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Atop city hall’s split staircase and below the narrower second flight of steps, a campfire roars into the night, set up in the landing space that divides the troubled group in half. Only the fire to warm them, the union sits separately, huddled beneath their own coats, and their company shared with themselves. “Are we really gonna spend the night not talking to each other?” Angela mumbles, most fire-lit faces turning in her direction, whilst hers remains cemented upon the building’s depths.
“Why wouldn’t we?” Alicia replies, sat near the bottom of the right-most staircase, wrapped in a thin blanket, “it’s just another night.” Her eyes pressing shut, Angela presses her lips together as the mug in her hand is guided toward a lower step. “Pretending we haven’t been thrown a curveball yet isn’t going to make it true” Angela replies, pressing the small of her back against the lowest, left-most, marble stair, “it won’t make us feel better, either.” “Are you suggesting we go around the room and voice our concerns?” Jess wonders aloud, her back pressed against a carved-out bannister a few steps above Angela, no fleeting emotion to offer. “I’m suggesting we acknowledge the offer on the table” Angela corrects, earning a muffled laugh from the opposite step. “You were one of the people invited” Nessie replies, sat upon the highest of the right-most staircase, a jean jacket over her shoulders, “it’s easy for you to talk about.” “Splitting up into teams isn’t going to solve anything either” Emilio interjects, nipping the division he can sense brewing in the bud, “if nothing else, it’ll just drive a wedge between us.” Standing against the marble wall between both sets of parting stairs, Emilio’s eyes drift from one side of the camp to the other, watching the attention fall upon him. “I don’t like the idea, and I’m not in favour of splitting up” Angela clarifies, using the calming air to justify herself, “but we should put aside what is asked of us to obtain it, and recognise it for what it is.” Understanding his position, Emilio turns his head toward Angela, offering her the floor with a nod, one the woman comprehends immediately. “If Nova Scotia is exactly as Jade makes it sound like, this is the chance we’ve spent years begging for” Angela explains, panning her eyes over each member of the group, “it’s the first step in getting our old lives back.” “After everything we’ve seen, is going back to the way things were a good thing?” Salem replies, resting her rifle’s stock on the floor, and letting it sway from one hand to the other. “If Nova Scotia is as Jade makes it sound- yes” Angela replies, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket, “we’ve all faced our own hells, but none of those make falling asleep without the fear of being chomped on or robbed any less worthwhile.” “Can we not pretend like this is an automatic ticket to Nova Scotia?” Katie inquires, laid on her back at the highest point of the left-most staircase, her hands folded on her stomach, “it’s another Sheol with the possibility of turning into a Sun City- just better.” “It’s also been the ‘M.O’ since I met you” Angela replies, watching Katie’s head roll toward the side, looking down on her from above. “The minute I met you, the whole plan was ‘North Dumpling Island, live there until we die’. That was the whole point!” Angela continues, her voice slightly louder than before, “we had no boat, no food, no plan, no shelter- nothing! But the end goal was always the same- find a place to settle down and make a new life in.” “It didn’t work out well, did it?” Franklin interjects, sat one stair above Alicia, and one stair below Salem on the right-most steps. “In fairness, we had no food and didn’t know our adversaries as well as we thought” Lauren replies, sitting a few steps above Angela on the right-most stair, “but I do see your point.” “We all see both points” Emilio corrects, hearing Jack’s footsteps grow closer as he returns from the building’s lowest level, “we know what we stand to gain, and we know what we stand to lose.” The bottoms of his boots tapping along the marble floors, Jack ascends the lower staircase with the shattered remains of a wooden chair, its legs, arms, and fabric-covered seat thrown from his hands and into the central fire. “I’m heading out for a couple of hours” Jack announces, quickly turning his gaze upon Lauren, “come with me?” Not needing a moment to think, Lauren stands from her seat and follows Jack down the stairs, his departure coming without another word. “Speaking of which, the city should be in enough of a condition for deer to be wandering” Salem cuts in, standing out of her seat with her rifle in tow, “I might be able to come back with some breakfast.” Her rifle laid on the floor to her side, Katie stares toward the ceiling, quietly engaging in her inner thoughts. “I’ll go with you” the improved sniper suddenly mutters, taking a hold of her rifle as she sits up, patting Emilio on the arm as she hurries to catch up to the departing woman. Standing from his seat, Franklin climbs down a step and extends his hand to Alicia, not saying a word as he bobs his head toward the building’s exit. Looking up, Alicia looks at the man’s hand for a moment before taking it, giving Emilio a nod before walking away without a word, leaving behind those that remain. Letting out a deep exhale, Angela stares around the room, realising all that remains are the group’s crumbs, some of whom on the cusp of new life, the rest forced to venture elsewhere. “And then there were five” Angela remarks, turning her body on the step to extend her legs outward, letting her back rest against a wall. “Then there were five” Emilio repeats beneath his breath, falling back to his lean against the back wall, both hands held behind himself = Rise is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 3 onwards = “You’d think there’d more than just a few stragglers here, wouldn’t you?” Katie wonders aloud, crushing tall grass beneath the weight of every step. “I don’t know what to expect from the dead anymore” Salem replies, leading the quest toward the Providence River. “If I’m being honest, I don’t think of the dead as the threat at all anymore- they’re just minor inconveniences” Salem confesses, beginning to step upon broken glass hidden within the overgrowth, “it’s the people I look out for.” Climbing through the shattered windows of what now lies as a once office centre now shielded by the husk of a skyscraper, Katie and Salem advance upon the rear stairwell. “What’s your spin on the offer-situation?” Katie inquires, following her mentor up the concrete-encased stairwell. “I think it’s a waste of time to talk about” Salem replies, each step sending a metallic ring through the slim, tall enclosed box, “some will go, some won’t. What more is there to talk about?” “There’s plenty to talk about, it’s just a matter of whether we want to talk about them” Katie replies, following the woman out of the concrete column and onto a higher floor. “Like what?” Salem replies, unsheathing a knife from her hip before ploughing it into the crown of a straggling corpse’s skull, “what’s the ‘plenty’ we have to talk about?” Her own knife in hand, Katie continues the conversation whilst surveying the level. “A good start would be talking about which camp you fall into” Katie replies, panning a flashlight into dark rooms and the cracks of partially-opened doors. “I don’t care to think about it” Salem replies, cautiously approaching the river-facing side of the complex. “I went with Alicia and Franklin to Concord reluctantly, and I went to New York out of necessity” Salem explains, picking a window to kneel beside, “I’ve gotten more attached to this group than I wanted to. Since some are going to leave and others will stay, I don’t particularly like either option.” “Then why not choose the more favourable of the choices?” Katie replies, pushing random office doors open with her elbow. “Because I don’t think this is a group if it’s fractured in two- it’s just what’s left” Salem replies, slowly rolling the glass panel outward, “it’s like two broken homes, why bother choosing one when it’s no different from sleeping out in the backyard?” Confident in her inspection, Katie pulls back toward Salem, watching the woman prepare her rifle along the windowsill. “Because eventually, it’s gonna start to rain” Katie replies, pressing her shoulder against the concrete wall separating each window from the other, “and, while not completely optimal, at least a broken home will put a roof over your head.” Peering out at the other side of the river, Salem presses her eye against the scope as she waits for the world to turn in her favour. “What if the reason that home is broken is because there’s no roof?” Salem replies, gently pressing her left eye shut, “then all I’ll have left is a box that slowly fills with water until I drown.” Letting her eyes fall, Katie begins to strap gloves over her cold hands, allowing Salem to pursue an answer. “I’m still waiting” Salem remarks, only judging the silence for what it appears to her as. “Then you keep yourself afloat until you reach the top” Katie replies, keeping a smile at bay as she takes her eyes toward the pleasant view of the streets below, “ride the surface until it takes you over the edge.” Taking a few seconds to form her rebuttal, Salem watches a white-tailed deer prance out from a thick set of bushes, the distance between the hunter and the hunted covered by a small, civilian bridge. “Then the rain will continue to pour” Salem replies, steadying her aim on the unassuming creature, waiting for it to stop for her shot to present itself, “and before you know it, the rest of the world is starting to fill.” Staring off at the larger body of water close by, the deer begins to lower its head, picking at the vegetation surrounding him. Her breath steady, Salem slowly guides her finger to the trigger, pausing her shot until Katie’s response concludes. “Then the water will never stop and nothing matters” the woman’s shadow replies, watching the woman prepare for her shot, “the world will just fill until you drown anyway, so there’s no point in any of it.” Her eye falling away from the scope, Salem allows Katie’s response to sit with her, digesting as her crosshair slowly pulls upward, steadying on the farther treeline. Still silent, Salem glances back toward her scope, finding the absence in her line of sight for a few seconds before the deer’s head suddenly pops back up, its left eye directly in the centre of her crosshair. “Take the shot” Katie whispers, watching Salem turn toward her, visibly rattled by the woman’s earlier claim. “It’s yours to take” Katie reiterates, her head nodding toward the deer, “take it.” Her lips pressing together, Salem lets a breath leave her lungs as she stares back into the sight, the deer’s head still in line, perfectly offering her the chance to squeeze the trigger. | “I’ve got him” Lauren remarks, walking ahead of Jack with a sharpened walking stick in her possession. Attracted to the woman’s voice, a corpse pulls away from the diner it had ventured toward, taking notice of Lauren’s presence. With little issue, Lauren drives her weapon through the corpse’s eye socket and guides it to the ground, a smile worn on her face as she does so. “You’re a natural at that” Jack quips, triggering the shopkeeper’s bell as he strolls through the diner’s entry. “I’ve had my moments” Lauren jokes back, following the man into a spacious, yet eerily silent dining room, barely illuminated by the flashlights in their grasp. “Sorry, are you closed!?” Jack bellows aloud, sarcastically up-in-arms over the lack of a response, “this is some