Fear the Walking Dead - Season 5 Rewrite - Episode 07

Click here for Episode 06

Episode 7 – Harbinger

Plot: As Alicia, Farah, and Daniel work with the Bloomfield community, Madison considers the options available. But soon events transpire that might ruin everything.

Synopsis:

The episode begins at the Bloomfield base. In the woman’s quarters everyone is still sleeping. We see Madison sneaking back in after her early morning spying and sits on her bed. She can’t go back to sleep. Not because of the sun rising up, but because of what she saw with the chopper. What was Lyons wanting? What kind of people have such military presence, and what is it Peters needs to give them? Her thoughts are broken as a soldier comes in to wake up everyone. They’ll notice Madison already wide awake and ask her if she had a rough sleep. Half-lying, Madison said she woke up early and just couldn't get back to bed.

We’ll see the others get up, with Farah and Alicia greeting each other as they get dressed for the day. Madison stays quiet, ignoring her daughter and her good friend as her thoughts return to the copter and Nathaniel Lyons. There will be a bit of silence from her as people are getting ready until Alicia shakes her to get her attention. Cutting to them going for breakfast, we see Daniel join them as they all sit down. They’ll be eating their meals and then called over for assignments. As they start heading over though, Madison pulls Daniel over to tell him about what she saw in the early morning. This concerns the old mercenary, but he tells her to not tell anybody for now. He also adds that they don’t need to investigate right now, adding “We need to blend in first. Gain their trust. Then we learn more about this.”

Madison sees the sense in his words, but it still feels like an itch she needs to scratch. Both follow the others to where a soldier is giving them their daily assignments. Alicia is put back in the field for infected and cleanup while Farah is sent to the northwest corner of the base. Daniel is finally put on active duty, but as a base cleaner with no active combat role. The mercenary turned barber hides his feelings well as the soldier tells Madison that she has been removed from farming crew due to lack of skills. At first Madison is a little insulted, taken off work after one day on the job. Now, she’ll be working on the base, separate from Daniel. In fact, she’ll be working with Captain Peter for the day. Outside she shows nothing, but there are hints that she’s not entirely comfortable this, worried that somehow he knows she saw what happened in the morning. As everyone walks off we cut to the intro.

After intro, we go to Strand and others driving east in their stolen vehicles. He is leading the group, with Kwahu by his side, not friendly, but definitely not hostile towards him now. In the back John and June are keeping an eye on the dust cloud a ways away, the dead following their progress. Kwahu will ask Strand if they’re really going towards these… people. Strand tells him it’s either that or facing the dead because that horde is so large and close they can’t go north or south to avoid it. So best they head east and hopefully find shelter. Maybe even warning them could net them some extra safety. You see Kwahu wants to argue, but Strand tells him that right now they’re at a huge risk, so better to take a risk that’ll give them a chance to live than one that’s suicide. Strand will then call John and June and ask them if there has been any updates. They report none and all of them race through Farmington as they drive eastward.

After this we’ll move to Farah, who is joined by Daniel and a few others, including a few soldiers, to the oil field she worked at before. Memories of her last time shows on her face, this discomfort clearly visible. When Daniel asks what's wrong, she'll try to say something, but can't really say it just yet. When they all reach the main building like from before, the soldiers tell the group that last time, because of the infected found, they had to delay any other needed repairs to check if there were any other missed dead about. But now the work can begin.

Farah sighs, still a little nervous of working on a rig that she isn't as experienced with. She did some hands on work after she killed those two infected, but that isn't the full experience for such a complex place. Under her breath, she'll mutter that they don't seem to understand the difference between an engineer and a mechanic. A soldier, the one that was rude towards Farah, points to the machinery and orders then to get to work and break will be in a few hours. A few smash containers of tools and materials will be delivered to them all.

All of the group split into groups and Daniel goes with Farah. Both will notice the bloody spot of the infected thrown off by Farah and she will stop to stare at the place. Daniel will ask her if she did this and she'll nod. Then ask him about his past, like how he used to kill a lot of people before the dead rose and how he, and the others, have learned to do it. Farah expresses that she feels unsuited for this world. She has a hard time killing even the dead because how long does it take to go from killing them to killing the living? Not just that, but she and family left their home to escape the violence of the middle east and now she's been thrown back into it (in a ways).

