SAM YAO: Oh, Five! Oh my God, it's so good to see you!
JANINE DE LUCA: Yes, you have been extraordinarily lucky. We cannot rely on such good fortune again. Sergeant Felis made it clear she will be duty-bound to hunt us down if she pinpoints us again.
SAM YAO: Yeah. But these enormous, echoing, empty caves should conceal us, right? Hmm, looks quite dusty. [coughs] And uh, it's full of old computer, uh... stuff.
JANINE DE LUCA: Yes, I believe this cave complex was hollowed out by some precursor to Red Scorpion before the zombie apocalypse. It has certainly been abandoned now for a very long time, probably because it is too close to the border with the Maghreb.
SAM YAO: Yeah, I mean, Guillemette wouldn't have led you here if they could instantly find you. Right, Five?
JANINE DE LUCA: Indeed. These caves tunnel right through the rocky hills leading to the Maghreb border. Our extraction point is not far from the other side.
SAM YAO: Well, that's if we can find our way through. Looks like half the doors here are sealed. No point getting stuck in here. They'll work out where we are eventually.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I think I can sort that out. The systems here look like something I can interface with. We need to head down that passageway to a command nexus. No time to wait, come on!
~
VERONICA MCSHELL: Good, these computers look like what we need, and there's residual power here from a small generator. Sam, I'm just going to need to take control of one of your hands. I need to connect to a little node in the back of your neck.
SAM YAO: Uh, yeah. Okay, V. Uh, I'm just gonna close my eyes, let you take over.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I'm just going to connect this cable. I should be able to open all the doors in the place. [computers hum] I'm into the system. All terminals are networked. Locating central hub. [over intercom] Ah, there are speakers here! Much more comfortable than that synthesizer. Hub located, in hibernation. I can -
[SAM YAO and VERONICA MCSHELL scream, computers zap, door slams shut]
JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Yao, Miss McShell, what's happening? The blast door just closed over main entrance!
ANNIE: Now then, who's prodding me awake? Camera's warming up... oh look, there you are.
JANINE DE LUCA: ANNIE! That is... ANNIE, Mr. Valmont’s rogue AI!
SAM YAO: [weak, severely pained] Five, get this cable out of me. My head! Oh God, it hurts! Five, ANNIE’s in the computers. She did something to Veronica. Oh, it hurts...
ANNIE: Insects. Insects in my body? Parasites? And not authorized parasites. Can't have that.
[doors slam open]
JANINE DE LUCA: Doors are opening to adjacent rooms. Those are zombies coming out. We can't stay here. Five, remove that cable. Get Mr. Yao on his feet! The door behind you leads to a clear hallway. Move!
~
SAM YAO: Five, is that you holding me up? [shouts] It hurts so much! It... It... [SAM’s voice combined with the distorted voice of VERONICA] It hurts. No control. Like a splinter in the logic, the numbers terrified. Fading in and out. It hurts.
[SAM screams]
JANINE DE LUCA: He's barely conscious. Keep moving, Five. This corridor is nothing but empty offices. We must find an exit! The zombies are closing.
[zombies groan]
ANNIE: Ah, my staff. So hungry. I penned them in for study after they went rotten. Then I got bored, went into hibernation to save power. And you intruders make me spend it. Though I saw such interesting things in the conjoined one's mind. You all know me already, Insect Five especially. Delighted to be killing you.
VERONICA MCSHELL: -nine? Janine, I-I think she knew we might come here, has been waiting for us, might even have nudged us by taking control of the super soldiers.
[SAM screams]
VERONICA MCSHELL: 14% probability of that. Would have calculated it higher without this stupid optimistic brain.
JANINE DE LUCA: I doubt Red Scorpion knows about ANNIE. She's been a rogue element for a long time. This corridor forks. Miss McShell, did you see a floor plan in the database?
SAM YAO: [with difficulty] J-Janine, it's me. Probably. Hard to tell right now. Ronnie says go left, find the supervisor's office. This place got its ANNIE from Valmont pre-Z-day. The supervisor has a private line to Valmont. [chuckles] Loyal customer bonus. [shouts] If the power’s on, so’s the line. Valmont’s the last person in the world who still has long range comms infrastructure. V thinks he can help.
JANINE DE LUCA: First we must outpace these zombies. That way, Five. Faster!
~
[zombies groan]
VERONICA MCSHELL: It’s okay, Five. You don't have to hold Sam up. [with difficulty] I can... keep us on our feet. Janine, we want the office ahead with-with the frosted windows.
[door creaks shut]
JANINE DE LUCA: The supervisor certainly lived up to their title. CCTV monitors on every wall.
VERONICA MCSHELL: [with difficulty] The private line’s on the... desk. Video link. Sending signal... using Valmont’s priority codes.
[radio static]
BRENT VALMONT: Hello? Who's this? This is an old channel. How do you know my code for Amelia updates? Oh! Runner Five, Janine, my favorite people! What are you doing calling from... Tunisia? Goodness.
