28 DAYS LATER
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...
INT. SURGICAL CHAMBER - NIGHT
...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.
INT. BRIGHT CORRIDOR - NIGHT
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.
INT. LABORATORY - NIGHT
The Activists enter the laboratory.
CHIEF ACTIVIST
Fucking hell...
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.
2.
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.
FEMALE ACTIVIST
Oh God...
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.
CHIEF ACTIVIST
(to Female Activist)
Keep your shit together. If we're
going to get them out of here...
The Finnish Activist is checking the perspex cages.
FINNISH ACTIVIST
I can pop these, no problem.
CHIEF ACTIVIST
So get to it.
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.
SCIENTIST
Security! We have a break-in! Get
to sector...
A hand slams down the disconnect button.
SCIENTIST
...nine.
The Chief Activist plucks the receiver from the Scientist's
hands, and then rips the telephone from the wall.
A beat.
3.
SCIENTIST
I know who you are, I know what you
think you're doing, but you have to
listen to me. You can't release
these animals.
CHIEF ACTIVIST
If you don't want to get hurt, shut
your mouth, and don't move a
fucking muscle.
SCIENTIST
(BLURTS)
The chimps are infected!
The Activists hesitate, exchanging a glance.
SCIENTIST
(continuing; stumbling,
FLUSTERED)
These animals are highly
contagious. They've been given an
inhibitor.
CHIEF ACTIVIST
Infected with what?
SCIENTIST
Chemically restricted, locked down
to a... a single impulse that...
CHIEF ACTIVIST
Infected with what?
The Scientist hesitates before answering.
SCIENTIST
Rage.
Behind the Activists, the bank of monitors show the faces of
the machete-wielding crowd.
SCIENTIST
(desperately trying to
EXPLAIN)
In order to cure, you must first
understand. Just imagine: to have
power over all the things we feel
we can't control. Anger,
violence...
FINNISH ACTIVIST
What the fuck is he talking about?
4.
CHIEF ACTIVIST
We don't have time for this shit!
Get the cages open!
SCIENTIST
No!
CHIEF ACTIVIST
We're going, you sick bastard, and
we're taking your torture victims
with us.
SCIENTIST
NO! You must listen! The animals
are contagious! The infection is in
their blood and saliva! One bite
and...
FEMALE ACTIVIST
They won't bite me.
The Female Activist crouches down to face the wild eyes of
the infected chimp behind the perspex.
SCIENTIST
STOP! You have no idea!
The Scientist makes a desperate lunge towards her, but the
Chief Activist grabs him.
FEMALE ACTIVIST
Good boy. You don't want to bite
me, do you?
The Female Activist gives a final benign smile, then the
Finnish Activist pops open the door.
SCIENTIST
NO!
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.
FEMALE ACTIVIST
(SHRIEKING)
Get it off! Get if off!
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.
5.
Behind him, the Female Activist has started to scream. She
doubles up, clutching the side of her head.
FEMALE ACTIVIST
I'm burning! Jesus! Help me!
SCIENTIST
We have to kill her!
FEMALE ACTIVIST
I'm burning! I'm burning!
CHIEF ACTIVIST
What's...
SCIENTIST
We have to kill her NOW!
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.
CHIEF ACTIVIST
What's wrong with them?
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.
SCIENTIST
Oh God.
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.
INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT
Another ACTIVIST makes his way down the corridor towards the
lab.
ACTIVIST
(HISSES)
Terry? Jemma?
6.
No answer.
ACTIVIST
Mika? Where are you?
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.
ACTIVIST
Bloody hell.
The Infected rush him.
FADE TO BLACK.
TITLE:
28 DAYS LATER
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON
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.
JIM
Ow...
His voice is hoarse, his mouth dry. Massaging his throat, he
walks to the door.
7.
INT. COMA WARD - LATE AFTERNOON
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.
INT. HOSPITAL WARDS - LATE AFTERNOON
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.
EXT. HOSPITAL - LATE AFTERNOON
Jim exits and walks out into the bright daylight of the
forecourt. The camera begins to pull away from him.
JIM
Hello?
Aside from a quiet rush of wind, there is silence. No
traffic, no engines, no movement. Not even birdsong.
EXT. LONDON - SUNDOWN
Jim walks through the empty city, from St. Thomas's Hospital,
over Westminster Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament, down
Whitehall, to Trafalgar Square.
8.
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.
EXT. CENTRAL LONDON ROAD/CHURCH - NIGHT
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.
INT. CHURCH - NIGHT
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.
INT. CHURCH - STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Jim moves up a stairwell.
Written large on the wall is a single line of graffiti:
REPENT. THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH
INT. CHURCH - GALLERY LEVEL - NIGHT
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.
9.
JIM
...Hello?
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.
JIM
Father?
The Priest is half way across the gallery
JIM
Father, what are you...
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.
JIM
Jesus!
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.
JIM
Oh, that, was bad, that was bad...
I shouldn't have done that...
He breaks into a run...
INT. CHURCH - STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Down the stairwell...
10.
INT. CHURCH - NIGHT
...into the front entrance, where the locked door now strains
under the blows of the Infected inside.
JIM
Shit.
EXT. CHURCH - NIGHT
Jim sprints down the stone steps.
As he reaches the bottom the doors are broken open, and the
Infected give chase.
EXT. CENTRAL LONDON ROAD - NIGHT
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.
11.
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.
EXT. SIDE STREET - NIGHT
Selena and Mark lead Jim into a side street.
JIM
(DAZED)
Those people! Who were... who...
MARK
This way! Move it!
Jim allows himself to be hurried along.
EXT. SHOP - NIGHT
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.
INT. SHOP - NIGHT
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.
INT. NEWSAGENT - NIGHT
Jim, Mark and Selena enter the newsagent's and pull down the
grill.
MARK
A man walks into a bar with a
giraffe. They each get pissed. The
giraffe falls over. The man goes to
leave and the barman says, you
can't leave that lying there. The
man says, it's not a lion. It's a
giraffe.
12.
Silence.
Mark pulls off his mask and turns to Selena.
MARK
He's completely humorless. You two
will get along like a house on
fire.
Selena, who has already taken off her mask, ignores Mark.
SELENA
Who are you? You've come from a
hospital.
MARK
Are you a doctor?
SELENA
He's not a doctor. He's a patient.
JIM
I'm a bicycle courier. I was riding
a package from Farringdon to
Shaftesbury Avenue. A car cut
across me... and then I wake up in
hospital, today... I wake up and
I'm hallucinating, or...
MARK
What's your name?
JIM
Jim.
MARK
I'm Mark. This is Selena.
(BEAT)
Okay, Jim. We've got some bad news.
Selena starts to tell her story, and as the story unfolds we
see the images she describes.
SELENA
It began as rioting. And right from
the beginning, you knew something
bad was going on because the
rioters were killing people. And
then it wasn't on the TV anymore.
It was in the street outside. It
was coming through your windows. We
all guessed it was a virus. An
infection. You didn't need a doctor
to tell you that. It was the blood.
13.
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
Where are your families?
MARK
They're dead.
SELENA
Yours will be dead too.
JIM
No... No! I'm going to find them.
They live in Greenwich. I can walk.
(heading for the exit)
I'm going to... to go and...
SELENA
You'll go and come back.
JIM
(pulling at the grill)
Yes! I'll go and come back.
MARK
Rules of survival. Lesson one - you
never go anywhere alone, unless
you've got no choice. Lesson two -
you only move during daylight,
unless you've got no choice. We'll
take you tomorrow. Then we'll all
go and find your dead parents.
Okay?
EXT. TRAIN TRACKS - DAY
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.
14.
MARK
How's your head? Fucked?
No reply.
MARK
(gesturing at the city)
I know where your head is. You're
looking at these windows, these
millions of windows, and you're
thinking - there's no way this many
people are dead. It's just too many
windows.
Mark picks up a handbag from the tracks.
MARK
The person who owned this bag.
Can't be dead.
Mark reaches in and starts to pull things out as they walk,
discarding the personal possessions.
