S4, E12 | Everything's Still Gonna Be Okay

​Season 4 Finale

As his bottom lip quivers, Lou carries forward, holding his staff with its pointed tip held upward, the dull end placed against the ground to be put to use as a walking stick. “Lou, we’ve been walking for almost eight hours” Jules murmurs from a few steps behind, lowering his chin into the warmth of his zipped-up jacket as the rest of the group follows behind, shivering from the frigid, below-freezing temperatures that wrap around them like a cold blanket, “we need to take a rest.”

Each step slower than those taken just an hour prior, Lou soon comes to a complete stop in the middle of a road, beckoned to put a halt to his pursuit of sanctuary by the man practically begging for a rest. Able to see his breath as each gust takes the appearance of a white cloud, the man at the very front of the group turns around slowly to glance back at the men and women that follow his lead, each tired step he takes matched by one of their own.

Near the back of the group with their eyes shut, Elsie and Josie keep their hands tucked away in the pockets of their thick coats, eyelids parting the moment those they follow come to a stop. Just a few steps ahead, Jenn crosses her arms as her bottom jaw hangs low, mouth open now that keeping it shut proves to be too exhausting. Stood beside her, Adrian wears little more than a long-sleeved shirt as he presses his arms to his daughter’s sides, Marta wearing both her own jacket and his.

His breathing heavy, Rudy follows alongside Sonya and just behind Courtney, both of his daughters appearing the brace the frigid weather much better than he does. Standing beside the man’s eldest daughter, Sebastian hangs his head to his side as he holds his girlfriend close, doing his best to keep her warm as his legs buckle the moment they’re called to stop.

Trailing closely behind his friend, Jules squints in the direction of the man coming to a stop ahead of him whilst Terry nearly stumbles over, his legs having yet to register the request made of his brain to keep from moving even a centimetre further. Tilting his head back as the darkness of night begins to come to a close, Lou stares into the sky as he feels the gentle first few snowflakes grace his skin, having gone too long without feeling their crisp touch than he’d anticipated.

“We still don’t know what we’re doing” Jules begins to mutter, his voice just barely loud enough for the rest of his group to hear, “it’s cold, we’ve got nothing and haven’t slept in over a day. Can we please- please- sit down for a few hours.” Even in spite of his obviously exhausted appearance, Rudy shakes his head vehemently as he struggles to speak, looking toward Lou with the quiet hopes that he refuses to allow such a break.

After a few seconds spent in silence, Lou drops his head and lowers himself to a knee, having already hiked up a great distance in altitude as his head falls. Without a word, the man looks at Jules with a brief glance upward, unable to speak the permission to take a breather into fruition with anything more than an approving nod. As if freed from the weight of concern that comes along with having to ask, all but one of the survivors reacts with various expressions of relief.

“No” Rudy replies, huffing and puffing for every breath as those that stand ahead of him turn back with a loss for words, “no, we can’t take a break.” Shaking his head in ardent refusal, the older man stumbles back for a moment before regaining his balance, his head continuing to jolt from one side to the other with no end in sight. “What? Dad, you can barely even stand!” Courtney replies with squinted eyes and a look of disbelief.

“If anyone would’ve asked for a break, I would’ve thought it’d been you!” Terry calls back, shrugging his shoulders as he shares a very similar look of surprise. “No, please! We have to get somewhere” Rudy replies, wincing as his teeth present themselves strongly, both hands pulled free from the pockets of his jacket before hanging by each of his sides.

“Rudy-” Lou begins remark, his voice almost missing the ears of the man who continues to remain dismissive. “No, Lou. Please, for god’s sake-” Rudy interjects, bowing his head as he continues to gasp for air, glancing over his shoulder for a moment in the direction of a road sign he’d spotted just half a kilometre behind, “-there’s a car dealership about three hundred metres from here, can we just- can we just keep going until then?”

Pulling his head back without the strength to do so, Lou’s body carries itself further back than he’d anticipated, pulling him back to the point that he’s forced to take a seat upon the cold asphalt. Wincing just as Rudy does, the man looks up in the father-of-two’s direction and lets free a deep breath, able to see the passionate man quietly mouth just one word.

