1 Episode 1 "Downtown"

"It's been half a year now, we've finally settled into this new life that we found ourselves in, the dead are dying and the remnants of Ryker's crew haven't been seen or heard of in over a year. We have finally made contact with Gate City, we are states apart but with the connections with groups like the one in Vegas or San Francisco, we were able to get letters to the New Mexico outpost and straight to Gate City from there. If I'm going to be honest, I'm a bit homesick, I miss Gate City, I think of people like Clara at the new compound and James, Louis, all of them. I hope to be able to see them once again, that day at the original Compound when we attacked... It still haunts me to this day with what we did that day, who we lost, what we lost, I guess sometimes you just can't escape your past, no matter how hard you try."

Sarah looked off at the ocean, it seemed endless, unexplored, new, she thought for a second and continued to write. "The people we have lost since the start, the things we have lost, it almost feels like things are going right for once. I remember when it was just me and Dex on the search for Will, we were gonna part ways but the fact that the both of us had targets on our backs we had to stick together. Times were simpler back then, ever since Wilmington was burnt to the ground, the fight at the Compound... the police station... Sometimes I wonder where the others from Wilmington went, where the prisoners went. The few from Wilmington that stayed with me are at Gate City, thats it, the others... I wonder what they may be up to these days, the past is the past, now we are building something big, we have found communities in 4 states so far, 3 are directly connected, the new world is beginning now, we are in the rebirth of civilization, and it's up to us to make sure it lasts."

Sarah put the pen down as she looked up at the sun off in the distance as it was rising, Sarah stood up and closed her journal and put it in her bag. She then proceeded to throw her bag over her shoulder as she walked to the ladder to begin her climb down from the watch tower to begin the day fully. Once she reached the bottom she proceeded to walk down the dirt path to the other end of the colony, as she was walking she overheard Jack and Mel talking about leaving. Sarah slowed down and listened in, Jack looked at Mel and said, "our best option to stay out of any drama is to distance ourselves, go far away back to Wilmington, rebuild and start fresh." Mel paused for a bit and said "what about the people here, you just wanna leave them here with our problems?" Jack looked at her and continued, "Ryker's crew have been MIA since last summer, it's now a god damn year and I don't know 2 months later and they are still gone." Sarah looked down, she didn't know what to think, she overheard them mention Dex and she knew that he knew but never told her about the plan, she continued to walk.

Sarah stopped by Al and Abigail who were dealing with crops at the small farm plot by the wall. Al looked up at her and said, "you ready for that scouting mission?" Sarah looked off into the distance at the sun and the clouds creeping in and said, "I sure hope so... Did Lamar and the others ever leave for their week long trip to Vancouver?" Abigail looked up and said, "left an hour and a half ago, Lamar said you were busy daydreaming in that journal of yours and he didn't wanna bother ya." Sarah nodded and said, "well thanks for catching me up, I gotta get going, the city won't scout itself." Al looked up and wiped his face and said out loud as Sarah grabbed some food by the fence, "stay safe, remember don't do anything too stupid." Sarah laughed a bit and said, "I'll try... see ya in a bit!" Al and Abigail waved as Sarah walked on, ready for whatever is to come on this scouting mission.

She walked on to the repair cabin and entered it with Noah, who was finishing up final touches on her guitar. Sarah walked up and said after leaning in a bit, "you get her fixed up?" Noah smiled and handed her the guitar and said, "she may be old but she still works, I made a few tweaks and modifications, it should work better and be able to withstand more damage, be careful out there." Sarah put it over her shoulder and said, "thanks Noah, I'll owe ya for this one" Noah leaned in and said, "you could sing for us, after the others get back from Vancouver, I heard you're a good singer, I think we'd all like to hear it." Sarah laughed a bit and said, "who told you this, Dex?" Noah shrugged, Sarah continued before walking out, "I guess I can, we'll need it after the week is over, it is a busy week after all, catch ya later." They said their goodbyes as Sarah continued to get to the front gate to meet up with Dex and the horses they had ready for them.

