HOT ZONE Screen story & screenplay by Jim V. Hart Based on "Crisis in the Hot Zone" by Richard Preston October 9, 1993 "You might call AIDS the revenge of the rain forest..." Richard Preston "These diseases are true emergers. Humans have truly stumbled into these occult agents." Dr. Karl Johnson "We've got company!" Han Solo BLACKSCREEN: LEGEND: IN 1976, OUTBREAKS OF LETHAL HEMORRHAGIC FEVER CAUSED BY THE DEADLY EBOLA VIRUS OCCURRED AMONG HUMANS IN ZAIRE, AFRICA. 318 CASES RESULTED IN 290 DEATHS -- 91% FATALITIES A SIMULTANEOUS OUTBREAK IN SUDAN, 800 KM THROUGH THE JUNGLE REPORTED 250 CASES RESULTING IN 150 DEATHS -- 53% FATALITIES EBOLA IS CALLED A "SLATE WIPER" FOR HUMANS. THERE IS NO KNOWN CURE. ONCE INFECTED, THE VIRUS KILLS ITS HOST IN 7 DAYS... FIRST COME THE HEADACHES... BLACKSCREEN: PRESENTATION TITLES FADE IN: AERIAL POV - LANDSCAPE - LIVING ORGANISM Rivers, teeming with microscopic life thread like spaghetti through a geography of living cells. Invaders. Territory is overrun. The view is like an aerial recon photo of an alien land -- at war. SUPER: CATEGORY - FILOVIRUS STRAIN - EBOLA ZAIRE (Z) FATALITY - 88% KILL RATIO SURVIVORS - 12% IMMUNE ANTIBODY CURE NONE - NONE MATCH DISSOLVE TO: EXT. AERIAL POV - LANDSCAPE - AFRICAN TERRAIN - DAWN Rivers, gleaming in the sun, thread like spaghetti through a geography of jungle terrain, perfectly matching the patterns of the virus landscape. SUPER: ZAIRE, AFRICA - EBOLA RIVER REGION - SEPT. - 1976 A Fokker light air transport descends into view. THE JUNGLE - LOOKING UP - CONTINUING ACTION As the transport busses overhead, AFRICAN GREEN MONKEYS, hundreds of them, frolic and chatter in the trees. A BIG MALE watches inquisitive. The plane's SHADOW passes over him. The Male opens its mouth frighteningly wide; a "threat display." Four HUGE FANGS flash at the intruder. FLYING POV - CONTINUING ACTION Twenty five feet above the Ebola River. EXT. REMOTE AIRSTRIP - AT THE RIVER'S EDGE - DAWN The Transport touches down and stops on the empty field. THE TRANSPORT - CARGO DOORS OPEN A Land Rover emerges. Then another. "WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION" emblems on the side panels. We see a SIX PERSON MULTINATIONAL EPIDEMIC TEAM inside. Hermetically sealed hospital isolator stretchers with its own air supply sticks out the back of each. A casualty inside can't infect the world outside. CUT TO: INT. CARGO HOLD - POV THROUGH DOORS We see the Rovers speeding into the bush. Cargo doors close. Engines rev. OUTSIDE - THE TRANSPORT TAXIS Picking up speed. HIGH ANGLE - THE TREETOPS - CONTINUING ACTION The plane BARELY CLEARS the trees sending Green Monkeys scattering in all directions. Their angry cries echo; "KRA KRA KRA!!!" END MAIN TITLES CUT TO: A GREEN MONKEY - ROASTING ON A STICK THE VIEW SHIFTS TO REVEAL: EXT. EBOLA RIVER - FERRY CROSSING - MORNING A handful of ZAIREAN POLICE guard the primitive landing. REFUGEE VILLAGERS camp along the banks in the b.g. One POLICEMAN passes out half-cooked monkey. The POLICE CAPTAIN chews on a bloody haunch, licking his fingers. The Ferry Bell RINGS O.S. Now a jeep HORN HONKS O.S. approaching -- THEIR POV - THE EBOLA RIVER The primitive Ferry parts the mist. Four wooden canoes held together by a plank deck. FERRYMEN buck the current with long poles. KARL JOHNSON EMERGES from the mist. He stands on the hood of the lead Rover WEARING A FULL FACE RESPIRATOR. A creature from another planet. WITH THE FERRY - APPROACHING CHUCK REESE (22) honks at the wheel. He wears a full respirator. All the team members wear respirators. REESE (in French) Do not shoot. Do not shoot. American Doctor! Doctor! JOHNSON - CLOSER He raises his respirator staring right into the guns -- At 30, he's already a legendary field virologist. He surveys the scene like a military general as the Ferry lands. JOHNSON (in French) Johnson. Center for Disease Control. U.S.A. -- We're headed to the Yambuku Mission. He points to his armband; CDC shield -- U.S. flag. Police respond yelling threats at the frightened Ferrymen and banging their weapons on the Rovers. REESE - INSIDE THE ROVER He is about to soil his trousers. The two Norwegian Team members whisper in their language. REESE Jesus Christ, these people should be quarantined. This outbreak is outta control -- THEIR POV - THE FRIGHTENED VILLAGERS Meager belongings, hungry children, terrified. TO JOHNSON JOHNSON (in French) How far to Yambuku? Silence. The Police Captain approaches menacingly. CAPTAIN (in French) You don't want to go there, Doctor. There is nothing but death there. People are dying all along the river -- SISTER GENEVIEVE, a Belgian Catholic Nurse, approaches from the Refugee camp. 40's, haggard, suffering dehydration. She pushes past the Police, unafraid. SISTER GENEVIEVE (in French) Etes-vous Doctor Johnson? (in English) -- I am Sister Genevieve from the Yambuku Mission -- Johnson offers a bottle of Perrier -- Sister chugs it. SISTER GENEVIEVE Bless you, Doctor -- JOHNSON Save the blessings, Sister -- He signals to Reese. JOHNSON Reese, get the Sister some salt tablets and a shot of B12. She's dehydrating. Petrified, Reese breaks out the medical kit from the Rover. A Policeman tracks his every move at gunpoint. He is so nervous he fumbles the salt tablets and vitamins dropping them. Sister politely pushes the guns aside and helps him pick them up. Johnson watches her. He's impressed by her courage. JOHNSON Tell our hosts I need blood samples -- Sister, tissue samples -- before this bug burns itself out. I have to get to Yambuku. If I can find one survivor, then We, not God, can maybe cure this thing. The Captain separates them. He sticks his gun in Johnson's crotch. He understands English perfectly -- CAPTAIN (in English) Do not be coming back this way, Doctor. Quarantine -- (pointing to the jungle) We will shoot you if you try. Johnson tosses packs of cigarettes to the Police defiantly and climbs back in the Rover. THE ROVER - REESE CLIMBS IN REESE You are certifiable, Dr. -- Suddenly, Sister Genevieve straightens her habit and jumps in. SISTER GENEVIEVE I shall guide you to Yambuku, Doctor. Johnson starts to protest. He sees her conviction. JOHNSON Bless You, Sister. THE VIEW CLIMBS as the Rover speeds off the landing and disappears into the bush. CUT TO: TIGHT ON - OLD BANTU ELDER Sitting vigil crouched outside a hut. Eyes fixed -- unwavering. WE HEAR: Horrible sounds of suffering inside. THE VIEW SHIFTS TO REVEAL: EXT. BANTU VILLAGE - DAY Huts burn and smolder. Termite ant hills tower over some of the remains. A handful of BANTU watch the old Elder. The Women wails a death chant. A HAND reaches out the doorway to bowls of food and water. Suddenly, it clenches in agony. Blood hemorrhages through pulpy skin. The hand flops to the dirt. The Elder rises in silence. Torch in hand, he chants a prayer and torches the hut. A BANTU WOMAN screams rushing towards her flaming home. OTHER WOMEN pull her back. The Elder picks up his medicine bundle and leads the survivors of his Village into the Bush. FLAMES OBSCURE THE VIEW TO: THE ROVERS - MOVING THROUGH VILLAGE - LATER Johnson signals to go slower. Reese is riveted to his window. Burned devastation everywhere. Sister prays. THEIR POV - CHARRED BODIES Smoldering in the ruins. Reese is sickened. REESE My God, what happened here? JOHNSON The Bantu. They've gone back to their ancient ways of dealing with plague and malaria. You put the sick person in a hut. You put food and water in the door. If the person walks out one day -- or crawls out, that's fine. If they don't... you burn the hut... No more disease -- FOLLOW THE SECOND ROVER - CONTINUING ACTION Two Team Members crank photographs. EXT. A HUT - CONSUMED IN FLAMES The Rovers stop nearby. Sister Genevieve, exhausted, rests her head on the seat. Johnson climbs out surveying the sight. This is his war. JOHNSON This whole zone is hot. Reese. He kicks at the hut's burning embers. JOHNSON Whatever this bug is, Ebola is not a place we're gonna forget anytime soon -- He turns to: REESE, who is frantically removing his gear from the lead Rover. He shoots Karl a frightened glance. REESE I'm not going upcountry, Doc. I'm taking my team out -- We'll base at the hospital in Kinshasa -- Reese passes Johnson heading for the other Rover. The Team reacts confused as he plops his gear inside. JOHNSON You're a good doctor. They need your services too. Couple of things you might consider -- Reese doesn't want to hear it. JOHNSON Maybe we've already been exposed. As Karl speaks, he ties off his own arm, thumps a vein and draws his own blood. JOHNSON Test all our blood when you get back. Take some samples from Sister Genevieve: here too -- SISTER'S POV - INSIDE ROVER Sweat beads on her forehead under her habit. Her vision BLURS for a millisecond then corrects itself. She watches Johnson confront Reese without ever raising his voice. JOHNSON Maybe this bug can spread through the air. Maybe it's the Andromeda Strain -- Johnson tosses the blood vial -- TO REESE He stares at the blood vial like death itself. ON JOHNSON - FRAMED BY THE DECIMATION JOHNSON If it is Andromeda, then you won't be safe anywhere in the world. The Team audibly reacts in French and Norwegian. Winds kick up smoke swirling around Johnson. JOHNSON You might as well be here at the epicenter trying to stop it. SMOKE WIPES THE FRAME TO: EXT. YAMBUKU ROAD - HIGH ANGLE - LOOKING DOWN - LATER The lone Rover travels slowly along the rough road. In the f.g., GREEN MONKEYS FOLLOW, jumping from limb to branch, escorting Johnson deeper into the jungle. SISTER GENEVIEVE (V.O.) The infection hit the hospital like a -- like a bomb -- THE ROVER - INSIDE JOHNSON Who was the index case? The first patient to "show"? SISTER GENEVIEVE A Schoolteacher. We treated him for malaria -- Two days later, he died -- horribly. Every child at the school came to the hospital. Families -- pregnant women. All broke with fever. Johnson traces the spread in his mind, sorting, seeking -- JOHNSON But where did the teacher get the bug? Rodent bites? -- Feces? Mosquitoes? Monkeys maybe? Sister Genevieve shakes her head bewildered. Who knows? JOHNSON How did it spread so quickly? What did you give the patients? SISTER GENEVIEVE Injections. Chloroquine and vitamins. These people do not believe they have been "doctored" unless we give them a shot... She hesitates, almost confessing. SISTER GENEVIEVE We only used five syringes a day to treat everyone -- JOHNSON (grim diagnosis) Then the infection could've been passed through the needles -- SISTER GENEVIEVE God forgive us... Some became irrational -- hostile -- and escaped! Hundreds became violently ill and died in one week -- Silence. Johnson realizes he's facing nature's revenge. JOHNSON Seven days. No time for an "immune response." By the time the patient's immune system throws antibodies to fight the damn thing -- it's too late... She breaks down, sobbing. Johnson stops the Rover. JOHNSON You did what you could, Sister. He takes her hands in his, firmly but gently. He's wearing surgical gloves. THEIR POV - THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD The Yambuku Mission. An imposing old chapel and a ring of cinderblock buildings. The Belgian flag hangs at half- mast in the center. No life anywhere -- Suddenly, a FOUR FOOT TALL MALE GREEN MONKEY drops on the hood from the trees with full force -- screeching at them. Sister screams with fright. Johnson jumps so much he bumps his head on the ceiling. OUTSIDE - GREEN MONKEYS Swarm the Rover on a food search, screeching "KRA, KRA." INSIDE - CONTINUING ACTION One Monkey lands on the door latch. It's weight pulls the Sister's door open. She cries out. JOHNSON FALLS across her closing it tight. OUTSIDE - THE BIG MALE Flashes his fangs and hurls his feces, splattering against the windshield. Then he is gone. CUT TO: EXT. HOSPITAL COMPOUND - DAY - GLIDING VIEWS Open air porches are lined with empty beds. Silence. Only the chattering of the monkeys in the trees. JOHNSON - APPROACHING FROM THE ROVER He now wears a Tyvek protective suit, boots and full face respirator. He carries a field kit and a small ice chest. HIS POV - THE HOSPITAL Flies buzz swarming out the windows and doors. INT. HOSPITAL - CONTINUING ACTION Johnson opens the door. Light spills in. Flies swarm. Their buzzing sounds like chainsaws. HIS POV - THE WARD A silhouette of tangled bodies. The mud walls are splattered with blood -- as if a bomb did go off. JOHNSON Don't come in here, Sister. OUTSIDE - SISTER GENEVIEVE Sinks slowly to her knees, frozen like a statue, praying. RESUME: HOSPITAL - FOLLOW JOHNSON Down the rows of 120 beds, inspecting the few remaining bodies, each with evidence of massive hemorrhaging from every orifice. JOHNSON - CLOSER He stops at one bed, carefully checking a YOUNG MAN for signs of life. He feels for a pulse -- His glove fingers sink into the man's flesh like pudding. Johnson reels back -- reviled. His breath labored. TIGHT ON - JOHNSON'S GLOVED HAND Taking a nose swab blood sample. Another swab inside the Man's mouth -- and ears. With tweezers, he pinches out samples of skin tissues. WE FOLLOW bloody swaps and skin tissues into plastic vials. Johnson tags and places each in the ice chest. IN THE ICE CHEST - TIGHT ON THE TAG Numbers: 001, etc., then, "Yambuku blood and epidermal tissue slices - Ebola, Zaire." EXT. HOSPITAL - SUNDOWN Johnson exits, exhausted, solemn. Sister Genevieve is still bent in prayer, motionless; wearing her respirator. JOHNSON No survivors. I've never seen a bug kill like this one, Sister. Fried by his experience, he surveys the jungle. Surreal in the golden light. He's completely spaced. JOHNSON There must be members of some lost tribe out there who've built up immunities to this killer over the years -- Their blood could have powerful antibodies passed down through the generations... strong enough to save some lives -- (silence, he reaches her) Sister -- HIS POV - SISTER GENEVIEVE Slowly raises her bowed head. Blood oozes from her respirator. Her faceplate is splattered with it. She collapses before he can catch her. Johnson cradles her removing the respirator. He's horrified. JOHNSON You spiked the damn fever -- We'll get you to Kinshasa. Blood traces from her tearducts -- her nose and ears. JOHNSON Oh my god -- hold on -- hold on -- He pulls a syringe from his pocket -- thumps up a vein and begins to shoot her full of antibiotics. She reflexes away from the needle -- internal hemorrhages rock her -- Johnson jerks back. The SYRINGE PIERCES the glove on his left hand. He stares at it in horror. He yanks it out sucking his hand and spitting -- like a snake bite. SISTER GENEVIEVE First... come... the... headaches -- She spasms suddenly -- coughing up black fluid -- THE VIEW ROCKETS UP UP INTO THE TREES -- Monkeys cry everywhere. "KRA! KRA!" We rocket right into the face of the BIG GREEN MALE. Deep brown cloudy eyes staring at us transfixed. Blood -- building in a crimson wave -- emerges from it's nose. CUT TO BLACK. FADE IN: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - MORNING A modest colonial sits atop a hill at the foot of the Appalachians. Leaves glow in bright autumn colors. SUPER: FREDERICK, MD - WED., OCT. 4, 1989 0800 HRS. JAXX (V.O.) Jason -- you'll be late for school. INT. JAXX KITCHEN - CONTINUING ACTION THE FREEZER DOOR CLOSES REVEALING: COL. NANCY JAXX; a rather beautiful woman in her mid 30's. "Supermom" and "ultrawife" in Army uniform with Colonel's bars taking her usual stab at breakfast; throwing 4 waffles in the microwave -- cracking two eggs in a skillet -- She opens a cabinet, gets mugs, dumps in instant coffee -- suddenly -- A MONKEY LIKE CREATURE HANGS DOWN RIGHT IN HER FACE -- JAXX (pushes it away, annoyed) Jason! Come feed Gumby or he's going in your omelette! No response. The Kinkajoo wraps its prehensile tail around her neck. INT. MENAGERIE ROOM - MORNING Jaxx piggybacks the Kinkajoo and a cup of coffee through the converted sunporch. It's filled with ANIMALS. FOLLOW JAXX BY THE ANIMALS Two fish tanks, a fish pond, exotic Parrots, Bright Red Eclectus, Cockatoos -- and four Yellow naped Amazons. One sings an opera aria. One wolf whistles as Jaxx passes. JAXX (ritual) Thanks boys. Eat your heart out girls -- She steps over an old bulldog in the doorway. The dog, MAGGIE, flatulates in her sleep. Jaxx fans the air. JAXX Oh -- Maggie -- please -- A loose scarlet Parrot walking behind Jaxx pecks Maggie's stumpy tail instantly rousing the old dog to a barking frenzy. The Aviary adds squawks and screeches. JAXX'S POV - JASON'S BASEMENT BEDROOM She opens the door on her 13 year old son, JASON; his lanky frame all over the bed, sleeping with his Walkman. JAXX Jason? Wakey wakey -- She tosses the Kinkajoo through the air and closes the door, blocking the view. WE HEAR: Jason yell. CUT TO: EXT. HOUSE - REARVIEW - CONTINUING ACTION Jaxx heads for the converted garage passing a red Toyota pickup parked in the drive. The magnetic sign on the door panel reads: "JAXX VETERINARY CLINIC." INT. GARAGE VET CLINIC - CONTINUING ACTION As Jaxx enters, BLACKHAWK, their big black hunting Bouvier bounds over to greet her. 6'3" GERRY JAXX is dipping his "boarders" in a tickbath. His haircut still military sharp. Now a civilian, his years in the army reflect in his physical fitness. JAXX Ready for your fix -- ? Nancy offers him a cup of coffee -- GERRY Ah, Nance. The life of a country veterinarian is sheer bliss. He's lying. His hands are elbow deep in doggie-bath. NANCY Aw -- You miss the Army that much? Why not Re-enlist? GERRY Never. Then I would have to call you, "Colonel" -- He embraces her caressing her buns. She caresses his back. Somebody clears their throat O.S. AT THE GLASS SLIDING DOOR Their daughter -- Twelve year old JAMIE -- bounces in her sweat clothes. She wears braces and never stops. Never. JAMIE (through glass doors) There are children present. I mean -- "Hello"? TO MOM AND DAD Breaking their clinch, "caught." GERRY Morning, Princess. JAXX Go eat your breakfast -- or we'll be late for school -- OUTSIDE - JAMIE She makes a face; a complete rebel. JAMIE In a minute -- watch me! She poises by a tree, as if beginning a floor exercise. Suddenly, the Kinkajoo leaps from a low branch landing on Jamie's head. She jumps with a shriek. MOM AND DAD react, laughing. Nothing dangerous here. JAMIE - CLOSER The Kinkajoo clings to her hair. JAMIE C'mon, Gumby. Let's show'em. She sets the creature down beside her, preps and throws a standing back flip with an Olympic finish. The Kinkajoo does a flip too. INSIDE CLINIC - THE JAXX'S Gerry applauds. Jaxx indicates "time for school." JASON wanders in, zombied. He holds up seared waffles. JASON Breakfast is burned... again. Jamie walks in on her hands. JAMIE Still eating with your hands, butthead? JASON Can she talk to me that way, Mom? JAXX Let's try not to kill each other before Thanksgiving, okay? JASON After Thanksgiving, she's toast. (Jamie swats him) Mom, I need money for lunch -- JAMIE I got a meet Friday, Mom. You're coming aren't cha -- ? Before Jaxx can answer, Jamie literally throws aerials out of the clinic. GERRY Please -- no acrobatics in the -- Jamie pays no attention. Gerry looks at Jaxx dismayed. GERRY She gets her stubbornness from you, Mrs. Jaxx. JAXX I think you mean independence. She's your daughter -- Jaxx exits by a starving Jason. Blackhawk jumps up snatching the burned waffle from his hand. CUT TO: EXT. DAY CARE CENTER - REARVIEW - RESTON, VA. - MORNING CHILDREN play in a sandbox. A LITTLE BOY spoons up some sand and eats it. Yukk. He spites it all over the GIRL next to him. Two more KIDS drink juice from the same cup. IN THE F.G. - A CRATE IS CARRIED INTO VIEW In red letters: "PACIFIC PRIMATES - MANILA, PHILIPPINES." Green Monkeys peer out from partition openings at the children. Sniffing. A new scent in this new land. Some monkeys flash their fangs. Others chatter. CUT TO: MONKEY POV - THE KIDS Kids stare back at the monkeys with giggles and delight. The WOMEN SUPERVISOR pulls two FIGHTING CHILDREN apart. The GIRL bites the BOY on the hand -- drawing blood. EXT. MONKEY HOUSE - CONTINUING ACTION An alley separates the Day Care Center from a windowless building. MONKEY HANDLERS unload crates from a truck. The logo on the cargo doors read: SYNERGY RESEARCH LABS. The handlers carry the Monkey crates into the rear of the building. TINY WHIPPERT, the strawboss, wears overalls, plaid hunting shirt, ball cap, pony tail, a deer skinning knife and weighs about 350. DEKE, a biker type and LOC, a Vietnamese who speaks no English, help Tiny transfer the monkey crates from the truck one at a time. They wear no