Episode Ten

Sleeper

Part Two

NEXT SCENE
A LIMO TRAVELS DOWN AN ALASKAN ROAD. IN A VOICEOVER, WE HEAR A NEWS REPORT.

Announcer: This morning Wainwright is in the grip of a deadly flu epidemic. This strain seems to move with unheard-of speed. The first case, apparently a visiting anthropologist from California, was reported only thirty-six hours ago. Already the virus has claimed it’s first life.

WE SEE ATTWOOD SITTING IN THE BACKSEAT OF THE LIMO, WATCHING THE NEWS REPORT ON A TV. (COOL, THE LIMO GETS CABLE! WONDER IF THEY GET THE SCIFI CHANNEL?)

Announcer: Fatalities now stand at six, with over two hundred cases reported in the area. In an effort to restrict contagion, authorities have quarantined a fifty mile area surrounding Wainwright. No one gets in or out.

ATTWOOD PICKS UP A PHONE AND STARTS DIALING.

Attwood: (to himself, responding to the quarantine) That was close.
Announcer: Most bizarrely of all, this influenza targets not only the young, the infirm, and the elderly, but also our healthiest adults.

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AT THE ENCAMPMENT. TOM AND SLOAN ARE LED INTO A TENT WEARING WHAT WILL NOW BE KNOWN AS THE WHITE ALASKAN POTATO SACKS, FORMERLY THE UNATTRACTIVE BIOHAZARD SUITS. THEY LOOK OVER AND SEE COPELAND, SLUMPED IN FRONT OF SOME MACHINERY, HACKING AWAY.

Tom: You’re sick.

COPELAND TURNS.

Sloan: It's the Spanish Influenza, isn’t it?
Copeland: (sarcastically) Oh, I can see Ed Tate didn’t exaggerate your deductive powers.

HE STARTS COUGHING SOME MORE.

Copeland: Is he alive?

COPELAND STARTS REALLY HORKING AND TOM AND SLOAN BACK AWAY TOWARDS THE DOOR. HANDSOME AIMS A GUN AT TOM, HALTING HIM.

Copeland: Put that away, Carl. If either one of you is gonna get this virus, you’ve already gotten it by now.

CARL LOWERS THE GUN.

Copeland: (to Sloan) Please.
Sloan: Ed’s alive but he’s sick.
Copeland: I infected him without either one of us knowing about it. I need Ed’s help to develop a vaccine. And a cure.
Sloan: That’s why you brought him here.
Copeland: No, I thought I already had the vaccine. I brought him here to help me start infecting your population.
Tom: What happened to the vaccine?
Copeland: The virus mutated too quickly. Look, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to keep working. Now, the two years that Ed spend at NIAD would be of invaluable assistance.
Sloan: Are you proposing we work together?
Copeland: Well if we don’t hundreds, maybe thousands, will die. Of both species. Will you work with me? Will you convince Ed to work with me?
Sloan: If we come up with a new vaccine, you'll let me leave with some of it.

Copeland: (nodding) You have my word.
Tom: Will Dr. Parker be in danger handling the live virus?
Copeland: Well that depends on her immune system, doesn’t it?

NEXT SCENE
NIGHTTIME. AT THE HOSPITAL. COPS DIRECT INCOMING PATIENTS AND CARS. EVERYTHING IS IN A STATE OF CHAOS. ATTWOOD GETS OUT OF HIS LIMO AND WALKS INTO THE EMERGENCY ROOM. HE APPROACHES A NURSE SITTING BEHIND AN ADMISSIONS COUNTER.

Nurse: Can I help you?
Attwood: I’m looking for Ed Tate.
Nurse: Hold on, hold on.

THE NURSE IS CALLED AWAY AND ATTWOOD REACHES IN, GRABS THE ADMISSIONS CHART, AND FINDS THE ROOM LISTING HIMSELF. ATTWOOD STOPS IN THE DOORWAY TO ED’S ROOM AND LOOKS IN AT THE SCIENTIST FOR A MOMENT, THEN ENTERS THE ROOM AND WALKS TO THE BED.

Attwood: Ed?...Ed? It’s Walter.
Ed: (weakly) Ah, I told you not to come.
Attwood: I work for the government. You know we don’t listen to anybody.
Ed: Have you heard from Sloan?
Attwood: This morning. She and Tom found Copeland.
Ed: Wha--She’s there now? You call her and get her out of there.
Attwood: I’ve been calling continually. She doesn’t answer.

