in cold fucking blood!” “I told you to do what was necessary!” Sebastian responds, his commanding voice proving louder than Adrian’s anger-induced shouts. “You told me to stoop down to Lou’s level!” Adrian retorts, both men beginning to speak over each other. “You couldn’t clean up the mess you made!” Sebastian proclaims, his declaration silencing the rage-infused Adrian, whose closed mouth forces the anger to remain at bay, boiling past his breaking point, “you won’t last a day out in the real world!” Sliding to the floor, Adrian pries Sebastian’s stolen shotgun from beneath his bed, taking the barrel toward Sebastian’s chest. “I’ll do whatever I have need if it means protecting my daughter!” Adrian proclaims, his display now forcing his own silence upon Sebastian, who takes one step back with his hands raised into the air, “I’ll protect my daughter from the world, I’ll protect her from Lou, and I’ll protect her from you.” “Adrian, put the fucking gun down!” Courtney orders, stood to the side with the rest of the group. “Don’t tell me what to do!” Adrian shouts, instinctively pulling the gun away from his original target, its barrel now taken to Rudy’s eldest daughter. Sensing his opportunity, Sebastian throws his hands out at the shotgun, pushing it away from the woman with failed hopes of disarming the deluded gunman. The redirected shell obliterating his skull into fragments, Silvano slams into the newly-bloodstained wall and slides to the ground, his brains blow into chunks, a trail of blood left sliding toward the ground where his body lay. Devolving into chilling screams of fear, the group leap away from their unrecognizable friend, unable to contain their immeasurable awe. His heart sinking, Sebastian stares at the young man’s body for a few short, yet eternal seconds, his mind struggling to process what he’d just witnessed. Well before events can be properly understood as axiomatic, the group’s gunman dashes for the room’s exit, leaving his luggage and murder weapon behind. “Adrian!” Sebastian shouts, lifting himself from the ground the moment his friend’s feet hurry before his eyes, taking off without a word. “Adrian! Stop!” Sebastian pleads, tailing Adrian through the home and out the front door, the distraught killer racing into the wilderness empty handed. “Adrian!” Sebastian exclaims, following the snowprints until they begin merging with others. “Adrian! Come back!” Sebastian exclaims again, no longer holding the man’s sight close. Losing the strength to continue running, Sebastian jogs for a few extra metres before falling to his knees, surrounded by desolate forest. Gasping for air, Sebastian listens for footsteps that never emerge, the silent air leaving him with his thoughts. The events having transpired just now setting in, Sebastian begins to weep amongst the winter chill, tears leaving his eyes while he stares at the cloudy sky. = RISE and REVOLT is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series from Season 1 onwards belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 = “Can I ask you a personal question?” Marta wonders, her beige bottoms tucked into the cuffs of grey winter boots. “That seems to be all you’ve done today” Lou replies, his rebar pipe tucked at his armpit, his outstretched hand reaching out for every tree he passes, “I don’t see why any of these questions are important.” Her hands dressed in gloves, head covered with a wool cap, and puffy brown sweater covered with a red winter coat, Marta smiles. “If they’re not important, there shouldn’t be a problem with answering them” Marta responds, her eyes set on the snow beneath her each step. “You have a point” Lou replies, his ease of conceding a pleasant surprise to the woman that trails him. “If you have a prosthetic, why don’t you ever wear it?” Marta wonders aloud, her feet stepping in each of Lou’s comparably larger footprints, “it seems counter-intuitive to me.” His head shaking, Lou continues his relentless hike, never once pausing for a breath. “I don’t wear my prosthetic unless the situation deserves it” Lou responds, squinting off at the distance, his rifle at a moment’s reach, “prosthetics can break. But, unlike arms, if a prosthetic breaks, I can’t wrap it in a cast and fix it.” “So, you’re saying the prosthetic is more symbolic to you than beneficial?” Marta replies in a puzzled way. “Not necessarily. I don’t use it unless the situation deserves it, or the people I’m using it for deserve it” Lou responds, biting into his bottom lip, “I’m sure using it would benefit me. But if the day comes that it breaks, and I’ve grown to depend on it to survive, I don’t want the ability I have of using one arm to deteriorate.” “Oh, I get it” Marta replies, finally following Lou atop reasonably solid, flat ground, “it’s like learning to fend yourself, then depending on someone for long enough that taking care of yourself becomes more difficult than it used to be.” A smirk coming over him, Lou gives the woman a gracious nod. “Yeah, pretty much” Lou responds, visibly impressed. “Do you have any questions for me?” Marta waits a short while before asking, a drawn look of curiosity coming over Lou. “Not exactly” the young man replies, the tone he answers with doing little to convince the woman behind him. “You didn’t sound confident in that answer” Marta points out, proving not to be someone eager to let the obvious go unstated. “Some things you and your friends do confuse me, but I don’t bother with asking” Lou responds, looking at Marta over his shoulder, “it’s safer to make my own assumptions.” Her eyes pointed at Lou whilst her head bows, Marta challenges the man’s thought. “It’s just you and I out here” Marta quips, continuing to drag her feet through the footprints left in Lou’s wake, “you don’t need assumptions when you can have answers at no extra cost.” “I don’t need answers, Marta” Lou replies, his voice unchanged from the start of the conversation, his pace kept steady through his travels, “answers are dangerous.” Her eyes squinting, Marta persists with her challenge, her voice slowly becoming more enthusiastic. “Why is anything that draws you closer to my family and I automatically dangerous?” Marta wonders aloud, the tenacious interest beginning to wear on the man. “You answered your own question” Lou responds, still yet to slow, “anything that draws me closer to you and your group is dangerous by default.” The first to break stride, Marta plants her feet in the snow, the man ahead taking a few extra steps before noticing the lack of Marta’s company. “Does that include me?” Marta finally asks aloud, Lou’s walk stopping for the first time since sunrise, his eyes turning back. “I know you talk a lot about finding your people, but you’ve done very little to find them” Marta explains, almost worried to say what’s on her mind, “I know you said you didn’t want to get attached, but I can’t help but wonder if a small part of you already has.” His nostrils, red from the cold and beginning to flare, Lou turns fully toward Marta, the woman’s face holding a noticeable worry. “I haven’t gotten attached” Lou replies, his head shaking, a snarl coming over his lip, “I’ve cooped up in that freezer waiting for my friends to come to me!” Not wasting a moment, Marta counters Lou’s statement. “The answer to that question is a big, fat ‘no’ in the form of a corpse on Sebastian’s floor” Marta responds, the enthusiasm in her voice replaced with a rigid, confident pitch, “but you’re still here, so you’re not exactly coherent in the signals you’re sending.” “I am not growing attached!” Lou abruptly squalls, throwing his hand at the ground in a burst of emotion. The air calm, Lou locks eyes with Marta, reading the expression on her face that refuses to concede defeat. “You’ve been the voice of reason to me, to my family, and to my friends since we met you. Since then, the only person you haven’t been honest with is yourself” Marta explains, stepping up to the man’s hostile frame, his eyes turning docile in her approach. “If you can’t be honest with yourself, I’ll be honest for you” Marta explains, her hand wrapping around Lou’s own, her second hand resting on the side of his face as she whispers, “you’re probably never going to find your friends, Lou.” Pulling his head back slowly, Lou feels the woman’s hand guide him back, pulling his face into her own as their lips lock, a kiss shared between the young survivors for the seconds it takes Lou to pull away. “I can’t- I won’t, Marta” Lou refuses, taking his hand from the woman’s touch, his head shaking. “I’ll find my friends or I’ll die trying” Lou vows, pulling a breath of air into his lungs as his witts return to him, “that’s the promise I made myself, and I’m not going back on it now.” Creating space between Marta and himself, Lou remains quiet, thinking to himself as static engulfs the air, the radio atop his prosthetic case buzzing. “Lou!?” Sebastian’s voice beckons, his frantic voice apparent, “Lou, please answer. It’s an emergency.” Reaching behind his back, Lou takes the radio into his possession, half-heartedly begging for a reason to depart his conversation with Marta. “You sound like a schizo patient, Sebastian” Lou replies, the composure in his voice returning, “what’s going on?” | “What the fuck are we gonna do?” Courtney murmurs, the quiver in her voice bringing a tear to Sebastian’s eye. “I don’t know yet” Sebastian responds, throwing a white t-shirt over his pale chest, his radio sat beside him, “I’m not even sure I’ve processed it yet.” A deep sigh leaving her, Courtney sets herself down on Sebastian’s bed, her hands pushing into the soft mattress she sits upon. Remaining silent, Courtney listens to faint swirling of wind just beyond the bedroom window, its whispers humming gently to her. “If I hadn’t grabbed the gun-” Sebastian mumbles beneath his breath, Courtney’s eyes snapping at the man before he can finish his thought. “Had you not grabbed the gun, I would be dead” Courtney interrupts, Sebastian’s head falling to the ground, the shame overwhelming him, “one way or another, someone was going to die, and that’s Adrian’s fault.” On the verge of tears, Sebastian’s head shakes, rejecting Courtney’s retort. “I could have talked him off a ledge, I- I could have said something different” Sebastian babbles, his cheeks a rosey red, “I should have said something different, but I just went off.” Pushing herself from the bed, Courtney walks around it’s end and kneels before the older man, his soul crestfallen. “It doesn’t matter what you did, or what you said, or what you were thinking” Courtney reasons, her hands falling over Sebastian’s, “Adrian chose to pick up that gun, regardless of why he did it. He made that decision, and Silvano is dead because of it.” A pain growing in his stomach, Sebastian slumps over, his head leading his torso forward, forehead coming to a rest on Courtney’s shoulder. “Everything’s gone wrong” Sebastian weeps, his sobs staining the shoulder of Courtney’s shirt, “everything’s gone wrong and I can’t fix it.” Tucking her chin into the small of the man’s neck, Courtney frees her hands from Sebastian’s hold, her arms wrapping around his neck to hold him close. “This is what needed to happen, Sebastian” Courtney whispers, tears of her own falling from wet eyes, “the way we’ve been living isn’t feasible anymore.” Muffling his sobs, Sebastian nods into the woman’s arm, gingerly returning the woman’s embrace, his arms limply wrapping around Courtney’s upper back. “I didn’t expect to lose it this quickly” Sebastian mutters, holding his emotions back to form coherent thought, “I thought we’d have more time.” Moving one hand from Sebastian’s neck to the back of his head, Courtney pulls Sebastian’s face closer. “I thought so, too” Courtney whispers back, the side of her head pressing against a guilt-ridden Sebastian, “I thought so, too.” | “Does he go anywhere during the day? Just, maybe, disappear for an hour or two?” Lou questions, he and his protege walking their path quicker than before. “Lou, I’ve never seen him leave the house” Marta replies, keeping her composure despite her voice emerging frail. Finding flat ground, Lou’s rush slows as he nears a tree, a bright orange band wrapped around it’s thick trunk. “Alright, Marta. For the last few days, whenever I’d go on a hunt, I’d wrap these orange bands along my trails” Lou explains, black sharpie written along their length, “if your dad’s found one of these, there’s a good chance he’d start following them once the cold set in.” “Do they lead back to the house?” Marta responds, her frigid breaths emerging rapidly. “They lead back to that village Sebastian found me in. They’ve all got my name on them” Lou explains, sliding his hand into his pocket, “it’s a long shot, but I’m sure there’s nothing else your dad would have followed instead.” Closing her mouth, Marta stares blankly into the distance, her teeth clattering together not from the cold, but from fear. “Sebastian told me not to kill your