"Hi, dad, it's me." "It's been a bit over 15 years since the world ended." "I'm still following the trail leftbySimon'snotes." "Looking for information about what might havehappened, and about a bunch of guys calledburners who seem to be settingtheworldonfire  for no reason anybody can see." "Along the way, i met this girl." "You would've liked her." "This is how the story ended." "We have to save God from the end of the world." "I don't wanna die!" "I know very few people have cars anymore, and I know we gotta keep a low profile, but you ever stop to think about how big this sucker is?" "And how many branches it takes to hide it?" "And they got thorns and stuff all over." "Look at that." "I got splinters." "You missed a spot." "I'm not done yet." "I guess you're right." "I missed a spot after all." "Dear dad, it's been 15 years since the big death wiped out everyone over the age of innocence..." "The end of your world, the beginning of mine." "Hey... you guys goin' to the festival?" "It's goin' to be cool, man." "Hey, you guys got any spare food, man?" "See, me and my buddies, we're taking up a collection, 'cause I got this friend, man." "He's real sick." "He hasn't eaten for a long time, man, so anything you could spare..." "Fuck off." "Fine." "Great." "Screw you, too." "Goddamn, leave a motherfucker alone." "Like I can support every loser in the world who can't take care of himself." "Sure." "See, that's your deal." "You always gettin' involved in other people's problems, and dragging' me in with you." "This time, it ain't happening'." "Anything that happens to anybody else, it's not our problem." "Well, whatever you say." "Help me." "Please?" "Well?" "Well, what?" "Aren't you gonna go help?" "No." "But she's pregnant." "So?" "It's not my problem, man." "It's like you said, you know," "I should've listened to you a long time ago, not that you ever made any sense." "No, no, you're a helper." "That's what you do." "Not today." "Fine, I'll do it." "You ok?" "I haven't eaten in 3 days, and I'm gonna have a baby, and I've never had a baby before, and I don't know what I'm doing." "Look, you're gonna be ok." "People have been having babies since..." "Well, since forever." "I'm just so ashamed to be doing this." "You hold onto this." "But don't let anybody see you with it, or they'll take it from you, ok?" "And your baby's gonna be fine." "There's a whole new world comin', you'll see." "Well?" "I didn't help, ok?" "I just told her to stop bothering' people with that begging' and shit." "Right." "It's not right, man." "You know?" "It's just not right." "Yeah, I know." "This the place?" "Looks like it." "Come on." "Hot damn." "Are these real?" "Oh, yeah." "Yeah, those are real." "I started collecting them after the government went down." "Figured it'd be cool to live in a place, you know, surrounded by $100 bills." "So many that you could paper the walls with 'em." "You know that money isn't worth anything anymore?" "It's just paper." "Yeah... now." "But I keep hearin' the government's comin' back one of these days." "When it does, I'm gonna be one rich son of a bitch." "Well, you're never goin' to fit this wall in one of those automated tellers, dude." "Yeah, I..." "I know." "I..." "I'll work that out." "So, uh, who are you guys?" "I'm Jeremiah." "This is kurdy." "Hey." "Are you Eddie?" "Yeah, yeah." "You guys here for the festival?" "No, no, uh..." "We heard about you from Simon, and we're here to see the wall." "Ah, right, right." "Yeah, yeah." "Come on, this way." "So, uh, how is Simon?" "I haven't seen him in a while." "He's dead." "Oh." "Guess I can take his pin down, then." "Simon." "Simon." "So what is this wall, anyway?" "This is everything." "This is everybody." "See, we got no more phones, you know, we got no radios, no television, no nothing." "But there's still, like, people looking for each other." "So I came up with this idea." "People tell me their name, where they're from, they get to put a pin in the map." "Now, it tells anybody who might be lookin' for them where they are, where they're goin'." "It's like a... a caveman version of what the Internet used to be, back when we still had electricity." "One can of food, that gets you 6 months on the map." "$100 bill, that gets you a year." "'Cause I..." "I've still got, like, a lot of spots to fill." "W-why a pool hall?" "Well, people like to come here, you know." "I never run out of supplies." "People like to talk while they shoot pool, too." "So I let 'em shoot for free." "It's a good way of finding' out what's