"JOHN:" "I'll take it now." "LIZZIE:" "No, it's all right." "I can manage." "JOHN:" "My turn." "I'll take it up to the corner." "LIZZIE:" "All right." "Careful." "JOHN:" "I think I'm going to enjoy it here." "There's much more for us to do." "Pet says I can do the milking, too." "She's going to teach me how to hold the udders." "LIZZIE:" "The teat, silly." "JOHN:" "What?" "LIZZIE:" "You hold the teat." "The udder is the big bag that holds the milk." "Teats are the things on the outside." "JENNY:" "Hello." "GREG:" "Hi." "(GREG SIGHS)" "Well, hello, funny face." "You all right?" "Hmm." "I've got a bit of a headache." "Pet keeps coming in and feeding me endless cups of carrot tea." "That's what's causing the headache." "You're right." "JENNY:" "She's nice though, isn't she?" "Who, Pet?" "Hmm." "Yes." "Yes she is." "What have you been doing?" "Hedging." "I'm frozen." "Ooh!" "(CHILDREN PLAYING OUTSIDE)" "You warm enough?" "Mmm." "I'm fine." "They seem happy enough." "I'd like to stay, Greg." "Well, we're going to stay until spring, anyway." "I can't think we'd be better off anywhere else." "You've been brainwashed by Pet." "Well, Charles wants to expand." "Yes, I know." "What does funny face over there want to do?" "I think it's time funny face got a name." "All right." "What do you want to call him?" "Mmm..." "David?" "David." "How does that appeal to you, David?" "You really do want to stay, Jenny?" "Yes." "Yes, I do." "I feel safe here." "All right." "Oh." "Bread, wine, oil lamps." "Very organised." "Yeah." "Well, it could be even more organised with more people." "Create a division of labour." "Yes, well, that's what I wanted to talk about." "Ah." "You decided to stay?" "Yes." "Tell me, was it you yourself, or the family man?" "The family man." "Ah." "Still, I don't think you'll regret it." "Not with this class of wine." "Now, what should we drink to?" "What indeed?" "Civilisation." "All of us." "Hmm." "Private party, or can anyone join?" "Just in time." "They've decided to stay." "I am glad." "How's the baby?" "Oh, he's fine." "He's got a name now." "David." "New toast." "David." "David." "David." "Ta." "I can't work with you standing next to me." "Well, don't work, then." "Can people still love each other?" "Mmm." "Charles is so basic." "Always going on about breeding." "I know." "Like animals." "Charles has got his own idea of what love is." "Do you love me?" "Yes." "Different though, innit?" "You mean nowadays?" "Yeah." "But what?" "You're going to be a doctor." "So?" "You'd never have looked at me twice." "Times were different." "You'd noticed?" "Yeah." "You got a smaller choice." "Yes, I'm just slumming." "What about you?" "Oh, I always did fancy nurses." "Cheeky devil." "What you've got to remember is that the old class distinctions have gone." "So forget about the doctor bit." "But I don't want to." "Why?" "Makes you more exciting, doesn't it?" "I see I'm going to have problems with you." "You can have goes on my horse." "Oh, come on, it's not the end of the world." "What's the matter, John?" "What's the matter?" "Jack's killed Tommy." "Who's Tommy?" "His horse." "Oh, dear." "Why did Jack do that?" "He broke his leg." "Listen, John, if a horse is injured and its leg is broken, and we can't mend it, and we can't, isn't it better to put him out of his misery?" "(SOBBING) I suppose so." "He wouldn't want to spend the rest of his life a cripple, would he?" "Mining engineers, one." "Veterinary surgeons, one." "Nurses, 70." "Architects, three." "Hmm." "You're one third of the world's architectural talent, Charlie." "No, no." "This is just Britain, from these 1966 census figures." "Oh." "One survivor in 5,000?" "Approximately." "I tried to make a census once." "We toured the area, traced the survivors, found out where they lived." "Well, what happened to it?" "Uh, we got overtaken by events." "Again?" "Yes." "Do you think I can have another go?" "Just to correlate special skills, to find out what we still need here." "Afterwards, of course, it could become much more important when we begin to expand." "You don't have to convince me, Arthur." "Do you think it's a good idea?" "Yes, I do." "Oh." "(DOOR OPENING)" "Have you seen Ruth?" "No." "Jenny's not feeling very well." "RUTH:" "Jenny." "What's the matter?" "It's my