Uphill

Uphill is the fifth chapter of Season One. It marks the first appearance of Dane's mother, Lois Young.

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“What do you mean you don’t do extra thick crust anymore? What, you’re even out of anchovies?! Bullshit!” Mr. White slammed down the phone. “For crying out loud!” He turned to see Ezra standing there, in the middle of the kitchen. “Oh, Ezra. How hard is it to get a pizza nowadays?”

“How hard is it to get a decent paying job? Why can’t we have something other than takeaway...” Ezra packed his bag and headed for the door.

“Hey, when mum gets home from work in a week, I’m sure she’ll at least give us a week’s allowance for good food... And hey, where are you going at this time?”

“Dane’s,” Ezra responded.

“Hey! No! Don’t go, buddy. Th-there’s some baked beans in the cupboard!”

“I just want to see Dane.”

“No, you want to go and get dinner over his house.”

Ezra closed the front door behind him without looking back at his dad. His dad didn’t like him leaving on Thursday nights, as he needed him to moderate his drinking, since he tended to get a little too tipsy, almost landing himself a divorce when he broke one of his wife’s expensive ornaments. Ezra’s mum was required to work away, with only a week’s break every three weeks, for a large poultry business she owned. She was a high level manager, who was paid really well. Ezra often wondered why they didn’t just move closer to her work, and why his mum didn’t force him to study remotely, but he tried to limit this wondering, the thought of living in an isolated area, and having no social life, scared Ezra. Not so much recently, not with Muhammad, he wanted to get as far away from the place as possible.

“So you think you can do it? Stop him...?” said Dane, looking at the floor.

“Bananas dipped in caramel?” Mrs. Young called, standing in Dane’s doorway.

“It’s okay, mum, the pears dipped in vanilla filled me up a little.”

“Okay, hun, and Ezra, is there anything you would like? I can help you with anything.”

Ezra stared out the window for a moment.

“You look like you’re about to steal the car,” said Dane. “What’s up?”

“It’s a very nice car,” grinned Mrs. Young. “Here’s my keys if you want to take it for a test drive.”

Dane and Ezra looked at each other and smirked.

“Could you give us a lift to the local gun store?”

“Sure thing, hun, as long as you’re doing good!”

Mrs.Young skipped off to her room to get her coat, and lead the two boys to the car. “Nothing like a good old drive to the gun store, huh?”

Three-quarters through the drive, Mrs. Young drove over a pile of nails that had fallen off the front of a trailer in front, giving the car a flat tire. “Oh, diddums! I forgot to renew my car insurance as well...”

“Just use dad’s,” said Dane. “Hey, it’s one and a half kilometres there, we’ll walk!”

“Okay, dears, just don’t get raped on the way there!”

Dane and Ezra hopped out of the car, landing on hard gravel. And a bull ant’s nest.

“Ah god!” Ezra moaned, and stepped back, onto the road.

“Whoa, careful, bro, you almost got hit by that black sedan there!”

“Black se-”

Before Ezra could finish, a puff of smoke from the back of Mrs. Young’s car went into his face.

“Sorry about that,” said Dane apologetically. “My mum..”

“Is being herself?” Ezra interrupted.

“Well, she said the prices of mushrooms had gone up quite a bit, so she asked her seedy friend of hers where she could get them discounted. Her friend said they weren’t discounted, but she could give her more “bang for her buck”. She says they are magic mushrooms...?”

“Ah, okay. No need to explain any further.”

The two stood there for a couple minutes, as Ezra wiped the smoke residue off himself, and had a drink of water from his bag.

“Right, so let’s just have a nice walk and not worry about anything. EXCEPT THAT TERRORIST BEHIND YOU!!!” Dane screamed.

“AHH! WHERE?!?!” Ezra cried, looking in all directions.

“HAHAHAHA!! FOOLED YOU!” Dane laughed.

Ezra slapped Dane in the face. “That was not funny!”

The two walked on to the shop, which seemed three kilometres, even further, away as it was uphill. Dane looked at his watch. It was 4:55 PM, the shop closed at 5PM. “Damn it, new closing hours!”

Dane’s eyes widened. “Well, we better make a run for it then!”

The two ran and arrived for the shop, luckily finding no attendant outside locking the doors. But no attendant at the counter either. And nothing on the shelves.

“Well, I got my fake facial hair, and my dad’s gun licence, we’re all set to go. Wait outside.”

Within thirty seconds, Dane had come back outside. “That was quick. Where’s the gun and the bulletproof vest?” asked Ezra.

“There’s no stock... it’s all been taken. Come in and look at these marks on the shelves, it looks like they were forced out.”

“Hang on, this can’t be right, if they were knocking this place down it wouldn’t just be open like this...” Ezra asked. It’s then that he glanced at the counter and saw violent marks indented in the top of it.

“Someone has been here...”

Characters

 * Ezra White
 * Dane Young
 * Damon White
 * Lois Young

Trivia

 * Ashton Butch's blood appears in this chapter.
 * This is one of Morganaforever's favourite episodes.