BLACK WINTER Original horror-action film. Treatment and Screenplay

BLACK WINTER

Original horror-action film — story treatment and condensed screenplay

Written By: Kalifornia Jani - Jani Apukka

Tone: claustrophobic medical horror that expands into a winter survival epic, with practical creature effects, failing technology, and desperate ensemble action.

The plague mutation and reanimation are fictional.
Logline

When a remote Siberian hospital becomes the birthplace of a reanimating plague, a doctor and a Finnish journalist must carry proof of the outbreak across a collapsing continent—before the dead reach the last evacuation corridor on the Finland–Russian Karelia border.

Film	Connection to BLACK WINTER
Resident Evil (2002)	The hospital opening uses enclosed spaces, institutional machinery, restricted access, shutters, and an ensemble trying to escape an outbreak. Ordinary systems become obstacles as the building loses control.
Night of the Living Dead / Dawn of the Dead	The slow, relentless dead create pressure through their numbers. Human fear, denial, and disagreements weaken survival efforts. The zombies still carry traces of their former lives.
28 Days Later	The journey moves through a society whose familiar structures have collapsed. Quiet travel scenes and exhausted survivors make the catastrophe personal. BLACK WINTER’s reanimated dead differ from that film’s living infected.
Contagion	Medical uncertainty, quarantine, transport routes, public messaging, and misinformation shape the outbreak. The quarantine initially helps, making its eventual failure more convincing and tragic.
The Thing	Isolation, cold, and uncertainty about apparently inert bodies create dread. BLACK WINTER develops its own rule: warmth can reactivate the dead, turning shelter and heating into potential threats.
Train to Busan	Evacuation transport becomes a confined survival environment. The strongest emotional connection is the responsibility adults take for children while escape routes narrow.
World War Z	The story expands from a local emergency into an international disaster, with large crowds and successive containment failures. Here, the horde’s force comes from accumulation and sound response rather than exceptional speed.
Diary of the Dead	Elias’s camera raises questions about witnessing, broadcasting, and helping. His development becomes visible when he puts the camera down—and later uses his final transmission to support the evacuation.
Children of Men	The evacuation climax concentrates a much larger crisis around vulnerable people moving through danger. The audience measures success through a child reaching safety, rather than through the destruction of the enemy.

The Resident Evil influence is strongest in the first act. The hospital functions almost like a hostile machine: doors divide people, access controls fail, supplies become unreachable, and the survivors must understand the building to escape.

The middle combines outbreak drama with survival horror. Trains, roads, shelters, and broadcasts keep offering possibilities that expire before the characters reach them. This gives the epidemic a sense of distance and time; the dead don’t simply walk across Siberia overnight.

The final act becomes an evacuation war film. Its tension comes from a concrete question: can the last bus cross before Aino must destroy the bridge? Elias’s sacrifice, Anna protecting Sonya, and Vera distinguishing an injury from infection keep that spectacle attached to individual lives.

What gives BLACK WINTER its own identity is the combination of:

• Warmth becoming dangerous: a comforting heater can awaken the threat.
• A Siberian medical origin: the catastrophe begins among people whose duty is to care.
• Continuous public witnessing: everyone can watch, while reliable information remains difficult to establish.
• The Finland–Karelia crossing: a northern evacuation landscape defines the climax.
• Names and records: the register, drawing, camera, and arrival list preserve people who might otherwise become anonymous casualties.

Why BLACK WINTER should be made

BLACK WINTER offers a powerful cinematic journey: a locked Siberian hospital becomes the beginning of a catastrophe that crosses a continent, ending with the last evacuation buses trying to escape across the Finland–Karelia border.

Winter gives the film its defining horror. Cold slows the dead, but warmth wakes them. A hospital heater, normally a source of comfort, becomes a threat. Snow hides bodies. Gunfire attracts them. A warning siren becomes both a means of rescue and a death sentence.

The epidemic also unfolds in public. Television and the internet show the disaster around the clock, yet people cannot always tell which warnings remain true. The world can watch someone die while still being unable to help.

At its heart are people making difficult choices: a doctor confronting her failures, a teenager grieving her brother, a journalist becoming responsible for the lives he records, and a commander keeping a crossing open at enormous cost.

That combination gives the film its purpose. The spectacle grows from human stakes. By the final battle, the audience understands exactly why one more bus matters.

A message for the reader

Imagine hearing a knock from inside a hospital compartment where you placed a dead patient.

That is where BLACK WINTER begins.

Follow Vera, Elias, and Anna as the places meant to protect them become dangerous: the hospital, the evacuation train, the shelter, and finally the border crossing. Every escape leaves someone behind. Every promise of safety becomes harder to believe.

As you read, hold onto the small things: a brother’s drawing, a repaired toy, a name written in a register. They preserve the lives behind the casualty figures.

The final battle is fought for those lives. Its victory is the arrival of people who might otherwise have disappeared.

BLACK WINTER asks what we owe one another when fear gives us every reason to close the door.

A message for the director

Make the hospital believable before you make it terrifying. Let us recognise its routines, hear its tired machinery, and trust the people working inside it. Then let one impossible movement destroy that trust.

Stay close to the actors. Vera’s fear can appear in a trembling hand. Anna’s grief can live in her refusal to leave a doorway. Elias’s change becomes visible when he puts his camera down to help.

As the catastrophe expands, keep the action clear. Establish the border’s geography before the attack. Make every blocked lane, departing bus, and withdrawal understandable.

Elias’s final scene needs restraint. He is frightened. He keeps working. He sees the bus reach the other side.

Then the siren stops.

Give that silence room. Give the survivors time to arrive and say their names. The film’s greatest image may be the collapsing bridge, but its deepest feeling belongs to the people who crossed it.

Main characters

DR. VERA SOKOLOVA, 38: An infectious-disease physician who once signed a politically convenient death certificate. Her determination to document every victim now becomes both her strength and her burden.

ELIAS LAINE, 34: A Finnish freelance journalist covering hospital closures in Siberia. He believes making people see a disaster will force them to act. He learns that images can also cause panic—and that filming is sometimes an excuse not to help.

ANNA MOROZOVA, 17: A hospital porter who knows the service passages better than the administrators. Her younger brother, MISHA, is among the quarantined patients.

MAJOR PAVEL ORLOV, 46: Commander of the first cordon. He follows orders until headquarters tells him to deny the existence of people he can hear screaming.

CAPTAIN AINO KOSKINEN, 41: Commander of a Finnish border evacuation position. She must keep the passage open for living refugees while preparing to destroy it.

Story treatment
Act I — The ward

Late November. A fictional mining settlement east of Krasnoyarsk disappears beneath an early blizzard. Its regional hospital runs on a failing generator. Vera receives three workers from an excavation exposed by a ground collapse. They have fever, dark swellings, and blackening fingers. One dies before she can finish questioning him.

The initial diagnosis is plague. Authorities establish a cordon, stop public transport, isolate the ward, and begin treatment. For two days, the quarantine appears to work: admissions fall and several patients stabilize. Then the dead worker moves inside a locked cold room.

The hospital's night shift is attacked from within. Security doors separate staff from supplies and trap patients with the dead. An orderly bitten while restraining a patient conceals his wound and boards an authorized medical evacuation vehicle. The quarantine has reduced ordinary transmission while missing an entirely new danger.

Elias is in the hospital interviewing Vera about medicine shortages. He captures the first reanimation on camera. His upload stalls at ninety-eight percent as the network fails.

Vera, Elias, Anna, and Orlov escape through the laundry basement. Misha dies during their attempt to reach him. Anna watches Vera place a sheet over his face—then sees his hand move beneath it. They cannot save him. Anna closes the fire door herself.

Vera takes patient records and a sealed diagnostic specimen. Elias takes a recording that nobody outside the hospital yet believes.
Act II — The world watches

The outbreak does not cross thousands of kilometres on foot overnight. Infected evacuees and concealed bites carry it along transport routes. New outbreaks form farther west; their dead join the enormous crowds moving between settlements. Over several weeks, individual emergencies become a continuous disaster.

Elias finally uploads his footage at a rail depot. Television stations replay it with warnings about manipulation. A live interview ends when something enters the newsroom behind the presenter. By morning, nobody is asking whether the footage is real.

Phones become indispensable and dangerous. Families use live maps to find evacuation points. Old safe-route posts keep circulating after those routes fall. A fabricated cure floods message groups. Emergency broadcasts repeat reliable instructions, but their timestamps vanish in reposts. Elias begins putting the location and recording time inside every frame.

The survivors head west with a medical convoy, trying to deliver Vera's records to a functioning international response team. Cities ahead of them evacuate; cities behind them go silent. Their destination changes whenever the next receiving laboratory closes.

The dead respond strongly to sound and movement. In deep cold, they slow down and may become motionless, but warmth restores their activity. They are not intelligent soldiers: apparent coordination comes from thousands of bodies following the same stimulus. Ordinary wounds seldom stop them; catastrophic destruction of the brain does.

In a rail tunnel, refugees thaw what they believe are frozen corpses so they can recover identification papers. The bodies wake beside the heaters. Orlov holds a stairwell while Anna opens an escape hatch. He is bitten. Later he asks Vera to record his name and what happened to him. He refuses to become an anonymous body in an official report again.

The convoy fragments. Vera, Elias, and Anna reach Russian Karelia with refugees fleeing outbreaks across Eastern Europe. Finland has opened a tightly controlled humanitarian passage. Aino's troops and civilian volunteers operate a screening camp near a fictional border crossing. Beyond it lie buses, ambulances, and the road to evacuation centres.

Vera offers no miraculous cure. Her evidence shows why apparent death and apparent freezing cannot be trusted. Aino orders cold casualties isolated rather than brought into heated wards. The discovery saves the camp's first night.

Then reconnaissance reveals a mass of dead approaching through the forests and along the abandoned road. The border force has hours to evacuate thousands of people.
Act III — The border

The final battle is fought across a road bridge, a customs yard, and the surrounding snowy forest. The bridge is the last practical crossing for the refugee column. Charges are prepared beneath it, but Aino cannot destroy it while buses are still trapped on the eastern approach.

The first assault arrives in darkness. Floodlights reveal bodies packed between the trees. Gunfire draws more. Soldiers fall back through successive barriers while volunteers drive buses through the checkpoint. The battle is broadcast worldwide by Elias; families watch the evacuation numbers climb beside the shrinking countdown.

A generator fire forces everyone to choose: cut the floodlights and lose visibility, or keep them running beside a fuel spill. Aino cuts the power. For several seconds the world sees only darkness and hears the battle.

Anna knows how trapped people behave because she has been one. She guides the final civilians through a drainage passage below the customs building. Vera stays at its exit, examining injuries and making impossible decisions openly, with witnesses.

Elias discovers that an old warning siren across the bridge can draw part of the horde away from the evacuation lane. He crosses to activate it and keeps broadcasting from the control room. The warning becomes a lure. Thousands turn toward its sound.

Anna's last bus stalls halfway across the bridge. Aino leaves her command post to help push a barricade out of its path. Vera climbs aboard and finds Anna holding a wounded child's hand. The child is bleeding from broken glass, not a bite. Vera insists they go.

The bus clears the bridge. Elias cannot return. Over the radio, Aino asks him to confirm his position. He answers honestly. She detonates the charges while the siren is still sounding.

The bridge and control room collapse. The main mass falls into the gorge, buying the evacuation time. Fighting continues along the forest edge: this is a victory at one crossing, not the end of the epidemic.

At dawn, Vera and Anna reach a Finnish reception centre. Elias's last transmission has been preserved across thousands of devices. Vera records the survivors' names before she records the dead.

The final image returns to the ruined crossing. Under fresh snow, a motionless hand rests against a broken heating pipe. Hot water begins to drip over it. A finger bends.

Condensed screenplay — selected sequences

1. The first death

INT. REGIONAL HOSPITAL — ISOLATION WARD — NIGHT

Wind presses snow against the windows. A fluorescent tube flickers above a bed.

VERA counts the breaths of a MINER. His fingers are almost black.

MINER
We found a room under the ice.

VERA
What kind of room?

MINER
No windows. Beds.

He tries to lift his head.

MINER
They were facing the door.

The monitor sounds. Vera reaches for the emergency bell.

CUT TO:

INT. HOSPITAL — COLD ROOM — LATER

A PORTER slides the miner's covered body into storage. He checks the latch and leaves.

Silence.

Three soft knocks from inside.

Then one hard enough to bend the door.
2. Quarantine

EXT. HOSPITAL GATES — MORNING

Soldiers fasten fencing across the entrance. An ambulance idles inside the perimeter.

ELIAS films through the wire. ORLOV lowers the camera with two fingers.

ORLOV
You can record from the other side.

ELIAS
My bag is in the ward.

ORLOV
Then so are you.

Inside the ambulance, an ORDERLY tightens a clean bandage around his wrist. Blood spreads through it.

At the gate, a soldier checks the vehicle's evacuation papers.

He waves it through.
3. The hospital falls

INT. HOSPITAL — SECURITY CORRIDOR — NIGHT

A shutter drops between Vera and the pharmacy.

Beyond the glass, a NURSE walks backward, palms raised.

NURSE
He has no pulse. I checked twice.

A patient in a blood-soaked gown enters behind her.

VERA
Get away from him.

The patient lunges. Elias jerks his camera down.

Anna pulls Vera toward a service door.

ANNA
The laundry. Now.

VERA
There are people in those rooms.

ANNA
And there are people standing here.

They run. Behind them, call bells begin sounding from every ward.
4. The upload

INT. RAIL DEPOT — MAINTENANCE OFFICE — DAWN

Elias holds a cracked phone beside the window.

UPLOAD COMPLETE.

He exhales for the first time in hours.

The first comment appears:

FAKE.

Then another:

MY DAD WORKS THERE. PLEASE ANSWER.

Outside, a freight train rolls west. A hand strikes the inside of a locked carriage.

MONTAGE — THE OUTBREAK BECOMES WORLD NEWS

— A television expert pauses Elias's footage on an open jaw.

— A woman refreshes a missing-person page at a kitchen table.

— A live camera shows people running out of a metro entrance.

— A broadcaster reads evacuation locations from handwritten notes after the studio computers fail.

— A map fills with red markers. The clock beneath it keeps moving.
5. The frozen dead

INT. RAIL TUNNEL — NIGHT

Refugees huddle around a portable heater. Nearby, bodies lie under blankets.

Anna watches water drip from a dead man's boot.

His heel slides across the concrete.

ANNA
Turn it off.

A VOLUNTEER adjusts the heater.

VOLUNTEER
These people are freezing.

ANNA
Turn it off!

The dead man sits up.

Orlov drives him away from the children with a steel chair. More blankets begin moving.

VERA
Everyone to the stairs!
6. The border command post

INT. BORDER COMMAND POST — NIGHT

Aino studies a pencil-marked map. Outside, bus engines rumble.

AINO
You came from the first hospital?

Vera puts a battered patient register on the desk.

VERA
These are the people who died there.

Aino opens it. Names. Times. Vera's signature beside each entry.

AINO
How much time do we have?

VERA
How far away are they?

A radio crackles.

SCOUT (V.O.)
They've reached the abandoned station.

Aino moves a marker on the map. It is closer than anyone expected.

AINO
Start the buses.
7. The battle

EXT. BORDER CROSSING — NIGHT

Floodlights burn over the snow.

At the tree line, one figure emerges. Then twenty. Then the spaces between the trunks fill with bodies.

AINO
Hold until they reach the markers.

A young SOLDIER struggles to keep his breathing quiet.

The first corpse passes a red stake.

AINO
Fire.

The line erupts. Bodies fall. Those behind climb over them.

INT. CUSTOMS BUILDING — CONTINUOUS

Anna ushers families into a narrow maintenance passage.

ANNA
Keep your hand on the coat in front of you. Don't let go.

A child reaches back for a toy left on the floor.

Anna retrieves it and puts it into his hand.

EXT. BRIDGE — CONTINUOUS

Elias runs against the flow of evacuees, toward the siren building.

VERA
Elias!

He turns. Neither can hear the other over the gunfire.

He holds up his phone, still transmitting, then points toward the siren.

Vera understands.

INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM — MOMENTS LATER

Elias pulls a lever.

Nothing.

He sees an isolation switch, throws it, and pulls again.

The siren wakes with a rising mechanical howl.

Outside, the nearest dead begin turning.

ELIAS
(into phone)
This is the Karelia crossing. The evacuation is still moving. If you're watching an older recording, check the time on the screen.

He props the phone against the window.

On the bridge, the final bus stops.
8. The last bus

INT. BUS — NIGHT

Vera kneels beside a wounded GIRL. Anna holds a cloth against the girl's arm.

DRIVER
Was she bitten?

VERA
Glass. Drive.

DRIVER
They said nobody bleeding—

VERA
I examined her. Drive.

EXT. BRIDGE — CONTINUOUS

Aino and two soldiers heave a wrecked barrier clear. The bus engine catches.

It inches forward, then accelerates.

INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM — CONTINUOUS

Something slams against the door.

Elias braces a cabinet beneath the handle.

AINO (V.O.)
Journalist. Are you clear?

Through the window, Elias watches the bus reach the far side.

ELIAS
No.

A pause.

AINO (V.O.)
Can you get clear?

The cabinet shifts. Fingers push through the widening crack.

ELIAS
The bus is across.

EXT. FINNISH SIDE — CONTINUOUS

Aino looks toward the control-room window.

She presses the detonator.

The bridge lifts, breaks, and disappears into smoke.

The siren stops halfway through its note.
9. Morning

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE — DAWN

Rows of survivors sit beneath donated blankets. A television plays silent footage of the destroyed crossing.

Vera sits opposite Anna with a fresh register.

VERA
Your full name?

ANNA
You know my name.

VERA
I want it written here.

Anna looks at the page.

Across the top: ARRIVALS.

ANNA
Anna Sergeyevna Morozova.

Vera writes it down.

EXT. RUINED BORDER CROSSING — MORNING

Snow settles over broken concrete.

A ruptured pipe ticks as hot water escapes.

Under it, a blackened hand.

One finger moves.

CUT TO BLACK.

END.

BLACK WINTER
An original screenplay
First draft

8 October 2026

Russian and Finnish dialogue is presented in English.
Severny and the Kivikoski crossing are fictional.

The plague mutation and reanimation are fictional.



2.
SUPER: SIBERIA. LATE NOVEMBER.

An ambulance skids into the receiving bay.
INT. HOSPITAL - EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT - PREDAWN
DR. VERA SOKOLOVA, 38, has been awake too long. She lifts a
mug of tea, sees something floating in it, puts it down.
NURSE LENA PETROVA, 50, arranges gloves in groups of two.
LENA
Three miners. Fever. One unconscious.
VERA
Exposure?
LENA
They brought him straight from the pit.
The ambulance doors open. A PARAMEDIC helps Leonid inside.
His boots leave black water on the linoleum.
Leonid sees Vera's coat and grabs her sleeve.
LEONID
Don't put us together.
VERA
Why?
LEONID
We were together down there.
She gently removes his hand. The ends of his fingers are
dark.
VERA
Lena. Masks. The side room.
Lena stops counting gloves.
INT. HOSPITAL - SERVICE CORRIDOR - MORNING
ANNA MOROZOVA, 17, pushes a laundry cart with a bad wheel.
She kicks it straight without breaking stride.
MISHA, 10, follows with a bowl of porridge. An oversized
coat hangs off his shoulders.
MISHA
There's a man in my bed.
ANNA
It's a hospital. Beds do that.


3.

MISHA
He snores.
ANNA
Then you have something in common.
He gives her a wounded look. She steals a spoonful of his
porridge.
MISHA
You could get your own.
ANNA
This one's better.
At a locked maintenance door, Anna tilts the cart, reaches
behind the frame, and retrieves a hidden key. Misha watches.
ANNA
If the front door won't open?
MISHA
Find a different door.
ANNA
And don't tell anybody where I put that.
She opens the door with her hip.
INT. HOSPITAL - ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE - MORNING
ELIAS LAINE, 34, sets a small camera on a tripod. A Finnish
flag sticker half conceals an old crack in its body.
Hospital director DR. MARKOV, 60, sits beneath a framed
photograph of an opening ceremony. The paint in the
photograph is considerably newer.
ELIAS
You serve six settlements with one
ambulance?
MARKOV
Two ambulances.
ELIAS
One is on blocks outside.
MARKOV
We are awaiting a part.
Elias glances at his translator's empty chair.


4.

MARKOV
Your interpreter called. Her son has a
fever.
ELIAS
We can do this in Russian.
MARKOV
Then you know the word for patience.
Vera knocks once and enters. She holds a printed result.
VERA
We need to stop admissions through the
main waiting room.
MARKOV
We are in an interview.
VERA
It can wait.
Markov looks at the paper. His expression changes.
He reaches across and covers the camera lens with his hand.
INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION ROOM - DAY
Leonid lies under thin blankets. Vera examines a painful
swelling at his neck. Lena records his temperature.
VERA
What did you find at the excavation?
LEONID
A room.
VERA
Machinery? Waste?
LEONID
Beds.
He coughs into a tissue, folds it to hide the blood.
VERA
How long were you inside?
LEONID
Until the lamp went out.
VERA
Did anyone else go in after you?


5.

Leonid looks toward the wall. On the other side, another
miner coughs.
LEONID
They said to clear the passage.
Vera puts the tissue in a sealed disposal bag.
INT. HOSPITAL - LABORATORY - DAY
A centrifuge rattles on a folded piece of cardboard. LAB
TECHNICIAN IRINA, 29, peers at a screen.
IRINA
The regional lab wants a second sample.
VERA
Because they disagree?
IRINA
Because they don't want to say it first.
Vera reads an incoming message. Then reads it again.
VERA
Treat the other two. Don't wait for
confirmation.
IRINA
What do I tell the staff?
VERA
What we suspect. What precautions to
take. What we don't know.
IRINA
All three?
VERA
Yes.
EXT. HOSPITAL - AFTERNOON
Two military trucks grind through the snow. Soldiers unload
fencing and rolled plastic sheeting.
MAJOR PAVEL ORLOV, 46, steps down from the lead truck. He
checks the hospital, the residential blocks behind it, the
road west.
A mother holds a feverish toddler outside the entrance. A
soldier begins directing her away.
ORLOV
Get a nurse out here.


6.

SOLDIER
We're supposed to seal the entrance.
ORLOV
After the nurse comes out.
INT. HOSPITAL - STAFF ROOM - AFTERNOON
Vera addresses a dozen exhausted staff. Markov stands by the
television, remote in hand.
VERA
The preliminary diagnosis is plague.
We're isolating the affected ward.
Anyone with symptoms reports
immediately. Nobody goes home until we
have a safe transfer procedure.
ORDERLY YURI, 30, raises a hand.
YURI
My mother can't get out of bed alone.
VERA
Give Lena her address. We'll arrange a
welfare visit.
YURI
By soldiers?
ORLOV
By someone who can get through the
cordon.
Elias stands in the doorway.
MARKOV
You are not staff.
ELIAS
Apparently I'm not leaving either.
VERA
Then listen.
She looks at each face before continuing.
INT. HOSPITAL - PEDIATRIC WARD - EVENING
Misha sits by the window, drawing. Anna stuffs a towel along
its draughty sill.
MISHA
Are we going home?


7.

ANNA
When they let us.
MISHA
You said tonight.
ANNA
I didn't know about the fence.
He shows her his drawing: the hospital, enormous wheels
beneath it.
MISHA
Now it can leave.
Anna smiles despite herself. She folds the drawing into her
pocket.
Lena enters with a thermometer.
LENA
Let's see how your chest sounds.
Anna moves aside. Lena's smile stays steady as she listens.
LENA
Anna, get Dr. Sokolova.
INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION ROOM - NIGHT
Vera adjusts Leonid's oxygen. His eyes track her, terrified.
LEONID
I can't feel my legs.
VERA
I'm here.
LEONID
No windows.
VERA
What?
LEONID
That room. No windows. They were all
facing the door.
He struggles for a breath. The monitor alarms.
Vera calls for Lena. Staff pour into the room. A
resuscitation attempt begins.
Later, the room is still.


8.

Vera checks the clock. Writes a time in the patient
register.
Lena covers Leonid's face.
INT. HOSPITAL - COLD ROOM - LATER
Yuri and another orderly slide Leonid's covered body into a
storage compartment.
Yuri scrubs at a stain on his glove.
OTHER ORDERLY
Don't waste the good ones.
Yuri looks at him, then deliberately throws both gloves
away.
They leave. The light switches off.
Three faint knocks.
Silence.
INT. HOSPITAL - OFFICE - NIGHT
Vera types a report. Elias watches from the doorway.
ELIAS
May I ask you something?
VERA
You already did.
ELIAS
Why this hospital?
VERA
It's where the patients are.
ELIAS
You could work somewhere else.
Vera stops typing.
VERA
Are you putting that in your film?
ELIAS
Depends on the answer.
VERA
Then no.


