The Merciless King of Moore High by Lily Sparks
In a dizzying display of acrobatics, cheerleaders save Kay from a raging Grown. Kay is from Jefferson High, she was dropped off five miles away, hands tied because she knew too much. Now the cheerleaders are taking her in their jeep through a series of checkpoints to Moore High to see King Max, it is afterall, tribute day.
Moore High is the opposite of Jefferson High, but Kay had no idea anyone else had survived the nightmare day the Growns happened. Jefferson High has pacifist rules and barely any supplies, while at Moore High it looks like they’re readying for an outside concert and everyone is covered in weaponry. They even have dogs, though one is being terrorized by a jackass, Jimmy. Luckily the dog belongs to the Captain of the Guard, Brick, aka Slayer, a huge guy missing parts of his face, who teaches Jimmy a painful lesson. Kay can barely believe her eyes already, so seeing the gigantic skull of a Grown bolted over the doors of Moore High is completely unbelievable.
King Max is tall and narrow, unlike Brick, and decidedly unimpressed by Kay, ordering her to be put back where she was found, thinking she’s a spy from Jefferson. Kay explains that she was secretary of the Student Council, and worked with the president, vice president and eight student relations. She reports that Jefferson is starving to death, their president went on a scouting mission and didn’t return except no one knows this but the student council and she was tied up and dumped outside by their Scavenging Team captain to keep her quiet. Essentially, Kay is a political asylum seeker. Brick volunteers to babysit Kay, which suits King Max, but he declares she needs to face a Dragon in order to stay, and by Dragon, Kay assumes he means a Grown. How in the hell is she supposed to fight one of those things?!? King Max isn’t going to help, it's time for him to put on his crown and go get his shit tributes.
Kay follows King Max and his entourage, including Brick, to different classrooms where items are laid out for King Max to select his tribute from. In one, he looks over a Greek helmet recreation he'll use for crowning a Duke. What stands out most to Kay is that every room they visit has weapons and no one is hungry. As they get closer to the Auto Shop where a group called Los Martillos resides, Brick suggests Kay head to the cheerleaders’ room because Jimmy the jackass likes to hangout with Los Martillos. Instead, Kay decides to hang back to see how the boys club deals with Jimmy. As Kay is spying, listening to them talk about the incident with Jimmy, she notices the most beautiful guy called Leo who has zero respect for King Max; King Max likewise doesn’t care for Leo. Leo wants all raided auto parts to be sent to Los Martillos, but instead Max divides the group into three. All those numbered as threes, including Jimmy, are kicked out of Los Martillos, the twos have to clean the latrines, and the ones have to line up and punch Leo in the gut after Max throws the first punch. Classy.
In the cheerleaders’ room, Kay eats an entire KitKat, the first chocolate she’s had in nine months. The cheerleaders are great and they explain things they do at Moore like raiding (where they look for supplies) and expansion (making more safer areas and outer defenses to protect Moore). When they do an expansion, the whole school goes out together to kill dragons, and because dragons don’t go near their own dead, it gives time to expand their defenses. Kay also learns not to call Moore High or King Max “ren-faire crap” as everything he's done is based on his favorite game Echellion, which he takes very seriously. Soon King Max comes to the cheerleaders' room for his tithe and orders Brick to take Kay to the Cage which turns out to be Max’s treasure horde and inside is Brick’s room where Kay will stay. Brick offers her the bed to share with Frank the dog, and he goes to sleep on the roof.
A little while later, Kay is taken to meet Merlin. Merlin is a wheelchair bound wizard in one school's upper floor laboratories, and she has dinner! Kay dives into the food, and it’s the best meal she’s had in a long, long time. Eventually they’re joined by King Max and she asks how he brought down the dragon whose skull presides over the doors of Moore High. He was expelled and playing Echellion when he heard something weird and saw something weirder. His dad and all the adults in the neighborhood seemed to have a heart attack, their necks going weird, they fell to the ground and crawled backwards colliding with each other and coming together. He grabbed the crossbows from the garage and went after it, and together with Brick, they brought the monster down, but not before Brick lost part of his face.
Now, Max needs more information about Jefferson High and why Kay’s at Moore now. Basically, Jefferson’s generators are failing and Kyle, their president, made his regular check-in while out searching for help, but the generator was down so he couldn’t have made contact. Between Simon the vice president, Nirali the school's doctor and Kyle’s girlfriend, and Taylor the captain of the scavenge team, someone or all three are lying and trying to take control of Jefferson High. On Kay’s birthday, because the council likes to take precautions in case your eyes go blank, your body twists and you dissolve and reconstitute with other undead monsters into a giant corpse kaiju, Kay was supposed to be spending the night in the birthday room, aka basically locked in a cage. Instead she was bundled into a van and left to die outside Jefferson. Even though she was betrayed, Kay still tries to ask Max for supplies to share with Jefferson, but he gives her a resounding no to this request.