masks -- just gloves. All are expert monkey handlers. TINY I love the part when Bruce Willis grins like he just got a little you know. He hits that detonator and yells "adios mother fuckaouch!" He dumps his end of the crate wringing his hand in pain. TINY Ow -- little cocksucker bit the shit -- outta me -- DEKE You're probably the little shit's first meal since it left Africa. Tiny shucks his glove and sucks his bloody finger. DEKE Got two hundred more to go, Tiny. You need more fingers. Tiny shoots him the "bloody" finger. CRANE UP TO: A STRIP MALL, BURGER KING, DAY CARE CENTER, HOMES. The Monkey house is right in the middle of suburbia. Twenty-five miles from Washington D.C. SUPER: SYNERGY RESEARCH LABS - ANIMAL QUARANTINE UNIT, RESTON VIRGINIA - WED., OCT. 4, 1989 0800 HRS. CUT TO: EXT. FT. DETRICK, MD - AERIAL VIEW - DAY The base spreads at the eastern slope of the Appalachian Mountains. WE PASS OVER by an array of 90 foot radio dishes. This is a major defense communications center. SUPER: FT. DETRICK, MD - NOV. 16, 0900 HRS. WE DESCEND TO: A THREE STORY CONCRETE BUNKER BUILDING Vent stacks on the roof aim up at us like deck guns. THE BUILDING - GROUND LEVEL - HOLD ON A SIGN: U.S.A.M.R.I.I.D. UNITED STATES ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES Insiders call it "RIID" for short. CUT TO: INT. USAMRIID BLDG. - REAR ENTRANCE SECURITY STATION TIGHT ON USAMRIID SHIELD: Twin serpents entwine around a flaming sword. The slogan; "Research for the Soldier." TILT DOWN TO: A SECURITY MONITOR Jaxx enters waving to the camera. WIDEN TO: A SECURITY GUARD sits vigil over a bank of monitors with exterior views of the entire facility; containment labs, corridors, monkey cages... ON ONE MONITOR A figure in a shiny space suit peers into a microscope. INT. CORRIDOR MAZE - CONTINUING ACTION We follow Jaxx through the institutional halls. At closed double doors, she uses her security card on a necklace from inside her uniform blouse and swipes it across a black magnetic sensor on the wall. INSERT: SECURITY MONITOR - BUILDING ENTRANCE DISPLAY: JAXX, NANCY DEAN; VIROLOGY BL4. ACCESS O.K. RESUME: CORRIDOR Doors spring open. Jaxx enters. A sign overhead reads: INFECTIOUS AREA - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY CUT TO: INT. USAMRIID PRIMATE HOUSE - CONTINUING ACTION Jaxx passes by individual containment rooms with several species of Monkeys in cages. The place is spotless. Easy listening ROCK MUSIC plays over the PA. AT A WINDOW PARTITION - CONTINUING ACTION Jaxx stops to watch two young WOMEN; PFC, GODWIN (17) and SGT. KLAGES (18) wearing masks, Plexiglas visors and gloves as they vaccinate a big African Green Monkey. INSIDE LAV ROOM - CONTINUING ACTION Jaxx enters wearing a visor mask, visor and gloves. Godwin is singing softly to the monkey. KLAGES Colonel, Jaxx -- JAXX (putting them at ease) Good morning, Ladies -- How's "Super Monk." KLAGES Super Monk is immune to Simian Hemorrhagic and he just threw off another heavy Lassa fever challenge. Strong antibody response. He's the healthiest primate in captivity. Super Monk scarfs down monkey biscuits, ravenous. CUT TO: INT. JAXX'S OFFICE - USAMRIID - DAY A MOUSE CAGE; made of popsicle sticks. Inside are three white mice made of pipecleaners. Each wears a tinfoil gas mask. A fading card on the side in a child's hand reads: "BE NICE TO MICE, K MOMMY - LOVE JAMIE" A family photo sits on the cluttered desk next to it. Jaxx poses with Jamie holding a Gymnastics trophy. The phone RINGS... Again... Again. JAXX HURRIES by the glass partition, enters and answers. JAXX Jaxx -- INTERCUT: INTERIOR MONKEY HOUSE TREATING ROOM - DAY The Fifty-year old Man on the phone looks worried. GIRARD (on phone) Stan Girard -- remember? Synergy, right. I'm chief research Vet. We've got a little problem at one of our quarantine units not too far from you -- TO JAXX - USAMRIID JAXX (on phone, taking notes) Five hundred Greens and Macaques -- shipped from Philippines six weeks ago -- Simian Hemorrhagic fever? TO GIRARD - MONKEY HOUSE He examines a dissected monkey on a "bleed table" with gloves, his mask down around his neck. GIRARD (on phone) Necropsies on the fatalities show enlarged spleens -- some petechiae -- TO JAXX - USAMRIID JAXX (on phone) Classic symptoms for SHF. What's the body count? (a pause, eerie feeling) Seventy in the last week? CUT TO: INT. MONKEY HOUSE - ROOM F Narrow. Windowless. Lined with 100 wall mounted stainless steel cages. Live monkeys stare listless. Ghost-like. ON A CAGE - DEKE OPENS THE DOOR A Monkey tumbles into his net. Dead. TO TINY: hosing down the blood on the floor kicking up an aerosol mist. GIRARD (V.O.) (PHONE) We lost twenty-seven more this morning. So far just one room is infected -- FOLLOW THE MIST: Swirling up past monkey cages to ventilators in the ceiling -- TO THE TREATMENT ROOM - CONTINUING ACTION The fine mist rolls from a ceiling vent DOWN TO: GIRARD GIRARD (on phone) But, well, Management doesn't want to lose the whole population -- We've got over a quarter million dollars in these monkeys -- INT. JAXX'S OFFICE - SAME TIME JAXX (on phone) I'd keep that room isolated. We know SHF isn't lethal to people, just monkeys -- Make sure your handlers use normal contagion precautions. Yeah, get some "B&T" samples up to us today we'll get on it. Right -- She hangs up tentatively, then hurries out. PUSH IN ON: The pipecleaner mice wearing gas masks. DISSOLVE TO: MICROSCOPIC VIEW - MONKEY TISSUE A carpet of living cells takes on a spider web look. JAXX (O.S.) Liver cells. Monkey sample #053 -- What do you think? INT. HOT SUITE (BL3) - NIGHT - CONTINUING ACTION Jaxx adjusts the view wearing gloves and surgical masks for Biosafety Level 3 lab. PETER JAHRLING turns the glass flask containing the cell culture under the microscope. Late 30's, garrulous, black heavy glasses; the quintessential lab scientist. PETER Looks like Simian to me. The infected cells have a definite spider web look. He studies the magnified image on a video monitor attached to the microscope. PETER What's another bug in this house anyway -- ? He points through a glass partition to two industrial sized refrigerators, both with computer locks. The RED TREFOIL symbol for "biological hazard" marks the doors like skull and crossbones. PETER We got enough BL4 viruses and bacteria in there to make AIDS look like a runny nose. JAXX Hey, there's a happy thought. I try not to think about it. (checking scope again) Let's be sure about this bug. Run some antigens -- THE LAB BENCH - CLOSER - PLASTIC VIALS Jaxx removes one labeled "ANTIBODY SERUM - SIMIAN HF." She draws a drop of the liquid in a pipette -- then inserts it into the flask. Peter flicks on the ultraviolet scope light. PETER Go for the gold. VIDEO MICROSCOPE VIEW - MONKEY TISSUE Cells glow in the ultraviolet. Suddenly, the dark antigen solution clouds the view. Antibodies surround infected cells glowing bright fluorescent golden orange. Jaxx studies the scope as Peter refers to a chart. THE CHART - CLOSER - "FLUORESCENT ANTIGEN COLOR CHART" He scans down bar graphs of fluorescent colors to a GOLDEN ORANGE BAR labeled: "Simian Hemorrhagic Fever." PETER Bingo. Positive for SHF. Good news for us -- bad news for the monkeys. Jaxx peers into the microscope. JAXX Hey -- there's something flaky going on in this flask -- MICROSCOPE VIEW - MONKEY TISSUE MAJOR MUSIC CUE Blackholes grow in the carpet of glowing cells as if eaten by moths. Dead and dying cells float away -- TO JAXX AND PETER JAXX That's not like any SHF I've ever seen. Something is blowing those cells away. They're off the plastic. She doesn't like it. She pulls Peter to the scope. PETER Aw, just some crud in the scope. Pseudomonas bacterium maybe. Really annoying. Wipes out everything. You have to start over. The little suckers smell like Welches grape juice -- He takes the flask, opens it and sniffs it -- JAXX Yeah and a virus kills with no odor -- So what've you got? Peter continues to sniff. A look of consternation. He suddenly caps it, getting the creeps. PETER Nothing... No... smell. JAXX Okay, okay -- so we've got an "unknown" here, Pete -- Jaxx flares concern. They both stare at the flask. JAXX Let's do it by the numbers. How long will it take you to culture another isolate and get it on the big scope so we can see what the damn thing is? PETER (starts to sweat) I'll need more monkey samples. Ten, twelve hours maybe. First thing in the A.M. JAXX (heading for door) Call your wife. Tell her we're shacking up together. I'm going to pump C.J. to get us some of those monkeys -- PETER You know -- Karl Johnson could tell just by looking if this crud was Lassa, Marburg, Ebola, Anthrax -- Peter sets the flask down gingerly. Jaxx lingers. JAXX I was a green recruit my first year here at RIID when Johnson "retired." I don't think he ever even knew who I was. How come you mention his name around here, everyone crawls in a hole? PETER (matter of fact) Karl thinks the world's got a gun to its head and there's not a damn thing anyone can do to keep us from pulling the trigger. (a beat of respect) That scares people in high places... He's the best bug man there is. Why don't you ask him? Jaxx flusters. JAXX Yeah, well, okay -- but he's not here -- We are. Jaxx exits slamming the door. The warning sign reads: BIOSAFETY LEVEL 3 - CONTAINMENT TO PETE He ponders the flask for a moment. He pulls on his surgical mask, pours the milky fluid from it into a test tube, places the tube in a centrifuge and turns it on. CLOSER - THE CENTRIFUGE Whirls to a blur. DISSOLVE TO: A PHOTO OF KARL JOHNSON Staring right at us outside the Yambuku Mission. 1976. His Field Team and 2 Nuns flank him. One of them is Sister Genevieve, alive. With Village Children. Smiles of hope. CUT TO: INT. JAXX'S OFFICE - NIGHT Jaxx is transfixed on the photograph. Thick files fill her desk. She flips through more photos -- there it is. A PHOTO OF FIVE YOUNG MEN AND ONE YOUNG WOMEN Stand in front of a Huey Helicopter all wearing inflated orange spacesuits with clear bubble helmets. They flank Karl Johnson beside a biomedical isolator litter. The caption reads: ARMY AEROMEDICAL BIOCONTAINMENT ISOLATOR EVACUATION TEAM - USAMRIID - FT. DETRICK MD. PUSH IN ON: the young woman -- PFC Nancy Jaxx, age 22. TILT UP TO: JAXX She calls up a data base. ENTRY: SEARCH FOR> JOHNSON, KARL M. REPLY: LAST RECORDED CONTACT BOX 11, RT. 3, GALLATIN MONTANA FAX: 406-586-5409 Jaxx hesitates. She types a message quickly into the computer. ENTRY: TO: KARL JOHNSON FROM: LTC NANCY JAXX - USAMRIID OUTBREAK IN LOCAL PRIMATE POPULATION CAUSE: UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME PLEASE CONTACT ME AT EARLIEST CONVENIENCE REPLY: FAXING NOW CUT TO: INT. BL3 LAB - LATER THAT NIGHT Peter works in the b.g. WE MOVE IN ON THE TEST TUBE TO A MICROSCOPIC VIEW: The geography of cells are at war. CUT TO: A SHINY GYMNASTICS MEDAL is displayed in a place setting on the counter. JAXX ENTERS lugging files. Blackhawk is there to greet her with licks and whines. JAXX Hey, big guy. You hungry? So am I. She melts seeing the medal. There's a note. She reads: GERRY'S VOICE (V.O.) Your amazing daughter took second. Your amazing son washed the dishes. And your amazing husband put your dinner in the microwave. Check the machine -- Nancy chuckles. While the machine rewinds, she opens a cabinet and pulls down a can of dog food. The electric can opener doesn't work. PETER (V.O.) (PHONE MACHINE) Nance, Girard just called. Seven more monkeys kicked. They've got them on ice. Meet C.J. there at 0800. This guy Girard sounds spooked. She rifles the drawer. No opener. She uses a beer opener punching around the edge. The lid bends in -- Her hand slips into the can -- slicing on the jagged edge. She holds her fist in pain checking the damage. Nothing. Then blood leeches from the clean cut on her right hand. INT. JAXX BATHROOM - NIGHT Jaxx twines a wide Band-aid over her wound and closes the medicine cabinet. She jumps with fright at THE FACE leering right behind her -- JAXX Jamie -- oh -- hon -- Jamie is half asleep -- still in her gym suit. JAMIE (drowsy) I didn't get first, Mom -- INT. JAMIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Mother and daughter enter arms around each other. JAXX We're proud of you even if you don't win. I'm just sorry I had to miss your big moment -- Jamie falls into bed. Jaxx pulls off her warmups by the pant legs. Then the jacket. She drifts off. Jaxx kisses Jamie goodnight. SHARP CUT TO: INT. MONKEY HOUSE - NIGHT The CAMERA ROCKETS along the cages right up to the last monkey. Death stare. A single stream of blood trickles from it's nose. CUT TO BLACK. FADE IN: EXT. SCHOOL - MORNING Kids head for school in packs. CRANE DOWN TO: JAXX'S CAR - CONTINUING ACTION Jason and Jamie exit heading for school. Jaxx takes her daughter's hand. Jamie squeezes back. JAMIE (ritual) "be nice to mice," Mom. Promise. Remember, "all animals -- JAXX "All animals are our brothers and sisters." (polite parental tolerance) I know -- I know, Princess. Do good, you two -- Love you! Jaxx watches them head for school. It's a Mom's life. CUT TO: EXT. RESTON ALLEYWAY - MORNING (JAXX POV) Kids romp in the play-yard at the day care center. SUPER: RESTON, VA. - WEDNESDAY, NOV. 17 - 0830 HRS. Jaxx's car is parked behind the station down the alley. She watches the kids from the payphone. JAXX (on phone) Any results yet? INTERCUT: PETER IN BL3 LAB He's dragging from no sleep. He spins another test tube in the centrifuge. PETER (on phone) We've got zip and I'm about out of monkey parts. RESUME: JAXX JAXX (on phone) We're working on it. HER POV - THE DAY CARE CENTER Kids eat mud-pies. PAN TO: The funky rear door to the monkey house. Empty monkey crates are stacked in back. JAXX (on phone) Any messages? I was expecting a fax -- PETER (V.O.) (PHONE) Nada. Guess nobody loves you. JAXX (on phone) Thanks, Pete. I needed that. HER POV - COL. C.J. PETERS Heading up the alley her way. He's pissed. Forty. Thinning hair. Bulging middle in his Army uniform. Deputy Commander of "RIID." Brilliant virologist with a grim sense of humor. JAXX Where's your happy face, C.J.? C.J. (sardonic grin) Girard's not going to let us in. He's afraid our army uniforms will "upset his staff." Mercy -- JAXX I don't like this, C.J. Day-care center -- little kids -- C.J. Just worry about the monkeys. Girard said Management's already on him about calling in the Army. Tell you one thing, whatever's going on in there, he's scared. They're bringing the samples here. JAXX Oh, free home delivery. Nice. CUT TO: THEIR POV - A LIME GREEN VAN Heads up the alley and stops beside them. TINY WHIPPERT leans from the cab. Big toothy grin. TINY Hi. How you, M'am? Uh, General M'am -- ? Jaxx smiles putting the nervous Tiny at ease. JAXX Col. Jaxx and this is Col. Peters Deputy Commander at RIID. Tiny shyly lumbers out revealing Deer Rifles in a rack behind his seat. He ambles to the back, nursing coffee talking a bluestreak. TINY We got dead "cynos" ever day. Y'all think y'all can find out what's killin'em, huh? INSIDE THE VAN - DARKNESS Tiny opens the door. Jaxx and C.J. gawk at 7 plastic garbage bags. No one wants to be the first to grab one. C.J. "Samples?" You brought whole monkeys? Are they disinfected and triple bagged? TINY You bet. Wouldn't want to get any on ya -- Jaxx is appalled. JAXX These Cynos all came from Room F? TINY Nope. Room H. Jaxx and C.J. trade concerned glances. JAXX It's jumped to a new room. Do all the monkeys breathe the same air? TINY Guess so. If a monkey even farts in one room, you can smell it in another. No offense M'am -- Jaxx pulls C.J. behind her car. Both unnerved. C.J. We've got a possible aerosol contaminant here -- and we know it's not Simian Fever. JAXX But -- it's lethal. I'm a Veterinarian. I can't knowingly transport a dead animal with an infectious disease across state lines without a permit. I can lose my license. No way it's going to stay quiet we transported them. You're a Doc. You can plead ignorance. She thumps his big gold lapel bars -- JAXX This -- is why you get to wear those big eagles, Colonel, Sir -- SHE POINTS TO: HIS BEAT UP HONDA JAXX And -- your car's shittier than mine. Jaxx bats her green eyes over the top "Miss Scarlett." C.J. starts to protest. What's the use. C.J.'S TRUNK - TINY LOADS THE BAGS The monkey's weight depresses the rear end of his car. C.J. slams the lid. It won't shut. He and Tiny sit on it. It closes with a sickening crunch. THE VAN - TINY CLIMBS IN Sweating profusely. He squeezes a pain between his eyes. HIS POV - C.J.'S CAR Tiny waves. Suddenly, Jaxx and C.J. BLUR in Tiny's vision. He rubs his eyes. His vision clears. TINY Need anymore, just holler. Have a good one now, ya hear? C.J. waves morbidly as the VAN WIPES FRAME TO: JAXX - LOOKING UNDER C.J.'S CAR JAXX I better follow you. Make sure you don't... drip. CUT TO: MOVING POV (JAXX'S CAR) - FOLLOWING C.J.'S CAR C.J. bottoms out on a bump exiting the drive. Sparks fly. TO JAXX - DRIVING She whiteknuckles her steering wheel waiting for his trunk to pop open. It holds. EXT. ALLEYWAY - DAY CARE CENTER IN VIEW As they pass by, a LITTLE BOY STANDS on top of the slide pounding his chest like King Kong -- making monkey faces. Kids run around scared and screeching. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE - DAY Jaxx hurries in and checks her message box. She rifles them quickly. No Johnson. Damn -- CUT TO: THE HOT SUITE ENTRANCE - CONTINUING ACTION Jaxx swipes her security card over the sensor. Pneumatic gaskets HISS retreating around the submarine style airlock door. Jaxx hurries in. The door seals shut behind her. PUSH IN ON THE SIGN: WARNING: BIOSAFETY LEVEL 4 - MAXIMUM CONTAINMENT AUTHORIZED PERSONAL ONLY; LIFE THREATENING AGENTS PRESENT; FILOVIRUSES, ARBOVIRUSES. LASSA FEVER VIRUS, EBOLA VIRUS, MANTAAN VIRUS, CRIMEAN-CONGO HEMORRHAGIC FEVER VIRUS, MARBURG VIRUS. CUT TO: INT. HOT SUITE - MINUTES LATER Jaxx enters the staging area pulling on her scrubs and surgical cap. The RED LIGHT glows over the BL4 airlock door. She dials a wall phone. JAXX (on phone) Pete -- I'm going hotside. Any last requests -- INTERCUT: PETER IN BL3 LAB He's running on fumes. PETER Yeah, a monkey TV dinner. We're striking out here. Big zero. He mounts a button of cells on a slicer. A diamond knife peels off a tiny slice. He captures it on a tiny mesh. INTERCUT: JAXX - BL4 LAB She opens a cabinet door. Ultraviolet floods. She pulls out a Blue spacesuit. One piece, soft helmet, thick rubber gloves and foot molds -- like feet pajamas. She slides her right hand into a surgical glove. The Band-aid over her cut hand is intact. She then tapes the glove to her sleeve with brown sticky tape. Next she slides her gloved hands down the spacesuit sleeves into the heavier surgical gloves. INTERCUT: PETER - ELECTRON MICROSCOPE ROOM A metal tower eight feet tall. Peter places the cell slice in the chamber of the big scope. INTERCUT: JAXX - HELMET POV INSIDE SPACESUIT Closing her diagonal zipper, then the airtight Ziploc. She heads into a stainless-steel multiheaded "envirochem" shower. WE HEAR: BREATHING. Now her HEART BEAT, steady, rhythmic. Her faceplate fogs up. INTERCUT: PETER - ELECTRON MICROSCOPE ON THE VIEWING SCREEN: a cellscape appears. Oxbow rivers and lakes like an aerial view of a jungle. We've seen this view before. An ominous sight -- INTERCUT: JAXX - BL4 LAB Coiled airhoses hang from the ceiling like spaghetti. Jaxx grabs one -- and hooks it into the short hose protruding from a "MEPA" filter canister on her thigh. INSIDE JAXX'S SUIT - POV THROUGH HELMET A rush of air ROARS like a freight train. Her faceplate clears. She moves to a "pass through chute," opens it -- She pulls a monkey bag through onto a stainless steel bleed table. CUT TO: INTERCUT: PETER - ELECTRON MICROSCOPE He scans the cellscape, like flying. Searching. He abruptly stops. He stares in horror at the screen. THE VIEWING SCREEN - WALL TO WALL EBOLA So thick with virus it looks like buckets of rope. PETER Oh shit... oh... shit... Peter holds up a cellscape micrograph next to the viewing screen. The picture is labeled: EBOLA, ZAIRE; LUNG SLICE PATIENT 17, 1976. It's loaded with the same virus. INTERCUT: JAXX - BL4 LAB Her gloved hand picks up a scalpel from the "sharps" box. She makes the chest incision O.S. She raises her gloves back into view -- both are dripping with blood. She dunks both in the Clorox pan, cleaning them. INT. BL4 LAB - CHEM SHOWER Peter enters the suite from the shower in his spacesuit. He's distraught, carrying micrographs. PETER Jaxx -- We got a problem -- No response. He forgot his headset! Sweat runs down his nose. His