New People (SWB)

"New People" is the second episode of Season 5 of Survivors We Become. It is also the 40th episode overall.

Synopsis
''The survivors find some familiar faces. Meanwhile, a newcomer at the high school forces the survivors to face off against the walkers outside.”''

Plot
Spencer stepped out of the car, looking around the parking lot of the motel with the others. As he scanned the area, Lisandra did the same with a frown. Her gaze went to each of the lamp posts before seeing work lights set up around as well. “Why is it so lit up? This place drags a lot of attention to itself.”

“That’s the point.” Her attention is brought to a young man in his early 30s who approached them with a welcoming smile. “Hi, I’m considered the leader around her. I’m Evan.” He turned his head to Lisandra. “I owned this place before the apocalypse. We’re just a few people who wanted to help out a bit. If people need supplies, a place to stay for the night… We give it. So the lights bring the people.”

“And what about bandits and herds?” Lisandra questions with a raise of her eyebrow. “All I’m saying is I don’t agree with how lit up this place is. I can see why, but this attracts way too much attention.”

Kenny steps closer to her. “Calm down, Lisandra. This is their camp-” The woman ignores him, scoffing as Evan turned his head back to the others. “Thanks for your concern.” He said carelessly. “So, what can I do for you all tonight?”

“We’re just looking for a place to rest for the night.” Spencer replied.

Evan nodded his head, looking over the large group. “That can be arranged. Let’s see… how many rooms do you want?”

Spencer turns around, counting the survivors. “Uh… I don’t know… I think four will be good.”

Evan nods. “Alright. I’ll send someone up to check on a few rooms and then I’ll get you when he’s done. In the meantime, you guys can sit at one of the picnic tables or get some food. I suggest even talking to some other survivors. Most people that come around here are friendly faces, which is a rarity in this world.”

The man walks away as Spencer turns to the rest of his group. “I got us four rooms. That means four per room.” As he is speaking, he sees Caroline circling an RV in the parking lot. “Caroline, what are you doing?”

The woman is taking small steps as her eyes go over the vehicle. Her arms were crossed in front of her as Spencer approaches. There was something familiar about it to her. Caroline turns her head to him, pointing a finger to the vehicle. “We’ve seen this RV before, haven’t we?”

“It’s an RV. They're all similar.” Lisandra points out as she walks up to it, but even she is looking it over. Spencer and her step closer. “Though now that I think of it… It does look a bit like Jerry’s.”

Cal and Clair started to walk towards the picnic tables. As they do, her eye meets with someone elses. She is shocked at the sight and turns herself around. She steps towards the table.

Every eye goes to her as she whispers, “you’re alive…”

“Yeah, so are you. Do you want a medal?” Lorenzo says he takes a sip of his drink before standing up. He steps over the seat and walks around the table to pull her in for an embrace, a smile forming on his face as he does. Cal approaches with a grin as Lorenzo pulls him in to the hug as well.

“No fucking way! Lorenzo, you made it!” Rikki calls as she jogs to them. Lorenzo smirks at her, pulling away from the Malloy’s and giving her a hug next.

“I’m not the only one that did. Jen and Carter are here, too. So is Thomas.” Lorenzo says as he pulls back. His smile fell as he saw the others, then noticing there were new faces. “Oh joy… you managed to find even more people... I love new people...”

Clair smiles at him before turning to everyone else. “Everyone, this is Lorenzo McCaul. He was our guard at the mansion.”

“And thankfully he isn’t hiding in the bushes anymore.” Thomas Jameson jokes as he exits one of the rooms, taking the other survivors by surprise.

From the back of the group, Kenny sees the man. He freezes up and just stares, blinking a few times to make sure he was seeing properly. As the group started moving to reunite with their friends, Lisandra turned to see Kenny’s state. “Jesus, kid… you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost.”

“That’s… my uncle.” Kenny says quietly as he walks forward, a smile forming. “Tommy?”

