S4, E10 | Choosing to Live

Struggling to part his eyelids as the side of his face lays within the soft cushion of his pillow, Lou sighs through his nose as he lets his body fall limp, giving into the comfort of the soft mattress he lies upon and the puffy comforter that gently sits over him. Taking in the serenity that overcomes him for a few seconds longer, the half-naked man slowly lets his eyes part for good as he stares out the bedroom window overlooking the coast line, nothing more than heavy rain greeting him.

With his hand already having fallen off the side of the bed, Lou rolls his body to lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before his eyes fall to the sleeping woman beside him. Dressed in a black tank top and laying on her stomach, Marta’s face directs itself to the door on the opposite side of the room, her hair tied back in a ponytail and wet from a shower taken the prior night.

Laying in for a few minutes, Lou continues to look at the woman with half a smile, his pride in being trusted by the same people he’d come to accept as his own matched by the joy he takes in just watching her take advantage of the moment afforded to her for a decent sleep. As he slowly becomes acquainted with being awake, the one-armed survivor stares up at the ceiling whilst he gathers his bearings before rolling out of bed, reaching for the shirt he’d tossed on the floor the night before.

Slowly walking up to the window- which takes up the majority of the wall- Lou peers out at the frozen waters sitting along the coastline, their frigid surface relentlessly attacked by the battalion of raindrops the forecast suggests is in store. “I thought we agreed to keep our clothes on” Marta jokes with a tired reflexion in her tone, wiping her eyes as she sits up in bed, watching her sleeping partner face her, “-though, I will admit that I like the look of you with your shirt off.”

Concealing a chuckle, Lou smiles as he departs from the dismal shoreline sights and slowly makes his way to the door, throwing on his shirt before stepping through. “How do you take your coffee?” the man calls back, adjusting the dark green t-shirt adequately as he turns around. “As tea” Marta replies with a light grin, watching the man nod his head before venturing down the hall of their temporary beachfront stay.

“Morning, early bird” Courtney remarks, rummaging through a set of pre-portioned sugar packets in search of the one she likes most, “sleep well?” With a widened expression, Lou’s head bobs to the side as he reaches for the nearby electric kettle, his thumb pressing down on the button to boil the water already sat within. “I closed my eyes and kept them that way for a couple of hours” the man replies, casually reaching out for a packet of tea bags, “does it get any better than that?”

“We have running water, working hydro, and a view of the beach that it sounds like Jules is more than happy with” Courtney replies, sporting a humorous squint in her eye, “I think this is as close as we’ll ever get to heaven.” Listening to the click of the metal container’s button, Lou bites open the packet and sits the bag of tea within a mug, gently pouring in the hot water as he continues the conversation.

“I sure hope that’s not the case” the man replies, setting the kettle back upon its flat stand before looking up with a curious look in his eyes, “what the hell is hydro?” Pulling her head back momentarily before her visage is overcome with a look of sudden realisation, Courtney nods her head and returns to the search she’d briefly paused. “Oh, sometimes I forget you’re American” the woman replies, funnelling through an assortment of sugar packets, “hydro’s the word we use for electricity.”

Pressing his lips together, Lou nods to himself as he patiently waits for the boiling water to darken with his mug. “You know, the lot of you say ‘American’ as if you guys were more than just one border stop away from us” the man retorts, reaching for a specific pink packet of sweetener before extending it to the woman’s hand, “you’re not on the other side of the globe.”

“No, but sometimes I like thinking that we are. You guys are weird down there” Courtney responds, squinting her eyes and crinkling her nose as she looks to the man, “you like guns a lot, you don’t let people smoke pot, and you’re really really religious.” Taking humour in pursuing the line of dialogue his friend appears to be in favour of venturing down, the teacup-awaiting survivor leans against the wall behind himself and crosses his arm-and-a-half as best as his shortened one will allow.

“All of a sudden, it seems like everyone everywhere really wants those guns, and we smoke pot just like we drink before we’re allowed to- we just do it quietly” Lou replies, preparing to speak to the final point before appearing to have stumbled upon a sudden realisation, “and I might not believe in a god, but seeing as the majority of the students in my school were poisoned and killed by the priest when all of this began, I might not be the best person to speak against that final point.”

