Kara Allard, F, 24 ( Osiris)
Sky Lavenza, F, 8 ( consigliere8886)
Justyn Morin, M, 13 ( scooby0000)
Charlene Lester, F, 25 (Lee’s best friend) ( Icarus_Mark)
Lee Carter, M, 25 (Charlene’s best friend) ( Icarus_Mark)
Stanley Quentin, M, 43 (Payton and Adrian’s father) ( TheStan)
Julia Quentin, F, 42 ( Payton and Adrian mother) ( TheStan)
Payton Quentin, F, 17 (Daughter) ( TheStan)
Adrian Quentin, M, 13 (Son) ( TheStan)
Jesse Ferguson, M, 19 (Son) ( survivorken23)
Peter Grey, M, 16 (Ikaris’ partner) ( tkoj555)
Ikaris Love, M, 16 (Peter’s partner) ( tkoj555)
Quinton Love, M, 16 (Ikaris’ brother) ( tkoj555)
Felix Kull, M, 23 ( MickyBoomy9)
Missy Hughes, F, 34 ( Alex’s mother) ( RyanAndrews)
Colby Hughes, M, 36 ( Alex’s father) ( RyanAndrews)
Alex Hughes, F, 16 (Daughter) ( RyanAndrews)
Josh Hunt, M, 29 (Missy’s brother) ( RyanAndrews)
Aria Luna, F, 21 ( Icarus_Mark)
Mac Anderson, M, 19 (Kate’s brother) ( Macda27)
Kate Anderson, F, 16 (Mac’s sister) ( Macda27)
Molly Smith, F, 19 (Mac’s best friend) ( Macda27)
Sharon Anderson, F, 40 (Mac and Kate’s mother) ( Macda27)
Natalie Smith, F, 18 (Olivia’s sister) ( Coolkat)
Olivia Smith, F, 16 (Natalie’s sister) ( Coolkat)
Kale Kashton, M, 20 (Charity’s brother) ( blatastic1234)
Charity Kashton, F, 14 (Kale’s sister) ( blatastic1234)
Kol Finnton, M, 16 ( ThePug)
NaOnka Mixen, F, 24 ( ThePug)
Introduction Video: .be
In a sorts of spiritual sacrifice, Missy, Josh, Colby, Alex and Kol huddled around Charlotte’s stank body. It had begun to attract flies.
“I’ll do it,” Colby sighs. It took him a few wandering circles of future regret, until he hacked a large kitchen knife into Charlotte’s chest, and dug into her ribcage and revealed her organs. Josh puked at the sigh, making him weaker, aiding his cancer. Missy had to step out and support him. Jesse was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t the strength to watch his mother die for a third time. He had somewhere upstairs. None of them knew he was up there, somewhere.
“Is he not co-coming?” Kol asks. But nobody answers him. Alex spectates the dissection with surprising bravery, although some parts did force her to turn away as the smell entered her nose. But the nose of walkers banging on the boarded living room windows and locked front door reminded her she needed to take part. She, Justyn and Kol were already coated in blood, but thought it best to recover themselves. Better to be safe than sorry.
Colby had eventually gutted Charlotte. Missy noticed him crying, but said nothing, as she patted Josh’s back to get the sick up.
‘How were these people going to escape safely?” Kol thought.
“Done-“ Colby stated blankly, turning and walking away as quickly as possible. He walked into the kitchen to hide his tears from his family. They had enough issues.
The difficult time arrived. Smearing themselves with blood and guts. Kol, not afraid, hung intestine from his shoulders. Everyone else took more subtle approach, just with the traditional blood. Alex coated herself, while Colby coated Justyn and Missy coated Josh, as well as themselves. They call Jesse one last time, but they could not wait any longer. They had to go. It was not his fault things went the way they did, but it was not their faults either. This was the only way for them to survive, considering the family car was being repaired in the garage.
“Where do we go?” Missy questions. Everyone looks to Colby, although Kol answers.
“My house,” he says, “We have a decent cellar with a floor hatch. The infected can’t open hatches l-like they open doors. I’ve tested it.”
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After being so wildly separated, Charlene and Lee sit at their own lunch table in the canteen. In this section of the hospital, around four floors up, the emergency lights are a dim white, making the room feel holy and safe, despite broken plastic cutlery and tipped chairs invading the space. There was a glass display shelf where they could grab warm cheese and stale cake if they so desired. Sky sat silently beside Lee, holding his hand. They discussed what they had been through. How she had met Ikaris, her tumble at the stairwell, the children’s ward, how she cracked her skull (which was healing now, thanks to new band aids by the military). Lee mentioned Kara to her.
“Kara Allard?” Charlene asks.
“Yes. You knew her?” Well, Charlene didn’t actually know her. But she had heard about Kara’s unfortunate career. She was fired from her place as a detective. There was a court trial involved and everything.
“I can’t believe I arrested her for killing that guy in the club yesterday. I should have known she did nothing wrong,” Lee sighs.
“She probably would have gone a worse way,” Charlene comforts him, “in my eyes, you gave her another day to live.”