dad, and I don’t anticipate on going against Sebastian’s request” Lou explains, gently resting his hand on Marta’s shoulder, “but if I’m going to convince him to come back to that house, there’s no way I do it without you by my side, alright?” Trying to nod, Marta’s head bobs in each direction, her best effort given to keeping herself composed. Understanding the woman’s conflictions, Lou guides Marta to the ground, kneeling beside the tree he sits her against. “I know all of this is a lot to ask you to digest in such a short amount of time, but you need to see that this is normal” Lou explains, the woman’s eyes holding steadily upon his own, “like you said, I’ll probably never see my friends again. That hasn’t stopped me from trying.” Shaking the half-frozen cantina of water in his knapsack, Lou extends the drink to his pupil. “The point isn’t that I’m trying to escape you, or your father, or your group- it’s that I haven’t given up on mine” Lou states, allowing himself to be open, “even though the odds aren’t in my favour, I’ve never held back that small, almost pointless shred of hope- and neither should you.” Gently reclaiming the cantina, Lou’s voice softens, a near-smile breaking through his chapped lips. “What your father did will take time to repair, a lot of time, I’d imagine” Lou concludes, finding the glimmer of faith he’d looked to see return, “but, in due time, wounds will heal and balance will come back- you just need to keep yourself going until then.” Mustering the strength to return the nod she intended on giving, Marta takes the hand Lou extends toward her, lifting her to solid ground. | “I don’t like the look of this” Courtney spouts, her younger sister sat beside Rudy, who retains possession of Sebastian’s stolen shotgun. “We’re gonna kill him” Rudy replies, his declaration made the moment Courtney’s own finishes. “No, you’re not” Courtney responds, the answer prompting her father’s head to shake. “The man tried to kill you, and had it not been for Se-” Rudy retorts, his daughter’s interruption stifling his anger-bound statement. “He didn’t kill me and that is what matters” Courtney replies, a wave of heat rolling over her face as she enters the room, “and doing the same as Adrian makes you no better than him, if not, it makes you worse.” A slightly astonished look on his face, Rudy opens his mouth to speak, his daughter interrupting him before he has the chance to speak this time. “I don’t care what feelings you have of Adrian. Sebastian wants him brought back alive, and that is all that matters” Courtney explains, her voice lacking the comfort she commonly speaks to family with. “He can be brought back alive all he wants, Court’” Rudy responds, leaving his chair to approach her, “but he won’t make it through the night alive.” Beginning to walk past his daughter, Rudy’s chest feels his daughter’s hand push against it, holding him back from exiting. “Dad, I’m a paramotorist- are you aware of how quickly I can strap a fan to my back and fly off into the night?” Courtney asks, her right eyebrow arched as she looks her dad in the face, “because I’ve counted. I can have that fan, and a parachute, and a sack full of gas on me in less than three minutes.” “What are you trying to tell me?” Rudy responds, his own dissatisfied expression worn, the tone as one would expect from a father being threatened by their eldest born. “I’m telling you that if you harm one hair on Adrian’s body, I’ll take my paramotor to Saskatchewan again” Courtney replies, looking her father in the face, the man taken back by her claim, “but this time, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I won’t come back.” “Why are you defending Adrian?” Sonya barks from further in the room, her sister’s eyes drawing toward her, “he murdered Silvano.” Lightly guiding her father back into the room, Courtney steps to her right, refusing to let either member of her family leave. “I don’t care what he did. Sebastian wants Adrian alive, and I have hope Sebastian will do the right thing” Courtney responds, already sensing reluctance. “Why do you have that hope!?” Rudy barks, his frustration taking his voice to a yell, “why do you have more faith in Sebastian to do the right thing than your own blood!?” Her teeth clenched, Courtney lets her father finish his question, already prepared to shout the answer before Rudy’s inquiry can finish. “Because he came around, unlike you idiots!” Courtney snaps back, meeting her father’s tone with equal resonance, “he’s making an effort to prepare for what’s to come!” Staring at Courtney angrily, Rudy lets his daughter continue, flustered by her remarks. “My father hands around the house all day playing chef with the groceries he wouldn’t have if not for me flying out to get them!” Courtney bellows, her hands flailing in every direction, “and while he does that, my sister plays doctor and refuses to acknowledge, even for one second, that the world is a fucking hazard in every fucking direction, so she can pretend everything’s fine!” Speechless, Rudy’s anger dissipates whilst Sonya’s confusion strengthens. Her lips puckered, Courtney holds her tongue until she no longer can, her head shaking until her declaration breaks free. “I had to kill my own fucking mother for the two of you!” Courtney screams, protruding veins running like rivers down her arms, “so stop pretending our lives are coming back! I killed her to save our lives, so stop trying to get yourselves killed living in fucking denial!” His mouth closing for the first time since his daughter entered the room, Rudy stands beside Sonya, watching the tears run down Courtney’s face as she approaches him, her voice lowered to a growl. “Give me the fucking gun” Courtney gnars, stretching her right hand toward her father, refusing to look him in the eyes. With his free hand, Rudy reaches to lift his daughter’s chin, only for Courtney to pull her face back at the last second. Her breathing heavy, Courtney keeps herself distant, waiting for the man to place the weapon into her hands. Relenting, Rudy hands the shotgun to his daughter, letting her leave without another word, Courtney left to disappear into the home to the sound of silence. | “Dad!?” Marta exclaims, her nerves cooled and her heart settled, the cloudy skies giving the air the grey, sick aura it deserves. “Adrian!?” Lou exclaims, his rifle carried in hand as he leads the young woman through the dense forest. His hand held out, Lou reaches into his pocket again, turning to face Marta. “I wanted to give you this earlier, but I forgot about it” Lou explains, digging through his pants to retrieve a switchblade. “I knew we were having to up our pace, so if we ran into the dead, I wanted you to have something to rely on other than me” Lou explains, tucking the knife into Marta’s hand, “use it wisely- and only when you need to.” Forgetting about her father and the situation that surrounds for only a moment, Marta’s lips curl into a smile, Lou’s trust in her letting everything bad disappear for only a moment. “Alright, let’s move” Lou exclaims, eagerly turning back to the trail. “Adrian!” Lou exclaims, sharing Marta’s efforts in contacting her father for a few more metres. “Get down, get down!” Lou grunts, turning around again, this time to sit Marta behind a tree. His finger pressed to his lips, Lou drops his voice to a whisper, his knees sinking into the snow beneath him. “I hear someone” Lou whispers, the sneaky steps not encouraging him, the instincts he carries urging caution. “Well, it has to be my dad!” Marta whispers, Lou’s emphatic refusal answering her. “No, I can’t figure out why, but it is not your dad” Lou says in a hush, letting his rifle and prosthetic fall into Marta’s lap, “you stay here, and don’t move unless I tell you to.” Begrudgingly accepting of Lou’s orders, Marta shovels snow over her lap and lies flat, letting her mentor take control. Making no effort to silence the crunching of snow beneath his boot, Lou journeys through the forest, his eyes dashing from one side to another as his rebar pipe drops into his clutches. “Whoever you are, I know you’re not who I’m looking for” Lou proclaims, the air snapping at the rebar, which Lou spins across his body like a bo staff. “I also know I’m not looking for anything other than one man in particular” Lou proclaims, his ears catching the sound of rubber shoes skidding across wet rock just to his side. “Unless your name is Adrian, I want nothing to do with you” Lou explains, his beard covered in ice, “so, if you’re willing to leave me alone, I’m more than happy to do the same for you.” Readjusting course, Lou steps toward the skid, his voice remaining calm, a confidence unmatched by any other. “If you do choose to attack, much like I fear you will, I won’t hold back” Lou explains, taking a glance behind every tree he passes, “if you’re not lucky, or you don’t have the balls to finish the job you start, attacking me will ensure that you die tonight.” A barely noticeable crunch of snow coming from a tree just a few metres away, Lou’s eyes are taken to his destination, the rebar pipe in his hands locking onto whatever resides within its cover. Aware of his discovery, the clean-shaven gunman behind the tree stump emerges from his cover, a rifle held in Lou’s direction. “Drop the-!” the masculine, powerfully familiar voice orders to Lou, his eyes widened and voice retreating. Holding onto a gasp, Lou steadies his pipe, holding it at the throat of a man distinguishable for miles. “Oh my god” the gunman mutters beneath his breath, overwhelmed with astonishment, “Lou?” Letting go of his gasp, the one-armed survivor lets his pipe fall to his side, a smile breaking through his confused expression. “I- I- Wha?” Lou mumbles, jolting his head forward as if convinced he were dreaming. “Theo?” With a laugh, Theo’s gun lowers to his lap, joining his friend in self-disarmament. “It’s good to see you, old friend” Theo laughs, throwing himself into Lou’s arm for a hug, an embrace Lou is more than willing to meet. Holding back a tear, Lou gently pats his good friend on the back, unable to hold his smile back any longer, “it’s good to see you, too.” == RISE and REVOLT ==
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The young stranger unconscious, Lou shackles a pair of handcuffs over his dominant hand, the other end linked to an old radiator near the back of the living room. “How long should he be out?” Lou wonders, knelt upon the bloodstained carpet of the living room floor, his arm draped over his higher knee, regaining the breath he lost carrying the group’s victim to warm shelter.
“I dosed him with two hundred milligrams of lidocaine” Sonya replies, a loose robe dangling from her arms, the ends of the sleeves wide, “he could be out for an hour, maybe two- maybe more.” Thinking quietly to himself, Lou takes a glance at the man’s leg, Marta’s hands guided by Sonya, the bandages she wields covering the young man’s amputated leg. “How old would you say this kid is, Sonya?” Lou wonders aloud, the dirt that covers the man’s face veiling hidden jejunity, “or anyone else, I don’t care who- go ahead and take a guess.” The entire group stands before Lou in a huddled circle, silent to the question before Marta’s response. “The folds on his face are covered with dirt, but they still don’t look significant” the young woman responds, earning Lou’s attention, “he’s pretty young. Why ask?” Licking his lip, Lou’s eyes trail toward the woman’s father, a dumbstruck expression worn blindly on Adrian’s face. “Because when i carried him into the house, I felt a bulge in the back of his jeans” Lou replies, turning the victim’s hips over briefly to remove a leather wad from one of two pockets, “I know women use those pockets to carry their phones, but us men use it to carry our wallets.” Waving the leather bundle in his hand, Lou pushes his blistering anger below, his unflattered expression given solely to Marta’s father. “When I asked why you set up a trap in the freezer walkway, you stuttered something along the lines of ‘you weren’t in there’” Lou remarks, steadily rising from his feet, carrying himself right to the older man’s face, “what exactly did you mean by that?” “Woah, I didn’t mean-” Adrian attempts to respond, pulling his head back as Lou thwarts his strive to claim innocence. “Answer the goddamn question, Adrian” Lou interrupts calmly, the mere sound of the younger man’s voice silencing Marta’s father, “what did you mean by that?” His lower jaw trembling, Adrian’s hands hold close to his chest, his palms shown to Lou as a sign of concession. “You fell asleep really quickly after you brought Sonya back to her room, and I knew you weren’t going back out there before morning” Adrian explains calmly, still visually rattled by the events he’s allowed to unfold, “I always wake up at the crack of dawn, so I figured- since you weren’t there to keep watch tonight, I’d set up the trap and remove it before you woke up.” Each breath escaping through