S5, E9 | Salting the Earth with the Taste of Corrosion

“What are they doing?” Kennedy wonders aloud, standing beside her sister whilst watching the various members of the NDF’s forces return to their prior descent from the capitol’s stairs, pushing through the crowd of Angelinos. “They’re fleeing” Julia answers from a few yards away, her breaths slow and worried as the men and women she’d allowed to station themselves within the republic now actively shove their way toward safety that the nation can no longer provide.

“They have no leader, so all they know to do now is return to Pearl Harbor and figure out a new plan of attack” the newly-deposed chancellor further clarifies, somberly offering the two women whatever insight she has. “I guess it’s a shame you won't be able to go with them, isn’t it?” Jaime quips, stepping away from her sister’s side with the knife still in hand, approaching the woman who’d ousted her from power before taking notice of the defeated way in which her foe stands.

“Now that Wade’s dead, I wouldn’t be allowed in even if I did get to the boats” Julia replies, her words prompting the newly-rechristened chancellor to pause her approach, instead watching on as her adversary stares out with a loss. “So you’re just gonna let my sister kill you and that’s it?” Kennedy wonders aloud, watching the conquered nemesis turn back toward her and shrug.

“If Jaime doesn’t kill me herself, I’ll die when the missile hits” Julia responds, failing to find a reason to approach her circumstance in any other way, “I’m fucked either way.” Though she wields the blade with the intent to kill, Jaime’s mind takes toward the conflict at hand, her eyes falling upon the NDF’s frontline and the stubborn residents of her republic who make them earn their passage.

“Jaime, what are you waiting for?” Kennedy inquires, uncertain of what the hold up in her sister’s desires are, aware that the goal was to gain revenge on the pair of figureheads who’d done her wrong, but surprised that the opportunity to take it is being refused. Without a word, the chancellor looks back to her sister and bites her bottom lip, coming to terms with the responsibility she still holds, “I have something else to do first.”

Wiping the blood that lines the tip of her dagger against the denim fabric her pants are made from, Jaime returns the blade to her side and climbs down a few stairs, trying to close the distance between herself and the civilians. “Do not let the NDF soldiers pass!” the chancellor orders, coupling her hands together at either side of her mouth as the declaration is offered, her same decree immediately putting her republic’s front line into action.

Though they’d initially been making themselves difficult to manoeuvre around before, the combined forces of the residents and the peacekeepers begin closing whatever gaps the New Democratic Front had been looking to exploit, holding them at bay as the frontline closes in. “Jaime!” Chevy shouts aloud, ushering Carly off to the side whilst wrapping his arms around his wife and the chancellor’s mother, holding them close to ensure their safety from the skirmish.

Hearing her friend’s voice, the chancellor drops one stair further down the capitol before pausing, aware that Kennedy follows alongside, but unsure of what awaits the scene she leaves behind. As if left without a hope to cling onto and opposed to running off for safer pastures, Julia lowers herself to the ground and takes a seat along one of the capitol’s front steps, looking out into the sea of chaos as a spectator with no skin in the game, her fate already written in stone.

Though in the same boat as the woman she’d sentenced to a fruitless fate, Jaime opts not to let her own doom prevent her from seeing to her loved ones’ safety. With a sprint, the chancellor leads her younger sister down the steps and into the waiting arms of their mother, who embraces them with all the might she can muster before the pull of her arm reignites their shared desire.

“Where do we go from here?” Chevy wonders aloud, his question offered for anyone to hear whilst his hand reaches for Alex’s inner elbow, keeping the Morris family closeby. “We have to get you guys out of the republic now” Jaime responds, gently pulling away from her mother’s hug in order to address the small group, “unless Wade and Julia were bullshitting me, there’s gonna be a missile headed right for this place if there isn’t already one en route.”

“What the hell are we supposed to do about the acid storm?” Carly questions back, watching the group she’d led to the steps engage in a full on fight with the NDF, the brawl escalating into a firefight within seconds. “It might have been a much weaker storm, but we survived the first storm by hiding out in tents” Kayla responds, shaking her head as she pieces together a solution, “if we find a car and head as far north as it’ll take us, maybe we’ll be able to wait this storm out too?”