Daniel will put a hand on her shoulder and lead her into the depths of the machinery as he begins to relate his time in El Salvador and with Negros. He'll then tell about why he, his wife, and his daughter, Ofelia, left for the US to escape the war. Relenting some, Daniel will say that the world runs off violence. There is anyways conflict and people, strong or weak or whatever, have their roles in it. A sudden burst of coughing will come from Daniel and Farah will have to keep him upright. Once he's in control of himself, he tells of how the others like Madison, Alicia, and even Strand (that snake) have grown. If they can, Farah can find her place in all this.

The two will reach some machinery that is marked on the map that was in the tool kits they were given and identifies it. As Farah inspects the equipment for a long moment she'll pull out a tool and begin to make fixes. Her hands are a little shaky and Daniel, taking her wrist, tells Farah a steady hand is important. This'll comfort her and she'll begin her fix as Daniel watches.

We’ll then cut to Madison being escorted into the main building and brought to Captain Peter. The captain will greet her and tell her to sit down as he’s finishing some paperwork. We’ll get a short pause as he writes something down before turning his attention on Madison and telling her that she caught his attention with how she was making demands when they first met. We’ll get another pause as Peter continues that they weren’t for her or her kid though, but for others. He likes that about her and tells Madison that she could be useful to him and towards the community. He also adds that he hasn't seen a group from out in the wild in a very long time and hers was very impressive. However, he sees that Madison is rough around the edges. Madison asks how he can tell and Peter will tell her that he can kind of sense it in her. Her interview had her say she used to work as a high school counselor, which is not a bad way to start out as being a possible leader.

This will bother Madison some, but humors him by asking Peter that he thinks she’s only had to deal with kids her whole life. Peter will shake his head and say bossing kids around isn't what made her tough. There was something else in her life that made her who she is. Not wanting to talk about Nick or Travis, Madison simply said that she had some difficult family problems throughout her life.

"Madison… I need you to work with me. The military, we were supposed to keep people safe. But all we were doing was delaying, telling people we were all going to be safe when the situation was out of our control. You might see a safe place, but the people of the United States aren't quick to forget defeat. Vietnam, the Middle East, mistakes were made and they don't fully trust us. But this isn't about patriotism or freedom or even the country anymore, it's about survival. We're all in this together. I need somebody like you, somebody tough who's like them, but has seen what's out there, to help me lead them. But you'll need to know proper leadership as well."

Peter will lay his arms on the desk and cross his fingers together in a thinking position, analyze Madison and waiting for a response. She considers the offer, thinking over how she was before, what she became in Yuma and against the Proctors, and her group. She kept them alive after Yuma with sheer will, but now they need a home. And she could use some… refinement. Looking at the captain, she'll agree and both will shake hands. Peter will then pull a chair out for her and then start showing her the papers and orders he was reviewing.

As they're staring at the desk, we'll cut to Alicia working outside the walls again. Wiping her brow of sweat, she will complain how the dead just seem to keep coming. A unnamed worker tells her that it's been like this for the past couple of weeks, or at least in these numbers. He'll dispatch another infected as it reaches for him, but after that kill, the man pants hard and puts his hands on his knees. Alicia will help them back get back upright before going off to kill an infected shambling towards the base.

Once she kills it off, Tobias's aunt and uncle come close to her to talk about their son. They had not been able to find him since learning that he was alive and Robert asks if Alicia had seen him. Knowing that telling the truth could cause drama that could lead an already riled camp into serious riots, she lies about Tobias's whereabouts, saying that she's still keeping a lookout for them. With her face turned away from them, we can see that she feels guilt about her deception but tries to hide it and focus on her grueling task. All three work together in dragging off a body as they continue a conversation about the base and how all they got into this situation with Captain Peter.

