Session 3: Not Russian at All!

[Soundtrack: Red Dead Redemption OST]

Slab City is revealed to be part post-apocalyptic fortress, complete with anti-Casualty quarantecture and barbed wire, and part enormous terrarium with every cubic meter of the interior ruthlessly leveraged for vertical agriculture. Above it all, a huge crane arm has been tilted towards the sky and holds a one-person observation post.

The enclave's five-story car-pile walls are each two cars layers thick: the outside layer packed with rubble and barbed wire to serve as a wall, and the interior layer converted into small family cubbies of one or two emptied-out cars. Embedded here and there through the interior are larger vehicles whose hollowed-out interiors serve as communal and storage space.

With the enclave's human space thus located entirely within its walls, the interior space inside the walls is all agriculture: trellises and rope platforms bear low scrubs, fruit-bearing vines, and high-density food plants of all kinds. The ground level, which is as dark and humid as the floor of any rainforest, is packed with livestock pens.

The various members of the convoy split up to attend to their own individual concerns. Billy finds himself in the enclave's canteen, where he turns to looking for a job in the area. Also in the cantina is a roving taker called Nitro, with whom Billy joins forces. Billy finds two online jobs before he and Nitro are approached by two of the enclave's Fencemen and taken to a meeting with "La Reina" herself.

La Reina's "court" is located on a tented wooden platform on the top level of the enclave. There, amidst tables loaded with luxurious fresh produce, light musical accompaniment from a guitarist, and her inner circle (an older man referred to as "the General", and a younger man referred to as "Supple") she reveals that she too has a job to offer. Some research and negotiation follows before Billy and Nitro accept her offer to pay them 14 Bounty to transport two pallets of the enclave's produce northeast into the mountains.

The next day, Billy and Nitro set forth carrying a pair of enormous packs. Billy's shoulders and back are soon rubbed bloody from the load, but he refuses to quit, even after a long detour to avoid a washed out road puts them hours behind schedule and walking late into the night. At the rendezvous, they meet Ben, JP, and Hector Turbo - a trio of "pharmers", the self-taught post-crash salvagers and refiners to whom enclaves turn for their chemical compound needs. These pharmers specialize in synthesizing high-explosives from raw materials salvaged from the unexploded ordnance that litters the Chocolate Mountain Impact Area.

The next morning, JP springs some unexpected news on Billy and Nitro: there was an unnegotiated second half to the job, namely taking two backpacks of unstable nitroglycerin back to Slab City. Luckily, the Takers have an ace up their sleeves: a huge hive of wild honey bees in the back seat of a deserted car that they spotted on the previous day, and which they had planned to loot on their return journey. Offering Hector a half share in the honey buys the use of his scooter and JP for the day, and Billy and Nitro are soon headed off down the road while scrolling through online how-to apiculture articles.

Midway through the harvest, there is a moment of terror as a hand reaches from within the hive to grip Nitro by the hand and a casualty fights its way loose from the hive that had been built up around it. Some panicked effort manages to dislodge the Casualty onto the roadside, where Nitro smashes its honey-sodden head in. By nightfall, the Takers are back at Slab City, where they receive a warning from Marisa (a woman from the enclave's Moldovan contingent) and some details about La Reina's ruthless past dealings before packing in for the day. The job has earned them less than they needed to come out even, but the enormous honey haul they have brought in will more than compensate - if they can find someone willing to pay well for a taste of sweetness!

Tune in soon for the next session of RM:W: In the Mountains, There You Feel Free 

Session 2: Lilacs and Blood Oranges

[Soundtrack: Roborg - 100 000 101 111]

The convoy crawls east on its last few gallons of fuel. With Francine and Prairie in the cab holding things together, the Takers face a pressing choice: either continue on to Flamingo Springs, taking the chance that an enclave is in fact located there and that its inhabitants will be happy to see them, or stop the truck in the ruins of Salton City and scrounge what fuel they can from amidst the casualty crowds?

Knowing more about the drone and its maker seems to be useful for making this decision, so Ash calls up Avi, an old weapon-dealing contact of his in the Recession, while Billy consults some old military reference manuals to learn more about its components. Avi advises Ash that while the drone is clearly the work of someone who knows his stuff, and has certain strong points as a device (remote-guided munitions and great linger time among them), it would also be expensive to operate without access to reliable hydrogen generation facilities and is only worth about 8 Bounty overall.

Given this relatively low perceived payoff to returning the drone, and the risk of wandering in to Flamingo Springs blind, the Takers elect to instead pin their hopes on scavenging fuel. After a half hour of consulting Ubiq Maps and switching back and forth from old and new satellite and drone photo footage, Francine lands a jackpot: an apparently undisturbed municipal vehicle yard near one of the city's canals, filled with Casualties but apparently also isolated since the Crash. The Takers elect to raid it and gun their sputtering vehicles into the city itself.

