S4, E8 | The Baby Problem

Quietly shutting the door upon her departure from the room, Courtney’s eyes drift toward the pleasant-looking man that casually approaches her, his hands tucked into the pockets of his corduroy pants. “One big, happy family again” the woman remarks as Sebastian rolls to a stop, his eyes glancing to the door as the woman continues to speak, “dad apologised to Sonya and it seems like, for now at least, it’s water under the bridge.”

“Well, if I were to list the things you were good at, being an effective mediator would be among them” Sebastian replies, watching the woman lean against the hallway’s drywall, “you always knew how to stop our fights by telling me to go for a drive and bring you back a bagel.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with breakfast for dinner” Courtney replies with her finger pointed to the man’s face, turning away to begin joining him in retreating for whatever end of the lavishly-adorned building calls for their presence next. “I’d be incorrect if I suggested such a thing, which is why I didn’t” Sebastian retorts, stepping to the woman’s side as the spacious corridor affords him the opportunity to, “if anything, having breakfast for dinner should be normalised in our society.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s a campaign slogan the zombies can get behind” Courtney jokes, matching the nonchalant pace of the man’s stroll as their friendly union displays, lightening the air that had gone tense, cold and cruel for too long to recall. “I may be barking up the wrong tree with that one, but I’m sure it’d enjoy broad support amongst the undecideds” Sebastian quips back, their shared chuckle putting the short thread of witty comments to the side.

“Lou’s friends- or, I guess our friends- apparently got themselves a car before they found us. Josie appears to have gotten it running just so you know” Sebastian remarks, continuing to slowly proceed down the mostly-dark hallway, the only light that touches it coming from the windows within each room they pass. “Does that mean we’re gonna be on the move again soon?” Courtney wonders back, turning to look at the man as he shakes his head with a shrug.

“Not sure. They seem to think this place can hold up a few days, so we might not need to pack the bags just yet” Sebastian replies, his eyes wandering to the end of the hallway he’d just departed from and now has his back turned to, “everyone seems to think the decision’s best left in Lou’s hands.” Widened for just a second, Courtney’s face sits in surprise before settling into a mostly-accepting visage.

“Man, that guy’s gonna become the emperor of whatever world gets built out of this one, won’t he?” Courtney jokes, her statement not entirely backed by mere humour. “Eh, probably. The consensus seems to be that this world was sort of made for him, so I guess it’d be fitting” Sebastian confesses, arching his lip to give his physiognomy a comedic tinge, “honestly, it’s probably just a good thing we’ve gotten on his good side.”

“Yeah, I can’t say I disagree” Courtney replies, smiling as the man lowers his chin to chuckle, the air again growing quiet as yet another short conversation falls to the past. By each other’s side, the long-connected pair of survivors continue to walk the halls, rounding the only corner that separates them from the stairs as the time their slow-moving pace extends as long as it can continues to dwindle away.

“What do you think of the others?” Sebastian wonders, hands still tucked away in the slots at each side of his hips, the woman accompanying him quick to bob her head from one side to the other. “Aside from Theo, Lou’s got a pretty decent track record with who he trusts” Courtney replies, shrugging her shoulders as their stroll continues to lead them onward, “they seem fine- even if they’re a little more free-spirited than kids were when we were younger. I like ‘em so far.”

“Yeah that’s pretty much the same way I feel” Sebastian responds, quick to rationalise his assessment, “it’s not that ‘free-spirited’ is a bad thing, it just makes it more difficult to gage someone is all.” Nodding as she verbally joins the man’s declaration, Courtney keeps the conversation moving with a few variations of ‘yeah, definitely’  before yet another short talking point discovers its end and trails off into the past.

In silence, the pair exit the mostly void-like passageway and step upon the top-most step of the staircase they prepare to descend upon, its gradually-dropping ledge bathed in as much light as the depressingly-cloudy, western Canadian grey skies can provide. “We never really talked about it” Courtney blurts out, holding herself back from lowering herself upon the carpeted first tread that Sebastian does.

“What was that?” the man innocently asks back, turning to face his ex-girlfriend with his hand pressed against the downward-sloped railing. “The breakup. We never really talked about it and I don’t know why” Courtney replies, her discovery not one with much gravity behind it to change the undisturbed look on her deeply cared-for ex-lover’s face. “Well, uh- I guess- I guess we haven’t” Sebastian replies, stuttering over his words as he tries to find the reply desired of him.

