#s4m3

SAM YAO: How's that fence looking?

JODY MARSH: It's solid, Sam. No holes. Are we done here? Only, Veronica said she wanted a bit of help at Abel. She started her experiments on those semi-sentient zoms the Minister found for her, and Nadia asked if we could help lift some of the heavier equipment. Something about um, separating their stomach contents out into different fractions. She says there are some fascinating similarities in their intestinal flora.

SAM YAO: Gah. It's all glamour, this scientific research, isn't it? But I think – yeah, we've finally done it. That's all of New Canton sectioned off into one thousand person or less camps. No more mass contamination of supplies.

JODY MARSH: So we can come home? We want to be there for Yang's memorial service.

SAM YAO: Yeah. Day after tomorrow. We won't miss it. And New Canton have always known that we'd all come home to Abel again eventually.

JODY MARSH: We said two months. Just the start of rebuilding. It's been a lot longer than that.

SAM YAO: Yeah. They keep saying they're going to elect a new leadership, but I think they've lost confidence in themselves.

JODY MARSH: We have to come home, Sam. No more delays. With Veronica's research, and this Moonchild stuff, we're needed.

SAM YAO: Yeah. We are coming home. Today. It's just, you're a bit of a thing, obviously, Five, so they've got one last supply run for you before signing off. Bernard wants to - [JODY MARSH sighs dramatically] What?

JODY MARSH: You know Bernard gives me the wiggins? They all do. It's all the smiling. Five, you've noticed it too, haven't you? The way everyone follows us around, smiling at the backs of our necks with all the teeth.

SAM YAO: I guess they can be intense.

BERNARD PRIOR: Runner Four, Runner Five! Welcome!

SAEED UTEEM: So this is Runner Five! It really is Runner Five. I can't – I just can't believe it.

JODY MARSH: And I'm Runner Four. Comes before Five. Four!

SAEED UTEEM: I've heard about you, too! This is amazing.

JODY MARSH: Uh, thanks. And you are?

SAEED UTEEM: Saeed Uteem. I used to lead the people you call "the Dedlocks", but thanks to Moonchild, I... I... I mean, I – after her, I brought some of my people here to New Canton.

SAM YAO: Right.

BERNARD PRIOR: We'd better be off if you two want to be back to Abel before nightfall. Just a quick supply run with us to pick up a few vital things, and then you can leave. If you ended up running home in the dark, we might have to come rescue you for a change! And who would know how to deal with that? [laughs]

[SAM YAO and JODY MARSH laugh uneasily]

SAM YAO: Right. I'll uh, I'll see about getting the gates up. [gate raises] And off you go!

SAM YAO: Hmm. Looks like the main road's crawling with zoms today. Lucky for us, the shops we're looking for should be right on the outskirts of town.

JODY MARSH: You don't need any more fencing, do you? I thought the Ministry gave you everything you needed.

SAEED UTEEM: No, no! We're after art supplies.

JODY MARSH: Uh, Sam?

SAM YAO: Yeah, I mean, well, I did wonder when Janine gave me the schedule you'd worked out. What do art supplies have to do with splitting New Canton into all those little bitty bits?

BERNARD PRIOR: Well, you know. Strong-willed people like me haven't had any trouble, but ever since the experience, many of our residents have had a difficult time readjusting to settlement life.

SAM YAO: You mean when Moonchild -

JODY MARSH: Don't say the name!

BERNARD PRIOR: Penelope in the bunk next to mine keeps calling for her when she's sleeping.

SAEED UTEEM: [laughs] At least she's not one of the ones who screams.

BERNARD PRIOR: Or one of the dead. Many people have found that taking on projects helps. I've set up a creative writing group in my sub-settlement.

SAEED UTEEM: And I've discovered a real talent for watercolors! I went almost four hours yesterday before I thought I heard her calling to me from down the corridor. That's pretty good!

SAM YAO: Well uh, this looks like the place. You've got a whole row of good shops here. Art supplies, photography, and uh, yeah. Couple of shamblers.

SAEED UTEEM: Well, we should go back. Should we, Bernard? If there are zoms, we should abort the mission.

JODY MARSH: Don't be silly! Me and Five can draw them off, can't we?

BERNARD PRIOR: I don't like sending you into danger.

SAM YAO: But isn't that like, your job? New Canton Permanent Advisory Council, sending other people into danger since the start of the zombie apocalypse.

