CHARLOTTE, ASH and EMMA are in the SWANSEA RESETTLEMENT ZONE, but Ash is there under false pretenses and has been arrested.

 

Charlie is torn over whether to come forward and support her husband. If she does she risks her and Emma’s safety. But she fears what will happen to him if she doesn’t.

 

The coin is heads. Charlie decides to stay quiet, stay hidden.

 

6am Charlie wakes to news through the window that there’s due to be an announcement in a square in the city centre. She’s on a camp bed in the front room of a house guarded by BLAKE, in civilian clothes. He has fallen asleep, gun in hand. She sneaks them both out of the back door. 

 

In this chapter, we see part of Blake’s sinister motive.

 

7am Soldiers push back crowds of people at the gates of the Zone.

 

A crowd of civilians gathers in a SQUARE, Charlie and Emma amongst them. The HEAD OF THE ARMY stands on a stage and announces that they have discovered a ‘fugitive in our midst’. An important government figure has been murdered and his identity stolen. The culprit has been found. A figure is led out with a bag on his head.

 

The punishment for this crime is clear. An eye for an eye. The fugitive will be executed. 

 

The bag is removed. Ash stands there. Charlie starts to push through the crowd, panicked, but a hand grabs hers. It’s Blake. Don’t do this. It’s him or all of you. I’ll protect you, I promise. 

 

Ash is allowed his final words. He tells everyone that this is wrong, and that they can be better. It shouldn’t be every man for themselves. He hopes that they’ll look back on this moment and see that it didn’t have to be this way. He says that he loves his daughter and he thinks she’ll be brilliant.

 

He sees Charlie in the crowd. Holds her gaze. Then says to the crowd that, if his wife can hear him… he understands.

 

On Charlie’s face. Her mouth opens once more to speak as we hear a gunshot. Too late.

 

A WOMAN bustles into the crowd beside Charlie, to tell her HUSBAND that the government has discovered what’s causing the crisis, they’re going to announce it soon. But they’ll survive this!

 

Charlie has let go of Emma’s hand. She turns to see Blake distracting her daughter with a toy. Emma giggles. Blake fires a warning glance at Charlie. We see the syringe from earlier in a pouch around his neck.

 

Charlie grabs Emma. Walks. Keeps walking. Blake’s presence behind her.  

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