There’s a local ghost story your friends have told you of a dog…

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A murder has happened at the Plothers mansion and you are sent to investigate.

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Walking in the woods at night

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If a pen is mightier than a sword, what about a stylus?

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Can you survive?

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Scene One

The scene starts with a simple zoom in on buildings, beautiful class structures you would see in bigger cities. The camera glides the over the city and glances over the houses and stores in the city. People are laughing, and the noon crisp air is delightful for everyone. Suddenly the peace is disturbed a big bang is heard, and they sky grows temporarily dark and vastly bright for a viewer on the street. The screen goes black and we rewind to a week prior to the task.

[In the Dark]

Martin: It’s been a while since I’ve done a high priority case, do you really need to have this done?

Shady Voice: Yes, now is the time for a revolution, the streets are chaotic, and everyone is displeased. We will pay you handsomely.

Martin: You have a deal, but why do you want me to?

Shady Voice: It’s time we had a revolution.

[Silence for 5 seconds]

Scene Two

Martin is now gearing up for the job in multiple jump cuts, the day is July 14th, at 6am. We see him dress up in a suit and tie, loading his suit with a variety of weapons and items to defend himself from what could come. Poison Darts, sharp knives, and smoke pellets. The character wears a satchel carrying explosives that have 12:30 flashing, as he places the controller gently inside of his suit jacket. Martin is reviewing the plan in his head. 

[Martin’s Voice Overlays]

At 8am the custodians empty the trashes in the building and place the collection in the dumpster. They leave the door unlocked and I can sneak in. Cameras and guards won’t be able to see me. Guards will be present at 9am for an inspection of the building, and the cameras only look at the dumpsters themselves on this side of the building. Once I am in, I need to hide. When I find an airduct I need to sneak in and start to figure out where the conference is taking place. More than likely it is happening on the 34th floor, so I will climb a bit before I’ll be able to place the explosives.

[During this voiceover there are jump cuts to current versions of the locations listed]

Scene Three

*BZZZzzzzz BZZZzzzzz*

[Scene cuts to Martin holding his comms device]

Martin: Yes

Shady Voice: The meeting will be taking place at 12:15 on the 34th floor

Martin: Okay, thank you

Shady Voice: I need to let you know, this building is swarmed, if you fail it won’t be just your paycheck, but your life will be taken.

Martin: Good to know.

Shady Voice: Just so you are aware you won’t be the only agent we have hired for this job; it is critical that you succeed before they do.

Martin: The more the marrier

[Comms device hangs up]

Scene Four

Martin is seen sneaking around the block his watch reads 7:59am. The door opens and he sneaks right through the door as the custodians are dumping the trash out. Martin dives into the hallway and closes himself in a bathroom, locking the door behind him as he places a noise sensitive tape. The tape states that, “I’m busy, please don’t come in.” He opens the vents and starts ascending the floors air duct by air duct. To no surprise, an hour later the security guards start patrolling the building. Martin is now seen placing the explosives around the room he was requested.

Scene Five

The respective leaders walk through the doorway into the room and take their seats. It’s 12:15pm, as the presentations start, there are rumbling noises from above. Martin remembered what the voice had said, “There are more than one of you.” The man falls through the ceiling and falls onto the table, getting taken away by the guards and executed in the room far away.

Martin looking back at the watch noticed that he had 10 minutes to flee the building. As he starts his descent through the vents, he gets a call. The Shady voice is on the other end.

Shady Voice: Detonate them now, the meeting is about to end

Martin in a low voice: But I need to get out.

Shady Voice: You didn’t matter anyway, rot in hell you aren’t getting your payment.

[Comms End Abruptly]

Within seconds of the call ending Martin’s jacket starts blinking, the man behind the assassination job had overwritten the explosives. The detonations start and continue to keep exploding, taking out every leader and their respective guards. The scene ends as Martin’s face flashes orange, red and then white.