ED MAKES A MOVE TO GET OUT OF BED BUT ENDS UP HACKING ALL OVER ATTWOOD.

Attwood: Ed, Ed, you can’t go anywhere.
Ed: (weakly, but insistently) Call her again.

ATTWOOD LEAVES THE ROOM.

NEXT SCENE
NIGHTTIME. AT THE ENCAMPMENT. ONE GUARD HELPS ANOTHER COUGHING GUARD INTO A MAKESHIFT INFIRMARY TENT. SLOAN AND TOM STAND OUTSIDE NEXT TO THE DOOR OF THE TENT. CARL EXITS THE INFIRMARY AND HANDS SLOAN HER CELL PHONE.

Carl: (to Sloan) Wait here.

ANOTHER GUARD IS CARRIED PAST TOM AND SLOAN, THIS ONE ON A STRETCHER. HIS FACE IS TAKING ON A PURPLISH-BLACK HUE.

Sloan: What happened to the color of his face?
Carl: This morning that man’s skin was as white as yours.
Sloan: This virus infects everyone, age....race...
Tom: Species.

NEXT SCENE
AT THE HOSPITAL. ED IS HORKING UP A LUNG AS A NURSE RUSHES OVER WITH AN EMESIS BASIN. WE HEAR A CELL PHONE RING AND SEE ATTWOOD ANSWER HIS.

Attwood: Hello?
Sloan: Walter.
Attwood: Sloan, thank God. Are you alright?
Sloan: Fine. Is Ed there?
Attwood: I’m with him now.
Sloan: I have to talk to him.
Attwood: Just a second.

ATTWOOD MOVES FROM THE FOOT OF ED’S BED TO THE DOORWAY.

Attwood: He’s not good, Sloan. He’s coughing up blood, developing pleuritic chest pains....I’m having some Rhibovirun and Hermantadine flown in. I don’t know if they’ll help.
Sloan: (distressed at the news) Uh, uh, put Ed on.
Attwood: Just a second.

ATTWOOD WALKS TOWARD THE SICK MAN. HE STOPS AND STARES AT ED’S FEET, POKING OUT FROM BENEATH THE BLANKET THAT COVERS HIM.

Attwood: Sloan....
Sloan: Walter, what is it, what’s wrong? Walter?

CUT BACK TO THE CAMP WHERE A GUARD IS BEING TAKEN OUT OF THE INFIRMARY ON A STRETCHER. HE IS PLACED ON THE GROUND IN FRONT OF SLOAN. HIS FACE IS A PURPLISH-BLACK. HE’S DEAD.

CUT BACK TO ATTWOOD AT THE HOSPITAL.

Attwood: Sloan, um, Ed’s feet have turned color. Dark.

CUT BACK THE THE ENCAMPMENT. CARL DRAWS A BLANKET OVER THE DEAD GUARD’S FACE AND LOOKS UP AT SLOAN.


NEXT SCENE
DAYTIME. AT THE ENCAMPMENT. IN THE LAB TENT. VARIOUS SCIENTISTS WORK AT COMPUTERS AND OTHER MACHINES, WHILE ONE HELPS COPELAND INTO HIS ALASKAN POTATO SACK. SLOAN, IN HER OWN POTATO SACK, WALKS OVER TO TOM AND PUTS HER ARMS AROUND HIM. HE HUGS HER.






(BLESSEDLY, HE’S NOT IN AN ALASKAN POTATO SACK. HE’S WEARING THAT NICE CHARCOAL GREY SWEATER FROM BEFORE.) SLOAN MOVES AWAY FROM TOM AND CARL HELPS HER ON WITH HER FACE SHIELD HOOD.




COPELAND PUSHES APART THE CLEAR PLASTIC FLAPS AND ENTERS THE AREA WITH THE CRYOGENICALLY FROZEN SAMPLE. SLOAN FOLLOWS HIM IN AND HE REMOVES THE SAMPLE FROM ITS CHILLY CONTAINER. SLOAN CAUTIOUSLY PLACES IT ON THE COUNTER.




CUT TO A BIT LATER, SLOAN AND COPELAND STAND WITH THEIR HOODS REMOVED.

Copeland: (coughing) Where’s Ed?
Sloan: I told you they wouldn’t put him on. He’s too sick to talk.
Copeland: I am not going to be able to do this much longer. You can’t do this on your own. Without Ed we have no chance.
Sloan: He’ll call.
Copeland: Alright let’s do this. You have to help me. We gotta generate CDNA and create a set of PCR nested.....