MARK
A woman - (car keys) - who drove a
Nissan Micra - (teddy) - and had a
little teddy bear - (condoms) - and
carried protection, just in case.
Marks tosses the condoms behind him.
MARK
(DRY)
Believe me, we won't need them
anymore than she will.
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.
15.
Jim drops the phone and breaks into a run - running past Mark
and Selena.
MARK
(HISSING)
Hey!
EXT. GREENWICH COMMON - DAY
Jim, Selena and Mark jog across Greenwich Common. Jim
gestures towards one of the streets on the far side of the
green.
JIM
(LOW VOICE)
Down there. Westlink Street. Second
on the left.
EXT. WESTLINK STREET - DAY
The street is modest red-brick semi-detached houses. They
stand outside Number 43. Jim waits while Selena scans the
dark facade.
SELENA
If there's anyone in there who
isn't human...
JIM
I understand.
SELENA
Anyone.
JIM
I understand.
Selena shoots a glance at Jim. Jim is gazing at the house.
MARK
Okay.
EXT. BACK GARDEN - DAY
Jim uses the key under the flowerpot to open the back door.
INT. HOUSE - DAY
Jim, Selena and Mark move quietly through the kitchen and the
downstairs of the house.
16.
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.
MARK
(WHISPERS)
Wait.
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.
INT. BATHROOM - DAY
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.
INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY
Jim, Selena and Mark sit in the living room, on the two
sofas. Jim looks dazed, uncomprehending. Selena watches Jim,
her expression neutral.
SELENA
They died peacefully. You should be
grateful.
JIM
I'm not grateful.
Jim's words hang a moment. Then Mark talks, simply,
unemotionally, matter-of-fact throughout.
17.
MARK
The roads out were all jammed. So
we went to Paddington Station.
Hoping: maybe we could get to
Heathrow, maybe buy our way on a
plane. My dad had all this cash,
even though cash was already
useless, and Mum had her jewellery.
But twenty thousand other people
had the same idea.
(A MOMENT)
The crowd was surging, and I lost
my grip on my sister's hand. I
remember realizing the ground was
soft. I looked down, and I was
standing on people. Like a carpet,
people who had fallen, and...
somewhere in the crowd there were
infected. It spread fast, no one
could run, all you could do was
climb. Over more people. So I did
that. I got up, somehow, on top of
a kiosk.
(A MOMENT)
Looking down, you couldn't tell
which faces were infected and which
weren't. With the blood, the
screaming, they all looked the
same. And I saw my dad. Not my mum
or my sister. But I saw my dad. His
face.
A short silence.
MARK
Selena's right. You should be
grateful.
SELENA
We don't have time to get back to
the shop before dark. We should
stay here tonight.
Jim nods. He isn't sure what he wants to say.
JIM
My old room was at the end of the
landing. You two take it. I'll
sleep down here.
SELENA
We'll sleep in the same room. It's
safer.
18.
EXT. LONDON - DAY TO NIGHT
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.
INT. HOUSE - NIGHT
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.
INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT
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.
FLASH CUT TO:
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
(draining the carton, and
giving it a shake)
It's empty.
CUT BACK TO:
19.
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.
JIM
(SCREAMS)
Help!
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.
JIM
It's Mr. Bridges...
Selena turns to Jim. She is hyperventilating too, but there
is control and steel in her voice.
20.
SELENA
Were you bitten?
JIM
He lives four doors down...
Jim turns to the Girl sprawled half way through the window.
JIM
That's his daughter...
SELENA
Were you bitten?
Jim looks at her. Selena is still holding her machete at the
ready.
JIM
No... No! I wasn't!
SELENA
Did any of the blood get in your
mouth?
JIM
No!
SELENA
Mark?
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.
MARK
Wait.
But Selena is swiping with her machete. Mark lifts his arm
instinctively, defensively, and the blade sinks in.
Selena immediately yanks it back.
MARK
DON'T!
Selena swipes again - and the blade catches Mark hard in the
side of the head. Mark falls.
21.
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.
SELENA
Get that cleaned off.
Jim picks up the rag and hurriedly starts to wipe the
Infected's blood from around his neck.
SELENA
Do you have any clothes here?
JIM
(fazed, frightened of her)
I... I don't know. I think so.
SELENA
Then get them. And get dressed. We
have to leave, now.
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.
SELENA
More infected will be coming. They
always do.
EXT. HOUSE - NIGHT
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.
EXT. LONDON ROAD - NIGHT
Jim and Selena walk: fast, alert. But something is not being
said between them... until Jim breaks the silence.
JIM
(QUIET)
How did you know?
Selena says nothing. Continues walking.
JIM
(INSISTENT)
How did you know he was infected?
22.
SELENA
The blood.
JIM
The blood was everywhere. On me, on
you, and...
SELENA
(CUTTING IN)
I didn't know he was infected.
Okay? I didn't know. He knew. I
could see it in his face.
(A MOMENT)
You need to understand, if someone
gets infected, you've got somewhere
between ten and twenty seconds to
kill them. They might be your
brother or your sister or your
oldest friend. It makes no
difference Just so as you know, if
it happens to you, I'll do it in a
heartbeat.
A moment.
JIM
How long had you known him?
SELENA
Five days. Or six. Does it matter?
Jim says nothing.
SELENA
He was full of plans. Long-distance
weapons, so they don't get close. A
newsagent's with a metal grill, so
you can sleep. Petrol bombs, so the
blood doesn't splash.
Selena looks at Jim dispassionately.
SELENA
Got a plan yet, Jim? You want us to
find a cure and save the world? Or
fall in love and fuck?
Selena looks away again.
SELENA
Plans are pointless. Staying alive
is as good as it gets.
Silence.
23.
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.
SELENA
Shhh.
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.
INT. TOWER BLOCK - NIGHT
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.
JIM
Let's hope we don't have to get out
of here in a hurry.
She begins to climb through.
INT. TOWER BLOCK - NIGHT
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.
24.
SELENA
Need a break?
JIM
(completely out of breath)
No. You?
SELENA
No.
They continue a few steps.
JIM
I do need a break, by the way.
Selena nods. They stop on the stairs. Jim slips off his
backpack and sits, pulling a face as he does so...
SELENA
What's up?
JIM
Nothing.
She gives him a cut-the-crap expression.
JIM
I've got a headache.
SELENA
Bad?
JIM
Pretty bad.
SELENA
Why didn't you say something
before?
JIM
Because I didn't think you'd give a
shit.
A moment, where it's unclear how Selena will react to this.
Then she slips off her own backpack.
SELENA
(going through the bag)
You've got no fat on you, and all
you've had to eat is sugar. So
you're crashing. Unfortunately,
there isn't a lot we can do about
that...
25.
Selena starts to produce a wide selection of pills, looted
from a chemist.
SELENA
...except pump you full
painkillers, and give you more
sugar to eat.
She holds up a bottle of codeine tablets, and passes it to
Jim.
SELENA
As for the sugar: Lilt or Tango?
JIM
(CHEWING CODEINE)
...Do you have Sprite?
SELENA
Actually, I did have a can of
Sprite, but...
Suddenly there is a loud scream, coming from somewhere lower
down the building. Jim and Selena both make a grab for their
weapons.
JIM
Jesus!
SELENA
Quiet.
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.
SELENA
That's an infected.
Then, the sound of metal scraping, clattering the blockade.
SELENA
They're in.
INT. SHOPPING TROLLEY BLOCKADE - NIGHT
Two Infected, a Young Asian Guy and a Young White Guy, moving
with amazing speed over the blockade.
26.
INT. STAIRS - NIGHT
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
Come on!
JIM
(out of breath, barely
able to speak)
I can't.
Selena continues, and Jim looks over the edge of the
stairwell, to the landing below...
...where the two Infected appear, tearing around the corner.
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
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.
MAN
Down the corridor! Flat 157!
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.
27.
INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT
Jim and Selena run towards Flat 157. The door is open, but as
they approach, it suddenly slams shut.
JIM AND SELENA
(hammering on the door)
Let us in!
GIRL (O.S.)
Who is it?