terrible customer service, and I demand to see a manager!” “I don’t think we came here for breakfast, hun’” Lauren replies, patting the man on the back as she turns toward the booths, a sudden question popping into her head, “wait, why did we come here?” Laughing with a gust of air through his nose, Jack unsheathes a solar powered lantern from his belt loop and leaves it to rest upon the closest booth. “Sit with me?” Jack asks, sliding down the length of his seat as Lauren takes him up on the offer, joining beside him. “I seriously doubt anyone’s coming to take our order” Lauren again jokes, comforted by Jack’s ubiety. “Yeah, we didn’t come here to eat” Jack replies, folding his hands atop the table as he looks into Lauren’s eyes, the loving look Lauren’s accustomed to receiving in these moments replaced with something unfamiliarly genuine, even from Jack’s perspective Pained as much as he is relieved, Jack tries to present the woman with a smile, but his struggle to do so only shows something less than happiness. The puzzle pieces beginning to fit, Lauren’s curious smile begins to fade, replaced by a look of disappointed awareness. Folding her hands atop the table beside Jack, Lauren fights to part her lips, keeping her sadness at bay as she tries to find the strength to speak. “You want me to take the offer” Lauren whispers, only able to muster a whimper-like voice as she looks into Jack’s eyes, “don’t you?” Slowing his breathing, Jack guides his coupled hands over Lauren’s, his girlfriend’s grasp flipping to take his palms into her own. “I can’t be the reason you throw this away” Jack replies, unabashedly allowing the tears to fall from his eyes as he responds. “Everyone in this group, even if we don’t want to admit it- everyone knows how important this is” Jack admits, squeezing Lauren’s hands harder, “we all just hate the circumstances involved with it.” Her head shaking, Lauren struggles to find the words to refuse, a struggle Jack pushes aside by recapturing her attention. “This is a chance to go back to the way things were- to have a life you were screwed out of getting the chance to live” Jack explains, “this is your ticket back.” Continuing to shake her head, Lauren pulls her eyes back toward Jack’s, attempting to speak through broken breaths. “I don’t think I want that life anymore” Lauren replies, trying to calm the emotions she feels built within her, “-you weren’t in it.” Bobbing his head, Jack fights to push his own emotions aside, riddled with an agony he’s gone years without. “I know. I want to go with you so badly but I can’t” Jack replies, standing firm in his decision, “and as much as this hurts me, I know I’ll never have to be afraid for you anymore. You’ll be safe.” Her head again shaking, Lauren continues to fight a battle she’s aware she stands no chance of winning. “I’m safe here. I’m safe now” Lauren replies, watching Jack take his turn to shake his head. “But you’ll never get to truly be alive, and that’s the point” Jack replies, no less adamant than when he entered the diner, “they can offer you that in a way I’ll never be able to.” Almost masochistically, Lauren continues to argue her point, no more ground gained than what she’d walked in with. “I don’t need anything they can offer me” Lauren replies, “and if they can’t offer me you, none of their offers are worth anything.” Arguing for Lauren’s acceptance, Jack persists. “Do you remember what Angela said yesterday?” Jack wonders, finally forcing a painful smile over his face, “she said ‘being alive was the most important thing’ and Jade argued that being alive wasn’t worth anything without safety, and care, and a home, and the rest!” Their coupled hands falling into the space on the booth between them, Jack finishes his point. “Jade was right- you can’t honestly have one without the other” the man explains, a tear falling upon his knuckles as it runs from his cheek, “I can try to offer you everything, but you’d never get the chance to fully be alive.” “I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you” Lauren replies, unashamed to acknowledge her greatest lows, “if we’re judging the most important factors for me, nothing’s higher on that list than you.” Bowing his head, Jack holds down the grief he feels kicking up. “Then take the offer I made it possible for you to get the chance to have” the man replies, doing what he feels is right on the back of Lauren’s claims, “this is what we’ve waited for… The chance is here for you to take.” Caught by surprise at the sense of something small being dropped into her palm, Lauren slides her hand out from within Jack’s, where a ring rests just below her thumb. “The world ended to bring us together” Jack whispers, reclaiming the ring as he slides it over her finger, retaking her hand as their eyes lock again, “when the time comes, it’ll bring us together again.” | Handcuffed to the door of a car and heavily devoured, a trapped zombie earns the remorse of an aggravated Alicia, who drives her handcrafted spear through its eye socket. “You want me to go?” Alicia aggravatedly remarks, watching the sky begin to lighten as a new morning dawns. “I think you should, yeah” Franklin replies, calmly following the woman through the once-busy streets of downtown Providence. Her head shaking, almost as if she can’t believe what’s asked of her, Alicia walks away, angrily storming over tall grass with no destination in mind. “I don’t like it either, but I can’t deny what you’d be missing out on” Franklin replies, continuing to watch the woman march on, “this is the only real shot we’ve ever had at ‘getting back to normal’, even if not all of us can get there.” “What makes you think I want things to go back to normal!?” Alicia turns back, her words bouncing through the narrow streets as she shouts in a fit of anger. “Because you do, just like we all do” Franklin replies, slightly raising his voice closer to a yell, “and if we were all given the chance, we’d already be in Jade’s truck.” “Exactly! That’s the point!” Alicia shouts, her frustrations only continuing to simmer, “we weren’t all given a chance, so what’s the point in taking it!?” Falling silent, Franklin strolls up to the corpse-chained car and sits upon its hood, patting the spot beside him for Alicia to occupy. Her anger brushed aside, Alicia turns back, taking the spot beside the man. “Even if we don’t all get the invitation, some of us do” Franklin replies, resting his hand on the woman’s thigh, “if you all decline, we all lose out. But if you all go, at least some of us will get to win. Even if we aren’t happy about missing out, it’d be selfish not to want you all to win.” “Even if I win this, I lose you” Alicia replies, tracing the veins in the man’s thigh-rested hand with her finger, “and if I lose you- I just lose.” Letting out a laugh, Franklin places his second hand over Alicia’s own, shaking his head with a charming grin. “No, you don’t. You win for the both of us” Franklin replies, pressing his lips against Alicia’s own for a quick kiss. As their lips part, Alicia loses herself looking into Franklin’s face, fixated by a sudden sense of comfort amidst fearful times. Pressing her lips back against Franklin, Alicia keeps the kiss going, returning her lips to the man’s own each time a new kiss breaks. | “Very clean shot” Katie remarks, the rifle draped over her back as she follows Salem over the grass where her dead deer rests. “I’ve got a lot of those” Salem replies, wrapping twine around the deceased animal’s rear legs as Katie watches, her hands tucked into her pockets. The air silent, Salem wraps the restraints around the animal while Katie stands by, waiting for the next set of words to leave Salem’s lips. “How’d you do it?” Salem inquires, her teeth grating against the twine until it snaps, allowing her to tie off the loose ends. “You’ve always been the first person to listen to reason for as long as I’ve known you” Katie answers, her head hanging closer to the ground as Salem begins on the front legs, “I just needed you to listen to reason again.” Struggling to find the words to respond, Salem remains quiet, again using her teeth to split the rope. “I’m not good with this kind of thing” Salem mutters beneath her breath, just loud enough for Katie’s ears to catch. “I’ve never liked goodbyes, either” Katie responds, watching as Salem hoists the buck over her shoulders, her fingers wrapping around both legs as their faces take to each other’s. “If I’m being honest with myself, part of the reason I came out here was to avoid saying goodbye to the others” Katie explains, slowly removing the rubber gloves from her hands. “I don’t care who does, or doesn’t, go. I just wish the best for everyone involved” Katie explains, her gloves tucked into her back pocket as she looks back to her mentor, forced to squint as the sun begins to rise over Salem’s back, “give them my best, will you?” A gut wrenching feeling of sadness rupturing deep within her core, Salem silently nods to Katie, who flashes the woman a grin. Emotional without needing to shed tears, Katie’s eyes wander toward the distance, avoiding eye contact. “I’m not John’s ‘right-hand’ anymore, and I’m not Troy’s sister anymore” Katie comes to the acceptance of whilst letting a sigh leave her lungs, “I think- maybe- it’s time I find out.” Nodding as she presses her tongue to the corner of her lip, Salem remains quiet, settling for the first thing that comes to mind. “I didn’t expect this to be a ‘goodbye’ from both of us” Salem remarks, watching the younger woman look at her with a smile of her own. “It’s not a goodbye” Katie replies, beginning to walk backward from the way she and Salem had arrived, “it's ‘good luck’ and ‘see you again someday’.” Turning her body in the direction she walks, Katie proceeds to stroll away, her mentor watching her depart until her figure is no longer visible. | “I got it” Angela remarks, stepping through city hall’s entrance as Emilio strolls through the front door, carrying a large car seat up toward the fire pit as Angela drives her knife into the side of an undead skull. “Why would she just walk off?’” Clint queries, watching Salem skin her catch in preparation for dinner. “I didn’t bother to question her” Salem replies, dropping a chunk of bloody fur onto the floor, “she wanted to leave, and I wasn’t going to make her stay.” “And then there were four” Nessie murmurs, watching Alicia and Franklin step through the building’s front doors. “Well, maybe five” Clint jokes, alluding to the shirt Alicia now wears inside out, “are condoms and birth control an easy thing to come by nowadays?” Her eyes rolling, Alicia walks up to Clint and flicks her finger against the man’s forehead. Watching the car seat burn in a sea of flames, Alicia gives her answer. “If none of us go, we all lose- but if some of us go, we all win” Alicia remarks, turning her sights on the man with the curly hair and rough beard she looks to as the leader, “I’m going.” Quiet, Emilio gives the woman a nod before turning away, climbing the left-most staircase without a word. “If the two of you are going, then I am too” Angela replies, climbing the stairs to rejoin the group beside the fire. “Then I wish the three of you luck” Nessie replies, slouching back against the marble stair, “I’m not going anywhere.” Allowing the conversation to unfold without him, Emilio begins to journey through the dark confines of the building, feeling a sense of loneliness despite the ongoing conversation behind him. The menacing interior poorly lit, only darkness faces him, a lightless, blank void with nothing to say for itself. “They need you” Jess’ voice remarks, the woman’s frame hiding within the shadows as if she were speaking on their behalf. Turning to