[Cold Open]
- Francine, the Latent ex-firefighter who is managing to keep the truck on the road and out of the raiders' gunsights
- Billy, the techie Roach who is blasting away at the dirt bikers with his handgun
- Ash, the ex-Mossad gunrunner who has already blasted out one of the ATV's tires and is lining up his shot for another
- Abalene, the vet and community leader who is struggling to stabilize a wounded child back in the Airstream, and
- Prairie, the crossbow-toting grease monkey who is firing bolt after bolt at the dirt bikers
A desperate exchange of fire leaves the Takers momentarily on top, as Ash takes out the ATV and Prairie takes out the dirt bike despite the riders' heavy police-surplus armor. But at that moment, a huge masked gunman on the raider bus opens fire with a heavy rifle, killing Barky the dog and placing the entire convoy in danger. When Ash wounds the gunman and damages the raider vehicle by dropping a C4 charge on the road behind the Airstream, he appears to heal himself by seizing and biting into the neck of a member of his band, before tossing the man's limp body aside. Before he can level his heavy rifle again, though, Abalene throws a propane tank out of the Airstream's shattered back window, and detonates it with a lucky rifle shot as the bus swerves to avoid it but still loses its front left wheel and axle. The raiders fall back as the convoy speeds ahead to safety.
[Flash Back]
We learn about the Takers' most recent home base: the "Free Parking" refugee camps piled up around the wall separating San Diego from the burned-out city of Ramona. There, they have spent months or years painstakingly hustling to scrape together the funds to buy an Airstream trailer and a salvageable 6x6 military truck for their trip East. But - they're coming up short. They need a job to provide the difference, and they need that job to pay something in advance so they can make up the difference.
Francine and Billy both try to reach out to Ignacio, a representative of the criminal Valet networks that pervade the camps. Ignacio puts them in contact with a mysterious patron named "Elle", who needs six heavy duty footlockers moved from Free Parking to a set of GPS coordinates in the abandoned town of Borrego Springs. Abalene leads the negotiations by talking up the team's competence and commitment, with Ash backing her up and providing some credible threats about what will happen to any rival Taker groups should Elle hire them instead. In the meantime, Billy hacks the camp wireless to prevent competitors accessing the Ubiq Hangout that Ignacio has been circulating as the contact point for the job. A deal is struck, and Elle advances sufficient funds to let the Takers pick up the last of the fuel, supplies, and spare parts that they need to get started.
[Flash Return to the road to Borrego Springs]
After ensuring that the raiders are no longer in pursuit, the convoy pulls over to assess damage. Apart from the vehicles and their inhabitants, they are surprised to find that a hole in one of Elle's crates is leaking blood. Ash uses an endoscope to investigate, revealing that the sealed crates are packed full of ice blocks, glowsticks giving off a steady purple light, and foil envelopes fat with blood. A brief debate takes place between Billy and the others over whether this is smoking-gun evidence of some kind of conspiratorial mass-murder program taking place in the camps, but the debate is resolved in favor of taping up the crate and continuing the delivery. Francine conceals this fact from her dependents who come over to investigate, further straining their relationship.
Moving on, the Takers pause to investigate a casualty who is tangled up in some kind of weather balloon off to one side of the road. They discover that the deflated balloon is in fact the lift system for a weapon drone carrying a payload of six grenades, and bearing a label that they believe identifies its owner ("Magoo") and his location ("Flamingo Springs", a likely enclave a few hours further down the road from Borrejo Springs).
Upon reaching the dropoff location, some misunderstandings between the Takers and the two jumpy gunmen who are waiting to load the crates onto a small helicopter results in a Mexican standoff. Luckily Ash draws on his expertise as a smuggler to ID the gunmen as Yakuza soldiers, and is able to defuse matters. The crates are loaded and the chopper takes off, but barely gets a half mile away before it explodes in a massive fireball. As the first pieces of debris begin to land, Francine's headset rings: it is Elle, who tells Abalene that she is very satisfied with their work, and hopes to be able to call on them for future jobs. As she hangs up, notification comes through that they have received the remainder of their payment for the job.
The Takers now have some surplus funds, but are low on supplies and need to shelter and repair their battle-damaged vehicles. They head east, intending to search for a long-lost relative of Prairie's, who was last heard of salvaging discarded military munitions from the Chocolate Mountain Impact Area bombing range.
Tune in next week for Session 2: Lilacs and Blood Oranges
Introducing:
Dependents
- Paris - Abalene's teen sister, who she is training to be a medic
- Dale - Billy's kid brother, who has a freshly bandaged wound from a shotgun pellet
- Simon Stiles - Prairie's nerdy best friend
- Dan - Francine's tortured artist husband, and their two young boys
- Abigael - Ash's younger sister, who has autism and is a mathematical genius
- Barky the Dog - RIP Barky.
Supporting Cast and Antagonists
- A giant gunman with a skull face
- His raiding band, all decked out in police gear
- Magoo, drone owner
- Ignacio, a Valet
- Elle, mysterious patron with a Southern accent
- Three unfortunate Yakuza soldiers
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