Outbreak Page #16

Izzy concentrates on Mascelli's blood test. His eyes

are bloodshot from fatigue.

EXTREME CLOSEUP - AIR HOSE COUPLING

at Izzy's side. The red umbilical cord connected to the

ceiling catches on the sink handle in the center island;

it slowly slips out of its coupling and drops. The sound

of RUSHING AIR suddenly STOPS.

BACK TO SCENE:

... but Izzy doesn't hear it. He continues looking

through the scope. Suddenly, he spots the red umbilical

cord lying on the floor.

IZZY:

No!

Robby grabs the cord and re-inserts it into Izzy's suit;

the RUSH OF AIR quickly fills the suit, but --

Izzy - panicked - runs out of the lab into:

FORMALDEHYDE SHOWER AREA

and blasts himself with formaldehyde. As the frothy

liquid bath pours over him:

CLOSE ON IZZY'S FACE

terrified:
Did he breath in the virus?

CUT TO:

90.

LOCKER ROOM - MINUTES LATER

ROBBY:

It was only a few seconds, nothing

got in.

IZZY:

I know. I'm fine.

Silence.

ROBBY:

I can finish the tests -

IZZY:

-- I'm fine.

She nods, worried.

CUT TO:

HOSPITAL WARD - NIGHT

Ford checks Henry's (the Lab Tech's) pulse. Nothing. He

looks at McClintock, staring at Henry's corpse into which

the antiserum is still flowing. In the next bed, Corinne,

Henry's girl friend, also lies dead.

McCLINTOCK

The Motaba antiserum doesn't work.

FORD:

(devastated)

The virus has changed enough so

that the antibodies can't recognize

it. We've got to find the host,

Donny.

McCLINTOCK

How? The San Jose animals were

all negative.

(sharply)

For thirty years you've thought it

was a breath away. And we looked,

and tested and tested. And we

couldn't find it.

(beat)

What good would it do anyway? The

virus has mutated. The host would

carry the antibodies against the

African strain -- before it

mutated.

(CONTINUED)

91.

CONTINUED:

FORD:

Nature is more generous than man,

Donny... it creates more

variablity in the antibodies. If

we find the host, its antibodies

may be effective against the

mutated strain.

McCLINTOCK

That's a guess. And there's no

time, no cure. We have no choice

but to implement the Emergency

Containment Plan.

ON Ford's troubled reaction -

CUT TO:

BL-4 LAB - LATER THAT NIGHT

Gillespie, Robby, Lisa, and Izzy peer...

Into the Brown Rhesus's cage. The monkey looks dreadful:

he's crouched in a fetal position and his nose drips puss.

SALT:

He's dying of Motaba. His blood

doesn't have any protective

antibodies. Nothing.

Gloom and defeat sink over the room.

ROBBY:

But where did this monkey get the

disease?

LISA ARONSON:

Christ, it could have been

anywhere... Maybe he was on a boat

from Africa, next to the host.

IZZY:

Then there's no hope.

GILLESPIE:

No. Unless Jimbo Scott had close

contact with the host and that

animal is somehow traceable.

There's got to be something at

Bio-Test.

(CONTINUED)

92.

CONTINUED:

ROBBY:

Lisa, go back there. There's got

to be something that was missed.

Lisa nods.

CUT TO:

BL-4 LAB - LATER

Salt looks plaintively at the Rhesus. He opens the

refrigerator and takes out a bottle labeled morphine.

He's about to close the fridge, but stops and stares...

Inside the refrigerator: a unit of antiserum just lying

around. He looks at the antiserum, then at the monkey,

sick in its cage.

CUT TO:

QUARANTINE PERIMETER - DAWN

The line of troops and tanks stretches for miles. HUEYS

THUNDER overhead, keeping watch.

Behind the tanks are a swarm of figures wearing red BL-4

suits. They're moving cages filled with insects and

animals toward a huge series of trailers.

INT. GENERAL FORD'S COMMAND CENTER - DAWN

The Command Center is buzzing with activity. Along one

wall is an array of supercomputers all feeding data to...

The big board -- a computerized map of the Quarantine

Area.

DR. FRANKLE, a Biowar Defense expert, an intense, bearded

man of about 50 -- paces in front of the big board. As

Frankle briefs Ford and McClintock, we literally see the

epidemic spreading out from the center of Bonneville -more

and more terrain is colored red each time the big

screen redraws. The red gets larger and larger, until it

comes within three miles of the Columbia River, which cuts

a big blue swath through the map.

FRANKLE:

Mosquitoes are picking up this

virus. An hour ago a squirrel

with Motaba was trapped just three

miles from the river.

(CONTINUED)

93.

CONTINUED:

FORD:

(angry)

Increase the spraying, Goddamnit!

FRANKLE:

The best stuff we've got won't

kill every last one. Eventually

one bug, one animal's going to get

through to the river. Worst case

is the virus penetrates the

ecosystem. Then we can't stop it.

FORD:

There's got to be a way to deal

with it -

FRANKLE:

-- The only similar case I know of

is the Influenza Epidemic of 1918.

It circled the globe in two weeks.

Silence.

McCLINTOCK

People can be asymptomatic, for

weeks. The tests are faulty. We

have to assume everyone in this

town is infected and will get this

disease sooner or later.

Silence. Finally:

FORD:

I want the most rapid-acting nerve

gas. Something so quick they'll

never know what hit 'em.

INT. BIO-TEST MAIN OFFICE (SAN JOSE) - DAY

The office is a small, chaotic room filled with old filing

cabinets and ancient PC's. The company President, Felder,

and Lisa Aronson sit near a speakerphone.

LISA ARONSON:

(into phone)

And I've been through all the

files... No animal's been removed

in the last fourteen days.

FELDER:

If Jimbo Scott got an infected

animal, he didn't get it here.

INTERCUT WITH:

94.

SMALL OFFICE IN BACK OF BL-4 LAB

Gillispie, Robby, and Izzy are running out of options as

they converse with Lisa Aronson in San Jose, California,

on the speakerphone:

GILLESPIE:

Could Jimbo Scott have deleated all

traces of an animal stored at your

facility?

FELDER (V.O.)

Don't be absurd, he was a good

employee -

GILLESPIE:

Mr. Felder, don't take this

personally, but either you're a

horrible judge of character or the

world's in deep sh*t. Could Jimbo

Scott have erased all records on

an animal stored at your facility?

Yes or no?

Felder hesitates.

Suddenly Gillespie's WALKIE-TALKIE BEEPS:

SALT (V.O.)

Colonel, come quick.

INT. BL-4 LAB

Robby, Mike and Izzy enter the animal lab and stop cold.

The brown rhesus is sitting up in his cage, weak but

eating some lettuce.

SALT:

He should be dead.

The last of the antiserum drips into the animal's arm.

SALT:

I gave him the antiserum.

IZZY:

It doesn't work on people. It

shouldn't work on simians either.

SALT:

So how come it worked on this one?

Gillespie's mind is racing:

(CONTINUED)

95.

CONTINUED:

GILLESPIE:

He was infected with the first

strain, before it mutated.

IZZY:

It still shouldn't work. This

Korean Filo4 doesn't cross-react

with the Motaba virus. We checked!

GILLESPIE:

Maybe it's not Korean Filo4.

SALT:

What else could it be?

Izzy leans against the wall; he's pale, feverish. The

others pay no attention.

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