S5, E1 | Severed Heads and the Ballad of the Silver Slayer

​Season Five Premiere

Drawing nearer to a clearing in the woods, the outgunned survivors take their eyes to a variety of campfires lit within an open plot of land, the bright, orange glow being the most notable source of intrigue from beyond the treeline they continue to wander. Without restraints around their limbs or being under the order of people forcing them to follow along, the group of apocalyptic misfits continue on as night draws nearer, setting the sun on a day best left forgotten.

Growling like an animal taken captive by a predator and being led to the scene in which they’d be slaughtered, the painted-face survivor who’d led the attack that had seen Rudy’s death result from it is dragged by the arms, kicking and struggling. “What are you gonna do with him?” Courtney questions aloud, holding her sister’s hand tight whilst leaning against the side of her boyfriend, who remains quiet as the figure near the front calls back.

“He and his friends have been killing mine” the light-skinned man responds, wearing an undisturbed expression as he makes the claims that are afforded to the group he’s newly been acquainted with, “we’re going to be interrogate him, and then we’re going to kill him.” Her question answered, Courtney lets her lips press together as she leans more of her body’s weight against Sebastian’s side, letting the reply be taken without a rebuttal.

Travelling a few paces behind his daughter, Adrian keeps his thoughts to himself and instead keeps his eyes glued upon the uneven terrain that he wishes not to lose his balance walking through. “Why did we have to leave our cars?” Terry questions aloud, he and Jules both keeping close to each other’s sides and sharing a mutual reservation, not too open to the idea of trusting new people so soon after they’ve gotten antiquated with their own team’s other half.

“Aside from the truck, none of your vehicles would’ve been able to make it through here” the survivor at the front of the group answers, the comment one that Jenn nods along with, as if she’d already come to assume such. “Why did you set up camp so deep in the forest?” Elsie quickly wonders aloud, not minding the hike that they’re forced to endure for more answers or even the slightest amount of help, but intrigued by the reasoning the yet-unknown group had come to.

“We’ll talk more when we’re at camp” the light skinned soldier at the pack’s head-position replies, his professional tone both declarative and commanding whilst remaining peaceful and unalarming. “We’re already at the camp” Josie responds, correcting the man’s conclusion to silence, the ease in which he’d provided insight not coming along this time around by choice.

“We’re not the bad guys here” Ally speaks up, offering an explanation in lieu of the group’s leader, who doesn’t move his head, but does redirect his line of sight in the young woman’s direction. “You’ve just buried someone important to you” she reiterates, looking over her left shoulder and toward the larger assortment of survivors, “you’re hungry, you’re tired, and you need a decent place to rest.”

Stopping along her continued progress, Ally prompts those that had joined her in confronting the then-unknown survivors in the snow-covered field to halt just as she had. “We’re not forcing you to stay, we’re just offering you a place to lay low for the night. We know how much you probably need one” the woman replies, looking back to those- most of whom she’d spent time with since the world’s ending- whilst addressing them as warmly as she can.

“We’ll have plenty of time to talk...” she concludes, turning to her right and looking past Marta toward the man in which she follows closely, her eyes locking onto his own, “...about everything.” Lifting his chin just slightly, the scruffy-bearded survivor shares her stare without saying a word, the shock that had come over his face at their reunion having faded into one of uncertainty over the circumstances that surround them somewhere along their travels since.

Taking the equally-young man’s silence as enough of a nod to continue forward, Ally turns her body to face the path ahead, the winding route that leads to her camp still leaving some length yet to be traversed. “Who’s ‘we’?” Lou suddenly asks, prompting his girlfriend to turn back just as she’d set off carrying onward, her head turning back to face him once the inquiry is launched.

“You’re referring to yourself and them as the same people” the one-armed stalwart restates, looking at the woman he’d gone months without seeing in the eyes and refusing to part from their shared stare. Taking the man’s question to heart, Ally looks him in the eyes for as long as she can manage before letting her face fall, a gesture that both Lou and Marta take notice of in the quiet moments that pass.