During this entire conversation, Sky remained silent, colouring in a piece of paper with pencils found scattered around the room. The table was silent for a while. Everyone was in shock, even Sky. Her eyes had an unnatural gaze, straight ahead, as if possessed.
“You okay?” Lee would ask occasionally, to which she simply nodded.
Charlene turned to examine the room. She saw the military patrolling the area, about ten or twelve soldiers. Gunshots occasionally echoed from down the hall. Within the canteen, there must have been about 50 people. Half of these injured. A few of these on their last breaths of life. Then she saw Ikaris, all alone.
“Do you want to sit with us?” Lee asks for her.
“No thanks.” The soldiers stripped him of his medical gown, and gave him more appropriate clothes to wear, like jeans and a nice white top. Lee and Charlene attempted conversation with him.
“You’re speaking into my bad ear,” Ikaris interrupts bluntly.
“Are you not regaining hearing?” Lee questions. If Charlene knows this young man, then he has enough manners to do the same.
“I think I’ve lost all hearing. The bandage covering it might be blocking some hearing through,” he sighs, “at least it has stopped bleeding.”
Mac, Molly and Sharon, in the canteen also, sit at their own separate table in a dark corner. Molly is still shaken by watching a walker get shot inches from her face. Mac is still recovering from the pain of his dislocated shoulder (which has now been put back in place), however this was not his concern. He had just watched his sister, Kate, fall to her death. Sharon, fortunately, did not have to watch it.
“I hope you’re happy,” Mac spits out from under his hands, which cover his face. Tears find their way through the cracks of his fingers and down his cheeks.
“How dare you!” Sharon cries also, “I know I never got on with Kate. But I loved her! She was my daughter! You always love your children!”
“So her being bi isn’t okay,” he pauses, “her having a different dad isn’t okay, but blood is where you draw the line for love?”
Sharon had nothing to say.
“Don’t ever talk to me again. You won’t be seeing our Katie in heaven, because you’re going to hell!”
Mac storms from the table and escapes to a secluded area within the safe zone created by the military. Molly follows him, and leaves Sharon on her own. Not only does Sharon cry, but she shakes, from not having alcohol in a while.
“I’m sorry,” Molly whispers, sitting beside Mac, who has collapsed against a wall. Mac says nothing, leaving Molly to form the conversation.
“She could still be alive?” Molly questions, wanting to give hope. Although, about 10% of Molly hoped Kate was truly dead, as Molly despised her for being an obstacle for Molly’s love for Mac.
“You still have me, you always will.”
She gently put her small, gentle hand over his, and he holds it back.
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Just as Stanley had forgot the mysterious NaOnka girl with bright pink hair, he heard screams in the distance behind. They started faint, and grew louder and louder. Almost a hundred families fled towards the barricade up ahead as dead women, men and children flocked them.
“STAND BACK! DON’T PANIC!” The military screamed violently, arming their weapons as they stood firm on the barricade. Incredible amounts of people pushed past Stanley until he feared he was going to be trampled. He began to get full of rage and frustration, pushing people who tripped him up or kicked his shins by accident. Once he saw a young lady get mauled to death in front of him by something that was not human, he dove and rolled under his expensive car. The tarmac should be burning hot from the sun, but his car had been keeping it cool.
As he cowers under his car, he spectates with his curious eyes darting about the scene. But they soon become full of disgust as pools of blood splatter across the road and splatter across cars. Innocent children were being killed. He could tell these ‘people’ weren’t healthy, they were infected. He had heard rumours of a lethal infection before the power cut out. He thought it was just rumours. He covered his ears as women and children screamed for their husbands and fathers, or for walkers to stop ripping flesh from their bones.
But what happened next disturbed him most. Code red. The military unleashed their magazines on anything that was walking and making noise. Infected or not. People hit the ground lie stones, like ripples in water. But ripples does not change the direction of the tide. The walkers ultimately overpowered the barricade and the military. Soldiers were now in the same position as the civilians. Everyone was suffering in pain and anger as they became a meal.
Screams faded into the distance ahead and over the destroyed barricade. This seemed to be a movement, a heard of some sort, as infected were still flooding past his car and down the motorway, towards the city. Towards his destination. The sound of their groans were over powering to hear. He did understand how they worked. Could they smell him? He just breathed very, incredibly quietly, and prayed. But while underneath his car for a few minutes, with the night descending over the city, he noticed something strange about many of the walkers. Some of the walkers had no bites, but stab wounds. They hadn’t been bit, it looked like. ‘So who killed them?’ He thought. Then he remembered NaOnka retreating with a knife in her pocket. He knew she was planning something horrid.
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“I found a flashlight,” Quinton says, his voice echoing down the empty seating room, still grey with silence and darkness. Quinton reveals himself from behind a waist-height desk for receptionists. Meanwhile finding the torch, he had unorganised all of the important documents. He switches it on and the spotlight catches Peter, who is propped up against the wall like a weak, brittle sheet of paper. Quinton is still not talking to Peter after abandoning him in the medical lab.