Tommy makes eye contact with Kenny and stops in his tracks. “Kenny? It’s you!”

As Kenny approaches him, Tommy pulls him in for a tight hug. Tommy turns his head to the room.

“Hey, Patrick!” He calls, making Kenny’s eyes widen as he pulls away from his uncle. “There’s someone here you’ll want to see.”

At the door, a man exits. He is fiddling with something in his hand, focused hard on it. He looks up and opens his mouth to ask what Thomas wants when he gets a look at the teenager before him, taking a sharp breath as he stops.

“D-dad?” Kenny chokes, tears brimming his eyes.

Patrick walks up to his son, pulling him close. He holds his son protectively, head shaking as he whispers, “Thank God you’re alive. When things started going downhill, I left New York as soon as I could to try finding you… I wasn’t sure if I ever would.”

The group is watching, several of them, especially Lisandra, are happy to see Kenny and his dad together again.

“Claimed!” Chase shouts as he leaps onto one of the beds. Amber laughs as she enters to see him do that, while Tobias rolls his eyes. Spencer walks in behind them, closing the door behind him.

“Then this one,” Amber throws her bag onto the other bed before jumping onto it herself, “is mine.” She smiles before laying face down.

“Maybe I wanted that bed.” Tobias says with a smirk.

“Well I claimed it.” Amber shrugs before rolling onto her side to face him, propping her arm so she can rest her head on it. “But if you ask nicely, maybe I’ll share it. Maybe.”

“Alright.” Tobias says before leaning closer to her. “May I-”

“No.” Amber interrupts before laying down again. Before she knew it, she was suddenly on the floor. She looks up at Tobias in disbelief. “Did you just push me off the bed?!”

Tobias flashes a cocky smile. “Ask nicely and maybe I’ll share it.” He mocks. She jumps on top of him, playfully hitting him as they laugh. They both hear a disgusted groan from the other bed. “Gross.” Chase says.

“You’re just jealous ‘cuz you don’t have anyone to hold at night.” Tobias scoffs.

Chase shrugs. “I mean, that’s true, but when I do find someone, at least I still have both of my arms to hold them with.”

The comment makes Amber burst into laughter, covering her mouth with one hand while Tobias stands from the bed. “I can still kick your ass with one arm, Adamson!”

Chase leaps up from the bed as Tobias approaches him, the two of them sissy-fighting one another. From the bed, Amber rolls her eyes as she sits up, allowing Spencer to sit beside her as they watch. “Dorks.” She laughs before looking at Spencer. “Do you want to go get something to eat with me?”

Spencer nods, the two of them standing up to leave the room. As they walk out, Cal and Clair exit their room as well. “Are you two heading down to get food as well?” Clair asks.

Spencer nods to her. The four of them walk to the stairs and get down to the parking lot, where’s a set up of food at a few foldable tables and a large tent overhead. The group is starving, their eyes wandering over the sight of food, so they don’t even take a look at who is in charge of serving.

“Hi!” One of the women says with a laugh. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

Clair looks up and gasps, a big grin appearing on her face. “Jen! Lorenzo mentioned you were here!”

As Clair goes to hug her, Jen pulls back and starts taking off her robe and gloves. “Oh, hold on. Let me take these off. Come, sit over here! We can catch up.”

Cal, Spencer and Amber grab their food, then they decide to go sit at one of the picnic tables by themselves. Amber’s eyes follow Clair as her and Jen go sit somewhere else to catch up. “She looks like she’s doing good.” She tells Cal, who nods in agreement as they sit.

“Yeah, she is.” Cal says with a smile as he watches his mom.

“I never actually got the full story on what exactly happened.” Spencer says as he picks up the sandwich.