“We’re nearly there” Ally finally speaks after some pause, changing the conversation’s course back to the most pressing of matters, turning to face the journey they have left to hike before moving forward. Not receiving his answer, Lou remains stoic for a moment as the light-skinned leader, who’d allowed his girlfriend to assume the discourse’s control, watches on at a group unwilling to budge from their stop until the one-armed figure ahead of them does.

Letting the woman’s non-reply settle with him for a moment, Lou’s straight face takes in her direction as he becomes the next to move his feet, following the tracks laid out by the shoes the acquaintances of his girlfriend wear. As if they’d been outright ordered to, the rest of the young man’s group carry on with their travels the moment they watch him do so, leading an uncomfortable and unpleasant into the crisp, Canadian night still yet to be endured.

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

Stepping through the tent’s passageway just as the sun begins to take shape behind the thick layer of storm clouds that obstruct it, Lou finds a muddy ground with sparse patches of grass laying before him. Significantly smaller and less-maintained than the one they’d left behind on Vancouver Island, the Silver Slayer finds himself captivated by the deja vu that surrounds the ground where they reside, its plot occupied by cloth coverings that don’t appear as if they’re meant to be permanent.

With his rebar staff tucked beneath his arm, the grizzly-appearing survivor uses the unclipped nails on his hand to scratch at the rough beard he still wears proudly, its presence upon his face felt like a badge of honour he takes from making it as far as he has. With wandering eyes, Lou surveys the area for all that it can offer, nothing of important infrastructure worth taking note of beside the litany of muddy, unintentional pathways created through days of being trifled over by boots.

Scattered around, tents similar in their drab and uninspired colours house the rather minimal number of residents who call the middle woodlands site home, the people within them likely trying to catch as much sleep as they can manage. From near the camp’s centre, the light-skinned leader sits in damp clothes with a rifle draped over his lap, his beard carrying droplets of water that had fallen upon him the prior night from the tearful heavens above.

With his arms resting on the sides of his nylon chair, the man stares at the one-armed stranger as the subject of his interest investigates, looking around his immediate area before taking his eyes toward a tent not too far off. For a few seconds, Lou’s line of sight freezes upon this makeshift home without the desire to leave it, forcedly doing so when the man redirects his own eyes elsewhere, knowing there to be a greater task at hand.

Following the scene that his stare soon centres itself upon, the stranger’s legs carry him toward the man halfway across the campground from him, his head following the new pathway his boots leave as muddy imprints. “Unless you plan on leaving, I’m not sure you’ll be needing that walking stick anymore” the hispanic man murmurs, watching as the younger man approaches, still wielding the metal stick between his arm and side.

“Is Ally up and around or should I wait for her to wake up?” Lou instead queries, not providing much care toward responding to the leader’s suggestion. “Ally doesn’t wake up until an hour or so after the sun rises” the unnamed leader responds, smirking as he looks off toward the way in which they’d entered the camp one night prior, visibly amused, “quite frankly, I’m surprised someone like you is.”

“Should I take that as an insult or a compliment?” Lou retorts, shrugging his shoulders at a genuine uncertainty, receiving a similar demeanour from the still-unfamiliar, rifle-wielding soldier. “You’re a kid from Los Angeles. I wouldn’t expect you to make it this far... This far into the new world or this far up north” the stranger quips, earning a chuckle from a tall, white man a few metres away, “honestly, I’m surprised you have enough testosterone to grow a beard like that.”

“I’m surprised he has enough testosterone to grow a beard at all” the well-built survivor restates, sharing a laugh with the light-skinned figure he remains awake through the night alongside, their humour dismissed by the unphased young man they pick at. “Thanks for the input, Caucasian Shaq” Lou chirps back, meeting the man’s prod with one of his own, earning a genuinely amused reaction from those he stands before, “do either of you have names or do you just communicate in grunts?”

Flattered to be thought so highly of, the light-skinned figure greets himself whilst pointing toward his own chest, directing his thumb toward the much taller man beside him when introducing the group’s muscle. “I’m Val, the big guy’s Bruno” the leader replies, one leg kicked over the other as his eyes set their attention toward the forest’s edge. Nodding, Lou follows the man’s line of sight toward the forest without offering a reply at first, caring not to greet the man, but to gain insight.

