One Way Out (Remake)

**"One Way Out"** is the fourth episode of *Season 3: Remake* of *Strain Zero*, the remake of *The Walking Dead by EDStudios*. It is the fourteenth episode of the series overall.

## Plot

*Henry comes face to face with a force of nature. As all hope seems lost, our group finds an unexpected ally.*

## Synopsis

### Part I

Inside the Fort, numerous workers and soldiers go about their daily routine under the careful watch of "taskmasters", who gleefully hand out beatings whenever the work slows down. In the bowels of a reinforced apartment building, withered and malnourished prisoners are kept inside large walk-in refrigerators and regularly beaten.

Five days have passed since Stephan's execution. Bart emerges from his private quarters and watches closely as the Innocents around him clear space for him and lower their heads as he passes. He turns the corner into the section with the walk-ins and bashes on all the closed doors, listening closely for the sounds of begging and pained shrieking within each one. He finally comes to the final walk-in and bashes on the door, only to hear silence on the other side. He orders a guard, Katrina, to open the door, revealing a heavily bruised Henry, hanging from a pair of chains attached to the ceiling, bleeding lightly from his various injuries. His shoes and shirt have been removed, and two nails are missing from his right foot.

In a sing-song voice, Bart tells Henry to wake up, only to see Henry's eyes peering at him from beneath his long and matted hair. Bart approaches Henry and moves his hair from his face, revealing Henry's swollen and battered face. Bart smiles and runs his finger along the long scar across Henry's right cheek and over his nose, calling him an ugly bastard. Henry remains silent as Bart orders Katrina to close the door and leave them alone, which she does.

Bart begins circling the motionless Henry, taunting him that his group will be worked to death at the Black Building for everything they've done, while also mentioning that Justinas will be joining them once he has recovered. He grabs a knot in Henry's hair and remarks that all Innocents are required to keep their hair short, making it harder for walkers and "other monsters" to grab them.

Bart looks down at Henry's ruined toes and grabs them between his fingers, causing Henry to finally break and yell out in pain, to Bart's grim amusement. Bart begins mocking assuring him that all his pain and suffering will spare his group, but Henry continues to not respond, and instead bites his lip to cope with the pain. Bart rants that Henry could have spared all of this if he had just given up and died to Liam's beating.

He prepares to leave, but Henry suddenly rasps "I made you a promise". Bart turns on his heels and demands that he repeat himself; Henry lifts his head to meet Bart's gaze: "I made you...a promise...". Bart smiles and approaches - "Promised what? That you'd make me *suffer?!*" he taunts - before delivering a fierce punch to Henry's stomach.

He finally recognises the British accent in Henry's voice and reveals he also grew up in England, but was born in Australia, hence his bizarre accent. He says that he and Henry are two sides of the same coin, "Two threads in the same stitch". He continues by saying he came to the states for his dad's job; he reveals he was "once scared" of the dead but quickly realized he belonged in this world: his lack of fear is what makes him strong. He asks Henry what makes him so strong; when Henry refuses to answer, Bart thinks for a moment before sighing with glee: "A girl..." he says, causing Henry to rattle his chains. Bart begins cackling as he leaves the cell.

### Part II

The rest of the group find themselves prisoners at the Black Building, separated into stripped-bare offices that act as prison cells. Armed guards, mostly teenagers, regularly patrol the halls while soldiers and workers alike work around the clock to reinforce the walls. Mutterings abound about a large herd of walkers heading their way spread around the facility.

Ben, Mike and Emma are forced into one cell, David, Carl, Leyton and Charlotte in another, and Becky, Bethany, Lawrence, Sarah and Laika into a third. Five days into their captivity, the group are kept within their small teams and forced to help clear out the neighbouring post office building a block away from the Black Building. Bethany is forced to babysit Sarah and Lawrence while Becky, torn from her daughter, labours away at the post office with the others. When the others are away working, Bethany is able to get Sarah and Lawrence to sleep; her achievement is noted by one of the guards, who marches into the cell. He points his gun at the sleeping children and demands sex to keep them alive; Bethany reluctantly submits and is brutally but quietly raped. He is watched with disgust by another guard, who decides not to intervene.

