Anarchist | Riverdale

Outbreak

It was a day like any other. Everything seemed normal. Students went to class. The Vixens prepared for the annual pep rally. Couples have their stolen moments in quiet classrooms. But in Riverdale, there's no such thing as normal, as Cheryl Blossom was about to discover.

Cheryl's blood-curdling scream filled the halls of Riverdale High. Ellie, Sweet Pea and Fangs turned the corner to see all the Vixens, apart from Cheryl, having a seizure.
"Help! Somebody help us!" She screams holding her girlfriend, Toni, up.
Emergency services were called and everyone was taken out of the halls so Ellie had no idea what was going on until she texted Veronica later that day checking on her.

"I can't take any of this shit anymore, I'm phoning Jughead and I'm going to wherever he is, now and alone. I'm sorry Sweet Pea but I just need to do this for a little bit. I need to know they're safe. I cannot get my head around where Betty is but nobody else seems to care right?" Ellie rants as the couple walk to her truck after deciding to ditch school for the rest of the day.

"Jug, where are you." Ellie says down the phone, dialling his number as soon as she turns the truck off when they arrive home.
"You're not gonna believe this." He answers
"Try me."
"I'm at my mom's."
"Oh, my God, Jellybean there?"
"Yep, but it's JB now."
"Bless her. Anyway, I'm coming up I cant take another second of Riverdale."
"She has a little room, I'd have to talk to her first but she should be fine with it, she always loved you."
"She did. Also do they know? About me being your sister and everything?
"I'll speak to them about it. I know it'll be fine. Come up. We'll be stopping here for a week at least."

The ride up Toledo was a long one, but it gave Ellie a few hours to herself to think about everything. The Serpents, who she is deeply worried about, her sister and Alice and where they could be, but something inside her tells her that they are safe. She just gets the feeling that nothing bad has happened to them, Ellie's 'feelings' are usually right anyway.

Ellie arrives to the address Jughead sent her, it was a junkyard. It looked really sketchy. She waited around anyhow before giving up and ringing Jug to come and get her.
She watches as four shadowy figures walk towards her, unable to make out their faces in the dark. They stepped into the light before opening up the gate and it was just the people she wanted to see. Her brother, Archie, Gladys Jones and Jellybean, her new sister.
"Jug!" Ellie says swinging her arms around her little brother as soon as she is able to.
Archie taps her on the shoulder. " Room for one more?" He smiles and she opens an arm up for him. The three stay like that for a good couple of minutes before turning around. Ellie is amazed at the sight of her little sister. She so grown up now, last time she saw Jellybean, she had pigtails and her two front teeth missing. She is now a teenager who is absolutely beautiful and actually reminds Ellie a lot of herself when she was that age.
"Gladys." Ellie smile, hugging the woman who she treated like a second mother when she was little.
"Go ahead and talk to your sister, she knows." Gladys whispers to Ellie whilst they're hugging.
"And, you, are not so little anymore are you. But you are my sister so come here." Ellie grins to Jellybean and the girl comes running up to her big sister to give her the biggest cuddle of the century.
"I always dreamed that you would be my sister, now you actually are." Jellybean said to Ellie once they let go. Ellie could tell she wasn't the sweet little girl who wore pigtails and wore pink and played with ponies anymore. She was covered in grease and oil in some grey overalls.
"Come on, Ellie, we're about to feast." Gladys says, ushering the teens over to sit down together.
"Hiram Lodge, huh?" Gladys asks. Of course Jughead and Archie had to explain why they were there, and what was going in. It would be wrong to keep it all from her in case Hiram finds them here. "That good-looking short stack was always trouble. But why go after Archie?"
"Archie was the only one who stood up to him, defied him." Jug explained.
"Not to mention, I also date-- dated his daughter." Archie said, tripping himself up.
"Dated? As in, no longer dating? As in single?" Jellybean asks, excitedly.
"Relax, Jellybean." Ellie chuckles, taking a sip of her coffee.
"It's JB now, Kid Kerouac." She snaps back at her sister.
Ellie just scoffs and holds her hands up in defeat. "You are one hundred percent my sister."
"Archie." Gladys cuts off the kids from laughing. "Have you spoken to your dad through any of this?"
"Yeah, I wish. I wish I could see him, tell him how I'm doing, but it's too risky. He'd drag me home by the collar. Riverdale's not where I need to be." Archie replies.
Before the conversation could get any deeper, someone shouts to say the food is ready.
"You heard the guy, Archie go get yourself a hot meal." Gladys smiles.
JB and Archie head to get food which leave Gladys with Jug and Ellie, she's been wanting to talk to them alone.
"So tell me about this game thing, that you and Archie are mixed up in." Gladys asks. "Gryphons and Gargoyles. How involved with this are you?"
"Well it's more than just a game. It's got larger implications for all of Riverdale. We're just trying to crack it, get underneath it, figure out who is behind all this." Jug explains.
"Well, Hiram, it sounds like." Gladys replies. "Is the one who gave you that nasty scar on your arm?"
"You saw that, huh?" Jug asks, head hung.
"Yeah, it's bad." His mother replies.
"I've got one too." Ellie says, pulling down her Serpent Jacket to show it to Gladys who just winces. "They were gifts from a former Serpent. Under Hiram's employ. Penny Peabody."
"Penny?" Gladys asks, surprised. "That wench? She always had a beef about your father and I. Now she does this? Cuts up my kids? Her own daughter?"
"I'm not her daughter, not after everything she's done." Ellie tells her.
"I know baby, that's why I said 'my kids', I've always seen you as one of my own, and have always thought of you as my own, ever since FP told me he had another daughter." Gladys smiles, which makes Ellie smile. There really are people in this world that think that highly of her and that makes her happy. "You know, I never wanted this for you, kids. I mean, you're a Serpent King? And Ellie Queen? I never wanted either of you to end up in the damn gang."
"Don't act all high and mighty." Ellie stands up for her brother. "I saw that kid with the stereos earlier. You claim to have left Riverdale to get away from Serpent life, and here you are, chopping cars, lifting their parts. And God knows what else." Ellie lights a cigarette for herself and throws her packet Jughead's way, where he gladly takes one.
"Hey. So what? We jack a couple stereos here and there, and we steal some hubcaps. I am feeding and taking care of all these kids who have nowhere else to go. What am I supposed to do, just leave them high and dry?"
"That's what you did to me isn't it?" Jug replies.
Gladys just sighs, not expecting that statement to come from Jug. "C'mon, let's get something to eat, before there's nothing left." She says getting up from her chair.