“By the looks of it, you two seem to be waiting for something” Lou remarks, re-earning their eyes before shifting his own toward them, “my question is whether it’s the dead or the living?” Shaking his head whilst returning his attention to the entry they’d come through the night prior, Val dismisses the gesture before beginning to nod, still not offering any verbal clarity.

“It doesn’t seem like you or your people have been around here long. It also doesn’t seem like you’re too interested in staying” Lou carries onward, again provoking the men that stand beside him to recentre their focus upon him. “You’ve been dragging your shoes through the dirt here long enough to leave tracks. You’d think there fire pits would at least be something more than holes in the ground by now” the one-armed survivor carries forward, “I’m sure they would be if you’d intended to stay.”

Pointing his finger in the younger man’s direction whilst wagging it, Val smirks at the stranger’s conclusion. “I’m starting to see why Ally’s brought you up so much” he proclaims, a gesture that Bruno doesn’t fully buy into, but is willing to play along with. “If she brings me up enough, I’m sure she’s told you that I’m not into beating around the bush too much” Lou replies, letting the rebar staff fall into his palm before he drives its tip into the mushy ground.

“The camp’s not as big as you’d expect it to be, which suggests you only chopped down enough trees to suffice what you needed” he continues, wrapping his hand around the spear’s end as he leans against it, “there’s no better time than now to start asking questions. Here’s mine... what are you hiding out here from?”

Not changing the expression that his face had taken on during the man’s explanation, Val looks into the face of the younger man at his side for a few seconds in silence before actually replying. “We call them ‘artists’. People, probably a bunch of heathens from the city, who came together east and started attacking groups smaller than them” the leader confesses, holding up his chin with the side of his left hand, “they carry around these buckets of red paint. They mark their territory with it.”

Remaining quiet, Lou stares off into the woodlands whilst extending a finger, guiding it in circles as if to imply he were wishing for the leader to continue speaking. “They attack people. They get the jump on them, usually send the creepers after them to buy time, and steal what they can” Val explains, not offering much more than what he’s already stated, “we sent a few guys out after them a couple weeks ago and never heard back. We found their bodies on the road not too long after.”

“Why not go down there with your own people and attack them back?” Lou queries, earning another chuckle that Val seems all too willing to offer at the slightest appearance of humour. “If they mark their territory with red paint, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out where they are” the young man continues, paying too little attention to Bruno to watch the man’s head shake, “unless you’ve already gotten rid of him, you’ve still got the guy we caught outside the arcade for leverage.”

“That boy wouldn’t spill shit. We tied a weight around his ankle and dropped him in the lake hours ago” Val retorts, dismissing the cruel nature in which they’d disposed of the enemy. “But that ain’t the problem. They don’t mark their territory with red paint, they mark the places that they claim with it” the leader reiterates, having no reason to refuse the young man information which he craves.

“They don’t live in the territory they mark. They go down when they need shit, take whatever they want, and get rid of people who are in their way” he continues, his lips puckered as his face sours at the thought of the savages. “You entered their territory and they tried to take care of you” Val explains, a gesture that the young man beside him takes little offence to until it’s followed up by the claim that cannot be agreed upon, “you got lucky.”

Refusing with the shake of his head, Lou disregards the conclusion as incorrect, not yet voicing that as a man he does know personally begins approaching from off to the side. “We didn’t get lucky. We know how to handle ourselves. That’s why they couldn’t take care of us” the one-armed survivor rebukes, a comment that Sebastian only hears the tail-end of, “but that doesn’t matter. They took our shit and got Rudy killed. I wanna know where they are.”

“Join the club, kid” Bruno responds, looking past the man and toward the older gentleman that approaches, “hey pops, talk your son down from this hero game he thinks he’s playing.” With a squint, Sebastian looks toward an undisturbed Lou, who continues to stare at the forest before crossing his arms, “Lou’s not my kid” the man replies, a remark that the brute muscle beside Val disregards.

