Zombie Outbreak Ep. 5: You Got Them Out (Day 121) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01Half the key is in your hand. The other half is in the lock.
2. 0:05Behind the bars, Ines looks at you as if you can put them back together.
3. 0:09You cannot.
4. 0:10Behind them, brown water covers the lower stairs. The archive and the supplies you left there are out of reach.
5. 0:17The upper landing is still dry.
6. 0:19Through the street gate, the crossing to the next building is clear. For now.
7. 0:25Day one hundred and twenty. Four litres between three bags. Four days of food for three at the old ration. Your friend and Ines inside. You outside.
8. 0:36The cable hangs loose above the doorway. One corner of the grille has bitten into its bent track.
9. 0:41You pull until your hands hurt. Nothing moves.
10. 0:45Your friend stops looking at the key. She points past your shoulder.
11. 0:49You put the broken key bow in your pocket.
12. 0:51The van.
13. 0:54The passenger door opens. Nobody is inside.
14. 0:57You search below the seat. A tool tray. A folded jack, its winding rod, and a heavy wheel wrench.
15. 1:04You take all three. You leave the ignition alone.
16. 1:07At the grille, your friend presses her palms against the bars. Ines watches the street gate.
17. 1:13The wrench will not repair the broken cable. You use it to work at the bent lip gripping the lower corner.
18. 1:19The first attempt slips. Metal rings across the yard.
19. 1:23All three of you stop.
20. 1:24Beyond the closed street gate, a shape stops at the far end of the lane.
21. 1:28Its head turns towards the sound.
22. 1:31Then it starts walking towards the yard.
23. 1:34The gate is still closed. But every minute spent here brings it closer to the crossing you need.
24. 1:39You cannot go back through the flooded rooms. You need this way out.
25. 1:43You try again. The corner moves a little.
26. 1:46Then all three of you lift.
27. 1:48The grille rises just far enough for the folded jack. You slide it beneath the lower rail. Your friend and Ines keep holding until the jack takes the weight.
28. 1:57Every turn raises another sliver of daylight.
29. 2:00You work a loose, broken paving block out of the yard and wedge it beneath the rail beside the jack.
30. 2:06The opening is low. You will have to crawl.
31. 2:09This is not the exit you practised.
32. 2:11It is the one you have.
33. 2:14The bags come first, with the dry blankets strapped to them. One. Two. Three.
34. 2:21You pull them clear and count again.
35. 2:23Your friend lies flat. Ines holds the bars above her while you help her through.
36. 2:28Then your friend takes your place beside the opening. The two of you guide Ines out.
37. 2:33Her cap catches. She leaves it behind for a second, reaches back, and pulls it free.
38. 2:38When she stands, you count the people too.
39. 2:40Three.
40. 2:41You leave the jack, its rod and the block holding the gap. You keep the wrench.
41. 2:46The bank is behind you. The window you saw eight days ago is still open across the lane.
42. 2:52Beyond the street gate, the infected moves behind the parked cars. It is closer now.
43. 2:57The crossing is still open. You gather the bags before that changes.
44. 3:03You check the lane through the bars. Parked cars and the brick corner hide the approaching infected.
45. 3:09Straight across, the shattered shopfront is still clear.
46. 3:12You listen, then open one leaf slowly.
47. 3:16You go first, carrying your bag and the wrench. Your friend follows. Ines is last.
48. 3:22Her bag catches on the gate.
49. 3:24The infected from the lane steps around the brick corner outside.
50. 3:27Close enough that Ines cannot turn before it reaches her.
51. 3:30Your friend goes back. She pushes Ines clear and puts herself between them.
52. 3:35From your side, the infected blocks her right arm.
53. 3:38Its teeth close on her forearm.
54. 3:41You see her fall against the wall. You do not see why.
55. 3:45You strike the back of its head with the wrench. It drops. You pull both women away before it can get up.
56. 3:51Your friend keeps her right arm pressed behind her bag.
57. 3:54Ines is shaking too hard to speak.
58. 3:56Nobody notices which hand your friend uses to hold her.
59. 4:01The next building has a shattered shopfront. You stand outside it and listen.
60. 4:06No movement. No answer when you tap the frame.
61. 4:09You enter together. Check the ground-floor rooms, then the stairs.
62. 4:14Upstairs, daylight comes through the open window you saw from the yard. A stockroom. Empty shelves, a table, two chairs.
63. 4:22You check behind the door and beneath the table before anyone sits.
64. 4:25The door has a bolt on this side. It slides into place.
65. 4:29You close the window. The ceiling light stays dark.
66. 4:32For the first time since the storm, all three of you can put your bags down.
67. 4:37Your friend goes behind the shelving to take off her wet outer blanket. Beneath it, the spare one in her bag is still dry.
68. 4:43There, alone, she looks at her arm.
69. 4:46Two curved rows of wounds. She tears a strip from the dry blanket, presses it over them, and wraps it tight.
70. 4:53When she comes back, you ask about the cloth.
71. 4:56A scrape on the grille, she tells you.
72. 4:58You look at the wrap. Then at the wrench still in your hand.
