For The Night (SWB)

For The Night is the first and debut episode of Season 5 of Survivors We Become. It is the 38th episode overall.

Synopsis
A surviving group trapped in a school faces some issues.

Plot
It’s a bright, sunny day upon the school as survivors begin the day outside. Some are sitting in groups on benches or the ground, some eating.

Inside, the front office has been reorganized, chairs and tables barricading the front doors, where walkers can be sees pressed against the glass. With her arms crossed, Karen Michaels watches them silently.

Her feet lead her forward towards an uncovered section of the glass where a walker is looking back at her, growling at her as she gets closer. She just stares at it for a while as it claws at the glass to get to her.

Until she hears the gunshots.

She turns her head to the source quickly, eyes widening in horror as she hears screams. Karen bolts to the desk, grabbing the shotgun she had left there before rushing through the door into the hallway.

Two weeks later

The trees hang over the lone road that cuts through the woods, shielding it of the sun’s rays as a large group of survivors move along.

They’re quiet. They’re looking out for oncoming danger.

It had been four weeks since they had all found each other again, and they weren’t going to let themselves get separated again. Not until they had all found a new place to call home.

At the front of the group leading them was Spencer. His eyes were red from lack of sleep. He was always awake to make sure everyone was safe, even though Rebecca constantly told him he needs to take care of himself.

Something catches Spencer’s eye and he stops where he is. The others come to a stop behind him, Mike and Rebecca stepping forward.

Everyone is looking at the Penske truck in front of them. It had crashed in the ditch between the road and the trees. Spencer could see the driver was reanimated, clawing at the glass.

Spencer, Mike and Rebecca approached it without saying a word. Mike reached for the door, pulling it open.

The driver snarled, reaching for them to no avail as he was still strapped in. Spencer reached and pulled out his knife, stepping towards the walker and stabbing it through the top of its head, letting it hang out the door lifelessly.

Spencer took the knife to the seat belt, cutting the walker out and allowing it to fall to the ground. Mike and Rebecca started walking around the truck. As they come across the back, the two examine bullet holes in the sides.

“Jesus... who did this?” Becca questions as they look at the sight.

Mike looks across the truck, noting that the holes were close together, figuring it was a machine gun. “I don’t think I want to find out.” Mike says before walking around to the back and opening the doors. He let out a sigh, looking to Becca. “No food. Whoever did this took everything inside.”

Rebecca groans, turning around. Her and Mike started walking back to Spencer, who jumped down from the front seat. “Anything?”

Rebecca gives an unsettled glance to Mike. She then points to the bullet holes down the side. “As you can see, someone shot at this guy. They took everything in the back, too.”

“What about you? Anything of use up here?” Mike asks.

Spencer shakes his head before looking over the truck. “Come on. Let’s keep going.” He says to everyone in the group. They continue travelling down the road.

At the high school, the courtyard now has walkers roaming inside, forcing the survivors to stay inside.

In the belltower, Karen is standing at the window with binoculars. She is watching over the trees on the other side of the road. She’s looking for someone.

Behind her, a teenager climbs up the ladder to the landing. As he sees what she’s doing, he steps closer, clearing his throat. “Mom?”

Karen is startled and turns her head to see him, a relieved sigh escaping her lips as she smiles at him. Her shoulders relax and she lowers the binoculars to her side. “Jason, honey. You scared me.”

“What are you looking for?” He asks as he sees the binoculars in her hand.

The woman looks down at them, then back to her son. “Nothing.” She says as she places them on a crate set up there, but he already knows what it is she was doing. It didn’t matter now, there’s more important matters to attend to.

“Alex and Tio got into a fight in the cafeteria. Maria wants you in the infirmary.” Jason states.

Karen hangs her head with an annoyed sigh. She turns around to face her son. “Damn it, what did your brother do now?”

“Actually... Alex started the fight to save everyone.” Jason says with his arms crossed. “Tio tried opening the doors.”