“The whole point of the missile is to keep anyone from being able to live here. Wade doesn’t want anyone having this place unless it’s himself” Jaime reassures, shaking her head at the woman’s suggestion, “whatever missile he was talking about, I highly doubt it’s the kind we’re supposed to be able to outrun.”

“If he’s sending a missile to wipe out Los Angeles from the map, then whoever’s firing it will surely wait until after the storm to send it out” Chevy responds, his claim doubled down upon by the Morris’ mother. “Well if the NDF’s heading back for Hawai’i, maybe it’d be best for us to set sail for the same?” Alex questions aloud, unsure of whether or not her suggestion is any better, “maybe we’d be able to outrun the storm? Or use the extra time to cover ground?”

“Where the hell would we even find a boat!?” Kennedy calls out, only for her father-figure to provide a solution not too long after. “There might be some we could use around the Santa Monica pier?” Chevy wonders aloud, the brow over his right eye lifting as he surveys the rest of the group.

“Some of those cruisers? You really wanna navigate the Pacific in one of those?” Carly challenges, the odds of their safety being anything but guaranteed. “I think our chances of making it across to Hawai’i in one of those boats is better than whatever chances we’ve got of surviving this storm and a missile are” Kayla responds, the claim being one that presents doubt, but isn’t too unreasonable to make.

“It’s better than staying here and waiting to die, I’ll tell you that much” Jaime responds, spotting one of the republic’s soldiers and calling him back from the scene of turmoil. “Hey, kid... What’s your name?” the chancellor inquires, only for the man to be kept from answering. “That’s the kid Julia sent to shoot us back when she took over!” Kayla calls out, able to recognise the face with the same ease that her boyfriend soon proves to.

“Tell everyone to take over whatever boat the NDF came here on” Jaime commands, dismissing her friend’s claims with the wave of her hand as more pressing matters persist. “Yes, ma’am” Charlie responds, nodding to his commander before hurrying off, shouting the same call to action he’s been tasked with.

“I’ll do the same with the peacekeepers!” Carly exclaims, preparing to hurry off and serve those that she’s still in the commanding chair of. “Carly, come here!” Chevy shouts, preventing the younger woman from walking off just yet by pulling her in for a hug, his lips parting to whisper into her ear as the moment for offering goodbye’s proves to be upon them, “I’m proud of you, kid. None of this would’ve been possible without your help.”

“I was no more of a help than you were, big guy” Carly replies, pulling away from the hug with an appreciative smile, playfully swatting the man’s chest as she steps away to attend to her duties, “now get to the docks! I better see all of you when we board!” As hopeful for a reunion as the peacekeeper’s leader is, the Morris family and their wedded blood brethren nod and wave goodbye, yearning to prevent the NDF from leaving them high and dry.

“Alright, let’s get moving!” Jaime exclaims, gently pushing her sister and mother in the back toward the direction they’re meant to venture toward, guiding the four survivors- both family by blood and family by choice- in the direction of insanity. Staying behind, Julia watches the five survivors she’d done everything within her power to catch, hurry off into the night with every last ounce of their power reclaimed, helpless but to watch on as helicopters depart through sickly heavens.

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

“Get back! Get back!” an NDF soldier exclaims, gesturing for the crowd of Angelinos to cease their progression toward the cruise ship-sized vessel, the various ramps that lead on board threatening to swell with the souls of what had once stood as Los Angeles. Refusing to obey the commands of their unwanted leadership, the souls of their chancellor’s republic- some of which armed with rifles they’d snatched from the New Democratic Front- continue their onslaught of the ship’s entry.

“Captain, we’re not gonna be able to hold them back!” a second of the Front’s soldiers calls back, speaking to the man tasked with returning the ship to their Hawaiian homeland. With a frown on his face, the suited official snatches a handset radio from the corner of the room and calls into his director.

“Sir, they’re refusing to obey our orders” the ship’s navigator explains, his finger pressing firmly into the handset’s side, “if we open fire, this will just turn into a massive firefight and may be too grizzly to return home from.” For a moment, all that emerges from the other end of the line is the deafening sound of silence, contemplation persisting beyond the ears of the man responsible for bringing the vessel home safely before a response is finally provided.

