Bits & Pieces (Benny Imura 5)

1.

Flashback continues. Vertical sword panel. The orientation of the panel now shifts all the way across the page so that it hugs the right-hand side of the page. The blade is completely bloody, and the glistening blood reflects the image of a horde of zombies. Rotting fingers with broken nails begin to intrude into the panel.

2.

Flashback continues. Tom and Benny abandon the dead car.

CAPTION: WHEN THEY NUKED THE CITIES, THEY DIDN’T STOP THE ZOMS. BUT THE EMPS KILLED ALL THE POWER.

CAPTION: THE WORLD WENT DEAD TOO.

3.

Flashback continues. They pass a crashed Black Hawk helicopter.

CAPTION: THE DEAD ROSE.

CAPTION: WE FELL.

4.

Flashback continues. Benny sits on the ground, still crying, as Tom fights two living men?

??one with a club, the other with a sledgehammer.

CAPTION: PEOPLE WENT CRAZY, OR THEY TURNED BAD ’CAUSE THEY THOUGHT IT WAS THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE.

CAPTION: EXCEPT TOM. HE ALWAYS HELD ON TO WHO AND WHAT HE WAS.

5.

Flashback continues. Tom, in his thirties now, and a teenage Benny train together. Tom has the steel sword that Benny will carry throughout the series; Benny has a plain wooden bokken.

CAPTION: TOM FOUND US A HOME. HE HELPED BUILD A TOWN. HE KEPT PEOPLE SAFE. HE HELPED THEM WANT TO BE ALIVE.

CAPTION: WHEN I WAS OLD ENOUGH, HE STARTED TEACHING ME HOW TO BE TOUGH, AND FAIR, AND HONORABLE.

CAPTION: LIKE HIM.

PAGE 7:

* * *

1.

Flashback ends. Benny stands up to put on his carpet coat. (This is designed like an Old West duster, but made of thick carpet. It hangs down past Benny’s knees.)

CAPTION: NOW HE’S GONE. I HAD A CHOICE. BE WEAK AND DIE BEHIND A FENCE. OR GET TOUGH. TO BECOME WARRIOR SMART LIKE TOM.

CAPTION: AT FIRST I DIDN’T WANT TO.

CAPTION: NOW I KNOW I HAVE TO.

2.

We look past him down the hill. There’s a small cottage there with an overgrown front yard. There are two zombies in the yard. An old man and a young woman. He wears farmer’s overalls. She wears the remnants of a waitress’s uniform.

CAPTION: THERE ARE MAYBE THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE LEFT ALIVE. THAT WE KNOW OF.