“Those go straight out to the courtyard. He would have let walkers in." Karen says as she walks to the ladder and heads downstairs with Jason trailing behind her.

At the door of the infirmary stood Asher Romans. He watched as Karen approached and opened the door for her, allowing her to enter.

Inside was Tio and Alex, who were both being bandaged up by the two medics, and Maria, who stood before them. She turned her head as Karen entered.

“I just got each of their stories.” Maria says. “I want you to make a verdict, seeing as how it’s your job.”

“Well I need to know the story, too.” Karen looks to her son and Tio. "So what happened?"

Tio speaks up, his friend Denise beside him holding his arm in hers. “There's a few of us who want to leave. We’d rather take our chances with the walkers than be trapped in here waiting to get slaughtered by those fuckers in the woods. As I was about to open the door, your stupid son hit me in the back of the head.”

“If you had opened the cafeteria doors, any of the walkers outside could have gotten in.” Alex frowns as he glares at the man. He looks to his mother. “I only got violent to stop him, I swear. I couldn't let him kill everyone!”

Karen looks to Tio. “Are you aware of that? There’s at least forty-five walkers between you and the fence.”

“Yes, I’m aware. We don’t care, okay? We just want to leave.” Tio rolls his eyes, clearly annoyed with the situation.

“Why would you even want to leave? We have food, supplies, protection-” Karen begins, but Denise cuts her off.

“Protection? We have forty-five walkers as protection. We’re trapped, not protected. Fuckin’ hell, even if that is our protection, it isn’t doing a good job. Haven’t either of you heard what’s been going on?” She questions as she crosses her arms.

Maria and Karen look to one another. “Of course you haven't.” Denise rolls her eyes. “People that stay in the first floor classrooms have been hearing things at night. That man - Russell I think? - in the classroom that he, Josh and Dylan stay in, someone went up to the window. Says he thought it looked like a walker but it was moving faster. It cupped its hands over the glass to look inside and everything! And that little girl, Ginny. She says she saw a few people climbing over the fence the other day. Walkers didn’t even notice them walking around. As for food, eventually we'll run out. No one has left this stupid building since the day those fucks attacked us!”

Karen is silent, her jaw just gaping in surprise. Maria, on the other hand, is laughing softly beside Karen. “Oh, you’re not going to believe what a child says, are you?” Karen looks at her. She can see the woman’s cocky smile falter. Even she knows that something bad is about to happen. "And that group before... they're not an issue. People can't just walk through a big group of the dead and survive."

One of the medics, Tara, opens her mouth to say something, but chooses not to. Her and Kendall look to one another and continue working.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe us.” Tio grumbles. “Just let us go.”

Before Karen can speak, Maria says, “Alright. You two and any others who want to leave can leave. We’ll all meet in the gymnasium to say goodbye in ten minutes.”

Tio stands, him and Denise looking to one another with grins on their faces. “Come on! Let’s tell the others.” Tio says as they leave the infirmary.

Karen crosses her arms, looking at Maria in disbelief as she watches the two leave. “Why’d you even call me down here? You just did my job.”

Maria shrugs. “Well, if they don’t want to be a part of the group anymore...” She turns to leave the room as well, but Karen continues.

"Wait a second, Maria." She calls, walking to her as she turns around. "I'm the one who makes the laws around here, you said that yourself when we made this place. I enforce and make them."

"Well, I'm the leader. I think I'm allowed to make and enforce some laws, too." Maria says before leaving.

Frustrated, Karen turns to her sons. Alex is sitting on the bed as the doctor, Tara, dabs a cotton ball on the cut on his forehead as Jason waits, his arms crossed.

Alex sees his mom looking and says, “Am I in some sort of trouble for the fight?”

Karen shrugs. “Not this time, it seems.”

Alex squints at her. “You’re the head of our security. You're supposed to make that decision.” He says. “So why did you let her make it for you?”