“Fall back and grant entry” the Hawai’i-based NDF controller replies, his declaration prompting the ship’s captain to press his eyelids together tightly and hang his head, disappointed to hear the decree that’s paid to him. “We can verify identities when the passengers reach land, but until then- you are to permit any civilian to enter the vessel en route to the NDF” the controller carries on, “do you understand these instructions as I am giving them to you?”

Letting out a deep sigh as he scratches the back of his head, the captain responds with displeasure, “yes, sir” he speaks before returning the radio to its receiver, walking for the soldier that stands just beyond the entrance to the helm. “Tell your men that I don’t care about what the director says. No one is to board this ship without NDF credentials, understood?” the man queries, watching a nod of approval come from the stationed soldier before he ventures off, relaying the message.

“What are they doing!?” Kennedy shouts aloud, following the republic’s civilians onto the dock whilst staring up at the various soldiers that occupy the length of the ship they approach, their guns set aside and positions of leverage relinquished. “I believe they’re surrendering to your republic, chancellor!” one of the nation’s soldiers proclaims, having journeyed the last half-mile alongside Jaime and her loved ones in an effort of protecting the nation’s sovereign.

“Does that mean they’re not going to attack us?” Kayla questions aloud, her inquiry falling on deaf ears however, as the same soldier who’d answered the chancellor’s spoken-aloud wonder hurries ahead, trying to secure the safety of the nation’s leadership and people. “Attention, citizens- this is an order from the leadership of the New Democratic Front” one of the militants speaks through a megaphone, his voice carried through the air of a dying day as its sunset appears closeby.

“If you do not have credentials bearing the name of the New Democratic Front, you are not to be granted entry to this vessel” the man proclaims, his words declaring something other than what the republic’s soldier has assumed. “Any and all attempts to board without New Democratic Front credentials will be taken as a sign of hostility and will be deemed a threat” he carries on, warning those that stand before the ship, “threats are ordered to be shot on sight.”

Not taking the answer as final, the conjoined efforts of the republic’s civilians and the peacekeepers continue to war with the New Democratic Front, pushing and shoving their ways onward with both sides desiring a departure from the missile-bound city. “That makes no sense! Surely they’d want everyone on that boat that they can get!” another NDF soldier calls out, too far behind the republic-peacekeeper frontline to engage within the fighting.

“Why is that!?” Jaime shouts aloud, watching the face of the same soldier Chevy and Kayla had spared so many moons ago turn toward her, having yet to realise it was the chancellor’s voice calling out to him at first. “Well, like I overheard one of you say earlier- they’d be hesitant to launch the missile before the storm struck!” Charlie answers, armed with a weapon that has expended all its ammunition, “they wouldn’t need to destroy the city if there was no one here to occupy it!”

“That does nothing to help my family!” Alex shouts back, cutting through the brief interaction with her own question, “where are we supposed to go if we can’t get on that boat!?” Though the question is raised toward him, an answer is hoped for from anyone willing to present one, though Charlie’s eyes take toward the scene in search of a reply worth offering.

Through the thick of chaos, the soldier’s eyes stare through the hundreds of people that the cloud of warfare is made up of, staring off into the distance before taking toward the ground, a thought suddenly popping into his head. “Follow me!” Charlie calls out, his voice serving as more of a solution to the problem at hand than anyone else is able to put up, the hurry he takes into the scene of frenzy matched by the chancellor, who leads her kin onward.

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Still where she’d last been left, Julia sits on the steps to the capitol building and awaits the end that draws near, surrounded by the silence that the departures of various aircraft have left her with. Not a soul to be seen, the deposed chancellor stares at the empty grounds of what she’d once ruled, only to be left with the empty and meaningless void that she now sits host to, not a subject to lead, nor a kingdom to rule.

In a moment, the sky flashes a dark green once more before the street lamps of the Angelino Republic power down, the entire city having been plunged into darkness in a way that it hasn’t been since the origin of the catalyst. “Fucking lovely” the woman mutters aloud, shaking her head with dissatisfaction as the sundown draws nearer, the deep shade of green only further coming over the sky as the sun begins to set, marking the start of when the storm is meant to be feared.

