Amongst The Dead Season One: Episode 3 Online!

Episode One, Part One

The episode opens with a panning shot of Wilmington, North Carolina. The city is entirely overrun by the infected. A voiceover by Daniel Griffin explains that the infection hit two weeks ago and has already completely overrun all of the United States and possibly the world. We move from Wilmington to a forested area several miles outside Wilmington’s entrance. Daniel is crouching on the edge of the forest, looking at the city in the distance, stating that his entire family were inside Wilmington. A few feet away a branch breaks, startling him out of his deep contemplation. The noise isn’t an Infected but instead the very much alive Kara Jacobs, Daniel’s girlfriend. He assures her that he is fine and the pair make their way back to camp.

Back at the camp Carl Jacobs starts a fire as the first signs of night set in, the sun beginning to set over the trees. Carl’s wife Harriet and youngest daughter Alexa are sat talking around the fire and the three of them are oblivious to the Infected ambling through the forest straight towards them. Carl enters the RV, which they have made their home since the infection, leaving Harriet and Alexa by the fire, unsuspecting prey of the approaching Infected. A few steps away from them and a hand suddenly grabs a nearby axe, Daniel taking the head of the Infected off in one clean swipe. The head rolls to the feet of the startled Carl.

Daniel shouts that this proves exactly what he has been saying for the past week, that they have to move on, further away from the city. If one Infected can sneak up on them during the day then how are they going to protect themselves at night, or against a horde? Carl refuses, arguing that when the government launch a clean-up the cities are the first place they’ll go. Daniel calls him crazy, furiously exclaiming that there is no government, no army and that all Carl is going to achieve is getting them all killed and that he won’t allow it. Kara is able to diffuse the argument although tensions remain.

That night Daniel sits on top of the RV, keeping guard with the group’s sole hunting rifle. The nearby area looks completely clear of Infected and Daniel unwillingly begins drifting off to sleep. He is immediately awoken by the sound of the RV door opening. Approaching the ladder with the rifle he very nearly shoots the climbing Alexa but stops himself just in time. Alexa tells Daniel that her father is just trying to keep them safe. Daniel says that he is trying to do that exact same thing but that Carl is just going to get them all killed. Daniel tells Alexa that his family are dead and Kara is all he has left and that he’ll do anything to keep her safe.

The following day Daniel accompanies Carl into the forest to get more wood for the fire. The two walk in an awkward silence, broken only when Daniel again raises the topic of moving their camp to a safer, more enclosed environment. The two begin to argue once more, neither giving an inch to the other. Carl eventually snaps, telling Daniel to go and find firewood elsewhere and walks off, ignoring Daniel’s protests that they would be safer staying together. Despite this Daniel does not make any attempts to follow, walking off in the opposite direction.

Back at the camp Kara, Alexa and Harriet talk about Carl’s distaste for Daniel. Kara is certain that Carl simply dislikes him because he is her boyfriend, but Harriet tells her that her father is simply trying to protect them and that he holds no ill will towards Daniel, although Daniel ‘could do with being a little less hot headed’. At the same time Carl is chopping up wood for the fire but unbeknownst to him an Infected slowly closes in on him.

Simultaneously Daniel and the girls hear a shout of pain and all race towards the origin of the scream. They find the Infected dead on the floor, Carl’s axe in its head. A few feet away lies Carl Jacobs, bleeding heavily, a chunk of his neck having been bitten off.

Episode One, Part Two

We return to the camp where Carl has been placed inside the RV. He is still alive but continuously drifting in and out of consciousness and despite a makeshift tourniquet he is losing a lot of blood. Outside the RV Alexa and Harriet comfort each other over what they both know is coming. Daniel approaches Kara on the edge of the camp.

As Daniel attempts to comfort Kara she asks him if he could have stopped it. He tells her that he was nowhere near her father when the Infected bit him but this just upsets her more. Kara shouts at Daniel, telling him he should have been there to help her father and that he wanted him dead. Daniel takes the abuse, knowing that she needs to unload on somebody. When she is finished she breaks down in his arms, however the look on his face implies that maybe her claims were truer than he would like to admit.

An hour passes and nobody seems to have moved. Alexa and Harriet are sitting by the now extinguished fire in tears while Daniel sits with Kara, holding the axe. The RV’s door slowly creaks open and they all look up, hoping to see Carl exit alive. However all that emerges is a very much Infected Carl Jacobs. As Carl approaches Harriet, who refuses to move despite Alexa’s pleas, Daniel makes the dreaded move, swinging the axe and ending Carl’s misery.

A number of hours later and Daniel has dug a shallow grave as they prepare to bury Carl. While the rest of Carl’s family are in tears, Harriet especially, Daniel is stony faced and emotionless. He pushes Carl’s body into the grave as Kara provides a eulogy, calling Carl a good man, a great father and a loving husband. As Daniel finishes covering the body he coldly tells them that they need to leave here before someone else gets hurt and that they’ll be departing first thing in the morning. Kara is furious that he won’t even give her family time to grieve but he states he is trying to keep her safe and walks off.