“It doesn’t matter. Tell him to cut it out with the tough guy act” Bruno doubles down, not entertaining the young man’s posture as anything other than phoney, “he’s talking like he’s the main character in an action movie.” Shrugging as if that were already well-known, Sebastian appears to dismiss the comments from those unfamiliar to him before setting his eyes upon the younger member of his group.

“The people that attacked us have been attacking others. Apparently they attacked Ally’s group, too” Lou remarks, speaking over his shoulder to the man he knows has now begun to face him. “They mark their territory with red paint, but apparently they don’t live there. These people call them ‘the artists’ and that’s all I’ve got so far” the young man proceeds, his eyes brightening as he recalls one other key point, “Oh, and they killed the guy we caught at the arcade already. He’s in the lake.”

“Well, that was fast” Sebastian responds, carrying on with the conversation whilst those that stand beside him they listen in, refusing to interject partially out of a morbid fascination, “what’re you thinking, Lou?” Holding his squint toward the same scene that both Val and Bruno had taken to the direction of, holding his thoughts back from being voiced aloud at first as he considers what his options are.

Veering toward the cloudy skies, Lou’s eyes wander high into the air, following the curves in the storm clouds above as he inspects the weather. “I’m gonna go after them. I’ll grab the truck if it’s still where we left it, throw on a gore coat when I get into town and see what I can find” the man decides, turning to look at Sebastian properly as he speaks, “tell Marta I’ll be back at night fall, and tell Ally that we’ll have that talk we didn’t have last night when I get back.”

Concealing their laughter, Val and Bruno shrug their shoulders as the young man begins walking off, “it was nice knowing you, kid!” the taller man proclaims. “Tell the others to just hang tight until I get back” Lou remarks, disregarding the sceptics that see him off with a final declaration toward Sebastian, “Calgary’s not out of the picture yet. Figure out amongst yourselves if you’re still interested in the plan we’d made in Vancouver.”

“Will do. Stay safe out there, Lou!” Sebastian calls back out, his voice prompting a few others within the tents that surround their temporary shelter to stir from their slumber. “What the hell is wrong with you people?” Val questions with a laugh held down, extending his hand toward the departing survivor that walks off- not expected to ever be seen again, “you’re just going along with whatever a kid tells you?”

Finally knowing what it feels like to know what others don’t themselves, Sebastian crosses his arms and begins turning away, “yup” he responds while walking off, heading the way he’d entered from without another word.

|

“Hey” Jenn murmurs, watching as she’s returned a pleased expression from her visitor, who ducks between the flaps that make up the entrance to the tent she’d used for shelter the night prior. “How’s it going?” Ally questions back, paying her greeting to the woman as she stands upright, only momentarily adjusting her posture before lowering herself to the ground, one hand placing itself upon the thin fabric between herself and the muddy terrain. 

“I’m alive. We’re all together again, so there’s that taken care of” Jenn answers, swaying her chin from one side to the other, unsure of what else to speak for. “Yeah, that’s... Those are definitely good things” Ally responds, gently entering the discourse with as much of a personable attitude as she can present, able to notice the same odd tension in the air that separates her from the woman across, aware that her camp’s visitor can too.

“Have you talked to the others yet? Maybe get re-acclimated with them?” Jenn queries, pressing her molars upon a handful of berries that she’d slipped past her lips. “Yeah. I, uh... I talked to Terry for a little bit a couple minutes ago” Ally replies, nodding along with the remark just as the increasingly-brunette woman does, “it sounds like there’s been a bit that’s happened since we last saw each other.”

Paying little concern toward the past that leads her to the present moment, Jenn wipes her hands of the moisture that her recently-washed snack had left coating her palms. “Yeah, it’s been quite the journey” the chewing survivor replies, pulling her hair back to tie it into a ponytail with the elastic band her plastic wrapper of sweets had been held together with, “a lot’s happened. That’s definitely true.”