The next morning Kay wakes to breakfast and a note from Brick who’s arranged driving lessons for her in the Auto Shop. When she gets there, a mechanic goes through the different cars that she can trade for. One of them is the car Kyle took to find help and seeing it makes Kay’s head spin. When Leo approaches and says he’ll take her for her lesson, Kay’s head spins for a different reason. Leo takes them to a quiet area outside Moore High, and Kay word-vomits about her confusion about Kyle’s car. Leo admits that Kyle was at Moore a couple of weeks back, stayed for about four days and was gone. He ate and hung out with Max, Merlin and Brick who gave absolutely no hint about this to Kay. Kay is finding the entire situation bonkers, and Leo also confesses it is nuts but he’s grown used to it. He hates Max’s monarchy and remembers that this used to be the United States of America, and so do others including someone called Artemis who Kay may be interested in speaking to. They are, however, talking treason, so will need to meet quietly during her next driving lesson if they are to reclaim their republic.
When they get back to the Auto Shop, Brick is none too pleased Leo took Kay on her driving lesson. He’s come to collect her for dragon slaying lessons in the library, the bacon roll he’s brought her has her instantly capitulating. Brick tells her this is a placement test and the rest of the lessons will depend on how she does. It will be scary, she may get hurt but she’s been through worse.
Inside the library is dark, the windows have been boarded up and burning torches line the stacks. One of the cheerleaders, Stokes, hands Kay an air rifle, shows her how to use it and tells her to aim for the light bulbs, warns her not to get tagged and says the way out is at the top of the stairs. That’s when a Grown attacks. Well, it’s not an actual Grown, it’s the skeleton of one being puppeteered. Inside its skull are lightbulbs which Kay tries to shoot. A hiss comes from inside its jaws and Kay can smell spray paint which she avoids. In her mad dash to the top of the stairs using the banister instead of the actual steps, Kay drops the gun but escapes the library to the sounds of the cheerleaders clapping. One maim, one kill, no lightbulbs, and one dropped gun… but Kay is a climber which is a valuable skill.
While having a delicious full body bath in the pond with the cheerleaders, Kay spots some lights and people dancing. Heather, an intense theater kid, now known as Artemis, is leading a practice. She’s looking to upgrade to High Priestess Artemis apparently. As the theater kids head inside, Kay follows the group into the auditorium unseen and sneaks into a costume room just in time for Artemis and King Max to head in her direction. Of course just as she thinks she’s gotten away with being found, Frank comes bounding over for scratches and Brick pulls her from behind the peacoats. Well, shit.
Thankfully Brick covers for Kay, saying he sent her to the theater department to get clothes that fit. This is good because Kay isn't a good liar, she just starts blushing and grinning. Back at Brick’s room, they sit on his roof and bond over their favorite band, Coldest Lakes, while Brick makes dinner. On the horizon, a couple of Growns are battling and Kay wonders why? for food? but it just highlights again that she and the others at Jefferson know nothing about the Dragons. Brick says they don’t eat, they just kill. They can also see blue lights and cries of “Blue Knight” filter up from below. Brick snorts at this, he doesn’t believe there is a Blue Knight. At last Kay asks about Kyle’s car in the Auto Shop, Brick admits Kyle came through a couple of months ago and they swapped his car out. Kay does the math and works out that Kyle came through Moore before Simon and Nirali proposed the Rule, one they had to believe or else.
Meanwhile, at Jefferson, tension is running high. Kay is missed, maybe not by many, but she did have friends and they don’t believe the lie Simon is spreading that she walked out of her own accord. Nirali has read the letter Simon penned and it sounds nothing like their former council secretary, nor does the handwriting match. There is also descent, people are starting to break The Rule, to speak out about Kyle and how he’s not going to return. Everyone at Jefferson is starving and desperate, but Simon is also desperate to retain any thread of power he has and tells Nirali they can’t hold elections as neither would survive. They come to the realization that Kay’s idea she presented to them the night she “disappeared,” scavenging a Costco ten miles away, is a good one. Just then, the static of Kyle’s radio crackles to life.
