"An Unimportant Mission" is the nineteenth mission of Season 1.
A friend is in a bad way. You're the only one they trust to execute their final wishes.
Cast[]
- Maxine Myers (Sally Orrock)
- Sam Yao (Philip Nightingale)
- Chris McShell (Nick Kay)
Crew[]
- Writer: Naomi Alderman
- Director: Matt Wieteska
- Sound Designer: Mark Pittam
- Series Created By: Naomi Alderman
Scenes[]
Final Request
Sam asks you to report to the gates for an "unimportant assignment". The Doctor corrects him - it is important. She questions the need to keep this secret. Sam informs you that Runner 10 has been bitten, and that you need to help fulfill his final request.
Old House
The Doctor tends to Runner 10, who agrees that, when it's time, he'll leave Abel so that they can euthanise him. Chris tells the story of how he got bitten trying to predict the movement of a crawler. The Doctor tries to calm him by assuring him that his work will help save lives in the future. She then tells you that your destination is Runner 10's old house - 17 Decco Park Drive.
Outpace The Horde
Runner 10's condition worsens as you're en route. Sam spots a horde in your path and tells you to speed up, to try to out pace them.
Envelope
Runner 10 checks in on your progress, but is struggling to speak as his condition worsens. He tells you that there's an envelope for Veronica on his old living room table. Sam asks Chris who Veronica is. He tells Sam that Veronica is his daughter, and that the envelope contains a final message from her mother. The road is crowded with zoms and Sam urges you on.
Goodbye
Having arrived at Runner 10's old house, you find yourself trapped by a horde of zoms at the front door. You retrieve the envelope and make your escape, just as Runner 10 passes. Chris's final words are for his daughter: "Tell her her daddy loves her very much". The Doctor assures him that they'll tell her her father died a hero.
Transcript[]
[background chatter]
SAM YAO: Runner Five, we need you to report to the gates for um… yeah, yeah, a pretty unimportant assignment, just, um, a thing…
MAXINE MYERS: No, it’s important.
SAM YAO: Yeah, okay, it’s important. But, um… just, uh…
MAXINE MYERS: Raise the gates?
SAM YAO: Yeah. Raise the gates! [gate siren, gates raising] Covering fire… [gunshots] Runner Five ready? Go!
MAXINE MYERS: I don't know why we need to keep this a secret, everyone will know in an hour or so.
SAM YAO: It’s just… it’s not mine to tell, you know?
MAXINE MYERS: You can't keep everyone safe forever, not in times like these.
SAM YAO: Yeah, I… Runner Five. Runner Ten is here, in the comms shack. Only for a little while though, until he -
CHRIS MCSHELL: [severe coughing] Until I croak. I got bitten, Five. I got sloppy, and I got bitten. And in just a little while, I’ll be gone. But before that [severe coughing] I need you to do me a favor, Five.
MAXINE MYERS: Your temperature is thirty-eight centigrade. You’re going to be spiking a high fever soon, and then you’ll rapidly cool. When you come back down, we’ll have to…
CHRIS MCSHELL: [severe coughing] Yeah, no, it’s fine. I’ll walk out of the gates myself, so you can put a bullet in my head.
SAM YAO: What happened, Chris? You’re so… well, you just know everything about zombies! What...happened?
CHRIS MCSHELL: It was stupid. There’s a way they have of moving. I had a theory that there’s a rhythm to it, and that I could time their small movements to see if they’re all moving at the same speed. I… I got in too close to [coughs] to a crawler.
SAM YAO: Ugh, one of those ones with no legs?
CHRIS MCSHELL: It suddenly jerked up and bit me. Stupid, stupid, stupid! [coughs]
MAXINE MYERS: You’ve done good work, Runner Ten. You’ve kept good records. We will learn from your life! We'll spread the word of what you've discovered. It’s not for nothing. [CHRIS MCSHELL coughs] Okay, lie back here. We need Runner Five to get to Decco Park, right?
CHRIS MCSHELL: 17 Decco Park Drive. It’s my old house.
[CHRIS MCSHELL coughing in the background]
SAM YAO: How’s he doing?