Given little to work off in the reply, Ally deepens her nod before hanging her head, staring at the fabric ground whilst her friend adjusts her hair, unsure of how to segway into what she wants to talk about. “Halston’s dead, Ally” Jenn speaks aloud, interrupting the train of thought that the woman opposite her had been exploring, re-earning the woman’s line of sight, “she died a while back. It sucks, people die, she’s missed, and now it’s time to move on. That’s all.”

Unsure of how to respond at first, Ally finds herself incapable of reacting with anything more than widened eyes and a slightly-parted pair of lips, stricken with surprise over the insouciant emotions that are portrayed. “I appreciate that you want to talk to me about it, but I’d really rather just try and put it past me” Jenn explains, fitting her loose strands of hair into the makeshift tie, “if I sit around all day wishing I could’ve changed things, I’ll throw myself off a cliff.”

Accepting the way in which her friend has chosen to cope, Ally bows her head and waves off the woman’s remark, gesturing that it’ll be no issue from here on out. “If there’s any people grieving that you want to comfort, I’d start with the girls that just lost their dad” Jenn proceeds, watching as her friend’s eyes lock onto her, “Courtney’s got Sebastian to lean on. I’m not sure Sonya does, so if being a grievance counsellor is something you’re up for, I’d go talk to the younger sister.”

Hanging her head yet again, Ally swipes her hair behind her ears, looking at the ground once more whilst presenting hesitancy. “Yeah, so what’s up with the others you guys brought along?” the natural brunette survivor questions, looking toward the woman whose teeth are stained blue from the berries, “I heard Lou met them somewhere along the way.”

“Yeah, he camped out in the mountains after the ship went down. Spent a few months up there on Vancouver Island, and met them out in a cabin” Jenn replies, speaking to only what the man himself had informed her of. “He says they’re decent people. They seem like it. I don’t mind them and neither do the others” she continues, informing the runaway survivor as best she can, “they’re close. He thinks highly of them.”

“Yeah...” Ally mutters, tracing the lumps in the ground beneath the nylon base the tent stands atop with the tip of her index finger, “...you don’t think he may have jumped to that decision?” With a squint, Jenn pulls one leg close to her chest whilst the other lays bent across the ground she sits atop, “what do you mean?” the woman wonders aloud.

“Well, it just sounds like he took to them pretty fast. They never knew each other before we got to Canada” Ally explains, testing the waters on the length her friend’s trust is willing to go, “you don’t think it’s a bit soon to bond with people you’ve just met?” Easing the reserved look on her face, Jenn peers to the vestibule the woman across from her had entered, not able to see the outside, but picturing it whilst she retorts.

“I could ask the same thing with you, can’t I?” the woman with dying blonde locks rejoinders, puckering her bottom lip throughout a pause, “it’s rather fast for you to attach yourself to these people, isn’t it?” With a humoured smirk, Ally shrugs as her head leans in, shaking her head at her first reaction, “these people are different.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you know them. You’ve been riding with them since however long it took you to meet them after you ran off from the others” Jenn replies, nonchalantly dismissing her friend’s claims as is natural for her to do. “Lou, the others, and I have been around these guys for long enough to know who they are and aren’t” the woman who’d fought grief twice since society fell doubles down, “however you feel about Sebastian and the others is how we feel about these people you’re with.”

“I’m not trying to say I don’t believe you. I’m just asking if you think Lou got comfortable with them a little too fast?” Ally questions aloud, only to watch as her friend again dismisses the query, this time with a shrug. “I think you think that because you don’t know who they are. I think you’re just as sceptical of his friends as he is of yours” Jenn replies, thinking nothing of the concerns that appear to weigh heavy on her fellow survivalist’s mind.

“I just feel like I know Lou well enough to know when he’s making a call that might be a little rash. One that he may not have fully thought throu-” Ally attempts to restate, only to fall silent when she watches the head of the woman across from her begin to shake in refusal. “No...” Jenn confesses, speaking through the pause that follows her friend’s natural descent into silence, “...I’m not so sure you know him as well as you think you do.”