BERNARD PRIOR: I'm not proud of some of the things I used to do, Sam.

JODY MARSH: Right! Well uh, those zombies are getting pretty close, so if you head to the shops, and we'll lead them this way. Come on, Five, run!

SAM YAO: Okay! Five, Four, looks like you've shaken those zoms.

JODY MARSH: Are we on a separate to the New Canton people?

SAM YAO: Uh, yeah. Yeah, for now.

JODY MARSH: Oh my God! Did you see how they looked at you, Five? I mean, I know. I know that you get it! You were mind-controlled by her too, and I totally get why you don't want to do that hypnosis thing.

SAM YAO: Uh, that's not decided yet, and how did you even know about that?

JODY MARSH: Lobatse's not the most tight-lipped person in England. Maxine came to talk to her about it, and then, you know. We talk, me and Lobatse. So, what's going on?

SAM YAO: Oh God! This place, the gossip! Look, it's just that all accounts are that Moonchild used to talk to Five all the time. But she did some kind of post-hypnotic trigger so that Five wouldn't remember what she said. Or something. Well, that's what we think. And there might be something useful in there. Oh, look, it's all hypothetical.

JODY MARSH: And Doctor Lobatse said there's no one in either Abel or New Canton who has enough expertise to retrieve locked memories?

SAM YAO: Yeah, well, we're looking into it. Maxine's... distracted.

JODY MARSH: How's Paula?

SAM YAO: Oh, she's keeping busy. Helping Veronica with her research mainly, so it doesn't matter if she collapses. Says it feels like old times, back being a lab assistant.

JODY MARSH: Mm. Wasn't she Van Ark's lab assistant?

SAM YAO: Yeah. You know, I think New Canton's going to be fine. They're doing much better. I know Moonchild's whole mass mind control thing wasn't great, but -

JODY MARSH: Sam, you were on comms when Lou made the entire PAC cry.

SAM YAO: Yeah, but you know. Lou.

JODY MARSH: They're just trying to put a brave face on it for us, but they just spent months walling each other up in little camps. I don't think happy people do that.

SAM YAO: Maxine said some of them got really weird with her about the baby. Like, "new hope! New hope!" Which, given the varicose veins she's sprouted, I think is not how she's feeling about it right now.

JODY MARSH: And of course, we're all in the dark about how you're feeling on it.

SAM YAO: Yeah, well, I don't really like to talk about that personal stuff -

JODY MARSH: Sam. You got me to teach you to do cable stitch, so you could make baby cable knit socks, and then you did that whole expectant dad radio show thing.

SAM YAO: Uh, yeah, well, it's good to express your emotions creatively! Just like the people at New Canton want to do. If they get back on their feet. [static, shouting] That's the other frequency! Bernard, Saeed? What's going on?

SAEED UTEEM: Zoms! They came up from the basement. We've blocked ourselves in an office behind the front counter, but I know they saw us!

SAM YAO: Right. Runner Five, Runner Four, you need to head back to the shop -

BERNARD PRIOR: No, that's not necessary.

SAM YAO: Uh, what?

BERNARD PRIOR: If New Canton's going to stand on its own again, we must be able to – [zombie growls] able to face death with our own eyes, and our own minds! We can't keep on relying on your help forever.

JODY MARSH: Sam, are Five and I still on a separate link?

SAM YAO: Mmhmm.

JODY MARSH: Then you should know we're on our way. Come on, Five.

JODY MARSH: Aw, this looks bad! I can see at least ten zoms through the shop window!

SAM YAO: I don't care what he says, we have to help them!

JODY MARSH: But they won't even take help from the Ministry!

SAM YAO: Um, what if we draw off most of the zoms? Veronica was telling me about this thing from her research. Uh, critical mass. If you get enough zombies swarming in front of the art store, the ones inside will want to join the horde.

JODY MARSH: But to get them to follow us, we'll need to use our noisemakers, and then Bernard and Saeed will know!

SAM YAO: Yeah, but – oh God, I don't know. Hold on. Uh, I'm going to check in on them. How's it going, guys?

BERNARD PRIOR: One of them just punched through the door! I never looked at their hands before. Flesh peeling back from the nails, maggot skin, bones poking through -

SAEED UTEEM: We should have brought a gun. I meant to. I signed one out, but then, when I felt it in my hand, I remembered. Ninety-three. That's how many people I killed for her.