“Julia?” Quinton calls down a long, bare hallway. He shined his torch, to reveal nothing by eerie emptiness. He calls her name again, but there is no answer. She had mentioned she was scavenging for some food; everyone was starving, and Peter was not going to be of any use. Quinton questioned whether he should follow her. What if she was dead? What if she was hurt? What if she found a way out? Many questions whizzed through Quinton’s mind, but what pushed him to enter the unknown was the simple fact that Julia knew the hospital best.
“Julia?” He whispered repeatedly, leaving Peter alone in the seating room, although still within sight if Quinton was to turn around. Quinton’s torch scanned the hallway for danger but only to spot billboards and hanging posters and doors to many rooms in the process of renovation. He called her name again, but there was less than noise, if that was possible. The silence was unreal. Then he saw an ajar elevator door that led to a humungous shaft system. He glanced down the horrific fall he would experience if he tripped. There was 5 elevator systems all gathered in the same shaft and all frozen in their positions. As he looked across the open, dark space, he could see other floors where the elevator would stop if working. He looked down, and the elevator that should stop on this floor had paused only a few feet below, preventing him from seeing the true natural of the fall. But it was at least 3 or 4 floors, not including the basement if the elevators did reach that deep. That’s when he heard sobbing.
“Julia?” He calls once more, as he turns a hallway corner. It was Julia, curled up in a ball on the glossy floor.
“What’s wrong?” He asks.
“I’m never going to see my kids again,” she cries, “I ruined my entire life, there lives…” she whimpers, “I don’t want to go on…”
Quinton, being the awkward teenager he is, is not sure of how to console a full grown adult. But, he has had his share of experiences.
“My Dad died a few months ago,” he said. This brought Julia’s attention to him, “he was a great father. When I made myself different with dyed blue hair and ripped jeans, he never questioned me, even when everyone else did and bullied me for it. But now he’s gone, and only have my brother, and I’d really like to see him again.”
Julia slowed the tears as she listened to his story.
“I’m sure your family is okay. I’m more worried about us being trapped in this death place.”
This brings slight humour to Julia’s smile. Quinton offers a hand down to Julia, and she takes it. He rises her to a new level, literally and emotionally.
“Thank you,” Julia states, hugging him. He says nothing, hanging his arms during the hug, awkwardly.
Julia and Quinton hear a faint groan of death, and harsh footsteps from down the hall: opposite from Peter’s direction. When they both looked, they saw a dead nurse, limping towards them. She had no blood around her face, she looked like a fresh walker.
“Oh,” Julia sighs, “not Janet.”
“PETER!” Quinton calls, “c’mon Julia, we need to go.”
There was not too much panic, except from Peter. Had they grown used to this now? Used to running; they had been all night long. After much hesitation, they make the collective decision to go through the elevator shafts. It was their only option and must risk a dangerous fall. A definite death.
“Peter, go first!” Quinton demands, shining the torch down onto the roof of the lowered elevator. After a series of squeals and whimpers, Peter leaps onto the elevator, and the metal clang echoes the mysterious, dark tube for what seems like forever.
“You okay?” Julia calls, being the helpful surgeon she is. Quinton holds the torch on Peter, who had stirred up dust from his crash. Peter raises a single thumb.
Quinton was next, jumping and making a large thud as his feet hit the elevator roof, but it trembled under the weight of two teenagers, so Julia had to wait her turn. But she could her the footsteps of ‘Janet’ approaching from behind. She did not cry under pressure, but held a straight, tensed face, as if a robot, pushing through the pain of anticipation. She wanted to save herself, but she was not a doctor, if not anything, if she could not save two teenagers before herself. She took them under her wing as her own temporary children. It consoled her, considering she has no concept of Payton or Adrian’s safety.
“Go!” Quinton shouts, pointing to an ajar door to another room, about 10 metres opposite the waiting room they had just fled. It was a long jump, an even longer fall, but Peter just cut it, catching the floor with the tips of his fingers and pulling himself up. In the new area to explore was a canteen. This area had dim red emergency lights. Plates and tossed chairs scattered the room. There was strange gasping noises, and shadows, but her ignores them for the time being. Quinton then jumps, hanging by the tips of his fingers also. He drops the torch, which falls deep, cracking at the bottom of the shaft.
Julia could now take her turn to jump, and did so. Fortunately, the walker did not reach her in time, but the elevator rattled nervously as she landed and shook the cables violently.
“I’m okay!” she promises. That’s when the walker that was persuing them catapulted itself onto the elevator with Julia, and she was forced to jump to soon. She fell short, and instead latched onto Quinton’s waist. They both hung from the canteen floor like string. Quinton tried to scream for Peter to help, but he couldn’t breathe under the pressure of Julia’s weight. She looked down, and the elevator behind them crashed to the ground and lit the base of the shaft in mighty flames. Shards of metal exploded through the tunnel.
“Hold on…” Quinton exhales, re-adjusting his grip. Julia breaths deeply, digging her nails into his legs as she slips to his thighs. They both scream for a saviour, expecting it to be Peter, but who does not show his face.
“Let me go,” Julia cries. She did not want him to die for her, “or we both die.”
“NO!” He screams down, “I owe you, for earlier!”
