A Bridge Too Far (DD)

"A Bridge Too Far" is the third episode of Season 1 of Dark Days. It is the third episode overall. It premiered on June 30, 2018.

Synopsis
"A near-death experience leaves one survivor incapacitated, while a midday construction job leads to a discovery."

Plot
The door to the infirmary opens. Parker briefly glances up, Pam wrapping fresh bandages around his torso, as Warren walks in, Dahlia close behind. He smiles, before wincing as Pam applies pressure.

“Sorry, Mr. Parker, but I have to make sure they’re on. You could lose a lot of blood if the stitches burst…” The nurse says, stepping back with a smile. “You’ll need a few days to rest, but you should make a full recovery soon enough.”

“Thank you, Pam.” Blaine says softly. “Thank you.”

Pam nods, before looking to the two young adults in the door. She beckons them in. “Don’t be shy, you’re not disturbing us.”

Warren nods, walking in hesitantly with Dahlia stepping past him, crossing her arms. “I guess we can count that as an exile?”

“It’s not an exile, only Jackson tried to… to start shit.” Warren sighs, rubbing the back of his head. “Um… Principal Parker, are you doing alright?”

Parker chuckles dryly, shaking his head. “I’ve seen better days, Mr. Dotson. Could be much worse. And no, Ms. Dwelton, it’s not an exile.”

Dahlia’s eyes widen. “Seriously? But Jackson tried to kill you! Caroline doesn’t know what she’s doing, leading everyone out into the city...”

“This world has done away with humility to the weak, Dahlia.” Parker shakes his head. “Our people are still our people. Here or not, Caroline is in charge and she is still with us. She is always welcome back here. She knows how to keep her wits about her. It’s important to trust that instinct, even if you see it in others and not yourself.”

“... my instinct is that we’ll be fucked if we follow her instinct. Our walls work, we have food, we have guns, we can protect ourselves and live here.” Dahlia argues, shaking her head. “And if you’re gonna welcome Jackson of all people back here, along with those other idiots, then you should’ve just joined them.”

“Hey, Dahlia, what the hell was that--” Dahlia ignores Warren, leaving in a hurry with her arms still crossed. “... for.”

“Let her go, Warren.” Pam sighs. “She needs time to breathe.”

“But… but I don’t get what’s up with her.” The young man runs a hand through his hair, pacing through the infirmary. “She’s been so… stressed.”

“Dahlia is just protective.” Parker nods. “She feels some kind of darkness in her when she thinks those close to her will die. She’s taking on that responsibility. She’s placing everyone’s lives on her shoulders, and it is beginning to take its toll. But she’s being too stubborn to listen to reason right now.”

“Stand by her, Warren.” Pam smiles at him. “She might not be showing it right now, but knowing she has you probably eases her stress. Dahlia wants you on her side, because I think that deep down, she knows it’s too much to bear alone.”

The boy snorts. “I think I’ve done a shit job of that so far, then.”

A silence hangs in the room for a moment, before Parker clears his throat. “Warren, let me tell you some advice.”

“... alright, I’m all ears.” Warren nods.

With a smile, Parker continues. “A wise man once said that ‘a bridge too far is not worth crossing’, and I think that applies to both of you. Dahlia trying so hard to protect everyone, when she only needs to worry about herself. And you’re trying so hard to stay out of conflict, when you need to realize that you’ll need to recognize your allies from your enemies better sooner than later, and act accordingly. You need a voice, Warren.”

Silently, Warren nods. He tries to find some sort of response, but no words come to mind. He turns to leave, before Parker calls out to him again.

“I see a leader in you, Warren. I’m counting on you to find that leader and bring him out.”

The midday sun beats down on many at the front gates, as several students and staff work together to build around the inner walls. Several makeshift scaffoldings sit on each side of the front gate, with ladders up to the top so people can look out over the walls. Students are primarily scanning the walls for any cracks, holes, or loose looking bricks in order to fix or reinforce them.

Daniel watches his wife talking with the janitor Clark on the other side of the building for a moment, before he turns and begins to look around the walls for any holes.