faceplate fogs up. He clamps on an airhose. CLOSER - HOSES They keep snapping apart. Peter hurries down the corridor with no air, his breathing labored. HIS POV - JAXX IN LAB ROOM Probing the monkey. Her gloves covered in blood. Peter waves. She doesn't see him. He starts to pound the glass. A warning sign stops him. INFECTIOUS AREA - DO NOT STRIKE GLASS INSIDE JAXX'S SPACESUIT - HER POV Air ROARS like a freight train. She talks to herself. JAXX (to herself) Subcutaneous hemorrhaging. Patiechial lung hemorrhages. Rapid tissue deterioration -- This thing's a bag of soup -- Suddenly her air stops flowing. What? She turns to check the hose. SHE FACES PETER: her hose squeezed tightly in his gloves. He lets go. Air flows. JAXX Hey -- what's up? He shoves the micrographs of Ebola up to her face plate. She takes them in her bloody gloves -- JAXX You've got crud in your scope. Peter indicates "no." He's white as a ghost. OUTSIDE THE SUITS - PETER His air hose hangs loose. Jaxx quickly clamps him onto a spare hose. She gets in his face. He's panicked -- PETER It's Ebola! I sniffed that flask! JAXX Pete! There's a good chance you're not infected! Don't go dinki-dao on me now. Antibodies. Let's test them. Get some "Sister G" serum -- She points to the big refrigerator with all the viruses. He nods, composing himself. ON THE BIG FRIDGE A monolith in the dim light. Pete punches in the computer combination. The titanium lock chungs. THE DOOR OPENS. Nitrogen fog spills out. FOLLOW PETE'S GLOVE: searching vials and containers marked: LASSA, MARBURG, ANTHRAX, HANTA, RIFT VALLEY, ENCEPHALITIS, AIDS, EBOLA -- to one marked: "ANTIBODY SERUM - EBOLA ZAIRE, YAMBUKU - SISTER GENEVIEVE: SURVIVOR." TO JAXX AND PETE - AT THE MICROSCOPE Peter places the slide under the fluorescent microscope with forceps. Jaxx presses her face plate to the scope -- MICROSCOPIC VIEW - MONKEY TISSUE Crawling with the Filovirus. Antibodies seize on the cells lighting the cellscape in a foreboding purple glow. JAXX These monkeys are loaded. We've got to tell C.J. -- Peter freezes pointing at Jaxx's glove. INSIDE SPACESUIT - HER POV Jaxx holds her right glove up. There's a huge hole between her thumb and forefinger. She instantly reacts -- JAMMING HER GLOVE in the Clorox washing it off. JAXX Leaker -- oh shit -- INT. CHEM SHOWER - INSIDE JAXX'S SUIT - SECONDS LATER Envirochem pounds her suit. The system sign glows: 7 MINUTE ENVIROCHEM SHOWER REQUIRED TO DECONTAMINATE CONTAGIONS - DO NOT ENTER COLD SIDE WITHOUT DECON CYCLE JAXX (humoring herself) I can't die. I don't have a baby- sitter. Who'll feed my animals? Damn, I forgot to order the turkey for Thanksgiving. I love Gerry -- INT. STAGING AREA - MINUTES LATER Jaxx draws her right arm from the spacesuit glove. Her inner surgical glove is covered in monkey blood too. Panic. She pours more Clorox over the glove scrubbing it viciously with a brush trying to wash away the threat. HER HAND - CLOSER As she peels the glove slowly off. She reaches the Band-aid -- no monkey blood. Her hand is clean. Jaxx fills the glove up like a balloon at the faucet. Final verdict. No leaks. Peter plops relieved; his suit dripping from the shower. JAXX No leaks. I'm fine. No problem -- She heaves -- throwing up in the sink. CUT TO BLACK. FADE IN: CLOSE ON - ELECTRON MICROGRAPH PHOTO The Ebola Cellscape. C.J. (O.S.) Shit. INT. MAZE CORRIDOR - CONTINUING ACTION C.J. sifts through the photos on the move. Peter wears a surgical mask due to potential exposure. Jaxx is wired -- JAXX That's not the Lochness Monster, C.J. All seven primates were loaded. That monkey house is a viral time bomb -- INT. GENERAL RUSSELL'S RECEPTION AREA - DAY His door says it all: COMMANDER ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH. C.J., Jaxx and Peter barrel by the startled RECEPTIONIST. RECEPTIONIST Col. Peters, the General asked if this could wait until -- INT. GEN. RUSSELL'S OFFICE - CONTINUING ACTION They enter. GENERAL RUSSELL is getting ready to leave. C.J. shoves Pete's Ebola micrograph in front of him. RUSSELL Shit. He looks back at Jaxx, Pete and C.J. It's not. RUSSELL'S OFFICE - MINUTES LATER A map of the world fills the view. Colored pins mark locations of viral outbreaks. JAXX ENTERS FRAME -- JAXX We've got a killer virus 25 miles from Washington D.C. RUSSELL And five miles from the CIA. Maybe this is no accident. Maybe this is a new war. PETER Terrorism? Bio-warfare? Here? Jaxx points to the "hot spots" in Africa. JAXX The only Ebola outbreak on record -- the '76 outbreak in Africa. Now -- you can put a pin right here. How? She points to the black pins in Africa and travels with her forefinger across the Atlantic. She dramatically sticks a new BLACK PIN right next to Washington D.C. C.J. Doesn't matter how the bug got here -- it's here. If word gets out, we've got a major panic on our hands. If the virus breaks out -- we've got an epidemic. A disaster. Russell looks at the Cellscapes again in grim silence. RUSSELL Pete, are we anywhere close to a vaccine for this bug? Peter meekly lowers his surgical mask. PETER I'm close on synthetic antibodies. But no proof it'll work on humans. The only antibody serum we've got is from Johnson's Nun. And there's only enough of that to try and save one patient -- maybe. He replaces his mask. Everyone speaks at once. RUSSELL Everybody just slow down. Millions of lives could be at stake. It'd be nice if we had our shit together. Jaxx, C.J. and Peter grumble, duly admonished. RUSSELL C.J., I'm putting you and Jaxx in charge of this operation. C.J. We have to inform the CDC. They're going to buck us for jurisdiction. This has to stay an Army operation. We need to get inside that monkey house as soon as possible before the bug gets outside -- JAXX Sir, there's a day care center right behind the primate house that should be closed immediately -- RUSSELL I appreciate your concern, Colonel, but if you do that, word'll get out and we'll have to close down the whole town. I am not prepared to give that order. Jaxx bristles. "Hurry up and wait" as usual. She holds up the electron micrograph. JAXX Then I'd like to fax these to Karl Johnson. I want him in on the Epi- team controlling this thing. Instant shocked reactions from the men. Peter pumps a fist -- "Yes" -- in support. RUSSELL Karl? That's a sure way to start a major-league panic. He'll yell "fire" and scare the hell out of everybody. Forget it. He's retired. C.J. The CDC and Karl Johnson in the same room is not a good idea. RUSSELL He's big trouble, Jaxx. JAXX With all due respect, Sir, we're already in trouble. Johnson discovered Ebola and just about every other virus we're fighting. We need him. Peter agrees. He drills C.J. in angry disbelief. C.J. backs off -- getting angry with himself. C.J. (self recrimination) Karl taught me everything I know. I should've called him myself. JAXX (mischievous) I already did. Faxed him yesterday. Peter chuckles, digging at C.J. Russell goes beet red. Jaxx prepares for the worst -- RUSSELL Damnit, Jaxx -- He fumes -- then slowly caves in. RUSSELL Aw, what the hell -- If you can find him -- bring him in. I'll call the CDC and tell Reese. They'll sure piss in their pants. JAXX Thank you -- Sir, Gentlemen -- guys. Jaxx is so pumped she's out the door. RUSSELL C.J. -- call Girard. Limit any contact his personal has with the monkeys. Then get a hold of Virginia State Health, Interior, Agriculture -- find Col. Takafuji at the Surgeon General's office. We'll have a "laydown" meet here as soon as possible so get your data in order. Russell grabs a phone -- man with a mission. RUSSELL There's no doubt in my mind we've got a national emergency. I don't want a panic. FOLLOW PETER AND C.J. OUT THE DOOR PETER "Panic?" Yeah, right. He didn't sniff that flask. TO RUSSELL - MOVES TO THE MAP ON THE PHONE RUSSELL (on phone) Reese? Phil. Hey, we got a problem up here. Found a little pissant filo virus in a bunch of monkeys down the road. Ebola. What d'ya think about that? REESE (V.O.) (PHONE) I think you've got crud in your scope. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE - AFTERNOON - TIGHT ON FAX MACHINE Jaxx feeds the cellscape one by one into the machine. JAXX C'mon, Johnson. Where are you? DISSOLVE TO: TIGHT ON ANOTHER FAX MACHINE - TIME LAPSE DISSOLVES Jaxx's faxes scroll from the machine curling to an old plank floor. Then another. And another. HANDS PICK up the streams of faxes and place them in a cardboard box. "JOHNSON" is scrawled on it in crayon. WE CRANE UP THE SIDE OF THE BOX: running over with uncollected faxes. WIDEN TO: INT. "BIG SKY MERCANTILE" - MORNING Johnson's fax box sits on the floor next to a sleeping Sheepdog. An eclectic general store. Everything from bait to NY bagels and gourmet wines -- Faxes keep coming. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. "BIG SKY MERCANTILE" - MORNING A neon "FAX" sign hangs in the dirty window. WIDEN TO: A bigger sign the reads: "Auto Repairs - Video Rentals - Gourmet Wines - Stock Feed - Outfitters - UPS - Fedex - Xerox Copies." SUPER: THURSDAY, NOV. 18 - BIG SKY, MONTANA - 0900 HRS. CUT TO: JAXX - SITTING IN RENTCAR - MERCANTILE IN VIEW Taking in the eclectic sight. She gets out and heads in. TIME CUT TO: EXT. MERCANTILE - MINUTES LATER Jaxx exits toting the faxbox, a bundle of mail, some fishing tackle and two-fifths of Dewars Scotch. CUT TO: EXT. BIG HORN MOUNTAINS - MORNING As far as we can see. Snow capped peaks. PAN DOWN TO: EXT. THE BIG HORN RIVER - MORNING KARL JOHNSON - HIS BACK TO US: stands waist-deep in the middle of the river. Still in his favorite fishing hat, he rips his line off the water and lays a cast upstream. JAXX (O.S.) Dr. Johnson?! JAXX - ON THE RIVER BANK Tentative. She yells again over the roaring rapids. JAXX Karl Johnson?!! CLOSER - JOHNSON He turns to us, surprised. He's twelve years older. His features elegantly weathered over the decades. He studies Jaxx with those piercing eyes -- like a Bear sizing her up. TO JAXX - ON THE BANK JAXX I'm Nancy Jaxx. Remember? -- I was a PFC in the Medical Corps your last year at "RIID." He clearly doesn't recognize her. He gets a strike upstream. Bad timing for Jaxx. JAXX You trained me with the first Airborne medical isolator team. He shrugs annoyed walking upstream reeling in his fish. JOHNSON There was a women in the A.I.T. unit? And I don't remember? JAXX (ego bruised) I was the only woman in that unit. Now I'm in Special Pathogens. TO JOHNSON - JAXX IN VIEW JOHNSON (testy) Yeah? So was I. Now, I'm retired. Can't you see I'm fishing?! JAXX C.J. Peters sent me! I have to talk to you about Ebola! Johnson reacts even more annoyed. He nets his fish. JOHNSON I don't do any lectures until the spring. Contact me then -- He looks his prize brown trout in the eye and lets it go. JAXX'S POV - THE RIVER Jaxx watches the fish swim away -- Then she watches the man who set it free. There is a nobility about him as he makes his way upstream to his Drifter Boat resting on the shore. AT THE DRIFTER BOAT Johnson stows his gear and starts to shove off. Jaxx climbs in. Johnson thinks she's nuts. JAXX Look -- I flew all night in a military transport to get here. And I heard your "Emerging Viruses" talk at the Trop-med conference two years ago -- in case you don't remember. It was -- fascinating. See how this makes you feel? She pulls a folder from her daypack and shoves it to him. Johnson eyes her warily as he opens it. He stares at -- PETER'S EBOLA MICROGRAPHS Old ghosts haunt him. PUSH IN ON JOHNSON'S EYES: Fixed on the image. SOUNDS OF AFRICA surround him. JOHNSON Unless you include the feeling generated by gazing into the eyes of a cobra, "fascination" is not what I feel about Ebola. (looks right at Jaxx) How about 'Shit scared'? Johnson abruptly casts off. Jaxx almost falls in. FOLLOW THE BOAT - DOWNRIVER Through the rapids. Jaxx whoops hanging on. JOHNSON There's never been a case of Ebola isolated on this continent! How in the hell did it get to Virginia?! He guides the Drifter expertly up a swell and crashes down into a chute. Jaxx yells again. JAXX That's why I came to find you! CUT TO: EXT. RIVER BEND - MORNING Johnson and Jaxx pull the Drifter ashore in the calm of a backwater. His Cabin is visible set back in the trees. JAXX AND JOHNSON - TRACKING He's pumped annoyed and angry all in the same moment. The world has intruded on him here in paradise. JOHNSON What about exposure? Anybody died yet? Anybody spiked fever? JAXX Just the monkeys. And one exposure at our lab so far. He stops Jaxx in her tracks -- getting right in her face -- JOHNSON You don't know that for sure -- do you? Do you? You don't know how many people this bug could be incubating in do you? And I'll bet my hat the CDC doesn't know either. She doesn't. He doesn't wait for an answer. He stalks on. JOHNSON I warned them this would happen. They didn't see what I saw in Africa. As long as these viruses are killing black people and yellow people and red and brown in far off places -- why should we give a big woolly damn here at home? EXT. JOHNSON'S CABIN - CONTINUING ACTION He bumps the door open and enters. Jaxx hesitates, bristling, pumping herself up, she follows him inside. It's an eclectic collection of fishing gear, Indian art, African and South American artifacts, carvings, photos -- JAXX Dr. Johnson, I think you should know the Ebola vaccine has been a priority at RIID -- JOHNSON And you haven't got one yet, do you? Do you? Jaxx shakes her head "no" guiltily. JOHNSON Do you know where Ebola comes from? Huh? The natural host? The reservoir? After all these years? -- Take a wild guess -- Jaxx angrily shakes "no." He opens the Dewars -- JOHNSON Don't say monkeys. The Virus kills them too quick for a monk to be a host. Twelve years and we still don't know what animal, vegetable, mineral or insect Ebola comes from. -- fishing a glass from a shelf, he fills it and knocks it back. No sympathy from Jaxx. JAXX So what are you hiding out here for? He shoots her a lethal look. JAXX Okay, "fishing." I mean -- why did you retire? Quit your research? He pours another and one for her. His voice calms. JOHNSON Why? Because nobody really wants to cure these diseases. The Bureaucrats and Doctors would rather fight over who gets credit -- and who patents the cure. (hands her a drink) The world's got a gun to it's head and there's nothing I can do to keep it from pulling the trigger. It absolutely predestined truth the way Karl says it. Jaxx heard Peter say it. She heard enough. JAXX -- You don't remember me, but I remember this about you -- I heard you say the best place to be in an outbreak is at the epicenter... trying anything possible to stop it -- I guess I was mis-informed... She returns the full glass, completely disillusioned. JAXX Go... fishing. She shakes perfunctorily and heads for the door. Johnson watches her go with profound regret. JOHNSON Hey -- Jaxx. We found another virus in a lot of the blood samples we took in Zaire. AIDS. Jaxx stops. Chilled. JAXX We had AIDS samples back in '76? JOHNSON Yeah. But it wasn't killing anyone. Ebola was. He chokes it off. Pain and sorrow in his eyes. JOHNSON We could've been ready for AIDS. We could've saved some lives. Jaxx stares at him in stunned silence, reeled by the ramifications. She has a better understanding of this man's pain -- and a deeper respect. JOHNSON Everyone knows "it's not nice to fool with Motha Nate-cha." Now she's got us by the -- He gestures squeezing with a cupped hand -- He cuts himself off, suddenly an embarrassed gentleman -- JAXX "Balls," Karl. She's got us by the balls. Their eyes meet. She's pried him loose. He's ready. He offers her the full scotch glass. She clinks it against his. They knock the Scotches back. Warriors going to war. CUT TO: EXT. FT. DETRICK - USAMRIID - AERIAL VIEW - NIGHT SUPER: THURSDAY, NOV. 18 - FT. DETRICK, MD - 1100 HRS. INT. WAR ROOM - NIGHT - ROVING POV The CAMERA GLIDES THROUGH: THIRTY FIVE CIVILIANS AND MILITARY PERSONNEL caucusing and buzzing with the mission. A HUGE PROJECTION SCREEN - THE WAR ZONE It's not a recon photo -- but the Ebola cellscape. A WAR MAP fills another screen. It's of Washington D.C. and vicinity. A series of expanding circles fan out from Reston, Virginia right over Washington D.C. GENERAL RUSSELL makes his point to a small group including COL. TAKAFUJI of the Surgeon General's and an ASSISTANT from the Dept. of Interior. RUSSELL If we have a respiratory threat -- and it gets loose -- up to ten million people could be exposed. TO C.J. - ACROSS THE ROOM Coffeed out and hot tempered, makes his point to GIRARD and some SUITS from Synergy along with CDC REPS. C.J. This virus could jump and start burning through the human population right now. Today. We've got to get in there and depopulate the entire primate colony before that happens. Instant reaction. All focus turns to C.J.'s group. GIRARD What about my company's investment? Not all the monkeys have symptoms. I'm not going to euthanize perfectly healthy specimens -- C.J. The Army will handle the operation. C.J. is about to blow. A familiar voice speaks up. REESE The Army's done a great job -- CHUCK REESE separates the Army and Girard's contingent. Chuck hasn't changed much since that day 12 years ago with Johnson in Africa. Now in his late 30's, he's risen to the top of the heap at CDC. REESE -- up to now. And everyone at CDC is really grateful, C.J., to your team for sounding the alarm. We'll take over from here. So if you'll give us virus samples and your data -- C.J. bristles at Reese's tone. No love lost here. C.J. Chuck, that sounds a little like "give the big boys the sharp objects before we hurt ourselves." Synergy called in the Army and we will maintain our alert status. REESE C.J. -- c'mon. We don't need to start a war here. Battle lines drawn. The room buzzes. REESE I was in Africa with Karl Johnson during the Zaire event. I worked in close contact with Ebola victims at Kinshasa for two months and was never infected. Reese grabs Peter's micrographs waving them around. REESE There was no data in Africa to support aerosol transmission -- We don't even know if it's the same strain. C.J. and the USAMRIID team argue in disarray. REESE I recommend we low-key the press and media. We can't afford to "cry wolf" to the American public -- A commotion at the back of the room disrupts everyone -- JOHNSON (O.S.) You can't afford not to -- TO JOHNSON AND JAXX - ENTERING THE ROOM A major stir. Raised eyebrows and confusion around. Johnson's name ripples through the room. Karl shakes C.J.'s hand as he dumps his bag on the table. JOHNSON Sorry I'm late -- C.J. glares at Jaxx -- then nods a private "thank you." Jaxx lets out a huge sigh of relief. C.J. Karl -- glad you're here. Gen. Russell shakes his head waiting for the fireworks. Reese looks like a deer caught in the headlights. REESE Dr. Johnson -- Karl, we were just wrapping up -- JOHNSON Well, I'm just beginning -- FOLLOW JOHNSON - WORKING THE ROOM Like Merlin and Clarence Darrow merged. JOHNSON Monkeys, separated in cages with no social contact, are dying days and weeks apart from the first outbreak. That indicates a strong airborne transmission threat -- He illustrates the transmission pattern on a standup diagram of the monkey house. JOHNSON Do you, all of you, want to take the chance with innocent people? He fixes on Girard who can't hold his piercing gaze. JOHNSON You have to quarantine the Monkey Handlers and anyone who had unprotected contact -- NOW. They could be exposed and incubating. You have to put a surveillance plan into action to watch their families and co-workers for symptoms -- Lots of reaction here. Jaxx is mesmerized watching Karl ignite the room. Girard has had it -- GIRARD Is this man in charge here? General Russell pulls C.J. aside -- RUSSELL You better control him, C.J. C.J. just grins and nods, loving every minute of this. Reese jockeys for the floor. REESE Look, we don't know if the virus can jump species from monkeys to people. Nobody's sick. Right? Girard nods confirming this fact. Reese scores points -- REESE The monkeys with Ebola are going to die anyway. We'll harvest the infected ones and save the rest. Girard and the Synergy contigent audibly approve. The power has shifted visibly in the room. REESE Karl -- I think you're overreacting -- Wrong thing to say. Karl drills Reese with his eyes -- JOHNSON I am...? It only takes seven days to find out once you've got it. First come the headaches -- followed by a relentless fever. Then the hemorrhaging begins. Your skin goes pulpy and tears easily. It speckles with petechiae -- erupts is a rash that turns your flesh to tapioca pudding. Your bowels