Fear the Walking Dead - Season 5 Rewrite - Episode 15

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Episode 15 – The Good Out of Us

Plot: June thinks over her past. Bloomfield prepares for the future.

Synopsis:

Our episode begins in the past with June soon after leaving John Dorie and his cabin. As she’s driving down the road with the vehicle she stole from him, she looks in the side mirror down the road from where she came from. There’s clearly some discomfort and guilt on her face from leaving John. She turns her head back to look at the road and accepts that she can’t stay with him. It just doesn’t seem to feel real… John can’t be the one for her. She’ll repeat out loud that it’s never true, that she can’t let her guard down. But of course, we can hear some doubt in her voice as she says this.

We’ll cut to sunset as she stops at an abandoned restaurant to rest for the night. Walking in the door tinkles and a few infected walk about. She kills them all with the knife on her belt and she starts raiding the kitchen for anything left. A small timeskip will happen here as she’s eating some canned fruit at night. While eating, she rummages through one of the backpacks of the slain infected and finds something odd in the backpack. Pulling it out, she finds a DVD of Unbreakable and smiles at it slightly. Realizing she’s smiling though she throws the case away and holds herself close, feeling lonely without John and trying to break away from her feelings towards him. Another, longer timeskip later and we see June riding in her vehicle once more, heading northwest and passing by a sign indicating she’s leaving Texas and entering New Mexico. She’s more worn and weathered than before.

We’ll continue this montage of June in the past as she makes her way out west more and more. By this point her car is out of gas and she’s now on foot. We’ll see her scavenging, fighting the dead, and avoiding people (friendly and not friendly), including a large caravan heading west like her. Eventually she’ll be resting in an abandoned ranger station and taking a nap. As she’s resting though she hears footsteps about the building. It’s not one of the dead though, this intruder is living because she can hear panting from outside her room. As the footsteps draw nearing June pulls out John’s revolver and we’ll zoom in on it. As the hammer clicks, we cut to the intro!

Upon returning we are back in the present (in late morning/ mid-day) with June at Navajo Lake sending a patient away after checking them over as another one comes up and says they were throwing up recently. The nurse will check this man over and eventually after considering she’ll say that he’s suffering from a mild heatstroke. Telling the man to get some rest and watching him go find shade, June wipes her forehead and looks into the sky to see the sun blazing down upon them all. Cursing under her breath, she’ll put away some of her equipment and stretch before staring out at the water. Despite clearing the dead from the boats, there is still work being done to make sure the place is suitable for habitation. Crops are being grown near the shore and the water is helping the people stay hydrated, but the place is still undefendable other than being on the dock and water, where they’re sitting ducks. Though she’s integrated herself with the community well, June still has nervousness about being around people (other than the kids), as shown with her interactions with her last patient. Stepping off the boat she was on, June will make her way across the dock to the restaurant that’s become the main hub of this community.

As we watch her walk there we’ll cut to John who’s inside the building, talking with the volunteers who are keeping the marina running while it’s been finalized as a new community or an extension of the San Juan River community. One of the people he’s talking to tells how the area is too rocky to properly grow crops and their attempts have not been favorable, but the fishing has improved with so few people interrupting the fish during the months beforehand. Nodding at the update, John will inquire about any improvements on the dam and a man named Duncan steps up and says he’s still having trouble fixing it and says he just doesn’t have the tools to keep it working. Once more nodding, John pats the man on the shoulder and tell him not to kill himself over it, that they still have made a foothold on the place. Everyone will smile and be reassured by John’s words as he tells them that they’re doing a great job and they’ll be surviving in no time. He’ll everyone it’s time for a break and soon we see cooked fish on spinning racks become available for people to eat.

June comes in here and immediately notices John behind the others to get his meal. She joins him and John asks how everyone she’s checked on is doing. June will note that even though they’re almost out of summer the weather is being brutal of late and some people have been suffering from the heat. John nods, picking up a grilled fish, canned fruit, and fish stew to put on his plate as he sighs that even with the water there’s no escaping the heat. June will nod along with his comment, taking a grilled fish herself, along with a bowl of fish stew and some corn. Both sit together and June, smiling at her stew, comments on it and how John used to make it for her when they were at the cabin. The small smile on John’s face blooms big at the memory of that stew from long ago and he chuckles, asking how this one is compared to his. Smiling back, June will say they’re about the same. They’ll both eat at their meals, feeling comfortable around each other and June forgetting the people around her.

We’ll do a close up on John here and see he is fumbling in his pocket from under the table and he slightly pulls out the ring he found in Flagstaff. There’s a nervousness about him as he wonders whether it’s the time to pop the question to June. Deciding to put the ring away, John asks June if she thinks how they are now… is it possible for them to settle down here? June chews her food, thinking on John’s words, then asks if he thinks they can live together here. John admits they can, though the undead will forever be a problem. They’ll have neighbors, kids about, and maybe Daniel will find a lady cat to go with Skidmark. Both will chuckle once more at the idea of kittens, and John will continue that they’re able to take people in now. Maybe they’re finally going to be able to settle down. June though shakes her head, saying that even though she wants to live peacefully, this world is not peaceful. She’ll mention the Proctors, along with Lomasi’s gang, reminding John there are bad people about. This reminder lowers John’s mood some, but optimistically ponders out loud that they at least won those battles and they’re on their way to a real home.