“Please” the oldest member of the group pleads silently, watching the pack-leader’s head bow as the voices of confrontation reply from each direction. “Rudy, we can’t keep moving!” Jules groans, rolling his eyes and face as Sonya speaks to much the same opinion, “dad, none of us can keep going like this. We need to take a break for a couple of hours at le-”

“I don’t have a couple of hours!” the woman’s father shouts, a sudden burst of energy presented through the angry presentation, the suddenness and implication of the man’s declaration prompting every eye to look in his direction. Stumbling back again, Rudy presses his eyes shut as his face scrunches, eventually joining the rest of his head in bowing toward the ground, where it stays for a few moments.

“What does that mean?” Courtney inquires, her hand having reached out to catch the man amidst his second off-balance second step. With a desperate look on his face and the shake of his head as he glances up, Rudy stares toward the cloudy skies covering his heaven as he slowly pulls one side of his coat outward, a stain of blood on his black t-shirt worn just over his left pec.

Letting out a groan and sigh at once, Rudy takes his second hand and winces as he rolls the shirt up, presenting those standing ahead of him with a sight that provokes immediate concern. Their eyes widened, Sonya and Courtney wear shocked expressions as the older sibling points toward the wound he wears, unable to speak the words that sit at the tip of her tongue before her father utters them for her.

“I’m bitten” Rudy confesses, holding his shirt up for only a few extra seconds before the muscles in his arm give out, lowering the shirt and jacket back into place as his head sinks once more. Their exhaustion immediately fading off, the man’s daughters look to each other for a moment as Sebastian tightens his grasp on the woman within his arms, shaken just as she is though with a much different priority.

“I don’t know if it was the amputation or the bite, but Kim lasted just a little under a day after she got chomped” Rudy remarks, placing both hands against his knee as those standing behind him take a few steps back. “We’ve been walking the entire night, so a few hours might just be it for me” the older man admits, aware that living for him is something accomplished on borrowed time, “I don’t know what happens before this thing takes over, but I don’t wanna be out here when it happens.”

Licking his lips as he runs his fingers through his wet, grey hair, the man stands upright once more and lets out a deep breath, repeating his request to the man at the very front of the group. “Three hundred metres isn’t that much farther ahead, and there’s a fair chance you all find a car worth driving off the lot while we’re there” Rudy explains, doing his best to keep from being too much of a burden on those that he holds back, “can we please- please- just keep going a little bit longer?”

With his eyebrows lifted, Lou keeps his stare on the older gentleman before glancing at the turn in the road they soon approach, recalling what it’d once been like to not know what lies around the corner within the near distance. Pressing his lips together, the young man pushes himself off the ground with whatever energy he can latch onto in that moment, and shrugs his shoulders in Sebastian’s direction, meeting little resistance from the man keeping Courtney upright.

“Just a little bit longer, folks” Lou replies, tilting his head back as he resumes their progression forward, setting the lead for the folks still wearing their exhaustion like a badge. Whilst Rudy’s daughters find a second wind out of the horror that faces them in their father’s impending demise, others present a second wind knowing that the journey ahead won’t take too much longer, and those that struggle to carry on clench their teeth and keep their feet moving ahead of each other.

= 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 =

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Courtney asks, her hands folded as they hang between her thighs, both arms resting atop her legs as she occupies a couch beside Sebastian. “I didn’t want to hold everyone back” Rudy replies honestly, laying back in one of the desk chairs as Sonya takes his temperature with the back of her hand, “I figured we’d keep moving until somewhere promising showed up. If we’d kept moving, I would’ve stayed quiet until we got here.”

Having started a small fire in the centre of the abandoned dealership, the group keeps themselves warm whilst a select few brave the elements in search of a vehicle. “How long does he have?” Elsie inquires, looking to Sonya for an answer before receiving a worried shake of her head. Breathing through her teeth, the man’s youngest daughter lets her hand slide off the man’s sweaty forehead, “he’s running a fever- a bad one.”

“How long did it take-?” Sebastian inquires, falling silent suddenly as he directs the question to Sonya, rubbing his thighs out of uncomfortability as he looks away, “nevermind.” Looking back to the man sitting beside her, Courtney thinks quietly to herself for a moment before realising what the man had intended to ask, kept from having to respond to it as a voice from the other side of the room answers the question.