9.

Her computer displays a failed transmission notice. She
clicks RETRY.
ELIAS
Mine isn't sending either.
VERA
They're calling it congestion.
ELIAS
Do you believe them?
VERA
I believe the message hasn't left the
building.
INT. HOSPITAL - DAY - TWO DAYS LATER
New plastic partitions divide the corridors. Staff move
carefully between them.
Lena crosses a name off a fever chart. The patient smiles
weakly.
Irina shows Vera improved laboratory readings.
In pediatrics, Misha drinks soup. Anna touches his forehead.
At the front gate, Orlov receives a report: no new fever
cases in the screened residential block.
INT. HOSPITAL - DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - DAY
Markov sets a clean shirt beside a laptop. On its screen, a
REGIONAL OFFICIAL prepares a video statement.
OFFICIAL
Contained. That's the word we need.
VERA
Admissions are down. We need more
observation time.
OFFICIAL
The cordon is holding?
ORLOV
So far.
OFFICIAL
Then say that.
MARKOV
We can transfer noncritical staff
tomorrow. Reduce pressure on supplies.


10.

VERA
Only after examination.
OFFICIAL
Of course, Doctor.
He ends the call before anyone can add a condition.
INT. HOSPITAL - COLD ROOM - EVENING
Yuri wheels in a body bag. One of the storage handles is
twisted.
He stares at it. Something scrapes inside.
YURI
Hello?
He looks back toward the hall. Nobody.
Yuri unfastens the latch.
The door flies outward. Leonid falls against him, rigid and
freezing.
Yuri catches him reflexively.
LEONID'S teeth close around his wrist.
Yuri screams and slams the door on Leonid's shoulder. The
body keeps pushing. Yuri wedges a trolley under the handle
and runs.
INT. HOSPITAL - WASHROOM - MOMENTS LATER
Yuri holds his wrist under water. A crescent of deep wounds.
He starts shaking.
His phone lights up. MOTHER.
YURI
I'm coming.
MOTHER (V.O.)
They said nobody can leave.
YURI
Tomorrow. They have a vehicle.
He winds a clean bandage around his wrist. Pulls his sleeve
over it.


11.

INT. HOSPITAL - PEDIATRIC WARD - NIGHT
Misha's drawing supplies lie untouched. His breathing is
shallow.
Anna stands beside Vera as she checks him.
ANNA
He ate today.
VERA
I know.
ANNA
He was getting better.
VERA
I'm moving him where we can watch him
closely.
ANNA
Can I go?
VERA
Yes. Put this on first.
She hands Anna protective clothing. Helps with a strap the
girl cannot reach.
INT. HOSPITAL - LOWER CORRIDOR - NIGHT
Elias films peeling paint and water dripping into a bucket.
A low metallic crash interrupts him.
He lowers the camera.
IRINA appears at the cold-room door, clutching a radio.
IRINA
Help me.
Behind the door, the trolley rattles.
ELIAS
Someone's in there?
IRINA
Someone who can't be.
The trolley flips. The door opens.
Leonid stands in the frame, neck bent at a dreadful angle.
Blackened bare feet on the tiles.
Irina raises her hands.


12.

IRINA
Leonid? Can you hear me?
He lunges. Elias grabs her coat and drags her backward.
They retreat through a swing door. Leonid slams into its
glass, splits it with his face, keeps coming.
Elias's camera is still recording.
INT. HOSPITAL - DUTY STATION - CONTINUOUS
Lena hears the screaming and presses an emergency control.
Steel fire shutters descend in distant corridors.
INT. HOSPITAL - LOWER CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS
Irina crawls beneath a descending shutter. Elias follows.
His camera strap catches.
He pulls once. Nothing.
Leonid reaches through the narrowing space. Nails tear
Elias's bag.
Irina cuts the strap with trauma scissors. Elias rolls clear
as the shutter hits the floor.
For a moment there is only their breathing.
Then pounding from the other side.
INT. HOSPITAL - DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT
Vera watches Elias's recording. Markov backs away from the
laptop.
MARKOV
You wrote him dead.
VERA
He was dead.
MARKOV
How certain?
VERA
Certain enough to call his wife.
Orlov examines the still image.
ORLOV
Where is he now?


13.

IRINA
Behind the fire shutter.
ORLOV
Anybody bitten?
Irina checks her sleeves. Elias does the same.
VERA
Where's Yuri? He moved the body.
Markov looks at the signed transfer list on his desk.
EXT. HOSPITAL GATE - SAME TIME
A medical minibus rolls toward the exit. Yuri sits behind
the driver, his face gray.
A SOLDIER checks the paperwork.
SOLDIER
You've been examined?
Yuri nods.
The soldier sees the director's signature, raises the
barrier.
From the hospital, Orlov runs toward the gate, shouting into
his radio.
The minibus turns into the blizzard. Its taillights
disappear.
INT. HOSPITAL - DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT
Vera confronts Markov.
VERA
Who examined him?
MARKOV
It was an administrative clearance. He
was staff.
VERA
Who examined him?
He has no answer.
Elias tries to upload the recording. Progress creeps to
ninety-eight percent.
Stops.


14.

ELIAS
Give me your connection.
MARKOV
It's the same connection.
ELIAS
Then give me the password anyway.
INT. HOSPITAL - SECURITY CORRIDOR - LATER
Orlov and two soldiers approach the fire shutter. Vera
follows behind with Irina.
ORLOV
We lift it halfway. See what we're
dealing with.
VERA
Keep your distance.
The shutter rises.
Leonid lies on the floor, apparently still.
SOLDIER
He's down.
The soldier ducks through.
Leonid's hand closes around his ankle. The soldier falls.
His rifle discharges into the ceiling.
Orlov drags him back while the other soldier fires into
Leonid's chest.
Leonid gets up.
ORLOV
Again!
A shot strikes Leonid's forehead. He drops and does not
move.
Everyone stares.
VERA
Nobody touches him.
The injured soldier pulls up his trouser leg. A deep bite
above the boot.


15.

INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION WARD - LATER
The bitten soldier sits behind plastic sheeting. Orlov
leaves a bottle of water within reach.
SOLDIER
How long do I sit here?
ORLOV
Until the doctor knows more.
SOLDIER
Am I in trouble?
ORLOV
No.
Orlov stays until the soldier believes him.
In the next room, Vera listens to Misha's chest. Anna
watches the door.
ANNA
I heard shots.
VERA
Stay with your brother.
ANNA
Is that an answer?
Vera meets her eyes.
VERA
No. I don't have one you should have to
hear yet.
INT. HOSPITAL - TELEPHONE ROOM - NIGHT
Orlov speaks on a military handset.
ORLOV
One deceased patient became violent
after documented death. One soldier
injured. A staff transport left before
we could stop it.
COMMAND VOICE (V.O.)
Do not use that wording.
ORLOV
Which wording?


16.

COMMAND VOICE (V.O.)
Documented death. Put the hospital back
in control and submit a corrected
report.
ORLOV
I can send you the recording.
COMMAND VOICE (V.O.)
Secure the recording. Restrict civilian
communications.
Orlov looks through the glass at Elias, trying another
upload.
ORLOV
The transport vehicle. Have they located
it?
COMMAND VOICE (V.O.)
We're handling it.
The line clicks dead.
INT. HOSPITAL - LABORATORY - NIGHT
Vera watches Irina seal a diagnostic specimen inside a rigid
transport container.
IRINA
Regional lab says hold everything. No
courier.
VERA
Keep the logs with it.
IRINA
They already have our logs.
VERA
They have what arrived. We don't know
what arrived.
Irina copies files to a memory device. The computer flickers
as the lights dip.
IRINA
If this is still plague, why are they
getting up?
VERA
I don't know.
IRINA
You can say that to me.


17.

VERA
I just did.
They share a thin, frightened smile.
INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION WARD - PREDAWN
Lena moves between beds. A miner's monitor has stopped. She
checks him, reaches for a sheet.
His fingers close around her wrist.
LENA
Doctor?
She tries to free herself. His eyes open, clouded white.
Across the corridor, the bitten soldier begins convulsing.
INT. HOSPITAL - OFFICE - CONTINUOUS
Vera wakes at her desk to a crash. Elias looks up from the
failed upload.
A call bell. Then three. Then all of them.
INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION WARD - CONTINUOUS
Lena backs toward the door, one sleeve torn. Vera reaches
the observation window.
LENA
He has no pulse. I checked twice.
Behind Lena, the miner rises off his bed.
VERA
Open the side door!
Lena turns. The bitten soldier slams against it from the
other side.
The miner catches her.
Vera looks for the release. Markov, at the duty station, has
already activated the lockdown.
A shutter descends between Vera and the observation window.
Lena's hand strikes the glass once.
Then the shutter covers it.


18.

INT. HOSPITAL - DUTY STATION - CONTINUOUS
Vera grabs Markov's wrist.
VERA
Lift it.
MARKOV
That's the infected ward.
VERA
My nurse is in there.
MARKOV
They all are.
He rips his arm free, bolts toward the stairs.
Anna runs past him in the opposite direction.
ANNA
Misha!
Vera follows her.
INT. HOSPITAL - PEDIATRIC ISOLATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Misha lies very still. Anna touches his face. It is already
cooling.
Vera listens, checks, tries to find anything.
Anna watches her until she stops.
ANNA
Do something else.
VERA
Anna.
ANNA
Something you haven't done.
The pounding begins at the far corridor door.
Vera pulls the sheet over Misha's face. Anna grabs the edge.
ANNA
Wait.
His hand moves beneath it.
Anna's hope lights up before Vera can stop it.


19.

Then the covered head turns too far. Teeth snap against the
sheet.
Vera pulls Anna back. Misha tumbles off the bed and crawls
toward them.
They retreat. Anna's heel catches a toy truck. She falls.
Vera hauls her through the door. Anna stares at her
brother's small hand reaching after them.
She closes the door herself.
INT. HOSPITAL - CENTRAL STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS
Markov reaches a security door, fumbles his card, drops it.
Below him, the dead climb the stairs. Hospital gowns. A
soldier's uniform. Lena's torn sleeve.
MARKOV
I'm the director!
He finds his card. Swipes. The lock flashes red.
He pounds on the door as the figures reach the landing.
INT. HOSPITAL - LABORATORY - CONTINUOUS
Irina shoves the sealed container into Vera's bag and hands
her the memory device.
IRINA
Someone outside has to look at this.
A body hits the corridor window.
Elias spots blood on Irina's coat.
ELIAS
Are you hurt?
Irina rolls back her sleeve. A bite at the elbow.
Vera moves toward her.
IRINA
Don't stay because you know my name.
VERA
Come with us. We'll separate you in the
vehicle.
Irina picks up a key ring, presses it into Anna's hand.


20.

IRINA
Which way?
ANNA
Laundry.
IRINA
I'll keep this door shut.
She pushes them out through the service entrance. Turns the
lock behind them.
Vera tries the handle once.
IRINA
(through door)
Go.
INT. HOSPITAL - LAUNDRY BASEMENT - CONTINUOUS
Anna leads through steam and hanging sheets. Orlov joins
them from a stairwell, his remaining soldier nowhere in
sight.
ORLOV
The front entrance is lost.
ANNA
We don't need it.
A laundry cart rattles across their path. Something crawls
behind it.
Elias raises his camera, then sees Anna struggling with a
heavy door.
He puts the camera down and helps her.
Orlov fires once. The sound brings answering movement from
behind the sheets.
ANNA
No more. This way.
She slides under a pipe, unlocks the coal-delivery hatch.
EXT. HOSPITAL - REAR YARD - PREDAWN
They climb out into snow. The hospital towers above them,
alarms sounding through sealed windows.
Orlov finds a service van with the keys still inside. Elias
loads Vera's bag.
Anna turns back toward the building.


21.

A small silhouette stands at a second-floor window.
Too far away to know whose.
VERA
Anna.
She gets in.
EXT. SEVERNY - PREDAWN
The van passes the rear cordon. A soldier lies in the road
beside an overturned barrier. Orlov slows, sees the man's
jaw working against the snow, accelerates.
On the highway, emergency lights glow ahead.
The medical minibus sits sideways in a ditch, its windows
broken from inside.
Yuri's bandage hangs from a seat handle.
Orlov drives west.
EXT. FOREST ROAD - MORNING
The van stops beneath power lines. Steam escapes from its
radiator.
Orlov lifts the hood. Vera lays their supplies on a blanket
in the snow: a few medical packs, water, a sealed specimen
container, the patient register.
Elias checks his phone. No service.
Anna sits inside, hands buried in her coat pockets.
ORLOV
There's a freight depot thirty
kilometres south. Fuel, maintenance, a
telephone.
ELIAS
And people.
ORLOV
Yes.
ELIAS
Do we warn them before we arrive?
Orlov holds up his silent radio.
ORLOV
Tell me how.


22.

Vera writes down the time and their condition.
ELIAS
You're keeping a diary?
VERA
Observations.
ELIAS
Of us?
VERA
We've been exposed. We need to know if
anything changes.
Anna gets out. Vera offers to examine her hands. Anna
refuses, then reluctantly extends them.
No wounds.
VERA
Anything hurts, tell me.
ANNA
Everything hurts.
Vera lets her hands go.
EXT. FREIGHT DEPOT - DAY
A sprawling rail yard under gray skies. Freight cars stand
in long dark rows. A locomotive idles beside a platform
crowded with workers.
The van approaches a temporary barrier. Two railway security
guards raise their weapons.
GUARD
Stop there. Engine off.
Orlov complies, displays identification through the glass.
GUARD
Where from?
ORLOV
Severny hospital.
The guard backs away.
ORLOV
We need isolation space. And your
supervisor needs to hear us now.


23.

INT. DEPOT - MAINTENANCE OFFICE - DAY
DEPOT MANAGER TAMARA, 55, listens without interrupting. A
battered kettle boils beside her.
Elias shows the recording on a monitor. Tamara watches
Leonid rise after the chest wounds.
TAMARA
You sent this to the regional
authorities?
ORLOV
They told me to secure it.
TAMARA
That's not the same thing.
She picks up her desk phone.
TAMARA
(into phone)
No passenger movement until I release
it. Yes, all platforms. Medical
restriction.
She sets the phone down. It rings immediately. She ignores
it.
TAMARA
There's an examination team here. They
can check you.
VERA
Keep anyone dead somewhere secure. Away
from the waiting area.
Tamara studies her to see if it is a joke.
TAMARA
All right.
Elias plugs a cable into his computer. The stalled upload
resumes.
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
He sits back. The first comment appears.
FAKE.
Then: MY DAD WORKS THERE. PLEASE ANSWER.


24.

INT. DEPOT - STORAGE ROOM - AFTERNOON
The survivors sit spaced apart while a medic examines them.
Vera lets the medic take her temperature before making any
requests.
Anna studies a wall map. Her finger follows a railway line
west.
ANNA
How far to Finland?
ELIAS
From here? Far.
ANNA
Does your family live there?
ELIAS
My sister does.
ANNA
You should call her.
ELIAS
I tried.
ANNA
Try again.
He does. The call goes through.
ELIAS
Sanni? It's me.
SANNI (V.O.)
I saw the video. Tell me you're
somewhere else.
ELIAS
I'm out of the hospital.
SANNI (V.O.)
That's not what I asked.
He looks at the sealed storage-room door.
ELIAS
We're being checked. There are people
helping us.
SANNI (V.O.)
Come home.


25.

ELIAS
I'll call when I know how.
SANNI (V.O.)
You always say that.
The connection breaks.
INT. DEPOT - MAINTENANCE OFFICE - AFTERNOON
Tamara gives Vera the phone. On a video call: DR. NADIA
BELOVA, 44, at a regional receiving laboratory.
BELOVA
We have your original results. And the
video.
VERA
You believe it?
BELOVA
An ambulance arrived here this morning
with two dead attendants. One injured
the receiving nurse.
Vera closes her eyes for a second.
BELOVA
I want the timeline and the original
files. Don't open or divide the
specimen. A medical rail movement leaves
your depot tonight. We're arranging a
secure compartment.
ORLOV
Who is escorting it?
BELOVA
You, if you're willing.
Orlov looks at Vera, then Tamara.
ORLOV
I am.
INT. DEPOT - CANTEEN - EVENING
A television loops Elias's footage beneath a banner:
UNCONFIRMED HOSPITAL INCIDENT.
A STUDIO PRESENTER talks over a paused image of Leonid.


26.

PRESENTER (ON TV)
Officials urge viewers not to share
material from unidentified sources.
Essential travel continues under
additional health screening.
A railway worker notices Elias at a table.
WORKER
That's your film?
ELIAS
Yes.
WORKER
My wife won't let the children come home
from school. She's seen that all
morning.
ELIAS
Where is the school?
WORKER
Here. Where do you think?
Elias has no reassuring answer.
Anna carries a tray past them. The worker sees the hospital
badge on her coat and moves his chair away.
She sits with her back to the television.
EXT. DEPOT PLATFORM - NIGHT
A medical transport train waits under floodlights. Medics
screen passengers. A loudspeaker tells families to keep
documents ready.
A woman named GALINA, 32, struggles with a bag and her
daughter SONYA, 7. Sonya carries a plush hare missing one
ear.
Anna catches the bag before it falls onto the track.
GALINA
Thank you.
SONYA
It's got medicine in it.
GALINA
Things we need.
Anna notices a photograph tucked under the bag's clear
luggage label: Galina, Sonya, a man in a work uniform.


27.

ANNA
Where's he?
GALINA
Waiting farther west.
Anna helps them aboard.
INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - SECURE COMPARTMENT - NIGHT
Vera straps the transport container beneath a seat. Orlov
inspects the compartment door. Elias sits opposite Anna.
Outside, Tamara gives a signal. The train starts moving.
Anna places Misha's drawing on her lap. Smooths a crease.
ELIAS
He drew that?
She nods.
ELIAS
May I see?
ANNA
No.
He accepts it. Puts away his camera.
INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - GALLEY - LATER
Vera finds Orlov making tea from a paper ration packet.
ORLOV
I reported the minibus three times.
VERA
Then write down when.
ORLOV
You think paper will help?
VERA
It can't change itself afterward.
He hands her a cup.
ORLOV
You sound experienced.
Vera looks down the narrow carriage.


28.

VERA
There was a gas release at a plant where
I worked. The director wanted three
deaths called heart failure. It would
keep the plant open.
ORLOV
And you refused.
VERA
I signed one.
Orlov stops stirring.
VERA
He had children. They needed the
compensation. I told myself that was
why.
ORLOV
Did they get it?
VERA
No. Natural causes.
She returns to the compartment, leaving her tea untouched.
INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - PASSENGER CARRIAGE - NIGHT
Sonya sleeps against Galina. Passengers scroll through their
phones.
A man plays a video loudly: someone claiming heat will cure
the illness. A woman asks him to turn it down.
MAN
You should listen. Doctors are hiding
this.
Galina lowers the phone Sonya has been watching. Her
daughter wakes.
SONYA
Is Papa coming?
GALINA
Sleep a little longer.
At the far end of the carriage, an elderly passenger begins
coughing. Every conversation stops.


29.

EXT. RAIL LINE - NIGHT
The train cuts through forest. In the distance, smoke rises
over a small town. Ambulance lights flash on a parallel
road.
INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - SECURE COMPARTMENT - DAY
SUPER: DAY 6.
Belova's face freezes mid-sentence on Vera's laptop. The
image returns with her in different lighting, the laboratory
almost dark.
BELOVA
Don't come to our station.
VERA
We're an hour away.
BELOVA
Receiving is closed. We had an incident
in the holding room.
VERA
Are you safe?
Belova looks away. A crash somewhere off screen.
BELOVA
I sent your records onward. There is a
national team farther west. I'll message
the route.
VERA
Nadia, leave the room.
BELOVA
I'm shutting down the archive first.
The call ends.
Elias sees Vera staring at the blank screen.
ELIAS
Did she send it?
A message arrives. Vera opens it.
VERA
Yes.


30.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - CONDUCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY
Orlov and Vera confront the CONDUCTOR. The train has slowed.
CONDUCTOR
Every service is being diverted. I can't
make my own line.
ORLOV
Don't stop at the receiving station.
CONDUCTOR
They control the signals.
Vera shows him Belova's message.
VERA
You have families aboard. Get dispatch
to read this.
The conductor reaches for his radio.
INT. REGIONAL TELEVISION STUDIO - DAY
A NEWS ANCHOR interviews a hospital spokesman remotely.
Behind her, a producer watches a monitor with growing alarm.
ANCHOR
Several hospitals have reported patients
moving after resuscitation was
abandoned. How are you advising staff to
respond?
SPOKESMAN (ON MONITOR)
I can't confirm the circumstances of
those reports.
Through the studio's glass door, a security guard backs into
view. Something pulls him out of frame.
The producer waves urgently.
ANCHOR
We seem to have a technical issue--
The glass door breaks. A bloodied man stumbles into the
studio and catches the producer by the throat.
The anchor gets up, knocks over her chair.
The camera keeps transmitting an empty desk. A scream. A
crash. Someone crawls briefly through the bottom of the
image.
Then a test card.


31.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - PASSENGER CARRIAGE - SAME TIME
Passengers watch the live feed on several phones. Silence
spreads along the carriage.
The man who recommended heat turns his own phone over.
MONTAGE - THE WESTWARD SPREAD
-- Day 8. An airport terminal empties around abandoned
luggage. A departure board changes every flight to
CANCELLED.
-- In a Moscow apartment, a grandmother tapes blankets over
her windows while a news channel runs through the night.
-- A freight yard outside a western city. Workers cut open a
sealed wagon. They run before its doors have fully slid
apart.
-- A Polish emergency broadcast advises people to avoid
crowded transit stations. A woman writes the information on
the wall of her building's lobby for neighbours without
power.
-- In a Baltic newsroom, a producer moves red pins across a
map. The pattern follows roads, railways, evacuation routes.
-- Footage from a motorway: a mass of dead walking past
stalled cars. More join them from a burning service area.
-- Day 11. Emergency instructions translated into dozens of
languages appear on screens. Competing claims, old clips,
missing-person appeals scroll beside them without pause.
INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - SECURE COMPARTMENT - NIGHT
The train stands still. Vera listens to a railway dispatch
recording sent to Orlov's radio.
DISPATCH (V.O.)
Bridge inspection incomplete. Remain at
present location. Further instructions
to follow.
ORLOV
They've said that for four hours.
Anna peers outside. People are leaving a distant farmhouse
with bundles, walking toward the railway.
ANNA
They're coming here.
Elias steps up beside her.


32.

ELIAS
They can see the lights.
EXT. MEDICAL TRAIN - NIGHT
The conductor lowers a step for the approaching families.
The medical staff protest; he points to the snow.
CONDUCTOR
You want them to stay out there?
Vera moves to the platform with her examination kit.
VERA
One family at a time.
INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - DAY
SUPER: DAY 13.
The carriage is now crowded. Water bottles empty. Battery
icons red.
Galina trades crackers for a phone charger. Sonya draws on
the back of an evacuation form.
Elias records a message in the vestibule.
ELIAS
This recording was made at fourteen ten,
local time, on the date shown. We're
stopped west of the last operating
transfer station. The rail route is not
confirmed open.
He adds a large time and date directly over the image before
uploading.
A new message from Sanni: I'M VOLUNTEERING AT A RECEPTION
CENTRE. TELL ME YOUR ROUTE WHEN YOU CAN.
He types: STILL MOVING WEST.
Deletes MOVING. Writes: TRYING TO MOVE WEST.
EXT. RAIL LINE - AFTERNOON
Orlov and the conductor walk ahead of the train toward a
junction. The signal cabinet stands open. Its operator lies
in the snow.
The conductor starts toward him. Orlov catches his arm.
The operator's hand twitches.


33.

ORLOV
Stay back.
The body rises slowly, its joints locked by cold. It turns
toward their voices.
The conductor cannot look away.
ORLOV
Take the key from the cabinet. Not his
pocket.
The conductor reaches carefully. A metal key ring falls,
jingles against a rail.
The operator turns sharply toward the sound.
Orlov steps sideways, drawing it away while the conductor
retrieves the keys.
INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - SECURE COMPARTMENT - EVENING
Vera records Orlov's account. Elias reviews footage he took
through the window.
ELIAS
It followed you when you spoke. Stopped
when you stopped.
VERA
One observation. We need to remember
that.
ANNA
The ones in the laundry did it too.
Vera adds a second line.
EXT. RAIL SIDING - NIGHT
A convoy of buses and medical vehicles parks alongside the
train. A transport official, LEBEDEV, 40, meets the
conductor.
LEBEDEV
Line ahead is blocked. Road transfer to
a western coordination point.
CONDUCTOR
All passengers?
LEBEDEV
As many as fit. Another group follows.
Orlov takes him aside.