Both will continue to eat and make chit chat (can’t think of any dialogue at the moment) until both are finished. Then John stands up and offers to take June fishing.

“Like before, but let’s try a boat this time.”

June will stand up with John and follow him out the door, reaching out to take his hand, but stopping at the last second. There’s a bit of confusion on her face as she thinks over his words, wondering if they can settle down together… Focusing again, she’ll walk beside John and mention that tonight they can finally open up that bottle of Blue Raspberry Punch. John will chuckle, saying he hasn’t had alcohol in a long while, but would gladly have some with her. As they’re walking off to the smaller rowing boats we’ll hear him mention that it might taste bad, but he’ll have some with her.

Here we’ll cut to Bloomfield, where we hear wood being struck. Martha, Paul, Kwahu, and some others are in the process of tearing down a house to add to the wall. We can already see that they’ve almost done with their current abode as we see sections of the now torn down building already moved to Bloomfield and a truck piled with removed doors is heading for Bloomfield. The city of Bloomfield has become more barren of neighborhoods, but the lack of buildings is allowing the ground and nature to take over. Alicia will come in and help carry some newly dismantled sections onto a returning truck just as the last wall of the structure is removed from the ground. With a grunt she and her companion will drop their piece into the truck and sigh as the last parts are followed out by the others.

With the house done with, Alicia tells everyone it’s time to call it and everyone begins to pack everything up. As this happens, we’ll see an infected shambling towards the group and Alicia steps up to it and punches her spike through its head. With the undead slain, she starts dragging the lifeless corpse with her to the pile that’s been built up. Taking a tank of gasoline, she sprinkles some over the pile and Kwahu, using a shiny knife, concentrates the light onto some dried grass and throws it on to the pile. Soon the pile is a blazing inferno, and everyone begins to leave. During the short drive back, Alicia calls her mother in to tell her of the progress they made, and Madison tells them all they did a good job. Madison will then inform them that some help might be needed up at the lake. Alicia will wipe her forehead and tell her mother she’d be happy to assist them.

When the cars enter Bloomfield and stop, Alicia will get out of the car and both Paul and Martha say they heard what Madison said and volunteer to join her. Thanking them for the help, Alicia heads over to grab some food with everyone else. Upon reaching the food court Alicia will notice that Farah is not about. Worrying about her, she’s about to head out and find her when Paul asks where she’s going. Once Alicia explains Paul will say he’ll find her since Alicia is already in line. The young Clark will shake her head, saying he needs to eat his food, but Paul will reply he’ll give what he’s holding to Farah and he’ll go back in line. Alicia will back him up and explain why he’s back in line, right? Nodding, Alicia agrees, but tells Paul to be careful with Farah. Paul will nod and walk off, asking loudly if Farah is back where she was last time, to which Alicia will respond that is probably the first place to look.

Cutting to Alicia and Martha sitting down with their food, both will at first eat their meals in silence, both hungry from all the work. Martha then inquires about Alicia’s talk with her mom during their run for gardening supplies, that Paul told her about it when Alicia asks how she heard about it. The former teacher will then ask what it was about and Alicia simplifies her answer by saying that her mom used to be bad, but now she’s good. The tone Alicia gives dissuades Martha from pressing further, instead saying that she’s become very happy here in Bloomfield. They’ve had troubles, but they have everything they need and that she wants to stay here for a long time. Alicia will nod here and say that things might finally be looking up.

We’ll follow Paul now as he heads south with his tray of food. Soon enough he’ll reach the south wall and as Alicia predicted he’ll see Farah sitting on the wall. At the bottom of the ladder Paul calls up to Farah, explaining how she wasn’t there for food, so he brought her some. Only a half-hearted thanks comes down to him, so he decides to go up with the food. The Arabic engineer is still staring south, even as Paul sits next to her with the tray. Paul will ask where Farah was originally from and she’ll say she’s from the Middle East. Iran to be specific (not fully confirmed, just current pick). Paul will ask if she was there when the United States invaded in 90s or 80s and Farah will say she was just a baby when her parents and her got out of the country during the Iraq-Iran War.

“When it began… my parents knew things would not go well. Quickly were dying and they wanted out. They had no family left and they wanted to give me a better life. They did. But now…”

There’s silence from Farah again and she stares into the south, mournful of her actions.

“Now they’re gone… And so many people I know and will never know are gone…”

Paul will look at her in way he’s barely looked at anybody before. A mix of pity and a desire to help. There’s hesitation in his movements at first, but eventually he takes her hand and squeezes it. Fresh tears come from Farah’s eyes, though they’re not as strong as before and only a sniffle comes from her. Paul tells her to look at him and she looks straight at him slowly.

