CHARLOTTE, ASH and EMMA have 2 TICKETS to the RESETTLEMENT ZONE. They’re trying to figure out how to get to the Zone as a family. They’ve been hiding out in their HOME, trying to buy a 3rd TICKET online and calling round asking FRIENDS and RELATIVES for leads. They’ve fortified their home, whilst outside the town has descended into chaos and violence, culminating in the massacre of their NEIGHBOURS by SOLDIERS. Ash and Charlie’s PICK UP TIME (5am) is fast approaching, at which point - if they haven’t found another ticket, or another way to the Zone - it looks like they’ll have to choose which one of them goes to the Zone with Emma, and which one of them stays behind.

 

Decisive Charlie usually sides with this government. She tends to take the road where Emma’s survival is most assured, even if it requires herself to be brutal. She firmly believes that (if only her or Ash can go) she should go to the Zone with Emma, partly because she doesn’t believe Ash is strong enough to protect Emma in this nightmarish new world. However, she’s realising that she still loves Ash - especially as a father to Emma.

 

Ponderous Ash usually resists this government. He tends to take the road that he believes leads to a utopian ending (everyone happy, having acted morally), even when this is clearly a pipe dream. He’s trying to avoid thinking about who (if only him or Charlie can go) should go to the Zone with Emma, but he’s beginning to see that Charlie is probably better suited. At the same time, he’s growing increasingly scared of the idea of staying behind alone in this nightmarish new world, and never seeing his family again.

 

Presented with a morally conflicted soldier - PRIVATE BLAKE (20s) - who may help them or may kill them, the Dhumals have flipped over whether to ask for Blake’s help, or whether to hide from Blake.

 

THE COIN is TAILS. ASH WINS. They hide from Blake.

 

Charlie is furious at the result of the flip, but stays in the lounge with Ash and Emma.

 

Outside, a NEIGHBOUR is groaning. BLAKE shoots them in the head. Inside, Ash looks to Charlie (see?! He’s a maniac!).

 

Ash starts to creep towards the FRONT DOOR - he wants to lock it. But, in the HALLWAY, he can’t find the keys. Charlie reminds him, again: they’re on the KEY HOOK like they always are!

 

Ash takes down the keys and starts to lock the front door. Blake hears Ash and looks towards the house - and sees Charlotte peeking out through the lounge curtains. He raises his rifle and opens fire on them. Ash and Charlie dive for cover; the lounge window smashes and rains down around them.

 

Blake’s radio crackles; he pauses. A SOLDIER’S VOICE reports: multiple shots heard, near ‘Harris Way’. Those are his shots! He rushes to his jeep, and speeds away.

 

The Dhumals’ PROBLEM, now, is that they are - or feel they are, at least - out of options beyond using the two tickets to the Zones. As such, their thoughts properly turn towards who goes.

 

This is the chapter in which their battle really turns inwards - towards their relationship. They head towards war with each other.

 

This strand becomes a chamber drama. It’s claustrophobic. Changes in atmosphere, shifts in tension are key. Misunderstandings, mispeaking matter.

 

There are no cutaways to a subplot in this chapter. They’re isolated. It’s all on the Dhumals, and all about their battle. 

 

The Dhumals watch as a PLATOON OF SOLDIERS comes and surveys the neighbourhood massacre. One SOLDIER calls it in while ANOTHER aims a torch at the other houses … no signs of life. They move on.

 

The Dhumals breathe. Ash is freaked out enough that he lets his guard down a little, and has a go at Charlotte: she was acting crazy. She almost got them killed. She put to the COIN (?!) something that almost got them killed. What if Ash had been shot, would she have blamed the coin?

 

Charlie’s firmly in denial about what’s unfolded. She thinks that they have to take risks tonight, or they won’t make it through! She thinks that Ash would rather just do nothing, and wait, and hope. That, she believes, is what will get them killed.

