HOT ZONE

Johnson starts to protest. He sees her conviction.

JOHNSON

Bless You, Sister.

THE VIEW CLIMBS as the Rover speeds off the landing and

disappears into the bush.

CUT TO:

TIGHT ON - OLD BANTU ELDER

Sitting vigil crouched outside a hut. Eyes fixed --

unwavering. WE HEAR: Horrible sounds of suffering

inside.

THE VIEW SHIFTS TO REVEAL:

EXT. BANTU VILLAGE - DAY

Huts burn and smolder. Termite ant hills tower over some

of the remains. A handful of BANTU watch the old Elder.

The Women wails a death chant.

A HAND reaches out the doorway to bowls of food and water.

Suddenly, it clenches in agony. Blood hemorrhages through

pulpy skin. The hand flops to the dirt.

The Elder rises in silence. Torch in hand, he chants a

prayer and torches the hut.

A BANTU WOMAN screams rushing towards her flaming home.

OTHER WOMEN pull her back.

The Elder picks up his medicine bundle and leads the

survivors of his Village into the Bush.

FLAMES OBSCURE THE VIEW TO:

THE ROVERS - MOVING THROUGH VILLAGE - LATER

Johnson signals to go slower. Reese is riveted to his

window. Burned devastation everywhere. Sister prays.

THEIR POV - CHARRED BODIES

Smoldering in the ruins. Reese is sickened.

REESE

My God, what happened here?

JOHNSON

The Bantu. They've gone back to

their ancient ways of dealing with

plague and malaria. You put the

sick person in a hut. You put food

and water in the door. If the

person walks out one day -- or

crawls out, that's fine. If they

don't... you burn the hut... No more

disease --

FOLLOW THE SECOND ROVER - CONTINUING ACTION

Two Team Members crank photographs.

EXT. A HUT - CONSUMED IN FLAMES

The Rovers stop nearby. Sister Genevieve, exhausted,

rests her head on the seat.

Johnson climbs out surveying the sight. This is his war.

JOHNSON

This whole zone is hot. Reese.

He kicks at the hut's burning embers.

JOHNSON

Whatever this bug is, Ebola is not a

place we're gonna forget anytime

soon --

He turns to: REESE, who is frantically removing his gear

from the lead Rover. He shoots Karl a frightened glance.

REESE

I'm not going upcountry, Doc. I'm

taking my team out -- We'll base at

the hospital in Kinshasa --

Reese passes Johnson heading for the other Rover. The

Team reacts confused as he plops his gear inside.

JOHNSON

You're a good doctor. They need

your services too. Couple of things

you might consider --

Reese doesn't want to hear it.

JOHNSON

Maybe we've already been exposed.

As Karl speaks, he ties off his own arm, thumps a vein and

draws his own blood.

JOHNSON

Test all our blood when you get

back. Take some samples from Sister

Genevieve: here too --

SISTER'S POV - INSIDE ROVER

Sweat beads on her forehead under her habit. Her vision

BLURS for a millisecond then corrects itself. She watches

Johnson confront Reese without ever raising his voice.

JOHNSON

Maybe this bug can spread through

the air. Maybe it's the Andromeda

Strain --

Johnson tosses the blood vial --

TO REESE

He stares at the blood vial like death itself.

ON JOHNSON - FRAMED BY THE DECIMATION

JOHNSON

If it is Andromeda, then you won't

be safe anywhere in the world.

The Team audibly reacts in French and Norwegian. Winds

kick up smoke swirling around Johnson.

JOHNSON

You might as well be here at the

epicenter trying to stop it.

SMOKE WIPES THE FRAME TO:

EXT. YAMBUKU ROAD - HIGH ANGLE - LOOKING DOWN - LATER

The lone Rover travels slowly along the rough road. In

the f.g., GREEN MONKEYS FOLLOW, jumping from limb to

branch, escorting Johnson deeper into the jungle.

SISTER GENEVIEVE (V.O.)

The infection hit the hospital like

a -- like a bomb --

THE ROVER - INSIDE

JOHNSON

Who was the index case? The first

patient to "show"?

SISTER GENEVIEVE

A Schoolteacher. We treated him for

malaria -- Two days later, he died

-- horribly. Every child at the

school came to the hospital.

Families -- pregnant women. All

broke with fever.

Johnson traces the spread in his mind, sorting, seeking --

JOHNSON

But where did the teacher get the

bug? Rodent bites? -- Feces?

Mosquitoes? Monkeys maybe?

Sister Genevieve shakes her head bewildered. Who knows?

JOHNSON

How did it spread so quickly? What

did you give the patients?

SISTER GENEVIEVE

Injections. Chloroquine and

vitamins. These people do not

believe they have been "doctored"

unless we give them a shot...

She hesitates, almost confessing.

SISTER GENEVIEVE

We only used five syringes a day to

treat everyone --

JOHNSON

(grim diagnosis)

Then the infection could've been

passed through the needles --

SISTER GENEVIEVE

God forgive us... Some became

irrational -- hostile -- and

escaped! Hundreds became violently

ill and died in one week --

Silence. Johnson realizes he's facing nature's revenge.