going on in the world, you know." "I collect information, stories, all kinds of stuff." "Yeah, that's why we're here." "Uh, according to Simon's logs, you've been tracking' some guys called the burners?" "Yeah..." "I don't talk about the burners, not during working hours." "I, uh, I'll tell you what." "Not many people hang around here after dark." "Why don't you come back then?" "Well, I was just gonna s..." "Ok?" "I mean it." "You talk about the devil, he shall appear." "You talk about the burners, they shall fry your ass, brother." "Ok." "Yeah." "All right, so now what?" "I don't know." "Wait around till dark, I guess." "Yeah, great." "You know what I miss most from before?" "Hmm?" "Air conditioning." "Really?" "Man, and being able to turn on the faucet to get water." "Yeah." "Toilet paper." "Oh, yes, toilet paper." "And necco wafers." "You remember necco wafers?" "Oh, yeah." "You know, rolls of candy, hard as hell, but sweet." "Keep 'em in your pocket, they'd never melt or anything." "And they had all these different flavors, but the best one was..." "Chocolate." "Chocolate, you damn straight." "What was the flavor of those gray ones?" "Nobody ever knew." "They were good, though." "Well, that killed about, what, 2 minutes?" "Yeah, about that." "It's a long damn way till dark, man." "I know it." "Well, I'll tell you what." "I'm going to check around town, see what's goin' on." "Why don't you see what you can find to eat?" "Meet me back here around sunset." "Done and done." "Necco wafers." "Hey, come back here!" "Oh, shit!" "I'm gonna kick your ass!" "Hey, did you see where that little bitch went?" "No." "What'd she do?" "We've been tracking' gas and saving' it for months." "We're gonna take it to another town and sell it." "She broke in and stole some of it." "Come on, man, where'd she go?" "Look, she went that way." "But you can get her if you go around the corner, cut her off." "Ok, here's my theory." "Everything we have, we got from someone else." "We... we found it in an abandoned store, somebody gave it to us." "But nothing belongs to anybody, not anymore." "The only thing we own is what's in our skin, you know?" "I don't know why you want the gas." "You're probably gonna sell it in trade, just the same as them." "I hope you know what you're doin'." "It's an easy way to get killed." "See you." "So you gotta understand, I..." "I hear all kinds of stories." "I mean, I hear some really weird shit, right, like stories, myths, rumors, everything, a dozen new religions starting up." "See, what I think, I think people thought the end of the world really was the end of the world, you know?" "And you shouldn't have to worry about piddly shit anymore." "Either there's this great cloud of paradise or there's this fiery pit." "And you shouldn't have to go scrounge around for tuna fish." "Eddie, the map?" "Right." "Anyway, the point is, the first time I heard about the burners," "I..." "I figured it was, it was just another one of those stories, till I started keeping track of it, right?" "And that's when it got pretty serious." "I..." "That's when Simon got interested." "He wanted to know more about them." "Here it is." "Check this out." "I put a dot for every time that the burners were seen." "Supposedly, they travel in groups of 4 or 5." "Where these guys go, death follows." "They'll burn down city blocks, houses here and there, sometimes whole towns." "One day it's there, next day, ashes to ashes, fucked to fuck." "Anybody know why?" "No." "There's rumors." "You know, some people say that it's a bunch of guys trying to get rid of some infection left over from the big death, or it's the first troops from one of those overseas countries, or that it's a bunch of freaks from" "Canada just out for a good time." "But you know what?" "Nobody noticed the important thing." "Nobody could notice this, because nobody was tracking' it." "Hmm." "That's why I'm smart, huh?" "That's why I gotta be careful." "Well, I..." "I've got stories of burners in Detroit, Milwaukee," "D.C., New York, Syracuse." "You know, they all line up." "Same number of guys, same setup, but just, like, a day or 2 apart." "It's a coordinated program of burning." "Got it in one." "Which means they're either moving really fast from state to state..." "Right, a-and we got no planes, we got no trains, not much in the way of cars." "Yeah, or they're coordinating different groups." "Right." "Which means they've got radios, or somethin' to communicate over a long distance." "Either way, it means somebody has got their