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"Staying Alive" is the twenty-first mission of Season 5.

A prisoner of the Minister, Veronica's unfortunate test subject and now trapped with Ian's special zoms... things don't look good.

Cast[]

Crew[]

Plot[]

Keep Going[]

Moonchild is still in your ear. But how? The test has failed; you're dead... but not dead. You can hear the others talking; Sigrid and Veronica leave, but Sam doesn't want to leave you here.

Not This[]

Ian is talking to a Netrophil prisoner, Nicki. He wants to make an example of her, and he's going to use you, in your newly zombified state, to do it.

Personal Well-Rotted Zombies[]

Moonchild tries to make sense of the impulse to chase after the prisoner. Ian's unhappy with your progress so he releases more zombies into the area.

Zombies Don't Chase Zombies[]

You're moving faster now, and Ian's happier. Janine's convinced you're gone but Sam's not so sure. It looks like that pack of well-rotted zoms is chasing after you as well as Nicki - and zoms don't chase zoms.

Find A Way Out[]

The pack catches up with the prisoner and bites her. Sam's certain you haven't turned and you prove him right by helping Nicki up instead of eating her.

Little Miss Spreadsheets[]

Sam frantically contacts Veronica, who knows you're not a zombie, and Nadia, who doesn't know you're not a zombie, to inform them Ian's messed up Veronica's plan. Her calculations didn't cover this scenario, so you'll need to keep running while she checks her spreadsheet.

Get The Message Out Of Abel[]

In the testing grounds your fellow prisoner is starting to turn. She uses her last moments to tell you you'll need to grab a note hidden in Abel's prison block. It'll help you find Netrophil's leader, who'll help you defeat the Minister.

 S05E21 // Rofflenet[]

Discussion regarding this mission can be found on Rofflenet

Transcript []

[zombie growls]

SAM YAO: Runner Five! [cries] Five!

MOONCHILD: ...Why am I still alive, even though I’m dead? You got bitten by a zombie, Five. You’re in the testing ground, and the Minister’s watching, and you… you got bitten, and you started coughing, and now… I’m dead, Five. So are you. ...Is this what "dead" feels like?

VERONICA MCSHELL: The test has failed, Minister. I can only apologize.

SIGRID HAKKINEN: Ah, well. At least Runner Five met a painful end. And you’ll have some data for your research.

MOONCHILD: What happens to me now, Five? Is this what it’s like to be dead?

VERONICA MCSHELL: We should collect the Five zombie now and bring it to my laboratory.

SIGRID HAKKINEN: Don’t worry about that now. Come and have tea with me, Veronica. We can talk through our next steps.

MOONCHILD: I can still hear your thoughts, Five! I can still see your neurons firing. Look! Look what I can do!

SARA SMITH: That’s my Five.

IAN GOLIGHTLY: And me, Minister? Shall I come for tea?

SIGRID HAKKINEN: I don’t think that’ll be necessary.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Veronica, are you going?

VERONICA MCSHELL: There’s nothing to be done, Nadia. We’ll collect the zombie after tea.

MOONCHILD: Am I still alive? What would happen, Five, if I told you to run?

SAM YAO: We can’t just leave Five there, not in that horrible testing ground, not for Veronica’s experiments. We can’t leave Five there! [cries] No, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. [sighs] I know you’re right. [laughs/cries] Look! Five’s running! [laughs/cries] The zombie, I mean. The zombie. It’s running. Go home, Five! Do keep going! [cries]

[footsteps]


[speaker squeals]

IAN GOLIGHTLY: Nicki, I do have a treat for you!

NICKI: What do you want from me now? I’ve told you everything. Everything!

IAN GOLIGHTLY: I very much doubt that, Nicki, but the Minister has put me in charge of prisoners here, and I’ve decided we’re going to make an example of you. Put you out of your misery.

NICKI: Not having to listen to your voice anymore would be a start.

IAN GOLIGHTLY: Raise the gates! [gate siren, gates raise] You remember Runner Five, don’t you? Runner Five’s appetites are rather different now.

MOONCHILD: It’s a person. There’s a person… warm, living flesh! I want it! Mm… I think I want it.

NICKI: Oh no! No! Not this!

IAN GOLIGHTLY: Go on, Runner Five. Get after her!


[NICKI screams]

MOONCHILD: You know, Five, as we chase after that terrified young woman, presumably about to totally destroy her chakra balance by eating her, I can’t help thinking about the nature of life, death, and free will.

IAN GOLIGHTLY: Go on, Five. Get her!

SAM YAO: I can’t watch this.

JANINE DE LUCA: You don’t have to watch, Mister Yao.

SAM YAO: I can’t not watch it.

JANINE DE LUCA: I know.