“When Margo died, she went unconscious for a few hours before coming back. Her bite was a lot worse though” Jenn remarks, shaking her head as she sinks back into her seat, “if he’s had this for eight hours or so, he’s probably got a couple more left with a fever that bad.”

“Hours?” Courtney asks back, looking at the woman with a look of surprise, “what do you mean hours? Mom went after a little over a day!” Putting both hands up in surrender, Jenn lowers her chin as she keeps from an outburst coming to. “I said ‘probably’, I’m not an expert in this stuff” the responding woman replies, trying to quell any discussion from reaching the point of hostility.

“Court’, I’m not feeling so well” Rudy replies, his voice calm and forgiving, watching his daughter’s frenzied face turn back to him before darting off to the depths of the room, “it’s not gonna take too much longer.” Hyperventilating, Courtney’s hands begin to tremble as she pushes herself off the couch, apologising as she wipes her face of the tears that begin to fall, “I need some air” she says as she walks off.

“Go after her, son” Rudy remarks just as Sebastian begins to step off the couch and follow after the woman, turning back to look at the man in silence as he reiterates himself, “I know what I said. Just go after her.” Swallowing the cotton mouth that dries his gums, the man whose attendance had been requested steps back into action, trailing behind the man’s eldest daughter as he joins her outside in the cold.

“Sebastian, I can’t-” Courtney begins to explain, shaking her head as tears begin to fall in spades, unable to finish her remark before feeling the man’s weight step into her, his hands pulling her close as he lulls the horror that fills her heart with his warmth. “It’s okay, it’s all gonna be okay” Sebastian replies with a whisper, holding the woman’s head against his chest as he presses his chin against the top of her head, “it’s okay to cry. I’m here.”

“I thought I’d have more time” Courtney whimpers, her voice subdued as she presses her face into the man’s chest, unable to keep her composure as the tears only shed harder. “I know, Court’” Sebastian replies, pressing his eyes shut as Lou watches on from afar, sifting through a bucket of keys held between his body and shortened arm as he takes a moment to pause, watching the sincere moment being shared amongst those he considers to be close friends.

Without a way of fixing the problem that provokes such a guttural reaction from the grief-stricken eldest daughter, Lou remains quiet and returns to his efforts, continuing to venture through the abandoned lot and peer through shattered windows and already-vandalised vehicles. Pulling his head up as he tries to hold back tears from just seeing the woman’s pain, the man returns to his sights as he digs yet another keyfob from the red, plastic pail.

“Any luck?” Marta inquires, stepping through a tight squeeze between a pair of blue sedans, unable to find any luck of her own as she reaches the end of her search. “Not yet” Lou replies, accepting that he’d have to settle for a vehicle barely able to be considered such a thing at this rate. “I don’t know if anyone here knows how to hotwire a car, but if they do- we might need them” the bucket-wielding man replies, his rebar staff carried in his protege’s hand.

“Go inside. Get some warmth and I’ll call you out here in case we find anything” Lou urges, immediately met with reluctance from the woman that shakes her head in refusal. “I’m fine out here. Besides, if I go inside and get warm, I’ll just start shivering against once I come back out” Marta responds, the shrug she’s met with speaking volumes. “You’re probably right” the man responds back, pulling free another set of keys with a hopeful look on his face, almost immediately letting it fall.

“I know I am” the woman responds with a smile, returning the staff to its rightful owner before swapping it out in favour of the man’s plastic pail. “I know you may not know this- what with being an Angelino and all-” Marta begins to remark, lowering her hand into the pail and shuffling the keys within around, preparing to select one at random as she finishes her confident remark, “-but up here in Canada, we tend to know a thing or two about cold weather.”

“Oh is that so?” Lou replies with a subtle smirk, walking casually alongside the woman as she retrieves a supposedly lucky key from within her bucket, “well, as an Angelino, we tend to know a thing or two about luck. I mean, it’d made sense for people from the city of angels to be blessed with such a thing, right?”

“Since you’re still coming up empty handed, I’d say you’re not as lucky as you appear” Marta replies, turning to face the man that returns the same gesture, looking her in the eyes as they both fall helpless to keep a smile from spreading from one ear to the other. “I guess you ought to show me how it’s done then” Lou replies, glancing off in the direction they’d initially begun walking toward, “go ahead, lucky one.”