“I mean, I know we never really had to. The mutual breakups just kinda leave stuff on better terms than they usually end up on, but they also just kinda sit there” Courtney explains, visibly confused in what it is that she’s trying to say. “I still feel like there should have been more than just ‘we’re better off as friends’ when it happened” she continues, given the floor as the man searches for a response he never expected would be necessary to make, “don’t you think?”

Flying out as a gust of air leaves his lungs, Sebastian’s lips press together as he shakes his head, staring off into the distance as he organises his words into a reply that would make coherent sense. “Well, we work really well together, but-” the man explains, pausing as his mind struggles to hold together the answer he’d aligned to offer her, grasping the words with the might of an omnipotent god just to clear them from his tongue, “-but we just wanted different things.”

“No, I know that. Of course, it’s just weird that we never really talked about it- ever” Courtney replies, aware of the awkward aura it brings over their persistent start-stop conversations, though seemingly more affected by it than her second half is. “Do you want to talk about it?” Sebastian quickly asks, watching the woman’s clumsy struggle to dance around the topic despite bringing it up at a loss for what’s to be gained, “if you want to talk about it, we can.”

“It’s not that I want to, it’s- I don’t really know what I want to do” Courtney admits, still leaving the man little information to work with, “we’ve been around each other every day since this all began, and I just feel like it’s this awkward box that we just sat in the corner and pretended wasn’t there.”

“Well, let’s unpack it” Sebastian replies, turning his back to the stairs as he climbs one step higher, sharing the same level as the clutter-minded woman he wishes to get on the same page with. “You wanted a family, I didn’t. You wanted marriage, I didn’t. You liked to explore and meet new people, I liked to hide out in a cabin in the mountains and read books” the man explains, smiling as he shakes his head with kind eyes, “we got along but wanted different things. I thought that was okay?”

“It is” Courtney replies, crinkling her nose as she looks off to an unimportant side of the foyer she stands in, one hand pressed against the railing she’d yet to descend the staircase with, a second thought falling upon her mind as the rest of her face scrunches, “-or maybe it’s not?” Taken aback by the woman’s sudden turn, Sebastian looks into her eyes as she begins to veer her face back toward his, a hopeful gleam in their whites as she looks up at him.

*pop, pop pop pop. pop pop*

On the level they’d yet to climb down to, the sound of rapid gunfire and shattered glass kill the important conversation just beginning to wrap themselves around the once-couple’s conscience. Instinctively reaching out for the woman’s arm, Sebastian pulls Courtney behind the wall they’d just ventured down the corridor of minutes prior, putting himself between her and any direction the aimless-yet-intentional bullets could be firing from.

Unable to make out what’s being said within the temporary moments of ceasefire, the couple listens into the muffled words shouted aloud by those responsible for the apparent attack. Unable to make out what’s being said, Sebastian keeps himself pressing against Courtney as a sizeable set of footprints march after them in the direction they’d recently walked out from.

“What’s going on?” Lou calls out as Marta follows closely behind, Rudy and Sonya trailing by a few metres as the six survivors reunite. “I think we’re being attacked” Sebastian quickly replies, easing the squeeze he’d pressed Courtney against the wall with as reinforcements close in, “we heard gunshots, some windows breaking and now people shouting- they sound like they’re on the other side of the building.”

“That’s where the others are!” Marta quickly replies, watching Lou hurry to the top of the stairs and glance over the bannister that overlooks the front lobby, unable to see any signs of intrusion spoken of. “Well what the hell do we do!?” Rudy asks aloud, looking to any of the other more well-equipped members that joins him for guidance that he and his youngest daughter appear mostly unexposed to.

“We should make use of that truck you said Josie started- get out before we all become pincushions, right?” Courtney responds, looking around the room for answers as their friend with the rebar staff rejoins their ranks, “we’ll go get the others and make a run for it.” Shaking his head in refusal, Lou speaks to a crowd of silence, the five that join him letting the man roll out his plan of attack.

“They’re already on the move, you’ll have to meet up with them” Lou replies, aiming his staff toward the side he believes the shots to be coming from, “they’re not firing back- that means they’re already making a run for it.”

“No we’re not!” Terry calls out, sprinting through the doors of the rear stairwell right as the man’s beginning to speak, waving his hand for the six to join them in retreat.

“How’d you know which stairwell to take?” Lou asks seconds later, Marta following closely behind him as he sprints down each concrete step the man ahead of him takes. “I didn’t, I just got lucky!” Terry replies, speaking freely as his voice is carried upward, floating to the top of the concrete tower their exit route sits within before throwing his hands at the door that spills them into the backlot.