Brick takes Kay outside to a house with an overflowing vegetable garden to gather food to trade for breakfast. While there, Brick niggles Kay about being a terrible liar which is demonstrated beautifully when he asks on a scale of one to ten, what she would rate him and Kay says one but really means nine. In a desperate escape to hide her cranberry blushing, Kay heads inside the house and sees an in progress waterwheel, the same one matching plans she saw on Brick’s bedroom walls. It’s genius and perfect, a work of art and function. Back at the school after collecting their breakfast, Kay tells Brick that Jefferson will be out of food by the end of the week. He says he’ll try and persuade Max to let him catapult some hot dogs to them or something. In the meantime, it’s time for Kay’s “driving lesson.”
The meeting with Artemis isn’t exactly what Kay was hoping for. First Artemis gives Kay Kyle’s inhaler she found in the costume room (his asthma was bad, but he wouldn’t go anywhere without it), then she finds out Kyle cheated on Nirali with Jessica on the King’s own bed, and it also seems like Leo and Artemis are more invested in taking down Max than finding out what happened to Kyle and helping Jefferson. Suddenly a deer jumps through a window followed by a hunting party. Artemis sneaks away while Leo grabs Kay and, with an apology, kisses her.
The kiss serves as the intended distraction. They finish their driving lesson and Leo takes Kay straight to the cheerleaders who help her train against the dragons and Kay starts to show improvement in hitting the lightbulb targets. As they’re eating lunch, the cheerleaders mention the kiss so Kay quizzes the cheerleaders about Jessica. Jessica is good friends with Brick and is Leo’s ex and their relationship was volatile. Jessica is part of the Theater Department and would go to sleazy parties thrown by King Max in the Principal's office all the time. Apparently Artemis made Jessica go to the sleazy parties because she’s got a crush on Leo and was trying to break them up. It’s complicated and it’s messy.
Later, Brick tells Kay he can’t catapult hot dogs until she joins a room and that’s at Max’s discretion. Also, at the urging of the cheerleaders, Kay goes to Merlin for some Lucid, a potion that will make her fearless for half a day. Merlin tells her sure, it’ll cost nothing as she wants to help her people, but she will take Kyle’s inhaler. GASP! Kay takes the bag of Lucid Merlin throws at her and flees back to Brick’s room. Brick has obviously heard about the kiss and is very disappointed in Kay. They fight about honesty and loyalty, and then Brick throws the Lucid off the roof, and things get pretty charged between them. Which is when Leo interrupts.
Leo has come to ask Kay to be part of Los Martillos as his girlfriend, and Kay is tempted by their pretend relationship if it will allow her to petition King Max to send food to Jefferson; however, she’d rather stay with Brick and tells Max this when he interrupts her and Leo. Max is on his way to the memorial in the auditorium which has been turned into a multi-faith space. It’s filled with candles and portraits of fallen heroes, and Max knows each of their names. He explains they died in the first heat, and Los Martillos will be the first heat of this expansion so Kay better consider Leo’s offer carefully.
Meanwhile, at Jefferson, Reese has been called to the council meeting to answer for her disloyal actions in the lunch line, insisting that Kay didn’t take her own life. Reese knows her friend and won’t back down even under threats of janitorial duty or no food for three days. At this, Reese snaps that she wants to destroy the rules because who is actually eating?! Where is Kyle who has been gone for so long without sending help or supplies but still radios twice a day?! The crowd outside bursts through the doors and picks up Reese’s words which spread like wildfire through the halls. Reese also states that Kay was planning a Costco run for supplies, but Tyler instantly tells Reese to shut up because he doesn’t want to risk his life going that far out, and then he and Simon square off as Tyler questions Simon’s authority. Nirali can see things getting out of hand and also realizes the truth of Kay’s disappearance. Nirali puts the Costco run to a council vote and it passes with only Simon against it. Tyler is screaming that they can’t make them go, but Nirali walks past him and whispers that she knows what he did to Kay and it’s either going to Costco or going on trial for murder. Costco it is!
The night before the expansion, Kay goes to meet Leo who has put her in the car with his best driver and also tried to keep her toward the back. Leo is also up for making-out, but Kay is not interested. As she walks back to Moore, Kay rescues a guy who got stuck under a car when his jack failed. He introduces himself as Starr but refuses any assistance to get back to Moore so Kay heads on her way. Back at Brick’s room, she and Frank go looking for Brick who was at the pre-party in the Principal’s office. He meets them back in his room where he asks if she actually like-likes Leo and Kay goes cranberry in an obvious sign that she’s lying when she says yes. There is some play-wrestling which builds the tension between them even though they don’t do anything but hold each other until the morning.