SELENA
Let us in!
The door opens a fraction, on the chain. The face of a girl
appears. She is fourteen, pale, solemn-faced.
GIRL
Where's Dad?
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.
MAN
(CALLS BACK)
It's okay, Hannah. Let them inside.
The door closes, we hear the chain being slipped off, then it
opens again.
INT. FLAT - NIGHT
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.
28.
MAN
Come in, come in.
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.
INT. FLAT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
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.
MAN
So... I'm Frank, anyway.
He extends his hand to Jim and Selena. Jim hesitates very
briefly, then shakes it.
JIM
I'm Jim.
SELENA
Selena.
Frank beams, and suddenly he seems much less frightening and
imposing. If anything, he is just as nervous as Jim and
Selena.
FRANK
Jim and Selena. Good to meet you.
And this is my daughter, Hannah.
(turning to Hannah)
...Come on, sweetheart. Say hello.
Hannah takes a step into the room, but says nothing.
FRANK
So... so this is great. Just great.
It calls for a celebration.
29.
I'd say. Why don't you all sit
down, and... Hannah, what have we
got to offer?
HANNAH
(QUIETLY)
We've got Mum's creme de menthe.
An awkward beat.
FRANK
Yes, her creme de menthe. Great.
Look, sit, please. Get comfortable.
Sit tight while I get it.
Frank exits. Selena, Jim and Hannah all stand, until Selena
gestures at the sofa.
SELENA
Shall we?
Jim and Selena take the sofa. Hannah stays standing.
FRANK (O.S.)
Where are the bloody glasses?
HANNAH
Middle cupboard.
FRANK (O.S.)
No! The good ones! This is a
celebration!
HANNAH
Top cupboard.
Another short, uncomfortable pause. Hannah looks at Jim and
Selena from her position near the doorway. Her expression is
blank and unreadable.
JIM
This is your place, then.
Hannah nods.
JIM
It's nice.
Hannah nods again.
Frank re-enters. Frank is beaming, holding the creme de
menthe, and four wine glasses.
30.
FRANK
There! I know it isn't much but...
well, cheers!
EXT. TOWER BLOCK - NIGHT
The moon shines above the tower block.
INT. FLAT - NIGHT
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.
FRANK
Normally we keep the windows
covered at night, because the light
attracts them. But when we saw your
petrol station fire, we knew it had
to be survivors... So we hooked up
the Christmas tree lights. Like a
beacon.
Finished with the sofa, he sits on the armchair.
SELENA
We're grateful.
FRANK
Well, we're grateful you came. I
was starting to really worry. Like
I say, we haven't seen any sign of
anyone normal for a while now.
JIM
There aren't any others in the
building?
Frank shakes his head.
SELENA
And you haven't seen any people
outside?
Frank's eyes flick to Hannah.
FRANK
We haven't left the block for more
than two weeks. Stayed right here.
Only sensible thing to do. Everyone
who went out...
31.
SELENA
Didn't come back.
FRANK
And there's two hundred flats here.
Most of them have a few cans of
food, or cereal, or something.
SELENA
It's a good set-up.
FRANK
It isn't bad.
He puts a hand on Hannah's shoulder, and gives it a squeeze.
FRANK
We've got by, haven't we?
INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT
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.
FRANK (O.S.)
You okay in there, Jim?
JIM
Yes. Fine.
FRANK (O.S.)
Sorry we couldn't spare the water
but... it's the same with the
toilet. The, er, flush doesn't
work. I'm afraid you have to use
the bucket.
Jim opens the door.
FRANK
Have to empty it each morning. We
just chuck it over the balcony...
No mod cons here.
JIM
It's fine.
32.
FRANK
...Well, look, it's pretty late.
I'm going to turn in. We've got a
spare room. Are you and Selena...?
JIM
I'll take the living room.
FRANK
Oh, right. I mean, yes... So, good
night then, anyway.
JIM
Good night, Frank.
Frank smiles, and heads to his bedroom.
INT. FLAT - NIGHT
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.
SELENA
Very spruce.
JIM
Very shredded.
SELENA
Uh-huh.
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.
JIM
So what do you make of them?
SELENA
They're desperate. Probably need us
more than we need them.
JIM
...I think they're good people.
SELENA
Good people?
JIM
Yeah.
33.
SELENA
Well, that's nice. But you should
be more concerned about whether
they're going to slow you down.
JIM
Right. Because if they slowed you
down...
SELENA
I'd leave them behind.
JIM
In a heartbeat.
SELENA
Yeah.
JIM
I wouldn't.
SELENA
Then you're going to wind up
getting yourself killed.
A moment. Then Selena stands.
SELENA
I'm going to get some sleep.
JIM
Selena - you think I don't get it.
But I do get it. And I know I'd be
dead already if I hadn't met you.
Selena hesitates at the door - then turns.
SELENA
Sure.
JIM
No, look - I mean thank you.
SELENA
And I mean sure. Good night, Jim.
She exits, leaving Jim alone.
JIM
Good night.
Jim walks around the room, blowing out the candles. He leaves
one burning beside the sofa.
34.
Then he slides open the French doors and exits out onto the
balcony.
EXT. BALCONY - NIGHT
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.
INT. FLAT - EARLY MORNING
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
Morning, Jim.
JIM
Morning.
FRANK
Listen, have you got a minute?
EXT. TOWER BLOCK ROOF - EARLY MORNING
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
We lost water pressure three weeks
ago. For a while, I thought we'd be
okay with the water in the other
flats. The cistern and tanks. But
it vanishes so quick you wouldn't
believe. You drink it, it
evaporates, turns stagnant...
JIM
(looking at the pans)
They're all empty...
FRANK
It hasn't rained in over a week.
Frank sits, watching Jim.
35.
FRANK
You can set up a plastic sheet to
catch dew and condensation. Trap it
somehow. I saw it on TV once and
I've been experimenting, but I
can't get it to work, and... you
don't happen to...
Jim shakes his head.
FRANK
You'd never think it. Needing rain
so badly... Not in fucking
England...
(he breaks off)
Jim, we don't have enough water for
and Selena.
A moment.
JIM
Right.
FRANK
No. It's not what you think.
INT. FLAT - DAY
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.
SELENA
There haven't been any broadcasts
for weeks.
FRANK
(INTERRUPTING)
Just listen.
They listen. Through the static, the sound of a voice begins
to sift through.
MALE VOICE (V.O.)
The answer to infection is here...
if you can hear this, you're not
alone... there are others like
you... other survivors... we are
soldiers, we are armed and we can
protect you...
The Male Voice fades into the static.
36.
SELENA
(AMAZED)
Soldiers.
FRANK
There's more. Listen.
MALE VOICE (V.O.)
Our location is the forty-second
blockade, M602, twenty-seven miles
north-east of Manchester... you
must find us...
FRANK
Then it just repeats.
JIM
It's a recording?
Frank switches the radio off, and produces a map of Britain,
which he opens on the table.
FRANK
It's a recording. But this is where
it's telling us to go.
Frank points to the location described.
JIM
The North...
FRANK
The way things are, we might need
two or three days to get up there.
SELENA
We.
A moment. Then Frank gives a short, embarrassed laugh.
FRANK
Sound carries in this flat. Jerry-
built, I suppose, and... me and
Hannah do need you more than you
need us.
SELENA
I wasn't -
FRANK
It's okay. Look, it's the truth. I
can't leave the block if it's just
the two of us.
37.
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.
SELENA
If it's a recording, for all we
know the soldiers who made it are
dead.
FRANK
Yes. It's possible.
SELENA
And that stuff about the answer to
infection. There is no answer to
infection. It's already done pretty
much all the damage it can.
JIM
Maybe they've got a cure.
SELENA
Maybe they've got nothing at all.
FRANK
The only way to find out is to
reach them.
SELENA
We could die trying.
HANNAH
Or die here.
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.
HANNAH
And anyway, it isn't true what Dad
said. You need us just the same as
we need you. We need each other.
And we'll never be safe in the
cities, and soldiers could keep us
safe.
She pauses for a breath.
