Red Asphalt

Badrick leads a giant horde of zombies towards Willamette High School.

You can read the transcript here.

## **Synopsis**

In the school cafeteria, Layton Zimmers and Owen Gliefield are sitting at one of the tables. Layton is able to see that Owen looks stressed, and when asked about it, Owen admits that it's Dean Howards' absence that worries him; he still dislikes the man, but doesn't want any harm to come to him. Remaining on the topic of Dean, Layton wonders if it was in fact the government that kidnapped Dean because he found out something he wasn't supposed to. Owen shakes his head listening to Layton's insane theories. Owen, knowing about Dean's old drinking habits, wants to believe that Dean just got drunk and stumbled off again. When Layton changes the conversation to his time in high school, Owen rants about his hatred of styrofoam cups. After chuckling about it together, Layton gets up and leaves.

Across the cafeteria, the high-school kids are all sitting together. Kyle Douglass flips through a torn up comic book trying to make out the words and images, but can't. After, both Kyle and Tony Marston approach a tired and sad looking Lloyd Waller to ask if he's okay. Lloyd remains feeling guilty over Jacob Feldman's death, and he scares Kyle by saying that they'll eventually have to leave the school. Tony assures both of them that once the adults deal with The Rastas, they won't need to. As Tony and Kyle engage in a conversation about movies, Lloyd gets up to go find William Reynes, saying bye to his friends.

Lloyd finds William in one of the classrooms, and there, he tells William that the only reason he wanted to go on the supply run with Jacob was to prove himself. He knows that he and the rest of the students wouldn't be able to make it on their own, especially considering Bernie Ortan is deaf and "Kyle is Kyle". In short, he wants William to start taking all of them out to teach them how to survive. William smiles and says he'd be happy to do that.

Zac Barnes and Fraser Stiller are in the foyer chatting when Marcus Downes comes strolling in looking for Kate Bloodstone. Zac tells him that she's on the roof, then advises him to bring her some coffee. Marcus takes the man's advice and walks off to make a cup of coffee. As he leaves, Zac sits back with a smile feeling accomplished for helping Marcus with Kate.

Marcus, coffee in hand, finds Kate on the roof scanning the surrounding area. He startles her when he announces himself, but apologizes for it by handing her the coffee. Kate thanks him and explains that she's up here for the fresh air, but Marcus can see that she's still worried about Dean's status. He tells her not to worry about it, then tells her to come back inside, offering a hand. She takes it, and as they're walking back in, Marcus admits that he likes her. In response, he gets a kiss from her, which takes him by surprise. They both smile and head back into the school.

Meanwhile, Martyn Ford is sitting in the foyer with Albert Hanson, Aldus Paxton, and a snoring Austin Kingston. Aldus wakes Austin up when he starts a conversation about Dean, stating that he believes Dean was taken. Martyn finds that difficult to believe, saying that nobody gets in or out of the school without being spotted. Aldus stands firm with his theory, pointing out that he disappeared during the night. Austin has his own theory that it was some of Damerae Badrick's surviving Rastas that kidnapped Dean and killed him in revenge. Albert and Martyn both think that Dean left on his own accord having been tired of moving around constantly. As Apollo strolls into the room and sits on the floor next to them all, Martyn says that he'll organize a search team with Bruce Boseman to go looking for Dean.

While running through the woods, Jim Butterman has to stop and take a breather. Randall Forster urges him to keep going, while Michael Hall takes a look over his shoulder and sees Derrick Williams, their pursuer, closing in on them. As Michael tries to line up a shot, the three of them are attacked by zombies. Derrick takes the chance to shoot Jim in his leg, causing him to fall forward. Michael bravely rushes into harm's way, keeping the zombies off of Jim and urging him to go. One of Derrick's bullets strikes Michael in his shoulder, making him drop his only weapon - his sniper. Seeing that both Michael and Randall are distracted by zombies, Derrick moves up and grabs Jim's collar, dragging him back the way he came. Jim passes out as his wound bleeds.