Bobbing her head from one side to the next, the woman’s thumb presses against the ‘unlock’ button on the keyfob she’d retrieved, immediately listening to the subtle honk of a heavy-sounding vehicle just a few metres in the opposite direction. With a squint, Marta’s eyes immediately take toward the truck she’d believed the sound to have come from before pressing her thumb down once more, watching its rear lights flash as the pair immediately stare with astonishment.

“You’ve got to be kidding me” Lou mutters beneath his breath, listening to the woman cackle as he points his finger, shaking his head with his tongue pressed against his molars. “Woo!” Marta exclaims, throwing her hands up as both Courtney and Sebastian turn to face the direction of the excited shout, the rest of the survivors who had traipsed the parking lot in search of exactly what they set out for taking a sigh of relief in what appears to be the confirmation that their search has concluded.

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As the daylight begins to pass and Sebastian keeps his hands on the wheel, the truck they drive finds itself trekking along slush-covered ground, the snow that begins to descend from the sky starting to stick to the road and force the driver to keep their speeds low. With their elbows pressing into the centre console, Courtney holds the hand of her much-loved significant other as her teary eyes remain fixated on the path they still have to journey ahead through, trying to subdue her mind.

“How are you doing, dad?” Sonya whispers, sat in the backseat with her father sitting beside, clearly worse for wear as his sweat begins to run heavily, staining his shirt around the collar as he no longer wears his jacket. “Awful” Rudy replies, clearly waiting for the sweet relief that’s brought with death, but allowing his suffering to prolong in order to offer his children whatever time with him they have left.

“How does it feel, Rudy?” Sebastian inquires, keeping his foot to the pedal as the majority of the group follows closely in a pair of cars just behind them, unable to bear the winter chill from the truck bed. “Why would you ask him that?” Sonya queries to the man behind the wheel, his answer provided with clarity and honesty. “Because sickness is mostly mental” the man in question responds, “if he explains how it feels, he might feel a little bit better.”

“He’s dying” Sonya cuts back, prompting the man to fall silent as her older sister squeezes her eyes shut, trying to forget her father’s worsening state in spite of such a task proving impossible to accomplish. “It’s fine honey” Rudy responds, holding his sweaty hand out to keep the woman from continuing to berate the man behind the wheel, his youngest offspring’s irrational anger more than understandable by the vehicle’s every passenger.

Sat in the back of the truck on his own, Terry keeps his ear close to the open window separating him from the inside of the truck’s cabin, listening to the conversation happening beyond the transparent divider between himself and the group within. “I feel like I have the flu” Rudy replies gingerly, his words hitting those sat in the front seat just as they do to the girl sitting beside him, “the spot around the bite feels warm and tingly. Honestly, it doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

“That’s good” Sonya replies, wiping the palm of her dominant hand over the jeans that cover her thigh, nodding with every faint hope that his condition could be improving. “No, it’s not” Rudy replies, almost unable to finish his response before letting out a violent grunt, pulling himself up from the near-flat position he’d sat within his seat with, coughing up the mucus that builds within his lungs, the result that spews out of his mouth taking on a dark red colour.

“I can’t feel anything in my chest or shoulders anymore” Rudy confesses, watching his youngest daughter reach up to turn on the cabin’s overhead lights whilst his eldest sits stoically in the front seat. “My hands are kind of numb and I feel like my feet are swollen” the father continues to explain, every word he utters simply continues to wear down Sonya’s already-waning hope, “it feels like something’s in my chest trying to keep me from breathing, and I get dizzy if I exhale too hard.”

Listening to the man’s descriptions, Courtney’s hand- still held within her boyfriend’s- begins to tremble hard, almost as if she were holding onto her composure through a pain of her own. “It’s alright” Sebastian whispers, keeping his words subdued within his breath for only the woman beside him to hear, her face turning toward him with an expression as if she were trying to convince herself to admit such a thing.

Pulling her tongue out from being pressed between her molars, the tension in Courtney’s face begins to ease as her eyes meet those of the man beside her, lips parting as she lets out a deep sigh. “I know” the woman whispers back, flashing the slightest smile in the corner of her mouth as it proves to be all she can muster, turning her attention from the man sat beside her to the man sitting on the verge of his life’s conclusion, his eyes meeting hers as she turns back.