Sarah continued down the path, she was still trying to process it, she was against the leaving idea. Sarah felt as if they owed it to all they have lost and to the people they now call family to stay there and survive. Sarah kept going and got herself together rather quickly as she approached Dex by the gate, Marcus looked at Sarah with a smile. He approached her and said, "I've told this to Dex and I'll say it to you, Will, Faith, Lamar are on a scouting mission to Vancouver, they had Coco tag along and won't be back for a week, just a heads up for ya. Stay safe out there." Sarah looked at him and nodded and walked up to Dex and said, "let's get this show on the road shall we?" the pair headed out together and onto the road, Sarah was busy thinking about the idea of just abandoning all that they had, it didn't seem like Dex to stand for that. They eventually got to the bridge off the island and onto the mainland, they enter the city slowly, they continued down the main road that had cars parted to the side of the road for runs in and out of the city. Dex looked at Sarah out of boredom and said, "how about we go off course, explore this city more, maybe go to the side of town that nobody has gone, due to ya know flooding and all that." Sarah smiled in disbelief at the idea and said, "if we somehow get killed doing this just know, I'll find a way to haunt you."

They proceeded off the designated path for a little while as they entered the badlands, which is the section of the city deemed too dangerous for passage. They passed several signs warning them as they continued. Dex looked at Sarah and signaled her to get off the horses, they climbed down and tied the horses up at the stable next to them. It was an old stable used by the colony, keeps the horses safe while adventuring into areas deemed too dangerous for the horses. They continued on foot for a while, the streets ahead were clear enough to warrant suspicion so Dex pulled his handy machete out, Sarah took her knife as they got ready for anything. Dex looked at an old cafe and began to enter it, Sarah followed him into it, Dex looked around and saw an old walker couple. Sarah approached the walkers as they struggled to even look at her, they had nature overgrowth so bad to the point to where they couldn't move. Dex looked at an old family photo on the wall and then around the place and said, "place is empty." Sarah picked up a bloody note and said, "the place was picked clean at the start, judging off this letter these two had waited for their friends to return, they must have waited a while." Sarah looked up at the two empty cups and the pill bottle and said, "they must have waited until all hope was lost." Dex was saddened by the discovery of all of this and they continued out of the cafe where they continued down the street. They passed by an old intersection full of old corpses, now apart of nature.

Dex looked up to see a crashed helicopter in the side of a building, "shit must have went pretty bad here" Sarah looked around at the old buildings on the brink of falling. They passed by an old bookstore when they heard some glass shatter, out of curiosity they entered the bookstore quietly, ready for anything to come out at them. Dex looked around and saw nothing, Sarah quietly pulled a couple books out of the bookshelf on her side and peeked through it. Sarah saw nothing and continued to search, Dex caught up with Sarah and they continued. There was a rattling of glass sound in the distance and they hurried up a bit to the spot to see a walker eating a fresh corpse. The dead guy had a red armband, so did the walker, Dex shoved his machete through the walker's skull. A note fell out of his pocket and Sarah picked it up.

We put the stash from the bank in location C, don't screw this up man, this is the third time we have had to move the stash because these assholes from up north keep picking these notes up. It's on you if this plan goes wrong. Marcel doesn't like when shit goes bad."

Dex put the letter down and looked at Sarah and said, "the bank will be our best bet on the location of some supplies." He proceeded to put the letter away as Sarah followed him out after looking at the corpse beside them. As they re entered the streets, they continued down them for a little while longer. Sarah looked around and said, "in about a mile we will hit the flooded area of the city, that part was heavily bombed and sure as shit won't have slow currents if it rains which it seems like it may do at this point." Dex looked ahead and said, "you see those office buildings, one is leaning into another, across the river, we can use that to our advantage, it's stupid but we have no choice." Sarah smiled slightly wondering how they are still alive despite their crazy ideas. They continued to walk down the old nature filled road to the office buildings.

Dex looked around with Sarah along the road as birds flew overhead, cars, old, rusted sit on the sides, corpses with flowers growing out of them, it seems peacefully violent there. They continued to take in the sights a bit on the way until they finally made it to the main road where there were several walkers. They wanted to avoid them and the rain so without thought they made a run for the office buildings. "Don't stop, keep moving, once we get inside the first building we block the entrance if possible and haul ass, no time to waste." Sarah looked at him and said, "this crazy mentality we use out here will get us killed." Dex smiled as they made a run for it, as they were running, they noticed a couple walkers were roaming to the building near by. Before they knew it a sniper was taking a shot at them, Sarah was spooked by the bullet hitting the ground in front of her, they bolted inside the office buildings as they closed the doors. Sarah looked around and began to push a dresser in front of them, but not before Dex put a pole in the handles.

