KEEP RUNNING: March 2014

*The scene opens with Jace closing his door and locking it. His breathing is heavy, and he is visibly shaken by the news of the outbreak. He turns away from the door only to be startled by his mother.*

"Jace, what is going on?"

"I don't know...just make sure all the doors are locked. Turn the news on. I need to lay down," he says, as he starts to turn away from her, heading down a hallway.

*Jace makes his way to his room. As Jace opens his door the view switches from behind him to his own point of view. We see everything from his eyes. He wanders around his room a bit, closing his blinds, looking around. The view is mostly of white walls, only partially covered by Vans Skateboard Posters, and a big Django Unchained movie poster in the corner parallel to his bed. Jace lays down, covers his face with his hands and sighs. He rolls over and plugs in the walkie. Jace turns the walkie on as it sits on the charger. He checks his phone and looks at the time. It is now 12:55pm. Jace lays back, grabs a pillow, grips it tight, as his breathing gets heavier, and his eyelids start to close, as we fade to black.*

*A gunshot rings out loudly, as Jace is startled. His eyes open, and we see the act of him getting up. The view goes from his eyes back to looking at him. He gets up, grabs a backpack, and makes sure he grabs the walkie and the charger and puts them in the bag.*

*Jace starts to collect other things from his room; a knife, an aluminum baseball bat, a few bandannas, a wrap, etc. Jace then walks out of his room, the view now on him from behind as he walks down that dark hallway. His mother looks at him, a worried look on her face. We can't hear anything anymore, as Jace's mother says something to him. Jace puts a hand on her shoulder and turns to the right, making his way to the front door. His mother tries to pull him back, but he unlocks the door and continues on. He unlocks his car with the remote control, gets in it and drives away.

He tries to use the walkie, realizing that the button is broken. He sighs and mouths the word 'fuck'. Jace continues to drive, as he is looking around, seeing the sights of walkers and people fighting on the streets, overturned cars, small fires, and people ransacking places for supplies. A montage starts of Jace's stops, making his way into gas stations, super markets, sporting good stores, collecting as many supplies as he can, filling his car up.

We get a shot of him leaving a gas station, his bat covered in blood. He closes the car door as we cut to another scene. Jace is now driving, blood on his grey shirt, wiping off sweat from his brow as he pulls up to another small store. Jace exits the car and immediately swings his bat. The scene cuts to a walker on the ground, his head bashed in, bleeding heavily, as we see Jace's legs, Jace walking towards the store as we see his silhouette swing away at another walker. Jace continues on his path, not stopping for anything. We cut to another scene, Jace is now sitting in his car, drinking Powerades and eating Pop Tarts, as he checks his phone. He tries to use it, apparently calling someone, but it's not working. He gets frustrated and throws his phone to the back seat, as we see his screen flashing 'Call Failed' with Art's name right above it.

Jace drives down an empty street, going at least 80. Jace stops at a gas station and begins to pump some gas into a few gallon jugs. Jace starts to stack them up in the back of his car, looking around, being alert, in case any walkers try to attack.

Jace then gets in his car and drives off. We see him heading down some familiar streets, as he pulls up in front of Art's house. He knocks on the door, no answer. He looks at the driveway and sees the skid-marks.

We cut to Jace pulling up in front of his house, seeing the door cracked open. He grips his baseball bat and walks in. He walks down the hallway, checking every room as he walks past. He goes into his room, looks around, grabs a few more things and walks out. Jace then heads down the hallway to the living room, where he finds his mother hanging from the ceiling.

She has a note taped to her chest reading, 'I'm sorry Jace. I wasn't strong enough.' Jace looks down, sighs, grips his bat, and starts to walk out the front door. Right before Jace exits the house he stops, lifts his head up and says, "Bye, Mom," and walks out the front door towards his car.*

*The scene quickly changes to Jace's face. His face is covered in blood and dirt, and we can hear him breathing heavily. As the scene begins to pull back we see that Jace is walking down a tattered and war-torn street. walkers are around him, feeding on corpses. Jace continues to walk down the road with a blank look on his face, as the angle continues to be on him. We can see his car in the background, doors closed, supplies intact. He grips the aluminum baseball bat tight, continuing on his path. Jace walks past a walker, feeding on what appears to be a little girl. Jace walks past, looking down at it, and continues on his path. The walker gets up and attacks Jace, only to be tripped up by Jace. Jace then swings his bat down at it's head, smashing it in with one hard swing. Jace continues on, as the angle starts to sway to the side. We start to notice other cars and walkers. The scene suddenly reveals that Jace is in a parking lot. We start to see smoke filling the air, as Jace's expression changes. The angle pulls back and we see Bass Pro Shop in flames. Art's black truck pulls out of the parking lot quickly, as Jace looks over at it.