where the voice sounds to be coming from, Emilio follows it to the source. “They don’t need me” Emilio replies, carefully stepping forward, one foot placed before the other, “they need each other more than they need me.” “And look how that’s working out” Jess replies, her voice staying low to the ground, “they’re dropping like flies without needing to die. That’s not what leaving is- that’s abandonment.” Pressing his hand against a smooth, glossy wall, Emilio presses his back against it and slides to the ground, occupying the seat beside Jess, who claims residency over the floor, cold and alone. “They’re choosing to live” Jess replies, her voice sad in nature, but empty when presented up close, a withered husk of someone that used to feel life as it was intended. “You keep saying you’re not the leader, but that doesn’t explain why you’re so hush to the topic” Jess confides, turning her head toward Emilio’s, “why aren’t you choosing to live?” Her breath colliding with the side of his face, Emilio turns to look toward the woman, his chest heavy as if weighed by burden. “Why aren’t you choosing to live?” Emilio counters, unable to watch the woman’s face turn away, no expression in her expression, “you were given the same questions. Even if you didn’t know what you were answering for, you were the only one that threw their choice away.” Enough breath being blown through her nose to be mistaken for a laugh, Jess presses the back of her head against the wall. “A man walked into our lives, murdered my husband, and murdered my child” Jess replies, returning her face toward Emilio’s, “and, in doing that, he murdered me.” Waiting for a response, Jess turns away, staring off into the darkness once more. “I don’t know what it’s like to lose a child” Emilio replies, pressing his own head against the wall, “but I do know what it’s like to lose a husband.” Taking a strong dislike to the conversation she anticipates being started, Jess closes her mouth and lets Emilio speak anyway. “I’m not the same man I was before Bill died, and I’ll never claim to be. But I’m stronger than I was, and I don’t know if that would have been possible if he were still here” Emilio explains, unsure of Jess’ reaction, “and, in time, you will be too.” Remaining silent, Jess lets the conversation die there, keeping quiet until Emilio gets up to leave. “You should go with them” Jess suddenly remarks, waiting for Emilio to walk a few steps away before doing so, “choose life.” Staring in Jess’ direction for a few seconds, Emilio turns away in silence, leaving the void to return to the campfire. | “Do you think they’re coming?” Archie wonders, standing beside the driver’s door as Isaac occupies the backseat. “This is one of the rare times where I honestly don’t know” Jade replies, turning her head toward Oliver with a smile, “it’s exciting.” As the sun begins to lower over the nearest set of towers, a fleet of people emerge from the street below, their minimal belongings carried in tow. “I won’t bother calling out names, you already know who you are” Jade remarks, releasing the tailgate from its restraints, “everyone coming along climb aboard, those that chooses not to- don’t dirty the truckbed.” Maintaining her distance, Nessie folds her arms and keeps to the rear of the group, watching the rest of the survivors interact accordingly. “We’ll find each other again” Jack whispers, placing his hands to each side of Lauren’s head as they share a kiss, “I promise.” Pulling each other into an embrace, Jack parts his arms to keep himself from changing his mind, allowing Lauren to deviate from the pack. “I’m gonna miss you” Alicia whispers, pulling out of her embrace with Franklin. “I’m gonna miss you, too” the man replies, watching Alicia board the back of the pickup. “I call shotgun!” Salem exclaims, strolling around the side of the vehicle as Angela climbs into the back, not a further scene made. “Well, I’m certainly not gonna argue with her over that” Jade replies through humour and a slight fear, only one answer left to hear. “Is that all we’re taking?” the woman exclaims, loud enough for the entire group to hear, though her eyes take to only one man in particular. His hands tucked into his pockets, Emilio looks up at Jade, the woman’s hands coupled at her lap as her bold eyes anxiously await his answer. Taking a glance in Jess’ direction, Emilio tilts his head to the side, as if to ask the woman for her blessing. With a shrug, Jess gestures the decision back to him, satisfied with the argument she’s made. Letting out a sigh, Emilio gives the group a nod before turning to the truck and climbing aboard, the choice putting a slight smile over Jade’s face. “And then- there were five” Jade replies, reaching down to shut the tailgate before settling into the truck bed, letting the day die in preparation for a new one. As her brothers enter the vehicle, Jade turns her face toward the group, a pleased look worn on her face with pride. “You all made a very good decision” Jade remarks, feeling the vehicle jolt forward as it begins the long drive back home, “welcome to Cumberland.” With that, Jade goes silent, staring off at the fine work nature’s done to the city while her passengers watch their group grow farther away. Keeping his head forward, Emilio looks down the road they’ve yet to cover when something catches his eye. Standing out from his seat, Emilio unsheathes an axe from his belt as he presses his foot against the truck’s side, watching a single corpse stumble toward the vehicle. “You don’t need to worry about those anymore” Jade comments, watching the man look her in the eyes with doubt. Without a word, Emilio winds his arm back and slices through the corpse’s skull, spilling fragments of decomposed matter over the dead grass before settling back down in silence. == Rise ==
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“So- here’s what I know about you” Jade remarks, taking the notebook held out from her brother’s hand, “your name is Emilio, you’re hispanic, you were a politician before the world ended, and you’re the group’s leader.”
“No” Emilio quickly replies, his calm voice flustered by the bitter chill of the air, allowing his responses to come off with a slight growl. “No what?” Jade queries, her lips parting slightly to present the man her pearly whites. “I’m not the group’s leader” Emilio replies, watching the woman proceed with a bemused reaction. ‘You- you’re not-?” Jade stammers, eventually turning back toward the rest of the group, inspecting her prisoners, “who’s in charge here?” “There is no leader” Emilio replies, his intense stare giving Jade a unique impression. “That’s- odd” Jade replies, folding her arms over her lap as she looks back toward the pile, still unable to discern one strong-appearing figure from the rest. Allowing herself to truly get a look at those off to her side, Jade’s eyes finally lock onto a woman near the group’s front. “That’s fine, we’ll call an audible” Jade replies, pointing her finger toward Alicia, “let’s save Emilio for last, and start with the brunette.” Staring into Isaac’s eyes as the man approaches him with a roll of duct tape and some rope, Emilio complies with Jade’s orders in hopes of establishing good faith. As his wrists are bound and his mouth is covered, Emilio watches Jade gently remove the strip of duct tape over Alicia’s mouth and lead her toward the newly-vacated seat. “If you wanted to sit us down for interviews, you could have done so with fewer guns” Alicia remarks, watching Jade’s eyes light up at the suggestion. “We’re severely outnumbered and know nothing about you” Jade replies, crossing one leg over the other as she settles back into her seat, “you could have cooperated as easily as you could have slaughtered us.” The air growing calm, Jade and Alicia sit in utter silence, the latter-woman’s group serving as a captive audience. “That said, the past is in the past. The only objective from here is to find out if we can co-exist” Jade explains, pressing her thumb upon a blue pen’s nose cone in preparation to take notes, “and that’s exactly what I’m here to do. So, start with your name, your age, and the job you had prior to the apocalypse, please.” = Rise is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 3 onwards = / Alicia / “Alicia Haven, 30, and I was studying for my master’s degree” the woman replies, immediately sparking interest from the woman before her. “Did you have a job on the side?” Jade inquires, scrawling upon the paper in her lap. “I was a judo instructor for a few months. I worked on weekdays” Alicia replies, her hands folded in her lap, her back pressing against the chair. “Does your judo bring anything of value- perhaps in combat?” Jade proceeds to wonder aloud, watching Alicia’s face light up like Christmas decor. “Is that you volunteering to find out?” Alicia replies, a question that Jade answers with raised hands. “Not in a million years- I’ll take your word for it” the still-unfamiliar woman replies, settling back into the web of questions she seeks to spin. “Since the zombies came around, have you done anything purposefully bad?” Jade questions, her head slightly tilting to the side, “something you knew was wrong before you did it, but did anyway?” Her lips pressed together, Alicia begins to stare off at the distant corners of the room, her head gradually beginning to shake in refusal. “No, not that I-” Alicia begins to reply, suddenly stopping herself before she can have the chance to finish, “I- no, not really.” Her pen’s cone rising up to her bottom lip, Jade cracks another smile, this one more contained than the last. “Not really is- ironically enough- not really a good enough answer to that question.” Struggling to find a response, Alicia’s eyes trail across the room, bouncing from one side to the other before falling to her lap, the knuckles of her thumb arched toward her face. “Whatever it is, you’re better off telling me than not” Jade explains, swiping loose hairs away from her eyes, “it’s a simple question. If you have a hard time answering it, I’ll make my own assumptions. That wouldn’t be fair to you, and that’s not what I want to do.” Her knuckles tapping together as her leg begins to anxiously bounce, Alicia’s eyes begin to wander back to the mass huddle to her left, Franklin’s confident nod giving her the comfort to set her reluctance aside. “We’ll move on” Jade begins to speak, running her pinky finger down the pages of her notes, “what were the initial-?” “I sided with a bad person to spite my friends” Alicia interjects, answering the prior question to her boyfriend’s delight, “I knew it was the wrong move, but I made it.” Intrigued, Jade closes her once-parted lips, her hand waving forward to offer Alicia the space to continue. “Salem, Franklin and I were on the road a lot during the first few weeks of the outbreak” Alicia recalls, repeatedly glancing in her friend’s general vicinity, “we decided to settle down at a place in Concord.” “That sounds peaceful” Jade replies, her voice dropping a few tones as she mingles with common ground. “It was. It was a quiet little town for the most part. But, when you’re around new people, sometimes you forget about the old ones” Alicia remarks, the look on her face speaking to her disappointment, “I was the odd one out.” With a nod, Jade remains silent, sitting back in her chair whilst Alicia’s head tilts toward the ground. “It took so much to get us on the same page, and- in such a short amount of time, we were on totally different books” the woman continues, beginning to feel a lump grow in her throat. “I felt like they forgot I existed, and just kept it that way” Alicia speaks with distressed breath. “And did they?” Jade proceeds, watching Alicia look