Written by
Alex Garland
CLOSE ON A MONITOR SCREEN:
Images of stunning violence. Looped.
Soldiers in a foreign war shoot an unarmed civilian at point- blank range; a man is set on by a frenzied crowd wielding clubs and machetes; a woman is necklaced while her killers cheer and howl.
Pull back to reveal that we are seeing one of many screens in a bank of monitors, all showing similar images...
Then revealing that the monitors are in a...
...surgical chamber. And watching the screens is a...
...chimp, strapped to an operating table, with its skull dissected open, webbed in wires and monitoring devices, muzzled with a transparent guard. Alive.
Behind the surgical chamber, through the wide doorframe, we can see a larger laboratory beyond.
A group of black-clad ALF Activists, all wearing balaclavas, move down a corridor. They carry various gear - bag, bolt cutters.
As they move, one Activist reaches up to a security camera and sprays it black with an aerosol paint can.
The Activists enter the laboratory.
The Chief Activist takes his camera off his shoulder and starts taking photos.
The room is huge and long, and darkened except for specific pools of light. Partially illuminated are rows of cages with clear perspex doors. They run down either side of the room. In the cages are chimpanzees.
Most are in a state of rabid agitation, banging and clawing against the perspex, baring teeth through foam-flecked mouths.
They reach the far end of the lab, where on a huge steel operating table they see the dissected chimp.
The dissected chimp’s eyes flick to the Activists. Blood wells from around the exposed brain tissue.
Tears starts to roll down the Female Activist’s cheeks.
The Finnish Activist is checking the perspex cages.
The Finnish Activist raises his crowbar and sticks it around the edge of one of the doors - about to prise it open.
At the moment, the doors to the laboratory bang open.
The Activists all turn. Standing at the entrance is the Scientist.
A pause. The Scientist jumps to a telephone handset on the wall and shouts into the receiver.
A hand slams down the disconnect button.
The Chief Activist plucks the receiver from the Scientist’s hands, and then rips the telephone from the wall.
A beat.
The Activists hesitate, exchanging a glance.
The Scientist hesitates before answering.
Behind the Activists, the bank of monitors show the faces of the machete-wielding crowd.
The Female Activist crouches down to face the wild eyes of the infected chimp behind the perspex.
The Scientist makes a desperate lunge towards her, but the Chief Activist grabs him.
The Female Activist gives a final benign smile, then the Finnish Activist pops open the door.
Like a bullet from a gun, the infected chimp leaps out at the Female Activist - and sinks its teeth into her neck. She reels back as the chimp claws and bites with extraordinary viciousness.
At the same moment, a deafening alarm begins to sound.
The Finnish Activist rips the ape off and throws it on to the floor. The infected chimp immediately bites into the man’s leg. He yells with pain, and tries to kick it off.
Behind him, the Female Activist has started to scream. She doubles up, clutching the side of her head.
Meanwhile, the Female Activist’s cries have become an unwavering howl of pain - and she is joined by the Finnish Activist, whose hands have also flown to the side of his head, gripping his temples as if trying to keep his skull from exploding.
The Scientist grabs a desk-lamp base and starts running towards the screaming Female Activist...
...who has ripped off her balaclava - revealing her face - the face of an Infected.
She turns to the Scientist.
She leaps at him. He screams as they go tumbling to the ground.
The Chief Activist watches in immobile horror as she attacks the Scientist with amazing ferocity.
Another ACTIVIST makes his way down the corridor towards the lab.
No answer.
He reaches the door to the lab, which is closed - and...
...as he opens it, we realize the door is also soundproofed.
A wall of screaming hits him.
He stands in the doorway - stunned by the noise, and then the sight.
Blood, death, and his colleagues, all Infected.
The Infected rush him.
TITLE:
Close up of Jim, a young man in his twenties, wearing pale green hospital pyjamas. He has a month’s beard, is dishevelled, and asleep.
We pull back to see that Jim is lying on a hospital bed, in a private room. Connected to his arms are multiple drips, a full row of four or five on each side of his bed. Most of the bags are empty.
Jim’s eyes open.
He looks around with an expression of confusion. Then he sits up. He is weak, but he swings his legs off the bed and stands. The attached drips are pulled with him and clatter to the floor.
Jim winces, and pulls the taped needles from his arm.
His voice is hoarse, his mouth dry. Massaging his throat, he walks to the door.
The door to Jim’s hospital room is locked. The key is on the floor. He picks it up and opens the door.
Jim exits into a corridor.
At the far end, a sign read: COMA WARD. There is no sign of life or movement.
Jim walks down the corridor. One of the doors is half-open. From inside, there is the sound of buzzing flies.
Jim moves as quickly as he can through the hospital, still weak, but now driven by adrenaline.
All the wards and corridors are deserted. Medical notes and equipment lie strewn over the floors, trolleys are upended, glass partition doors are smashed. In a couple of places, splashes of dried blood arc up the walls.
He reaches A&E. On one wall is a row of public pay phones.
He lifts a receiver, and the line is dead. He goes down the line, trying them all.
In the corner of the A&E reception is a smashed soft-drinks machine, with a few cans collected at the base.
Jim grabs one, rips off the ring-pull and downs it in one go. Then he grabs another, and heads for the main doors.
Jim exits and walks out into the bright daylight of the forecourt. The camera begins to pull away from him.
Aside from a quiet rush of wind, there is silence. No traffic, no engines, no movement. Not even birdsong.
Jim walks through the empty city, from St. Thomas’s Hospital, over Westminster Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament, down Whitehall, to Trafalgar Square.
A bright overhead sun bleaches the streets. A light drifts litter and refuse. Cars lie abandoned, shops looted.
Jim is still wearing his hospital pyjamas, and carries a plastic bag full of soft-drink cans.
Jim walks. Night has fallen. He needs to find a place to rest...
He pauses. Down a narrow side street is a church. He walks towards it. The front doors are open.
Jim walks inside, moving with the respectful quietness that people adopt when entering a church.
The doors ahead to the main chamber are closed. Pushing them, gently trying the handle, it is obvious they are locked. But another open door is to his left. He goes through it.
Jim moves up a stairwell.
Written large on the wall is a single line of graffiti: REPENT. THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH
Jim moves into the gallery level, and sees, through the dust and rot, ornate but faded splendor. At the far end, a stained- glass window is illuminated by the moonlight.
Jim pads in, stands at the gallery, facing the stained-glass window for a moment before looking down...
Beneath are hundreds of dead bodies. Layered over the floor, jammed into the pews, spilling over the altar. The scene of an unimaginable massacre.
Jim stands, stunned. Then sees, standing motionless at different positions facing away from him, four people.
Their postures and stillness make their status unclear. Jim hesitates before speaking.
Immediately, the four heads flick around. Infected.
And the next moment, there is the powerful thump of a door at the far end of the gallery.
Jim whirls to the source as the Infected below start to move.
The door thumps again - another stunningly powerful blow, the noise echoing around the chamber.
Confused, fist closing around his bag of soft drinks, Jim steps onto the gallery, facing the door...
...and it smashes open.
Revealing an Infected Priest - who locks sight on Jim, and starts to sprint.
The Priest is half way across the gallery
And now the moonlight catches the Priest’s face. Showing clearly: the eyes. The blood smeared and collected around his nose, ears, and mouth. Darkened and crusted, accumulated over days and weeks. Fresh blood glistening.
In a movement of pure instinct, Jim swings the bag just as the Priest is about to reach him - and connects squarely with the man’s head.
He breaks into a run...
Down the stairwell...
...into the front entrance, where the locked door now strains under the blows of the Infected inside.
Jim sprints down the stone steps.
As he reaches the bottom the doors are broken open, and the Infected give chase.
Jim runs - the Infected have almost reached him.
A hand fires up a Zippo lighter, and lights the rag of a Molotov cocktail.
As Jim runs, something flies past his head, and the Infected closest to him explodes in a ball of flame.
Jim turns, and sees as another Molotov cocktail explodes, engulfing two in the fireball.
He whirls, now completely bewildered.
WOMAN’S VOICE HERE!
Another Molotov cocktail explodes. The Infected stagger from the blaze, on fire.
WOMAN’S VOICE OVER HERE!
Jim whirls again, and sees, further down the road...
...Selena, a black woman, also in her twenties. She wears a small backpack, a machete is stuck into her belt - and she holds a lit Molotov cocktail in her hand.
