| “ | We aren't fighting the 5th Wave. We are the 5th Wave. | ” |
–Ben Parish | ||
Squad 53 is the squad in which Ben Parish joins when he arrives at Camp Haven. In the beginning the squad leader was Flintstone but that changed when Sam Sullivan arrived and joined the squad and Ben stood up for him against Reznik. It impressed him so much that Ben was made the squad leader. Their place in the Camp's ranks were mediocre but that seemed to change when Ringer joined their squad and they rose to be one of the most proficient squads of the camp. So much so that Vosch had taken a personal interest in their development.
However, Squad 53 learned of the treachery behind Vosch and Camp Haven which made them go AWOL against them. They fought against Vosch and his soldiers ultimately finding victory. However, their numbers have detoriated down to be on Ben, Ringer and Sam as their squad's only surviving members.
The 5th Wave[]
When Ben Parish first arrived at Camp Haven, he was put into Squad 53 under Reznik's command. Reznik made a point to be hard on the members of the squad but seemed to take a 'special liking' to Ben.
Squad 53 in training.
They were put through hard and intense military training to become a force to be used to combat the Others. When Sam Sullivan joined their ranks, the base had been put in a drill and was made to head to the underground bunker. Sam had fallen and was having trouble moving along so Ben had gone back and helped him get to the bunker but it had the cost of ruining the squad's time. This dropped them in the camp's ranks and Tank had criticized Ben and told him that it would've been better if he had just left Sam behind which made Ben angry.
As daily duties rotated, the squad was occasionally put to work in the Process and Disposal Center where they took bodies of dead people and moved them into the base's incinerator. During some talk amongst the squad when the Others started to be mentioned, Tank started to get angsty. He argued that the Others had to know that they were there in that base and what they were most likely doing. He argued that they were already dead. His ranting started to get the rest of the squad nervous which was heightened when he drew his gun. They saw that he was going Dorothy, or crazy, and Flintstone went to subdue him before he could hurt anyone. He was then taken away and wasn't seen again until they found his body in a pile at the P & D Center.
With Tank gone, Ringer was pulled from Squad 19 and put into their unit, which she wasn't happy about. She doubted that Ben was a good leader and argued that it should be her that was heading this squad. Ben argued that if she could help the squad improve in their marksman skills and climb in the camp's ranks then he would resign as the squad leader upon graduation and pass it to Ringer. Over the next few weeks, with Ringer's tutelage, the squad climbed up the ranks with dramatic improvement in every member.
Squad 53 was given their first combat mission which they were to undertake without Nugget because he was too young to go on a combat assignment. The mission was to infiltrate a holdout where the Infested had gathered a cache of supplies and weapons that they were going to use against humans. They were ordered to infiltrate and exterminate the 'Teds' and commandeer the supplies if they could.
Squad 53 on their first combat assignment
However, during the mission, the squad was ambushed by a sniper and then pinned down by the enemy. Ben/Zombie created a diversion with blowing up a tanker that unintentionally wounded Oompa and caused him to bleed to death. Ben and Ringer managed to take out the sniper but were shocked to learn that it was Reznik. They also saw that he was carrying a device that was monitoring them with the trackers in their necks and also could activate a detonation function to kill them. With that they realized that the mission was a lie and that they were attacking human survivors, not Others. After hearing their story Flintstone refused to believe it and took the device from them and activated his tracker's kill function which shocked him dead in front of the squad. After that, the rest had no trouble believing it.
However, Nugget was still at the base so Ben wanted to go back and get him to safety. He snuck back into Camp Haven to rescue Nugget and did with the aid of his sister Cassie Sullivan and Evan Walker. Evan Walker then set out to destroy Camp Haven once and for all.
Squad 53 after escaping Camp Haven
Ben, Cassie and Sam managed to escape the collapsing base due to the timely arrival of Ringer and the rest of the squad in a stolen humvee. They had managed to acquire it during the chaos of the base imploding. The squad along with Cassie watched as Camp Haven completely collapsed. They then all drove off to find shelter and cover away from Vosch and his forces.