“What you did Farah, from what I’ve heard, was one of the bravest things a person could do. It’s got to be hard to deal with it, but one day you’ll make it all up. I can see it in you, Farah.”

He’ll squeeze hand again and then continue:

“Live for those around you because you’ll live for them and those before.”

A small smile comes on her face and Farah will say that she’s glad Alicia found and brought him here. Paul smiles back and stands up to go down the ladder. When he asks if she wants to come Farah will say she wants to sit here for a little while longer. Paul nods and will head down and we’ll stick to Farah, who is still in a miserable mood, but that is starting to break a bit as she realizes she can’t mope about forever.

As Paul arrives back at the cafeteria and gets in line, Alicia will stick by his side and ask him how Farah is. Paul will say she’s still down, but he hopes that she’ll eventually be better. As Paul gets to his food Alicia will vouch for him and he’ll get his meal. With her job done, Alicia will head to the east gate and call out to him to head there when he’s done. Nodding, Paul will sit next to Martha, who comments on his attachment to Farah. Paul will say she needs help and he wants to give her said help. Martha will respond that he only just met her and Paul will reply that they have to be there for each other. Standing up, Martha will remind Paul to be ready in case anything dangerous comes and leaves to follow Alicia. There’s a bit of silence as Paul looks at his food, then with great energy he starts to eat rapidly.

We’ll cut here to Alicia gathering some supplies for the trip to the lake. While doing this Madison will come by and check on her. Both will chat some as Madison assists Alicia with carrying a crate, talking about subjects like the amount of wood they’ve procured from buildings they’ve taken down, the recently obtained gardening supplies, and gossip on some of the people around town. That last one I might want to use to at least mention just random civilians because I haven’t done a good job “populating” my communities. I need to name more people. Anyways, soon Martha comes in and asks if she can help carry and the supply guy that’s helping Madison and Alicia thanks her and hands her his box. Taking it off their hands, she sets it in the truck just as Paul shows up and as we watch all four of them, along with a few others, getting into the vehicles we cut to black.

When we return, we are back to the past where stare down the barrel of June’s revolver. Laying on the ground in the ranger station is an opossum, a sight which causes June to groan at the waste of a bullet and disgust in her after killing an animal. She’ll pick up the shot mammal gingerly between fingers and looks at it with a grossed look on her face. Unfortunately for June, her stomach growls and with a dejected look her head flops down as she realizes she needs to eat. We’ll cut to night here and June, as best as she can, is cooking the opossum over a fire. There’s gloom emanating around June as she stares at the meager food she’s having on her own. To break the lonely silence, June tries to hum the tune that John’s bass alarm made, but she can’t remember the tune and quickly stops.

Suddenly the sound of a broken twig is heard and suddenly several coyotes come out of the darkness and into the light of June’s small fire. Her revolver comes out of her holster and she points it at each growling, barking hound as they yap and bark at her. There’s a panicked look in her eyes as one of them slowly takes a step forward, it’s snarling, open mouth drooling at the smell of June’s cooked meat. Then without warning a high pitched whistling is heard and the coyotes become disorganized, whining and whimpering at the piercing noise and running away from the fire. June sits stunned at the sudden dispersal of her attackers, but quickly points her gun into the darkness once more as a voice is heard.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Into the firelight steps an Mexican man with hands raised in surrender, one of them holding a dog whistle. Just behind the man comes a brown Dachshund, its tail wagging as it follows its master. With hands still raised, the newcomer asks politely if he can sit down. June continues to point John’s gun at the man and he, thinking she’s saying no, apologizes and begins to back away slowly. Just as he’s about to step back into the darkness June tells him to stop and allows him to stay with him. The man will ask if she’s sure because if she wants him to leave, he’ll leave. June will reiterate to come into the light and puts her revolver away. At last the mystery man puts his hands down and sits near the fire, warming his hands by it as the wiener dog snuggles by the man’s legs. Smiling gently, the man pulls out a can of dog food and shows it to June before opening it and throwing it in a saucepan. As he cooks it on the fire he’ll finally introduce himself as Diego and his little pal as Minnie.

“Minnie’s a big sweetie, aren’t you Minnie?~”

June remains silent, only glancing at the man and the happy, wiggling dog as she finally eats her cooked opossum. The silence continues between them as both parties eat their food. Eventually Diego breaks the silence and proclaims that something is troubling… Rahul drags his words out to let June reveal her name and June tells Rahul her name is Laura, the same name that John gave her. But since that is all that June gives him, Rahul will continue from here:

“Ah, don’t want to talk about it. That’s alright. These times we can’t really tell strangers what we’re doing. Or most people don’t.”