Kay gets into one of the cars in the third row and Brick gets into a truck at the front. The driver in her car gives Kay a pill called Drive since she hasn’t got any Lucid anymore. It’s a chaos of car engines, thrash metal music, and soon Growns. Kay, another mechanic climber and Amy the cheerleader are dropped off to climb high and take shots at the Grown from above. The building they try to get into is locked up tight so Amy and Kay start to climb a nearby tree. Amy is in the perfect position and as she takes a deep breath readying her shot, a second Grown swipes at the tree. The next thing Kay sees is Amy between the Grown’s teeth and then a mess of blood and limbs on the ground. That Grown disappears while the first is being attacked by the other Moore kids, so Kay is able to take a couple of shots at it before the second returns and starts battering the tree. She thinks quickly and climbs higher, and when the tree is felled, Brick appears in his truck, shoots the Grown, Kay climbs in and they speed off. They head toward the first Grown who is on the ground, Leo pulling an arrowhead from his body, blood squirting everywhere. The dragon has been slain.
Brick proclaims the kill for Leo and tells Kay to take a chainsaw to him. When Leo lifts it, the crowd goes wild. That’s when they scavenge the homes and businesses left empty since Before. Later, there is a memorial for Amy and another fallen student before Max proclaims Leo as Duke, gifting him a helmet and crossbow. Then they party, which Kay ducks out of in favor of finding Brick who is helping with the fence. As Kay, who is ignoring the person insistantly shouting at her that Leo wants her, is about to ask Brick something, and the tension in that three foot gap is HIGH, three massive Growns run straight for Moore’s gym.
Brick tells Kay to head to Merlin, but they are no sooner inside Moore when a crossbow bolt hits Brick in the thigh. With the help of one of Brick’s guards, they get him up to Merlin’s, but Merlin isn’t a doctor, she doesn’t know what to do. A few minutes later, Max comes in. He tells them the dragons are taken care of, but he can’t feel his arm. Again, Merlin isn’t a doctor, so she can’t help Max. Kay tells them Nirali is their best bet, and at sunrise, they can use Kyle’s ham radio to call her at Jefferson.
Tyler does not want to take Nirali to Moore despite their promise of food in exchange for her medical help. He lost seven people to the Costco run and they have nothing to show for it, but he gets into the car and they drive away from Jefferson. It’s not a smooth ride to Moore, they’re chased by Growns, driven off the road, have to dump their car and are rescued by the mysterious Blue Knight on a motorcycle before they make it behind Moore’s fences. Nirali is taken straight to Merlin and the seriously wounded. She quickly reunites with Kay and then has an antagonistic confrontation with Merlin, because realistically they are very similar people, but then she is shown their beautiful and magnificently stocked medical supplies.
Brick is getting worse and the arrowhead in his thigh has moved so they need to operate right away. Thankfully Brick's artery is nicked and not severed and they’re able to stabilize him, Nirali and Merlin working brilliantly together. After a blissful hot, scented bath and actual clean clothes, Merlin takes Nirali to the feast King Max is throwing in her honor where she meets Kay’s boyfriend, Duke Leo; Nirali is skeptical of their relationship especially as she left Kay asleep next to Brick.
Just as Nirali and Max are about to leave so she can inspect his arm wound, Kay comes into the auditorium and she’s pissed. Tyler is there too and not too pleased to see Kay. She asks Tyler who ordered her murder and, confirming Nirali’s suspicions, it was Simon. Tyler tries to throw the fruitless Costco runs back at Kay, but the accusations don’t really stick. Then Kay tells them that Kyle is dead and has been for at least six weeks since he came through Moore High, and on top of that, Nirali has been lying and punishing people at Jefferson for even questioning where Kyle is. If that's not enough, Kay then accuses King Max of covering up Kyle’s death the whole time.
TREASON! King Max shouts and guards take Kay away to the dungeons. Max repeats what he said happened, that Kyle came, stayed for a bit and was given a better car, so for her treason, since she is now a citizen of Moore, there will be a trial by combat. Leo stands up and pledges to be Kay’s champion. Max agrees then makes a sleazy remark about being alone with Nirali, but it's actually not for sexy time, he’s about to pass out from his wounds. In Max’s room, Nirali makes Max promise to stop the trial by combat before dealing with his dislocated elbow and stitching his wound and he agrees. There is, however, a long recovery and physiotherapy needed if he is to keep his sword arm working properly. Max proposes to Nirali, saying a royal wedding between Jefferson and Moore will distract everyone from the trial by combat. Nirali declines Max’s offer.
In her room, Merlin is waiting and tells Nirali about Kay finding Kyle’s inhaler and that someone is setting Kay up, so she took the inhaler and destroyed it. The next day Tyler is training in the empty swimming pool, having declared his allegiance to King Max. As he’s taunting Nirali for her seeming lack of power over him, she receives flowers and a note from King Max, and reminds Tyler the King declared she is a Queen and he will address her as such by order of his king. Ha!