The Infinite Sea[]
With them now knowing the full truth behind Camp Haven and the 5th Wave, Squad 53 went AWOL and then later rogue against the Others. They headed to a city and held themselves up in a hotel that they christened the Walker Hotel in honor of Evan Walker. Once there, they realized that with the winter weather settling in that they needed to find a new place to go for shelter. They found brochures of caves nearby so Ringer left to go and see if they were fit and safe for them to take shelter in. Teacup soon broke away and left to go with her without anyone knowing it was too late.
Ringer sensed that she was being followed but didn't see that it was Teacup and shot her by accident. She then ran into Camp Haven soldiers and was spotted by a chopper but let herself be captured so that Teacup could get the medical help she needed from the shot. At the new Camp Haven, she was approached by Vosch who put her through a process called the 12th System where she would be injected with nanobots and her body would be enhanced, essentially turning her into a Silencer. During her stay there, she met a recruit by the name of Razor. They became quite friendly with each other.
Eventually, Razor helped Ringer and Teacup escape. They managed to steal a chopper and fly off for the wilderness before their chopper crashed. However, it was revealed to be a setup and Razor had been working for Vosch the entire time and orchestrated the 'escape' to test Ringer's new enhancements and mindset. Razor was brokenhearted about betraying Ringer which she seemed to understand and even forgive Razor for. When they were back at the base, Ringer was able to guess that Vosch wanted her to infiltrate her squad in order to help find and bring in Evan Walker. He had become an abnormality and threat to Vosch and the Others. Razor then went and shot Teacup to destroy any leverage Vosch had on Ringer before he was shot himself. This brought Ringer the time she needed to get away and escape through a window.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Squad was still held up in the Walker Hotel and soon surprised with the return of Evan Walker himself who was badly injured from his actions of destroying Camp Haven and escaping his fellow Silencer Grace. They were soon stumbled upon by another child of Camp Haven, Megan. Evan was able to identify that she was fitted with a explosive chip in her throat that turned her into a human bomb. After arguing about how to handle her, it was decided to attempt to remove the bomb with Megan still alive. They were successful and put the bomb away in a bag.
Soon enough, Grace picked up Evan's trail and it led her to the Walker Hotel. She had cornered Cassie, Dumbo and Evan but was driven off with the timely arrival of Ben and Poundcake but she had managed to shoot and wound Poundcake fatally. Not only that but one of Camp Haven's choppers had gone on and landed on the roof of the hotel. The squad evacuated the hotel but had to leave Evan as he wasn't fit to go with them. Ben was also forced to let Poundcake go as it was determined that there was no hope for him. However, Poundcake was still alive and had enough fight to head back into the hotel to help buy them time to escape. Megan had tried to torture him but Poundcake managed to fight Megan off enough to get to where they had Megan's removed bomb. He then opened the bag and set it off to blow the hotel with the two of them, the chopper of silencers and Evan Walker still inside. Later on, it was revealed that Evan Walker somehow survived the blast.
The Last Star []
Ben, Dumbo, Sam along with Cassie, Evan and Megan went to hold themselves up in Grace's safehouse. However, Ben became concerned with the prolonged absence of Ringer and Teacup so he went to embark on a mission to find and bring them back. Dumbo went with him but the two of them were ambushed by a Silencer's gunfire when they reached the city Urbania. Dumbo was hit as he rushed to shield Ben from getting hit. Ben moved off to find the Silencer and found it to be an old woman. At first, she tried to convince him that she was merely hiding. He almost was convinced that she wasn't the one that fired on them after all. However, he saw that she had cats that she was killing and eating up in stews and was hiding a gun. He then shot and killed her. Ben didn't want to leave Dumbo like he had left Poundcake but he insisted that Ben go or else it all would've been for nothing. Ben promised to come back for him.
Meanwhile, Ringer had managed to easily dodge and run from the new Camp Haven. Yet, she quickly guessed that she was allowed to escape because it was too easy. A fact that was proven when she was quickly found and easily brought back. Vosch then showed Ringer an infared picture of the safehouse that the rest of the squad had held themselves in and told them that if she didn't want anything to happen to them then she would help them get Evan Walker. He had another Silencer, Constance, go with her to help in bringing Evan Walker back. They were then dropped off at the caverns outside Urbania. He also went and gave Ringer a present, an explosive computer chip to use on herself if she wanted to.
