Season 4 (Remake)

"*What do you fear most?*"
—Tagline of *Season 4: Remake*[src]

**Season 4: Remake** is a rewrite of the fourth and fifth seasons of *The Walking Dead by EDStudios* as part of *Strain Zero*. It adapts material from the *Miles We Walk* and *A Larger World* story arcs of the original series. *Season 4: Remake* consists of two parts, each containing their own arc: *Season 4: Remake Part I* consists of two episodes, while *Season 4: Remake Part II* consists of six. The fourth season serves as both a conclusion to the *Homeward* story arc and the beginning of the *Bloodlines* story arc, and is followed by *Season 5: Remake*.

Weeks after leaving Fargo and the Innocents behind, the Pioneers, led by Henry's group, finally stumble across Adams Air Force Base, only to discover everything is not as they hoped. Later, after establishing their own community, they are forced to confront an enemy far more dangerous than anything they have faced before.

## Plot

*After seemingly endless months on the road, fending off the living and the dead, the enigmatic Adams Air Force Base may finally give our group the chance of a real home. But claiming - and protecting - it will mean sacrifice, a price that our group may be unable to pay in this two-part rewrite of the "Miles We Walk" and "A Larger World" story arcs.*

## Synopsis

### "Miles"

Almost two weeks after leaving Fargo behind them, the Pioneers convoy has grown to around 30 vehicles and nearly 80 survivors, many of whom are stragglers and scavengers. The convoy drives across the entirety of North Dakota, stopping off at any town or rest stop to gather supplies before moving on to the Montana border; at the border station they grab guns and ammo that the National Guard left behind. The convoy spends another five days driving across Montana, and are forced to leave several vehicles behind. Passing near Great Falls, they turn east to find Adams Air Force Base.

The exhausted convoy rests in the shade of a mountain; Henry, battered and gaunt, leads a team to scout the nearby plains. With Drew by his side, Henry scans the horizon before finally setting sights on the base in the distance. He notes several pillars of smoke rising from the base, effectively confirming survivors within. Heading back to the convoy, Henry decides to take a small group down to the base to make contact with the survivors, leaving the bulk of the convoy behind until the all-clear is delivered. Several people volunteer: Emma, Ben, Mike, Drew, Katrina, Gideon and, to everyone's shock, Bethany, who has grown more confident with weapons. Justinas and Holly also volunteer, but Henry refuses; he asks Justinas to guard and lead the convoy, and outright refuses to allow Holly to join him due to her morning sickness. He charges Kyle with protecting her, with the boy now referring to them both as his parents.

Taking the refridgeration truck down the valley, the scout team approach the reinforced gate of Adams Air Force Base, confused that there is no one around. They break the lock holding the gate shut and drive onto the grounds of the base, where they discover a second, more homemade border fence made out of scrap metal. A warning shot rings out and the truck grinds to a halt; a second shot impacts the windscreen, revealed to be an arrow with a piece of paper attached. Stepping outside, Henry approaches cautiously and grabs the paper, discovering a radio frequency written on it. Tuning his walkie-talkie, he attempts contact. A voice asks what his intensions are; Henry responds that they are simply looking to trade, and adds that his group means no harm. A screeching sound emerges as the makeshift barricade opens up and a truck adnorned with USAF colours approaches, driven by armed survivors.

They stop twenty feet from the group, armed with automatic weapons and grenades; the lead soldier throws an empty duffle bag at Henry's feet and demands that the group discard all their weapons; despite Emma's protests, the group does so, gently placing their knives and guns into the bag. The lead soldier asks what they have to trade; Henry admits that the truck is empty, but wants to discuss trade with the bulk of their convoy. Irritated, but interested, the lead soldier agrees to take them to the base's leader, a man called Grenowich.