Brenda will go into detail about the situation that ended with them and the other adults of the group to end up at the Bloomfield community. When they first appeared, plenty of people decided to go with the military because it seemed like a safe place the US army. But others, people who saw what the military were like in "safe zones" refused to cooperate. They were left alone for while, but soon one of the people who went with the military came back and told them that their wife had disappeared. Not long after that their compound was attacked, and they had to get their children out. Eventually all of their community were rounded up and placed into Bloomfield and it didn’t seem that bad. In fact, all of them felt safe, yet never fully comfortable. It was either live here though with food, water, and walls or outside with none of it. Alicia tells them that her and her family have been on the road for so long that they’d kill for this life, proving this by killing an infected that’s walking right at her.

As Alicia kills another infected she looks up and starts to hear a noise: Engines approaching. She stands still at first to confirm the sound before stepping back some and taking the pistol she found from a killed infected, arming herself in case it’s somebody other than the military. We’ll get a long pause as the sound of vehicles become louder until we see the military Humvees are seen. Alicia relaxes some, but that relaxation is cut short when the vehicles are stopped at the gates and she notices the kids in the back of them. When told to get out, she sees Strand exit the vehicle, hands in the air, and saying that they need help. We’ll cut to black there.

Upon return, we see all the soldiers on the wall point their guns at Strand and the others, beginning to demand answers as to questions such as where the soldiers are who were with the vehicles. Trying to be the calm negotiator and not show fear in his face, Strand will try to explain, but it's continually interrupted. Soon enough the gates open with more armed guards coming out and capturing the whole group. As the kids are rounded up, some of the adults recognize their children and start to make a commotion. With tensions still high, everyone is in a panic and Alicia bustles forward to quell the brewing conflict. It's not fully successful however and instead the soldiers order her team to be brought in for a break.

All of them are brought back inside, but as Alicia passes Strand, he'll tell her they need to go. Before she can ask why though she's pushed by the crowd and out of Strand's voice. Abandoned, Strand watches Alicia disappear and his party pulled out of the vehicles, all while he tries to get a word in to the soldiers. Soon he and the other adults are carted off, weapons removed, while the kids are moved somewhere else. Before they separate, Yoana attempts to assure the calm some of the less brave children that it's going to be alright. The split party are escorted to different areas, with the camera focusing on adults being taken to the main building.

All four will left in the same holding cell that Madison’s group were placed in when they got into Bloomfield. Yoana will comment that she thought the military was gone, but this proves they're still out there. Strand will comment that they're definitely out there, but he too feels surprised at how organized they are, that the previous times he's encountered them have shown they were either unprepared or had lost their marbles. John will ask if he's meaning the base near Yuma and Strand will nod, then worry that now, unless something changes, they'll all be trapped soon.

Suddenly a knock at the door and a voice is heard telling all of them to face against the wall. They comply and the door opens, a pair of arms roughly pulling Strand out. He is soon sat in a small room, but unlike Madison's interview, he is faced with a soldier. The tone in their voice is not friendly at all as he asks where Strand found the Humvees. At first Strand tries to lie by saying he and his group found them abandoned, the occupation dead and being feasted on by the infected. They saw the horde, took the vehicles, and drove east to get away. The man sees through Strand's lie though and pulls him in by the collar and tells former conman that he doesn't have the time or patience for his lies, saying that the troops could hold off a few infected.

Knowing that the truth would get him killed, Strand stands by his story, elaborating that he saw the bodies shot when he found them and that he heard noise from a nearby store. He concluded some bandits shot them and then decided to take the vehicles with his group to get away. The pleading continues as the soldier's grip grows tighter, Strand no longer having to exasperate his terror in his lie. We get a long, tense moment of the two men's faces almost touching until the soldier lets him go. Giving Strand a moment to catch his breath, the soldier tells another outside the room to get the captain. Immediately they leave and Strand taps on the table, trying to keep his cool.

We'll cut to Madison leaving Peter’s office with some documents. She’ll pass a few rooms until she reaches the room where the captain told her to take the documents. It’s a small classroom turned communication center. She’ll tap a man on the shoulder and hand them the papers, to which he accepts. As they take them, Madison will notice the man only has one arm. Upon questioning, he’ll tell her that they were bit, but the amputation worked and they got to live. A little shocked that this could be done, she’ll nod and leave to return to the captain. However, while walking down the hallway, she’ll pass by two soldiers and hear one of them talk about the Lieutenant Colonel, Nathaniel Lyons. Catching that name, she’ll stop and nonchalantly trail them to a door that leads into the basement. After they go down, Madison stands near the door, looks about to see if anybody is watching, then follows after them.