COPELAND’S VOICE FADES AND HE PASSES OUT AND SLUMPS TO THE FLOOR, KNOCKING SAMPLES ALL OVER THE LINOLEUM. (IF THESE ARE TENTS, WHERE THE HECK’D THEY GET THE LINOLEUM?)

Sloan: Help!

CARL COMES RUNNING. SLOAN LEANS OVER DR. COPELAND.

Sloan: Dr. Copeland! Dr. Copeland!

CARL PUSHES SLOAN AWAY ROUGHLY AND LIFTS THE MAN, CARRYING HIM OUT OF THE ROOM.

NEXT SCENE
NIGHTTIME. AT THE ENCAMPMENT. TOM ENTERS A TENT CAUTIOUSLY. HE LOOKS DOWN AT THE MAN LYING ON THE COT, FACING THE WALL.

Copeland: (roughly) Well, what are your feelings? Seeing me here, Mr. Daniels?

COPELAND COUGHS THEN TURNS AND LOOKS UP AT TOM.

Copeland: You're the subject of a great debate, you know. A betrayal like yours cannot go undissected.
Tom: I haven’t betrayed anyone. I’ve been true to myself.
Copeland: Ah, well I am curious. Especially about this...emotional life, that seems to drive you. My own heretical opinion is more of us have these vestigial feelings than will admit it. Descended as we are from the humans, it’s not surprising.
Tom: But you yourself aren’t troubled by them.
Copeland: No. Unless you count pride as an emotion.

TOM GIVES A SMALL DISGUSTED LAUGH.

Tom: Do you question our struggle?
Copeland: There’s no alternative.
Tom: Coexistence. Cooperation.

TOM STARTS MOVING TOWARDS THE COT.

Copeland: That’s biologically impossible. Genetically undesirable.
Tom: That’s what we were taught. But why?
Copeland: Because we are superior.

TOM CROUCHES (!) NEXT TO THE SICK MAN.

Copeland: We are an advance. We are....inevitable.
Tom: I’m not so sure.

NEXT SCENE
AT THE ENCAMPMENT. IN THE LAB TENT. A CELL PHONE RINGS AND SLOAN, IN HER ALASKAN POTATO SACK, GETS IT OUT OF HER POCKET AND ANSWERS IT.

Sloan: Hello?

CUT TO ED, PASTY AND SWEATING, LYING IN HIS HOSPITAL BED.

Ed: Hey.
Sloan: Ed! How are you?
Ed: I don’t know maybe, maybe a little better. I think Attwood’s anti-viral agents may have helped.
Sloan: Look, Copeland exhumed a live sample of the Spanish flu virus. Now he’s infected. A lot of them are. You caught it from him, Ed. And now he’s too sick to work. You're gonna have to help me come up with a new vaccine.
Ed: There’s not enough time.
Sloan: Maybe there is. Copeland believes that we can adapt his earlier vaccine.

SLOAN MOVES OVER TO A COMPUTER AND STARTS TYPING ON THE KEYBOARD.

Sloan: He’s convinced that the work that you did at NIAD is critical. D-Do you know what he’s thinking?
Ed: I know what I was doing. I was trying to come up with uh, an effective malaria vaccine.
Sloan: But, but malaria’s a parasite, it’s not a virus.
Ed: Wait a minute. It mutates with incredible rapidity, just like this thing. What we have to do is, is we have to adapt Copeland’s original vaccine and come up with a Leakey DNA vaccine. Talk me through what you're doing. We’ve gotta get to work.

NEXT SCENE
SUNSET. AT THE ENCAMPMENT. TOM WALKS THROUGH THE FALLING SNOW, PENSIVE. HE LOOKS AT THE HILLS SURROUNDING THE CAMP.


NEXT SCENE
AT THE ENCAMPMENT. IN THE LAB TENT. CARL (IN HIS OWN ALASKAN POTATO SACK--NO ONE IS EXEMPT!) PACES MENACINGLY BEHIND SLOAN AS SHE STARES DOWN INTO A MICROSCOPE. SHE HAS A HEADSET ON, A MICROPHONE AT HER MOUTH. SHE’S DITCHED THE CELL PHONE. WE HEAR ED’S VOICE.

Ed: Describe it to me. Describe what you see.
Sloan: The nucleus has changed color.

