It Begins

**"It Begins"** is the first episode of *Season 1: Remake* of *Strain Zero*, the remake of *The Walking Dead by EDStudios.* It is the first episode of the series overall.

## Synopsis

*Just a few weeks into their visit to the U.S, a group of youths are violently thrust into a chaotic zombie apocalypse.*

## Plot

A trio of weathered survivors break through a boarded up window and climb into a ruined, desolate supermarket in the city of Renton, Sylvania. The lead scavenger, Henry, commands the other two, Sarah and Ben, to fan out and to collect everything that they find or may have left behind previously. Henry wipes his boot on a torn newspaper that reads "October 2003" as he climbs over a counter and into a cleared out drug store, where he manages to find some painkillers but curses when he finds that they have expired.

Ben hears a noise in a back room and proceeds down a narrow bloody hallway, armed with a Glock and a flashlight. Breathing heavily, Ben discovers a pool of fresh blood on the carpet near a broken door. Peaking inside, Ben discovers a walker eating a freshly-killed dog. Exhaling heavily in shock, Ben makes enough noise to attract the walker, which growls and reveals itself to be a "runner", a freshly reanimated walker. Ben slams the door on the runner's arm and runs back through the hallways, yelling at the top of his lungs to warn Henry and Sarah. The runner catches up to him and grabs him; Ben lifts his flashlight, forcing the walker to bite it, and shoots it in the head. Henry lifts the walker off Ben and lifts him to his feet. The trio stand back to back, guns raised, once they hear the growls of runners and roamers fast approaching.

The three make their way back to the hole through which they entered, only to find a cluster of walkers blocking their exit. With the doors sealed and walkers flooding the building, the three of them are forced to head into the atrium, where a crashed military helicopter rests. The three climb up onto the top of the helicopter and onto the blades, using the height to jump for a cable to pull them up to the roof. Henry lifts Sarah up to the cable, but the extra weight causes the blade to snap, sending Henry crashing to the ground. The blade lands on Henry, winding and pinning him to the ground, as roamers and runners approach.

One year previously, Henry wakes up in the middle of a maths class, having fallen asleep. His best friend, James, asks him if he's okay and how much sleep he got last night. Henry looks at James weakly and asks what he thinks. Their attention is diverted by their teacher, Mr Dawid, who begins coughing heavily and struggles to give his lesson. Unbeknownst to his students, Mr Dawid secretly coughs up blood.

At lunch, Henry and James collect their food in the school's cafeteria and find their fellow exchange students: Holly, Aaron, Sarah, Ben, Jess and Alex. the latter two of which are in a relationship. Their discussion reveals that they have only been in the states for a few weeks and are due to leave within a matter of days. They are disturbed by the older students and teachers surrounding them that are coughing heavily and, in a few places, coughing up blood while the younger students appear fine. Henry watches the news and reads that a mysterious outbreak of a new disease is spreading all over the country, with cases reported across the world, and that it only appears to affect non-adults, with a threshold around the age of eighteen or nineteen. At the end of the school day, the group leave together and avoid the ill students and teachers, unaware that one of the teachers has vomited blood and apparently died.

At their student house, the group meet up with another exchange student, Justinas, who has been away on a week-long expedition with the army cadets. Justinas reports that the army sent him home early because of the disease spreading around, and that it indeed appears to affect those in their early twenties and over, but not those under that age. Jess expresses hope that the outbreak will not delay them returning home, while Alex comforts her, much to Henry's hidden displeasure.

The next morning, the entire group walks to school and are unsettled by the disruption throughout the streets and the presence of military vehicles both on the roads and in the sky. Arriving at the school, they find it in the midst of a military occupation; Jess urges the group to leave, but the others proceed anyway out of curiosity. As they enter the school searching for answers, a sudden and loud explosion rings out nearby; peering out of a window, the group see a military helicopter crash into a nearby supermarket, with another quickly following suite. All around them, sick adults begin vomiting blood and dropping to the ground; outside, more apparently dead adults begin reanimating and, without warning, begin brutally attacking and consuming the youngsters around them. Gunshots ring out as the military try to clear out the attackers, but the army personel begin dying and reanimating themselves, adding to the zombies' numbers.