Cal turns to him. “Well… Amber and I were on our way to The Trading Post with Mike, so we weren’t there either. But I guess my brother was killed by those assholes Jefferson was leading. After your dad took everyone else, it was only her and Rikki left. My mom says she wasn’t sure if they had gotten us too… she lost hope…”

“Jesus…” Spencer says, turning his head to look back at the woman. “It’s a good thing you guys got there. Rikki’s tough, but she’s no medic.”

“I remember when we came back in, she was in a state of shock or something. She seemed to blame herself for it.” Amber says before seeing Rikki standing on the third floor, looking over everyone. “Hell, I think she still does.”

"I'm just glad the settlement let us in. If they didn't, then... God, I don't even want to think about it." Cal says.

"I wonder what happened to Dewey. They said they'd only let us in. Not him." Spencer says. "He's just... out there somewhere."

Amber shrugs. "I'd rather not think about him right now."

They continue to eat, continuing their conversation. As Cal takes a bite of his food, he catches a glimpse of a young woman walking towards them. He nudges Spencer and swallows as he nods to her.

The three of them look to her. She has short dark hair that is cut at her shoulders. She gives them a friendly smile as she approaches the table.

“Hi. I don’t mean to bother you, but my friends and I were wondering if you wanted to join us.” She says before motioning behind her. Amber takes a look, seeing a picnic table with four other survivors.

Spencer and Amber look to one another. Amber shrugs to him.

The girl sees their interaction. “It’s alright if you don’t want to. We just wanted to see if you did.” She says as she starts turning away. “We’re over here if you choose to-”

“Wait.” Spencer says as he stands, making her turn back around. “We’d be glad to.”

The girl smiles. The three of them grab the remains of their food and follow her to a table with the others seated, all of them talking and laughing.

“Hey, Persey’s back!” The girl with the braids in her hair announces before making eye contact with Spencer, giving him a small smile. “And she got the newbies to join us.”

Spencer smiles nervously. “Hi. My name’s Spencer, and this is Amber and Cal.”

The short haired girl named Persey turns to them. “My name’s Persephone, but everyone just calls me Persey. This is my best friend, Marnie.” She says as she motions to the girl with braids in her hair.

The three boys each give a small wave. The boy with black hair smiles at them, Amber recognizing him from the small wall of cars. “Weren’t you one of the guards that let us in?” She asks.

“That’s me. I offered to help out while we stayed here. I’m Trace Oxford.” He says as then motions to the two boys beside him. “This is Jake and Ethan.”

“Nice to meet you guys.” Ethan says. He motions to the empty seats. “Would you like to sit?”

Amber and Cal both walk around the table to sit while Spencer just decides to stand.

“There was a lot of you when you came up to the gate. How many people are in your group?” Trace asks.

“There’s 16 of us. Of course now that we found Kenny’s family and Clair’s friends, it seems like we’re only growing.” Spencer replies.

“You’re probably the largest group we’ve seen thus far. The most Ethan and I have seen had about ten survivors in it.” Jake says.

Amber swallows the last of her sandwich before looking to Jake. “We’ve been to a lot of places. Picked up a lot of people.”

“Lost a lot too.” Spencer adds softly.

Ethan looks to him. “Damn. What kind of camps have you been to?”

Spencer sighs. “Bad camps run by bad people. We’re just trying to find a place to call our own at this point.”

Marnie turns to Persey, nudging her arm. “We should take them with us tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?” Persey asks as she leans against the table.

“There’s 16 of them. Hell, he even said there’s more of them joining. We could use the numbers to our advantage, plus they could be a good group to stick with.” She whispers. “Come on, Persey, we need this place. They need it just as bad as we do.”

Persey looks to her best friend, but turns to Spencer. “Well… we have a proposition for you.” She pushes herself off the table. “Tomorrow, the five of us are going to this school that’s a few miles from here. Only trouble is we may need some help to clear it out.”

Spencer looks to Amber and Cal, each of them have an unsure expression on their faces. Persey can see this. “Look, we don’t know what kind of horrible shit has happened to you out there. But you said you need a place of your own and so do we. We can all take this place and survive there - together!”