“You’re in pain” Courtney remarks with a sorrowful tone of voice, the man’s whimper-like breath filling the silence that proceeds her proclamation and precedes his response. With a tear rolling down the side of his face, Rudy presses his lips together before letting them part gently, “yes, I am” he replies, not wanting to spend the final moments of his life lying to those he holds closest to his heart.

Pulling in a gasp as her face suddenly resumes its grief-stricken expression, Courtney lets out a hurried breath, quickly pulling it back in. Trying her best to smile as her face floods with the emotion of having to bid her father adieu, the woman pulls herself together just enough to muster what she knows to be the best she can offer.

“Everything’s going to be okay” Courtney tearfully whimpers, lips pressing harder together as her father fights through the pain that the infection riddles his body with, aware that he does so for the girls he holds dear. Letting free the deepest breath he can muster, Rudy nods his head gently, wearing a smile of his own in the corner of his mouth, “yes, it will” he whispers back, sharing the same realisation that his girls have come to- the final hours spoken of earlier have dawned.

Reading the faces of those within as his arm leans against the window separating them, Terry turns his eyes back toward the man behind the wheel of the pursuing vehicle. Watching the passenger in the vehicle ahead point to his empty wrist, Lou passes his eyes toward Marta and presents her with a subtle nod, the hand she uses to pull the crank window down soon extended past the door and into the Canadian elements, snapping her finger toward the vehicle that tails them.

Quickly laying into the horn for less than a second, Josie confirms her reception of the woman’s signal and follows the car ahead off the road, joining the foremost truck in pulling onto a quiet path split between two empty fields.

“At least it’s peaceful” Rudy sighs, slowly making his way down a small hill with the assistance of Terry and Sebastian, his only remaining family following closely behind, Courtney’s arm holding her little sister close. “If I had final minutes to spend, this is the kind of place I’d want to spend them in” the older man to his right replies, prompting the only smile he can muster as his facial muscles begin to hurt.

“If you could, just dig my grave wherever I stop breathing” Rudy responds, turning to look at Sebastian as the younger man looks back at him. “Who said we were burying you?” his daughter’s love jokes, earning the closest thing to a laugh the older man can provide him. “You know, Sebastian- I always liked you” the older man confesses, never having implied anything other, though not wanting his final minutes to be spent leaving things for interpretation.

“Make me a promise, will you?” Rudy wonders aloud, stopping with the men as Sebastian turns to look at him, the palm of the dying man’s hand pressing firmly into his older aid’s back, “fuckin’ marry her already, won’t you?” His mouth slightly agape at first, Courtney’s boyfriend looks back to the woman standing just a few steps behind, a smile coming over his face as he looks back to her father, a quiet nod and smile returned to the man.

“Good” Rudy replies, nodding back as his eyes return to the open field, continuing to lug himself onward as he nears closer to his final resting place with every step. After a few brief minutes, the man’s knees begin to buckle as it becomes clear he can no longer continue on, the weight of his body slowly pulling down the men that carry him forward, the cold ground fully embracing his body as he’s carefully laid upon it.

“I’m okay, I’m still alive!” Rudy proclaims as best he can, trying to keep his daughters from hurrying up to him with anything more than the slightest concern. “Um, I don’t wanna ask for too much, and I get why you’d say no, but-” Terry begins to remark, splitting his request between Sebastian and the two girls that draw closer, “-can I have a word with him in private for like, thirty seconds?”

“I can make it that long” Rudy replies before any of the three in question have the chance to respond, assuring the three members of his family- both blood related and through wished-for marriage- that he’s fine with the request. Putting both hands up, Sebastian steps back and retreats to his girlfriend and her younger sister, putting his arms around them to embrace in the wake of tragedy that unfolds before them.

“Listen, I said some pretty cruel things a few days ago, and I-” Terry begins, trying to speak quickly to keep from running overdue on his requested time. “Let me tell you a story” Rudy interjects, not allowing the much younger man to finish his apology purposefully, waiting for approval from the man kneeling beside his final resting place. Replying with a quiet nod, the younger man grants the survivor he’d likened to a soon-deceased canine permission to recollect.

“A few months after he started taking me out to hunt with him, I told my father that- for my birthday- I wanted him to buy me one of those cap guns. Y’know the little toys?” Rudy begins, watching Terry nod back to him, “guess what he said? No.” Squinting, Terry watches the father fold his hands atop his chest as he looks toward the cloudy sky, feeling the cold kisses of each individual snowflake collide with the skin on his face.

