Episode 8: The Toll | We're Alive: Frontier | Season 1

The five-person crew of the rail driver We’re Alive has just blown a hole in a dam, secured a trade route for the settlement of New Haven, and loaded up on coal, MREs, and a few hazmat suits salvaged from a meth lab. They are seven days into a mission that was supposed to be led by Asher, the son of the wealthy Stern family who financed the expedition. Asher is dead—killed by infected in the dam explosion—and the crew has been lying about it. Now they are heading west into unknown territory, and the first real test of their deception and their survival instincts is about to arrive in the form of a religious cult that demands a human sacrifice as a toll for passage.

The cover-up and the call to Colonel Yakley

The episode’s central tension is not the infected or the wilderness but the crew’s relationship with the United Authority (UA), the military-style organization that controls the eastern river states. Before leaving New Haven, the crew learns that Colonel Yakley—Asher’s military contact—has already been in touch with the settlement to confirm their identities. Worse, Yakley is expecting a check-in, and Asher is not there to make it.