"Up here." "Want me to make it play again?" "Find." "Faro." "Find." "Hey, get out of there." "Get out of there quick!" "Come on, you need to-- you need to get out of there." "Okay, okay, I'm good." " I'm good-- let me get" "Get down, get down." " Hey, get down." "Who are you?" "L-ley" "Who are you?" " Whoa, no, no, no" "Where are the others?" "There-- who?" " Shit." "Where are the others?" " Where are they?" "There aren't any others." "I don't know what to say." "It's just me." "You just need to get out of the water, please." "Please, it's just-- the water comes from outside the valley." "You just need to get out of the water, please." "No!" "Are you all right?" "Can you do this?" "Can you do this?" "I can't do it." "Can you help me?" "What is it?" "I'm not gonna hurt you." "I'm not gonna hurt you." "Come on, I need your help." "Take it." "I don't know how to do this." "Yeah, I need it once a day." "And this one" " Prussian Blue." "I'm not gonna make it anyway." " Stupid." "Stupid!" "We, uh..." "I can take your wagon thing up to the house." "We have food." "We have food up there." "Burn my clothes." "And my body too if I die." "What's your name?" "Ann." "I'm John." "I'm real sorry." "Okay" "Doing good." "Doing good." "One more, one more." "That's it." "Okay." "It's okay." "Dear lord, please bless this man." "He's very sick and he needs your help." "I know you must have a plan for us, but he's sick from a mistake and I think probably a good person." "I will serve you however you see fit." "I'm not saying you don't know better or whatever, but..." "I would feel so blessed if he... could stay here... and healthy." "I need that, please." "My dad said to us, you know," ""Keep the farm running, and..."" "Okay" ""We've been blessed with this valley."" "Yeah." "And, uh, as long as we stay here, we'd be protected." "Got to be an explanation." "I don't know, something to do with... with the weather patterns or, uh, maybe the ridge created a... just a natural buffer zone." "I mean..." "It's just crazy this is still here." "Nah." "Nothing crazy about it." "Why'd they leave the valley?" "Why'd they leave you here by yourself?" "They had to go find survivors." " They, they" "Survivors?" "They said that was our duty, so..." "David was-- well, I mean, my brother was supposed to stay here, but he, um, he snuck away to look for them two weeks after they left." "That's him, there." "How old was he?" "13." "Well, he's 14 now, I guess, but... he'd been talking about going to go find them for days, and he was really upset." "L-I didn't know how to calm him down." "I'm sorry." "I'm gonna go get your bed ready." "You need anything?" "Water?" "I'm good." "Okay, well..." "Night." "Night." "Hey!" "I really think you need some more rest." "Maybe, but I couldn't just sit up in that window, watch you do all the work by yourself." "Oh, yeah, come on, you can't-- you can't do work" "like this-- not yet." "I know, I know, I know." "I just meant I wanted to come down here and watch you do it." "What is all this anyway?" "Uh, it's gonna be soybeans, but-- but I get the rocks out first, so" "Why you doing the work by hand, though?" " You can't drive this?" "I grew up on a farm." "I know how better than you." "Ran out of gas." "I used it up last year." "It just" "What about that country store?" "Isn't that a gas station or just a store?" "Well, yeah, but pumps don't run without electricity." "No, no, no, you can use-- you can get it to work manually." "Hey!" "It worked!" "Hey, hey!" "It worked!" "It worked!" "Could you see me down at the gas pumps?" "I was jumping all over the place." "I was so excited." "Felt weird pointing a rifle at you even if it weren't loaded." "Oh, I always keep it loaded." "It's got a great scope on it, doesn't it?" "This looks good." "Well... there's a lot to be thankful for." "You were-- you were up north when it started?" "Yeah." "I was, um, about a mile underground in a government facility-- a bunker." "I'm a research engineer." "Well, I was." "I mean, like a... does that mean you're a scientist" "or something?" "Yeah." "Oh, really?" "Well-- well, I was." "That's cool." "I was on the design team for that suit I was wearing." "But it's the only reason I was able to survive as long as I did." "They weren't supposed to be used long-term, though." "It's beat up now." "It's damaged." "So