Outside (SWB)

“Outside” is the third episode of Season 5 of Survivors We Become. It is also the 41st episode overall.

Plot
In the candlelit classroom, Jason stares out the window to the darkened courtyard where the walkers stumble around aimlessly. His eyes follow a walker with dark brown hair and his neck torn out as it limps towards the window, attracted by the flickering candle inside.

The door to the classroom opens, making him turn around to see Alex standing at the door. Seeing the window, he shakes his head before walking towards it, pulling the shade down.

Neither of them look to each other. Neither of them speak.

Alex breaks the silence. “I expected you to know not to do this anymore.”

“And what do you mean by that, Alex?” Jason asks without looking at him but his brother glares at him.

“I mean looking out the windows with the candles lit up. You’re attracting the dead.” He responds before turning to leave. “You could bring the living too.”

Jason frowns. “I said I was sorry for that.” He mumbles.

Alex turns back to face his brother, who still has his back to him. “And I said I don’t forgive you.”

Jason finally turns around, shaking his head with a look of remorse. “I didn’t know. You know I didn’t. If I knew they were dangerous--”

“All people are dangerous, Jason, you should know this. Especially after what happened back at that cabin.” Alex has started to raise his voice. He catches himself and takes a breath. “I’m not talking about this again.”

With that, Alex turns around again and exits the room.

Jason’s eyes fall to the floor. “Everyone deserves a second chance.” He whispers to himself. He’s given Alex a second chance... many chances, in fact. Why shouldn’t he give others?

Meanwhile Alex is walking down the hallway when he sees his mother with the Dewolfe family, talking to Nadia. He approaches, Karen seeing him and giving him a smile before looking back to the woman. “Excuse me for a minute.”

She turns to her son and they step away. “Jason’s looking outside again.” Alex says.

Karen sighs. “Of course he is.”

Alex crosses his arms. “You would think that a boy so terrified of the dead wouldn’t look at them so much.”

“Alexander, leave your brother alone.” Karen warns.

“He needs to grow up. We've faced the dead for three months now and he’s still scared to kill them?” He scoffs. “And don’t even get me started on the people--”

“Alex.” Karen whispers harshly, silencing him. “He’s sensitive. What happened at the cabin really affected him, you know that.”

Alex stares back at his mother before giving a small nod. “Yeah. It affected all of us.” He says quietly. “And it seems most of us forgot why it happened in the first place.”

“He feels guilty enough, Alex. Leave him alone, will you.” Karen says. “I have other things to worry about. We can talk about this later.”

The young man utters a laugh, turning away. “Other things... I’m sure you do.” He says as he starts walking down the hall.

Karen clenches her eyes and lets out a sigh. “Alex!” She calls but she knows he won’t turn back. She watches him walk away before turning back to Nadia. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, Karen.” Nadia says with a soft smile. Her smile fades and she peeks over her friend’s shoulder. “May I... offer you some advice?” Karen gives her a nod. Nadia motions to her daughters beside her. “When all of this began, the first thing I did was teach my girls how to protect themselves against the dead. Knives, guns, just self defense in general. I think you should do the same with Jason.”

Karen sighs, looking down as she rubs her eyes. “I know, I know. He’s just…” She looks back up to Nadia. “He’s scared of the walkers.”

Nadia’s younger daughter scrunches up her face in confusion. “But not people?” This earns her a nudge from her sister.

“Shush, brat.” Brie murmurs.

“Anyway,” Nadia continues, “he’ll need to learn how to not be scared of them anymore. He can’t rely on you forever, Karen.”

“I know... I just hope he can figure that out himself.” Karen says before she turns around. “Thanks, Nadia.”

Nadia says goodbye as the woman walks down the hall, walking past several survivors as she makes her way to a closed classroom door. She reaches for the handle.

“Karen?” She turns to see Maria approaching her. “I need to talk to you, if that’s okay.”

Karen peeks through the small window in the door to find her son isn’t inside. She sighs, turning to Maria. “What do you need?” Maria motions for her to follow her as she starts walking towards the cafeteria.

A woman named Laurie enters a classroom, stopping at the door as she hears sobbing. She looks around the dark room before her eyes rest on a little girl in the corner.