Taken aback, the man’s girlfriend finds herself unable to reply to the quip that she hadn’t even taken into account, her mouth coming to a close as her mind draws a great void upon how to respond- not sure that there is a way at all.

|

“I’m fine with it” Marta confesses, gradually walking the woodland’s treeline with her hands hung by each side, circling the makeshift community alongside her friend as the sky grows dark, a fresh blanket of snow having covered the ground. “Oh come on, Marta. Don’t just leave it there” Courtney responds, matching each of the girl’s steps with one of her own, “I get it if you don’t want to say anything more, but after the past day I’ve had, I’m dying to talk about anything other than my dad.”

Rolling her eyes with a smile, Marta puts aside her own desire to leave behind the discovery they’d made one day prior in the name of hopefully raising her friend’s spirits from the trench they’d fallen into. “Did I expect him to find Ally? Yes. He found Theo and Lee, he found Jenn, he found the others, I figured luck was just going to fall in his favour even if it seemed unlikely” she confesses, looking to the ground that her boots leave dirty imprints in, “it didn’t surprise me.”

“But you’re not happy about it, right?” Courtney questions, trying to refrain from pressing too hard on the young woman for answers, though her hesitations are slightly skewed in the wake of her grief. “I’m happy he found her like he wanted to. The worst outcome for either of us probably would’ve been him not finding her” Marta corrects, struggling to fully explain her stance in a way beyond what can be doubted.

“If we’d made it all the way to Calgary without finding her, he’d probably come around to accepting that she was dead. It’d sit on his mind, but he’d try to fight his way past it like Jenn does with Halston” the young woman continues, shaking her head in refusal. “He’d never fully give into that idea, though. There’d always be a part of him that felt she was still alive out there somewhere” Marta concedes, knowing the disheartening idea to be true, “at least now he has some closure.”

“Yeah, but that won’t last long” Courtney replies, speaking to a line of thought that captures the young woman’s mind, her interest peaking in the claim she doesn’t know what to make of. “What do you mean?” Marta inquires, asking for clarification in the only way she knows how, watching as the grounded paramotorist looks off into the forest they pass.

“Because he loves you way more than he lets on. He can deny it all he wants, but I know he’s full of shit” the grieving survivor confesses, a smile worn on her face- one that Marta looks away from. “He cares about you. A lot of that care is just natural, yes. But there’s a part of him in there that’s so madly head-over-heels for you that he just won’t let anyone see” Courtney doubles down, refusing to budge from the belief she’d assumed, “it’s like I told him- this is just a honeymoon phase.”

Hanging her head with a smile, Marta takes appreciation in the woman’s claim before parting her lips, attempting to disregard the conclusion that was drawn before her sights fall upon the centre of camp. “What are the others doing?” the young woman queries, helping aid Courtney’s line of sight toward the campfire that Ally’s people had come together around, neither woman able to fully comprehend the reasoning behind such a coming together.

“Hey, what is this!?” Elsie proclaims, stepping out of her tent just as Terry does, their conversation put to a halt by Josie, who’d stepped out of her own nearby residency with the question asked aloud. “For the love of god, go back to your tents or pack your stuff up and leave” Val retorts, taking notice of the blonde girl and her black friend’s approach just as he spots a similar drawing forward from Marta and Courtney a few paces off.

“Tell us why and we’ll be on the first journey out of here” Josie rejoinders, taking the stand that neither Sebastian or Terry are able to make yet, only now coming around to the conversation. “We’ve been waiting for answers, and it doesn’t seem like any of you are really eager to give them to us” the tomahawk-wielding survivor from the sunken Euronam remarks, “start letting us know what’s going on and maybe we’ll be more open to getting out of your hair.”

“Stand down, Josie. We can’t go threatening to leave when Lou’s still not back yet” Terry proclaims, drawing closer to the scene whilst Sonya, Sebastian, and Adrian emerge from their own tents. “He’s not gonna be coming back, so you might as well just start getting ready to head out anyway” Bruno shouts back, speaking up from the seat that he occupies, the only survivor of the still-unfamiliar group of campers not standing with the others.