The question makes Jason look to her expectantly. She looks between her sons, unsure of what to tell them. “Like she said. She’s the leader. She makes the final decision.” She says. “I’m going to watch them leave. Are you two coming with?”

“I’ll be there when I’m done.” Alex mutters as Tara grabs a bandage. Karen turns around, leaving the infirmary.

The gymnasium was filled with all twenty-something survivors. They were all saying their goodbyes to the six of them leaving now.

One teenager, Brie, had her arms crossed as she watched. Her mother stood beside here. “Stop pouting. I told you I want you to be safe inside.” Brie just rolls her eyes.

Maria stood at the double doors, Ashton and Melissa standing at each. Denise and Tio both look at her. “Thank you for understanding.” Denise says with a smile.

Maria nods to them before looking to Ashton and Melissa. “Open the doors.” She announces. The two do as told and push against the bars, the doors swinging open. Denise and Tio’s group run outside quickly.

Things went wrong almost immediately.

One of the men had a baseball bat and swung it at a nearby walker. Behind him, another one approached, immediately sinking its teeth into the back of his neck.

A young woman holding a machete beside him saw this and jabbed the walker with the machete. She looked down at the man and was about to mercy kill him, but another walker blindsided here, looping its arms around her torso before biting into her shoulder.

Denise and Tio watched as their other two companions fought for their lives. They looked across the area only to see they had a long way to go.

“Back to the doors!” Tio shouts to her.

The duo turn around and start running past the walkers, bolting for the doors.

Inside, people watched nervously as they approached. Then, Maria stepped forward. “Close the doors.” She said loudly.

Ashton and Melissa both looked to her in surprise. “WHAT?!” Melissa cries.

“CLOSE THE DOORS NOW!” Maria shouts angrily. The guards both look to one another with regretful glances before pulling the doors shut as Denise and Tio’s bodyweight slammed against the outside.

“You fucking assholes! Let us in!” Denise’s angry cries were heard over her fists banging against the door.

Melissa covers her mouth, shaking her head as Keegan walks up to her, pulling her in for a hug.

As the low moans got closer to the door, Tio’s desperate screams were replaced with agonized ones, as were Denise’s soon after. The tearing and chewing heard through the door sent a silence through the room.

Everyone just watches the door, no one wanting to move in fear of what Maria would do if they went against her. The screams stopped as Maria stepped forward.

“I think I’ve made it clear on what happens when you’re against us. We need people here that won’t get others killed for their own selfish wants. We need people that want to be here. So if you stay here, you’re willing to fight for this place and all the people in it. But if you’d rather leave,” She raises an arm to the door. “Be my guest.”

No one dared to speak up.

As night fell, the survivors trudged down the road.

There was light coming seen behind the overpass just ahead of them, which Cathy pointed to. “Look! That means there must be people there!”

The others stopped and looked to one another questionably. After everything they’ve been through, do they really want to be around people again?

Chase shrugged his shoulders, looking to Rikki. “Who knows? Maybe these guys will be friendly.”

“Or they’ll try blowing our heads off like they did at Dewey’s camp.” Rikki says as she grips her rifle in front of her, looking towards the light again. “I don’t necessarily want to be around anyone new after that.”

“Their camp is lit up like a christmas tree. It screams We’re right here, come and get us. I wouldn’t want to go in there anyway.” Lisandra says with a hand on her hip as she joins in on Chase and Rikki’s talk.

Mike turns to Spencer. “I say we split up. Some of us can go check out this camp while the rest hang back here.”

Spencer nods. “I’m not opposed. I’ll go.”

Cathy raises her hand. “I want to see it as well.”

Rebecca turns to her. "You sure? What if there's trouble?"

Cathy chuckles, showing Rebecca the pistol tucked under her jeans. "Don't worry. This old woman's always prepared."

Amber, Mike and Chase also volunteer, leaving all the others in the darkness behind the overpass.