“Maybe we missed some sort of passage and that’s how the dead got in…” He mutters to himself, before he stumbles over something. Catching himself on the wall, Daniel grunts in annoyance. “Shit-- what the fuck?”

He turns around and stops, his heart skipping a beat.

A rotting corpse lay almost still in the grass, crawling slowly, and reaching with a groan for Daniel upon noticing him. The man snaps out of his surprised trance and kneels down, taking out a knife and stabbing the unrecognizable undead in the head.

Looking up, Daniel sees a student, Rocky Hartwell, walking along the wall. He whistles to catch his attention. “Hey, Hartwell. Check this out.”

Rocky looks around before hurrying over, and before he can ask what’s up, he gasps at the sight of the body. “What the fuck? Where did that come from?!”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you.” Daniel stands back up, putting his knife away. “Did ya see anything? A hole in the wall? An opening? Did anyone maybe talk about… taking their life?”

“I… no, sir. I haven’t seen anything like that, I haven’t heard anything…” Rocky shakes his head, his eyes locked on the body. The skin is torn and moldy, and it looks like it was a man during life. “And… that thing doesn’t look like it was a student.”

Daniel looks over the body once again. “... c’mon. We’re going to report this to Blaine.”

Rocky nods, and Daniel quickly walks off, the young man trailing not far behind.

A blond young man with a british accent approaches a crouched African-American man who is angling wood against the wall. “Hey Mike, Oliver says he needs the binoculars. You have them?”

“Sorry Kenny, I think Mel’s got them.” Mike shakes his head and points to another girl with amber hair. “Melanie! You got the binoculars?”

“They’re in the tool box!” The girl calls back, before she hurries from the wall to one of the various red tool boxes scattered about, pulling out a dirty pair of yellow and black binoculars and tossing them to Mike.

He catches them and hands them off to Kenny. “There you go, dude.”

Kenny smiles and thanks him, before he begins to climb the ladder to the right of the gate, reaching the top of the scaffolding and handing the binoculars to Oliver. “Found them. Here.”

“Ah sick, thanks dude.” Oliver chuckles and looks over the binoculars before putting them to his eyes, and he slowly scans the empty city of Tuscaloosa.

“... what are you looking for, anyways?” Kenny crosses his arms.

“Eh, anything really. Walkers, people… hot babes.” Oliver laughs as Kenny slugs him in the arm with a chuckle. “It can happen! Hey, don’t deny that shit.”

“If all you’re looking for is a girl to lay with, then maybe you’re not the best choice for a guard.” Kenny shakes his head with another laugh.

“Oh whatever.” Oliver rolls his eyes, scanning the city again, before his smile falls. “... the fuck?”

Kenny turns back around, stepping away from the ladder. “What? What is it?”

“Virgil! Hey, Virgil! Get up here!” Oliver yells, getting the attention of the teacher who sprints from the wall of the university to the ladder, climbing up to the top of the scaffolding.

“Oliver, what did you see?” Kenny asks again.

“Let me take a look.” Virgil holds out his hand for the binoculars, and Oliver hands them off and points out to the north-east. Virgil looks around a bit before he spots what Oliver had seen.

On a far off bridge, he sees a small group of people walking along.

“Look, see them?” Oliver asks. “It’s Caroline and the others!”

“Wait, what?!” Kenny’s eyes widen. “You see them?!”

“What’s with the commotion?!” Dahlia suddenly exits the building with Warren and a few others.

Kenny hurries down the ladder and sprints over to the others, smiling. “Oliver and Virgil spotted Caroline’s group through the binoculars. They’re okay, just on the outskirts of the city.”

Warren smiles, breathing a sigh of relief. “Really? They’re getting out of here okay?”

However, Dahlia just grimaces. “If they’ve proven the city to be safe, why the fuck don’t they just stay here? The city isn’t the university. We don’t know what’s outside Tuscaloosa.”

“Well we don’t know what’s in the city, but if they can make it out of Tuscaloosa, I don’t think we have much to worry about.” Kenny argues. “I don’t think there’s anything here that would drive them away.”