up to her, sharing eye contact without the reluctance she’d recently held in abundance. “Yeah” Alicia replies in almost a whisper, no tears to spare, though holding the look of a withered soul, “and I couldn’t- I- I didn’t know how to be alone at the time.” “So you looked for comfort from someone else” Jade replies, filling in the hole she knows required maintenance. “I did” Alicia responds, keeping the disappointed look as she nods her head, “and I knew, somewhere deep down, that the man was- that he was not as what he wanted people to believe he was. I didn’t let myself see it, and it could have ended- everything.” | / Franklin / “The initial days of the outbreak- what were they like?” Jade inquires, rolling her eyes over the much larger man across from her, especially fixated on the metal covering over his shortened arm. “I’m not really sure anymore. It wasn’t long after I lost my arm that we were on the road” Franklin replies, visibly starved for clarity, “I just remember a lot of pain, and a lot of driving.” “Just tell me what you remember” Jade replies, her voice becoming more soothing as the day passes by, plenty of sunlight left to burn beneath the veil of curiosity, “I’ll take whatever you can offer.” His lips pressing together, Franklin begins to bow his head, letting out a few deep breaths as fights for memories. “I remember getting bit by John’s neighbour, and I remember Salem chopping my arm off” Franklin replies, drawing Jade’s pupils to the corner of her eye, where the larger group sits. “I remember a bunch of cars rolling up to the house, and I remember there being a panic” Franklin continues, again beginning to struggle. “I remember the dead showed up, I remember a helicopter going down, and I remember running through the forest” Franklin concludes, finally pulling his eyes up at Jade. “That’s all I remember” Franklin assures, letting his metal-covered nub fall to his side, draping off his thigh. Her eyes kept on the large man, Jade’s expression starts to twist from understanding to distrustful, the grin she hides beneath her purple-coloured lips beginning to show itself. “Why’d you look away from me?” Jade suddenly inquires, having noticed his eyes wander to the obscure corners of the room. “You looked away from me when you said ‘that’s all I remember’” Jade repeats, trying to hide the grin she’d allowed her face to wear, “almost as if you weren’t being honest with me.” His mouth open without the words to speak, Franklin shakes his head, uncharacteristically struggling to reply. “I can’t trust you if you won’t be honest with me, Franklin” Jade advises, folding her arms above the notebook as if the need to take notes were no longer necessary, “that kind of defeats the whole point of trust.” With no expression, Franklin stares forward for another few seconds, maintaining his confident posture before surrendering to reason. His chin lowering, Franklin’s eyes take to the back of his hand, its palm resting on his kneecap. “I do remember a few other things” Franklin replies, an obvious look of disenchantment worn. Without another word, Franklin’s eyes trail back to the group, his focus finding its way to Salem, who nods to him, as if she were offering her blessing. | / Salem / “I know I’ve got a checklist of questions to answer, but I feel the need to go off course with you” Jade proclaims, closing her notebook and laying it aside as she looks into Salem’s eyes. “I must be fascinating” Salem responds with almost no emotion, anger or happiness replaced with absolute nothingness, something that Jade takes humour from. “If I’m being honest, you are” the raven-haired woman replies, “you strike me as both a genius and a maniac. I love it.” Leaning back in her seat, unphased, Salem crosses her arms, waiting for Jade to push the conversation along. “From what I’ve heard, you were the person that decided to remove Franklin’s arm” Jade remarks, pressing her chest forward as she leans on her lap, an eager look in her eyes, “what convinced you to do that?” “I did what felt right in the moment” Salem replies, her arms remaining crossed, guard remaining intact, and statements consisting of a persistent lack of empathy. “Why did it feel right?” Jade replies, aware of the distrust Salem has for her, and attempting to work around it. “It just did” Salem responds, sucking on her teeth for a moment, “that’s just how it works, isn’t it? We’re all humans. We do what’s in our best interest to survive.” Again enthused to the point of cracking a smile, Jade lets the pen roll from her finger, joining her notebook on the ground. “How about threatening to put down Franklin in the woods?” Jade follows, balling her hand beneath her chin for support, “what convinced you to do that?” “I did what felt right in the moment” Salem replies, her arms still crossed, guard no less raised than before, and perpetually void of emotion. “Why did it feel right in the moment?” Jade questions, continuing the repetitive cycle with glee, simply enamoured by the great amount of distance the woman’s established despite being mere feet away. “He was slow, the dead were at our heels, and I couldn’t guarantee he’d live” Salem replies, stone-faced and unremorseful, “it just felt right.” “So you were willing to save a man’s life because you could, and you were willing to take that same man’s life because you needed to” Jade replies, shaking her head with a smile. Silently staring, Jade’s eyes aim intensely into Salem’s face, waiting for the faint, almost impossible to spot, spurt of emotion that simply never arrives. “Would you do it again?” Jade finally asks, making up for the lack of depth in Salem’s answers by digging into their foundation herself. “Yes, I’d save his life again” Salem replies, immediately earning Jade’s ardent opposition. “No, no-” Jade remarks, waving her hands at the woman in an effort to correct herself, “would you put that rifle to his head again?” Her face unchanged, Salem remains silent for a few seconds, saying a lot within the momentary pause. “I value the friendship we have now” Salem replies, her response earning laughter from Jade the moment it’s spoken. “For a start, that’s not a yes or a no” Jade explains, silencing the laughter she’s flooded the room with, “if faced with the same situation, and you didn’t have that bond, would you, barring interference, kill him?” Straight-laced, Salem takes no time in responding. “Yes” Salem replies, surprising those she shares the room with, both in Jade’s group and her own, “if we didn’t have that friendship, I would choose what felt right. If it felt right then, it would feel right now.” Covering the smile on her face with her hands, Jade muffles a giggle as she leans back, returning to the chair’s frigid embrace. “That is cold-fucking-blooded” Jade remarks, shaking her head with a worrying delight. | / Jessica / Slouched in her chair, each hand draped over one leg respectively and her head hung to the floor, Jess waits for her turn to be over. “Do you remember what you were doing during the initial days of the outbreak?” Jade inquires, sitting with one leg draped over the other, the notebook and pen ready to be put into use. “No comment” Jess replies, never once raising her eyes in Jade’s direction. “Did you ever knowingly do something bad?” Jade follows, puckering her lips as she searches for clarification, “maybe around the start of things, maybe recently?” Opening her mouth to suck in a deep breath, Jess answers mid-exhale. “No comment” the woman replies, the once-blonde hair that falls over the side of her head beginning to naturally darken. “Alright” Jade mutters beneath her breath, taking another glance at her notebook while she plans her next move. “Do you understand that none of these answers are helping you?” Jade qualms, uncertain to the reason behind Jess’ demeanour. Her head turned to the side, Jess lets out another sigh as the expression on her face turns sickly, as if she were ill. “No comment” Jess replies again, finally beginning to irritate the pale-skinned woman on the other side of the room. “Without going too much into detail, I’m giving you a chance. I’m giving you a really good chance” Jade explains, her declaration offered with passion, “for your own sake, it’d be smart to make the most of it.” Her groggy posture slowly readjusting, Jess pulls her head up and stares into Jade’s eyes, the rest of her body remaining positioned as is. Her lips parting, Jess presses her back into the chair and responds. “No comment.” | / Katie / “We heard about a compound in New York, and set sail for Long Island when we reached the shore” Katie recalls, everything that came after colliding with already-spoken history. “And what toll did your brother’s death take on you?” Jade pursues, the mood beginning to die down. Previously content with answering the prior-asked questions, Katie becomes weary, overtaken by a sombre sensation. “I- I was angry” Katie replies, breaking the eye contact she’d sustained with Jade, “I wanted the people responsible to pay, and was hell-bent on making that happen.” Preparing another question, Jade hears her brother’s voice emerge from the far-off end of the room. “Did they pay?” Archie wonders, sitting on a dusty office chair with his shotgun held toward Katie’s group. Taking a moment to think, Katie’s head lowers, never having considered the question before. “Not as much as I wanted them to, no” Katie replies, her eyes filling with sadness as Jade attempts to speak again. “Has losing your brother ever actually dawned on you?” Jade digs, noticing a confusion in the woman’s face. “I get that you know he’s dead, and you don’t argue otherwise-” Jade clarifies, trying to phrase her question carefully, “-but has it ever settled in?” Glancing down, Katie’s face begins to sour, her lips parting a few inches as she sits in silence. “Not until now” Katie replies, this time avoiding eye contact with anything other than the floor, her heart falling in what feels like real time. | / Angela / “By the sound of it, you seem to be an extra piece to the puzzle that doesn’t quite fit” Jade comments, earning a laugh from her guest. “Most of the group was together by the time I showed up” Angela replies, unbothered by Jade’s assumption, “Clint and Nessie are siblings, so being the odd-one out seems fitting.” “Do you feel like the odd-one out?” Jade cuts in to ask, both feet now placed firmly on the ground, her body leaning against the right side of her chair. “I don’t think about it enough for it to matter” Angela replies, “I’m still alive and there are plenty who aren’t. That’s what matters.” Her hand now covering her chin, Jade lets the notebook in her lap slide off her thigh, coming to a rest at her hip. “Is that all that matters? Just being alive?” Jade challenges, unable to keep from squinting at the woman. “It’s not the only thing that matters, but I’d argue it’s the most important” Angela replies, drawing Jade closer toward a debate. “Is it more important than love?” Jade questions, watching Angela’s head nod. “It is more important than love” the younger woman responds, wasting little time to double down on her belief. “What about comfort, or friends, or a home? Or what about decency, or care, or compassion?” Jade disputes, not needing to wait long for her answer. “It’s more important than all of those” Angela replies, watching Jade process the response before feeling the need to explain herself. “I’m not saying any of those are unimportant, but I am saying they’re of lesser importance” Angela continues, coupling her hands together, “without being alive, you don’t have any of that anyway.” Not shy to defend her own stance, Jade offers her rebuttal. “If you didn’t have any of the rest, would being alive even be worth it?” the woman questions, savouring the conversation enough to lick her lips, “you certainly can’t have one without the other, but that can apply to both sides. So, in reality, can either truly exist without the other?” Holding onto her laughter, Angela tilts her head to the side, grazing her teeth with the tip of her tongue. “Are you implying we both win this round?” Angela inquires, watching the light reflect off Jade’s eyes as the tip of the woman’s pen is lifted to her bottom lip. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it” Jade remarks, pressing her teeth upon the pencap’s hardened, plastic shell, “but who’s keeping score?” | / Clint / “So, your quirk is that you don’t kill?” Jade continues, immediately hesitant to believe the well-mannered man sat in front of her. “I doubt I’ll ever know, however long after someone comes back as one of the dead, whether or not there’s still a piece of them trapped in there” Clint replies, proudly wearing the Christian cross on his chest, “it would be against my religion to do otherwise.” “And your sister over there doesn’t share your religious views?” Jade counters, pointing her finger at the mouth-taped, rope-bound woman. “No” Clint replies, seated as if told to sit properly at gunpoint, “she thinks it’s silly.” “She’s not wrong” Jade mumbles, lowering her eyes to the notepad until her posture changes, a sudden realisation having dawned upon her. “Do we still have some shitheads chained up?” Jade turns to ask her brother, his silent retreat from the room giving the woman her answer. “You have other people here?” Clint worriedly voices, watching the woman look back to him with a grin. “Since you consider the zombies ‘people’, yes we do” Jade replies, allowing a silence to permeate throughout the room, the distant sound of chains unravelling providing music to her ears. “You-” Clint murmurs, stalling himself as snarls take over where the silence left off, growing closer the more Jade’s brother approaches. Groaning beneath her duct tape gag, Nessie struggles to free herself of the restraints on her hands, fighting for release as Isaac returns with a guest. “Aarrgghh!” the heavily-decayed corpse shrieks, immediately taking interest in the religious man across the room. “Good luck” Jade whispers, leaving her seat in favour of a distant corner, leaving Clint to prove his pacifistic claims. Releasing the corpse from his padded hand, Isaac watches Clint pull away from his seat, trying to maintain the distance established. Continuing to struggle, Nessie fails in her attempts at freedom, watching the corpse gain ground on her brother. Pushing his hands out at the rotten ghoul, Clint pushes the zombie to the ground and backs away, maintaining his distance in spite of the corpse. “This isn’t going to end until you kill it” Jade remarks, keeping tucked away as the corpse prepares for another go. Biding his time, Clint throws the bag of bones to the ground once more, regaining his distance as the undead body prepares for more. Handicapped, Nessie works with the restrictions she’s been given. Leaving her spot on the ground, the woman leaps over her peers and charges the impromptu battlefield, paying little mind to the armed enforcement holding their weapons toward her. Her timing perfect, Nessie rushes past her brother and stares down the sack of flesh, mouth still gagged and hands still tied at her lap. Throwing her shoulder forward, Nessie shoves the undead threat with enough force to send its skinny, deteriorating body through the nearest window and to the overgrowth-covered ground below. Fortunate enough to slam into a concrete wall, Nessie tumbles to the floor, spared from the same fate as the corpse she’d just sent dozens of floors below to the next life. Keeping Clint at bay with his shotgun, Isaac approaches Nessie, who pushes herself into a seat on the ground. “I think I’ve seen all I need to out of her” Jade exclaims, pleased with the display she’s been presented with. “As a matter of fact, I think I’ve seen all I need to out of both of them.” | / Jack / “I don’t like how vague you are” Jack expresses, watching the surprise roll upon Jade’s face. “Do you think I’d just be asking you questions for no reason?” Jade replies, no less surprised from the diversity that is her reception. “It doesn’t matter what the reason is. Big or small- it doesn’t matter” Jack replies, opting to lean forward in his seat, not shying away from confrontation, “if you want to trust us, we need to trust you. So far, you’ve done nothing to prove that last part.” Guiding her hand toward her armed brothers, Jade begs to differ. “I told you everyone would be unharmed if you cooperated” Jade replies, yet to conclude her argument, “told you I knew Courtney, I’ve given you a fair chance, what more-?” “A fair chance at what?” Jack replies, his head subtly bobbing, “you’re asking us questions, you’re digging into our lives and what we’ve been through. What is it all for? What chance are you giving us?” “Don’t you think that, if telling you what I was vetting you for wasn’t unimportant, I wouldn’t keep you all in suspense?” Jade retorts, letting out a brief chuckle, “this is supposed to be fair. If I made assumptions about your group, it wouldn’t be fair to you. If I gave you the reason behind these questions, it wouldn’t be fair to me. Is that clear enough for you?” “Clear and understandable are two completely different things” Jack replies, continuing to instigate the woman. “I guess you’ll have to figure out how to differentiate between the two then” Jade replies, hunching over to match the lean Jack presents. Their eyes level, Jade sets her notebook on the floor, taking the conversation from there. “Let’s move onto the next question” Jade suggests, reciting the query from memory. | / Lauren / “Would you be strong enough to kill a friend?” Jade wonders, now sat with the back of the chair pressing against her chest. “It would depend on the situation” Lauren replies, the answer coming off partially robotic, a result that compels the notebook-wielding lady. “Have you killed a friend before?” Jade re-questions, the answer she expects now drastically altered. “I killed my girlfriend a few years ago at this point, yeah” Lauren replies, hands tucked into her pockets. “Why did you do that?” Jade asks, her arms folded atop the chair’s back. “She knelt over me with a knife while I was asleep, so I shot her” Lauren answers, unafraid to share the truth, “I knew what she was planning, so I can’t plead self-defence. But yes, I have killed a friend.” “Why did she try to kill you?” Jade follows up, her curiosity spun the moment this revelation left Lauren’s lips. “I no longer believed in taking over a compound out of self-destructive anger” Lauren replies, unapologetic for any of it, “we had different outlooks on the future, and mine won.” Biting into her bottom lip, Jade ponders the potential for her next question before settling on something familiar. “Would you say you chose to kill her?” Jade inquires, watching Lauren think her choices over before getting comfortable with the answer. “I could have confronted her, and my hand could have been forced in a way where I could say ‘no’. At least, I assume that” Lauren replies, her head beginning to nod, “so yes, I chose to kill her.” | / Emilio / “You seem to be struggling to accept your power within this group” Jade examines, watching Emilio’s eyes roll as her overconfident tone bites at his ear. “Even if you don’t want to be seen as the leader, you need to recognize the sway you have here. You’d be foolish not to” Jade remarks, watching the man’s eyes subtly begin to take to her, somewhat invested in hearing what she has to say. “Your group will view you as their leader if they want to. They don’t need your approval to do that” Jade explains, setting her notebook aside, falling in favour of establishing a connection. “If you view something as fragile, they’ll walk carefully around whatever that ‘something’ is. If you say ‘jump’, you’ve got plenty of feet in the air. Say ‘duck’, and heads will lower” the woman continues, delivering her claim with an intoxicating assurance, “that power makes a difference.” “It’s power that isn’t mine to have” Emilio replies, instantly finding his argument to fall upon disagreeing ears. “It doesn’t matter if it’s yours to have- you have it regardless” Jade retorts, watching Emilio’s eyes roll away, reluctant to accept her findings. “People were made to follow, and few people were made to lead-” Jade explains, her voice lowering to a comforting, almost personal tone, “-but even fewer people were made to lead well.” Re-earning his eyesight, Jade lets a genuine smile peek out from behind her lips. “Hell, if it makes you feel better- put it to a vote” Jade suggests, leaning back into her seat whilst delighted at the result of the conversation. Concealing his sigh, Emilio rests against his chair in much the same way as Jade, giving the woman a gentle nod. “Are we done yet?” Emilio inquires, watching as the rest of Jade’s smile emerges from behind her lips. | “Are you going to tell us why you asked those questions now?” Jack calls out, following the woman and her brothers through the abandoned lobby. “I was deciding on who I was going to take back to our camp” Jade replies, climbing into the bed of a truck as Archie occupies the driver’s seat. “Hold on, we weren’t looking to get into another community!” Emilio eagerly remarks, “we just-” “You just wanted to follow Courtney to Nova Scotia, or do whatever with her for whatever reason. I’ve heard it before” Jade replies, taking a seat upon the truck’s cabin. “Listen, this has nothing to do with her, or the people in Nova Scotia, not wanting you there- there’s just no room up North” Jade warns, watching the disheartened eyes she’s grown to know slightly more than most, “they’ve limited capacity to ten thousand residents. Until people start dying, it’ll be a while before you don’t get turned away at the gates.” “Then why would Courtney tell us to-?” Franklin proceeds to inquire, interrupted with his answer, unable to finish the question Jade has heard plenty of by now. “Courtney keeps a close eye on what’s going on down below” Jade replies, listening to the truck’s engine roar as Archie turns the key in its ignition, “you’re not the first group she’s tried to save from bad company, and I doubt you’ll be the last.” Again left without words, the group stare at the woman, watching her brothers load into the vehicle after returning her notebook.. “What was the point of the questions?” Jack finally wonders aloud, capturing Jade’s attention, “you said you were giving us a fair chance. What fair chance were you referring to?” Putting on a straight face, Jade lets her notebook sit atop her lap, offering the group a sympathetic look. “After the compound in New York fell, the leadership of the New World Order decided to reimagine their strategy for societal reform” Jade explains, leaning forward to speak to the crowd gathered at her truck, “they propped up settlements all over the northeast, had them take on small populations, and in return for free trade with other settlements, perfect a craft they could exploit.” Silent, the group remains captivated, hanging on to Jade’s every word. “In my settlement, we specialise in medicinal goods. Bandages, rubbing alcohol, medications, marijuana. The list goes on” the woman explains, reclaiming her grasp on the notebook, “Courtney is their version of a telephone. Not every settlement has power, so she parlays messages throughout the coast. Our goods are dispersed amongst every other settlement, and every other settlement’s goods are dispersed to each other.” “What happened to the other compounds?” Emilio replies, too