The pair backed up slowly to check that it's going to hold, Sarah checked herself for wounds and said, "of course walkers aren't the biggest concern on this mission." Dex walked down the old lobby and said, "we're here now, let's continue." They walked through the lobby to see it was empty, they came across the elevator shaft and looked at the stairways. "The stairs are either blocked or destroyed we got a good sight of that when we were entering with the holes in the walls, we gotta climb the elevator shaft." Dex looked at the two shafts and said, "we both can't fit in one, too dangerous, I'll take left, you take right, stay vigilant." Sarah liked the quick thinking as they entered. Dex grabbed some climbing equipment out of his bag and used it to help him climb, he was doing well with the climb. Sarah was struggling due to fear of falling, she kept climbing, Sarah kept pushing, she felt the wet elevator shaft, she knew that wasn't good. She looked up all the way to see the hole in the roof that was leaking, "fucking great, don't look down..." Sarah kept pushing while Dex was trying to make it to the next floor to rest up a bit, eventually Dex made it to the second floor where he pulled himself up. Sarah slowly made it but noticed that there wasn't a second elevator shaft by her, she realized they got off on opposite sides, she climbed up fast to get on the floor completely.

Dex stood up fast at the sound of glass breaking, suspicious of it he pulled his handgun out and whispered out loud, "Sarah?!" After he got no response he continued to walk, gun in hand he was ready to fire at anything. Dex turned a corner fast to find a blood trail leading into the office cubicles, he walked in calmly, but very alert. Dex looked around and heard heavy breathing coming from somewhere in there, he knew it was from a living person so he called out, "come out! I won't shoot, you seem hurt, let me help." He was ready to shoot, as he turned the corner the injured man slammed a book into Dex's ankles and ran, Dex shouted at him. Dex ran down the hall way and as he walked to the fire exit he noticed a few walkers on their way up. Dex panicked as the man held a rifle at Dex, "hands up! I don't wanna have to kill ya." Dex heard the walkers get close and quickly threw himself on the floor and quickly rolled behind a big printer. The walkers got to the doorway and he threw his gun at the man and charged at him.

The man swung at Dex and missed as Dex landed a few good hits in, the man got some hits in as well as they wrestled through the window into an executive office. They hit the damaged floor hard enough to fall through and land badly on the floor below. Sarah all the way over on the other side of the building was running trying to find a way to get to the gunshots she heard. "God dammit! Why isn't there a way out" she was panicking, afraid Dex was killed or almost dead. Sarah saw an open vent and was quick to use her surroundings as a way to climb in, as she got in, she used her knife to cut some webbing out of the way, she began to crawl as fast as she could. The vent was making noises as she was hoping, praying that it wouldn't collapse on her. Sarah was moving quickly with no time to waste as part of the vent fell, leaving her dangling on the other side. Sarah saw the many walkers in the room and freaked out, she tried really hard to pull herself up. Sarah knew it wouldn't work but had to think fast or she would fall to her death below.

Sarah looked and saw the cubicles and decided to try and walk on top of them to the other side to the cracked door on the other side. Sarah steadily used the fallen vent as leverage to climb cautiously to where she needed to be. She tightened her guitar strap and began balancing herself as she walked. Walkers were snarling as they reached for her feet, she struggled not to pay any attention to the decaying corpses below her. Sarah walked and took a small break to catch her breath and to calm her racing heart down, Sarah continued, she almost slipped twice but made it. She pulled her knife out and killed two walkers close by and ran for the door, she tried as hard as she could but it wouldn't budge. Sarah saw a hole in the wall and threw herself to the floor and began to crawl. As she was getting through a walker grabbed her foot, a gross looking one, she noticed another walker in the hallway she was in so she took her gun and had to act fast. The walker was approaching and more walkers were trying for an attempt at her foot, she was struggling to load the gun as fast as possible. The hallway walker was already reaching it's arm out to lunge at her as it got close, she fired a round at the foot walker, and quickly shot one into the hallway walker. She pulled her foot loose and stood up fast, she was freaking out.

Sarah took a deep breath as she got it together and looked down the hall and began to run down the hall to make it to Dex. Dex on the other side was struggling with the injured man a bit more, punches thrown. A walker wandered into the room and the man threw it at Dex who already had his knife out as it went into the walker, Dex was quick to push it aside. He fell into cover behind a desk as the man shot at him. Dex moved around tables and attempted to get the jump on the man where the man swung his rifle at Dex's head. He dodged it and punched the man, there were a few more walkers in the hallway making their way over to the fight. Dex noticed this and looked at the man as they held guns to each other, "put down your gun and we can take you back with us unharmed, we can treat your wound." The man looked at Dex and said, "not after what you and your friends did to us back at Gate City and the Compound. I'm gonna enjoy killing you, watching the life come out of you." The man was filled with rage, Dex saw a walker creep up on the man and take a chunk out of his shoulder, the man screamed as Dex used that opportunity to take the walkers out. He went around shooting each one, once they were finished off he approached the injured man and held a gun to his head.