headache." "It's suddenly worse." "Anywhere else?" "Any pain anywhere else?" "Mmm." "Down here." "I feel faint." "I see." "And she was sick half an hour ago." "I don't know if that's any help." "Let me see your hands." "Now, close your eyes." "Can you see anything?" "No, just giddy." "You can open again now." "Any ideas?" "Well, Jenny's a bit sweaty." "Obviously her temperature's up." "You've got a bit of low blood pressure, Jen." "We'll have to build you up." "Get some bottles of stout for you." "Could you give me a few minutes with her, Greg?" "Oh, sure." "The headache on its own doesn't mean much." "But she's got symptoms of low blood pressure." "Well, go on." "She's had a slight haemorrhage." "I think some of the placenta has got left behind and it's reacting." "What'll happen?" "She needs an operation, to remove it." "Can you do that?" "Not without certain things." "Like what?" "Forceps, sedatives." "One or two other things." "We can get a sedative in a chemist, can't we?" "Yes." "But not the rest of the stuff." "Well, where, then?" "RUTH:" "A hospital." "A maternity hospital?" "Not necessarily, a general hospital." "Well, we got to be certain." "It's too dangerous, hopping around." "I went into London only three months after." "Packs of wild dogs, rats." "Got to get in quick and get out quick." "Yes, but the corpses will have gone by now." "Yeah, but the animals won't." "Look, let's just decide where we're going, shall we?" "Hang on now, there's no point in going into town if we get everything we want from a cottage hospital." "We mustn't waste any time." "How do we know we're going to be able to get everything locally?" "We don't." "We need sealed bottles of sterile water to go with the antibiotics." "Most of them will have been used up in the Death anyway." "So it has to be somewhere that once held huge stocks." "City hospital." "CHARLES:" "So it's no good wasting time chasing around the country." "Even then, not being certain." "CHARLES:" "So it's got to be a city, not a town." "Birmingham's the best bet." "GREG:" "And how long will that take?" "CHARLES:" "With a good horse, half a day there." "Right." "Well, you tell me what we need, Ruth, and I'll get off." "Hang on, Greg, I don't think you..." "Look, Jenny's my responsibility." "There's no need for anyone else here to take a risk." "Anyway, whoever goes, it's too late to set out now." "It'll be dark soon." "And I've still got to make a list of what's wanted, explain where to look for it and what it looks like." "Hmm." "Yeah, she's right." "It's pointless running the risk tonight." "But she'll be all right?" "I know very little about this, Greg." "We must plan as best we can." "Greg, Jenny's asking for you." "I still think he'd be more use to Jenny here." "I'll go." "First thing in the morning." "Greg doesn't need to know anything about it, does he?" "I thought you said you were sick of cities." "Now, why don't I go?" "I know something of what to look for." "We need somebody who can ride a horse, not a bike." "Thanks very much." "Paul's right." "I'll start these notes." "Yes, Doctor." "God, I hope it's warmer where you're going." "Don't forget to change your socks." "Okay." "And don't drink the water." "You got the maps?" "It's okay, they're in there." "I'll take the short route." "Up the motorway." "(LAUGHS) Don't get done for speeding." "Okay." "Come on!" "Good luck." "(MOANING)" "Jenny." "Jenny." "It hurts." "Yes, but it's all right." "Paul's gone to get the drugs." "He'll be back..." "Don't fight the pain, Jenny." "Don't struggle." "It was his own choice." "He offered to go." "Don't have a baby, Pet." "It'll be all right." "I think it's childbed fever." "If it is, the penicillin and the streptomycin should do it." "I thought for a minute she was going into coma." "Is there a doctor in the country?" "I feel totally inadequate." "You're doing the best you can." "I'll make you a drink." "You better make some sort of bottle for the baby, Greg." "Jenny won't be able to feed him now." "Sure." "I miss Abby." "Yes." "(CHUCKLING) Census?" "Just name, address and special skills." "Name, rank, number, eh?" "That's right." "Then I get a clocking-on card." "No." "Well, what's it for?" "Posterity?" "If we're going to expand..." "And failing to comply with your