...Mark, a tall, good-looking man - throwing another bottle.
It smashes on the head of the last Infected, bathing it in flame...
The burning Infected bumps blindly into a car. Falls. Gets up again.
Blindly, it staggers off the road, into a petrol station - where an abandoned car has run over on the pumps.
The ground beneath it suddenly ignites, and the petrol station explodes.
Selena and Mark lead Jim into a side street.
Jim allows himself to be hurried along.
Selena stops outside a newsagent’s shop. The shop’s door and windows are covered with a metal security grill, but the grill over the door lock has been prised away enough for Selena to slip her hand through to the latch.
Inside, most of the shelves have been emptied of confectionery. Newspapers and magazines litter the floor. The magazine covers of beautiful girls and sports cars have become instant anachronisms.
At the back of the shop, a makeshift bed of sheets and sleeping bag is nestled. This has obviously been Selena and Mark’s home for the last few days.
Jim, Mark and Selena enter the newsagent’s and pull down the grill.
Silence.
Mark pulls off his mask and turns to Selena.
Selena, who has already taken off her mask, ignores Mark.
Selena starts to tell her story, and as the story unfolds we see the images she describes.
Something in the blood. By the time they tried to evacuate the cities, it was already too late. The infection was everywhere. The army blockades were overrun. And that was when the exodus started. The day before the radio and TV stopped broadcasting there were reports of infection in Paris and New York. We didn’t hear anything more after that.
Jim, Selena and Mark walk along the Docklands Light Railway in single file. Ahead is a train.
Behind the train, as if spilled in its wake, are abandoned bags, suitcases, backpacks.
Mark drops pace to let Jim catch up.
No reply.
Mark picks up a handbag from the tracks.
Mark reaches in and starts to pull things out as they walk, discarding the personal possessions.
Marks tosses the condoms behind him.
He hands the bag to Jim and walks ahead.
Jim pulls out a mobile phone.
He switches it on.
It reads: SEARCHING FOR NETWORK.
The message blinks a couple of times. Then the screen goes blank.
Jim looks left.
He is now alongside the train. The inside of the windows are smeared with dried blood. Pressed against the glass is the face of a dead man.
Jim drops the phone and breaks into a run - running past Mark and Selena.
Jim, Selena and Mark jog across Greenwich Common. Jim gestures towards one of the streets on the far side of the green.
The street is modest red-brick semi-detached houses. They stand outside Number 43. Jim waits while Selena scans the dark facade.
Selena shoots a glance at Jim. Jim is gazing at the house.
Jim uses the key under the flowerpot to open the back door.
Jim, Selena and Mark move quietly through the kitchen and the downstairs of the house.
Surprisingly, everything is neat and tidy. Washed plates are stacked by the sink, newspapers on the table are neatly piled. The headline on the top paper reads simply: CONTAINMENT FAILS.
They reach the bottom of the stairs. Selena gestures upwards, and Jim nods. They start to ascend.
At the top of the stairs, Selena sniffs the air, and recoils. Jim has noticed it too. His eyes widen in alarm.
But Jim pushes past and advances along the top landing, until he reaches a door. By now the smell is so bad that he is having to cover his nose and mouth with the sleeve of one arm.
Jim pushes open the door. Inside, two decomposed bodies lie side by side on the bed, intertwined. On the bedside table are an empty bottle of sleeping pills and a bottle of red wine.
Mark appears behind him. Jim stares at his parents for a couple of moments, then Mark closes the door.
Jim sits on the toilet, alone. He is crying. In his hand is a piece of paper: “Jim - with endless love, we left you sleeping. Now we’re sleeping with you. Don’t wake up.”
The paper crumples in his fist.
Jim, Selena and Mark sit in the living room, on the two sofas. Jim looks dazed, uncomprehending. Selena watches Jim, her expression neutral.
Jim’s words hang a moment. Then Mark talks, simply, unemotionally, matter-of-fact throughout.
A short silence.
Jim nods. He isn’t sure what he wants to say.
The red orb of the sun goes down; the light fades. As night falls, London vanishes into blackness, with no electric light to be seen.
Then the moon appears from behind the cloud layer, and the dark city is revealed.
Jim is on the sofa. In the moonlight, we can see that his eyes are open, wide awake. Selena is curled on the other sofa, and Mark is on the floor - both asleep. The house is silent.
Jim watches Selena sleeping for a couple of moments.
Then, quietly, he gets off the sofa and pads out of the living room, down the hall to the kitchen.
Jim enters, standing just inside the doorway. He looks around the room. On one wall, a faded kid’s drawing of a car is framed. Above the counter, on a shelf of cookery books, an album has a handwritten label on the spine: “Mum’s Favorite Recipes”.
Jim walks to the fridge. Stuck to the door is a photo of Jim with his parents, arm in arm, smiling at the camera. Jim is on his mountain bike, wearing his courier bag.
Jim, sitting at the kitchen table as his Mum enters, carrying bags of shopping. Jim walks over to the bags and pulls out a carton of orange juice, which he pulls straight to his mouth and begins to gulp down.
His Dad walks in from the garden.
JIM’S DAD Give me a glass of that, would you?
Jim touches the photo, their faces, lightly.
Jim is facing away from the back door, which has a large frosted-glass panel.
Through the glass panel, unseen by Jim a dark silhouette looms against the diffused glow from the moonlight.
Through the kitchen window, a second silhouette appears.
Then there is a scratching noise from the back door.
Jim freezes.
Slowly, he turns his head, and sees the dark shapes behind the door and window.
A beat - then the door is abruptly and powerfully smashed in. It flies open, and hangs loosely held by the bottom hinge. Standing in the doorframe is an Infected Man.
Jim shouts with alarm as the Man lunges at him - and they both go tumbling to the floor. At the same moment, the figure behind the kitchen window smashes the glass, and an Infected Teenage Girl starts to clamber through the jagged frame.
The Man gets on top of Jim, while Jim uses his arms to hold back the ferocious assault. A single strand of saliva flies from the Man’s lips, and contacts Jim’s cheek.
Suddenly, Selena is there, holding her machete. The blade flashes down to the back of the Man’s neck. Blood gushes.
Jim rolls the Infected Man off, just in time to see...
...Mark dispatch the Girl half way through the kitchen window. The Girl is holding Mark, but her legs are caught on the broken glass.
Mark jabs upwards into the Girl’s torso - she stiffens, then slumps, and as Mark steps back we see he is holding a knife.
Jim hyperventilates, staring at the corpse on the kitchen floor.
Selena turns to Jim. She is hyperventilating too, but there is control and steel in her voice.
Jim turns to the Girl sprawled half way through the window.
Jim looks at her. Selena is still holding her machete at the ready.
Jim turns to Mark. He is standing in the middle of the room. Stepped away from the window. The Girl’s blood is on his arm - and he is wiping it away...
...off the skin... where a long scratch cut wells up fresh blood.
A moment.
Then Mark looks at Selena, as if slightly startled.
But Selena is swiping with her machete. Mark lifts his arm instinctively, defensively, and the blade sinks in.
Selena immediately yanks it back.
Selena swipes again - and the blade catches Mark hard in the side of the head. Mark falls.
Jim watches, scrabbling backwards on the floor away from them, as Selena brutally finishes Mark off.
Selena looks at Mark’s body for a couple of beats, then lowers the blade. She picks up a dishcloth from the sink counter and tosses it to Jim.
Jim picks up the rag and hurriedly starts to wipe the Infected’s blood from around his neck.
With practiced speed, Selena starts to open the kitchen cupboards, selecting packets of biscuits and cans from the shelves, and stuffing them into her backpack.
Jim and Selena exit the front door. Jim has changed out of his hospital gear into jeans and a sweatshirt. He also has a small backpack, and is carrying a baseball bat.
Jim and Selena walk: fast, alert. But something is not being said between them... until Jim breaks the silence.
Selena says nothing. Continues walking.
A moment.
Jim says nothing.
Selena looks at Jim dispassionately.
Selena looks away again.
Silence.
They walk. Jim following a few steps behind Selena.
A few moments later, Jim lifts a hand, opens his mouth, about to say something - but Selena cuts him off without even looking round.
She has seen something...
A line of tower blocks some distance away, standing against the night sky. In one of them, hanging in the window of one of the highest stories, colored fairy lights are lit up, blinking gently.