As she tiptoes down the stairs she hears a familiar, yet unnerving noise: an infected. Worse, more than one. Going down further, she is stunned to see several infected belted to tables with people in lab coats walking around them. Some of the dead are pretty fresh while others are almost bones. Besides the rot, all of them are in good condition. No missing body parts, guts spilling out, or notable slashes, punctures, or smashed areas on any of the bodies that would be fatal to a living person. Peeking through a small opening, she will get a better look at the scene before her. There is a ton of lab equipment, definitely more than what a school could afford. Vials, chemicals, syringes, and so much more are about and the upon listening more closely she hears the soldiers asking for any updates on their newest test subject.

Hardly able to comprehend what she's seeing, Madison barely has time to hide as a lab worker nears her hiding spot. Looking down where she's safe, she notices a clipboard with something that catches her attention. Going down the rest of the steps, Madison picks up the clipboard and finds word that seem odd; Project Votus, A or B, and “asset”. Then she notices a name on another clipboard that fills her with dread: Daniel Salazar. Picking it up, we see her eyes fly across the paper. And next to Daniel's name the box marked "A" is checked. A note further down the paper says, "Approved, ship out next transaction." Daniel was going to be the next body they shipped out as a “A”, whatever that means. But the CRM left before it could be confirmed that he was useful to them.

Realizing how dangerous the situation has suddenly become, Madison hurriedly replaces the paper back in its spot and rushes out the basement. She has to warn the others and get them out. This place isn't safe! As she gets back to the ground floor though and starts to head out of the building, a banging is heard from a door on her left. Jumping in fear, Madison faces the noise and stares directly at Strand from behind the glass. Further shocked by another development, Madison asks Strand how he got here and where the others are. He'll quickly indicate John, June, and Yoana, but quickly interrupts her before she can ask anything more to tell her about the oncoming horde. Madison will talk about the contingency plan that Peter had in place of this, but Strand tells her that the plan has fallen apart because the soldiers tasked with carrying it out are all dead. Aghast, Madison tries to control her thoughts and she's doing this she has a thought. Looking at Strand, she begins to ask if he killed them, to which he replies that he did, but he had no idea about the horde or that the scouts were going to divert the horde. "They were going to kill us Madison! They wanted nobody to get in the way of the plans."

Madison will argue quietly with Strand until he slaps the glass, breaking her out of her rant. Strand then tells her to either get them out or get going because somebody is going to notice if they haven't already. Frustrated by Strand’s actions, Madison will march back to Peter’s office. Once there, she will talk to him about how she heard there is a horde coming. Before she can go very far though, Peter tells her he has it under control, then tells Madison that it seems today isn't a good day for her "introduction lessons". Instead, she should go and “get to know the folks”. Madison tries to stop him, but he presses her out of his office, locks the door, then tells her to be off. Realizing that trying to get him to listen won’t work, Madison runs off to find Alicia.

Speaking of Alicia, we see her in the base looking for the others she knows when a soldier comes up to tell her that she has been assigned to night shift. A little indignant, she asks why and the soldier tells her that it’s just her job. Unhappily, she walks out to the wall and is given a weapon. We see her back to work cleaning up bodies with other people. Soon the dead can be heard, but soldiers on the wall with binoculars notice that this isn’t the usual crowd of walking dead. They’ll pull out a walkie talkie and call in the captain as we cut to black.

When we return we are with Strand, waiting patiently at the table he’s at. A figure will appear outside the door and Captain Peter will enter. Sitting across from Strand, he’ll look him straight in the eye in silence. Strand breaks it by asking, “What?” and the captain will tell him that he has caused a lot of trouble for this base. Strand will start to tell the captain that he told the guards that he, nor any of his group, killed any of the soldiers, but Peter will interrupt him. He’ll tell Strand that whether he’s lying or telling the truth, he is no longer in control of the situation and that Strand is will now have to suffer for the bad fortune that he’s brought to the camp. Not knowing if he’s about to get killed, Strand will try and get a word in, but a call on the captain’s walkie will stop them both and the captain will answer. We will not hear the words, but we’ll see the captain begin to pale and he’ll immediately leave.