“He was a park ranger during the summer months, and before he went out for a night shift one night- right when I was supposed to go to bed- I told him that I hoped he died out in the forest for saying no” Rudy confesses, “I was a spoiled boy for many of those years. I didn’t think anything of what I’d wished upon him until the next day- when he didn’t come home.”

Eyes falling, Terry stares to the ground with an apologetic look in his eyes as his face is clouded by the heavy breaths that leave his lungs, the view he has of the man dying beside his knees remaining mostly unimpeded. “For seventeen years, I never let myself forget that those were the last words he ever heard me speak to him” Rudy explains, a smile appearing in the corner of his mouth, “but then, when I was twenty-one, I remembered the exact reason he gave me for saying ‘no’.”

“He said, the reason I won't get you a toy gun is because I don’t want you to think of guns as a toy” the older man explains, looking into the confused expression worn on Terry’s face, the younger man unable to see what importance is held within the rationale. “This is what he said- it’s one thing to think shooting guns is fun” Rudy continues, nearly shedding a tear as words remain leaving through his chapped lips, “it’s another to think guns are fun to shoot.”

Finding himself at a strange sense of peace as each final moment passes in favour of yet another one, the older gentleman stares into the dark sky he believes his father to be awaiting him behind. “-You may not understand that now, but you’ll know what I mean by that when you’re old enough to think about it” Rudy continues to speak, the tear that’d threatened to leave his eye now falling freely, “-when that day comes, I won’t have to worry about buying you a toy gun.”

Letting the muscles in his neck loosen, Rudy’s head presses into the soft ground beneath it, its damp soil acting almost like a pillow. “I realised after all those years, that my father wasn’t the kind of man to think much of a little kid just spouting something off for the purpose of hurting him” the regretful, yet well-taught survivor explains, a faint nod returned to the remorseful soul beside him, “he probably brushed it off and went out thinking about how much he loved me instead.”

Mouth agape, Terry stares off into the treeline that sits just a few hundred metres away, thinking about the point the once-boy’s father once attempted to make before realising what was meant by it. “I don’t hold what you said against you, and I don’t blame you for saying it. I needed to hear it-” Rudy confesses, reaching up gingerly to pat the young man on the shoulder gently, “-and I wanted you to hear that.”

Bowing his head, Terry gently pats the father’s hand and pulls away as the rest of his family returns, kneeling beside him without much in the way of words to offer. “Sebastian, can I ask for one more favour?” Rudy whispers, passing a look toward his eldest daughter before returning his eyes to the man on his other side, “don’t make Courtney put down her father too.”

Letting free a heavy sigh, Sebastian looks to the man and bobs his head in complete silence, leaving the room for final words for him to share with his remaining family. “Everything’s still going to be okay” Rudy whispers, one hand taken into the hold of each daughter, who both press their second hand against the back of his own as Courtney responds with reassurance, “yes, it will.”

“Are we ready?” Marta inquires, her dirt covered hands pressing into her hips as Lou kneels before her, the woman’s father wiping off his own cold palms as they place the final handfuls of dirt atop the newly-departed father’s grave roughly an hour after he’d passed. Wiping his nose with his free hand as his prosthetic fingers press against his side, the man and his rebar staff turn back to look at the pair of sisters as they mourn close to Sebastian, their only living family now being each other.

“Yeah” Lou replies, nodding toward the man that stands with one hand patting Sonya’s back as his other hand rests around Courtney’s waist, the temporarily dual-handed survivor turning back to his protege with a hopeful expression, “let’s find home.” Patting the back of his daughter’s mentor, Adrian begins to step forward as Marta helps pull the man to his feet, the free hand his dominant arm wields reaching for the plastic one worn atop his shortened stub as he proceeds forward.

“Lou?” Jenn calls out in a suddenly worried voice, stepping away from the mostly-quiet group of survivors with her finger pointed to the direction of the fresh grave. Looking to the woman with uncertainty at first, Lou soon joins Marta in turning around to find the source of her strife, an immediate cause for concern agreed upon by those that remain amongst the living.

