| Jericho episode 8 – Rogue River |
A caption establishes the episode being set a month after the attacks.
Mayor Green’s life hangs in the balance when he comes down with a severe flu. Jake and Eric decide to to to another town about 90 miles away to obtain the medicine the mayor desperately needs.
While travelling to Rogue River, Jake and Eric discover that the world outside of Jericho has changed immensely since the explosions took place. They pass a wrecked car whose driver is lying dead along the road. Eric wants to stop, but Jake points out skid marks and concludes that the car had been run off the road by bandits who could still be nearby. Jake also insists that they travel mainly on back roads instead of primary highways.
When they arrive in Rogue River, they discover that FEMA has apparently evacuated the town because of radioactive contamination of the water. The houses are all marked with FEMA codes indicating when the house was evacuated and how many persons in each house were found — dead and alive. Jake knows the code and explains it to Eric. (It is the same code used following Hurricane Katrina.) The town seems deserted.
At the Fillmore County Hospital, they park and approach the hospital when shots ring out. They run into the hospital lobby, which has been looted and is littered with many dead bodies, including what appear to be people in military-style gear. When they reach a stairwell, a defender lobs down a flashbang, which drives them back. Jake shouts to the guard, telling him that they are not hostile and that they need medicine. Jake and Eric leave their guns behind and slowly climb the stairs. A frightened guard meets them and takes them to the hospital’s only doctor, Dr. Kenchy Dhuwalia, who is working on a patient. The doctor stayed behind trying to treat all the patients too sick to move. Many patients appear to have been shot dead. The guard, Randy Payton, explains that mercenary employees of a security company called Ravenwood Solutions were brought in to assist in the evacuation because there were insufficient National Guard troops. The mercenaries apparently wanted only to loot medicines and leave. One got impatient with the cries of the sick but unmovable patients and murdered them. Randy says that he fought the others during this atrocity and the remainder left. As Jake and Eric are getting their medicine, the mercenaries return to continue looting, and a firefight breaks out after Payton fires on them. Eric poses as a doctor and manages to lull some of the mercenaries into an ambush. In the confusion, Eric leaves his wallet behind. Randy stays and is last seen firing to cover their escape. Dr. Dhuwalia returns to Jericho with Eric and Jake.
