Beth - it's Beth everybody! - wakes up in a hospital room with an IV in her arm. She yanks the IV out of her arm and runs to the closed door, pounding on it and screaming to be let out. A doctor (Steven Edwards) and a police officer (Dawn) come in and calm her down, explaining that she's at Grady Memorial in Atlanta. Dawn explains that her officers picked Beth up out in the world (alone, not Darryl) and rescued her; Dr. Steve attended to her broken wrist and minor head wound. And since she's been taken care of, she owes them. Yikes.
Later, Beth is given scrubs to wear and shown around the hospital. Dr, Steve explains, as he turns a patient's life support off (run on car batteries) that if patients don't show any sign of improvement, they cut their losses to conserve resources - Dawn's call. Beth helps him take the body to an elevator shaft and dump it down there: they have to hurry before the body gets cold because there are walkers down in the basement and they'll eat the bodies if they're warm enough. As far as living humans, there are only enough living in the hospital to keep the status quo going. It doesn't seem like very many: a few police, a few people in scrubs working off their debt, just the one doctor. When Beth goes to the cafeteria for food, she meets a skeezy police officer Gorman who leers at her. Skeeved out, she leaves without taking anything - because the more she takes, the more she owes. She does bring Dr. Steve his meal and he is nice to her, talking about music and art and the guinea pig he's dining upon. He shares his breakfast with her, saying that Dawn doesn't have to know.
The officers bring in another one and for some reason Dawn insists that they save him, even though he fell off a building, even though Dr. Steve is convinced the guy won't make it. When Dr. Steve bucks her, Dawn lashes out, slapping Beth viciously and snarling, "Try to grasp the stakes here." Afterwards, Dr. Steve restitches the cut on Beth's face and tells her to change her shirt: the one she's wearing has blood on it and Dawn likes things to be neat. Some time later, the officers bring in another one - Joan, a former inmate of the hospital who ran away. Joan has been bitten on the arm, however, and Dawn insists that they cut off her arm so she doesn't turn. There's no anesthesia so Beth and Dawn hold Joan down while Dr. Steve saws through her arm. It's pretty grim.
After that, Beth takes the bloody scrubs to the laundry and meets Noah, who works off his indenture there. He tells Beth that he's been there for a year trying to work off his debt - it doesn't look like Dawn has any intention of letting him go. So he's planning on escaping as soon as he can. Beth's eyes light up. That night, Dawn brings Beth dinner as a peace treaty, trying to talk with her. Beth is like, I never asked for your help. Dawn: "But you needed it." Dawn is convinced that someone is out there and will come rescue them; until then, everyone has to contribute. Beth begrudgingly eats a little.
Later, she mops in Joan's room and speaks with her a little: apparently Joan was at Gorman's mercy and Dawn did nothing to make him stop. Beth's voice quavers when she asks what Gorman did to Joan but the other girl just mutters that it doesn't matter. It does matter, however, because the next day Gorman corners Beth. Dr. Steve comes in just in time to make him back off. Gorman growls that Beth should have been his, plus he'll get Joan back because Dawn won't stop him, but he leaves Beth alone for now. When he's gone, Beth snaps at Dr. Steve, "Why do you stay here?" so he takes her down to the ground floor and shows her all the walkers surrounding the hospital. This is why he stays - because he's too scared to go. "As bad as it gets," he says, "it's still better than [out] there." When Beth says she should get back to work, Dr. Steve asks her to look in on the latest arrival and give him his scheduled dose of Clozepine. Okay, says Beth, sure.
She mixes the drug and gives it to the guy - who immediately goes into convulsions and dies, to Beth's horror. Dawn comes in and puts a scalpel into the dead guy's head, and then demands to know what happened. Noah steps in and covers for Beth, saying he must have knocked the life support offline while mopping. Dawn takes Noah off to her office for a beating and an unhappy Beth protests to Dr. Steve that wasn't what happened. Dr. Steve is like, well, you gave him his Clonazepan, right? Beth is all, you said Clozepine. Dr. Steve, no, I didn't. Beth, in her head, yes you did.
She's had enough and tells Noah that she's coming with him. He tells her that he can keep an eye on Dawn but Beth will have to go into her office to find the key to the elevator banks because the fastest way out will be down the elevator shaft and through the basement. Beth searches the office and finds not only the key but the latest patient's ID: Dawn was anxious to keep him alive because he was another doctor. She also finds Joan, dead on the floor, having ripped the stitches out of her amputated arm and bled out. Unfortunately, Gorman comes in and sees Beth. He backs her up against the desk and starts groping her. Beth allows it because she's seen dead Joan's finger twitch. Then she smashes a glass candy dish against his head. Gorman falls to the floor where zombie Joan immediately goes for his throat. Beth grabs Gorman's gun out of his belt, clutches the key she came for and bolts.
Beth and Noah make their way to the elevator shaft. Noah has made a rope out of tied-together sheets and Beth climbs down first. As Noah follows, a walker lurches out at him from a door on a lower floor. He panics and falls, landing on the pile of dead, broken bodies at the bottom of the elevator shaft. He's okay and the two of them make their way out through the basement. There are lots of walkers and Beth has to use the gun - she's still a very good shot, even with her hand in a cast. They get outside and run for the fence, still battling their way through the zombies. Noah climbs through the fence and runs; Beth gets tackled by one of Dawn's officers and dragged back inside the hospital. Beth has a smile on her face, though, glad that Noah made it out.
Dawn takes Beth back to her office to confront her. Beth snarls that Gorman attacked her, just like he attacked Joan, just like Dawn allows. Beth: "No one's coming, Dawn. No one's comin'! We're all gonna die and you let this happen for nothin'!" Furious, Dawn hauls off and belts her. After Dr. Steve stitches her back up again, Beth asks him how he knew that patient was a doctor. She's all, "That's why you had me give him the wrong meds, right? Because with another doctor, Dawn wouldn't keep you around and protect you."
When Beth leaves Dr. Steve's office, she takes a pair of scissors. But when she walks down the corridor, seemingly intent on using them, she sees some officers rolling another gurney down the hall. On that gurney: Carol.
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