Jim and Selena walk through the smashed glass doors of the tower block. It is extremely dark inside.
Selena switches on a flashlight and illuminates the entrance hall. It is a mess. The floor is covered in broken glass and dried blood. The lift doors are jammed open, and inside is a dense bundle of rags - perhaps an old corpse, but impossible to tell, because the interior of the lift has been torched. It is black with carbon, and smoke-scarring runs up the outside wall.
Selena moves the flashlight to the stairwell. There is a huge tangle of shopping trolleys running up the stairs.
Selena gives one of the trolleys an exploratory tug. It shifts, but holds fast, meshed in with its neighbor. Then she puts a foot into one of the grates, and lifts herself up. Shining her light over the top of the tangle, she can see a gap along the top.
She begins to climb through.
Jim and Selena move steadily and quietly up the stairwell, into the building. Reaching a next landing, they check around the corner before proceeding. Through a broken window, we can see that they are already high above most London buildings, and on the wall a sign reads: LEVEL 5.
They continue a few steps.
Selena nods. They stop on the stairs. Jim slips off his backpack and sits, pulling a face as he does so...
She gives him a cut-the-crap expression.
A moment, where it’s unclear how Selena will react to this. Then she slips off her own backpack.
Selena starts to produce a wide selection of pills, looted from a chemist.
She holds up a bottle of codeine tablets, and passes it to Jim.
Suddenly there is a loud scream, coming from somewhere lower down the building. Jim and Selena both make a grab for their weapons.
The scream comes again. The noise is chilling, echoing up the empty stairwell.
But there is something strange about it. The noise is human, but oddly autistic. It is held for slightly too long, and stops abruptly.
Then, the sound of metal scraping, clattering the blockade.
Two Infected, a Young Asian Guy and a Young White Guy, moving with amazing speed over the blockade.
Jim and Selena sprint up the stairs. Behind them, we can hear the Infected, giving chase, howling.
They pass level eight, nine, ten...
Jim is exhausted.
Selena continues, and Jim looks over the edge of the stairwell, to the landing below...
...where the two Infected appear, tearing around the corner.
Selena sprints up the stairs... and Jim sprints past her, in an amazing burst of energy and speed.
They round another bend in the stairwell...
...then both Jim and Selena scream. Standing directly in front of them is a Man In Riot Cop Gear - helmet with full visor, gloves, a riot shield in one hand, and a length of lead pipe in the other.
The Man lunges past both of them, barging past, where the Infected White Man has appeared at the stairwell.
The Riot Gear Man swings his lead pipe and connects viciously with the White Man’s head. The White Man falls backwards against the Asian Man. Both fall back down the stairs.
The Riot Gear Man turns back to Jim and Selena.
Jim and Selena are stunned, but start to run down the corridor.
The Asian Man is coming back up the stairs. Jim looks back over his shoulder in time to see the Riot Gear Man deliver a massive blow to the Asian Man’s head.
Jim and Selena run towards Flat 157. The door is open, but as they approach, it suddenly slams shut.
The door opens a fraction, on the chain. The face of a girl appears. She is fourteen, pale, solemn-faced.
Jim looks back down the corridor.
At the far end, the Man appears. He is holding the limp body of one of the Infected - and he tips it over the balcony, where it drops down the middle of the stairwell.
The door closes, we hear the chain being slipped off, then it opens again.
Jim and Selena enter past the pale-faced girl. The flat is council, three-bed, sixteenth floor of the block. It has patterned wallpaper, and nice but boring furnishings. It is lit by candles.
The entrance hall leads straight to the living room, which has French windows and a small balcony outside.
On one wall, a framed photograph hangs, which shows the Man standing beside a black taxi cab. Next to him is a middle aged woman - presumably the Man’s wife. Hannah sits at the cab’s steering wheel, beaming.
Another photo, beside, show Hannah sat in the seat of a go- kart.
The Man follows Jim and Selena inside.
They follow the Man through to the living room, and Hannah recloses the front door, which has an impressive arrangement of locks and dead-bolts.
In the living room, the fairy lights hang in the window, powered by a car battery. Lit by their glow, the Man goes through a careful ritual of shedding his gear, helped by Hannah.
First, he lays down the riot shield. Then he puts the bloodsmeared lead pipe on a small white towel. Next, he removes his gloves - and places them beside the bar on the towel. Then he folds the towel over the weapon and gloves, and puts it beside the riot shield. Finally he removes the visored helmet.
Jim and Selena watch him. They look pretty rattled, not really knowing what to expect.
After the Man has finished shedding his gear, he turns.
He extends his hand to Jim and Selena. Jim hesitates very briefly, then shakes it.
Frank beams, and suddenly he seems much less frightening and imposing. If anything, he is just as nervous as Jim and Selena.
Hannah takes a step into the room, but says nothing.
I’d say. Why don’t you all sit down, and... Hannah, what have we got to offer?
An awkward beat.
Frank exits. Selena, Jim and Hannah all stand, until Selena gestures at the sofa.
Jim and Selena take the sofa. Hannah stays standing.
Another short, uncomfortable pause. Hannah looks at Jim and Selena from her position near the doorway. Her expression is blank and unreadable.
Hannah nods.
Hannah nods again.
Frank re-enters. Frank is beaming, holding the creme de menthe, and four wine glasses.
The moon shines above the tower block.
Jim, Selena and Hannah all sit in the living room, sipping creme de menthe. Frank is disconnecting the fairy lights as he talks, and pulling the curtains closed, rather systematically checking for cracks along the edges.
Finished with the sofa, he sits on the armchair.
Frank shakes his head.
Frank’s eyes flick to Hannah.
He puts a hand on Hannah’s shoulder, and gives it a squeeze.
Jim is in the bathroom, inspecting himself in the mirror. He is just finishing shaving his beard off, and has had to use the razor dry. He has cut himself several times.
Jim does a couple of last dry strokes with the razor, and winces as he cuts himself again. He uses spit to wipe away the blood.
Then, from outside, Frank speaks.
Jim opens the door.
Frank smiles, and heads to his bedroom.
Jim feels his way down the dark corridor back to the candlelit living room. Selena is standing by the window. She looks around when Jim enters.
Jim sits on the armchair, and Selena moves to look at a picture on the wall - the photo of Frank’s family and the black cab.
A moment. Then Selena stands.
Selena hesitates at the door - then turns.
She exits, leaving Jim alone.
Jim walks around the room, blowing out the candles. He leaves one burning beside the sofa.
Then he slides open the French doors and exits out onto the balcony.
The city is spread out in front Jim. In the distance, to the north, the petrol station still burns, sending billowing clouds of sparks high into the night sky.
Jim sits on the armchair, facing the window, nursing a can of Lilt. Outside, the sky has just started to brighten with first light.
Frank enters.
Frank and Jim appear from a service door. The view over London is spectacular - low clouds catching the sunrise, and a plume of smoke still drifting up from the petrol station blaze. But more noticeable is that the entire roof area is covered in buckets, pans, bowls, plates...
Frank sits, watching Jim.
Jim shakes his head.
A moment.
Jim, Selena, Frank and Hannah all sit in the living room. Frank is on the armchair. On the coffee table in front of him is a small radio. He turns it on - producing a fuzz of radio static.
They listen. Through the static, the sound of a voice begins to sift through.
The Male Voice fades into the static.
Frank switches the radio off, and produces a map of Britain, which he opens on the table.
Frank points to the location described.
A moment. Then Frank gives a short, embarrassed laugh.
If something happened to me, Hannah would be alone. But if we were with other people...
He lets the sentence hang, gazing at Jim and Selena with undisguised hope.
Hannah speaks so rarely that her interjection seems to take everyone by surprise. Including her. For a moment she looks flustered, but then she continues.
She pauses for a breath.
A beat.
A black London cab drives fast out of the tower block’s underground garage, bursting into the daylight.
Hannah and Selena sit on the back seat, and Jim sits on the fold-down. Frank smiles, starts the meter running, and leans around to his passengers.
Frank drives through the destroyed streets of the capital.
They pass a stray Infected, through the smashed window of a shop. It’s head flicks around at the noise of the cab’s engine, and starts to move, but the cab is moving too fast to catch.
The cab pulls up at the entrance of a tunnel that leads under the river Thames.
Frank floors the accelerator and they head into the tunnel.
Frank drives through the tunnel. Wrecked cars and debris are illuminated in the headlights, and Frank weaves expertly between them. His passengers roll with the movement of the cab.
