"Back to School" is the eleventh mission of Season 1.
The doctor's heard tell that there's some useful equipment in the nearby hospital. Maybe it could shed some light on the contents of the CDC box you found when you first arrived.
Cast[]
Crew[]
- Writer: Naomi Alderman
- Director: Matt Wieteska
- Sound Designer: Mark Pittam
- Series Created By: Naomi Alderman
Scenes[]
Doctor's Orders
Sam guides Doctor Myers through the process for beginning a runner. Doctor Myers sends you out on a special mission for the hospital.
Head to the University
Doctor Myers tells you that the hospital is doing well thanks to your help, and that you'll be investigating the CDC box you picked up on your way to Abel. Sam and Doctor Myers discuss a special tattoo Sam got to ward off zombies. Doctor Myers asks you to head south to the University to find a confocal microscope.
Looking for Answers
Sam taps into the university's security cameras to keep track of you. He points out the large number of zombies at the university, and Doctor Myers muses on why the zombies cluster in certain places. Sam thinks their gathering at the university and the hospital might signify that they're looking for a cure, though the Doctor is highly skeptical that a cure could exist.
Paula's Lab?
The Doctor catches sight of a makeshift lab in the middle of the University concourse. She thinks that the University's scientists must have worked right up until they got overrun. She also notes that her girlfriend, Paula, was working somewhere nearby.
Vital Evidence
Doctor Myers wonders what the scientists were doing that was so important. She tells Sam the story of her experience during the outbreak, being forced to euthanise people who were infected. Sam spots eight zombies heading straight for you. He asks you to grab what you can and run, but spots a case with Doctor Myers' name on it. Doctor Myers begs you to pick up the case, despite you being surrounded.
A vaccine?
Doctor Myers reveals that Paula was working at the University. She theorises that the case may contain the beginnings of a vaccine.
Transcript[]
MAXINE MYERS: Remind me how this goes, Sam?
SAM YAO: Okay. First, tell Justin Miles, Runner 18, on the door, to raise the gates.
MAXINE MYERS: Raise the gates! [gate siren]
SAM YAO: Then ask if Runner Five is ready.
MAXINE MYERS: Runner Five, ready? [whispers] What do I do if Runner Five’s not ready?
SAM YAO: Oh, Runner Five’s always ready.
MAXINE MYERS: So, gates are open… [gunshots]
SAM YAO: They’re giving you covering fire, and…
MAXINE MYERS: Runner Five, special mission for the hospital. Go!
MAXINE MYERS: You’ve been doing excellent work here, Runner Five, just excellent. With all the medical kit and supplies you’ve picked up, our medical center’s no longer at breaking point. We’re keeping up with low-grade infections and accidents. So, it’s time for us to start investigating the contents of that box from the hospital.
SAM YAO: The special, mystical box of mystery that Runner Five picked up on the way in here?
MAXINE MYERS: Yeah, that seven year degree I got was in mystical mystery! [laughs] You weren’t one of the people who believed in those anti-zombie charms at the start of the outbreak, were you?
SAM YAO: [laughs] Obviously not! And I never got a special protective tattoo, either!
MAXINE MYERS: What? Those tattoos people got on their bu-
SAM YAO: [interrupts] You will never see that bit of me to find out! Besides, do you see me having got bitten by a zombie? Maybe it worked!
MAXINE MYERS: After this mission, I have an invisible rabbit to sell you. No, don’t look for it, you can’t see it. All this aside, Runner Five, I’m gonna ask you to head towards the spire to the south.
SAM YAO: Where the swarms are?
MAXINE MYERS: Where the swarms are. I’m sorry about that, but I badly need a confocal microscope, and the university buildings are the place to look. You’re likely to encounter a lot of shambling dead, I’m sorry.
SAM YAO: Should have made Runner Five get one of them tattoos on their -
MAXINE MYERS: They’re unhygienic! Better just to run!
MAXINE MYERS: Are they coming online?
SAM YAO: Yup. Wow, look at that! Janine knows her stuff! Security cameras all over the university on our little screen, here. Wow, there’s -
MAXINE MYERS: That’s a lot of zombies.
SAM YAO: Yeah, a lot. Why do they… cluster, like that?
MAXINE MYERS: We don’t know. It doesn’t really make sense. Other hunting animals will spread out, unless they’re working on a formation to bring down an animal.
SAM YAO: Like us.