CUT TO ED, LYING IN HIS HOSPITAL BED, TALKING ON ATTWOOD’S CELL PHONE. WE SEE ATTWOOD STANDING IN THE BACKGROUND.

Ed: What color?
Sloan: Light blue. Almost a turquoise.
Ed: That’s, that’s a good thing. Ok, next step.

CUT TO LATER, IN THE LAB TENT. TOM WALKS IN GARBED IN AN ALASKAN POTATO SACK. HE SNAPS ON A PAIR OF RUBBER GLOVES. THIS IS NOT THE BEST LOOK FOR HIM. HE PUSHES THE PLASTIC FLAPS ASIDE AND WALKS OVER TO SLOAN, WHO IS TYPING FRANTICALLY AT A COMPUTER.

Tom: Copeland’s fading.
Sloan: I think I may be onto something.

SHE PEERS DOWN THE EYEPIECES OF A MICROSCOPE, THEN STRAIGHTENS SLOWLY, MOUTH AGAPE.

Sloan: Ed was right.
Tom: What do you see?
Sloan: The vaccinal DNA penetrated the nucleus. We've got something that...might work.
Tom: Well let’s try it.

NEXT SCENE
DAYTIME. AT THE HOSPITAL. A NURSE CHECKS ON ED. HE LOOKS BAD, ALL SWEATY AND COUGHING. ATTWOOD STANDS LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW. HE TURNS AND LOOKS OVER AT ED.


NEXT SCENE
AT THE ENCAMPMENT. IN ED’S FORMER TENT. SLOAN FILLS A SYRINGE WITH THE VACCINE AND MOVES TO INJECT TOM, SITTING NEXT TO HER ON A COT.

Sloan: Your turn.

SHE INJECTS HIM. SLOAN PULLS THE NEEDLE OUT AND THEY STAND UP AND GRAB THEIR COATS. SUDDENLY CARL OPENS THE DOOR AND WALKS MENACINGLY IN WITH A GUARD FOLLOWING.

Carl: Where you going?
Tom: To Wainwright.
Carl: With some of the new vaccine.
Sloan: That was the arrangement.
Tom: You gave your word.
Carl: This is wartime. Conventional morality does not apply.
Tom: Maybe not. But I’m willing to bet you're a man of honor. Under any circumstances.

(WOW, SOME REALLY NICE SHOTS OF THOSE BABY BLUES.) TOM MOTIONS FOR SLOAN TO GO. SHE WALKS PAST CARL, AND TOM FOLLOWS HER, CARRYING A CASE HOLDING THE VACCINE. CARL LETS THEM PAST.

NEXT SCENE
AT THE ENCAMPMENT. IN COPELAND’S TENT. A DOCTOR SITS NEXT TO COPELAND’S COT, ADMINISTERING AN INJECTION. COPELAND STARES INTO SPACE. CARL ENTERS AND WALKS OVER TO THE COT. COPELAND COUGHS, THEN LOOKS UP AT CARL, HIS BREATHING LABORED.

NEXT SCENE
AT THE HOSPITAL. CHAOS AND CONFUSION IN THE HALLS AS HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE HACK AND COUGH, WHILE HOSPITAL CAREGIVERS TRY TO HANDLE THE CROWD. WE SEE ATTWOOD TALKING TO A NURSE. SLOAN AND TOM RUSH IN.

Sloan: Walter! Where’s Ed?
Attwood: (pointing) In through there.

TOM AND SLOAN RUSH PAST WITH THE CASE CARRYING THE VACCINE. ATTWOOD STOPS BY A NURSE.

Attwood: (to Nurse) Follow me.

SLOAN BURSTS THROUGH THE DOOR OF ED’S ROOM, THEN STOPS WHEN SHE SEES THE CONDITION HE’S IN. TOM STANDS JUST INSIDE THE DOOR. ATTWOOD ENTERS.

Attwood: You have the vaccine.
Sloan: (distractedly) Yeah.
Attwood: He’s fading.
Sloan: Even if this prevents the flu there’s no guarantee it’ll cure it.

TOM, NOW AT HER SIDE BY THE BED, HANDS HER A VIAL OF THE VACCINE.

Tom: Here.
Sloan: (to Attwood) We’ve only got a limited supply. You’re gonna have to start reproducing it.
Attwood: I’ve already put that in motion. They’re standing by.

SLOAN READIES THE SYRINGE.

Attwood: Where’s the live virus now?
Tom: Still at Copeland’s encampment.

