<div style="text-align: center">《 REBEL AKERS 》<br/>
<i>Abendblume Community</i><br/>
<div class="bbCodeSpoiler">
<button class="bbCodeSpoiler-button button" data-xf-click="toggle" data-xf-init="tooltip" title="Click to reveal or hide spoiler" type="button"><span class="button-text">
<span>Spoiler</span>
</span></button>
<div class="bbCodeSpoiler-content">
<div class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--spoiler">
<div class="bbCodeBlock-content"><div class="bbImageWrapper js-lbImage" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-single-image="1" data-src="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/attachments/12-jpg.120992/" title="12.jpg">
<img alt="12.jpg" class="bbImage lazyload" data-src="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/attachments/12-jpg.120992/" data-url="" data-zoom-target="1" height="600" src="data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='400' height='600' viewBox%3D'0 0 400 600'%2F%3E" style="width: 136px" title="12.jpg" width="400"/>
<noscript><img alt="12.jpg" class="bbImage" data-url="" data-zoom-target="1" height="600" src="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/attachments/12-jpg.120992/" style="width: 136px" title="12.jpg" width="400"/></noscript>
</div></div>
</div>
</div>
</div></div><div class="bbImageWrapper bbImageAligned--left js-lbImage" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-single-image="1" data-src="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/attachments/640px-hoyeon_jung_milan_fashion_week_autumn_winter_2019-jpg.120993/" title="640px-Hoyeon_Jung_Milan_Fashion_Week_Autumn_Winter_2019.jpg">
<img alt="640px-Hoyeon_Jung_Milan_Fashion_Week_Autumn_Winter_2019.jpg" class="bbImage lazyload" data-src="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/attachments/640px-hoyeon_jung_milan_fashion_week_autumn_winter_2019-jpg.120993/" data-url="" data-zoom-target="1" height="600" src="data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='400' height='600' viewBox%3D'0 0 400 600'%2F%3E" style="width: 112px" title="640px-Hoyeon_Jung_Milan_Fashion_Week_Autumn_Winter_2019.jpg" width="400"/>
<noscript><img alt="640px-Hoyeon_Jung_Milan_Fashion_Week_Autumn_Winter_2019.jpg" class="bbImage" data-url="" data-zoom-target="1" height="600" src="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/attachments/640px-hoyeon_jung_milan_fashion_week_autumn_winter_2019-jpg.120993/" style="width: 112px" title="640px-Hoyeon_Jung_Milan_Fashion_Week_Autumn_Winter_2019.jpg" width="400"/></noscript>
</div>"Oh,<i>fuck you</i>, Rebel!" Sou-yeon flipped a dark strand of hair over her shoulder as she heaved a handful of clothes in his direction. "You don't own me! I don't have to tell you<i>everything!" </i>Her full lips and the exotic slant to her deep brown eyes did nothing to hide the scorn she was feeling for her boyfriend. Or maybe he was her ex-boyfriend now, he didn't quite know.<br/><br/>But that was what seemed to earmark their relationship. Rebel never really knew when a fight would lead to fucking, or fucking would lead to having his truck set on fire or his wallet shredded because she thought that he gave another influencer too many 'likes.' It used to be exciting to date someone so unpredictable. Now it felt like he had been married to her for decades, and each breath just got harder and harder to take.<br/><br/>"Damn it, Sou! All I want to know is where you slept last night!" He caught the thrown jeans against his chest and stepped out of the way of the next flying object. The plate crashed against the wall, and internally Rebel knew that it was coming out of his earnings for the month. Those things couldn't be ordered on Amazon anymore. There was no Amazon except the forest, and Walmart was as much a thing of the past as filling up gas at the local Exxon or going out to dinner and dancing with friends.<br/><br/>Plus he didn't need to give Mr. Hale any reason to reconsider his decision to finally 'allow' Rebel to work for the community on the outside of the fences. There had been a time when the man dodging thrown objects had seriously thought that he and Sou would be thrown to the wolves. After all, there was no 'law' to enforce any longer, and Rebel's role as a cop no longer had meaning. If anything, he had been a threat to the order that the businessman was trying to set for this sanctuary in a world of chaos.<br/><br/>Right now, chaos seemed to be focused in a five-foot nine woman weighing no more than a buck ten.<br/><br/>"I don't have to tell you<i>anything</i>!" she shrilled. "Get out of my sight! I'm sick of you!"<br/><br/>"Damn it! I have to go to work, Sou." He stepped back as she grabbed a lamp stand in two hands, holding it like a weapon. Rebel dropped his clothes outside the doorway as the woman he had been dating for the last four years, the woman he had dutifully taken photos of for her livestream fans, Tik Tok and Instagram followers, stalked towards him like she was about to take his head off. "We'll talk about this tonight."<br/><br/>"We talk about this never!" she slammed the door so hard the air puffed against his skin. From behind the door he heard her cursing in Korean. The sound of things breaking filtered through the thin walls, and he felt badly for their neighbors.