The group are escorted past the barrier and into the base; Ben compares it to a "homeless camp", with lit braizers and hunched survivors all over the place. They are led to a spot near a disused hanger and escorted through the base on foot; suspicious survivors watch them closely, gaunt and restless. The soldiers lead them to the base's air traffic control tower; inside, they are introduced to a dreadlocked man covered in dirt. He introduces himself as Grenowich and once again asks for the group's intensions; Henry, unsettled by the unsubtle inspections of his people by the soldiers in the room, lies and says they were just passing through and wish to move on. Grenowich responds that there is no need, because their group won't be going anywhere. Before they can react, the group are forced to their knees, guns aimed at their heads; Grenowich remarks to his people that "hunting" is getting easier, even if there are less people out there. The group are blinded with black bags and dragged away; as the group yell and struggle, Henry overhears Grenowich order his men to apprehend the rest of Henry's people.

Meanwhile, up on the hill, Justinas, still recovering from his beating a few weeks earlier, scans the horizon through his rifle scope while watching Laika playing with Sarah and Lawrence with a smile on his face. Becky approaches, asking if he can see the scout group on the base's grounds or heading back. Justinas lowers his rifle to respond, telling Becky he has a bad feeling about the base and that he is worried about Laika, who is still struggling to speak English. Becky replies that Sarah struggles with crawling, and admits that she is disturbed that baby Lawrence makes few noises at all; she adds her confusion about Bethany volunteering for the scout team, considering that she is Lawrence's sole caretaker. Justinas shrugs that all parents face challenges, and they have to support one another. Becky smiles but pauses, telling Justinas that she sees something. Justinas looks through the scope to see a vehicle heading their way.

### "Hellfire"

Henry, Emma and the others are dragged through a series of hallways, their faces covered by black masks. The team gags from the smell of human waste, and are deafened by the whoops and cheers of the surrounding Ravagers. They are finally dragged through a set of double doors into a large room filled by the stench of cooking meat. Forced to their feet, their bound hands are forced upwards and hooked onto metal spikes hanging from the low ceiling. Their hoods are removed and they are met by a horrifying sight: tens of similarly hanging bodies, all in various states of being butchered. Bloody woodsaws clutter a central table, and the far end of the room is taken up by a makeshift grill upon which sits dozens of pieces of cooking flesh.

### "Divide"

Five years after settling Greencole, the Pioneers have created a peaceful farming community with small outposts along the road to Wolf Dam and in the nearby forest. For the past two years Ben has been leading the effort to restore Wolf Dam, while Henry has stepped down as leader in favour of David. After waking up and greeting his children - five-year-old Hope, adoptive son Kyle and ward Emma, who refuses to speak to him - Henry helps Drew skin a deer he caught; Hope spots the dead animal and Henry gives her words of comfort. Taking a horse, he rides to Wolf Dam to join the other workers, saying hello to Mike, who has left the town and lives in a camp alone, along the way. The town's residents all go about their daily routine, including Shadowman, who at some point was rescued from Port Collier and brought to the community.

Henry and Ben discuss their relationships while they work inside the dam; Ben reveals that he hasn't been home to see his boyfriend, Jimmy, in over a week. When pressed, Ben adds that his bipolar mood swings have returned and are getting worse. They join the other workers at the top of the dam for a break; while watching the horizon, Henry spots a group of people in the distance near the river. Dismissing it, he returns to Greencole greet Carl, dying of an aggressive cancer, in the hospital cabin before heading home to find Holly preparing a romantic dinner. Meanwhile, Emma joins some of the other teenagers in sneaking out of town; at a beauty spot, she bonds with a newcomer, Abigail, and they kiss.

The next day at the dam Henry spots something else along the river; using his binoculars, he witnesses a group of people, all wearing masks, dumping sacks into the river. As they retreat into the woods, one of them turns to look directly at Henry, having spotted the glare from his binoculars. Disturbed by what he saw, Henry remains silent throughout the rest of the evening and suffers with horrible nightmares.

Throughout the next day, the community prepares for their biannual potluck; Henry grows paranoid that something in the woods is watching them. He jumps when someone drops a jug, smashing it; as he helps them pick it up, he looks back at the woods and clenches his fist, cutting his palm in the process. He barely notices and returns home to wash; he has a flashback of stabbing Alex's dead body and suffers a panic attack, which involves biting his own arm.