At the quarry, Badrick and Dean are awaiting Derrick's return. Dean has given up his begging, and is instead telling Badrick that his plans will fail and Dean will be rescued. As Badrick orders him to be quiet, Derrick returns, dragging along Jim. Dean immediately yells in anger, demanding they let Jim go. He tries to get up, but falls back to his knees immediately. As Dean continues to beg, Badrick and Derrick walk off to prepare the horde waiting inside the quarry. Jim, barely conscious, is happy when he sees Dean still alive, and stays positive by saying that Badrick won't do anything to hurt them. Dean frantically goes over what Badrick's plan is, and how he wants Dean to lead them to the school himself. In a weak voice, Jim tells Dean that it's all mind tricks and he shouldn't give in. Dean understands, but admits that he's scared. When Badrick returns all set to go, he first approaches Dean and demands that he confess that his friends at the school deserve this. When Dean remains silent, Badrick promises him he's going to regret not answering. Derrick grabs Dean and forces him into the driver's seat of the nearby truck, while Derrick gets in the passenger seat to watch over him. Meanwhile, Badrick places Jim into the bed of the truck. Before they leave, Badrick says he has something of crucial importance to attend to first. Grinning, he walks around to the back of the truck.

In the school courtyard, Jon Matthews is going over his plan to build a moat around the school to some of the other adults. Everyone is in on the idea except for Austin, who grumbles about how long it would take. Afterwards, Jon notices Angela Jaegar entering the yard after searching for the rest of the lost coffee shop group members all night. Layton Zimmers walks over as well, and is sad when he hears that Angela had no luck finding the rest of their friends. After confirming that she was going to back out tomorrow to search, Angela walks inside to get some rest.

Inside the school, Marcus and Kate are sitting together, which gets the interest of both Zac and Fraser, who quickly catch on that they're now together. Looking elsewhere, Zac and the others see Rebecca Dawson standing alone. When asked what's wrong, Rebecca worries that she would be intruding if she approached them, but Marcus tells her that she's part of their group now. Rebecca appreciates it, and walks over to join them at the table, petting Apollo. Fraser mentions that the dog belonged to Robert Morgan before he died, and Rebecca shares her condolences. Kate worries about all of the others who are missing from their group, and Marcus puts forward that they start properly searching tomorrow.

Across town at the bowling alley, Wilbur Wright sits around a table with the others having just tended to and patched Clyde Rollins up the best he could. As Wilbur is explaining to a curious Edward Remar that he's been moving around from place to place since the mall, Solomon Reed walks over to Robin Clarke's corpse to loot the two pistols off him. Afterwards, Edward questions why Benjamin Taylor decided not to chase after Badrick back in the alleyway. Benjamin replies by saying it was the rational thing to save Clyde first, and Edward is happy to hear it, though he's somewhat conflicted with himself for not going after Badrick. It's revealed that Wilbur was told all about Benjamin's involvement in the creation of the virus, and he wants to know more, but Benjamin says there is nothing more. Benjamin turns to Mike Simpson, who safely made it to the bowling alley, but unfortunately didn't see any sign of Jared Kellings. Furthermore, the bus is said to be a complete loss. While being questioned, Wilbur reveals that he's been working with a woman named Claire Noble, and that she was out scavenging now. His plans are to wait it out until he can locate his criminal crew, who, unbeknownst to him, are all dead except for Jon and Da'Jonte Woodard. And lastly, he says that Claire has located several communities while scavenging, one at a high school, and another at a football stadium. Edward wants to go and check on those places once Clyde is healed. Before starting a bowling game, Edward and Solomon carry Robin's corpse up to the roof and toss it into a horde of zombies below, watching it get devoured.

On the road, Dean is slowly driving the truck, leading the horde of hundreds of zombies behind him. Badrick, sitting in the back, yells for Dean to speed up. Derrick forces him to do so by threatening him with a revolver. As Dean speeds up very slowly, Badrick reminds him about him not answering his question earlier, and that he was surely going to regret it.