But promises can’t always be kept. Julia continued to slip to his ankles, and Peter was nowhere to be seen. On his last fingers of hope, dangling in the heat of the fire below, Quinton is hoisted up to the heaven of the canteen. Not be Peter, but by the military. Julia clings on for dear life. She thought today was the day she died. But it wasn’t.
The military had saved them, and took them under their wing. Quinton and Julia’s pupils were scanned, and they were both clear. They gave their names also. Julia said her name with confidence. She found a new strength in her today, thanks to Quinton. She had survived a deadly virus, a flaming elevator shaft and crawled through a maze of ventilation. She realised she was capable of much more than the common drug abuser or house wife. She could really be somebody. She could see her children again… hopefully.
Quinton catches a glimpse of Peter’s apologetic eye, who had clearly avoided rescuing Quinton and Julia out of terror for his own selfish life. Quinton holds a dangerous eye contact with Peter. He vowels to himself that when they find Ikaris, Quinton will absolutely destroy their relationship together. Peter deserved no one. Quinton would not wish death upon Peter, but would shake whoever’s hand was to kill him. As for Ikaris, he will always have Quinton.
Then, when Quinton’s startled eye begins to understand what it sees, the room is full of rescued people. Some injured, some crying for loved ones. Including his brother, Ikaris, who sits at a table with unknown people. He discovered that the strange gasping noises he had heard earlier, and the odd shadows, were in fact people, watching the three of them save their own lives heroically.
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“Felix?” Aria gently calls. He continues stomping through the foliage of the forest ahead of her, “Felix!”
“Yes, Aria?” He answers, stopping, but not facing her. He was dreading another pep talk from her. He was expecting her to play the ‘I’m sorry’ card.
“Look,” she gestures past his shoulder. In the gaps of the tree trunks, there was an opening, and a farm house was visible. Felix gives her no satisfaction.
“I knew it was there. I live in this area, remember?”
“You’re being a total asshole when you don’t have to be,” Aria states, “but it sarcasm and patronisation make you feel better,” she almost laughs, “then you do that.” She over takes him.
“So being shot in the shoulder by some random bitch is-“
“Oh not this again,” Aria sighs, pivoting, and frowning her eyes in disappointment, “get the fuck over it. Or die out here. To be honest, I don’t really need you. You need me. You need my meds.”
“No- no I don’t,” he confirms, with no confidence at all.
“Fine. Nice to meet you.” She smiles and walks out into the opening. There is an unofficial road that circles the house and farmland; a dirt track, split by the hot sun gorges and caverns. Patches of dying grass lead to the entrance of the porch. The house was dominantly white-painted wood. There was cattle shacks and enclosures and feeding pens about 200 yards down the track. Behind the house, mostly out of view, was corn fields, taller than both of them, that reached towards the fiery inferno that once was Louisville. As Aria approaches the front matt of the house titled “Our Perfect Home, Felix catches up to her. Aria, who has the knife, holds it by her waist before knocking.
“What’s that for?” He hisses, gripping her wrist.
“What do you think, idiot?” She hisses back, yanking her wrist back. Felix does the honours, and knocks three times.
“Do you know these people?”
“Maybe,” Felix answers, “I saw them a few times driving home… I think.”
There was no answer. After waiting in the setting sun for a few minutes, their hands became cold and shivered. Felix began to rub his together. Dark clouds grew over the farm above their heads, but no rain fell. Only subtle claps of thunder.
“No one’s home,” Aria says. Felix raises one eyebrow in uncertainty, but again, as she did before, leaves him behind and enters the house. He bits his teeth in anger, and follows, slamming the front door shut behind them. It was a very loud bang.
Felix heard Aria rooting around upstairs. Downstairs, in the bare living room, there were brown couches with a large catholic cross hung above the small radio. Felix flicked the light switch, but nothing followed. He forgot the city power had gone out. There was also a humungous patio window that spectated the cornfield, just after the stretch of grass, and graves.
“Oh shit,” Felix whispered to himself, resting one palm on the window. They were not official graves, but homemade wooden crosses and appeared recent. Roughly seven or eight of them. He then saw the photos all around the room. It was a rather large family, with small children. This confirmed there was nobody home.
There house is huge,” Aria shouts, running down the creaky wooden stairs and into the kitchen. Her voice echoes through the house, “look what I found.”
Felix entered the kitchen, and around Aria’s delicate neck hung a strap. On that strap was a loaded shotgun. They shared happy smiles. Something they hadn’t done much lately. He investigated its condition and applauded her.
“It was under one of the loose floorboards,” she confirmed.
BOOM! A loud clap of thunder shook the rooms like a kid plays with a dolls house.
“Do we stay here tonight?” Felix asks.
“No, it’s only rain,” Aria demands, “here, I found some bullets for this as well. Not many, but some.”
Aria tosses him her pistol that she had previously ran out of bullets for.
“Can you hold that shotgun? I know you’re strong but-“
“Don’t patronise me,” Aria smiles deviously. The thunder claps again. Rain patters against the wood of the house, and every splash of rain can be heard through the walls, including that ‘earthy’ smell.