Why'd you leave the bunker?" "Just wasn't safe there anymore?" "Well, I was a mile underground, you know." "There was no... there was no sun." "There was no rain." "There was no sky." "There was nothing." "You understand me?" "What I wanted from life... wasn't there." "So I left." "Went to go find your wife." "My Wife?" "Well, um" "I was just-- when I was going through your wagon the other day for-- I was getting your medicine." "I accidentally came across some photos of your wife." "She's not my wife." "I was..." "That was just a girl from a long time ago, really." "You know, the reason I left..." "Honestly, what I think I was looking for was a place like this... without ever believing for a second that it could exist." "I never thought I'd eat fresh fish again." "Oh, the pond is full of them." "We used to get yellow bullhead from the creek, but obviously, they died out." "But this pond comes from the same water as the well does." "Dad says it comes from an underground pocket of water." "Reckons it's a big part of what kept this place from dying out." "An aquifer." "Yeah." "Makes a lot of sense." "He's a smart man." "Oh, I could eat this every-- every day of the week." "We can eat it as much as you want till the pond freezes over." "What happened last winter?" "It snow a lot?" "Yeah." "I..." "I stayed in the house mostly, bundled up with Faro." "I mean, I saved food, but we went through most of it." "Truth is, uh..." "I almost" " I almost froze and starved." "It-- it was bad." "Well, that's a good reason to plant the entire field." "Yeah, I mean even if we could just get the freezers up and running, we could stock up on fish." "I just wish the generator hadn't broken, you know?" "Wait." "You got a generator?" "Engine's fried." "It's my fault. it's" "When it stopped working," "I was goofing around." "I was just" " I was-- I was playing a DVD." "Damn it." "I just wanted to hear people talk." "Well, don't beat yourself up." "This thing's old." "Looks like it's been repaired a couple of times already." "It was liable to blow no matter what." "Well, it's too bad we can't just do, like a science fair thing and just run all our clocks and everything off a potato." "That's a good idea." "Come on." "Yeah, that's a good flow of water." "We need to build a race at the top, but... it's enough to spin a generator." "As long as there's enough cable to reach the house, we have power." "The lights might flicker, but we could get the freezer going." "Wait, it doesn't-- it doesn't matter that the water's radioactive?" "Not at all." "Water's just got to flow downhill." "It's perfect." "What do you mean?" "It's the water wheel." "How much wood do we need?" "Well, you saw it." "We need most of this, right?" "Could we just-- could we use something else?" "Maybe..." "Well, no, we can't-- we can't use the house." "We need the barn." "We can't use the store." "It's all cinder block." "No, this is it." "Well..." " What?" "I mean..." "What?" "My dad... built that." "He-- he preached there every Sunday, you know?" "And it's 'cause of Him that we survived, that, you know, that all of this survived," " So..." "'Cause of your father?" "No, no, 'cause-- 'cause of Him." "What, if we tear down the church, we don't survive?" "All right." "Look..." "I know it's hard." "I know it's hard." "But if you got to tear down a church to get electricity" "But we don't really need electricity." "It's about... rebuilding." "Maybe God... or your father... put this here for us." "So we can-- we can start again." "Maybe that's why we're here..." "Just to start again." " Yeah." "We get a generator, get electricity, plant the fields." "We store up food for us." "You never know." "Maybe we store up food" "for more than just us." "Why?" "You think more people will come?" "I mean, if more people are coming, then we should definitely keep the church." " No." "I know you don't" "think it's important, but" "No, no, no, I" "That's not what I meant." "Faro." "Faro." "What's wrong with you?" "Hey, come on." "Come on." "Ann, hey, Ann!" " Oh, hey." "Let's call it a day." "My dad would never say that." "He would just keep me out here till I couldn't see anymore and have me plowing all zigzag." "John!" "Just come down." "Okay" "You know, I just" "I think I need to finish this." "You go on up to the house and rest." "I just-- you know, I got to