Ringer and Constance came upon Ben as he found no sign of Ringer in Urbania so had gone back for Dumbo, who had crawled away in an attempt to get back to the squad. Dumbo succumbed to his wounds and Ben managed to find him along with Ringer and Constance. Dumbo was then given a proper burial and Ben took them for the safehouse. Ben then showed them to the safehouse but he was suspicious of Constance which were soon proven right when she attacked the squad in an effort to capture Evan. She was then stopped by Sam to Cassie's shock.
It was soon after this that Squad 19 stormed the safehouse in an effort to distract and eliminate Squad 53 as Evan was taken by reinforcements from Camp Haven. The squad was systematically eliminated by Ringer. It was through this encounter that they discovered that Ringer had been enhanced into a Silencer by Vosch. They also managed to capture a chopper where Ringer and Cassie decided to use to head for the base to rescue Evan. Ringer took Ben to the side and revealed that she was pregnant due to her time with Razor. Ben then tried to argue against them doing this as a suicide mission that they couldn't risk for the sake of one person but Cassie argued that she had to. She also made Ben promise to watch and protect her brother before she and Ringer went off to go and save Evan while Ben took Sam and Megan to hide in the caves outside Urbania.
Cassie and Ringer were able to enter Camp Haven but they then learned from Vosch the truth of the nature of The Others and the Silencers and that the 5th Wave was to commence soon, after the Mothership launched missiles to decimate the Earth's still standing cities to limit the places that survivors could hide from the brainwashed kids that Vosch and his Silencers corrupted. They met up with Evan who had been emptied of the traces of his humanity by Vosch after being plugged into Wonderland. He attacked them and they had to fend off him off. Ringer then went and activated the killswitches on all the 5th wavers in range and all of them got fried. Cassie managed to get to Vosch and, finally, avenged the death of her father by shooting him in the head. With Ringer's help, Cassie then went to plug herself into Wonderland and downloaded the consciousness of every person that had ever been plugged into it and then commandeered Vosch personal pod, along with the chip that Ringer was given by Vosch.
When Ben and Sam made it to Urbania, they were soon ambushed by 5th Wavers. Ben and Sam tried to fend them off, and even tried to hide, but they were eventually forced back and captured along with Megan. Ben, Sam and Megan were being taken by the soldiers back for Camp Haven II but they managed to escape them due to Ringer activating their killswitches and hid off in the wilderness close to the base. They witnessed Cassie's pod fly off to the Mothership where she entered it and then detonated the explosive chip and destroy the ship before it could begin its launching sequence. Cassie's sacrifice meant an end to the 5th Wave and saved what was left of humanity.
Some time after that, Ben and the others reunited with Ringer and they managed to use Wonderland to give Evan Walker back all of his memories and turn him back to normal. Together, the group headed south until they found a nice farm in Colorado and settled there. Ringer soon then gave birth to a baby girl which she decided to name in Cassie's honor. They all stayed together for a year, just trying to live peacefully though they did run into occasional Silencers and 5th Wavers moving about. Evan then decided to leave the group to head for the military bases that are still standing and operational with Others' technology and destroy them in order to keep the Silencers from reorganizing and threaten humanity again. Ben takes Sam aside one night where he confides that he misses his sister and Ben tells him the story of Cassiopeia and that the human heart is the most precious possession they have.
Members[]
Original Squad 53 from left to right: Flintstone, Oompa, Teacup, Poundcake, Nugget, Zombie, Tank, Dumbo
The squad commanding officer is Reznik who was killed by the Squad in mutiny after they discovered that he was really a silencer and possessed the control for their killswitches.
- Ben Parish/Zombie (Squad leader)
- Marika Kimura/Ringer (formerly of Squad 19)
- Sam Sullivan/Nugget
- Teacup (Shot by Razor), deceased
- Flintstone (Killed by killswitch), deceased
- Poundcake (Caught in explosion), deceased
- Dumbo (Shot by Silencer), deceased
- Oompa (Killed in action), deceased
- Tank (Went Dorothy), deceased
- Cassie Sullivan (tag-along/Sacrificed herself), deceased
- Megan (charge)