34.

ORLOV
Where is the second group?
LEBEDEV
Being arranged.
ORLOV
Show me the vehicles.
Lebedev cannot.
INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - PASSENGER CARRIAGE - NIGHT
The conductor announces a transfer. People start grabbing
bags.
Anna puts her own small bag down and helps Galina lift
Sonya, asleep, from the seat.
GALINA
Where's yours?
ANNA
I have pockets.
Elias notices a MAN pressing a phone against his ear.
MAN
They told us the westbound terminal is
safe. The video says so.
ELIAS
When was it recorded?
MAN
It was posted ten minutes ago.
Elias takes a closer look. The footage shows sunlight at a
place that is now dark. He recognises a broadcaster whose
channel went offline days earlier.
ELIAS
That's an old recording. Don't go there.
MAN
You know every road now?
ELIAS
No. I know that recording is old.
The man hesitates, then follows the transfer queue.


35.

EXT. RAIL SIDING - LATER
Every vehicle is full. Passengers remain on the platform.
The conductor stands among them.
ORLOV
Come in the medical van.
CONDUCTOR
Someone has to keep the heat on here.
Orlov looks at the waiting families.
ORLOV
We'll send help back.
CONDUCTOR
Send fuel. Help needs fuel too.
He gives Orlov a paper with the siding coordinates.
INT. MEDICAL VAN - NIGHT
Vera rests the transport container between her boots. Elias
sits beside a DRIVER named VIKTOR, 45. Orlov checks the road
map.
Anna watches the train disappear through the rear windows.
VIKTOR
First time this far west?
Anna nods.
VIKTOR
Bad tour.
She almost smiles.
EXT. MOTORWAY - DAWN
The convoy passes abandoned vehicles. Some have doors open,
belongings scattered. Others are occupied by shapes still
moving behind fogged glass.
On a hillside beyond the road, hundreds of figures walk in
the same direction as the convoy.
Elias films through the windshield, then lowers the camera.
ELIAS
How many towns?


36.

ORLOV
Don't count from this road. We don't
know what's beyond it.
EXT. SERVICE AREA - DAY
A temporary aid station. Volunteers hand out water. A
handwritten board lists routes reported open and the time of
each report.
Vera finds a MEDICAL COORDINATOR, 50, speaking into two
radios.
COORDINATOR
The national lab is evacuating. We're
redirecting medical material north-west.
VERA
We've been redirected twice.
COORDINATOR
Most of us have.
Vera shows him the container, register, copied records.
VERA
These are from the first hospital. We
have observed reactivation after cold
exposure.
He stops juggling radios.
COORDINATOR
Wait here.
INT. SERVICE AREA - KITCHEN - DAY
Elias films a volunteer sorting medications. A WOMAN spots
his camera and shoves a photograph toward it.
WOMAN
Put him on television. They showed you.
Show him.
ELIAS
I can record his name and where you last
saw him.
WOMAN
He was on a bus. They took the bus away.
Which bus? Nobody writes anything down.
Anna watches from the doorway. Elias lowers himself to the
woman's eye level.


37.

ELIAS
Tell me his name first.
He records without turning the camera toward her tears.
EXT. SERVICE AREA - AFTERNOON
The coordinator gives Vera a contact number and a printed
message.
COORDINATOR
An international medical intake is
operating behind the Finnish border.
They're accepting sealed records and
specimens. Convoys are going through
Karelia.
ELIAS
Which crossing?
COORDINATOR
Kivikoski. Don't expect it to stay open
indefinitely.
Vera reads the message twice.
VERA
Who confirmed this?
COORDINATOR
A doctor there. Forty minutes ago.
He points to the timestamp.
EXT. SERVICE AREA - MOMENTS LATER
Anna sits on a curb with Sonya. Sonya offers her the damaged
hare.
SONYA
Can you fix the ear?
ANNA
I don't have the other one.
SONYA
Can you make a new one?
Anna examines a spare glove. Tears a strip from its cuff.
SONYA
Did you have a sister?
ANNA
A brother.


38.

SONYA
Where is he?
Anna works on the toy.
ANNA
He couldn't come.
Sonya accepts the answer without asking why.
INT. MEDICAL VAN - EVENING
The convoy pulls away. Galina and Sonya travel in the first
bus. Anna watches their window until the bus rounds a curve.
Vera checks her supplies. A corner of Misha's drawing
protrudes from Anna's pocket.
VERA
I'm sorry I couldn't save him.
ANNA
Did you know he could die when you moved
him?
VERA
Yes.
ANNA
You should have told me.
VERA
Yes.
Anna looks out the window. Vera lets the silence remain.
EXT. VILLAGE ROAD - NIGHT
The convoy slows. A farmhouse burns on the road ahead.
Shapes move in its light.
Viktor switches off his headlights. The buses behind follow
suit.
A body steps into the road. Then another.
The convoy waits in darkness.
An impatient driver at the rear sounds his horn.
Every figure turns.
VIKTOR
Idiot.


39.

He pulls hard to the left. The convoy detours onto a logging
track.
Bodies follow the buses, others emerge between trees. One
slams against the van's side. Vera braces the container as
the van pitches.
Anna grips the ceiling handle, breath caught.
ORLOV
Stay on the tracks. Don't stop.
EXT. LOGGING TRACK - LATER
The convoy halts in a clearing. One bus has shredded a tire.
Passengers step into the cold while Viktor checks damage.
Lebedev argues with a driver. Orlov listens to intermittent
radio traffic.
LEBEDEV
We go north in the morning.
ORLOV
We can't sit with engines running.
They'll hear us.
VIKTOR
There's an old rail tunnel nearby. Road
access at the maintenance entrance. Out
of the wind.
Vera looks at the passengers, shivering in thin coats.
VERA
We need shelter. With a separate holding
area.
EXT. RAIL TUNNEL - NIGHT
The vehicles stop outside a disused tunnel cut through a
rocky ridge. Snow has drifted across the rails.
An emergency access building stands to one side. A staircase
inside climbs toward a maintenance exit on the ridge.
Volunteers string battery lamps. The refugees move in
slowly, uncertain of the dark.
INT. RAIL TUNNEL - NIGHT
At the far end, beneath blankets, lie several bodies left by
an earlier group.
Vera stops the nearest volunteer.


40.

VERA
Keep that section closed. Nobody touches
them.
VOLUNTEER
We need their documents. Families are
asking.
VERA
We can record where they are. First we
secure the area.
She stretches cord across the tunnel. Places a handwritten
warning beside it.
Orlov assigns two volunteers to watch.
INT. TUNNEL - LATER
Refugees sit around portable heaters. Anna knots the
substitute ear onto Sonya's hare.
SONYA
It's longer.
ANNA
Better hearing.
Sonya smiles. Anna returns the toy.
Galina's phone finally connects. She turns away to speak to
her husband.
GALINA
We're coming through Karelia. Please
don't move again. Just tell me where you
are.
Her smile fades as she listens.
INT. TUNNEL - MEDICAL AREA - SAME TIME
Vera examines a sick man. His family waits nearby. Elias
helps hold the lamp.
VERA
How long has he had the fever?
WIFE
Since yesterday. He's not bitten. He's
not.
VERA
I heard you. He needs treatment and
separation while we watch him.


41.

WIFE
You mean take him away.
VERA
You can sit where he can see you.
Vera arranges chairs on opposite sides of the temporary
barrier.
INT. TUNNEL - BODY HOLDING AREA - SAME TIME
A volunteer hears a phone ringing beneath one of the
blankets.
He looks toward the distant medical area, then ducks under
the cord. A WOMAN follows.
WOMAN
It might be my son's.
VOLUNTEER
Wait there.
He lifts a blanket. A frozen man, wallet visible beneath his
coat.
The volunteer tries to open the coat. The fabric is frozen
stiff.
He drags a heater closer.
INT. TUNNEL - NIGHT
Anna looks up from Sonya's toy. Water trickles past her
boot.
At the far end, a dead man's heel slowly slides over the
concrete.
ANNA
Turn it off.
The volunteer doesn't hear her.
ANNA
Turn the heater off!
The frozen man opens his eyes.
The woman screams. The corpse grabs the volunteer by the
coat, pulling him down.
Orlov runs toward them with a steel chair. Hits the corpse
hard enough to separate it from the volunteer.


42.

Another blanket rises.
VERA
Stairs! Everybody to the stairs!
People surge toward the access building. Someone falls.
Elias sets his camera down and lifts the man.
Anna catches Sonya's hand. Galina runs beside them.
INT. TUNNEL ACCESS STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS
The lower door swings inward under the press of bodies.
Orlov and Viktor force it back.
Above, Anna reaches a maintenance hatch. Padlocked.
She tries Irina's keys. Wrong. Another. Wrong.
Behind her, the stairwell fills.
SONYA
Anna?
Anna stares at the lock. Stops trying the keys.
She studies the hatch frame, reaches behind a loose cover
plate.
A release latch.
She pulls. The whole inner frame swings free.
ANNA
This way!
EXT. RIDGE MAINTENANCE EXIT - CONTINUOUS
Families crawl into snow. Elias helps pull them out.
Below, engines start. Drivers who remained outside move the
vehicles toward the upper service track.
INT. ACCESS STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS
Orlov braces the lower door. A dead hand thrusts through the
gap, catches his glove.
Viktor swings the chair. Too late.
Teeth close above Orlov's cuff.
Orlov tears free. Viktor sees the wound. Orlov sees him see
it.


43.

ORLOV
Go up.
VIKTOR
Pavel--
ORLOV
Hold the top hatch open.
Viktor goes. Orlov wedges the chair into the door, retreats
up the stairs.
EXT. RIDGE - LATER
The convoy reforms, fewer people than before. Volunteers
call names into the snow.
Vera kneels beside the bitten volunteer. He is already
deteriorating. The woman who wanted the phone sits nearby,
empty-handed.
Orlov stands apart from the group.
ORLOV
Doctor.
He rolls back his sleeve.
Vera takes a long breath.
VERA
We isolate you. Start treatment. Watch
what happens.
ORLOV
Don't make promises.
VERA
I didn't.
EXT. SERVICE TRACK - PREDAWN
The convoy leaves. Orlov sits alone in the rear of the
medical van, a temporary transparent barrier between him and
the others.
Anna watches him from her seat. He tries to pull on his
glove, cannot make his fingers work.
She looks away so he doesn't have to see her watching.


44.

INT. MEDICAL VAN - MORNING
Orlov sweats despite the cold. Vera checks him through an
opening in the barrier. Elias records at Orlov's request.
ORLOV
Pavel Antonovich Orlov. Major. I
commanded the first hospital cordon.
He swallows painfully.
ORLOV
The quarantine reduced new cases. It did
not contain people who left before
symptoms were reported. The transfer
from Severny left at twenty-two forty on
the third night.
VERA
You can rest.
ORLOV
Write my soldier's name too. Kirill
Denisov. He entered because I told him
to.
Elias keeps the camera steady.
ORLOV
I was ordered to change the report. I
did not change it.
He turns to Vera.
ORLOV
When I stop talking, don't leave me
where anyone can make a mistake.
EXT. ROADSIDE CHAPEL - DAY
A tiny wooden chapel beside a snowed-in road. Viktor parks
the van. The buses wait farther away.
Vera, Elias, and Anna stand outside while Orlov sits on the
chapel steps behind a closed wire gate.
VERA
I'll stay where I can see you.
ORLOV
You need to get the others through.
He takes off his watch. Places it on the step outside the
gate.


45.

ORLOV
There's an address inside the strap. If
anyone gets there.
Elias picks it up.
ORLOV
Don't make me brave in your film. I was
frightened in that stairwell.
ELIAS
I know.
ORLOV
Good.
Anna steps closer.
ANNA
You kept the door shut.
Orlov gives her a tired nod. It matters to him more than
anything else they could say.
Vera remains until his breathing stops.
She records the time.
Then, after a long stillness, movement beneath his coat.
Elias puts his camera away. Viktor, waiting out of view with
Orlov's rifle, looks to Vera.
She closes her eyes and nods.
A single shot.
EXT. ROAD WEST - AFTERNOON
The convoy passes a sign pointing toward Karelia.
Behind them, in the fields, an immense moving crowd spreads
beyond the frame.
EXT. KIVIKOSKI BORDER CROSSING - DAY
SUPER: FINLAND - RUSSIAN KARELIA BORDER. DAY 23.
A deep river gorge cuts through snow-covered forest. A
two-lane road bridge spans it, concrete piers disappearing
into spray and ice below.


46.

On the eastern approach: an old customs yard, inspection
sheds, a bus turnaround, a red-roofed civil-defence building
near the bridge abutment. Its warning siren towers above the
roof.
On the western side: a newer Finnish checkpoint, a field
command post, and the road toward evacuation centres.
The bridge is crowded with buses moving west. An emergency
foot lane runs alongside them.
CAPTAIN AINO KOSKINEN, 41, watches from the western command
post. She has a paper map, a radio, and half a sandwich she
has forgotten to eat.
LIEUTENANT JUHO SALMI, 28, comes in with a count sheet.
JUHO
Twenty-six buses through since midnight.
Eight still east. More arriving.
AINO
How many at screening?
JUHO
We keep counting the same queue.
She hands him a marker.
AINO
Mark the wristband when they reach
transport. One count there. One at this
end.
A radio calls. She listens.
AINO
No, the outbound road has to stay clear.
Send the returning ambulances through
the depot loop.
She releases the switch, finds her sandwich, puts it back.
EXT. EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - DAY
The battered convoy enters a line of vehicles. Passengers
step down beside signs in Finnish, Russian, and English.
SCREENING. TRANSPORT. MEDICAL HOLDING.
A FINNISH MEDIC greets Vera. She gives him the sealed
container and intake message.


47.

VERA
Do not open it here. Diagnostic
material. I need the receiving doctor.
MEDIC
They're expecting you.
Anna helps Galina down from the bus. Sonya sleeps in her
mother's arms.
GALINA
I can't find him. He said the border.
There are so many borders.
Anna takes one of the bags.
ANNA
We'll ask here.
EXT. SCREENING TENT - DAY
Passengers enter individually. A nervous man refuses to roll
up his sleeve. Voices rise.
Across the yard, another queue stops because a woman
collapses.
Vera moves toward her, but the medic gently directs Vera
back.
MEDIC
Our team has her. You've been travelling
for weeks.
Vera watches another doctor kneel beside the woman. Forces
herself to stay.
INT. MEDICAL INTAKE OFFICE - DAY
DR. LEENA HAKALA, 52, signs a handover form. She checks each
seal against Vera's documentation.
LEENA
The courier leaves in an hour. We'll
send the original data with it. You keep
a copy.
VERA
Where is it going?
LEENA
To the receiving laboratory. I won't
broadcast the route, but I can show you
the contact.


48.

She places an authenticated intake message before Vera.
Vera reads, then finally releases the container.
LEENA
Sit down.
VERA
We saw frozen bodies become active when
they warmed.
LEENA
Your notes say that. Were they
unresponsive before?
VERA
Completely. The heater was close to
them. Then they moved.
LEENA
You observed several?
VERA
Yes. And one outside a train moved
slowly in the cold. I don't know the
threshold. I don't know whether they all
behave the same way.
Leena starts writing an instruction sheet.
LEENA
That's enough to change where we put
them.
INT. FINNISH COMMAND POST - AFTERNOON
Aino meets Vera and Elias. Juho spreads a map on a table.
AINO
I saw your first recording. Some of my
people have watched it too often.
ELIAS
I can stop showing it here.
AINO
I'm not asking you to hide it. I'm
asking you to keep cameras out of
screening unless the patients agree.
ELIAS
Understood.
Vera puts the hospital register on the table.


49.

AINO
You carried that all the way?
VERA
Yes.
Aino opens it: handwriting becomes less steady as the days
pass.
AINO
We have a cold holding shed on the east
side. We'll add a separate barrier
before bringing anyone into medical
assessment.
JUHO
Even if they have no pulse?
VERA
Especially then.
Juho nods, writes it down.
INT. EASTERN CUSTOMS BUILDING - AFTERNOON
Anna and Galina examine printed missing-person sheets taped
to the walls. Sonya holds the repaired hare.
Names, photographs, last locations. A volunteer prints
another sheet while they look.
GALINA
There. That's his unit. He was
transferred there.
She points to an aid organisation notice. Anna copies the
number.
At a desk nearby, EERO, 61, a Finnish mechanic in a patched
orange jacket, argues with a volunteer about vehicle
capacity.
EERO
Seats are not people. I can take forty
sitting, eight standing, and blankets in
the luggage bay. No one rides down
there.
VOLUNTEER
I didn't say--
EERO
Someone always says.
Sonya watches his hands, black with grease.


50.

SONYA
Do you fix everything?
EERO
Only things made badly enough to break.
SONYA
My rabbit broke.
Eero examines the substitute ear.
EERO
Looks fixed to me.
Anna sits Sonya on a chair while Galina calls the number.
INT. EASTERN MEDICAL TENT - AFTERNOON
Leena examines Anna. Vera stands nearby but does not
interfere.
LEENA
How old are you?
ANNA
Seventeen.
LEENA
Any family travelling with you?
Anna looks at Vera.
ANNA
These two.
Leena marks the form.
LEENA
We can arrange a quiet place for you at
the reception centre.
ANNA
I want to stay with them.
LEENA
We can arrange that too.
Leena leaves to fetch a wristband.
Anna notices an ARRIVALS ledger on the desk. Every line
filled.
ANNA
You could write Misha in yours now.


51.

VERA
I wrote him before we left.
ANNA
His whole name?
VERA
Mikhail Sergeyevich Morozov.
Anna sits back. One thing she does not have to carry alone.
EXT. BRIDGE - LATE AFTERNOON
Elias walks west with his camera packed away. He pauses at
the railing, looking down at the violent water.
Sanni answers his call from a reception centre. Behind her,
volunteers unfold camp beds.
SANNI (ON PHONE)
You actually made it?
ELIAS
I'm on the bridge.
SANNI
Then keep walking.
He laughs once, almost surprised by it.
ELIAS
There's a doctor and a girl with me. Can
you make room?
SANNI
We keep making room. Are they hurt?
ELIAS
Not in a way I can fix.
Sanni hears something in his voice.
SANNI
You don't have to fix everything before
coming inside.
Elias looks back at the crowded eastern yard.
ELIAS
The doctor is helping at screening.
We'll come together.
SANNI
Call me when you leave. Not after. When.


52.

ELIAS
I will.
EXT. EASTERN HOLDING SHED - DUSK
Two orderlies wheel a covered body toward the medical tent.
A FEMALE ORDERLY checks the new instruction sheet.
FEMALE ORDERLY
Separate assessment first. We stay here.
MALE ORDERLY
There's a free bed inside.
FEMALE ORDERLY
Read it.
Inside the fenced assessment space, the covered body jerks
upward.
The male orderly jumps back. The trolley overturns.
The body crawls toward the gap, striking the metal mesh.
Leena arrives with a security team. The fence holds.
From a distance, Vera watches. Her warning reached somebody
in time.
INT. COMMAND POST - DUSK
Aino receives the report. Juho pins a confirmation on the
board.
AINO
Keep the holding arrangement. Two staff
at every transfer. Nobody works there
alone.
A new radio transmission cuts in. SCOUT RANTA, 35,
breathless but controlled.
RANTA (V.O.)
Movement beyond the old station. Much
larger than the earlier report.
AINO
Numbers?
RANTA (V.O.)
Not possible from here. The road is
full. They're in the forest on both
sides too.
Aino moves to the map.


53.

AINO
Direction?
RANTA (V.O.)
Toward the crossing. Following the
traffic noise.
Aino calls regional command on a separate line.
EXT. OLD RAIL STATION - DUSK
Ranta and a second scout crouch on a ridge. Through
binoculars: a sea of bodies threading through abandoned
railway carriages, stepping over fences, spreading between
trees.
Snow powders shoulders, hair, open wounds. Some drag damaged
legs. Those behind push past them.
The second scout backs onto a branch. It cracks.
Near the ridge, several heads turn.
Ranta touches his colleague's shoulder. They withdraw
without running.
INT. COMMAND POST - EVENING
REGIONAL COMMANDER (V.O.)
Destroy the bridge if you cannot hold
the eastern approach. We can't send
additional units before morning.
AINO
I have civilians on that approach.
Medical patients. Children.
REGIONAL COMMANDER (V.O.)
Then accelerate evacuation. Keep the
west road open. Your fallback line is
the forestry junction.
AINO
Understood.
She ends the call. Looks at Juho.
AINO
We prepare demolition. We don't close
the crossing yet.
JUHO
How long do you need?


54.

AINO
As long as the buses need. Get me the
engineer.
INT. EASTERN CUSTOMS BUILDING - EVENING
Galina sits with Sonya asleep against her. The call has
ended. Anna approaches with water.
GALINA
He isn't on their list. That doesn't
mean anything. The woman said lists are
incomplete.
ANNA
We can leave his name here.
GALINA
If he comes and we're gone--
ANNA
They'll know where you went.
Galina writes a destination beneath the photograph of her
husband. Her hand trembles.
EXT. EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - EVENING
Juho addresses volunteers and drivers beside a map taped to
a bus.
JUHO
Board in the assigned groups. Patients
first, then families in the waiting
hall. Keep this lane clear for the
medical vehicles.
Eero examines the map.
EERO
You have drivers for five buses. You
have seven buses.
JUHO
Two arriving with the next relief
transport.
EERO
When?
Juho looks at the road. Nothing.


55.

EERO
I drive mine. Give the other to anyone
who has actually driven one. We'll find
them here.
Anna raises her hand.
EERO
No.
ANNA
I wasn't offering. There's a man in the
waiting hall. He said he drove us out of
the siding.
She goes to find Viktor.
Eero calls after her and holds out a key ring.
EERO
The basement gate. You asked about it.
Keep these until you're on a bus.
Anna takes the keys.
INT. MEDICAL TENT - EVENING
Vera helps Leena prepare patients for transport. Their
sealed specimen container is gone, handed over to the
westbound courier.
LEENA
You're not obliged to keep working.
VERA
I know where things are now.
LEENA
You can work at the reception centre.
They need doctors too.
VERA
Put Anna and Elias on the next
transport.
Anna, entering with Viktor, overhears.
ANNA
Ask me.
Vera turns.
ANNA
Don't put me somewhere like a bag.


56.

VERA
I'm asking you to leave with the next
group.
ANNA
Are you leaving?
VERA
After the medical patients.
ANNA
Then after them.
Vera wants to object. Anna waits, refusing to move.
LEENA
She can help at the waiting hall until
her group boards. She knows those
families.
Vera nods. Anna takes a stack of numbered cards.
INT. OLD CUSTOMS BASEMENT - EVENING
Anna follows a volunteer, MAIJA, 24, carrying folded
blankets downstairs.
Water drips from overhead pipes. A maintenance diagram hangs
beside a heavy steel door.
Anna stops to study it.
MAIJA
Blankets go on the shelf.
ANNA
Where does that go?
MAIJA
Old drainage inspection passage. The
outside gate is locked.
Anna opens the steel door. Beyond, a narrow concrete passage
descends toward a grate at the lower bus yard.
ANNA
Who has the key?
MAIJA
Ask Eero. He has keys for things they
demolished years ago.


57.

EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT
SERGEANT MATTI KALLIO, 39, a combat engineer, inspects the
underside access with his team. Demolition work is already
prepared; they check connections, then withdraw tools.
Aino stands above with a flashlight covered in red tape.
KALLIO
The eastern abutment and old siren
building are in the collapse zone.
Everyone has to be clear of them before
you give the order.
AINO
West approach survives?
KALLIO
That's the design. The bridge deck
won't.
AINO
Who confirms the final vehicle is clear?
KALLIO
I'll station one observer here. Juho
confirms the east yard. You make the
call.
She studies the red-roofed building across the bridge.
EXT. SIREN BUILDING - NIGHT
Elias photographs evacuation signs. Eero walks past carrying
a battery.
ELIAS
Does that siren work?
EERO
They test it once a year. Last time, it
scared the birds from both countries.
ELIAS
Independent power?
EERO
Diesel backup inside. Old, but the roof
doesn't leak.
ELIAS
They should disconnect it. If it starts
accidentally--


58.