get this done." "I'll be up there soon." "I'll see you in a bit." "I thought you'd left." "I'm here, relaxing." "Found out a lot of stuff about you." "I found out..." "You all right?" "That Annie... loves MMs," "huh?" "on." "Yeah." "Ha." "I found out that Annie..." "Oh-- it's all right." "Likes these, uh..." "what's this?" "I don't know, but you like them." " A candy." "Annie..." "Annie likes Goldfish baked snack crackers." "Yeah." "I was investigating, and I found out that one thing you don't like..." "Annie... don't like... cherry soda." "Even at the end of the world," "Annie ain't gonna drink no damn cherry soda." "I'm sorry-- I shouldn't be swearing, right?" "I know." "I think we, uh..." "I'm sorry." "No, no, no, no" "I think we head on home." "No, "O. n0, no, no, no, no'.!" "Says a lot about you." "All right." "Your jacket." "Let me get this off." "Okay" "Let's get this off." "Come on." "No, I" " I can do it." " I can do it." "Okay." "I can do it, all right?" "I don't..." "I don't need your help all the fucking time, okay?" "Okay" "I don't need your help all the time, okay?" "I don't need" "Okay" "I don't need your help all the time, okay?" "Okay?" "I don't need your help all the time." "That's okay." "I'm" " I'm sorry." "I can do it." "I owe you, uh..." "I owe you breakfast, I think." "Okay" "I don't-- I don't know what to say." "I -_" "It's okay." "It's fine." "You didn't like what I was playing?" "You left before I could finish." "I mean, I do know other songs too." "They all just sort of sound like hymns 'cause of the organ." "I don't know what you're talking about." "At the chapel just now." "Uh-huh." "I'm, uh, underdressed." "No, not at all." "Look what I found down at the store." "Is that a good idea?" "Oh, we don't- it's fine." "We don't have to." "No, no, no, I think we'll be okay with one bottle." "Let's open it." "You drunk wine before, right?" "Mm-hmm, of course." "So pm"!" "" "Oops, °°P5" " You want some more?" "No, no, no, no, no." "Maybe that's enough, huh?" " Maybe we should save it." "it's okay." "I want things to be good between us." "So do I." "What do you want to do?" "You want to dance?" "I don't know how to dance to this." "Me neither." "Come on." "Please?" "All right." "This was..." "It was a lovely evening." "Thank you." "We should go to bed." "Okay" "Good night." "I don't understand." " What did I do wrong?" "Nothing." "You didn't do anything wrong." "Look, I" " I want you, okay?" "I really do." " Really?" "Yeah." "But it's... it's gonna change things." "I mean, it's-- it's gonna change everything, and not just for you." "We need time... and it's okay, 'cause we got time." "All right?" "Okay" "You want me to leave?" "Oh, no, no." " No, I want you to stay." "Okay." "I want you to stay with me, okay?" "Okay" "You can have the church." "No, no, no." "It's just a project." "It's not worth making you upset." "It's not." "It really means something that you put all this thought into it and you-- you're thinking long-term for us." "That really means something." "Thoughts are the easy part." "Hard part's finding a reason." "It's fine." "There's a lot of projects." "Seems like a... a good dog." "Solid dog." "I mean you no harm, ma'am." "All I'd ask you for is a glass of water if you know where to find one." "My name's Caleb." "H 'ARM ' Q Y s "Q, no'." "No, no, no, it's all right." "It's all right." "It's fine." "It's okay, it's fine." "Why would you steal our eggs?" "0 a)' \ 'xk § .3) \ § \ .3)" "Not everyone's hospitable like y'all are." "You say you come from 50 miles from here?" "Yes, sir." "I worked in the mines about three counties over, near Big Sandy Creek." "We used to play their school in soccer, John." "Uh-huh." "Like you, Mr. Loomis," "I was underground when the shit hit the fan." "Excuse the language, ma'am." "It's okay." "Most of the guys had families." "They went up looking, never came back." "Finally ran out of food." "Decided to take my chances." "How long were you outside the mine?" "Too long." "I been laid up since I found this hollow a few days ago." "You know that cave in the-- in the ridge, back round there?" "Oh, yeah, I know it." "Yeah, there's a cave in Claypole Canyon." "Me and my brother used to go there when we were little and build forts and things." " Is that right?" "Yeah." "So what's your plan?" "Hmm?" "Gonna keep heading