his nostrils loud enough for the group to overhear, Lou accepts Adrian’s response as truth, the anger he feels still not subsiding. “I swear, the trap wasn’t meant for you” Adrian responds, an authentic quiver to his response. His teeth clattering together, Lou presses his lips upon each other, looking off into the distance, frustrated at having to believe the man’s answer. His thumb swiping the front of the wallet open, Lou reads their victim’s name, his head shaking once his eyes reach the man’s date of birth. “March 17th, 1996” Lou reads aloud, his eyes returning to Adrian’s face, a self-disgusted look emerging, “Adrian’s stubborn refusal to listen to reason has effectively ended the life of a twenty-two year old kid.” “Come on, Lou- he’s just lost a leg!” Sebastian replies, still persistent in his efforts to play reason with both sides of the dynamic stretching his home toward two sides, “you lost an arm and you’re fine!” Suppressing his anger, Lou shakes his head at Sebastian, understanding of the older man’s failure to find the point. “Losing an arm didn’t keep me from running, it kept me from having a set of opposable thumbs” Lou responds, pressing the wallet into Adrian’s chest. “Lou’s right” Courtney replies, pulling the eyes of everyone in the room, her sympathetic tone voicing itself in Lou’s corner, “when you come from where I’d assume this kid comes from, anything less than two working legs is a drawn-out death sentence.” With a nod, Lou steps away from the trap-enthusiast, returning to their victim’s side. “You see, dipshit hasn’t given this kid a limp. He hasn’t given him the need for a cast, or a new reason to find value in a stable set of crutches” Lou explains, his index finger aimed squarely on Adrian, the honeypot-setting man overcome with grief. “I want to make something clear to all of you- I don’t care if you like me, or if you look at me as a kid, it doesn’t effectively matter” Lou explains, his finger pointed at the kid, “but when you look at this man, who will spend his last days dying on your living room floor, I want you to know that I was right.” Picking his rifle and prosthetic carrying case from the ground, Lou prepares himself to leave, the unassuming eyes that surround him only helping his anger boil. “None of you, with the exception of Courtney, know a damn about this world” Lou explains, finishing his thought as he walks through the crowd, his eyes set on the front door, “and if you can’t understand that, you’re all already dead.” = RISE and REVOLT is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series from Season 1 onwards belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 = “What do we do when he wakes up?” Sonya wonders, her father and sister sat at the kitchen table beside her. “The kid’s stealing food for a reason, so I assume he’s not coming from much” Rudy responds, his good heart bringing a questionable look over Courtney’s face, “we cook him a warm meal, make him comfortable, and let Sebastian and Adrian figure things out from there.” “Hold on, why should they get to decide what happens from there?” Courtney replies, her father’s confused expression meeting her eyes, “Adrian’s the one that made this mess, and Sebastian’s the one that was laxed enough to let Adrian think he could get away with it.” His hands held at his sides, Rudy’s mouth shutters open without an immediate response. “What do you suggest we do with him then?” Sonya responds, her sister’s head pulling back the moment the question is raised. “There’s no one in this home more deserving and better suited to make that call than Lou” Courtney replies, the dismay her family presents illustrating her proposition’s unpopularity. “The kid’s been here for what? A week? Already, he’s made more sense than all of the people in this house combined” Courtney explains, Sonya’s voice the first to oppose. “Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that my initial perception of the guy was wrong. He’s not as bad as I thought” Sonya explains, her head still shaking in declination, “but we already know his answer to the question is ‘kill the kid’.” “As it should be!” Courtney immediately responds, her father’s face turning away, disgusted at the proposition. “Lou’s one hundred percent right! Adrian’s trap has, effectively, killed this kid” Courtney explains, embracing the ignominious reaction, “this kid is going to be haunted by dystrophy for the rest of his life, and will be a sitting duck if he’s sent back out to the land of the undead! Killing him now wouldn’t be murder, it would be mercy.” “How can you say that? How can you even listen to yourself say that?” Rudy replies, his tone not disgusted, but embroiled in a shamefaced front, “I think highly of Lou, but he’s still too young to be making that call.” Lifting her hand to her head, Courtney wipes at her soft skin, a subdued shake of her head presenting itself. “There’s no such thing as ‘too young’ anymore. The rules of youth, hell, the rules of social hierarchy to whatever remains are completely different now” Courtney responds, her sights split equally amongst her father and sister, “Lou’s more of a survivor than you two combined. I mean, he’s survived all of this on one arm! I’ve spent so much time in the sky, he’s more of a survivor than me!” “He’s just a kid” Silvano replies, turning the corner to interrupt the conversation, an empty plate carried in his hand on its way to the sink. “No, Silvano- You’re just a kid” Courtney responds, her face tensing with vexation, the young man’s appearance preturbing her. “I’m older than him” Silvano replies with a laugh, casually tossing the plate into the metal sink. “You’re also more of an ass” Courtney responds, crossing one leg over the other beneath the table, “and he’d leave your ass lying.” Stepping up from the table, Courtney carries her plate to the sink, her hand reaching for the knob. “Listen, you can view this any way you’d want, but if you weren’t hiding out on your mountain top, you’d think just as I do” Courtney explains, running a soap-covered sponge over two ceramic plates, the residue of breakfast scrubbed away, “the smart ones in this house already realize that this cabin can’t be depended on forever. And in due time, you’ll see how important having Lou here is.” “We shouldn’t be putting such expectations on the kid” Sebastian replies, entering the room with more grace than Silvano had. “Taking just one read at this room, I’d assume no one was” Courtney responds, extending her free hand toward the empty plate in Sebastian’s hand. “Don’t get me wrong, the kid has obviously been through a lot, and he should be commended for what’s he’s sacrificed to be here today” Sebastian explains, “but we shouldn’t force him to grow up making calls over someone’s life.” “Sebastian, you need to stop trying to be Lou’s father” Courtney groans, her pleasant, almost welcoming demeanour parting at the tenacious reappearances of the group’s worst qualities. “Telling someone to ‘just be a kid’ is nothing but a handicap. They can’t afford to be depending on the grown-up’s to make calls anymore!” Courtney says through a sigh, “all of you need to wake up and stop thinking the world is still this peachy, wonderful land of opportunity.” “Court’, no one’s saying he needs to sit in the corner and play video games all day” Rudy explains, his welcoming voice still maintaining its warmth, “we’re just saying he shouldn’t be strapped with this responsibility.” Turning the water knob off, Courtney takes a dry rag to her damp hands. “And I’m saying he should be. Not because he should grow up, but because none of you have yet” Courtney replies, stepping out of the room, “and we wouldn’t have this mess if you listened to him sooner.” | His shoes gently pressing into the frozen slush covering the ground, Lou and his gore-covered coat trudge through the woods, his eyes following a path of doubled ovals. “Where are you, big guy?” Lou whispers to himself, his hand grazing each tree he passes, the soft snow crunching beneath his step. “Where’s who?” A soft voice suddenly calls out from close behind, Lou’s body prompted to spin around, his hand spinning the rifle over his shoulder, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. “It’s just me!” Marta exclaims, the surprise at the suddenness in Lou’s reaction prompting her hands to rise, “Jesus, you’re quick on the draw!” Rolling his eyes, Lou pulls the rifle over his back once more. “You don’t sneak up on a man like that” Lou asserts, pressing his back against a nearby tree, “especially not when he’s armed with a gun.” “I’m sorry, I just didn’t know how to talk to you alone” Marta responds, following the man’s pressed-in footprints on her descent to him. “Talk to me alone?” Lou replies, his emphasis pushed upon the last word, “what’s important enough to warrant being said in secret?” Poorly dressed for the journey she followed him upon, Marta extends her hand toward her peer, quietly hoping for assistance. With a sigh, Lou reaches forward, taking the young woman by the hand to guide her through the snow. “The same thing that warranted secrecy yesterday” Marta responds, hopping off the slightly elevated patch of dirt, her feet dragging against the snow as her velocity pulls her against Lou’s chest, her forehead nearly pressing against the man’s chin. “I already answered you yesterday, so following me is pointless” Lou replies, nudging the woman a few feet way from him. “I’m not going to stop hastling you about it just because you say ‘no’” Marta responds, a grey sweater worn with blue jeans, the knees stained from multiple tumbles into the snow, a pair of fur boots adorned on her feet. “Then you’re going to be wasting your time” Lou replies, turning away from the tree to return to his hunt, the woman’s footsteps matching his own. “Or maybe you’ll be wasting your time?” Marta responds, a glimmer in her voice, as if she knew something Lou himself did not, “like walking around in the woods hunting for food?” “I don’t see how that’s a waste of time” Lou replies, a giggle held beneath his breath, “I don’t even know how one could consider that to-” “Aaahhh!” Marta stands with her arms held to her sides, a loud, ear-piercing scream leaving her lungs, emphatically drifting throughout the air. Briefly braced for cover, Lou rushes back and forcefully pushes his hand over the woman’s mouth, a frantic expression on his face. “Why the fuck are you screaming!?” Lou grunts, bewildered by the display. “‘Cause if that deer you’re hunting hears me, he’ll run away” Marta responds the moment Lou’s hand parts an inch from her lips, smiling at her response, “I think that’d make this whole trip a waste of your time.” his eyes widened, Lou shakes his head and rolls his eyes, refusing to encourage Marta’s demonstration. “You’re incorrigible” Lou mutters beneath his breath, just loudly enough for his shadow to hear. “I’ll take that as a compliment” Marta replies, eagerly persisting with her plea. Continuing his journey, Lou brushes the woman’s presence aside, returning to his usual business. “I’m serious, though. I want you to teach me how to survive out here” Marta explains, a point Lou had already noticed. “Listen, I’ve heard Courtney talk about the places she’s flown to, everything she’s seen and had to do” Marta explains, a genuine yearning for Lou’s guidance, “I know everything she’s saying is true.” Finally giving in, Lou turns back to the woman, offering Marta his undivided attention despite his best instincts encouraging him otherwise. “What is she telling you?” Lou responds, displeased with the woman’s unwavering desire to earn a different answer, though, quietly finding the lengths she’s willing to travel in order to do so admirable. “That the world is in chaos, people are despicable, everything is a threat, and we can’t hide out in our cabin forever” Marta replies with grief. “Sebastian wrangled up all the dead and huddled them in the soup kitchen a few weeks after the phones went down” Marta recalls, “he didn’t want helicopters seeing them in the streets if they came to save us. He worried they’d think the town was a loss, and I think he’s still holding out that hope somewhere.” Wrapping his fingers around the straps over his chest, Lou closes his mouth, letting Marta’s explanation emerge unopposed. “My dad thinks of himself as the rational one, but since you came along, he doesn’t seem as rational as we, or at least I, thought” Marta continues, her eyes swelling with desperation. “Silvano acts like a cooped up teen, Sonya and Rudy write off Courtney’s stories as paranoia, and Kim’s dead” Marta concludes, “and if things don’t change, I’m sure I will be too.” Letting his eyes fall to the ground, Lou takes in Marta’s fears, letting them sit with him silently. “Why does Courtney think the cabin’s going to fall?” Lou wonders aloud, engrossed by the frequency this concern has been mentioned. “A few reasons. People keep poaching our food, we could runout of water, the hydro