Nirali is taken out of Moore and to an abandoned house where Max is waiting with lunch. They apparently met there at a party but Nirali doesn’t remember because it was the worst night of her life. She and Kyle were going to break up because Kyle wanted to have sex and Nirali wasn’t interested in anything physical with him, but he pressured her, “stuff” happened and they ultimately stayed together. Eventually and against Nirali’s wishes, they got more physical. The one good thing about the Growns attacking was that they were able to remain a couple but no longer had any alone time together. Max puts a big flashy engagement ring on Nirali’s finger and asks her to think about his proposal. He tries to sweeten the deal by agreeing for her to see Kay and telling her they can expand and join up with Jefferson within six months, then together, they'll take the hospital, then the power plant. It’s very enticing.
Back at Moore, Nirali visits the Auto Shop to see Kyle’s car, and it’s like a kick to the gut when she sees it, but why didn’t he take the radio? Leo then tries to warn Nirali about Max, how he’s a tyrant and he also tells Nirali about Kyle hooking up with Jessica, which comes as no surprise because Kyle has done it before. When she leaves, Nirali goes to see Merlin, and Merlin is acting strange and there is a tension in the air between them. They’re acting like they should be rivals, but really, they respect the hell out of each other. Merlin offers to play her at chess, something they’ve teased about while Nirali has been there, however a note from Max comes giving permission for Nirali to go see Kay.
The dungeon is the boys' old locker room. It’s gross and infested with rats, but the biggest one of all is Jimmy who is chained next to Kay and who spent the night threatening Kay like the loser he is. Kay’s first visitor is Leo who checks her loyalty by asking if there is anything between her and Brick. Kay is able to give half truths because there isn’t really anything going on and he believes her, though Artemis, watching from the shadows, is still skeptical. Leo is prepared to kill Max, but he would rather not have to fight Brick in the trial by combat because Brick is a pretty decent guy. Artemis will have a friend drug Brick to keep him unconscious. As they leave, Nirali appears. She was eavesdropping and will make sure nothing happens to Brick. Nirali is not convinced by Leo and would rather accept Max’s proposal to avoid violence altogether. They agree she needs to speak to Jessica to see if she knows what happened to Kyle, if she can find her. Nirali remembers someone coming to the Auto Shop to find her when she went in. As Nirali leaves, Kay hears a cry, a thunk, and Jimmy’s sneering voice.
Nirali is able to escape Jimmy and elude the guards when they come running at his shouts. In the garden outside she notices all the sunbathing girls and it reminds her to look for Jessica, which is when she spots the person who was looking for Jessica. A kid named Damon takes Nirali to the Theater Department, trailed by two others who are happy to spill the gossip about Jessica, her relationship with Leo, her sibling-like relationship with Brick, and Max’s parties; however, just as Damon is about to give his theory, Artemis bustles in. To cover for Nirali being there, Andi, an emo kid already in the room, reads Nirali’s tarot, which is a load of bullshit, but the last card, a lady upside down so the sword is pointed at her, a very pointed warning, comes just as Artemis walks in with Nirali’s very poofy wedding dress.
In the dungeon, Kay is visited by King Max. He wants Kay to put in a good word with Nirali to accept his proposal, which explains why he’s brought her a pillow and blanket, food, and clothing, he even has Jimmy moved to a different dungeon. Bribery. Kay laughs in his face and tells him “no,” but Max is relentless, pointing out that poor little Kay craves power but she can never get it which is why she came up with her Costco plan just before elections, why she was kicked out of Jefferson, why she would force Brick into power, and why she latched on to Leo instead. Kay, of course, denies this, she just wants to help people. Kay knows Nirali is likely to accept Max’s proposal if only to stop the trial by combat because she’s a practical person, so Kay tries to use this situation to her advantage to find out the truth about Max. She tells Max that as long as there's a possibility that Kyle is alive, Nirali won’t marry him, so he needs to be honest with her. Max leaves her, telling her she is a terrible liar, she should stop worrying about the truth and worry about saying what people like.
Nirali confronts Max about the wedding dress who says he’s just being prepared. Reiterating what Kay said, Nirali tells Max she needs to know what happened to Kyle in order to move on and Max confesses that Kyle was having sex with Jessica IN HIS BED. Kyle was extremely drunk and feeling the Lucid he’d taken when Leo stormed in and threatened Kyle. Shit-scared, Kyle took off that night. Nirali is shocked Kyle was drunk and strung out on meth and agrees to marry Max for revenge if he tells her who the dealer is. Merlin.