The silence continues between the two groups as Minnie comes over and sniffs at June, who looks down at the dog with restrained curiosity for a second before returning to her meal. She doesn’t want to talk, people are dangerous… Diego lapses into silence, just eating and feeding Minnie while sitting in his spot. A small time jump will show Rahul sleeping with his dog while June watches them, unable to sleep out of suspicion. Her eyes droop though as she tries to fight off her weariness. Knowing she’s going to lose, June tries to hide herself away from the fire in the bushes so it appears that she’s left. We’ll jump once more to the morning, where June is getting up and seeing her new companions fast asleep. Quietly she’ll get up, pack her things, and leave her camp to head further west. She’ll be on the road, trudging her way with the sun at her back.

Eventually she’ll spot a large shipping truck and looks it over, seeing the back opened and the inside mostly raided. Seeing that there is still some unopened boxed about, June starts to raise herself up. Suddenly though a hand from under the truck grabs her foot on the step and with her other foot in the air June loses her balance and twists her leg and she falls onto the ground with a cry. The infected pulling at her leg tries to bite her and the two get into a vicious tug of war with her pant leg. As this is happening another infected from inside the truck comes waddling out and falls onto the ground next to June. Rising up, it starts crawling towards June, but just as it reaches out sound of barking is heard. This distracts the infected enough for June to pull out her knife and swing overhead to stab the head infected in the head. The other one trying to bite her leg is then pulled away from June and a screwdriver is driven into its skull.

June rapidly gets to her feet, yelling at Diego on why he’s following her. The man will apologize and say he just wanted a companion and that maybe she needed somebody for company. Outraged, June will say she’s not and continues to head west, but not before gritting her teeth at her twisted ankle. She’ll ignore the pain as best as she can, but Diego calls out that she should have somebody help her out, even as she tells them to leave her alone. While saying this she trips and falls down. Diego will walk over her and express how “Laura” could use some help. Even when she tries to shrug him off, Diego helps June to the truck to lay her down. As this happens we see infected in the ditch beside the road start waking up from the noise and heading towards the truck.

Here we’ll cut back to the present, as June and John are fishing on the lack. John will ask if it feels different, being in a boat this time instead of in the water and June will say she’s kind of happy getting less wet. Both will flick their rods after the other, trying to tease the fish into biting. Eventually June thanks John and when he asks what for June will reply with:

“For everything. You’re helping me to trust people again. It’s slow and I got a ways to go, but you’re making me feel better. I made a mistake leaving you at the cabin…”

John will shake his head at this and reassure June that she needed time to herself. She barely trusted him when they first met and he wouldn’t want to keep her with him against her will. He cares for her more than anything. A grateful smile slips onto June’s face and she leans in to hug and kiss him, answering that she feels the same way towards him. We’ll get a long pause of them holding each other until their romantic moment is interrupted by Alicia on the walkie talkie. June takes it off John and answers, Alicia responding that they’re about to arrive. June will nod and inform Alicia they’ll see her soon, they’re just doing a bit of fishing.

Cutting to Alicia in the truck, she’ll tease the pair on their boat trip and June will laugh into the walkie, instructing the younger woman to get the supplies onto the dock and help the guards out. Nodding, Alicia will over and out here as the truck parts near the dock. Everyone gets out as people from the dock come over and start helping them out with the new supplies. While Alicia is unable to help with the heavy stuff, she carries some boxes with her to the restaurant. Martha and Paul join the others with the few barrels of fuel needed for the boats. One the barrels being lifted down falls out of one of the person’s hands and hits the ground hard, rolling towards the water. Paul calls out and Alicia, the closest to the barrel, quickly puts down her box and stops the barrel from hitting the water. The man who let the barrel drop will apologize and thanks Alicia, then returns to moving it onto the dock.

Very quickly the supplies are in their new home and people relax some. Alicia will stand up and stretch, telling everyone to chill before going outside. Martha looks at the coffee they brought and decides then to give them out to the workers. It’ll be a sweet moment with Paul and Martha happy to be a part of a nice community as both prep coffee for everyone. We’ll watch as the two prepare the coffee and start handing it out, Martha looks at a cup of coffee in her hand for a bit before handing it to the man in front of her. As she does this we’ll move to Alicia here, walking along the dock to a roofed section. After picking a spot to sit down, she kicks off her shoes and socks and soaks her feet in the water. The cold feeling on her feet lets her release a sigh of relief and she kicks the water gently. Looking over the lake, Alicia will wonder out loud about the prospects for the future, thinking back to going on a boat when she was younger. Noticing John and June on their boat, she’ll wave at them with a smile.

On the water, John and June will keep fishing and the latter will notice Alicia and wave back. John will notice June waving and wave as well, but just as he does he’ll feel a tug on his rod and he’ll start to reel in his catch, commenting that it’s a big one with how heavy it feels. June will watch John fight with his catch as it pulls them boat towards the shore until suddenly the line slackens some. Not fully, but there’s a heavier weight than usual on hook. Curious, John will reel in his line and look over the side as he does, seeing a dark object being pulled up. As it’s pulled out of the water, John sees that his hook has a chunk of rotten, wet, mushy flesh on it. Horror covers his and June’s face and both begin to yell and wave their arms at the lone girl on the dock.