that powers our heaters can go out, and-” Marta pauses, clearly not joyous over admitting the final bit aloud, “the mountain’s prone to avalanches.” His eyes squinting toward the far distance, Lou nods quietly to himself as Marta finishes her plea, fearing the day she speaks poorly of. “If you say ‘no’, I won’t bother you with it again. I won’t bring it up, and I’ll let it die here” Marta explains, regaining the man’s focus, “but without your help, I’ve got no chance when things go wrong, and they will go wrong. I understand the world is bad, and it’s not fair, and the whole nine-yards- but I don’t want to die.” Recognizing the look of despair written over Marta’s mien, Lou presses the tip of his tongue against the inside of his cheek. “Get up before the sun rises, just like your dad does, not a minute later, and meet me at the freezer dressed properly” Lou responds, his hunt leaving him empty-handed as he returns to the woman, walking past to guide her back home, “and if your father finds out about this, if he even gets a whiff of this, the deal’s off.” “Okay” Marta replies, taking Lou’s outstretched hand as he helps her climb the elevated patch of dirt, the smile on her face warm, “thank you.” | Nestled in his warm chair, Sebastian sits beneath the orange glow of his reading light, one finger pressed to his lips whilst another flips from one page to another. “I hope I’m not interrupting” Courtney says, her knuckles tapping against the oak-finished door frame. “Of course not, Court’” Sebastian responds, folding the corner of his page as the hard cover book shuts, “come on in.” Taking the man at his insistence, Courtney enters the small room at the end of the hall, short shelves lining the walls and lying close to the ground. “Is there something I can help you with?” the man asks, thin, white curtains over the windows covering the deep blue sky outside, the moon just beginning to take over the duties of lighting the cold world below. “I actually wanted to apologise for earlier” Courtney replies, the tips of her hands sliding into her pockets, “I do believe in what I said, about you, and about Lou, but I shouldn’t have said it like I did.” Sitting back in his seat, Sebastian removes his glasses, placing them on a glass table to his side. “I don’t hold what you said, or even how you said it, against you” Sebastian responds, his legs resting upon a cushioned step stool, “you don’t have anything to apologise for.” Giving the man a nod, Courtney stands in the centre of the room for a moment, staring at the floor as she organises her thoughts. “I know there’s no one coming to save us, Court’” Sebastian proclaims, catching the woman by surprise, his own face holding the disappreciation of begrudging acceptance, “but there’s part of me that can’t let go of the hope that someone will. I don’t know if that someone is the government, or someone else. I just struggle to let go of it.” Pulling a chair from the corner of the room, Courtney takes a seat, sensing more than just words being shared. “And I know Lou won’t be able to go back to school, or graduate, or do whatever else kids do now” Sebastian explains, a pain hidden in the smile he offers, “but that hopeful part of me doesn’t want to see him grow so disassociated from what life was like. I see Marta scrolling through her phone all day, and part of me worries Lou would never be able to go back to that someday.” Dejected, Courtney pulls her chair up to Sebastian’s knees, her hands placed upon their tops as they lock eyes, the lack of joy she takes from having to speak immeasurable. “I know it’s hard, maybe even impossible to accept, but you need to try to convince yourself to see the truth” Courtney murmurs, her head somberly shaking from one side to another, “the life we used to live is dead, it is gone, and it is never coming back.” Holding a straight face, Sebastian tries valiantly to hold back tears, the build up of his emotions forcing a dry sob from his core, his sturdy mask shattering into a swell of fervour. “I’m sorry, Sebastian” Courtney mumbles, resting her hand on the man’s shoulder as he cries, the piece he’d kept himself intact with shattering at once, the world’s true nature finally discovered for its true self. | “Those knocks really echo when you’re on the other side of the door” Lou exclaims, descending a metal set of warehouse stairs, setting out to answer the hefty knocks at his door. Releasing the entrance from its resting hinges, Lou looks into Adrian’s eyes, his intrigue in the man clambering for his attention dying instantly. “I should’ve known it was the dipshit” Lou mutters beneath his breath, stepping away as quickly as he stepped forward. “You’ve had the group up in arms all damn day!” Adrian exclaims, his voice carried loudly within the spacious unit. “You’re the one who set out to watch someone have their leg gnawed at by an industrial-use bear trap, dipshit” Lou replies casually, not nearly as worked up as Adrian is, “if your group is worked up over anything, it’s only because you decided to give them something to be worked up over.” “I made a mistake, okay!? I’ve apologised! What more do you need from me?” Adrian responds, Lou turning back with his eyes widened. “You’ve apolog- Well, I guess everything’s peachy then!” Lou shouts, his emphatic pitch holding a sarcastic, bashful linger, “it’s not like you killed a kid or anything, that would be insane!” “I didn’t kill anyone, you’re the one talking about murder!” Adrian shouts, his face trembling with anger. Disgusted at how genuine Adrian’s refusal to accept blame is, Lou steps back up to the man in a blind rage, his open hand crashing against the side of Adrian’s face with enough force to take the man off his feet. “Look around, you fucking scumbag!” Lou growls, Adrian’s hand pressing against the side of his face, the man in disbelief at the power behind Lou’s strike. “I’ll put it to you like this- Picture a turtle crossing the street on all four limbs. Pretty bad situation, wouldn’t you say?” Lou inquires, “now chop the fucker’s legs off and have it cross the street rolling on its shell. That’s what you’ve done to that kid!” Spitting on the ground beside Adrian, Lou steps back, nodding at the display he’s put forward. “You sicken me, you pitiful bastard” Lou continues to howl, tired of approaching the man with a kind face. “You can’t accept that you know nothing. You walk around here trying to protect your family as if you weren’t the biggest fucking danger to it” Lou proclaims, his head bobbing from one side to another, “you can’t accept that you killed a kid out of blind, stupid ignorance- so you blame everyone else, and when they call you on your bullshit, you apologize and think that changes a thing.” With a grimace, Lou pulls his head up, glaring at the heavens in disgust for what the sky oversees. “Is that the kind of man you are!?” Adrian exclaims, drawing Lou’s face back toward himself, finally returning to his feet, “hold someone’s worst mistake against them for the rest of their lives!?” “You don’t seem to get anything! No one here holds you accountable for the shit you pull!” Lou exclaims, giving into the screaming match Adrian seems to beg for, “they let you parade around thinking you’re the only sane voice in the room.” Stepping up to the man, Lou tests Adrian’s perception, leaving himself open for Adrian to impose the physical superiority he seems comfortable displaying when actions are kept to words. “So no, I’m not the kind of man to keep stroking the ego of your stuffy-nose self, jackass” Lou responds, a thought suddenly dawning upon him. “As a matter of fact, let me show you what kind of man I am” Lou replies, retreating to a small pile of his belongings in the corner, his fingers immediately wrapping around his rifle. “Come on, have a look for yourself” Lou gleefully exclaims, stepping through the door on his way back to the cabin. “I didn’t expect the lidocaine to-” Sonya murmurs to Silvano, the two sets of feet bursting through the front door interrupting their conversation. “To anyone interested in facing the music, come on out from hiding!” Lou proclaims, giddy as if he’d just found a bundle of presents under the tree early on Christmas morning. “What’s going on?” Rudy inquires, stepping into the living room at the same time as Marta, both at a loss for words the moment they spot the gun in Lou’s hands. “No! You can’t kill him!” Sonya exclaims, no further argument than that. “I’m not” Lou responds, watching both Courtney and Sebastian emerge from a separate section of the home, “Adrian is.” “What kind of sick fucking game is this!?” Silvano exclaims, throwing himself away from the unconscious amputee once Lou takes the rifle toward him. “The one where you get the fuck out of the gun’s way or get shot” Lou replies without hesitation, both survivors quickly moving aside. “Why is my dad going to kill this guy?” Marta inquires, watching her mentor push the gun against Adrian’s chest. “Because your dear, old dad is the man that made this mess” Lou responds, letting Adrian nervously wrap his hands around the weapon, his hands trembling in fear, “now he’s going to clean it up, because that’s the kind of man he is.” “I’m not killing this guy!” Adrian hollers, his body quaking beneath the weight of his guilty conscience. “We genuinely don’t have any other option, Adrian!” Courtney bellows from afar, both Lou and his forced-gunman taking their attention to her, “if we let him go, he’s not going to make it a day. And even in the small chance that he makes it back home, he’ll tell all of his friends about what we did, and they’ll come back to take a lot more than just our food.” “I can’t believe this!” Rudy shouts, both hands pressed against the sides of his head, “Sebastian, stop this!” Stood at Courtney’s side, Sebastian stares absently at Lou and his terror-filled second half, Rudy’s continuous call of his name only proving to be cannon fodder. “Sebastian!” Rudy calls from the other side of the room, again continuing to receive no response, “Sebastian, stop this crazy talk!” Glancing back toward Rudy, Sebastian responds with a straight face. “No” the man replies, watching the befuddlement emerge on Rudy’s face as he looks back at Lou, his eyes eventually falling upon Adrian, “clean up this mess, Adrian.” His mouth agape, Adrian stares at the cabin’s owner in silence, his mind unable to process the order he’s been given. “Go ahead, Adrian” Lou whispers, the air calming for a brief, horrifying few seconds, “make amends for your mistake.” Turning back to Lou, Adrian silently shakes his head in refusal, staring at the younger man like a deer in headlights. Shaking his head in disfavour, Lou takes the gun from Adrian’s hand and steadies it with ease, one squeeze of the trigger spraying blood upon the once-white wall. Choked up, Adrian stares at the body whilst Lou drops his gun to the floor, his hand wrapping around Adrian’s chin, pulling the man’s face toward his. “You asked me what kind of man I was, but you don’t have the balls to do the same for yourself- so let me answer on both of our behalves” Lou explains, lowering his voice to a whisper, “you’re the guy that makes a mess expecting not to be forced to answer for it, whereas I’m the guy that has to clean up the messes people like you make.” Strolling out the front door, Lou wraps his hand around a shovel and pries it from the dirt, dragging the dirt-covered socket back into the home, and over the dried blood-stained carpet. “Now that I’ve cleaned up your mess-” Lou shouts, pressing the tool against Adrian’s chest as he had both the wallet and the rifle, looking him in the eyes as he brings his voice to a whisper once more, “-go clean up mine.” Seething, Lou retrieves his rifle from the ground, proudly throwing it over his shoulder once more as he makes for the exit. “Goodnight” Lou sternly bellows, pushing the glass barrier out as he walks into the bleak, dreary night, leaving those within the cabin to pick up where he leaves off. == RISE and REVOLT == “Why did you come all this way?” Adrian wonders, leant forward with his coupled hands hanging between his spread, cacky-dressed legs, the cabin’s one-armed visitor sat confidently in a seat across from him. “Because my friends are smart. I’d like to think that, if they made it to Victoria like I did, they’d set off for the mountains” Lou replies, his elbow pressing into the cushiony armrest, his knuckles pressing into the side of his mouth.