The story starts off with a young adult named Cole living out his normal life. He lives in a small town as a farmer. Then he’s approached by a mysterious woman. She introduces herself as Circe and offers her services to him in exchange for one thing. For him to offer up a part of himself. He refuses and this enrages her. She reveals herself as a demon and curses him but something goes wrong. The curse only goes part way through and Cole is made into a half demon. This cues up for Cole to go on a journey to remove the curse.

Cole goes on his this journey to remove his curse. As he goes the world slowly becomes over run by demons as the top ones turn humans into them. The world isn’t exactly a post-apocalyptic land but things have gone down hill. Cole runs into a group of demon hunters. They don’t trust him at first when he mentions his curse. Cole tossed around with the idea to lie about it but decide to tell the truth up front. The group of hunters try to kill him at first but are then ambushed by other demons. Cole helps defeat them, thus gaining their trust. They take him in and promise to help him get rid of his curse.

To add to the scene where Cole helps the group of rebels against an ambush, it all starts when Cole reveals he’s half demon. He promises to not use his new powers on them in exchange for a place to belong. Internally, he swear to not use his powers unless absolutely necessary. He wants to keep his humanity instead of diving into his darker side. Later on when an important character returns, he learns it’s okay to use his powers, especially for good. Back to the story line, Cole confesses he’s been turned half demon. The rebels do not like this especially since their sole purpose is to defeat the demons. An all out battle takes place and the rebels try to kill Cole. They injure him pretty good but jut before the final blow, there’s a scream. They turn their attention to it and find demons taking out their team one by one. Soon their turning away from Cole to fight off the ambush. To prove his loyalty, Cole aids them infighting off the demons. They eventually win with a few casualties but in the end they accept Cole as one of their own.

The group continue the journey across the world to defeat the demons and help Cole. The leader of the group is Clark. Clark formed the group when his family was taken out by demons, left for dead as a warning to others in his town. Many others in the group suffered the same story. Philip is their medic and acts almost as a mentor for the younger members of the group. They run into demons daily and many get injured along the way, some die. The numbers in the group dwindle but they gain more as they go.

Soon Circe comes back into the picture. She promises all she wants is to help. She wants to teach Cole how to use his demonic powers. She even goes so far as to tell him the curse can’t be removed. The group, including Cole, are wary of her but decide to let her join them. She trains Cole for weeks before the group is ambushed again. Circe turns on the group. More members are severely injured or die. Cole is left feeling guilty that he convinced Clark and everyone else to trust her.

Delving further into Circe’s return, she mysteriously finds the group camped out on a hillside. She comes in ready to surrender, the rebels chain her up with special chains that reduce the use of demonic abilities. They take her before Clark to judge her fate. She pleads her case and Cole is the first to say she should die. Clark hears her out and decides to let her stay and help Cole with his powers, after all, if he can control them better he can protect them better. For weeks on end, still in chains, Circe helps Cole master his abilities. It isn’t until he’s finally done with his training that Circe escapes and comes back with a hoard of demons. They fight and eventually win. Just as Circe flees, Cole catches up to her and asks why she bothered helping. Her response was it’d be way more fun to fight him in the end if he knew what he was doing.

It takes well over a year since the ambush put on by Circe for the group to come face to face with the top demons. With Cole’s training and all the hard work the group has put into their own training, they are able to fight off the top demons. Some perish but in the end they win and defeat them. As the demons slowly disappear, all around the world the humans who were turned into demons perish as well. They finally did it, Clark’s band of rebels as well as Cole rid the world of demons. But at what cost? It cost several lives but their deaths didn’t go in vain.

A creature on a distant planet where the sun rarely sets experiences night for the first time.