MAXINE MYERS: Nearly… nearly thirty-nine centigrade fever. Red eyes, the cough… he’s probably got another thirty, forty-five minutes until he dies, and then, well, could be only an hour to reanimation…
SAM YAO: Runner Five, we need to pick up the pace. Runner Ten is counting on you to get to his old house. If he has to die, we can at least give him his last wish. Do we… do we even know what the last wish is?
MAXINE MYERS: He told me, yeah, but I think he’d rather see it done himself.
[CHRIS MCSHELL coughing in the background] [zombies growl]
SAM YAO: Dammit, look at that!
MAXINE MYERS: They’re on the move, heading directly across Five’s path!
SAM YAO: If you just keep going, you might outpace them. Fast as you can, Five, you can do it!
[zombies growl]
CHRIS MCSHELL: [severe coughing] Is - [coughs] is Runner Five…
SAM YAO: Nearly there. Dodging a few zoms on the way, but… bet you’d have made short work of them, eh, Chris?
CHRIS MCSHELL: They - they clump. Always wondered – [severe coughing]
MAXINE MYERS: Save your strength. Your fever’s hit thirty-nine and is still climbing. Just tell Runner Five what to do.
CHRIS MCSHELL: [coughs] 17 Decco Park Drive, living room table. [coughs] Envelope marked “Veronica”.
MAXINE MYERS: You got that, Five? In the living room, on the table, there should be an envelope marked “Veronica”. We need you to take that, and if there are other memorabilia - photographs, family albums, that kind of thing, maybe take those, too, just in case we can -
SAM YAO: Who’s Veronica?
CHRIS MCSHELL: [coughing] My daughter. Her mother made a recording for her when… when she knew she was dying. I had to leave the house quickly, I forgot it. [coughs] Stupid, stupid, stupid!
MAXINE MYERS: If we can, we’ll find Veronica somehow and give her the envelope.
SAM YAO: That’s if Runner Five can get it! Ugh, look at that road… there are zoms everywhere. You’ll have to be quick!
[zombies banging on the door to the house]
SAM YAO: Runner Five, your front exit from 17 Decco Park Drive is blocked. There are twenty zoms out front, and they’ve found the gate to the back garden. [glass shatters] You need to move, now!
CHRIS MCSHELL: Is it…? [coughs] Did - did Runner…
MAXINE MYERS: We’re waiting for Runner Five to come back on the cameras now, we’re um… [door opens] ah, there.
SAM YAO: Runner Five! Oh, thank goodness for that, I can see you again. Looks like you found the envelope.
CHRIS MCSHELL: [severe coughing]
MAXINE MYERS: He’s going, Sam.
CHRIS MCSHELL: [severe coughing] Did… did…? Veronica…
MAXINE MYERS: We got the envelope. We’ll try to find Veronica - Veronica McShell - and give it to her.
CHRIS MCSHELL: Veronica… If you find her… tell her… her… her daddy loves her very much.
MAXINE MYERS: We’ll tell her. We’ll tell her you died a hero.
CHRIS MCSHELL: [severe coughing]
SAM YAO: We’ve…
MAXINE MYERS: He was waiting for you to find the envelope, Runner Five. He held out for that, and then he let go. You did good work. And he wanted to know that his daughter might have some chance of getting that recording from her mother.
SAM YAO: We’ve got to…
MAXINE MYERS: I know. But we can wait another few moments with the body before we do that.
SAM YAO: I don’t - I don’t know what to…
MAXINE MYERS: It’s okay. There’s nothing to say.
Codex[]
Artefact[]
This is an envelope for Veronica McShell, from her mother. You can feel there's a CD in there, but you're not going to open it. Some things are sacred. Maybe some day you'll be able to give that little girl the message.
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
9mm Ammo
Axe
Bandages
Baseball Bat
Batteries
Book
Bottled Water
Box of Lightbulbs
The Golden Sports Bra of Legend
Mobile Phone
Pain Meds
Power Cable
Radio
Shirt
Shorts
Tinned Food
Tool Box
Trousers
Underwear
USB Key
Other Languages[]
This mission is also available in Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and French.
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Una misión sin importancia | An Unimportant Mission |
| Korean | 안 중요한 임무 | Unimportant Task |
| Japanese | 重要性の低い任務 | Less Important Missions |
| French | Une mission superflue | A Superfluous Mission |
| Missions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Previous: Eavesdropping | Next: Listen In | ||