fill up completely with blood. So do your eyeballs. You vomit a thick black fluid -- After bloody diarrhea, you pass your intestines, what's left of them -- JAXX SURVEYS THE ROOM - SHE SEES: Disgust, horror, fear. One Man leaves the room nauseated. JOHNSON A man's testicles swell up the size of footballs. And if you're not dead by then or comatose, you've become hostile -- acute psychosis -- dementia -- A Preacher's pause... JOHNSON At the end, you're leaking blood and huge quantities of virus from the nose, mouth, anus, eyes, nipples -- rips in the skin... -- letting the images sink in. JOHNSON The black plague killed four out of ten people. When the white man and the red man exchanged diseases, seven out of ten died. Ebola wipes the slate -- nine out of ten people in this room won't be here. He turns, making eye contact with everyone in the room. JOHNSON You have no choice -- but to cry wolf. ... Dead fucking silence. CUT TO: INT. BL3 LAB - NIGHT Peter draws his own blood with a syringe. DISSOLVE TO: PETER IN HIS SPACESUIT - MINUTES LATER He places his blood slide under the microscope and studies it on the monitor. He sits back relieved. He swivels in his stool to a wall calendar. THE CALENDAR - CLOSER He marks another day off in red. Two down, five to go to the day he's marked "E-DAY"... Thanksgiving. TO JOHNSON - AT THE HOTSUITE TALK PORT JOHNSON (TALK PORT) Anybody home? His voice vibrates through thin diaphragms set in the thick glass enabling communication into the suite. Peter walks to the glass happy to see his old mentor. PETER (TALK PORT) Just us flesheaters. Karl gets a good look at Peter close to the glass. Guinea Pigs fill the wall behind him. His followers. JOHNSON (TALK PORT) I heard about your little flask sniffing episode. How're you doing? Peter looks at the non-existent watch on his suit wrist. PETER (TALK PORT) Let's see, I was exposed two days ago. Incubation takes about a week; therefore. If I'm infected, I should be getting my first headaches in, oh, about five days. If I spike a fever, seven days later -- the guys around here will be flipping coins to see who gets my vacation days -- Karl doesn't laugh. Peter sobers under his stern eye. JOHNSON If the bug spreads by aerosol, you won't be the only one with a headache. Peter shys, almost sheepish. PETER (TALK PORT) Actually, I've been sleeping here -- in the lab. I don't want to expose my family... Karl is impressed by his protege's discipline. JOHNSON You know you're not contagious unless you have symptoms, Pete. Don't woof me. How's your blood? PETER (TALK PORT) (crossing his gloved fingers) No Ebola antibodies yet. The test tube-witch willing -- I can go home for Thanksgiving. He points to: THE CALENDAR: THANKSGIVING; five more days. Peter smiles hopefully. Karl sees the fear in his eyes. JOHNSON Reese still doesn't believe the bug's airborne. All that red tape must've choked off the air supply to his brain. Peter pushes his glasses back up on his nose through his plastic visor -- he motions Karl inside. CUT TO: MICROSCOPIC VIEW - MONKEY SHOT Crawling with the virus. Armies of it. A huge Ebola brick shaped like a shark fills the view. PETER (O.S.) (TALK PORT) Monkey snot -- Look at that big honker. Definite airborne threat. INT. HOT SUITE - BL3 SIDE - CONTINUING ACTION Karl peers at the monitor scope wearing surgical mask, visor, gloves and scrubs. He sits back depressed. JOHNSON (FM MIC) I hate being right sometimes. The monkey house is not the end. It's the beginning. He muses -- eyes fixed on some other horizon. JOHNSON (FM MIC) How are you fixed for Sister Genevieve? PETER (FM MIC) Gold plated stuff. Her immuno plasma is still the strongest therapy we've got against Ebola... At least in my guinea pigs. Peter reverently holds up a packet of plasma to the glass marked "Sister G." Johnson savors it. A long lost friend. JOHNSON (FM MIC) Sister "G"... she beats Ebola -- She beats it -- then dies of AIDS three years later she picked up in the same hospital... Hell, nobody said life was fair. PETER (FM MIC) We're down to less than four units. JOHNSON (FM MIC) That's not quite enough to fight an epidemic. PETER (FM MIC) If Sister "G" was alive, I could clone her immune cells for my synthetic antibody trials. We could crank out anti-ebola serum like a Chinese noodle factory. We could immunize our troops -- dogs -- cats -- even politicians -- The two men share a moment of hopeful laughter. JOHNSON (FM MIC) C'mon. Let's blow this fishtank. Beer and Pulitzer Pizza on me. Peter doesn't move. He shakes his head reluctantly "no." JOHNSON (FM MIC) You're a good virologist, Pete. Karl puts his gloved hand on the glass by Peter's. PETER - AT THE WINDOW This funny little man in a blue spacesuit smiles shyly from the BL4 lab window like a big lonely blue fish. CUT TO: INT. JAXX'S VET CLINIC - LATE NIGHT Gerry checks the leg cast on a BIRDDOG. Blackhawk snoozes at his feet. Suddenly the Big Bouvier is up -- alert -- JAXX ENTERS from the house carrying a couple of beers still in her traveling clothes. Ever up. Tireless. JAXX Room service. She hugs Gerry from behind rocking to and fro. GERRY I'll give you about an hour to stop that -- She plops beside him and pops the beers. GERRY How's the legendary Dr. Johnson? Still the "ladies man"? JAXX I wouldn't kick him out of bed. She's pricking him. Gerry punches her half-jealous. GERRY So? You're going to nuke the monkey house? JAXX No. Just one room. About a hundred "cynos." Synergy's stonewalling. They're still arguing. CDC is low keying the whole thing to "John Q." Gerry whistles his disapproval. JAXX C.J. put me in charge of the monkey operation. I'm looking for "a few good men -- AND women." GERRY What about Army S.W.A.T.? JAXX They won't touch it. GERRY What about Special Forces? JAXX They won't touch it. GERRY Colonel, Jaxx, you don't need the Green Berets. I've got more military experience handling diseased animals than even anybody at RIID. I'm your first volunteer. Gerry takes her in his arms. She breaks off troubled. GERRY I've seen this look on you before. This is the "our daughter needs a training bra stare." You're worried about the kids? JAXX They're growing up so fast. I was thinking -- if anything happens... to either of us, I'd feel better if the kids where someplace safe... GERRY We can send them down to my folks for an early holiday... So they miss a couple of days of school before Thanksgiving. They won't mind -- Gerry holds her to him. She gets a chill. JAXX This is "closehold" info. We can't even tell Jason and Jamie why. CUT TO: EXT. JAXX'S HOUSE - MORNING Gerry loads the kid's duffels in his pickup. Jaxx says goodbye to Jamie. Jason hangs back. JAMIE Mom? What's going on? JAXX Don't worry, Hon. We're going to be real busy at the lab and -- Jamie instantly goes on the offensive. JAMIE -- and you just don't want me around when you off a bunch of defenseless guinea pigs. Right? Jamie pulls away from their embrace. JAXX Jamie -- I'll explain it all -- JAMIE (not interested) Dad got out of the army. Why can't you? Silence. Jamie climbs in and slams the door glaring at her mother through the windshield. Jaxx puts on a braveface -- JAXX See you Thanksgiving. Tell Popsy and Mama to bring their appetites. Love you... -- watching them leave. Blackhawk barks them away. CUT TO: EXT. USAMRIID ANIMAL FARM - AFTERNOON A pastoral farm. Sheep and Goats graze. Several horses roam the corral. The oddity is the ARMY MEN AND WOMEN assembled at the barn in camouflage fatigues. Officially, they are classified as "91 Tango Animal Handlers." The Veterinarians Corps. Jaxx addresses them. SUPER: FRIDAY, NOV. 19 - USAMRIID ANIMAL FARM - 0800 HRS. JAXX The General Public pretty much believes we're into biological warfare and torturing animals for research -- I know my daughter does -- Laughter ripples. JAXX We know our mission is to save human lives on the battlefield -- Most are in their "teens." Klages is there with SGT. PIERRA, her boyfriend. Godwin holds a baby goat feeding it milk from a bottle. JAXX Now we have a chance to do just that right where we live. This operation involves a high degree of risk. You'll be working in a densely populated area under close quarters to euthanize diseased animals infected with a rare and most deadly pathogen. Grave faces stare back at her. She tries to lighten up. JAXX Hey -- the Green Berets passed. Fighting viruses doesn't suit their image, they say. The Navy Seals chickened out. You're 91 Tango Animal Care Specialists! You're better trained for this operation than any branch of the military! Big reaction from the young group. Klages and her Boyfriend lead the whoop. JAXX This is on a volunteer basis. I can't tell you how important our success is to the safety of thousands of innocent people. This brings everyone down to earth. Klages squeezes her Boyfriend's hand and steps forward. KLAGES I'd like to help, Colonel. Jaxx nods. Klages is only a few years older than Jamie. Immediately her boyfriend "volunteers" too. Then another. JAXX Thank you. This is closehold info. We don't want a panic before the operation. No discussion with family or friends. Am I clear? Godwin pipes up with her goat. GODWIN Colonel, Jaxx, M'am. My folks had to sign a waiver for me to get in the Army. I'm still 17. I don't want to miss this -- Jaxx beams with pride at the bravery of these kids. JAXX I'd be proud to have you, Pvt. Godwin. But you need a note from your mother. Laughter. Godwin is embarrassed. Jaxx gives her a Mom hug. INT. BARN - MORNING Jaxx spots Johnson feeding a big Clydesdale. She enters. JAXX Well, we have the first bio-hazard team in U.S. history -- JOHNSON Doesn't matter what kind of war it is -- we still send kids to do the fighting. JAXX I sent mine to Grandma's house. Johnson grins, then sees Jaxx isn't trying to be funny. Silence. He handfeeds more oats to the horse. JOHNSON We're looking at one of life's true mysteries. Jaxx eyes him, puzzled. He leads the horse out. JOHNSON Ebola won't even make this horse even a little sick, a dumb animal. But the same bug can wipe out the most intelligent species on Earth. EXT. BARN - CONTINUING ACTION JOHNSON Makes you wonder who's the smarter species -- Us or Them... Johnson turns the horse loose. It bolts into the pasture. Jaxx looks at him long and hard. JAXX You find the viruses beautiful, don't you... It's not a question. It's her scientific observation. JOHNSON (softly, gently) Oh yeah. Looking at Ebola under an electron microscope is like looking at a gorgeously wrought ice castle. The thing is so cold. So totally pure. THEIR POV - THE PASTORAL SETTING AROUND THEM The upper Potomac gleams before the Appalachians. JOHNSON These viruses have been on Earth a long, long time. Along comes the human invasion. Too many people violating the habitat. He picks up a handful of hay to illustrate -- JOHNSON We clear a forest, the virus comes out. It doesn't "emerge." We crash right into the bugs. Bam. Epidemic. Our population gets thinned out. This is nature. -- tossing strands away until the last straw remains. JAXX Wiping us out? It can't get that far -- can it? JOHNSON Nobody's safe from this bug, Nancy. None of us -- Jaxx reaches out taking the last straw. CUT TO: INT. MONKEY HOUSE - DAY A NOTICE: ALL OPERATIONS OTHER THAN FEEDING, OBSERVATION AND CLEANING ARE SUSPENDED. ANYONE ENTERING ANIMAL ROOMS MUST HAVE FULL PROTECTION, RESPIRATOR AND GLOVES. DEAD ANIMALS ARE TO BE DOUBLE BAGGED AND PLACED IN REFRIGERATOR. S. GIRARD WIDEN TO: TINY; reading the notice in the maintenance room. His eyes are red. He's sweating. Deke, the handler who looks like a Biker, is panicked. DEKE What's all this 'sposed t'mean -- ? Tiny wipes his forehead. He's spooked but hides it. TINY Ah, just "monkey flu," prob'ly. INT. MONKEY HOUSE - FRONT OFFICE - DAY The room is jammed with HANDLERS and LAB WORKERS. Two EIS OFFICERS in white military style uniforms sit at the desks interviewing People one by one and taking blood samples. TINY is next in line before Deke. GIRARD ROAMS uneasily. Everyone in the room looks uneasy. REESE fields questions. A BLACK WOMAN cuts him off -- BLACK WOMAN I don't care what happened in Africa. I wanna know if I'm gonna get sick working here and maybe die 'fore my children get home from school -- This is not the "low key" meeting Reese had hoped for. REESE Please just be calm. One of the Epidemic Investigators will take care of you. (points to EIS officers) Your bloodtests are confidential. If you have any of the symptoms -- call us immediately. THE VIEW ROCKETS IN ON TINY - AT THE EXAMINATION TABLE He watches his blood rise in the vial from the needle in his arm. Squeamish -- sweat rivulets run down his nose. CUT TO BLACK. FADE IN: EXT. MONKEY HOUSE - EARLY MORNING All angles. silent. Waiting. CUT TO: INT. JAXX HOME - SAME TIME Jaxx feeds her menagerie. This could be the last time. Maggie, the old bulldog, manages to wake up for a big face lick. Her Parrots wolf whistle. JAXX (ritual) Thanks, guys. Eat your heart out girls. Blackhawk jumps up for a hug, almost refusing to let her go as if the dog knows there is danger ahead. Gerry enters, duffel bag in hand. It's time. EXT. POST HOUSING - EARLY MORNING PVT. KLAGES exits in her civvies and gets in a waiting car driven by her boyfriend, SGT. PIERRA. They drive on. INT. POST HOUSING APT. - EARLY MORNING PVT. GODWIN talks on the phone to her mother. GODWIN (on phone) Everything's fine, Mom, really. I have to go, Mom. Love you, too. INT. HOT SUITE - EARLY MORNING Peter checks his blood under the scope. He "high-fives" air -- marking another day on his calendar. "Three to go." He does some jumping jacks to rev himself up. CUT TO: EXT. USAMRIID Bitter cold. Overcast. EIGHT ARMY MEMBERS load the three white UNMARKED VANS with anesthesia/euthanasia gear, ice chests for samples, etc. All wear civvies. JAXX (V.O.) Action report, Col. Nancy Jaxx. November 20th. Assembled Team at Post, 0630. Civilian clothes for drive to Reston to avoid attention -- JOHNSON pitches in with JAXX and GERRY loading gear. A 4 Man AIRBORNE MEDICAL ISOLATOR TEAM load an isolator stretcher -- hermetically sealed with its own air supply. Orange spacesuits with bubble helmets are stacked on top. JAXX (V.O.) No personnel with experience in Racal spacesuits except me; I've asked the Airborne Medical Isolator Team to give technical support -- INSIDE LEAD VAN - GODWIN AND KLAGES Sit in back "shucking" syringes; i.e. removing the wrappers from syringes and loading them with anesthetic. JAXX (V.O.) Mood tense... Anticipation high... They eye the stretcher warily as it's loaded. Casualties? REAR DOORS CLOSE - BLACKENING THE SCREEN CUT TO: EXT. MONKEY HOUSE - MORNING A few PEOPLE are going to work in other buildings. GIRARD PARKS in front of Synergy. HIS POV - MAIN ENTRANCE Deke, the handler, is standing on the lawn wearing a respirator, gloves and heavy jumpsuit. Girard gets out furious. GIRARD What are you doing outside? People can see -- Deke suddenly raises his respirator, drops to his knees and vomits. Girard recoils. "Scared shitless." SHARP CUT TO: EXT. INTERSTATE 495 - MORNING The White Vans creep in rush hour traffic. INSIDE LEAD VAN - STUCK IN TRAFFIC Johnson smokes anxiously reading the Washington Post. We see the inside headline: "Deadly Ebola Virus Found in Va. Laboratory Monkey: Animals Sent to U.S. from Philippines." JOHNSON (reading; cringing with the words) "This virus does not spread that easily," said CDC expert Chuck Reese, "There's a low probability of someone getting infected." HIGH ANGLE - I 495 - CONTINUING ACTION The traffic stretches to the Potomac. The Washington Monument and Capitol hill gleam white in the morning sun. RADIO (V.O.) -- And V.P., Dan Quayle said to reporters President Bush is not breaking his "read my lips" promise. It's Congress who's forcing him to ask for new taxes -- INTERCUT: WAR ROOM - USAMRIID - SAME TIME LOCAL NEWS plays on three TVs. C.J. covers his phone, signaling a Deputy C.O. C.J. It's Girard. They've got a man down. Get Reese -- and Johnson. INTERCUT: GIRARD - IN HIS OFFICE PARAMEDICS carry Deke out on a litter. Girard is scared. GIRARD (on phone) He's got symptoms. I'm evacuating the building and... I'm officially requesting the Army to destroy all the monkeys... Sterilize the whole facility... TO C.J. - WAR ROOM C.J. (on phone) I'll need that in writing. The Team's already enroute. CUT TO: TIGHT ON FAX MACHINE - A MESSAGE SCROLLS OUT It's from Girard. C.J. reads it. The "go ahead." RESUME: THE LEAD VAN - CLEAR TRAFFIC AHEAD Karl hangs up the mobile phone. He's pumped. JOHNSON The good news is we're nuking the whole colony. The bad news is the virus just jumped species. A Handler went to the hospital with symptoms. It'll be all over the six o'clock news. AHEAD - THEIR POV The RESTON exit sign rushes toward them. CUT TO: EXT. MONKEY HOUSE - REARVIEW - MORNING The Vans deploy on the grass behind the building. Girard waits at the Maintenance door with the 2 EIS Officers. TEAM POV - INSIDE THE VAN Gerry and the rest of the Team watch from the Vans as Girard and Jaxx speak inaudibly. He hands her the keys to the building and the signed release. He practically runs to his car -- he can't wait to get out of there. The EIS Officers head inside. Jaxx signals. THE VANS - DOORS OPEN AIT PERSONNEL pile out and carry equipment inside. JAXX Tell everyone to hit the head. Once they suit up the only place to go is down your leg. MAJ. HAINES, the AIT leader, cracks up. Tension released. INT. LEAD VAN - MORNING Gerry throws sheets of plastic over a rope dividing the back of the van into a crude changing room. THE NEAR SIDE: Gerry and Sgt. Pierra strip naked. Shivering in the cold, they jerk on surgical scrubs. THE FAR SIDE: Klages and Godwin laugh embarrassed. Klages starts shucking clothes. Then Godwin. Both freezing cold. OUTSIDE - JOHNSON - DAY CARE CENTER IN VIEW Jaxx joins him. The sound of children echoes in the air. JOHNSON Nice neighborhood. Kids. Fast food. Diseased monkeys. Good city planning. THEIR POV - THROUGH THE TREES The playground and happy children. Jaxx purges her guilt. JAXX We're carrying out this o.p. next to children -- We should've told them -- We should've evacuated them. JOHNSON Why didn't you? JAXX Orders. Might start a panic. I'd pick panic over an epidemic anyday. PUSH IN CLOSE ON JOHNSON CUT TO: INT. MONKEY HOUSE STAGING AREA - MORNING The storeroom is crowded. The AIT's help Klages, Godwin, Sgt. Pierra, Maj. Haines, Lt. Rice, Gerry Jaxx and Johnson into the orange lightweight RACAL spacesuits and plastic bubble helmets. The EIS officers observe. NOTE: This process requires one person act as "dresser" -- like putting armor on a Knight. Brown sticky tape is applied to all seams and zippers. Suiting up continues throughout this scene. JAXX ENTERS Shivering in her scrubs. She lays down sticking her legs up. The AIT leader spreads her suit legs. She pulls them on. She briefs as she suits up. This like a cadence. JAXX I know they look like "K-Mart specials," but the Racals will protect you in BL4 conditions. Once again she evokes some nervous laughter releasing tension. She straps her battery pack blower on her back. JAXX You've got six hours on the air pump battery. So decon out before it fails or you're in trouble. She holds up a roll of sticky tape -- JAXX These suits are fragile. Monkey claws and fangs'll slice them like butter -- If you get a rip -- She easy rips a rend in her leg spooking everyone. JAXX -- tape it shut fast or contaminated air can flow inside. I keep extra tape around my legs just in case. She tapes the rend shut. Gerry checks the seal. GODWIN AND KLAGES look at each other. "What've we done?" JAXX Be exquisitely careful. Stick with your buddy. Watch for rips in each other's suits. She pulls on her gloves and tapes the wrists. JAXX Know where your hands are at all times. If you get blood on you, stop and clean it off. With bloody gloves, you can't see holes in them. Believe me, I know from experience... Gerry? Gerry holds up a syringe -- GERRY Never hand a used needle to your buddy. If a needle comes out of its cap, it goes straight into an animal -- He fixes the syringe on the end of a special pole with a syringe clamp on the end. A deadly spear. GERRY Don't recap it. You could stick yourself. Bag it. He removes the syringe and drops it in a disposable bag. JAXX Everyone decons out to the cold side for a fifteen minute break every two hours. If you get tired, or sick -- tell your supervisor. ON THE BIO-HAZARD TEAM Godwin, Maj. Haines, Lt. Rice, Maj. Powell, Gerry Jaxx and Karl Johnson. One by one, the AIT Team fit clear bubble helmets over their heads and