As Jim speaks, out of the gloom, caught in the headlights, a huge pile of cars appears, stretching across the full width of the tunnel.
Frank slams his foot down on the accelerator.
The cab bumps up onto the barricade and drives over.
The cab bumps down the other side of the barricade, with a cheer from the passengers - but the jubilation only lasts a moment, because the cab his the road hard, on to a carpet of broken glass, and the front left tire blows.
Frank saws the wheel, but loses control. The cab scrapes along the side of an abandoned car, then slews to a halt.
Frank tries accelerating again, but the cab immediately pulls left, back into the car.
Frank jumps out of the cab, and shines his flashlight around the tunnel.
Frank opens the boot and puts the jack into Hannah’s hand.
Hannah immediately runs to the front of the cab and hunches down. Meanwhile, Frank unclips the spare and hauls it out.
Jim and Selena stand at the back of the cab, weapons ready, shining their flashlights into the darkness.
At the front of the cab, Hannah pumps the jack, but it is moving with aching slowness.
At the back of the cab, Jim and Selena wait nervously.
There is a noise from further down the tunnel, in the direction which they came. A scrabbling rush of movement - but too quiet to be humans.
Jim and Selena exchange a glance.
Jim is about to answer. Then is eyes widen. He looks down...
A tide of rats is rushing under their feet.
As if in answer, the howls of the Infected echo down the tunnel.
Hannah desperately positions the jack underneath the cab, as the rates run over her face.
Jim, Selena, and Frank get their hands under the side of the cab, and pull upwards. The cab rises.
Hannah, with great skill and speed, fits the new tire, like a pit-stop mechanic at a grand prix.
As Hannah puts an expert twist on the last wheel nut, the cab’s back lights pick up the faces of the Infected spilling over the barricade.
They lunge back into the cab, just as the nearest Infected slams against the back window.
As the cab races off, Jim leans out the window.
Frank slams his foot down, and they tear off.
The cab races out.
The cab drives through London, the meter steadily clocking upwards. Driving, Frank’s eyes flick down to the fuel gauge. It is under a quarter full.
Green shoots are pushing through the cracks in the pavements and road, as nature begins to reclaim the city.
A high street. Suddenly Selena cranes around, seeing something.
They have stopped outside of a supermarket. The windows are dark, but unbroken, and it looks as if there is still food on the shelves.
She opens the door to the cab, holding her machete.
Selena gets out.
Selena tries the door of the supermarket. It swings open.
They enter silently. All carry their weapons at the ready.
They peer down the aisles. The supermarket is empty.
Jim, Selena, Frank, and Hannah all split off with shopping trolleys. They look like kids in a toy store.
Selena taking cans off the shelves, three at a time, going down the aisle.
Jim taking more stuff off shelves.
Selena appears at the top of the aisle.
Jim looks at the item in his hand. It is caviar.
Frank, standing by the fruit and vegetable section, in front of a bank of rotting apples - marked ORGANIC. Beside is a pile of apples that look fine.
Selena finding Hannah by a huge array of chocolate.
A beat, as something catches her eye. She whips it off the shelf.
Jim by the drinks counter, examining the label on a bottle of whisky, as Frank appears behind him.
Frank takes a bottle of Lagavulin.
Jim starts to back his trolley away.
Jim, Selena, Frank, and Hannah shopping, pushing their full trolleys past the empty checkout desks. As Frank passes the till, he slaps down a credit card, and they walk off.
The fully loaded cab drives away from the supermarket, riding low on the suspension.
The cab reaches the on-ramp to the Westway, and stops.
The cab sits at the back of an apparent traffic jam leading onto the Westway.
Both sides of the dual carriageway are jam-packed with abandoned cars, a deserted gridlock. All cars point in the same direction - out of town. Some of the cars are crashed, riding up on each other, rolled over, burned out.
As the camera rises upwards, we can see that the gridlock snakes along the entire distance of the flyover. Like the destroyed vehicles on the road to Basra, it stretches for miles...
Montage of the cab sweeping through suburban London, cutting down side streets, ducking down alleys, sometimes passing under the Westway flyover.
During the montage, we see scenes of devastation.
Jim gazes out of the window as the cab passes a huge cluster of rotting corpses, collected under and in the scoop of an abandoned bulldozer. The dead operator of the bulldozer lies a few feet away from his cabin.
The montage ends on: the cab bumping down a steep grass verge onto the motorway.
The cab drives down the motorway. There are still vehicles scattered crashed, but fewer and fewer as distance is gained on the city.
ON THE DASHBOARD, the needle on the fuel gauge drifts down to the red.
A truck lay-by approaches, with a shabby shack-style cafe.
A sign outside the cafe reads: CHEESEBURGERS’R’US. And beneath: LAST CHEESEBURGERS FOR SIXTY MILES.
In the forecourt are a couple of vehicles. A people-carrier family car, and a truck, slewed off the road.
Frank slows the cab to a halt, some hundred meters away.
Everyone exits the cab. Selena takes a jerry can and a length of plastic tube from the boot, and Frank gives the ignition keys to Hannah.
No response from Hannah.
Frank, Jim, and Selena begin to walk towards the service station, holding their weapons at the ready.
Cautiously, Frank, Jim and Selena approach the truck. There is no sign of life around.
While Jim and Selena stand guard, Frank works quickly. He prises the fuel cap off, inserts the tube, sucks into the tube, and spits as the diesel begins to flow into the jerry can.
Hannah watches from the driver’s seat. She has her hands on the wheel, and is sliding her hands over the plastic, making a series of imaginary turns, shifting gears...
As they wait for the can to fill, Jim tosses his bat into the air, giving it a single flip, catching it as the handle comes back around...being a bit flash.
Selena notices, and does not look impressed.
Almost in response to her nonplussed gaze, Jim begins to walk towards the cafe.
Jim points his bat in the direction of the cafe.
Jim walks inside the cafe, and finds the aftermath of carnage. Decomposed bodies lie scattered, on and under tables: a couple of men, a female cook, and a young family.
Jim walks towards the family.
The father sits wedged between the seats and the table, which are both bolted to the floor. His neck is snapped, head hanging backwards.
The mother lies a couple of feet away, on the floor, half over an infant, as if in a final protective gesture.
Jim looks down at them.
Then there is a noise behind.
Instinctively Jim snaps around, swinging the bat as he does so - and connects against a small body, which flies backwards.
Only then do we - and Jim - see what he has hit. Crumpled, motionless on the ground is an Infected Kid, an eight year old boy.
A moment. Jim looks stunned, appalled.
Then the Infected Kid’s eyes flick open. Still alive.
Jim’s baseball bat swings down.
The can is full. Frank removes the tube.
Jim appears.
Jim says nothing.
Selena lets it pass - and the moment is broken as Frank stands with the can.
He lifts a hand to Hannah.
Hannah smiles, turns the ignition, and throws the cab into gear.
The cab tears towards Jim, Selena and Frank, then - at the last moment - flips into a handbrake turn, and drifts to a neat stop, a couple of meters from them.
The cab drives down the motorway, fuel needle pressed up against the full mark. The meter runs up a tab of over three hundred pounds...
They pass a sign for MANCHESTER - 130 MILES.
The occupants have settled into the reflective silence of a long drive.
Selena seems lost in thought. She looks at Jim, who has his hand stuck out the window, and is using his hand like an aerofoil, catching the wind, dipping and rising.
Then she looks at Frank, and notices...
...Frank glance in the rear-view mirror at Hannah, who catches her dad’s eye. Frank smiles, and gives her a wink.
The cab drives along A-roads.
Jim is looking through some of the bags of food.
Jim looks out of the window. They are in completely empty, rolling countryside, stretching for miles.
They have stopped in a beautiful spot, quite high, clear view. It is a beautiful day. The late afternoon sunshine is bright over the green fields, trees cast long shadows.
Everyone is happily sat on the grass, eating from their hoard.
Jim has pulled open a packet of stale hot-cross bun; Hannah empties a packet of Maltesers into her mouth; Frank holds a block of cheddar, taking bites from the cheese as if it were cake ; Selena drinks from a can of tinned peaches, swallowing the pieces almost whole, with the juice running down her chin.
He offers half to Hannah, who takes a bite.
Hannah and Selena laugh.
Selena and Hannah laugh again.