Caroline lowers herself to the ground with her back against the wall of the overpass. As she does, Cal helps his mother sit on the grass before sitting beside her.

Billie walks over towards their area, looking between them. “Don’t get too comfortable, guys. Be ready to have to start shooting.”

Caroline nods. “I’ll be up again in a few minutes. I just had to sit from all that walking.”

Billie nods to her, turning back to walk to join Kenny, Lisandra and Tobias, who are standing together talking. As he crosses the road, he is eyed by Mitch from a few yards away.

"Through here." Spencer whispered as he led the small group through the trees. They walked through until they reached the fence of the camp, all ducking down and peering through.

It was a three story motel. The cars had been pushed around the front to serve as a wall. As for survivors, there were at least twenty people in small clusters around the parking lot, all seated at picnic tables, plus the two on guard at the front on top of the piled cars. Only the guards and a few survivors inside had any type of weapon.

Spencer turned to the others. “Only a few of them have guns... the camp is stands out so much, I don’t think they want to kill anyone.”

“What do you suggest?” Cathy asks.

“Cathy and Amber, come with me to the front. Mike and Chase, stay here.” Spencer says. Cathy and Amber follow him as they go back through the trees to the road. The three of them emerge into the light from the motel parking lot lamp posts.

One of the guards, Ryan, sees them and stands up from a lawn chair with a smile. “Hello.”

They stop, looking up to the two men. “Hi.” Spencer says.

“What can we do for you? Need a place to stay for the night? Food, water?” The second guard, Trace asks.

Chase looks between them. “What kind of place is this?”

“We’re a group that serves as a pit stop of sorts for survivors. We have beds, food, water... whatever you may need, we can give it to you.” Ryan says.

This seemed too good to be true. Cathy looked to Spencer. “I don’t know how to feel about this.” Cathy says.

Spencer looked over the motel slowly. “Well, I’ve dealt with places that served as 'pit stops' before...” He mumbles. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s dark. I’m sure the others want to rest. Doesn’t look like they’ll kill us in our sleep.” Spencer looks over to the two guards again. “We have a pretty big group. At least 16 of us.”

“That won’t be a problem. We have a lot of open rooms.” Ryan says as the younger man jumps off the car and back into the camp. He turns around and opens one of the car doors, crawling through. Spencer sees they had removed the seats inside so they can cross through.

As the teenager opened the door, Amber started walking back towards the overpass. "I'll tell the others we're staying then."

Mike and Chase walk out of the woods as Amber passes them. Chase looks up to the lamp posts inside. “The light could attract some unwanted attention... I don’t know how I feel about this.” Chase says.

“Try not to worry yourself. It’s just for the night.” Mike says as they start walking towards Spencer and Cathy.

Deaths

 * Four unnamed high school survivors.
 * Tio
 * Denise

Co-Stars

 * Penn Badgley as Keegan
 * Nicole Beharie as Denise
 * Elyse Nicole DuFour as Tara
 * Cuauhtli Jimenez as Tio
 * Andrew Lincoln as Jim Andrews
 * Katherine McNamera as Kendall Dillane
 * Julianne Moore as Nadia Dewolfe
 * Lochlyn Munroe as Ryan
 * Sara Paxton as Melissa
 * Bella Thorne as Brie Dewolfe
 * Brenton Thwaits as Asher Romans

Trivia

 * First appearance of Karen Michaels.
 * First appearance of Jason Michaels.
 * First appearance of Asher Romans.
 * First appearance of Maria.
 * First appearance of Alex Michaels.
 * First appearance of Melissa.
 * First appearance of James Andrews.
 * First appearance of Keegan.
 * First appearance of Nadia Dewolfe.
 * First appearance of Brie Dewolfe.
 * First appearance of Ryan.
 * First appearance of Trace Oxford.
 * First (and last) appearance of Tio.
 * First (and last) appearance of Denise.
 * This episode marks the return of Rebecca and Cathy since their disappearance in the Season 3 episode, "Rodent."