The Stand

MAN Containment breach.

We've had a major containment breach.

God. Oh, my God.

The security system appears to be malfunctioning.

Seal the base, Campion. If the main gate's still open, shut it.

Yes, sir.

We're dying like flies down here.

Use the manual gate override, Campion.

Do it now. Do it now!

Sally, Baby Lavon.

Campion. This is a code red.

We've lost one of the bugs. Repeat, we've lost one of the bugs!

You have to close the gate!

Sally! Sally!

- Sally! Charlie?

We gotta get out of here.

What's going on? - You know what.

Get the baby's stuff. Let's go.

Oh, my God. - Come on, let's go.

I'm coming! - Let's go, come on.

Let's go.

We'll be okay.

Give me the baby. - Here.

All right. I'll get it.

All right, let's go.

Come on, baby.

Charlie.

Slow down, Charlie.

Charlie, slow down.

Charlie, you're gonna get us all killed!

Sorry, baby.

ANNOUNCER Brought to you right here on Blackout.

And now here is the host of Blackout, Tom Leary.

Hey.

DJ All right, coming up next,

we got Kathy Camen Goldmore, America's new country sweetheart.

Sure wish she was my sweetheart.

Why don't you listen to me, you old man?

Been listening to you more than 20 years now, ain't I?

All that wisdom and I ain't rich yet. Ha-ha-ha!

Yeah. Well, if you learn some simple economics.

Oh. Old man Vic thinks "simple economics" is

some new breed of Irishman.

Hey. Ain't you ignorant?

I think licking the glue off the back of all them food stamps

has finally done something to your brain.

Well, I gotta feed your daughter, don't I? Ha-ha-ha.

Hap.

Hap, shut off the pumps.

Hey.

Hey, you all right?

Damn, Stu.

You don't think he did that to his face falling out of the car, did you?

I doubt it.

Hey.

- Hey. Just take it easy now. Jesus...

Calm down.

Hap.

Phone rescue services in Braintree now. Hurry up.

Go on.

Just take it easy, friend. It's gonna be all right.

- Just lie still now. It's all right.

Ohh....

You'll be all right.

It's gonna be all right.

Ambulance will be here in 10 minutes.

My wife and my baby are sick. They need help.

Help my wife and baby. They're sick, they need help.

They're okay. They're fine.

You just wanna sit right there.

The ambulance is on its way.

We didn't get out in time after all.

Just try to rest yourself, okay?

- Just take it easy now. Gate malfunctioned.

Otherwise, we'd have died in the compound.

Project Blue.

Take him aside, Stu. He's gonna toss it.

Put your head down.

Come on.

And I told you I ain't got time to throw a line on that dog tag.

You mind me now.

What's he got? You got any idea?

Maybe it's food poisoning. You know, he's got California plates.

He may have got some bad chow at a roadside stand or something.

I hope you're right.

We've seen cholera back in '58 down near Nogales.

This is what it looks like.

Sally and the baby, they were sick since Salt Lake City.

But I felt fine till this morning...

Boy. Are you sure Sally and my baby are okay?

Yeah.

There was a man with us some of the time.

He was a dark man. He--

I was looking through the rear-view mirror

and I'd see him just sitting there grinning at me.

I thought I could outrun him. Ha-ha-ha.

You can't outrun the dark man.

Not now. Millie.

Put this on the board.

Come.

- General Starkey, sir. - Close the door and drop the bull, Len.

Yes, sir.

They killed them in a hurry down there.

Telemetry suggests even the ones that managed to get their respirators on

died within 12 minutes.

The rest of them were gone in five. You believe that?

- Do I have a choice? - No.

Apparently, none of us do.

It's nothing but a souped-up version of the flu.

Herbert Denninger of the National Disease Control Center,

the Pentagon's bright boy of the week, says once we find Campion,

we'll know if it's actually gonna jump to the outside.

He says it'll probably mutate.

But that's not gonna help the people that catch it.

General, I have what might be something--

It'll just take them longer to die, that's all.

Most people are gonna think they've got the plain old non-lethal flu

right up to the very end.

And that's the biggest break we've had so far.

All because a gate malfunctioned

and some glorified TV repairman got his family and ran for the hills.

I'd like to get that guy, string him up by--

We found him. We located Campion.

Crash-landed at a gas station

on the outskirts of a one-stoplight town in East Texas.

He made it halfway across the country?

- How'd he do that? - I don't know.

But the important thing is, right now we got a shot at containing this.

- Is he dead or alive? - He's dead.

Oh, God. Denninger says

this stuff has a communicability level of over 99 percent.

You understand what that means?

Any chance we had of containing it went by the boards

when Campion bought his first takeout hamburger.

We can't think that way, Billy.

Yeah, you're right. Of course you are.

- What about the rest of his family? - They're dead, sir.

Contact with townspeople was minimal.

That doesn't matter.

We gotta shut that town down, lock it up, dig a moat around it.

That operation's already on the launching pad, sir.

What kind of coverage you come up with?

Anthrax.

New strain.

Ha-ha. Hey, that's a new one, all right. It's real new.

It's very good at its job too. Too good.

Well, it's bad, general, but it could be worse.

Ha. How's that?

What's the name of this town?

Arnette. Arnette, Texas.

All right, men, it's up. Here you go.

ANNOUNCER Cold got you down? Chills, fever?

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MAN And now, let's get back to the Lone Star Matinee Movie.

State patrol, Hap. Looks like your cousin Joe-Bob.

Hey, Joe-Bob. Want me to fill her up for you?

No, sir. I come by on other business.

Was that old geezer here last night when that guy took out your pumps?

Vic? He's here just about every night.

Well, maybe he ought to hear this too.

Hear what?

There's strangers crawling all over Braintree.

Supposed to be U.S. Health Service guys

but they came in a C-58 transport plane

and they look like regular Army to me.

And then there's been three more big transport planes

land over at Starland in Arkansas since noon.

It was cholera. I knew it was.

Well, I don't know nothing about that.

I'll tell you one thing, though.

If the feds are thinking about a quarantine,

then you might have a little bit more to worry about than cholera.

I just thought you ought to know what's stirring in the weeds, Hap.

If any of them other old boys here last night come by,

pass the word along to them.

Just don't mention my name.

You ought to take care of that, old-timer.

Them summer colds are the worst.

What if it ain't a cold?

What if I got whatever he had, that guy last night?

Oh, it's probably just the sniffles, that's all.

Maybe I ought to close up the station for the rest of the day.

Call the other fellows, see how they're feeling.

Might not be a bad idea.

Dang.

Uh, this is Unit 16 to base.

I'm seeing a lot of Army traffic

on, uh, State 17, westbound in the direction of Arnette.

You heard anything about that? Bye.

Please advise if you've been anywhere near Arnette today, bye.

Uh, negative, base.

I've been over by the Arkansas state line all day.

Well, that's fine, then.

Suggest you let the Army mind their business

and you mind yours, Unit 16.

Bye.

Well, you don't have to be so grouchy about it, Cynthia.

Unit 16 over and out.