Everyone turns.
Some distance away, in the fields below, a group of three horses - two adults and a foal - are galloping over the fields as if wild. A majestic and surreal sight, and it somehow implies the way the world will change.
The horses gallop, leaping a stone wall, and away.
The meal has been eaten. Frank sits, playing with his radio, trying to listen to the faint broadcast. Beside him, Hannah lies on her back, eyes closed.
Jim and Selena have walked a little distance away from the others, and are sitting on a fence gate, looking over the view.
Selena considers this a moment.
Jim smiles.
Selena doesn’t reply for a moment. Then she turns to look at Frank and Hannah - who look oddly normal, surrounded by the food wrappers from the picnic, Frank listening to the radio.
A beat.
Selena leans over and gives Jim a light kiss on the cheek.
Frank switches off the radio. He looks over at Hannah, who is dozing peacefully, then over to Jim and Selena.
Jim raises a hand in reply.
The cab sits, parked up at the picnic spot. Jim, Selena, Frank and Hannah lie beside it, wrapped in their jackets, using their small backpacks as pillows.
The moon is bright, and only Selena is asleep...
A couple of moments pass.
Selena gives a dozy grumble, then sits up, reaches into her backpack, and pulls out several bottles of pills. She hands one of them to Jim.
She drops back down and goes straight back to sleep.
JIM’S VALIUM DREAM
Jim is riding his bike through the city. It’s London back to normal, pre-infection. Busy streets, traffic, pedestrians, car horns, radios playing.
Jim rides fast, his courier bag over his shoulder, weaving between cars, shooting a red light, turning a corner into...
Gower Street. Suddenly, a car pulls out into Jim’s path. The car brakes hard, and Jim brakes hard, skidding...
...and the two miss each other by a whisker.
The Driver flashes into road rage.
The Driver flips Jim the finger, and accelerates away.
Jim remains stopped by the pavement, one foot down for balance, breathing hard. Pedestrians pass. Groups of people, everyday people, walking by.
Jim watches them, noticing their faces. Some talk to each other, or into mobile phones. Some smile, or walk lost in thought.
After a few moments, Jim sets off again, seemingly distracted, still watching pedestrians’ faces...then two of the faces seem to catch his attention. A man and a woman, middle-aged, chatting.
His parents.
Jim’s head turns as he passes them, confusion on his face, his bike drifting into another lane...
...into the path of a second car. The car that hit him.
Frank’s hand is on Jim’s shoulder. Jim stirs, half-wakes.
Frank is sitting beside him - and we see for the first time that Frank is awake, keeping guard over them while they sleep.
Jim’s face relaxes a little.
Frank raises his eyebrows, then smiles.
Jim is sitting up. The others are all awake. Frank bouncing the repaired flat tire to check it, Hannah slipping on a fresh sweatshirt from her backpack, Selena leaning against the cab, chewing on a chocolate bar.
The cab is driving, towards us, then slows to a halt.
Everyone is looking at something ahead of them. They seem awestruck.
We see what they are looking at...
On the horizon ahead, there is the glow of a truly massive fire. The smoke spreads into the sky like the plume from a vast, spreading volcano crater. The city burning.
The cab drives towards the surreal sight. As they drive, pale flakes begin to fall, drifting past the windows.
The cab drives through the ash fall. Through the soft blizzard, they pass a sign for: MANCHESTER - 14 MILES (in the opposite lane). The city is behind them.
The cab drives down a motorway. The ash is still falling, and they start to pass bodies by the roadside.
Inside the cab there is a sense of real anticipation. Everyone is sitting up, scanning the road ahead.
Then they come over the brow of a hill, and the ash-fall clears like mist parting, to reveal...
Fifty meters down, the road is blockaded. It is obviously a military construction - hurriedly put together, but expertly built.
Behind rolls of razor wire are fifteen foot sheets of corrugated iron, held upright by scaffold pipes. In the middle of the blockade there is a gap wide enough to get a vehicle through, but concrete blocks force a chicane.
On either side of the road there are sandbag nests. On the corrugated iron, white painted words read: 42ND BLOCKADE. But despite the impressive construction, there is no sign of movement or life.
The cab rolls slowly towards the blockade - past many more bodies, Infected, rotting.
It reaches the chicane, and eases around the concrete blocks. Then it passes through the gap in the corrugated barrier. On the other side of the blockade, canvas tents have been erected on the grass verge, and two transporter trucks are parked. A few packing crates and tarpaulins are also scattered around. But still no signs of life. The blockade appears to have been abandoned.
Franks slows to a halt, but keeps the engine running.
Frank flicks the radio on - there is only static. He switches it off again.
Everyone exits the cab, holding their various weapons. Jim has his baseball bat, Selena has her machete, and Frank has his lead pipe...
Cautiously, they begin to explore. They first head over to the grass verge and the tents. In front of one of them, Hannah picks up a Bergen backpack. She upends it, and a few clothes fall out.
Frank moves past her, and carefully pulls back the tent flaps - machete at the ready. Inside, there is a small table, and maps and papers are strewn across the floor. And a radio.
Jim pushes open the flaps of another tent with his baseball bat.
Inside, several body bags lie, buzzing with flies.
Selena stands several feet away, by one of the packing cases. She pulls out a tangle of camouflage webbing, then lets it drop back inside.
Frank jumps down from the back of one of the trucks. Like the others, like everything else it is empty.
Frank cuts himself off. Then, turning from the others, he walks away.
Frank walks underneath the archway of one of the blockade structures, and sits down. Needing to be alone.
His head sinks, staring at the ground beneath his legs. A couple of moments later he looks up - and sees that sitting opposite of him, on the other side of the archway, almost mirroring his posture and position, is a dead Infected.
The corpse of the Infected sits gazing back at Frank with sightless eyes.
A moment between the two of them. A blank-faced exchange.
Frank looks left and sees the corpse of another Infected, a few feet beyond the blockade. And another, beyond it. And another, a few more feet to the right.
Then Frank looks upwards. Above him, on the walkway of the blockade, another corpse lies. And this corpse is swarmed with crows, picking at it.
Frank gets up.
He bends, picks up a rock and throws it, but misses, sailing past them.
In a rage again, Frank goes under the blockade and starts to kick it. The scaffold clangs, vibrates, and - startled - the crows lift off from the mutilated corpse and fly...
...dislodging, or disrupting, a single droplet of blood from the corpse, that rolls off the neck, and begins to fall downwards.
Down... to where Frank gazes upwards.
The droplet splashes, pinpoint perfect, on Frank’s eye.
Frank frowns, his hand immediately going to his face. The fingers come away, with the tiny smear of red.
Frank turns. Hannah is there, with Jim. Selena stands a little way further back.
He breaks off.
Frank frowns. A hand goes to his temple.
Abruptly, the color is draining from his face.
Frank lashes out and shoves Hannah away, knocking her back to the ground.
A trickle of blood runs out of Frank’s nose. Then he doubles up, clutching the side of his head. He screams with pain.
Hannah lunges towards her dad, but is caught by Selena.
But Jim is frozen, holding his baseball bat.
Frank screams again. Then drops to his knees.
Hannah struggles with Selena, trying to get to Frank.
Jim is still frozen, baseball bat half-raised.
And Frank looks up, his face contorted. The infection has taken hold.
And at that moment there is a rifle report, a rush of air, and a rapid thump of impact.
Frank falls forwards to the tarmac.
A moment of silence.
Selena lets Hannah go.
Suddenly, the GUNFIRE comes again. Three shots in quick succession - into Frank’s motionless body.
In a daze, Hannah starts towards her dead father.
They all turn to see three British soldiers standing by a jeep. One of the soldiers (Farrell) advances, with his gun still raised, while the others (Mitchell and Clifton) hold back giving cover.
Jim steps towards Hannah and grabs her, pulling her away from Frank’s body. She doesn’t struggle. She is in a state of absolute shock.
A jeep drives down a small road - away from the blockade. Jim, Selena and Hannah sit in the back. Behind is the cab, driven by the Sergeant. A little way ahead of them, the walled grounds of a huge country mansion appear.
From a cast-iron gated entrance, a gravel driveway leads up to the impressive country mansion, surrounded by a high perimeter wall. The grounds show acres of lawn and flower beds. These have obviously had many years of very careful cultivation and attention, but now are just starting to look unkempt and overgrown.