HANNAH
So we have to try and get there.
38.
A beat.
JIM
Get there how?
CUT TO:
EXT. TOWER BLOCK - DAY
A black London cab drives fast out of the tower block's
underground garage, bursting into the daylight.
INT. CAB - DAY
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
Just so as you know. I don't take
cheques or credit cards.
EXT. CAB - DAY
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.
EXT. CAB/TUNNEL ENTRANCE - SOUTH - DAY
The cab pulls up at the entrance of a tunnel that leads under
the river Thames.
FRANK
What do you think?
SELENA
It's the most direct route to the
other side of the river.
JIM
Then we should go the indirect
route. The one in broad daylight.
That isn't underground.
FRANK
Let's just get it done.
39.
Frank floors the accelerator and they head into the tunnel.
INT. CAB - DAY
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.
JIM
I knew this was a shit idea. You
know why? Because it was really
obviously a shit idea. Driving into
a dark tunnel, full of smashed cars
and broken glass is really fucking
obviously a shit idea.
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.
JIM
Oh no.
EXT. CAB - DAY
The cab bumps up onto the barricade and drives over.
INT. CAB - DAY
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
HOLD ON!
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
Fuck.
Frank jumps out of the cab, and shines his flashlight around
the tunnel.
40.
JIM
The world's worst place to get a
flat.
FRANK
Agreed. I think we'd better do this
quick.
INT. TUNNEL - DAY
Frank opens the boot and puts the jack into Hannah's hand.
FRANK
You know what to do.
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
...You heard that?
FRANK
(from the front of the
CAB)
Heard what?
Jim is about to answer. Then is eyes widen. He looks down...
JIM
Holy shit.
A tide of rats is rushing under their feet.
FRANK
(as the rats rush around
THEM)
What the fuck?
41.
SELENA
They're running from the infected.
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.
FRANK
Hannah, get out, get out!
(to Jim and Selena)
Just lift it! LIFT IT!
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.
SELENA
(straining with the
WEIGHT)
Come on!
HANNAH
Almost there!
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.
FRANK
(SHOUTING)
Go! Go!
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.
JIM
(at the Infected)
Fuck you!
Frank slams his foot down, and they tear off.
EXT. TUNNEL EXIT - NORTH - DAY
The cab races out.
42.
FRANK
Honey, you're a cab driver's
daughter.
EXT. CAB - DAY
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.
INT. CAB - DAY
A high street. Suddenly Selena cranes around, seeing
something.
SELENA
Whoa! Stop the cab! Stop the cab!
EXT. CAB - DAY
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.
SELENA
Un. Believable.
She opens the door to the cab, holding her machete.
JIM
You're getting out?
SELENA
This place hasn't been looted. It's
a gold mine.
HANNAH
But we don't know what's in there.
SELENA
Food and drink is what's in there.
And we need it.
Selena gets out.
JIM
Wait!
43.
SELENA
I've been living off Mars Bars and
Coke for two weeks. I need some
tinned fruit.
EXT. STREET - DAY
Selena tries the door of the supermarket. It swings open.
INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY
They enter silently. All carry their weapons at the ready.
They peer down the aisles. The supermarket is empty.
SELENA
Let's shop.
INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY
Jim, Selena, Frank, and Hannah all split off with shopping
trolleys. They look like kids in a toy store.
CUT TO:
Selena taking cans off the shelves, three at a time, going
down the aisle.
SELENA
I'll have you, you, you, you...
CUT TO:
Jim taking more stuff off shelves.
Selena appears at the top of the aisle.
SELENA
Don't take anything we need to
cook.
Jim looks at the item in his hand. It is caviar.
JIM
It's okay. I think you can eat this
stuff raw.
CUT TO:
44.
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.
FRANK
Mmm. Irradiated.
CUT TO:
Selena finding Hannah by a huge array of chocolate.
SELENA
Ugh. If I never see chocolate
again, it'll be too soon.
A beat, as something catches her eye. She whips it off the
shelf.
SELENA
Not counting Terry's Chocolate
Orange, of course.
HANNAH
(taking a handful of
YORKIE BARS)
Or Yorkies.
SELENA
Or Yorkies, obviously.
CUT TO:
Jim by the drinks counter, examining the label on a bottle of
whisky, as Frank appears behind him.
FRANK
Put that back. We can't just take
any crap.
JIM
It isn't any crap. It's whisky. It
might be good to have.
FRANK
Who's arguing about whisky? I'm
saying, don't get a cheap blend.
Frank takes a bottle of Lagavulin.
FRANK
Single malt. Eighteen-year-old.
Dark, full flavor.
Jim starts to back his trolley away.
45.
FRANK
Warm, but not aggressive. Peaty
after taste.
CUT TO:
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.
EXT. STREET - DAY
The fully loaded cab drives away from the supermarket, riding
low on the suspension.
INT. CAB - DAY
The cab reaches the on-ramp to the Westway, and stops.
SELENA
We could have a problem here.
EXT. WESTWAY - DAY
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...
INT. CAB - DAY
JIM
Jesus Christ. We're never going to
be able to get out of London.
FRANK
Don't you worry about that. I've
sat twenty years in this seat. I've
got my routes.
CUT TO:
46.
EXT. CAB - DAY
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.
JIM (O.S.)
Nice cut-through.
EXT. MOTORWAY - DAY
The cab drives down the motorway. There are still vehicles
scattered crashed, but fewer and fewer as distance is gained
on the city.
INT. CAB - DAY
ON THE DASHBOARD, the needle on the fuel gauge drifts down to
the red.
INT. CAB - DAY
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.
FRANK
Okay. We either do this now, or
we're walking.
47.
EXT. CAB - DAY
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.
FRANK
If anything goes wrong, you just
drive. You put your foot down. And
go as far as you can.
No response from Hannah.
FRANK
You hear me, Hannah?
HANNAH
Yes, Dad.
Frank, Jim, and Selena begin to walk towards the service
station, holding their weapons at the ready.
EXT. LAY-BY - DAY
Cautiously, Frank, Jim and Selena approach the truck. There
is no sign of life around.
SELENA
Stay close, Jim.
JIM
...What?
SELENA
You heard.
EXT. TRUCK - DAY
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.
INT. CAB - DAY
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...
48.
EXT. TRUCK - DAY
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.
SELENA
Where are you going?
Jim points his bat in the direction of the cafe.
SELENA
We've got enough food.
JIM
We don't have any cheeseburgers.
(TO HIMSELF)
"Stay close." It's like going on
holiday with your fucking aunt.
INT. CAFE - DAY
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.
49.
Then the Infected Kid's eyes flick open. Still alive.
Jim's baseball bat swings down.
EXT. TRUCK - DAY
The can is full. Frank removes the tube.
Jim appears.
SELENA
Find anything.
Jim says nothing.
SELENA
Find anything, Jim?
JIM
No.
Selena lets it pass - and the moment is broken as Frank
stands with the can.
FRANK
Okay. We're done.
He lifts a hand to Hannah.
INT. CAB - DAY
Hannah smiles, turns the ignition, and throws the cab into
gear.
EXT. FORECOURT - DAY
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.
HANNAH
(leaning out of the
WINDOW)
I am a cab driver's daughter.
FRANK
You're Ayrton Senna's bloody
daughter.
50.
INT. CAB - DAY
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...
EXT. CAB - DAY
They pass a sign for MANCHESTER - 130 MILES.
INT. CAB - DAY
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.
EXT. CAB - DAY
The cab drives along A-roads.
INT. CAB - LATE AFTERNOON
Jim is looking through some of the bags of food.
JIM
Who's unbelievably hungry?
ALL
Me.
Jim looks out of the window. They are in completely empty,
rolling countryside, stretching for miles.
JIM
Let's have a picnic.
EXT. PICNIC SPOT - LATE AFTERNOON
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.
51.
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.
SELENA
Oh my God, yes. I can taste the
vitamin C. I can feel it in my
blood.
JIM
(cracking a bun in half)
These are great. They're like huge
biscuits.
He offers half to Hannah, who takes a bite.
HANNAH
It's true. They are like biscuits.
