Among Men

**"Among Men"** is the fifth and final episode of *Season 1: Monuments* of *So Help Me God*, the remake of the miniseries of the same name*.* It is the sixth episode of the series overall.

## Plot

*Everything comes to a head at the Capitol, sparking events that will change Eden - and the new world - forever.*

## Synopsis

Unable to hold back the muertos, Sasha, Sergei and Nancy secure the doors as best they can, collect anything they can use as a weapon, and seal off the main foyer, which is quickly flooded with muertos. Soon the east and rear doors also come under attack, and the desperate, exhausted trio decide to make a final stand. Nearby, the Gasman, still dazed from a blow to the head and struggling to breath without its mask, sharpens its machete.

Outside the Vault below the city, Eden remembers the route he and the other einherjar used during their escape and finally emerges from the sewers just a few blocks from the Capitol; a few muertos nearby snarl but ignore him. Before running toward the Capitol he spots a machine shop down the street; breaking in, he finds a roll of barbed wire. He puts on a pair of gloves and wraps his bat with the wire, smiling at the result. He sprints through the streets of Sacramento, ducking through stores to avoid the sinkholes, and arrives as the square beside the Capitol gardens. He walks towards the front entrance to see it shrouded in muertos.

Taking a breath and gripping his bat, he approaches the herd and carefully enters the mass of rotting bodies. He receives a few snarls and snaps but is ultimately left alone. Smiling, he quickens his walk, brazenly shoving muertos aside only for them to ignore him. He crosses the threshold and shoves his way to the barricaded door; his knocks are drowned out by the muertos around him. Frustrated, he shoves his way through the dead and back outside before moving to the west entrance; he knocks on the door furiously until it opens, revealing Sasha. The pair embrace one another, relieved that the other is still alive.

Eden and Sasha rush upstairs to join Sergei and Nancy in the Governor's office; Nancy aims her weapon at Eden, hinting that she knows his true identity. Eden assures her that, whoever she believes him to be, he is not that person anymore. She is finally talked down by Sergei, who says he trusts Antony and gives him a nod. Eden gathers them and explains his plan for clearing the building: he will open the doors to the foyer and, reasoning that muertos react to the sounds and movements of other muertos, simply walk with them and draw them away, giving the others enough time to secure the foyer. All three claim it would be a suicide mission, but Eden reveals his abilities while offering little explanation. He simply orders them to trust him and they decide to move ahead with the plan. Before going downstairs, Eden asks Sasha for some vodka and her lighter.

Sergei, Nancy and Sasha stay hidden as Eden opens the barricaded door, causing several muertos to tumble forward into a pile. Eden shoves into the herd and starts shouting furiously, but his sounds are once again drowned out by the sheer volume of groans and snarls. He has a brainwave and cuts his palm on the barbed wire around his bat; the muertos smell his blood and are drawn to him, but do not attack. Now that he has their attention, Eden resumes his screams and shouts, slowly drawing the entire mass to his position. Struggling to move against the mass he swings his bat in an arc, clearing enough room for him to move. His roars and yells intensify when he crosses the threshold, while Sergei, Nancy and Sasha emerge from cover and bar the front door.

Eden leads the herd through to the other side of the plaza, several hundred metres from the entrance, where he stops roaring and kneels down to remove the vodka and lighter from his bag. He tears off a strip of his shirt and places it in the bottle before lighting it, creating a Molotov cocktail. He hurls it into the entrance of the USCIS field office, setting it ablaze and drawing the herd. Checking that all the muertos are attracted by the flame, he sprints back to the Capitol. As he reaches the plaza circle, however, he spots the Gasman sprinting out of a nearby street, yelling "Arthur!" in its awful voice. He avoids its charge and swings his bat, catching the Gasman in the back, before continuing his sprint and finally making it to the entrance. Sasha seals the doors while Eden catches his breath.

Injured and still dazed, the Gasman charges at the herd and roars in an attempt to return their attention to the Capitol. The herd ignores him and, in his rage, the Gasman slices several muertos in half. In the foyer, Eden reports his plan's success as well as the arrival of the Gasman, but is cut off by Sergei and Nancy: the rear and east entrances are still under muerto attack. With ammo sparse, the survivors are forced to use debris and pools to batter at the muertos as they break through the glass windows, hoping that the build-up of bodies will block any further waves from reaching the building. Their efforts are cut short when they see the Gasman charging at the Capitol from the gardens. The survivors back away and jump to the sides as the Gasman breaks through the east entrance with a roar, screaming "Arthur!" at the top of his lungs. In the chaos Eden is separated from the others and tells them to run as the Gasman advances on him.

Eden stands his ground, using his upgraded bat to open deep wounds in the Gasman's torso and deliver a lucky strike to his head; he dodges the Gasman's dazed punches and machete swings before finally striking the Gasman's arm, forcing the creature to drop his machete. Angered, the Gasman gets his other hand around Eden's throat and lifts him off his feet; Eden tries to swing but the Gasman disarms him, and his bat rolls away. Breathlessly, the Gasman growls "Arthur find family. Arthur *take* family! Me...show," to a confused Eden, who drives his thumb into the Gasman's damaged eye in attempt to escape his grip; in response the Gasman throws Eden against the walls of the hallway, breaking the plaster and exhausting Eden. He is carried to the end of the hall and spots Sasha at the other end, desperately loading her revolver. The Gasman repeats "Me...show" as he tightens his grip and twists Eden's neck, releasing a sharp *snap!*

Sasha watches in horror as Eden's lifeless corpse falls from the Gasman's grip and onto the ground, completely limp. She screams and unloads her revolver into the unbothered Gasman. As the creature begins approaching her, Sasha retrieves Eden's bat and starts swinging, only for the Gasman to catch it, wrestle it from her grip and throw it away again. It pursues her through the hallway, tossing muertos out of its way just as a shambler tackles Sasha to the floor. The Gasman pulls the muerto off her and stomps; Sasha barely rolls out of the way and continues running; the Gasman catches the rolled neck of her sweater and lifts her to eye level.