The jeep pulls up by the front steps. Waiting there is another soldier, a major. Like the other soldiers, he is unshaven, but has the authority of command about him, even in the relaxed way that he stands.
As Jim, Selena and Hannah dismount from the jeep, he appraises them. Then speaks.
Jim, Selena, and tear-streaked Hannah gaze back at Henry blankly.
Jim has a shower, sees the cab driving round in circles outside the shower window, then...
Jim walks down a sweeping staircase to the front hall. Scattered around are various bits of military gear. A pair of muddy boots, a jacket, assorted kit, webbing, etc.
Henry is sitting, looking out over the back lawn.
Pulling back, we see Jim is with him.
Henry glances back at Jim.
Henry shows Jim around the grounds.
Moving on...
Henry indicates where Farrell, Smith and Davis can be seen, running a trip wire.
Henry leads Jim into the basement level of the mansion.
Then to a kitchen...
Several of the soldiers are unpacking the food bags from the cab. One of the soldiers, Jones, is wearing an apron.
Henry leads Jim into a small courtyard, hanging with bloodstained laundry.
The laundry starts to billow - and with it we hear the sound of rushing movement. As a darkly stained sheet is ripped aside, an Infected is revealed only a few feet away.
Jim jumps back, but Henry stays put - as the Infected is suddenly jerked backwards by a chain around its neck.
Mailer is uniformed. A soldier. Apart from the chain around his neck, he is gagged with a filthy and blood-blackened rag tied tight into his mouth.
A moment.
Henry exits, leaving Jim with Mailer.
Mailer lunges at Jim - a moment between them.
Then Jim exits.
Carefully, Jim opens the door to the girls’ bedroom. Inside is Hannah lying on the bed, face covered, on her side. Selena lies behind her, her arm lying protectively over Hannah’s body.
Selena looks around, sees Jim, and puts a finger to her lips.
Jim and Selena enter, and close the door.
Suddenly Selena looks as if she’s on the verge of tears.
Then Selena’s tears are flowing.
Jim seems to want to reply, but doesn’t have the words.
Instead, he lifts Selena’s face and kisses her on the lips...
... a moment.
Then Selena pushes him a away.
Selena leaves the room.
A surreal scene.
Dinner, with full silver service, candles, wine and crystal glasses, napkins, and everyone rather formally sitting while Jones lays food on the table, wearing an apron over his uniform.
Made all the more surreal by Jim and Selena’s grubby clothes, and Hannah’s dazed, tear-streaked face.
Henry pops the omelette in his mouth, then promptly spits it out.
Henry turns to Hannah as Jones sheepishly exits, carrying the omelette.
Hannah ignore/is unaware of Henry’s attempt to bring her out of her shell.
Meanwhile, the soldiers start helping themselves to the other food on the table.
The soldiers pause. Exchange glances. Then burst out laughing.
More laughter at Bell - interrupted by the sergeant, Farrell, who conspicuously is not joining in.
Farrell turns to Bell.
A moment.
Selena turns to Hannah.
Henry picks up on their exchange.
A silence over the dinner table.
Broken by the thud of a mine detonation.
Then...
And suddenly all the soldiers are kicking back their chairs, jumping to their feet. Producing SA-80s that they had under the table.
Farrell, Jones, Mitchell, Bedford, Smith and Clifton race out of the house, fanning, dropping into position.
Two more soldiers, Davis and Bell, fire from window positions on the mansion’s first floor.
Coming across the grounds are four Infected, sprinting across the lawn towards the house. Immediately, one of them is catapulted into the air by an explosion under its feet - a mine.
The soldiers open fire, Jones closing his eyes as he pulls the trigger.
The three remaining Infected are cut down - one hit in the head by Smith, another folding under a burst from Farrell, the last falling under fire from Mitchell, landing face down on a mine which explodes onto its chest.
Chunks of Infected spin into the air, then patter down like a light rain.
Jim stands, looking out of the open French windows at the soldiers.
Selena is standing behind him. She is holding her machete.
The soldiers bounce in. Mitchell and Smith in particular are hyped from their adrenaline rush.
Mitchell catches sight of Selena holding her machete.
He heads towards her, and takes the machete from her hands.
Bedford bursts out laughing, and Selena grabs her machete back.
He gives her a slap on the backside.
Now doubly hyped. Mitchell reaches forward and pulls up the hem of Selena’s T-shirt. She yelps and twists, knocking back his hand.
But Farrell clearly has little command over Mitchell, who tries again for Selena’s T-shirt, still laughing.
Jim snaps.
And Mitchell turns immediately on Jim, his sexual charge flipping seamlessly back to violence.
Suddenly Farrell is behind Mitchell. We see a movement (a kidney punch), and Mitchell drops.
Then - as if through sixth sense, sensing a presence, all turn. Henry is standing in the doorway.
A moment. Then Henry turns to Mitchell - who has picked himself up, and is clutching his side, breathing hard.
The soldiers exit, leaving only Jim, Henry and Selena in the room.
Selena is shaken, and won’t meet Jim’s eyes.
Henry hands Selena her machete back.
Selena takes the machete and exits, but Jim doesn’t follow. Obviously there is something he wants to say to Henry.
Jim and Henry enter the study room.
Henry walks over to a drinks cabinet, and pours two brandies, waiting for Jim to speak.
Henry hands Jim his drink.
A moment.
Jim turns and runs out of the room.
Jim bursts into the girls’ bedroom. Selena is dressed, sitting next to Hannah, who is awake.
Jim and the girls run down the stairs...
...heading for the front door.
But behind it is Mitchell, waiting, holding his SA-80.
Jim is hit full in the face, and blacks out.
As he comes around, he can hear the sound of shouting and screaming.
Farrell is backing away from other soldiers, who are closing in on him, even though his gun is raised.
But he doesn’t follow his threat through. We hear him scream as the soldiers overpower him.
Jim looks up, and sees Henry is kneeling over him.
Jim stares back at him. And Henry gazes at Jim, searching behind Jim’s eyes. And understands what he finds.
Henry gives Jim’s cheek a soft pat, then rises.
Jim’s eyes flick to the side, where he sees Selena holding Hannah tightly.
Selena looks down at Jim, terrified.
Black screen.
FARRELL’S VOICE He’s insane.
Jim, blindfolded, is sitting beside a radiator, to which his hands are tied.
He is in a cellar. Farrell is on the other side of the small room, also tied.
Jim, blind, looks around at the sound of Farrell’s voice.
Jim’s head turns.
A moment.
A moment.
Then the door to the cellar bursts open, revealing Mitchell and Jones.
Mitchell and Jones are leading Jim and Farrell through a small forest at the back of the mansion garden.
Time has passed. It has started raining. Both Jim and Farrell have been badly beaten. Jim’s shirt is ripped. Blood runs from his nose, and from a cut on the side of his head. He seems dazed. Numbed. More by the situation than his beating.
Jim and Farrell are led into a clearing. Just ahead is a high, ivy-covered brick wall - the perimeter wall of the mansion. And at the base of the wall are bodies. Stacked, tangled, swarming with flies.
Jim turns, and sees Mitchell and Jones standing behind him.
Mitchell grins, and pulls out his bayonet.
Mitchell ignores Jones, and starts to fix the blade to the end of his gun.
The bayonet fixes home with a click.
Farrell spits in Mitchell’s face.
Mitchell pulls back his bayonet, and at that moment, there is an explosion of gunfire. Jones has fired and killed Farrell.
As Farrell drops, the enraged Mitchell turns on Jones.
Mitchell knocks Jones down, putting his gun right in Jones’s face.
They turn. Jim has vanished.
From the side of the clearing, in the trees, there is the sound of sudden movement.
Both men immediately set off, diving back into the foliage...
A beat passes. Then, in the pile of bodies, one of them sits up...
...Jim. We have been looking right at him. But in the tangle of bodies, and the bloodstained clothes, his camouflage was complete.
Mitchell and Jones move fast, scanning, pushing through the undergrowth. Mitchell is absolutely furious. And as they run, they startle a couple of birds, which fly up from the ground, making a suspiciously familiar noise...
They both have the same realization at the same moment.
Mitchell and Jones burst back into the clearing, and they start firing into the bodies, emptying a full clip into the corpses...
....Silence.
Then Jones looks up to the ivy-colored wall...following the path of the ivy upwards, to the coiled razor wire, where a scrap of torn and bloody clothing hangs.