As Strand calls after him we’ll move to Farah, Daniel, and the others still at work at the oil field. We see Farah talking with one of the surviving technicians over some schematics found if the plant. Daniel is watching them all, sitting it the background. As he's looking about he'll notice a soldier reach for his radio and talk. While he can't make out the words, he notices the man suddenly grow tense before acknowledging some new orders. When the ball is over, the man announces that they're all going back. Get some early time off today. As all the workers leave, the soldier will notice Daniel staring at him. Rudely, Daniel will be asked if he wants to stay outside, to which he replies calmly that he doesn't and follow the others.

As everyone is making their way back, the soldiers will try and hustle them along faster. They all do so, but Farah (right next to Daniel) notices Daniel looking inconspicuously about them. Before she can turn and ask, Daniel shushes her and to act like she hasn't noticed him. She'll listen, but also try to spy whatever Daniel is looking for. Suddenly there are several loud popping noise and balls of dim light sets thrown into the sky. Almost everyone stood walking to watch the spectacle as the dim lights begin to drop into the distance. As the projectiles hit the ground, kind explosions are heard and all of the oil field team see what the explosions reveal: Infected. A horde of them. Several of the workers begin to panic and one tries to run away, only to be tackled by a soldier and thrust towards the base with a loud, "Move it!" following up. All of them begin to run towards the base, but Daniel has a coughing fit and lags behind, causing Farah to double back and help him. They are completely ignored by the others and the two try to catch up to them as more mortars are launched into the approaching swarm.

We cut to Alicia, who is shocked by the sudden explosions, but quickly has to begin fighting with the others in the night crew as the first wave of the dead attacks. At first only the moonlight is all they have to see the shambling corpses racing out towards them. The fight is hard at first, with some members having to take on multiple infected at once. But soon lights on the walls are lit up as more dead reach the outside defenders. Alicia fights for her life as more mortars explode in the distance and she notices how massive the horde is. She calls to the guards on the wall to help, but they ignore her, shooting some of the dead that are coming at the walls. We’ll have a long fight sequence with Alicia and the other night crew fighting off the dead.

Returning to Farah and Daniel, both reach the south gates, but find them shut. Both try to open them up, but they’re locked and when Farah cries out for help nobody comes. Fear in her eyes, Farah will look about and see the commotion over on the west side. She’ll look at Daniel, who will sigh and curse before both head that ways. We’ll hang on them heading right into the fight and soon a few infected start coming at them. Farah will grab a rock and knock a few away while Daniel mostly throws them aside. Alicia will be fight the dead and after killing one she’ll spot the pair heading her way. Farah will tell her that the other gates are locked and in response Alicia will pull out weapons (a knife and a crowbar) that she scavenged and hand them over to Farah and Daniel. All three start to fight the dead as the mortars keep firing south, drawing away most, but not all, of the horde.

With a hard kill from Daniel we’ll move to Madison, who is running about the base looking for help. The explosions, however, catch her off guard and upon hearing soldiers running to the west wall talk about a column approaching, Madison realizes it’s too late to escape. But she can still find Alicia. As she sprints west though, a cry from her right will catch her attention. In a house nearby, Annie will be waving through a window towards her. Hurrying over, both women will quickly talk back and forth until Madison asks where John, June, and Yoana are. The young teenager will point towards the school and Madison nods as she starts to break the door that’s locked the kids in. Once that’s done, Annie and Kwahu take control and all of them and Madison run for the school. Before she follows them however, she hears banging from a house she passes and notices Tobias slamming his fist on the window. Running to the house, we see her trying to break in and after a few attempts succeeds in smashing in. At first Madison is shocked at how bruised and beaten Tobias is and helps him as both head for the school.

