The Calm Before

The groups recover from the attack on the farm. Felix questions whether or not he should lead the group. Benjamin plans to wipe out The Rastas, but Damerae Badrick throws a wrench in his plans.

You can read the transcript here.

## **Synopsis**

Quincy Atherton and Monica Reynolds storm into Wilbur Wright's warehouse, where they find him, Jon Matthews, and Curtis Van Horn. Quincy is firm on the fact that he's never doing another job like that again, as is Monica. Wilbur bickers with the two of them until Curtis intervenes, telling Wilbur that they can't start a war with The Rastas. Wilbur, however, has already decided that he wants to help fight The Rastas with the help of the mall survivors and Benjamin Taylor. Quincy and Monica decide that they no longer are interested in staying at the warehouse, and so they part ways, heading for Willamette Mall. After they leave, Wilbur gathers Curtis and Jon and gets into a truck, driving off to meet with Benjamin at the museum.

Wilbur and his crew arrive at the museum and head inside, meeting with Benjamin. Shane Haywood brings over a map and lays it out, as Benjamin points out the town hall, stating that The Rastas were held up there. They decide that showing up to the town hall with an army will be enough to send Badrick and his Rastas running. Shane gathers up forty soldiers and has them load up into the vehicles outside. Wilbur has Jon and Curtis join Benjamin, but goes back to the warehouse himself. Benjamin, Robin Clarke, Shane, Jon, and Curtis all get into a vehicle and drive off towards town hall.

It's not long before they arrive at town hall, and when they do, Benjamin has his soldiers fire a single bullet at the building. Badrick steps onto the balcony to confront Taylor and his army. He demands that Benjamin leave, and when he refuses to, Badrick had Edward Remar bring Sarah Taylor out. Badrick indicates to his knife, telling Benjamin to have his army put down their guns. Benjamin has no choice, and orders his soldiers to lower their weapons. Now with the upper hand, Badrick demands that Benjamin use his army to attack the mall instead. He's given 24 hours to exterminate the mall survivors. Benjamin orders his soldiers back into the trucks as he turns to Curtis and Jon, giving them the order to return to Wilbur and give him an update on the situation. Benjamin gets back into his car and he drives off, the convoy of vehicles following.

At the mall, Jim Butterman enters Colbys Movieland where William Reynes and Clayton Freeman are watching a film. Jim kindly asks William to gather everybody into the food court for a group meeting. William and Clayton get up and walk out into Paradise Plaza. There, they run into Kate Bloodstone and Teddy Powell playing cards. He informs them about the meeting and then asks about Jacob Feldman. Kate tells him that Jacob is in the security room before she and Teddy walk off towards the food court.

William heads up to the security room where Jacob and Fraser Stiller are inspecting Aldus Paxton's wound. William tells them and Albert Hanson about Jim's meeting before asking where the others are. Fraser gives William the information that Marcus Downes is in the North Plaza, while Jacob gives him the location of Zac Barnes and Randall Forster, who are on the roof. Jacob himself leaves to go look for Erin Monroe while Fraser and Albert head for the food court.

William heads up to the roof, where he finds Randall healed from his wounds, but still wanting vengeance for the people who shot him during Benjamin's attack on the mall. William explains that they're allies with Benjamin's group now working together to eliminate The Rastas. Zac doesn't think The Rastas are a problem and believes that they should leave them alone. William disagrees, but doesn't bother arguing with him and instead tells them about the meeting. As Randall and Zac climb off the roof, William heads for the North Plaza.

Elsewhere, Austin Kingston leaves his bar and travels to Willamette Mall after figuring out that the gun store was located inside it. After making his way to the back entrance, he breaks into the North Plaza and sneaks over to the gun store. As he begins placing weapons into a duffel bag, Marcus steps into the store holding him at gunpoint. Marcus orders him out of the store. In the North Plaza, Austin tries explaining that he didn't know there were people here, but now that he does he's willing to trade. As they walk around, they run into William. Marcus tells him what's going on. After hearing that Austin lives with one other person at his bar, William invites him to join the group, offering him shelter. Austin says that he'd need to go back to his bar to speak with Logan Carlson, but that he'd be back. As Austin leaves the mall, William informs Marcus about the meeting before heading out of the North Plaza.