At the Fort, Henry remains chained, swaying lightly above the cold floor. Exhausted, he teeters on the edge of unconsciousness just as the door to his cell quietly opens. Instead of Bart, however, his guard, Katrina, appears in the gloom armed with a pair of bolt cutters. She approaches and cuts Henry's chains, catching him as he falls. She helps him limp over to the wall so he can catch his breath and retrieves his bloody shirt, socks and boots from her backpack. She slips the socks and boots onto his injured feet and helps him put his shirt on before dragging him to his feet.

As she speaks, Henry comes to his senses and throws Katrina against a wall, straggling her to keep her quiet. She croaks that she only wants to help and that his group will meet him there. Henry asks how, and Katrina reveals that a faction of Innocents - of which she is a part - hold no love for Bart and want to see change. She hurridly informs him of a maintenance tunnel beneath the building that leads to the Fort's outskirts, where a sewer passage will lead him to a pump station in the woods. She further tells him to head north towards the Fargodome, where someone will help him. She informs him that the tunnel is lightly guarded and hands him her machete, believing he is more than strong enough to deal with them even in his state. Henry says nothing as he takes the machete and limps through a small pool of his own blood, finally leaving his cell.

Outside, the area is empty say for the whispers and cries of the other prisoners. Grasping his machete, Henry watches as Katrina locks his cell door. Following her direction, he limps toward a metal door to find a set of stairs ahead of him. He limps down the stairs into a cold basement tunnel. He walks slowly, grimacing with every step, before he approaches a corner. Laughter rings out from the further down, accompanied by footsteps that are fast approaching. Henry calms his breathing as he raises the machete and places the cold blade against his forehead. He listens for the footsteps and strikes, thrusting the machete into the gut of an armed Innocent.

Henry grabs his victim's collar and forces the still-living Innocent backwards, using him as a human shield against a small group of armed soldiers. As his first victim is shot to death, Henry waits until the others reload before removing his machete from the corpse and engaging them directly. Striking one across the jaw, he severs the shooting hand of another and slashes his throat, using the momentum to spin around and strike the other along the chest and thighs, tearing through his femoral artery.

Leaving his victims to bleed, Henry marches towards another survivor, who decides to engage him with his own machete. Henry brings his machete down on the blocking opponent before kicking him hard in the groin, knocking him off balance. He grabs his opponent's fist to pull his arm aside before thrusting his machete into the enemy's throat, keeping eye contact as the life drains from his opponent. Henry takes the gun from his victim's breast-mounted holster and fires two shots down the hallway, striking another in the shoulder. Once again using a body as a human shield, Henry staggers towards a fifth enemy and throws his machete in an arc towards him; the blade clatters off the bewildered survivor, distracting him and allowing Henry to stand up and fire three shots into his chest, killing him. Retrieving his machete, Henry walks towards a half-open door, at which point he is struck around the head and falls to his knees.

### Part III

While returning to the Black Building after a long day of killing walkers and moving debris, the rest of the group are stopped for a search by the Innocent guards. Ben is approached by one of the guards - the same who watched Bethany's rape - who slips a handgun into Ben's shirt. He reveals his name to be Jimmy and warns Ben to hide the gun: only five guards will be watching them tonight, with most of the soldiers preoccupied with an incoming herd. Ben hides the gun under his left armpit as he returns to his cell.

An exhausted Mike and Emma dine on the meager rations provided for them, and are excited to see Ben's new weapon. He plans to take a guard hostage during evening roll call, eventually taking over the entire floor. The trio wait until evening roll call; as the guard approaches their cell, Emma uses the "Alex Method" to distract him: forcing her fingers down her throat, causing her to gag and vomit.

The guard, now older than Emma herself, enters to take Emma down to the infirmery, forcing Ben and Mike against the wall with his rifle; as he grabs her by the arm, she resists and pulls him closer before vomiting for real, distracting the guard. Ben sees his chance and removes the pistol from beneath his armpit, knocking the guard over the head with the grip. Mike grabs the guard's rifle as he collapses to the ground with a grunt.