Alicia, kicking her feet about in the water, doesn’t notice John and June’s frantic cries at first, but eventually she does, but the words are unclear. Her trying to hear what the pair on the water are shouting pulls Alicia’s eyes away from the water, while we, the audience, see blurry figures under the water moving closer to her feet. A look of concern slips onto Alicia’s face as she tries to hear them out and we cut back to John and June as John shouts as loud as he can into his walkie:

“ALICIA, THEY’RE IN THE WATER!!!”

This Alicia hears and looking down she snatches her foot out of the water just as the rotten tips of the undead fingers brush at her toes and break the surface. Standing up Alicia sees more infected making their way towards the shore and bump against the dock. As Alicia stares down at the underwater infected bumping against the dock posts.

We’ll cut to black here and when we come back, we return to the past, where June is suffering from her twisted foot. It’s clear that her fall and the way her ankle hit the step as she fell really injured her. Rahul is wrapping a bandage around June’s ankle, muttering to her that she’s going to be okay. All this while the dead crowd at the entrance to the truck. June will groan and tell Diego that she doesn’t want him, she doesn’t want to be around people like him. Diego will look at her closely and ask what she means by people like him. Completely frustrated, June will yell at him that she doesn’t want to be around anybody! Looking away, her gaze goes to the dead that are trying to reach for them in the container.

Soon after she says this, both heard a loud groan from behind and both turn to see a very huge, fat ghoul from the very back of the semi trudge from behind some crates and make its way towards the pair. Think the well walker from season two of the main show, but not wet and soggy. Minnie will bark, trying to attract its attention, but Diego pushes the dog away as the blobby monster is so large and fat that it looks like it’ll crush the small dog if it falls over. The man will look about frantically, trying to find a way to stop it without getting close. He doesn’t have enough time though before it gets too close and Diego tries to use a crate to move it to the wall. Unfortunately, the weight and strength of the infected is too much slowly the two are pushed towards the open door and the crowd of undead waiting below.

June, crawling backwards, notices this and knows she has to do something. She’ll pull out John’s pistol and we’ll get a long moment of her aiming at the hulking infected. Just over a yard away from the exit, June fires and nails a headshot. The infected collapses with a very loud thud, which then turns into a groan from the truck as we see the sudden weight breaking the ground next to the ditch. Soon both people realize what’s happening as the weight of the semi on the edge sends it tipping into the trench. Luckily nothing heavy is next to or hits them as the vehicle falls on its side. Both June and Diego are stunned by the fall though and we watch as June starts to recover just as the undead outside make their way through the now accessible entrance. Knowing they’re not out of the fire yet, June gets up with gritted teeth and pulls Diego, who was holding Minnie close to him, to the back of the truck, holding John’s gun in case there are more undead in the back.

As they get further in the dark back, Diego comes back to his senses and, seeing the dead coming after them, urges June to help him block their path. Seeing a very large crate, they both push as hard as they can and (after we watch them struggle) we see them both block the undead from getting to them, at least for a bit. The groaning corpses will try to keep grabbing at them and we’ll see at times the crate moving slightly, but both June and Diego have a break to relax. Minnie will run about their small enclosure and yip a bit, but June just lays back and stares at the ceiling. With the problem delayed, Rahul will stare at Madison and tell her that they can’t be alone in this world. People are social creatures, we need others to be happy. Minnie will put her front legs on Diego’s thigh as he says this, proving his point. That’s why he’s looking for his boyfriend, he doesn’t want to be alone without him. June will shake her head and turn away, proclaiming that’s not how it has gone with her, adding:

“This world… it takes the good out of us. I already had troubles with people, but now… I don’t care who’s with me, I don’t want to be near them! I’m better alone.”

There’s a bluntness to her words, but tears begin to form in her eyes as memories of John Dorie come to her and we’ll get a few flashes of the “Laura” episode where John meets her. These make her realize that’s she’s lying to Diego and herself. Diego will continue to look at her, wanting to comfort her, but seeing how she is and the threat of the undead, he keeps his eyes on the crate that’s slowly being pushed towards her. As June does the same, we’ll zoom in on her face and, sticking on the camera shot, cut back to the present, where we see June and John rowing back to shore as fast as they can. We’ll then cut to Alicia (back in her shoes and wet socks) running along the dock and telling everyone about the infected below. The whole dock starts to creek and Alicia tells everyone about the undead in the water. Martha will remark that they must get them away from the dock or else the continually pushing is going to start dislodging the dock posts. Paul will continue that they got to get the dead out of the water.

Everyone starts running along the dock to the shore while Alicia stays behind and hits the dock with her prosthetic, attracting the dead below to her location as she slowly leads them out of the water. It’ll be a bit of déjà vu, the opposite of how she, her mother, and the others cleared the hotel in season 2. We’ll watch from underwater as the dead follow the figure on the dock above. Soon Alicia is on the end of the dock and the water becomes shallow enough for the ghouls to breach the surface, their groans now audible in the open air. Alicia will now go from a careful walk to a run for solid ground. Jumping to onto the dirty and asphalt, she’ll notice some of the people with guns in hand, including Paul, but she dispels their attack by calling out that the water will be polluted if the dead are killed too close to shore.