Her smile having quickly faded as her eyes dart back to the man casually leaning against the wall, Courtney waits for the man to explain away the claim as if it were a joke. “Yeah, it was a pretty strange way to figure out that the world was ending and we were all screwed” Lou doubles down, uncrossing his arms to take the mug by its handle, “it’s a long story and I’ve got to get this cup back to Marta, so just don’t bother asking.”

“You walked all this way just to get her a cup of tea?” Courtney inquires, watching the man turn back from his intended retreat to the rooms, “wow, you’re falling in love with that girl and you don’t even realise it.” Rolling his eyes as he returns the way he’d just stepped off from, Lou sets the cup back upon the table and refutes the woman’s point, “as great as Marta is, I’m not in love with her” the man replies, watching the disagreement-riddled face his friend reacts to him with take shape.

“Listen, I don’t know what you want me to say or how many times you want me to say it” Lou explains, placing his hand upon his hip as the woman across from him remains unconvinced, “I don’t love Marta.” Rolling her eyes, Courtney speaks up the moment he utters his declaration, continuing to refuse belief in his claims despite all he argues in favour of it.

“You can try to convince yourself that these feelings you have aren’t there, but just refusing them doesn’t make it true” the woman retorts, “after all, why wouldn’t you want to be with her? She’s pretty, and she’s tough, and she literally stole my paramotor to fly out and find your friends- she owes me a new paramotor by the way- she’s perfect for you.”

“No, Ally’s perfect for me” Lou hastefully rebukes, only to find his counterpoint argued against instantly. “No, Ally’s the girl you lay awake at night thinking about ‘cause you haven’t found her yet” Courtney replies, gracefully emptying the contents of her sugar packet into a cup of black coffee, “and when you do- if that day ever comes- you’re gonna reunite with her, you’ll be happy for a little while, and then you’ll realise that you don’t care about her the way you do for Marta.”

Shaking his head, Lou wraps his finger around the handle of the mug and turns around to leave without another word, called back to the conversation at the sound of his name. “Lou, I don’t understand why you won’t just let yourself be happy” Courtney proclaims, forcing the man to stop in his tracks and turn back once more, the look of discontent wrapped around the man’s face, “that girl cares about you and you know it. I just don’t get why you wont let yourself feel it too.”

“Why is this even an issue?” Lou snaps back, his voice raised slightly louder than it had been as the dialogue had progressed, a clear disinterest in the discussion being presented. “We’re a few hours away from deciding on where we’re going next and how we’re getting there. We barely have food, we’re already running low on gas, and the dead are everywhere” the man lashes out, “why- of all the things that we’ve got to worry about- are who we do or don’t fuck a priority in all of this!?”

“Because it’s different when it’s the reason why you want to drive us all out to Calgary- probably get a few of us killed in the process” Courtney replies, immediately silencing the man ahead of her, his eyes veering off into the distance as he hangs his head. “Sebastian told you” Lou remarks beneath his breath, feeling the weight of betrayal course through him as the woman begins speaking again- instantly reassuring his discovery.

“Yeah, Sebastian told me. Don’t you think the others should’ve known about why you’re so fixated on bringing us all out there?” Courtney inquires, stepping closer to the man that stands in the centre of the hallway he’d entered from with a clearly angered expression. “It wasn’t about her” Lou mutters beneath his breath, the response prompting the woman to fall silent for a moment, looking into his face to try and dissect the reply, unsure of whether or not it’s genuine.

“Her parents don’t just have a place in Calgary, they have a whole damn plot” Lou reiterates, “a few cabins, a lake, a ton of open field- everything the others have been talking about wanting.” Pulling back, Courtney looks to him with inquisitive eyes and leans her head to the side, “are you pulling my leg?”