Laurie steps forward. “Louise?” She says. The little girl looks up to her as the woman walks over to her, kneeling down. “What’s wrong?”

“M-Mrs. Richards…” Louise sobs as she points to the other corner of the room.

Laurie turns her head to see the woman crouched in the corner. She can barely see in the darkness of the room, so she stands and walks towards the woman, pulling out a box of matches. “Wendy?” The woman turns towards her as she approaches.

The woman stands as Laurie strikes the match. Her eyes widen as she takes a breath.

Wendy is dead. A walker. She has blood covering her face from the boy she was devouring. As Laurie opens her mouth to scream, Wendy lunges at her and cuts her off, sinking her teeth into the other woman’s face. Louise sits in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest as tears stream down her face.

Maria opens the doors to the cafeteria and leads Karen in only to see four guards inside. Bruce closes the doors behind them, Karen looking back suspiciously. She eyes each of them and sees they are all staring back at her. “Maria, what is this about?”

“It’s a message.” Maria replies as she pulls out a knife.

Karen glares at all of them. “The others won’t let you get away with this. Any of you.”

Maria smirks. “You know exactly what I’ll do, Karen.” She waves the knife towards the cafeteria doors. “I’ll send them all outside.”

The woman glares at her, shrugging her shoulders. “Or maybe they’ll send you there instead.”

Maria starts to walk towards Karen when the doors burst open and knock Bruce down. Russell runs in, he has a baseball bat that is covered in blood. He turns, yelling, “'''Everyone get in here! Hurry!'''”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Maria asks angrily as Nadia pushes her children inside.

Karen runs for her friend. “Nadia, what’s happening?” She questions.

“I don’t know! We were all just in the hall and then someone shouted there were walkers inside. We saw them take down a few of the others back there.” Nadia says before observing the other survivors in the cafeteria. “What’s happening here?”

Karen glares at Maria, Nadia turning to look at her to follow her friends glance. “Maria, do you want to explain or should I?”

Before Maria can respond, the doors slam shut, Alex and Russell pushing their body weight against it. Russell reaches to the locks on top of the doors. Karen looks around the survivors, counting off who’s there and who’s absent. “Jason?” She calls.

There’s no answer. The survivors look to one another, searching for the boy. He isn’t there.

“Oh, God.” Karen whispers.

“Mom, he could be hiding somewhere else.” Alex says.

Karen turns to Alex, walking towards him. “We have to find him.”

“We aren’t going out there.” Donald yells before looking to the other guards. “This woman’s crazy to think-”

“Who are you calling crazy when you brought her here to kill her?” Brie crosses her arms. Donald closes his mouth.

Alex looks to the guards, then to Russell. “Can I see your bat?”

“Alex, stop.” Karen says. “We don’t kill people, we can’t sink to their level.”

Alex shrugs. “I don’t know, mom.” He eyes Maria. “I think those that are against us should die. Right, Maria?” The woman turns around as she crosses her arms.

“We need to take out those walkers and find Jason.” Karen says as she starts walking to the door.

A loud thud against the door makes the survivors jump, Karen stopping in her tracks.

“MOM!”

Karen’s eyes go wide as she starts running to the doors. “Jason!” As she approaches, she is suddenly tackled to the ground by Bruce. “Let me go!”

“You crazy bitch, you’ll let them all in here!” He struggles to hold her down but manages to get a good grip on her as she tries to free herself.

Alex and Russell both start to move to help, but Donald raises his gun to them. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

Jim, Asher and Keegan get in front of Tara, Kendall, Melissa and the Dewolfe family as the other guards aim their guns as well.

“Please! Let me in, I’m begging you!” Jason cries from the other side of the door, Karen desperately trying to get free. “They’re coming after me! PLEASE!”

Maria turns around, making eye contact with Karen. “Maria, please! He’s my baby boy, you can’t do this to us!” She yells. Maria stares back at her.

Then she looks away.

“'''YOU BITCH! YOU EVIL FUCKING BITCH, LET ME GO!'''” Karen screams as she tries clawing free. Bruce takes his pistol and hits her in the back of her head, making her disoriented.

From the other side of the door, they all hear Jason’s screams of agony as the walkers snarl. They know what’s happening. He’s lost.

Alex closes his eyes, covering his ears to block out the sounds. Carly sobs, grabbing hold of her mother and her sister.

