Amid the Ruins is the fourth episode of season two of The Walking Dead Game, by TellTale. With very little downtime, this episode ended up being pretty chaotic from start to finish, and brought more deaths along with it than most of the other episodes. Usually a choice will come about where you decide who lives and who dies. In this case, multiple choices and multiple deaths were possible. First, we’ll start with the results: (SPOILERS AHEAD)

Right away, we see a life and death choice, but I’ll get to that in a bit. The final choice from the last episode revolved around whether or not you attacked a walker that had bitten Sarita, or chopping off her arm. For reasons I already explained, I ended up chopping off her arm. I assumed that would mean she would live, or at least get out of the herd and die later, on her own terms. This wasn’t the case. Instead, attacking her caused her to recoil from Clementine, and walkers collapsed on her anyway. Kenny sees what happened, blames you for Sarita’s death, and you wander off through the herd with Jane and Rebecca. There are some QTEs and tension, but it goes rather smoothly.

Meeting up with some of the other people from the group, it’s realized that Sarah has disappeared, and Luke and Nick go off to find her. You drop Rebecca off with Mike, Kenny and Bonnie, and go with Jane to look for the prior group. Coming to a trailer park, you find a already zombified Nick, and end him. Death #2 already. Inside the park, you create a distraction and get inside the trailer where Luke and Sarah are holed up. Sarah is catatonic, and Luke can’t get through to her. As walkers are busting into the house you are faced with the first choice above, and I managed to convince her to leave with us, but at the last possible moment. The majority of players did the same.

Arriving back at the temporary camp, Kenny is in bad shape. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone, and yeah, he’s blaming you for Sarita still. Eventually it’s decided that Rebecca’s baby is coming, and there are a few places nearby that might be suitable at least until she has had the baby. You go with Jane at the behest of Bonnie, who thinks Jane is useful to the group, but such a loner that she might “take off.” Bonnie and Mike head in the opposite direction to check out a Civil War museum. You and Jane head to an observation deck that has a gift shop. Once there, Jane is trying to break into the gift shop, when a figure approaches in the distance. You hide, and when he gets close enough, reveal yourself. His name is Arvo, and he has a thick accent, breaking into Russian every so often. He has a bag full of medicine he’s taking to his “sick sister,” but I chose to take the medicine for my group, because he seems alone and shady. It appears a large chunk of people didn’t do this, and I’m wondering how that would affect the end of the episode.

Jane threatens Arvo, and he leaves. She tells Clem to head back to the camp while she busts into the gift shop. Heading back you run into Luke, talk briefly, and then go back to the camp. Once there, Kenny is still pissed off, and the others tell you to go check on Mike and Bonnie. Off to the museum. Once there, you help them look around for supplies. You find a coat, and a locked up office with water inside. The door is locked, and a shutter is open part way. I volunteered to crawl inside and open the door, and of course a walker was inside. Mike ended up kicking the door down and coming to aid, and the walker was dispatched. Taking the coat and the water, the group headed back. At this point, it’s time to move and someone needs to talk to Kenny. I volunteered again, and he had calmed down a bit. He comes back to his senses, and we head to the observation deck.

We almost walk in on Luke and Jane getting it on. Kenny gets pissed at Luke, and they start arguing just like they always have. Then a rather large group of walkers is seen heading towards them. With the deck being so high, it seemed like they’d be safe, but then the deck starts to crack and fall away. In the process Sarah falls to the ground and Clem helped Luke to pull Jane up, who almost fell as well. Looks like helping Sarah before didn’t prevent her death after all. Death #3.

Soon, Rebecca has her baby, and everyone is trying to get some rest. At some point you are asked if you want to hold the baby, and I went ahead and said yes. This seemed a bit inconsequential, but I guess there could be something to it later. You find Jane outside and she says she’s going to leave. She’s a loner and that’s just what she’s going to do. Luke finds out afterward and gets upset, and then Kenny starts in on him too. Kenny wants to leave right away because this place isn’t safe. Luke thinks that Rebecca needs a couple of days to rest. I sided with Luke, and we stayed a couple more days.

Once we headed out on the road, it had started to snow. Rebecca wasn’t looking so good. We trudged on, and a familiar face appeared further up the road. It was Arvo. And he wasn’t alone. A bunch of burly Russian dudes pops out from around the group, all brandishing weapons and shouting in their native tongue. Arvo explains that because we robbed him, they would now take all of the group’s possessions. Tensions were high, and it appeared that there would be a shootout. Rebecca had sat down on the side of the road, and I watched as she turned into a walker. I could have shouted out, but instead my instincts told me to kill her and save the baby. Unfortunately my gunshot set off gunshots all around, and the screen went blank. Death #4.

The episode ended on that note. I hope we don’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next. I imagine the finale will be crazy.

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