The man looked at Dex and took a deep breath and said, "there are more out there, we aren't the only ones left, we reconnected with old friends from the original compound in Wilmington, we haven't been active for so long because we have been building our numbers up. I figured I would say that since that most likely is what you were about to ask me about." Dex looked at him and said, "and we'll kill you all, just like we did to your friends." He pulled the trigger and killed the man as Sarah ran down the hall to meet up with Dex, "jesus what happened here?" Dex opened the map in the man's pocket and said to Sarah, "I'll tell you on the way, I know where we are going."

Dex and Sarah walked down the street as the sun began to peak out from the clouds, they kept walking as they stopped in front of an old building. "This it?" Dex nodded and they entered, as they entered the building they were met by the death that occured in there not long before that, they ignored the bodies and kept walking. They got to the basement door and opened it slowly, Dex pulled his handgun out as they entered. Sarah looked into the darkness and said, "hello!?" they pushed on, the generator was still running, Sarah flipped the light switch and the lights bursted on and illuminated the room quickly. They were shocked to see all these supplies just sitting there untouched. "Take all you can, we'll need to come back later with others for the rest." Sarah watched as Dex packed a second bag up with supplies, "hey? What's the other bag for?" Dex looked up and tried to think of an excuse, Sarah saw that and said, "are we really going to leave these people like this? Abandoning them?" Dex looked at her and paused and then said calmly, "we aren't abandoning them, we are going back to Wilmington to rebuild, keep contact with groups like Gate City and the Seattle Colony. Everywhere we go, our problems follow, we need to just distance the people we care so much for away from our problems. Nobody else needs to die because of us."

Sarah was not happy at all, she paused and paced around a bit and said, "no... I'm not going, I refuse to just leave these people, you've seen the issues that plague this place, Ryker's crew aren't gonna just leave they have settled in here, they will just kill these people unless we do something about it!" Dex looked at her and paused and continued and said, "I'm sorry Sarah but it has to be this way, we need to be thinking about our people here." Sarah got quieter and said, "they are our people, I refuse to leave the relationships, the memories behind, this is our life, whether you like it or not this is how we live, danger will always be around the corner, people will die..." Dex looked at her and said, "Sarah loo..." she cut him off and said, "I'll go with you guys but after we clean up our mess, but know this will change things forever, I thought we were the good guys." Dex noticed her frustration and noted it and thought about it as they took their supplies and left the place.

A while down the road, they made it back to their horses, the sun beginning to set. They rode slowly down the somewhat peaceful road. Dex wanted to say something but didn't, Sarah and Dex eventually made it to the front gate where Noah let them in, they hitched their horses and got off, Sarah walked down the path to unload the supplies as Marcus approached Dex. Marcus looked at him and said, "what happened? You two look like shit." Dex took a deep breath and said, "we got a lot to talk about, Ryker's crew, the group I told you about are back, they have greater numbers. These supplies come from a supply cache they had, I think this era of peace isn't gonna last, they seem to be getting ready for something big, and we need to be ready for it." Marcus looked at Dex and said, "we need to prepare then, build up our defenses, get ready for what is to come." Dex looked over at Sarah while she unloaded supplies, Sarah looked up to see the sun setting, as she finished up she walked up to the watch tower and sat down, she pulled her journal out and began to think, she continued to write where she left off.

"The supply run was an interesting one, learned a lot on it, I can't believe my closest friends, the people who always are the first to help someone in need are deciding to abandon those in need. I just don't know anymore, I guess it's the world beginning to change them or I am just not seeing this clearly. Going to Wilmington sounds great, it's just that I can't stand the idea of leaving these people like we left Gate City. I just hope we are able to finally stop whatever is coming before people die. I'm tired, this will be my last entry of the night... " Sarah looked up and took a deep breath and pulled her guitar out and began to strum some cords, she played a soft song. She hummed a bit as she peacefully sat there as the tension within the colony grew with the growing threat beyond their walls.