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

 

Charlotte has convinced the SAMAANS, a refugee family from Syria, to give up the tickets they have to their neighbour, PENNY. In return, Penny has given them a 3rd ticket.

 

Ash isn’t comfortable with this. And they are now faced with another family in danger.

 

As they flee their angry neighbours along the canal, the Dhumals have seen an INTRUDER breaking into CURTIS’S HOUSE. Ash wants to help. Charlie wants to push on. 

 

Tails. They’re going in.

 

The Dhumals hop the fence, led by Ash, and enter through the back door. They see the intruder talking to Curtis’s wife, Alex. 

 

Charlie thinks they should leave - everything looks fine. But Ash heads in to listen. The intruder is quizzing Alex about the LEAK OF THE GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT. Ash sees a partially open door leading to a STUDY, and sneaks inside. Charlie thinks he’s being an idiot. But he’s always loved an anti-government CONSPIRACY. 

 

Ash finds some papers, maps of the Resettlement Zones - with CENTRAL WALES marked ‘safe’ - and a bag of burner phones labeled with various UK counties and other countries. What is Curtis wrapped up in?! 

 

In the hallway, the intruder tells Alex to call Curtis. As she turns to do so, he puts her in a chokehold.

 

Ash starts to bag everything he finds - he’s always wanted to do a leak. Charlie is imploring him to leave. They start to creep out, but then hear what’s happening to Alex.

 

Just as Alex falls unconscious, with Ash astride the study window, one of the burner phones goes off in his rucksack. 

 

The intruder appears at the door. Give that bag back now. Ash sees his black gloves - a sure sign of evil - and flees after Emma and Charlie.

 

They reach the back garden fence. Charlie hops it. Ash sweeps up Emma and hefts her over, into Charlie’s arms, then scrabbles over it himself.

 

But Emma’s BABY REINS are still dangling over into the garden. The intruder grabs on the reins and heaves - dragging Emma from Charlie’s arms, into the fence. Ash grabs a strap from the reins, but it’s frayed. Ash failed to fix it earlier in the night. So when the intruder heaves again, the strap Ash is holding breaks, and Emma flies back over the fence.

 

The Dhumals see red - both leap the fence. Emma is on the ground, screaming; the intruder has pulled a gun. Ash hugs Emma and rolls her out the way while Charlie confronts the intruder, pulling her HUNTING KNIFE. 

 

There’s a moment. Charlie holds her hands up: let’s not do this … But there’s a sound behind the intruder; he spins - BANG!

 

Alex, watching from the door of the house, has a hole in her neck.

 

Charlie leaps on the intruder. They struggle. BANG!

 

A horrifying pause. The intruder’s got Charlie’s knife in his neck - he’s dying.

 

But Charlie has been shot. She lands one last blow on the dying man and falls to the ground. 

 

Charlie tells Ash that he can protect Emma, and she trusts him.

 

In this strand, Charlie genuinely comes to think that Ash is strong enough to protect Emma.

 

She dies. Ash is distraught.

 

Ash tells Emma that he’s going to get them to the Zone, like Charlie wanted.

 

One of the burner phones begins to ring again. Ash answers it.

 

It’s a COUNCIL WORKER IN CORNWALL. He’s confused to hear Ash answering the phone, but he’s desperate: tell Curtis - tell anyone, in fact - that there’s something wrong with the TAP WATER. That’s what’s causing this!

 

12:30am Ash staggers towards the PICK UP POINT. But it’s been destroyed.

 

We see flashes of: DIANA killing NAZIM at the cul-de-sac. VI and Penny arguing at the Pick Up Point, in front of Diana, MAARA and ALI. Curtis separating them and taking Penny’s bracelet. PENNY and Diana driving through the fence. Curtis climbing into a jeep just as PENNY’S CAR hits it; he survives. Penny and Diana. SERGEANT JOHNSON pulling his troops out.

 

Ash needs to figure out what to do next. He realises that he’s lost his COIN.

 

He makes the decision himself: he’ll drive to the Zone. He has a map. He is faced with many difficult decisions as he steals a military vehicle and drives through a wild, unruly England, full of soldiers and angry mobs. But he can do it. We’re in action hero territory here.

 

4am They arrive at the SWANSEA RESETTLEMENT ZONE. But ASH’S TICKET - the one they got from Penny - is for a RHYL RESETTLEMENT ZONE. The SOLDIERS won’t let him in. He tries everything he can think of. He has a message for Curtis! He shows them the maps. Tells them he knows what’s causing the crisis. But they don’t believe him. He hands Emma over or leaves.

 

Ash is crippled by indecision. The man we’ve seen on the way here disappears. He asks if any of them have a coin. Rushes back to the vehicle. Scrabbles around desperately. Finds a 2p piece in the glove compartment.

 

And flips.