“You don’t know that they made it to Victoria, they could have pushed against the current and landed back in Seattle” Adrian responds, a retort Lou refuses to argue. “You’re right, and if they landed in Seattle, I’ll probably never see them again” Lou replies, nodding his head, “because if I never find them, I will remain on Vancouver Island hoping to run into them.” Sinking back into his chair, Adrian continues to read the young man’s expression, still unable to find anything less than certainty behind his statements. “If your friends are here, and they made it up these mountains like you presume, they could be right under our noses” Silvano interrupts, sat at a table a short distance across the room. “What do you mean by that?” Lou responds, aware of the assumption, but suspicious as to what’s being implied. “Well, we don’t know your friends. You said they all drifted off together, so there’s no reason to think they’re not still together” Silvano replies, hiding the distrust, “maybe they’re the people stealing our food.” Stood in the corner of the room, Sebastian rolls his eyes, defending the people his guest seeks reunion with. “Lou’s a decent kid, I’m sure his group wouldn’t-” Sebastian begins to reply, interrupted by the different tunes Lou responds with. “I’m sure that’s a realistic possibility” Lou responds, earning a confused, almost bewildered look from the man that had tried to defend him, “they know you as well as I do. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind snatching a few apples here and there.” His urge to continue fighting in Lou’s favour defeated by the onslaught of questions brought forward, Sebastian resigns to being a bystander, letting the conversation unfold naturally. “They’re not just taking a few apples, they’re taking sacks of rice, seed packets, fresh drinking water, and plenty more” Adrian replies, growing irritated at the laxity Lou portrays. “They haven’t done anything. Neither of us know whether my friends are the ones snatching your seeds, big guy” Lou responds, his words directed at Adrian’s casual, seated posture, “but if it were, I can’t say I would be surprised.” “I’d like to point out that, even if you are a kid, we’re very skeptical of you” Silvano explains, his arm draped over the back of a metal folding chair, “so, with that said, is any of what you’re saying supposed to help change that?” His head shaking and shoulders shrugging, Lou offers Silvano a puckered-lip response. “I don’t care if you trust me” Lou replies, sparking a slight surprise over most in the room, “hell, if saving your friends from a horde isn’t enough, I don’t know what is.” “We’re not saying we don’t trust you, Lou” Sebastian interjects, his efforts thwarted again, both by Adrian’s interruption, and Lou’s genuine refusal to care. “That’s exactly what we’re saying” Adrian responds, his eyes taken to both Lou and Sebastian, “I get you’re young, and I’m sorry the world hasn’t worked out in your favour, but I’ve got a daughter to look out for. I can’t blindly trust a kid to not do me or my family harm just because he’s young, or he’s looking for his friends.” “And I’m not arguing that you should- because I don’t care” Lou replies, hoping to make that point resoundingly clear, “I appreciate the hospitality- I really do. But all I care about is finding my friends, and if anyone in this home threatens my ability to do that, I’ll make them regret it.” Still slightly disconnected from the morals of the new world, a cocky Silvano challenges the young man’s warning. “I hear a lot of bark and no bite” Silvano responds, Lou’s counterpoint begun before the man’s point can even fully leave his lips. Throwing the rifle’s strap over his shoulder, Lou steadies his aim at one of the legs to Silvano’s chair and pulls the trigger, a single bullet ripping through the metal with such force to break it completely. The chair beneath him crumbling, Silvano falls to the floor, looking to Lou, who’s teeth clatter together, shattering Silvano’s cocky display. “Like I said, I don’t care if you trust me” Lou repeats, returning the rifle to its original place over his back, the remainder of the group that had lingered elsewhere in the home now beckoned by the boisterous gunshot. “If my friends are the ones stealing your food, I will be the one to handle them” Lou explains, his composure prevailing amidst a home full of anxious faces, “and as proven before, I have the capabilities of both saving you, and killing you.” His eyes taking off to the side of the room, Lou looks to Sebastian, the man’s face weaning worry like a mink fur coat. “I’m not here to hurt you, and I’m not here to help you. I’m here because you owe me a place to sleep in return for saving one, hopefully two, lives” Lou explains, gently returning to the chair he previously occupied, “I don’t want to get attached. I’m here looking for my friends, and then I’m gone. Any questions?” Letting to the air simmer for a moment, Lou waits for the silence to pass, counting the seconds in his head before he’s satisfied with the result. “Good” Lou remarks, climbing out of his chair again, this time letting his feet guide him to the front door, its floor mat still covered in Kim’s blood, “now, someone come show me that goddamn food warehouse of yours.” = RISE and REVOLT is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series from Season 1 onwards belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 = “This kid is not right in the head” Adrian explains, seated at a table surrounded by his friends and family. “He’s the same age as Marta, Adrian” Sebastian replies, still standing in Lou’s corner. “There’s a difference, Sebastian- A big difference” Adrian responds, finding more reluctance from across the table. “There’s a difference because of circumstance, Adrian” Rudy replies, “put Marta in the kid’s place, and I’m sure your daughter would be standing here a lot different right now.” “This isn’t about the kids being the same age. If Marta stood in that living room and shot at Silvano like this kid did, I’d be just as concerned” Adrian responds. “I think his story is bullshit” Sonya replies, her father’s confused look meeting her. “Sorry, I don’t buy the story about the mom” Sonya responds, shaking her head in disapproval, “a woman doesn’t start swinging like that for no reason. If he was adamant to that woman about not being a threat, she wouldn’t have kept gunning for him.” “I disagree” Courtney replies, the simple mention of her voice drawing all eyes in her direction, a pleased look subdued from the faces in Lou’s corner, and a confused look on the faces of those against the young man. “Unlike the rest of you, I’ve seen what the world is like out there. It’s brutal, and the people don’t always make sense” Courtney explains, her hands wrapping around a cup of cold coffee, “with how things are, this kid is a good apple atop a basket full of bruised fruit.” Letting out a sigh, Adrian’s head sinks, his own hands wrapped around a plastic cup of water. “I know what you’ve seen, and I’m sure you’re right, but that doesn’t make me any more comfortable with him being around Marta” Adrian responds, a gesture Courtney also refuses to argue. “I’m not saying ‘bring him into the fold’. He doesn’t want to be part of a group, and for good reason” Courtney explains, “but with how often I’m coming and going, you might be well off with him sticking around.” “The mountains are not as dangerous as the ground is, Courtney. I get you’ve seen places become overrun, but that doesn’t-” Adrian retorts, expecting the same argument he’s heard before. “I know the mountains are safe. That said, you won’t be able to hide away from the world up here forever” Courtney replies, her words more trusted by Adrian than anyone else's, “he had the right idea cutting Kim’s leg off, whether she lives or dies. Half of you couldn’t even stomach being in the same room.” “He’s dangerous, Courtney” Silvano proclaims, growing tired at the sight of his peers slowly coming into agreeance with their paramotorist-friend. “He’s dangerous if you make yourselves a threat” Courtney responds, her eyebrow raised in Silvano’s direction, “after all, the only reason he shot your chair was because you practically dared him to.” “That doesn’t mean he has the right to prove me wrong!” Silvano shouts, a response that makes Courtney laugh. “The fact that you don’t realise how dangerous it is to egg someone on is proof enough that you’re not familiar enough with this world to see what I do” Courtney replies, a disappointed shake of his head suggesting which side of the argument Silvano remains in, “and I’m telling you, with all that I can, that this kid might be the best thing that could have happened to any of you.” | “What’re you doing?” Lou calls out, stepping through the snow as the daylight burns, watching Adrian sprinkle snow over a sharp-toothed, metal device sunken into the ground. “I’m covering a trap” Adrian responds, indifferent to the potential harm that could come to those he rigs the storage unit against. “Alright, and why use a bear trap?” Lou replies, able to recognize the physical honeypot by its shape, “are you trying to catch these thieves, or are you trying to hurt them?” “Why not do both?” Adrian responds, still indifferent to the feelings of those stealing from his friends and himself, “they’re taking food off my daughter’s plate. Why should I care?” Getting up to leave, Adrian steps within Lou’s reach, the young man’s hand pressing against Adrian’s chest to stop him from progressing. “Because those are my friends, and the sooner I find them, the sooner I’m out of your hair” Lou replies, both men staring each other in the face, “that’s what you want, correct?” “I don’t care if you’re here, I just care you’re not putting my daughter and I in danger” Adrian responds, pulling his chest away from Lou’s touch, “that’s more than reasonable, is it not?” His rebar pipe carried between his bicep and ribcage, Lou takes his weapon and sets in down on the trap, the teeth snapping down upon its presumed prey with enough speed for the trap to bounce into the air. Calmly sliding his weapon from the trap’s jaws, Lou locks eyes with Adrian again, hoping to make himself clear. “We are not setting out to hurt these people. We only set out to catch them, interrogate them, and let them move on” Lou explains, his voice clear, his words impossible to misconstrue, “do you understand me?” Frowning at Lou, Adrian walks away without another word, returning to the cabin as Lou watches him leave. “He’s not always like this” a young voice calls from nearby, Lou’s eyes drawn to the warehouse, where Marta emerges from around the corner, “we haven’t seen anyone new since everything shut down. I think he’s just nervous about you.” “How much of that did you hear?” Lou replies, his face stoic, the thick, brown beard covering his pressed lips. “I was standing just around the corner” Marta responds, almost a sarcastic tone in her voice, “I’m not deaf. My ears are perfectly capable of hearing a conversation happening just a few feet away.” “Don’t you have a text message to answer?” Lou replies, shaking his head as he proceeds to walk past the girl, her age closer to his than anyone else in the camp. “I haven’t been able to reach any of my own friends since everything went offline” Marta responds, following closely behind Lou, “I only spend all day on my phone because my dad won’t let me do anything else.” “Shouldn’t you be happy about that?” Lou replies, trekking through the snow, his eyes set on a road leading to the nearest village, “the world’s off fighting the dead, and you get to stay inside all day listening to music. Consider yourself lucky.” With a chuckle, Marta finds herself very interested in arguing Lou’s viewpoint. “Sure, I’ll consider myself lucky for now” Marta responds, her head hung, “but, like Courtney said, we won’t be able to hide up here forever. I won’t be lucky then.” Letting the conversation die there, Lou continues to walk, his thumb wrapped around the straps to both his rifle and prosthetic. Stopping in the snowy field, Marta watches Lou walk a few extra steps, the man having failed to realize she was no longer following him. “I don’t care if my dad isn’t comfortable with me learning how to defend myself” Marta calls out, her distant voice encouraging Lou’s walk to stop, the man turning around to face a girl once considered his equal. “I don’t want to rely on my dad to get me through the worst of this. I don’t want to be helpless when we’re forced out of that cabin” Marta explains, the eye contact Lou gives her strengthening her confidence, “teach me how to survive.” The cold air grazing his face, Lou considers Marta’s request for a moment, but not a second longer than that. “No” Lou replies, turning back around to continue his journey, the answer confusing the young girl, who expected a different answer. “Why not?” Marta responds, restarting her walk, one Lou worries won't end unless he agrees to her offer. “Because I’m not trying to get attached to you people” Lou replies, his eyes aimed at the ground, keeping a lookout for any debris beneath his feet, “I’m looking for my friends, and having a protégé doesn’t really work with that goal.” “Okay, then fuck your goal” Marta responds, finally catching up to the man despite the bitter winds, which rush at speeds high enough to whip Lou’s scarf in the breeze. “Why bother trying not to get attached to us?” Marta inquires, her perception of Lou making such a goal weight