The group agree to stay together and to return to their student house, but they are found in the hallways by Mrs Dawes, their exchange program supervisor, who rushes them into a supply closet. She tells the group to stay put and wait until someone comes to collect them, but is cut off by a zombie that shoves her to the ground and begins to devour her. Henry lets out a scream, slams and locks the door before standing up against it as the attacking zombie begins banging on the door, desperate to get in. The group are forced to stay put and cover their ears to block out the screaming and chaos outside, while Henry remains against the door, forced to listen to the carnage.

Hours pass and one by one the group falls asleep. Henry slumps down against the door and watches the others, unable to sleep due to his insomnia. As he watches the others, he begins hearing the distant sounds of crashing waves.

The group slowly wake up and, upon realizing everything is silent, decide to open the door. Henry asks Justinas to help him as something is blocking the door; upon opening, Justinas vomits and Henry stands horrified as they discover that the half-eaten body of Mrs Dawes lying against the door. Once Justinas recovers, he, Henry and Alex throw themselves against the door to move Mrs Dawes' corpse away. As the group step outside, they find the hallways covered in dried blood and pieces of Mrs Dawes' body. Jess is unable to even bear to look at the carnage, but Holly is able to coax her out of the room by offering to cover Jess' eyes with a piece of torn cloth. Alex takes off his coat and lays it over Mrs Dawes' body

The group make their way through the bloody hallways with Henry at the lead. They quickly realize that they is nobody else around, students or teachers, before they hear a series of grunts nearby. Unsure if it is another survivor or one of "those things", the group decide to investigate and turn a corner. As they pass by windows with a view of the sports field, they see a selection of army vehicles and more dead, half-eaten bodies.

At the end of the hallway they find the source of the noises: a hunched over zombie, feeding on the body of a student. The blindfolded Jess demands to know what is happening and works up the courage to remove the cloth from her eyes, but yelps when she sees the zombie. Her gasp draws its attention, revealing itself to be a zombified Mr Dawid, his face pale and mottled. Henry stands in front of the others and tries to talk to Mr Dawid, asking him if he recognises the group as his students. Instead of answering, Mr Dawid twitches and snarls before rushing them, his jaws open and arms outstretched. Alex steps in front to grapple Mr Dawid but he is quickly overwhelmed. Unsure of what else to do, Henry grabs a pipe hanging from the wall and beats Mr Dawid over the head with it. Despite him bleeding heavily, Mr Dawid does not stop, forcing Henry to continue hitting him with the pipe until he is finally still.

The group drag Mr Dawid's body into a nearby classroom and look him over; they quickly realize from both the smell and the colour of his skin that Mr Dawid had died when he began attacking them. Discovering the building still has electricity, Aaron switches on the TV inside the classroom and they discover that all channels are broadcasting an evacuation message, alongside footage from the previous few days of towns and cities across the country in chaos. A military warning claims that the disease spreading around causes mutations in the brain, causing the human body to digest its own tissues just before the point of death; those that survive this "reanimate" into violent, ravenous, slowly-decaying creatures that consume flesh. The broadcast then ends, replaced by white noise and a repeating evacuation message.

The group votes to continue moving through the school and clearing out whatever zombies they find. While the others split up to investigate the corridors, Holly asks Henry and James for their help in burying Mrs Dawes in the playground. James walks off to find something to wrap Mrs Dawes in and comes across a locked room. Deciding to search it, he breaks the lock by kicking the door and discovers two younger students, Emma and special needs student Daniel, inside, covered in blood. James comforts the two and tells them they are safe now; while James escorts the children to the rest of the group, Henry takes a safety blanket and helps Holly bury Mrs Dawes on the sports field.

A week passes. During that time, the group arm themselves with makeshift weapons such as knives from the cafeteria and broken furniture and clear out the school one by one. They find only two zombies in the entire building and burn their bodies out on the field. Ben, an engineering student, is able to start the school's backup generators and plumming, allowing the group to bottle and store water. The group agrees not to shower in order to save water. With their supplies already running low, Henry and Justinas decide to head out on a supply run and prepare by raiding the sports hall and workshop, where Henry finds and takes a hatchet.