That night Daniel once again sits guard on top of the RV. Inside Alexa and Harriet have managed to rift off but Kara stares silently into space. Back on the roof Daniel looks down at the axe grasped in his hand, still bloodstained from Carl’s unfortunate demise, that cold steely gaze not faltering one inch.

The following morning and we’re panning out on the open road as Daniel and the remaining members of the Jacobs clan travel through a deserted highway. Parking up outside a truck stop the four of them depart the RV all in silence, the rifle firmly clasped in Daniel’s hands. The group slowly and silently enter the truckstop which appears abandoned. It takes less than a minute of scavenging however before a voice tells them all to stay still and drop their weapons. Daniel spins around to find three guns pointed at the group.

Episode Two; Part One(of Two)

Picking up immediately where the first episode left off Daniel, Kara, Alexa and Harriet are being held at gunpoint by three men. Instructed to drop their weapons (which consist of a single rifle and several axes) they do exactly that. Daniel desperately explains that they aren’t infected, that they were only looking for supplies. The youngest of the three men checks them over for bite marks and confirms that they’re all clean. Lowering their guns the three introduce themselves as Robert Tesla and father and son duo Morgan & Dominic James.

Robert, a former army US marine, explains how he met up with Morgan and Dominic a few days after the infection and that since then their little ragtag convoy has grown somewhat. Exiting out of the back of the truck stop the group find just under a dozen more people along with three cars and another RV. Daniel and Kara are shocked to spot old school friends (and couple) Jason ‘Cub’ Wilson & Evie Michals amongst the convoy. After an emotional reunion Robert offers to let the group travel with them in exchange for using their RV, explaining that they intend to depart the following morning. Daniel and Kara agree for the family. Robert proceeds to explain to the convoy that he intends for them to get a proper night’s sleep inside the store but that there is one issue.

Inside the truck stop staff room is a large metal door that can only be opened with either a key or from the inside. Andrew Douglas, the convoy’s tech expert, explains that it is a specially made pantry door that must have been used as a makeshift bunker when the infection hit, stating that there may be people inside. Robert says that since they can’t get in then they can’t take the risk, deciding that they will need to keep somebody stationed on the door at all times just in case something inside gets out and ‘is not that friendly’.

Daniel and Kara listen as Cub and Evie explain how they were on one of Cub’s camping trip when the infection hit. They tried making it back into Wilmington to find their families but by the time they got there the city was already overrun, having been completely taken by the infection within the first couple of days. This dashes Daniel’s hopes that his family may have gotten out. Kara reassures him that he still has her. Spotting one member of the convoy, Jake Dean, watching them Daniel offers to go and get some water for them. As Daniel walks away talk turns to Kara’s mother, Harriet, who has barely said a word since Carl’s death the day prior. Kara states that she worries her father’s death will push her mother over the edge.

While Kara and Harriet are obviously suffering due to Carl’s death Alexa, the youngest of the Jacob clan, seems resilient. She has quickly struck up a friendship with Kacy Teague, a rebellious girl who seems perfectly at home in the hectic post-infection world. Kacy tells Alexa that they have a distinct advantage over men and decides to demonstrate. Approaching Andrew Kacy begins flirting with him, convincing him to give her his sandwich. When he does so she thanks him and quickly makes her exit with Alexa, the two girls laughing at an oblivious, and slightly love struck, Andrew.

Inside the truck stop Daniel passes Jake who follows him in. Jake lecherously tells Daniel that he has a very attractive girlfriend to which Daniel clarifies the fact that she is HIS girlfriend. Jake shrugs that fact off, telling Daniel that maybe she needs to a ‘real man’ to protect her. Daniel warns Jake to back off, telling him to stay away from Kacy. Jake menacingly says that he does what he wants but Daniel grabs him around the throat and threatens that if he comes near Kacy then he won’t need to worry about the Infected because he’ll finish him off himself. At that moment Robert walks in, asking if there is some kind of problem. Daniel says everything is fine, grabbing the water he came in for and leaving. Robert asks Jake what was going on but Jake simply repeats that there isn’t a problem. Robert tells Jake to get back to his post on the roof.

Outside Morgan and Dominic talk with some of the other members of the convoy – the very intelligent but down to earth Sam Davies and his slacker friend Alan High, former language professor and general voice of reason Lee Jones and the not so intelligent former semi-professional skateboarder Chase Anderson. They are talking about the latest editions to the convoy, the general consensus being that the group will fit in well, although Dominic points out that Harriet’s silent routine is a little creepy. Alan boasts that he is just glad that this will mean less work for him to do, a statement that Robert overhears. Robert asks if that’s right before telling Alan that he’ll be taking the first night shift watching the steel door. The rest of the group laugh as Alan fails to talk his way out of it.

We shift to the inside of the locked room, dozens of Infected wandering about aimlessly.