The Takers select a peeling strategy to deal with the yard's twenty or so residents. With the help of Hurley and Jason, two volunteers from the convoy, they will pick the padlock on the yard's chain link gate, draw off the Casualties scattered around the vehicles, and then drive the truck in to begin siphoning.

After initially being forced to flee from some roused Casualties, Ash and Hurley proceed to make the peel with no trouble, and thirteen Cs shamble off after them as Billy, Prairie, and Jason each take out one of the remainder and Francine brings the truck in. But just then, something goes wrong, as high-pitched and insistent barking begins to ring out from somewhere within the yard and every Casualty for a block rises from Torpor to investigate - including ten of the thirteen peeled Casualties. The Takers in the yard are sandwiched.

Acting quickly, Francine closes the chainlink gate, which will at least buy the Takers some time safe from the Cs in the street. Prairie, Billy, and Jason keep swinging and shooting, downing Cs left and right and opening a path for Abalene to sprint from the truck in search of fuel. She finds it, and also the source of the barking - a large dog lying in a huddle far back under one of the trucks. After downing a Casualty that leaps on him from a window, Billy sees this too - and, after a brief tussle with Abalene, shoots the dog twice to silence it. Abalene retrieves two puppies from nearby the dog's body, and discovers that it was already wounded and sick with an infection.

Elsewhere, Francine is piling diesel fuel drums onto a dolly and Prairie has blasted a parked motorbike with a flaming crossbow bolt to blind and disorient a large cluster of the approaching shamblers, making them easy targets for the rest of the team but drawing even more attention from the street. Ash and Hurley have, by this stage, looped back and rejoined the team. The diesel is loaded just as the chainlink begins to bulge in under the press of dead bodies from outside, and the Takers roar off just as it caves in.

[Somewhat later, on the road]

No longer needing fuel, the Takers head northeast towards the Chocolate Mountain Impact Area and their rendezvous with Prairie's uncle. Their path is momentarily blocked by a burned-out evacuation convoy which is clogging up an overpass. Francine is able to guide the vehicles past the block by going off-road, but the silhouette of a salvageable mounted weapon on the lead truck convinces a handful of the takers to try for a pickup.

All goes well for a time, as the Takers move along the side of the sand-blown column of blasted vehicles, keeping far away from the reach of the few dessicated casualties still stuck in the wreckage. But with the target nearly in hand, they step into an area where a five shrapnel-riddled Casualties, blown clear when the convoy was bombed, lie dormant under the sand drifts. With C's rising from the sands all around them, the Takers fight a desperate battle to extricate themselves, but Jason is bitten in the face, with Hurley and Billy escaping the same fate by the thickness of a garment alone. The spreading webs of black veins around Jason's wound speak volumes: he is a secret Latent, a biological time bomb that has lain right inside the convoy this whole time. 

Before anyone can speak, Billy draws his gun to defend Jason. Ash and Hurley draw on Billy in return, and the four stand motionless until Abalene fires her shotgun in the air and demand that Billy calm down. Billy concedes, kicking his pistol over to Abalene, but seems unrepentant, and even the arrival of his brother Dale on the scene does not help him seem any less firm in his manner to the other survivors. With some indications that the debate about Billy's actions is not over, the Takers return to their vehicle with a heavily bandaged Jason and the salvaged weapon in hand, and all are soon back on the road to Chocolate Mountain.

Presently, the fortified enclave built on the remains of Slab City looms into view. After negotiating what purports to be a complex minefield at its entrance, the Takers are ushered in by a handful of gunmen, each of whom wears the blue and white flag of Guatemala. As Uncle Bob greets Prairie and whisks her away, the rest of the Takers hear one gunman remark to another: "La Reina is going to love this..."

[Flashback to yesterday: A deserted building in Resettlement Camp 2, outside Ramona]

As the Takers and their dependents are putting the final elements of their convoy together in the last few hours of daylight, Billy and Dale address the boy's fears of leaving the safety of the camps and re-entering the Loss. Billy makes Dale a guarantee: they will reach the East Coast safely, whatever it takes. Later, Abalene shares a concern with Billy: will his complete focus on reaching the East in safety, provoke a moment in which he is choosing between himself and Dale, and everyone else in the convoy? 

Tune in next week for Session 3: Not Russian at All!

Session 1: Cruel April

[Cold Open]

[Soundtrack: Juno Reactor and Don Davis - Mona Lisa Overdrive (2:20 onwards)]

The convoy's 6x6 truck and Airstream trailer speed down a mountain road as the Takers and their dependents exchange shots with heavily armed raiders on an ATV, a dirt bike, and an armored bus. We meet the Takers:

• 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]

[Soundtrack: Bladeslinger Original Soundtrack ("Deserted Train Yard" onwards)]

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]

[Soundtrack: Cliff Martinez, Drive Original Soundtrack ("Rubber Head" onwards)]

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