CHAPTER 6X: TOGETHER AT THE DINER

TAILS. HEADS.  ASH WILL GO TO CORNWALL. CHARLIE WILL GET OFF THE BUS 

CHARLOTTE, ASH and EMMA have 3 tickets to the Resettlement Zones. 

Because their tickets are from different places, Ash was due to go to a different Zone to his family. At the last minute he told Charlie to go for ‘PLAN B’.

But they never agreed what ‘Plan B’ was. So now Ash has to decide whether to go to CORNWALL or WILDMAN FARM.

And Charlie has to decide whether to stay on the BUS to a Resettlement Zone with Emma, or get off and try to find Ash. 

Tails. Ash will go to his parents’ house in Cornwall.

Heads. Charlie will get off the bus.

Searching empty houses, Ash finds car keys on a kitchen counter.

He drives through the night. England is chaos.

Charlie demands to be let off the bus. The SOLDIERS ESCORTING THEM are reluctant, but she causes a commotion, and other PASSENGERS start to panic. The soldiers let her off. The bus leaves.

Charlie hotwires a car, and her and Emma set off - she knows where Ash is going.

Ash driving. Suddenly he’s hit by the shockwave from a bomb - LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM HAVE BEEN BOMBED. His car skids off the road and into a tree. Ash is knocked unconscious. His watch says 3.30am.

Charlie’s driving. She hears a rumble, accelerates to get the car under a bridge and screeches to a halt -

Just before a shockwave from a bomb hits them. LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM HAVE BEEN BOMBED. It’s 3.32am.

Charlie sets off again, shaken.

Ash wakes an hour later and sets off, driving uncertainly.

5am  Charlie’s driving. She sees the sign for a ROADSIDE DINER. 

We flash back to a family holiday where they ate at a ROADSIDE DINER NEAR CORNWALL. Charlie looks a little uneasy - she explains she feels like she spent her life in these places, with HER FATHER dragging her between places. But they could never afford anything. Emma wants pancakes. So Charlie orders them all double-stacks of pancakes. Emma looks on in awe as they arrive.

Charlie grins. She knows Ash. He’ll be thinking of the same thing. She turns off.

Charlie gets Emma out of the car. Storms up to the diner. Bursts in -

Empty. Charlie sits Emma down, then goes to the kitchen.

They settle into a booth.

Suddenly Ash enters! The family are reunited!

MONTAGE: They hug. They sit in the booth and talk through their adventures. They begin to plan what happens next.

Charlotte is shocked to see CURTIS’s wife ALEX arrive outside the diner. She’s come to find them - she realised they weren’t at the Resettlement Zone, and she’s here to take them, to say thank you.

Alex’s chauffeur drives them to the Resettlement Zone. It’s a utopia.

They receive a beautiful house. Emma’s put in a beautiful school. FADE TO - 

7am Charlie’s slumped on the booth’s table, her eyes and ears bleeding. She’s clutching a glass of TAP WATER. Emma’s lying down in the booth, almost out of sight. Ash is there, trying to shake Charlotte out of her stupor.

Charlotte smiles.