Friend Or Foe (Remake)

**"Friend Or Foe"** is the second episode of *Season 1: Remake* of *Strain Zero*, the remake of *The Walking Dead by EDStudios.* It is the second episode of the series overall.

## Plot

*Four months after the end of the world, the group find themselves starving and desperate for aid. A fateful encounter could be the relief they need, but they are quickly thrown into a situation where everything is not as it seems.*

## Synopsis

Four months after the outbreak began, the group have continued to survived within Clarkson High School, but are succumbing to hunger, boredom, exhaustion and paranoia. Tensions are running high within the group, and the food is almost gone. Walkers, as they are now known, that reanimated months ago are now lumbering and aggressive.

The episode opens with Henry, Sarah, Aaron and Ben patrolling the desolate streets of Renton, searching for some food and other supplies that they desperately need. Along the way, they hear someone screaming and run to investigate, believing it to be a new type of walker. Instead, they find a young man with two missing arms, screaming for help as walkers surround him. Deciding to help him, the four take on the slower zombies but are unable to stop another from getting a hold of and biting the young man. As he lays dying, he struggles to talk through his pain but manages to mutter "Watch out for the f-f-f..." before lying still.

Once the group returns to the school empty handed, Alex begins yelling at Henry and demands that the group have a discussion about leaving the school and making their way to the origin of the emergency broadcast that has been playing on a loop for months. The argument eventually devolves into Alex and Sarah shouting at each other while Henry, overwhelmed by stress and lack of sleep, leaves the discussion and returns to his room: the stripped out principle's office. Just as he begins to suffer another auditory hallucination of crashing waves, Henry is interrupted by Jess, who says she has something important to tell him and he cannot reveal it to anyone else. Henry reluctantly agrees, and to his shock Jess reveals that she is pregnant with Alex's child.

Henry asks whether Alex knows, to which Jess confirms that he doesn't and that Henry is the only one who does. She asks what she can possibly do, to which Henry reassures her that the necessary precautions will be taken, and that Holly has medical experience for when the time comes.

Suddenly, Justinas calls Henry over the walkie-talkie and tells him to come up to the roof immediately. Henry leaves Jess and rushes through the hallways to the ladder leading upwards, telling those he passes to stay down and prepare themselves. On the roof, Henry grabs a spare rifle and kneels beside Justinas, who reports that two strangers are approaching the school.

Two men, brothers Matthew and Kyle, call out to the boys and offer to lower their weapons. Henry and Justinas aim their weapons and question them. After introducing themselves, they ask for any gasoline that the group can spare in exchange for any other supplies that the group may need. When Henry demands to know what the brothers could possibly offer, the brothers reveal that they have survived on a farm outside the city and thus have plenty of food.

Henry returns to the ground floor while Justinas keeps guard. After relaying the situation, Henry asks for the group to take a vote, claiming that this decision is too big for a single person to make. All bar Jess votes to accompany the brothers to their farm; still cautious, Henry decides to only bring himself, James, Sarah to scope out the farm and make sure its safe. As they prepare to head out, Daniel requests to accompany James, having become extremely attached to him.

The team follow the brothers on a two hour trek to the outskirts of Renton, where they finally come across the farm. They are introduced to the farm's owner, Andre, who they are shocked to discover is an adult, possibly one of the last remaining on Earth. While there, Henry and Sarah decide to investigate Andre's claims that walkers have breached the fence in an attempt to make themselves useful, while James and Daniel return to the school and report to the others.

Out near the perimeter, Henry and Sarah work together to deal with the walkers. Once they finish, however, they hear screaming in the woods. Heading into the trees, they discover a group of bandits raping a woman and run away once the bandits spot them.

Reporting back, Henry and Sarah are joined by Jess, Alex, Aaron, Ben, Holly, James and Emma; Justinas and Daniel have stayed behind to guard the school. Deciding to try and rescue the girl, Henry and Sarah recruit James, Alex, Matthew and Kyle to head into the forest. Deep inside, they discover the bandit's camp and try to negotiate for the girl's freedom. The bandits appear to know the brothers but Kyle kills their leader before they can divulge more information. The confrontation descends into a gunfight; still refusing to kill the living, Henry and his group decide to provide covering fire for the brothers. At the end, Henry confronts the brothers for what they have done but is attacked by the reanimated bandit leader. Matthew reveals that being bitten is not the only way one can become a walker; simply the act of dying can cause one to turn. Overwhelmed by this revelation, the group heads back to the farm.