Jim runs through the woods, away from the mansion. His hands are still tied.
He is out of breath, frightened, jumping at every sound.
Then he trips, rolls down a short slope, and when he comes to rest, he is looking upwards.
Above him, there is a parting in the clouds, and through the parting is blue sky.
And across the sky, bisecting the blue, is a single vapor trail.
A pin-prick of silver plane. Followed by a sonic boom. As much in Jim’s head as anywhere else.
Close-up of a closed door, with the sounds of a struggle on the other side.
Then, suddenly, Selena’s voice: hard, desperate:
(Note: in the room is a large, freestanding mirror.)
Hannah and Selena are cornered by Clifton, Bedford, Bell and Davis. The soldiers are hyped. Bedford pulls clothes out of a wardrobe, yanking out dresses, underwear - throwing them at the girls.
Bell stands by the closed door - frightened, caught like a rabbit in the headlights between testosterone madness and the horror.
And Clifton is laughing, animal-like, tearing at Selena’s clothes, while Hannah is kicking and screaming - held by Davis.
Close-up on Selena: suddenly transfixed by Hannah the young girl’s fight, the hopelessness.
Abruptly, Selena turns, grabs Clifton’s arm, and to his amazement, yanks him around.
Then she kisses him on the lips. Simply, but unambiguously.
Bell, Davis and Bedford watch in amazement.
Selena breaks off.
The frenzy has been broken by her extraordinary action - and bizarrely, so has the balance of power.
Clifton nods - he seems a little dazed.
She picks up two of the dresses Bedford has thrown - the red dresses.
A moment.
Another moment.
Then Clifton nods. Acquiesces.
They exit.
Selena stands with Hannah, emptying pills from her Valium bottle.
Hannah hesitates.
Hannah takes the handful of pills and holds them in her open palm.
Then she looks to Selena.
A moment - maybe a single moment of tenderness, a strand of hair brushed from Hannah’s face.
Locked eyes with Selena, Hannah raises the first pill to her mouth. Then the next.
The door behind opens - revealing the soldiers.
Clifton sees what is happening.
Selena crams the pills into Hannah’s mouth.
The soldiers lunge for the girls, as Hannah tries to swallow the pills, and Selena whirls to fight them off...
...and at that moment, the sound of distant siren begin to rise.
Everyone freezes.
Then...
The soldiers run down the stairs.
Jim stands in the blockade, turning the handle of a siren. Rain is pouring down, mingling with the blood on his face.
Jim stops, and the sound of the siren starts to fade away.
From the motorway ahead, through the rain, a jeep is approaching.
The jeep drives fast down the motorway, and pulls up. Davis is driving and Henry stands on the back, manning the jeep’s mounted machine gun.
The jeep pulls up, one hundred meters from the blockade, and Henry brings the mounted machine gun to bear on the blockade.
Henry opens fire.
Bullet rip through the blockade, punching holes through the vehicles, smashing through the packing crates...
Henry stops shooting. With a peal of thunder, the rain suddenly begins to flood down.
The barrel of the machine gun spits and steams as the raindrops hit the hot metal.
Davis pulls up at the outskirts of the blockade, and they get out of the truck.
Henry and Davis make their way into the blockade. With a signal from Henry, the two split up.
Henry moves through the blockade.
He lets off a controlled burst of shots into the tents.
Stealthily, Davis searches around the trucks and tents...
A flash of movement - fast, like an Infected, ducking behind one of trucks: Jim.
Davis wipes the rain from his eyes, and presses forwards.
Jim is nowhere to be seen.
Another flash of movement, around the back of the next truck.
Davis moves around the truck...but Jim is not there.
Davis turns, and sees...
...Jim, flying towards him, holding Frank’s lead pipe, lips drawn back over his teeth in a rictus smile, murderous.
He is the vision of the Infected, in his expression, his movements, the blood, everything.
Henry turns, as if having just heard something. Perhaps a scream.
Another noise. This time it is unambiguously an Infected howl. Henry turns again. From down the motorway, and from the fields, he can now see the Infected. A large number, attracted by noise of the heavy machine gun, are approaching.
He looses off a couple of shots at the Infected, then starts to back away to the jeep.
Henry runs up to the jeep. Through the rain, and the water running down the windscreen, Henry can see a figure sitting at the driver’s seat.
The figure doesn’t move.
Henry approaches cautiously, gun raised, and finds...
...Davis sitting on the front seat, dead, his skull smashed open.
Henry whirls, expecting to find Jim behind him.
But there is no one there.
Henry shoots again, blindly, emptying his clip at anything and everything around him.
He reloads - hurriedly, hands slipping on the wet clip, betraying nervousness...
...and fires at a rain shadow that sweeps between two of the tents. Then his nerve is gone.
Henry hauls out Davis’s body, gets into the driver’s seat, turning the ignition...
...but nothing is happening.
Henry turns the key again, desperately. The motor doesn’t even turn over.
Reaching under the dashboard, he pulls out a handful of wires.
And at the moment, an Infected slams onto the windscreen, face against the glass.
Henry shouts out of surprise and anger, lifting his gun, and fires at point-blank range, through the glass, into the Infected’s face.
The windscreen shatters, blown outwards.
And now, where our view was obscured by rain-washed glass, we can see clearly...
...Infected, in the blockade, coming through the downpour, running towards the jeep.
Henry opens fire and cuts them down.
Jim appears above Mailer in his pit, and shoots off Mailer’s chain.
Jones stands holding his gun at Selena and Hannah, who sit on the sofas, opposite each other. Also in the room are Clifton, standing by the French windows, and Mitchell.
Jones seems jumpy, a sheen of sweat on his forehead, as if sensing that things have gone seriously wrong.
A flicker of lightning lights up outside.
A moment. Rain and wind lash the windows.
Mitchell exits.
Jones wipes at the beads of sweat on his upper lip. And in noticeable contrast, Hannah is completely calm...
Her sentence trails off. Then she turns to Jones.
Jones says nothing.
Jones still says nothing, but the question is clearly hitting a nerve.
Selena looks at Hannah quickly.
Hannah’s eyes flick over Jones’s shoulder, and something fleeting passes over her face.
At that moment, a mine detonates in the mansion grounds.
At that moment, the floodlights power up...
...illuminating Mailer, just on the other side of the French windows, just behind Clifton, a split second before he smashes through.
Then he does smash through.
Clifton is thrown to the ground, with Mailer on top of him.
Jones is hopeless, panicking - fires, and misses.
Hannah watches, spaced out. Selena shakes Hannah by the shoulders, pulling Hannah upwards.
Mailer vomits blood into Clifton’s face.
Selena and Hannah back out of the living room, through the house. Hannah is very doped up.
They reach the front hallway, and the front door bursts open...
Mitchell, with Bedford.
Mitchell is cut off by a high scream, from down the hall, in the direction of the living room.
All turn, and see...
...Jones, running, screaming, out of one doorway, across the hallway. He has lost his weapon - and is chased by Mailer, but not Clifton. Like a train passing, in half a second they are out of sight.
A moment. Then Mitchell explodes.
Mailer chases Jones into the kitchen, but when he enters, Jones is nowhere to be seen.
Mailer turns, and sees Bedford in the kitchen doorway, holding his gun.
But just as Bedford lifts his gun to shoot Mailer...
Clifton runs at him, full speed from down the corridor...
...and Bedford is knocked sideways by the infected Clifton.
Jim is at the kitchen window, looking in as Bedford is killed by Mailer and Clifton.
Jones covers inside a cupboard, hearing Bedford’s screams.
Mitchell pushes the girls up the stairs. At the top of the staircase, wide-eyed with fear, is Bell.
He turns back to the girls, still holding Selena’s arm, and Hannah is gone.
Selena sees her, heading away down towards the corridor.
Mitchell starts pulling Selena in the opposite direction from Hannah.
Hannah runs into the dressing room.
The freestanding mirror sits in the middle of the floor.
Also on the floor are her clothes, and she starts to look through them, looking for her jeans...
...which she lifts up, then digs in the pocket, and pulls out...a photo of her with Frank and her mother.
She gazes at the photo.
At that moment, there is a noise from behind her.
She looks up, and sees, in the reflection of the mirror, Clifton, running down the corridor towards her.
With Clifton: we burst into the dressing room, which is now empty.
Clifton freezes, then looks around.