"Jace, it's Art again. If you can hear me, we are going to Antioch. Walkie me as soon as you can." Jace pulls the walkie out of his pocket, and throws it at the burning Bass Pro Shop. Jace notices a man in a hooded sweatshirt looking at the burning building. The man looks at Jace then walks away. The expression on his face changing from worried to angry, as he grips his baseball bat and walks into the store.*

"The Last Pale Light In The West" by Ben Nichols

*A single tear runs down Jace's face, but he quickly wipes it off. He sees a walker feeding on an old man. The walker stands up and heads towards him. Jace grips the bat tight, grits his teeth, mutters, "Fuck you," and swings away. We see an angle of the walker falling down, it's head beaten in, as we see Jace's legs walking deeper into the store. We get a montage of Jace killing walkers as he screams. The scene changes to Jace standing in the burning store, breathing heavily, surrounded by the walkers that he has killed out of his fit of rage. He collapses, trying to catch his breath, baseball bat in hand as his body is sprawled across the corpses of the walkers. He looks to his left and notices something. Jace picks it up; it's a crossbow. Jace smiles, straps it to his back and walks down an isle, collecting arrows.

The scene cuts to Jace inside of the archery room. He is practicing with the crossbow. There is a walker against the archery wall, arrows through his arms and chest, holding him up against the wall. The walker snarls at Jace, trying to get free. The glass door behind Jace is shut, but we can see at least a dozen walkers pressed up against the glass, groaning, knocking on the glass, as Jace smiles, reloads, and shoots again, hitting the walker straight through the head.

The scene changes to see the walkers that were standing by the glass door of the archery room all slain, each one of them with arrow holes in their heads. The scene pulls out, and we see Jace collecting guns and ammo, putting them into his backpack. Jace then picks up a machete, smiling still, he tucks it into his belt and walks down the isle.

Jace starts to walk down another isle as he sees a big burly man, a single gunshot through his head. Jace sighs, steps over him, and picks up a hat that was on a rack next to him. He puts the hat on, tips his hat to the dead man, smiles, and walks towards another isle.

We see Jace leaving the store with a cart full of supplies as Bass Pro continues to burn down in the background. The scene cuts to see him driving off, the cart empty and knocked over. We see Jace from the side, smiling, rolling down his window and tossing out the walkie charger.

We see shot after shot of Jace going into houses, collecting what he can. The town seems to be abandoned now, as nothing is left but turned over and abandoned cars, half-eaten bodies, and walkers. Jace is walking down the road, as he walks past the cemetery. He looks over, seeing walkers in the lot. He grips his crossbow and hops the fence. Jace walks up to the first walker, takes aim, and shoots him clear through his skull. The scene cuts to Jace sitting on a tombstone drinking a beer as walker corpses are scattered across the lot. Jace has a smile on his face as he lays back, looking up at the sky, leaves rustling around him in the breeze. He takes another swig of his beer, and leaves around half of the bottle full right next to the tombstone. Jace gets up, dusts himself off, looks at the tombstone, and says, "Bye, Pops," as Jace walks away, the angle pulls out to see the name Joseph Olivine, as Jace hops the fence and walks back to his car.*

*The scene changes to Jace sitting in his car. He is looking down at the wheel, as he lifts his head and looks to his left. The angle pulls back to see his house. Jace walks in and sees his mother still hanging from the ceiling, now turned into a walker. He loads his crossbow, sighs, and says, "You were strong enough...just not for this. I'm sorry, Mom." Jace shoots an arrow through her head, killing her. He starts to pull on the arrow a bit, then hesitantly decides to leave it there. "I'm so sorry," Jace says, as he starts to walk down the hallway.*

*Jace makes his way to his room, collecting more supplies. He fills his backpack with more stuff, rummaging through drawers and his closet. Jace makes his way out of his room and down the hallway, he looks at his mother again, puts his hand on her, looks down and walks out of the house. Jace sits on the steps in front of his house. He looks up to the sky and says, "What the fuck do I do now? What the hell am I supposed to do? Huh?! They say you have a plan for everyone. Is this what's supposed to happen?!?" Jace covers his face, sighing. He fights back the tears as he lays back on the steps. He winces a little, reaching back into his pocket as his phone pokes him. He pulls his phone out and looks at it, realizing that he has a text that he hasn't read yet. Jace looks at a text message; one message from him reading "Where are you?", a reply saying, "I'm at the church on Union." He tries to reply, but the phone flashes "NO SERVICE." Jace grits his teeth, gets up, puts his phone back in his pocket, gets in his car and speeds off.

