"Mambo Number Five" is the fifty-ninth mission of Season 3. The player takes on the role of Sergeant Ellis for part of this mission.
Strap into the Rollercoaster of Emotions. It'll be the ride of your life.
Cast[]
Crew[]
- Writer: Naomi Alderman
- Director: Matt Wieteska
- Sound Designer: Mark Pittam
- Series Created By: Naomi Alderman
Plot[]
That Song She Sang...[]
Maxine suggests researching the song that Moonchild used to test the tannoy system to see if you can get any leads.
Sergeant Ellis[]
As you climb higher, Sam distracts you from the dizzying heights by recounting another tale from the old Runner 5.
Who Threw That Bottle?[]
In the shoes of Sergeant Ellis, you run to the nearby university on Janine’s orders. Maxine is trapped inside by zoms.
They Were Old And Doddery Before[]
You and Maxine heroically save Ellie Maxted, but there’s no time to dawdle. Your only chance is to sprint across a walkway of zombified university dons.
Child Genius[]
Ellie believes a child genius she used to be friends with would have been useful in the apocalypse; a child genius named Cynthia Hill.
Beginning Of A Beautiful Friendship[]
To Sam’s annoyance, you head underground to play a game of zombie keepy-uppy.
Pick A Number[]
After an Ellie/Ellis mix up, Maxine suggests using a number system to address runners.
Any Minute Now[]
Maxine realises that Ellie’s university song is the same as the one Moonchild sang to test the tannoys.
Transcript[]
SAM YAO: Okay, great. I’ve got you on cameras now. There you both are, on the roof next to the - what is that?
MAXINE MYERS: A giant roller coaster, Sam.
SAM YAO: Oh man! I heard about that. Like, a massive version of the one they had on their building near Abel. It doesn’t work, does it?
MAXINE MYERS: They had some glitches, yeah, but it still connects all the buildings in the Comansys plaza. This is the only way to get between the buildings, other than going back down to the ground.
JANINE DE LUCA: We think that Moonchild must be heading for the broadcast relay station on the south spiral. Her mind-controlled forces are protecting her. We can see the ripples in their movement. Jamie’s still trapped. We’re attempting to raise Professor Downes on the radio to tell us what this means regarding the interface.
SAM YAO: And we don’t know where Runner Three’s gone.
JANINE DE LUCA: So it’s just you. Runner Five, Doctor Myers, you’re all we have left to rely on.
SAM YAO: I’ve been here before.
JANINE DE LUCA: We need you to make your way across to the south spiral as quickly as possible. You’ll have to run all the way along the struts of the roller coaster.
SAM YAO: We wouldn’t ask you to do this, but it’s our only chance to get the ZRD from Moonchild, to be there waiting for her when she reaches the roof. You can do it.
MAXINE MYERS: Sam, I think there may be something that can give us an edge. That song she sang when she spoke to us – did you recognize it?
SAM YAO: I don’t think so, no… oh no, wait, you’re right! I did recognize it! Get running, guys. You might just be on to something.
MAXINE MYERS: This is very high, Sam.
SAM YAO: Yeah, I know. Don’t look down. Uh, let’s distract ourselves with a story. Uh, so, yeah. Uh, this was when you, Runner Five – I mean, you weren’t Runner Five, yet. And you weren’t you yet.
MAXINE MYERS: This isn’t helping, Sam! It was before we even met you, Five. It was before I ever came to Abel. Can you give me a hand over these missing slats? Thanks.
SAM YAO: So, yeah, it was when the Major had just taken charge of Abel, just as we were learning the ropes. Sergeant Ellis was just out on a regular meds run.
[flashback begins]
SAM YAO: You’re doing great, Sergeant Ellis. Nice, steady pace there. Uh, we’ll be glad to have those antibiotics.
[door opens]
JANINE DE LUCA: Mister Yao, do you have a runner in the field?
SAM YAO: Uh, yeah, there’s um, I think Jean’s just come in, and Sara’s due to go out in half an hour.
JANINE DE LUCA: No, Mister Yao, do you have anyone near the university right now?
SAM YAO: Uh, Sergeant Ellis is quite near the university, but that’s a full pack of med supplies, plus those extra headsets we picked up from the uh, well, you know, corpses. Janine, it’s heavy.
JANINE DE LUCA: Sergeant Ellis? Divert to the university right now.
SAM YAO: You can’t just divert a runner - !
JANINE DE LUCA: There’s a survivor in the university. She’s in trouble. I wouldn’t usually risk a runner to save a single person, Sergeant Ellis, but it’s a doctor.
MAXINE MYERS: Hey! Over here! I’m over here!
SAM YAO: Mm, yeah, I see the problem.
MAXINE MYERS: I can’t get out! There are zombies blocking the exit.
SAM YAO: Yeah, we see that, lady.
JANINE DE LUCA: Doctor Myers has been broadcasting a distress call. It can only be a matter of time before those zombies break in and overwhelm her.
SAM YAO: How did she even get up there?