Pulling in a deep breath, the woman crosses her arms and leans against her lap, staring at the dark roads of the republic for a moment whilst growing increasingly-perturbed. Whilst the public searches for a shred of hope to hold onto, Julia is left behind, her grand plan to become chancellor having failed so spectacularly that she- along with one other soul at least- is left staring death in the face before it can even meet her itself.

“Fuck this” the woman grumbles, stomping her foot against the step before standing to her feet, aware that death is what awaits her, but dissatisfied with the wait it forces her to endure. Returning to the top-most step of city hall, Julia spits on Wade’s corpse and bids adieu to the chapter of the republic under the NDF’s rule, her eyes taking toward the same direction that she begins to walk, a sight from beyond the treeline and atop the hills drawing her in like a fly.

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“There’s no fucking way that this is going to work” Kayla grumbles, joining the rest of her group in huddling close to the ground and behind the cover of an abandoned car, watching the soldier hold a lighter to the face of an NDF badge. “Unless you want to head for the hills like everyone else is gonna have to, this is your best bet” Charlie responds, burning the photo of an identification card before shaking it rapidly, trying to cool the melted plastic that now obstructs the I.D. photo.

“What the hell would we even do when we get to Hawai’i?” Kennedy wonders aloud, accepting the burnt card whilst looking out at her peers, never having known of a world outside of Los Angeles. “It’s not like Honolulu was a ghost town before the catalyst came on. I’m sure they’ve still got some sort of society going on down there” Chevy responds, trying to be reassuring as he flaps his own plastic card, still trying to cool the plastic that obstructs vital information.

“It’ll take some getting use to, but we’ll have to integrate into whatever they’ve got going on down there” Kayla responds, holding out her best hopes as Alex sends Kennedy into her arms. “Alright, the two of you will have to take Kennedy up there and claim she’s your daughter” the Morris sibling’s mother remarks, graciously accepting a pair of uniforms that Charlie hands to her, “Jaime and I will mask ourselves as one of their crew and hope they buy it.”

“Woah, woah... No” Jaime responds, immediately handing her mother the uniform back, though the woman refuses to accept it on account that she’s already beginning to fit into her own. “What do you mean ‘no’? Do you have a better idea?” Alex inquires, funnelling her arm into one sleeve whilst watching her daughter toss the NDF-emblazoned gear aside, dismissing the question as one that lacks importance.

“No, mom... I’m not going with you guys” Jaime responds, those particular words prompting her mother to halt her dressing. Coming to a sudden stop in their efforts as well, Chevy, Kayla, and Kennedy join the chancellor’s mother in looking on without saying a word, taken by surprise at the claim she makes. “What do you mean you’re not coming with us?” Alex calls into question, pulling her arm the rest of the way through the sleeve whilst approaching her offspring, “you have to.”

“She can’t” Chevy speaks aloud, suddenly realising what the chancellor is trying to get at before becoming the centre of the group’s focus, a sombre look on his face, “the NDF already knows who she is with or without the credentials.” Hanging her head, Jaime reacts as if this conclusion were true, though her mother refuses to buy into the same call.

“They may know who she is, but not necessarily what she looks like” Alex fights back, looking into the man’s eyes before hearing his wife double down on the line of thought. “The soldiers on the boat know what she looks like, though” Kayla responds, aware that her husband’s discovery is not only accurate, but unavoidable, “if they catch us with her, they’ll know who we are too.”

“I’m not going to take the risk of hiding out on that boat for two weeks and potentially getting all of you caught” Jaime reassures, doubling down on the claim that prompts Kennedy to leave the arms of her parental figures, hurrying into the reach of her sister’s own. “Bullshit! We’ll be careful and stow you somewhere quiet and private!” Alex calls out, refusing to believe that the only way free from danger involves leaving her first born to suffer whatever fate awaits those left behind.

“I’m not taking that chance, mom” Jaime responds, shaking her head as she presses her eyelids shut, holding Kennedy close knowing that these are amongst their final moments together. “Yes, yes you are!” Alex shouts back, her voice having lifted into a yell that the scene of fighting and havoc keeps from unintended ears, “we’re not leaving this dock without you!”

