Outbreak Page #17

IZZY:

I need some air.

He takes a step, then starts seizing, his whole body

shaking in one convulsive wave after the next.

Gillespie, Robby and Wally rush over.

SALT:

(checking his pulse)

He's slowin' down. He's gonna

arrest.

GILLESPIE:

Let's go. Now!

With extraordinary effort, he heaves Izzy over his back.

CUT TO:

CROWDED MOTABA WARD

Gillespie gently drops Izzy onto a hospital bed.

GILLESPIE:

Ice, fluids, blood, oxygen...

Let's go!

Gillespie puts a probe in Berman's mouth, shudders when he

sees the reading.

GILLESPIE:

A hundred and eight. Ice... I

want ice... I mean now!

(CONTINUED)

96.

CONTINUED:

Wally runs in with ice, packs it around Berman's neck.

GILLESPIE:

Open your eyes. Open your f***in'

eyes, Izzy. Nobody's lettin' you

off so easy. Pressure?

ROBBY:

Comin' up.

A long, long beat. Berman slowly opens his eyes.

Gillespie smiles.

GILLESPIE:

You were a hundred and eight. Not

too long... but long enough...

(an evil grin)

You musta lost a billion brain

cells.

IZZY:

Now I'm only as smart as you.

Gillespie grins.

Berman tries to smile. His lip twitches... uncontrollably.

His whole body seizes.

GILLESPIE:

We need a line.

Robby flips Gillespie a catheter set. He looks for a

vein. Robby and Wally try to keep Izzy flat while

Gillespie works, but...

SLOW MOTION SHOT

Izzy's arm jerks free, pushing Mike's hand and the razor-

sharp needle right at Mike's other hand.

ROBBY:

Watch out!

She shoves Mike's hand out of the path, but the needle

nicks her glove.

Mike and Wally are horrified.

GILLESPIE:

Lemme see it.

(CONTINUED)

97.

CONTINUED:

ROBBY:

(yanks her hand away)

It didn't get past the outer glove.

(to Wally)

Hold him down.

Wally pins Izzy's arm down as Robby sticks in an IV and

injects medicine. Izzy stops seizing.

CUT TO:

INT. SURGERY LOCKER ROOM

Robby, alone, peels back her triple-thick glove, and...

The second layer is cut, too! She rips off the second

layer and...

The third layer is cut, too! She pulls it off to reveal:

Her finger -- we see just the tiniest thin line of

crimson blood.

Terrified, she runs into...

SURGICAL SCRUB ROOM

and squeezes her finger, trying to expel any virus. She

pours iodine into the tiny wound and frantically scrubs,

as if her life depened on it. It does.

She turns at the sound of the DOOR OPENING. It's

Gillespie.

GILLESPIE:

(anguished)

You took the hit for me... Why?

Tears fill her eyes. Her mouth opens. She can't talk.

Only a low moan of terror.

Gillespie cradles her head against his.

CUT TO:

PROP PLANE (07:
45)

spraying over the forest outside Bonneville.

Huge wafts of smoke drift over the birch and pine forest

like a thick fog.

(CONTINUED)

98.

CONTINUED:

Hidden in the dense woods, Tommy Hull takes a slug of

whisky and watches the plane. Between him and the plane

are Armed Personnel carriers, their gas-masked personnel

unaffected by the poison. Tommy coughs.

He stands up on the hood of an old blue van and screams

at the troops.

TOMMY:

That's right. Kill us all. C'mon!

They can't hear him or see him. He finishes the last of

the bottle and climbs into...

HIS BEAT-UP VAN

We see on the floor a half dozen guns including a shotgun

and an AK-47. He STARTS the ENGINE and ROARS off.

CUT TO:

PERIMETER CHECKPOINT (08:00)

CHECKPOINT GUARD #1

I'm sorry, Colonel. You can't

proceed.

Gillespie's Jeep is blocked by THREE GUARDS armed with

M-16s.

GILLESPIE:

Get the hell out of my way. I'm

going to see the General.

CHECKPOINT GUARD #1

Strict orders, sir. Anyone with

direct patient care is

contaminated.

GILLESPIE:

That's a load of crap. Get him on

the line, soldier. Now!

CHECKPOINT GUARD #1

(punches on the

radio)

Checkpoint three to base. Colonel

Gillespie to speak to General Ford.

Suddenly, Tommy Hull drives up and brakes to a stop.

(CONTINUED)

99.

CONTINUED:

CHECKPOINT GUARD #2

Go home.

TOMMY:

You go home.

Before Guard #2 can react, Hull raises his SHOTGUN and

FIRES.

Gillespie dives under the dashboard of his Jeep.

The other Guards react. Too late. Tommy Hull pulls an

AK-47 out from behind his seat and CHEWS them UP.

The RADIO BLASTS:

RADIO (V.O.)

Base to checkpoint three: what's

goin' on?

Tommy Hull FIRES the SHOTGUN again, ANNIHILATING the

RADIO. He ROARS ahead.

Gillespie races over to soldiers. They're dead. He looks

at...

The van, racing toward the crest of the hill. Suddenly,

from the other side of the hill:

Two Apache helicopters appear.

Hull sticks the AK-47 out the window and FIRES at the

choppers.

They keep coming.

Red sparks erupt from their bellies. HELLFIRES.

The VAN EXPLODES into tiny pieces.

Gillespie GUNS the JEEP toward the wreckage.

A Jeep driven by General Ford comes over the hill and

pulls up on...

OPPOSITE SIDE OF WRECKAGE

Ford and Gillespie both survey the charred remains of the

van. Both are appalled.

(CONTINUED)

100.

CONTINUED:

GILLESPIE:

You had the antiserum to the

original African strain, you

could've made it available right

away. The virus would've never had

a chance to mutate. You could

have stopped this whole epidemic

before it got started. Why?

Ford says nothing. He stares at the wreckage as if somehow

he could find an answer there he himself believes.

GILLESPIE:

Why?

Silence. Finally:

FORD:

It's so strange... You look at

these viruses under the electron

microscope... They're like... like

beautiful symmetrical crystals, so

cold, so pure. You think you're

looking at some fabulous piece of

sculpture behind a museum wall...

till you see the blood and people

dying all around you. I stopped

it once. I thought I could stop

it again.

GILLESPIE:

You ordered the attack on Iwabi's

people in Africa?

Silence. Ford neither confirms nor denies the accusation.

Then with sadness and remorse, Ford tells the truth:

FORD:

We had to ensure that we had the

only live samples of the virus.

GILLESPIE:

Biowarfare research is illegal.

We signed a treaty...

FORD:

... What do you know about the

real world, Gillespie? Even the

air you breathe is artificial. Why

do you think Saddam Hussein didn't

kill our boys with his anthrax and

his botulism and all the other crap

he created in his labs? 'Cause he

knew we had something worse -

(CONTINUED)

101.

CONTINUED:

GILLESPIE:

-- One mad man -

FORD:

-- Every f***ing dictator of the

future's going to use biological

weapons that you can manufacture

cheap in a test tube with

technology you can buy at the

newsrack. Deterrence works.

Gillespie, horrified, steps away from his boss as he

begins to understand the scope of the deception which he

has been the victim of.

FORD:

We spent years synthesizing an

antibody that worked with the

original African strain. We

assumed it would work with this

Bonneville strain. We gambled.

We lost. We can't afford to lose

again...

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