While sleeping in the barn, Henry hears distant screaming and goes to investigate. Avoiding the brothers and the other farm resident, Lisa, Henry discovers a basement and descends. Meanwhile, the others are woken up by Lisa and the brothers, who tell them they are needed in the house. In the basement, Henry discovers several bags of meat, as well as dismembered human bodies, including several of the bandits and the girl that they went to rescue. Henry is confronted by Andre, armed with a cleaver, who easily incapacitates Henry.

In the house, the others are joined by Henry, at which point Andre reveals that the Family are cannibals who made a deal with the bandits to deliver living victims to serve as food; Holly realizes that the man they found that morning was one of their victims who escaped. Henry manages to free himself of his bounds and tries to attack, but Kyle easily grabs him and bites down on Henry's neck before hitting him over the head with his rifle. The others are also knocked unconscious by rifle blows to the head.

When Henry wakes up, the wound on his neck stinging, he finds himself and the others - excluding Holly, Sarah and Emma - locked in a freezing refrigerator filled with hanging, butchered bodies. With no weapons and no way out, the group quickly descends into arguing. Alex lashes out at Henry, blaming him for their situation and that the group should have left Renton months ago and headed for the origin of the emergency broadcast.

They are interrupted by Jess, who is violently sick and reveals to Alex that she is pregnant. She then yells at him for blaming Henry for everything and not taking on the burden of leadership despite all of his complaining. Alex is overcome with the news that he will be a father and comes up with the rational idea to lure the brothers to the fridge by faking an illness. With Jess only dry heaving, Henry chocks himself and vomits while Alex and James bash on the door, drawing Matthew to them. Just as Matthew deduces that Henry is not ill, Jess throws up on him, giving the boys the chance to wrestle Matthew and grab his gun. Escaping, the group grabs their weapons while Alex shoots Matthew in the hand, blowing off his fingers, before sealing him inside the fridge.

Meanwhile, in the house, Kyle becomes distracted by the sound of gunshots and decides to investigate; however, he is stopped by Lisa, who bashes him over the head with a shovel. She then lets Sarah, Holly and Emma go before killing Kyle by cracking his skull. As the girls run away, Holly sees Lisa kill herself via gunshot to the head. The group are reunited but Henry refuses to leave just yet; believing that Andre will inevitably recruit a new group, he decides to kill him and end his reign of terror. While the others raid the farm house for food and supplies, Henry descends into the basement, where he confronts Andre with a rifle. Realizing he is out of ammo, he challenges Andre to a melee fight.

At first, the taller and stronger Andre is able to overwhelm Henry, forcing him back up the surface. While the others are distracted by walkers, Henry is shoved through a glass greenhouse, marking up his face. Relying on Justinas' combat training, Henry kicks Andre in the knees, weakening him, before beginning a rageful assault on him, using his hatchet to cut and lacerate Andre's torso. With Andre defeated, Henry finds himself unable to kill him until Holly silently grants him reassurance. Henry then axes Andre over the head, killing him, before he and James use gasoline to set the farm alight.

Finally home, the group reunites with Justinas and Daniel. Henry receives treatment for his wounds from Holly and they appear to connect while James watches jealously from a distance. Outside the walls, the surviving bandits discover the group and plan an attack.

## Characters

### Main

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

### Supporting

* Andre
* Matthew Mitchell
* Kyle Mitchell
* Lisa

## Deaths

* Bandit 1
* Matthew Mitchell
* Kyle Mitchell
* Lisa
* Andre
* At least six unnamed bandits

## Trivia

* First (and last) appearance of Matthew Mitchell
* First (and last) appearance of Kyle Mitchell
* First (and last) appearance of Andre
* First appearance of the Family
* By this episode, most runners have degenerated into "roamers".