JIM
(COMPLETELY
unintelligible, mouth
full, spraying crumbs)
An de phraisins ar phrill moipht.
Hannah and Selena laugh.
HANNAH
(TO JIM)
What did you say?
JIM
(SWALLOWING)
I said, the raisins are still
moist.
Selena and Hannah laugh again.
FRANK
Hey.
Everyone turns.
FRANK
Look over there.
52.
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.
HANNAH
Do you think they're infected?
FRANK
No. I think they're doing just
fine.
EXT. FIELDS - LATE AFTERNOON
The horses gallop, leaping a stone wall, and away.
EXT. PICNIC SPOT - SUNSET
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.
EXT. FENCE GATE - SUNSET
Jim and Selena have walked a little distance away from the
others, and are sitting on a fence gate, looking over the
view.
JIM
You know what I was thinking?
Selena considers this a moment.
SELENA
You were thinking that you'll never
hear another piece of original
music ever again. You'll never read
a book that isn't already written.
Or see a film that isn't already
shot.
Jim smiles.
JIM
That's what you were thinking.
SELENA
No... I was thinking I was wrong.
JIM
About what?
53.
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.
SELENA
All the death, all the shit - it
doesn't really mean anything for
Frank and Hannah. Because she's got
her dad, and he's got his daughter,
so... it's okay.
A beat.
SELENA
(looking back at Jim)
I was wrong when I told you that
staying alive is as good as it
gets.
JIM
(SMILES)
That's what I was thinking.
SELENA
...Was it?
JIM
Uh-huh. You stole my thought.
Selena leans over and gives Jim a light kiss on the cheek.
SELENA
(smiling back at Jim)
Sorry.
JIM
(slightly surprised, but
PLEASED)
Ah, keep it.
EXT. PICNIC SPOT - SUNSET
Frank switches off the radio. He looks over at Hannah, who is
dozing peacefully, then over to Jim and Selena.
FRANK
(CALLING)
It's getting late. We should stay
here the night.
Jim raises a hand in reply.
54.
EXT. CAB/PICNIC SPOT - NIGHT
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...
HANNAH
Can't sleep.
JIM
Nor can I. It doesn't feel safe,
outdoors like this.
FRANK
I think we're safe enough.
A couple of moments pass.
HANNAH
...Selena didn't seem to have any
trouble.
JIM
I know. I noticed that too.
(reaching over and shaking
SELENA'S SHOULDER)
Selena...Selena!
SELENA
(EXTREMELY DROWSY)
What... what is it...
JIM
How did you manage to get to sleep?
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.
FRANK
Bloody hell. You must have needed a
hell of a prescription for that
lot.
SELENA
(DROWSY)
I didn't need a prescription. I'm a
qualified chemist.
She drops back down and goes straight back to sleep.
55.
JIM
(inspecting the bottle)
Valium. Great. Not only will it get
us to sleep, but if we get attacked
during the night, we won't even
care.
(pops the lid)
Two each?
FRANK
Not for me, thanks.
JIM
(INDICATING HANNAH)
What about...?
HANNAH
Can I, Dad?
FRANK
(DOUBTFUL)
I don't know, honey.
HANNAH
Da-ad, plee-ease. I can't sleep.
FRANK
All right, all right. Give her half
of one.
FADE TO:
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
You stupid cunt!
JIM
Fuck you!
56.
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.
CUT TO:
EXT. CAB/PICNIC SPOT - NIGHT
FRANK
(QUIETLY)
Hey.
Frank's hand is on Jim's shoulder. Jim stirs, half-wakes.
JIM
(confused, semi-conscious)
What...
Frank is sitting beside him - and we see for the first time
that Frank is awake, keeping guard over them while they
sleep.
FRANK
Shh. You're having a bad dream,
that's all.
Jim's face relaxes a little.
JIM
(mumbled, half-asleep
ALREADY)
Okay, Dad.
Frank raises his eyebrows, then smiles.
57.
EXT. CAB/PICNIC SPOT - EARLY MORNING
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.
JIM
Here you go, Frank. This is how you
catch dew. I'm covered in the
fucking stuff.
FRANK
(packing the spare away)
Okay. Let's get rolling.
(he checks his watch)
If we make good time, we'll be
there before midday.
EXT. MOTORWAY - DAY
The cab is driving, towards us, then slows to a halt.
INT. CAB - DAY
Everyone is looking at something ahead of them. They seem
awestruck.
JIM
Bloody hell...
FRANK
It must be Manchester.
JIM
But, the whole of Manchester. The
whole city...
SELENA
No fire crews to put it out.
We see what they are looking at...
EXT. CAB - DAY
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.
58.
INT. CAB - DAY
The cab drives towards the surreal sight. As they drive, pale
flakes begin to fall, drifting past the windows.
JIM
It can't be...
HANNAH
Is it snow?
FRANK
(hitting the windscreen
WIPERS)
It's ash.
EXT. CAB - DAY - ASH FALL
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.
EXT. MOTORWAY - DAY - ASH FALL
The cab drives down a motorway. The ash is still falling, and
they start to pass bodies by the roadside.
INT. CAB - DAY - ASH FALL
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...
FRANK
Okay, everyone. I think this is it.
EXT. MOTORWAY - DAY
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.
59.
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.
INT. CAB - DAY
JIM
Try the horn.
SELENA
Don't. We might attract the wrong
kind of attention.
EXT. 42ND BLOCKADE - DAY
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.
INT. CAB - DAY
FRANK
What do you think?
JIM
It looks deserted.
SELENA
Or overrun.
Frank flicks the radio on - there is only static. He switches
it off again.
FRANK
Let's check it out.
60.
EXT. 42ND BLOCKADE - DAY
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.
HANNAH
I don't understand. Did they leave?
Jim pushes open the flaps of another tent with his baseball
bat.
JIM
They didn't all leave.
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.
SELENA
I don't like this. I think we
should go.
FRANK
(SUDDENLY SNAPPING)
No!
(COMPOSES HIMSELF)
The vehicles. We should check the
vehicles first. There has to be
something...
EXT. VEHICLES - DAY
Frank jumps down from the back of one of the trucks. Like the
others, like everything else it is empty.
FRANK
Nothing. Nothing here. I can't
believe it.
SELENA
Frank.
61.
FRANK
"We should go."
SELENA
Yes.
FRANK
(EXPLODING)
Go fucking where? What the fuck are
we supposed to do? How is this
going to fucking end? It's never
going to -
Frank cuts himself off. Then, turning from the others, he
walks away.
EXT. BLOCKADE - DAY
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.
FRANK
(under his breath)
Get out it.
(SUDDENLY SHOUTING)
GET OUT OF IT!
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...
62.
...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.
HANNAH
Dad... are you okay?
Frank turns. Hannah is there, with Jim. Selena stands a
little way further back.
FRANK
I... I'm fine, honey. I'm sorry. I
just lost my temper. I...
He breaks off.
HANNAH
...What?
Frank frowns. A hand goes to his temple.
FRANK
Hannah...
Abruptly, the color is draining from his face.
FRANK
(TO HANNAH)
Get away from me.
HANNAH
...Dad?
FRANK
Get away from me!
(TO JIM)
Get her away from me!
HANNAH
(moving to Frank)
Why? What's...
Frank lashes out and shoves Hannah away, knocking her back to
the ground.
FRANK
GET AWAY FROM ME!
63.
A trickle of blood runs out of Frank's nose. Then he doubles
up, clutching the side of his head. He screams with pain.
SELENA
Jim...
(breaking into a run)
Jim, he's infected!
HANNAH
No! No!
Hannah lunges towards her dad, but is caught by Selena.
SELENA
(holding Hannah back)
Jim!
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.
HANNAH
Dad!
SELENA
Jim!
Jim is still frozen, baseball bat half-raised.
SELENA
KILL HIM!
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.
HANNAH
...Dad?
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.
64.
CLIFTON
STAY AWAY FROM HIM!
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.
FARRELL
Get away from the man! NOW!
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.
SELENA
(QUIETLY)
Jesus.