EERO
Aino has the warning circuit isolated.
Manual only.
He unlocks the building to retrieve a charger. Elias sees
the controls: guarded switch, lever, emergency lamp. A
landline handset. Nothing mysterious.
ELIAS
You're certain nobody can trigger it
from elsewhere?
EERO
That's why I came to check.
He closes and locks the door.
INT. COMMAND POST - NIGHT
Aino briefs soldiers and civilian section leaders. Vera,
Elias, and Eero stand at the back.
A map shows the eastern road, two barriers, customs yard,
bridge, west checkpoint, forest flanks.
AINO
First position at the roadside markers.
Second behind the concrete inspection
bays. When I order withdrawal, you
withdraw. Don't wait until you can see
their eyes.
YOUNG SOLDIER LAURI, 19, listens carefully, jaw clenched.
AINO
The vehicles are our priority.
Pedestrians use the marked lane. No
civilian traffic eastbound.
JUHO
Radio channel three for evacuation. One
for defence.
AINO
We won't hold the whole forest with this
force. Scouts report flanking movement
and fall back. Nobody pursues.
ELIAS
People are sharing that this crossing is
open. They might still be coming.
AINO
Can you update them?


59.

ELIAS
I can broadcast through the field
terminal. It has a network connection.
AINO
Say movement is restricted, departure is
urgent, and the situation can change.
Don't promise safety. Keep our firing
positions out of the picture.
ELIAS
All right.
AINO
And when you're told to board, board.
He nods.
EXT. EAST ROAD DEFENCE LINE - NIGHT
Lauri adjusts his gloves at the barrier. Ranta arrives from
the forest and hands him a spare heat pack.
LAURI
Did you see them?
RANTA
Yes.
LAURI
How fast?
RANTA
Slow enough to make you think you have
time.
Lauri places the heat pack inside his coat.
RANTA
Listen to the order. Watch the person
beside you. That's your job.
INT. CUSTOMS WAITING HALL - NIGHT
Anna hands out boarding cards. Galina gets number 47. Sonya
counts its digits on her fingers.
SONYA
Does this mean forty-seven more sleeps?
ANNA
It means they know which bus is yours.
A teenage boy refuses a wristband.


60.

BOY
I can walk. Give my seat to someone.
ANNA
Wear it anyway. They need to know you
got across.
He takes it.
Across the hall, Elias sets up a camera beside the field
network terminal. He tapes a handwritten timestamp beside
the lens as an additional safeguard.
ELIAS
(to camera)
This is Elias Laine at the Kivikoski
crossing. The recording time is on the
image. The border position is
evacuating. Older messages describing
normal access are no longer current.
He stops, checks the audio, sends.
Anna approaches.
ANNA
You forgot to tell them people are
getting out.
ELIAS
You're right.
He records again.
INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - FINLAND - NIGHT
Sanni sees his updated broadcast on a wall television.
Around her, volunteers check arriving names against lists.
SANNI
That's my brother.
A volunteer beside her watches the crowded hall on screen.
VOLUNTEER
Let's make more beds.
INT. WARSAW APARTMENT - NIGHT
A father and teenage daughter watch Elias's broadcast on a
phone beside a battery radio. Behind a curtain, streetlights
flicker and die.
DAUGHTER
They're still crossing.


61.

Her father nods without looking away.
INT. LONDON NEWSROOM - NIGHT
A PRODUCER puts Elias's stream on a large monitor. A second
monitor displays confirmed reports from Eastern Europe.
PRODUCER
Keep his time marker in the crop. All of
it.
INT. COMMAND POST - NIGHT
Juho receives a scout report and draws a line nearer the
crossing.
JUHO
They've passed the station. Main group
following the road. Additional movement
on the north flank.
Aino looks at the evacuation tally. Twelve buses assigned.
Four through. Eight remaining, including incoming transports
that joined the queue.
AINO
Stop incoming vehicles at the east outer
point. Transfer passengers into anything
already facing west.
JUHO
The next transport has severe injuries.
AINO
Bring it to medical. Clear a path.
She picks up her helmet.
EXT. EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - NIGHT
An ambulance pulls in. Leena and Vera receive an injured
DRIVER and two passengers. The driver has no signs of life.
AMBULANCE MEDIC
Vehicle crash. We couldn't revive him.
Passengers have fractures, cuts.
Vera moves the driver's trolley toward the separate barrier.
Leena checks the passengers. One has a torn sleeve and a
bite concealed under blood from a scalp wound.
LEENA
We need the holding lane.


62.

PASSENGER
It's from the accident.
LEENA
I'm going to examine it.
He grabs her arm. Vera steps between them, directs an
orderly to summon security.
VERA
Let go. We're not leaving you outside.
The passenger loosens his grip.
Then, behind them, the dead driver rises against the trolley
straps.
The straps hold. A security medic closes the inner gate
before the body can reach anyone.
Vera breathes out. They keep working.
EXT. EAST ROAD DEFENCE LINE - NIGHT
Snow moves through the floodlight beams.
Lauri watches the red roadside stakes. His breathing is loud
inside his mask.
A figure emerges between trees. Another appears on the road.
Then ten. Then the dark spaces fill.
Over the radio, Aino's measured voice.
AINO (V.O.)
Hold until the markers.
Lauri shifts his weight. His neighbour places a hand against
his shoulder.
The first corpse passes a red stake.
AINO (V.O.)
Fire.
The line erupts.
INT. CUSTOMS WAITING HALL - SAME TIME
Every head turns at the gunfire.
Sonya grips Anna's hand.
Anna does not tell her it is nothing.


63.

ANNA
Stay with your mother. When I call your
number, come to the door.
She walks to the doors and checks the route to the buses.
EXT. EAST ROAD DEFENCE LINE - CONTINUOUS
Bodies fall. Those behind step over them. Several rise
again, damaged but moving.
Lauri fires, sees his target keep coming, fires again. His
neighbour points to the head.
NEIGHBOUR
Slow down. See it first.
Lauri steadies himself. One body drops and stays down.
But the line beyond it keeps advancing.
EXT. CUSTOMS YARD - CONTINUOUS
Juho moves a departing bus into the bridge lane. Refugees
try to follow it on foot; volunteers direct them to the
protected walkway.
Vera and Leena load a stretcher into an ambulance.
Elias records from behind the waiting-hall doorway, keeping
the defence positions out of frame.
ELIAS
(to camera)
The evacuation is continuing. Vehicles
are crossing west. I can't confirm how
long the crossing will remain open.
Gunfire intensifies. He looks toward it, then toward the
terrified families.
He keeps the camera on the bus going over the bridge.
EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT
The first battle-night bus clears the west checkpoint.
Volunteers lead passengers away from its windows so they
cannot look back.
Kallio's observer, CORPORAL OJALA, 26, reports each vehicle
as it reaches the western approach.
OJALA
Bus five clear. Ambulance approaching.


64.

Aino looks east. Gunfire flashes beyond the inspection
sheds.
AINO
Juho, status of the waiting hall?
JUHO (V.O.)
Three groups ready. Two still in
medical. We need the road lane clear.
AINO
You have it.
EXT. EAST ROAD DEFENCE LINE - CONTINUOUS
The snow before the barrier is black with fallen bodies. The
advancing dead climb the pile, making it a ramp.
Ranta fires from a covered position, then turns toward the
north forest. Movement between trees, nearer than expected.
RANTA
North flank entering the service track.
AINO (V.O.)
Withdraw to the inspection bays. Now.
Ranta signals. Soldiers fall back in pairs.
Lauri stands frozen, firing at a body trapped beneath the
barrier. His weapon clicks empty.
Ranta catches his coat and pulls him away.
RANTA
We're going.
Behind them, the front barrier folds beneath the weight.
INT. CUSTOMS WAITING HALL - NIGHT
Anna calls the next group. People stand too quickly, pushing
toward the doors.
MAIJA
Families together. Don't separate the
children.
A man grabs a card from another passenger. Anna takes it
back.
MAN
I have my mother outside.


65.

ANNA
Then bring her here. This is someone
else's.
He looks toward the windows, afraid.
ANNA
I'll help you find her. Tell Maija
where.
She makes room for him to move without pushing through the
queue.
Elias helps an elderly man adjust his walking aid.
ELIAS
When you get across, tell them your
name. They'll put it on the arrival
list.
ELDERLY MAN
I'm not missing yet.
ELIAS
Let's keep it that way.
INT. FIELD NETWORK ALCOVE - CONTINUOUS
A communications volunteer, NOORA, 27, monitors the live
stream. The connection flickers as power fluctuates.
NOORA
Main generator is struggling. I'll move
the uplink to battery.
She disconnects a portable satellite terminal from the desk.
A compact battery sits in its padded bag.
ELIAS
Will it keep sending?
NOORA
If it can see the sky. There's enough
charge for half an hour. Local network
won't reach much beyond the bridge.
She sets the terminal on the sheltered windowsill with its
receiver angled upward. The connection steadies.
EXT. MEDICAL LANE - NIGHT
The injured passengers from the crash wait behind the
isolation fence. One has been cleared for transport; the
bitten man sits under observation.


66.

Leena checks his breathing. Vera reads his name from the
form.
VERA
Sergei, do you have family here?
SERGEI
They went ahead.
VERA
Where should we send the message?
He gives her a phone number. She repeats it, writes it
carefully.
SERGEI
Don't write that I hid it.
VERA
I need to record what happened. I'll
write that you were frightened.
He nods. A volunteer hands Vera a paper cup of water for
him.
Gunfire moves closer.
EXT. INSPECTION BAYS - NIGHT
The second defence line opens fire. Floodlights cast
enormous shadows across the road.
Bodies slam into parked freight containers that form a
temporary wall. A container rocks under their weight.
Ranta takes cover beside Lauri.
LAURI
They're not stopping.
RANTA
The buses are moving. Keep this lane
open.
Lauri changes his magazine. His hands shake, but the job is
done.
INT. COMMAND POST - NIGHT
Juho updates Aino: six buses clear, six still to cross. Two
ambulances behind them.
AINO
Anyone in the holding shed?


67.

JUHO
Two monitored patients. Security team
with them.
AINO
They don't get abandoned. Separate
transport to the west holding area.
Dedicated crew.
JUHO
Understood.
An urgent call cuts in.
RANTA (V.O.)
Container line moving. North group
nearing the utility fence.
AINO
How long?
RANTA (V.O.)
Minutes.
Aino puts on her helmet and steps outside.
EXT. CUSTOMS YARD - NIGHT
Eero starts his bus. The engine catches, falters, catches
again. He studies the gauges.
Viktor approaches.
VIKTOR
Mine's ready. Yours?
EERO
It's offended by the temperature.
He pats the dashboard and gets the engine steady.
At the generator enclosure, a fuel hose snaps under a
shifting trailer. Diesel pours onto the snow.
A soldier sees it, runs to shut a valve. A damaged
electrical connection sparks overhead.
The spill catches fire.
INT. WAITING HALL - CONTINUOUS
The lights flicker orange against the windows. People
recoil.


68.

Noora lifts the uplink bag off the sill. Elias catches its
loose cable before it falls.
NOORA
I'm transferring communications west.
Your stream can stay on this terminal,
but it leaves with you.
She gives him the bag and points to the battery indicator.
NOORA
Keep it dry. Put the receiver outside
when you're stationary.
He nods, moves it near the door to keep the stream running.
Noora collects Elias's main camera bag from beside the desk.
NOORA
I'll put this on the westbound
communications vehicle. Meet it at the
reception centre.
ELIAS
Thank you.
EXT. GENERATOR ENCLOSURE - CONTINUOUS
Fire climbs the housing. The soldier cannot reach the valve.
Aino sees the fuel tank beyond it.
AINO
Cut the power. Disconnect the main
generator.
EERO
We lose the lights!
AINO
Now.
Eero pulls the breaker inside a remote cabinet.
The floodlights die.
For a moment, total darkness.
Gunfire. Running feet. A woman calling for her child.
INT. LONDON NEWSROOM - SAME TIME
Elias's live stream shows darkness. The timestamp continues.


69.

NEWS PRESENTER
We've lost the image at the crossing.
Audio is continuing.
Everyone in the newsroom listens.
EXT. CUSTOMS YARD - CONTINUOUS
Vehicle headlights replace the floodlights in uneven cones.
Soldiers switch to helmet lights only when needed.
Ranta covers a withdrawal along the inspection bays. A body
reaches over the concrete wall, catches his collar. Lauri
strikes it away with his rifle stock.
Ranta falls backward, leg trapped under a collapsed panel.
Lauri tries to lift it. Another soldier helps. They get him
loose, drag him toward the yard.
EXT. WESTERN CHECKPOINT - CONTINUOUS
Aino directs reserve soldiers toward the forest edge.
AINO
Cover the west flank. We still have
people crossing. Don't fire toward the
foot lane.
Kallio checks the demolition control beside her.
KALLIO
We can do it whenever you give the
order.
She watches another bus come over the bridge.
AINO
Not yet.
INT. CUSTOMS WAITING HALL - NIGHT
Glass breaks at the far end of the hall. A dead man pushes
through a window, cutting himself without reacting.
Maija moves the queue away. More hands strike the outside
glass.
Anna looks at the main entrance. Soldiers are pulling
wounded through it; the path to the buses is exposed.
She looks toward the basement stair.
ANNA
There's another way. Below us.


70.

MAIJA
The gate is locked.
Anna pulls the key ring Eero gave her when she asked about
the passage.
ANNA
Not anymore.
She leads the first family downstairs.
INT. CUSTOMS BASEMENT - CONTINUOUS
People crowd at the steel door. Anna holds it open, one
person at a time.
ANNA
Keep your hand on the coat in front of
you. Don't let go.
Sonya passes with Galina. Her hare catches on a shelf and
falls.
SONYA
Wait!
Anna retrieves it, presses it into her hand.
ANNA
Go with your mother.
Above, something heavy crashes onto the stairs.
INT. MEDICAL TENT - NIGHT
Vera and Leena strap the last critical patient onto a
stretcher. The two monitored patients have already gone in
separate transport.
An orderly helps Leena lift.
LEENA
Come with us now.
A radio crackles beside Vera: Anna's voice.
ANNA (V.O.)
We're bringing people to the lower yard.
Some are hurt. There's nobody at the
exit.
Vera takes the radio.
VERA
I'm coming. Keep them moving.


71.

LEENA
Vera--
VERA
I'll board there.
Leena hands her the remaining medical bag.
LEENA
This time, do.
EXT. LOWER BUS YARD - NIGHT
Vera reaches the grated passage exit. The first refugees
squeeze through. She checks a man's limp, directs him to
Viktor's bus.
Elias joins her, places the uplink receiver on a dry stone
ledge with a clear view overhead.
ELIAS
I can carry someone.
VERA
Take the man with the walking aid. Keep
his leg straight.
Elias does. The camera sits on the ledge, recording the
evacuation without him.
INT. DRAINAGE PASSAGE - CONTINUOUS
Galina helps an older woman over a shallow step. Sonya goes
ahead with Maija.
Behind them, screams echo from the basement. The steel door
bangs open.
Anna turns back. A volunteer is trapped beneath a fallen
shelf at the entrance.
She runs to him. Galina follows.
Together they shift the shelf enough for him to crawl free.
At the stairwell, a figure lurches down into view. Another
behind it.
ANNA
Go!
They retreat into the passage. Galina tries to pull the
steel door shut. A hand wedges in the gap.
Anna grabs the door. They push together.


72.

The dead man's other hand catches Galina's hair, yanks her
toward the gap.
She screams. Anna strikes at the hand with the key ring,
pulls, cannot free her.
Galina tears away, skin and hair left in the grip. Blood
pours from her neck.
They get the door shut.
Galina takes two steps and falls.
EXT. LOWER BUS YARD - CONTINUOUS
Anna emerges, shouting Vera's name. Vera rushes into the
passage.
INT. DRAINAGE PASSAGE - CONTINUOUS
Vera kneels beside Galina. Anna holds pressure against the
neck wound, her hands slippery with blood.
GALINA
Sonya?
ANNA
Outside. She's outside.
Vera works quickly. Then her hands slow.
Anna sees it happen again.
ANNA
Don't stop.
Vera keeps pressure on the wound, but Galina's eyes lose
focus.
VERA
She's gone.
Anna shakes her head. Beyond the steel door, the pounding
continues.
VERA
Anna, look at me.
Anna does not.
VERA
We can't save her. We can get Sonya onto
the bus. Help me do that.


73.

Anna looks toward the grated exit, where the child's outline
is visible against the headlights.
Vera helps her stand.
Together they leave Galina in the passage and close the
outer gate.
EXT. LOWER BUS YARD - CONTINUOUS
Sonya looks for her mother. Anna kneels before her.
SONYA
Where is she?
Anna cannot make the words come.
VERA
Your mother was badly hurt. We tried to
help her, but she died.
Sonya stares at Vera, then at Anna's blood-covered hands.
SONYA
No.
Anna wraps her own coat around the girl. Holds her as she
struggles, then goes limp with grief.
She carries her onto Eero's bus.
EXT. INSPECTION BAYS - NIGHT
The freight container topples. Dead spill into the yard.
Juho orders the remaining defenders back to the bridge
approach. Lauri helps Ranta, whose wounded leg will not bear
weight.
A soldier falls beneath a mass of bodies. Juho tries to
reach him, but the others pull Juho back before he is lost
too.
JUHO
All eastern positions withdrawing. Final
boarding now.
EXT. BRIDGE APPROACH - CONTINUOUS
Eero's bus waits behind Viktor's. Refugees board both. A
delivery truck sits abandoned across half the approach lane,
its driver gone.
Viktor edges his bus past it with inches to spare.


74.

Eero's wider bus will not fit without the truck moving.
EERO
Juho! We need that truck clear.
Juho and two soldiers push at its rear. Nothing.
The driver's door opens. A dead customs worker falls out,
grabs a soldier's leg. Juho pulls the soldier away and
fires.
The truck rolls slightly, then jams against a shattered
bollard.
EXT. LOWER BUS YARD - SAME TIME
Elias collects the uplink bag. Vera comes toward him.
VERA
Get on Eero's bus.
He looks past her at the advancing horde. It is no longer a
distant crowd. Individual faces visible, hospital bands on
wrists, frost in hair, a thousand sounds of scraping feet.
Gunfire draws them toward the vehicles.
The siren tower rises behind them above the red roof.
Elias looks at the bag, then at the tower.
ELIAS
The siren has independent power.
VERA
No.
ELIAS
It would pull them away from the bus
lane. It worked at the railway. They
followed the noise.
VERA
We don't know how many would turn.
ELIAS
Enough might.
VERA
You can speak to Aino from here. Someone
else--
ELIAS
Everyone else is holding them back.


75.

He calls Aino over the radio.
ELIAS
The old warning siren. If I start it, it
might draw the road group toward the
abutment.
AINO (V.O.)
Do not enter that building. It's in the
demolition zone.
Elias sees a dead woman reach the last group of pedestrians.
Lauri pulls a child clear and retreats, carrying him.
ELIAS
The buses aren't going to clear this
lane.
AINO (V.O.)
We're moving the obstruction. Board now.
He lowers the radio. Vera reads his decision.
VERA
Elias. You already got the recording
out.
ELIAS
I know.
He takes Eero's key ring from her medical bag, where Anna
left it after opening the passage.
ELIAS
Tell Anna I fixed something badly made.
VERA
Tell her yourself.
He presses his radio into Vera's hand, then takes a spare
from a fallen supply kit beside the bus.
He puts his original recording card in her palm and closes
her fingers around it.
ELIAS
I'll try.
He runs toward the siren building.
EXT. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS
Viktor's bus crosses under fire from the eastern defenders.
A cluster of dead slips into the foot lane behind it.


76.

Ojala spots them from the west. He raises his weapon, waits
until the last living pedestrian is out of the line, fires.
Viktor stops the bus west of the checkpoint and runs back to
help evacuating soldiers.
OJALA
Final bus still east. Several dead on
the walkway.
Aino takes two soldiers and heads onto the bridge.
AINO
Kallio, stay on the control. Nobody
triggers until my order.
KALLIO
Understood.
EXT. SIREN BUILDING - CONTINUOUS
Elias struggles to fit a key. The key ring is slick with
someone else's blood.
Behind him, a dead soldier climbs over the low wall.
The lock turns. Elias slips inside and slams the door.
INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Emergency lights glow above old machinery. Elias throws the
guarded switch, pulls the lever.
Nothing.
Outside, a fist strikes the door.
He searches the control panel. A label: LOCAL ISOLATION.
He turns it. The backup generator churns beneath the floor,
fails to catch. Churns again.
Elias holds the lever. The engine catches.
The siren starts with a groan, rises into a deafening
mechanical howl.
EXT. EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - CONTINUOUS
The nearest dead stop, turn. Those behind continue pushing,
creating waves of pressure through the crowd.
Then the mass begins shifting toward the tower.
The bus lane briefly clears.


77.

INT. EERO'S BUS - CONTINUOUS
Anna holds Sonya on a seat near the front. Maija counts
passengers in a whisper, lips moving steadily.
Eero watches the road.
EERO
Come on. Come on.
Vera boards and sees Anna's face.
ANNA
Where's Elias?
Vera looks toward the siren.
Anna understands before Vera says anything.
INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Elias places the satellite receiver on an outside window
ledge. Snow hits the casing. He covers the battery bag with
his coat.
The stream connects. He props the camera beside the window.
The bridge and last bus are visible beyond his shoulder.
ELIAS
(to camera)
This is the Kivikoski crossing. The last
vehicles are still moving. The siren
you're hearing is here. If you're
watching an older recording, check the
time on the screen.
He lifts his phone, sees Sanni calling. Answers.
SANNI (V.O.)
Why are you still there?
ELIAS
The doctor and Anna are on the last bus.
SANNI (V.O.)
And you?
The door shakes. Elias looks at it.
ELIAS
I'm trying to get them clear.
SANNI (V.O.)
Elias.


78.

He closes his eyes at the sound of his name.
ELIAS
There's a little girl with them. Sonya.
She needs a place too.
SANNI (V.O.)
There's a place. There is. Come to it.
The connection breaks. He tries once to redial. No call
service. The separate uplink continues.
EXT. BRIDGE APPROACH - CONTINUOUS
Aino reaches the truck with Juho. Kallio calls over her
radio.
KALLIO (V.O.)
Main crowd turning toward the siren. But
the west flank is coming through the
forest. We need to withdraw the
checkpoint.
AINO
Prepare withdrawal. Keep the detonator
with you.
She peers under the truck. The shattered bollard is lodged
against the rear axle.
AINO
Don't push. Lift the obstruction.
Juho and a soldier wedge a steel bar underneath. Aino pulls
a broken concrete piece free.
The truck moves.
Lauri covers the lane with Ranta leaning against the bus. He
counts his remaining rounds by touch.
INT. EERO'S BUS - CONTINUOUS
Eero engages gear. The bus rolls forward.
A dead man strikes the side window. It shatters inward over
Sonya. She cries out.
Anna pulls her away. Vera shoves a folded blanket between
the broken glass and the seats.
The bus reaches the bridge.


79.

EXT. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS
The displaced truck rolls downhill behind them. Its front
wheel drops into damaged pavement. The truck pivots,
blocking the rear corner of the bus halfway onto the bridge.
Eero brakes. The bus stalls.
In the walkway, dead still follow the retreating soldiers.
Ojala and a reserve team cover them from the west.
AINO
Truck caught the bus. I need hands here.
Juho, Viktor, and two soldiers run back from the west end.
INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Elias watches the bus stop.
The door frame splits. He pushes a cabinet beneath the
handle, braces it with a chair.
The camera keeps transmitting. His hands shake as he adjusts
its angle.
INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - SAME TIME
Sanni stands in front of the television. Everyone near her
knows now.
She watches the last bus on the bridge behind Elias.
A colleague takes her hand. She does not look away.
EXT. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS
The team heaves against the truck. It shifts inches. The
steel bumper remains hooked under the bus's rear panel.
Viktor climbs between the vehicles to release it.
AINO
Watch your footing.
VIKTOR
I can see it.
He pries the bumper downward. Metal tears.
Behind him, a dead soldier from the foot lane reaches the
truck cab, drops onto Viktor's back.
Juho turns, cannot shoot without hitting Viktor.


80.

