Urbs Indomita

**"Urbs Indomita"** is the first episode of *Season 1: Monuments* of *So Help Me God*, the remake of the miniseries of the same name*.* It is the first episode of the series overall.

## Plot

*Waking up with fractured memories, surrounded by mindless undead, a lonesome survivor searches for shelter and answers in the ruins of Sacramento.*

## Synopsis

A young man awakes, dazed and confused, on a moth-eaten couch. He faintly hears a woman's voice - "Antony, Can you hear me? Antony! Can you hear me?" - and takes in his unfamiliar surroundings. Clutching his head he desperately tries to remember how he got there, but only a few details flash back: a college, screams, a bright white light and a single name: "Antony Eden". He realizes that his hands are covered in blood and decides to check the house for help; finding nothing, he heads out into the street, where a single muerto aimlessly stumbles around. He remembers the outbreak - as well as how to kill the creatures - and continues searching the house; he finds no food and little water, as well as a wooden baseball bat in a bedroom. Half dressed, he slings on a black shirt and suit jacket and retrieves a bag, in which he finds a map of northern California. A stack of letters gives him the name of the town he is in and he traces the distance to any nearby cities; he discovers that Sacramento, the state capital, is about a day's walk to the west. Feeling drawn to the city, he packs up and heads out.

The walk is uneventful apart from stacks of crashed cars and wandering muertos; he finally reaches the city limits to find it eerily quiet. He calls out for help but receives no response. He searches aimlessly for signs of human life until he gives up and rests on a bench, hungry and tired. His rest is interrupted by faint, whispering voices; his attempts to follow and find them result in him discovering the California State Capitol building. He discovers that the entrance is barred but finds an open fire exit on the right side of the building, through which he enters an underground security area. Inside he finds a lounge room, a tightly locked door, and a janitor's closet; the latter contains the hanging, reanimated corpse of the janitor. Eden kills it with a blow to the head with his baseball bat and decides to stay in the lounge, where he finally finds some food. He finds a notepad filled with doodles and decides to keep a diary.

The next morning Eden decides to check the ground level and find the key to the locked basement door. He cautiously walks up a flight of stairs and finds the Capitol's entrance hall in disarray: smashed windows, broken furniture and random debris. He finds and kills two muertos: one in the cafeteria and another wearing a security uniform; he finds a key on the latter, as well as a stock of tinned food in the cafeteria. The key unlocks the door in the basement; inside Eden finds a generator, a water reserve and a fully-loaded Glock 22. In his diary he estimates that he could survive a month here if he rations food and water.

A week or so passes; his diary entries are his only method of communication. He desperately tries to remember more details of his life, but his efforts only result in recurring hallucinations; he finds that they get louder and clearer the closer he is to his bat. One afternoon he hears screaming outside the Capitol and rushes to help, bat and pistol in hand. The screams start moving further and further away and he desperately cries out that he is trying to help. He stops at the edge of a large sinkhole as the screams grow louder; when he turns, he is jumped by a shrieking woman covered in blood. He screams and falls backwards into the sinkhole, tumbling over a car and landing in the mud. He curls up and cries, apologising to the whispers in his head.

After several hours exposed to the elements, Eden manages to climb up the car and out of the sinkhole, despondent and desperately lonely. He finally returns to his home in the Capitol's basement and inspects the Glock; his inspection triggers a flashback of him holding a pistol at a person whose face is obscured by his own blurred vision. Eden pleads to the disembodied voices to leave him alone and sticks the barrel in his mouth; he almost applies full pressure but stops when he hears rustling above him; grabbing his bat, he realizes that the noises are too fast to be a muerto. He carefully climbs the stairs to the ground level and checks every cleared room; a sharp noise comes from the cafeteria. Moving slowly, he sees a woman searching the empty cafeteria, her back to him. Unsure whether or not she is real, Eden stealthily approaches and hits her over the head with the tip of his bat; she falls to the floor, dazed. Eden considers killing her until he realizes that the voices have gone silent. Unsure what else to do, he drops the bat and drags her downstairs.

## Characters

### Main

* Antony Eden: a lonely survivor searching for purpose in the new world
* Sasha: a hardened survivor on the west coast

## Trivia

* First appearance *(in SHMG* *continuity)* of Antony Eden