many loose screws in the woman’s recollection left unfettered. “Concord fell before New York, but the ‘Big Apple’ was the straw that broke the camel’s back” Jade replies, her shoulders shrugging, “Nova Scotia severed ties with Delaware and the unfinished compound in Toronto and focused on staying coastal.” “You still haven’t answered my question” Jack remarks, again speaking out from within the crowd, “you claimed to be giving us a fair chance. What was that fair chance?” The loose hairs in her face blown from her eyes with a huff of breath, Jade returns her sights to the notebook. “When space opens up in Nova Scotia, the camp takes in a few dozen residents from every compound” Jade replies, giving a frown to the page she stares at, “the only way to Nova Scotia is through me.” As the rest of his group struggles to put the pieces together, Emilio comes to his own conclusion. “So, if we joined you, and you selected us to move up to Nova Scotia, that’d be our ticket in?” Emilio questions, the nod of Jade’s head giving him an answer. “Think of every settlement like small cities” Jade implores, “a quiet little city here, and a quiet little there. If you get called up to Nova Scotia- you go from living in Sioux Falls to living in Los Angeles.” Sharing uncertain looks, the group’s shared pessimism assumes control of the narrative. “If everything were as wonderful as you’re making it out to be, we’d be talking about it over a drive through the city” Alicia replies, quick to find the flaw in the woman’s delivery, “what’s the catch?” Still staring into the page her notebook had opened to, Jade’s spirits begin to lower, her conscience hating this part of the vetting process more with each occurrence. “Emilio Vasquez, Alicia Haven, Salem Ailwood, Lauren Salcedo, Angela Hargraves, Vanessa Mintz” Jade exclaims, calling the most skilled the group has to offer, “you’ve each shown qualities ruled valuable to our community, and are extended an invitation to return with us.” Sharing in groans and concerned grovelling, the group awaits the second shoe to drop, bringing an answer they’ve each come to expect. “Jessica Callis, Franklin Carter, Jack O’Rourke, Katie Dawson, and Clint Mintz” Jade calls aloud, “you have not displayed values our community can find as valuable to our collective future, and will not be offered an invitation to return with us.” “This is bullshit” Lauren murmurs beneath her breath, her head hung as she turns her back to the truck-occupying woman, seeking refuge in Jack’s arms. “You’re not the first group I’ve had to give this news, so I’m aware that this is a difficult decision for you” Jade explains, herself now cut off by the group's de facto leader. “There isn’t a decision to make- we’re not splitting up” Emilio replies, earning Jade’s ire. “I thought you weren’t the one in charge here?” Jade snarkishly remarks, soon finding the sentiment shared amongst the undivided group. “I’m not saying this should be an easy choice, but there is a reason you were following Courtney’s trail. Whether you’d like to admit it or not, you want to get to Nova Scotia” Jade explains, the group she speaks toward reasonable enough to hear her out, “this is the only opportunity you’re going to get- I’m begging you to at least consider it.” “It’s not worth it if half of us are left out here to die” Angela replies, standing by her group’s unanimous disinterest in the offer. Her head hung, Jade lets her breaths steady, the hairs in front of her face beginning to sway with her breath. “We don’t live in fear of other people. We don’t fear having to fend off hordes of the dead. We just live” Jade counsels, “as far as I know, there’s no other society set up to co-exist with this virus, and live in relative normality, outside of ours.” “It’s not relative normal if we’re not all there to see it” Jack argues again, refusing to give the woman any room for reason, “no speech, or promises, or whatever you could make will change our minds.” “I know. And I’m not going to try” Jade replies, cutting the final syllables of the man’s declaration short. “I’m not going to ask you to make this call tonight, I’m just asking that you think it through over the next twenty-four hours” Jade clarifies, her breath fogging the air just below her chin, “we’re coming back tomorrow night. We’ll be right here waiting for any of the invitees that changed their mind until sundown. If you don’t show up, that’s fine. If you do show up, that’s also fine.” The storm having calmed, the group becomes quiet, sharing a few looks at each other as Jade lowers herself into the truck bed. “I’m not going to try to rip you away from each other” Jade promises, tapping her hand against the truck’s cabin roof, concluding her vow as the vehicle begins to drive off, “I’m just trying to give you a chance at a life worth living.” Crushing the plant life sprouting through cracks and grooves in the asphalt, Jade’s truck disappears into the diminishing daylight. Left stood in the middle of the one-street, Emilio and his group watch on, following the flashing red tail lights as they vanish around a corner. “Can you fucking believe that shit!?” Jack exclaims, shaking his head as he turns to walk away, the first to leave the conflict behind. As his body turns away from his peers, Jack’s face turns into a sudden sadness from anger, the conflict of the offer left behind, instead replaced with a moral-bound, deeper conflict internally. “We’re not gonna take the offer, right?” Alicia whispers aloud, looking to anyone she shares the street with, before her eyes ultimately fall upon Emilio. “No” Emilio mutters, the certainty behind his statement rivalled by the uncertainty in his eyes, as if not confident in his reply, “definitely not.” == Rise == Season 5 Premiere
“I think it’s time we stopped running” Lauren murmurs, her frail voice mustering enough strength to cut through the midwinter air. “We’re not running, we’re chasing” Emilio replies, his beard growing thicker as the hairs on his head begin to curl. “We’re a dog chasing a car, Em’” Lauren responds, pressing into Jack’s arms as they wrap around her warmly, “we stand a better chance of getting run over than we do of catching it.” “I don’t see how else we’re supposed to get answers” Emilio retorts, stood with his back turned to the group, his front facing the bivouac’s burning flames. “Why can’t we wait until it gets warmer?” Angela inquires, curled into a ball a few feet away from Jack and Lauren. “I still don’t understand why we’re chasing her to begin with” Clint adds, sharing a heavy, warm blanket with Nessie, “what are these answers you’re looking for?” “Don’t worry about them” Emilio sharply responds, each remark he makes coming away with little emotion, only a monotone rejoinder given each time. “If you’re asking us to camp out in the middle of nowhere every night, in the middle of January, you’re gonna have to give us more than that” Nessie counters, calmly voicing her obvious frustrations aloud, “I can feel this unspoken fear that you’ve all got- so quit stringing us along, please?” Panning toward any open pair of eyes, Nessie waits for a response that seemingly refuses to arrive, intent on leaving her curiosities shrouded in darkness. Disheartened, Nessie settles back into her rest, frustrated at the display of secrecy she’s been met with, allowing that anger to boil toward the metaphorical pot’s edge. “We fucked up a long time ago” Alicia suddenly remarks, taking the eyes of those in the camp toward her, every pair aside from two, purposefully distant. “We were part of a community in New York around the time this all started” Alicia continues, her eyes kept upon the snow-covered ground. “Our camp was one of a few scattered around, and this one woman was in charge of all of them” Alicia explains, her right hand given a gentle, reassuring squeeze from Franklin, “that camp went under, partially because of us. And if this place in Nova Scotia is what we think it is- we might be in trouble.” “It is” Salem replies, cutting through the bleak silence to heighten concern, “I’m not a genius in Canadian geography, but I doubt there are multiple refineries running in the same state as each other.” “Province. Canada has provinces- but I see your point” Franklin replies, his eyes leaning in Salem’s direction as he shrugs. “Oh, come on. If anyone was going to know that, it’d be the politicians” Franklin jokes, warming the conversation enough to earn an amused shrug from his sniper rifle-wielding counterpart. “The point we’re trying to make is-” Alicia begins, a momentary pause cutting into her statement, “well, I guess we’re trying to make multiple points.” “And they all lead back to Charlotte” Emilio interjects sharply, the group’s subtly rising amusement quickly forced down at just the mention of the woman’s name. “It doesn’t matter if we want to or not, we’re not getting to escape the truth anymore than we get to escape our past” Emilio explains, the first distant survivor to re-immerse themselves within the group, “if we’re setting out for Nova Scotia, we’re setting out for the New World Order- and we need to know what we’re walking into.” The realization beginning to dawn on her, Angela recites Emilio’s claim under more digestible terms. “So, we might not even be welcomed into Nova Scotia?” the woman replies, her voice soft, “and, in order to find out if it’s even an option, we need to ask the person that spends all day flying thousands of feet in the air, because they’re the only ones that would know?” Taking a seat on the ground, Emilio’s shoulders shrug. “Why bother going out to Nova Scotia in the first place at that point?” Clint inquires, a question his sister finds more than reasonable enough to warrant an answer, “we haven’t needed gas in years- why not pick a better place to settle than an island?” “Because this isn’t just another place to settle” Emilio replies, pressing his index finger into the snow-dampened dirt, “this could be our real home.” Met with a chuckle the moment ‘home’ left his lips, Emilio turns toward his left, where Lauren laughs almost uncontrollably. “Oh, for fuck’s sake- where have I heard that one before?” the woman wonders aloud, every pair of eyes aside from one taking to her direction. “Tori promised me that- it failed miserably. John promised that with the New World Order- it failed spectacularly” the woman remarks, only continuing the longer everyone else remains silent. “That Neville guy promised Alicia that- it didn’t work. Sheol promised Angela that- it didn’t work. Sun City promised all of us that- who here thinks that worked?” Lauren finishes, again taking her face toward Emilio, “let’s face the music here- we don’t do ‘forever homes’. All we do is tear them down.” “She’s not wrong” Katie half-heartedly remarks, diligently cleaning the separated parts of her own rifle, “we’ve spent three months chasing this helicopter person around, and it might be the most stable this group has ever been- aside from one person in particular.” Tending to her weapon, Katie’s eyes lift toward the darkest depths of the group, a face barely lit from the fire slowly turning back to her. “Fuck you” Jess murmurs, having spent the last few hours sat against a rock with her head aimed at the sky, dressed poorly for the weather in only a light jacket and a pair of jeans. “To each their own” Katie replies, refocusing herself on the weapon in her lap as Emilio interjects, putting a stop to the dissension that threatens to persist. “This could be our last night together. Sure, any night could be- but with what’s coming tomorrow morning, there’s a serious chance some of us won’t live to see tomorrow night” Emilio explains, striking down the arguments with ease, gratified with the