MAXINE MYERS: I have an idea. If you can just clang those dust bin lids together? [garbage can lids clang] That’s great! Yeah, they’re attracted by the noise. They’re leaving the door to come toward you. Now, if you could just circle around the building.
SAM YAO: Yeah, best do that. Also because the zombies are chasing you now. I mean, they’re pretty slow, but still. Get around that building quickly, Sergeant Ellis.
JANINE DE LUCA: She’s coming down the fire escape now, on the other side of the building, look.
MAXINE MYERS: Hey, that was great! You’re fast! I uh, I just came here looking for a microscope and um, I thought I might be able to get a good view from up there of everything. Oh yeah, Janine said on the radio you had some headset for me. Hey, that’s pretty cute!
JANINE DE LUCA: Can you hear me, Doctor Myers? Sergeant Ellis is here to escort you back to our township, Abel. We’re in desperate need of a doctor here, and we’re prepared to offer you protection, room and board.
MAXINE MYERS: Hey, that’s the best offer I’ve had since the world went gray. [glass shatters] Hey, who threw that bottle?
ELLIE MAXTED: Help! Help, I’m stuck in here! Please help me!
JANINE DE LUCA: Sergeant Ellis, Doctor Myers, you must return to Abel now.
MAXINE MYERS: Are you crazy? We can’t leave anyone here. Come on, Sergeant Ellis. It’s just a few zoms, right? We can handle that.
MAXINE MYERS: Okay, okay, this is going pretty good, right? Trap those zoms by the entrance in that wire fence, check. Manage to avoid the disgusting half corpses crawling out of the gymnasium, check. Now, we just need to find -
ELLIE MAXTED: Up here! Hey, I’m up here. I’m Ellie, Ellie Maxted.
MAXINE MYERS: Hey, another survivor! We’re here to rescue you. You got any more with you?
ELLIE MAXTED: No, just me.
MAXINE MYERS: No one? I thought there might be someone.
ELLIE MAXTED: Haven’t seen anyone. I know there were a few music students hiding out in the gazebo, but a few nights ago, the zoms broke through the fence, and now -
SAM YAO: Yeah, on the subject of that, those zoms you tangled up in the fencing have untangled themselves. You can’t go back the way you came.
MAXINE MYERS: Is there another way out of this building, Ellie? Or uh, I don’t suppose you were a crack shot on the university modern pentathlon team who happens to have a huge arsenal with her.
ELLIE MAXTED: [laughs] Oh no, I’m completely useless. I’m a social anthropologist, specialism in tribal drug use in South America. All I can do is tell you is what social class a zom might have belonged to before it died. There is another way out, though. Or there might be. Walkway over here. Only thing is -
SAM YAO: It looks like it’s -
ELLIE MAXTED: - it’s full of zombified dons. But they were quite old and doddery even before they died. I bet we can get through there if we just – [opens door] Run!
SAM YAO: Yeah, those dons – well done on getting past them, but they’re not giving up. And they seem to have found some mates. Unusual, for a don, I’d think. Keep running, and can you give Ellie a spare headset, Ellis?
ELLIE MAXTED: In hindsight, can’t say social anthropology was the best pick. It was a toss-up between that and biological sciences, but I mean, you don’t usually choose your degree thinking, “Hmm, but how much use will this be in the zombie apocalypse?” No use to man or beast, as it turns out.
SAM YAO: Mm, you never know. I mean, look at me using all my radio skills.
ELLIE MAXTED: Well, I tell you one thing anthropology’s useful for – seeing where this is all going.
SAM YAO: Where what’s all going?
ELLIE MAXTED: You know, society. Post-zombie-apocalypse society.
SAM YAO: Did you study a lot of zombie apocalypses in your degree?
ELLIE MAXTED: There was that weird Viking thing. But no. But I did specialize in Latin America. The impact of colonialism on indigenous cultures, that sort of stuff. Colonization might as well have been an apocalypse, for all the harm it did them. And when societies come under that kind of unbearable pressure, the crumble. They just fall apart.
SAM YAO: You think we’re going to fall apart?
ELLIE MAXTED: I think it’s inevitable. Altruism, the rule of law – they require the state to have a monopoly on violence. In this sort of environment, it will be each person for themselves.
SAM YAO: Mm, yeah. New Canton did turn on us pretty damn quick.
ELLIE MAXTED: You see? The strong take and the weak suffer.
SAM YAO: But if we all just stick together -
ELLIE MAXTED: [laughs] Funny, our stupid university song used to be about that. [sings] “Oh, we shall strive, together not apart. For doing so, we sanctify our hearts.” Of course, we never sang the proper words. I made up another version for this kid I used to be friends with. “Oh, we shall strive, together not apart. For we’ve just blown a massive great big fart.” This was before Facebook. In the absence of Buzzfeed quizzes, we had to make our own fun.