 

Ash wants to go and keep calling friends and relatives about tickets. As he leaves the lounge with Emma, he points out that they’ll have to hope that the soldiers who come to pick them up at 5am aren’t like Blake and Wilson …

 

They avoid each other, and time moves on. Ash calms Emma in her room, and then keeps calling round for tickets. Charlie smashes up a CABINET in the lounge, and starts to board up the smashed window with it. As she does this, she remembers -

 

FLASHBACK: Ash and Charlie (late 20s) walk past antique shops in LONDON. Charlie sees the cabinet, and likes it (they’re living together now). She balks at the price, and Ash offers to buy it for them both. Charlie’s uncomfortable with this, but Ash insists, and buys it. An annoyed Charlie finally asks a question she’s been pondering for a long time: what is Ash’s financial situation? He can’t have made this much from his novels. Ash tries to dodge the question at first, but eventually admits that HIS PARENTS still give him money. Charlie swallows this with difficulty. When Ash asks if she minds, she claims not to, but suggests that everyone has to emerge into ‘the real world’ at some point.

 

In the PRESENT, Charlie checks in with Ash. Still no ticket, as she expected. She reveals that she’s decided to go out hunting for one, then. Ash puts up light resistance, but wants this, so accepts it. 

 

As she gets ready, Charlie suggests that Ash transfer the 2 tickets to HER BRACELET - for safe keeping. Ash pushes back: he thinks they’ll be safer on HIS BRACELET, in the house. In fact he thinks that maybe she should leave her bracelet there, with him. Charlie isn’t happy, but lets her point go.

 

Charlie pulls on a rucksack with the BASEBALL BAT poking out of the top. She slips her HUNTING KNIFE into her belt. She’s ready to go. Looking at her, Ash remembers -

 

FLASHBACK: Ash and Charlie (late 20s) are on a camping trip in the LAKE DISTRICT. Ash clearly hates camping, while Charlie marches about like she was meant for this. They hike through FOREST, Charlie dragging Ash along; Charlie fishes in a LAKE, with Ash on his phone nearby. That night, Charlie builds a fire, lights it using only sticks, and starts to roast the fish she caught. Ash is astounded. This isn’t normal. He pushes this point, and Charlie finally tells him about HER FATHER, the socialist doomsday prepper. He taught her and HER SISTER these skills when they were kids.

 

In the PRESENT, there’s an awkward pause. Charlie gives Ash a peck on the cheek, and then heads into the GARDEN. She exits through their BACK GATE, and starts off down the ALLEY. She jogs along, looking like she’s ready for anything -

 

And exits the alley smackbang into the gang of YOUNG WHITE MEN. They’re surrounding a SMARTLY DRESSED MAN (40s), who’s stood in the middle of the street looking extremely confused. He keeps asking who he is. The gang are drinking spirits and laughing at the smartly dressed man - but really only so that they don’t look scared in front of each other. One of the gang announces that he’s going to punch the smartly dressed man -

 

Then another sees Charlotte. They all turn. And recognise her from the PHARMACY.

 

Charlotte starts to back into the alley - But she can’t lead them home! She turns and sprints off down the street. Members of the gang give chase.

 

She weaves round burning cars. She darts down alleys. She leaps a fence into a RANDOM GARDEN, and begins to move through those. The members give chase.

 

She thinks she’s lost them. She hops a fence into an alley - And some brass knuckles hit her full force in the nose. She stumbles backwards and falls to the concrete. The offending gang member comes after her -

 

But she’s drawing her bat and standing, and as the gang member swings for her she dodges the punch and brings the bat into his ribs. Then onto his back. Then onto the back of his head.

 

Another gang member arrives, wielding a knife. He goes for her, and she catches him with the bat but he grabs it and drags it off of her. She draws her hunting knife. He stabs at her again - and slashes the side of her stomach. She cries out in pain. Then she drives her knife into his chest.

 

Both Charlie and the young man realise that she’s killed him. She pulls the knife from his chest and he stumbles backwards, and falls over the unconscious body of his friend. The young man looks up at her, gasping and clutching his chest. There are shouts near the end of the alley - the other gang members, searching. Charlie turns and runs, leaving her bat behind.

 

She makes it back to the alley behind their house. She slips into their garden. She can see Ash inside, checking his phone. She takes out her knife and cleans it on the grass and leaves.