silence he’s met with. “We’re an hour’s walk away from Providence, and I don’t want to spend that time arguing” Emilio remarks, his voice still calm, “can we please, even if it’s just for tonight, not feel the need to fight with each other?” Silent, the group reigns in for the night. “We know where she’ll be, and we know what she wants from us” Emilio explains, a brick-tied note carried in his right hand, “for once, we’ve got a clear plan- let’s be glad to know what we’re walking into tomorrow.” Met with a few nods, Emilio watches the group gradually begin to settle as light snowflakes fall from the cloudy night skies above. “We have to be ready for what lies ahead” Emilio concludes, his voice near a whisper, just loud enough for the group to hear, “and we have to take comfort in what we have now.” = Rise is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 3 onwards = Crouching beneath the overgrown grass on what was once a well-maintained street, Emilio leads his group across snow-covered ground, his eyes set on one building in particular. “This place has been abandoned for- fuck, probably since I moved to Bridgeport” Jack remarks, taking his place as one of the group’s guiding voices, “I doubt it’s been looked after since the dead rose, so I’d step carefully if I were you.” “Hold on- that’s a good point” Angela whispers, stationed near the rear of the group, only ahead of Clint and Jess, “we should stay in small groups. If we find a path we don’t like the look of, we won’t put too much stress on it.” “Yeah, that works” Emilio replies, panning his eyes over those behind him. “Salem, Alicia and Franklin are naturals at that- they’ll go together” Emilio remarks, “I’ll take Clint and Nessie. Katie can roll with Jess and Angela.” “Lauren and I can handle ourselves in a pair” Jack replies, a gesture Emilio accepts graciously. “Alright, Katie, Jess and Angela can go looking for something of use we can take back to camp if necessary” Emilio explains with a nod, “it’s not like I wouldn’t want you watching our backs- but someone’s gotta to do it.” “We’ll look for supplies if you need” Jack replies, taking a glance back in Katie’s direction, “it’s up to you. We don’t mind doing either.” Sharing a look between herself, Jess and Angela, Katie returns her eyes to Jack with a confident look. “I think it might help to have a sniper on standby if need be” Katie responds, fastening the strap over her shoulder, “but the offer’s appreciated.” Bumping their fists, Jack and Katie return their eyes to the front of the line, all boxes checked accordingly. “Alright, let’s move” Emilio orders, cautiously lifting his head just over the tallgrass, leading the group from the forefront as a decoy. “I think we’re in the clear” Emilio murmurs, having spent the last minute opening himself up for potential gunfire, clearing the air for the rest of the group to descend upon the destination more comfortably. “Alright, Clint and Nessie- We’ll head for the roof, everyone else can take on whatever posts they want” Emilio instructs, letting out a deep breath as he arms himself with a knife, “things can go south, so we should prepare to be here for a while if they do.” Vanishing into the echo-friendly lobby of what was once a bank, Emilio’s group leaves behind those entrusted to debate jobs amongst themselves. “If I remember correctly, the main staircase can take us to the top floor” Jack mumbles beneath his breath, “so, if Emilio’s heading to the roof, Lauren and I will start clearing out the floors, top-to-bottom.” “Then we’ll start clearing them out bottom-to-top” Alicia replies, readying her spear for combat as her group follows Jack and Lauren toward the steps. “I guess that just leaves us” Katie follows, turning her head toward an unamused Jess and a curious Angela, their presentations impossibly different from one another. | “So, how does it feel?” Nessie inquires, following Emilio up the rear stairwell, the man’s face squinting out of confusion. “How does what feel?” the man replies, turning the bannister to ascend the next collection of dust-covered concrete steps. “To be the big guy in the group” Nessie replies, listening to the breathy laughter emerging from the man above, “what? Did you think we didn’t know who called the shots around here?” His head shaking, Emilio continues to climb each slightly-higher platform at his toes. “I’m not the big guy” Emilio responds, wrapping the fingers on his left hand around the bannister, his palm gliding up the paint-peeled balustrade the higher he ascends. “Yes, you really are” Nessie replies, a few steps lower than Emilio whilst only a single step higher than her brother, “you can try all you wish, but you’re not gonna convince me someone else is leading this group.” His eyes rolling as he begins to smile, Emilio continues to shake his head, offering every gesture to refuse the position set upon him. “The group doesn’t have a leader. We make decisions based off of what we need, and we deal with whatever happens in whatever way feels right” Emilio retorts, taking another glance at the woman below him, “I’m not the big guy.” Amusingly pressing her lips together as she gaily replies, “yeah, sure bud” Nessie retorts, listening to the loud sigh Emilio is left to react with. “I’m aware of how often I bring it up, but I used to be a politician” Emilio remarks, sharing the muffled giggle of the company behind him, “so I know that it’s ironic for me to say this, but I like to believe people have the power. I don’t agree with giving all the power to one person- John was the exception.” “Wait, why was John the exception?” Clint retorts, stopping in the middle of the stairway just before his sister chooses to do the same. “Wait, I think the better question is- how did John become the leader?” Nessie replies, watching Emilio ascend another few steps before noticing his company’s hesitance to follow “What do you mean ‘how did John become the leader’?” Emilio replies, resting his right arm against the guardrail, “he just was.” “Did you elect him?” Clint questions, watching Emilio struggle to follow the dialogue the brother and sister begin to spin. “N- no” Emilio stutters, slightly beginning to lean forward, his eyes never once leaving the stair-length distanced pair, “why?” “Well, it’s kind of odd to say you’re against giving someone all the power when that’s the only way your own group has ever functioned” Clint replies, “it doesn’t really add up.” Shaking his head, Emilio lifts his hand toward the man, quietly clarifying his statement in his head before voicing it. “Everyone was split up when this all started. They took their own path, and they all led to the New World Order” Emilio recalls, “Charlotte put John in charge of the camp, and the rest was history.” “So, Charlotte appointed John, and you all just went with it from there?” Nessie replies, “none of the others had leaders of their own groups?” With a muffled laugh, Emilio argues the opposite. “Of course they did, well- with the exception of Salem, Alicia and Franklin.” “And how did all of that work out?” Nessie replies, watching the shame-ridden satisfaction Emilio takes from his offered answer. “Have you ever heard of Shauna, Reggie or Tyler? Have you heard anyone mention my husband by name? How frequently have you heard Katie talk about Troy? When was the last you heard of Janice? Or Meghan? Or the other Tyler without reading their names off a gravestone?” Emilio riddles off, almost disgusted in having to speak the names of the lost. “The first batch were led by Jack- they’re all dead. Janice, Meghan and Bill were all in the same pact- they’re worm food. Troy was Katie’s foster brother, and I think you can guess what happened to him” Emilio murmurs, “only one group from that point is still alive in full, and it’s the ones that lead together. We’ve experimented with different ways of protecting ourselves, and keeping everyone at the same level of say in the matter has worked out better than the others.” The humour once held in his voice now absent, Emilio continues to look down at the siblings, waiting for a response. “Alright” Clint mumbles, stepping past his sister as he climbs up the remaining stairs. With a nod, Emilio walks away equally satisfied and repulsed with the conversation, preparing to climb the next flight of steps as Clint follows closely behind, leaving Nessie to remain where she stopped, processing the statements made before resuming her rise. | “Do you ever wonder what would have happened if the zombies never showed up?” Lauren wonders, following Jack through the halls of a furniture-scattered floor. “When I have nothing better to do, sure” Jack replies, running his finger across an overturned desk, his skin covered in grey-ish dust, “but I usually spend that time having sex with you.” Amused, Lauren quickly returns the conversation back to the initial question. “I’m serious, though. It’s getting harder to remember what the world used to be like” Lauren replies, holding a makeshift spear at her side, “I can’t even remember what I thought the future was going to be like anymore.” Sucking in a deep breath through his teeth, Jack shakes his head with an equally-deep exhale, struggling to conjure up an answer. “Well, I guess I expected to keep working at the warehouse” Jack replies, creating a cloud of dust as he wipes his hand over the seat of an old, turquoise-coloured chair. “Probably would have met someone, dated them, moved on” Jack replies, his assumptions growing sadder as he takes a seat, “probably become manager. Keep working, then drop dead.” “How ambitious” Lauren jokes, following the man toward the chair before taking a seat on his lap, her arms wrapping around his neck as she leans her head upon his shoulder. “I didn’t have a lot going for me before this all began. I’m not gonna lie and say I would’ve bought a mansion or founded the next Google” Jack replies, tucking his chin over Lauren’s head, “even if I spend every minute risking my life now, everything falling into disrepair was probably a blessing for me.” Closing her eyes, Lauren gets comfortable in Jack’s arms, letting the conversation settle for the next few minutes, only restarting upon Jack’s behest. “How about you?” Jack replies, lowering his voice to a calming hush, “what would you have done before all of this began?” Her eyes rolling, Lauren struggles to keep herself from laughing. “I have no idea” the woman replies, struggling to remember the final days of society as they existed. “I know Alicia and I had our first day of classes delayed because someone lit our school on fire” Lauren recalls, earning an unashamed spurt of laughter from the man beside her. “Yeah, whoever tried their hand at revenge really stuck a fork in the final year of my masters degree that’s for sure” Lauren jokes, nudging her head into the cradle of Jack’s shoulder, “I probably would’ve bussed tables for a year, then started looking for work.” “No student loans?” Jack replies, hearing the faint ‘mmm mmm’ hum from within Lauren’s closed lips. “I had a 4.0 GPA. Lucked myself into knowing the right people and got myself a scholarship. I got the full ride” Lauren grumbles, incapable of holding back her grin, “I was a smart cookie.” “That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest” Jack replies, quick to voice his belief of the woman’s claims, “I always felt like we came from different sides of the track.” Sharing in the humour, Lauren’s muffled laughter grows less present, her mind focusing on other, less happy thoughts. “Do you think we would have met if none of this ever happened?” Lauren wonders, her eyes beginning to part, “not necessarily date, but just.. know each other existed?” Looking into Lauren’s face, Jack’s expression