stuff together in a big way, and they're using it to burn down what's left of the world." "We don't even know why." "Great." "Hey, I wasn't, uh, gonna say anything, but, uh, well, there's this guy, he's seen the burners with his own eyes." "Simon was gonna meet him next time he came to town." "He... he's probably here for the festival tomorrow night." "I could, you know, check around, see if he's interested." "Yeah, do that." "Thanks." "Right." "Man ought to wear a sign around his neck:" "Raised by mice." "Look, I found a spot to get somethin' to eat." "You wanna roll?" "Nah, I got somethin' to do." "I'll check you out later." "You sure?" "They got baby back ribs, man." "Oh, man, those are not baby backs." "What?" "Have you seen any dogs since we've been here?" "Way to ruin a man's dining pleasure, Jeremiah." "Bon appetit." "Thank you very much." "You know, just because you're unhappy, you want everybody else to be unhappy." "Hey." "Hi." "Yeah, I..." "I just wanted you to know that, uh, that I'm not gonna give your gas back." "Well, that's ok." "We have enough." "You're welcome." "No, I didn't say thanks." "Fact is, I think we're even." "How do you figure?" "Well, that's some car you got tucked away up there." "I've never seen one like that before." "I could've told the others." "There are just the two of you." "There's a lot of us out here, but I didn't." "Thanks." "Oh, you're welcome." "I mean, not that I would've told anyway." "Most of the guys around here, they're..." "They're creeps, and, uh, I'm not a thief." "What does it matter what I think?" "It just does, that's all." "I just wanted you to know that I'm not a thief." "I'm not like them." "But you took the gas." "Yeah." "But I didn't take the gas to sell it, ok?" "That's the difference." "So, what, you just, um, you like the smell of it or somethin'?" "Is that it?" "Something." "But you did right by me, and that doesn't happen a lot, so I just thought..." "I don't know." "You're welcome." "What's your name?" "Claire." "Jeremiah." "That's a good name." "Hey!" "Hey!" "You figure somebody did this 'cause he talked to us?" "Maybe." "You think he got a hold of that guy before he died?" "Maybe." "You got anything else to say besides maybe?" "Maybe." "Maybe not." "Well, you know, a guy could set himself up quite a little place here." "You've got people comin' in and out all the time." "I can't believe you." "Look, I'm just sayin', before somebody else comes in here, we may want to think about..." "Now that Eddie's dead," "I'm layin' claim to this place." "Does anybody want to fight about it?" "Ahem." "Like I always say, he who hesitates gets fucked." "You gonna get rid of this?" "Yeah." "It's the least we can do." "Come on, give me a hand." "You know, you always end up buryin' an awful lot of people, Jeremiah." "You ever think about that, huh?" "You ever think about how many people around you just up and die?" "Whole world's a funeral, kurdy." "Thanks for cheering' me up." "Coming through, watch out." "So now what do we do?" "I don't know." "You know, kurdy, I just..." "I don't know, we've come all this way, get a guy killed, have nothin' to show for it." "I don't know about you, but I wanna stay for the festival." "We ain't got shit else to do but go back to thunder Mountain, and that spot ain't exactly party central, you know what I'm sayin'?" "Yeah." "Besides, it's been a long time since I've seen a good party." "We could use one." "Hell, you could use one." "So what do you say?" "ś" "And the world ended because God was thrown down, and God used to protect us, but now it's everything he can do just to look out for himself." "The devil's on the warpath." "With one swipe, he took out half the world, so we'd better be real careful, because the next swipe will take everybody, and God wishes he could help us, but he can't." "So it's up to us now." "We can't be feeling sorry for ourselves, because there's too much at stake." "We have to save God from the end of the world." "We survive, and God lives." "So don't feel bad for where we are, because we're fighting, fighting for the soul of the world!" "There's nothing good on t.V. Anymore." "ś" "Hey, you ok?" "The baby, it's coming." "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I think so." "Let me help." "Oh, God, I'm gonna die!" "I don't wanna die!" "You're not gonna die, ok." "It just feels like it." "I've never done this before." "I'm scared." "I have." "Oh, God." "Let me help." "Come on, come on." "Oh, fuck." "Oh, shit." "Oh, fuck!" "Push, just push." "I