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A young girl lay on a soft bed of grass, a gentle breeze causing each blade to sway back and forth. Stirring awake from a restful slumber, she slowly opened her eyes. However, when she opened them, she found that she no longer resided in the regular world. She looked at the grass beneath her and saw that it was not green; instead, the grass varied in color from cornflower blue to lavender to rosy pink. Of course, she didn’t recognize the landscape at all, either, although it was rather plain, with rolling hills extending in all directions around her except to her left, where there was a distant forest instead. The sky matched the colors of the grass, and a crescent moon hung peacefully in her line of sight. She got up and looked around.

From what she could tell, no one was there except for her. The world was extremely quiet, almost too much so. Although breath taken by the beauty of this unfamiliar world, the girl could not help but find it eerie that there were no signs of other life around. If that wasn’t strange enough, she was rendered baffled as to how she got there in the first place. Many thoughts crossed her mind on the matter. Her first thought was that she had somehow died and gone to heaven, or some sort of afterlife, but she dismissed the thought as she wasn’t sure she believed in those sort of things. Maybe, then, she was just dreaming. That would explain a lot, she decided. With that, she decided to sit back down and enjoy the tranquil scene while it lasted, relishing in the opportunity for a much-needed escape from everyday life.

However, her peaceful state did not last long. The voice of a man sounded from behind her, startling her into a slight panic. Turning around, the girl saw an elderly man with a round, gentle face. Strip away Santa’s costume and beard, and this man could be his twin. The old man chuckled apologetically.

“Sorry, dear. Didn’t mean to scare you.” His face crinkled into a kind smile. There was something about his facial features that made him appear trustworthy, the girl thought. She eased up and shook her head with a small smile.

“May I sit with you?” he asked. 

“Sure,” the girl said. I guess it’s nice to have company, she thought. Maybe he could tell her about where exactly they were now – something about the way he approached her made her think that there was something he wanted to tell her, or ask her. He carried himself with a sense of knowingness that made her think that perhaps this was not just a dream. 

“It’s nice to see someone else here,” he said.

“You haven’t seen anyone here before?” The girl had many questions streaming through her mind, but tried to keep them to herself so as not to overwhelm the man.

“No, I’m afraid it’s just been me here.” The old man squinted at the crescent moon through the lenses of his glasses. “It’s quite tricky to estimate how long I’ve been here. But I have noticed that the moon has stayed as a crescent moon, a waxing crescent moon, since I awoke here.”

“Really?” The girl’s eyes widened in curiosity. “That’s so strange.”

“Indeed,” the old man replied. “It’s very confusing. I’m sure you must be confused as well?”

The girl nodded.

“Do you remember how you got here?”

“No.”

“I figured as much, since I hadn’t seen you before. You mustn’t have been here long.” He hesitated for a moment. “This will sound very strange, but bear with me,” he continued. “Shortly after I first awoke here, I ate a piece of grass to test what kind of place this is.”

“The grass?” The girl asked, surprised. She looked down at the unusually colored grass beneath her and contemplated the man’s method. Definitely not something I would’ve thought of, she thought.

“Yes, it’s silly, I know,” he said. “But you wouldn’t believe what happened after I ate a blade of it.”

The girl looked at him expectantly.

“I remembered what had happened to me before I woke up,” he said with a glint in his eye.

“Really?” It did indeed sound strange, the girl remarked, but she was ready and willing to believe it if it would give her answers. 

“Yes. Maybe if you eat the grass, you’ll remember, too. What happened to you, I mean.”

The girl slowly nodded, then plucked out a strand of blue grass. She lifted it carefully to her mouth and chewed. It tasted particularly sweet. She closed her eyes and relaxed her mind, waiting for the memories to resurface. The old man sat beside her patiently, examining the moon again.

Behind her closed eyelids, the girl saw a familiar scene. Rain pattering against the city bus window, the outskirts of the city blurred through the motion of the bus and the raindrops. The bus skidding off the road into the lane of oncoming traffic, colliding with another vehicle, and tipping over. Her line of sight skewing sideways, as she fell against the side of the bus that impacted the ground below. The world going dark after her head collided with the shattered bus window. 