Nirali confronts Merlin, who shows her the Lucid making supplies: ground up caffeine pills and sugar. The magic in the potion is that people believe it helps them face the dragons. Nirali is relieved Merlin isn’t a dealer, but still convinced there is a meth lab at Moore. As they’re talking over a game of chess, Nirali tearfully confesses that she hated Kyle, hated having sex with him because she's not really interested in sex. She’s agreed to a sexless marriage with Max, but Merlin warns her Max may want that to change, but also that maybe it wasn't Kyle or Max, that maybe Nirali likes girls. The tension is intense and carefully Merlin kisses Nirali and Nirali feels it everywhere (Merlin is totally right), but then they’re interrupted by Merlin’s assistant. Nirali takes the opportunity to keep her promise to Kay to keep Brick safe.
Brick wakes up during the night scaring the shit out of Nirali. He demands to know where Kay is and starts to freak out when he’s told in the dungeon because he knows Jimmy is down there too. Something that happened earlier in the dungeon comes back to Nirali then. Kay said Jimmy was strung out on Drive… Los Martillos must have the secret meth lab!
In a jumble of words, Nirali brings Brick up to speed, more or less, and they head to the Auto Shop, Nirali getting there first as Brick stops by his room to get dressed and pick up some things he might need. As he does so, he reminisces about Before when he was concerned about a baseball scholarship, but his best friend Max just wanted to play video games. The Auto Shop is empty, they’re obviously getting ready for the Trial like the rest of the school, so Brick can hear Nirali being accosted by sleazy Jimmy who heard what Leo told Kay and says he’s full of shit. As Jimmy starts to get into sexual assault territory, Brick steps in, and then Jimmy offers to show them Leo’s secret but says it’s of the spur, a secret code Max uses with his guards. This isn’t right, but they go with Jimmy anyway who takes them to a house and leads them to its cellar.
Inside, Brick and Nirali find Jessica who is unconscious with a terrible head wound. They get her out and Jimmy tries to scream that the bitch should be dead. Jessica tells them that on the night of the party with Kyle, she’d gotten a Drive pill from Leo which Kyle fished from her mouth when they kissed. After that, Kyle wouldn’t wake up, she and Max tried CPR but it was no use. They loaded his body into a car and dumped it in an abandoned building. Jimmy was the one to take her to the house and knocked her out. If Jimmy is screaming about the spur then Jessica’s “death” must have been at the order of King Max. Well, they’d best go ask him at the trial.
Nirali isn’t going to confront Max, she’s going to enlist Merlin, however, instead of finding Merlin, she finds loads of baby monitors in a drawer each clearly marked. Merlin is spying on everyone so obviously knows what is going on. Nirali runs into Merlin on her way out and fumbles something about seeing Artemis to escape her. In a private room waiting for Artemis, Nirali sees Merlin’s camera and with her eyes locked on it, she undresses. When Artemis comes bustling in, Nirali warns Artemis about the cameras by writing it down on a notepad, pretending that she's drawing wedding plans. Nirali enlists Artemis’s help, explaining the murder, attempted murder and cover-up as best she can and asks Artemis to pass a note to Leo saying she will back his bid if he outs the King. Artemis agrees. Unfortunately in the trial room, Max notices the note in Artemis’s hand and they forcefully take it from her. He declares both Artemis and Nirali are traitors.
Max walks onto the swimming pool turned combat arena diving board and declares the rules of combat. If an opponent cries craven, it is at the discretion of the King to grant clemency or not. If a combatant tries to leave the arena before the fight has concluded, one of his guards will cut them down. Tyler steps forward in makeshift armor and wields a hammer. A few moments later, Leo enters in head to foot bespoke Los Martillos armor with a huge weapon. He loudly declares Max to be a murderer which pisses off the king so much, Max takes a hunting knife from Tyler and gets into the combat pool to fight Leo himself. The fight is quick and the heavy armor Leo is wearing works to his disadvantage as he falls down the pool slope allowing Max, though injured, an opening to stab him repeatedly. Leo cries craven but Max denies him. When Max gets out of the pool, covered in Leo’s blood, he whispers something to Kay, while Nirali, uncontrollably crying, begs for Kay’s life and promises him anything. Max will take Nirali, Jefferson, everything, but Kay still dies. Merlin watches on in shock by what she has just witnessed.