tie them in place. Klages' suit pressurizes making her look fat. Nervous giggles. Lots of sweat. All excited and scared. JAXX Karl... Anything to add...? Johnson takes a moment, then -- JOHNSON We're going to euthanize a whole building full of animals as humanely as possible. Remember, they're sick and dying. They were caught up in this... It's not their fault. Faces in helmets. Grimset. Scared. Air blowers kick on one by one. FM headsets activate. JOHNSON (FM MIC) Don't forget for a second -- they carry the most deadly virus known. Let's go. We'll go in by twos -- The Team grabs up gear and line up like paratroopers -- Gerry presses his helmet to Jaxx's. GERRY (FM MIC) How am I supposed to kiss you good- bye, Colonel? JAXX (FM MIC) We're on the air, Ger. Watch your "six." She points behind him. The Team is smiling at them. Jaxx presses her helmet to her lips with her pointer finger then presses it to him. Their eyes say it all. THEIR POV - THE DOOR Push in on the Red Trefoil Biohazard symbol until it fills the view -- INT. GRAY ZONE - CONTINUING ACTION The staging area door opens slowly. Light spills into the long dark hallway leading to the holding rooms. GERRY AND JOHNSON Step into the "gray zone." The air is heavy. Dense. No sounds from the monkeys. Gerry instantly pours sweat. Their helmets fog up -- JOHNSON (FM MIC) Damnit -- can't see. It's burning up in here. Must be 90 degrees -- GERRY (FM MIC) Thermostat? Let's find it. They head into the musky corridor. Fluorescent lights glow that "end-of-the-world-red" in the heavy musky air. TO JAXX - AT THE THRESHOLD One breath and she LEADS THE TEAM in by twos. KLAGES AND GODWIN pause at the door. WE HEAR: their breathing, the rush of air, their heartbeats. They squeeze each other's hands, and enter -- FOLLOW JOHNSON AND GERRY - HELMET POV Fogged helmets. Air pump rushing. Poor vision. They turn the corner at the cage washing area -- FACE TO FACE WITH TWO MEN -- MONKEY HANDLERS POV - BEINGS IN SPACESUITS Coming right at them. The Handlers look at each other. They're in jeans and t-shirts. What the hell is going on? GERRY (THROUGH HELMET) What the hell are you doing here?! This is a hot zone -- Loc, the Vietnamese, points to the dismantled thermostat and speaks rapidly in his language. Johnson understands. JOHNSON (in Vietnamese) He doesn't mean "heat" -- "death." "Killing field." Leave now. They escort the two frightened Men away. INT. STAGING AREA - THE AIRLOCK DOOR OPENS The two frightened men enter. Gerry slams the door behind them. The two EIS officers on duty look up surprised. INT. GRAY ZONE - MINUTES LATER QUICK CUTS: KLAGES AND GODWIN lay out necropsy tools on a bleed table; scalpels, cutters, lancets, pipettes, blood syringes -- the "sharps." PIERRA sets out rows of "kill syringes." RICE stacks plastic bags and biohazard body boxes. WITH JAXX AND JOHNSON - ROOM "F" They pause at the door to Room "F." Karl carries a mop handle with a "U-shaped" prong on the end to hold the monkey. Jaxx carries the pole and a bag of syringes. She signals down the hall to: GERRY AND MAJ. HAINES; Ready at Door "H." Gerry counts three -- they enter. INT. ROOM F - JAXX'S POV - THROUGH HELMET Johnson pushes open the door with his broom handle. It's dark. Visibility poor. Instantly MONKEYS screech and rattle about. An unnerving cacophony in the gloom. JAXX (FM MIC) Cynos haven't been fed. They're freaked -- Hunger gets them hostile. HELMETS POVS - MISTY IMAGES APPEAR DREAMLIKE MONKEY EYES STARING AT US. NOSES BLEEDING. FANGS FLASHING. PAWS CLAWING AT US THROUGH THE BARS. TO JOHNSON: Sounds of Africa surround him. He blinks. FLASH TO: MONKEYS SWARMING OVER HIS ROVER Faces of the dead. Burning huts. The big Male standing four feet tall on his hood screeching at him -- RESUME: MONKEY HOUSE - TIGHT ON MONKEY Screeching from its cage. Karl jerks back breathing hard. JAXX APPEARS beside him. JAXX Karl? Karl! You okay? He nods, his heart pounding. INT. ROOM H - FOLLOW GERRY AND HAINES Moving from cage to cage with precision and rhythm; HAINES PINS a monkey with the mop handle O.S., GERRY THRUSTS his pole syringe in the cage injecting the animal O.S. Gerry dumps the used syringe and loads another. They move like a martial arts kata. CUT TO: EXT. DAY CARE CENTER - DAY - MONKEY HOUSE IN B.G. Children play enjoying the day. EXT. RESTON ST. - SAME TIME People come and go at the McDonalds across the street. Down the block at the Amoco Station, more mundane life. The Grocery store advertises "Butterball Turkeys." CUT TO: INT. FAIRFAX HOSPITAL - ISOLATION ROOM - SAME TIME Deke lays sedated in an oxygen tent. Reese is there with TWO HOSPITAL OFFICIALS and MEDICAL STAFF who are nervous. REESE Full barrier gear; scrubs, gloves, masks must be worn. I don't want any other patients on this floor until we do the bloodwork and find out if he's really contracted the virus. C.J. pulls him aside. The Doctors talk uneasily O.S. C.J. Let's get him back to the post. Our medical slammer has BL4 isolation. Our med-staff are trained for this -- REESE We'll contain it here. Protecting the public from infectious diseases is our jurisdiction. Don't make a scene, C.J., please -- C.J. A scene? This guy's bloodwork was done here in their lab. If it's lethal with virus and contamination occurs, this hospital will go up like wildfire. Reese escorts C.J. politely from the room. CUT TO: RESUME: MONKEY HOUSE - INT. GRAY ZONE - LATER Klages bags liver and spleen samples and puts them in a cooler full of organs. Her gloves are covered in blood. She washes the bloody table with Clorox then places another monkey down. She picks up a swab and takes a nose sample, flips it, takes another -- CLOSE ON - GODWIN Drawing blood from a sedated monkey. (Only syringe and part of monkey hindquarter visible). As blood fills the tube; TILT UP TO: GODWIN singing softly to the monkey, like mother to child -- Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven." As she places the blood vial in a box filled with blood samples, we see she is crying. CLOSE ON PIERRA - FEELING THE PRESSURE He fumbles for a scalpel with his gloves. He slits the top from a cadaver bag and peers in. (We don't see what he sees). His breathing is rapid. PIERRA (FM MIC) Can't breath in here. Klages turns to him. Checking him out -- KLAGES (FM MIC) You okay? INSIDE SUIT - HELMET POV Sweat rivulets run down his forehead into his eyes. His faceplate fogs up. He wipes instinctively with his glove smearing the visor on his wet face making it worse. PIERRA (FM MIC) Get me outta this fuckin' thing! OUTSIDE SUIT - WIDER He wipes his faceplate violently with his glove. The scalpel in his hand slices the clear plastic bubble open. Air rushes out. He goes nuts -- PIERRA (FM MIC) Aw, fuck! I'm leaking! Oh shit! KLAGES FORCES the scalpel from his hand. He flails, knocking over the tray of sharps. His airhose uncouples. GERRY ENTERS the Gray Zone on the double. He grabs Pierra from behind pinning his arms back. KLAGES GETS RIGHT IN HIS FACE KLAGES (THROUGH HELMET) Sergeant! Look at me! Pierra does -- military reflex. Klages, in control, rips a piece of brown sticky tape from a roll on her sleeve -- and tapes shut the tear in his faceplate. Gerry rehooks his hose. Air rushes in. His suit holds it. GERRY (FM MIC) You're Okay! You're not losing air pressure. Pierra instantly calms. He smiles sheepishly at Klages -- PIERRA (FM MIC) Thanks... buddy... -- and faints on the floor in his clumsy suit. INT. STAGING AREA - CONTINUING ACTION Gerry and Klages help Pierra through the door. Rice and Haines instantly hose the trio down with disinfectant. Gerry is exhausted. He's white as a ghost. And aged -- KLAGES Thanks, Mr. Jaxx -- you look -- older -- GERRY (meeting her gaze) I thought I just felt that way. (looks around concerned) Where's Nancy? Has she taken a break yet? Johnson? Klages indicates "no." INT. ROOM K - LOW ANGLE Jaxx crawls into frame on her hands and knees. She loads another pole syringe and peers into the next cage. She vapor locks -- staring at a very scary sight. HER POV - AN EMPTY OPEN CAGE JAXX (FM MIC) We've got a loose one! She stands up peering around the dank dark room. It could be anywhere. KARL POPS UP on the other side of the row scaring the shit out of her -- JAXX (FM MIC) Aw -- Jesus Christ -- JOHNSON (FM MIC) I don't think so -- ! Where'd it go? He fumbles his flashlight on checking the lower cages. JAXX (FM MIC) Just keep looking -- Something rattles in the corner. They wheel. Nothing. Johnson's air blower suddenly stops. His suit begins to deflate. He turns to Jaxx -- JOHNSON (FM MIC) Nancyyyy -- She spanks his battery pack. It sputters to life. He smiles in relief. It dies again. JAXX (FM MIC) It's dead. Get out of here. JOHNSON (FM MIC) I'm not leaving you. I've got two minutes air in the suit -- UP IN THE CEILING - PREDATOR POV - LOOKING DOWN A shadowy figure moves impossibly along the ceiling right above them. Sitting ducks. JOHNSON'S POV - THROUGH HELMET His flashlight fans the heavy air checking the room. Sedated monkeys in their cages. Suddenly the dim light from overhead begins to sway -- HE PANS HIS LIGHT UP TO: BIG EYES IN THE SHADOWS A fierce Green perches on the sprinkler pipes like a gargoyle -- hissing at the humans. Gnashing fangs, blood running from it's eyes and nose. JAXX STANDS UP IN VIEW JAXX (FM MIC) Oh shit, I do not like this -- JAXX'S POV - THROUGH HELMET It leaps SHRIEKING. Right at us. Eyes bulging wild. JOHNSON PULLS HER TO THE DECK -- THE MONKEY SLAMS INTO THE CAGES -- Swinging wildly from one to another. FOLLOW JAXX AND JOHNSON Chasing it along the wall -- JOHNSON (FM MIC) We've got a loose one in "K." Somebody bring a net! WITH JAXX - LOOKING AROUND She lost it. She turns. The 4 foot tall thing SPRINGS AT HER from the floor. JAXX AND MONKEY - FACE TO FACE Lunging, snapping at her. Jaxx grabs it's arms and legs blocking it's attack. The infected monkey has become a primordial beast, "raptor-like," a killing machine. JOHNSON POKES it with his mop handle. The thing sinks its fangs into the handle and won't let go -- Johnson SLINGS the monkey -- THROUGH THE AIR -- INT. CORRIDOR - CONTINUING ACTION The monkey burst out the door sliding on the floor. It takes off running. Jaxx and Johnson shove out of Room K giving chase. JAXX (FM MIC) We got a contagious cyno headed for the Gray Zone! INT. GRAY ZONE CORRIDOR - MONKEY POV - RUNNING He turns a corner heading right for the bleed tables. GERRY ENTERS from the staging area. He grabs a net shouting a warning. KLAGES TURNS grabbing a syringe. The monkey rushes her -- KLAGES STABS with the syringe. The monkey leaps -- IT RUNS RIGHT UP HER ARM AND RIGHT OVER HER HELMET -- -- Leaping on the Bleed Table -- dumping samples, knocking over the blood vials, screeching at cadavers -- Gerry lunges at it with the net just missing -- THE STAGING ROOM DOOR SUDDENLY OPENS AGAIN -- Haines, the AIT Leader, looks in to check out the noise. The monkey instantly LEAPS on the man. THE MONKEY - JAWS OPEN WIDE - FANGS EXPOSED IT CHOMPS DOWN HARD crunching completely through the AIT Leader's hand. Blood spews. JAXX charges hard with Johnson and Gerry. JAXX Get a Medic in here! THE MONKEY ESCAPES through the staging room door. INT. STAGING ROOM - CONTINUING ACTION As the Monkey enters; Johnson and Gerry right behind. JOHNSON Door!! Daylight. AIT VOLUNTEERS carrying boxed monkey samples to the Vans are in the way. Gerry crashes into them. MONKEY POV - RUNNING The back door is open. Daylight. JOHNSON DIVES slamming the door shut... Too late. CUT TO: EXT. ALLEYWAY - MONKEY POV - RUNNING Like a shark attracted to the sounds of playing and laughter, it zeros in on the Day Care Center. EXT. DAY CARE PLAYGROUND - CONTINUING ACTION Kids suddenly stop playing on the swing. More look up from the sandbox. A little boy giggles with delight. LITTLE BOY Monkey! Monkey! THEIR POV - THE MONKEY Bounding toward them. Three SPACE PEOPLE in spacesuits are chasing it. With nets. JAXX Get the children inside! Run! Get away! Get away from it! MONKEY POV - RUNNING KIDS run away in all directions. A TEACHER grabs two TODDLERS screaming at the others to run. THE JUNGLE GYM - CONTINUING ACTION It heads right for it, scattering kids everywhere as it scurries about the bars hissing and screeching -- THE MONKEY LEAPS - AIRBORNE THE SANDBOX - CONTINUING ACTION The monkey lands -- five feet away from a traumatized TWO YEAR OLD GIRL. She sits crying. Too frightened to run. TO JAXX - RUNNING JAXX Please, no -- please -- SHE FLASHES TO: Jamie sitting in the sandbox -- then Jason. RESUME: REALITY - THE MONKEY OPENS ITS JAWS WIDE Raises to its full height -- four feet; big as a child. JAXX LUNGES landing in the sand between child and beast -- her syringe in hand -- The Big Monk hisses -- and topples over dead... TO JAXX: in shock herself. She tries to comfort the frightened child, but holds back from touching her -- JAXX It's okay now. Yes, yes, everything's alright -- it's okay -- The Day Care Teacher grabs the child up -- She glares down at Jaxx with disdain. SHARP CUT TO: ON TV - REESE AND C.J. Talk to Reporters outside Fairfax Hospital. Reese runs the show playing down the day's events. REESE (TV) The Army harvested the monkey colony as a precaution with the CDC's cooperation -- C.J. shoots angry looks at Reese trying to keep his cool. REESE (TV) We have one worker who has close contact with the monkeys here in isolation but he hasn't been diagnosed with the virus yet -- REESE (TV) I can assure you the virus has been contained and there is no further danger of exposure to the public -- SHARP CUT TO: EXT. USAMRIID - REAR ENTRANCE PARKING LOT - SUNDOWN Doors kick open from the lead white van. The SIX MAN AIR MEDICAL ISOLATOR TEAM jumps out carrying the Vickers Isolator stretcher double time. MAJ. HAINES is visible inside. His mangled hand bandaged and bloodstained. EXT. USAMRIID - SIDE VIEW - CONTINUING ACTION The Team sets the stretcher onto a steel track protruding from a hatchway in the building wall. The Lead Man opens the outer hatch and bangs on the inner one. THE ISOLATOR - VICTIM POV We are inside looking over the victim's feet. The inner wall hatch opens. The Team grabs both sides and shoves the isolator on the tracks -- THROUGH THE WALL AND INTO: INT. THE SLAMMER - VICTIM POV - CONTINUING ACTION A maximum containment (BL4) intensive care hospital room. The isolator inserts inside another plastic chamber surrounding a hospital bed. Bright lights reflect through the plastic isolator walls. FIGURES IN BLUE SPACESUITS approach. They insert their arms through glove ports into the isolator. With precision, they drag Maj. Haines onto the hospital bed; then shove the stretcher out the hatch and close it. MAJ. HOSKINS, a female doctor, inspects the bandaged hand while other hands cut away the man's clothes. MAJ. HOSKINS (FM MIC) Let's get some antivirals in him. Ribovirin -- 40cc's -- 60 Interferon -- DOCTORS hook I.V. bags of antivirals to the victim. Maj. Hoskins injects Haines with a sedative to calm him down. INSIDE THE ISOLATOR - TIME SLOWS The Spacesuit Doctors all move in eerie slow motion. The scene looks like a UFO Alien Abductee's nightmare. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. JAXX'S BACKYARD - THANKSGIVING DAY A perfect fall day. Crisp blue skies. Last Autumn leaves. THE FACE OF JAMIE RUNS TOWARDS US IN SLOW MOTION CUT TO: INTERCUT: THE HOT SUITE - SAME TIME WIDEN FROM: Peter ceremoniously places his blood on the electron microscope. Tense, nervous. This is it. RESUME JAXX'S BACKYARD: JOHNSON FADES BACK IN SLOW MOTION Jason blitzes with Blackhawk. Karl pumps and throws -- THE FOOTBALL SPIRALS THROUGH THE AIR -- INTERCUT: THE HOT SUITE - PETER Pumps his fist in triumph. We follow him to the wall calendar where he marks a big red "X" through "E" day. Thanksgiving. He made it. SUPER: THANKSGIVING DAY, 0930 HRS. RESUME: JAXX'S BACKYARD - PLAY IN PROGRESS JAMIE FAKES and cuts around Gerry. Gerry leaps tipping the football -- RIGHT INTO JAMIE'S HANDS. She runs. C.J. can't catch her. She's too fast -- he's out of shape. Jamie scores, throws an aerial and spikes the ball. ON THE SIDELINES - THE FANS ROAR Nancy, with POPSY and MAMA, Gerry's parents, hoot and holler from the deck. Gumby, the Kinkajoo, turns one flip after another as it scampers to Jamie and jumps in her arms. INTERCUT: EXT. USAMRIID - SAME TIME Peter exits jubilant, savoring the sun. His WIFE, GAYLE and TWO YOUNG DAUGHTERS descend on him from the car in a massive group hug. CUT TO: INT. JAXX'S HOUSE - LATER Gerry opens the front door. It's Peter and his family. PETER Guess who's coming to dinner? GERRY Hey -- everybody -- The guest of honor has arrived. Gerry leads Peter, Gayle and his family into the den where the gang is watching football on TV. C.J. is up pumping Peter's hand, genuinely thrilled. PETER (quietly) I'm clean. No big "E" -- C.J. Then this bug's for you -- I mean "Bud" -- Pete cracks up. Jamie brings a tray of beers and picks up empties. Peter and C.J. clinks fresh cans and swig. FOLLOW JAMIE; she shakes each can on the way back to the kitchen. Ah, a swallow. She looks around and takes the swig. Not bad. Not good either. IN THE KITCHEN - SAME TIME Jaxx checks the turkey in the oven. JAXX Fifteen minutes everybody! Gayle sticks her head in. She theatrically wipes her forehead and lets out a big "WHEW." Jaxx stops what she's doing and gives her a big hug. IN THE MENAGERIE SUNPORCH - DAY The Gang reacts loudly to the football game off in the other part of the house. Karl is alone in the room fixed on the exotic birds. Jaxx sticks her head in, then quietly enters. JOHNSON Reminds me of the jungle. Nice. JAXX You don't have to feed them everyday. Uh -- Pete's here. Looks good. JOHNSON (not over enthusiastic) I heard. JAXX So? Well? Aren't you glad I forced you out of retirement? He studies her as if trying to place her. JOHNSON Maybe. I'm just not so sure we dodged a bullet like Pete says. JAXX Don't you ever shut down? Relax? She leads Karl by the hand firmly toward the kitchen. JAXX The Decon Team's nuking the monkey house right now. It'll be the only spot on the planet where not one living thing exists -- JOHNSON Okay, fine, but we did not quarantine the monkey handlers and the other employees. Any one of them could be viral bombs walking around out there somewhere waiting to go off. He gestures to the outside world. Jaxx glares at him. JAXX Oh -- Happy Thanksgiving -- IN THE KITCHEN - CONTINUING ACTION Everybody's pitching in. She squeezes Karl in between C.J., Gerry, Jason and his Grandfather at the stove. JAXX Put this guy to work before he broods to death. GERRY (to Karl) Halftime -- As if to explain their actions. Peter slips a baggie on each of Karl's hands and shoves them in a batter bowl. The guys are balling hush puppies and dropping them in the Sunbeam electric skillet. Gerry throws a touchdown puppy to Peter who feigns a slam dunk into the skillet. THE SUNBEAM SKILLET - LOOKING DOWN The Hushpuppy drops in the skillet and sizzles in oil. MATCH CUT TO: ANOTHER SUNBEAM SKILLET - LOOKING DOWN A Heat-suited DECON TEAMER drops a handful of "para- formaldehyde" crystals into the skillet. They sizzle. INT. MONKEY HOUSE - SAME TIME The VIEW TRACKS ALONG 10 extension cords -- Each running the length of the "gray zone" -- one veers off into each room. WE TURN INTO: ROOM F It's completely barren and spotless. The cord connects up 8 Sunbeam skillets. All set to "high." Formaldehyde crystals fry -- PLUMES OF LETHAL GAS BILLOW UP -- IN ROOM H - CONTINUING ACTION More skillets billow gas. Moths drop to the floor dead. Two Mice run from behind the monkey cages... and die. GAS FUMES ENGULF THE ROOM AND OBLITERATE THE VIEW DISSOLVE TO: A STEAMING TURKEY FLOATING THROUGH THE AIR Cooked to perfection. INT. JAXX'S HOUSE - CONTINUING ACTION Gerry parades the turkey through the house leading everyone into the dining room. Peter sets his beer can down as he follows the crowd. JAMIE MOVES INTO FRAME: She picks Peter's can up with some others. It's not empty. She takes a swig. She feels someone watching in mid-chug. She turns -- TO JASON; watching her in mock brotherly shock. Jamie comically CRUSHES the can in her hand indicating he can expect the same treatment if he snitches. Jason laughs at her over-the-top-macho-girl act . INT. DINING ROOM - HIGH ANGLE - LOOKING DOWN We hover like God above the table and feast. Pure Americana. Everyone joins hands around. Heads bowed. Gerry's father says the blessing -- FATHER Let us pray -- We give thanks -- this day, for family and friends -- THE PRAYER CONTINUES OVER: INT. RESTAURANT - SAME TIME CHUCK REESE, his FAMILY and