And the camera pulls back, to reveal Hannah, clinging on to the back of the large mirror, trembling.
A moment - then Clifton moves on.
Silence in the kitchen. Bedford lies dead, torn to pieces.
A cupboard creaks slowly open, and Jones peers out. He has been hiding.
Trembling with fear, he crawls out...moves into the kitchen...peers out into the hall.
It is empty.
Jones starts running. Down the corridor outside the kitchen.
Jones runs into the front hall...
And suddenly stops. Dead in his tracks.
Jim is standing right in front of him.
Jones looks surprised, wide eyed. His mouth opens, but no sound comes out.
Pull back, to see: Jones has run straight into Jim’s bayonet.
Jones falls, taking the gun and bayonet with him.
Jim steps over his body, and into the house...
Jim runs through the radio room.
In the break between two blasts of lightning, the room goes dark.
When it is re-illuminated, Jim has gone, and Mailer and Clifton have entered.
Jim runs up the stairs.
Henry walks into the front hall, where he finds Jones.
Jones is lying flat on his back, mortally wounded, gazing up. Still alive - but only just. Taking his very last breaths.
Henry kneels beside him, and Jones’s eyes turn to his officer. He blinks, tries to speak, but is too weak and close to death to form the words.
Henry’s hand closes around Jones.
Jones blinks once more. And dies.
Jim runs down a corridor.
He tries a door. Locked.
He tries another door. Open.
He runs through...
...into a kid’s bedroom.
Jim moves a sofa to block the doorway - which, as it is moved, reveals...
...Bell, hiding, cowering, terrified. Foetal.
Mailer and Clifton outside try to force their way through, and the sofa jumps forwards an inch.
An Infected arm flails through the half-open door.
Jim leaves Bell, and climbs out the window.
As Jim exits, the door to the room bursts open.
Jim climbs along the outside ledge, around the corner of the building.
Behind him, we can hear Bell screaming as he is killed.
Jim keeps going until he reaches the slope of the mansion’s pitched roof.
There, he finds a skylight window.
Henry moves into a basement corridor.
Then pauses.
There is the sound of movement.
An Infected howl.
Then suddenly, pouring out from every door and shadow ahead, come a rush of Infected.
Henry opens fire, a volley into them as he backs away fast...
...to a door, which he slams and bolts behind him.
Mitchell is holding Selena in one hand, and his gun in the other, dragging her down a corridor.
The howls of the Infected fill the house.
Mitchell opens a door...
...which leads nowhere. The floor of the room through the open door is missing.
And below, in the basement-level corridor, the space is full of the Infected.
They look up at Mitchell, and Mitchell looks down at them.
A vision of writhing Hell. They are a mass of faces and bodies. Some are appalling wounded. Some are half-dressed in ragged clothes. Some are naked.
He pulls Selena away, towards another door.
Henry is in the basement corridor, on the other side of the door he has bolted.
Ahead, there is movement - rapid.
Henry looks to the source, and sees: Clifton, running from the front hall towards him, clearly infected.
No alarm registers on Henry’s face.
As Clifton sprints towards him, Henry remains still. Then, at the last moment he closes his eyes...
...and fires.
Clifton is hit, falls.
Henry opens his eyes.
Jim enters the skylight window, into an attic, positioned above the girls’ bedroom.
In the floor is a hole, and through it he can see Mitchell and Selena.
Selena and Mitchell stand in the middle of the room.
In the room are Selena and Hannah’s bags, Selena’s machete, lying by the side of the bed. She can see it, but...
...Mitchell is holding her tight. He has his gun trained on the door, facing away from the window.
Jim drops down from the attic.
Mitchell turns, but is knocked off balance by Selena squirming out of his grip...then Jim is on him.
With incredible viciousness, the power and savagery of the infected, Jim beats Mitchell to death. He smashes his head against the wall. Then he throws Mitchell to the ground, and jams his thumbs in Mitchell’s eyes.
When it is over, Jim looks up.
Selena stands, holding her machete. She is frozen by the sight of him. The blood on his face. The matted hair. He is the image of an infected.
Jim stands and takes a step towards her. Selena remains, motionless, watching him approach.
Then, just as he is about to reach her, her arm flashes upwards, holding the machete, to cut Jim down...
...but she hesitates. She can’t do it.
A moment. Then...
Jim moves forwards, and kisses her. Simply. Hard. Then pulls back, leaving a trace of blood on her lips.
Behind Jim’s back, the door opposite, in the corridor, silently swings open.
Jim moves forwards, and they kiss. Passionately.
Then Jim breaks off.
Selena interrupts him, by continuing the kiss.
And Jim responds.
As, behind him, a small figure in a red dress slip into the room.
Then a vase smashes over the back of Jim’s head.
He reels back, and Hannah is on him, jumping on his back, hitting him with her fists.
Hannah breaks off.
They are interrupted by the sounds of Infected howling.
Jim, Selena and Hannah run out of the house, through the front hall, to the cab.
Hannah gets in the driver’s seat...
...and Jim yanks open the back door, ready to pile into the back only to find...
...Henry. Sitting on the fold-down back seat. Holding his gun.
Henry pulls the trigger - a single shot. Jim is hit in the stomach and falls backwards into Selena’s arm.
Hannah floors the accelerator.
But instead of going forward, the cab reverses.
The cab reverses fast, then Hannah slams the brakes. The cab slides to a halt.
An Infected slams against Henry’s window.
At that moment, the back windscreen smashes.
The hands of the Infected grab hold of Henry’s head.
Hannah watches, turned around in the seat.
Henry scream - and we see it’s Mailer’s face behind him.
Hannah floors the accelerator again, but this time in forward gear. Henry is sucked out of the back window.
The cab screeches up to Jim and Selena.
Selena bundles Jim in, and the cab is off in a spray of gravel...
As Henry is killed by Mailer, the silhouettes of the Infected appear in the shadows.
The cab races towards the cast-iron front gates of the mansion - and we see they are locked with a chain and padlock.
The gates loom. Hannah speeds towards them.
Hannah reaches and buckles her seat belt. Jim and Selena brace for impact...
They hit the gates, hard. Jim and Selena fly towards the perspex divider.
Freeze. Held.
FADE TO BLACK:
A green field, with three white letters laid out across the grass. Spelling:
HELL
Waking from a nightmare, Jim’s eyes snap open with a sharp intake of breath.
An echo of when we first saw him lying in the hospital. But this time, when we pull away, we see he is lying on a double bed, in the bedroom of a small farmhouse.
Alone. But Selena’s clothes are scattered.
Jim rises.
He looks around. Bright daylight is flooding into the room through the window.
Jim walks down the stairs and peers into a living room - where he sees the sofa, with its cover removed.
Jim enters - to find Selena sitting surrounded by lengths of material which she is stiching together.
He picks up a length of red material. Once part of the dress.
Selena ignores him.
Jim walks to the front door and opens it.
Pull back to reveal...
A stunning view.
A Lakeland valley, with a single farmhouse, and the black cab parked outside.
Also outside is Hannah, who is arranging huge lengths of material on the grass.
From our ground-level angle, there is no sense to be made of what Hannah is doing.
And we keep pulling back...
...fast, down the valley, along a single ribbon of road.
Past a sign: Langdale Valley...
Further, now over a mile distant from the farmhouse, then:
Stopping, abruptly.
At a single Infected, who sits, emaciated, in the middle of the road.
A quiet moment with the starving emaciated Infected. It is so weak it can hardly move. Only blink.
Then, in the background, a distant rush of noise, the low roar of a jet engine.
Slowly, the Infected turns its head upwards, where, in the clear blue sky, it sees:
A vapor trail.
A plane.
A silent bird’s eye view, looking down, at the valley floor and the farmhouse.
Where, outside, we now make sense of the stitched sheets and curtains, as they form letters on the grass below:
HELL
But tiny figures are forming a new letter. An O:
HELLO
Then, in the background, the sound of the jet, the rush of noise.
Jim, Hannah and Selena look down the valley, where...
...screaming towards them, flying low along the valley floor, comes a jet plane.
They stand transfixed as the plane races towards them.
As it passes over, flying directly overhead, the terrific wash of air and noises whips around them, connected with a colossal sonic boom...
The boom rolls away, and the plane has passed...
Around Jim, Selena and Hannah, the sheets and material of the letters, ripped into the air, now spiral to the ground, falling around them.
CUT TO BLACK:
The End.