“No, I’m telling you the truth. Once we were halfway off the island- right after we found the others- it was the first thought that came to my mind” Lou explains, “I know where it is, I just didn’t know how to get there. But everything we need- farmland, shelter, weapons- it’s all there.” Her mouth agape as she considers what the man is proposing, Courtney finds herself letting out a sigh and glancing off to the side, hands finding their way to her hips.

“I didn’t say anything at first because I didn’t want people pushing west. I figured Ally could still be around here and I’d have time to look for her” Lou explains, “when I found the note, I realised she was going to Calgary too. They’re looking for a place to stay, I’m looking for Ally, we’re all looking for the same thing.”

“Lou, we’re still not gonna be able to make that trip out!” Courtney replies, aware of what’s to be gained from it but still making an effort to remain a mediator. “Putting it off a few months isn’t as safe of a plan as you think. As a matter of fact, it’s more dangerous” Lou replies, adding water from the kettle into the cup to keep Marta’s drink hot. “How so?” the woman inquires, met with an explanation so quickly that it’s almost as if the man had it readied.

“If we were to go today, there’s a chance we could realistically make it to Calgary within two days” Lou replies, pressing the tip of his finger against the table beside Marta’s tea, “if we hold it off, we’ll have to find a way to get enough food, water, shelter and heat to last four months of winter. How likely is it that we accomplish that?”

“Well in that case, we’re already screwed!” Courtney replies, “we’ll have to hike out somewhere further than Calgary just to get to a place where it’s not always below freezing!” Extending his arms outward, the man across from her prompts a roll of her eyes with his reply. “If we’re already screwed and have to go out further than Calgary anyway, what’s the point of holding it off any longer?” Lou questions back, “let’s face it, nobody’s got a better plan. We might as well take the risk.”

Holding her head down, Courtney thinks quietly to herself as Lou watches on for a few seconds, eventually deciding he’s said all that’s needed of him before reclaiming the teacup and resuming his departure. Still with her chin pointed toward the carpeted floor, the woman watches the man saunter off before turning back with her cup of coffee, noticing Sebastian stood at the front of the hall she prepares to retreat toward with his eyes kept on the man in the distance behind her.

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

“Congrats, Jules” Elsie remarks, stepping through the lobby of the beachfront inn they stay at, the rainy day the subject of her remark oversees from the comfort of a patio chair keeping him from wearing an enthusiastic expression. “This wasn’t really what I had in mind when I suggested a beach house, but thanks” the man replies, kicking his foot off the table it had been set upon as he leaves his seat, turning back to rejoin the survivors he enjoys the building alongside.

“Still no food?” Jules calls out, watching those that join him in the front lobby suppress their hunger beneath cups of tea and coffee as best they can. “The drawers are all ransacked and everything in the fridge is long-since expired” Sonya replies, setting a cup of coffee in Josie’s hand as they cross paths, “there’s a store down the street, but with the smashed windows and graffitied-exterior, I don’t think we’re bound to find much in there.”

“Anybody know how to hunt?” Terry calls out, leaning back in a chair with one leg crossed over the other as his eyes press shut, not expecting to hear the voice that responds to his question. “I know the basics, but I’m not really sure how to keep the meat good once the thing I kill dies” Rudy replies, prompting the man responsible for asking the question to lift his head and look in his direction, “I used to go with my father when I was younger, but he passed before he could teach me the rest.”

“You hunt?” Terry calls back, watching the confused expression on the father of two look back at him, unsure of why he’d be so surprised, “you? The guy that’s spent every day since we’ve met moping around and playing the world’s smallest violin? You know how to hunt?” Uncoupling the hands that rest against his chest to hold his hands out at each side, the man in question defends his honour.

“Why is that so surprising to you?” Rudy wonders back, only for an answer to be given from the man that sits in the chair beside him. “It’s surprising to everyone” Adrian replies, setting his cup of tea on the glass coffee table stood before him, “why did this never come up back at the cabin?”

“Because Courtney always came back with the food, I just put them together to make dinner and left it at that” Rudy replies, “it wasn’t until Lou came around that anybody actually went out and hunted for things.” With a giggle, Terry props his foot up against one of the steel bars that provide support for the glass table ahead of him, “Lou hunts for stuff?” the man laughs, joined by yet another voice as it closes in with a friend in tow.