with little sense, “if you were to stay with us, that wouldn’t stop you from being able to find your friends.” “Oh, is that right? Because, if my friends really are the ones taking food from your group, I don’t think I’d be able to get away with playing both sides” Lou replies, his head nodding, “and if such a point came, I know where my allegiances will be.” Stopping again, Marta watches Lou walk off, this time with no intention of stopping him. | “Good morning, Rudy” Sebastian mumbles, walking past an Adrian-occupied kitchen table on his way to the fridge. “What’s for breakfast?” Sebastian inquiries, leaning over the older man’s shoulder to take a glance at the frying pan. “Court’ brought in some fresh stuff in” Rudy responds gleefully, “we’re having sausage, fried potatoes, cooked eggs and a blueberry muffin.” “Sounds like heaven” Sebastian replies, grabbing a glass off the drying rack, filling its contents halfway with milk. “Did you catch anything in your trap last night, Adrian?” Sebastian wonders, gently setting the glass dairy-container back into the fridge. “Nope, Lou told me I wasn’t allowed to set the trap down” Adrian responds, stepping up from his seat at the table with an empty plate, “he decided to sleep in the warehouse instead.” “He slept in the storage unit?” Sebastian replies, the tone of his voice proclaiming his disbelief. “It was his choice” Adrian responds, laying the ceramic plate into the sink before patting Rudy on the back, “why do I care if he sacrifices comfort over a warm bed?” Watching Adrian depart the kitchen, Courtney, Sonya, Marta and Silvano are all left seated, the sound of silverware clattering against ceramic and glass creating an environment not to unlike the one left in the wake of the undead. “I can’t figure this kid out” Sonya remarks, still chewing on the blueberry sweet. “He’s seen more of the world than all of you have combined, so good luck getting a real good look on him” Courtney replies, nudging her sister with the base of her elbow. “What is there to get a good look on?” Silvano responds, swirling the half-sausage remaining in a depleted pool of syrup, “the guy carries a metal pole around as a weapon. He’s a savage living in a meat locker.” Gently opening the kitchen door, Lou emerges not a second later, an empty ceramic plate carried atop his nub. Squeezing a dab of soap onto a damp sponge, Lou pats Rudy on the back with a short smile. “Thank you for the breakfast” Lou remarks, turning the sink’s faucet on and letting the water run. “You’re- you’re welcome” Rudy replies, caught by surprise by the young man’s manners, a much longer smile held on his own face. Running the spine over both plates left in the sink, Lou leaves the eatery to dry on the dishrack and exits through the same door he entered, leaving with as little announcement as he entered with. Unable to hold back her laughter, Courtney sinks back into her chair, head pointed toward the ceiling in a fit. “Yeah, Silvano! You’ve really got it figured out!” Courtney shouts, her sides hurting from the humor she views the interaction through, “he’s a real fucking savage!” Greatly confused, Sebastian resorts to following his initial intention, feet creeping into slip-on shoes as he, too, exits the kitchen. “Lou, hold up!” Sebastian calls out, tying his morning robe tighter, truly underestimating the Western Canadian morning chill. “Adrian told me you slept in the warehouse last night” Sebastian explains, the curious look on Lou’s face indicating his uncertainty over the importance behind such decision, “do you not feel safe in the house?” “No, you people are fine” Lou responds, the concern in his voice nothing when compared to the concern in Sebastian’s. “Well, then why are you sleeping in the storage unit?” Sebastian replies, his cabin’s warmth rendering the near-December’s frost a line seldom worth crossing. “Because ‘dad of the year’ in there is trying to set bear traps up in the storage unit’s doorway” Lou responds, still tempted enough by the cold to cross his arms, pressing them close to hist chest. “Well, we don’t have a much different option” Sebastian replies, trying to reason with Adrian’s decision, “there aren’t alarms, or security cameras, or tripwires to depend on. What other choice do we have?” His answer already prepared, Lou pays Sebastian the respect of letting him finish his argument. “I’m the other choice. I think you forget I’ve slept amongst a horde of the undead. That freezer might as well be paradise for me” Lou responds, “no need for ankle-breakers if I’m in there.” “Sure, but that’s not the point” Sebastian replies, offering a welcoming look as he shakes his head, “the house is warm, there’s bed made for you. You’re too young to be out here cooped up in-” Not allowed to finish his thought the second time around, Sebastian’s offering is cut short, Lou’s voice speaking louder. “Do me a favour, stop referring to me as ‘kid’, sir” Lou retorts, tired of hearing the same word used to describe him, “I’ve done more than enough to warrant being called ‘Lou’.” Letting out a sigh, Sebastian gives the man a nod. “You’re right, Lou” Sebastian responds, his hair blown upwards by the winds, it’s colour matching the partially-grey moustache-goatee combination he wears. “As a matter of fact, I’d argue you’ve done more to be called ‘sir’, than me. Hell, I’m sure Courtney and I would agree that you’ve done more than enough to be called ‘a man’” Sebastian furthers, the warm look returning, “that still doesn’t mean you should have to camp in a freezer.” Waving his hand through the air, Sebastian begins returning the conversation to its original course, only to be interrupted by a panicked voice calling out through the kitchen door. “Lou! Sebastian!” Marta exclaims, both men turning back in the frigid tundra, their eyes setting upon her, “Kim’s not breathing!” | Trailing through the snow, Lou carries a string of squirrels over his shoulder, a small knife on his belt dripping blood upon his dark, navy pants. “There’s enough on the string for three critters each” Lou remarks, snapping three of the rodents from the twenty-four that remain tied. “Enjoy dinner” Lou remarks, resting the string on a tree stump before walking off for his freezer-home. “Hey, hold on a second!” Adrian remarks, standing five feet below ground level, covered in the dirt he’s assist in removing from a grave, “are you not going to help?” Looking at the man curiously, Lou shakes his head and shrugs. “Why would I help?” Lou replies, genuinely inquisitive of the man’s response to his departure. “Because you cut her leg off!” Adrian responds, slamming his hand upon the woman’s blanket-rolled corpse, “you caused this!” “No, the bite that I tried to save her from succumbing to caused this” Lou replies, fastening the straps of both his prosthetic and rifle, “had it not been for me, you would’ve buried her days ago.” Continuing to walk as Adrian looks to the rest of his group with disgust, Lou suddenly stops, looking to the hole-occupying survivor with a smile. “Well, that’s at least what I assume” Lou adds, watching Adrian’s eyes lock onto his own, “had Courtney not been here, she probably would have turned.” Continuing his walk-away backwards, Lou’s smile grows larger, noticing the dissatisfaction in Adrian’s face. “I wouldn’t have wanted to see the outcome of that, trust me” Lou explains, shaking his head as his body spins around, “that would not have been pretty.” Watching the man trail off, Marta’s eyes remain distant from her phone, a set of words bubbling in her head. “It’s almost like we can’t ever really escape what’s going on like we thought” Marta shouts, drawing Lou’s attention as much as she draws the attention of the rest of her group, “we can’t even escape it all the way up here.” Only able to see his figure looking back at her, Marta holds hope that the proclamation can convince Lou’s protégé refusal to be granted a second look. A smile appearing through his beard, Lou rolls his eyes, head turning back to his storage unit home. | Sneaking through the backdoor quietly, Lou watches a puffy-eyed Sonya jump back, startled by the young man’s sudden appearance, her face briefly left visible through the orange refrigerator lightbulb. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you” Lou whispers, his hand extended in a show of courtesy. “Well, when you’re coming in through the back of the house, in the middle of the night, and with no warning, someone’s going to be startled” Sonya responds, her voice more fragile than usual. “Yeah, I can see that” Lou replies, gently closing the backdoor on his way inside, “I just wanted to get that string back? The one I tied the squirrels to?” Considering her time to be better spent elsewhere, Sonya waves her hand at the fridge. “No one here knows how to skin squirrels, so they just stuffed them into the freezer” the woman responds, turning around to leave, “sorry.” Whilst disappointed in the squirrels having gone to waste, Lou’s cares take to something more, the woman’s demeanour striking him as odd. “Were you close to her?” Lou wonders aloud, stopping in the hallway just beside the kitchen, Sonya turning back to the man’s call, “the girl that died. Were you close to her?” “Her name is Kim” Sonya quickly corrects, her voice still stubbornly austere, her heart equally weighted, “and I’ve known her since high school.” Reaching his hand across his chest, Lou taps his thumb upon his nub, genuinely sorry for the woman’s loss. “What you did earlier today, the whole ‘I didn’t know her, why would I help bury her’ routine, it was sick” Sonya remarks, taking Lou’s silence as a route to pursue the release of her anger. “We let you into our home, and you saw us burying our friend, and you just walked away!” Sonya begins to shout, waking those within the rest of the home, one-by-one, her friends and fellow survivors emerging from their bedrooms. “You just dropped off a string of squirrels and left! Carried on like nothing changed while the rest of us sat there, mourning our friend!” Sonya exclaims, shouting in anger while the rest of the house watches, hesitant to step in. “The least- The least you could have done, was pick up a shovel and help like you cared!” Sonya exclaims, throwing her hands at Lou’s chest, shoving him back. “You could’ve tried to care, or pretended!” Sonya shouts, again shoving Lou back, the young man refusing to stop her, “you could have fucking helped!” Shoving Lou again, Sonya falls silent, her head dropping as she stumbles forward, exhausting her anger to the point of lamenting right into Lou’s arm, his hand welcoming her into an embrace, catching her in a moment of sorrow. “You’re right” Lou whispers, his chin pressed against the top of the woman’s head while the rest of the home watches on, a sorry look on the faces of some, whilst others look unsure of how to respond. “I’ve got her” Lou whispers, watching Courtney approach with her arms out, her stride cut short upon Lou’s whispered proclamation. Asleep in her bed, Sonya rests peacefully beneath the dim light of the lamp on her nightstand, the man who’d lulled her to sleep now asleep himself. Slumped in a chair, Lou’s head tilts to the ceiling, his eyes shut, his lips parted ever-so-slightly. “Lou, wake up!” a soft voice whispers, her hand pushing the man’s arm, jolting him awake. “Hmph, huu- wha-!?” Lou mutters, groggily waking from the sleep he’d fallen into. “Marta!?” Lou groans, a variety of different hurried footsteps racing through the hall closeby. “What’s going on?” Lou wonders aloud, unable to process much of the hurried rush happening around him, but aware enough to notice the importance. “I think my dad set up a trap outside the storage unit!” Marta replies, the look of sheer worry on her face accompanying the dreadful declaration leaving her lips, “someone’s caught in it!” His eyes widening, Lou dashes from his chair, not wasting another moment to burst into action. Racing through the snow, Lou refuses to stop as his eyes fall upon the home’s inhabitants, all huddled around the freezer’s entrance. “What the fuck did you do!?” Lou exclaims, the heavy tone in his voice emanating from a place of pure, unadulterated anger. “There’s so much blood!” Silvano remarks, covering his mouth as he walks away, the sickening wails of the trap’s victims only forcing his earlier lunch to spill out from his stomach. “I- I- I thought, I mean- You weren’t in there!” Adrian exclaims, stuttering over his explanation as Lou pushes past him, nearly knocking him to the ground as he dashes into the centre of the chaos. “What do we do!?” Marta calls out, her father’s voice the first to speak up. “Okay! We- we get a-” Adrian begins, his daughter’s loud yell stopping him from continuing his thought. “Not you!” Marta angrily screams in her father’s face, eyes setting upon the young man in the middle, “Lou, what do we do!?” The face of the man at his feet unfamiliar, a stifled wave of relief courses through Lou’s veins, the persistent screams of agony returning him to the situation’s gravity. “We’re gonna have dipshit over here to unlock the cage his dumbass set up!” Lou shouts, locking eyes with Adrian, the man still struggling for a response. “I don’t- I don’t-” Adrian stutters again, his reluctance bringing a wide-eyed look over Lou’s face. “You don’t have a fucking key, do you?” Lou growls from the deepest pits of his core, the dreadful expression on Adrian’s face, giving him the answer. “FUCK!” Lou shouts, brought to the verge of firing a bullet in Adrian’s head, though aware enough to look for more fruitful alternatives. “Well, thank your heroic douchebag of a strong man for running through the same routine as before!” Lou eagerly shouts, “bandages, ice, and a big-fucking-knife!” Racing off to follow through with instructions, Marta and Courtney sprint back to the house, the background sounds of pain-ridden screaming drawing Lou’s face back toward Adrian. Without a word, Lou simply snarls at the man, who stares at him with distraught, almost incoherent mumblings beneath his breath. == RISE and REVOLT == / Two months earlier /