request?" "I just thought we ought to have some documentation." "Ah, then the income tax and the rates!" "I know you're a carpenter, but you may have other skills." "All right, as long as it's not bosses and workers all over again." "Right." "Name?" "Jack Percival Wood." "Previous address?" "13 Derby Street, Poplar, E7." "Previous occupation?" "Docker." "Anything else?" "Shop steward." "That's not a job." "Special skill." "Disruptive tactics." "It'll be used again if you ever become chief tyrant." "I was thinking of something more constructive." "Well, I was very good at mending bike punctures." "How's that?" "West Ham supporter?" "All right, do some home electricity and some bricklaying." "Thanks very much, Jack." "Now, if you ever get tired of administration," "I can always teach you how do a mortise and tenon joint." "I'll remember that." "ARTHUR: "That Tom, who had thought her very handsome, said to himself," ""'Handsome is that handsome does,'" ""and slipped in between the water lily roots as fast as he could," ""and then turned round and made faces at her." ""'Come out,' said the wicked old otter, or it will be worse for you." ""But Tom looked at her from between two thick roots" ""and shook them with all his might," ""making horrible faces all the while, just as he used to..."" "(BABY CRYING)" "Oh." "Shh." "There's a clever boy." "Come on." "Drink some more milk." "Come on." "Come on." ""'...which nothing eats, not even those vulgar pike in the pond.'" ""'I am not an eft,' said Tom." "'Efts have tails.'" ""'You are an eft,' said the otter very positively." ""'I see your two hands quite plain and I know you have a tail."'" "What's an eft?" "Um..." "Well, I think it's a sort of lizard, a kind of newt." "You haven't been listening." "I have been listening." "All right? "'I tell you, I have not,' said Tom. 'Look here.'" ""And he turned his pretty little self quite round," ""and sure enough, he had no more tail than you."" "I was just thinking about Jenny." "Is she getting better?" "Yes, she is." "When can we see the baby?" "Well, Pet will tell you when you can go in." "It may not be today." "Carry on with the story please, Arthur." "Thank you very much." ""The otter might have got out of it by saying that Tom was a frog." ""But then, like a great many other people," ""when she had once said a thing, she stood to it, right or wrong."" "(PAUL SIGHS)" "Nothing's that simple." "Got to leave you, old son." "Sorry." "Stay right here, I'll come back." "Don't worry about me, I'll hitch a lift." "She keeps drifting, but she's still conscious." "Peritonitis could set in." "It's John's birthday the day after tomorrow, same as Paul's." "What time is it?" "5:30." "It'll be light in an hour." "LIZZIE:" "Can I, please?" "JOHN:" "Me after." "PET:" "You know, you really have to work very hard." "LIZZIE:" "What's it like?" "PET:" "Well..." "Is he back?" "LIZZIE:" "Oh, yes." "A fantastic right foot shot." "Look!" "Lizzie, look, there's Paul." "Paul!" "Paul!" "Paul's back!" "JOHN:" "He's back!" "LIZZIE:" "Paul's back!" "JOHN:" "We saw him." "The horse went lame." "No." "Got a fever or something..." "Did you get the stuff, Paul?" "(PANTING) Yeah, got it." "How is she?" "Not bad." "Were you bitten by anything?" "No." "Could be a cold, I suppose." "CHARLES:" "I'll give you a hand with that stuff." "RUTH:" "Now, hold on." "Paul, you got the penicillin and the streptomycin?" "Yeah." "And the tetracycline tablets?" "Think so." "What about the sealed bottles of sterile water?" "Yeah, I got those." "Syringes?" "Yeah, I got all that." "Forceps." "CHARLES:" "Good lad." "And a large bottle of bicarbonate of soda." "Well, Pet will thank you for that." "Where can he stay tonight till we know what's wrong?" "One of the outhouses?" "We use them." "I know." "Paul, could you manage by yourself up in the hay barn?" "Should think so." "Can you hold on here for a bit while we get some blankets organised and get some food up there for you?" "I'll do that now, all right?" "PAUL:" "Yes." "Okay." "Leave the saddlebag on the ground." "Keep the others for now." "When I've sorted out what Jenny needs, I'll come to the barn and make sure you give yourself an injection, all right?" "You'll be all right." "How long have you been like this?" "Two or three hours." "It's