“Yeah. your mother’s phone number” Lou replies, gently resting his rebar staff against the nearest wall as the joke mainly earns silent appreciation, the template already long-since worn out, but it’s intended humour nonetheless appreciated. “If you wanna keep meats fresh, you have to put them on salt and keep them somewhere dark and cold” Courtney replies, patting her father’s shoulder as she walks past him, joining Sebastian on the couch a short distance away.

“Speaking of that, why don’t we just go to Courtney’s place on the island!?” Jules calls out, believing himself to be onto something. “Number one, we don’t have our boat anymore. Number two, somebody left my paramotor behind” the woman in question responds, looking past Lou with an intentionally sarcastic frown. “Yeah, my bad” Marta replies half-heartedly, taking the empty seat beside Lou just as the man lowers himself to sit.

“Number three, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be pretty by the time we got there” Courtney confesses, “however we went about getting a boat, the animals would’ve probably run out of food or frozen to death by now. The only thing it’d be good for is isolation, but the food would run out quick. That’s assuming the enclave didn’t already get there, slaughter all the animals and burn the place down by now.”

“When the hell did you buy that place anyway?” Sonya wonders from one seat over, “the housing market’s been shit since Trudeau’s first year in office.” Whilst Courtney chuckles, the man that sits beside her with an arm wrapped around her back to hold her close lifts his mug into the air. “Hey hey, now- let’s be reasonable and give him some credit-” Sebastian remarks, slowly lifting the mug to his lips as he finishes his statement, “-it was more like his second or third year.”

“Would Harper have been any better right now?” Adrian inquires to the man directly across the room from him, his answer kept from voicing itself by their uninformed friends. “Who are these people you speak of and when did they die off?” Terry asks aloud, poking fun at their lack of knowledge in the domestic political scene that unravels before them.

“Uh, around the same time that Trump did if I remember correctly” Marta responds, earning an amused giggle from the American friend so casually leant in his seat. “What happened to that guy by the way?” Sonya wonders aloud, earning her response from the same woman she’d handed a cup of coffee to moments earlier. “Probably flew off to China in search of zombie-clearing businesses to bring back” Josie replies, pointing at Jules as he attempts to speak.

“Don’t even start!” Josie interjects, earning a dismissive wave of disappointment from the man she keeps from voicing his impersonation, their fun had whilst it still can be. “Alright, not to be the one that ruins the fun, but are we gonna do this now or later?” Jenn wonders aloud, leaning against the wall nearest the front of the room without a drink in hand, simply prepared to get back onto the road in search of somewhere secure.

“I’m down for now” Courtney replies, pecking Sebastian on the cheek as she gets up from the chair, walking to the pull-down map near the back of the room with her drink in hand. “Anybody have their proposals?” the woman inquires, extending her hand toward the pull-down cord before her attention is called for from the other side of the room. “When did the two of you start bumping uglies?” Elsie questions aloud, directing her sights between the once cabin-owner and once island-owner.

“We dated before shit hit the fan, started getting close over the last few weeks and decided to just let things go however they will” Sebastian replies, winking at the woman who comedically blows him a kiss. “With that settled, let’s figure out where we’re-” Courtney begins to declare, the centre of the group’s focus placed upon her as she drops the map and falls silent, looking at the landscape as it’s depicted before following the scrawlings that already mark it.

“What the hell is that?” Terry wonders aloud, sat in the best position to see what’s written upon the detailed atlas. Beginning with their exact location on the illustration, black lines circle key destinations throughout the provinces and direct all the way eastbound, crossing through one major city after another before ending in five stars, all within close proximity to each other.

Stepping away from her place against the wall as the rest of the group leans forward in their seats and inspects what’s written upon the diagram, Jenn approaches Courtney as the woman remains standing in silence, fixated on following the outline presented to her. With her eyebrows furrowed, the blonde-haired woman closes in on the paramotorist and parts her lips to speak, reading the lines permanently etched upon the American half of the picture.