Her eyes shot open, and questions began flooding through her mind once again. Suddenly, death seemed like a more probable possibility for her than merely dreaming. Maybe this was heaven or somewhere between life and death after all.

“So?” The old man looked at her expectantly.

“I… I think I might have died. I was in a serious bus accident.” The reality of her situation sunk in.

“I thought I did, too.” The old man smiled sadly.

The girl paused for a moment. “Sir, if you don’t mind me asking… what was it that you remembered when you ate the grass?”

“Well, I was lying in a hospital bed before I found myself here. My health hasn’t been so good, hasn’t been for a long time. I assumed my time to pass on came.” A wistful expression befell the old man’s face.

“Oh.” The girl’s eyes crinkled into a frown. She looked down and fidgeted with her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope that’s not the case.” To her surprise, the old man chuckled.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, dear, I’ve already made my peace with it, if it is the case,” he said. “I’ve lived plenty long, and spending your days ill isn’t exactly the most pleasant.” He stopped for a moment. “Now that I think of it, I don’t think there’s anything left for me.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, like I told you, I’ve been ill. So there’s not much I can physically do, even if I want to. My wife passed a couple years ago, and what little family I have lives far away, so I’d be alone if I did wake up.”

“That’s so sad.” The girl looked down again.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” the old man said. “Unfortunately, I think it’s rather common. But enough about me. Maybe there’s a chance you survived the crash?”

“I don’t know,” the girl looked away glumly. “I guess maybe it’s not so bad here, though. I guess if it’s how my life ends… this is a peaceful last place to be alive.”

“You don’t want to wake up?”

“I mean, maybe I do, but life… is so hard. I remembered what was happening before the crash. My best friend moved away. I had just had an eye exam, and found out I can never be a pilot. Money has been short, so I have to spend all my spare time working to help keep my parents afloat.” The girl gave a long, deep sigh. She whimpered and cradled her head in her knees. In a soft voice, she mumbled, “what is there to live for now?”

The old man smiled sympathetically. “Teenage years are the worst- I’m assuming you’re in high school?”

She nodded.

“To be honest, I think everyone is struggling at your age. It may not seem like it, but even the most cheerful and rambunctious ones are hiding pain somewhere in their hearts. Most of the time, you just can’t see it.”

She nodded. “I guess you’re right. It’s just so hard to think about returning to all that stress when I could… just spend the rest of my time here.”

“Yes, I understand,” the old man said. “But remember, all moments in time will pass. The sad, the miserable, and the happy. These burdens you’re carrying won’t weigh on you forever,” he said with a reassuring smile. “And I’m sure that if you look closely enough, you’ll find there are people who love you and want to support you. Don’t be afraid to lean on others, if you’re struggling. That was hard for me to learn, but I hope you will learn to do so sooner than I did.”

The girl’s eyes welled up, but she gave a small smile.

“Oh, would you look at that,” the old man said. “The moon, it’s almost set.” Sure enough, the moon was nearing quite close to the horizon. His expression became serious, and his eyes widened.

“It’s time to go now.”

It was much darker now, but the girl also experienced a sense of her surroundings fading away from her. Alarmed, she called out to the old man. “What do you mean? Who are you?”

He did not answer. Instead, he said to her, “it’s time to wake up now.”

With that, everything was gone.

Moments later, the girl’s eyes fluttered open once again, but now, she was in a hospital room. Fluorescent lights burned her eyes. Most of her limbs were wrapped in casts, and her head throbbed in pain. She groaned, catching the attention of her mother, whose face fell into tears of joy.

“You’re awake!” The girl’s mother explained, tears slipping down her cheeks. “We thought for sure we lost you!”

“I… survived?”

“Do you remember what happened?” The mother asked.

The girl nodded.

“Well, the doctors said… said you had a very… small- small chance of waking up,” the mother choked out. “They said that… it would be a miracle, if you did.” She took a breath. “But I’m surprised you remember what happened, after all the head trauma you suffered,” she said.