Spencer looks over the five survivors. Can he really trust them? Should he?

“I’m not the only one in charge. I’ll have to talk to the rest of my group.” Spencer says. Amber suddenly stands up and starts walking away. “Amber, where are you-”

Amber turns her head to look back at him as she walks. “To get the others. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to get our own place as soon as possible.”

Marnie smiles to Spencer. “I’m sure our groups will get along fine.”

Amber rounds up the group, everyone meeting around the picnic table with Persey’s friends joining them. Persey explains what their plan was, making the same offer. When she finishes, Spencer turns to the others. “So… what do you all think?”

Lorenzo is the first to speak up. “I think this is a terrible idea.”

“Lorenzo-” Clair sighs.

“I don’t like people, Clair. I don’t want to risk my life for people we don’t know.”

Clair turns to say something to him, but Cal turns to him first. “Lorenzo.” He says. “If we stay here, new people will keep on coming. '''Every. Day.'''”

Lorenzo opens his mouth to say something but knows he’s right. He grumbles to himself, shaking his head and crossing his arms. “Fine.”

Cathy looks unsure as well. “Are we sure we should risk the entire group though? I know we agreed to stop splitting up but what if something were to happen and we were all put in danger?”

Rebecca nods in agreement. “Cathy’s right. If we do this, some of us should stay behind. Besides, some people aren’t in the best condition to fight.”

“And some of us are a danger to the group, so that should be taken into consideration.” Billie says before eyeing the back of Mitch's head. “Besides that, I say we do it.”

Spencer nods. “Alright. So are we all in agreement?” The survivors all nod, Persey and her friends smiling to one another.

“Fantastic! We’ll be going in the morning, so just meet us by the front gate.” Persey says with a grin. As her and her friends walk off, the others continue to talk.

Mike walks up to Spencer. “What if they try to doublecross us? Use us to get the school.”

Tobias nods in agreement. “Yeah, I was wondering the same thing.”

“There’s five of them, guys. You know exactly what we’ll do if they pull a stunt on us.” Spencer says before he crosses his arms. “Now we need to decide who’s going and who’s staying.”

Clair raises her hand. “I think I should stay behind. I don’t want to slow the rest of you down.”

“Me too.” Cathy says. “This old lady will struggle keeping up with you.”

“I’ll stay back as well. My walker killing skills are still inferior compared to the rest of you.” Monet says.

“Carter and I will be staying here as well.” Jen says.

Lisandra steps forward. “If it’s okay, I think I’d like to stay behind. I think I can fix that RV up.”

“I can help you out.” Kenny offers with a smile before looking to Spencer. “If that’s alright, I’d prefer to stay.”

Spencer nods. “Anyone who doesn’t want to come doesn’t have to. Anyone else want to stay back?”

Rikki lifts her hand as well. “I’ll stay here just in case something needs to get a bullet in their skull.” She says with a small smile.

“Alright. Everyone else, go get some rest for tomorrow.” He says. The group starts to scatter when Spencer says, “Mitch, hold on. I want to talk to you.” Mitch stands up, walking to him. Spencer sits down at the table behind him, resting his arms on it as Mitch sits across from him. “I can’t let you go tomorrow.”

Mitch frowns at him, his eyes squinting in disbelief. “What do you mean? I’m one of the strongest-”

“I talked to Tobias, Caroline and Billie a while back and they said that it was your plan that got you all separated from Clair’s group and Lola. Billie’s also blames you for Cleo’s death that day.”

“That wasn’t my fault, I didn’t pull the damn trigger! I was trying to get us free.” Mitch argues, but Spencer shakes his head. Mitch looks down to his hands, sighing. “Spence, please, you have to understand that I did it to keep them safe. Your father did horrible shit to us at his camp, I wanted to prevent that from happening but it just took a wrong turn.”