“Clearest path, pit stops marked, a journey of one week and a day-” Jenn murmurs, reading the smaller set of black letters seemingly meant for any wandering pair of eyes to find, eventually finishing her rehashing of the written instructions with the larger scrawling that sits at the bottom, “For those that find this, head east to the New World Order.”

“What the fuck is all of that?” Adrian wonders aloud, his answer not being offered as Courtney attempts to look past it, grabbing a pen from within her pocket as she brushes it off. “Something that’s too far away and none of us need to concern ourselves with” the woman responds, stepping to the side as she redirects the group’s attention toward the task at hand, “we’ve already got one suggestion, now it’s time to open the floor to others. Whose got a plan?”

Looking out at the rest of the room, Courtney is met mostly with silence, a few faces scrunching tight to consider their own proposition, but no one immediately jumps out to take advantage of the open floor. Waiting for a few seconds with the expectation of at least one voice spouting off a destination worth talking about, the woman soon places the cap back upon her marker and crosses her arms with her head hung, opting to remain quiet until someone fulfils their end of the bargain.

“I have a suggestion” Lou murmurs beneath his breath, though the room is more than quiet enough for his words to catch the ear of its every inhabitant. “Yes, and now we’re trying to figure out new ones” Adrian calmly replies, pressing the tip of his finger against his lips as he looks back at the marked-up map. “That’s great news, can we- and, just hear me out- maybe figure it out before we’d be halfway to Calgary right now?” his one-armed acquaintance asks back.

“Okay, what the fuck is with you and Calgary?” Rudy chirps back, as confused as the others that have yet to become privy to his motivations, “for as long as you’d been looking for your friends, I’ve never once heard you say a word about Calgary.” Sitting upright in his chair with the slightest frown, Lou’s attention is called for by the woman sat beside her father, a cup of coffee in hand, “seriously, Lou- what’s with the fascination about Calgary?” Sonya speaks up to ask.

“I know there’s a place with everything we need out there” Lou replies, not missing a beat as he speaks with dignity and respect, looking to the woman’s side of the room as the group goes quiet. “There’s a big, open plot of land with a few cabins, plenty of space to grow the stuff we need, and I’m pretty sure there’s enough wildlife out there to hunt if we need to” the man continues, the crowd much more receptive than they had been the prior night.

“Tell them the other thing” Sebastian speaks up from a short distance to the side of Sonya, watching the young man’s eyes redirect toward his seat, “the other reason why you’re setting on Calgary.” With a half-frown, Lou looks at the man for a moment amidst a pause before the lowered tone of his voice carries itself to those he shares the room with. “It’s where Ally went” the man replies, rolling up the sleeve on his shortened arm as he rests back in his seat.

“How do you know that, I thought the others said she ran off and said nothing?” Sonya questions aloud, immediately presented with the note the subject of her question holds up, handing it to Adrian for the man to pass on. “Her family owns that land in Calgary. I know it’s in this little town of Priddis just outside the city, and it’s got everything the rest of you appear to be looking for” Lou clarifies, watching the woman read the note quietly to herself, “the journey’s the thing in our way.”

Lowering back into her seat, Sonya lets the note fall into her lap as she takes another sip of her drink, the rest of the group sitting in as audible a silence as she does. “How would we get there in one piece?” Courtney inquires, still stood beside the map as she locks eyes with the man staring back at her, “we need food, shelter, and probably a few better weapons than what we’ve got now. How do you propose we do that?”

“That’s not a difficult question” Sebastian replies on the man’s behalf, watching the staff-wielding survivor’s eyes take toward him as he speaks, “we horde everything we can, stop at every gas station along the way and rest whenever we find somewhere like this.” Subduing the appreciative smile he wears, Lou’s ears are taken with the rest of the group to the head of the room, “with that logic, nothing’s off the table” Sonya replies.