EXT. ROAD - DAY
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.
EXT. FRONT DRIVEWAY - DAY
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.
HENRY
I'm Major Henry West. Welcome.
We've got beds with clean sheets
and a boiler that produces hot
water. So you can all have a
shower. You look like you need one.
Jim, Selena, and tear-streaked Hannah gaze back at Henry
blankly.
65.
INT. SHOWER - DAY
Jim has a shower, sees the cab driving round in circles
outside the shower window, then...
INT. MANSION - DAY
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.
EXT. VERANDA - DAY
Henry is sitting, looking out over the back lawn.
Pulling back, we see Jim is with him.
HENRY
You heard our broadcast.
JIM
Yes.
HENRY
We must be a disappointment. You
were hoping for a full brigade. An
army base, with helicopters and
field hospitals.
JIM
We were hoping for...
HENRY
The answer to infection. Well, as I
said, it's here. Though it may not
be quite what you imagined.
JIM
I didn't know what to imagine,
so... We just feel lucky to have
found you.
HENRY
You were lucky. The fire drove
hundreds of infected out of
Manchester. The surrounding area is
teeming with them.
Henry glances back at Jim.
66.
HENRY
But there's no need for you to
worry. We're well protected here.
EXT. GARDEN - DAY
Henry shows Jim around the grounds.
HENRY
Three-sixty visibility. Flat
terrain all around the house...
Floodlights, which we've rigged up
to a generator. Don't like to waste
the fuel, but when we want to, we
can turn night into day.
Moving on...
HENRY
High perimeter wall, which helps,
and we've been lacing the grounds
with trip wires and land mines.
Henry indicates where Farrell, Smith and Davis can be seen,
running a trip wire.
HENRY
You wouldn't want to go mowing the
lawn, but if they get in, we hear
them.
INT. MANSION - LOWER LEVELS - DAY
Henry leads Jim into the basement level of the mansion.
HENRY
Secondary to protection, our real
job is to rebuild. Start again.
Down here is the wood-fired boiler
that provides us with hot water.
Our first step to civilization.
Then to a kitchen...
HENRY
And here, the kitchen.
INT. MANSION - KITCHEN - DAY
Several of the soldiers are unpacking the food bags from the
cab. One of the soldiers, Jones, is wearing an apron.
67.
HENRY
What are you cooking, Jones?
JONES
It's a surprise, sir!
EXT. MAILER'S PIT - DAY
Henry leads Jim into a small courtyard, hanging with
bloodstained laundry.
HENRY
And finally...
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.
HENRY
...meet Mailer.
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.
HENRY
Mailer, Jim. Jim, Mailer. Got
infected three days ago. Mitchell
managed to knock him out cold. Got
a chain around his neck.
JIM
You're keeping him alive?
HENRY
The idea was to learn something
about infection. Have him teach me.
JIM
And has he?
HENRY
In a way.
(KNEELS)
He's teaching me he'll never bake
bread. Plant crops, raise
livestock. He's telling me he's
futureless. And eventually he'll
tell me how long the infected take
to starve to death.
68.
A moment.
HENRY
Dinner's at seven. Don't forget to
tell the girls.
Henry exits, leaving Jim with Mailer.
Mailer lunges at Jim - a moment between them.
Then Jim exits.
INT. GIRLS' BEDROOM - DAY
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.
INT. JIM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
Jim and Selena enter, and close the door.
JIM
...So how is she?
SELENA
She's lost her dad. That's how she
is.
(A MOMENT)
It's all fucked, Jim.
Suddenly Selena looks as if she's on the verge of tears.
JIM
Hey, don't...do that. Look,
Hannah... Hannah's what Frank said
she was. Tough. Strong. And just
like me, just like you, she will
cope...
SELENA
Shut up, Jim. Just shut up. I don't
want her to fucking cope. I want
her to be okay. And when Hannah had
her dad, it was all okay. Remember?
And when it was okay for them, it
was okay for us. And now it's all
fucked.
69.
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.
INT. MANSION - DINING ROOM - NIGHT
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
So, what have we here? Tinned ham,
tinned peas, and omelette. You've
prepared a feast, Jones.
JONES
Honor of our guests, sir.
HENRY
Absolutely. I was going to suggest
a toast, but this omelette will do
just as well.
(cuts off a chunk of
omelette and raises it)
To new friends.
Henry pops the omelette in his mouth, then promptly spits it
out.
HENRY
Jones, did you notice while cooking
that these eggs are off?
JONES
I thought the salt might cover the
taste, sir.
70.
HENRY
(pushing his plate away)
Get rid of it.
Henry turns to Hannah as Jones sheepishly exits, carrying the
omelette.
HENRY
I don't suppose you can cook, can
you? I can't tell you how badly we
need someone who shows a little
flair in the kitchen.
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.
DAVIS
That's a fucking disappointment.
When I saw those eggs, I thought it
was Christmas.
BELL
We'll have eggs again. Once
everything's back to normal.
The soldiers pause. Exchange glances. Then burst out
laughing.
MITCHELL
Listen to him! He's still waiting
for Marks and Spencer's to reopen.
More laughter at Bell - interrupted by the sergeant, Farrell,
who conspicuously is not joining in.
FARRELL
I think Bell's got a point. If you
look at the whole life of the
planet, man has only been around
for a few blinks of an eye. So if
the infection wipes us all out,
that is a return to normality.
Farrell turns to Bell.
FARRELL
Is that what you meant, Bell?
BELL
Uh...yeah.
71.
HENRY
(to Jim and Selena)
Have you met our new-age sergeant?
(TO FARRELL)
Remind me, Farrell, why exactly did
you join the army in the first
place.
A moment.
HENRY
This is what I've seen in the four
weeks since infection. People
killing people. Which is much what
I saw in the four weeks before
infection, and the four weeks
before that, and before that, as
far back as I care to remember...
People killing people. Which to my
mind puts us in a state of
normality right now.
Selena turns to Hannah.
SELENA
(QUIET)
You're not eating.
HANNAH
I don't want to eat.
Henry picks up on their exchange.
HENRY
You must eat, Hannah.
HANNAH
I don't want to eat. I want to bury
my dad. He's one of the people
you're talking about.
A silence over the dinner table.
Broken by the thud of a mine detonation.
Then...
FARRELL
Stand to!
And suddenly all the soldiers are kicking back their chairs,
jumping to their feet. Producing SA-80s that they had under
the table.
72.
EXT. MANSION - NIGHT
Farrell, Jones, Mitchell, Bedford, Smith and Clifton race out
of the house, fanning, dropping into position.
MITCHELL
Go, go, go!
Two more soldiers, Davis and Bell, fire from window positions
on the mansion's first floor.
FARRELL
Jones! Cover right!
SMITH
Three o'clock! Three o'clock!
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.
MITCHELL
(DELIGHTED)
That was mad! Did you see that!
That was fucking mad!
FARRELL
(ANGRY)
Clear!
JONES
Clear.
MITCHELL
(STILL LAUGHING)
Clear.
(TO JONES)
Fuck me, I never saw that before.
Keeled over and - bam! Gone, like
fucking magic.
73.
SMITH
I drew a lovely bead. One shot.
Right between its eyes.
INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
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
It was all hanging in the air, and
all these bits coming down, and...
Mitchell catches sight of Selena holding her machete.
MITCHELL
Hello.
He heads towards her, and takes the machete from her hands.
MITCHELL
I'll tell you what: you don't need
this penknife any more, sweetie.
I'm here to protect you now.
(winks at the other
SOLDIERS)
But listen, if you want to hold a
huge chopper...
Bedford bursts out laughing, and Selena grabs her machete
back.
MITCHELL
Whoa! Feisty!
He gives her a slap on the backside.
SELENA
Fuck you!
MITCHELL
You bet. How about right now?
Now doubly hyped. Mitchell reaches forward and pulls up the
hem of Selena's T-shirt. She yelps and twists, knocking back
his hand.
74.
MITCHELL
Yeah! A little rough stuff!
FARRELL
MITCHELL!