On his way to Al Fresca Plaza, Jacob stops at the bookstore to check in on Alex Weiss. He asks Alex if he'd like to come to the meeting to try and prove himself to everybody. Alex agrees, but slides a knife into his backpack which Jacob quickly takes away, promising that he wouldn't need it. Alex reluctantly leaves the blade behind and follows Jacob.

When they arrive at Al Fresca Plaza, Jacob sends Alex ahead into the food court while he stays behind to speak with Erin. Jacob recognizes that something is wrong when Erin expresses how excited, but nervous she is. She tells him that she's pregnant, which surprises Jacob. Erin isn't sure how they'll be able to raise a child in an apocalypse like this, but Jacob assures her they'll figure it out.

In the food court, everybody gathers around and takes a seat as they await Jim's arrival. Jacob and Erin announce the pregnancy to everybody as they wait, which some find to be funny, while others are happy for the two. Soon, Jim makes his arrival and begins the meeting by announcing that the whole group should be coming together for breakfast and dinner time, which everyone agrees with. Next, Jim has Teddy explain his idea of setting up defenses all around the outside of the mall, especially near the two main entrances. William suggests that they speak to Robert Morgan to get his opinion on how and what defenses should be set up. Just then, Felix Quarterman comes stumbling into the food court, a drunken mess as usual. He complains to them about picking a fight with The Rastas, and then when Alex laughs at him, Felix draws a knife and goes in to attack. Zac stops him while Kate tries telling him that Alex has changed, but Felix doesn't buy a single word she says. When Randall mentions the fact that Erin is pregnant, Felix rants about how stupid she and Jacob are. Finally, William has enough and grabs Felix by the arm, leading him out. Jim frowns as he takes a seat, upset that the meeting didn't go as planned. Clayton, still suspicious of Alex from their last encounter, warns that he wouldn't hesitate to shoot him next time before getting up and leaving the food court. As he does, Kate begins leading Alex back to his cell, where he wants to be.

In the Entrance Plaza, William tries taking Felix up to the security room to sit and talk, but Felix takes a seat on the steps in the Entrance Plaza, opting to have the chat there. William sits down with him and tells him that he needs to accept Helen Cullen's death and move on. Felix, however, finds it hard to do so, believing that he can't ever live up to be the leader that she was. He knows that people won't want him to lead after his outburst in the food court. As Kate and Alex enter the plaza, she tells Felix that he can still make amends. Even Alex tells Felix that he is able to lead the group, he just needs to put away the alcohol and step up. Felix takes their advice and stands up, walking away to think about it. Kate leaves Alex with William while she walks back to the food court to check up on Jim.

At the food court, Fraser tries cheering Jim up by offering to make him and everybody else milkshakes. Jim takes him up on the offer and goes with him, Teddy, Zac, and Erin over to the ice-cream parlour. Jacob, meanwhile, walks off to find Robert.

Over at the bookstore, Alex begins making William some tea while they make idle chit chat. While William is distracted, Alex places sleeping pills into William's tea. After William gulps down his drink, Alex admits that he put the sleeping pills in his drink. Freaked out, William takes out his pistol and keeps aim at Alex as he backs out of the book store, closing the shutters and locking him inside. Alex cackles to himself as William walks down the steps. He finds Clayton on watch next to the main entrance and orders him to keep an eye on Alex, telling him about what he did. Clayton immediately heads up to the bookstore.

At the town hall, Edward goes into Sarah's room to check up on her. He finds her sitting on her bed, sad that she isn't able to go see her father. Edward swears to her that he'll make sure she gets to see her father. Sarah then asks Edward about what Badrick meant when he mentioned the amount of time she had left. Edward looks down, and lies to her, saying that it meant the amount of time before her dad came to get her. Sarah smiles and thanks Edward for being a good friend as she hands him a friendship bracelet she made. Edward tears up as he takes the bracelet, which Sarah notices. He tells her that he's just thankful to have a good friend before getting up and leaving, promising her once more that he'd make sure she was reunited with her father.

