John Johnston

"'Depending on how you look at it, Jesus was a Zombie, right?'""- John Squared, engaging in a theological discussion in Life After: The Arising"John Joseph "John Squared" Johnston Jr. is a major character in Life After: The Arising.

A high school junior, John participates in the marching band competition at Thomas Massey high school just before the zombie apocalypse begins. During the chaos, John follows Jeff Grey and incorporates into his group of survivors, kicking off the events of Life After: The Arising.

Appearance and Character
John has a gaunt frame, sandy blond hair, green eyes, and a bit of an acne problem, and Jeff thinks he looks like a young Mark Hamill. Though the two didn't share a strong rapport during their brief crossover in high school, Jeff reflects upon John's silent, sarcastic sense of humor that would manifest as a knowing glance whenever the two crossed paths, making him believe that the two were in on some joke that Jeff can't remember.

In the early stages of the apocalypse, John is easily the most capable foil for Jeff; he's the first person he asks to survey the carnage in the school parking lot, the first he asks to join him in surveying the front of the school, and the person Jeff most often seeks out for conversation and companionship. His keen intellect, approachability, willingness to act, and wry sense of humor render John an ideal fit for tense situations. While Jeff seems taken aback at his religious leanings, John offers a cogent analysis of their circumstances through the lens of Christianity while remaining open to other possibilities, considering religion and science mutually exclusive.

While John seems more tempered than many of his compatriots, his conduct occasionally belies what would otherwise appear to be an easygoing affect: he seems only too willing to grill Melody Landon for her selfish and adolescent behavior, is entirely unwilling to address the fact that he left his sister Lisa to die on the football field, and becomes so preoccupied with fighting off the horde that he fails to consider his own safety.

History
Born between January 1st and 20th in 1988 to Lisa and John Sr., John was raised in Broomall alongside his twin sister Lisa. They both took up alto saxophone and joined the school band at Langstoon Chase middle school, where they would meet and interact with classmates Julia Marino and Ava Vaziri, underclassmen Matt Hughes and Jake Klimavicius, and upper classmates Don Mason and Melody. At TMHS, both twins would meet Jeff, John Anderson, and Colin Mursak.

While marching band tradition generally sees new members being branded with nicknames, few stuck as immediately or successfully as "John Squared" and its derivations "Squared-ston" or simply "Squared", as his given name "John" prominently figures in his surname as well.

Life After: The Arising
Once the band takes the field for the festival, John is among the first to see Jeff rushing into their formation; though he's not sure what's going on, he assumes Jeff is carrying Julia off for a reason and chases after them. It can be presumed that he witnesses the fate of his sister Lisa, who was also in band, as he acknowledges but refuses to discuss it later. When they make it into the parking lot, John witnesses his friend and classmate Chris Duchesne being struck and killed by an errant car. Jeff thereafter leads a small crowd to the green house on the high school roof, bringing John with him to witness the chaos in the football stadium and surrounding parking lot. Once settled, Jeff explains the grim possibilities of their situation, drawing the ire of Melody and Matt while finding some support for his plan to stay put in John, Ava, and local indigent Rich McKnight. Jake and Don say little, but ultimately agree to spend the night. During the course of the evening, they are joined by Steve Parmacek, a student from out of town who was injured by one of the zombies. As a precaution, Jeff insists they restrain him. He then invites Jake to survey the front of the school, hesitantly allowing Melody to join, giving John a few chances to roast her.

By morning, Matt has disappeared and Steve has turned into a zombie, confirming Jeff's suspicions about their predicament. Jake tries to leave as well, accidentally injuring Don, but John comes between them as Jeff talks Jake down. At Jeff's directive, the group splits up to gather supplies, then listens to the radio; per the news, the zombies are believed to be protesters, but the town is nevertheless quarantined. Over the next few hours, Jeff attempts to mitigate a burgeoning conflict between Ava and Melody while the group establishes a rotation to watch the main road in front of the school. Following one rotation, Jeff accompanies Don to the downstairs bathroom, returning in duress and succumbing to an asthma attack, but not before admitting that he was forced to kill Don.

Once Jeff has recuperated, the group is miraculously stumbled upon by Anderson. Having found them, Anderson's next goal is to lead the group to the nearest check point and reattach with the Guard once he gets some sleep. In the intervening hours, Jeff and John become closer as they muse on the religious, scientific, and philosophical implications of the undead; John, a practicing Christian, subscribes to the doctrine of post-tribulation rapture, believing that they are in the end times, while Jeff proffers a notion that no theory or faith completely explains the undead phenomenon, vaguely supposing it might have something to do with the Gaia hypothesis. In the end, John seems to lean more toward the notion that it happened for a reason, but Jeff respectfully disagrees. When they rejoin the group, Rich elaborates on an earlier criticism of Jeff's leadership skills and indicates that he'd prefer to take orders from Anderson. This inadvertently leads to feud between Melody and Ava exploding into a shouting match that ends with Jeff and Ava diving into an ugly fight over Julia.

Later that afternoon, Jeff and John again take a constitutional on the roof, whereupon the two are the first to commiserate over the notion that the present apocalyptic scenario is unlikely to end. As the evening approaches, John participates in a protracted conversation about Rich's life as an indigent in Newtown Square, and as a heavy rain settles in, joins Anderson and Jeff to scout the school interior after the latter witnesses a running zombie heading toward the building. They find several stationary zombies outside the basement windows, but since they don't seem to be attempting a breach, they vow to stay inside and keep quiet until the morning, when they intend to depart. That night, a throng of undead sieges TMHS, splitting the group in half as they scramble for an escape; Jeff, Julia, Melody, and John go one way while Anderson, Jake, Ava, and Rich go another. A chase across the roof leads Jeff's quartet through the ceiling of the gym and into the belly of the school, where they are flanked by the undead. While Jeff tries to negotiate a locked door, Julia swings at the zombies on one side while John tries to push them back on the other, losing his struggle as he starts to fight and sees his intestines ripped out. He makes eye contact with Jeff, who leaves John behind as he watches a zombie begin to consume his liver.

The rest of the group, save Ava, manage to escape the school. They return to TMHS several days later with the presumption that the undead will continue to spread from their point of origin without coming back. Once inside, Jeff insists that Karen DeMarco, the group's newest member, needs practice killing zombies. Shortly thereafter, they are approached by the zombified corpse of John Squared; having had to process Julia's death, Jeff steps in and beats his former friend to death.