WILL

You know what? I don’t feel great, but I do feel better.

HEN

You look better, too!

MASON

Upgraded from handsome zombie cosplayer to handsome sickly man.

WILL

I guess ‘sickly’ is better than ‘undead.’

MASON

Oh, totally.

HEN

So, today we have another interview with Tairam to talk about the election!

MASON

I can’t believe he got elected!

HEN

Hey, don’t spoil it!

MASON

Everyone kind of already knows. Word spreads quick around here.

[door opening]

WILL

Oh, and here he is, the man of the hour.

TAIRAM

Hello, Will. Hi Mason, Hen. How’s your morning going?

HEN

Great!

MASON

It’s been okay?

WILL

Not that you could guess this just by looking at me, but I’ve been worse.

TAIRAM

So you’re feeling better?

WILL

Better than yesterday, at least.

TAIRAM

[relieved] That’s good. So…

MASON

Go on, say it.

TAIRAM

I got elected! I am the newest member of the council of Colony 7-2.

HEN

[squeals] That’s so exciting!!

MASON

It really is so cool, Tairam. You definitely deserve this.

WILL

Flattery will get you nowhere, he can’t go showing favoritism now that he’s on the council.

TAIRAM

Of course I won’t play favorites. But you know you can always come to me with anything, Mason.

MASON

See? The flattery does work!

TAIRAM

[laughs] Not because of the flattery, silly. It’s because you’re my friend.

MASON

D’aww.

HEN

So! Tell us a little bit about your experience in the colony and your hopes for being in the council!

TAIRAM

Sure. I want to make things a lot more transparent to the people, for one; a lot of people are concerned about the other colonies breaking down, and they want confirmation that ours won’t do the same. From the little time I’ve had as councilman, I can confirm that we are doing just fine, but I’d like the information I now have to be available to the people to soothe their worries.

HEN

That sounds like a great first move!

TAIRAM

I certainly hope so.

MASON

Have you learned anything about how long Will is going to be stuck in here? How long they think it’ll take for him to… to either turn, or heal?

TAIRAM

Unfortunately, no, though rest assured I’m fighting for more transparency in that area as well. Will deserves to know more about his condition.

MASON

That would be great. Um, hey, this is out of nowhere, but… could we take you off the air to ask you a couple of questions? Nothing serious, just- personal questions, that’s all.

TAIRAM

You know what? I was about to ask you the very same thing.

HEN

Alright, folks, have some music while we catch up as friends!

[broadcast ends, phone recording starts]

MASON

Okay, now what the hell is going on with this colony?

TAIRAM

I wasn’t lying, things are going fine for the colony as a whole. No malfunctions, no food shortages. We’re okay.

WILL

That’s not what they meant. What about all of the- the-

MASON

The weird shit going on?

WILL

Exactly.

TAIRAM

…That’s what I needed to talk to you about, actually. Dr. Elora has definitely been putting something in your drinks—potentially ‘concentrated zombie virus.’ If not for the vaccine, you would’ve turned by now for sure.

WILL

Holy shit, I knew it! I’ve been pouring out the drinks I see the doc put something in, and I’m already feeling and looking better.

HEN

That’s one hell of a vaccine if it can combat the virus being in concentrated form and administered more than once.

TAIRAM

Wait. If you’re feeling better… that means the vaccine isn’t just preventative, it’s restorative.

MASON

[realizing] It’s not a vaccine… It’s a cure! Holy shit, we have to tell everybody! We could save some of the people still on Earth—not everyone, but the ones who haven’t been turned long enough to rot, at least.

TAIRAM

Hold your horses, Mason. All of this, Will being administered the virus, the vaccine’s power—it’s supposed to be a secret. I wasn’t even supposed to know about it yet. The council-

MASON

You’re really standing with the council after learning that they’re fucking poisoning Will?

TAIRAM

No, Mason, I’m not. What I’m saying is that the council barely has any clue what’s going on. They get orders from a transmitter back on Earth, and they pass those orders on to Dr. Elora.

HEN

So… there’s someone on Earth who wants Will to be sick.

WILL

Maybe they don’t want me to be sick. Maybe they want me to be well, even when I’m in contact with the virus.

MASON

They’re… testing the cure on us? Oh my god, that infected person was let in on purpose, someone wanted them to turn and bite someone!

TAIRAM

I believe so, yes.

MASON

So why, exactly, should we not tell everyone immediately?

TAIRAM

Because we don’t know who’s doing this. If we blame it all on the people getting the orders, then the people getting the orders get replaced with someone else and the orders keep coming through.

MASON

But we could get someone who wouldn’t follow those orders.

TAIRAM

That would be ideal, but we still need to know who’s giving the orders, who orchestrated all of this. If we don’t find that out, then we have no way of truly stopping it.

HEN

Well… how do we do that?