“That’s another thing. According to them and Rebecca and Cathy, you were the only one punished there besides that man that attacked you at the mansion. Rebecca even says it was because the others didn’t participate in your plan.” Spencer says. “My decision is final. You’re staying here.”

He stands up and starts walking to the stairs, leaving Mitch at the table alone. At the stairs, Billie is leaning back against the railing. He sees Spencer coming and stands up straight. “What’s up, Billie?”

“I wanted to know if it was okay if I stayed back here as well. I can keep an eye on him, keep things straight around here.” Billie says.

Spencer turns his head to look at Mitch. He knows how Billie feels about the other boy. “Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

“It won’t be a problem. I just…” Billie starts. “I don’t know, I’m worried. About him in particular. He’s a trainwreck and if he does something stupid, I might be the only one who can talk him down.”

"Of course." Spencer nods, smirking. “Is that really why you want to stay behind though, or do you just want some alone time with him?” He teases.

Billie grimaces, shaking his head. “Gross… no, those days are over.” He starts walking away while Spencer chuckles as he walks up the first two steps. He turns back around. “Hey, Billie?” Billie turns around. “Why did you ever date him anyway? You two had nothing in common.”

The other boy takes a second to think before just shrugging his shoulders, shaking his head. “I don’t know. I liked him before all of this but looking back, I think it was just me being a stupid high school boy. The thought of someone liking me back took over I guess.”

“You’re not stupid, Bill.” Spencer says to him.

Billie smiles. “Thanks, Spence.” He turns around to walk away. “Goodnight, Spencer!”

The doors to the cafeteria swing open as Karen sluggishly walks in with her sons behind her. The three of them make their way towards a table where Asher, Keegan, Jim and Melissa are seated and eating breakfast, except Asher, Melissa and Keegan.

“Good morning, everyone.” Karen greets. She sounds exhausted, which the others take notice of as she sits down.

“You alright, Karen? You look like hell.” Jim says.

“I’m alright. I had stayed up all night trying to comfort some of the kids.” She says before yawning. She shakes her head. “God… the incident with Maria yesterday… it screwed a lot of people in here up. Now all people can think about is the walkers getting in or being sent outside for something as small as saying the wrong thing.”

Suddenly, Melissa breaks down, sobbing at Karen’s words. Keegan instantly turns to her with worry. “Babe, it’s alright…” He shushes as he pulls her into an embrace before turning to Karen. “She hasn’t handled it well.”

Karen looks to Melissa, then turns to Asher, who hasn’t said a word. He just continues to stare at his hands in a ball on the table. “I can’t believe she made you two do that. It was cruel enough to let them go out there with all those walkers.”

Melissa looks at Karen, wiping her eyes as she pulls away from her boyfriend. “Wh-why is she even in charge? You’re the one who-who makes the rules around here and controls situations. It should be you in charge, not her.”

“Is that how you really feel?”

The voice behind her startles her, everyone’s eyes going to Maria standing behind her. Two of the guards, Bruce and Donald, are with her. Maria looks to Karen. “I’ve got matters I want to talk to you about.”

“Can’t it wait?” Karen asks as she rubs her eyes but Maria shakes her head. With a groan, she stands up and follows Maria and the two guards.

The four of them are the only ones in the hallway. Maria stops Karen and turns to her, letting out a sigh. “You see, Karen, I have been going over the people left here and what they’ve done within the past month…” She starts pulling out a small notebook, flipping the pages until she finds the one she’s looking for. “There’s a few people who were reported of talk of leaving or committing violent acts. I know yesterday was hard on everyone, but we may have to send more people-.”

Karen’s eyes widen as her arms fall to her sides. “Maria, no! After yesterday, we only have about twenty survivors left here, we aren’t letting more people die for something like this.”