“If you don’t think he’s coming back, you have no idea who you’re talking about” Jules shouts aloud, doubling down as he steps through the vestibule of the tent that he, and he alone, had occupied and struggled to open. “Your friend is a fucking child. I don’t care if he’s got a beard, dropped balls, or two hands for crying out loud... He’s just a kid in this world” Val replies, not caring to hide the doubt he’s willing to let any set of ears- Ally’s included- overhear.

“These pricks he’s sent himself on a suicide mission to get rid of are brutal. They might as well not even be considered humans at this point” Val remarks, standing firm in his belief as it’s offered to the new half of his community. “They don’t have morals. They’re not evil or pure, they’re just people who will do what they need to for whatever they want” the compound’s leader proceeds, “as far as I’m concerned, his body is already on the side of the road waiting for us to find it.”

“I can’t wait for you people to look like idiots” Sebastian proclaims, watching the ground that he walks along whilst addressing the man he knows himself to be drawing nearer to. “I hope you’re ready to wait the rest of your lives, ‘cause we won’t be looking like idiots” Val responds, pulling away from his huddled assortment of campers to approach the man who sticks out most as the closest thing to a leader the opposite group can offer.

“You people can’t just walk around this place thinking you know better than us. You’ve lost one person to these people, we’ve lost more than we can count on both hands” Val explains, growing tired at having to defend himself like his assumptions are anything other than reasonable. “Brothers and sisters, cousins, friends, you name it. We’ve lost them to those people” the light-skinned, bearded survivalist furthers, speaking loud enough for anyone to hear him.

Hanging her head, Ally prevents herself from speaking whilst Marta watches on, the rest of her group having set their sights on the bickering pair of leaders while her own remain fully invested in her mentor’s girlfriend. “I think I know what Lou’s capable of a lot better than you do” Sebastian rejoinders, a comment that Adrian’s crossed arms and slow nod back up, the man taking a stand two metres off to the side of the group’s leader.

“I think you’re delusional if you think that the kid is going to just go out there and find-” Val counters, kept from speaking anything further as the distant blaring of a vehicle’s horn draws closer than it has any right to. For a few seconds, the man freezes in terror just as the rest of his group does, a reaction that their newest members cannot fully dedicate themselves to doing.

“Get into cover!” Bruno shouts, throwing himself off the seat that he’d occupied whilst gesturing for those standing by to seek out the closest thing to shelter they can manage. “What were you saying?” Sebastian questions, redirecting his sight toward the widened eyes of the community’s shot-caller, the look of awe that’s presented to him coming nowhere close to being duplicated.

“Stand out here if you fucking want, you fool! Those are the artists!” Val proclaims, backing away from the confident survivor, who remains unmoved and uninspired by the dilemma that’s presented to him. “We staying out here, Terry?” Josie questions aloud, listening to the sound of horns grow louder, a set of headlights gradually following the path to the campground in the distance.

Glancing to his right, Terry shrugs his shoulders toward Sebastian’s direction, the unintimidated leader of the group’s Canadian half presenting him with a very similar assurance. “Yeah, we’re staying put” the American half’s de facto leader replies, his follow up putting a smile on the woman’s face. “Good” Josie responds, setting her feet into the thin layer of snow that she and her peers stand atop, crossing her arms while the rest of her contemporaries await what they anticipate is their pal.

“Ally, get the fuck over here!” Val barks, pulling the curled fingers on his hand toward himself, gesturing for the survivor to follow suit and retreat alongside him. Snapped out of her thousand yard stare at the woodland’s distance, Ally looks back to her leader before following suit, stepping in the direction of her group before taking a glance at her right side.

Locking eyes with Marta, the brunette woman in a camouflage jacket inspects the unchanged visage of her counterpart in the faux leather coat, the retreat she’d looked to follow the lead of coming to a halt. Without uttering a word, Ally looks at the young woman’s face amidst a pause, hearing her own name leave the lips of Val once more, trying to gesture her into cover.

Unsure of what to make of the interaction aside from its odd, unspoken aura, Ally snaps out of her stupor and continues the rest of the way back, siding with her peers whilst Marta watches on. From afar, Courtney watches her young friend’s head follow the mentor’s girlfriend, a set of lifted eyebrows and a smirk carried in her face as the woman’s side is made clear.

