One Year

In the pilot episode, Mark Turmelle is orphaned when his parents die in a house fire on his 10th birthday. He is shuffled around through the foster care system until he meets his third Guardian--a military man who recognizes that Mark needs help to discover a path, a direction. His Guardian introduces him to the Reservists where he quickly develops promise as an exceptionally gifted marksman. Unfortunately, the death of his parents remains a huge factor in Mark's lack of ambition and his aimless search to find his place in this world. He leaves the Reservists soon after. Marriage and two children ease the pain for a while but eventually these pieces of his life begin to crumble. His wife Ashleigh is a fiercely independent and ambitious woman who realizes the mistake she made marrying Mark after he gets behind on their house payments and loses his job. When Mark accidentally injures his 7-year-old son, who lit a stack of mail on fire, his son's school suspects child abuse. It's the last straw for Ashleigh. She takes the kids and seeks shelter at the home of a lawyer colleague. Seeing his life spiral out of control and deciding it's been a futile failure with no future, Mark secures illegal weapons, pays a fateful visit to the lawyer and, realizing he has nothing left to lose or live for, he drifts into a small town. There, he allows the darkness within himself to dominate. He storms into a busy diner and takes nine people hostage. The series arc will then follow the lives of those nine people leading up to their fateful encounter with the bitter former soldier before concluding with the events of the hostage taking in the diner.