 

Ash is surprised to see Charlie back so soon. He notices her injury and rushes forwards, but she waves him off. She tells him that it’s too dangerous to be out hunting for tickets; Ash doesn’t care, so long as she’s okay. He watches her treat the slash in her side. She looks like an action hero. It gives him renewed confidence - they can do this!

 

Ash wants to work together to figure out a way through this mess (that doesn’t involve one of them staying behind alone).

 

Charlotte doesn’t look so confident … There’s now a sense of grim determination about her.

 

ACT FOUR.

It’s 3.30am. There’s a crack in the distance, and a growing rumble. Charlie has a sense of what’s coming - she shouts to get to the floor! Ash starts to run upstairs towards Emma, but Charlie dives on Ash, dragging him to the floor.

 

The blast wave from a DISTANT BOMB blows out all of the windows in the house.

 

Reeling, they rush upstairs and comfort a terrified but unhurt Emma. They’re all okay - as is the house. Charlie thinks that it was the outer wave of a bomb - but she’s not sure what kind.

 

Charlie gets them all into their HAZMATS. While Emma wails in her room, inside her hazmat, Ash and Charlie take plastic sheeting and tape it over each of the windows. Once this is done, they climb out of their hazmats.

 

Ash and Charlie TUSSLE a little over who puts Emma to bed. But ultimately Emma wants Ash to do it. From Charlie’s face, we can see that this hurts her (in part because, broadly, ASH IS EMMA’S FAVOURITE PARENT).

 

When Ash comes downstairs, Charlie is waiting in the lounge to talk. Before Ash can speak, Charlotte gets some items out of a bag – some PILLS, and a PLASTIC BAG. She lays them on the table, and explains how one would use these items to end things, if necessary.

 

Charlotte believes she’s done all that she can for Ash, given the circumstances.

 

Ash is now very afraid of staying.

 

Horrified, Ash’s gut reaction is to joke: thanks, but he knows how he’d do it - he’s thought about it enough! He’d prefer falling. Defenestration, perhaps. He used to imagine leaping out of the windows at university.

 

Ash sees Charlotte watching him, and veers in another direction: what he was thinking about while she was out ticket-hunting - his hopes for the Zone. He describes his ideal version of the Zone, and their future together. Emma’s taught by the country’s experts - Brian Cox on physics, Paul Hollywood on baking. Ash has a play staged, and starts a dad-band. Charlie chips in - both for Emma’s future, and hers. Emma spends more time in nature. Charlie trains as an architect. Both Ash and Charlie would quite like a chance to start again.

 

Ash is trying to sway Charlie away from her attempts to push them towards more concrete conversation about the night - and about whether two of them go, and one is left behind.

 

These conversations are tactics for Ash, and obstacles for Charlie.

 

Charlie wonders aloud what life would have been like if they didn’t have Emma. Maybe they’d both be going to the Zone …

 

FLASHBACK: In their LONDON FLAT, Ash (early 30s) and Charlie (late 20s) debate Charlie’s pregnancy. Should they have a kid now, or not? Should they have one ever, with the way the world is?! On a table near them is a COIN, and they’re both incredibly aware of it. Charlie looks at the coin; Ash sees, and points out that this isn’t a matter they can flip over. But the silence that follows suggests that neither are certain this statement is right. Feeling provocative, Ash maintains eye contact with Charlie as he heads to the coin and picks it up. With a devilish look on her face, Charlie calls it - ‘Heads’ we have the thing, ‘Tails’ we don’t. Ash flips and we CUT TO -

 

In the PRESENT: Ash is not a fan of what Charlotte’s saying. This adds to his doubts about her.

 

Charlie says she thinks she’s made a strong little girl. She’s glad she started to teach Emma some of the PREPPER SKILLS her dad taught her.

 

Annoyed, Ash levels a jab at Charlie: speaking of those survival skills - if you’re so good at surviving, maybe you’ll be able to survive outside of the Zone … (It’s half off colour joke, half serious, and tinged with anger and with desire)

 

Charlie points out that they can’t be sure if anyone will survive outside the Zones - maybe the crisis is that bad. And maybe the Zones themselves will require survival skills - maybe they’ll be horrible.