<br/><br/>At first this had been just a room they had rented. Now it was 'home.' He didn't think she would ever forgive him for talking her into coming out here to ski, rather than going to Hawaii for the holidays. There had been too many days when the topic had come up and she reminded him that they could be eating coconuts and pineapple on the beach instead of stuck out here in 'bum fuck nowhere.' He could hear it in her angry, more-heavily accented tone.<i>"Bum fluck nowhair."</i><br/><br/>And when the internet went out, she had<i>really</i>gotten pissed.<br/><br/>But it had been so long ago that their previous life seemed like the echo of a dream. This was their reality now; a small community led by a self-imposed 'mayor' who had simply been fortunate enough to have owned a resort stocked with its own staff of security. That security had quickly decided what they could and couldn't do.<br/><br/>"Hey, Akers!" One of the custodians was hurrying past. The man glanced at the pile of clothes, then back at the brown-eyed outer perimeter scout. "Mr. Hale called a meeting this morning. Better get a move-on."<br/><br/>Rebel skedaddled and made it into the huge lobby just as Hale announced that he hoped those chosen would start a family.<br/><br/><i>"What is this, some kind of forced marriage pairing?" </i>Rebel slid between two other men standing along the back wall. His eyes swept the room, and he noticed an unusual number of armed guards stationed in strategic locations. It looked like most of the settlement were gathered here. As Hale began to read, a feeling of unease crept along Rebel's neck. He knew most of the names well.<br/><br/>They were the old, the singletons who were beyond childbearing age, or those whose skills did not exactly turn a 'profit' in the community. Rebel's eyes flicked to the twins when their names were read.<br/><br/><i>"That doesn't make sense," </i>he thought.<i>"Anise helps out where she's asked, and Ezra's a cop, like me." </i>True, they were different, but law enforcement was still part of their job description. He felt himself grow cold when he heard Sou-yeon's name read, then a few others who had skills that didn't exactly translate into survival. A pianist, a writer, and an older woman who had bred and shown countless champion Springer Spaniels was on that list.<br/><br/>The names continued. When Hale spoke Kennedy McLaughlin's name, Rebel frowned. Surely they needed teachers? Kennedy was a teacher, even if his normal topic wasn't exactly grade-school material, they needed someone who could teach the kids, didn't they? Then their titular mayor put away his list and Kennedy yelled across the hall. For a moment it seemed like chaos would erupt. It almost did when Carla, bless her soul, called Hale a fucking idiot.<br/><br/>Had it not been such an extremely unexpected event it would have been funny. As it was, Rebel felt his stomach clench and a cold hardness settle against his sternum. Why wasn't he called? Had he been called, and missed it?<br/><br/>But no guards came for him, and as the hallway dispersed, people murmuring among themselves or crying on each other's shoulder, he felt nothing but emptiness inside. He stepped out into the morning sun and moved aside so people could get by. Many of those who had been called were older, poorer people who had been fortunate enough to find this place before they were dragged down by the dead.<br/><br/>He didn't know how to feel about hearing Sou's name called. He loved her, or thought that he did. Surely he must if he had put up with her fits over the last year or so. Most of the time he forgave it by telling himself that anyone would be struggling after the world upended itself the way it had. Surely, with her presence online and all her connections severed, it was understandable that she would be feeling lost. If she lashed out, at least she lashed out at him, who she knew would stand by her even at her worst. Wasn't that what love did?<br/><br/>Two of Hale's security approached him, and for a moment he thought that this was it; they had come to tell him he was on the list and he needed to pack.<br/><br/>"Where's Seo-yeon Kwon?" one demanded.<br/><br/>It took a moment for him to realize they weren't after him at all. "She's still in bed," he lied. "Room 223." Despite it all, he still fell into hierarchies of rank. Yes, they weren't military or legal law enforcement, but out here they were the law. "Hey – how did he come up with the list?"<br/><br/>The other guard eyed him suspiciously. Then he sneered as he began to turn away. "Don't ask too many questions, Akers. Just be glad you earned your way into staying on the inside."<br/><br/>Rebel watched them walk away, presumably to go give Sou the news. How in the world had he 'earned' his way? Maybe it was because he was one of the few who were willing to go out in scouting parties and find whatever provisions they could find? He had no idea, but he knew that if he didn't figure something out quick, last night would not be the only night he spent without his girlfriend. And by the looks of those who had been chosen, they weren't going to make it for long outside these walls.