MOONCHILD: What I mean is, why do we do anything? There’s good research that your conscious brain just makes up a story about why you did something that wasn’t under your control, anyway. [laughs] You and I know minds are more complicated than you might think. I’m still in here. I think you’re still in here. Listen to what I can make your brain do.

ARCHIE JENSEN: That’s very impressive. A little scary, too, but mostly impressive. Maybe half scary, half impressive?

MOONCHILD: Thank you, honey. So what I mean is, are we chasing that woman because we’re a zombie, Five, or because someone said we’re a zombie, and we’re suggestible? And are we just a runner because we remember being one before?

IAN GOLIGHTLY: This is taking too long. Runner Five, get after that prisoner! Yes, I know zombies don’t obey my orders, thank you, Viv. Open the door of my zombie pen. My personal well-rotted zombies, yes.

[siren, gates raise, zombies growl]

MOONCHILD: I don’t know about you, Five, but I want to keep on running. Oh! Clearly, you want to as well. [laughs]


[NICKI screams]

IAN GOLIGHTLY: Oh, this is much better! Runner Five was barely chasing that Netrophil spy at all. [laughs] Now we’ll see some action.

MOONCHILD: He’s right you know, Five. You’re barely chasing her at all.

SAM YAO: Janine, I know how this sounds. I know. I do know, but -

JANINE DE LUCA: You should turn that monitor off, Mister Yao. Sam, I think it’s not a sound idea for you to watch this.

SAM YAO: No, no, but Janine, doesn’t Five still look quite… look quite human to you?

JANINE DE LUCA: Runner Five is moaning like a zombie. Runner Five is chasing humans like a zombie. Runner Five was bitten by a zombie. [sighs] We know Runner Five was injected with whatever chemicals Van Ark happened to be testing that day. There might be some unusual effect. Sam, Runner Five is a zombie!

SAM YAO: Yes, I know, but…! Look. Look. Look! The pack of well-rotted zombies… doesn’t it look like they’re splitting up? Look, to chase the Netrophil prisoner and Runner Five. Zombies don’t… they don’t chase other zombies, do they?


NICKI: [screams] Oh God, get off me!

IAN GOLIGHTLY: While Runner Five continues to be as useless as ever, three of my zombies are on the prisoner now. Ooh, look, they’re biting her.

NICKI: [screams] Oh God, get off me!

IAN GOLIGHTLY: Oh, good, Marvelous, she’s bitten. That’s all done then. Viv, come have tea with me. There’s a Viscount biscuit with your name on it.

SAM YAO: Look! Janine, seriously, look!

JANINE DE LUCA: I’m looking!

SAM YAO: There’s a group of zoms, seven or eight of them, who are after Runner Five. Five’s not the head of the pack, they’re following Five, just like zoms follow, well, you know, live humans!

JANINE DE LUCA: If Runner Five were alive… Mister Yao, if any of us were alive in that situation, we’d find a way to signal that we were still human.

MOONCHILD: Well, what are you going to do? Ian’s not watching anymore.

SAM YAO: Look! Janine, Five is heading for that Netrophil prisoner, the one who’s just got bitten. Look!

JANINE DE LUCA: Runner Five is going to eat her.

NICKI: It bit me! It bit me! No! Stay away! Get away from me!

SAM YAO: Runner Five is apparently going to give that woman a hand up!

NICKI: What… Are you… ?

SAM YAO: Runner Five is alive!

NICKI: Are you my contact?

SAM YAO: Oh God. Uh, Runner Five is alive in an enclosure full of zombies. We’ve got to find a way out of there. Five, if you can hear me, keep running! [laughs/cries] Uh, I expect you knew that. I’m so happy you’re alive!


[beeping]

SAM YAO: Okay, okay. I’m trying to raise Nadia on the special emergency frequency we keep for emergencies. It makes the alarm go off in their freezer, so if Nadia remembers that it’s me, and not a lot of specimen jars defrosting…

[radio static]

NADIA AL HANAKI: Hello? Is everything okay? I’m here with… with Veronica. Because it’s a real emergency, isn’t it?

SAM YAO: It is. It is an emergency. It’s Runner Five!

VERONICA MCSHELL: Oh, that’s not an emergency. Runner Five is all right.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Ronnie, Runner Five is a zombie.

SAM YAO: No, Runner Five is not a zombie!

VERONICA MCSHELL: Yes. Runner Five is not a zombie, so it’s all right.

NADIA AL HANAKI: It’s not all right! We saw Runner Five turn, Ronnie. That’s not all right!

SAM YAO: No, Nadia! Runner Five isn’t a zombie, and in addition, it is not all right!

VERONICA MCSHELL: Oh. Sorry, did you want Runner Five to be a zombie? Did you have an argument?

NADIA AL HANAKI: Wait. What do you mean, "Runner Five is not a zombie"?