“Yeah,” the girl replied slowly. Words felt like sticky peanut butter in her mouth. “I had a strange dream…” she began, then stopped as something across the room caught her attention.

In a chair lay a newspaper, turned to the obituaries page. On it, the face of an old man with round, gentle features reminiscent to Santa was plastered at the top.

Owen Savage

The Pizzapocalypse

It was another day in the life of Richie, the whistle of the teapot pierces the air as Rich torches the end of last night’s cigarette, drops his lighter, slides into his slippers and runs a come through his hair all in one breath. He exhales the tobacco smoke across the room, through the hallway, down the stairs and into the kitchen where he begins the obligatory search for breakfast. Hurds of old cans, canned food, canned coffee and beer cans defend Richie’s breakfast with their mass, a cloud of smoke, a swipe of his arm and now the cans lay discarded on the floor and access to the cabinets has been rightfully granted. It’s beans for breakfast again and by now nobody in the house complains, Richie lives with four other guys, one of which is now silencing the teapot, another asleep in bed, another a sleep on a couch and the last is likely in the bathroom. 

Richie may be a messy guy, however his roommates are another story, Rich gave up complaining about dishes, beer cans, old food and other forms of litter throughout the house months ago, he lacked the proper leadership skills to express himself clearly and effectively and he knew it. There was a time in Richies life where he thought that may change, that one day he could be the CEO of some company, or a suited bank teller, bringing home flowers to a small family in a neat little house in a quiet suburb; where he would take his suit coat off, hang it in the same place everyday with his hat, shoes and tie and sit in a cozy chair reading the paper by the fire with vases china and golf trophies on the mantle. Everything laid out for him to enjoy with no surprises. These sleepy morning thoughts meander through Riches head as the beans on the stove begin to catch fire. Smoke, everywhere, burning his glazed eyes, billowing from the beans on the burner. Bending over, Richie sputters and hacks like a tired lawn mower, choking on grass and years of hard labor, his cigarette near caught in his throat, expelled onto his bathrobe, burrowing itself, discarded on the floor. The beans are burned, says Rich to his four roommates, who now stand before him clouded in smoke. 

The day goes on, Richie found something to eat out of an old Pringles can and some carrots that were really meant to be dipped in ranch but the ranch was expired and so was the blue cheese and most of the condiments anyways for that matter. Today was a day to look forward to anyhow, everyone in the house was off work, there was beer in the fridge, spirits were high and the weather was great. By noon the five guys were out on the porch sippin some drink and smoking, the TV was still on inside the house blaring, however no one heard or cared what it had to say. Something on the news about the end of the world, politics, foreign conflict or something like that. Richie did not concern himself much with the news, politics and modern events, being a college dropout, working at a pizza restaurant Richie felt very ignored by mainstream society, a meaningless role to play in the big picture, a small cog in the great geers that kept our society revolving, just a another nameless face occasionally serving pizza to the higher ups of society. Richie felt his opinion didn’t matter, nobody asked him what he thought. Richies roommates were much like himself, college dropouts, either working minimum wage or not working at all, they all shared the same feelings about politics and worldly matters. Catching part of a conversation on the television from inside, Richie says to them “Maybe the world will end today, ha, ha, wouldn’t bother me”, Richies remark is followed by a chorus of laughter and another of his roommates, Mike says, “Don’t get too excited there Ritch, even if it does I doubt your boss will consider that a valid excuse to call out!”.

 Now it’s three o’clock and the guys are floating down the river on some tubes, laughing, joking around and just having a really good day off. All of a sudden they see this guy floating down the river on a canoe, an old man with hair down to his waist and an even longer beard.