“Come on!” Josie exclaims, standing halfway out of the truck’s driver seat as the rest of her group sits patiently, waiting with the confidence that the rest would find them safely. Doing as instructed, Terry and the rest break out into a hurry for whatever seat is left available for them, the man responsible for leading the way squeezing himself into the cabin as the Golden family, Sebastian, Marta and Lou hop into the bed alongside Jenn and Adrian.

“Where are we going!?” Elsie shouts through the window separating the cabin from those in the vehicle’s back, holding onto the bar attached to the ceiling just beside her door as the truck speeds forward. “East! It doesn’t matter where, just keep driving East!” Marta calls back, sitting closest to the cabin’s rear as the man beside her watches on at the building they make a break from, his eyes looking into every window he’s afforded a look into before widening at what intrigues him the most.

“Stop the truck!” Lou calls out, immediately questioned amidst exclamations as Josie does as instructed, the tires dragging along the asphalt the vehicle slams to a stop. “What the fuck are you doing!?” Sonya exclaims as the man stands from his place in the vehicle, leaping out to disembark as he begins sprinting back to the chaos they barely managed to escape from.

“Just keep going East, I’ll catch up!” Lou shouts, adding nothing more than that as he disappears around the corner, leaving his survivors in the dark for a moment as they try to figure out what he’s done. Their glances aimless and accomplishing nothing, the group simply gives into the sudden plan that’s presented to them, not wishing to question the man that had already proven capable enough of finding them before.

For another few metres, the truck follows through with its departure before a second voice calls out for Josie’s foot to hit the brakes. Jolting forward for a second time, the group braces for the sudden inertia before Marta hops the wall of the truck bed, her feet dashing toward Lou’s direction the moment they touch upon solid ground once more. “Marta, what are you doing!?” her father calls out, pushing himself up slightly before ordered to remain seated.

“There’s a water park about ten minutes north! Go there and we’ll meet you by sunset!” Marta barks, hurrying after Lou without a moment’s hesitation, brushing off her father’s calls for her return as Elsie calls out to anyone willing to answer. “Anyone else getting off!?” the woman exclaims sarcastically, quickly setting aside the bemused tone to raise a follow-up question rooted in genuinity, “what’s the call? What are we doing?”

Pressing his teeth into his bottom lip, Sebastian watches Marta turn the same corner as Lou whilst Adrian watches on, taking account of the orders the woman had given them before speaking out. “We go to the park and wait for them!” the man exclaims, pointing at the woman behind the wheel and giving her the signal to proceed, “step on it!”

Not needing to hear anything more, Josie stomps on the gas and keeps the car due-north, joining Sebastian in trusting the declarations made by their once-more departed friends. Begrudgingly and with a profound sense of worry deep within him, Adrian settles back into his seat and stares off at where he leaves his daughter behind, gritting his teeth as he tries to keep his mind aimed at the hopeful thoughts he conjures every other time they part ways- this time a little harder to deal with.

= 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 =

“How did you see him?” Marta calls out, ferociously plunging her switchblade into the centre of a corpse’s chest whilst Lou holds watch, taking out one corpse after another as she digs into whatever much her hands can take hold off. “I didn’t, I saw his buddies” Lou replies, pausing to grunt as he sticks yet another rotting corpse with the sharpened tip of his staff, “I don’t know if they’ll keep fighting his war once he’s dead, but I know how you’re supposed to kill a snake.”

Opening his mouth to finish his thought, Lou listens to the guttural scream the woman behind him interjects to let out, initially assuming she’d found herself in some unexpected danger. Turning back with his rebar readied, the man eases his fight-ready posture as he watches her stand from the ground with a smile on her face, looking up to him with eyes full of life as she holds the zombie’s head in her hand.

“Yeah-” Lou replies, leaning back a fair amount with an impressed nod, a smirk forming in the corner of his face, “-like that.”

“All clear in here!” a man shouts whilst aiming the barrel of his rifle downward, sprinting out of a room that overlooks the same staircase Sebastian and Courtney had shared to host their chat. “All clear this, all clear that!” Randal exclaims, staring at the window fixture adorning the wall he faces, stood at the top of the steps as he calls back to the man in question, “with all these rooms being cleared, you’d think they weren’t here!”

“We’re looking everywhere, sir!” the man he shouts at assures, prompting his head to turn around with great haste. “Well look harder for fuck’s sake!” Randal barks, stepping down each stair angrily as he makes for the clearly once-occupied foyer, coming upon the unattended glasses of unfinished liquor that line the bar an equally-unfinished bottle of vodka sits atop- its cap left sitting beside it.