ANNIE: What are you doing, insects? Accessing an encrypted comm line? We can't have -
[keyboard clicking]
BRENT VALMONT: Sorry, ANNIE. Just overriding to access your logs. Oh dear, this one's buggy, isn't she? What's she been up to? Remote accessing super soldiers, good lord. Better shut her down. Now ANNIE, come on. No, no countermeasures. Bad ANNIE! Ow! Ah, she's got into my system, frazzled half my comm relays. Fused loads of her own systems doing it. Didn’t want to go, poor thing.
JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Valmont, I'm patching you into our comms. Do the logs mention medical facilities? We -
BRENT VALMONT: Ah, I see what you have. ANNIE recorded it. Two minds in one brain, [laughs] imagine the patterns. Bad news, though. Uh, ANNIE disrupted the copy of Veronica inside Sam. She's collapsing in a feedback loop, overclocking herself and him. It's going to, well, liquefy Sam's brain.
JANINE DE LUCA: I will not permit that to happen!
SAM YAO: Oh God. Oh no! Janine, look, the CCTV!
JANINE DE LUCA: Helicopters have landed outside. Red Scorpion soldiers are emerging. Sergeant Felis’s ability to help us is evidently at an end.
BRENT VALMONT: There is one option for you. That's an old comms station. Has an archive drive for storing transmissions, lots of space. If you could download Veronica onto the drive, she'd be out of Sam's head. He'd be safe. Keep the drive offline, halt her decay, and you can get her home to fix. The drive's in room B17. Down the corridor, four rights and a left.
JANINE DE LUCA: I see B17 on the monitors. There's a fire door nearby we can exit through. The soldiers are entering the base. ANNIE's demise must have unsealed the door. We have little time. The zombies are catching up. Everyone, run!
~
JANINE DE LUCA: Door B17. Inside, now. [door shuts] A single computer terminal, plenty of cables. Miss McShell, what do you need?
SAM YAO: Janine, I’m pretty scared. Head pounding, burning up.
VERONICA MCSHELL: We both are. Give me the blue cable, Five. That'll work.
BRENT VALMONT: Now listen, once Veronica's downloaded, you can pull the hard drive from the machine and run. She'll be safe on there.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Not enough time.
SAM YAO: What? Veronica -
VERONICA MCSHELL: [over intercom] Ah! Speakers in here, too. 8 minutes until those soldiers reach us, at best. 22 to download me. Not enough time.
JANINE DE LUCA: Miss McShell, can you speed up the transfer?
VERONICA MCSHELL: Not without killing Sam! Organic brains, so fragile. Could do one thing, though. Could wipe myself from Sam's head, erase my software, take burden off him.
JANINE DE LUCA: No, Miss McShell, you cannot!
VERONICA MCSHELL: It's fine. I'm safe in the UK. One of me is, anyway. Not this one.
SAM YAO: Ronnie, come on, don't talk like that. We can figure it out. We-we can figure something out. Having you in my head... I've never felt smarter. I’d have passed my degree like this.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I'm sorry, Sam. I loved being in your brain. You should see it, Five! The way he views the world, it's like the whole thing's blazing with hope. Every person, every moment, every day, a chance for joy. Faith in friendship, and love, and Marmite! [laughs] Even when I was human, I-I never could have imagined it. It made my calculations feel... kinder.
SAM YAO: Ronnie, please.
VERONICA MCSHELL: It's okay, Sam. I'll still be in your memory. I've seen myself there, flaring with your faith in me. Thank you so much for sharing that. [powers down]
SAM YAO: [cries] Ronnie! Ronnie, no! Oh, come back! Come back, please! She's gone. I... I can't feel her. Oh... oh God. Five, m-my head - [collapses]
JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Yao!
BRENT VALMONT: He'll be okay! He's just unconscious. Needs rest, though. I wouldn't move him. I'm into the station systems. I can seal that room, make it look packed with zombies on CCTV so the soldiers ignore it. I'll send a retrieval squad for Sam. You could hide with him. [gunfire in background] Better decide quick. Those soldiers are close, fighting their way through the zoms.
JANINE DE LUCA: We're carrying a USB tracker that pings at regular intervals, Mr. Valmont. A hostile army is massing nearby. If we remain anywhere for long, they will realize and descend. We cannot stay. Five, there's a fire escape outside. Head for it, then into the hills. Mr. Yao... Sam will be safer if we leave him, Five. I'm sorry, but we have no choice. Come on, move!
~
JANINE DE LUCA: Stay low, Five. Keep using the hills for cover. The comms station is well behind us. I hear no pursuit. The soldiers must still be searching it. We've lost Mr. Valmont's signal. Too far from the station. It's just us now. The others, our entire team, lost and scattered.
We've come so far, Five, across an unknown country with enemies at our back. We've faced unfamiliar zombies, super soldiers, aerial assaults. It has been... exhausting. Now we have to get to the border and the extraction point in time, with an army against us. Mr. Yao would tell us to have hope. We must honor him and Miss McShell and all those left behind. This is the final stretch, Five. Let's go.