They call out to the man as he gets closer and finally get close enough to talk to him, the old man is blind and he says to them “beware! The day of judgement is upon us” All five guys hold back laughter, “are you serious, old man?” says one. The old man only repeats his statement, paddles on and continues to sing a song in an unrecognizable language. “Strange”, says Richie, “What a weird day this is”. “That’s just a typical Monday in this town”, chuckles Ritchies roommate, Mike. “Monday!” Ritchie howls and his body becomes rigid and tense, “I thought it was sunday!, I got work today!”. Everyone laughs as Ritchie jumps off his float and swims to shore. 

Ritchie rushes into work, running through cars, ducking by pedestrians in the street, spilling his cup of coffee in every direction, foaming at the mouth and arrives to work exactly one minute late. His boss then begins to chew him up, cursing at him up and down, “you’re late to work”, his boss then spits him out into the pizza kitchen. Like a den of lions, hungry customers, having watched this scene, glare and laugh at Ritch. Richie begins to work churning out pizzas as fast as he can, sweating profusely beside the hot oven. All of a sudden Richie reaches to grab a tray of dough to discover the cooler is empty, the pizza progress is now halted and the impatient customers stare at Rich. Ritchie then has to go down to the basement in order to get more dough. He walks past the customers, insisting he will be right back with more dough. Ritchie reaches the cooler, steps inside and slips, slamming the door behind him. Now in the Dark, fumbling around for the lightswitch, the floor begins to shake. An enormous bang violently shakes the entire cooler. In the dark it is quiet and Ritch wonders what it was all about as he gropes around for the handle of the door. Finding the handle, Ritch swings the door open and the sudden flood of light from outside temporarily blinds him. As his vision begins to come back to him Ritchie notices the wall in front of the cooler is no longer there, neither is the wall behind that, or even the stairs. Everything as far as Ritchie can see has been laid to ruble. In shock and confusion Ritchie doesn’t even move for a moment, wondering what this is all about.

Days later Ritchie has managed to reassemble the pizza oven, collect what has been left of the pizza tools and boxes and feed himself more pizza than he has had in the last year. Surprisingly much of the inventory had not been entirely destroyed, having been an old building most of the tools were made with steel and had been around since the 1900s. The pizza oven ran on charcoal and the basement of the place was filled with enough charcoal to last years. The pizza boxes and canned ingredients had been stored in a metal enclosure much like a safe and the cooler had just been freshly stocked the day before. There was a silo filled with flour, and all the dough making machines were still functional. Ritchie had enough pizza ingredients to last for what he calculated as around one hundred years. 

Each day Ritch would wake up, make two large pizzas, one cheese and one pepperoni, Ritchie would take these pizzas and place them in a box, label each box so as not to confuse the toppings and carry them in a delivery satchel into the rubble. Ritch always brought two, not necessary because he wanted to eat two large pizzas everyday but because he had to. Ritchie knew that if there was one living person out there, they would be starving and barely alive so he wanted to have food hot and ready to deliver to them when they needed it. 

One day while Ritchie was on his walk out through the ruins he heard footsteps. He would stop in his tracks and look around him to study what he had heard, however it seemed like every time he stopped to listen the tracks would stop. All of a sudden a great pain exploded from his side, someone had struck him with a piece of a lamp. Ritchie stumbles back in shock and his attacker raises the lamp to strike again and Ritchie calls out “Wait!, I have pizza!”. With a look of confusion the attack’s voice cracks as he asks what kind? and Ritch replies, cheese and pepperoni. Half an hour and a full belly later Ritch and his new friend, Carl are walking at a brisk pace back to the pizza oven.

Weeks go by, Ritchie has taught Carl very much about the pizza business and Carl has been enthusiastic to learn the trade. Ritchie strategically avoids giving away the secret ingredient, in these times, knowledge is a very valuable asset. 

In time other survivors join the business, apprenticing with Ritchie accordingly. Everyday Rich is the first to wake up and begin his daily routine. Ritch thoughtfully ignites the pizza oven and assembles all the ingredients in preparation for the day, in the past Ritchie used to hurry through the prep work completing the chore without much thought. These days Ritchie enthusiastically prepares his work for the day ready to serve his community and friends with compassion, in return his people look up to him and admire his leadership ability. Ritchie has even made plans for construction projects.