At the school, a majority of the group is in the courtyard discussing Jon's moat idea, when suddenly Marcus hears a vehicle approaching. The group look on as a truck turns the corner, and Badrick steps out using Dean as a human shield. A shocked and horrified group stare in disbelief at Badrick and his disfigured face, while drawing their weapons at the same time. Then, Badrick brings Dean around to the back of the truck to show him the mutilated body of Jim, who had been chained to the back of the truck and dragged along behind it. All Jim can manage is a slight groan before he dies. Tears fill Dean's eyes as he looks at the corpse, before remembering what Jim had said earlier. He turns to Badrick and tells the man that he's pathetic and is going to die a painful death. Badrick, not listening, is charged by Apollo, who couldn't be held back by Rebecca. He shoots the dog point blank in the head, killing it, before noticing the horde of zombies turning the corner behind them. He shoves his human shield into the ground and jumps in the truck, speeding off while getting shot at.

As Badrick's truck vanishes down the street, the survivors turn their attention to the horde coming their way, and Dean still lying out on the road. Bruce takes lead of the situation, giving Jon command over holding the gate and keeping the zombies out, while sending Martyn inside to gather up the kids in the cafeteria for safety. The bulk of the group are sent inside as the last line of defense in case the courtyard falls. Owen remains in the courtyard, not intending to leave Dean behind, who he's changed his mind about after seeing him stand up to Badrick moments earlier. After nobody else volunteers to go out and get Dean, Owen decides to climb out of the courtyard and move towards Dean himself.

On a nearby rooftop, Badrick and Derrick are watching the chaos unfold. After retrieving an RPG from the truck, Badrick hands it off to Derrick and instructs him to blow open the gate to let the horde inside--and to kill Dean if he sees him.

Dean does the best he can in his state to get away from the horde, but it proves to be fruitless, as he's still bound together. Nearby, Derrick positions himself and fires off the RPG at the gate, blowing it open and obliterating a large portion of the horde in the process. Dean, scared for his life, continues to try and flee. It's then that he gets noticed by Derrick. As he was instructed, Derrick moves up on Dean, shooting him twice in his arm and leg. Wounded and unable to do anything, Dean accepts his death as Derrick stands over him--until Owen puts his shotgun to Derrick's head and pulls the trigger, blowing his head apart. He throws the corpse off Dean and helps him to his feet.

While all of this is happening, Jon, Angela, and Rebecca are fighting for their lives in the courtyard, killing zombies up until the last second where they're forced to retreat inside the school.

In the foyer, Fraser panics, Layton looks out at the horde in curiosity, Austin drinks to keep his mind off what's happening, and Lloyd is doing his best to remain calm.

At the cafeteria, Martyn and William are setting up defenses when Lloyd, Tony and Bernie enter the room--but there's no sign of Kyle. Lloyd wants to help defend, and asks William for a gun. Against Martyn's advice, William gives a pistol to Lloyd before going back to flipping tables for defense. Martyn rolls over to Lloyd, telling the kid that if things were to go wrong, he needed him to look after the other children. William leaves the room for a moment, heading into the foyer.

William enters the foyer to see the majority of the group preparing for the zombie assault. It doesn't take long for the zombies to break through the doors and smash through the windows, and pour into the foyer. Everyone opens fire, taking down zombies left and right. Pretty soon, the horde begins to overwhelm the survivors. Marcus, Kate, Fraser, and Zac are cut off from everyone else. The ones not cut off are able to safely retreat into the cafeteria. Meanwhile, Marcus' group is backed up to a window. Fraser smashes it open with his bat and jumps out. Zac, Kate, and Marcus all follow out.

Back outside, Owen helps Dean over to an area clear of any zombies. He performs some quick first-aid on the man, patching up the wound to his leg and arm. Suddenly a zombie jumps out from the side going after Dean. Owen sticks his hand in front of the zombie's face to protect Dean, getting his thumb chewed off by it in the process. Owen grunts in pain, but has no time to stick around. He grabs Dean and the two of them go across the street to an office building, where Owen smashes open a window and crawls through, helping Dean as well. The horde of zombies behind them breaks through the front door with ease, and funnels inside the building. Knowing that he's a goner anyway, Owen sends Dean up a set of stairs while staying behind himself to keep the zombies off him. Dean tries to speak, but Owen yells at him. As Dean makes it up the stairs, he hears Owen screaming and getting devoured by the horde. Dean stumbles into a dark room, closing the door and collapsing onto the floor, sobbing. Eventually, he passes out.