“You have to, mom” Jaime replies, no amount of pressure that she can close her eyes with is able to prevent tears from slipping through, falling down her face as Kennedy’s own tears accompany them. “No, I don’t!” Alex shouts back, walking up to her daughter and taking the woman by both sides of her face, holding her child close with absolute refusal to accept the terms of their interaction.

“Even if you don’t have to, you might as well” Jaime rebukes, continuing to hold her crying sister tight whilst looking her mother in the eyes, her voice dropping to a faint whisper, “if you don’t go, then we all die.”

Moving her lips to form the word “no”, Alex’s voice falls silent as her face becomes overwhelmed with emotion, no amount of her stubbornness to accept the facts allowing her to ignore that the claim the chancellor makes is true. Instead of fighting, the woman’s mother wraps her arms around her daughter and holds her close, turning the sibling-only hug into an entire-family embrace, realising that it will be the last one they ever partake in.

“We really have to get going if we’re gonna make it on the boat” Charlie interjects after a few seconds, hating to interrupt the moment the remnants of the Morris family share, but aware that the clock is ticking. “You guys are going to live a longer, happier life than what I would’ve given you here anyway” Jaime assures, looking her tear-stricken mother in the eyes whilst dropping to a knee, at least certain of the first half of her claim, “so just go, alright?”

Wrapping her arms around her big sister once more, Kennedy holds her as tight as her arms can manage for another few seconds before pulling her head back and pressing her lips into the woman’s cheek, a kiss goodbye paid. “I’m gonna miss you” the younger sibling mutters, hyperventilating as Jaime’s face leans in to kiss the side of her face goodbye as well.

“I’m gonna miss you too, sis” Jaime whispers, pulling the young girl in for a third and final hug quickly before ushering her back, leading her into Alex’s arms before she can loose her will to do what must be done to ensure the safety of her family. Looking to the air whilst pulling in a deep breath, the chancellor stares at the heavens for a moment before watching her married pals draw closer, pulling both hands from the sides they’d briefly been stationed on to spread her arms.

“I love you, Jaim’” Kayla cries, the first to enter the woman’s reach and hug her tight, struggling to breathe beneath the pain that their goodbye leaves her with. “I love you too, Kay’” Jaime whimpers, no longer able to hold back the weeping she’d tried to conceal from the group, as saddened by having to leave herself behind as they are.

Incapable of saying anything more without breaking into a full blown wail, the girls split up and Kayla moves onto Kennedy, prepared to follow through with the plan Alex had initially attempted to lay out. “If you make it out of this, you better find your way down to Hawai’i, Mrs. Cutler” Chevy remarks, stammering over his words as he pulls the chancellor in for a big hug, hearing her cries as he leans in, aware that she’s trying her best to stifle them.

“I love you, ya’ big lug” Jaime sighs, patting the man on the back before pulling her head back, looking the man in the eyes and sporting a smile of reassurance, trusting him to fulfil her request as she truly always has, “take care of them, okay? Look after them and keep them safe.” With tears of his own, Chevy nods with a sorrowful sniffle, trying his best to smile beyond the pain within his contracting muscles, physical hurt brought on within their final seconds as a true group.

“It’ll be my honour, chancellor. I will look after them with every last fibre of my being” Chevy replies, pausing for a moment as he looks deep into the woman’s eyes, recalling every last high and low that they’ve experienced since meeting each other and feeling incredibly moved by the truth behind his response, another nod paid to the woman as he doubles down, “it really has been an honour, Jaime.”

Smiling back, Jaime pulls the man in for another quick hug before gently patting him on the shoulder, gesturing for him to join the others in making for the ship. Cradling her daughter, Alex surrenders Kennedy into the arms of Chevy and Kayla before wiping her tears, trying to conceal her grief as she accepts the rifle that Charlie bestows upon her, taking a final glance back at the chancellor before following through with the plan, little other choice left aside from dying alongside the eldest.

All respectively paying Jaime their final looks toward her, the group she sends off into the next chapter wander into the scene of destruction, each boarding the vessel successfully and walking off into the ship with a final nod to their leader, who returns the gesture with a relieved smile. For the final time, the republic’s leader watches her group venture off whilst the gunfire continues to ring out, letting off a heavy sigh of sadness before turning away- only one job left to do.