Around the corner at the far end of the hallway, Eden's lifeless body begins to twitch, then convulse, then contort. His veins turn black-red as his body convulses and his neck suddenly snaps back into place. His lifeless eyes are flooded with his darkened blood, while his pupils cloud to grey and contort into irregular shapes. He silently screams back into life, overcome by an incredible pain throughout his entire body. He gasps for air as he stands, his mind flooded with violent images and memories. His head snaps to the side once he hears Sasha's cries for help. Down the hall, the Gasman places his hand over Sasha's throat just as Eden emerges from around the corner, his pale skin criss-crossed with a web of black nerves. Eden's pants turn into a ferocious roar before he charges at great speed. The Gasman drops Sasha and turns to engage him as Eden lunges.

The two einherjar engage in a vicious duel; using their fists and feet they kick, scratch and tear at each other. Eden's rage and intelligence proves a match for the Gasman's sheer strength, and they fight to a stalemate while Sasha, Sergei and Nancy clear the halls of muertos by unloading the last of their ammo. Soon, the Gasman's strength turns the odds in his favour and once again gets Eden's throat in his vice-like grip. It tries to tell "Arthur" that it is sorry, to which Eden responds "Arthur dead. *I* remain". He suddenly digs his entire hand into the burned remains of the Gasman's face, finally causing the creature to screech in agony.

Eden punches the Gasman's grip from his throat and unleashes a brutal assault, forcing the Gasman to the ground. Spotting his bat, Eden takes it and beats the Gasman into submission, finally subduing him when he strikes him over the head; the force of the blow breaks the bat into splinters. With blood pouring from its shattered skull, the Gasman tries to beg for mercy; fuelled by adrenaline, Eden ignores him and digs his thumbs into the Gasman's eyes. With tremendous strain, Eden exerts enough force to savagely pull the Gasman's head apart, splitting it in two. Eden roars as a plume of blood shoots up from the Gasman's neck, covering his face and chest, before he finally releases his grip and the Gasman falls limp to the floor. Eden triumphantly roars, reveling in his victory.

Eden returns to his senses only when Sasha calls out to him and places a hand on his shoulder; he calms immediately and his skin, eyes and veins return to normal at her touch. Exhausted, he tells her that he loves her and that she is the only thing in his life worth living for, and promises to never leave her again; the more rational Sasha says that they will talk once the Capitol is clear. The bloodstained Sergei and Nancy stumble across them with questions about the Gasman; Eden says he is tired and will answer later. Sergei suddenly raises his weapon, noting that Eden's sickly skin and cloudy eyes are indicative of infection; despite Sasha's rebuttal, Eden agrees to isolate himself until morning, claiming that he trusts Sergei and wants to earn his trust in return. Eden enters his old bedroom in the basement and sits on the couch, covered in blood and exhausted. He finally falls asleep.

In his peace, his memories finally become clear. He relives the einherjar's massacre of the people in the road and his chase on the sole survivor, a woman. He finally catches and prepares to shoot her, but lets her go when he realizes that she bears a striking resemblance to his dead sister Ida; the woman is revealed to be Sasha, whose painful memories of that night prevented her from recognising Eden when they first met in the Capitol. After letting her go, Arthur, overcome with the guilt of everything he had done, single-handedly kills the other einherjar; he is unable to kill subject II but burns his face with a Molotov cocktail, thus birthing the Gasman.

Exhausted and injured, Arthur finds refuge in a random house, where he suffers a complete psychotic break that triggers psychogenic retrograde amneisa, causing him to forgot pivotal parts of his life, including his true name. The last thing he remembers before his mind is wiped is a woman calling out to "Antony"; moments later he wakes up, bruised, covered in blood and with no memories of his past aside from the muertos. He unconsciously combines "Antony" with "Eden" upon glancing at a botany magazine called "Garden of Eden". Not remembering that Sacramento was the location of Project Lazarus, Eden feels drawn to the city, setting the events of the last four years in motion.

Eden wakes up, covered in dried blood. He empties a five gallon bottle of water into the sink and uses a rag to clean himself before heading upstairs. The ground floor remains covered in dead muertos and he finds Sasha, Nancy and Sergei in the cafeteria. They decide to get some fresh air and sit together on the Capitol steps as the sun rises. Eden and Sasha agree to go on an official date before inviting Sergei and Nancy to live at the Capitol; with nowhere else to go, they agree until they figure out their next move.

Eden suddenly hears a distant noise that none of the others can hear. He stands up, alert, when he realizes that it is rapid gunshots. As they others begin hearing the noise Eden hears another that sounds like footsteps - *many* footsteps - that grow audible just as a single man armed with an automatic rifle emerges from a street to kill two muertos. He gestures before a large convoy of people, at least 60 in number, emerge into the plaza. The leader and several armed survivors kill the muertos around the fire as the group rushes back inside the Capitol. They spot the leader beckon to the building and the convoy moves towards it.

Unable to fight, the group agree to confront them directly; before heading out Eden finds and keeps a metal baseball bat. They exit the building with their hands up; one of the convoy leaders spots them and orders the soldiers to hold their fire. Grabbing a bag, he runs up to the group, offers them food and blankets, and introduces himself as Dylan Emerson. The soldiers' leader, Aurora, orders that the survivors be restrained despite Dylan's protests. Eden resists and is promptly knocked out by Aurora, who reassures the convoy that they have reached "The Colony".