But Farrell clearly has little command over Mitchell, who
tries again for Selena's T-shirt, still laughing.
Jim snaps.
JIM
(ANGRILY GRABBING
MITCHELL)
Cut it out!
And Mitchell turns immediately on Jim, his sexual charge
flipping seamlessly back to violence.
MITCHELL
(grabbing Jim, propelling
him back across the room,
up against a wall)
Easy, tiger. You don't want to go
picking a fight with me.
Suddenly Farrell is behind Mitchell. We see a movement (a
kidney punch), and Mitchell drops.
MITCHELL
(gasping, on the ground)
Ahh, you cunt. Cunt.
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.
HENRY
Corporal, first point of order
after an attack.
MITCHELL
Re-secure the perimeter, sir.
HENRY
Then get to it. Jones, Bedford, go
with him.
(TO FARRELL)
Sergeant.
75.
FARRELL
(TIGHTLY)
Sir.
HENRY
Clear the bodies off the lawn. The
rest of you go with him.
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.
HENRY
My apologies.
Selena takes the machete and exits, but Jim doesn't follow.
Obviously there is something he wants to say to Henry.
INT. STUDY ROOM - NIGHT
Jim and Henry enter the study room.
HENRY
Drink?
Henry walks over to a drinks cabinet, and pours two brandies,
waiting for Jim to speak.
JIM
Look. We're grateful. Very grateful
for your protection, and just to
have found other people. But if
we're going to stay here with you,
you're going to have to stop your
men from -
HENRY
Who have you killed?
JIM
(THROWN)
I haven't killed anyone.
Henry hands Jim his drink.
HENRY
Since it began, who have you
killed? You wouldn't be alive now
if you hadn't killed somebody.
76.
A moment.
JIM
A boy. I killed a boy.
HENRY
A child?
JIM
Yes.
HENRY
But you had to. Otherwise he'd have
killed you. Survival. I understand.
(BEAT)
I promised them women.
JIM
What?
HENRY
Eight days ago I found Jones with
his gun in this mouth. He said he
was going to kill himself because
there was no future. What could I
say to him? We kill all the
infected or wait until they starve
to death. And then what? What do
nine men do except wait to die
themselves?
(BEAT)
I moved us from the blockade, I set
the radio broadcasting, and I
promised them women. Because women
mean children.
Jim turns and runs out of the room.
HENRY
And children mean a future.
INT. GIRLS' BEDROOM - NIGHT
Jim bursts into the girls' bedroom. Selena is dressed,
sitting next to Hannah, who is awake.
JIM
Get up. Get up!
SELENA
Wha...
77.
JIM
We've got to get out of here!
SELENA
But we...
JIM
(hauling them up)
We're leaving. Now! NOW!
INT. MANSION STAIRS - NIGHT
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.
FARRELL
You can't do this! You can't do
this! Get back! I'll fucking slot
you! I'll slot you, I fucking swear
it!
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.
HENRY
I want to give you a chance. You
can be with us, or not.
Jim stares back at him. And Henry gazes at Jim, searching
behind Jim's eyes. And understands what he finds.
HENRY
Okay, Jim. Okay.
Henry gives Jim's cheek a soft pat, then rises.
HENRY
(TO MITCHELL)
Him too.
78.
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.
INT. CELLAR
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.
FARRELL
You know what they're doing, a few
hundred miles from here? Across the
channel, across the Atlantic,
they're eating dinner. They're
wondering what to watch on TV
tonight. They're sleeping next to
their wives.
Jim's head turns.
FARRELL
But we're here, chained to a
fucking radiator because the OC has
gone insane. Starting the world
again when the rest of the world
hasn't even fucking stopped. Think
about it! How could infection cross
the oceans? How could it cross the
mountains and the rivers? They
stopped it. And right now TVs are
playing and planes are flying in
the sky and the world is continuing
as fucking normal. Think. Actually
think about it. What would you do
with a diseased little island?
A moment.
FARRELL
They quarantined us.
A moment.
79.
FARRELL
(QUIET)
There is no infection. It's just
people killing people.
(BEAT)
He's insane.
JIM
... Quarantine?
Then the door to the cellar bursts open, revealing Mitchell
and Jones.
EXT. TREE-LINED PATH - DAY
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.
EXT. EXECUTION GROUND - DAY
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.
FARRELL
Come on then, you fucking pansies.
Do me first.
Mitchell grins, and pulls out his bayonet.
FARRELL
So you're going to stick me,
Mitchell? Is that it?
(TO JONES)
Is that how you're going to let
your sergeant go out, Jones?
JONES
No, Mitch. Do it with the gun.
Mitchell ignores Jones, and starts to fix the blade to the
end of his gun.
80.
FARRELL
You're going to let him stick me,
are you? Like a fucking dog?
JONES
Mitch, come on. Just shoot him.
MITCHELL
Why?
JONES
Because it's quick.
MITCHELL
So?
The bayonet fixes home with a click.
JONES
I'll shoot him, then.
MITCHELL
You fucking won't.
(TO FARRELL)
Any last words?
Farrell spits in Mitchell's face.
MITCHELL
I'm going to enjoy this.
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
You stupid cunt! What are you
doing?
Mitchell knocks Jones down, putting his gun right in Jones's
face.
JONES
(WHIRLING)
How did he...
They turn. Jim has vanished.
From the side of the clearing, in the trees, there is the
sound of sudden movement.
JONES
There!
81.
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.
EXT. TREES - DAY - LIGHT RAIN
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.
EXT. EXECUTION GROUND - DAY
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.
JONES
Oh no. We're fucked, we're fucked.
MITCHELL
No problem. He's outside. No gun.
No vehicle. He's a dead man.
EXT. WOODS - DAY
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.
82.
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.
CUT TO:
INT. DOOR - DAY
Close-up of a closed door, with the sounds of a struggle on
the other side.
Then, suddenly, Selena's voice: hard, desperate:
SELENA
You can't do this to her! She's
only fourteen!
INT. DRESSING ROOM - DAY - RAIN
(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.
83.
SELENA
You need to give me a moment with
Hannah. Alone.
Clifton nods - he seems a little dazed.
CLIFTON
The OC. He... he wants you to...
SELENA
He wants us to dress up nice.
She picks up two of the dresses Bedford has thrown - the red
dresses.
SELENA
But if you want us to change,
you'll have to get out of the room.
A moment.
SELENA
(calm, powerful)
It's just fucking polite.
Another moment.
Then Clifton nods. Acquiesces.
CLIFTON
(to the others)
Okay. Clear out.
They exit.
Selena stands with Hannah, emptying pills from her Valium
bottle.
SELENA
Eat them.
Hannah hesitates.
SELENA
(HARD)
Eat them, Hannah!
Hannah takes the handful of pills and holds them in her open
palm.
Then she looks to Selena.
HANNAH
Are you killing me?
84.
A moment - maybe a single moment of tenderness, a strand of
hair brushed from Hannah's face.
SELENA
No. I'm making you not care.
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.
CLIFTON
Hey! What the fuck are you doing?
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...
SELENA
Jim.
BEDFORD
He's at the blockade!
INT. MANSION - STAIRS - DAY - RAIN
The soldiers run down the stairs.
JONES
He went over the wall! We thought
he'd be dead sir!
HENRY
Shut up! Davis - you're coming with
me!
EXT. BLOCKADE - DAY - RAIN
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.
85.
From the motorway ahead, through the rain, a jeep is
approaching.
EXT. MOTORWAY - LATE AFTERNOON - RAIN
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
Okay. Let's see if we can sidestep
the cat-and-mouse bullshit.
Henry opens fire.
EXT. BLOCKADE - LATE AFTERNOON - RAIN
Bullet rip through the blockade, punching holes through the
vehicles, smashing through the packing crates...
EXT. MOTORWAY - LATE AFTERNOON - RAIN
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.
EXT. BLOCKADE - LATE AFTERNOON - HEAVY RAIN
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.
EXT. BLOCKADE - WITH HENRY - LATE AFTERNOON - HEAVY RAIN
Henry moves through the blockade.
He lets off a controlled burst of shots into the tents.