“Correct, nothing’s off the table- which is why we’re doing this” Courtney replies, uncapping her marker once more and writing in the portions of the map not scrawled upon, “anybody else?” she asks whilst jotting down Lou’s suggestion. Met with broad silence, the woman’s question is left for an answer that seemingly never comes, most of those in the room opposed to the plan presented only able to glance in each other’s direction with the hope that an answer will come from them.

“Please don’t tell me we went through all this nonsense just for you all to shut down now” Courtney remarks, rolling her eyes as she returns the cap to her pen and turns for the map. “Honey, it’s not that we ever actually had a plan to begin with, it was that we just couldn’t get on board with going to Calgary” Rudy replies, the opinion he voices being one that a select few others agree with.

“And now I’m giving you a chance to offer something better” Courtney replies, placing the marker back to where she’d taken it from, “we can’t keep going in these conditions without a plan. Calgary may be far, but at least it’s a plan. If you’re not in favour of making that trip, now is your chance to give us a better chance elsewhere.”

“I think the point here is that there isn’t anything that gives us a better chance” Jenn replies, speaking up from the front of the group as the attention falls upon her. “It’s the middle of December according to Sebastian, it hasn’t stopped raining in weeks and it’s cold as hell outside” the woman explains, “no matter where we go, we’ll be faced with more snow, more cold, and a tough travel regardless. If Calgary’s not an option for any of those reasons, nowhere is.”

“We can go somewhere warmer” Rudy quickly replies, instantly met with reluctance.

“Any place that’s warmed than here will be farther out than Calgary is” Sebastian replies.

“What’s the point of going to Calgary if we can’t plant a farm for the next few months?” Adrian inquires.

“When the time comes to start planting, we’ll already be there” Marta replies from the front of the room.

“What’s the point of going there now if we’re just gonna have to wait out a few months of the cold without food?” Sonya queries aloud.

“We can start making ourselves a home that doesn’t get raided by a bunch of vengeful asshats” Lou responds.

“Can everyone just shut the fuck up for a second?” Terry calls out, silencing the room and thwarting any further line of questions as the air simmers, his eyes soon traipsing across the room to fall upon his good friend. “Lou, if you can answer this question honestly, you’ll have my vote, alright?” the man inquires, keeping his tone respectful yet eager, anxious to fill in the holes the plan sorely lacks an answer to.

Pressing his back into the soft cushion of the couch he and Marta share, Lou gives the man a nod and remains silent, more than willing to hear the man’s concerns as he wears a composed expression, hungry to defend the plan he’s set forth. “Let’s paint the closest thing to a realistic picture. Let’s say we get to Calgary unscathed, maybe find ourselves a little bit of food to ration along the way and settled into this new home” Terry explains, leaning forward with his elbows pressed to his knees.

“That’s the place we’re at. We’re there and there’s no turning back- that is our home” Terry continues, closing in on his question as the man he asks looks on intently, “what’s the goal?” Continuing to stare silently as if still waiting for the question to present itself, Lou’s head soon leans to the side in wonder at what the man’s asking, confused by the way in which the question is framed.

“What do you mean ‘what’s the goal?’ he just told you the goal” Elsie replies, met with quick resistance as the man turns back to look at her. “No, he told us the destination and what it is. It’s home and it’s where we spend the rest of our lives apparently” Terry replies, speaking to the woman as he looks over his shoulder before redirecting his attention toward the still-silent man, “but we’ve all been out there fighting to survive or to find each other. What happens once we’ve done that?”

Still visibly confused, Lou shakes his head subtly as his lips part, unable to truly figure out what the man is asking him to answer. “Lou, I’ve heard it from you, I’ve heard it from your new friends, and I continue to hear it now that you’re going after Ally. You’ve spent all this time looking for us” Terry explains, motioning his hands toward the ground, “when you get to Calgary, and you find Ally- if you find Ally- what happens then?”

“We live. That’s it, we just carry on with our lives and try to live them while we have them” Lou replies, shaking his head as he responds whilst still wearing a confused look, “what else are we supposed to do?” Continuing to remain at a hush, the rest of the group having spent the last few weeks with Terry cooped up in a hotel room watch on as the conversation progresses, as unsure as the man being asked the questions is as to what the desired answer is.