With the groups having made their calls of siding where they wish, all that remains to pass are the seconds between the blaring horn’s presentation and the vehicle’s actual arrival. “Don’t come out of hiding until the people in the cars step out. Let them think the others are the only people here for a minute” Val proclaims, directing his community to allow Sebastian and Terry’s group to take the mantle as bait for their enemies to take advantage of.

Drawing close enough for the crunching branches beneath its tires to echo throughout the air, the truck that rips through the forest eventually shines its headlights upon the compound that awaits it, only one set of people remaining out in the open to welcome it. Drawing to a stop without anything following after it, the off road tyre-equipped convoy of one parks itself at the entrance to the community whilst its headlights remain firing their lumination upon the modestly-sized grounds.

No more intimidated than when he’d first heard the horn sounding off, Sebastian occupies the camp just as the rest of his group does, unmoved by the arrival they’d anticipated all along. For the seconds that remain without clarity on the issue at hand, Val and Bruno join the sides of their people as they huddle close to the ground, bracing for the sound of gunfire they anticipate to annihilate those they had aided the night prior.

Instead, the driver’s side door of the vehicle opens up to allow its navigator the freedom of departure, another few moments passing before the soul who’d operated its steering wheel can climb out. “Where are the other ass hats?” Lou inquires, standing upon the side bars that had been fitted to the base of the vehicle, receiving not one voice projecting itself in his favour, but instead, watching the faces of those he asks turn toward those who’d hurried for protection.

“Hiding” Marta replies, wearing a prideful grin that mostly comes from being proven correct, though a slight amount arises from having believed in her mentor enough to remain out in the open. Looking toward his protege, Lou shrugs his shoulders and nods whilst the rest of the community emerges from their hiding, Ally remaining stood behind both Bruno and Val as her boyfriend climbs down from the vehicle.

“You can’t even begin to fathom how lucky you are, kid!” the light-skinned leader proclaims, watching as the Californian teenager remains silent, nodding to himself as he leaves his driver’s side door open, rounding the front of the truck’s cab. “Anyone else walks out into those streets and they’re dead within hours!” Val barks, pointing his finger at the fortunate man that opens up the vehicle’s passenger’s door and reaches in, “you better count yourself lucky they didn’t find you before-!”

Falling silent immediately, Val steps back in shock at the same sight that brings the rest of his community into a collective awe, the surprise that is afforded to them being presented with a vocal gasp. Though they’d remained confident in their fellow survivor’s return, the group that Sebastian and Terry collectively front look on with a similar amazement, not having quite anticipated what their friend would come back with when he did.

Stepping into the open space between the campfire and the truck’s headlights, Lou marches away from the ride he’d come back with and digs the dull end of his rebar staff into the soft terrain. “What were you saying about counting myself lucky?” the young man inquires, piercing the earth with his weapon as the sound of undead groaning emanates from it, “personally, I don’t think I was as lucky as they were unlucky.”

With mouths agape, Val and his community stare at the same sight that prompts Sebastian and Terry’s group to look on with wide eyes and taken aback expressions. Wrapping his fingers around the rebar staff, Lou turns to look at his planted weapon, watching the jaw of the decapitated head he’d speared onto the sharpened tip of his weapon bite down at the sight of the woodland-based community, the red-painted, flesh-covered skull having newly reanimated.

Having murdered the described ‘artists’ along his journey and kept one of their heads as a souvenir, Lou nods to himself as he looks into the pearly eyes of the corpse’s wandering eyes. Pleased at the revenge he’d enacted, the young man turns back to face those that his girlfriend had aligned herself with with a smirk, one eyebrow raised over his left eyes as his sights set themselves upon the awestruck community.

“I found them” the one-armed slayer proclaims, unable to retain the unmoved and blank facial expression he’d wanted to wear as he refuses those that had expected less of him any reason to do so further, too pleased in the proof he’s presented them with that he’s as capable as he claims himself to be.

== RISE and REVOLT ==