BERNARD PRIOR: There's a collapsible easel back here! [zombie groans, is bashed by easel] Almost as good as a gun.

SAM YAO: Alright, that's it. Like it or not, we're coming to help you. Five, Four? Got your noisemakers ready? [noisemakers ring] Now, run!

SAM YAO: This is great! You must have nearly twenty zoms on your tail? And there's another batch of five lurking in that alley up ahead.

BERNARD PRIOR: This really is completely unnecessary.

SAEED UTEEM: Oh God! There's more of them! There are more of them coming into the shop. Bernard, what should I do? Tell me what to do! I need someone to tell me what to do!

SAM YAO: I'll tell you what to do. Sit tight, and let my runners rescue you. [zombie growls, JODY MARSH screams] Runner Four?

JODY MARSH: That zom put its fingers in my hair! Oh, I can feel its flesh on the back of my neck!

SAM YAO: Yeah, I think that's because its flesh is stuck to the back of your neck. [JODY MARSH gags] Look, you've only got to run a little farther. Get the zombies from the alley, a couple of stragglers in front of the kiosk, and uh, yeah, there's three of them looking through the window of that chip shop. Once you've picked them up, you'll buzz by the front of the art supply shop, and this swarm should do the rest.

JODY MARSH: You sure about that?

SAM YAO: Uh, yeah, mostly. Just keep going!

SAM YAO: You're almost there. That's nearly fifty zoms behind you now. If that doesn't draw them away, then I – [sighs] I'm going to check the other line. Hey! Hey, how's it going?

SAEED UTEEM: I've killed one of them. I used a piece of wood, and I beat it until it stopped moving. Do you ever wonder if they'll all come to their senses someday the way we did? You'd have all these zoms thinking how lucky they were to survive, how lucky they were standing just behind some of their zombie friends, out of the way of the madman with the big stick.

SAM YAO: Their brains are destroyed by the virus. Paula showed me the scans. Any cure, if Veronica can find a cure, would only work on people who hadn't gone full zom. You can't think of them as people, Saeed! You just can't.

BERNARD PRIOR: We can see the undead through the cracks in the door. One of them is wearing a jumpsuit. Do you suppose she's one of ours? I find it difficult to say, what with her head snapped backwards like that, and her jaw gone, and her skin all in ribbons, and all the blood -

SAM YAO: [turns off transmission] I can't listen. Runners, what's your twenty?

JODY MARSH: Sam, we made it, we can see the shop.

SAM YAO: Oh, thank God. I really hope this works.

JODY MARSH: We're coming level with the door now. Past the door. Come on, come on!

SAM YAO: It's – I think it's working! Yeah, I can see some of them heading for the front door. They're following the pack. Jody, keep leading them away. Five, go back and fetch Bernard and Saeed before any more find them. Quickly!

SAM YAO: Jody, how are you doing?

JODY MARSH: I've lost the pack in the mini-mall. I'm on my way back.

SAM YAO: Ah, great! And Five, there's the art supply shop now. Bernard, Saeed, the zoms are gone. You can open the door. Five'll take you back to New Canton.

[door opens]

BERNARD PRIOR: You saved us, Five. Again.

SAEED UTEEM: And Runner Four! Runner Four saved us, too.

BERNARD PRIOR: And you, Sam. We would have died if you'd listened to us.

SAM YAO: Oh, you might have been fine! You'd almost certainly have been fine! I mean, like, definitely fine. That was just silly me, taking silly extra precautions...

SAEED UTEEM: No. If you'd done what we said, we'd both have died, and New Canton and the Dedlocks would be leaderless. [laughs] Not that I'm much of a leader. Who am I kidding? I'm no kind of leader at all! I'm totally useless.

SAM YAO: Hey, now.

BERNARD PRIOR: It's true.

SAM YAO: Bernard!

BERNARD PRIOR: Not about Saeed. About me!

SAEED UTEEM: About both of us. We gave ourselves over to her, damn it! I can't say her name, like – to Moonchild! I gave my will over to her, and I don't think I can ever get it back. Not really. Not the way it was before. When I make decisions now, I think about what she'd do, what she'd want. That monster. I still want to please her. And then I want to do the opposite. I don't know who I really am, anymore.