“Do we run!?” Sonya wonders aloud, only for her ear to be caught by the same voice that strikes fear within the rest of her peers. “No” a stern voice replies from a few dozen metres away, only this time from the exact opposite direction of the sight that had provoked such worry. Armed with the same heavy artillery as it had appeared his peers did, the thick-bearded man with the declarative voice steps out from cover with a flashlight aimed at the loss-burdened survivors standing before him.

“Everyone get on your knees, put your weapons on the ground, put your wrists together and hold them out” the yet-unnamed survivor orders, stepping forward in the centre of an approaching line of similarly-armed men. Glancing directly behind them, Marta finds yet another wave of men and women approaching in the opposite direction of the first wave, the sides to their left and right soon cut off by equally well-armed fleets of soldiers.

“What’s the call here, Lou!?” Marta exclaims, feeling the touch of the man’s prosthetic grace her lower back, keeping her within arm’s length as they quickly run out of room to retreat. With his hand on the pistol protruding from his waistband, Sebastian stands ahead of Courtney and Sonya whilst Adrian stands in front of his daughter, the American half of the survivors following the rest of the group’s backward departure before their eyes widen at the voice that soon calls out behind them.

Nostrils flaring, Lou’s fingers grasp tightly around the rebar staff at his side as he turns a side-eye toward the line of approaching guards that close in to his right. “Wait!” a feminine voice calls out amidst Marta’s declarative question, prompting the silver slayer’s grip on the weapon to lessen instantly, his eyes widening as the hairs on the back of his neck are brought to a stand, his body immediately locking up as he freezes in place, unable to move his legs.

Following the declaration, the bearded man and his line of guards ceases their forward progression, looking past the faces that look at him with fear as they, too, fall into shared looks of shock. “Lou?” the woman’s voice wonders aloud, prompting Marta to quietly join Sebastian in looking to the face of the man whose name leaves the unknown girl’s lips. Turning back toward Courtney and Sonya, the only man armed with a gun other than Marta looks to the nearby line of soldiers to their backs.

“Oh my g-” Sebastian begins to mutter beneath his breath, unable to finish his utterance before his voice evades him, able to look past the frazzled hair to recognise the face that stands mere metres away from their one-armed once-guardian angel. Turning her face back to the person responsible for the sudden halt in the quickly-escalating situation, Marta looks back to the woman who she fails to recognise, but creates her own assumptions based on her mentor’s reaction.

The first to turn around, Jenn looks past Marta and Adrian to find the woman for herself, an immediate look of persistent shock taking over as her jaw drops. “Jenn?” the woman in question calls out, the only name uttered aside from his own prompting the one-armed slayer to take a deep gasp for air, his sudden return to earth watched on by the woman beside him, who quickly cements her assumptions into reality as the man slowly turns around.

Slowly and steadily through the miniscule gap between his two front teeth, Lou’s eyes turn with the rest of his head as his body rotates to face the music of who stands before him. Growing wider as he finally uncovers beyond any doubt the mystery of who calls his name, the man’s lip begins to quiver as the remaining air that had yet to leave his lungs gets caught and held back, the rebar staff held within his free hand falling from within reach and to the soft ground below.

In the last manner he could have anticipated, the journey responsible for refusing him peace over the last three months of his life finally comes to a climactic conclusion, fitting the final missing piece into the puzzle that is his group’s ultimate reunion. Struggling to regain any semblance of composure, Lou forces his lips to steady with the rest of his jaw, which tenses as he stammers toward finally lifting the name of the one woman that had eluded him for so long from upon his tongue.

“Ally”

With a smile, Ally lowers the weapon she’d held before her toward the ground as a select few others- whom she shares the square that had decreased in size until recently- do much the same. “Boy oh boy, my parents would hate this” the woman replies, trying her best to keep her lips from pulling apart, unable to help the smile that overcomes her face like irrefutable joy, her playful mockery of the man letting the jubilation settle, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, ya bum.”

Though his shocked expression remains unchanged, Lou’s lips feel the warm gust of air escape the lungs they’d been suddenly trapped in, firing out all in one breathy chuckle. Instinctively taking shape in the corner of his mouth, the man on the other half of a long-awaited reunion nods- with a crooked smile- in wholly-devoted agreement with one eyebrow raised, “right back at ya” he mutters just loud enough for those that surround him to hear, “right... back... at... ya...”

== RISE and REVOLT ==