“Let’s go,” Aria concludes, “I got some more water and canned food. We should be good until we get to Norton Hospital.”
On their way down the dirt track, in the torrential storm that brews overhead, Felix gets distracted by the gravestone he saw earlier, the ones out back, before the cornfields. The heavy fall of water mushed the ground into mud, and the crosses gradually sunk in with the covered bodies.
“Felix,” Aria scolds, demanding him back. But he was in a trance, the thought of innocent children dying in such a horrid way.
“I can’t believe this is all real,” Felix whispers.
“Well it is,” Aria says, standing beside him, letting her shotgun hang gracefully on her shoulder, “but they’re gone. We’re not. If we make it to Norton-“
“Yeah, then what? What if this doesn’t get better?” Felix ponders. As the rain gets even heavier, almost to a painful extent, Aria has no choice but to give him this moment, so she complies. She had to consider he had not seen all of what she had seen. Suddenly, Felix walks off, following the dirt track. He has to hold his wounded shoulder as he walks to ease the pain.
“Felix! Wait!” Aria demands.
Felix continues with his back to her, leaving her in the pool of mud that should be a graveyard.
“FELIX!!!” Aria screams from the top of her lungs. He had never heard her scream like this before. His neck jerked around and ran towards her before he could see what he had heard.
“Something’s got me!” She cries. She had been tugged to her chest, and her leg was fully submerged in mud. The way her leg was struggling; there was resistance. Some force was pulling her down. So Felix grips Aria from under her shoulder, and lifts. But it was not enough, this force kept pulling her into the mud, deeper and deeper. He gave it another go, and tore his shot wound open again, but grit the pain behind his teeth.
When Aria popped out the mud, a buried hand followed, and clawed its way out of the mud. It revealed a single limb at a time, when a small child emerged to its feet, smothered in mud. Aria pulled out her shotgun, and Felix his pistol. They both shot. Aria headshot the child to the dirt, but Felix’s struck an abandoned tractor. It sparked, and the cornfield alit in bright yellow flames.
“Run…” Aria commanded, dragging Felix behind her on his clumsy feet. He was fatigued from the pain of his ripped shoulder wound. It was going to need another medical bandage. Their way out was littered with roaming walkers. The graveyard was re-birthing the dead family through the mud. Their bullets were not enough, so Aria made the call to save them, and run into the blazing field fire.
The cornfields stretched beyond their view, but ran in the general direction of the city. Tentacles of flames whipped their faces and sharp whips of corn cut their cheeks as they darted in a straight line. They tripped over shudders of thunder, and burst of lightning and unexpected puddles in the corn. They had outrun the fire and walkers, they thought, so paused for a few moments.
“I’m not letting you boss me around anymore,” Felix exhales, catching his breathe. Aria took no notice, heaving on her knees for air, “look what you got us into.”
Still no response. He did not see her true emotion. She wasn’t tired, but was having flashbacks of her abusive father; that day her mother died, where she plead for her life in the vegetable garden, being hunted by a cruel creature.
“Shh,” Felix hushes, crouching to his knees, clutching his bleeding shoulder. Felix tilted his ear up to the sky, and heard the subtle screeching of walkers behind them, in the darkness of sunset and storm. Aria still pleads for more time to breathe. She was athletic, but not this athletic. So he pulls her the remaining way.
The fire, and the walkers in the distance behind them, they stumble and fumble their way through the remaining corn field. Upon reaching the river at the end of the field (most likely the same one that was beside Felix’s house) they break on a mud hill that banks the current that leads into the city.
They look back. The house was engulfed in flames. They had ran up hill, and could see over the cornfield now. They could see flaming walkers, children, loitering the garden and forest boarder. Lethal amounts of smoke rose into the cloud above, cooking the rain into a toxic acid healthy for nothing but disaster. It was basically night time, but the glow of the fire contrasted this; it seemed like day. The orange reflected of their faces, revealing deep contrast in tones between the night and the light of the flames. Their faces stood still, in shock, watching what they had caused.
Finally, to end their journey, the mud hill beneath them collapsed and slid into the large, rapid river. Felix loses track of Aria in the turbulence of the water, rolling over and over and over. He then sees a solid rock hurdling towards his unprotected face.
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“Woah,” Kale explains, “did we duplicate? What’s going on?”
Kale had entered unexpectedly into the shop, without making a peep, noticing extra bodies. He had a few boxes of supplies, mainly medicine. Charity wanted to hug her big brother, but instead showed little emotion. She simply handed him his favourite pistol back.
“I knew you’d be okay,” Charity exclaims.
“So did I,” he responds. His clothes and hair were drenched in rain water.
“There’s a storm overhead,” Kale states, and then all the survivors hear a clap of thunder, “now can someone tell me what all these people are doing in my shop?”
“Your sister rescued us,” Natalie began.
“No, Kara did,” Charity snaps back, “I would never compromise us, Kale.” Charity was a bit of a suck up. She wanted to live up to his expectations. She had a certain enthusiasm when explaining herself too, as if she was very proud.
“Please!” Natalie begs, daring not to look at her sister’s leg, “her leg will get infected! Can you help us?”