Tyler throws Kay into the trunk of a car and drives away from Moore, eager to take her to her second murder. Kay, however, has a multitool in her bra she was given by the cheerleaders. The trunk release has been removed but with the tool and some yanking and pulling, Kay is able to get the trunk open. She figures out that Tyler is taking her to the Costco where so many of his friends died since he holds her responsible for that. Unfortunately Kay isn’t able to make a run for it when the car stops because Tyler is too quick, but Brick followed them intending to save Kay. As Tyler and Brick are fighting, cheerleaders Leila and Stokes come barrelling in in their jeep wielding a royal crossbow. They have come to collect Brick with the King’s orders not to help Kay. One more player steps into the chaos though, the Blue Knight!
The Blue Knight burns the royal crossbow to ash and twisted metal with his flamethrower. When he lifts his welders helmet it turns out the Blue Knight is Starr! The guy Kay rescued from under the car! GASP! Before the revelation can hit properly, the sound of trees falling can be heard; Dragons are on their way so everyone hauls ass into Costco which is brightly lit because Costco has its own power supply!
Tyler instantly tries to start things again with Brick, so Starr zip ties him. Stokes and Leila are defensive of Max and his killing of Leo, Tyler accuses Kay of murdering his friends and the people at Moore when the Growns attacked, Kay wants to go back to Moore to rescue Nirali, Brick wants to keep her safe, and Starr is pretty disgusted with Moore’s medieval attitude to the apocalypse. As they’re arguing, Brick realizes that Max and Jess were the ones who let the Growns in when they dumped Kyle's body. The fence the Growns came through, the one they used, needs three people to lock it properly and they weren't able to secure it. So Max straight up murdered Leo, tried to kill Kay, tried to let Tyler kill Kay and sent the cheerleaders to kill Brick, his best friend. Now, Max is holding Nirali prisoner in the north tower which is basically an elevator shaft, and Brick built it. They formulate a plan to sneak in through some old war tunnels from the 1700s, into and up the north tower to free Nirali, and they have a whole Costco to get the necessary supplies.
They head to an old cat lady’s house which has a trapdoor into the tunnels. Tyler is zip tied to a fallen bookcase and Brick, Leila, Stokes and Kay head down into the tunnels. Before Starr joins them, the trap door slams shut, plunging them into darkness. Dang feral cats attacking Starr knocked the trap door closed, not betrayal. They make their way through the tunnel and come out past Moore’s fences where they split up, Starr, Leila and Stokes to distract Max and Merlin, Kay to the north tower shaft and Brick to the counterweight; but of course, everything goes wrong.
The elevator isn’t in place, Merlin has already left her lab, so Kay needs to climb the shaft. Brick goes to his room and finds Jimmy has been made Captain of the Guard in his place and has Jess tied up by her neck. They fight, and Jess joins in, setting Jimmy and the room on fire. Brick manages to get them out, sends Jess to the gym for safety and heads to Kay. Kay has scaled the shaft and is with Nirali who is out of it, which is when Leila calls on their walkie talkie to say Stokes turned on them and that she and Starr are running for it.
Meanwhile, Max and Merlin have reached the room with Kay, Brick and Nirali. After Nirali says the only reason she was going to stay at Moore was for Merlin, she and Kay escape through the hatch while Brick keeps Max busy. Max pulls his broadsword on Brick, but Brick has borrowed a wicked sharp katana. They fight and Brick sees Max’s arm is already injured. Max screams that they’re really half brothers, his dad is also Brick’s, which would explain why Max’s dad’s had such a close relationship with Brick. It wasn't just coach/most-promising-student-who-is-also-son’s-best-friend. If this is true, Max is an asshole for keeping this from him.
Brick is able to make a run for the rope and climb through the hatch to his room but it's on fire so they have to go through the theater department. When they climb down, they find Artemis tied up. Freeing her, Artemis declares she’s done with Moore and coming with them. Leila radios that the tunnel has collapsed and Tyler is loose and that she’s heading for the jeep. The only escape now is through the pond, but thankfully Growns can’t swim, so they arrange to meet on the other side. Outside, Los Martillos are having Leo’s funeral with a giant pyre and tension is high as the guards watch. Jess comes running out of the school to Los Martillos who shelter her as Leo’s real love, which is the trigger everyone needs to start fighting. This is the distraction Brick, Kay, Nirali and Artemis need to run for the pond, Brick whistles for Frank as they go and he comes running.
The swim is hard, but they make it across the pond. Brick turns back to see Frank bobbing like a buoy. Weird. Then there is a crash as the biggest dragon Brick has ever seen crashes into the pond and starts for them. Brick whistles for Frank as he dives into the jeep with Kay, Artemis and Nirali already inside. Leila floors it and they call Starr who has made it to a Costco refrigerated semi and is heading to them, ready to set the dragon alight. They meet up and Starr lets loose with his blue flame but runs out of fuel. The dragon swipes at the semi and gets stuck in the thick insulation. At Brick's instruction, Leila pulls next to the semi, keeping speed with it, while he throws a rope with an axe tied to it into the dragon and Leila drives around so they can tangle it up. Brick hands the rope to Artemis with instructions to hold it tight and climbs the rope up to the dragon where he stabs it until it dies.