Viktor grabs the corpse, throws his weight sideways. Both
fall through the broken walkway railing into darkness.
The truck rolls clear.
Juho stares at the empty space.
AINO
Bus is free. Move!
She pulls him away before another body reaches them.
INT. EERO'S BUS - CONTINUOUS
Vera examines Sonya's bleeding arm. Anna holds the light.
EERO
Was she bitten?
VERA
Glass. Start the engine.
EERO
I saw something at the window.
VERA
I examined her. It's glass. Drive.
He turns the ignition. The engine coughs, stops.
Anna looks at the passengers staring at Sonya's blood.
ANNA
Look at me. She's coming with us.
Maija stands beside Anna. The elderly man from the hall
lowers his eyes, giving them room.
Eero turns the key again.
The engine catches.
EXT. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS
The bus pulls forward, dragging its torn rear panel across
the concrete. Sparks in the snow.
Aino, Juho, and Lauri run beside it. Ranta hangs onto the
open rear door until Maija and a passenger pull him inside.
Ojala waves them toward the west checkpoint.
OJALA
Keep going! Don't stop here!


81.

In the forest beyond him, muzzle flashes reveal the west
flank battle. Reserves hold the access road long enough for
the bus to reach the withdrawal route.
INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS
The cabinet shifts. Fingers push through the split door
frame.
Elias steps back. He has nowhere left to brace it.
AINO (V.O.)
Journalist. Confirm your position.
ELIAS
Siren control room.
AINO (V.O.)
Are you able to leave?
He looks outside. The steps are covered with bodies. The
siren has drawn them exactly where he intended.
ELIAS
No.
The bus reaches the western side.
ELIAS
The bus is across.
INT. EERO'S BUS - CONTINUOUS
Anna holds Sonya's good hand. Vera grips the radio.
VERA
Elias, we made it.
INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS
His face changes when he hears her.
ELIAS
Good.
He lifts the camera slightly, framing the bus disappearing
onto the west road.
ELIAS
Tell them they got across. Use their
names.
The door breaks open.


82.

EXT. WESTERN APPROACH - CONTINUOUS
Ojala confirms the final group is clear. Aino reaches Kallio
beside a retreating command vehicle.
KALLIO
All living personnel accounted for
except the journalist. Main crowd at the
eastern abutment.
Aino watches the siren window. A tiny illuminated square
beyond the span.
She takes the control.
AINO
Demolition. Now.
She activates it.
EXT. KIVIKOSKI GORGE - CONTINUOUS
The charges detonate along the bridge.
Concrete lifts, fractures. The eastern abutment tears away.
The red-roofed building tilts, its lit window falling out of
sight.
The siren stops halfway through its note.
The deck collapses into the gorge. Hundreds of bodies fall
with it. More step into the empty space, pushed by the
pressure behind them.
An enormous cloud of snow and dust swallows both shores.
INT. LONDON NEWSROOM - SAME TIME
The stream freezes on the departing bus. Connection lost.
The producer doesn't replace it immediately.
PRODUCER
Save the full recording. All sources.
INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - SAME TIME
Sanni's colleague turns down the television. Sanni sits
slowly on an empty camp bed.
Around her, the work continues quietly. Someone brings more
blankets. Someone moves a stack of chairs to make room for
the incoming group.


83.

EXT. WESTERN FORESTRY JUNCTION - NIGHT
The convoy reaches the fallback line. Buses pass through a
protected turn while soldiers fire toward movement in the
woods.
Aino transfers wounded to a waiting medical vehicle. Ranta
is lifted inside. Lauri climbs in after him, hands streaked
with blood that isn't his.
JUHO
Bridge gone. East road cut. North forest
group still moving.
AINO
Report it. We bought the convoy time. We
need another route by morning.
She looks at the buses disappearing west, counts the last
one herself.
EXT. FOREST ROAD - PREDAWN
The buses move through a dark Finnish forest. No sirens.
Only engines and the hiss of tires on packed snow.
INT. EERO'S BUS - PREDAWN
Sonya sleeps against Anna, her arm bandaged. The repaired
hare lies in her lap.
Vera sits across the aisle. Both women are awake.
ANNA
He said he'd try.
VERA
He did.
Anna looks toward the empty seat beside Vera.
ANNA
I hated the camera at first.
Vera takes Elias's original recording card from her pocket.
He handed it to her with his radio.
VERA
We have this too.
Anna touches it with one finger. Proof that he was more than
the final image on a screen.


84.

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - DAWN
An old school gymnasium. Mattresses, partitions, tables for
registration. Volunteers move between them with practiced
care.
Sanni stands by the entrance as the Kivikoski survivors
arrive.
She sees Vera and Anna with Sonya. Knows before they speak.
Vera offers Elias's camera bag, recovered from the waiting
hall by Noora and delivered with the convoy. Sanni takes it
in both hands.
SANNI
Did he hear you get across?
VERA
Yes.
Sanni nods. Holds the bag against herself, then looks at
Sonya.
SANNI
There's a bed ready. Three beside each
other.
She leads them inside.
INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - REGISTRATION TABLE - MORNING
A fresh ledger. At the top of the page: ARRIVALS.
Vera has volunteered for registration before the next
medical shift. Her old hospital register rests beside the
new one.
Anna sits opposite her. Sonya sleeps in a chair wrapped in a
blanket.
VERA
Your full name?
ANNA
You know my name.
VERA
I want it written here.
Anna reads the heading.
ANNA
Anna Sergeyevna Morozova.


85.

Vera writes it carefully.
ANNA
And Sonya Galinovna Lebedeva. Her mother
told me on the bus.
Vera writes that too.
ANNA
Do you have a page for the people who
didn't come?
Vera opens the old register to a new sheet. Writes GALINA'S
name, VIKTOR'S, ELIAS'S. Beside Orlov's entry she adds the
information from his watch strap.
Anna unfolds Misha's drawing. Places it between the pages,
where it will remain flat.
INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - QUIET ROOM - MORNING
Sanni opens Elias's camera bag. Inside, spare batteries,
notebooks, an unfinished gift: a wool hat, still in a shop
wrapper, marked FOR SANNI.
She puts the hat on despite the warm room.
On her phone, thousands of copies of the last transmission
have appeared. Different captions, different languages, the
original time marker still visible.
She finds a verified arrival list from the reception centre
and shares that instead.
INT. TEMPORARY MEDICAL OFFICE - MORNING
Leena receives a message on a secure laptop. Vera stands
beside her.
LEENA
The container arrived. So did the
records.
Vera reads the confirmation.
LEENA
They want to interview you and Anna
about the cold exposure. Today, if
you're ready.
VERA
Ask Anna. She decides for herself.
Leena nods.


86.

VERA
There's one more statement I need to
make. About a death certificate, before
Severny.
Leena turns toward her.
VERA
I changed what happened. The family
never got the truth.
LEENA
We can find someone to take the
statement.
Vera opens her notebook. Starts writing the name.
EXT. FINNISH DEFENCE POSITION - MORNING
Aino stands at a new roadblock farther west. Tired soldiers
unload supplies. Lauri returns from the medical vehicle
carrying Ranta's equipment.
Aino meets his eyes.
AINO
Get food. Then sleep. Your relief is
here.
LAURI
Did we stop them?
She looks east, beyond the forest.
AINO
We got the buses through.
He nods. That is an answer he can hold.
INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - MAIN HALL - MORNING
A television broadcasts casualty estimates and evacuation
guidance. A world map shows outbreaks across Eastern Europe
and scattered incidents farther away.
The headline changes to: KIVIKOSKI EVACUATION SURVIVORS
ARRIVE.
Anna turns away from it. Sonya has woken and is looking for
her.
SONYA
Will you stay?
Anna sits beside her.


87.

ANNA
Yes.
Sonya hands her the hare. Its substitute ear has come loose.
Anna reties it, slowly, properly.
EXT. RUINED EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - MORNING
Silence, except for falling snow and the distant rumble of
the river.
The bridge is gone. Bodies lie packed beneath fragments of
concrete. Beyond the yard, thousands more wander among the
trees, following no sound now.
In the damaged customs basement, an unattended emergency
boiler still runs. A pipe broken by the collapse leaks hot
water through the rubble.
The water trickles over a blackened hand caught beneath a
slab.
A droplet hangs from one fingertip.
The finger bends.
CUT TO BLACK.
THE END

BLACK WINTER

An original screenplay

Dialogue polish

Production development draft

8 October 2026

Russian and Finnish dialogue is presented in English.

Severny and the Kivikoski crossing are fictional.

The plague mutation and reanimation are fictional.FADE IN:

EXT. SIBERIAN EXCAVATION - NIGHT

Snow blows horizontally across a floodlit mining cut. A

cable bucket rises out of the dark. Its load is not ore.

A steel door, folded almost in half.

On its underside: a red cross, faded to the color of old

blood.

Below, three MINERS stand at the opening of a buried

corridor. Pipes disappear into walls of ice. A fourth miner,

LEONID, holds a work lamp.

MINER

Survey says this was solid ground.

LEONID

Survey wasn't standing here.

He ducks through the opening.

INT. BURIED WARD - CONTINUOUS

The lamp reveals a row of iron beds. The ice has preserved

blankets, leather shoes, a ceramic basin.

A shape sits upright on the nearest bed, facing the missing

door.

Leonid approaches. His boot sinks into black meltwater.

Behind him, a miner coughs.

LEONID

Don't touch anything.

His lamp passes over a human hand. A hospital tag hangs from

its wrist.

Something falls from the ceiling. Leonid flinches. The lamp

hits the floor.

In the new angle of light, every bed faces the exit.

CUT TO:

EXT. SEVERNY REGIONAL HOSPITAL - PREDAWN

A concrete hospital on the edge of a mining settlement. Most

windows are dark. A chimney coughs dirty smoke into the

blizzard.2.

SUPER: SIBERIA. LATE NOVEMBER.

An ambulance skids into the receiving bay.

INT. HOSPITAL - EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT - PREDAWN

DR. VERA SOKOLOVA, 38, has been awake too long. She lifts a

mug of tea, sees something floating in it, puts it down.

NURSE LENA PETROVA, 50, arranges gloves in groups of two.

LENA

Three miners. Fever. One unconscious.

VERA

Exposure?

LENA

They brought him straight from the pit.

The ambulance doors open. A PARAMEDIC helps Leonid inside.

His boots leave black water on the linoleum.

Leonid sees Vera's coat and grabs her sleeve.

LEONID

Don't put us together.

VERA

Why?

LEONID

We were together down there.

She gently removes his hand. The ends of his fingers are

dark.

VERA

Lena. Masks. The side room.

Lena stops counting gloves.

INT. HOSPITAL - SERVICE CORRIDOR - MORNING

ANNA MOROZOVA, 17, pushes a laundry cart with a bad wheel.

She kicks it straight without breaking stride.

MISHA, 10, follows with a bowl of porridge. An oversized

coat hangs off his shoulders.

MISHA

There's a man in my bed.3.

ANNA

It's not your bed. You just got there

first.

MISHA

He snores.

ANNA

So do you. I never complained.

He gives her a wounded look. She steals a spoonful of his

porridge.

MISHA

You could get your own.

ANNA

This one's better.

At a locked maintenance door, Anna tilts the cart, reaches

behind the frame, and retrieves a hidden key. Misha watches.

ANNA

If the front door won't open?

MISHA

Find a different door.

ANNA

And don't tell anybody where I put that.

She opens the door with her hip.

INT. HOSPITAL - ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE - MORNING

ELIAS LAINE, 34, sets a small camera on a tripod. A Finnish

flag sticker half conceals an old crack in its body.

Hospital director DR. MARKOV, 60, sits beneath a framed

photograph of an opening ceremony. The paint in the

photograph is considerably newer.

ELIAS

You serve six settlements with one

ambulance?

MARKOV

Two ambulances.

ELIAS

The other one hasn't got wheels.

MARKOV

The replacement part is coming.4.

Elias glances at his translator's empty chair.

MARKOV

Your interpreter called. Her son has a

fever.

ELIAS

We can do this in Russian.

MARKOV

Good. Then you'll understand the

answers.

Vera knocks once and enters. She holds a printed result.

VERA

Clear the waiting room. We need a

separate entrance for these patients.

MARKOV

We are in an interview.

VERA

The patients can't.

Markov looks at the paper. His expression changes.

He reaches across and covers the camera lens with his hand.

INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION ROOM - DAY

Leonid lies under thin blankets. Vera examines a painful

swelling at his neck. Lena records his temperature.

VERA

What did you find at the excavation?

LEONID

A room.

VERA

Machinery? Waste?

LEONID

Beds.

He coughs into a tissue, folds it to hide the blood.

VERA

How long were you inside?

LEONID

Until the lamp went out.5.

VERA

Did anyone else go in after you?

Leonid looks toward the wall. On the other side, another

miner coughs.

LEONID

They said to clear the passage.

Vera puts the tissue in a sealed disposal bag.

INT. HOSPITAL - LABORATORY - DAY

A centrifuge rattles on a folded piece of cardboard. LAB

TECHNICIAN IRINA, 29, peers at a screen.

IRINA

The regional lab wants a second sample.

VERA

Because they disagree?

IRINA

Because they don't want to say it first.

Vera reads an incoming message. Then reads it again.

VERA

Treat the other two. Don't wait for

confirmation.

IRINA

What do I tell the staff?

VERA

Tell them what we found. Tell them how

to protect themselves.

IRINA

And if they ask something we can't

answer?

VERA

Say we don't know yet.

EXT. HOSPITAL - AFTERNOON

Two military trucks grind through the snow. Soldiers unload

fencing and rolled plastic sheeting.

MAJOR PAVEL ORLOV, 46, steps down from the lead truck. He

checks the hospital, the residential blocks behind it, the

road west.6.

A mother holds a feverish toddler outside the entrance. A

soldier begins directing her away.

ORLOV

Get a nurse out here.

SOLDIER

We're supposed to seal the entrance.

ORLOV

After the nurse comes out.

INT. HOSPITAL - STAFF ROOM - AFTERNOON

Vera addresses a dozen exhausted staff. Markov stands by the

television, remote in hand.

VERA

The tests suggest plague. We're

isolating the ward. If you feel ill,

tell us immediately. Don't finish your

shift first. Nobody leaves until we can

examine them.

ORDERLY YURI, 30, raises a hand.

YURI

My mother can't get out of bed alone.

VERA

Give Lena the address. We'll get someone

to her.

YURI

By soldiers?

ORLOV

I'll send someone. They'll call you from

her apartment.

Elias stands in the doorway.

MARKOV

You are not staff.

ELIAS

Your soldiers won't let me out.

VERA

Then listen.

She looks at each face before continuing.7.

INT. HOSPITAL - PEDIATRIC WARD - EVENING

Misha sits by the window, drawing. Anna stuffs a towel along

its draughty sill.

MISHA

Are we going home?

ANNA

When they let us.

MISHA

You said tonight.

ANNA

That was before they put the fence up.

He shows her his drawing: the hospital, enormous wheels

beneath it.

MISHA

Now it can leave.

Anna smiles despite herself. She folds the drawing into her

pocket.

Lena enters with a thermometer.

LENA

Let's see how your chest sounds.

Anna moves aside. Lena's smile stays steady as she listens.

LENA

Anna, get Dr. Sokolova.

INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION ROOM - NIGHT

Vera adjusts Leonid's oxygen. His eyes track her, terrified.

LEONID

I can't feel my legs.

VERA

Look at me, Leonid. I'm staying here.

LEONID

No windows.

VERA

What?

LEONID

That room. No windows. They were all

facing the door.8.

He struggles for a breath. The monitor alarms.

Vera calls for Lena. Staff pour into the room. A

resuscitation attempt begins.

Later, the room is still.

Vera checks the clock. Writes a time in the patient

register.

Lena covers Leonid's face.

INT. HOSPITAL - COLD ROOM - LATER

Yuri and another orderly slide Leonid's covered body into a

storage compartment.

Yuri scrubs at a stain on his glove.

OTHER ORDERLY

Don't waste the good ones.

Yuri looks at him, then deliberately throws both gloves

away.

They leave. The light switches off.

Three faint knocks.

Silence.

INT. HOSPITAL - OFFICE - NIGHT

Vera types a report. Elias watches from the doorway.

ELIAS

May I ask you something?

VERA

You already did.

ELIAS

How long have you been here?

VERA

Three winters.

ELIAS

Did you ask to come here?

Vera stops typing.

VERA

Are you putting that in your film?9.

ELIAS

I'd ask you first.

VERA

Then I'm saying no now.

Her computer displays a failed transmission notice. She

clicks RETRY.

ELIAS

Mine isn't sending either.

VERA

They're calling it congestion.

ELIAS

Do you believe them?

VERA

I need the message to go through. That's

all I can check.

INT. HOSPITAL - DAY - TWO DAYS LATER

New plastic partitions divide the corridors. Staff move

carefully between them.

Lena crosses a name off a fever chart. The patient smiles

weakly.

Irina shows Vera improved laboratory readings.

In pediatrics, Misha drinks soup. Anna touches his forehead.

At the front gate, Orlov receives a report: no new fever

cases in the screened residential block.

INT. HOSPITAL - DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - DAY

Markov sets a clean shirt beside a laptop. On its screen, a

REGIONAL OFFICIAL prepares a video statement.

OFFICIAL

Can I tell them it's contained?

VERA

Fewer new cases. That's what you can

tell them.

OFFICIAL

The cordon is holding?

ORLOV

So far.10.

OFFICIAL

Good. We can lead with that.

MARKOV

We can move some staff out tomorrow.

Fewer mouths, fewer beds.

VERA

Only after examination.

OFFICIAL

Of course, Doctor.

He ends the call before anyone can add a condition.

INT. HOSPITAL - COLD ROOM - EVENING

Yuri wheels in a body bag. One of the storage handles is

twisted.

He stares at it. Something scrapes inside.

YURI

Hello?

He looks back toward the hall. Nobody.

Yuri unfastens the latch.

The door flies outward. Leonid falls against him, rigid and

freezing.

Yuri catches him reflexively.

LEONID'S teeth close around his wrist.

Yuri screams and slams the door on Leonid's shoulder. The

body keeps pushing. Yuri wedges a trolley under the handle

and runs.

INT. HOSPITAL - WASHROOM - MOMENTS LATER

Yuri holds his wrist under water. A crescent of deep wounds.

He starts shaking.

His phone lights up. MOTHER.

YURI

I'm coming.

MOTHER (V.O.)

They said nobody can leave.

YURI

Tomorrow. They have a vehicle.11.

He winds a clean bandage around his wrist. Pulls his sleeve

over it.

INT. HOSPITAL - PEDIATRIC WARD - NIGHT

Misha's drawing supplies lie untouched. His breathing is

shallow.

Anna stands beside Vera as she checks him.

ANNA

He ate today.

VERA

I know.

ANNA

This morning you said he was better.

VERA

His breathing has changed. I need him

closer to the nurses.

ANNA

Can I go?

VERA

Yes. Put this on first.

She hands Anna protective clothing. Helps with a strap the

girl cannot reach.

INT. HOSPITAL - LOWER CORRIDOR - NIGHT

Elias films peeling paint and water dripping into a bucket.

A low metallic crash interrupts him.

He lowers the camera.

IRINA appears at the cold-room door, clutching a radio.

IRINA

Help me.

Behind the door, the trolley rattles.

ELIAS

Someone's in there?

IRINA

The man we put in here.

The trolley flips. The door opens.12.

Leonid stands in the frame, neck bent at a dreadful angle.

Blackened bare feet on the tiles.

Irina raises her hands.

IRINA

Leonid? Can you hear me?

He lunges. Elias grabs her coat and drags her backward.

They retreat through a swing door. Leonid slams into its

glass, splits it with his face, keeps coming.

Elias's camera is still recording.

INT. HOSPITAL - DUTY STATION - CONTINUOUS

Lena hears the screaming and presses an emergency control.

Steel fire shutters descend in distant corridors.

INT. HOSPITAL - LOWER CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

Irina crawls beneath a descending shutter. Elias follows.

His camera strap catches.

He pulls once. Nothing.

Leonid reaches through the narrowing space. Nails tear

Elias's bag.

Irina cuts the strap with trauma scissors. Elias rolls clear

as the shutter hits the floor.

For a moment there is only their breathing.

Then pounding from the other side.

INT. HOSPITAL - DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT

Vera watches Elias's recording. Markov backs away from the

laptop.

MARKOV

You signed his death certificate.

VERA

I examined him.

MARKOV

Could you have been wrong?

VERA

I called his wife. I told her he was

dead.13.

Orlov examines the still image.

ORLOV

Where is he now?

IRINA

Behind the fire shutter.

ORLOV

Anybody bitten?

Irina checks her sleeves. Elias does the same.

VERA

Where's Yuri? He moved the body.

Markov looks at the signed transfer list on his desk.

EXT. HOSPITAL GATE - SAME TIME

A medical minibus rolls toward the exit. Yuri sits behind

the driver, his face gray.

A SOLDIER checks the paperwork.

SOLDIER

You've been examined?

Yuri nods.

The soldier sees the director's signature, raises the

barrier.

From the hospital, Orlov runs toward the gate, shouting into

his radio.

The minibus turns into the blizzard. Its taillights

disappear.

INT. HOSPITAL - DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT

Vera confronts Markov.

VERA

Who examined him?

MARKOV

He wasn't a patient. I cleared the staff

list.

VERA

Who examined him?

He has no answer.14.

Elias tries to upload the recording. Progress creeps to

ninety-eight percent.

Stops.

ELIAS

Give me your connection.

MARKOV

It's the same connection.

ELIAS

Let me try it.

INT. HOSPITAL - SECURITY CORRIDOR - LATER

Orlov and two soldiers approach the fire shutter. Vera

follows behind with Irina.

ORLOV

Halfway. Nobody goes through until I

say.

VERA

Keep your distance.

The shutter rises.

Leonid lies on the floor, apparently still.

SOLDIER

He's on the floor. I can reach him.

Before Orlov can stop him, the soldier ducks through.

Leonid's hand closes around his ankle. The soldier falls.

His rifle discharges into the ceiling.

Orlov drags him back while the other soldier fires into

Leonid's chest.

Leonid gets up.

ORLOV

Again!

A shot strikes Leonid's forehead. He drops and does not

move.

Everyone stares.

VERA

Nobody touches him.15.

The injured soldier pulls up his trouser leg. A deep bite

above the boot.

INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION WARD - LATER

The bitten soldier sits behind plastic sheeting. Orlov

leaves a bottle of water within reach.

SOLDIER

How long do I sit here?

ORLOV

Until the doctor knows more.

SOLDIER

Am I in trouble?

ORLOV

No.

Orlov stays until the soldier believes him.

In the next room, Vera listens to Misha's chest. Anna

watches the door.

ANNA

I heard shots.

VERA

Stay with your brother.

ANNA

Is that an answer?

Vera meets her eyes.

VERA

No. Something happened downstairs. I

don't understand it yet.

INT. HOSPITAL - TELEPHONE ROOM - NIGHT

Orlov speaks on a military handset.

ORLOV

A patient declared dead attacked two

civilians. Chest shots did not stop him.

I have one soldier bitten and a staff

transport outside the cordon.

COMMAND VOICE (V.O.)

Do not use that wording.

ORLOV

Which wording?16.

COMMAND VOICE (V.O.)

Documented death. Put the hospital back

in control and submit a corrected

report.

ORLOV

Watch the recording before you tell me

what to call it.

COMMAND VOICE (V.O.)

Secure the recording. Restrict civilian

communications.

Orlov looks through the glass at Elias, trying another

upload.

ORLOV

The transport vehicle. Have they located

it?

COMMAND VOICE (V.O.)

We're handling it.

The line clicks dead.

INT. HOSPITAL - LABORATORY - NIGHT

Vera watches Irina seal a diagnostic specimen inside a rigid

transport container.

IRINA

Regional lab says hold everything. No

courier.

VERA

Keep the logs with it.

IRINA

They already have our logs.

VERA

Some files never sent. Take the

originals.

Irina copies files to a memory device. The computer flickers

as the lights dip.

IRINA

The tests say plague. Plague doesn't do

this.

VERA

I know.17.

IRINA

You're frightened too.

Vera caps a pen. Misses the cap on the first try.

VERA

Yes.

Irina puts the sealed container between them. Neither looks

at it for a moment.

INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION WARD - PREDAWN

Lena moves between beds. A miner's monitor has stopped. She

checks him, reaches for a sheet.

His fingers close around her wrist.

LENA

Doctor?

She tries to free herself. His eyes open, clouded white.

Across the corridor, the bitten soldier begins convulsing.

INT. HOSPITAL - OFFICE - CONTINUOUS

Vera wakes at her desk to a crash. Elias looks up from the

failed upload.

A call bell. Then three. Then all of them.