Karen’s desperate cries turn to choked up sobs as she finally gets free from Bruce’s grip. She gets to her knees, lowering her head down as she cries for Jason.

They don’t know how much time has passed. The sun has started to shine through the windows, letting them all know it’s morning. The screams have stopped but the walkers are still eating whatever is left. Everyone in the cafeteria is silent, most of them with their heads down. The only sound is Karen’s sobs.

The guards have lowered their weapons. Maria walks around, shaking her head as she looks to Karen. “I think… I think that was punishment enough.” She says to finally break the silence.

Karen’s eyes dart to her with a glare. They follow her as she paces before she looks to Alex, who looks right back. Both of them have the same angered expression. “Do it.” She says to him.

Before Maria or her guards can react to what she said, Alex takes Russell’s baseball bat from out of his hand and swings it at Donald’s head, knocking him down.

Two of the guard look. “Hey!” One of them shouts before Jim raises his glock and fires a round into the back of his head, Keegan doing the same with the other.

Maria turns around in shock, gasping as she sees Karen elbow Bruce in the nose. She snatches his pistol and shoots him in the face. Maria backs away as she stands, everyone looking to her.

“Alright, Maria. You know the rules.” Karen says as she approaches quickly. Maria turns to run only to see the doors in front of her. The other woman grabs her by her blond hair, pulling her and pressing the pistol against her back. “Those who are against us go outside. Like you said.”

Melissa and Asher run to the doors, each of them preparing to open one. Karen nods to them and they push them open. What they all see outside makes them all stop where they are.

The walkers are all heading towards the fence where a group of people are stabbing them through it. A few yards away, they had cut through it so five of them could get through, fighting off the rest.

Spencer, Rebecca, Trace, Ethan and Mike are huddled together, their backs facing one another as they fight off the dead.

Karen looks back to some of the others. “Go help them!” She orders.

“Come on, follow me!” Jim shouts as he starts running to assist them. Behind him, Keegan, Alex, Brie and Kendall run with him, knives and guns drawn.

Karen shoves Maria forward, the woman falling to the bottom of the steps with a yelp. “You got lucky... for now.” Karen keeps the pistol on her.

As Jim and the others, the group holds off the walkers. Spencer is lunged at by a walker, grabbing it by the neck. He struggles to push it away but Jim shoots it for him. Spencer notices them and nods, before swinging his weapon again.

Soon, they have the area cleared, everyone looking down at the walkers. Spencer turns around. “Persey, you can bring everyone in.”

“It looks like we aren’t the first to find this place after all, huh?” Persey shouts back as she leads the others to the fence.

Spencer turns back to Jim. “Thank you for helping us out.”

Jim looks around. “Thank you for helping us. We’ve been trapped inside for two weeks.”

“Jesus…” Rebecca says from beside Spencer.

Mike hears a snarl below him and looks to see a walker reach up to him. He lifts his foot and stomps down on its head, crushing it with his boot. He looks to the other survivors. “Can we continue this inside please?”

Jim motions for them to follow.

Co-Stars

 * Austin Abrams as Jake Barley.
 * Penn Badgley as Keegan.
 * Kennedy Brice as Louise.
 * Andrew Lincoln as Jim Andrews.
 * Rami Malek as Russell.
 * Bob Morley as Ethan Langer.
 * Maia Moss-Fife as Laurie.
 * Sara Paxton as Melissa.
 * Odeya Rush as Marnie.
 * Naomi Scott as Persey Howell.
 * Sadie Sink as Carly Dewolfe.
 * Lee Tergesen as Donald.
 * Bella Thorne as Brie Dewolfe.
 * Brenton Thwaits as Asher Romans.
 * Goran Visnjic as Bruce.

Uncredited

 * Abigail Jackson as Wendy Richards.

Deaths

 * Wendy (Alive)
 * Laurie
 * Louise (Off-Screen)
 * Jason Michaels
 * Donald
 * Bruce
 * Unnamed Little Boy
 * A few unnamed High School Survivors.
 * Two unnamed guards.

Trivia

 * First appearance of Russell.
 * First (and last) appearance of Wendy Richards.
 * First (and last) appearance of Laurie.
 * First (and last) appearance of Louise.