SLOAN WALKS TO ED AND INJECTS HIM. WORRIED LOOKS ALL AROUND, THEN TOM GIVES SLOAN A SMALL NOD OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

NEXT SCENE
AT THE ENCAMPMENT. CARL SITS NEXT TO COPELAND’S COT, THE OLDER MAN CLEARLY NOT DOING WELL.

CUT TO THE HOSPITAL. SLOAN SITS BESIDE ED’S BED, GRIPPING HIS HAND.




CUT TO THE HALL OUTSIDE ED’S ROOM. ATTWOOD IS PACING, WHILE TOM IS CROUCHED DOWN NEXT TO THE WALL. (! LOVE THOSE SHOES! SOMEBODY GET A SCREEN CAPTURE!)

CUT TO THE ENCAMPMENT, NIGHTTIME. A LAMP SHINES BEHIND CARL, ASLEEP IN HIS CHAIR BY COPELAND’S COT. COPELAND STARES UP AT HIM, THEN TURNS HIS HEAD WEAKLY TO THE SIDE.








CUT TO ED’S HOSPITAL ROOM. ED REMAINS ASLEEP IN THE BED. A SMALL SOFA HAS BEEN MOVED IN, WHICH TOM SITS UPON, SLOAN BESIDE HIM, ASLEEP, HER HEAD IN HIS LAP.(!!!---THAT’S ALL I’M GONNA SAY.)





CUT BACK TO THE ENCAMPMENT, DAYTIME. CARL STANDS OUTSIDE LOOKING TOWARDS THE HILLS. A GUARD CALLS TO HIM.

Guard: Carl!

CARL TURNS AND WALKS TOWARDS THE MAN. CARL ENTERS COPELAND’S TENT JUST AS ONE OF THE DOCTORS PULLS A BLANKET OVER THE DEAD MAN’S BODY.

NEXT SCENE

AT THE HOSPITAL. IN ED’S ROOM. SLOAN WATCHES OVER ED, HIS BREATHING RASPY. TOM WALKS PAST THE WINDOW AND STANDS IN THE THRESHOLD, LOOKING IN AT SLOAN. HE ENTERS AND WALKS OVER TO HER, TOUCHING HER SHOULDER. SLOAN TURNS AND LOOKS UP AT HIM.

Tom: Any improvement?
Sloan: (tearily) No.
Tom: (very very softly) C’mon.

SLOAN STANDS AND WRAPS HER ARMS AROUND TOM. HE HOLDS HER AS SHE CRIES.

Tom: It’s okay. Shh, it’s okay.

HE STROKES HER HAIR.

Tom: C’mere.

THEY PULL A BIT APART AND SLOAN LOOKS UP AT HIM. HE TAKES HER FACE IN HIS HANDS.

Tom: Listen, I have to leave.
Sloan: What, now?
Tom: Yeah. Walter’s waiting. I should be back by tonight. Okay?
Sloan: Okay.

HE LEANS FORWARD AND KISSES HER SOFTLY, THEN LEAVES. SLOAN TURNS BACK TO LOOK AT HER SICK BUDDY.






NEXT SCENE
AT THE ENCAMPMENT. ATTWOOD WALKS PAST THE SUVS AND OVER TO TOM.

Attwood: They’re ready.

TOM AND ATTWOOD START WALKING.

Attwood: The world will never know about it, but you did a great thing here.
Tom: It was Sloan.
Attwood: No, it was both of you. You save thousands, possibly millions of lives, and you proved something important. They can be stopped.

WE SEE A BUNCH OF TROOPS IN CAMOUFLAGE FATIGUES WALK UP BEHIND TOM AND ATTWOOD. CARL AND THE REST OF THE GUARDS WALK UP AND LINE UP ACROSS FROM THEM, STAND-OFF LIKE. THEY ALL HAVE THEIR HANDS BEHIND THEIR BACKS, HANDCUFFED.








SCIENTISTS IN ALASKAN POTATO SACKS BRING THE VIRUS SAMPLE OUT IN ITS CRYOGENIC CONTAINER, SEAL IT INSIDE ANOTHER CONTAINER, THEN LOWER IT INTO A HOLE IN THE GROUND WITH A CRANE. A MAN FROM EACH SIDE TAKES A SHOVEL AND COVERS OVER THE HOLE WITH SOIL AS TOM AND ATTWOOD LOOK ON.


End Episode 10

Part One

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