MAXINE MYERS: Yeah! It might be an instinctive behavior. They’re very weak, individually, very strong as a pack. They’re more likely to defeat us as a massive unit, but it doesn’t explain why we seem to see them cluster more in certain places.
SAM YAO: In the hospital.
MAXINE MYERS: And here, as if they knew the places that are most important for our long-term survival.
SAM YAO: Maybe they’re just… looking for a cure, like the rest of us.
MAXINE MYERS: I don’t think there is a cure, Sam. But if Runner Five can make it through there, we might start to find some answers.
MAXINE MYERS: Look at that!
SAM YAO: Hmm… what is that?
MAXINE MYERS: It looks like a make-shift lab, in a tent in the middle of the university concourse! Where they would have been surrounded by fencing… do you see the fencing?
SAM YAO: I see where a big hole’s been ripped in it. Pretty sure it wasn’t Godzilla, so…
MAXINE MYERS: It looks like the zombies got in. They must have been trying to work right up to the end. You know, I think my girlfriend was working somewhere in here.
SAM YAO: What, Paula? Was working here? You never said.
MAXINE MYERS: Yeah… where’s Runner Five?
SAM YAO: Um… there! There! Got you on the first security camera coming into the university campus, Five. If you keep on in the direction you’re going in, you’ll come to the tent lab we’ve been talking about. But hurry - there are zombies everywhere!
MAXINE MYERS: You’re making good time, Runner Five. You’re just getting to the lab now. Oh, what in the heck were they doing in that lab that was so important? If they were medical researchers from the university, the government would have tried to chopper them out.
SAM YAO: Did you hear anything at the time? Nose to the ground, near to the… uh, grapevine? Something?
MAXINE MYERS: I was working nonstop emergency shifts at the start of the outbreak. At first, trying to cure people, and then, trying to sedate them, and then… ugh, eventually, we just started giving morphine overdoses to patients who arrived with the bite. It’s not a bad way to go, peaceful… and we got some live samples of their blood, but I was too tired to make any sense of what we saw.
I did hear that some hospital out west had managed to stop a couple of people reanimating by putting them into an insulin coma. Although of course, then they were in an insulin coma…
SAM YAO: Oh, holy moly - Runner Five! Runner Five? There are eight zombies heading for your position from all over the campus!
MAXINE MYERS: It’s like they know Runner Five is there!
SAM YAO: Yeah, they’ve got extra tingly spider sense, or hearing, one of those. We need you to grab what you can from that tent and keep running, Five! Do you see that? On the floor, the case with the… what is that? Doc, does that… is that your name written on the case? “Doctor Maxine Myers”? And some numbers, “VS-72”…
MAXINE MYERS: Oh… oh, I think I know what they were doing. Runner Five, I know you’re surrounded, but you have to loop around and try to pick up that case, it’s important!
SAM YAO: What… what is that thing?
MAXINE MYERS: Paula was working here. I… we hadn’t seen each other for days, and I didn’t know what the team were working on for sure, but…
SAM YAO: Wow, that’s crazy! You think she left you a clue?
MAXINE MYERS: Paula had been talking about the possibility of it, but there was no time to synthesize, no time for trials…
SAM YAO: Well, don’t leave us hanging, Doc! What’s in the box?
MAXINE MYERS: If it’s VS-72, it could be… it could be the start of a vaccine.
Codex[]
Artefact[]
There are more research notes inside, it looks like, and some equipment. And a CD.
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
9mm Ammo
Anti-depressants
Antibiotics
Axe
Bandages
Baseball Bat
Batteries
Book
Bottled Water
Box of Lightbulbs
Crutches
Dentistry equipment
Deodorant
First Aid Kit
Glasses
Hearing Aid
Mobile Phone
Pain Meds
Power Cable
Radio
Shirt
Shorts
Sports Bra
Tinned Food
Tool Box
Trousers
Underwear
Other Languages[]
This mission is also available in Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and French.
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | De vuelta a clases | Back to School |
| Korean | 본업으로 | As a Full-Time Job |
| Japanese | 学校への帰還 | Return to School |
| French | Retour à l'école | Back to School |
Trivia[]
- "Back to School" was originally the tenth mission of Season 1 before the order was changed in Spring 2015.[1]
References[]
- ↑ Zombies, Run! Official Blog: Back to the Future: Season 1
| Missions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Previous: Tess | Next: Alternates | ||