“Ally!?” Lou exclaims, water rushing through the spaces between his toes with each step, his damp shoes splashing atop the asphalt. “Jenn!? Halston!?” Lou continues exclaiming, his clothes covered in sand just as one half of his face is, hair soaking wet, leaving a trail of water in his wake. “Terry!? Jules!?” Lou continues shouting, his voice echoing through the abandoned city centre, his hope depleting with every name he calls aloud. “Elsie!? Lee!?” Lou continues, stood in the middle of a three-way intersection, surrounded by dark buildings and debris-strewn roads, “anyone?” Alone, Lou feels his chest grow heavy, each breath becoming harder to come by, the wishful thinking he walks through eerily empty streets dying with the recognition of his honest, unchangeable loneliness as night begins to fall. Sat beside a fire in the middle of the road, Lou waits out the night sky that covers him from above, huddled in a jacket to ward off the unfamiliar chill of Western Canadian autumn. “Aaarrrggghhh” a hiss emerges, departing it’s cloak beneath the sightless night as it approaches Lou, the fire having taken its eye with ease. The breath he lets leave his lungs now floating in front of his face, Lou looks to the fire for protection, removing a partially-burned log from the brick-surrounded pit. Letting his puffy jacket fall from his shoulders, Lou steps away from his firepit, his bare feet gently walking upon the poorly-maintained road, his path lit by the persistent flame in his log-carrying hand. Moistening his lips with a lick, Lou lets a whistle graze his teeth, guiding the corpse closer toward him, hungered growls egged on by the young man’s display. Close enough for his liking, Lou takes the burning post through the frosty air, his force snapping the corpse’s neck. Laying there, hobbled, the zombie suffers Lou’s beating, the half-naked man repeatedly crushing it’s skull with a flaming two-by-four. His frustration boiling over, Lou mangles the body at his feet, grunting with every strike before stopping himself, one glance taken to puddle of blood surrounding his feet convincing him to end the senseless attack. Encouraged to travel at the first sight of morning, Lou packs a knapsack with essentials and leaves his campgrounds. Still barefoot, Lou begins walking down the third road, its sidewalks adorned with tall office buildings, whilst the snow-touched mountains stand before Lou’s sight, covered in a foggy haze. *knock, knock, knock knock knock* Lou hears to his right, surprised at the smooth, rhythmic tapping of glass never intended for him. “Hello?” Lou whispers to himself, quiet enough so as not to be heard, his sights set on a glass tower piercing the sky. Invested in this source, Lou squeezes through cars to reach the skyscraper, shuffling to the side of the road before reaching a set of stairs, each step leading to the building’s entrance, where a man aimlessly knocks at the glass door. Opening his mouth to speak, Lou holds his words back, his eyes squinting at the rugged man waiting below. *knock, knock, knock knock knock* The tapping continues, the man’s body covered with a well-fitting work jacket, his hand a pale white. A feeling deep within his core urging him to leave, Lou chooses to distrust his instincts, walking to his right for a few steps in hopes of seeing the man’s reflection. “Hello, Cheryl?” the man groans in a strangely high pitched voice for someone of the man’s appearance, “can you buzz me in?” *knock, knock, knock knock knock* “Hello, Cheryl?” the man at the door repeats, the same tone as before, at the same time as before, no expectations held just as before, “can you buzz me in?” The door’s glass reflecting sunlight, Lou fails to earn a decent view of the man below, any visible features of his face rendered to nothing more than a dark, featureless figure. “Are you looking for someone?” Lou finally asks aloud, too perplexed to leave the situation alone. “Aaarrrggghhh!” the man suddenly growls, his beady eyes turning toward the one-armed man standing above him. “What the fuck!?” Lou exclaims, backing away from the stairs as the fresh corpse begins to ascend, running with the speed of an olympian despite the pale complexion of a sickly hermit. His lips puckered, Lou retreats to the instincts he’d earlier taken for granted, allowing the zombie to rush at him. Standing his ground, Lou lets the corpse close in before dodging the suit-clad corpse’s attack, his outstretched leg sweeping the corpse to the ground with a heavy thud. The end of his burnt log sharpened, Lou drives his weapon through the back of the reality-challenging zombie’s skull, it’s sharpened point emerging through the face. His look one of curiosity, Lou pulls the log from the undead’s head and stares in disbelief, unable to truly comprehend what had happened. = RISE and REVOLT is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series from Season 1 onwards belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 = / One week later / “Aaarr-” a corpse growls, a heavy boot pressing its neck to the ground as an axe is buried into the back of it’s skull. With a grunt, Lou removes the weapon from the cranium, struggling to wield the heavy weapon effectively. Stretching his aching back muscles, Lou rests the axe upon the ground as he reaches for a canvas pouch over the body’s shoulder, it’s straps fastened by hefty metal hooks. Unzipping the sack’s top, Lou retrieves the contents within, a curious look on his face as his fingers graze metal and heavy rubber. Continuing to feel around, Lou wraps his fingers around what feels like a hand, his eyes rolling as he removes the item from its vessel. “Ain’t that funny?” Lou mutters to himself, taking a prosthetic left hand from the cylindrical container, shaking his head as his quickly returns it. “I’m sure Ally would tell me to take this as a sign, so that is what I shall do” Lou grunts, pulling the sack from over the corpse’s shoulder as he hoists it over his own. Reclaiming his axe, Lou returns to his stroll, defying the darkness overhead by clasping a flashlight in his few remaining free fingers. Dressed for the winter, Lou steps over broken glass and broken asphalt, his eyes taken to anything worth paying a close eye to. Continuing to walk the road for another five hundred metres, Lou’s sights find something to fall upon, a once-eleven story residential building rendered to rubble, ash, and manageable pockets of persistent flame. Severed, a downed hydroline lays across the street, the brief spurts of light that pop suddenly from its disconnected end signifying is danger. “This place has electricity?” Lou whispers to himself, walking toward what remains of the ravaged building until a noise emerges closeby. “Hello!?” Lou proclaims, turning his entire body toward a broken storefront, the signage on its window made incomplete by the missing shards of glass. “If you’re alive in there, please make that clear” Lou explains, holding a chuckle beneath his breath, “I’ve nearly made that mistake once, and I’d like it not to happen again.” Met with silence, Lou continues to keep his patience in order, the hope he’d arrived on the island with finding its way back to his heart. “My name is Lou” the man greets, his flashlight still pointed at the ransacked barbershop, “I’m looking for my friends.” As obvious as he can make himself out to be, Lou’s suddenly revitalised hope softly fades, his eyes falling ever so slightly. “I don’t mean you any trouble” Lou persists, resting his axe upon the ground in a show of good faith, giving up on the desire to find a familiar face on the other side of the darkness. “I washed up on the beach a few nights ago, I’ve been looking for my friends ever since” Lou continues, steadying the flashlight on the broken window, “they all probably look like they’re in high school and equally as in need of a shower as me, so if you know-” “Put your hands up and give me your shit” a feminine voice remarks, her words aimed at the back of Lou’s head, just as her handgun does. Slowly pulling his hand into the air, Lou cooperates with the woman’s request, a bitter truth unfortunately keeping him from showing good faith. “I don’t have anything other than a prosthetic hand, miss” Lou replies, worrying over the display this leaves him casting. Kicking the young man in the small of his back, the unfamiliar woman brings Lou to his knees, his hand painfully falling to the ground. “Stop lying and give me your shit!” the woman repeats, this time not wasting time in raising her voice. “I would give you everything I have, but I don’t have anything” Lou responds, as quick to reply as the woman is to raise her voice, his answer still failing to fall in the woman’s favour. “I don’t want to have to tell you again” he woman warns, triggering the ‘fight or flight’ response in Lou’s mind by pressing the barrel of her weapon against the man’s skull. Swinging his elbow around, Lou knocks the firearm from the survivor’s hand and pushes her away, creating the separation needed to regroup. “I don’t want to fight you, please-” Lou exclaims, reclaiming his axe as the soles of his boots return to the ground. Throwing himself to the side, Lou watches the woman fly past him, failing to tackle him as originally planned. “I have nothing to offer you, miss!” Lou exclaims, stepping away as the woman stands up once more, seething with anger, “if you want me to leave you alone, I will!” Refusing to listen to reason, the woman makes another run at the young, handicapped survivor, his efforts to side step her not prevailing as they had once before. Knocked off his balance, Lou is spun to the ground, the axe falling from his hand as the side of his head meets the road. “Ffuuc-” Lou groans, his hand guiding itself to the road-burnt corner of his brow momentarily. Putting his pain aside, Lou crawls away from the pebble-grinding steps he hears nearing him, scrambling from leverage. “Ma’am, I’m not trying to hurt you!” Lou desperately pleads, watching the woman take his own axe into her possession. “Please, stop!” Lou exclaims, holding his hand out at the woman, her rabid desire to end his life not subsiding. Letting the woman take his axe into the air, Lou rolls away from her initial swing, scrambling to the opposite direction with little plan. “I am not a threat!” Lou shouts once more, yet to accept the woman’s refusal, his hope still held out for her actions to cease. Left to rest on the ground, the silver finish of the woman’s handgun reflects the sparse flames of the nearby eyesore once considered an apartment. Taking the gun into his hand, Lou crawls onto his back and stares at the woman, offering her the final chance he has to propose. “I don’t want to hurt you!” Lou exclaims, watching the woman ready a swing with as much intent as she had many times prior. *pop* With one squeeze of the trigger, Lou fires a single bullet through the woman’s face, the bullet entering beneath her chin before tearing through the top of her head. Stumbling back five steps, the woman topples backwards, the axe bouncing free of her grip the moment she slams into the ground. Gasping for air, Lou looks with dejection at the woman’s corpse, the twitch in her left foot forcing the young man to look away, unable to stomach what was necessary of himself. Pushing himself to his feet, Lou retakes the axe into his hand without paying another look to the woman, too distraught to endure the body’s sight. Letting his breath fog the air as it lulls, Lou’s eyes take back to the road he’d intended to travel, whilst his ears suddenly take back to the barbershop. Lou’s face fills with dread while his eyes slowly return to the building he’d originally become so infatuated with, the sounds that emanate from within prompting his heart to sink. “Waaahhh” | / Four days later / “It’s alright, I’ve got you” Lou whispers, carrying an axe