probably exhaustion." "I'm thirsty." "It'll take a little time to get the barn ready and the injections organised." "I'll start you on penicillin." "I told you to change your socks." "Yeah, well, I reckon he found a pub to stay in." "Yeah, I was that lucky." "See you in a bit." "Well, that's the sedative." "And then what?" "Then we remove the placenta." "And give a combination of penicillin and streptomycin." "If that doesn't work, we'll try the tetracycline." "One of them should do it." "I better go get Paul fixed up." "Is the barn ready?" "Yeah." "Arthur's told him he can go in." "Pet." "Hmm?" "Go to bed, Pet." "Go to bed." "Paul?" "Paul." "Paul." "It's time for your injection, my love, come on." "I left the horse." "That's it." "Now syringe." "Get the horse back." "I left it in a field, up on the top road." "I will." "Now, into the water bottle." "That's it, that's right." "Draw it up." "Good." "You'll get it back?" "I will, I promise." "The blue one." "Now, pump the water into it." "Draw it back up." "That's right." "Make sure all the air's out." "That's it." "Once more." "That's right, good." "CHARLES:" "Now, Paul is spending today and tonight in the barn." "Maybe tomorrow, too, it all depends how he is." "But Ruth is very, very clear on one thing." "Nobody is to go near him." "All right?" "JOHN:" "Yeah." "Good." "I thought you were in bed." "I've had a sleep." "Go on." "CHARLES:" "Right." "Ah, where was I?" "Oh, yes, all right, then." "Now, nobody is to go near Paul, not even to talk to him because he might have a germ and we don't want to catch it." "She's sleeping." "CHARLES:" "Can I come in?" "Yes, of course, come on." "How's Paul?" "Um..." "It was too dark to see." "I thought I heard him move." "How's Jenny?" "I've got the placenta." "But we'll have to wait." "CHARLES:" "I was saving that for a special occasion." "For a bigger world." "Better days." "You know, in primitive societies, natives used drugs to ease the pain of existence." "Well, we needed more or less the same thing, I suppose." "Isn't that what a civilisation was, just a..." "A vast support system to ease the pain?" "Just a year ago." "Seems like a lifetime." "How adaptable will we become, Greg?" "Or will we become brutalised?" "Well, I knew a Dutchman, stockbroker, big jovial kind." "During the war, he had been in a German concentration camp." "I think it was Belsen." "He lost his mother there." "But when I met him, he was living in luxury and, he remembered all the horrors, but somehow..." "Somehow they just weren't real any more." "How long was he in Belsen?" "A year." "Hmm." "Any glasses?" "Yeah." "Paul, I'm here." "How do you feel, love?" "(PAUL MURMURING)" "What?" "Where does it hurt?" "Tell me." "In your neck?" "Anywhere else?" "Under your arms?" "Touch under your arms, what can you feel?" "(SPEAKING SOFTLY) Lumps." "In your neck as well?" "Paul, you must give yourself another injection straightaway." "Not penicillin." "The red bottle, streptomycin." "Please, love." "Get the syringe." "The second one, not the first one you used." "Now, get one of the water bottles." "You must break the seal." "Now press the plunger into the bottle." "Come on, come on." "That's it." "Good boy." "I've given Jenny her drugs." "She's going to be fine." "You saved her, love." "You did a marvellous job." "Oh, what's this?" "I'm making cakes for John's party." "It's his birthday today." "Ooh, it's nice." "How is he?" "He's not responded to penicillin, so I've put him on streptomycin." "He's got lumps where his lymph nodes are." "It could be adenitis, a streptococcal infection." "Did you have lumps when you were ill?" "No." "Did you, Pet?" "No." "Neither did I." "Did Paul ever mention his symptoms when he was ill?" "Not to me." "In pneumonic plague, there aren't any lumps." "In septicaemic plague, I think you get spots on the skin." "Bubonic." "Hey, race you to the top of the hill." "Oh!" "(PAUL MOANING)" "Hey, there's Arthur." "Stop, you mustn't." "LIZZIE:" "Arthur, Arthur!" "ARTHUR:" "Here, you know you two kids shouldn't be here." "What's the matter with Paul?" "He should be in bed." "ARTHUR:" "Here." "Give Jack a hand with this." "More work!" "I'll take the front." "No, the front's too heavy, you take the back." "All right." "What's the matter with