“I only have enough for the people I let in,” with specific emphasis on the I. It was clear to Payton and Adrian that Kale had already selected his group, and that Natalie, Olivia and themselves were not welcome. Other survivors, nameless, in the shadows, drifted towards kale’s side of the store, and began rooting through the boxes as if homeless, taking mysterious pills and abusing medication, hoping the ‘pain’ will go away. The pain of the new era.
“But you’re welcome to stay,” Kara adds with a smile, taking some authority. Kale does not reject this proposal, but does not accept it either, he turns his back, making a joke.
“Why don’t you just chop the leg off?” He laughs.
“YOU VUCKING BASTARD!” Natalie cries, standing her ground. Her Russian accent becomes very profound, “SHE VILL DIE!”
Kale swiftly pulls out his pistol, and Charity her boot knife, ready to assassinate.
“THAT VUCKING KNIFE DOES NOT SCARE ME!” Natalie shouts. Being from Russia, she was used to violence. Considering the outbreak hit Russia a month earlier, she had a little more experience, or at least she hoped. In anger, Natalie whips out a knife she had hidden in her jacket, and slices it through the air and it jolts into Charity’s leg, hitting the bone as it stops. She lets out a mild wince. Probably not the best decision on Natalie’s part- Olivia knew this. But Natalie was angry.
“Now your sister will die also!” Natalie cries. Kale fires his pistol in revenge, but it misses Natalie by a fraction, hitting the metal plated shop windows, and Rica shades across the shop. It was a very loud echo, louder than the riots and the fires and the screams outside. It seemed to draw a lot of attention as walkers hulked on slumped onto the shop windows. The glass broke almost immediately, but they were held firmly by metal plating.
“Shit,” kale sighs, looking around the room like a curious pigeon. He grabs Charity’s hand and escorts her out the bac entrance of the door and into the dark, wet alleyways of the buildings. They were followed by most of the survivors, other than the few, including Kara, that were willing to help.
“We’ll get out of here!” Natalie confirms, trying to hoist Olivia to her feet. But her leg was too bad. She was never going to walk on it again. The bagging got louder on the metal guards. Kara had already began carrying Adrian out the back exit, along with Payton who assisted in the carrying. Now only Natalie and Olivia were left in the shop.
Next, they heard chopping in the neighbouring shops. The wall was being ripped apart by rebels who were desperate to get into the shops. The rebels screamed and their hands bled as they ripped shards of wood and concrete from the walls. The noise was faded from the thickness of the walls, but would make their way into Kale’s shop in no time.
“I’m not going to leave like this,” Olivia says, “just leave me.” Natalie considers it. She sheds last one tear for Olivia, and they press foreheads as the sound of disaster closes on them. After what seem like the longest seconds in the world, the metal plating begins to fail, and walkers rip their hands through into the shop, and the fumes of fire and oil leaked in from the streets.
“Go,” Olivia whispers. Natalie stands with confidence, representing her sister, and she turns her back on Olivia, and begins to hesitantly walk away,
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The walkers were completely gone, and it was approaching night. Upon poking his head out, Stan could see a few stars shinning in the dark blue sky. Until they were crowded by thunder clouds and heavy rain that beat hard on his clothes and head. He somewhat stumbled back into the backseat of his car, and sat there for a few moments as rain clouded the windows. The rain was the most peaceful noise he had heard in hours, opposed to pain and screams of dying children. He didn’t even know why he got in the backseat. His mind was a mess, an empty space.
Then he heard someone enter the front seat of his car, and start the engine. She hadn’t noticed Stanley in the backseat. She had many tattoos and pink curly hair. It was NaOnka.
She as drove, she bumped over many bodies, and cracking noises vibrated through the tires and the car.
When she notices him through the mirror, it startles her.
“Fucking hell man,” she gasps as the car swerves some stray walkers, hitting one by accident.
“Did you kill all those people?”
“I had to dude,” she said, compassionately, “it was the only way we would get into the city.”
Instead of driving over the river (on the motorway bridge) she drove down across the mud and grass and rocks. The car almost tipped over. Stanley, like a doll, slid up and down the backseats.
“Hang on, fool!” NaOnka laughs, howling in excitement. Stanley was just so shock by her behaviour. She then drove through the shallow river. The feeling of cold water against Stanley’s legs as the car flooded awakened him from his trance.
“WHAT THE FUCK!”
“Didn’t you see all those infected up on that bridge?” She shouts, “oh, here they come. Hang on, mother fucka,” she giggles. Walkers fall off the bridge and onto the car, splatting on the metal roof. Stanley repeatedly screams ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’ as NaOnka just laughs as the infected fall onto the car and river. The blood is soon washed off the car by heavy rain and river water. While NaOnka’s horrendous driving directs them to the city, where he wants to go, he tries not to complain. He also does not want to be murdered by her, like she did so many others. Stanley glanced over the river, and in the distance, a few hundred metres down, saw a large cornfield on fire, and a farmhouse too. Then a lightning bolt from the storm struck metres away from the car; a metal pole attached to the bridge support.