VERONICA MCSHELL: Why would Runner Five be a zombie?

NADIA AL HANAKI: Because - ! Because you released that zombie into the enclosure, and then Sigrid and Ian sent Five out for a run around the enclosure, and then the zombie bit Five.

VERONICA MCSHELL: Oh. No, it’s okay. That zombie wasn’t infectious - I can make those now, non-infectious zombies - and then I told Ian to shoot it so he couldn’t find out. I gave Five a mild sedative combined with a few other things to mimic the effects of the zombie virus to an external observer.

Ian will bring the Five zombie here soon, and then we can work out an escape route. It won’t be so hard for a zombie to escape as a fugitive Abel runner. So it makes sense to do it this way, because we don’t need to arrange a breakout and everyone will think Runner Five is dead.

[speaking simultaneously]

SAM YAO: How could you do something -

NADIA AL HANAKI: Didn’t you think it’d be a good idea to let -

SAM YAO: Sorry, you first.

NADIA AL HANAKI: No, you.

SAM YAO: Veronica, didn’t you think to tell anyone what you were doing?

VERONICA MCSHELL: I think there are things you didn’t tell me, aren’t there? I’ve run the numbers on this. If I told you, Nadia, the probability was 73% that you’d act suspiciously in front of the Minister and alert her, based on your previous attempts to keep a secret. I have a spreadsheet I can show you.

NADIA AL HANAKI: You have a spreadsheet?

VERONICA MCSHELL: Yes. I keep a spreadsheet on the Minister, too. She was 92% likely to accept Runner Five’s dying as a zombie and not ask to see the body. She’s not very interested in...evidence.

NADIA AL HANAKI: How long have you been keeping a spreadsheet on me?

VERONICA MCSHELL: I’ve been trying to work out how likely it is that Runner Five was able to enact this plan against the Minister without any tactical help from the outside. I couldn’t make it come clear. You lied to me, didn’t you? Janine De Luca and Maxine Myers are alive, aren’t they?

NADIA AL HANAKI: ...Yes.

VERONICA MCSHELL: You lied because you didn’t know whether you could trust me.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Yes.

VERONICA MCSHELL: Then you understand. We’ve all had to lie. Nadia, you and I have lied about smuggling those supplies out to the Girl Guides. Lying is how things are now.

SAM YAO: All right. Veronica, Runner Five isn’t a zombie.

VERONICA MCSHELL: No, definitely not. Might have experienced some mental confusion from the sedative.

SAM YAO: So, the fact that Five is trapped in a pen full of zombies that Ian released - ?

VERONICA MCSHELL: Hmm. Potentially sub-optimal. I’ll check where the zombies came from. They might be non-infectious.

SAM YAO: Uh, yeah. Five, until we get that intel from Little Miss Spreadsheets, keep running. You never know – that Netrophil person with you might be okay too.


NICKI: [coughs] I can feel it happening. I’m changing. [coughs] You! You’re not a zombie, are you?

SAM YAO: Uh, Veronica? That Netrophil person who was bitten – you didn’t give her a sedative too, did you?

VERONICA MCSHELL: No. Sorry, the information Ian keeps on where he got all his zombies from is very badly organized.

SAM YAO: Yeah, yeah, I don’t think we need it, Ronnie. I’m pretty sure those zoms are infectious. You’ve going to need to get away from her, Five.

NICKI: Runner Five. Indestructible Runner Five. I’m dying! I don’t know if you remember me. I was one of King Jamie’s honor guard. We met then. I was one of the roller girls. I remember you. [coughs]

Sigrid’s not wrong about me. I was Netrophil. I am Netrophil. She’s put everything she has into wiping us out. She’s almost done it, Five. [coughs] There are still some secrets she doesn’t know about.

Jerry was here at Abel for a bit, you know. He always spoke very highly of you. If he’d been able to take anyone with him, it would have been you, that’s what he said. [coughs]

If you want to defeat Sigrid, you need to know what she’s planning. They told me there’s a secret chamber. You need to find it before she does. So, you’ll need to find Jerry. I’ve left a note about how to do it behind the cistern in the third latrine from the left in the prisoner’s block. Get it!

[coughs] Okay? Good. [coughs] You have to get that message out of Abel, please. Go, now! I’ll hold the zoms off for as long as I can. Run!

Codex[]

Supplies[]

The following supplies can be found in this mission.

(List may be incomplete.)

9mm Ammo 9mm Ammo
Baton Baton
Batteries Batteries
Dress Dress
Hairbrush Hairbrush
Mobile Phone Mobile Phone
Pain Meds Pain Meds
Pistol Pistol
Prescription Pain Meds Prescription Pain Meds
Radio Radio
Rope Rope
Shirt Shirt
Tinned Food Tinned Food

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