Years pass by and the society is running smoothly, hundreds of people are committed to the community, everyone has their place in the pizza palace. These days Ritchies only job is to administer the secret sauce and he does so in privacy, so as not to give away the secret. There are too many workers now and too many to few positions to be held, most people in the community just roll the dough and have little to no hope of moving up in rank. The hierarchy has become rigid and only the managers have a say in what types of pizza are to be made, with Ritchies final approval of course. One day Ritchie wakes up to begin his daily routine and meets someone he had never seen working on the commune and to his surprise it’s his old friend from college, Tom. The two recognize each other and in shock greet each other happily. Tom tells Ritch how he managed to survive the apocalypse and Ritch tells him. As Ritchie gets halfway through the story, Tom realizes he is talking to the pizza king himself. In shock, Tom says “Wait, you’re that pizza guy!”, “I’ve got so many great toppings I want to suggest”. Having heard this many times before, Ritch does the best he can to be kind and listen to his friend, knowing that it is likely impossible that the pizzas he suggested will ever become popular. 

The way the pizza society functions, it is very difficult for the many lower class pizza workers suggestions to be heard and even more difficult for them to move up in rank. The pizza system is successful in terms of getting people fed, however the only kinds of pizza people can eat are cheese and pepperoni. This is something that has recently been bothering Ritchie and he goes to bed that night thinking about what he has created and what he has become. 

The next day Ritch wakes up and realizes what he has to do. Ritchie walks along the line of dough rollers and while doing so, drops a slip of paper on the floor with the secret ingredient written on it clearly in the open for anybody to find. 

Years later the exposed secret has led to great disorganization within the pizza community. All kinds of pizza can be seen being eaten everyday, no longer just cheese and pepperoni, people have been experimenting with extremely extravagant topics like, ketchup and pineapple, or apple and salmon. Richie no longer lives as a pizza king within the pizza society, he grew out his hair and wears a beard and nobody recognizes him. Richie wakes up everyday unknowing as to what kinds of pizza the community has in store for him and at any point in the day everything could change.

BEGINNING

Opens with Sylvius alone, getting ready for the day. He writes in his journal which shows the audience what the time/date system looks like for them, and how the Sylvans are keeping track of the time they’ve spent underground. Sylvius has been underground for nearly his entire life, and has very few memories of the above ground world. 

He leaves his room and begins to clean up after his brother, who has left things in places they shouldn’t be. He bumps into Aliyah in the common room, they exchange a few words, and she asks where Azrael is. Sylvius says he knows exactly where he is.

—

Scene from the night before:

Azrael is still at the bar, talking up his friend Codias who is serving drinks. Cody makes a comment about how he’s had enough, and Azrael humorously convinces him to pour another before the bar closes for the evening. There’s a brief scene of some Sylvan hooligans shapeshifting in the pub, which Cody has to kick out because shifting forms isn’t allowed in restaurants. 

Azrael comments on how he was “not able to score tonight”, and how he can’t go home sober, or not alone at least. Cody ends up walking him back to his room. 

—

back to the previous scene, Sylvius tells Aliyah he needs to speak privately with his brother. Bangs on Azrael’s door and shouts that it’s time to get up and get to work with the plans for the day. Imagery implies that Cody stayed the night with him. Azrael lazily dresses himself and meets Sylvius in the common room. Aliyah waits outside. 

Sylvius reprimands Azrael over his drunken laziness. Azrael acts distant, not wanting to hear it from him again. He responds by pulling an advanced fighting move on his younger brother, knocking him to the floor. He tells Sylvius that he shouldn’t be so aggressive, because he didn’t live through the Scourge like Azrael did.