In dramatic style, they come to a stop at Jefferson, the dragon dead, Brick covered in its gore. The doors to Jefferson open and an emaciated girl sees the carnage… the Growns can die, THEY CAN DIE! She screams and others pour out of the dark halls. Brick notices a stiff middle-aged looking kid who demands to know why they brought a monster there and who they are. Nirali, finally coming back to herself, climbs up to Brick, and asks Simon can't he tell? before kissing Brick.
Brick passes out and wakes up inside Jefferson to Artemis, Starr, and Leila. He can hear Nirali arguing with someone called Simon in the hall and Kay is nowhere to be seen. When Nirali comes in, she explains the plan for the tribunal: Brick is going to pretend to be a wounded Kyle, but he’ll need to keep his face wrapped in bandages and won’t be able to speak, but luckily Nirali will do everything.
The next morning, everyone at Jefferson is in the gym. Kay is at the student council table, hands tied. Simon has the microphone and spews lie after lie, claiming the benevolent King Max he’s been in contact with for a while now wants the traitors back and in exchange, he will keep them in food and supplies, that Nirali declared herself Queen of Jefferson and threw herself at him, and got involved with a rebel gang with intentions to bring him down, and she wants to install rebel Brick as King of Jefferson. Nirali struggles to bring the crowd on her side because they only hear the promise of food. It’s not until Kay speaks up and refutes Max’s lies that the tide turns. She claims she and Nirali went on a secret mission to rescue Brick/Kyle from Moore who was being held prisoner by Max. Now Brick/Kyle is home he can teach them how to kill the Growns and survive, to build fences and gardens to feed themselves, and to properly scavenge. When Simon can’t ensure Max will keep supplying them, he’s easily lost the battle. When someone questions the ring on Nirali’s finger, she tells everyone that the ring is from Kyle, they’re getting married. The crowd goes wild. Checkmate.
The Costco truck is emptied as Jefferson throws a huge party and they finally get to eat. Finally Nirali gathers Brick/Kyle, Kay, Leila, Starr and Artemis and takes them back to the hospital. Brick wants out, he doesn’t want to be with Nirali, he wants to be able to speak, not have her be his mouthpiece, and Kay volunteers to help with that, she’ll read out everything he needs to say and fill in the blanks whenever there is something missing Kyle would have known, but that will mean she needs to be with him all the time. Well, guess Brick/Kyle is staying at Jefferson after all.
After that, they start planning how to secure Jefferson, Starr is very excited about a moat. Brick puts Leila in charge of starting an auto shop at the garage on the corner if they spread out the dead Grown over there too. More plans form and they get excited. Nirali, almost popping the bubble, makes them swear never to reveal Brick/Kyle’s true identity, and Brick promises. Brick and Kay are then left alone, and they remove Brick’s bandage and finally kiss.
Back at Moore, Los Martillos are still dancing and mingling around Leo’s funeral pyre, and every now and then a firework goes off. Jess is desperate to die because, even though the Auto Shop has taken her in, she doesn’t want it, she wants to be free. As she looks at Leo’s burning body, Jess swears she sees him move… he’s not dead! Leo crawls down the burning pyre on all fours, and on the ground he runs, still crouched, and pounces on one of the Auto Shop guys, ripping his throat out. Jess screams for Leo, wanting to be next but Leo turns toward the fence. The guards don’t want creepy-Leo anywhere near them, and open the fence so he can run through. Jess follows, calling out to him, and he suddenly stops.
Leo’s bones start pulling out of his skin, his spine and rib cage exposed. Jess notices something then, a dragon, and creepy-Leo goes up to it, climbs up and inserts himself into the mass forming new eye sockets in the grotesque monster. Jess wants to be next, she wants Leo’s dragon to kill her. She screams and shouts begging for its attention, she hits it breaking her hand, but it ignores her and walks off. When Jess turns around, waiting for dawn, ready to walk off a roof, members of the Auto Shop and guards are watching her in shock. Damon asks Jess if she knows what she just did… looking at her bruised, swollen hand Jess realizes she hit a dragon and lived. Someone from Los Martillos hands Jess Leo’s Ducal helmet and she puts it on her head. Someone shouts La Martilla! The roof can wait for another dawn.
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