WILL

Daethie’s new job. The escort, the package—it must be related to the vaccine or the virus or both. If we can sneak onto the ship being escorted, it would take us straight to the other half of this problem.

TAIRAM

What? No, that’s beyond dangerous, I can’t let you do that.

MASON

But we can’t afford not to do it, Tairam! We can’t just let this go on. One day they’re going to give Will too high of a dose and he’ll- he’ll turn, or he’ll die, and then they’ll just sneak in another infected and someone else will get bitten.

HEN

Not to mention, maybe our colony is better put-together than the others, but it’s clear the colonies as a whole were a rush job. It’s only a matter of time until that starts to show.

WILL

In short: We don’t have the time it takes to be cautious, Tairam. We need to do something.

TAIRAM

[reluctantly] …There’s another package escort coming tomorrow.

MASON

Yes!

TAIRAM

But I don’t think you or Hen should be the ones to go, Mason. You’re both physically disabled, it’s a bad idea.

MASON

It’s the only idea, Tairam, unless you suggest we send Will alone. Esme is too squeamish, Wyncyn is too nervous. Daethie, as much as I love her, is with the military; we don’t know whether she’d help us or turn us in. There is no one else here we can trust.

TAIRAM

Then I’ll go, and you three will stay here.

MASON

No way! If we stay here and you suddenly disappear off the face of the moon, they’re going to get suspicious, and if they get even the slightest inkling that we know anything, they’re going to get rid of us—especially Will, since he’s the test subject.

TAIRAM

And what if you go? They’ll have lost their test subject, they’ll know you’re onto them, they’ll be on their guard. I’m telling you, it’s too dangerous.

HEN

I… I’ll stay here. I’ll say Will was about to turn. Mason couldn’t stand seeing him have his last moments in this awful quarantine room, so they broke him out. They overpowered me, and they left, and now they’re hiding somewhere in the compound. The entire colony will be on guard looking for them, but the escort ship will want to leave as soon as possible because of the containment breach. If Mason and Will are on that ship when it leaves, they’ll dodge the extra security entirely.

MASON

They’ll question you, Hen. All eyes will be on you.

HEN

We’ll record us having a struggle, I’ll play it once I know you guys are already in position. The guards will come running right to me, and away from you.

WILL

That would make Hen’s story more believable…

TAIRAM

But not airtight. They’ll still question her. If she cracks-

HEN

I won’t. And besides, that’s where you come in—if you act like you really believe me, then that’ll lend credence to my story. Especially since you knew Mason and Will and would know whether or not this is in-character for them.

TAIRAM

What about Esme and Wyncyn? They’ll know this isn’t like you.

WILL

They can keep a secret, I know they can. We can let them in on the plan.

TAIRAM

I don’t know if I like this.

MASON

It’s our only choice, Tairam. Trust us—we can do this.

TAIRAM

…I do trust you. I’ll back you up on this.

MASON

Thank you! Now, we’re going to need a way to communicate with the colony when we find out who’s behind all of this…

HEN

Those receivers the council gets their commands on—are they transmitters, too?

TAIRAM

I think so.

HEN

If you can get two of them to me, I can hook them up to each other. Mason and Will can take one and transmit to the other one, which we can take turns hiding in our rooms. When they find out what’s going on, we can hook our receiver up to my radio equipment and broadcast their discoveries to all three colonies.

TAIRAM

You can do that?

HEN

I can.

WILL

Then… we’re doing this.

MASON

Having second thoughts?

WILL

Not at all. Just… this is big, Mason. And I- I’m still infected. We don’t know if the vaccine will actually help me pull through or not after having the virus slipped to me so many times. If I turn while we’re hiding out on the ship…

MASON

You won’t turn, Will.

WILL

But if I do. You’ll be the only one nearby, and I’m stronger than you even when I’m not a brain-hungry monster.

MASON

You won’t turn. You’re going to get through this, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this shit, together.

WILL

…I love you, Mason.

MASON

I love you too, Will. Hen? Let’s record that struggle. Tairam, go work on getting those transmitters. When does the escort get here?

TAIRAM

A little after breakfast.

MASON

Alright, we’re going to have to time this perfectly. We’ll leave only a few minutes after Dr. Elora does, after she gives Will his breakfast. We’ll sneak through the compound while everyone’s in the mess hall, and once we get to the ship, we’ll quietly transmit to the other receiver. Tairam should have it on him, since they might want to pat down Hen. Tairam will notify Hen that it’s go-time by texting her something innocent about breakfast or whatever, and then Hen will play the struggle audio.

TAIRAM

Got it.

HEN

Sounds like a plan!

WILL

Ha. Fingers crossed, for the sake of the colonies and the lives of our friends.

MASON

Possibly for the lives of the entire world, if we can get this cure distributed.

WILL

I’m hoping we can.

MASON

History in the making.