INT. HOSPITAL - ISOLATION WARD - CONTINUOUS

Lena backs toward the door, one sleeve torn. Vera reaches

the observation window.

LENA

He has no pulse. I checked twice.

Behind Lena, the miner rises off his bed.

VERA

Open the side door!

Lena turns. The bitten soldier slams against it from the

other side.

The miner catches her.

Vera looks for the release. Markov, at the duty station, has

already activated the lockdown.

A shutter descends between Vera and the observation window.18.

Lena's hand strikes the glass once.

Then the shutter covers it.

INT. HOSPITAL - DUTY STATION - CONTINUOUS

Vera grabs Markov's wrist.

VERA

Lift it.

MARKOV

That's the infected ward.

VERA

My nurse is in there.

MARKOV

If I open it, they come out.

He rips his arm free, bolts toward the stairs.

Anna runs past him in the opposite direction.

ANNA

Misha!

Vera follows her.

INT. HOSPITAL - PEDIATRIC ISOLATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Misha lies very still. Anna touches his face. It is already

cooling.

Vera listens, checks, tries to find anything.

Anna watches her until she stops.

ANNA

Do something else.

VERA

Anna.

ANNA

Something you haven't done.

The pounding begins at the far corridor door.

Vera pulls the sheet over Misha's face. Anna grabs the edge.

ANNA

Wait.

His hand moves beneath it.19.

Anna's hope lights up before Vera can stop it.

Then the covered head turns too far. Teeth snap against the

sheet.

Vera pulls Anna back. Misha tumbles off the bed and crawls

toward them.

They retreat. Anna's heel catches a toy truck. She falls.

Vera hauls her through the door. Anna stares at her

brother's small hand reaching after them.

She closes the door herself.

INT. HOSPITAL - CENTRAL STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS

Markov reaches a security door, fumbles his card, drops it.

Below him, the dead climb the stairs. Hospital gowns. A

soldier's uniform. Lena's torn sleeve.

MARKOV

Open the door! My card isn't working!

He finds his card. Swipes. The lock flashes red.

He pounds on the door as the figures reach the landing.

INT. HOSPITAL - LABORATORY - CONTINUOUS

Irina shoves the sealed container into Vera's bag and hands

her the memory device.

IRINA

Someone outside has to look at this.

A body hits the corridor window.

Elias spots blood on Irina's coat.

ELIAS

Are you hurt?

Irina rolls back her sleeve. A bite at the elbow.

Vera moves toward her.

IRINA

Take the records, Vera. You can still

get them out.

VERA

We'll find a vehicle. We can keep you

separate.20.

Irina picks up a key ring, presses it into Anna's hand.

IRINA

Which way?

ANNA

Laundry.

IRINA

I'll keep this door shut.

She pushes them out through the service entrance. Turns the

lock behind them.

Vera tries the handle once.

IRINA

(through door)

Go.

INT. HOSPITAL - LAUNDRY BASEMENT - CONTINUOUS

Anna leads through steam and hanging sheets. Orlov joins

them from a stairwell, his remaining soldier nowhere in

sight.

ORLOV

The front entrance is lost.

ANNA

We don't need it.

A laundry cart rattles across their path. Something crawls

behind it.

Elias raises his camera, then sees Anna struggling with a

heavy door.

He puts the camera down and helps her.

Orlov fires once. The sound brings answering movement from

behind the sheets.

ANNA

Stop shooting. They're coming toward it.

She slides under a pipe, unlocks the coal-delivery hatch.

EXT. HOSPITAL - REAR YARD - PREDAWN

They climb out into snow. The hospital towers above them,

alarms sounding through sealed windows.

Orlov finds a service van with the keys still inside. Elias

loads Vera's bag.21.

Anna turns back toward the building.

A small silhouette stands at a second-floor window.

Too far away to know whose.

VERA

Anna.

She gets in.

EXT. SEVERNY - PREDAWN

The van passes the rear cordon. A soldier lies in the road

beside an overturned barrier. Orlov slows, sees the man's

jaw working against the snow, accelerates.

On the highway, emergency lights glow ahead.

The medical minibus sits sideways in a ditch, its windows

broken from inside.

Yuri's bandage hangs from a seat handle.

Orlov drives west.

EXT. FOREST ROAD - MORNING

The van stops beneath power lines. Steam escapes from its

radiator.

Orlov lifts the hood. Vera lays their supplies on a blanket

in the snow: a few medical packs, water, a sealed specimen

container, the patient register.

Elias checks his phone. No service.

Anna sits inside, hands buried in her coat pockets.

ORLOV

There's a freight depot thirty

kilometres south. Fuel, maintenance, a

telephone.

ELIAS

And people.

ORLOV

Yes.

ELIAS

They need to know we're coming from the

hospital.

Orlov holds up his silent radio.22.

ORLOV

As soon as I can reach anyone.

Vera writes down the time and their condition.

ELIAS

You're keeping a diary?

VERA

Observations.

ELIAS

Of us?

VERA

Temperatures. Symptoms. If one of us

gets ill, I need to know when.

Anna gets out. Vera offers to examine her hands. Anna

refuses, then reluctantly extends them.

No wounds.

VERA

Anything hurts, tell me.

ANNA

Everything hurts.

Vera lets her hands go.

EXT. FREIGHT DEPOT - DAY

A sprawling rail yard under gray skies. Freight cars stand

in long dark rows. A locomotive idles beside a platform

crowded with workers.

The van approaches a temporary barrier. Two railway security

guards raise their weapons.

GUARD

Stop there. Engine off.

Orlov complies, displays identification through the glass.

GUARD

Where from?

ORLOV

Severny hospital.

The guard backs away.23.

ORLOV

We need isolation space. And your

supervisor needs to hear us now.

INT. DEPOT - MAINTENANCE OFFICE - DAY

DEPOT MANAGER TAMARA, 55, listens without interrupting. A

battered kettle boils beside her.

Elias shows the recording on a monitor. Tamara watches

Leonid rise after the chest wounds.

TAMARA

You sent this to the regional

authorities?

ORLOV

They told me to secure it.

TAMARA

Did they watch it?

She picks up her desk phone.

TAMARA

(into phone)

No passenger movement until I release

it. Yes, all platforms. Medical

restriction.

She sets the phone down. It rings immediately. She ignores

it.

TAMARA

There's an examination team here. They

can check you.

VERA

Lock the room where you keep the dead.

Don't let anyone go in alone.

Tamara studies her to see if it is a joke.

TAMARA

All right.

Elias plugs a cable into his computer. The stalled upload

resumes.

UPLOAD COMPLETE.

He sits back. The first comment appears.

FAKE.24.

Then: MY DAD WORKS THERE. PLEASE ANSWER.

INT. DEPOT - STORAGE ROOM - AFTERNOON

The survivors sit spaced apart while a medic examines them.

Vera lets the medic take her temperature before making any

requests.

Anna studies a wall map. Her finger follows a railway line

west.

ANNA

How far to Finland?

ELIAS

Several days. If the trains run.

ANNA

Does your family live there?

ELIAS

My sister does.

ANNA

You should call her.

ELIAS

I tried.

ANNA

Try again.

He does. The call goes through.

ELIAS

Sanni? It's me.

SANNI (V.O.)

I saw the video. Tell me you're

somewhere else.

ELIAS

I'm out of the hospital.

SANNI (V.O.)

That's not what I asked.

He looks at the sealed storage-room door.

ELIAS

We're at a depot. They're checking us

before we get on a train.

SANNI (V.O.)

Come home.25.

ELIAS

I'll call when I know how.

SANNI (V.O.)

You always say that.

The connection breaks.

INT. DEPOT - MAINTENANCE OFFICE - AFTERNOON

Tamara gives Vera the phone. On a video call: DR. NADIA

BELOVA, 44, at a regional receiving laboratory.

BELOVA

We have your original results. And the

video.

VERA

Have you watched all of it?

BELOVA

An ambulance arrived here this morning

with two dead attendants. One injured

the receiving nurse.

Vera closes her eyes for a second.

BELOVA

I want the timeline and the original

files. Don't open or divide the

specimen. A medical rail movement leaves

your depot tonight. We're arranging a

secure compartment.

ORLOV

Who is escorting it?

BELOVA

You, if you're willing.

Orlov looks at Vera, then Tamara.

ORLOV

I am.

INT. DEPOT - CANTEEN - EVENING

A television loops Elias's footage beneath a banner:

UNCONFIRMED HOSPITAL INCIDENT.

A STUDIO PRESENTER talks over a paused image of Leonid.26.

PRESENTER (ON TV)

Officials urge viewers not to share

material from unidentified sources.

Essential travel continues under

additional health screening.

A railway worker notices Elias at a table.

WORKER

That's your film?

ELIAS

Yes.

WORKER

My wife's gone to the school. Won't

bring the children home. Says our street

isn't safe.

ELIAS

Where is the school?

WORKER

Here. Where do you think?

Elias has no reassuring answer.

Anna carries a tray past them. The worker sees the hospital

badge on her coat and moves his chair away.

She sits with her back to the television.

EXT. DEPOT PLATFORM - NIGHT

A medical transport train waits under floodlights. Medics

screen passengers. A loudspeaker tells families to keep

documents ready.

A woman named GALINA, 32, struggles with a bag and her

daughter SONYA, 7. Sonya carries a plush hare missing one

ear.

Anna catches the bag before it falls onto the track.

GALINA

Thank you.

SONYA

It's got medicine in it.

GALINA

Things we need.

Anna notices a photograph tucked under the bag's clear

luggage label: Galina, Sonya, a man in a work uniform.27.

ANNA

Where's he?

GALINA

Waiting farther west.

Anna helps them aboard.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - SECURE COMPARTMENT - NIGHT

Vera straps the transport container beneath a seat. Orlov

inspects the compartment door. Elias sits opposite Anna.

Outside, Tamara gives a signal. The train starts moving.

Anna places Misha's drawing on her lap. Smooths a crease.

ELIAS

He drew that?

She nods.

ELIAS

May I see?

ANNA

No.

He accepts it. Puts away his camera.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - GALLEY - LATER

Vera finds Orlov making tea from a paper ration packet.

ORLOV

I reported the minibus three times.

VERA

Then write down when.

ORLOV

You think paper will help?

VERA

Keep a copy they don't have.

He hands her a cup.

ORLOV

You sound experienced.

Vera looks down the narrow carriage.28.

VERA

A plant near my old hospital had a gas

leak. Three workers died. The director

brought me the certificates. Already

filled out. Heart failure.

ORLOV

You sent them back.

VERA

I signed one.

Orlov stops stirring.

VERA

He had two children. They said they'd

look after them if the plant stayed

open.

ORLOV

Did they get it?

VERA

No. I'd signed away their claim.

She returns to the compartment, leaving her tea untouched.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - PASSENGER CARRIAGE - NIGHT

Sonya sleeps against Galina. Passengers scroll through their

phones.

A man plays a video loudly: someone claiming heat will cure

the illness. A woman asks him to turn it down.

MAN

You should listen. Doctors are hiding

this.

Galina lowers the phone Sonya has been watching. Her

daughter wakes.

SONYA

Is Papa coming?

GALINA

Sleep a little longer.

At the far end of the carriage, an elderly passenger begins

coughing. Every conversation stops.29.

EXT. RAIL LINE - NIGHT

The train cuts through forest. In the distance, smoke rises

over a small town. Ambulance lights flash on a parallel

road.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - SECURE COMPARTMENT - DAY

SUPER: DAY 6.

Belova's face freezes mid-sentence on Vera's laptop. The

image returns with her in different lighting, the laboratory

almost dark.

BELOVA

Don't come to our station.

VERA

We're an hour away.

BELOVA

They've closed the receiving ward. It

started in the holding room.

VERA

Are you safe?

Belova looks away. A crash somewhere off screen.

BELOVA

I sent your records onward. There is a

national team farther west. I'll message

the route.

VERA

Nadia, leave the room.

BELOVA

I'm shutting down the archive first.

The call ends.

Elias sees Vera staring at the blank screen.

ELIAS

Did she send it?

A message arrives. Vera opens it.

VERA

Yes.30.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - CONDUCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY

Orlov and Vera confront the CONDUCTOR. The train has slowed.

CONDUCTOR

I've got trains ahead and trains behind.

I can't just turn left.

ORLOV

Don't stop at the receiving station.

CONDUCTOR

They control the signals.

Vera shows him Belova's message.

VERA

You have families aboard. Get dispatch

to read this.

The conductor reaches for his radio.

INT. REGIONAL TELEVISION STUDIO - DAY

A NEWS ANCHOR interviews a hospital spokesman remotely.

Behind her, a producer watches a monitor with growing alarm.

ANCHOR

Several hospitals have reported patients

moving after resuscitation was

abandoned. How are you advising staff to

respond?

SPOKESMAN (ON MONITOR)

I can't confirm the circumstances of

those reports.

Through the studio's glass door, a security guard backs into

view. Something pulls him out of frame.

The producer waves urgently.

ANCHOR

We seem to have a technical issue--

The glass door breaks. A bloodied man stumbles into the

studio and catches the producer by the throat.

The anchor gets up, knocks over her chair.

The camera keeps transmitting an empty desk. A scream. A

crash. Someone crawls briefly through the bottom of the

image.

Then a test card.31.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - PASSENGER CARRIAGE - SAME TIME

Passengers watch the live feed on several phones. Silence

spreads along the carriage.

The man who recommended heat turns his own phone over.

MONTAGE - THE WESTWARD SPREAD

-- Day 8. An airport terminal empties around abandoned

luggage. A departure board changes every flight to

CANCELLED.

-- In a Moscow apartment, a grandmother tapes blankets over

her windows while a news channel runs through the night.

-- A freight yard outside a western city. Workers cut open a

sealed wagon. They run before its doors have fully slid

apart.

-- A Polish emergency broadcast advises people to avoid

crowded transit stations. A woman writes the information on

the wall of her building's lobby for neighbours without

power.

-- In a Baltic newsroom, a producer moves red pins across a

map. The pattern follows roads, railways, evacuation routes.

-- Footage from a motorway: a mass of dead walking past

stalled cars. More join them from a burning service area.

-- Day 11. Emergency instructions translated into dozens of

languages appear on screens. Competing claims, old clips,

missing-person appeals scroll beside them without pause.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - SECURE COMPARTMENT - NIGHT

The train stands still. Vera listens to a railway dispatch

recording sent to Orlov's radio.

DISPATCH (V.O.)

Bridge inspection incomplete. Remain at

present location. Further instructions

to follow.

ORLOV

They've said that for four hours.

Anna peers outside. People are leaving a distant farmhouse

with bundles, walking toward the railway.

ANNA

They're coming here.

Elias steps up beside her.32.

ELIAS

They can see the lights.

EXT. MEDICAL TRAIN - NIGHT

The conductor lowers a step for the approaching families.

The medical staff protest; he points to the snow.

CONDUCTOR

You want them to stay out there?

Vera moves to the platform with her examination kit.

VERA

One family at a time.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - DAY

SUPER: DAY 13.

The carriage is now crowded. Water bottles empty. Battery

icons red.

Galina trades crackers for a phone charger. Sonya draws on

the back of an evacuation form.

Elias records a message in the vestibule.

ELIAS

It's fourteen ten. The date is on your

screen. Our train is stopped west of the

transfer station. We don't know when it

can move. Don't travel here on the

strength of yesterday's notice.

He adds a large time and date directly over the image before

uploading.

A new message from Sanni: I'M VOLUNTEERING AT A RECEPTION

CENTRE. TELL ME YOUR ROUTE WHEN YOU CAN.

He types: STILL MOVING WEST.

Deletes MOVING. Writes: TRYING TO MOVE WEST.

EXT. RAIL LINE - AFTERNOON

Orlov and the conductor walk ahead of the train toward a

junction. The signal cabinet stands open. Its operator lies

in the snow.

The conductor starts toward him. Orlov catches his arm.

The operator's hand twitches.33.

ORLOV

Stay back.

The body rises slowly, its joints locked by cold. It turns

toward their voices.

The conductor cannot look away.

ORLOV

Take the key from the cabinet. Not his

pocket.

The conductor reaches carefully. A metal key ring falls,

jingles against a rail.

The operator turns sharply toward the sound.

Orlov steps sideways, drawing it away while the conductor

retrieves the keys.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - SECURE COMPARTMENT - EVENING

Vera records Orlov's account. Elias reviews footage he took

through the window.

ELIAS

It followed you when you spoke. Stopped

when you stopped.

VERA

It did this time. Don't rely on it yet.

ANNA

The ones in the laundry did it too.

Vera adds a second line.

EXT. RAIL SIDING - NIGHT

A convoy of buses and medical vehicles parks alongside the

train. A transport official, LEBEDEV, 40, meets the

conductor.

LEBEDEV

Line ahead is blocked. Road transfer to

a western coordination point.

CONDUCTOR

All passengers?

LEBEDEV

As many as fit. Another group follows.

Orlov takes him aside.34.

ORLOV

What time is the next transport?

LEBEDEV

Being arranged.

ORLOV

Show me the vehicles.

Lebedev cannot.

INT. MEDICAL TRAIN - PASSENGER CARRIAGE - NIGHT

The conductor announces a transfer. People start grabbing

bags.

Anna puts her own small bag down and helps Galina lift

Sonya, asleep, from the seat.

GALINA

Where's yours?

ANNA

I have pockets.

Elias notices a MAN pressing a phone against his ear.

MAN

They told us the westbound terminal is

safe. The video says so.

ELIAS

When was it recorded?

MAN

It was posted ten minutes ago.

Elias takes a closer look. The footage shows sunlight at a

place that is now dark. He recognises a broadcaster whose

channel went offline days earlier.

ELIAS

That's an old recording. Don't go there.

MAN

You know every road now?

ELIAS

No. I know that recording is old.

The man hesitates, then follows the transfer queue.35.

EXT. RAIL SIDING - LATER

Every vehicle is full. Passengers remain on the platform.

The conductor stands among them.

ORLOV

Come in the medical van.

CONDUCTOR

Someone has to keep the heat on here.

Orlov looks at the waiting families.

ORLOV

We'll send help back.

CONDUCTOR

Send fuel. Help needs fuel too.

He gives Orlov a paper with the siding coordinates.

INT. MEDICAL VAN - NIGHT

Vera rests the transport container between her boots. Elias

sits beside a DRIVER named VIKTOR, 45. Orlov checks the road

map.

Anna watches the train disappear through the rear windows.

VIKTOR

First time this far west?

Anna nods.

VIKTOR

Bad tour.

She almost smiles.

EXT. MOTORWAY - DAWN

The convoy passes abandoned vehicles. Some have doors open,

belongings scattered. Others are occupied by shapes still

moving behind fogged glass.

On a hillside beyond the road, hundreds of figures walk in

the same direction as the convoy.

Elias films through the windshield, then lowers the camera.

ELIAS

How many towns?36.

ORLOV

Don't count from this road. We don't

know what's beyond it.

EXT. SERVICE AREA - DAY

A temporary aid station. Volunteers hand out water. A

handwritten board lists routes reported open and the time of

each report.

Vera finds a MEDICAL COORDINATOR, 50, speaking into two

radios.

COORDINATOR

The national lab is evacuating. We're

redirecting medical material north-west.

VERA

We've been redirected twice.

COORDINATOR

Most of us have.

Vera shows him the container, register, copied records.

VERA

We came from Severny. These are the

original records. The cold slows them

down. It doesn't make them safe to

handle.

He stops juggling radios.

COORDINATOR

Wait here.

INT. SERVICE AREA - KITCHEN - DAY

Elias films a volunteer sorting medications. A WOMAN spots

his camera and shoves a photograph toward it.

WOMAN

Put him on television. They showed you.

Show him.

ELIAS

I'll record it. His name, the bus, where

you saw him. Everything you remember.

WOMAN

He was on a bus. They took the bus away.

Which bus? Nobody writes anything down.

Anna watches from the doorway. Elias lowers himself to the

woman's eye level.37.

ELIAS

Tell me his name first.

He records without turning the camera toward her tears.

EXT. SERVICE AREA - AFTERNOON

The coordinator gives Vera a contact number and a printed

message.

COORDINATOR

An international medical intake is

operating behind the Finnish border.

They're accepting sealed records and

specimens. Convoys are going through

Karelia.

ELIAS

Which crossing?

COORDINATOR

Kivikoski. Don't expect it to stay open

indefinitely.

Vera reads the message twice.

VERA

Who confirmed this?

COORDINATOR

A doctor there. Forty minutes ago.

He points to the timestamp.

EXT. SERVICE AREA - MOMENTS LATER

Anna sits on a curb with Sonya. Sonya offers her the damaged

hare.

SONYA

Can you fix the ear?

ANNA

I don't have the other one.

SONYA

Can you make a new one?

Anna examines a spare glove. Tears a strip from its cuff.

SONYA

Did you have a sister?

ANNA

A brother.38.

SONYA

Where is he?

Anna works on the toy.

ANNA

He died at the hospital.

Sonya looks at the toy between them.

SONYA

You can keep him until I get on the bus.

She means the hare. Anna nods, unable to answer.

INT. MEDICAL VAN - EVENING

The convoy pulls away. Galina and Sonya travel in the first

bus. Anna watches their window until the bus rounds a curve.

Vera checks her supplies. A corner of Misha's drawing

protrudes from Anna's pocket.

VERA

I'm sorry I couldn't save him.

ANNA

Did you know he could die when you moved

him?

VERA

Yes.

ANNA

You should have told me.

VERA

Yes.

Anna looks out the window. Vera lets the silence remain.

EXT. VILLAGE ROAD - NIGHT

The convoy slows. A farmhouse burns on the road ahead.

Shapes move in its light.

Viktor switches off his headlights. The buses behind follow

suit.

A body steps into the road. Then another.

The convoy waits in darkness.

An impatient driver at the rear sounds his horn.39.

Every figure turns.

VIKTOR

Idiot.

He pulls hard to the left. The convoy detours onto a logging

track.

Bodies follow the buses, others emerge between trees. One

slams against the van's side. Vera braces the container as

the van pitches.

Anna grips the ceiling handle, breath caught.

ORLOV

Stay on the tracks. Don't stop.

EXT. LOGGING TRACK - LATER

The convoy halts in a clearing. One bus has shredded a tire.

Passengers step into the cold while Viktor checks damage.

Lebedev argues with a driver. Orlov listens to intermittent

radio traffic.

LEBEDEV

We go north in the morning.

ORLOV

We can't sit with engines running.

They'll hear us.

VIKTOR

There's an old rail tunnel nearby. Road

access at the maintenance entrance. Out

of the wind.

Vera looks at the passengers, shivering in thin coats.

VERA

We need shelter. With a separate holding

area.

EXT. RAIL TUNNEL - NIGHT

The vehicles stop outside a disused tunnel cut through a

rocky ridge. Snow has drifted across the rails.

An emergency access building stands to one side. A staircase

inside climbs toward a maintenance exit on the ridge.

Volunteers string battery lamps. The refugees move in

slowly, uncertain of the dark.40.

INT. RAIL TUNNEL - NIGHT

At the far end, beneath blankets, lie several bodies left by

an earlier group.

Vera stops the nearest volunteer.

VERA

Keep that section closed. Nobody touches

them.

VOLUNTEER

We need their documents. Families are

asking.

VERA

Write down where you found them. Keep

the cord up. I'll come back with help.

She stretches cord across the tunnel. Places a handwritten

warning beside it.

Orlov assigns two volunteers to watch.

INT. TUNNEL - LATER

Refugees sit around portable heaters. Anna knots the

substitute ear onto Sonya's hare.

SONYA

It's longer.

ANNA

Better hearing.

Sonya smiles. Anna returns the toy.

Galina's phone finally connects. She turns away to speak to

her husband.

GALINA

We're coming through Karelia. Please

don't move again. Just tell me where you

are.

Her smile fades as she listens.

INT. TUNNEL - MEDICAL AREA - SAME TIME

Vera examines a sick man. His family waits nearby. Elias

helps hold the lamp.

VERA

How long has he had the fever?41.

WIFE

Since yesterday. He's not bitten. He's

not.

VERA

I believe you. Fever is enough. We need

to treat him and keep him apart for now.

WIFE

You mean take him away.

VERA

I'll put your chair here. He can see you

through the screen.

Vera arranges chairs on opposite sides of the temporary

barrier.

INT. TUNNEL - BODY HOLDING AREA - SAME TIME

A volunteer hears a phone ringing beneath one of the

blankets.

He looks toward the distant medical area, then ducks under

the cord. A WOMAN follows.

WOMAN

It might be my son's.

VOLUNTEER

Wait there.

He lifts a blanket. A frozen man, wallet visible beneath his

coat.

