Francis King (LWC Series)

**Francis King** is a survivor of the outbreak in GWR's *Lines We Cross: Survivor Stories*. He is a student at Bellarmine University.

## Pre-Apocalypse

### Season 1

#### "Exposure"

Francis was seen after the party had concluded. Wandering the halls in a slightly buzzed, confused to the state of things. He witnessed Ray Thompson break open a vending machine, and only seemed focused on getting his Dr. Pepper. He met up with Sylvester Shaw and was filled in on the situation.

#### "Descent"

When shit hit the fan, Francis holed up in Sylvester Shaw's dorm with his roommates Heather Parks and Jim Jackson. Going missing for a stint, he reappeared as the group began acting on their escape plan. Francis could be seen waiting in the garage, and getting into a physical altercation with Ray Thompson when he shut the door on Sylvester, Darius, and Hudson. As a large horde of infected students and staff pushed on their location, Jim Jackson, Francis King, Ray Thompson, and Heather Parks took refuge in the elevator. Waiting for the other group, Ray hit the button before Francis could call out to them. Ensuing in another altercation as they made their descent into hell.

#### "Rebirth"

Upon reaching the basement, Francis spent much of his time looking after Hudson on his arrival. Once Zachary failed to return from the vents, Francis and Isaac went in after him. Francis witnessed Zachary's fate and Isaac retrieved the key. The two returned from the vents unscathed.

Continuing forward, the group ran into another problem. The generator required to open the door forward was shut off, and needed a separate generator to start it up. Francis spent much of this time attempting to convince Larry Feburary to go in himself and fix it. When that failed, Francis jumped in himself to expedite the process. Once the generators started back up, the roof began to cave in on the group. Francis stayed behind while waiting for Hudson to be pulled back up. As such, Hudson, Larry, Francis, Sylvester, Richard, Isaac, and Jim were the last to leave. Dodging falling debris while running for the shutter, it collapsed right in front of them. The group made a last ditch effort to hold up the shutters, allowing for Francis, Sylvester, Hudson, and Richard to go through unscathed. Larry, too big for his own good, was crushed further down the hall. Isaac was flattened instantaneously while going beneath. Jim's leg was crushed beneath the rubble, though he survived, he was crippled. Sylvester, Hudson, Ralph, and Francis dug him out while the roof caved in all around them.

The group's troubles weren't over then. They still had a long road ahead of them. Water rushing all around them, they were burning through the short amount of time they had left. Wading through immense darkness, the group came across a perilous walkway. There were few who went before Francis announced to get all the sick and injured across first, Frank personally took Jim Jackson across. Lighting the darkened path with only a meager lighter. The two managed to tip-toe their way to the other side. Heather, who tailed along behind them, was not so lucky. Once they made it through, Francis passed Jim off to Bruce while he lit the path forward. Pushing through a door with infected behind it, Jeff took care of the first. The second however, was Francis's job. Francis beat the wandering infected to death with a table leg after Jeff fled. This would only be the beginning of his carnage.

Francis stayed at the front to illuminate the way forward. It wasn't long before the group found themselves in a twisting maze of utility halls and depots. With no light, no way to see, people began splintering off left and right. The water was rising steadily, and the dead were dragging themselves through the halls. Hunting the desperate students. Francis was cut off. Wading through the waist-high water, Frank went down new paths, traced old ones, followed a set of arrows that lead to seemingly nothing. His desperation was at it's highest. He found Jim, practically swimming down the halls. The two found themselves in the mannequin room. Distraught beyond all compare. Until they noticed a crack in the wall. Worming through the shelving and crates, they crawled through. Leading them into a sewer, the faint glimmer of sunshine reflecting against the floor. The two followed the only path set for them, the light getting brighter and brighter. As they turned the corner, they finally saw what lay ahead of them.

Close to a hundred or so infected stand between them, and the ladder to the surface. Trapped behind a flimsy barricade, their only option was to fight through the horde. When the barricade came tumbling down, the two fought until they could fight no more. Killing infected after infected, some students, some familiar faces, some not, but it didn't matter. Morals tossed aside, the men fought like animals. They stood on a mountain of corpses after a long pressed fight, and climbed their way through the sewer exit. Free at last.

## Trivia

* Francis is the only other known survivor of the Bellarmine University Massacre along with Jim Jackson.