Heading out, Henry and Justinas are horrified by the carnage they uncover: the streets are lined with crashed, bloodied cars, bullet casings, dead and roaming zombies, and abandoned stores. In downtown Renton, Justinas smashes a window to get into a food shop; the noise attracts four runners that emerge from the nearby buildings. Henry and Justinas are forced to move through the buildings to lose the creatures; although three of them split off, a fourth is able to sniff them out and Henry is forced to attack it with his hatchet. Despite striking it several times in the torso, the zombie does not die until Henry strikes it over the head.

Back at the school, Alex, Sarah and Ben climb some scaffolding to try and access the roof; however, they discover a runner roaming the roof. As it charges Alex, Sarah reveals a gun and shoots the zombie dead after several attempts. When the boys ask her where she got a gun, Sarah shrugs and says "I'm American". The trio laughs, but stop when they hears the snarls of zombies in the distance, attracted by the sound of the gunshot.

In downtown Renton, Henry and Justinas find an abandoned army truck surrounded by several zombies. Devising a plan to distract and lock the runners inside a store, Henry runs towards them and yells, attracting them, before rushing back towards the store. Justinas reveals a hastily-made molotov cocktail and, once Henry leads the runners into the store, throws it inside, incinerating the creature. Triumphant, the duo head over to the truck and open it, discovering a plethora of Glocks and knives, ammo of various types, torches, flares, walkie-talkies, a couple hunting rifles, and a single assault rifle. The duo load several bags with the equipment, just as more runners, attracted by the fire, begin flooding downtown. Now armed with firearms, the two are able to take out several runners and flee through the backstreets.

Having cleared the runners, Henry and Justinas rush back through the streets, struggling to get their bearings. While they rest beside a dumpster in an alley, Justinas offers Henry a cigarette. The two rest, smoke and decide to try on their bulletproof vests. Suddenly, they hear muffled cries nearby and decide to investigate upon realizing it sounds human. They discover an unlocked door and move into a house, where the cries louden. Heading upstairs, they are ambushed by a pair of runners that jump down the stairs to attack them. Knowing that sound attracts them, Justinas uses a knife to kill one runner while Henry grapples with the other. As it claws at his face, Henry manages to kick the second runner away from him before bringing his hatchet down on its head, splitting it in two. Panting heavily, the pair move upstairs, where they discover a closed door, behind which sits a young girl covered in blood.

Convincing her that they are normal, Henry and Justinas are let into her room. The girl reveals a bite in her shoulder and Henry offers to bring her back to the nurse's office at the school. However, the girl vehemently refuses, revealing that being bitten by one of the zombies causes a human to, in turn, transform into another zombie. Knowing that there is no hope for herself, the girl asks the boys to kill her so she doesn't turn. The pair, however, refuse, telling her that they will not kill the living. The girl begins to claw and beg, pleading for them to kill her, but the pair apologise and reluctantly seal her inside her room while she claws at the door, crying and screaming for death.

Exhausted and remorseful, Henry and Justinas head through the streets back to the school, which they find under attack by runners. The two of them climb the fence onto the sports field, where they are followed by agile runners, and sprint towards Alex holding open a door for them. Inside, Henry and Justinas offload the guns, ammo and knives that they found and distribute them to the group, informing them that only headshots seem capable of killing zombies. Jess cries out and demands they stop calling them "zombies"; after a brief debate, they are unable to come up with an alternative and assemble at the front of the school, preparing to fight back and protect their new home.

## Characters

### Main

* Henry Edwards
* Holly Parker
* James Cottingham
* Sarah Terringham
* Justinas Garin
* Aaron Bailey
* Alex Sutton
* Jess Black
* Ben Appleby
* Emma Goode
* Daniel Miller

## Deaths

* Mrs Dawes
* Mr Dawid *(alive & zombified)*
* Crying Girl *(alive)*

## Trivia

* First appearance of Henry Edwards
* First appearance of Holly Parker
* First appearance of James Cottingham
* First appearance of Sarah Terringham
* First appearance of Justinas Garin
* First appearance of Aaron Bailey
* First appearance of Alex Sutton
* First appearance of Jess Black
* First appearance of Ben Appleby
* First appearance of Emma Goode
* First appearance of Daniel Miller
* First (and last) appearance of Mr Dawid *(alive and zombified)*
* First (and last) appearance of Mrs Dawes
* First (and last) appearance of Crying Girl