—

cut to a flashback of The Scourge occurring for the first time. It possesses people and makes them do terrible things, and it also agitates the local wildlife which happens to be monster-like creatures. Azrael and Sylvius lost their parents, and Azrael lost his wife. Sylvius was only a few years old. Azrael’s quick thinking rescues his baby brother and takes him far away. They meet with other refugees who find them, and they find their escape route underground. The brothers are the only surviving members of the royal family.

—

cut back, Sylvius leaves the common room with a bruise on his face from the confrontation. Aliyah asks how the conversation went, sees his face, and says she assumes it didn’t go well. Sylvius brushes it off and the two leave together to head for the meeting room where they will plan strategies.

After they’re gone, Cody looks out the door carefully and then leaves back for his own room. He has an emotional moment alone; the reasons why are left up to the reader to speculate.

THE HUMANS

A scout team reports back stating that human naval ships have docked on the island. The king and prince go out with a group to investigate, and are met with immediate hostility. The person in charge has one of the background characters killed out of fear. They have never seen Sylvans before and think it’s some secret military organization. They want to take Sylvius in for interrogation and leverage, but The Scourge attacks before they can. Most of the humans are wiped out, and those remaining are forced to join the Sylvans underground.

Sylvius welcomes them cautiously and designates a portion of the shelter for the remaining humans. He has a conversation with Sage about how things work around here.

SAGE

Sage was a higher up in the military force of humans. She ends up hanging around the main group (Sylvius, Azrael, Aliyah) and becomes friends with them. 

The group has a gathering at one point, in one of the bars in the underground sanctuary. They all laugh and have a good time despite the struggles they’re going through. This brings them closer together.

Sage teaches them all a lesson in human combat. They all have a training session with her.

Sage talks with Aliyah about her feelings of inadequacy, and gives her some confident advice.

—

Working with the humans now, Sylvius, Azrael, and Aliyah get together with Sage to discuss the next rescue mission. They have to send a troop aboveground to rescue handfuls at a time of those who were left behind. Sylvius insists on going this time, which Azrael discourages. In the end all four of them end up going, but Sylvius gets left behind due to The Scourge possessing him. The other three can’t do anything to stop it unless they kill him, which they don’t want to do, so they leave to regroup. Aliyah and Sage have to try really hard to convince Azrael to leave him.

Azrael explodes over this when they return, and Sage has to pull him together so that they can make a plan to get Sylvius back.

—

When they finally go to get Sylvius back, he’s a mess. Not only is he now dealing with the mental and emotional aftermath of being possessed, but in his mind, they abandoned him, and he remains bitter for what he had to suffer through alone.

—

Sylvius and Azrael are getting ready for battle, backs turned to each other, having a heated argument in almost complete silence. Neither has the energy to raise their voice, but vicious words are thrown. They enter the battlefield with unresolved problems.

FINAL FACE OFF

Armed and ready, the Sylvans and the humans march in to the old settlement, now overrun. Weapons brandished, they start fighting against possessed creatures and people, careful to only knock out any possessed individuals and not kill them.

At one point near the end, The Scourge possesses Azrael and goes after Sage. Sylvius fights Azrael and attempts to knock him unconscious but can’t seem to do it. Azrael is too skilled. The Scourge, through Azrael, tells Sylvius that he needs to kill Azrael, or else it will make Azrael kill Sage.

In the moment of truth, Sylvius is given no choice and shoots a fatal blow at his brother, who, before The Scourge leaves him, it makes him kill Sage anyways. Azrael is conscious for his final moments and apologizes to Sylvius for not being a better brother. Sylvius stops him and apologizes himself before his brother dies.

Sylvius and Aliyah are left alone to lead the settlement. All they really have is each other now. She has to be his voice of clarity and reason and talk him down from ending his own life. Somebody refers to him as “king” and he shouts at them.

The story ends with Sylvius staring in his bathroom mirror. He stares into his own eyes, not recognizing the person behind them. He punches the mirror out, shakes the blood from his hand, and draws his weapon. The final scene is of him sobbing and holding it, leaving what happens ambiguous for the reader to decide.