“I think we should all know- even some of the lesser experienced people here- that there’s something more than that. There’s always something more than that” Terry replies, “you don’t just live when those things still walk out there. You can’t just call it a day once the world’s gone to shit.”

“No, but you can try” Sonya responds, immediately watching the tip of Terry’s finger direct itself toward her, at first in silence as the leader for the other half of her group subdues her retort. “That’s wishful thinking at best, but it’s not realistic” the man explains, briefly looking at her to make a response at her claim, “this guy applied to a high school at the last second ‘cause he had to, and he didn’t even plan on going to college. This guy- for all he’s done- has never had a plan.”

“And he seems to have gotten along just fine” Sebastian replies, met with the same retort that had befallen the friend one seat over from him. “He got along fine now, but had the dead not shot up from the ground, he’d be waiting for graduation to come and go on to do nothing with his life” Terry refutes, looking into the eyes of the man in question to see a reluctance to disapprove of such claims, “even when he was split from us, he didn’t make a plan- he just had blind hope he’d get back to us.”

“And you’re saying that needs to change now?” Courtney wonders aloud whilst still standing before her map, continuing to wield the marker at the tip of her fingers. “I’m saying it needs to change if he wants me to agree to go to Calgary” Terry replies, making sure to keep both of their feet to the fire, “‘cause if this is just another blind chase to find Ally with the hope that the grass will be greener on the other side, he’s taking us all down with him if it doesn’t pan out.”

Without a question to present, the rest of the room falls silent as the man in question reclaims possession of the group’s attention, his eyes stared directly into by the man across from him. “I love ya, Lou- but I’m not gonna blindly walk into a place that could be overrun, taken over, or falling into pieces looking for a girl that clearly only wanted you to find her” Terry explains, “I know I wouldn’t run into the unknown without knowing for sure we can get there, and neither should the others.”

His face stoic and remaining glued upon his friend, Lou leans gently forward as the man awaits his answer, watched along by the rest of his peers intently. “If, for whatever reason the place in Calgary doesn’t work out, we go somewhere that will” the man replies, immediately watching the disappointed shake in Terry’s head greet him, “whether you’d like to admit it or not, that’s how this works. That’s the only way this works, and it’s really the only way people have ever lived.”

Squinting his eyes, Terry crosses his arms and sinks back into his seat as the man one coffee table-length apart rises to continue. “Before the world went to shit, people went somewhere to get a diploma and then moved to wherever place the company willing to give them a job was” Lou continues, speaking to those willing to listen whilst a select few others redirect their attention to forms of their own doubt, not needing to hear an explanation to change their vote.

“One way or another, they went looking for a place to settle down and make a life in. The only thing that changes now is that we’re going to a place that’ll also keep us safe from the dead” Lou remarks, a statement that few have much of a way of speaking out against, “whether that’s in Calgary or somewhere else, it’s out there somewhere. If it wasn’t, there’d be no point to living ‘cause there’d be nothing more to do than just make it to tomorrow.”

Bowing his head, Sebastian’s chin presses against his body as Rudy and Sonya watch the man with an unobstructed view. From the front of the room, Jenn’s face wears a lack of any emotion other than the subtle appearance of agreement in the man’s each point. Not as opposed to the position as their friend is, Elsie and Josie casually watch on whilst Jules simply takes in the conversation without much care over which way the vote goes.

“The only thing any of us should be interested in is finding somewhere where we know we won't go hungry or without a shelter over our heads” Lou remarks, only to be met with the semi-expected retort from the other side of the commons area. “That’s funny, ‘cause we had that at the cabin before you showed up” Rudy replies, his yearning for easier days most often met with hostility, though its existence proves to be justified now, “even before the avalanche, it wasn’t good enough for you.”

“I never criticised the cabin, I criticised the people in it for hiding away from the world” Lou replies, his finger pointed at the man, “if you’d been ready for the world outside before I came along in case shit went south, I wouldn’t have cared where you did or didn’t hide out.” With a subdued chuckle, Marta kicks one of her feet atop the table and lays her hands atop her lap, looking up at the man as he resumes speaking.