Mike checks out the rifle and unloads the clip, only to find it empty. Emma guesses that all of the guards' guns are empty; Ben checks the pistol and discovers it fully loaded, and he agrees to take the risk. With Ben holding the only loaded weapon in the upper floors, he easily sets the others free and they barricade the stairs leading to their cells, locking the guards in the offices. One of the guards turns out to have a loaded weapon, and is shot by Emma when he tries to escape.

### Part IV

On the outskirts of the Fort, Henry awakens, limp and aching, his arms raised and in the hands of two Innocents. Looking up from his blurred vision, he finds one of the Innocents to be Mikhail. Henry is forced to his knees before a third Innocent: Liam's right-hand woman, Joanne. The woman kneels down in front of Henry and runs her fingers through his knotted hair, before smiling and saying "Should've accepted your punishment". She gestures to Mikhail and the unnamed Innocent, who drag Henry further forwards. The Innocents bind his hands with rope before placing a noose around his throat. As Henry struggles to get free, he notices several bodies hanging in the trees, two of which he recognises as the zombified Kate and Stephan.

Henry is lifted by his neck as Mikhail ties the other end of the rope to a wrecked car and slings the rope over a tree branch. Henry swings and kicks as he begins to asphyxiate. Joanne catches him as he swings and kicks a metal bucket, allowing him to stand. Joanne reveals a fearsome weapon from beneath her coat: Henry's own axe. She presses the blade against his belly and smiles; Henry looks to the zombified Stephan and Kate to discover both were disembowelled. He turns back to a smiling Joanne and spits in her face; Joanne snarls - "See you in hell" she snaps - as she raises the axe.

Joanne stops upon hearing a gurgle behind her. She turns, the axe still raised, to see the unnamed Innocent holding his open throat, blood gushing over his clothes. As the Innocent falls to his knees, he pulls a knife from his own throat, finally falling limp. Suddenly, Joanne's throat is partially slit by another thrown knife, allowing Henry to wrap his legs around her and break her neck.

Mikhail lifts his rifle at Henry but is suddenly attacked by a young boy who emerges from the bushes and slits his cheek apart. The boy cuts Henry down, allowing him to retrieve his axe, before Mikhail attacks.

In their wrestle, Henry's finger is mangled and a shot is fired. The sound draws walkers, as well as a darkdweller.

Leaving Mikhail behind, Henry and the boy rush through the dark forest, but the darkdweller catches up. Together, Henry and the boy are able to maim the creature, hacking off part of its jaw. Henry continues to follow the boy to his trailer in the woods, where he finally passes out, exhausted.

### Part V

Ben and the others tie several bedsheets together with a fire hose to climb down to a neighbouring building just as the relatively small herd begins spilling in. They see the Fargodome to the northwest over the ruined buildings and plan to use the walker guts trick to walk amongst the herd.

Two walkers are enough to coat everyone and they descend into the herd. Charlotte, overcome with stress and the death of her sister, draws the walkers away from the crying Sarah and Lawrence, allowing herself to be eaten alive as the others escape.

### Part VI

Henry awakens to find the boy gone; he heads out to look for him and hears the sounds of vehicles nearby. He heads in that direction, only to be cornered by the same darkdweller. The creature wrestles him but is shot in the shoulder with an arrow, allowing Henry to axe it to death. His saviour is revealed to be Drew, who runs over to rescue him as Henry passes out.

## Deaths

* Joanne
* Kate *(zombified)*
* Stephan Lee *(zombified)*
* Charlotte
* Five unnamed Innocents

## Trivia

* First appearance of Kyle Granger
* First appearance of Garrett Feingold
* Last appearance of Joanne
* Last appearance of Stephan Lee *(zombified)*
* Last appearance of Kate *(zombified)*
* This episode marks the first instance, since their respective introductions, that Holly and Drew to not appear.

 **Season 5: Remake** | "Blood" • "Rules" • "Dissent" • "The Game" • "The Coming Storm" • "Brotherhood" • "Call to Arms"