Zombie Outbreak: 30 Days Trapped On The 30th Floor — Transcript

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1. 0:00You live on the 30th floor. Until
2. 0:02tonight, that was the worst thing about
3. 0:04your flat. At 9:40, every phone in the
4. 0:07building screams at once. [screaming]
5. 0:09Stay inside. Lock your doors. Do not
6. 0:12help the injured. 30 floors down, the
7. 0:14street [screaming] is full of people
8. 0:16running. Some of them are not running
9. 0:18away. Your neighbor is in the hallway,
10. 0:20knocking on every door. His arm is
11. 0:23bandaged. You watch through the
12. 0:24peephole, and you do not open.
13. 0:27First problem, water. A tower pumps it
14. 0:30up with electricity. When the power
15. 0:32dies, the top floors go dry first. So,
16. 0:35you fill the bathtub, about 40 gallons.
17. 0:38Then, every pot, every bottle, the sink.
18. 0:41One person needs a gallon a day. You
19. 0:43have just bought yourself 6 weeks.
20. 0:47By morning, the sirens have stopped.
21. 0:50That is worse.
22. 0:51You count the food. 11 days if you eat
23. 0:54normally. 25 if you don't. So, you
24. 0:57ration. From now on, everything is a
25. 1:00number. Eat the fridge first, then the
26. 1:02freezer, cans last. Once the power goes,
27. 1:05a closed freezer stays cold for about 2
28. 1:08days.
29. 1:09The neighbor is still in the hallway. He
30. 1:11is standing very straight now. He has
31. 1:13been facing your door since 3:00 in the
32. 1:15morning.
33. 1:18The power dies at noon. The taps cough
34. 1:21and stop. You were right about the
35. 1:22water.
36. 1:23Second problem, the stairs.
37. 1:26The lifts are dead, so nothing rides up.
38. 1:28But, they can climb. They are just slow.
39. 1:31You push the couch against the door,
40. 1:33then the bookshelf. Then, you sit very
41. 1:36still, and you listen.
42. 1:38First rule of a siege, noise is a dinner
43. 1:40bell. No music, no shouting. Shoes off.
44. 1:46From up here, you can see the whole
45. 1:48city. [snorts]
46. 1:49Three fires, no fire engines. Third
47. 1:52problem, one of those fires is in your
48. 1:54building, floor 11. Smoke climbs faster
49. 1:57than anything dead. You cannot go down.
50. 2:00So, you soak towels and seal the gaps
51. 2:03around the door. In a tower fire, smoke
52. 2:05kills more people than flames. By night,
53. 2:08it burns itself out against the
54. 2:09concrete. It cost you 4 gallons you
55. 2:12could not spare.
56. 2:15It rains. You put every bowl you own on
57. 2:18the window ledge. You win back 3
58. 2:20gallons. Across the street, on the roof
59. 2:22of the bank, someone has painted a
60. 2:24message in white. You need binoculars to
61. 2:27read it. It says, "Count them." So, you
62. 2:30go to the peephole and you count.
63. 2:32Yesterday, there were four in the
64. 2:34hallway. Today, there are nine. They are
65. 2:37not wandering. Every one of them is
66. 2:39facing your door. And behind you, from
67. 2:42inside the flat, something knocks twice
68. 2:44on the bathroom wall.
69. 2:47You stand in the bathroom doorway
70. 2:49holding a frying pan. The knocking comes
71. 2:51again.
72. 2:52Two. Then three. It is not coming from
73. 2:55the bath. It is coming from the pipes.
74. 2:58Behind the wall panel is the service
75. 3:00shaft. Every flat on this side shares
76. 3:02it. Someone next door is tapping on it.
77. 3:05You tap back with a spoon.
78. 3:07Three. A pause. Then, from the other
79. 3:10side, three.
80. 3:12For the first time in 10 days, you are
81. 3:14not alone.
82. 3:17New problem, and nobody warns you about
83. 3:20this one. The toilet stopped flushing on
84. 3:22day three. So, a bucket, a bag, a lid,
85. 3:27and it stays far away from the bathtub.
86. 3:29In long sieges, dirty water has killed
87. 3:32more people than the fighting.
88. 3:3433 gallons. 14 days of food.
89. 3:39You open the window. 3 m away, she opens
90. 3:42hers. Red glasses. She has not spoken to
91. 3:45anyone in 13 days, either. You cannot
92. 3:48reach each other. So, you build a ferry.