becomes less enthused, finding the same depressing realisation Lauren had stumbled upon. “As hard as it is to think about, probably not” Jack replies, noticeably disappointed, “Shauna and Reggie had friends I’d only ever known by the sound of their name. So, if I had to get close enough to my boss to meet Meg, and then get close enough to her to meet you- I don’t think the odds would have been in our favour.” “Right” Lauren nods, resisting the temptation to dwell on the negatives for too long. “I guess we’ve found a new reason to be grateful for the end of the world, huh?” Lauren inquires, her smile beginning to sprout up again as she looks into Jack’s eyes, his expression returning to its previously warm state as well. | “This place is filthy” Alicia grovels, removing a web from the rung of a nearby ladder, “I know Jack said it’s been abandoned for a decade now, but if you tried to convince me it had been a few decades, I might just believe you.” Concealing her laughter, Salem struts through the room with her rifle in tow, a knife tucked into a band on her forearm. “Good luck finding a road that’s not covered in grass nowadays” Franklin replies, tapping the blade at the end of his metal cap against the same ladder, “everything ages like milk now. It’s an honour to even remember what asphalt looks like anymore.” Approaching a window in the back of the room, Salem glances out at the streets below, the sights she finds immediately lifting her eyebrows. “Take a look at this” Salem remarks, taking advantage of the rare opportunity to glance down at the world from above, “can you imagine that this was once the capital of a whole state?” Joining in the woman’s awe, Alicia and Franklin stare in amazement at what lies below, the sight of asphalt few and far, the cracks that have built within the roads now spreading once-contained greenery across what once guided America. “It’s a lot prettier than I would have thought” Alicia murmurs, conflicted as to be sad at the illustration of time’s passing, or happy to have witnessed what was once thought to be unimaginable. “It’s peaceful” Franklin replies, listening to the sound of absolute silence encompass the room, the aura bringing a smile to his face. “It’s justified” Salem corrects, pleased with the look of the world, “we built our world upon nature, and now that it’s gone, nature’s come back.” “It’s ironic, wouldn’t you say?” an unfamiliar, fourth voice proclaims from behind the trio, prompting their rotation. Armed with her rifle, Salem shares the same discovery as Alicia and Franklin, outgunned by three shotgun-wielding men, who stand beside a notably unarmed woman. “If you’d be so kind as to cooperate, we can all leave this room much happier and much more alive” the woman explains, an amused pep in her step. Black hair rolling over the brown coat she wears above a black tank top, the woman remains calm and purposefully unimposing. “I promise, you’re not in any position to threaten us with your rifle, and we don’t want to give you a reason to believe you need to” the woman continues, watching Alicia lower her spear to the ground in cooperation, “even if you don’t believe so, and even if I don’t necessarily know for sure that we are, I believe we’re on the same side.” “Psst” Alicia whispers, Salem’s attention being offered toward her friend whilst the barrel of her rifle is offered toward the strangers. “We’re not carrying anything worth stealing, and they would have shot us already if they wanted to” Alicia denotes, “the safest option we have is to do as they say.” “Listen to your friend, snipey” the unfamiliar woman urges, watching Salem’s face dart back toward her, “we know why you’re here, we know who you’re here for, and all we need to tell you is that we’re not here to harm you.” Reluctant, Salem turns back to Alicia, watching Franklin unscrew the bayonet from his metal cap and place it gently upon the floor. “You better be right” Salem growls at Alicia, pulling the strap of her rifle over her head as she rests it on the ground, trusting in Alicia’s judgement. | “Clint, can you get the flares?” Emilio inquires, propping the rooftop entry open for Nessie to climb through. With a quiet nod, Clint strolls around the walkway with his hands over his chest, holding the jacket against himself as the bitter winds begin to pick up. “I think I see a pattern with your story” Nessie remarks, climbing the final rung before joining Emilio on the building’s highest platform. “Can we stop talking about why I’m still alive and just enjoy the view?” Emilio replies, pressing his arms against the bannister as he looks out from the highest point in the city. “I’m pretty sure we can do both” Nessie responds, leaning her arms against the same bannister, her hair still thrown by the wind despite being tucked behind her ears. “I don’t think I’d like to do both” Emilio counters, his sights set on the nature-covered sides of buildings, and snow-covered dead grass in the street. “Do you really not think you’re the leader of this group?” Nessie wonders aloud, the answer to her question easy for the man to give. “No, I don’t” Emilio replies, forced to squint his eyes in order to see what lies in the distance, “someone for people to look for confidence in? Sure. But the one that makes decisions? Not a chance in hell.” “Is that true, or is that just what you tell yourself?” Nessie inquires, looking at the side of the increasingly irritated man’s face. “It’s both” Emilio replies, beginning to shut himself down, retreating to simple answers that pave the way for little perspective. “Do you think you’re the good guy?” Nessie proceeds to ask, catching the man by surprise, Emilio’s face turning to her with a sour look. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Emilio queries, genuinely intrigued in the woman’s response. “Because from the sound of it- you’re not” Nessie answers, watching the man’s eyebrows begin to furrow, “you followed the lead of a man who, while I don’t disagree had room for a lot of good in his heart, did some pretty foul shit.” “John wasn’t perfect, but he was far from ‘the bad guy’” Emilio replies, watching Nessie respond with a reluctant expression. “Alright, let me ask you this. How did the New World Order fall in New York?” Nessie inquires, watching the hesitance in Emilio’s face as he prepares to answer, though he struggles to come up with one. “They’re not here!” Clint shouts, returning to the duo before his sister’s question can be answered, an unpleasant discovery to warn of. “What’s not here!?” Emilio exclaims, his voice battling with the wind. “The flares!” Clint shouts, rounding the corner to rejoin his group, “they’re not where you said they’d be.” Stepping past the man, Emilio walks off to take a look for himself, unfolding the note in his pocket to follow its guidance. “You said they’d be in a box, tucked under some pipes with an orange splotch of paint on them!” Clint exclaims, following Emilio to the spot, everything left accurately as directed aside from the missing flares, “they’re not there!” “No, this can’t be right” Emilio mumbles to himself as Nessie catches up. “Could they have fallen off the roof?” the woman questions, taking a glance at the building’s circular ledge, it’s circumference entirely covered by a ten-foot tall fence. “Unless this wind is a fucking tornado, I don’t think it fell off the roof” Emilio replies, again stepping past his fellow survivors, returning the way he’d arrived. Descending the stairwell, Emilio leads Nessie and Clint back the way they had arrived, anxious to find the signal pistols before their paramotorist guide arrives. “Where are we going!?” Nessie exclaims, curiously following Emilio without understanding why. “If they’re not there, someone must have taken them” Emilio replies, rounding the corner to the next set of stairs, working his way toward ground level, “we need to find out who it was before they fly-” His quick descent coming to a screeching halt, Emilio pauses halfway down the stairs, looking to the wall ahead with widened eyes. ‘Emilio, Vanessa, Clint. Through the door, down the hall, find your flares.’ Scrawled on the wall in black paint, Emilio’s directions are simple, the arrow that stretches below the instructions aimed toward the nearest door, propped open with an empty flare gun. “What do-?” Clint begins to ask, only for his question to be met with Emilio’s resuming descent, his eyes set on following the given orders. Without a word, Emilio steps through the hallway with Clint and Nessie closely behind, his box of flares left placed gently in the centre of the room. Without thinking, the lead figure steps through the dark corridor and reaches for the box, prompting an amused reaction from an unfamiliarly feminine voice. “You should probably lose that tunnel vision you’ve got there” the woman murmurs, the three men accompanying her holding a steady aim with their shotguns. “It may not be a bad thing to have now, but it could really bite you in the ass next time” the woman jokes, stood behind every member of Emilio’s group, each survivor left sitting cross-legged on the ground, their mouths taped over, and their hands bound at their waist. “I know this looks really evil, but I couldn’t have them trying to warn you before you walked in” the woman explains calmly, watching Emilio, Nessie and Clint raise their hands in surrender. “If you came in guns blazing, that wouldn’t have been good for any of us” the woman continues, stepping around the accumulated group on her way toward Emilio, “and if you didn’t come in at all- well, that would have been really anti-climactic.” “What do you want?” Emilio immediately asks in a stern tone, hesitant to maintain anything other than his suspicions. “To introduce myself” the woman replies, raising her hands into the air to match Emilio’s surrender, only to lower one to her side, extending it for a handshake. “I’m Jade, and the people holding you at gunpoint are my brothers. From left to right, you’ve got Archie, Oliver, and Isaac” the woman explains, “and we’ve been told to meet you here.” “Told by who?” Emilio replies, remaining hesitant to shake the woman’s hand, his arms remaining held in the air. “A mutual friend” the woman replies, her lips covered in a shade of dark, brooding purple lipstick, “the same one you see flying through the skies on occasion.” “How do you know about them?” Emilio quickly asks, his persistent questions beginning to irk the woman his narrative is controlled by. “I share mutual interests with our mutual friend, and that’s all I’ll say until I know I can trust you” Jade replies, stretching out the fingers on her extended palm, “shaking my hand would be a great start in accomplishing that.” Spending the next few seconds considering his choices, Emilio lets his right hand cautiously drop to his side, taking the woman’s palm pressing into his own. “I hate to have to break this to you, but she didn’t bring you here to meet her. She brought you here to meet me” Jade explains, gently taking two folding chairs into her hand before setting them up across from each other before lowering herself into one. “She?” Emilio replies, confused by the woman’s remarks as he lowers himself into the chair. “Yes, your sky-bound friend is a she.. However, she prefers to be go by Courtney” Jade replies, crossing her right leg over her left as her thigh-high boot, the leather still reflective as if they had just been bought, hangs off the side of her thigh, “would you mind if I ask you and your friends some questions, Emilio?” With a glance toward the pile of his friends, Emilio makes his decision, looking Jade in the eyes as he responds. “Go ahead.” == Rise == |
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