Inside the school, everything is starting to become chaos. Most of the people who were occupying it have gone to the walls. Frantically searching, she’ll come upon her three other adult friends and try to bust them out. The door is locked though and Madison, thinking quickly, heads into the captain’s office and rummages for a key. After a period of searching, she’ll find it and rush back to the locked door. On her way she’ll see Strand and get him out of his room. Both then reach the other door flying through keys, Madison finally gets the right one and frees John, June, and Yoana. She’ll then tell them to start getting people into the building. All three nod, but Yoana asks what Madison is going to do. She’ll tell the rabbi that she needs to get her daughter back.

We come back to the fighting at the walls. We see a few people have been taken down by the dead and now it’s full gunfire from the soldiers. As the number of dead assaulting the base grows, some of the night crew begin to abandon their attack and bang on the gates for help. Alicia cries out to the guards, violently swearing at them to get the gates open, but they’re too locked into shooting to notice her. As another infected lunges at Alicia, we cut to black.

In the final section of this episode we start with Madison, Strand, and June heading west while Yoana and John go east, calling out to people about the attack. Madison’s team reaches the walls and hears the commotion over them. Through the gunfire, moans of the dead, and cries of help, Madison can hear her daughter’s pleas. Running right up the walkways, Madison tells the guards to let the people in. They ignore her. Madison yells at them this time and one of them tells her to leave, that this isn’t for civilians. Furious, Madison roars at them that it’s Captain Peter’s orders to get everyone inside. This causes some of the soldiers to halt their firing for a bit, but one of them chimes in that they never got those orders. Madison lies again by saying these just came in.

Just after this is said, a soldier a way down the wall says he’s out of ammo. Soon others begin to echo him and those without ammo begin to leave for the deeper part of the base. Soon others begin to abandon their post due to fear and join the others. The commanding officer starts to yell at the soldiers to get back to work and Strand uses this opportunity to take one of the abandoned rifles and shoot the yelling officer in the head. As the others look upon him in shock, Strand tells them that that man was just going to stand and let the walls, or infected, fall on him before he does anything useful. Pointing his gun into the crowd, he’ll spot the three members of their group and start killing the infected that are around them. Strand will then call out to Daniel and say, "I guess I'll be your guardian angel this time." June takes a rifle and begins to fire with Strand as Madison goes for the gates. It takes some effort, but she, along with other civilians she’s rallied to her that were by the gates, is able to get them open a bit and calls to the remaining people outside to get in.

Soon the gate is opened enough for people to start getting in and we see a rush of them, including Farah and Daniel. Strand starts to lead these people away and eventually. As she rushes through though a rotted hand grabs her right arm and pulls her back. She tries to fight it, pulling out her gun and shooting it in the head, but another infected grabs her just as she kills the one holding her. Sadly, only a few bullets were in the magazine so she changes to a butterfly knife to try and stab it, but she can't reach that far and instead tries to hack the arm off. The music builds as she's pulled closer, fear making her attacks more frantic, and then the infected bites her hand and wrist. Madison hears Alicia's scream and turns to see what's happen. Her scream is added to her daughters, and she sprints towards the gate, killing the infected that bit her daughter and pulling her away. She then cried out for June and the nurse rushes to her side. The bite is pointed out and Madison begs June to help her, to take the arm off. Horrified, June tells Madison that it'll kill Alicia, but Madison screams, "She's all I have left!"

We get a moment of silence and then June tells Madison to remove her belt and wrap it as tight as possible around Alicia’s arm. As Madison does what she's told she tries to comfort a dazed and panicking Alicia that it's going to be fine. In the background the dead are continually pushing up on the gates. Once all is ready, June holds her machete in trepidation and looks at Madison. This is way out of her league, but she's the only one left who can save Alicia. Madison nods and tells her to do it and June, quietly apologizing to Alicia, swings the weapon in the girl's forearm. As the blade descends we hear the gates breaking open and we cut to black. A swoosh, a horrible chopping noise, and Alicia’s ear-piercing scream are the last noises heard at the episode ends.

Now this situation does happen in the seventh season of the official show, but I thought of this idea before that aired on TV. So when I learned about it being used, I really became pissed because I felt that I was going to look like I was copying or was being ripped off. But unlike that situation Alicia will lose the hand/ part of her arm almost immediately instead of waiting a long while and somehow surviving her bite (which breaks so many rules of zombie lore). My version actually makes sense.

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