The scene quickly changes to Jace standing in front of the church. Jace slowly walks up the steps, as he hears walkers groaning. He turns and quickly shoots one through the head. He takes out his machete and kills another as a large group heads towards him. Jace kills them off one by one.

Jace, finally able to catch his breath sees another group of walkers heading at him from the other side of the church. Just as Jace prepares himself for this group of walkers the church doors open up and a hoard of walkers starts to head towards him. "Holy fuck..." Jace starts to fight them off, killing as many as he can by himself. He hits another one with the machete but it gets stuck in it's head as the walker falls down. "Shit!" Jace says, as he tries to reload his crossbow. He can't reload in time so he swings away with it, hitting one walker into another, then he quickly swings at another walker heading towards him. Jace starts getting pushed back as we see a walker putting his hands on Jace, opening his mouth and leaning in to bite Jace's shoulder. We hear a gunshot ring out as the walker falls back to the floor. Jace looks over to his left and sees an older gentleman, shooting at the walkers. The two now battling the hoard as we see even more survivors hitting walkers with bats, hammers, and knives.

"There are survivors in the church!" The older gentleman yells, as he shoots down even more walkers.

"I got it!" Jace says, pushing walkers away, smashing their heads in with his crossbow.

Jace busts into the church, running down the isles, shooting at any walkers that are around. He kicks a walker that's in his way and boot stomps it on a pew. He looks up and sees a group of survivors hiding in the confessional box, surrounded by walkers. He runs towards them and begins to fight the walkers off one by one. He shoots one through the head, the velocity of the arrow jerking the walker's head back as the arrow goes through another walker's head. Jace grabs the cup of holy water and throws it in the face of another walker. Nothing happens as Jace shrugs and says, "Worth the try," as he aims the crossbow and shoots through it's head. He hits another walker with the crossbow and he sets the crossbow down and takes out his knife. He stabs a walker through the head as it starts to take Jace down as it collapses. Jace tries to get the walker's arms off of him, but the death grip is too much as the walker dies from the stab wound. Another walker starts to approach, snarling at Jace as the walker opens her mouth, leaning in to bite Jace's neck. Jace starts to groan, trying his hardest to break free from the walker's death grip as he gets his left hand free. He pushes the walker away from him, his palm pushing against her neck as she continues to snarl. Jace loses his footing and the walker lunges in, mouth open ready to bite Jace, then suddenly an arrow goes through her head. The snarling walker falls down, revealing a girl standing with Jace's crossbow. Jace gets the other walker's death grip off of him and stands up.*

*Jace stands up, dusts himself off, and pulls the arrow out of the walker's head that nearly killed him. He puts his hat back on, looks at the girl with his crossbow, smiles, tips his hat and says, "Hey little troublemaker." The girl sets the crossbow down, smiles and says, "Hey big troublemaker. Took you long enough." The girl smiles as Jace walks over towards her. Jace wraps his arms around her, picks her up, spins her around, and then kisses her. A single tear running down Jace's cheek as the two embrace. The kiss is finally broken, and the two stare into each other's eyes as the rest of the survivors in the church start to surround them. We see the older gentleman walk up to Jace and hand him his machete. The scene ends with the view pulling away from the survivors, out of the church, seeing the carnage that these people just went through, as bodies scatter pews, empty isles, and the church steps.

The scene is quickly focused on the sunny day, as leaves start to fall off of trees, rustling in the breeze. The scene is switched to leaves rustling on the road, behind Art's truck. The scene changes into the inside of Art's truck, as Art is in the driver's seat, and Ash in the front passenger's seat.*

"Are you okay?" Art asks, as he looks over at Ash.

"Why do you always ask me that?" Ash asks, looking over at Art.

"I just want to make sure you're alright." Art says, taking his eyes off of the road for a second to look at Ash.

Ash starts to smile a little, taking a swig of her Powerade. "I'm fine. Thank you." Ash smiles, and looks at Art.

Art smiles back, saying, "You're almost home."

Ash looks into the back seats of the truck, as Zero and Katniss are curled and cuddled up. Ash continues to smile, takes another drink, looks at Art as her facial expression starts to change. "I know."

*Art looks at Ash, smiles, and looks back at the road, as the scene pulls out of the truck, to behind it, watching as the truck drives on down the road, leaves still being kicked up as the sun starts to set.*

Music From This Episode:

"The Last Pale Light In The West"

Ben Nichols

The Last Pale Light In The West EP

Monday, March 31, 2014

FREE DOWNLOAD: "The Last Pale Light In The West"

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Season 01, Episode 06: "Unchained"

Thursday, March 20, 2014

SPECIAL FREE DOWNLOAD: "The Beginning/28 Theme (Party Poison's Zombie Apocalyspe Remix)"