73. 5:03You believe her.
74. 5:06Ines takes her hand. The uninjured one.
75. 5:09She thanks her for going back.
76. 5:11Your friend looks at the door instead of her face.
77. 5:14You once watched an injured neighbour through a peephole and left him outside.
78. 5:18Your friend remembers that story.
79. 5:20She could tell you now. Show you the marks. Ask you to let her stay.
80. 5:24Instead, she pulls the blanket over her arm.
81. 5:27She is afraid of what the two of you will do when you know.
82. 5:30So she leaves you ignorant.
83. 5:33At noon, you measure out half a litre each.
84. 5:37By evening, the three bags hold two and a half litres altogether.
85. 5:41You share another litre between you. One and a half remains.
86. 5:45You keep the bottles capped beside the door. There is no water here you have counted as safe.
87. 5:51Tonight you each eat one daily portion at the old ration. Nine individual portions remain packed.
88. 5:58The food goes down slowly. Ines keeps looking at the window, though you have closed it.
89. 6:03Your friend eats. She follows the conversation. When you ask if she can take the middle watch, she says yes.
90. 6:10You take the first. She takes the second. Ines takes the last.
91. 6:15The wrench stays within reach of whoever is awake.
92. 6:18You check the bolt once more.
93. 6:20Then you let them sleep.
94. 6:23Around midnight, you wake your friend gently.
95. 6:26She sits up, puts on her red glasses, and asks whether anything moved outside.
96. 6:32Nothing you could see.
97. 6:34She checks the bolt herself. You show her where the wrench lies beside the chair.
98. 6:39Ines is asleep on a folded blanket beside it.
99. 6:42Your friend sits down. You lie on the other side of the table.
100. 6:47She watches you until your eyes close.
101. 6:49Then her fingers begin to shake.
102. 6:52She folds them beneath the blanket.
103. 6:55There is no clock telling her how long she has.
104. 6:59She loosens the wrap and looks again. The skin around the wounds has changed.
105. 7:04Now she knows the scrape will not explain it.
106. 7:07She stands. One step towards you.
107. 7:11Then Ines moves in her sleep, reaching towards the chair.
108. 7:15Your friend stops.
109. 7:16She looks at the bolted door. At the strip of black beneath it.
110. 7:21She could wake you. She could tell you everything she kept back.
111. 7:25She sits down instead.
112. 7:27She wants a little more time in the room with you both.
113. 7:30Her chin drops.
114. 7:32For a while, she does not move.
115. 7:34Then she lifts her head and looks at Ines.
116. 7:37The glasses are the same.
117. 7:39Everything behind them has changed.
118. 7:43The chair scrapes. You wake.
119. 7:46Your friend is already out of it. Ines is within reach on the floor.
120. 7:51Her teeth close on Ines's throat before Ines can sit up.
121. 7:54You scramble round the table. The wrench is beside the empty chair.
122. 7:58Ines makes one short sound.
123. 8:01You hit your friend. She turns towards you without letting go.
124. 8:05You hit her again.
125. 8:06This time she falls across the chair. You keep striking until she stops moving.
126. 8:11Her glasses slide beneath the table.
127. 8:16The attack took seconds. You spend much longer kneeling beside Ines.
128. 8:22You fold your scarf against the wound and call her name.
129. 8:25Her eyes find you once.
130. 8:27You tell her both of them got through the grille. You tell her you are here.
131. 8:32You keep saying it after she has stopped breathing.
132. 8:36When you lift your friend's blanket, the wrap has come loose.
133. 8:40You see the bite.
134. 8:41Not the grille. Not a scrape.
135. 8:44She knew enough to hide it. You did not know enough to keep Ines away from her.
136. 8:49You do not know whether Ines will rise. You cannot leave her here to find out.
137. 8:54You take up the wrench once more.
138. 8:58When it is done, you cover her face with the white cap she nearly lost beneath the bars.
139. 9:03Then you retrieve your friend's glasses. One lens is broken.
140. 9:08You place them beside her headband and cover her too.
141. 9:11You sit between the two blankets until the window turns grey.
142. 9:16At dawn, you empty all three bags. Every remaining bottle and food portion goes into yours.
143. 9:23One and a half litres. Nine daily portions at the old ration.
144. 9:28Yesterday, that was food for three people.
145. 9:31You reach for the second bag before you remember.
146. 9:34You leave it beside Ines.
147. 9:36You leave the folded bank plan with her too. She brought you this far.
148. 9:40The scarf stays where you pressed it against her neck.
149. 9:43You take the wrench. At the doorway, you turn once.
150. 9:47Red glasses. White cap. Two covered faces.
151. 9:51Then you close the door and walk down the checked stairs alone.
152. 9:55For one hundred and twenty days, you counted what it would take to keep living.
153. 10:00Now there is enough food to carry without sharing the load.
154. 10:03You got them out.
155. 10:05You didn't save them.
156. 10:08The Collectors made you leave.
157. 10:11Ines and your friend paid for it.
158. 10:14Ahead, a sign points toward the stadium.
159. 10:18You follow it.
160. 10:20The Collectors will pay.