Now, Cynthia would be useful in the apocalypse. Child genius, did her PhD when she was seventeen in something to do with brain chemistry. Weird dad, though. Always hanging around the labs, escorting her home from lectures. End of every lecture, there he’d be. “My little bobotie,” he’d say. “Oh, aren’t you my little pickled herring?”
SAM YAO: Yeah. Uh, anyway. Those zombies, they’ve found a few more mates. You’re cut off from the western exit to campus, which uh, looks like the only exit from campus.
MAXINE MYERS: I think I’ve got an idea. Ellie, Sergeant Ellis? Come with me.
SAM YAO: Doctor Myers, you can’t get out that way. Seriously! The other side of the university underground garage is swarming – I mean, like, heaving! – with the undead.
MAXINE MYERS: You’re such a know-it-all.
SAM YAO: What? I’m a what?
MAXINE MYERS: You heard me! Hey, Ellie! Grab one of these.
SAM YAO: I can’t see what you’ve got. You’re underground, I’ve got no cameras.
MAXINE MYERS: Listen – [alarm beeps] Smoke alarms.
SAM YAO: Well, they’ll just draw the zoms to you! Which is not what you want!
MAXINE MYERS: We can play hopscotch.
SAM YAO: What?
MAXINE MYERS: Simple. Ellis, you take one. Ellie, you take one. I’ll take one. We split up. Ellie, you draw the zoms to you while we run, then you turn it off, and we turn ours on. They come towards us while you run. Hopscotch.
SAM YAO: I think that’s more of a game of keepy-uppy. But actually, that’s uh – [laughs] Well, actually, that’s brilliant. Alright, yeah, yeah, it’s brilliant.
MAXINE MYERS: Thanks. Me and some of the other players used to move like this once, against the fire ghouls in the Rage of the Shadow Lord. You know, it’s a roleplaying game
SAM YAO: I know what Rage of the Shadow Lord is. Demons and Darkness second edition. I thought only fifty were ever printed.
MAXINE MYERS: You have to find a good supplier, my friend.
SAM YAO: We need to get you back to Abel. Come on, all of you. Get moving. I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
[alarm rings]
SAM YAO: That’s great! Okay, now, Maxine, turn yours off, and Ellis, you do yours. No, no, not you, Ellie. Ellis! Ellis!
ELLIE MAXTED: Sorry! It’s hard to hear through these things.
SAM YAO: I’m hissing like a blooming snake, here. This is ridiculous. Ellie, can I just call you...Frank?
MAXINE MYERS: Why don’t you just give us numbers? One two three, one two three? Like dancing.
SAM YAO: Now who’s being a know-it-all? Actually, Jen, Joan, and John said that, too. Alright. Um, I promised number one to Joan if I did numbers, and Evan’s going to kill me if I don’t make him double o seven. Oh, I don’t know, just pick a number.
MAXINE MYERS: I’ll take three. It’s my girlfriend’s lucky number.
SAM YAO: Fine. Ellie?
ELLIE MAXTED: If Maxine’s three, I’ll be four, and Sergeant Ellis, you can be five, okay? It’s a good number, five. It’s significant in Modoc culture, and in my own Islam, five is a very important number. There are the Five Pillars of Islam. The Hand of Fatima has five fingers -
SAM YAO: Alright. Runner Three, stay where you are. Runner Four, turn on your noisemaker, and Runner Five, you’re coming home. Runner Five? Run!
MAXINE MYERS: And that’s it, Five. That’s where we heard the song before. Just think, Sam, all the things we’ve been through together since then.
SAM YAO: Yeah, and all the adventures ahead. Okay, guys, you’re coming around the home straight. Nearly on south spiral. So uh, yeah.
MAXINE MYERS: Yeah. Yeah, that’s what we think.
SAM YAO: I mean, It’s a Hail Mary pass.
MAXINE MYERS: The last-ditch try.
SAM YAO: But that must have been Cynthia Hill that Ellie was talking about, right?
MAXINE MYERS: Seventeen-year-old called Cynthia doing a PhD? The same college song?
SAM YAO: It must have been.
MAXINE MYERS: And I’ve got an idea of how we can use what we know against her.
SAM YAO: It might be one minute to midnight, Five, but the day’s not over yet. We can do this.
[alarm blares]
MAXINE MYERS: [gasps] What the hell is that?
AMELIA SPENS: I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t realize there were motion sensors on that roof. I’m afraid you’ve tripped the security system.
SAM YAO: I don’t understand, Amelia. It’s not like Moonchild wouldn’t know we’re coming.
AMELIA SPENS: That’s not the problem, I’m afraid! Look, these buildings contain top level, top secret government tech. They were set to self-destruct in the event of being compromised by enemy forces.
MAXINE MYERS: They’re going to blow up?
AMELIA SPENS: Any minute now!
Codex[]
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
9mm Ammo
Bandages
Batteries
Bottled Water
Box of Lightbulbs
Dentistry equipment
Glasses
Pistol
Power Cable
Rope
Tampons
Tinned Food
Tool Box
Trousers
Underwear
USB Key
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