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After nearly an hour of walking, Jaime returns to the desolate scene of the Angelino Republic, climbing the stairs toward the capitol without any sign of the figure who’d exiled her in the first place. To the sound of increasingly-rapid lightning strikes, the chancellor eventually finds herself atop the highest step of what she’d once conquered in the name of rebellion from the NDF’s predecessor, and had now successfully conquered all the same from what succeeded it.

Through the empty and aimless halls of a large, vacant building, the disposed chancellor walks alone through a dark and lifeless cavern of pain. Hearing the sounds of lightning bolts firing off throughout the air, Julia marches her way through one corridor and into the next, climbing a flight of stairs before spilling into another hallway, only able to wait for the fate that awaits her.

Entering her old office, Jaime enters a room shockingly similar to the way in which she’d left it, provided with a view of the old Los Angeles landscape and a variety of dead trees, their bark all having long-since been burned to a crisp. Taking in the view she’d gone so long without and had, perhaps, once taken for granted, the chancellor of a now-unpopulated republic shares in the same wait as the woman who’d dethroned her, though arguably with a more preferable view.

With the sound of acidic raindrops tapping along the glass of the various windows that line each hospital room surrounding her, Julia steps through plastic curtains and carries on toward her brother’s office. Thanks to the direction of the wind, the deposed chancellor finds the droplets to be carrying themselves away from the window as opposed to through it, freeing her to walk around Chris’ desk and retrieve the bottle of wine that she’d stored for safekeeping.

Sinking into the chair she’d once ruled upon like a throne, Jaime occupies her desk for what may be the very final time as the storm beats upon her republic with dreadful conditions. Striking a match and lighting a candle, the chancellor surveys the room and lays her palms flat upon the desk, feeling the grooves in the hardwood finish before closing her eyes and thinking quietly to herself, appreciating the finer details of life whilst she still has the chance to.

Sitting upon her brother’s old seat, Julia retrieves a corkscrew from her pocket and plunges its tip into the cork that prevents her from enjoying her last drink amongst the living. Grasping the head of the tool firmly, the woman stares at the bottle for a moment before looking across the room, quietly thinking to herself thoughts other than how fitting it is to sip from the beverage only meant to mark the day in which she’d set sail for Hawai’i.

Through the capitol’s parted doors, Jaime sets foot upon solid ground once more, using the artistic finish that adorns city hall as cover from the sickly rains that bleed out from the unnaturally coloured sky. Looking at her world the way in which it’s left behind, the chancellor follows the routes that each street leads to and stares at the grass that would certainly die within hours after the storm’s conclusion with or without the missile that’s inbound, taking it all in.

Holding a metal tray over her head, Julia fights through the entrance to the long-deceased rooftop garden and approaches the lip of the building empty handed, staring out at the republic’s downtown before taking a glance toward the sky. Covered in heavy clothing and protected by the thin layer of industrial material, the doctor approaches the opposite end of the roof and grabs a hold of the door to an obscure panel, reaching out for the largest lever it can offer and hesitating.

Closing her eyes and smelling the putrid stench of corrosion, Jaime embraces the Angelino air amidst her final evening amongst the earth, plunged into darkness with only time to await her final sunrise. The foul odour being one that she cannot ignore, the chancellor also chooses to not hide from it, enduring what the rest of her public would’ve had to if the circumstances were any other, opening her eyes to survey the world in the way which she’s sent it toward before focusing elsewhere.

Stepping back to the building’s lip, Julia stares out at the republic’s downtown once more, uncertain of where the only woman she shares the city with is, but knowing very well that she’s sought after. Choosing to instead go out in the world on her own terms and with more than just empty patience to provide for her final hours, the woman signals to her valiant foe that there’s no better time to finish what they started than now, with hours to spare and nothing to gain for either of them.

Just as it had on the night of the catalyst’s origin, the lights over the Mount Cedars-Sinai Medical Center burn bright in the midst of night, protected by an exterior structure that shields the bulbs from mother nature’s brutal washout. Taking an instant notice of the signage, Jaime’s tranquil peace of mind is replaced with the same vigour and drive that she’d taken over the republic with earlier in the day, a target painted for the chancellor to find, welcoming her to one, final battle.

== Dire ==