Paul?" "Ready, up." "John, Lizzie!" "John!" "(MOANING)" "No." "Ruth, Ruth!" "Quickly, girl!" "Ruth!" "Ruth!" "Did they touch him?" "The child may have." "Jack, you know the outhouse with tins of DDT powder?" "Yeah, I know." "Can you get two of those polythene sacks?" "I think there are some in there." "Yeah." "Tell the woman to take all her clothes off, and those of the child, and to burn them." "They must do that first." "Then to get into the sacks and dust herself all over with DDT, the same for the child." "Yeah, all right." "It's not working, is it?" "RUTH:" "Up till now, we thought we were immune." "Most of us had the disease, and we thought it was a mutant strain of bubonic plague." "Paul had it." "But whatever he had, whatever we had it, it's not this." "This is bubonic." "He's got lumps and buboes exactly where you'd expect." "Adenitis should have responded to drugs, so should bubonic." "So this is yet another mutant." "But one thing's constant." "It's spread by rats, the fleas that live on rats." "And this is a farm and Paul is in a barn." "And if the lumps suppurate, the fleas will gorge on them." "Ruth, are you telling us we've got to leave?" "That's what the people of Eyam should have done." "Eyam?" "A village in Derbyshire." "They shut themselves in." "What they should have done was to burn down the village to kill the rats and the fleas." "Ruth, we can't survive that way." "They'd been fed by people from other villages." "Well, in our case, there's no other people." "And there's Jenny, she can't be moved." "JACK:" "How do we stop it, Ruth?" "You stop it by isolating the patient through using strict aseptic technique." "But we can't do that." "Can't move him." "When will the lumps suppurate?" "They might not." "One thing, it's winter, fleas like it warm." "But there are other factors." "Ruth." "No, Greg." "Well, if Ruth is right, Paul could wipe us all out." "Even after death, the body is dangerous." "Meaning what?" "Paul's dying." "Not necessarily." "You haven't seen him, Greg." "All right, so?" "Well, go on, Arthur, say it." "You want us to kill him, yes?" "I don't want to kill him." "Paul's our friend, Arthur." "We survived both plague and fire, remember?" "Now he's just risked his life to save Jenny." "So we thank him for that by killing him, yes?" "Greg, it is important that we..." "How does Ruth know for sure it is bubonic plague?" "Go and look at him, Greg." "Go and look at him." "He's suffering, Greg." "He's in terrible pain." "You asked me if we were all going to become brutalised." "Well, perhaps we will if all we think of is survival." "JACK:" "That's all the paraffin and most of the DDT." "Thanks, Jack." "What are you doing?" "I'm going to treat Paul." "Perhaps he didn't inject himself properly." "What's in there?" "Mixture of DDT and paraffin." "And if DDT works, then why not in paraffin?" "You're going to wrap yourself in polythene?" "That's right." "And then paint it with the DDT and the paraffin." "All right?" "Yes." "Go and stay with Jenny." "LIZZIE:" "Come on, goat." "If I were Charles, I wouldn't ask him to stay in a barn." "He must be jolly draughty." "Look!" "It's Ruth." "Ruth!" "They're having a fancy dress party, John." "(BOTH GIGGLING)" "Jenny?" "(JENNY MOANS)" "Jenny." "PAUL (SOFTLY):" "Don't." "Shh." "Jenny..." "Listen, it's all right." "I'm sorry." "What?" "Paul?" "(SOBBING) Listen, sweetheart, I can't." "Look, I'm going to have to give you another injection." "Does it hurt?" "No." "Jenny's all right." "She's going to be fine." "My love." "(SOBBING) It's just that I couldn't find another nurse's uniform." "I love you, Paul." "I love you." "I love..." "Yes." "...you." "Yes, yes." "Oh, my love." "My love." "Sorry, I can't stop." "I'm rounding up the children for John's birthday party." "Jenny?" "Hello." "It's all right, Jenny." "You go back to sleep." "Do it to me now, do it to me." "All right, watch it." "Oh, they started without us." "Here." "That'll have to go on the census." "Ah." "Thought it might." "Hello." "Jenny's all right?" "Yes?" "Good, I'll go and tell Paul." "That's just warmed." "Good." "(CHILDREN LAUGHING)" "Can I have the tinderbox?" "It's in the workshop." "PET:" "You're a lucky boy, you know, John." "Ruth made this for Paul's birthday." "Now." "There we are." "# Happy