Keeping to himself as he passes the remaining members of his enclave, Randal descends upon the mostly-dark concert hall and takes a seat at the one table lit with candlelight. Lowering himself into one of the pulled out seats, the man lifts one of the glasses left behind to his lips and enjoys the drink practically offered to him as a present. “All clear!” a distant voice exclaims, his words barely able to be made out by his superior, who rolls his eyes as the drink runs down his throat.

Sat alone in his chair amidst what had just recently been the scene of a clearly-happy gathering, Randal runs his hand down the side of his face as he sets his rifle down, its stock gently lowered to the floor. Able to hear the distant footsteps and proceeding declarations of cleared rooms, the enclave’s leader closes his eyes and thinks quietly to himself, whatever colourful thoughts he envisions bringing a smile to his face momentarily before his ears catch what returns him to reality.

*knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock*

Staring into the distant wall of pitch black nothingness, Randal wonders to himself whether or not he’d actually heard the call for his answer or merely imagined it as he fears he had. Not reacting instantly, the enclave’s leader waits nearly a minute for the tapping to begin again, his anxious mind running with the thought that it must’ve been a figment of the same invention his tricky brain had concocted- though he cannot convince himself of such certainty.

Squinting his eyes with both doubt and allure, Randal leans back in his seat as he gently lowers the glass back upon the table he resides at, continuing to wait for the sound’s duplication for just a few seconds before finally rising to answer. Taking his rifle in one hand and one of the five candles in the other, the clearly-exhausted leader slowly follows one foot in front of the other as his men continue to declare rooms cleared above, drawn into the beckon call that awaits him.

Shedding light upon the black coat that envelops the room in his every direction, Randal continues to march forward as the faintest sight of a large, metal door emerges from within the sightless depths. Leaning his head to one side as the mental toll the last few days have brought upon him, the man continues to wonder to himself whether or not the reality he believes himself to occupy space in right now is really just that- reality.

Seduced by a search for the answer nonetheless, Randal closes the gap between himself and the exit provided to him before resting his rifle against the wall, freeing his hand as the sight of the handle meets him. Wiping his eyes as he squeezes them tightly, the leader of his enclave- or at least what remains of them in his war’s aftermath- stares at the door intently as he steadies his breath, feeling an odd warmth in the face of the frigid winter air that just further confuses him.

Forcing a gust of air through his teeth, the man refuses to hold off the inevitable for another moment, pressing his thumb upon the metal latch and thrusting the door open. His face bathed in light, Randal’s subtle silence is replaced with the groans of an undead army, his eyes falling upon the gore-covered faces of two young survivors, who stand unmoved at the sight of his presence as the feral monsters squeeze past them in search of their next meal.

Shocked to see them in such awe-inspiring command of the dead, Randal struggles to disassociate himself with the theory that his fallacy-crafting imagination had yet to shatter, the illusion remaining before such a misconception can be shattered beyond any doubt. Taking one step backward as his arm extends, the enclave’s leader appears to reach out for mercy before his exposed arm is torn into by the teeth of the foremost zombie, prompting him to scream as he pulls away.

His delusion fractured, Randal runs back into the same darkness-shrouded concert hall his fatal reprieve had been taken in as those seeking his destruction retreat into the ranks of their rotten army. “You still have that gun!?” Lou calls out, hurrying through the army that pays little mind to them, seemingly not thrown off by their open-discussion or hurried dash for the front entrance.

“I’m way ahead of you!” Marta calls out, taking the lead as she sprints ahead of Lou, her pistol readied as she descends the next corner, rounding it before coming to a sudden stop and taking aim. Closing in just in time to watch the results of their grand plan, the girl’s mentor watches the transparent doors of their temporary home swing outward for a brief moment.

*pop*

Pulling the trigger, Marta fires at Randal the moment she catches sight of him, forcing him to dash back the way he came and disappear into the lobby once more. Remaining stood with a smirk on her face, the gun woman watches the man hurry ahead of her with a confused look on his face. “He’s bit, leave him to turn!” the man’s protege calls out, her command immediately refused by the man that turns back to respond.

“I’m not letting him cut that thing off and come after us again!” Lou shouts back, demanding of himself that they finish what they started, “I’ve made the mistake of leaving someone to die before and it came back to bite me, I’m not-!” Before he can even finish voicing his refusal, Marta dashes back to his side and prepares to continue the chase, trusting the man’s call to go after their target once more without needing to hear his justification.