93. 3:51A rope, a bucket, and a coat hanger. She
94. 3:54is down to her last two gallons. You
95. 3:56send a full jug across. She sends back
96. 3:59the one thing you do not have, a radio
97. 4:02and a bag of batteries. Two people. From
98. 4:05today, everything runs out twice as
99. 4:07fast.
100. 4:09You are sick of cold beans, and there is
101. 4:12a camping stove in the cupboard. Do not
102. 4:15light it. You sealed this flat against
103. 4:17smoke. A flame in a sealed room makes
104. 4:20carbon monoxide, and you would never
105. 4:22smell it coming. Cold beans it is. Half
106. 4:24a tin each.
107. 4:26At night, the radio finds a voice.
108. 4:28Survivors are gathering at the stadium.
109. 4:30Come on foot. Bring nothing. She wants
110. 4:33to go. You think about the hallway.
111. 4:38On the bank roof, there is a second
112. 4:39message. Shorter this time. It says,
113. 4:42"Roof." You answer with a shaving
114. 4:45mirror. On a clear day, a flash of
115. 4:47sunlight carries for miles. Three
116. 4:50flashes. You wait. The figure on the
117. 4:52roof flashes back, twice.
118. 4:56You stop counting at 23. They do not
119. 4:59leave. They do not sleep. They lean.
120. 5:03At night, the door begins to creak. A
121. 5:06door does not break in the middle. It
122. 5:08breaks at the latch and the frame. So,
123. 5:10that is where you brace it. A bed plank,
124. 5:13wedged at 45° between the door frame and
125. 5:16the floor. It buys you days, not weeks.
126. 5:2015 gallons. Eight days of food, if you
127. 5:24can call half a tin a day food. But, a
128. 5:26tower like this keeps water on the roof.
129. 5:29A tank, thousands of gallons for the
130. 5:31fire system. The roof is four floors up.
131. 5:34The stairs are full. That leaves the
132. 5:36shaft. Pipes, dust, and an iron rung
133. 5:40every half meter. The same shaft she
134. 5:42knocked on. It goes all the way up.
135. 5:46First, the hallway. Rule one said noise
136. 5:49is a dinner bell. Time to ring it. You
137. 5:52wind the alarm, set it for two minutes,
138. 5:54and drop it down the rubbish chute. 30
139. 5:56floors down, it starts to ring. In the
140. 5:59hallway, every head turns. 23 becomes
141. 6:02four. You both climb. Four floors. Three
142. 6:06points of contact, always. Two hands and
143. 6:08a foot, or two feet and a hand. At the
144. 6:11top, there is a hatch. It is not locked.
145. 6:15Sky, wind, and a steel tank the size of
146. 6:19a bus. The gauge says half full, 5,000
147. 6:23gallons. Water is solved. Food is not.
148. 6:27You paint your own message on the roof
149. 6:28in strokes 3 m tall. From up here, you
150. 6:31can finally see the bank roof properly.
151. 6:34The figure waves with both arms, then
152. 6:36points, again and again, at its own ear.
153. 6:40You do not understand. Not yet.
154. 6:44The first night outside nearly ends you
155. 6:46both. Up here, the wind strips the heat
156. 6:49out of you faster than cold alone ever
157. 6:51could. So, you build low. A windbreak of
158. 6:54vent covers and a tarpaulin on the
159. 6:56sheltered side of the tank, and
160. 6:58cardboard underneath. The ground steals
161. 7:00more heat than the air does. You sleep 4
162. 7:03hours. It feels like a holiday.
163. 7:07The bank roof is empty. The paint tin is
164. 7:09lying on its side. The last message is
165. 7:12not finished. Three words. Do not trust.
166. 7:17The radio says the stadium is safe. It
167. 7:20says so every hour in the same voice
168. 7:22with the same pause in the same place.
169. 7:25She wants to go. You want to know how
170. 7:27that sentence ends.
171. 7:30Pigeons roost on the tank every evening.
172. 7:33You look at them. She looks at you. You
173. 7:35are not there yet. Half a tin a day each
174. 7:38is about 200 calories. A body needs 10
175. 7:41times that. In a week, you will be too
176. 7:44weak to climb.
177. 7:46On the 30th night, the door finally
178. 7:49goes. They pour into a flat with nobody
179. 7:52in it. You hear it from four floors up,
180. 7:54sitting on the hatch with everything
181. 7:56heavy you could find. Two days of food,
182. 7:59a city of them below. And on the bank
183. 8:01roof, a light comes on. Someone has
184. 8:04finished the message. Do not trust the
185. 8:06radio. She is already holding it, and it
186. 8:09has started talking again.