south?" "Yes, sir, that's the idea." "If I could stay in your land for a night," "I'll be out of your hair by tomorrow morning." "Well, like I said, you picked up some radiation." "I figured." "I'm kind of weak." "Even puked a couple times." "How bad do you think it is, John?" "Oh, it's nothing like what I had, but... you should probably rest up a couple days." "I'd appreciate that." "Thank you." "What do you think?" "I mean, I'm not sure about the stealing thing, but" "I don't hold that against him." "Figures he'd be cautious about how we'd react." "So you're okay with it then?" "Look, if the guy wants to camp out for a couple of days..." "John... are we really not gonna invite him inside?" "Amen." "Amen." "I keep thinking..." "I'm gonna wake up on the side of the road out there." "You know, it's funny-- out there," "I'd never take the main roads." "Always take the country trails or the railroad tracks." "Just... scared of seeing anybody." "One day, I see this warehouse by the main road." "There's some water jugs on the outside." "I'm hoping for water." "Readings were low." "When I come out, there's someone in my wagon." "It's a boy maybe 13, maybe even 14 years old." "He must've been on the main road, coming from the south." "I was scared of going south back then." "I don't know why." "The fallout" " I was" "He's the reason I came this way." "He was sick... filthy." "His belly distended, stealing my food." "Everything he put down, he just was throwing up." "I couldn't help him." "I get him out of the wagon." "He's grabbing for the door, so we get into it." "Pulls out a knife." "Swinging at me weakly." "That's when I took out my gun." "Soon as he saw it, he gave up." "Just started crying." "He was on his knees, just begging me to kill him." "I couldn't do anything." "I just put him off to the side of the road, and I left him there to die." "You know how I said the people" "I worked with in the mine left and never came back?" "That's not really true." "It was me and four others." "They were older guys, family men, like I said." "You know, the first weeks down there were... awful." "Phones were down." "Radio station went off one by one." "Started getting... claustrophobic, thinking everybody's plotting against you." "One of them, Micah-- he's this really big dude, but a-- a gentle fellow-- well, he just snapped." "Says he's got to get out of the mine no matter what, but the others won't let him." "Thought the radiation would leak inside if the safe room hatch was open." "Well, he-- he threw himself on the others." "They ripped each other to shreds just using their hands." "In the end, only Micah was left, covered in blood, and I'm sure he's gonna kill me too." "But I just" " I met his glance." "I looked him back in the eye..." "And he backed away from me." "Collapsed." "A few hours later, he was dead." "I'm so sorry, Caleb." "And we keep some water here in the house if you need any tonight." "Easier than waking up and walking out to the well, huh?" "Yeah, right." "And up here is your room." " These pictures of you?" "Yeah, it's me." "Bath room." "And this is you." "Middle school football." "Man, oh, man," "I'd rather be in hell with my back broke than be back there again." "Well, I'll.." "I'll clear away all this stuff in the morning." "No, don't." "I like it like this." "I won't be here long." "What are you doing?" "What do you mean?" "We don't know anything about this guy." "Could be anybody for all we know." "I was just showing him his room." "John, you wanted him to stay." "No, no, no, no, you invited him into the house." "You cooked him dinner." "You set him up down the hall from us." "You know what?" "I mean, it's not like he's a bad man." "Right?" "I mean..." "You really believe that?" "I don't know what to think yet." "You never told me about that boy in the wagon." "Look, I don't want to" "I don't want to talk about that, okay?" "Well, I wish you would." "Truth is, I don't think you'd understand." "Why wouldn't I understand?" "I lived through this too, remember?" "Know how I said I was gonna plant the fields back before summer?" "I actually started to, and then just... thought I wouldn't even bother." "I mean, I'm sure what-- what you went through out there was horrible." "I'm-- but it" " I mean, it wasn't-- wasn't... easy here." "I kept" " I kept this calendar for the first few months after they left." "And then after awhile, I just realized it didn't... it didn't matter." "They weren't coming back." "Just seemed stupid." "I stopped-- stopped thinking about how many days were going by." "I just was really sick of being on my own, you know?" "I just didn't want to be on my own anymore." "What I'm saying is that you come and made me want to go through it all again." "And not just somebody." "You." "I killed him." "The boy." "I think it was your brother." "I don't know." "Looked like him." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "It's okay." "So we got kale down there, soybeans up by the house." "Round here, there's cucumber, tomato, squash, milk from the cows, obviously, and eggs and occasionally meat from the chickens." "She seems older than she is, huh?" "Yeah." "You know what you also got?" "Turkey." "You hungry, Mr. Loomis?" " Oh!" "Damn it." "Just missed." " So what's your plan?" "Early on, when the radio stations were still broadcasting, there was talk about a lot of people heading south." "Well, there was plenty of old recordings looping over and over on the EBS" "Yeah, we heard all those." "We could tell the difference." "No, you most certainly misheard." "I mean, the ancillary fallout?" " Especially in the south" "No, Mr. Loomis." "Mr. Loomis, it's a town called Anson near the Gulf." " There's no one left out there." "The guy on the radio said there're about three dozen, all family of military." "You were military, right, Mr. Loomis?" "I was a civil contractor." "You fancy a wager on which one of us bags him?" "All right." "What do we stake?" "Ann." "I'm joking, Mr. Loomis." "For bragging rights is all." "So you're gonna put the platform down there?" "Mm-hmm." "Water's radioactive, but we got the suit." "Put the wheel on the platform to stabilize it, then we get some kind of-- some kind of race to divert the water into the buckets and spin it fast enough to power the generator." "And you know how to do all that?" "Yeah." "See, we don't need Anson." "We could be Anson." "It's pretty cool, Mr. Loomis." "So why haven't you started building it yet?" "Well, the issue is the raw materials." "Ann has a sentimental attachment to her church." "Father was the pastor there." "I don't know." "She says she's okay with it, but I didn't want to upset her." "Good shot." "Okay, who's gonna carve it?" "Mr. Loomis should." "He shot it." "All right." "So that's your daddy's chapel?" "Well, he'd say it's God's chapel and he just works there." "Mr. Loomis says you have to tear it down to build his water project up." "That's not what I said." "I said we didn't have to do the water project, at least not right away." "Ann, you probably want to wait." "Well, you know, rebuilding's important." "I think we should plan for it." "Well, I'm confused now." "You sound like Mr. Loomis." "Excuse me?" "It's just a project." "It'll happen when it needs to happen, okay?" "I mean, we have wood coming out of our ears here" "with the trees and" "Ann... there's no way to cut the trees." "I'm sure we can come up with a way to take them down." " Don't you think?" "No, it's-- it's not even the taking them down." "It's the milling them that's the problem." "Would you ever consider another building?" " Maybe one not so near to her?" "We had this conversation." "We had this conversation." "There's not another building." "You want to drop it now?" "I guess the-- it's the only way." "Yeah, guess so." "Well, let's get to it then." "Ann?" "Yeah." "Sure." "Why not?" "All right!" "Come on, lift it up, Mr. Loomis!" "A little more-- that's good." "I saw that." "I meant to do that." "No, you didn't." "Yes, I did." "We should get a tarp." "At least until we know what we want to do with it." "Would you like to take a walk?" "Yeah, my daddy" "dabbled in preaching too." "Oh, yeah?" "I think he liked the women and liquor more, though." "I went from going to church every day to never going at all." "But, uh... it'll never leave you." "Why were you okay with taking the chapel down?" "I know why John was." "I mean... he's not religious, but" "That church-- it was only holy because of what you brought to it." "That can't be taken down." "That's a nice way of looking at it." "That's the truth." "Thank you." "Do you talk about your belief with Mr. Loomis?" "No." "He doesn't, like, try to make me