can't." "Push!" "You can!" "You can!" "No." "You can." "Come on, now." "Fuck you!" "I bring you mysteries and revelations, Jeremiah." "What are you doin' here?" "You know, I-if they see you..." "Who'd see this and think of me?" "It's just that everybody around me dies." "Show me somebody who doesn't." "Come with me." "You live here?" "For now." "I kind of go from place to place, up and down the coast lookin' for gas." "But this is the last one for a while." "For a while?" "What do you mean?" "Come on." "I want to show you somethin'." "I promised you revelations, remember?" "Revelations." "It's a book in the Bible about the end of the world, the last book in the Bible." "Yeah, we've gone on past the end of that book, somehow, so I guess we're gonna have to start writin' new chapters, and maybe this is what that's all about." "So what do you think?" "All this gas." "10 years' worth, right here." "What're you..." "Come on." "Oh, man!" "This is why" "I saved all the gas." "I can't even imagine what all that would buy in trade." "But I'm not gonna sell it." "I'm gonna use it." "Even set up a hand generator to keep the battery charged." "This is the last working boat on this side of the country." "Hell, for all I know, it could be the last boat like this in the world." "With the gas and the sails to go where I want." "And where is that?" "Beyond the horizon, beyond the edge of the sea, beyond the stars," "to see what's there, who's left on the other side of the world." "At least it's there for a good reason." "Not many folks with blood on their hands can say that." "My name's William." "Eddie said you were lookin' for me." "I only have 2 things that belonged to my folks." "That boat is one of them." "My mom, she was always kind of frightened of the water." "She didn't trust it." "My dad and I, we used to go sailing a lot." "You know, I used to..." "I used to look out over the horizon and wonder what was over there, where... where the sea just kind of falls away into mystery." "He promised me that one of these days we were gonna sail past that horizon," "past the edge of the world." "So what happened?" "Well, we never made it." "And now?" "Now, between the sails and the gas," "I finally got just enough to make it." "I'm goin', Jeremiah." "I guess I just wanted somebody to know." "Somebody who wouldn't laugh at me." "I don't think you're the kind who'd laugh at me." "No, it's ok." "I know a thing or 2 about promises." "What you're doing, sailing' across the world, aren't you afraid?" "No." "I've taught myself how to read the charts." "I've gone over the routes, like, a thousand times in my mind until I could just..." "I can see 'em in my sleep." "I know how many days I need to sail." "I know how long to run my engine." "Piece of cake." "And I will be the first person to see what's on the other side." "Maybe they came back faster." "Maybe the big death didn't hit as hard over there, and they're just waiting to see if someone's alive before helping us out." "And maybe you step out of that boat and find that nobody survived." "Maybe." "But at least I'll know." "I will be the only person who knows." "Think about that, Jeremiah." "And at least one person here will know that I went." "And whenever you look out at the horizon, I..." "I'll know you'll be thinking of me." "That must be what it's like to live forever." "Well, then..." "Here's to livin' forever." "So, I was just on my way back into lucasville when I saw the burners comin' down the road." "It's like, one minute they weren't there, and then they were." "I jumped out of the way before they could see me." "They were dressed in these, like, silver outfits, and had these, like, backpacks on." "Hold on." "Here." "I drew a picture." "You can have it." "I don't want it anymore." "It'll probably get me killed." "What's this?" "I don't know." "Some sort of symbol a couple of 'em were wearin'." "I was layin' in the high grass, layin' low so they wouldn't see me." "When they passed," "I could hear 'em makin' this noise." "Creeped me out, man." "Anyway, I followed 'em, wondering' what this was about." "I..." "I heard some folks in town had gotten sick, but that's all." "I didn't think it was important or anything, but when we got there..." "What?" "They burned it, man." "They burned all of it:" "Men, women, kids, cats, dogs, hope, love, fear." "They burned it all down so fast, nobody got out." "Nobody." "So you want anything else?" "Anything at all?" "Like I said, um..." "I'm goin' tomorrow, and I just don't wanna be alone tonight." "I followed