At this realization, the living slowly back away, weapons still drawn, to lure the infected more onto land and away from the shore. Alicia and Martha are slightly in front with a few others using close knives, machetes, and other melee weapons. We’ll linger on both groups as they move further away from the water. Alicia calls the gunners to get ready, but not long after she does we focus the camera on a few of these people and a couple of them start feeling weird. The camera will get a little woozy and so will those people as those indicated hold their heads or start walking unsteadily. They begin to fall behind the others and one of them even falls on their hands and knees. One by one, these dazed individuals fall further behind and Alicia, with a couple others, try to pull these stragglers to their feet. Unfortunately, the dead have caught up and not all of them are pulled away in time.

Their screams from being devoured are heard across the lake and those carrying the stragglers either abandon their charge, make it safely, or are devoured with them. The loss of the fighters soon turns the tables greatly in favor of the undead. Trying to get everything together, Alicia tells those who have guns to start firing and we see some of the dead start dying from gunfire. With many of the guns lost from those who were devoured, the shooting doesn’t reduce the ranks of walking dead as much as hoped and soon the guns run out of ammo as the dead keep coming out of the water. Alicia and the rest of the company start using their melee weapons to kill the dead, but they are continually pushed back and Alicia is looking about for a way out of this.

We’ll cut here to John and June close to the shore. While the dead are all out of the water, a number are close enough to shore for them to notice and to turn around to march upon the boat. Both pull out knives and begin to attack the dead as they surround the craft. As we observe them fighting the dead June will lose her knife as it refuses to come out of a once growling skull and grabs one of the paddle as her new weapon. She’ll smack one of the dead in the head, knocking it to the ground, before slamming the paddle end down through its open mouth to decapitate it. The fight will continue until those infected are dead and both will look at the dead following the other live humans. June will note that there are too many undead for just them. John will pull out his walkie and try to call Alicia.

Fighting the dead, Alicia will dispatch another when John’s voice comes from her walkie. Stepping back some, Alicia will answer and inform the cowboy about the situation. Her group is almost out of the parking lot and to the upward hill. With that terrain, they’ll be having a hard time getting out. John will look about, trying to find a way to save them, but June’s the one to spot the barrel of fuel and an idea comes into her head. She hold her hand out for the walkie and tells Alicia to move her group into the bathroom and hold the dead outside there as long as she can. Alicia will acknowledge and June will tell John to help her with the barrel.

Moving back to the others, Alicia will lead everyone into the toilets and then order everyone push on the door to keep it closed. With the narrow passageway, everyone is able to use the walls to push themselves against the groaning door. Alicia will yell at everyone to hold it, but already it is pushed back slightly as an rotted face snarls through the track. Alicia stabs it with a punch from her prosthetic and pushes back on the door. June calls again and asks Alicia if there is a window in the bathroom. Alicia will lean over to the side and notice a light in the main area. As June hears the news, she’ll tell Alicia to keep it held there for a bit longer. June and John will set the barrel into a truck and stay low, watching the horde press up against the bathroom. Holding the mic close to her, June will tell Alicia to start getting people out on her signal.

As the door creaks open again, Martha will stab the infected peeking out the slit. But it’s clear the door is starting to lose as dents begin to appear on the door. Alicia yells at everyone to keep holding and we’ll stretch this moment out some until finally June calls out for them to get out at the same time she jumpstarts the truck. Paul and a few others move first, moving to the small window and lifting each other up through it to escape. As more people leave, Martha and Alicia eventually become the last to hold the door closed and we can see both of them giving it 110%. Paul eventually calls to them to get out and both break away as the dead pour in. Both kill an infected each before Alicia and those outside lift Martha out to the window and she crawls out. Alicia is the last in the room and she holds off the dead, nearly pinned at one point before pushing them off and grabbing at the ends through the window. She’s pulled up just in time as the dead paw at her boots.

With the dead all inside, June hits the gas and moves the truck to block the entrance. There she locks the car and gets out with John, grabbing the barrel and tipping it into the bathroom. The gas spreads about while the dead ignore it, reaching for the open window out of reach. The pair then put the barrel back up and pull it away. June then runs over to pull up some grab and dip it in the gas. June will then use some broken glass to light the grass on fire and toss it on the gas, which ignites instantly. In a matter of seconds the entire bathroom is on fire and the trapped infected begin to burn up in the heat. John will call to everyone to get away and soon all the living run away from the bathroom as the whole building goes up in flames. Everyone will stand by watching the inferno consume the structure and the dead inside, all of them watching for any escapees. Paul will tell June she did very well and we’ll focus on June’s smiling face as we cut to black.