FRIENDS, gather round for their own celebration. The Waiter and Waitress delivering the food and dressed as Pilgrims. CUT TO: INT. GIRARD'S VA. HOME - SAME TIME PRAYER CONTINUING GIRARD bows his head with his WIFE, FAMILY and GRANDCHILDREN around their table. PUSH IN CLOSE ON GIRARD: head bowed, eyes closed. Ever so slowly, a crimson stream of blood rolls from his nose and trickles onto his plate. He looks down startled -- GIRARD'S POV - HIS PLATE He's bleeding into his mashed potatoes. A steady drip- drip-drip. He grabs up his napkin, horrified. INT. ROADHOUSE - DAY PRAYER CONTINUING A Redneck/Biker bar. Dead animals decorate the walls. TINY DANCES to the jukebox with a fresh beer. He blows the foam right at us in slow-motion -- -- spritzing the WHITE TRASH GIRL he's dancing and smooching on. She licks the foam off his chin. She steals his mug, dancing seductively, drinking his beer. TINY - CLOSER Watching the girl turn him on. We see petechiae on his cheek. His eyes red. A trickle of blood rolls from his nose. He wipes it off with the back of his hand unaware. INT. FAIRFAX HOSPITAL - SAME TIME PRAYER CONTINUING IN THE ISOLATION ROOM: Deke, the Biker Monkey Handler, looks worse. A NURSE, wearing full barrier scrubs, gloves and mask, places another anti-viral I.V. bag on his stand. A WOMEN EIS officer observes. SIRENS squeal O.S. INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - SAME TIME PRAYER CONTINUING Paramedics roll in LOC, the Vietnamese Monkey Handler. The poor man is curled up with severe abdominal pains. THE EXAMINATION ROOM - MINUTES LATER PRAYER CONTINUING Loc speaks in Vietnamese. He's frightened. A NURSE cleans vomit from his face. NURSE He's running a fever. Hundred and one -- nausea -- DOCTOR He doesn't speak English, great. The young DOCTOR on duty examines his distended lower abdomen. Loc winces in pain -- DOCTOR Right lower quadrant pain, rebound tenderness -- where's that bloodwork? An orderly sticks his head in with chart -- ORDERLY This guy's white blood count's way up. Acute shift to the left. Atypical lymphocytes -- Loc pleads in Vietnamese. The young Doctor thinks hard -- DOCTOR Right. Let's get his appendix out -- INT. O.R. - MINUTES LATER PRAYER CONTINUING TIGHT ON SCALPEL: The Doctor makes the incision in Loc's lower bloated abdomen. BLOOD spews under pressure from the opening dousing the Doctor -- Ebola Blood. WE HEAR: "AMEN" -- SHARP CUT TO: INT. JAXX'S DEN - DAY Abrupt laughter as the Men smoke cigars and tell "war stories." C.J. scoffs at Peter's small scar on his palm. C.J. Check this out -- He rolls up his sleeve and plops his arm on the table. An ugly jagged scar travels the length of his forearm. PETER Oh right -- a virus did that? Must've been King Kong's. C.J. A machete did that. This Bolivian Chief thought the vaccine I was trying to give him was poison -- Karl saved my cojones -- Laughter. Karl chops the table like a machete. C.J. grabs his groin. Karl is actually enjoying himself. JOHNSON I made a deal. The Chief would let me shoot him with the syringe -- If -- He lets everybody hang for a second -- JOHNSON If I'd let him shoot me in the same spot with his blow gun. GERRY Well -- where'd he shoot you? Karl shys. C.J. cajoles. Everybody eggs him on. Karl stands up reluctantly undoing his trousers. ON JAXX - AT THE KITCHEN DOOR She cracks up with Gayle and Jamie. Their laughter is suddenly broken by C.J.'s BEEPER. The piercing sound has the effect of an air raid siren on the gathered. A momentary hush -- C.J. just stares at it beeping. The PHONE RINGS. Jaxx grabs the cordless in the kitchen. JAXX Jaxx's -- PUSH IN FAST: Her horrified expression says it all. Outbreak. SLAM CUT TO: INT. FAIRFAX HOSPITAL - DAY A madhouse as C.J., Karl and Jaxx arrive. Karl angers. JOHNSON This is not good. The virus could be walking outta here. Where the hell is the CDC? They should be here round the clock! JAXX (showing her ID) U.S. Army. Which way to "isolation"? A harassed ORDERLY points down the "yellow" hall. THEIR POV - MOVING THROUGH CROWD PATIENTS in a crush to sign themselves out argue with distraught ADMINISTRATORS at the desk. PATIENT #1 I'm discharging myself. I don't want to catch this thing -- A TV NEWS WOMEN hounds TWO SENIOR M.D.s who are "blown." NEWS WOMAN How many cases do you have? Do you know the virus is spreading? SENIOR M.D. We haven't processed all the information yet. The Health Department will make a statement -- Excuse us -- They hurry away. A SECURITY GUARD blocks the News Crew. INT. OFFICE - ISOLATION WARD A young EIS Officer talks nervously on a cellular phone -- AS JOHNSON, JAXX AND C.J. BARGE in -- JOHNSON You've got a major panic outside Lieutenant. Don't you think you should be out there taking charge? Jaxx and C.J. flash military I.D. The Officer is spooked. EIS LT. I'm waiting for my superior officer. JOHNSON Do you have an "index" case? (blank look from Lt.) The person who spread the virus? Jaxx and C.J. continue right into the Isolation ward. EIS LT. Hey -- you're not authorized -- (frazzled to Johnson) This is only my second month in the field -- I'm -- JOHNSON (with sincere sympathy) -- just not ready for this. I know. It's not your fault. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - MINUTES LATER Doors bang open. C.J. pushes Deke, the monkey handler, in the Army isolator litter. He looks bad. Karl and Jaxx wheel Loc right behind in his isolator. He looks worse still recovering from surgery. REESE APPROACHES from the other end with EIS OFFICERS, two ADMINISTRATORS and two SECURITY GUARDS. A standoff. REESE Well, I'm not surprised to see you here, Karl. You move fast. JOHNSON (controlling his anger) Got to stay ahead of the pack. C.J. (intervening) Chuck, I'm using my authority to move these patients to the Slammer. We're better equipped. You've got your hands full here. Reese bristles. His authority challenged in front of his own people. He checks Loc's chart. JAXX E.R. opened him up for a crash appendectomy. His peritoneal cavity was full of blood. When they ran a check on him, they found out he worked at Synergy. One O.R.'s contaminated -- so is the hospital lab. A Doctor and two Nurses were exposed -- JOHNSON (letting go) You should've quarantined them! Karl and Reese; face to face -- REESE I'm quarantining the hospital. (to his officers) Contain these people and these patients -- unless they're out of the building before I make the order official -- Jaxx, Karl and C.J. eye each other amazed. Reese has intentionally given them a chance to leave and save face. CUT TO: INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - MINUTES LATER Jaxx leads Karl and C.J. with their patients to a side exit avoiding the panic. JAXX C'mon. This way -- CUT TO: THEIR POV - THE E.R. Chaos. TV CREWS are visible camped outside the entrance. POLICE have arrived. Inside, PEOPLE besiege the staff for attention. JAXX SEES GIRARD being wheeled in looking deathly pale. REESE spots him from across the room. Their eyes meet. REESE Isolate that man immediately! CUT TO: EXT. E.R. SIDE ENTRANCE - A MILITARY VAN Backs to the ramp as Jaxx, Karl and C.J. roll out with the patients. The AIT TEAM jumps out and load the isolators. THE HOSPITAL - WIDER A CROWD has gathered. Police run yellow tape across the entrance. TV Crews throw lights on the eerie scene. FOLLOW THE VAN - ROARING OUT THE DRIVE POLICE SET UP BARRICADES right behind them. CUT TO: INT. PETER'S CAR - TRAVELING - DAY An Ambulance blows by going the other way. Peter anxiously searches the radio for news. The Kids pinch and tease each other in the backseat adding to the racket. GAYLE (tense and worried) We're almost home. You're making your father nervous -- TIGHT ON PETER Wound up, scanning the radio for News. Sweat beads break on his forehead. He pushes his glasses up on his nose. HIS POV - THE ROAD Traffic coming at them SUDDENLY BLURS -- then clears -- Gayle watches him closely. Peter doesn't let on. CUT TO: EXT. PETER'S HOME - DAY He pulls up in the driveway. The kids unload. His wife gets out to follow -- Peter stays behind the wheel -- PETER Gayle? I'm going back to the lab. They might need me -- Gayle stops cold. She doesn't like this. GAYLE Go on, kids. Wash your hands. Pete? Are you okay? She moves toward his window to kiss him goodbye. He waves before she can get too close and backs out. PETER I won't be long. Promise -- PUSH IN CLOSE: Gayle knows something is wrong. Please, God, no. She wipes her brief tears so the kids won't see. INT. PETER'S CAR - TRAVELING - DAY Petechiae begins to pop out on his face. His tear dusts bleed red. He sweats feverish. He fights to see the road -- It's got him. The bug is eating him -- EXT. POST ENTRANCE - HIS POV - DAY The Guard waves him through. His vision blurs in and out. INT. SLAMMER CORRIDOR - DAY Peter covers his mouth and waving people away. MED. STAFFER Dr. Jahrling -- are you okay? INT. SLAMMER - POV THROUGH GLASS PARTITION Jahrling. He flops on the chair beside the isolator, sticks a thermometer in his mouth, ties off his arm and draws his own blood. MAJ. HOSKINS enters in the blue spacesuit and takes over. CUT TO: INT. WAR ROOM - DAY The place is jumping. Phones ring. Staff shout over the din. TV monitors show News coverage on the "outbreak." MONITOR #1: A NEWS ANCHOR stands before a world map tracing the path of the virus to the U.S. Africa via the Philippines. NEWS ANCHOR (TV) The monkey's voyage brought them by plane from the Philippines, to Amsterdam to JFK's animal unit and finally to Virginia -- carrying deadly virus. How the monkeys contracted the African Ebola virus, the Army and the CDC can only speculate... Please call this number if you have any of the symptoms -- SUPER: 1-800-555-VIRUS MONITOR #2: CNN coverage from the mob scene at Fairfax Hospital. A FEMALE ANCHOR grills the young EIS Officer. EIS OFFICER (TV) We have five confirmed cases so far -- including three medical staff. FEMALE ANCHOR (TV) What are their chances for survival? No answer. Awkward silence. TO C.J.: on his headset telephone barking orders -- C.J. I want Virginia Health Departments, Maryland and D.C. to get every patient in a fifty mile radius to be transferred here to RIID -- And all blood samples sent to us for immediate testing. You heard me! A STAFFER yells from the bank of phones. STAFFER We've got a case reported in D.C. C.J. sticks a pin on the map right in the capital. He locks eyes with General Russell. "Holy shit." SHARP CUT TO: INT. SLAMMER - THE HATCHWAY - SAME TIME AIT's shove Loc, the second Monkey Handler, through the hatch into the Slammer. AT THE PARTITION WINDOW - JAXX AND JOHNSON Shocked to see PETER; his face peppered with hemorrhages. JAXX Aw, Pete... I don't believe this is happening. JOHNSON We could all be exposed -- Jaxx shivers at the thought. PETER RAISES UP in bed making eye contact with them. Sadly, he mouths the words: JAXX (reading his lips) He wants me to call his family. Tell them he won't be home for dinner... (she nods affirmative) I copy, Pete. Hang in there. Pete understands. He gives her "thumbs up" and sags back. INT. BL3 SUITE OFFICE - LATER The fridge full of deadly viruses is visible through the glass. Jaxx sadly hangs up the phone. Karl is with her. JAXX The Slammer's already full and this thing is just getting started. C'mon, don't just stand there. Get mad! Say, "I told you so." JOHNSON That's not going to save lives. We both know none of the antivirals we've got is going to pull these people through. They'll be soup in a week. We need a super immuno serum to even have a chance to save anyone. We need a survivor. JAXX Well let's get one! If we can pull Pete or any one of these patients through, the immunities in one person can save four more with their antibody serum. Then sixteen and -- She fixes on Pete's guinea pigs through the glass. JAXX Pete's got guinea pigs here that are immune to Ebola, a Supermonkey who's beat it. I'll bleed these animals dry and spin off some immuno plasma. She's on fire. A heightened urgency to her every word -- JOHNSON You can't despeciate enough serum from those guinea pigs and mice to treat an epidemic! We should've been stockpiling years ago. JAXX Well, what the fuck would you do? Pete's dying in here -- ! JOHNSON (frustrated) We need a "magic bullet." Jaxx instantly understands. She actually smiles -- THE REFRIGERATORS - CONTINUING ACTION Jaxx pulls out 4 units from plasma storage and sets them on the bench reverently. JAXX Sister Genevieve. The last four units you brought back from Africa. "Gold-plated" Ebola-eater. Karl savors the container -- his long lost friend. JAXX Let's give the last of Sister G. to Pete... There's a good chance the serum will give his immune system the boost he needs to beat the bug... We owe it to him. He wipes a stray tear from her cheek. JOHNSON Do it. Try it. Try everything. I wish I'd had ten of you in Africa and Panama -- Bolivia -- India -- Jaxx doesn't know how to react to the compliment -- JOHNSON But this epidemic will be hopelessly out of control if we can't get the viral bombs off the street who're out there exposing innocent people. Jaxx takes Sister G's plasma with grim resolve and heads down the corridor. From the back, we see her shoulders shudder. She's crying. CUT TO: INT. SLAMMER - MINUTES LATER Jaxx gives Peter the best she has to offer; she hooks one of the last units of Sister Genevieve's convalescent Serum to his I.V. He forces a smile from his isolator. PETER Hey, what flavor is that? I ordered pistachio. JAXX That stuff will rot your teeth. This is Sister "G." Nothing but the best for you, Pete. Pete is at a loss for words. Jaxx won't let him speak. JAXX The Good Sister would've wanted you to have it. Get well. She reaches in through the glove port and daubs the sweat on his face. Hemorrhages have popped out all over. The intercom BUZZES breaking the moment. More trouble. Peter turns away in tears. As Jaxx leaves. PAN UP TO: The last of Sister Genevieve drips slowly into Pete's body. INT. WAR ROOM - MINUTES LATER TIGHT ON FAX PICTURE OF: TINY WHIPPERT FEMALE EIS OFFICER (O.S.) We've got every other handler and employee in quarantine -- but we can't find him; "Timothy Whippert." C.J., JAXX AND JOHNSON go over Tiny's personnel file with the exhausted young FEMALE EIS OFFICER. JAXX This is that handler who dumped those hot cadavers on us -- C.J. Checkout his blood test. Johnson pours over the Titre chart in Tiny's file. THE CHART - REACTIVITY OF MA-104 CELLS FROM ANTISERA Three categories. "Anti-Ebola," "Anti-Marburg," "Anti- Simian HF." "O" appears in everything but "Anti-Ebola." It's got numbers. JOHNSON Whoa. High-titres. Plus four, plus three, plus four -- Jesus he's crawling with Ebola anti-bodies. He's a bomb. JAXX How long ago did he react? Do we know? C.J. EIS just found out he cut himself doing a necropsy on a hot cyno about two weeks ago. JOHNSON If he's got symptoms, he is a walking lethal contagion, one. And two, he's either dead, or almost dead by now -- or three -- He's immune -- Johnson turns to Jaxx -- She's almost afraid to say it. JAXX Survivor -- Match in a haystack. This is it -- the whole room ignites. FEMALE EIS OFFICER I made contact with his mother. She said he'd gone to the mall to the movies. Apparently, he's a 'Bruce Willis' die-hard fan. C.J. Where? What mall? C'mon -- c'mon. She points to a spot on the map. Karl is hyper-alarmed. JOHNSON Epidemic scenario. Worst case. A viral bomb roaming densely populated areas is more dangerous than a "serial killer." Silence. Then the room goes into action. C.J. Let's bring him in. And no Police! SLAM CUT TO: EXT. MALL - AFTERNOON - QUICK CUTS: STATE POLICE CARS Screeching to a halt in front of the Mall entrances. TROOPERS pilling out and taking up positions at the doors. CUT TO: INT. MALL - CINEMA ENTRANCE - SAME TIME Jammed with holiday MOVIEGOERS, SHOPPERS and CRUISERS. INT. DARK THEATER - CONTINUING ACTION INFRARED SURVEILLANCE POV - SCANNING THE CROWD "Look Who's Talking" on the screen. WE HEAR: BRUCE WILLIS cracking up the audience as the Baby. WE SEE: TEENAGERS kissing passionately on the back row. Their tongues all over each other. PAN TO: A SYMPHONY OF PEOPLE COUGHING Aerosol droplets glisten like snow in projector light. TO JAXX - STANDING BACK Scanning the crowd with an infrared night scope. The COUGHING AMPLIFIES, LOUDER, LOUDER, in Jaxx's mind. She finally covers her ears, it's so annoying. THE MALL - OUTSIDE THE CINEMA - FOLLOW JOHNSON Patrolling long "MOVIE" lines of PEOPLE spilling into the main Mall. "BACK TO THE FUTURE 2," "LITTLE MERMAID," "LOOK WHO'S TALKING," "MY LEFT FOOT." He checks his Xerox of Tiny's photo, looking, searching. HIS POV - PEOPLE IN SLOW MOTION A virologist's nightmare. Everywhere he looks he sees germs spreading. Two TEENAGERS sharing puffs on the same cigarette. Countless runny noses. People COUGHING -- A COUGH BLASTS in Karl's direction, he brushes his jacket off as if Tarantulas were crawling on him. A MAN AND WOMAN eat from the same popcorn box with their two CHILDREN. One child eats stray kernels off the floor unobserved by his parents. The other wipes her runny nose with her bare hand then sticks the same "wet" hand in the popcorn box. SURVEILLANCE POV - MCDONALDS (JAXX POV) FOUR FAST FOODERS eat with their hands. All double dip their french fries in the ketchup after each bite. TO: JAXX; Now on stakeout in the "food halls" area. She makes eye-contact with Karl and "thumbs" to the door. TO POLICE: Standing out like sore thumbs at the entrance. They're wearing surgical gloves. Several sport surgical masks. They cause a stir stopping SHOPPERS to show them Tiny's picture for a reaction. TO JOHNSON: He's steamed. Cops. He mimes putting on surgical gloves then blowing his brains out. He looks back to Jaxx -- His adrenalin starts to pump -- JAXX - TALKING TO A PIZZA MAN The Man is nodding, absolutely sure, pointing to Tiny's photo. He turns and points to the public eating area. JOHNSON"S POV - PANNING TO: There's Tiny. Sitting alone woofing down burgers in overalls and hunting shirt. JOHNSON WENDS through the tables, circling the big man. JAXX CLOSES on the opposite side talking on a hand radio. THE FEMALE EIS OFFICER reacts on her radio and signals to two other EIS OFFICERS through the crowd. They close. JOHNSON'S POV - MOVING CLOSER He can almost reach out and tap the big man's shoulder. TWO POLICE suddenly spot Tiny from the other side and head right toward him through the tables. TINY spots them, bolts up and heads into the crowd -- JOHNSON hurries after him pushing through people. MALL HALLWAY - CONTINUING ACTION Tiny is now running bulling his way through the crowd. The Police in hot pursuit. Johnson runs trying to get between Tiny and the Police -- POLICE Stop right there! Stop! Freeze it! ON TINY - BACK TO CAMERA He reaches inside his overalls as if to draw a gun -- THE POLICE - GUNS COME OUT POLICE Clear! Get outta the way! People hit the deck. JOHNSON BULLS PAST the Police -- JAXX FIGHTS her way through the fleeing crowd -- TO TINY - HE STOPS RUNNING -- and turns struggling to pull his hand out -- POLICEMAN'S POV - GUN AIMED Johnson is in his line of fire -- Suddenly JAXX ENTERS frame disarming the Cop with her self-defense wrist lock. JAXX His blood could be more lethal than your gun -- Jerk -- stupid -- KARL GRABS TINY'S HAND and slams him into a merchant's cart of cheese and smoked sausages. The Big Man goes down taking the cart with him. JAXX AND POLICE rush up with the female EIS officer. The Big Man on the floor pulls a handful of stolen CD's from inside his overalls. It's not Tiny. BIG MAN Take'em. Here. That's all I got. I swear. Jesus -- I peed in my pants. Karl pulls himself up frustrated -- angry. Jaxx helps him -- JAXX Karl -- ? JOHNSON Ah, I can get up by myself. (to Female EIS Officer) Do your job, Lieutenant. You're the epidemic police. Check him out -- People part. Jaxx leads Johnson away. A Policeman slaps cuffs on the Big Man. EIS OFFICER Are you on medication? The Big Man shakes "no" as they lead him away. EIS OFFICER Have you been bitten or scratched by a wild animal? (another "no" and a laugh) Have you experienced any unusual symptoms in the last 24 hours. Now the Big Man looks at his captors suspiciously; Police in surgical gloves. Some with masks. BIG MAN Hey -- what is this? Y'all think I was ebb-ducted in a UFO, don't cha? The Crowd laughs. The young EIS Officer is embarrassed. CUT TO: EXT. RUNDOWN HOUSE - AFTERNOON Karl knocks on the door again. JOHNSON Mrs. Whippert we just want to ask you some questions about your son. We're not the police. Jaxx starts to speak. Then a frightened voice inside -- MRS. WHIPPERT (through door) I toll those other people who was here earlier where he was. JOHNSON Mrs. Whippert, he's not at the movies -- so why don't you help us? They both eye the several racks of deer antlers nailed haphazardly on the porch posts. JOHNSON I'm a sportsman too, M'am. Fishing. Your son's a hunter I see -- Silence. He looks to Jaxx. They're warm, Jaxx adds a "mother's concern." JAXX M'am, I know you're scared, but just understand, your son may be very sick. As a mother myself, I know you really want to help him. A beat. The door slowly opens. Tiny's MOTHER peers out. Drink in one hand. Cigarette in the other. Frightened. MRS. WHIPPERT Well, he toll me not to say nothin' to nobody when he callt yesterday. He went a huntin'. He's on up at his cabin... Jaxx and Karl trade glances. "He's alive"! CUT TO: INT. WAR ROOM - AFTERNOON C.J. hangs up the phone. C.J. We got it! Subject was still kicking as of yesterday -- He moves to the wall map. Two DEPUTY AIDES join him. He puts a pin in the map. C.J. The cabin is about seventy-five miles up the Savage River from here. Get me topos and recons of this area down to the square foot -- Staff get on the phones. PUSH IN TIGHT ON THE MAP: The pin is in the southeast corner of West Virginia. Names like Black Rock Canyon, Big Run and Backbone Mountain appear -- INT. SLAMMER - SAME TIME TWO AIDES in spacesuits wheel Deke's covered body by. INT. MORGUE - LIMBO The monkey handler's lifeless face frozen in horrible agony, skin disintegrating, disappears as gloved hands zip the body bag over him. The body slides into the rack. The big submarine door closes. Gloved hands crank it shut. CUT TO: EXT. HELIPAD - LATE AFTERNOON Karl is loading a field isolator into a Huey with an AIT Team. Inflatable rubber rafts follow. A government vehicle drives right across the open field -- lights flashing. INT. CAR - MOVING POV - HELICOPTER IN VIEW The Driver stops. Chuck Reese gets out and faces Karl in the flashing lights. Johnson is hardly glad to see him. JOHNSON We lost the first monkey handler. First Ebola victim on U.S. soil. Awkward silence. REESE Let me go with you. Karl squints at him suspiciously. REESE Karl, look, we've quarantined seventeen people this guy may have exposed. I should have done it your way. I... stayed behind in Africa all those years ago. In a way, I guess I stayed behind ever since... Not this time. KARL Better to be at the epicenter doing something about it -- ? REESE Beats catching it in the Men's room at the Burger King -- Karl's piercing stare morphs to a grin. He picks up one end of a field container, Reese the other. He's going. INT. SLAMMER AREA - MINUTES LATER Jaxx passes the Post Clinic. She slows looking in the waiting room window -- HER POV - CLINIC WAITING ROOM Tiny's Mother is there waiting to have her blood tested. A Vietnamese family (Loc's); a mother and four small children, a couple of Biker types -- the room is filled with potential exposures. In the corner, Jaxx sees the little Girl from the sandbox in the arms of her very frightened young Mother. CLOSER - JAXX It hits her. Her own home. Her own family. Nobody's safe. INT. JAXX'S OFFICE - SAME TIME She rushes in and answers the ringing phone. JAXX (on phone) Oh, Gerry. I was just going to call you. It's been so -- She pales. Something's wrong. She sits down hard -- JAXX (on phone) Jamie? Oh my God. Hundred and three? When did the bleeding start? CUT TO: INTERCUT: JAXX KITCHEN - SAME TIME Gerry looks spooked. Jason broods at the glass doors. Blackhawk whines knowing something is wrong. GERRY (on phone) Doctor Levin came over and gave her some antibiotics. "A touch of the flu," he said, "A 24 hour virus." TO JAXX JAXX (on phone) Doctors always say that! "It's the flu. Comeback next week." TO GERRY GERRY (on phone) Nance, we have to assume it's Ebola. Jaxx is an emotional minefield on the other end. GERRY (on phone) I don't know. Thanksgiving -- when Pete was here somehow. We may all be incubating the goddamn thing -- TO JAXX - JAMIES PICTURE IN VIEW GERRY (V.O.) (PHONE) Get out here quick -- She hangs up. Her world crashing in. She sobs. CUT TO: EXT. HELIPAD - LATE AFTERNOON Karl and Jaxx face each other. Karl is shocked. The Huey engine begins to whine. JAXX If she's got it. Jamie has about seven days to live. I'll find an anti-serum that works if I have to squeeze it out of my own veins -- Karl embraces her holding her tight. JOHNSON Go get your daughter, Colonel. JOHNSON AND JAXX - COPTER IN B.G. He salutes her and boards the Huey. Rotors rev up. THE HELIPAD - WIDER C.J. leads Jaxx clear as the Huey lifts off and climbs banking toward the mountains in the distance. INSIDE HUEY - JAXX IN THE FADING LIGHT BELOW Karl watches her getting smaller and smaller. CUT TO BLACK. FADE IN: THE JAXX HOME - JAMIE'S BEDROOM - SUNDOWN Gerry and their Family M.D., DR. LEVIN, tend Jamie who is burning up with fever. Both wear surgical masks. Gerry carefully draws her blood -- DR. LEVIN I can't treat her here, Gerry. We have to move her to the hospital -- GERRY (wits end) Don't you think I know that. Gerry watches his daughter suffering. He finally agrees. GERRY Make them understand she needs complete and total isolation. Suddenly the THUD of a helicopter approaches outside. IN THE MENAGERIE ROOM - CONTINUING ACTION The THROBBING intensifies. The animals go crazy. Jason runs outside with Blackhawk. EXT. JAXX'S BACKYARD - CONTINUING ACTION A Rescue Copter lands on the hill up behind the house. JAXX CLIMBS OUT with 3 AIT's carrying an isolator stretcher. Jason has never been so glad to see anybody in his life. JASON All right, Mom! Yes! She hugs him on the run trying to hold it together. CUT TO: INT. JAXX'S - CONTINUING ACTION Popsy holds the door open as Jaxx and the Team enter. JAXX Popsy -- are you and Mama okay? He nods weakly. Mama sets food on the table -- TEAM LEADER Sorry, M'am. We can't, but thank you. They follow Jaxx to Jamie's room. INT. JAMIE'S ROOM - CONTINUING ACTION Jaxx nearly breaks when she sees her daughter lying there so still -- as if she's dead. Gerry braces her up. Jaxx buries her head for a moment in his shoulder. Then -- JAXX Let's go for a ride, Princess. The Team gently slides Jamie into the stretcher. JAMIE (her voice faint, weak) Mom -- all I did was sip some beer -- don't be mad -- Am I going to die? Gerry and Jaxx trade quietly desperate looks. JAXX No way. You have to win the Olympics. CUT TO: EXT. JAXX'S HOUSE - CONTINUING ACTION They load Jamie into the Copter along with Jason. Gerry has to coax his parents. GERRY You have to come too. You could have been exposed. I can't leave you here -- Popsy and Mama look at each other in fear. Then Popsy takes Mama's hand and helps her into the Copter. HIGH ANGLE - LOOKING DOWN The Huey lifts off right at us. MATCH CUT TO: EXT. APPALACHIANS - AERIAL VIEW - SUNDOWN Flying upriver on Johnson's copter through a canyon twenty-five feet above the river. Just like Africa -- INSIDE JOHNSON'S COPTER - FLYING UPRIVER He's transfixed on the rushing water glimmering in the dying sun. SOUNDS OF AFRICA swell. Going upriver again. PILOT Sir -- front's moving in. Snow expected. Be dark soon. JOHNSON (snapping from his trance) We have to find that cabin tonight. How much longer -- PILOT Ten minutes to the hot zone -- Reese hands Johnson a cup of coffee. REESE This is a long shot, Karl. Even by your standards. JOHNSON So was Ebola ever crossing the Atlantic, remember? Reese nods Karl's kudos. Karl pulls out Tiny's photo. JOHNSON Pete's a long shot to survive. So is everybody else that shows symptoms. This guy was exposed weeks ago with the other handlers before everyone else -- He threw antibodies and was still alive two days ago -- after his partner checked into the morgue. That's a good sign. We'd be irresponsible not to go after him. REESE Well -- too bad you never found that lost tribe in Africa you used to lecture us about -- You know -- the ones who passed down immunities over the generations to just about every virus emerging. (half-joking) You could be back home fishing right now -- and we'd have all the immuno anti-sera we need. JOHNSON I tell you what -- I would kiss that tribe member's ass on the fifty yard line at the Super Bowl if they'd just walk out of the jungle right now. Johnson toasts his coffee to Reese's. They laugh in much needed release. PILOT Sir -- coming up on the zone -- HELICOPTER POV - FLYING - LOOKING FORWARD The Pilot turns on floodlights as they rise up from the river up-up-up a steep rugged cliff wall -- There it is. A small cabin on a cliff overlooking the river and mountains. Tiny's funky green Van is parked beside it. The van doors stand open. ON JOHNSON JOHNSON Looks deserted. Get in closer. THE FLOODLIGHT PASSES OVER: A Deer... hanging from a tree branch -- horribly dismembered and strewn about. Entrails and Blood are splattered all over the Van and the cabin. ON JOHNSON - CLOSER JOHNSON The guy's lost it. Dementia. The DRUMS OF AFRICA beat louder in Karl's head. CUT TO: EXT. CABIN - COPTER HOVERING IN VIEW DRUMS CONTINUING Suddenly an Assault rifle opens up on the Copter. Tiny stumbles out the front door firing wildly. TINY - CLOSER DRUMS CONTINUING His face is pocked with hemorrhages. Blood is caked around his nose and mouth. TINY Leave me alone you fuckers! I know why you come. I'm dying right here -- right fucking here!! THE CABIN - WIDER DRUMS CONTINUING As Tiny rakes the trees wildly -- hitting the Copter. THE COPTER - CONTINUING ACTION DRUMS CONTINUING The Pilot dives down the canyon fighting the controls. SMASH CUT TO: INT. SLAMMER - NIGHT JAMIE IS SHOVED THROUGH THE WALL INTO THE SLAMMER. The isolator rockets toward us with a metallic crunch. JAMIE (freaked) Mom? Where are my Mom and Dad? Maj. Hoskins calms her through the isolator. MAJ. HOSKINS They're coming Jamie. Let's get you comfortable. Hoskins and her Aide use the arm ports to take Jamie's vitals and hook her up to I.V.'s. NOTE: since she's in the isolator, MDs wear masks gloves, etc., not spacesuits. SCREAMS and RAVINGS suddenly echo O.S. Hoskins slams the inner door to keep Jamie from hearing. CUT TO: FOLLOW HOSKINS THROUGH THE SLAMMER TO: THE HOT SIDE Maj. Haines screams in dementia next to Peter. TWO AIDES in spacesuits wheel Loc's covered body out causing Haines to lose it completely. TWO DOCTORS in Spacesuits try to subdue him in his open bed. He trashes yanking at his I.V.'s. MAJ. HAINES Get this shit offa me -- Hoskins aims a tranquilizer gun and shoots him with a tranq dart. INT. MORGUE - LIMBO Loc's covered body is slid into the rack beside Deke's body bag. The second death. The submarine door closes. CUT TO: RESUME: THE SLAMMER - JAMIE'S SIDE - SECONDS LATER Jaxx enters. She strokes her daughter with her hands in the glove ports. Jamie squeezes them through the plastic. JAXX I'm here, Jamie. I'm here. JAMIE Where's Dad... and Jason? JAXX Dad's with Jason and Popsy and Mama just down the hall. They're having their blood tested. We're going to take some of yours too. Check it out. You might not be sick at all. Jamie smiles faintly. Maj. Hoskins ties off Jamie's arm through the glove ports and thumps up a vein. JAMIE Mom... this is the "slammer" isn't it? I heard you talk about it. Jaxx nods. She can't stand to see Jamie suffer. She holds Jamie's hand -- the needle enters her arm. Jamie cries out. CUT TO: EXT. SAVAGE RIVER ISLAND - NIGHT Full winter moon. The AIT's have pitched camp around the Copter. The Pilot works on the engine under generator lights. Bullet hits are visible across the cockpit glass. INT. HELICOPTER - ON JOHNSON JOHNSON (on radio) C'mon, C.J., I don't want Rangers and State Police up here guns blazing. I need this guy alive. Reese listens intently trying to stay warm. JOHNSON (on radio) He's no good to us with a bullet in his head. We'll never know if his antibodies can beat the bug or not. Okay -- tell them he's contagious. That'll buy some time. (a response on radio) Yeah, I should've brought my fishing tackle. How's Nancy's kid. Any word -- ? CUT TO: MICROSCOPIC VIEW - JAMIE'S BLOOD It glows with Ebola antigen response. INT. BL3 HOTSUITE - CONTINUING ACTION - NIGHT Jaxx sits back from the microscope, trembling. She sags, dropping her head on the bench. She weeps openly. INT. SLAMMER - TIGHT ON PETER - LATER Pete's face tells us this is a horrible way to go. Jaxx looks on with loving eyes. She feels helpless. PETER Lousy room service. And what happened to the sexy nurses we used to have around here -- Jaxx strikes a pose. His laugh is like sandpaper. He's dying and knows it. PETER Listen to me. I want you to give the rest of my old friend to Jamie. She's young. The antibodies might turn her around. Jaxx doesn't know what to say. She can barely speak. PETER Hey, maybe I'm the "magic bullet," Nance. Go on, take it. Give Jamie a fighting chance. I got work to do in the lab, anyway -- He unplugs his I.V. from the precious serum and sits up -- Nancy has to subdue him. Maj. Hoskins hurries in to help. TO JAMIE - GERRY IN VIEW Jamie. Her face a mask. Comatose. Gerry checks her temperature. Jaxx enters. She's been crying. GERRY (back to Jaxx) No break in her fever. Ribovirin's not working. Efficacy is zero... Her fever's still up. We need immuno serum, Nance. None of the patients are responding... Jaxx regards their daughter. She makes herself do it. JAXX Peter wants her to have this. She unhooks the antiviral I.V. bag and replaces it with a serum bag marked "Sister G." GERRY (dumbfounded) Peter's better? His fever broke? Jaxx shakes her head slowly. Gerry reacts, overcome. He holds Nancy close, both gazing at their daughter. Small hemorrhages mar her youthful face. JAXX What's Jamie's -- GERRY One-o-three. Just checked it. JAXX Take it every thirty minutes. If there's any drop, I don't care how slight, we'll know the serum's working. She'll pull out. She will. TIGHT ON PLASMA BAG: GIVING LIFE INTO JAMIE DISSOLVE TO: EXT. SAVAGE RIVER - THE DARK BEFORE DAWN Karl sits hunched by river fire drinking coffee. Everyone else still sleeps. He's fixed on the campfire. THE FLAMES - DANCING The sounds of Africa haunts him. Drums pound relentlessly -- He looks up, suddenly startled. FLASH TO: HIS POV - THE AFRICAN JUNGLE A beautiful AFRICAN WOMAN walks out of the bush. She kneels across the fire from him. She hands Karl a gourd brimming with healing waters. He reaches for it -- FLAMES SINGE HIS FINGERS. He jerks back, looking around, disoriented. HIS POV - PANNING AROUND The river. Sun coming up. Reese is staring at him. REESE Karl? Are you alright, Karl? JOHNSON (rattled) Yeah, I'm alright. EXT. RIVERBANK - DAWN The AIT's put in the raft, holding it steady in the backwater. Karl and Reese board. Onshore, the Pilot holds up his 9mm pistol. An offer. JOHNSON I don't believe in guns as an equalizer. Nature's full of equalizers more deadly... They shove off. The AIT Leader in front, Reese in the middle and Karl at the stern. ON THE RIVER - FOLLOW THE RAFT Karl steers them into the rapids. They move swiftly downriver. JOHNSON - CLOSER Watching high cliffs and dense woods slide by. FLASH TO: THE EBOLA RIVER Karl crossing on the raft. Zairean Police aiming guns. FLASH TO: THE HOSPITAL His fingers sinking into a dead man's arm like pudding. Village children singing to the Nuns. Sister Genevieve convulsing in his arms. RESUME: JOHNSON He shivers, near convulsing. Another river to cross. CUT TO: THE MORGUE - LIMBO Another body bag slides in beside six other bodies. The tag reads: MAJ. ARNOLD HAINES. CUT TO: INT. WAR ROOM A TV MONITOR: The Local ANCHORWOMAN standing outside RIID interviews C.J. by phone inside. He's running on fumes. The Staff watches him and the monitor. ANCHORWOMAN (TV) How many deaths so far, Colonel? C.J. We can confirm seven as a direct result of the virus -- including employees at the primate facility... and one of our own. C.J. CONTINUES OVER: INT. SLAMMER AREA - SAME TIME Corridor beds are now filled. 30 PATIENTS are tended by MEDICAL STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS wearing Scrubs, masks, decon suits, anything to protect against possible infection. C.J. (V.O.) (TV) We're continuing to bring all "cases" and exposed persons here to RIID. We'll try to contain the virus here until it burns itself out -- We're still trying to find a rescue therapy that's effective against the virus -- AIT's wheel in Girard in an isolator. He's almost gone. INT. USAMRIID CLINIC - SAME TIME Peter's Wife sleeps on a sofa with her two children. Others rest on chairs or the floor. Jaxx checks a patient who looks good. Eyes clear. Minimal symptoms. It's the Big Black Woman from Synergy. JAXX (to nurse) Check her blood again. Maybe she has the "magic bullet" antibodies. The Black Woman smiles hopeful. Jaxx looks past her out the glass partition into the Slammer area. HER POV - THE SLAMMER AREA A Medic covers up another victim. Jaxx thinks that could easily be Jamie... Gerry hurries up. Jaxx instantly panics -- GERRY Her temperature's down. One-o-one. Jaxx. Her panic rockets to joy -- Gerry half carries her down the hall -- both euphoric. THE SLAMMER - TIGHT ON SERUM BAG The last of Sister "G" plasma drips into Jamie's I.V. Jaxx reaches in the glove ports and wipes a trace of blood from Jamie's ear. JAXX She's responding. It's working. Human immuno serum protocol works. GERRY And we're fresh out -- Goddamn bug! Gerry folds her into him. They share a frustrated cry -- JAXX Why can't I just put my life in her I.V. Why...? They hold each other tight, praying for a miracle. Gerry ceremoniously pulls a stuffed bear from a bag of personals. GERRY Nancy... when she was two years old -- but she used to want "Dee Dah" the Bear when she was sick. Jaxx kisses the bear and tucks it in beside Jamie. Jamie instinctively hugs it to her. She wakes staring at them. JAMIE Mom... I'm sorry I said bad things about guinea pigs -- and mice. I know you're just trying to make me well -- Jamie drifts off. Jaxx wells up. She suddenly heads away -- filled with Jamie's words. Gerry follows -- FOLLOW THEM THROUGH THE AIRLOCK JAXX The animals -- Pete's working on synthetic antibodies -- He's growing living immune animal cells and living human cells together -- to clone a super immune cell. So far guinea pig cells don't work. I just had an idea -- that might -- CUT TO: THE SLAMMER ENTRANCE - CONTINUING ACTION Gerry catches her as they exit. JAXX We can mass produce antibody serum for any bug. It would be just like having Sister Genevieve alive again -- donating her blood. There's a way -- GERRY Nancy -- that's all theory. Lab trials. Nothing solid. It could take months to get results. Gerry holds her trying to calm her down. She fights him. JAXX This is not just about our Jamie anymore. If we -- can't save her, if we lose her, think about the lives we can save in a month or a year -- Jaxx is choking back her tears, knowing what she's saying but keeping her duty to humanity always above all. GERRY You'll do the right thing by Jamie. You always do the right thing. She breaks. The airlock door hisses closed behind her. She hesitates at the port -- then disappears. RESUME - TV MONITOR ANCHORWOMAN One last question, Col. Peters; Is the the virus airborne? CUT TO: EXT. BACKBONE MOUNTAINS - DAWN HAWK'S POV - DESCENDING TO THE RIVER BELOW Tiny's cabin comes into view on the bluff. It's snowing lightly. The Raft. Karl motions. They turn into the bank. Reese jumps out pulling them ashore. ONSHORE - FOOT OF THE CLIFF Each Man shoulders a pack of medical gear. They begin the ascent up a steep trail. The AIT Leader talks softly on his radio as they climb -- AIT LEADER (on radio) Bird dog -- we made dry land. RADIO RESPONSE (V.O.) Police are enroute on fire road. ETA forty-five minutes. Half-it for their Rescue Chopper -- over. CUT TO: EXT. TOP OF THE BLUFF - LATER Reese pulls himself up over the bluff rim. REESE'S POV - A MOUNTAIN LION In his face. Fangs bared. Reese flails back -- pulling Karl with him. KARL GRABS REESE'S HAND -- stopping each other's fall. THEIR POV - THE MOUNTAIN LION It's been dead for hours. Wedged in the rocks. Reese checks it for wounds. REESE No bullet entries. No arrow wounds. Karl wipes the blood caked around its nose on a swab, them from its mouth. He seals it in a baggie. JOHNSON Maybe the virus just jumped species... again. THE BLUFF - LOOKING DOWN The AIT LEADER climbs up beside them eyeing the dead animal. Each grabs a respirator off his utility belt and slips it on. EXT. CABIN - DAWN No movement. The Team chuck their equipment in the trees. JOHNSON Hello! Nothing. He raises his respirator. JOHNSON Hello! Mr. Whippert! I'm a Doctor. Do you need medical attention?! No