Henry attends the potluck with his family, although Emma sneaks away to sleep with Abigail. David gives the keynote speech and dedicates it to Henry, who leaves as the speech concludes with the excuse of a bad stomach. He returns home and silently debates with himself before grabbing a shovel and digging up his old equipment: his axe, Mark 23, brown jacket and spent bulletproof police vest. As he finishes preparations, Holly returns to check on him and demands to know what he is doing. He confesses what he saw beyond the dam and that he has decided to check it out, believing it to be a threat. Holly tries to reassure him to no avail and blocks his exit; she cries that they have moved on from the people they used to be, that they have a family to think about, and that she refuses to go through the cycle of wondering if he will ever come back. Henry coldly dismisses her and leaves as Holly weeps. He takes a horse and rides out; Emma spots him from Abigail's window, while Mike is awakened by the galloping of Henry's horse.

In the morning, while on his daily hunt, Drew discovers pitch sprayed all over the dry ground and trees; deeper in the woods, he finds a knocked-over barrel coated in dried pitch. He spots the faded words "LEWIS & CLARK FAMILY GET-AWAY" printed on the barrel and heads farther in to investigate. Meanwhile, Henry ties his horse and heads into the forest along the river, but finds no activity. Just as he decides to return home, he encounters a masked survivor who promptly attacks him. They wrestle in the underground until Henry manages to choke the attacker to death with his rifle; he spots a strange brand on the base of the attacker's back. He drives his knife into the attacker's skull before he is suddenly jerked back, a string around his neck. He is pulled along and surrounded by more masked survivors, who strip him of weapons; one of them, the masked survivor he spotted from the dam, knocks him out with a stomp to the face.

### "Nightmares"

Drew returns to Greencole with the barrel of pitch to find a commotion surrounding Henry's disappearance and Carl's last rites, which are read by Gideon. Drew summonds Holly and David to discuss his discovery while Emma listens in; Mike passes by and she asks him if he saw Henry the previous night. Mike reveals that he saw Henry galloping towards the dam but adds that Henry said nothing to him. Despite Holly's warning, Emma decides to leave and search for Henry, with Mike and Drew agreeing to join her.

Henry wakes to find himself bound and surrounded by masked warriors, who tie him to a pole with his arms spread out. The leader of the warriors, a man wearing a mask made out of a ram, declares him to be a "foundling" that must be cleansed of all fear before cutting Henry's palms; Henry is then left, bleeding slowly, in the cold.

### "Wolves"

Henry helps Holly out of the burning wreckage of their home and immediately sets out to find James and rescue Emma. Drew catches up to him and helps him trace James' footsteps but is forced to stay behind and kill several walkers heading toward the village. Now alone, the exhausted Henry hallucinates the dead Clarkson Survivors, culiminating in a vision of James and a brainwashed Emma tying him to a pole and setting him on fire.

Henry follows James' tracks to the isolated cabin he sought refuge in earlier; he is forced to stop as James emerges and threatens to kill Emma if he takes another step. Henry tries to appeal to him to no avail, as James rants about the deaths of their friends and how Henry is to blame for everything, which Henry accepts. However, he states that his failures, while not redeemed, will be balanced by killing James and saving Emma. He also slips that James killed his son, which Emma assumes to be Kyle as she tries to free herself of her bounds.

Henry and James engage in a brutal fight to the death, each exhausted and motivated mostly by anger. Emma uses a shard of glass that Henry left earlier to cut the ropes and runs outside, only to be attacked by approaching walkers. Seeing her in peril, Henry throws her his axe, thus losing his main weapon, which Emma then accidentally breaks. Now armed only with a knife, Henry is quickly overwhelmed by James, now fully immersed in his "Nathan" persona, and is barely able to recover when Emma comes to his rescue. Henry takes his chance to grab his knife and strike from an angle; the blade hits James' left eye and comes out through the sphenoid bone, ending the battle as James drops to his knees. Still alive, he slips in and out of his "Nathan" persona as his psyche begins to fracture. Henry prepares to finish him but his stopped by Emma, who uses the glass shard to cut several lines into James' cheek as she declares that he should die slowly rather than quickly. The pair leave James for dead as he begins to chuckle. Emma and Henry reconcile on their walk back to Greencole when he reveals his belief that Jess Black's son, Alex Junior, was his.