When we return we’ll return to the past one last time, back to the same moment we left June and Diego at. Both of them are staring at the crate as the dead slowly push it towards them and Diego decides to push back while avoiding the arms of the rotten arms grabbing at him. We’ll focus on Diego doing his best, but the mass of undead are beating him and Diego grunts with effort. He’ll look to June, explaining that before the dead came there used to be seven billion people in the world. If what she says is true and only like 1% of people are good, that means 70 million people are good. That means there are good people still left out there and she’ll be able to find at least one! Shaking her head, June will ask why he’s saying all this, why he cares about her even though he doesn’t know her. Deigo’s response is simple: Because he can tell she’s good. And if at least one good person is out there, there are more.

“You know it’s true, Laura!”

This realization will cause her to look at John’s gun, giving her the epiphany she needs to snap back to her senses and help Diego hold their barricade. While it works at first, June’s damaged leg doesn’t give her much of a hold on the floor and the dead keep pressing on them. We’ll draw this out as they’re pushed further back until suddenly there is gunfire from the open doors and the dead starts to collapse. The pair duck and stay low as the bullets fly overhead until the dead are no more. Both stay where they are until the now broken crate is pushed aside and they’re pulled roughly to their feet and dragged out into the sunlight. A couple of people pass by them, looking through the remaining boxes inside the container.

The next voice they hear is a gruff one that tells the two they’re a bit ungrateful for not even saying thank you to their rescuers. June will look up and see some bikers with guns who we (the audience) will recognize as Proctors. They’ll tease the pair a bit until one of them asks to hand off their things. This man will notice John’s pistol and comment on how nice it looks and how it would look better on him than her. He’ll hold out his hand in a patronizing way, like June’s a little girl hiding something behind her back. Diego tries to stand up for June, Minnie growling at the man, to which the Proctor will point his rifle at the dog and tell Rahul to shut the mutt up. He’ll then ask June once more to give him the gun. June will glance as the gun in her hand and, knowing there is nothing she can do, hands it over reluctantly.

The man will smile and asks for the rest of their stuff when another guy in the truck behind them tells the biker that they need to get a move on, to leave those people alone. They are already behind schedule due to him not being able to take a shit. Flustered, the man will glare at the speaker and at June and Diego before storming off back to his bike. The others in the truck will follow not far behind, commenting there was nothing left in the truck worth taking. The leader of this band looks at the two they rescued and tosses them a worn, regular pistol and tells them to keep going west, that there’s a place they can stay. Just stay out of their way. The man who took John’s revolver will complain loudly that he just gave them his gun, to which their leader will say “tough shit” to him before the engines rev up and the vehicles head out.

June will pick up the gun and look at it, already missing John’s pistol. It felt like the only part of him with her is now gone. Diego will look at June and ask if that gun was special to her and she’ll nod. Rahul will smile and put a hand on her shoulder, exclaiming that June if that gun was special, the person she got it from was also special. And so good. June will smile a bit at this and then start to walk off, Diego and Minnie following behind. Walking in tandem, Diego will ask what June did before the apocalypse and she’s answer that she was a nurse. Diego will smile back and reply he used to be a dog trainer. This will answer June’s question on why Diego had a dog whistle on him and Diego will laugh lightly, then go into talk about Minnie and say a fun fact that she’s a Dachshund, which means badger dog in German, as well as a few other facts about dogs.

We’ll cut to the pair at night huddling near some rocks around a small fire. Diego and Minnie are both asleep while June is away, looking at the gun and at the sleeping pair. We’ll linger on June some as she thinks on what to do until she stands up and puts the gun next to the pair. She’ll then write in the sand next to them, “Stay safe – L”, then picks up her backpack and walks away. But as she starts to leave Diego will speak up and June will turn around, seeing the awake Mexican look at her in the eyes. Some silence will be between them until Diego asks if she really wants to go, to which June will nod. The former dog trainer will look at June and then say:

“I hope you find what you’re looking for, Laura.”

June will nod again and smile, telling Rahul that she hopes he does too before departing. As she’s walking in the night, she’ll pass by a sign lit by moonlight that says, “Yuma – 30 miles”.

Returning to the present, the group is examining the former restrooms, now burnt black from the flames. Paul will tell June and John they did very well and June will thank Paul, a small smile on her face. John will notice Alicia’s wet feet and offer her his socks since they’re dry, commenting that while they’re a bit big for her, nothing’s worse than wet socks. Alicia will smile and shake her head, turning down John’s offer as she’ll get some socks when she’s back home. Nodding, John will tell everyone it’s best to watch the lake in case any more stragglers come out. June will then add not to drink the water as the group disperses to the edges of the lake and apologizes about killing a few dead in the water. While John walks forward to start finishing off any dead that are still alive, she’ll look upon the people she helped save and smile at their turned backs as something starts to unravel in her.