“Fuck me,” NaOnka screams, “I hope you wanted to go to Norton Hospital,” NaOnka smiles, “cause that’s where I’m taking us.”
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Missy, Alex, Colby, Kol, Josh and Justyn traverse across the front lawn. They had voluntarily opened the front door, allowing walkers to flood into the house. Colby, Kol and Missy had their wrists tied together with spare rope, while Alex, Justyn and Josh huddle at the centre. The innocent and ill had to be protected most at all costs. They moved in triangular formation as they approached the sidewalk, then the road. The storm echoed in the distance, and thunder striked the warm summer air from a distance.
Justyn shook within the triangle, but held Alex’s hand for comfort. He began to look up to her as a big sister. They continued walking, very, very, very slowly across the road to Kol’s house. Walkers would confront them, turn their noses, and change direction.
“It’s working!” Colby exclaimed, while everyone told him to hush his mouth, as this comment drew some attention. There were not too many walkers wandering the street- maybe ten or twelve fairly close. But that was enough.
Screams were heard from their family home- the upstairs floor. The voice was familiar as it belonged to Jesse. The screams of pain and death attracted more walkers away from the group, and to the house. Alex couldn’t resist but had to turn her head and see. At the top window, her bedroom, was a shadow figure that must have been Jesse, being eaten alive. She gasped loudly, and this drew more attention to the group. Missy forced her head back into position, whispering that she must not look, and Alex must stay strong.
The clouds grew darker above them, and clouds swirled dangerously in the air. Thunder was becoming louder, and the sun was setting into the colour of summer’s blood. They had only about 10 minutes left of daylight, but that was enough to reach kol’s home. They were already half away across the road. Hope began to fill their eyes. Safety was so close, but this safety was always disrupted by an ugly, hungry, pale, skinny walker that trespassed. It brought back the tough to all of them that these beings would eat them alive, just as they did Jesse and Charlotte.
Then Josh stumbled- he planted his face into the concrete, loudly. That was strike three.
He coughed, but he held it in his throat, which grew more violently.
“JOSH!” Colby hissed violently as the group was forced to stop. The adults attempted to aid Josh, but the kids noticed more. Justyn peaked over their arms, and saw outside the triangle, that walkers were beginning to turn their heads.
“Josh, please!” Missy begged, “I promised you I’d save you! This isn’t how you’re supposed to die!”
But Josh was too weak to stand. Kol, scared, began to pull the group (who were tied together) in the direction of his house.
“NO!” Missy cries, as Josh is revealed in plain sight. One walker digs its fist into Josh’s stomach. Another dives its teeth into Josh’s cheekbone. Although not the best of feasts- because he was skinny and dying, it would have to do.
“NOOOOO!” Missy cries out for her brother. She loosens herself from the circle and dashes for Josh tugging at areas the walkers are not close to.
Nobody knows what to do. Colby had to prioritize his daughter first, and stayed by her side. Kol was not going to sacrifice himself for people he only knew as neighbours. Alex held her hand over her mouth, gasping for Josh, but more so her mother’s safety. Disaster had struck at sunset, and the first blood of summer was spilt onto the road and drank by walkers.
“ Missy, listen to me,” Colby whispers, remaining calm, “I know you loved him. But he’s gone.” But this was hardly true. At every crunch of tough meat, or the sound ligaments ripping, Josh released a belting screech, and Missy would throw her head back in agony, refusing to let go of his hand as walkers added to the pile.
“Be strong for Alex,” Colby added. Josh’s desperate screams for help had died, like him. While claws tugged and ripped at his organs, Missy grew strong, as her husband’s said too. She let go of his hand, and stood tall for her daughter. Fortunately for her, the blood aided her to blend in with the walkers. The camouflage in fact worked. Plus, her holding Josh’s hand was perceived as eating him from a walker’s perspective, or at least this was hoped.
“I’m sorry,” Missy whimpered, leaving her brother behind.
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“Not today,” Payton sighs under her breathe. She had safely gotten Adrian outside, who was with Kara. She had spectated the whole scene, and re-entered with a machete left behind in the store by Kale. She dashes straight towards Olivia, and cut clean through her black, burnt, bloody leg at the lower thigh.
“AHHHHHHHH!” Olivia shrieked while blood squirted like a water fountain. Natalie was in too much shock to respond. Payton had no time to search for bandages, and instead encased her bleeding stump with t-shirts by tying the sleeves around her leg.
“ARE YOU GOING TO HELP?” Payton screamed at Natalie, who stumbled over and supported Olivia under one shoulder, Payton under the other. Olivia hoped rapidly out of the store, although most of the hard work was done by the older girls. Olivia’s eyes rolled into her skull, her head sunk, and she had fainted. As the exited into the alleyway, the screech of the metal guards collapsing was heard behind them, and the groans of hungry walkers started following them.
On the roof of the shop, about 4 stories high, Kale and Charity’s wet hair blew in the strong wind of a helicopter landing on the roof. Kale had lighten a deep red flair that smoked into the stormy clouds. The wings of the helicopter influenced the pattern of the rain, which smashed into their faces like glass.
“Are there any more civilians?” A soldier shouts as the helicopter hovers a foot above the roof.