response. AIT LEADER Maybe he's gone... or dead... Karl stands to approach the house. Reese pulls him back. TINY FIRES wildly from the window raking the trees -- -- FILLETING the ground all around them -- ROCK MOUND - THEY DIVE FOR COVER Rounds rip the rocks. Karl looks at Reese and grins. JOHNSON He's alive. That's a good sign. Reese looks at him like he's nuts. REESE You are certifiable -- JOHNSON (peeking at the house) We'll see. Shuck me a syringe. Load it with a 100cc's of "ketamine." Another look from Reese as he opens his pack -- REESE You're going to anesthetize him? JOHNSON Sounds good to me. Just got to get close enough. Reese looks at the AIT Leader. Now he knows Karl's crazy. AIT LEADER Doc, we should wait for the Cops. MOVE WITH JOHNSON - CABIN IN VIEW He crawls along the rocks talking a bluestreak. JOHNSON Mr. Whippert! We have medicine -- and a helicopter that can fly you to a hospital. (no response) How long have you been sick? You know -- when did you get your first headache? Fever -- ? THEIR POV - THE CABIN No answer. Reese tosses Karl a pack of two syringes. Karl signals to the AIT to split up making tough targets. WITH JOHNSON - RUNNING ONE WAY Tiny fires wildly. WITH AIT LEADER - RUNNING THE OTHER WAY The ground fillets around him. A round rips into his leg. He goes down screaming. JOHNSON DIVES behind a stack of firewood as bullets chew up the pile -- THE CABIN - WIDER Silence... Reese makes his way to the wounded man. TO JOHNSON - BEHIND THE WOODPILE JOHNSON No, no, no, no, no! The Police are coming and if you start shooting you'll be dead. I don't want you to die right now. I want you to get well... (a beat) Now -- how long have you been sick? ON THE CABIN - JOHNSON IN VIEW TINY (O.S.) (INSIDE CABIN) More'n a week... I think -- Can't 'member anymore -- Sorry... His voice is weak. Strained. Karl crawls toward the Van. JOHNSON Good. Maybe you're getting better. Let me come in. Check you out. HIS POV - THE CABIN DOOR TINY (O.S.) (INSIDE CABIN) No fuckin' way! If the heat come, I'll shoot'em too. He fires wildly from the window. Then clicks no ammo. TO REESE: Dressing the AIT Leader's leg wound. TO JOHNSON: Reaching the van. The passenger door is open. Karl checks it out. Keys? Yes. JOHNSON I know how you feel, Tiny. I can help you. Walk out now, while there's still time. THE CABIN - VAN IN VIEW Tiny answers with more gunfire. Karl turns on the engine, the car radio and releases the emergency brake. Country and Western blares. THE VAN - ROLLING TOWARD THE CABIN KARL RUNS behind it using it for cover -- TINY RAKES the front of the Van. A wheel hits a rock jolting it off line -- The Van rolls past the cabin -- KARL DIVES on the porch rolling to safety -- THE VAN RUNS RIGHT OFF THE BLUFF Crashing into the River below in a fiery explosion -- EXT. RIVER ISLAND SITE - EXPLOSION IN VIEW The AIT's go into action. They're not waiting any longer. Helicopter engine whines up -- RESUME: CABIN - FRONT VIEW Reese can't see Karl anywhere from his vantage point. Tiny is yelling inside, demented, delirious. THE CABIN - REARVIEW Karl edges toward the back door, he primes his syringe, pumping himself up for the charge. A BALL OF FLAME ERUPTS inside. Gasoline EXPLODES. FLAMES BILLOW out the windows. KARL reels back from the blast. REESE covers the AIT Leader. WITH KARL The rage builds in him erupting in a primal scream. He rushes headlong crashing through the back door -- THROUGH THE FLAMES: JOHNSON'S POV - SLOW MOTION We're in the cabin. Flames swirl about Tiny. He's weak -- leaning against a post, gun dangling in his hand. He turns to us. His face hideous in the flames. His clothes catch fire. He hurls a flaming gas can right at us -- KARL CHARGES tackling the big man sending them crashing -- OUT THE FRONT DOOR - A BURST OF FLAMES AND SPARKS The two Men crash to the ground. THE CABIN - FRONT VIEW - CONTINUING ACTION Karl pounds out the flames on Tiny's body. JOHNSON Don't you die on me! Don't you dare! Live Goddamnit. I need a survivor -- damn you -- live! He dumps his respirator -- he desperately checks the big man's vital signs. Reese runs up with the medical bag. THE HUEY SWOOPS UP over the bluff and lands. AIT's jump out bringing more gear and the isolator. Two AIT's spray fire extinguishers on the burning cabin. TO TINY AND KARL Tiny is not responding to CPR. Karl pumps air into his mouth. Nothing. Karl rips open his shirt -- his body is covered with hemorrhages and skin ruptures. JOHNSON You're not dying on me, Tiny. C'mon you son-of-a-bitch -- Reese hands him a big needle. He shoots the adrenalin right in Tiny's heart. Nothing. He pounds the man's chest. Reese pulls him back pinning him. REESE He's gone. He's dead... Karl, angry at himself and the world, holds it all in. He closes Tiny's eyes. AIT (O.S.) Hey! Over here -- Reese looks up, stunned by what he sees. He grabs Karl. WHAT THEY SEE: AN APPARITION - JUST LIKE KARL'S DREAM A GIRL walks out of the flaming smoldering Cabin. Tiny's white trash girlfriend from the Roadhouse. She's dazed, suffering from smoke inhalation, alive. A survivor. JOHNSON Now that is a genuine miracle. Karl approaches her. She reaches out both hands and collapses. He catches her laying her down. THE POLICE HELICOPTER ARRIVES HOVERING OVERHEAD VOICE (P.A.) This is the Virginia State Police. Clear the burning area -- Karl pays no attention checking the girl's vitals. More Police and Rangers arrive up the fire road in the b.g. ON THE CABIN - WIDER Rangers join the effort to put out the fire. AIT's meet the Police keeping them away from potential contagion. WITH KARL AND THE GIRL Reese gives her oxygen. Karl injects her with antivirals. He checks her arms and neck for hemorrhages. No petechiae. JOHNSON No symptoms. Maybe she's incubating. He finds a small patch of symptomatic rash on her back. REESE She's got the bug. JOHNSON Yeah, so? For how long? A week? A day? What's her temperature? REESE (shocked) Ninety-nine. She's almost normal. She should be roasting if he infected her in the last week. JOHNSON (incredulous) Unless... she's a survivor. Unless... she's immune. Karl looks at the girl. Traumatized but her pulse is normal. JOHNSON We have to get her back to RIID. Now! Move! TIME CUT TO: EXT. THE CABIN BLUFF - MINUTES LATER The Huey lifts off leaving the Police and Rangers below dousing the fire. INSIDE THE COPTER - FLYING Tiny's body bag lays on the floor. Reese draws blood from the Girl in the isolator. She is delirious. GIRL Tim? Where's Tim? Have to take care of him. He's so sick -- JOHNSON (floored, realizing) She was no hostage. She liked the poor guy. Karl clamps a field centrifuge onto a seat back and begins cranking. The blood sacks spin -- MATCH CUT TO: OUTSIDE - THE ROTORS SPIN They fly straight into the morning sun. SHARP CUT TO: INT. MORGUE - MORNING Another corpse slides in the rack. It's Girard. There is no more room for bodies. INT. SLAMMER - MORNING Jamie. Her arm covered with petechiae. The rest of her body is under the sheets. We don't want to see it. INT. PETER'S BL3 LAB - SAME TIME Jaxx, dark circles under her eyes, exhausted, studies a cell culture in the monitor attached to her microscope. JAXX Grow. C'mon -- grow. Maybe the CDR grafting didn't take. She turns to another monitor showing a complicated cell structure turning in 3D graphics. The heading reads: "RECOMBINANT IG MOLECULES - MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES." She rotates the diagram with key commands. She looks up. Someone enters the lab in a spacesuit. The figure moves closer. It's Peter. Weak and frail, but he's there. JAXX Pete -- what are you doing -- ? PETER Hey, I'm beating this thing, okay. I feel good -- He does a wobbly James Brown in his spacesuit. Jaxx is blown away he's even walking. PETER The irony of it all. I wore this thing for years to keep the bugs out. Now I'm wearing it to keep them in. JAXX Pete? Your fever broke? PETER Fever? What fever? Hey? You trying to take credit for my work? "Synthetic generation of human antibodies by combination with super immune animal cells" by Peter Jahrling... Jaxx eyes him suspiciously. He studies the monitor. PETER I've been grafting high immunity guinea pig cells to human myeloma cells, but the fusion hybridoma immortalizes only a few B cells. Low antibody production. Useless against a mother-bug like Ebola. JAXX I used Supermonk's IG genes. PETER I'm impressed. Better gene match with humans. JAXX The immunoglobulins won't clone. It's not working. PETER Here's your problem. Change the binding site. Splice the genes here and hope it grows up to be the Holy Grail. Peter makes some adjustments to the computer generated cell diagram. Jaxx looks at the screen in awe. The two cells form one super immune cell. (Computer graphic). JAXX You're a genius, Pete. Let's get you back to the slammer. He resists her, hugging the stool, barely able to focus. PETER No, I have to finish this. If the human cells you're using are strong and healthy, this just might work. Whose are they? JAXX Mine. Peter looks at her through his helmet, he smiles -- PETER Well, I'd say if your daughter has any of the stuff her mother's made of -- her children and her grandchildren will be born immune -- Jaxx wells up at the hope he's given her. Hope. A final tear of blood trickles from his eye. JAXX C'mon -- let's get you back to... the... slammer... Pete? Pete! No answer. Pete lumps over in his bluesuit -- and dies. CUT TO: EXT. USAMRIID - DAY Armed Soldiers in gas masks surround the RIID building. Bradley Tanks block the roads in and out at Checkpoints. Media trucks line the parking lot. A NETWORK ANCHOR - ON CAMERA NETWORK ANCHOR An estimated 47 exposed persons are being housed inside the RIID fortress, which is now completely quarantined and cut off from the outside world except by telephone. TO ANOTHER ANCHOR - ON CAMERA - INSIDE HOSPITAL TENT ANOTHER ANCHOR 11 deaths have now been reported since the outbreak began three days ago. This tent ward behind me is for overflow cases the CDC and the U.S. Medical Corps hope never come. The Anchor walks us through the hospital tent that has been erected on the parade grounds. ARMY MEDICAL CORPS MEN AND WOMEN are setting up rows of field cots. The THUD of a helicopter approaches. Everyone looks up. EXT. RIID HELIPAD - DAY The Huey lands beside the building. The AIT's hurry the stretcher bearing the Girl toward the wall hatch. FOLLOW KARL AND REESE - RUNNING Toward the guarded main entrance carrying blood vials and dangling the makeshift plasma bags on a coat hanger. Soldiers challenge. SOLDIER Sir, no one is allowed in without authorization -- JOHNSON There are people dying in there, I'm going to try and save them. He never breaks stride; the same phrase he said to the soldiers in Zaire. C.J. opens the door waving them in -- C.J. Let'em in. C'mon. What the hell have you been doing -- fishing? INT. RIID - CONTINUING ACTION WE FOLLOW THEM through the maze of beds and patients lining the corridors. Karl carries the bags of serum like the Holy Grail. Doctors look up. Staff step aside. INT. SLAMMER - CONTINUING ACTION Karl enters the Slammer Airlock and barrels past Maj. Hoskins -- Reese hangs back with C.J. WE FOLLOW KARL through the chem shower into -- THE SLAMMER - GOD'S POV - LOOKING DOWN ON JAMIE Hovering, waiting to take her next. Both parents hold her hands through the glove ports. They are strangely not surprised to see Karl. He stops short at the sight of Jamie. GERRY We're losing her, Karl. He shoves the plasma bags at Gerry. JOHNSON Put her on this. Tiny bought the farm. This is from his girlfriend. Reese spun the plasma phoresis in the chopper -- Check it for antibodies. I think she's immune. I think she's the "magic bullet." They look at each other -- vaporlock. Gerry grabs the bags. GERRY I'll screen it. Just don't let Jamie die. He runs out shouting for C.J. Karl hovers over Jamie -- hoping he's not too late. JAXX (finding her voice) Pete had a breakthrough. He did it. We can crank out Ebola immune cell antibodies in a few weeks -- Jaxx is all nerve endings watching Jamie. JOHNSON That's not fast enough. Let's get Pete on this new plasma too. He can tell by her reaction, Pete's dead. He bows his head saying a silent goodbye. Then grabs Jaxx -- SLAMMER CORRIDOR - CONTINUING ACTION Karl drags Jaxx into the last room -- JOHNSON It's the only chance Jamie or any of us have got. Meet the donor. Maj. Hoskins tends the Girl. She's sitting up in the isolator, completely alert -- a thermometer in her mouth. She glares at Karl. MAJ. HOSKINS Her temperature is normal, Doctor. Pulse stable. THE GIRL Hey, where's Tim? What is this place? Anybody got a cigarette? Karl shakes his head no. Jaxx checks her chart in shock. JAXX What's your name? THE GIRL "Angel." Jaxx looks to Karl. What else -- CUT TO: INT. WAR ROOM - LATER C.J. is on a phone hookup to CNN. TV's show all networks. C.J. (on phone) If we hold out another 24 hours with no new cases, then our strategy to contain the outbreak has promise. We hope to have a synthetic antibody serum with strong efficacy in a few days. ON THE MONITOR - CNN CNN ANCHOR (TV) We all recognize the enormous risk CDC and Military personnel are taking by being in that building. Colonel -- will all the viruses and exposed patients inside with you, is there a danger of a virus escaping and infecting the entire community? C.J. (on phone) Only if it walks out in one of us. INT. SLAMMER - GOD'S POV - DESCENDS TO TAKE JAMIE Karl takes her blood pressure. Blood oozes around the arm-strap. JAXX I don't want Jason to see her like this -- Gerry burst in -- GERRY She's clean. No "hep." HIV's negative. And -- she's loaded with antibodies! JOHNSON (continuing the thought) But -- "Angel" has minimal symptoms -- JAXX (finishing it) -- then Karl's right. She must be immune. The whole slammer is buzzing. Gerry looks to Jaxx for a decision. Jaxx hooks the desperation plasma up herself. GOD'S POV - DESCENDS LOWER - CLOSER Jaxx gets right beside Jamie as close as the plastic will allow. She whispers, determined not to give up. JAXX You listen to me Jamie Magritte Jaxx, God gave you an immune system to fight disease with -- so fight. Don't think about anything else but living. You want to do a triple twist -- live, Jamie, live. You want to go to the Olympics don't you? She strokes Jamie's face through the glove port. Gerry is right beside her. Karl leans into view on the other side. GERRY Kick this bug in the ass. Never, never, never, never give up -- If you live, your blood can save another and another. JOHNSON It's a privilege we've forgotten as humans, Jamie. We can save each other. WE PUSH IN TIGHT ON THE PLASMA BAG - "ANGEL" QUICK CUTS: MONTAGE OF THE MAGIC BULLET Hoskins, Medical Staff, Jaxx, Johnson, Gerry all pitching in to hook up other ailing patients to the serum. Faces we have seen; the Black Woman from Synergy, Loc's Vietnamese Wife. Everyone pitches in. Jason pushes a cart of I.V.'s. Gayle, Pete's grieving Wife shows up beside Jaxx. She wants to help. Klages and Godwin are there with C.J. -- TIGHT ON PLASMA BAGS - ONE AFTER ANOTHER All bear her one word name; "ANGEL." Each bubbling life. DISSOLVE TO: IN THE SLAMMER - THE VIGIL - MULTIPLE DISSOLVES As one by one, the Team enters the Slammer through the airlock, exhausted, shedding tears, hopeful, holding onto each other -- all connected as they embrace Jaxx and Gerry and encircle Jamie in the isolator -- willing her to live. THE VIEW GLIDES TO JAMIE - "ANGEL" I.V. IN VIEW Feverish, staring into nothing. Suddenly her eyes focus. A heavenly smile crosses her face. She takes her parent's hands squeezing them tight -- SHARP CUT TO: A WATERFALL CRASHES ONTO ROCKS BELOW - WIDEN TO: EXT. THE BIGHORN RIVER - DAY It's Spring. Karl and Jaxx sit on the bank reflecting. Jaxx -- her head buried on her knees. We can't tell what shape she's in. Karl gives her a convalescent squeeze. JOHNSON On a day like this, we can pretend nature is benign -- and all the monsters and beasts in nature have their kinder moments. Jaxx looks up. Quietly crying. JAXX I didn't think it'd be this hard. JOHNSON (wiping her tears) You have to get over it. The wheel of life goes on, Nance. JAXX I just see her lying there. I don't know how I'll ever be able to -- to thank you and not start crying -- He laughs. Now we here more laughter coming from the river. Then a familiar voice -- JAMIE (O.S.) Mom -- look, Mom -- wahooo! PAN TO: THE RIVER There in the middle of the beautiful Big Horn is Beautiful Jamie, full of life and joy. She's caught a Rainbow trout and is reeling it in. She's alive. Gerry fishes with her. Jason wades upstream to net it. GERRY Whoa -- must be a record catch -- JASON -- for a "fisher-babe"! Brother and Sister again. And Dad trying to moderate. KARL AND JAXX - HOOTING FROM THE BANK JAXX (musing sadly) I wish Peter was here to share this. JOHNSON Without his discovery, and Angel's precious blood. We might not be here either. Her synthesized antibodies saved a lot of lives. He died a hero. You should share a little credit too -- Colonel. JAXX Naw -- Pete lived long enough to show me the way. It's his legacy. Jaxx lays back taking in the beauty around them. THEIR POV - THE RIVER Gerry helps Jamie set the fish free. JAXX Are we ready for the next one? JOHNSON We weren't ready for this one. This was a wakeup call. We're just one international plane flight away from extinction. Jaxx sits up on that one staring at him. What? JOHNSON Sure. Say a tourist gets an unknown airborne virus in an African village in the morning, flies home that day, smoking, coughing -- sneezing. Aerosol droplets get circulated by the air vents -- so by the time you land, everyone onboard's been exposed. Passengers walk through customs right back home exposing families, cabbies, friends. Over night thousands are exposed. Then the outbreak. Slate wiper... Silence. The sounds of nature abound. Jaxx is riveted. JOHNSON (inevitable) Pretty soon us two-legged dinosaurs are history. JAXX Mother nature's revenge... God, I'll never fly again... Why not go back to Africa and find the viruses before they find us, huh? JOHNSON I never should have left. JAXX You better teach me to fish quick, because that's where you're going. Jaxx jumps up, brushing herself off. Karl gets up -- JOHNSON What're you talking about? JAXX You raised so much hell, the CDC and the Army are joint funding a new research lab in the bush to find the reservoirs for Ebola, Marburg, AIDS, new bugs -- maybe some ancestors of some lost tribe I seem to recall you mentioning. She marches into the river with her fly rod. JAXX (calling back) That is -- if you're interested. Karl is speechless for the first time in his life. He grabs his favorite fishing hat -- rod -- big shiny grin -- and follows her into the river. THE BIG HORN - HIGH ANGLE This is how we leave them. The Jaxx family and Karl Johnson fishing the Big Horn -- THE VIEW CLIMBS TO: AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE VALLEY Teeming with biological life, gleaming in the sun, threading like spaghetti through a geography of terrains. Like the cellscape we opened our story on -- we finish on -- Watching the river run... SUPER: THE FOLLOWING LEGENDS 1. To date the origin or reservoir of the Ebola virus is still unknown; there is still no vaccine for Ebola and no proven cure. 2. The CDC levied fines against Synergy and three other primate companies and banned the shipment of monkeys into the United States for 18 months. 3. No virus was found at the JFK animal unit where the monkeys entered the U.S. The Philippine exporter would not allow a CDC/Army Team to inspect their animal quarantine unit. 4. Monkeys with the Ebola virus were reported in primate quarantine units in Texas and Pennsylvania during the Reston outbreak. 5. Nancy and Gerry Jaxx are both acting Colonels of Veterinary Medicine at USAMRIID and are actively involved in vaccine and viral research... including Ebola. 6. Peter Jahrling is alive and well and Head of Virology at USAMRIID. He continues his research on synthetic antibodies and is currently in South America isolating a new virus. 7. C.J. Peters is now head of Special Pathogens at CDC in Atlanta. He is currently in command of the CDC's efforts to control the spread of the Hantavirus outbreak in this country. 8. Karl Johnson lives in Montana with his wife Merle near the Gallatin River. Karl isolated the Ebola virus in 1976, and the Hantavirus the same year. If he isn't fishing, then Karl is currently consulting with C.J. Peters and the CDC on the Hantavirus outbreak in the U.S. that is still talking human lives as of this writing. FADE OUT. THE END