“I trust you, now shut up and move!” Marta exclaims, retaking the lead as she cuts her mentor off and races through the front doors. Not a step out of line, Lou sprints off after her and prepares to put a decisive end to the conflict that had already seen two of his friends killed.

Huffing and puffing as he sprints past those comprising his enclave, Randal dashes up the steps he’d initially grown tired of waiting for a response out of as the lobby begins to descend into madness. Roaring out of the concert hall it had initially started in, a blaze begins to make its way into the lobby that Lou and Marta burst through the entrance of, running past members of the enclave that succumb to the surprise attack of the horde that is set upon them in chase of just one man.

Firing a bullet into the face of a foe that draws near, Marta lets her mentor assume the front of the chase, following him up the stairs as he swings his staff toward the next few soldiers that obstruct their path forward. “Stairwell!” the woman calls out, directing Lou’s sights toward the man he barely gets the chance to notice dip into the emergency staircase, firing another round at the nameless soldier that rounds the nearest corner as they carry on.

“You’re not getting away!” Lou calls out, his shouts climbing the tower that they ascend, the three sets of footsteps that ring throughout the concrete box they scale only continuing to provide a backdrop for the final retreat the already-bitten thorn in their side makes. Climbing to the highest point, Randal dips through the only door made available to him and scurries down wherever it leads, those that shadow him not trailing too far behind.

Their energy depleting, the young couple take advantage of their youth and complete their journey to the top of the once-luxurious tower that now appears to meet its fiery final moments. Taking the lead, Lou throws open the door as the rain begins to fall once more, the brief reprieve from stormy conditions having been nice whilst it lasted, though fading at a rather fitting time.

Gasping for his breath as his back faces the young adults that emerge to find him, Randal lets his head fall as he realises that there’s no going back, his feet standing at the edge of the rooftop that affords him no further sanctuary to run for. Seeing that the man they chase so relentlessly has exhausted every last inch of room to run, Lou brings his run to a halt as Marta follows suit, the man’s hand pressing into her chest to keep her from stepping too far out from his shadow.

Catching his breath, Lou glances out at the sky as it turns progressively darker before casually stepping forward, slowly decreasing the distance between himself and the man he intends to kill. “Jules is gonna be pissed when he finds out we found the roof” he quips, spinning the rebar staff within his fingers as Randal turns back to him, the bite wound inflicted upon his forearm continuing to bleed as he accepts his fate.

“The Baby Problem” Randal remarks, looking Lou in the eyes as the younger man suddenly squints at him, his head leaning to the side as his target falls silent. “What?” the man replies, momentarily halted from living up to his moniker of the silver slayer as he calls the seemingly out of place statement into question.

“The Trolley Problem. You asked me about the Trolley Problem before you lured us into your trap back on the island” Randal replies, speaking to the silently inquisitive man he entertains the presence of now that his back is against the wall, “I’m gonna assume you know about The Baby Problem?”

Confused, the young man remains silent- a reaction that speaks volume to the newly-infected enclave leader, who soon realises the opposite to be true. “You, your baby, and the whole town are running away from a group of bad people intent on killing all of you. When you get somewhere safe, you realise the baby is going to cough” Randal explains, figuring he might as well offer some wisdom as he prepares to depart the world, “you can choose to let it cough and get you killed- or kill the baby.”

“And you’re the baby in this scenario?” Marta asks from the back of the group, sharing the same squinted expression as her mentor, watching the shrug that the enclave’s leader responds to her with. “You saw me get bit back there. You knew I was dead but you came after me anyway” Randal replies, “I wasn’t suggesting it applied here, but I find it intriguing that you made that call. I just figured you’d want to hear it since you seem so fascinated by ethical dilemmas.”

Nodding to himself, Lou licks his lips as he lowers his chin, stepping forward with malicious intent that the enclave’s leader can recognise. With a smile, Randal glances back at Marta and winks before turning to look at her mentor, watching him step closer and refusing to talk him out of following through with his action.

Watching the rebar’s holder continue to gain ground, Randal allows him every fleeting moment to think he’s going to put an end to his solution before refusing him the pleasure of it, taking one step back at the very last moment to walk himself over the edge, vanishing below the gravel-topped surface as a very distant splattering sound hits the pavement below.

With a frown, Lou looks on with disappointment as the tip of his staff falls into the uneven, rocky ground he watches from, eyes following the man every last moment of the way before closing tightly upon impact. Watching on from afar, Marta winces at the thud she knows their target to be the source of before waiting a few extra seconds, watching her mentor step away from the ledge and return to her side, his arm wrapping around her in silence as they begin the journey back to their people.

== RISE and REVOLT ==