“NO!” Charity howls over the sound of the chopper. She had thought less people, more for her. She would have let Kale answer, but she thought it was important that she be the centre of attention and prove her worth to the army. Kale, Charity and other random civilians on the roof are evacuated into the helicopter and sheltered from the eye of the storm.
“The helicopter! It’s leaving uz!” Natalie panics, dragging her unconscious younger sister up steel outdoor stairways too the roof. Her and Payton had to lift Olivia up every individual step. Each step was a severe strain on their muscles that ached with every step. Kara supported Adrian ahead of them, who did not need as much support as Olivia, so they made some efficient progress. Behind Payton and Natalie, they could hear the walkers approaching as their feet slammed and pounded the metal stairs.
They reached the roof, but there was no helicopter there anymore. It was far in the distance of the sky. It had abandoned them. All hope was gone. Over the edge of the roof was fires. Not many military men or rebels occupied the streets anymore. Stray walkers were the main density of the bodies down there.
“Payton! I don’t want to die!” Adrian cries as Kara holds him under his shoulder. But Payton had nothing to say. They had no way out of this one. She let loose of her grip on Olivia, who flumped onto the roof of the building. She whipped out her machete and held it nervously in front of her. Payton was only a teen girl, who days ago, concerned herself with her crushes at high school, or her exam results. Now she was an involuntary killer, who stepped towards the approaching walkers. They leaned and hurdled up the stairs, and onto the roof, seconds away from Payton. Natalie and Olivia, who had was still unconscious, sat ungracefully on their knees. Natalie held Olivia’s soft head in her lap, and stroked through her hair, crying gently, apologizing into her ear for going this way. Natalie could not move Olivia no more, so when Payton fell, them two were next to go.
Adrian and Kara, who balanced on the edge of the roof, looming over the long drop, held each other. Adrian did not know Kara very well, but she was willing to help them. That was good enough. The hugged tightly. Together than ever, in the rain. Neither of them wanted to die. The both whimpered. Whenever Adrian begged for life, Kara knew he could not give it to him.
Lightning bolts struck above their heads, and this highlighted how close the walkers were. Payton struck one, killed another, until she collapsed to her back. She was no killer, but the walkers were. The amount of walkers was too overwhelming for an assassin to handle. Her machete clanked against the roof, and had left her grip for good. She cuddled her knees, rocking back and forth, Waiting to be ripped apart.
Natalie looked up one last time at her destiny.
Kara was ready to jump, alongside Adrian, knowing it was the best way out.
Then they heard the gunshots, and the thumps of bodies, over the sound of thunder and lightning. Payton, the closest to the sound, was the first to glance up. Her hair blew in the storm wind, and was matted in the heavy rain. In the glow of quick lightning, she saw the outline of military men, here to rescue her. She did not smile, but burst into desperate tears. She had prepared herself to die.
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Missy, once fully risen, turned to face her family and a walker digs its yellow teeth into her neck. And she shrieked too. Missy collapsed to the ground as fresh blood poured from her neck. Before anyone could cry desperately, the walkers were shot down instantly, They fell quicker than the gentle rain of the storm, that had begun to wash the blood from their clothes. Missy was shot in the skull too, despite still being somewhat alive. Her body fell slow to the ground, and the vibration of her skull hitting the ground repeated in Alex’s head, and her voice belted out “MOM!” with sadness stronger than humanly possible. A loving mother and wife, wasted so terribly. A military truck turned the corner, with armed soldiers, ready to save the survivors, or what was left of them.
OUTRO MUSIC:
---DEATHS---
Charlotte (Episode S01E01-Episode S01E07)
I hope you enjoyed the mid-season finale!
If not too much, I would like you to just submit some thoughts on the characters that died, your favourite moments and quotes they said, etc. Was their death sad, did you care? All that jazz.
Other than that, I would just love for you to submit ALL your thoughts! Who do you love? Who do you hate? Who are you surprised survived the mid-finale? Tell me EVERYTHING!!! Who is bound to die? Did any moments shock you/ make you cry? Etc.
I will do tributes for each character once I get back off my school trip (Friday)
Also, in next episode, we introduce two new characters!! EXCITING!
Comments
Very long read (which is good) and an overall great episode!
I actually have to go so I will do my thoughts tomorrow (possibly tuesday)
"If not too much, I would like you to just submit some thoughts on the characters that died, your favourite moments and quotes they said, etc. Was their death sad, did you care? All that jazz.
Other than that, I would just love for you to submit ALL your thoughts! Who do you love? Who do you hate? Who are you surprised survived the mid-finale? Tell me EVERYTHING!!! Who is bound to die? Did any moments shock you/ make you cry? Etc."
This will be coming in tomorrow's assessment. Since this episode came first, this will be the first assessment done.
I hope felix doesn't turn on Aria
Glad payton and the others are okay
i don't really like kale and charity they are evil
Missy was robbed like jessie from the show
i feel bad that missy lost her brother also
favs: payton adrian kara sky natalie olivia alex kol naonka mac kate and aria
I actually have to go so I will do my thoughts tomorrow (possibly tuesday)