 

Ash points out that that’s not what Charlotte was saying before - she said they’d be nice. If they aren’t then why send Emma there?

 

Charlie points out that they’re still the best option they have - if it’s Zones or certain death. She also notes that Ash said before that if only two of them could go, it’d be her and Emma.

 

This moment confirms, for Ash, what he was previously just afraid of: that it is Charlie’s current intention to leave him behind at the house, alone, while she goes to the Resettlement Zone with Emma. But this is a horrible realisation, so he tries to deny and repress it for the moment.

 

There’s an awkward silence.

 

Ash starts brainstorming again - what else could they do? But Charlie thinks that they’ve exhausted all options. He suggests that they could just head to the PICK UP POINT and beg them; she is certain that others will be trying this, and that they’d be left in the middle of nowhere, in danger.

 

We should have the growing sense - both from this road alone, and from having watched other roads and then this one - that if Charlie and Ash were to work together, they could survive this. Their opposing brains and skills, put together, could save them. And that it’s a tragedy when they don’t.

 

Ash keeps throwing out ideas, and Charlie shutting them down.

 

It’s getting increasingly heated, dynamic. They’re sparring. Are they going to fight, fuck, break down entirely?

 

Ash gets angry - Charlie isn’t trying! He grabs her shoulders: what are you doing? Do you want us to be split up?! We’re a family! I love you!

 

He stops, shocked by himself and not wanting to argue. Charlie’s surprised by Ash’s willingness to fight.

 

Ash tries to leave; Charlie grabs him - she thinks they should argue. Ash doesn’t like this - this could be their last night together, they should be having a nice night! Charlie insists that they should face the reality of their relationship.

 

Charlie puts it out there: this relationship is seriously broken. They’re unable to face any difficult problems down, they just shy away from everything. It’s all been collapsing for years. 

 

Ash pushes back on this - they’re a great, happy family, and they love each other. He thinks that Charlie is letting the crisis, the government, undermine that.

 

Ash believes that if Charlie remembers why they’re a great family, why they love each other, he’ll win her round to his cause: figuring out a way to avoid one of them being left behind.

 

Charlie believes that Ash needs to finally face a number of realities - about their relationship, about himself, about the crisis. She hopes that if he does that, he’ll realise she’s in the right, he’ll stop fighting her and he’ll let her take Emma to the Zone.

 

Charlie thinks that Ash isn’t listening. It’s not that they’re a bad family, but that they don’t have a great relationship. She thinks that Ash can’t admit that, and he can’t admit the reality about the severity of their current situation either.

 

Ash does, deep down, agree with Charlie about their relationship - but now’s not the time to admit it. So he plays down what she’s saying.

 

Trying to provoke Ash on this subject, Charlie goes for the jugular: just look at their sex life, for god’s sake - it’s a total disaster.

 

Ash really doesn’t like this, and outright denies it - their sex life is absolutely fine and totally normal. (Inevitably, but when he should be discussing the current situation:) Ash gets hung up on the topic of their sex life and won’t let it go. They begin to argue about it. 

 

Wanting to put this topic to bed, but also wanting what she’s about to suggest, Charlie proposes that they have sex right now. It is probably their last night, after all.

 

Ash refuses. He doesn’t want to have angry, point-proving sex on what’s possibly his last night on earth. Charlie thinks this is ridiculous - who doesn’t want apocalypse sex?! He’s proving her point!

 

Part of Ash would like sex, but he’s more concerned that a bad shag will condemn his project to convince Charlie of the value of their relationship.

 

Wanting to take her provocation to its end point, Charlie brings out the COIN. If she wins, they fuck.

 

Ash doesn’t want the flip, but sees its value - and proposes: if he wins, he’ll prove her wrong about their relationship. He’s got something up his sleeve.

 

Charlie calls ‘Heads’, and flips. As the coin rises, the Decision Point appears onscreen:

 

This decision point is different to those in other Chapter Fours - it’s all about how they address their relationship. It ups the stakes for their relationship, and it makes their relationship issues the defining factor in who - if anyone - survives the night …