in his mechanical hand whilst cradling a crying baby in the one that remains, calming it down gracefully. “We’re gonna find you some formula, and then we’re gonna find a nice house to stay in” Lou continues, whispering hopeful thoughts to the infant, his warm breath purposefully aimed into the child’s face. “I don’t know how the fuck I’m supposed to raise you, but I’m gonna try my best” Lou continues to whisper, keeping the child close to his chest, “I don’t know how to feed a baby formula either, but I’m sure I’ll screw up enough to figure it out eventually!” Putting on a kind face to mask the deep fear he still carries deep within himself. “Everything will be okay as long as I say so” Lou whispers, the crying now coming to a stop, its restless whimpering finally put aside. “Where’s the mom, Lou?” a distinctive voice calls nearby, the exact tone, reflection, vibrato and cadence prompting the man to stop in his tracks, the tremble in his core prompting the baby’s crying to begin again. “You gonna say ‘hello’ or am I supposed to stand here waiting all day?” the domineering voice wonders aloud, Lou’s face returning to its orbit. “Come on, old friend- at least give me a wave” Matt jokes, aiming a rifle at Lou, a man he once incorrectly considered a close friend. “Matt, there’s-” Lou begins, his words ordered to halt by the rifle-wielding, scorned apocalyptic-profiteer. “Yeah, a baby. I don’t care” Matt replies, bobbing his head to the side, “there was a conversation had in that crow’s nest, and I want it ended.” “Then we can have that conversation without aiming guns at each ot-” Lou responds, the warning shot Matt fires into the air rendering him silent, the baby’s crying beginning once more. “These streets are going to be littered with the dead of the twelfth biggest city in Canada within minutes, so I’d suggest you follow my instructions very closely” Matt explains, an arrogant look on his face, “there’s a building to your right. Climb every stair until you reach the roof, don’t stop until then.” “And where will you be?” Lou replies, keeping his eyes away from Matt’s face, struggling to portray confidence when the sickeningly familiar man urges nothing but grave worry. “I’ll be right behind you” Matt responds, turning the gun back onto the man in front of him, “and I’ll have the barrel of this gun aimed at the back of your head every step of the way, slayer.” Trying to lull the baby to sleep, Lou’s attention is called for once again. “The decaying process doesn’t really kick in for a few weeks, so the dead still have a little bit of pep in their step” Matt explains, keeping his rifle locked onto his sworn enemy, “I wouldn’t want to be on ground level when they get here, Lou. I’d start walking if I were you.” Relenting, Lou steps to the rundown building, ducking through the entrance before embarking on an eight-story ascent to the roof. “I don’t see what the point of this is, Matt” Lou explains, finally reaching the rooftop, axe still carried in a prosthetic hand he’s yet to master the advantages of. “You don’t have to worry about dying, my intention isn’t to kill you” Matt replies, shutting the door they entered through. “As the crow’s nest went under water, I vowed to take from you the future you’d stolen from me” Matt explains, leaving the door unlocked, “and that’s precisely what I’m going to do.” Taking in a huff of the cold air filling the streets of Victoria, Matt lets a smile come over his face. “Put the axe and the baby in the corner” Matt orders, aiming his rifle at the man the instant reluctance presents itself. “Do as I said, or you’ll die today” Matt proclaims, leaving Lou no option other than compliance. “Do you know how things are going to unfold from here on out, Lou?” Matt inquires, watching the young man walk away from the still-crying baby, the head of the axe resting just beside it’s small, frail body. “No, I don’t” Lou responds, taking a low tone to every answer Matt demands of him. “Of course not, you’ve never truly experienced this world!” Matt replies, his humor slowly beginning to die out, the realization starting to creep in, “none of us really have.” Disgruntled, Matt shakes his head in disappointment, his eyes trailing back toward the one-armed man across from him. “After all we’ve been through, and after everything that’s happened, I sometimes forget how young you are” Matt explains, a frown emerging from a chuckle. “You- you should be in Chemistry class or something right now” Matt explains, almost in disbelief at the scene that’s unfolding, “I mean, yeah, my life was taken away- But you never even really got to have one... That’s not fair.” Grimacing, Lou becomes uncomfortable with the sentiment shared, almost as if Matt is coming to more of a realisation than Lou was intended to be awoken to. His eyes lowering, the tension in Matt’s body eases, the anger he’d greeted Lou with now twisting into sorrow. “You’ve been forced out of your home, you’ve lost an arm, you’ve had to fend off death prob- I me- Holy fuck! How many times have you had to fend off death!?” Matt rattles off, arriving at the same conclusion as before, the weight heavier now than it was before, “you’re just a kid!” The silence confining him to an odd hesitation, Lou holds his hand a few centimetres from himself, lowering his voice to a gentle tone. “I’m sorry for what I did, Matt. I’m sure you already know that” Lou explains, watching Matt’s rifle fall to the ground, his face somberly drifting off into the distance, “but neither of us has to die, today. We can both move on with our lives and-” “You’re wrong” Matt responds, still looking at the mountains in the near distance, the faint sound of hungry savages below only helping his emotionally deranged thoughts flutter in. Pressing his lips together, Matt looks to Lou with a tear in his eye, a sudden embrace of humanity coming over himself. “When we carted the dead onto the Euronam, we stuffed them into those deep, deep caverns- so they’d decompose quicker” Matt explains, a laugh leaving his mouth, “it was like we’d done it for years.” Shaking his head, Matt tosses his rifle to the ground, seemingly welcoming the change of heart clarity has brought upon him. “It shouldn’t have been that normal, Lou. It shouldn’t have been that normal, but it was” Matt explains, his hands falling upon his waist, “and the scariest thing about it, is that nothing about that ‘normal’ is going to change. This is the world now, and the people in it are, for better or for worse, the people now.” Clearing his throat, Matt takes in the sounds of the baby crying, again shaking his head in disbelief. “To think neither of us has to die is foolish, Lou. It’s foolish, it’s reckless, and ultimately, it’ll be what kills you” Matt remarks, every word he speaks further dragging Lou’s fears to the forefront, “it’s a naivety that you can’t afford. You need to know when people are worth being left alive, and if you can’t see that, you’re going to get yourself, and the people you love, killed.” “What is this, Matt?” Lou finally interrupts, the man’s motivations too puzzling to understand, “I don’t understand what’s happening, and I’m not sure I want to.” Dropping to his knees, Matt looks at the ground, disassociating from himself. “You need to kill me, Lou” Matt replies, the profound answer only further losing Lou’s patience. Reaching for Matt’s throat, Lou presses both thumbs to the man’s shirt collar, pulling him back to his feet whilst screaming in his face. “What game are you trying to play with me, Matt!?” Lou exclaims, the boiling aggravation sending spit flying from his lips, “you’re talking like a fucking lunatic!” Shoving Lou away, Matt matches the young man’s screams, his finger pointed at Lou’s face. “The world is fucked, Lou! F-U-C-K-E-D, FUCKED!” Matt screams, the veins in his neck popping. “For the last week, I’ve held onto the hope that I’d find you, and I’d kill you for ruining my great, big plan! You, I was going to kill you, a kid!” Matt persists, gasping for the breath he forces from his lungs with such desire, “I’m as fucked as the rest of the world is, and you need to kill me!” Throwing himself back to his knees, Matt bows his head, openly inviting Lou to squash the broken life he begs to let end. “I will not kill you, Matt!” Lou exclaims, again shoved away, this time with enough force to take him off his feet. Slamming into the cedar finish, Lou watches Matt sprint across the roof, taking the crying baby into his hands. “NO, DON’T!” Lou growls, watching Matt’s body swing, the infant launched eight-stories to the collected herd below. Slamming into the concrete lip, Lou watches the child plummet to the ground, disappearing into the swarm with a squeal. Dismayed, Lou watches the dead clump together, struggling to process what he’s just witnessed. “Y- Yo-” Lou whimpers softly, too stunned to react. The dead now preoccupied, a chilling silence comes over the rooftop, only the sudden, forceful collision of knees to the panels below left to interrupt. “I told you I was broken-” Matt grunts, the sound of his voice sending Lou into a rage, his face shaking with life-shattering vigour, “-and now you need to act accordingly.” Trembling, Lou takes his face away from the dead below, staring off at midday sun just overhead. In quick succession, Lou pushes himself from the ledge and wraps his hands around the axe handle, its head dragging against the cedar beneath his feet. “Yes!” Matt shouts with excitement, eagerly anticipating the inevitable demise that approaches him, “I’ve shown y-!” Pulling the weapon over his shoulder, Lou swings the axe as if it were a baseball bat and buries the blade in Matt’s chest with enough force to knock him off his knees before he can finish his final words. Pressing his foot on the man’s stomach, Lou rips the weapon from Matt’s insides, continuing to bludgeon the man’s corpse with no remorse. His face painted with splatters of Matt’s blood, Lou continues to dissect, disembowel, and disassemble the man’s torso, leaving it a bloody husk. | “Aaarrrggghhh” Matt groans, his reanimated jaw propped open with a brick, his arms and legs having been carefully removed post-mortem. Taking a knee beside the fresh corpse, Lou stares into Matt’s beady eyes, a disgusted look on his face. “You taught me nothing, and you died for nothing” Lou hisses, letting the man’s sniper rifle join the prosthetic arm over his back. “You haven’t taken into account how I see the world” Lou explains, his nub resting against the wall’s ledge, “and I still see the world as I always have. It’s gruelling, it’s remorseless, and as you noticed today, unfair.” His words now carried in a whisper, Lou takes another look at the mountains, the snowcaps along the very summit bringing a smile to his face. “I’m going to find my friends, Matt. I’m going to find all of them” Lou promises, resting his axe on the ground, “Jenn and Halston, Terry and Jules, Elsie, Lee, Theo and Ally.” Leaning his face close to Matt’s ear, Lou departs with a whisper, taking solace in the confidence he speaks with. “You’ve changed nothing, and I hope that there’s some part of you in there, helplessly trapped that can hear me” Lou explains, rising to two feet with a grin, “because that is how I’m leaving you.” Picking up a gore-covered raincoat from the building’s ledge, Lou throws the jacket over his shoulders and retrieves his axe, leaving the man behind in favour of moving forward. “I’ll see you all soon” Lou whispers, taking one last look at the mountain, holding onto the hope that it beckons for him on their collective behalf. Groggily stepping through the door at ground level, Lou steps into the horde, traipsing through the dead without hesitation, not a single beady eye concerning themselves with his presence. Emerging from the horde, Lou walks with the dead, leading the horde through the streets of Victoria without a second thought. Looking to the same mountain he eagerly works toward, Lou’s heart is taken to another decimated building, the concrete walls of its first floor blown to smithereens. Shaking his head, Lou moves on, one foot cautiously put in front of the other until the tip of his boot kicks something unusual along the paved sidewalk. Squinting, Lou stops his walk, taking his eyes to the ground at the luring call of grazed steel. “Hmph” Lou groans, letting the axe fall from his hand at the sight of something more favourable. Distancing himself from the dead, Lou crouches to the ground with a smile, his fingers wrapping around the familiar touch of thin, cylindrical rebar. “Hello, old friend” Lou whispers, a chunk of concrete still encapsulated around the pipe’s very base. Surrounded in silence, Lou takes the pipe over his shoulder and swings it at the ground, freeing the bar’s end from its concrete confinement. “Everything’s going to be okay” Lou mutters to himself, turning back to rejoin the horde in Victoria’s streets, the pipe proudly returning to its rest upon his shoulder. == RISE and REVOLT == |