“What convinced them they can’t stay though?” Warren asks. “Where are they going?”

“They’re on the bridge north of here. C’mon.” Kenny heads back to the ladder with Warren in tow. Dahlia rolls her eyes and leans against the wall, watching the two get to the scaffold.

“Yep, there they are… almost out of the city.” Virgil mutters, handing off the binoculars to Warren.

The young man holds them up to his eyes slowly and looks out, spotting Caroline’s group. He smiles, seeing Caroline at the front, with Kylie and Sandra not too far behind, and a few other people in the middle with Jackson lagging in the back. A walker stumbles out onto the road towards them, grabbing at Caroline, who steps back and trips it. Jackson walks to the front to handle it, stepping hard on its skull.

“What do you see?” Oliver asks.

“Jackson just killed a walker.” Warren mutters. “They’re almost to the other side.” The group stops, appearing to be talking, though Warren can’t read their lips to guess what they’re saying.

Another few walkers appear, and a few students go to kill them.

However, even more appear, and the struggling survivors quickly get overpowered.

“... oh shit.” Warren mutters.

“What, what is it?” Kenny asks. “Is something wrong?”

More and more walkers suddenly appear, and the remaining students begin trying to fight them.

“There’s a herd!” Warren calls, handing the binoculars to Virgil again. “Some of them are dead… they’re getting swarmed!”

“What?!” Dahlia shouts, her eyes widening. In a haste, she storms around the campus, searching for various tools and giving them to students and staff alike. “Everyone gear the fuck up, we’re going on a rescue mission!”

“Wait, what the shit?!” Mike calls out, having a screwdriver shoved into his hands. “Dahlia, you can’t be serious!”

“We aren’t letting people die! Not again!” Dahlia glares at him, before looking up at Warren. “Are they still on the bridge? Are they backing up?!”

“I… they’re still… fuck Dahlia, this is crazy!” Warren stammers. “They’re way too far away, what the fuck are we supposed to do?!”

“You think I just wanna sit here and watch our people die?!” She shouts back at him. “Everyone, gear up! Virgil, open the gates!”

Virgil simply stares with wide eyes through the binoculars, watching a zombie latch onto Kylie as Caroline yanks it off, though she runs off as Caroline is taken to the ground. Sandra goes to help her, but a mess of walkers surround the two and she gets yanked down.

Jackson grabs Kylie and shouts something at her, before she’s grabbed. Backing away, he tries to abandon the others to save himself, but a crawler grabs his ankle and bites it. He screams and collapses as the rest of the walkers pile on him.

“Virgil, open the goddamn gates!” Dahlia shouts again, her voice cracking somewhat. When she gets no response, she huffs and runs for the ladder, climbing to the top of the platform again. “Virgil! Open the motherfucking gates!”

Still no response from the man, who simply watches, frozen in terror.

“Virgil, Virgil, come on!” A few tears begin to fly from Dahlia’s eyes as she shakes him. “Open the gates, open the fucking gates!”

Virgil stumbles back and stares at her, dropping the binoculars. Dahlia grabs them and looks out to try and find the group.

Her eyes fall on the bridge, covered in walkers, as they feast on the fallen and make there way into the city.

Special Guest Stars

 * Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Kenneth Jameson
 * Amanda Arcuri as Kylie Washington
 * Michelle Ang as Caroline
 * Steve Talley as Jackson
 * Emily Haine as Sandra

Co-Stars

 * Rekha Sharma as Pam Anderson
 * Camryn Manheim as Candice Noire
 * Craig Gellis as Clark
 * Sarah Bolger as Melanie
 * Jarod Joseph as Mike

Deaths

 * Caroline
 * Jackson
 * Sandra
 * Kylie Washington
 * Many unnamed former university survivors.

Trivia

 * First appearance of Kenneth Jameson.
 * First appearance of Melanie.
 * First appearance of Mike.
 * Last appearance of Caroline.
 * Last appearance of Jackson.
 * Last appearance of Sandra.
 * Last appearance of Kylie Washington.