“Karen, they’re our rules. You’re the one that set them in the first place.” Maria says. “You know that if we don’t take care of people who are against us-”

“They aren’t against us! They’re just scared! Who wouldn’t be, especially trapped in here by those walkers outside! You’re always so paranoid that someone is out to get you that you take it out on everyone in this camp. It’s my job to enforce the rules and I’m saying no.” Karen snaps at the other woman. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to go back to my family.”

Maria sighs, watching as she leaves. She smirks, looking down to her notebook and writing down, “KAREN MICHAELS - BETRAYAL, NOT FOLLOWING ORDERS.” She turns around with her guards and says, “Let’s go. I’ve got an idea.”

In the morning, Spencer and the others are at the front of the motel, ready to go.

“Here, take this.” Rebecca says to Cathy before handing her a revolver. “I snagged it from one of the guys at Micah’s camp while we escaped. Hold on to it just in case.”

“And what about you? I can’t take your gun, what if you run into trouble out there?” Cathy asks.

Rebecca pulls her shirt up a bit to show a knife handle sticking out from her jeans. “Don’t worry, I’ll be good.”

Cathy gives a small shake of her head. “You’d better be careful out there, Becca.”

“Amber! Come here!” Monet calls. Amber turns around and walks to her mother. The woman pulls her daughter close for a hug. “Baby, be safe out there.”

Amber chuckles and smiles at her mom. “Mom, don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

“I know. But I just got you back. I need you to be careful.” Monet says.

Amber crosses her arms, laughing. “Excuse me, I got you back.” She says as she turns around, but looks over her shoulder again. “And I’ll be careful. Promise.”

Jake walks towards Spencer. “Hey, is everyone ready?”

“Just about.” Spencer replies.

The group starts to leave, Lisandra, Kenny and Tommy waving goodbye from the RV while Evan does the same from the wall with Ryan. Meanwhile on the third floor, Billie, Tobias and Caroline stand and watch them leave.

“Thanks for offering to stay back with me.” Billie says to them.

“It isn’t any trouble. I figured you’d need help watching over everyone.” Caroline says to him with a small smile which he returns.

Tobias shrugs. “I don’t mind it either. I wouldn’t be much help out there anyways.”

Caroline looks to him, taking hold of his missing arm. “I wonder if we can attach something to it… like a weapon or something.”

“I think that’d be badass. I was thinking-” Tobias speaks.

Billie starts tuning them out as he looks around the area. He watches as the group walks down the road out of sight. Suddenly, he sees the brush across the road move. He blinks and it’s gone.

He keeps his eyes on the bushes, trying to see if he can catch it again. “Billie?”

He turns to Tobias and Caroline, who both look at him with concern. “Are you alright?” Caroline asks.

Billie smiles, nodding. “Yeah… I’m fine. Just thinking.”

They don’t look convinced but Tobias continues talking, leading Caroline to the stairs. “What I was saying was-”

With the attention not on him, Billie takes another glance across the road. Nothing. He lets out a sigh. “Calm down, Bill…” He murmurs before following the other two.

Co-Stars

 * Austin Abrams as Jake Barley
 * Penn Badgley as Keegan
 * Troy Baker as Patrick Jameson
 * Jeremiah Clayton as Carter
 * Catherine Dent as Jen
 * Bob Morley as Ethan Langer
 * Lochlyn Munroe as Ryan
 * 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

Deaths

 * Jerry Harbor (Confirmed Fate)

Trivia

 * First appearance of Evan.
 * First appearance of Patrick Jameson.
 * First appearance of Persey Howell.
 * First appearance of Marnie.
 * First appearance of Ethan Langer.
 * First appearance of Jake Barley.
 * First appearance of Carly Dewolfe.
 * First appearance of Bruce.
 * First appearance of Donald.
 * Last mention of Jerry Harbor.
 * This episode marks the return of Thomas Jameson, Lorenzo McCaul, Jen and Carter after they had fled from Micah’s group in the episode, Hope.
 * J has confirmed the RV was Jerry’s from Season 4 and that he is dead.