stop or anything." "It's just-- just not something that we share." "But that's okay." "And what does he say about what happened out there?" "Oh, you know, just..." "You haven't really talked about it?" "Well, not really, no." "What do you think?" "I think He has a plan... and all three of us are part of it somehow." "But it was us believers, don't you think?" "Just like this valley-- why it survived, why you and I did-- because we have faith." "What if you don't have faith?" "You have to." "Not everybody does." "You have to." "It's the only way you'll survive." "Hey!" "Look at this!" "Well, it sure looks like a wheel." "John, it's amazing." "It's gonna work." "Hey." "Yeah, um..." "I wanted to talk to you about something." "Come here." "Okay" "So, um, how do I say this?" "I've seen the way that you and Caleb look at each other, okay?" "And, um, I wanted you to know that it's okay." "All right?" "I don't want" " What do you mean?" "No, no, no, no, no, no." "I wanted to tell you I'm fine, okay?" "I'm good with it." "You got to-- you got to explore, okay?" "I don't feel the need to explore." "I'm not gonna stand in your way is what I'm saying," "okay?" "What?" "Why are you saying this?" "Because I-- because I went for a walk with him today?" "It has nothing to do with the walk." "If you need to figure it out, figure it out." "I don't have anything I need to figure out." "I'm just letting you know it's fine, okay?" "It's fine." "It's good." "You all be white people together." "That's fine, okay?" "Thank you." "He tell you about that town, Anson?" "Yeah, by the Gulf." "Do you believe him?" "No, I don't see how that could be possible." "Good work." "To work." "Tell you the number on your head?" "Right, you have to guess." "What card is on my head?" "I think it's the 7 of Hearts." "No, wait, never mind-- that wasn't right." "What's the other one?" "That may be... kick." "Oh, sure, it's just easy like that." "Yeah, like that." "I don't know what to do with my arms." "Y'all want to play a game?" " Mm-hmm." "All right." "All right, each of us has to find the bottle." " All right." "All right?" "Find the bottle." "Who's going first?" "Mr. Loomis?" "I don't know-- I don't know if I can." "You can do it." "Come on, John." "Come on!" "Fig ht." "Bye' "Go!" "'" "I can't" " I can't find it." "Your turn, Ann." "I found the bottle, but I..." "I dropped it coming back up." "I don't believe you." " I did!" "Come on!" " I did!" "You got to go again." "I'll check on you." "Come on." "I'm getting cold." "Let's go in." "Ann?" "Ann." "Hey." "I love you." " Really?" "I do." "I do." "John?" "John?" "Hey." "Caleb up yet?" "I don't know." "Mr. Loomis." "Caleb." "Oh, and y'all still even have coffee" "for the hangovers." "That's right." " Morning." "Morning." "Y'all get started." "I'm just gonna go to the restroom." "It's a beautiful day." "Amen." "What's on the agenda?" "Hey, man, I'm all yours." "Whatever you need from me, put me to work." "Well, let me see." "I need to put the finishing touches on the wheel." "Take it down to the creek." "Let's get started straight after breakfast." "Caleb," "I got to say something." "She's a special girl." "She sure is, sir." "It's funny." "It took you... to make me realize that." "You wish I'd never come?" "No." "If you weren't here, we wouldn't be so close to finishing the wheel, moving forward, getting electricity." "Truth is, though, you were never a threat to me, Caleb." "I mean, I..." "I told Ann to do whatever was necessary to keep you from leaving." "All right." "It's funny?" "Oh, I don't believe you, sir." "Jealousy doesn't suit you." "What about Anson?" "I don't know, sir." "Like you said, there's probably nothing down there anyway." "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Whoo!" "You good?" "You good?" "Yeah, we're good." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Hey." "Wanna have a drink with me, please?" "No, I'm fine." "John." "I'm sorry." "I don't know how any of this happened." "It just- it's okay." "No, we're-- it's" "It's not okay." "It's not." "I want to talk about it." "L-- it was-- it was-- it was a really confusing night." "I didn't-- that's not an excuse." "I'm just saying that" "He's gone, Ann." "Caleb." "He left." "Left where?" "To Anson." "Took the safe suit." "Said you were welcome to anything of his." " Oh" "I'm sorry."