The Girl with All the Gifts Page #3

wheel and put her in the wheel well.

- It's an enclosed space...

- (GRUNTS)

Was that cathartic?

Whoa! Once is enough.

HELEN:
She's not going in the wheel well.

I just wanted to make that clear.

No, she's not.

(ENGINE STOPS)

PARKS:
Suppressors on. Soft rounds.

MELANIE:
How can bullets be soft?

DILLON:
Do you want me to gag it, sir?

- Means they're hollow at the tip.

- Why?

Spreads as it goes in. Doesn't come out.

- Less blood spatter.

- Why?

Less chance of spreading the infection.

Thank you, Sergeant Parks.

Let's move.

PARKS:
Be quick.

(TWIGS RUSTLING)

- Jesus Christ, I said suppressors!

- Sorry, I didn't... Sh*t!

(RUNNING FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

Move. Let's go. Go!

Go!

(SNARLING AND CLICKING)

(SNARLING)

(GUNFIRE)

(GRUNTS)

- (SNARLING)

- (GRUNTING)

- Sarge!

- Sh*t!

- F***ing hell!

- (SNARLING)

(GRUNTING)

(SCREAMING)

Get its head up! Get its f***ing head up!

- (SNARLING)

- (GALLAGHER STRAINING)

- PARKS:
Move! Go!

- (PANTING)

(GASPS)

Your arm.

(BREATHING UNSTEADILY)

That's... That's not a bite, Sarge.

- I laid it open on a rock.

- Stay there.

Sarge, I cut myself, I swear to God.

Wait.

What, with my f***ing bollocks hanging out?

Sod that, let me in!

See, I told you, I'm fine.

I'm fine. There's nothing... Wrong...

(GASPING)

(SNARLING)

MELANIE:
He was turning into one of them.

- Like Dr Selkirk.

- What the f*** is she doing in here?

She's got a muzzle on her face

and her hands are tied behind her back.

And you're still afraid of her?

Yeah. And you should be, too.

Melanie...

The hungries,

they've got this sort of disease...

And people can catch it.

A fungal infection.

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.

Transmitted by bodily fluids.

So your bite is...

She's not gonna be biting anyone.

PARKS:
Professional opinion.

- Were they following us?

- DR CALDWELL:
Probably not.

They gather in groups,

as they did in the base.

We're not sure why.

They must be lonely.

Oh. I hadn't thought of that one.

(IGNITION SPUTTERS)

(IGNITION SPUTTERS)

Bullet hit the fuel line,

so we're back to Shanks's pony.

We'll take the direct

route through to London.

More hungries, but more food, too.

- It's a f*** sight quicker.

- Seriously?

Why can't we just call Beacon and tell them

where we are? They can send a chopper.

I tried. The truck's radio

doesn't have the range.

We'll call on the handhelds

once we're closer in.

All right, let's take a stroll.

HELEN:
Come on.

MELANIE:
Will we see the river?

There's a river. The Thames.

It's the second-longest river in England

and it rises in the Cotswold Hills.

How deep are rivers?

In the picture, The Elephant's Child,

the water is up to the elephant's feet.

But boats sail on rivers and fish live in them,

so some rivers must be very deep...

Here. Watch where you put your feet.

GALLAGHER:

They're all over the place, Sarge.

PARKS:
The shops were looted

a long time ago.

We might get lucky

if we go through some of the houses.

- Hungries?

- By the ton.

We're going in.

On tip-toe.

Really? Through a herd of them?

Their main sensory cue is smell.

The gel makes us invisible.

PARKS:
Up to a point.

Anything loud, any fast movements

will wake them, too.

We walk slow, steady. No talking.

No eye contact.

OK?

OK?

(CHUCKLES) We're not children,

Sergeant Parks.

Least of all, her.

(WHEELS SQUEAKING IN DISTANCE)

(MELANIE BREATHING HEAVILY)

(SOFTLY) Caldwell.

- (GASPS)

- (SNARLING)

PARKS:
Up, up. Everybody, up.

Move. Up. Up.

(SNARLING)

(SNARLS)

(PANTING)

PARKS:
Be quiet and settle in.

HELEN:
What?

What else you wanna do, go back out there?

(SIGHS)

Doctor, what was that?

I've never seen maternal

or nurturing behaviour in a hungry.

I was gathering data,

which is part of our mission statement.

It was until the fence went down.

Now our mission statement

is to keep ourselves off the f***ing menu.

I'll be more careful, where possible.

(PARKS SIGHS)

Let's get ourselves some privacy.

We'd better do a quick recce.

Make sure we've got this

place to ourselves.

- Melanie stays here.

- Private.

And someone stays with her.

I won't have her put at risk.

(HAN DCUFFS RATTLING

AGAINST RADIATOR)

MELANIE:
I'll be fine, Miss Justineau.

I'm not scared.

- Justineau, you take the left.

- Yeah.

Gallagher, you take the right.

Eyes and ears.

Melanie...

If you need me, shout really loud.

Yes, Miss Justineau.

(WINCING)

Dr Caldwell?

What am I?

We don't really have a term for it.

But you know where I came from?

Tell me.

Please.

(DISTANT CLANG)

Sergeant Parks and his people used to

go into the cities on retrieval runs.

On one of those visits,

they found something else.

(DISTANT THUD)

(CLANG)

DR CALDWELL:
Neonates.

Newborns.

Infected, very definitely. Hungries,

but different from anything we'd seen.

They were still able to think,

to...

Interact with their environment.

In many ways,

they behaved like real people.

(DISTANT BANGING AND CHAIN RATTLING)

(EXHALES SHARPLY)

MELANIE:
Why were the babies different?

It seemed these children might have

a partial immunity to the hungry pathogen.

But where did they come from?

From where all babies come from.

But by a...

Slightly eccentric route.

(DISTANT THUDDING)

(THUD)

DR CALDWELL:
The newborns

were found in a place like this.

A maternity hospital,

where mothers go to give birth.

The mothers were there, too. They were...

Empty.

Cored.

All their organs devoured.

- By hungries?

- No.

From the inside.

(DISTANT BANGING)

- Babies can't eat people.

- These ones did.

The mothers were probably

all infected at once, in a single incident.

Then the embryos they were carrying

took the infection as well...

Through the placenta.

They ate their way out.

(BANGING GETS CLOSER)

(SNARLING)

I don't want to be a hungry.

But that's what you are.

In dissection, it's very clear.

The fungus is wrapped around your brain

like ivy around an oak tree.

But I can talk. I'm like you.

You're not like anything

that's ever existed before.

(CHOMPING)

(CHAIN RATTLES)

(SNARLS)

(SNARLS)

(SNARLING CONTINUES)

You said you could make a vaccine.

It's the whole focus of my research.

Nothing matters more.

I want to save people, Melanie.

I want to save everybody.

(SNARLING)

(EXHALES)

I tried to find some food for you,

but... I didn't manage.

But I did find something else.

They're really great, aren't they?

Now you can get out of those stinky things.

They're very nice.

Thank you.

Tomorrow I'll try and

find some food for you.

First thing. OK?

Do you think you can hold out till then?

Mmm.

(CHUCKLES)

Do you think Beacon

have missed our comms yet?

Hard to say.

They check in when they can.

They've been stretched just lately.

"Sufficient unto the day."

What, don't you fraternise

with the enlisted men?

You ever killed a kid?

I was in the Terries.

I didn't say boo to a f***ing goose turd

before all this kicked off.

- She looks at me like I'm Jesus.

- She loves you.

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