birthday to you" "# Happy birthday to you" "# Happy birthday, dear John" "# Happy birthday to you #" "PET:" "Come on, stand up and blow out the candle." "Make a wish." "Come on, blow harder." "PET:" "You help, you help." "ARTHUR:" "Blow it." "ARTHUR:" "Did you wish?" "You will keep pieces for the others, won't you, Pet?" "Of course I will." "I spy with my little eye something beginning with "T"." "Table." "PET:" "Let's have tea first and then you can play that game." "I spy with my little eye something beginning with "B"." "Books." "No." "LIZZIE:" "Boots." "JOHN:" "No." "Bonfire." "JOHN:" "Yes." "Now, have your tea." "I've been thinking." "GREG:" "What about?" "Well, we decided to call him David." "Yes." "I'd like to call him Paul." "All right, I don't mind." "Sure?" "Mmm." "Sure." "It's just that..." "Yeah, I know." "Just you rest." "Can I see him, and thank him?" "I'm afraid you can't at the moment, he's in isolation." "Didn't feel very well when he came back." "Where's Ruth?" "I'll get back to the farm and tell Charles." "Right, I'll be up in the woods." "Ruth!" "Ruth!" "Ruth!" "Ruth!" "No luck." "Well, we've done everything we can tonight." "Up there." "Ruth!" "CHARLES:" "Ruth!" "You've been here all night?" "No." "I was going to say, you'll be frozen." "I found a barn." "And Jenny's all right." "What about the woman and child?" "The ones in isolation." "They're all right, too." "You did a great job." "You do realise that for Jenny's baby, they'll be no vaccines for polio, diphtheria, small pox?" "Yes." "And I suppose we just have to..." "Put up with it." "What's the point?" "Well, I'd say that what Paul did, in risking his life to save somebody else, that's the point." "Would you?" "Yes." "Considering how brutal and selfish people have been," "I'd say that that it was a good one." "Good." "Well, you remember, or perhaps it may not have happened to you, but, we had people claiming territory, supermarkets, petrol, fights, death." "And all because of panic and fear." "But now we're getting more organised, that's slowed down." "People are scarcer and we're aware of it." "And so, perhaps, we're better to each other." "I was going to kill myself." "But you didn't." "So, let's learn from this." "From now on, towns are out." "We've got to learn to survive without them." "CHARLES:" "Perhaps we've all been a bit smug." "I know I have." "We came through the Death, so we all assumed we'd got some God-given immunity." "Well, we obviously don't have the resistance to disease that we thought we had." "We certainly haven't been specially chosen to survive." "So, towns are out." "Mmm." "Agreed?" "GREG:" "Mmm-hmm." "No." "Jenny wouldn't be alive now if towns were out." "Well, we know that, Ruth, but we also know that towns are lethal." "We can't just make it a simple rule." "What if somebody else is ill and needs drugs and we know they're to be had in a hospital?" "I don't think we should go." "GREG:" "We can't foresee how much danger might be involved, Ruth." "We can lessen the risk to the community, though." "We might decide, sometime in the future, someone might volunteer." "It all depends on the circumstances at the time." "What do you suggest?" "Anybody who goes into a town, for whatever reason, who volunteers to go, when they come back, they go into quarantine." "They go at their own risk and they spend time in quarantine when they come back." "An isolation ward." "All right, but where?" "Don't worry about that." "I'll find somewhere for all that." "We build a place." "And if strangers come by and we're not sure if they're well, they can go into quarantine for ten days before joining the rest of us." "Hmm." "Somewhere clean and warm, where we can feed them." "I'm not promising a private patient scheme." "Well, it's a good idea, we'll try it." "But, you know, Ruth, it wouldn't have helped..." "No, I know it wouldn't." "Let's just hope we can do without towns before long." "Amen to that." "(BABY CRYING)" "What's he saying, Jenny?" "Well, I think he wants to know if he's on the census yet!" "CHARLES:" "Arthur?" "Yes, he is." "Sex, date of birth." "But I haven't got a name for him yet." "We're calling him Paul." "Hey." "I'm all right." "Sorry." "What are you doing?" "Just sawing up more wood." "That's nice." "First things first."