Shortly after their return, Henry talks with Holly and proposes, despite her anger at him for breaking his promise. Before she can answer, Henry is called to the gate, where a group of armed survivors is waiting; one of them, revealed to be Albert, a survivor Henry encountered many years before, invites Henry to meet the Commander of Delta Force at Adams Air Force Base. Meanwhile, James is found by Frontiersmen soldiers and carried back into the forest.

## Characters

### Main

* Henry Ward: Greencole's former leader and its current head of security
* Emma Goode: Henry's ward who serves as a scout and hunter for Greencole
* Holly Maxson: Henry's long-time partner and David's deputy
* Kyle Granger: the adoptive son of Henry and Holly
* Justinas Garin: Greencole's armoury chief and co-head of security
* Ben Appleby: Greencole's chief mechanic and leader of the Wolf Dam restoration project
* Drew Stanton: Greencole's lead hunter and Sarah's father
* Becky Grace: defence teacher and member of the town's leadership council
* David: the current leader of Greencole and adoptive father to Lawrence
* Mike Trapp: a former resident of Greencole who lives along the road to Wolf Dam
* Carl McKenzie: Greencole's eccentric doctor
* Jane Rhodes: a former soldier of the Innocents and chief guard at Wolf Dam
* Shadowman: a blind survivor rescued and brought to the community by Henry and Justinas
* James Cottingham: Henry's childhood best friend who reemerges as a member of the Frontiersmen

### Supporting

* Laika: Justinas' adopted daughter who is now fluent in Russian and English
* Bethany: David's former partner and Lawrence's adoptive mother
* Katrina: a former Innocent who joined the Pioneers after the escape from Fargo
* Jimmy: a former Innocent and Ben's romantic partner
* Gideon: a former soldier for the Domers and a worker at Wolf Dam
* Nicolas: Greencole's cook and blacksmith
* Abigail: a newcomer to Greencole who forms a bond with Emma
* Lawrence Carter: the biological son of William Carter and adopted son of David following Bethany's demise
* Sarah Stanton: the daughter of Becky Grace and either Drew Stanton or William Carter
* Boy: the Ward family pet
* Hope Ward: the young daughter of Henry and Holly
* Grenowich: the leader of a group of cannibals at Adams Air Force Base
* Ajax: the unseen founder and prophet of the Frontiersmen
* Joseph: an extremist archpriest of the Frontiersmen
* Isabella: a rebellious member of the Frontiersmen
* Dante: a former resident of Greencole who was involved in a disastrous event during a terrible recent winter
* Kieron Worth: Henry's estranged half-brother and the leader of Delta Force

## Deaths

* Grenowich - axed to death by Henry
* Bethany - head trauma from shrapnel
* Justinas Garin - shot in the face by Nathan
* 4 unnamed Frontiersmen
* Numerous unnamed Ravagers

## Trivia

* The conclusion of *Season 4: Remake Part I* marks the end of the *Homeward* arc, while *Part II* marks the beginning of the *Bloodlines* arc.
* *Season 4: Remake* partially adapts the *Miles We Walk* and *A Larger World* arcs of the original series.
* At a total of eight episodes, *Season 4: Remake* is currently the longest season of *Strain Zero*.
* This season contains a five year time jump between *Part I* and *Part II*.
* *Season 4: Remake* reintroduces two past characters:
	+ Shadowman, who has been absent since "*Around Every Corner*".
		- The details of Shadowman's return will be revealed in the *Shadows* miniseries
	+ James Cottingham, who has been absent since "*All That Remains*" and reemerges as a member of the Frontiersmen
* *Season 4: Remake* introduces two factions from the original series: the Ravagers and the Frontiersmen. They serve as the respective main antagonists of *Part I* and *Part II*.

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