Meanwhile, at the museum, Benjamin can't bring himself to break their alliance with the mall and attack them. Robin believes they have no choice but to do so. Instead of attacking them, Benjamin tries suggesting that they drive over and meet with the mall survivors and Wilbur's crew to devise a plan. Robin warns him that The Rastas likely have scouts watching the mall and will be suspicious if they show up with no intent of attacking. As Benjamin goes back to pondering the decision, Robin leaves him.

Back at the mall, Jacob meets with Robert and his pet dog, Apollo, in the North Plaza. As Robert works on setting up an electric fence for practice, he admits to Jacob that his sickness has gotten worse, to the point where he's coughing blood. He's sure that whatever he has will be fatal. To keep Apollo safe, he wants to give the dog to Jacob and Erin. Jacob is happy to have him, but says that Robert should be seeing Owen Gliefield or Fraser for a checkup. Robert is insistent that whatever he has will kill him, but he allows Jacob to set up a checkup with Owen. Before he leaves, Jacob tells Robert to keep Apollo while he's still well.

At the bookstore, Clayton is keeping an eye on Alex, who is begging to be let out of the store because he smells something burning. At first, Clayton ignores him, but after Clayton smells something burning as well, he walks over, opening the shutters and heading inside to investigate. As he does, Alex tosses a burning plastic bag onto him and makes a run for it. After putting out the fire, Clayton runs after him.

Alex sprints through the Entrance Plaza, running past Randall. Clayton yells out to his partner that Alex is escaping. They both try shooting him, but miss. The chase continues across the mall and into the food court, where Alex jumps into a taco store, trying to hide. Realizing that they can just lock him in the store, Randall closes the shutters. A group gathers around outside the taco store, including Kate, who says that she'll go in there and talk to him.

Kate enters the taco store, and expresses how upset she is at Alex for making her look stupid for trusting him. Alex tries explaining that it was just impulse, but Kate tells him that everything he's done isn't normal. She shakes her head, more upset with herself that she wasn't able to bring Alex back into the group. She walks out and closes the shutters, keeping him inside.

Across the mall in Paradise Plaza, Jim, Teddy, Zac, and Erin are in the ice cream parlour with Fraser making them all milkshakes. As they make small talk, William suddenly comes walking in, telling them all about how Alex drugged him. They all agree that Alex needs to be locked up for the rest of his days and can no longer be trusted. Fraser serves William one of his milkshakes to try and wear off the effects of the sleeping tablets. He and Jim compliment him on how well they taste. Fraser admits that his ambition was to be a chef before he skips out of the store, happy to have earned his place as both a paramedic and chef.

While Benjamin sits alone in his office, the only thing he hears is the sound of the clock ticking. *"You have 24 hours,"* Benjamin hears in his head. Finally, he decides he can no longer sit around and wait. He stands up, smashing the clock and exiting the office with haste.

## **Cast**

#### **Starring**

* Jacob Feldman
* Felix Quarterman
* Edward Remar
* Erin Monroe
* Benjamin Taylor
* William Reynes
* Randall Forster
* Albert Hanson
* Damerae Badrick
* Clayton Freeman

#### **Also Starring**

* Kate Bloodstone
* Jim Butterman
* Theodore "Teddy" Powell
* Quincy Atherton
* Marcus Downes
* Austin Kingston
* Shane Haywood

#### **Guest Starring**

* Robin Clarke
* Curtis Van Horn
* Monica Reynolds
* Jon Matthews
* Fraser Stiller
* Wilbur Wright
* Aldus Paxton
* Zachariah "Zac" Barnes
* Sarah Taylor
* Alex Weiss
* Robert Morgan

#### **Co-Starring**

* Apollo
* Logan Carlson