“Look, the old world isn’t coming back. We’re not going back to school, or work. We’re not paying off debts of renting cars and buying islands off the coast of another island” Lou explains, sarcastically jutting his chin forward in the paramotorist’s direction, “that doesn’t mean we can’t find a place to settle in and call home without having to go to bed with one eye open every night. That shouldn’t be the expectation, but it should be the goal.”

Awaiting a reply in the event that it arises, Lou takes the silence that proceeds his remarks as an opening to turn back toward Terry, who still remains unenthused, but doesn’t seem to wear the disappointment he had prior. “I’m sorry, Terry. I don’t have a backup plan ‘cause the only backup plan is to move on and find a new home if this one doesn’t pan out” Lou concludes, “if that’s not good enough for you, so be it. If that’s not good enough for any of you, so be it.”

“You wouldn’t accept us saying ‘no’ to that, don’t bother saying ‘so be it’” Terry responds, pulling forward in his seat as his reply is doubled down upon. “No, I wouldn’t. I would accept that it was the call you made, but it won’t be the call I make” Lou replies, reclaiming his rebar staff as he leaves the group amidst each watchful eye, “whatever call the rest of you make is fine by me. But regardless of what your answer is, I’m going to Calgary.”

Rolling his eyes, Terry joins Jules in adjusting the place he takes in his seat, his ear caught to the same claim made by the second voice occupying space ahead of him. “So am I” Marta replies, immediately earning a bemused reaction from her father, who throws his hands out in exhausted disbelief at his daughter’s reply. “Marta, for fuck’s sake-” Adrian remarks, beginning to speak before forced to fall silent.

“Contrary to what you all think, it’s not because of an undying love that I’m going with Lou- it’s because he’s right” Marta interrupts, “I understand that there’s a little hypocrisy behind him trying to find a ‘forever home’, but I can’t find a reason to disagree with him.”

“I can!” Adrian retorts, “if we were going anywhere to settle permanently, why can’t we find somewhere warmer where we don’t need to worry about not being able to farm? Why Calgary other than ‘cause it’s where his girlfriend is?” Looking toward the ceiling, Marta rolls her eyes before answering her father in kind. “I’m not saying I agree with where he’s going, I agree with the point he’s making” the woman responds, “if we can’t make a life somewhere, what’s the point of this endless fighting?”

“Then let’s find somewhere better than a place ever further north than Vancouver!” Rudy replies, throwing his hands out, “we’ll take up a plot of land in Montana or that place where all the Amish live!”

“Utah- and they’re mormons” Elsie replies, stepping away from Josie’s side as she walks across the room, preparing to depart in favour of refilling her cup. “It doesn’t matter, what does is that I’d rather settle down in Utah than I would in Calgary” Rudy replies, almost immediately drawing the ire of the leader to the group’s other half. “You’d just prefer to settle somewhere in general” Terry remarks, immediately sparking an irritable retort.

“You’ve made your problems with me perfectly clear, let’s move onto something that matters” Rudy cuts back, watching Terry part his lips to speak before his own daughter refuses him the chance. “Let’s shut the fuck up, stop arguing with each other, and start figuring out where the fuck we’re going by the end of the night” Courtney remarks, immediately prompting the woman still standing in the centre of the room to conclude her point.

“Lou is why we were all brought together, he was right about needing to be able to defend ourselves, and if it weren’t for him- we might still be in the enclave’s sights” Marta concludes, turning away to retreat along the side of the man she voices her support for, “be sceptical all you want, but I told him last night the same thing I’ll keep telling him. He’s not let me down yet, and I’m going to continue trusting him until he gives me a reason not to.”

Without needing to speak any further, Marta departs the room and the conversation as the rest are left to speak to themselves, the truly undecided voters left to share amongst themselves what they’d kept from being spoken thus far. “Should I keep the pen cap on or are we good to go?” Courtney inquires, raising the question for anyone to respond, as of yet uncertain exactly what reply awaits her.

== RISE and REVOLT ==