“Sole Survivors” is episode nineteen (originally shown as episode eighteen) of season three of Sliders.
Night in an abandoned city and someone is in a bus with a generator powering lights. The generator starts to fail and the lights go out. The bus is quickly overwhelmed by what look like zombies with glowing eyes.
The Sliders arrive on the world. There’s a body on the ground and Wade steps on something bloody. Then the body bites Quinn in the leg. Maggie, who joined them after the professor’s death in the previous episode, “The Exodus, Part 2”, kicks the, for all intents and purposes, zombie in the head. They find partially eaten human remains. With a human tooth in one of the wounds.
Maggie is complaining that Wade took her gun in the previous world. Wade says she never touched it, she’s just glad Maggie lost it. Maggie insists someone took it. Quinn’s leg looks like it needs stitches; he says they slide in 20 hours and he’ll get it done in the next world.
There are things in the shadows as they arrive at a building with security lights. The things seem to be scared of the light. The fence says it’s electric, but it might not be on. Quinn touches it and pretends to be electrocuted. No-one is impressed. There’s a light in the building and they climb over the fence. More zombies attack Quinn, but are driven off with a torch.
Inside, there are plants but no people. Maggie and Wade are not getting on; Maggie thinks Wade grieving for the professor is weak. You grieve in downtime. Quinn tells her that there is no downtime; you deal on the fly. Maggie doesn’t want to have her husband’s loss compared to Wade grieving over some old guy she’s not even related to. Wade goes for her. Maggie thinks things should be run in a military fashion and tries to get Rembrandt to agree. He doesn’t and Quinn warns Maggie that if she’s not careful, she could snap. Then Maggie sees a light.
Maggie and Quinn find a woman with a gun. She wants to see their eyes to see if they’re infected. Then her generator starts to struggle. The woman, Debra, starts to panic but it’s close enough to dawn that they will be okay. It’s weeks since she saw anyone normal. Wade says that Quinn has been bitten. He’s now a bit light sensitive. Debra tells them the hospitals were overrun weeks ago. Quinn will become one of them; it’s too late for him. They bargain; get Quinn to a hospital during daylight and they’ll come back and fix the generator.
The hospital is a mess with dead bodies inside and out. Maggie wants Debra’s gun because she’s a trained soldier. Debra refuses. Someone inside the hospital hides from them behind a body. Debra says that her boyfriend hung himself. Quinn’s eyes are starting to glow. Debra herself was bitten by her boyfriend but she must be immune. Then a zombie attacks her, knocking the gun out of her hands. Maggie grabs the gun and deals with it. Quinn wants to stay with Maggie whilst the others go back. Once the others are gone, Quinn tells Maggie to give him two hours, then kill him. Then someone runs past the door. Quinn follows, Maggie chases after and finds him unconscious with a needle in him.
Rembrandt has got a car running outside; he and Wade will look for another hospital. Debra is going to head back. Maggie carts Quinn to a room, then someone shuts and locks the door behind them. The man is a doctor, Tassler (Jay Acovone), and he wants Maggie to cooperate. He isn’t afraid of her; he’s afraid for her. He’s not quite a zombie yet, but he thinks Maggie has a natural immunity. Only she doesn’t; she’s from a different world.
Someone who is naturally immune – like, say, Debra – could be used to make a cure. Once the pieces are put together. And all this came from a weight loss product.