The volunteer tries to open the coat. The fabric is frozen

stiff.

He drags a heater closer.

INT. TUNNEL - NIGHT

Anna looks up from Sonya's toy. Water trickles past her

boot.

At the far end, a dead man's heel slowly slides over the

concrete.

ANNA

Turn it off.

The volunteer doesn't hear her.

ANNA

Turn the heater off!42.

The frozen man opens his eyes.

The woman screams. The corpse grabs the volunteer by the

coat, pulling him down.

Orlov runs toward them with a steel chair. Hits the corpse

hard enough to separate it from the volunteer.

Another blanket rises.

VERA

Stairs! Everybody to the stairs!

People surge toward the access building. Someone falls.

Elias sets his camera down and lifts the man.

Anna catches Sonya's hand. Galina runs beside them.

INT. TUNNEL ACCESS STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS

The lower door swings inward under the press of bodies.

Orlov and Viktor force it back.

Above, Anna reaches a maintenance hatch. Padlocked.

She tries Irina's keys. Wrong. Another. Wrong.

Behind her, the stairwell fills.

SONYA

Anna?

Anna stares at the lock. Stops trying the keys.

She studies the hatch frame, reaches behind a loose cover

plate.

A release latch.

She pulls. The whole inner frame swings free.

ANNA

This way!

EXT. RIDGE MAINTENANCE EXIT - CONTINUOUS

Families crawl into snow. Elias helps pull them out.

Below, engines start. Drivers who remained outside move the

vehicles toward the upper service track.43.

INT. ACCESS STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS

Orlov braces the lower door. A dead hand thrusts through the

gap, catches his glove.

Viktor swings the chair. Too late.

Teeth close above Orlov's cuff.

Orlov tears free. Viktor sees the wound. Orlov sees him see

it.

ORLOV

Go up.

VIKTOR

Pavel--

ORLOV

Hold the top hatch open.

Viktor goes. Orlov wedges the chair into the door, retreats

up the stairs.

EXT. RIDGE - LATER

The convoy reforms, fewer people than before. Volunteers

call names into the snow.

Vera kneels beside the bitten volunteer. He is already

deteriorating. The woman who wanted the phone sits nearby,

empty-handed.

Orlov stands apart from the group.

ORLOV

Doctor.

He rolls back his sleeve.

Vera takes a long breath.

VERA

Sit apart from the others. I'll get the

kit.

ORLOV

You know what happens next.

VERA

I know what happened to the others. I'm

still treating you.44.

EXT. SERVICE TRACK - PREDAWN

The convoy leaves. Orlov sits alone in the rear of the

medical van, a temporary transparent barrier between him and

the others.

Anna watches him from her seat. He tries to pull on his

glove, cannot make his fingers work.

She looks away so he doesn't have to see her watching.

INT. MEDICAL VAN - MORNING

Orlov sweats despite the cold. Vera checks him through an

opening in the barrier. Elias records at Orlov's request.

ORLOV

Pavel Antonovich Orlov. Major. I

commanded the first hospital cordon.

He swallows painfully.

ORLOV

For two days, the cordon worked. Then we

let a staff vehicle leave. Twenty-two

forty, third night. We checked the

papers. We didn't check the people.

VERA

You can rest.

ORLOV

Write my soldier's name too. Kirill

Denisov. He entered because I told him

to.

Elias keeps the camera steady.

ORLOV

I was ordered to change the report. I

did not change it.

He turns to Vera.

ORLOV

When I stop breathing, keep everyone

back. Even if I look still.

EXT. ROADSIDE CHAPEL - DAY

A tiny wooden chapel beside a snowed-in road. Viktor parks

the van. The buses wait farther away.

Vera, Elias, and Anna stand outside while Orlov sits on the

chapel steps behind a closed wire gate.45.

VERA

I'll stay where I can see you.

ORLOV

You need to get the others through.

He takes off his watch. Places it on the step outside the

gate.

ORLOV

My wife's address is inside the strap.

If the post ever works again.

Elias picks it up.

ORLOV

Don't make me brave in your film. I was

frightened in that stairwell.

ELIAS

I know.

ORLOV

Good.

Anna steps closer.

ANNA

You kept the door shut.

Orlov gives her a tired nod. It matters to him more than

anything else they could say.

Vera remains until his breathing stops.

She records the time.

Then, after a long stillness, movement beneath his coat.

Elias puts his camera away. Viktor, waiting out of view with

Orlov's rifle, looks to Vera.

She closes her eyes and nods.

A single shot.

EXT. ROAD WEST - AFTERNOON

The convoy passes a sign pointing toward Karelia.

Behind them, in the fields, an immense moving crowd spreads

beyond the frame.46.

EXT. KIVIKOSKI BORDER CROSSING - DAY

SUPER: FINLAND - RUSSIAN KARELIA BORDER. DAY 23.

A deep river gorge cuts through snow-covered forest. A

two-lane road bridge spans it, concrete piers disappearing

into spray and ice below.

On the eastern approach: an old customs yard, inspection

sheds, a bus turnaround, a red-roofed civil-defence building

near the bridge abutment. Its warning siren towers above the

roof.

On the western side: a newer Finnish checkpoint, a field

command post, and the road toward evacuation centres.

The bridge is crowded with buses moving west. An emergency

foot lane runs alongside them.

CAPTAIN AINO KOSKINEN, 41, watches from the western command

post. She has a paper map, a radio, and half a sandwich she

has forgotten to eat.

LIEUTENANT JUHO SALMI, 28, comes in with a count sheet.

JUHO

Twenty-six buses through since midnight.

Eight still east. More arriving.

AINO

How many at screening?

JUHO

We keep counting the same queue.

She hands him a marker.

AINO

Mark each band at boarding. Count again

here. Departures and arrivals.

A radio calls. She listens.

AINO

No, the outbound road has to stay clear.

Send the returning ambulances through

the depot loop.

She releases the switch, finds her sandwich, puts it back.

EXT. EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - DAY

The battered convoy enters a line of vehicles. Passengers

step down beside signs in Finnish, Russian, and English.47.

SCREENING. TRANSPORT. MEDICAL HOLDING.

A FINNISH MEDIC greets Vera. She gives him the sealed

container and intake message.

VERA

Sealed diagnostic material. Leave it

sealed. Who's your receiving doctor?

MEDIC

They're expecting you.

Anna helps Galina down from the bus. Sonya sleeps in her

mother's arms.

GALINA

He said he'd meet us at the border. He

never said which crossing.

Anna takes one of the bags.

ANNA

We'll ask here.

EXT. SCREENING TENT - DAY

Passengers enter individually. A nervous man refuses to roll

up his sleeve. Voices rise.

Across the yard, another queue stops because a woman

collapses.

Vera moves toward her, but the medic gently directs Vera

back.

MEDIC

Our team has her. You've been travelling

for weeks.

Vera watches another doctor kneel beside the woman. Forces

herself to stay.

INT. MEDICAL INTAKE OFFICE - DAY

DR. LEENA HAKALA, 52, signs a handover form. She checks each

seal against Vera's documentation.

LEENA

The courier leaves in an hour. We'll

send the original data with it. You keep

a copy.

VERA

Where is it going?48.

LEENA

Here's the receiving team. The courier

signs for it, then they do. You'll get

confirmation.

She places an authenticated intake message before Vera.

Vera reads, then finally releases the container.

LEENA

Sit down.

VERA

We saw frozen bodies become active when

they warmed.

LEENA

Your notes say that. Were they

unresponsive before?

VERA

Completely. The heater was close to

them. Then they moved.

LEENA

You observed several?

VERA

Several in the tunnel. Another outside

the train moved slowly. We never

measured a temperature. I can't give you

a safe number.

Leena starts writing an instruction sheet.

LEENA

That's enough to change where we put

them.

INT. FINNISH COMMAND POST - AFTERNOON

Aino meets Vera and Elias. Juho spreads a map on a table.

AINO

My people have seen your recording. Tell

them what helps. They know what it looks

like.

ELIAS

I can speak to them.

AINO

Good. And ask before filming a patient.

Nobody should have to fight your camera

to get through screening.49.

ELIAS

Understood.

Vera puts the hospital register on the table.

AINO

You carried that all the way?

VERA

Yes.

Aino opens it: handwriting becomes less steady as the days

pass.

AINO

We have a cold holding shed on the east

side. We'll add a separate barrier

before bringing anyone into medical

assessment.

JUHO

Even if they have no pulse?

VERA

Especially then.

Juho nods, writes it down.

INT. EASTERN CUSTOMS BUILDING - AFTERNOON

Anna and Galina examine printed missing-person sheets taped

to the walls. Sonya holds the repaired hare.

Names, photographs, last locations. A volunteer prints

another sheet while they look.

GALINA

There. That's his unit. He was

transferred there.

She points to an aid organisation notice. Anna copies the

number.

At a desk nearby, EERO, 61, a Finnish mechanic in a patched

orange jacket, argues with a volunteer about vehicle

capacity.

EERO

Forty seated. Eight standing, if the

road's clear. Luggage underneath. People

stay where I can see them.

VOLUNTEER

I didn't say--50.

EERO

Someone always says.

Sonya watches his hands, black with grease.

SONYA

Do you fix everything?

EERO

I haven't fixed the coffee machine yet.

SONYA

My rabbit broke.

Eero examines the substitute ear.

EERO

Looks fixed to me.

Anna sits Sonya on a chair while Galina calls the number.

INT. EASTERN MEDICAL TENT - AFTERNOON

Leena examines Anna. Vera stands nearby but does not

interfere.

LEENA

How old are you?

ANNA

Seventeen.

LEENA

Any family travelling with you?

Anna looks at Vera.

ANNA

These two.

Leena marks the form.

LEENA

We can arrange a quiet place for you at

the reception centre.

ANNA

I want to stay with them.

LEENA

We can arrange that too.

Leena leaves to fetch a wristband.51.

Anna notices an ARRIVALS ledger on the desk. Every line

filled.

ANNA

You could write Misha in yours now.

VERA

I wrote him before we left.

ANNA

His whole name?

VERA

Mikhail Sergeyevich Morozov.

Anna sits back. One thing she does not have to carry alone.

EXT. BRIDGE - LATE AFTERNOON

Elias walks west with his camera packed away. He pauses at

the railing, looking down at the violent water.

Sanni answers his call from a reception centre. Behind her,

volunteers unfold camp beds.

SANNI (ON PHONE)

You actually made it?

ELIAS

I'm on the bridge.

SANNI

Then keep walking.

He laughs once, almost surprised by it.

ELIAS

There's a doctor and a girl with me. Can

you make room?

SANNI

We keep making room. Are they hurt?

ELIAS

They've lost people.

Sanni hears something in his voice.

SANNI

Then bring them inside. We'll take it

from there.

Elias looks back at the crowded eastern yard.52.

ELIAS

The doctor is helping at screening.

We'll come together.

SANNI

Call me when you leave. Not after. When.

ELIAS

I will.

EXT. EASTERN HOLDING SHED - DUSK

Two orderlies wheel a covered body toward the medical tent.

A FEMALE ORDERLY checks the new instruction sheet.

FEMALE ORDERLY

Separate assessment first. We stay here.

MALE ORDERLY

There's a free bed inside.

FEMALE ORDERLY

Read it.

Inside the fenced assessment space, the covered body jerks

upward.

The male orderly jumps back. The trolley overturns.

The body crawls toward the gap, striking the metal mesh.

Leena arrives with a security team. The fence holds.

From a distance, Vera watches. Her warning reached somebody

in time.

INT. COMMAND POST - DUSK

Aino receives the report. Juho pins a confirmation on the

board.

AINO

Keep the holding arrangement. Two staff

at every transfer. Nobody works there

alone.

A new radio transmission cuts in. SCOUT RANTA, 35,

breathless but controlled.

RANTA (V.O.)

Movement beyond the old station. Much

larger than the earlier report.

AINO

Numbers?53.

RANTA (V.O.)

Not possible from here. The road is

full. They're in the forest on both

sides too.

Aino moves to the map.

AINO

Direction?

RANTA (V.O.)

Toward the crossing. Following the

traffic noise.

Aino calls regional command on a separate line.

EXT. OLD RAIL STATION - DUSK

Ranta and a second scout crouch on a ridge. Through

binoculars: a sea of bodies threading through abandoned

railway carriages, stepping over fences, spreading between

trees.

Snow powders shoulders, hair, open wounds. Some drag damaged

legs. Those behind push past them.

The second scout backs onto a branch. It cracks.

Near the ridge, several heads turn.

Ranta touches his colleague's shoulder. They withdraw

without running.

INT. COMMAND POST - EVENING

REGIONAL COMMANDER (V.O.)

Destroy the bridge if you cannot hold

the eastern approach. We can't send

additional units before morning.

AINO

I have civilians on that approach.

Medical patients. Children.

REGIONAL COMMANDER (V.O.)

Then accelerate evacuation. Keep the

west road open. Your fallback line is

the forestry junction.

AINO

Understood.

She ends the call. Looks at Juho.54.

AINO

We prepare demolition. We don't close

the crossing yet.

JUHO

How long do you need?

AINO

Get the engineer. Tell the drivers we

leave tonight.

INT. EASTERN CUSTOMS BUILDING - EVENING

Galina sits with Sonya asleep against her. The call has

ended. Anna approaches with water.

GALINA

He isn't on their list. That doesn't

mean anything. The woman said lists are

incomplete.

ANNA

We can leave his name here.

GALINA

If he comes and we're gone--

ANNA

They'll know where you went.

Galina writes a destination beneath the photograph of her

husband. Her hand trembles.

EXT. EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - EVENING

Juho addresses volunteers and drivers beside a map taped to

a bus.

JUHO

Board in the assigned groups. Patients

first, then families in the waiting

hall. Keep this lane clear for the

medical vehicles.

Eero examines the map.

EERO

You have drivers for five buses. You

have seven buses.

JUHO

Two arriving with the next relief

transport.55.

EERO

When?

Juho looks at the road. Nothing.

EERO

I drive mine. Give the other to anyone

who has actually driven one. We'll find

them here.

Anna raises her hand.

EERO

No.

ANNA

I wasn't offering. There's a man in the

waiting hall. He said he drove us out of

the siding.

She goes to find Viktor.

INT. MEDICAL TENT - EVENING

Vera helps Leena prepare patients for transport. Their

sealed specimen container is gone, handed over to the

westbound courier.

LEENA

You're not obliged to keep working.

VERA

I know where things are now.

LEENA

You can work at the reception centre.

They need doctors too.

VERA

Put Anna and Elias on the next

transport.

Anna, entering with Viktor, overhears.

ANNA

Ask me.

Vera turns.

ANNA

I'm standing right here. Ask me.

VERA

I'm asking you to leave with the next

group.56.

ANNA

Are you leaving?

VERA

After the medical patients.

ANNA

Then that's when I'm going.

Vera wants to object. Anna waits, refusing to move.

LEENA

She can help at the waiting hall until

her group boards. She knows those

families.

Vera nods. Anna takes a stack of numbered cards.

INT. OLD CUSTOMS BASEMENT - EVENING

Anna follows a volunteer, MAIJA, 24, carrying folded

blankets downstairs.

Water drips from overhead pipes. A maintenance diagram hangs

beside a heavy steel door.

Anna stops to study it.

MAIJA

Blankets go on the shelf.

ANNA

Where does that go?

MAIJA

Old drainage inspection passage. The

outside gate is locked.

Anna opens the steel door. Beyond, a narrow concrete passage

descends toward a grate at the lower bus yard.

ANNA

Who has the key?

MAIJA

Eero. If he hasn't got it, we'll need to

cut the lock.

Eero appears at the stair landing, carrying a box of

batteries.

ANNA

The gate to the lower yard. Can we open

it?57.

EERO

We can now.

He hands her a key ring.

EERO

Keep those until you're on a bus.

Anna tries the gate key before returning upstairs.

EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT

SERGEANT MATTI KALLIO, 39, a combat engineer, inspects the

underside access with his team. Demolition work is already

prepared; they check connections, then withdraw tools.

Aino stands above with a flashlight covered in red tape.

KALLIO

The eastern abutment and old siren

building are in the collapse zone.

Everyone has to be clear of them before

you give the order.

AINO

West approach survives?

KALLIO

That's the design. The bridge deck

won't.

AINO

Who confirms the final vehicle is clear?

KALLIO

I'll station one observer here. Juho

confirms the east yard. You make the

call.

She studies the red-roofed building across the bridge.

EXT. SIREN BUILDING - NIGHT

Elias photographs evacuation signs. Eero walks past carrying

a battery.

ELIAS

Does that siren work?

EERO

They test it once a year. Last time, it

scared the birds from both countries.

ELIAS

Independent power?58.

EERO

Own diesel set in the basement. I tested

it yesterday.

ELIAS

They should disconnect it. If it starts

accidentally--

EERO

Aino has the warning circuit isolated.

Manual only.

He unlocks the building to retrieve a charger. Elias sees

the controls: guarded switch, lever, emergency lamp. A

landline handset. Nothing mysterious.

ELIAS

You're certain nobody can trigger it

from elsewhere?

EERO

That's why I came to check.

He closes and locks the door.

INT. COMMAND POST - NIGHT

Aino briefs soldiers and civilian section leaders. Vera,

Elias, and Eero stand at the back.

A map shows the eastern road, two barriers, customs yard,

bridge, west checkpoint, forest flanks.

AINO

First line at the red markers. Second at

the inspection bays. When the withdrawal

call comes, move. Check the person

beside you is moving too.

YOUNG SOLDIER LAURI, 19, listens carefully, jaw clenched.

AINO

The vehicles are our priority.

Pedestrians use the marked lane. No

civilian traffic eastbound.

JUHO

Radio channel three for evacuation. One

for defence.

AINO

We won't hold the whole forest with this

force. Scouts report flanking movement

and fall back. Nobody pursues.59.

ELIAS

People are sharing that this crossing is

open. They might still be coming.

AINO

Can you update them?

ELIAS

I can broadcast through the field

terminal. It has a network connection.

AINO

Tell them we're evacuating. The crossing

can close without further warning. Keep

the firing positions off camera.

ELIAS

All right.

AINO

And when you're told to board, board.

He nods.

EXT. EAST ROAD DEFENCE LINE - NIGHT

Lauri adjusts his gloves at the barrier. Ranta arrives from

the forest and hands him a spare heat pack.

LAURI

Did you see them?

RANTA

Yes.

LAURI

How fast?

RANTA

Walking. But there's a lot of them.

Lauri places the heat pack inside his coat.

RANTA

Stay beside me. If I move, you move.

INT. CUSTOMS WAITING HALL - NIGHT

Anna hands out boarding cards. Galina gets number 47. Sonya

counts its digits on her fingers.

SONYA

Are there forty-six people before us?60.

ANNA

No. It's our group. I've got the same

number.

A teenage boy refuses a wristband.

BOY

I can walk. Give my seat to someone.

ANNA

Wear it anyway. They need to know you

got across.

He takes it.

Across the hall, Elias sets up a camera beside the field

network terminal. He tapes a handwritten timestamp beside

the lens as an additional safeguard.

ELIAS

(to camera)

Elias Laine, Kivikoski crossing. We're

evacuating. This route may close

tonight. Check the time on any message

you share. An open crossing this

afternoon may be a closed one now.

He stops, checks the audio, sends.

Anna approaches.

ANNA

Show them the bus. Somebody's mother is

on it.

ELIAS

You're right.

He records again.

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - FINLAND - NIGHT

Sanni sees his updated broadcast on a wall television.

Around her, volunteers check arriving names against lists.

SANNI

That's my brother.

A volunteer beside her watches the crowded hall on screen.

VOLUNTEER

Let's make more beds.61.

INT. WARSAW APARTMENT - NIGHT

A father and teenage daughter watch Elias's broadcast on a

phone beside a battery radio. Behind a curtain, streetlights

flicker and die.

DAUGHTER

They're still crossing.

Her father nods without looking away.

INT. LONDON NEWSROOM - NIGHT

A PRODUCER puts Elias's stream on a large monitor. A second

monitor displays confirmed reports from Eastern Europe.

PRODUCER

Keep his time marker in the crop. All of

it.

INT. COMMAND POST - NIGHT

Juho receives a scout report and draws a line nearer the

crossing.

JUHO

They've passed the station. Main group

following the road. Additional movement

on the north flank.

Aino looks at the evacuation tally. Twelve buses assigned.

Four through. Eight remaining, including incoming transports

that joined the queue.

AINO

Stop incoming vehicles at the east outer

point. Transfer passengers into anything

already facing west.

JUHO

The next transport has severe injuries.

AINO

Bring it to medical. Clear a path.

She picks up her helmet.

EXT. EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - NIGHT

An ambulance pulls in. Leena and Vera receive an injured

DRIVER and two passengers. The driver has no signs of life.

AMBULANCE MEDIC

Vehicle crash. We couldn't revive him.

Passengers have fractures, cuts.62.

Vera moves the driver's trolley toward the separate barrier.

Leena checks the passengers. One has a torn sleeve and a

bite concealed under blood from a scalp wound.

LEENA

We need the holding lane.

PASSENGER

It's from the accident.

LEENA

I'm going to examine it.

He grabs her arm. Vera steps between them, directs an

orderly to summon security.

VERA

Let go. We're not leaving you outside.

The passenger loosens his grip.

Then, behind them, the dead driver rises against the trolley

straps.

The straps hold. A security medic closes the inner gate

before the body can reach anyone.

Vera breathes out. They keep working.

EXT. EAST ROAD DEFENCE LINE - NIGHT

Snow moves through the floodlight beams.

Lauri watches the red roadside stakes. His breathing is loud

inside his mask.

A figure emerges between trees. Another appears on the road.

Then ten. Then the dark spaces fill.

Over the radio, Aino's measured voice.

AINO (V.O.)

Hold until the markers.

Lauri shifts his weight. His neighbour places a hand against

his shoulder.

The first corpse passes a red stake.

AINO (V.O.)

Fire.

The line erupts.63.

INT. CUSTOMS WAITING HALL - SAME TIME

Every head turns at the gunfire.

Sonya grips Anna's hand.

Anna does not tell her it is nothing.

ANNA

Stay with your mother. When I call your

number, come to the door.

She walks to the doors and checks the route to the buses.

EXT. EAST ROAD DEFENCE LINE - CONTINUOUS

Bodies fall. Those behind step over them. Several rise

again, damaged but moving.

Lauri fires, sees his target keep coming, fires again. His

neighbour points to the head.

NEIGHBOUR

Slow down. See it first.

Lauri steadies himself. One body drops and stays down.

But the line beyond it keeps advancing.

EXT. CUSTOMS YARD - CONTINUOUS

Juho moves a departing bus into the bridge lane. Refugees

try to follow it on foot; volunteers direct them to the

protected walkway.

Vera and Leena load a stretcher into an ambulance.

Elias records from behind the waiting-hall doorway, keeping

the defence positions out of frame.

ELIAS

(to camera)

The evacuation is continuing. Vehicles

are crossing west. I can't confirm how

long the crossing will remain open.

Gunfire intensifies. He looks toward it, then toward the

terrified families.

He keeps the camera on the bus going over the bridge.64.

EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT

The first battle-night bus clears the west checkpoint.

Volunteers lead passengers away from its windows so they

cannot look back.

Kallio's observer, CORPORAL OJALA, 26, reports each vehicle

as it reaches the western approach.

OJALA

Bus five clear. Ambulance approaching.

Aino looks east. Gunfire flashes beyond the inspection

sheds.

AINO

Juho, status of the waiting hall?

JUHO (V.O.)

Three groups ready. Two still in

medical. We need the road lane clear.

AINO

You have it.

EXT. EAST ROAD DEFENCE LINE - CONTINUOUS

The snow before the barrier is black with fallen bodies. The

advancing dead climb the pile, making it a ramp.

Ranta fires from a covered position, then turns toward the

north forest. Movement between trees, nearer than expected.

RANTA

North flank entering the service track.

AINO (V.O.)

Withdraw to the inspection bays. Now.

Ranta signals. Soldiers fall back in pairs.

Lauri stands frozen, firing at a body trapped beneath the

barrier. His weapon clicks empty.

Ranta catches his coat and pulls him away.

RANTA

We're going.

Behind them, the front barrier folds beneath the weight.65.

INT. CUSTOMS WAITING HALL - NIGHT

Anna calls the next group. People stand too quickly, pushing

toward the doors.

MAIJA

Families together. Don't separate the

children.

A man grabs a card from another passenger. Anna takes it

back.

MAN

I have my mother outside.

ANNA

Then bring her here. This is someone

else's.

He looks toward the windows, afraid.