them back the way they came as far as I could." "Then they entered these woods on the edge of town." "By the time I got there, they had just gone." "Did you leave that back door open when we came in?" "No." "That's what I was afraid of." "Oh, man, this is gonna hurt." "Go!" "Wait." "Claire, what is it?" "It's nothing." "It's nothing." "Make love to me, Jeremiah." "Make love to me so hard, you love the ghosts and the bad memories right out of my head." "We've lost him." "Don't worry." "If he's gone, we still got one more." "Our source thinks he knows where he went." "Let's go." "It's clear." "Good." "Thanks." "I gotta go." "Sounds like they're after Jeremiah." "Those men?" "Yeah?" "They had guns." "I know." "And flashlights." "I know." "And flashlights have batteries." "I mean, some people got guns, and some people have flashlights, and some people have batteries." "These guys had all 3." "I know." "Been nice knowin' you." "I'm tired of this runnin' around and chasing' shit." "I say we end this right now." "You ok?" "Mmm-hmm." "You sure?" "You kind of startled me there for a minute." "I thought, you know, you might wanna talk about it." "Well, um, ok." "Well, you remember when I told you my dad and I used to go sailing together?" "Well, he wanted to take me out just one last time." "We were gonna live our dream." "We were gonna keep the promise we made to each other." "Itwasgonnabebeautiful." "He was everything to me, Jeremiah." "He was so sick, and I asked him if mom was gonna come with us, and he said, no, she'd meet us later." "But I know now she was already dead." "He just couldn't say it." "We'd just been out for one day, and I remember..." "I remember the water, the water was so calm." "There was no wind at all, so we were waiting for the wind to come up," "and he..." "He went downstairs." "Said he just needed to take a rest and then we'd keep going." "And so I waited," "I waited, like, an hour..." "And I waited another hour." "I so was afraid." "I was so afraid being above deck, afraid to go below." "Finally, I had to do something, so..." "It's just so unfair." "I mean..." "We promised each other we would go together." "How can I go if he's..." "If he's dead?" "I just..." "Why did he take me out there if he knew he was dying?" "Maybe, he wanted you to keep lookin' at the horizon, you know, past what was goin' on in the world." "It's what he wanted for you." "Come on!" "Shells." "I need shells." "Oh, shit!" "What do they want?" "Me." "Look, I'm gonna go draw their fire." "Take this." "Stop!" "Get in!" "Get in!" "Are you ok?" "Yeah, I'm fine." "Good timing." "What's she doin'?" "Who's that?" "What are you doin'?" "Claire, you've got to get out of here!" "Please, Jeremiah, you've got to help me." "I can't let this go." "What the hell are you doin', man?" "Just take this stuff, give it to her." "Here, take this." "Here, here." "What is this stuff, anyway?" "Gasoline!" "What!" "Go!" "Man!" "What are you doin' with all this gasoline?" "That's it." "Go!" "Come on." "Not much left." "No." "Not much." "I was hopin' to find somethin' that would tell us who they were, where they came from." "What you got there?" "I don't know." "What's it say?" "V.S.-41417." "V.S.-41563." "V.S." "Valhalla sector?" "Could be, or it could stand for "very stupid."" "Roll these other 2, see what you can find on 'em." "I'll be back." "How's she doing?" "No damage I could find, but another few minutes..." "Thanks." "And thank kurdy for me." "I'll do that." "Good." "So, you, uh, got enough for the trip?" "Yeah." "Yeah, I think so." "So..." "I guess it's time to go." "You could come with me." "See what's out there..." "Beyond the horizon, between what's known and not known." "I can't." "I got promises of my own to keep, you know." "I want to find out what happened with my dad." "Besides, there's a whole new country being born on this side of the ocean." "I think maybe I'd like to see that." "Well, when you see the water, when you look out to the horizon, will you think of me?" "Always." "I'd better go." "Yeah." "Good luck." "Is she gone?" "Yeah." "Think she'll make it?" "I think if anybody can, she can." "She said to thank you for helpin' her out." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "That's nice." "Yeah, it's not so bad sometimes, is it, gettin' involved in other people's problems?" "No, it's worse." "I get shot at, burned, people chasing' me, babies being born, and ain't none of it worth it." "We are not doin' this anymore, are we, Jeremiah?" "Maybe." "Maybe not." "Hi, dad, it's me."