One of the people she notices though is clearly still groggy and she helps the man sit down and puts a hand to his forehead. He’s clearly out of it, very weary. The man will thank June and tell her he was totally fine earlier and then he started to feel very tired in the heat. It’s a little for June, but her best advice now is to get into shade and do nothing. She’ll watch the man walk off, tired but definitely not collapsing. June will wonder to herself why people are becoming so weak to the heat. It’s been extra hot, yes, but not much hotter than before. John will ask if June thinks people are getting sick, if something is going around. The nurse will hope there isn’t, but something isn’t adding up.

We’ll switch to Martha now, who is examining the right area of the beach and watching out for the dead, Paul at her side. As she reaches a rise, she puts a hand above her eyes and peers into the distance. There she notices something and tells Paul to move ahead. The man will look at her oddly and Martha tells him to go, she’ll catch up. She’ll then head back as Paul looks at her for a bit longer, a slightly confused look on his face before heading out. Following Martha, she’ll spot Alicia and tell her there are infected trapped in some rocks over the hill. Alicia will nod and go with the older woman across the rocks. Alicia will note that she can’t hear them, but Martha says they’re there. Soon they’re over the hill and Alicia looks about more, still unable to notice any infected. This confuses her some and she’s about to say something then suddenly Martha covers Alicia’s mouth with a funny smelling rag. Alicia at first tries to wrestle Martha off of her, but already starts to feel the effects of the smell on her, so stabs her in thigh with her prosthetic. Unfortunately for Alicia though, she falls unconscious not long after that stab, her body going slack as the chemicals knock her out. Martha curses quietly, kneeling down to holding her bleeding leg and gritting her teeth. She’ll look east and, with a groan of frustration, starts dragging Alicia away.

Switching to John and June here, we’ll watch both heading out across the shore eastwards. The heat is getting to them and both clearly want to get some shade, water, and rest, but they got to make sure the shore is clear. And just like that we see an infected walking out of the surf and trudging its way up towards the pair. June will walk up to the walker and stab it under the chin, killing it instantly. But as it fall the bloated body explodes slightly, releasing a splash of undead guts over June’s pants. It’s be a gross moment and June will groan out loud that she needs to change clothes as soon as they’re back home. They’ll drag the dead body away from the shore, leading a bloody trail behind them. As soon as the carcass is far enough away both drop it with a sigh of disgust and John looks at June. His hand is once more in his pocket, but this time he decides then to do it, commenting:

“I know we’re covered in god knows what June, but I need to tell you something.”

June will look at her boyfriend curiously as he motions her to sit down. He’ll sit beside her and stare her in the eyes as he continues:

“June… Ever since we met on that riverside, you’ve been… you’ve always been on my mind. I was alone, then you came and made me feel like I didn’t have to be after what I did before. So when you left and I was once again alone, it felt… wrong. I went to find you because there was so much I never got to say to you, to do with you. I love you, June. I love you more than anything in this world. And I can’t keep going with all that not said and not done.”

As John is saying all this he slowly gets on a knee, June looks astounded, happy, and holding her hands together to her chest. But as she watches John talk, we notice in the background Martha dragging Alicia across the ground. John will go to one knee and pull out the ring from Flagstaff. Here June will be in more shock and excitement as John offers the ring to her.

“June… will you-“

Here though, June hears Martha make a large grunt of effort and notices the African American woman dragging Alicia towards the gate. June runs over and John, looking disappointed at the interruption, follows her to the pair near the wall. Both will see the knocked out Alicia and panic, asking what happened to her. Martha will try to explain that Alicia fell unconscious and she thinks it’s from the heat, but as she’s telling June, the nurse will notice that things are off. Why is Martha dragging Alicia away from the others and why is Marth’s leg bleeding? June will suddenly be on guard and reaching for her knife.

But as the nurse prepares to attack, we hear a vehicle coming their way. Both John and June look up to watch out for it and Martha, knowing her time is up and seeing June and John off their guard, grabs June and puts a knife to her throat. Martha will then tell John to not do a thing as the knife is pressed against June. John, totally panicked, will have his arms in the air as a truck comes into view with Paul in the back. When he notices Martha threatening John, he’ll yell at her to stop, this isn’t what they’re supposed to do. Martha tells him to stay in the truck and not do a thing, backing away slowly with June as a couple other people in the truck come out and pick up the knocked out Alicia. Still moving gradually towards the vehicle, Martha tells John to not do a thing as he takes a step forward, the knife leaving a little blood on June’s neck. This stops the horrified John as he watches the woman he loves being taken away. He begins to plead to Martha, asking why she’s doing this and to let June go because, “She’s the most important thing in my life!”

Martha says nothing as she reaches the truck, the silent and terrified June watching John unable to help her. The former English teacher will stare John straight in the eye and tell him:

“I can’t John… I’ve seen what you can do.”

June will be pulled into the truck as the same time Martha gets in, the knife still close to the nurse’s throat. As the vehicle begins to rev up and drive away John looks broken, unable to stand being helpless as the woman he loves, the woman he was about to propose to, is taken away. And as the truck drives into the distance, we cut to black!

Click here for Episode 16