ANNA

I'll help you find her. Tell Maija

where.

She makes room for him to move without pushing through the

queue.

Elias helps an elderly man adjust his walking aid.

ELIAS

When you get across, tell them your

name. They'll put it on the arrival

list.

ELDERLY MAN

I'm not missing yet.

ELIAS

Let's keep it that way.

INT. FIELD NETWORK ALCOVE - CONTINUOUS

A communications volunteer, NOORA, 27, monitors the live

stream. The connection flickers as power fluctuates.

NOORA

Main generator is struggling. I'll move

the uplink to battery.

She disconnects a portable satellite terminal from the desk.

A compact battery sits in its padded bag.

ELIAS

Will it keep sending?66.

NOORA

If it can see the sky. There's enough

charge for half an hour. Local network

won't reach much beyond the bridge.

She sets the terminal on the sheltered windowsill with its

receiver angled upward. The connection steadies.

EXT. MEDICAL LANE - NIGHT

The injured passengers from the crash wait behind the

isolation fence. One has been cleared for transport; the

bitten man sits under observation.

Leena checks his breathing. Vera reads his name from the

form.

VERA

Sergei, do you have family here?

SERGEI

They went ahead.

VERA

Where should we send the message?

He gives her a phone number. She repeats it, writes it

carefully.

SERGEI

Don't write that I hid it.

VERA

I'll write what happened. Hiding it

won't help your family now.

He nods. A volunteer hands Vera a paper cup of water for

him.

Gunfire moves closer.

EXT. INSPECTION BAYS - NIGHT

The second defence line opens fire. Floodlights cast

enormous shadows across the road.

Bodies slam into parked freight containers that form a

temporary wall. A container rocks under their weight.

Ranta takes cover beside Lauri.

LAURI

They're not stopping.67.

RANTA

The buses are moving. Keep this lane

open.

Lauri changes his magazine. His hands shake, but the job is

done.

INT. COMMAND POST - NIGHT

Juho updates Aino: six buses clear, six still to cross. Two

ambulances behind them.

AINO

Anyone in the holding shed?

JUHO

Two monitored patients. Security team

with them.

AINO

They don't get abandoned. Separate

transport to the west holding area.

Dedicated crew.

JUHO

Understood.

An urgent call cuts in.

RANTA (V.O.)

Container line moving. North group

nearing the utility fence.

AINO

How long?

RANTA (V.O.)

Minutes.

Aino puts on her helmet and steps outside.

EXT. CUSTOMS YARD - NIGHT

Eero starts his bus. The engine catches, falters, catches

again. He studies the gauges.

Viktor approaches.

VIKTOR

Mine's ready. Yours?

EERO

Give it a moment. I know that noise.

He pats the dashboard and gets the engine steady.68.

At the generator enclosure, a fuel hose snaps under a

shifting trailer. Diesel pours onto the snow.

A soldier sees it, runs to shut a valve. A damaged

electrical connection sparks overhead.

The spill catches fire.

INT. WAITING HALL - CONTINUOUS

The lights flicker orange against the windows. People

recoil.

Noora lifts the uplink bag off the sill. Elias catches its

loose cable before it falls.

NOORA

I'm transferring communications west.

Your stream can stay on this terminal,

but it leaves with you.

She gives him the bag and points to the battery indicator.

NOORA

Keep it dry. Put the receiver outside

when you're stationary.

He nods, moves it near the door to keep the stream running.

Noora collects Elias's main camera bag from beside the desk.

NOORA

I'll put this on the westbound

communications vehicle. Meet it at the

reception centre.

ELIAS

Thank you.

EXT. GENERATOR ENCLOSURE - CONTINUOUS

Fire climbs the housing. The soldier cannot reach the valve.

Aino sees the fuel tank beyond it.

AINO

Cut the power. Disconnect the main

generator.

EERO

We lose the lights!

AINO

Now.69.

Eero pulls the breaker inside a remote cabinet.

The floodlights die.

For a moment, total darkness.

Gunfire. Running feet. A woman calling for her child.

INT. LONDON NEWSROOM - SAME TIME

Elias's live stream shows darkness. The timestamp continues.

NEWS PRESENTER

We've lost the image at the crossing.

Audio is continuing.

Everyone in the newsroom listens.

EXT. CUSTOMS YARD - CONTINUOUS

Vehicle headlights replace the floodlights in uneven cones.

Soldiers switch to helmet lights only when needed.

Ranta covers a withdrawal along the inspection bays. A body

reaches over the concrete wall, catches his collar. Lauri

strikes it away with his rifle stock.

Ranta falls backward, leg trapped under a collapsed panel.

Lauri tries to lift it. Another soldier helps. They get him

loose, drag him toward the yard.

EXT. WESTERN CHECKPOINT - CONTINUOUS

Aino directs reserve soldiers toward the forest edge.

AINO

Cover the west flank. We still have

people crossing. Don't fire toward the

foot lane.

Kallio checks the demolition control beside her.

KALLIO

We can do it whenever you give the

order.

She watches another bus come over the bridge.

AINO

Not yet.70.

INT. CUSTOMS WAITING HALL - NIGHT

Glass breaks at the far end of the hall. A dead man pushes

through a window, cutting himself without reacting.

Maija moves the queue away. More hands strike the outside

glass.

Anna looks at the main entrance. Soldiers are pulling

wounded through it; the path to the buses is exposed.

She looks toward the basement stair.

ANNA

Basement. There's a passage to the bus

yard.

MAIJA

The gate is locked.

Anna pulls the key ring Eero gave her when she asked about

the passage.

ANNA

Not anymore.

She leads the first family downstairs.

INT. CUSTOMS BASEMENT - CONTINUOUS

People crowd at the steel door. Anna holds it open, one

person at a time.

ANNA

Keep your hand on the coat in front of

you. Don't let go.

Sonya passes with Galina. Her hare catches on a shelf and

falls.

SONYA

Wait!

Anna retrieves it, presses it into her hand.

ANNA

Go with your mother.

Above, something heavy crashes onto the stairs.

INT. MEDICAL TENT - NIGHT

Vera and Leena strap the last critical patient onto a

stretcher. The two monitored patients have already gone in

separate transport.71.

An orderly helps Leena lift.

LEENA

Come with us now.

A radio crackles beside Vera: Anna's voice.

ANNA (V.O.)

We're bringing people to the lower yard.

Some are hurt. There's nobody at the

exit.

Vera takes the radio.

VERA

I'm coming. Keep them moving.

LEENA

Vera--

VERA

I'll board there.

Leena hands her the remaining medical bag.

LEENA

This time, do.

EXT. LOWER BUS YARD - NIGHT

Vera reaches the grated passage exit. The first refugees

squeeze through. She checks a man's limp, directs him to

Viktor's bus.

Elias joins her, places the uplink receiver on a dry stone

ledge with a clear view overhead.

ELIAS

I can carry someone.

VERA

Take the man with the walking aid. Keep

his leg straight.

Elias does. The camera sits on the ledge, recording the

evacuation without him.

INT. DRAINAGE PASSAGE - CONTINUOUS

Galina helps an older woman over a shallow step. Sonya goes

ahead with Maija.

Behind them, screams echo from the basement. The steel door

bangs open.72.

Anna turns back. A volunteer is trapped beneath a fallen

shelf at the entrance.

She runs to him. Galina follows.

Together they shift the shelf enough for him to crawl free.

At the stairwell, a figure lurches down into view. Another

behind it.

ANNA

Go!

They retreat into the passage. Galina tries to pull the

steel door shut. A hand wedges in the gap.

Anna grabs the door. They push together.

The dead man's other hand catches Galina's hair, yanks her

toward the gap.

She screams. Anna strikes at the hand with the key ring,

pulls, cannot free her.

Galina tears away, skin and hair left in the grip. Blood

pours from her neck.

They get the door shut.

Galina takes two steps and falls.

EXT. LOWER BUS YARD - CONTINUOUS

Anna emerges, shouting Vera's name. Vera rushes into the

passage.

INT. DRAINAGE PASSAGE - CONTINUOUS

Vera kneels beside Galina. Anna holds pressure against the

neck wound, her hands slippery with blood.

GALINA

Sonya?

ANNA

Outside. She's outside.

Vera works quickly. Then her hands slow.

Anna sees it happen again.

ANNA

Don't stop.73.

Vera keeps pressure on the wound, but Galina's eyes lose

focus.

VERA

She's gone.

Anna shakes her head. Beyond the steel door, the pounding

continues.

VERA

Anna, look at me.

Anna does not.

VERA

Sonya is outside. She needs someone she

knows. Come with me.

Anna looks toward the grated exit, where the child's outline

is visible against the headlights.

Vera helps her stand.

Together they leave Galina in the passage and close the

outer gate.

EXT. LOWER BUS YARD - CONTINUOUS

Sonya looks for her mother. Anna kneels before her.

SONYA

Where is she?

Anna cannot make the words come.

VERA

Your mother was badly hurt. We tried to

help her, but she died.

Sonya stares at Vera, then at Anna's blood-covered hands.

SONYA

No.

Anna wraps her own coat around the girl. Holds her as she

struggles, then goes limp with grief.

She carries her onto Eero's bus.

EXT. INSPECTION BAYS - NIGHT

The freight container topples. Dead spill into the yard.74.

Juho orders the remaining defenders back to the bridge

approach. Lauri helps Ranta, whose wounded leg will not bear

weight.

A soldier falls beneath a mass of bodies. Juho tries to

reach him, but the others pull Juho back before he is lost

too.

JUHO

All eastern positions withdrawing. Final

boarding now.

EXT. BRIDGE APPROACH - CONTINUOUS

Eero's bus waits behind Viktor's. Refugees board both. A

delivery truck sits abandoned across half the approach lane,

its driver gone.

Viktor edges his bus past it with inches to spare.

Eero's wider bus will not fit without the truck moving.

EERO

Juho! We need that truck clear.

Juho and two soldiers push at its rear. Nothing.

The driver's door opens. A dead customs worker falls out,

grabs a soldier's leg. Juho pulls the soldier away and

fires.

The truck rolls slightly, then jams against a shattered

bollard.

EXT. LOWER BUS YARD - SAME TIME

Elias collects the uplink bag. Vera comes toward him.

VERA

Get on Eero's bus.

He looks past her at the advancing horde. It is no longer a

distant crowd. Individual faces visible, hospital bands on

wrists, frost in hair, a thousand sounds of scraping feet.

Gunfire draws them toward the vehicles.

The siren tower rises behind them above the red roof.

Elias looks at the bag, then at the tower.

ELIAS

The siren has independent power.75.

VERA

No.

ELIAS

They're following the shots. The siren

is behind them. It could turn them away

from the lane.

VERA

We don't know how many would turn.

ELIAS

We only need the lane clear for a

minute.

VERA

You can speak to Aino from here. Someone

else--

ELIAS

Everyone else is holding them back.

He calls Aino over the radio.

ELIAS

The old warning siren. If I start it, it

might draw the road group toward the

abutment.

AINO (V.O.)

Do not enter that building. It's in the

demolition zone.

Elias sees a dead woman reach the last group of pedestrians.

Lauri pulls a child clear and retreats, carrying him.

ELIAS

The buses aren't going to clear this

lane.

AINO (V.O.)

We're moving the obstruction. Board now.

He lowers the radio. Vera reads his decision.

VERA

Elias. You already got the recording

out.

ELIAS

I know.

He takes Eero's key ring from her medical bag, where Anna

left it after opening the passage.76.

ELIAS

Get Anna on that bus.

VERA

Tell her yourself.

He presses his radio into Vera's hand, then takes a spare

from a fallen supply kit beside the bus.

He puts his original recording card in her palm and closes

her fingers around it.

ELIAS

I'll try.

He runs toward the siren building.

EXT. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

Viktor's bus crosses under fire from the eastern defenders.

A cluster of dead slips into the foot lane behind it.

Ojala spots them from the west. He raises his weapon, waits

until the last living pedestrian is out of the line, fires.

Viktor stops the bus west of the checkpoint and runs back to

help evacuating soldiers.

OJALA

Final bus still east. Several dead on

the walkway.

Aino takes two soldiers and heads onto the bridge.

AINO

Kallio, stay on the control. Nobody

triggers until my order.

KALLIO

Understood.

EXT. SIREN BUILDING - CONTINUOUS

Elias struggles to fit a key. The key ring is slick with

someone else's blood.

Behind him, a dead soldier climbs over the low wall.

The lock turns. Elias slips inside and slams the door.

INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Emergency lights glow above old machinery. Elias throws the

guarded switch, pulls the lever.77.

Nothing.

Outside, a fist strikes the door.

He searches the control panel. A label: LOCAL ISOLATION.

He turns it. The backup generator churns beneath the floor,

fails to catch. Churns again.

Elias holds the lever. The engine catches.

The siren starts with a groan, rises into a deafening

mechanical howl.

EXT. EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - CONTINUOUS

The nearest dead stop, turn. Those behind continue pushing,

creating waves of pressure through the crowd.

Then the mass begins shifting toward the tower.

The bus lane briefly clears.

INT. EERO'S BUS - CONTINUOUS

Anna holds Sonya on a seat near the front. Maija counts

passengers in a whisper, lips moving steadily.

Eero watches the road.

EERO

Come on. Come on.

Vera boards and sees Anna's face.

ANNA

Where's Elias?

Vera looks toward the siren.

Anna understands before Vera says anything.

INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Elias places the satellite receiver on an outside window

ledge. Snow hits the casing. He covers the battery bag with

his coat.

The stream connects. He props the camera beside the window.

The bridge and last bus are visible beyond his shoulder.78.

ELIAS

(to camera)

Kivikoski. The last bus is still on the

east side. You can see it behind me.

This is live at the time shown. They're

still getting people out.

He lifts his phone, sees Sanni calling. Answers.

SANNI (V.O.)

Why are you still there?

ELIAS

The doctor and Anna are on the last bus.

SANNI (V.O.)

And you?

The door shakes. Elias looks at it.

ELIAS

I'm trying to get them clear.

SANNI (V.O.)

Elias.

He closes his eyes at the sound of his name.

ELIAS

There's a little girl with them. Sonya.

She needs a place too.

SANNI (V.O.)

There's a place. There is. Come to it.

The connection breaks. He tries once to redial. No call

service. The separate uplink continues.

EXT. BRIDGE APPROACH - CONTINUOUS

Aino reaches the truck with Juho. Kallio calls over her

radio.

KALLIO (V.O.)

Main crowd turning toward the siren. But

the west flank is coming through the

forest. We need to withdraw the

checkpoint.

AINO

Prepare withdrawal. Keep the detonator

with you.

She peers under the truck. The shattered bollard is lodged

against the rear axle.79.

AINO

Bollard's caught the axle. Bar under it.

Lift together.

Juho and a soldier wedge a steel bar underneath. Aino pulls

a broken concrete piece free.

The truck moves.

Lauri covers the lane with Ranta leaning against the bus. He

counts his remaining rounds by touch.

INT. EERO'S BUS - CONTINUOUS

Eero engages gear. The bus rolls forward.

A dead man strikes the side window. It shatters inward over

Sonya. She cries out.

Anna pulls her away. Vera shoves a folded blanket between

the broken glass and the seats.

The bus reaches the bridge.

EXT. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

The displaced truck rolls downhill behind them. Its front

wheel drops into damaged pavement. The truck pivots,

blocking the rear corner of the bus halfway onto the bridge.

Eero brakes. The bus stalls.

In the walkway, dead still follow the retreating soldiers.

Ojala and a reserve team cover them from the west.

AINO

Truck caught the bus. I need hands here.

Juho, Viktor, and two soldiers run back from the west end.

INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Elias watches the bus stop.

The door frame splits. He pushes a cabinet beneath the

handle, braces it with a chair.

The camera keeps transmitting. His hands shake as he adjusts

its angle.

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - SAME TIME

Sanni stands in front of the television. Everyone near her

knows now.80.

She watches the last bus on the bridge behind Elias.

A colleague takes her hand. She does not look away.

EXT. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

The team heaves against the truck. It shifts inches. The

steel bumper remains hooked under the bus's rear panel.

Viktor climbs between the vehicles to release it.

AINO

Watch your footing.

VIKTOR

I can see it.

He pries the bumper downward. Metal tears.

Behind him, a dead soldier from the foot lane reaches the

truck cab, drops onto Viktor's back.

Juho turns, cannot shoot without hitting Viktor.

Viktor grabs the corpse, throws his weight sideways. Both

fall through the broken walkway railing into darkness.

The truck rolls clear.

Juho stares at the empty space.

AINO

Bus is free. Move!

She pulls him away before another body reaches them.

INT. EERO'S BUS - CONTINUOUS

Vera examines Sonya's bleeding arm. Anna holds the light.

EERO

Was she bitten?

VERA

Glass. Start the engine.

EERO

I saw something at the window.

VERA

I checked. She's cut, not bitten. Get us

across.

He turns the ignition. The engine coughs, stops.81.

Anna looks at the passengers staring at Sonya's blood.

ANNA

She stays with me.

Maija stands beside Anna. The elderly man from the hall

lowers his eyes, giving them room.

Eero turns the key again.

The engine catches.

EXT. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

The bus pulls forward, dragging its torn rear panel across

the concrete. Sparks in the snow.

Aino, Juho, and Lauri run beside it. Ranta hangs onto the

open rear door until Maija and a passenger pull him inside.

Ojala waves them toward the west checkpoint.

OJALA

Keep going! Don't stop here!

In the forest beyond him, muzzle flashes reveal the west

flank battle. Reserves hold the access road long enough for

the bus to reach the withdrawal route.

INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

The cabinet shifts. Fingers push through the split door

frame.

Elias steps back. He has nowhere left to brace it.

AINO (V.O.)

Laine. Your position.

ELIAS

Siren control room.

AINO (V.O.)

Are you able to leave?

He looks outside. The steps are covered with bodies. The

siren has drawn them exactly where he intended.

ELIAS

No.

The bus reaches the western side.

ELIAS

The bus is across.82.

INT. EERO'S BUS - CONTINUOUS

Anna holds Sonya's good hand. Vera grips the radio.

VERA

Elias, we made it.

INT. SIREN CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

His face changes when he hears her.

ELIAS

Good.

He lifts the camera slightly, framing the bus disappearing

onto the west road.

ELIAS

Keep the arrival list up. People are

looking for them.

The door breaks open.

EXT. WESTERN APPROACH - CONTINUOUS

Ojala confirms the final group is clear. Aino reaches Kallio

beside a retreating command vehicle.

KALLIO

All living personnel accounted for

except the journalist. Main crowd at the

eastern abutment.

Aino watches the siren window. A tiny illuminated square

beyond the span.

She takes the control.

AINO

Demolition. Now.

She activates it.

EXT. KIVIKOSKI GORGE - CONTINUOUS

The charges detonate along the bridge.

Concrete lifts, fractures. The eastern abutment tears away.

The red-roofed building tilts, its lit window falling out of

sight.

The siren stops halfway through its note.83.

The deck collapses into the gorge. Hundreds of bodies fall

with it. More step into the empty space, pushed by the

pressure behind them.

An enormous cloud of snow and dust swallows both shores.

INT. LONDON NEWSROOM - SAME TIME

The stream freezes on the departing bus. Connection lost.

The producer doesn't replace it immediately.

PRODUCER

Save the full recording. All sources.

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - SAME TIME

Sanni's colleague turns down the television. Sanni sits

slowly on an empty camp bed.

Around her, the work continues quietly. Someone brings more

blankets. Someone moves a stack of chairs to make room for

the incoming group.

EXT. WESTERN FORESTRY JUNCTION - NIGHT

The convoy reaches the fallback line. Buses pass through a

protected turn while soldiers fire toward movement in the

woods.

Aino transfers wounded to a waiting medical vehicle. Ranta

is lifted inside. Lauri climbs in after him, hands streaked

with blood that isn't his.

JUHO

Bridge gone. East road cut. North forest

group still moving.

AINO

Send the report. Get the convoy through

the junction. Then we move the wounded.

She looks at the buses disappearing west, counts the last

one herself.

EXT. FOREST ROAD - PREDAWN

The buses move through a dark Finnish forest. No sirens.

Only engines and the hiss of tires on packed snow.

INT. EERO'S BUS - PREDAWN

Sonya sleeps against Anna, her arm bandaged. The repaired

hare lies in her lap.84.

Vera sits across the aisle. Both women are awake.

ANNA

He said he'd try.

VERA

He did.

Anna looks toward the empty seat beside Vera.

ANNA

He put it down to help us.

Vera takes Elias's original recording card from her pocket.

He handed it to her with his radio.

VERA

We kept his recording.

Anna touches it with one finger. Proof that he was more than

the final image on a screen.

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - DAWN

An old school gymnasium. Mattresses, partitions, tables for

registration. Volunteers move between them with practiced

care.

Sanni stands by the entrance as the Kivikoski survivors

arrive.

She sees Vera and Anna with Sonya. Knows before they speak.

Vera offers Elias's camera bag, recovered from the waiting

hall by Noora and delivered with the convoy. Sanni takes it

in both hands.

SANNI

Did he hear you get across?

VERA

Yes.

Sanni nods. Holds the bag against herself, then looks at

Sonya.

SANNI

There's a bed ready. Three beside each

other.

She leads them inside.85.

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - REGISTRATION TABLE - MORNING

A fresh ledger. At the top of the page: ARRIVALS.

Vera has volunteered for registration before the next

medical shift. Her old hospital register rests beside the

new one.

Anna sits opposite her. Sonya sleeps in a chair wrapped in a

blanket.

VERA

Your full name?

ANNA

You know my name.

VERA

I want it written here.

Anna reads the heading.

ANNA

Anna Sergeyevna Morozova.

Vera writes it carefully.

ANNA

And Sonya Galinovna Lebedeva. Her mother

told me on the bus.

Vera writes that too.

ANNA

Put Galina in the other book. Sonya will

want to see it.

Vera opens the old register to a new sheet. Writes GALINA'S

name, VIKTOR'S, ELIAS'S. Beside Orlov's entry she adds the

information from his watch strap.

Anna unfolds Misha's drawing. Places it between the pages,

where it will remain flat.

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - QUIET ROOM - MORNING

Sanni opens Elias's camera bag. Inside, spare batteries,

notebooks, an unfinished gift: a wool hat, still in a shop

wrapper, marked FOR SANNI.

She puts the hat on despite the warm room.

On her phone, thousands of copies of the last transmission

have appeared. Different captions, different languages, the

original time marker still visible.86.

She finds a verified arrival list from the reception centre

and shares that instead.

INT. TEMPORARY MEDICAL OFFICE - MORNING

Leena receives a message on a secure laptop. Vera stands

beside her.

LEENA

The container arrived. So did the

records.

Vera reads the confirmation.

LEENA

They want to interview you and Anna

about the cold exposure. Today, if

you're ready.

VERA

Ask her when she's had some sleep.

Leena nods.

VERA

I need to make another statement. About

a certificate I signed at my old

hospital.

Leena turns toward her.

VERA

I knew the cause of death. I signed

something else. I need to give the

family the truth.

LEENA

We can find someone to take the

statement.

Vera opens her notebook. Starts writing the name.

EXT. FINNISH DEFENCE POSITION - MORNING

Aino stands at a new roadblock farther west. Tired soldiers

unload supplies. Lauri returns from the medical vehicle

carrying Ranta's equipment.

Aino meets his eyes.

AINO

Get food. Then sleep. Your relief is

here.87.

LAURI

Did we stop them?

She looks east, beyond the forest.

AINO

We got the buses through.

He nods. That is an answer he can hold.

INT. RECEPTION CENTRE - MAIN HALL - MORNING

A television broadcasts casualty estimates and evacuation

guidance. A world map shows outbreaks across Eastern Europe

and scattered incidents farther away.

The headline changes to: KIVIKOSKI EVACUATION SURVIVORS

ARRIVE.

Anna turns away from it. Sonya has woken and is looking for

her.

SONYA

Will you stay?

Anna sits beside her.

ANNA

Yes.

Sonya hands her the hare. Its substitute ear has come loose.

Anna reties it, slowly, properly.88.

EXT. RUINED EASTERN CUSTOMS YARD - MORNING

Silence, except for falling snow and the distant rumble of

the river.

The bridge is gone. Bodies lie packed beneath fragments of

concrete. Beyond the yard, thousands more wander among the

trees, following no sound now.

In the damaged customs basement, an unattended emergency

boiler still runs. A pipe broken by the collapse leaks hot

water through the rubble.

The water trickles over a blackened hand caught beneath a

slab.

A droplet hangs from one fingertip.

The finger bends.

CUT TO BLACK.

THE END