Twenty Twenty-Four

Where's Arthur?

Fine, what do you want?

I completely forgot.

Thanks for reminding me.

What is it?

I'm in the middle of something. What's the problem?

Is it serious or can it wait till I am finished here.

Fail?

(GASPING)

Fuck!

Fuck!

No, don't do that.

I said no!

You.

A bat.

You ask me why I'm wasting my time on these stupid questions.

Why, I spent months doing this shit. What's the point?

Things up top are worse than ever, Roy.

Negotiations have failed.

The clock now stands at one minute to midnight.

I'm ordering you to move Plethura into its final stage.

Licorice.

Yes.

The time is now.

You got 24 hours to adapt the bunker accordingly.

At that point,

Priority 1 will be with you in less than two hours.

The moment they arrive,

you are to enter the elevator,

and ride it back to the surface.

Understand?

Yeah, I know the protocol.

Good.

Because there won't be a moment to waste.

Why leave it so late?

We've got one chance of getting this right.

There is no room for premature mistakes.

There won't be any.

Plethura will be ready in time.

What's happened to your hand?

Nah.

Nothing, just a mishap.

Why wasn't this reported up top?

It's no big deal,

I didn't think it was important.

Every thing is important, Roy!

This is a deliberate breach of protocol,

and not for the first time either.

Do you have a problem with authority, Roy?

Is that it?

I just want to be trusted to do my job.

I've got everything under control down here.

Let's get one thing straight, Roy.

You are not in control of this situation.

As a man, you are expendable.

It's what you do which serves a higher purpose.

You know that.

Yeah, I do.

No, I know the responsibilities, okay?

Good.

Because this isn't just about PlethurRoy.

Future generations will live or die

by the decisions that we make today.

This is much bigger than you or I.

It won't happen again.

Have you got anybody on top?

No.

How very lucky you are.

Isn't that respect too much to ask?

I am a scientist, for Christ's sake!

And you really expect me to go running off to mummy

just 'cause I cut my hand!

I'm not a fucking child.

Fuck Priority One!

If it weren't for me, then we'd all be dead.

No Plethura, no safe haven, nothing.

What I'm doing is selfless.

I mean, I'm just a pencil mark in the pages of history.

Someone's always watching.

I just wanted to know I made a difference, that's all.

Look, Arthur, I'm sorry if I was a bit...

Ratty earlier.

I'm just... A little out of sorts lately.

Well, to tell the truth, I'm feeling a bit nervous

about heading back up top.

Well,

I know I was never meant to survive down here.

I had a job to do.

A duty.

I did the best I could.

I guess I'm just finding it harder to leave this place

than I thought I would.

Yeah.

Right outside, I'd be afraid of surviving.

Well, that's the duality of man, Arthur.

See, it doesn't matter what happens up top.

And it won't matter what happens down below either.

We're never gonna change, Arthur.

That's the reality.

As a child, I was raised in a Catholic orphanage.

Once when I was around nine or ten,

one of the priests caught me pulling the wings of a fly.

Not in a sadistic way.

I was just a kid.

And innocent.

But the priest took it upon himself to discipline me.

Privately.

Away from judging eyes.

He told me we mustn't harm any of God's creatures,

no matter how small or insignificant they may seem.

And he tried to exercise his point

by whipping me with a cane as thick as a man's thumb.

Enough times to draw blood.

A lesson, he told me.

So I feel the same pain as the fly.

And that's when I realized,

it wasn't God that made the world this way.

The darkness,

it lives in each of our souls.

That's why we deserve what we get.

I don't know.

I always found it difficult to connect with people up top,

so I just,

gave up and...

Ah, you know, talk.

Relate.

Care.

No, I am talking to wires and programming,

designed to make me think that I am talking to a person,

but I am not.

Well, I guess, pride goes before destruction.

It's a proverb.

I supposed we did it to ourselves because we could.

And we deny it.

Choose not to acknowledge the knife-edge we are living on.

In a way, yeah.

To spare ourselves pain?

Make life seem worth living?

I don't know anymore.

No, no, no. This can't be happening. This can't...

Well, are there any communications from up top?

What about Priority One?

I didn't make it.

I want all the data collected from the surface.

We need to work out the blast radius.

What are you talking about? The clock's running.

What the hell happened out there?

What is it?

Of course, I am.

I shouldn't be alive.

A lot of people died, Arthur.

I'm now a relic of an endangered species.

Wouldn't you be sad?

This conversation's over.

(MYSTERIOUS INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

(GLASS SHATTERING)

(SUSPENSEFUL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

Stop asking me that. How do you think I'm feeling?

All right.

Of course, you can.

What is it?

Yeah.

That's what you are.

Yeah, but...

What are you talking about?

I'm not sure.

Perhaps, but it's rare for me to remember.

It's most likely just the surveillance feeds.

Every 24 hours, the protocol states that

the surveillance feed must be backed up to the hard drive.

They're not dream, Arthur.

They're duplicates.

You're seeing the past and present simultaneously. That's all.

I'm kind of busy right now.

Where's it coming from?

Play it.

It's Morse code.

SOS.

Yes.