EXT. BLOCKADE - WITH DAVIS - LATE AFTERNOON - HEAVY RAIN
Stealthily, Davis searches around the trucks and tents...
86.
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
Fuck.
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.
EXT. BLOCKADE - WITH HENRY - LATE AFTERNOON - HEAVY RAIN
Henry turns, as if having just heard something. Perhaps a
scream.
HENRY
(CALLING)
Jim?
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.
EXT. JEEP - LATE AFTERNOON - HEAVY RAIN
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.
HENRY
Davis?
The figure doesn't move.
Henry approaches cautiously, gun raised, and finds...
87.
...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
Fine! Fine, you little bastard!
Fucking die out here!
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.
HENRY
Jim.
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.
88.
EXT. MAILER'S PIT - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Jim appears above Mailer in his pit, and shoots off Mailer's
chain.
INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
JONES
What was that? Was that a claymore?
MITCHELL
It was lightning.
JONES
But I heard something.
A moment. Rain and wind lash the windows.
MITCHELL
I'll go and hit the floods. Take a
butcher's. Girls, keep an eye on
him, would you?
Mitchell exits.
Jones wipes at the beads of sweat on his upper lip. And in
noticeable contrast, Hannah is completely calm...
HANNAH
Those pills. I think they're having
an effect. I can feel them, and...
I don't feel sleepy, but...
Her sentence trails off. Then she turns to Jones.
HANNAH
(TO JONES)
They've been a long time.
Jones says nothing.
HANNAH
What are you going to do if they
don't come back?
89.
Jones still says nothing, but the question is clearly hitting
a nerve.
HANNAH
Will you be the boss if Henry is
dead? Is that the way if works?
Selena looks at Hannah quickly.
JONES
Shut up.
HANNAH
I don't think they are coming back.
I think they've been killed.
JONES
I told you to shut up!
SELENA
(NERVOUS)
Hannah...
HANNAH
(FLAT)
They're dead.
Hannah's eyes flick over Jones's shoulder, and something
fleeting passes over her face.
HANNAH
You're going to be next.
At that moment, a mine detonates in the mansion grounds.
JONES
Shit!
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.
CLIFTON
Help! Shoot him! Shoot him!
Jones is hopeless, panicking - fires, and misses.
90.
Hannah watches, spaced out. Selena shakes Hannah by the
shoulders, pulling Hannah upwards.
SELENA
Hannah! Hannah! We have to get out
of here!
Mailer vomits blood into Clifton's face.
INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Selena and Hannah back out of the living room, through the
house. Hannah is very doped up.
SELENA
Oh Jesus, Jesus, Hannah, stay with
it, stay with it.
HANNAH
(relaxed, as she's yanked
ALONG)
Don't worry. I feel fine. Really.
They reach the front hallway, and the front door bursts
open...
Mitchell, with Bedford.
MITCHELL
What the fuck's going on? What's
all the shouti...
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.
MITCHELL
(TO BEDFORD)
Don't just fucking stand there! Get
after them!
91.
INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
BEDFORD
What the fuck are you going to do
now, eh?
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.
EXT. MANSION - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Jim is at the kitchen window, looking in as Bedford is killed
by Mailer and Clifton.
INT. KITCHEN - CUPBOARD - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Jones covers inside a cupboard, hearing Bedford's screams.
INT. MANSION - STAIRS - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
MITCHELL
(GRABBING SELENA)
Up! Up!
Mitchell pushes the girls up the stairs. At the top of the
staircase, wide-eyed with fear, is Bell.
BELL
Mitchell? What's going on?
MITCHELL
Stay here and defend these stairs
with your fucking life!
He turns back to the girls, still holding Selena's arm, and
Hannah is gone.
Selena sees her, heading away down towards the corridor.
SELENA
Hannah!
92.
Mitchell starts pulling Selena in the opposite direction from
Hannah.
INT. DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
INT. FRONT HALL - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Jones runs into the front hall...
And suddenly stops. Dead in his tracks.
93.
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...
INT. RADIO ROOM - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
INT. MANSION - STAIRS - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Jim runs up the stairs.
EXT. MANSION - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
INT. MANSION - CORRIDOR - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Jim runs down a corridor.
He tries a door. Locked.
JIM
Hannah! Selena!
He tries another door. Open.
94.
He runs through...
INT. CHILD'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
...into a kid's bedroom.
Jim moves a sofa to block the doorway - which, as it is
moved, reveals...
...Bell, hiding, cowering, terrified. Foetal.
BELL
(WHIMPERING)
I don't have any bullets! I don't
have any fucking bullets!
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.
BELL
(SCREAMING)
Don't leave me!
EXT. LEDGE - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
INT. MANSION - BASEMENT CORRIDOR - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Henry moves into a basement corridor.
Then pauses.
There is the sound of movement.
An Infected howl.
95.
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.
INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
SELENA
Hannah!
MITCHELL
Shut your fucking mouth! You want
to get us killed?
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.
MITCHELL
...Shit.
He pulls Selena away, towards another door.
MITCHELL
In here! IN HERE!
INT. MANSION - BASEMENT CORRIDOR - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
96.
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.
INT. ATTIC - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
INT. GIRLS' BEDROOM - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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.
MITCHELL
It's me and you, now. And I'm going
to get you out of here, and then
we're going to find some nice
little fucking place, with a pretty
little fucking garden, and...
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.
97.
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
That was longer than a heartbeat.
SELENA
...Jim?
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.
SELENA
I thought...I thought you were...
Jim moves forwards, and they kiss. Passionately.
Then Jim breaks off.
JIM
Listen to me. I've got to tell you -
I've got to tell you. The world
isn't fucked. It's going to be
okay. We've got a chance, if we can
get to...
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.
JIM
Ow!
He reels back, and Hannah is on him, jumping on his back,
hitting him with her fists.
SELENA
Hannah! Stop! It's okay!
98.
Hannah breaks off.
SELENA
He's not infected!
HANNAH
I thought he was biting you.
JIM
(holding the back of his
HEAD)
I was kissing her!
(BREAKS OFF)
Are you stoned?
SELENA
It's a long story.
They are interrupted by the sounds of Infected howling.
SELENA
We have to get out of here.
INT. MANSION - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
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
You killed all my boys.
Henry pulls the trigger - a single shot. Jim is hit in the
stomach and falls backwards into Selena's arm.
SELENA
Jim!
INT. CAB - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
Hannah floors the accelerator.
But instead of going forward, the cab reverses.
99.
EXT. MANSION - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
HENRY
What...Hannah! Hannah?
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.
EXT. CAB - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
The cab screeches up to Jim and Selena.
Selena bundles Jim in, and the cab is off in a spray of
gravel...
INT. FRONT HALL - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
As Henry is killed by Mailer, the silhouettes of the Infected
appear in the shadows.
INT. CAB - NIGHT - HEAVY RAIN
The cab races towards the cast-iron front gates of the
mansion - and we see they are locked with a chain and
padlock.
SELENA
We're going to crash!
The gates loom. Hannah speeds towards them.
SELENA
We're going to crash!
JIM
Just fucking do it!
100.
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:
28 DAYS LATER
FADE UP TO:
EXT. FIELD - DAY
A green field, with three white letters laid out across the
grass. Spelling:
HELL
INT. FARMHOUSE - BEDROOM - DAY
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
Jesus. Not the curtains too.
INT. FARMHOUSE - DAY
Jim walks down the stairs and peers into a living room -
where he sees the sofa, with its cover removed.
INT. FARMHOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY
Jim enters - to find Selena sitting surrounded by lengths of
material which she is stiching together.
101.
He picks up a length of red material. Once part of the dress.
JIM
You looked all right in this, you
know.
Selena ignores him.
Jim walks to the front door and opens it.
Pull back to reveal...
EXT. FARMHOUSE - DAY
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...
EXT. LAKELAND VALLEY - DAY
...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.
102.
EXT. VALLEY - DAY
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.
HANNAH
There! THERE!
CUT TO:
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.
JIM
Do you think he saw us this time?
CUT TO BLACK:
THE END
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