Inside the school, those who made it out of the foyer (save for those who were with Marcus) stumble into the cafeteria, bloody, tired, and running low on ammo. Bruce soon joins the group after retrieving his spear. They have little time to prepare however, as within seconds of them making it out of the foyer, the zombies burst through the doors. While everyone is fighting them off, Martyn instructs Lloyd and the other kids to get out through the window. Kyle, quivering, steps out of the nearby janitor's closet, unaware of what was happening. When he sees, he shrieks and hightails it over to the window where Bernie, Tony, and Lloyd are already waiting. Rebecca covers the children as they escape out the window, but when it's the adults turn to go, the window becomes blocked by the growing horde of zombies. Seeing no other way out, the group begins to panic. However, feeling satisfied that the kids escaped unscathed and that he had done his duty, Martyn decides to sacrifice himself, creating an opening for the others to escape. Jon and the others rush out of the room as Martyn is ripped apart, screaming. Albert, assisting a sick Austin, are the last two to leave the room. The one man to remain in the cafeteria is Bruce, who continues to fend off the horde.

Those who made it out of the cafeteria find themselves back in the corpse littered foyer, desperately trying to come up with a plan. They manage to get one when they bump into Layton, who had been missing for most of the fight. He proudly announces to them all that he went out and brought back transportation for the group. Leading them outside, he shows a cement mixer, instructing everyone to get into the back. Although people aren't so excited about the choice of vehicle, they climb inside and Layton drives off, leaving the overrun school behind.

Sometime later, Badrick, camouflaged with zombie guts, walks amongst the horde inside the school, looking around calmly. Eventually, Badrick gets noticed by Bruce, who is standing up on a stage away from the reach of the zombies. Badrick immediately drops the camouflage act and jumps up onto the stage, unsheathing a knife. The two talk back and forth to each other for a second before Badrick charges at him. Bruce, fighting barehanded, is able to get the upper hand, launching Badrick into the ground. Angered, Badrick lunges back up at him, and they scuffle on the floor. A few zombies manage to make it onto the stage, but are promptly dealt with by either Bruce or Badrick. After killing one zombie, Badrick throws the corpse forward into Bruce, which throws him off balance. Seizing the opportunity, Badrick plunges his knife into Bruce's stomach. Badrick, wordless, leaps off the stage, slashing his way through the horde and disappearing somewhere in the school.

Bruce, bleeding from his stomach, slowly walks off stage and down the hall into the principal's office. There, he grabs a photo off his desk of the entire school faculty, most of them with red X's over their faces. Tears filling his eyes, Bruce crosses off Martyn's face, then, sighing, crosses off the last person in the picture--himself. He gently puts the photo back down, finishing a cold cup of coffee on his desk before shutting his eyes and dying peacefully.

## **Cast**

#### **Starring**

* Kate Bloodstone
* Marcus Downes
* Aldus Paxton
* William Reynes
* Dean Howards
* Jon Matthews
* Edward Remar
* Clyde Rollins
* Benjamin Taylor
* Randall Forster
* Albert Hanson
* Damerae Badrick

#### **Also Starring**

* Angela Jaegar
* Fraser Stiller
* Zachariah "Zac" Barnes
* Jim Butterman
* Austin Kingston
* Owen Gliefield
* Robin Clarke *(Corpse)*

#### **Guest Starring**

* Solomon Reed
* Rebecca Dawson
* Mike Simpson
* Lloyd Waller
* Bruce Boseman
* Layton Zimmers
* Kyle Douglass
* Martyn Ford
* Michael Hall
* Derrick Williams
* Wilbur Wright

#### **Co-Starring**

* Bernie Ortan
* Tony Marston
* Apollo
* Da'Jonte Woodard

## **Deaths**

* Jim Butterman
* Apollo
* Derrick Williams
* Owen Gliefield
* Martyn Ford
* Bruce Boseman