JOHNSON

Seven days. No time for an "immune

response." By the time the

patient's immune system throws

antibodies to fight the damn thing

-- it's too late...

She breaks down, sobbing. Johnson stops the Rover.

JOHNSON

You did what you could, Sister.

He takes her hands in his, firmly but gently. He's

wearing surgical gloves.

THEIR POV - THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD

The Yambuku Mission. An imposing old chapel and a ring of

cinderblock buildings. The Belgian flag hangs at half-

mast in the center. No life anywhere --

Suddenly, a FOUR FOOT TALL MALE GREEN MONKEY drops on the

hood from the trees with full force -- screeching at them.

Sister screams with fright. Johnson jumps so much he

bumps his head on the ceiling.

OUTSIDE - GREEN MONKEYS

Swarm the Rover on a food search, screeching "KRA, KRA."

INSIDE - CONTINUING ACTION

One Monkey lands on the door latch. It's weight pulls the

Sister's door open. She cries out.

JOHNSON FALLS across her closing it tight.

OUTSIDE - THE BIG MALE

Flashes his fangs and hurls his feces, splattering against

the windshield. Then he is gone.

CUT TO:

EXT. HOSPITAL COMPOUND - DAY - GLIDING VIEWS

Open air porches are lined with empty beds. Silence.

Only the chattering of the monkeys in the trees.

JOHNSON - APPROACHING FROM THE ROVER

He now wears a Tyvek protective suit, boots and full face

respirator. He carries a field kit and a small ice chest.

HIS POV - THE HOSPITAL

Flies buzz swarming out the windows and doors.

INT. HOSPITAL - CONTINUING ACTION

Johnson opens the door. Light spills in. Flies swarm.

Their buzzing sounds like chainsaws.

HIS POV - THE WARD

A silhouette of tangled bodies. The mud walls are

splattered with blood -- as if a bomb did go off.

JOHNSON

Don't come in here, Sister.

OUTSIDE - SISTER GENEVIEVE

Sinks slowly to her knees, frozen like a statue, praying.

RESUME: HOSPITAL - FOLLOW JOHNSON

Down the rows of 120 beds, inspecting the few remaining

bodies, each with evidence of massive hemorrhaging from

every orifice.

JOHNSON - CLOSER

He stops at one bed, carefully checking a YOUNG MAN for

signs of life. He feels for a pulse --

His glove fingers sink into the man's flesh like pudding.

Johnson reels back -- reviled. His breath labored.

TIGHT ON - JOHNSON'S GLOVED HAND

Taking a nose swab blood sample. Another swab inside the

Man's mouth -- and ears. With tweezers, he pinches out

samples of skin tissues.

WE FOLLOW bloody swaps and skin tissues into plastic

vials. Johnson tags and places each in the ice chest.

IN THE ICE CHEST - TIGHT ON THE TAG

Numbers: 001, etc., then, "Yambuku blood and epidermal

tissue slices - Ebola, Zaire."

EXT. HOSPITAL - SUNDOWN

Johnson exits, exhausted, solemn. Sister Genevieve is

still bent in prayer, motionless; wearing her respirator.

JOHNSON

No survivors. I've never seen a bug

kill like this one, Sister.

Fried by his experience, he surveys the jungle. Surreal

in the golden light. He's completely spaced.

JOHNSON

There must be members of some lost

tribe out there who've built up

immunities to this killer over the

years -- Their blood could have

powerful antibodies passed down

through the generations... strong

enough to save some lives --

(silence, he reaches

her)

Sister --

HIS POV - SISTER GENEVIEVE

Slowly raises her bowed head. Blood oozes from her

respirator. Her faceplate is splattered with it.

She collapses before he can catch her. Johnson cradles

her removing the respirator. He's horrified.

JOHNSON

You spiked the damn fever -- We'll

get you to Kinshasa.

Blood traces from her tearducts -- her nose and ears.

JOHNSON

Oh my god -- hold on -- hold on --

He pulls a syringe from his pocket -- thumps up a vein and

begins to shoot her full of antibiotics. She reflexes

away from the needle -- internal hemorrhages rock her --

Johnson jerks back. The SYRINGE PIERCES the glove on his

left hand. He stares at it in horror. He yanks it out

sucking his hand and spitting -- like a snake bite.

SISTER GENEVIEVE

First... come... the... headaches --

She spasms suddenly -- coughing up black fluid --

THE VIEW ROCKETS UP UP INTO THE TREES --

Monkeys cry everywhere. "KRA! KRA!" We rocket right

into the face of the BIG GREEN MALE. Deep brown cloudy

eyes staring at us transfixed. Blood -- building in a

crimson wave -- emerges from it's nose.

CUT TO BLACK.

FADE IN:

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - MORNING

A modest colonial sits atop a hill at the foot of the

Appalachians. Leaves glow in bright autumn colors.

SUPER: FREDERICK, MD - WED., OCT. 4, 1989 0800 HRS.

JAXX (V.O.)

Jason -- you'll be late for school.

INT. JAXX KITCHEN - CONTINUING ACTION

THE FREEZER DOOR CLOSES REVEALING: COL. NANCY JAXX; a

rather beautiful woman in her mid 30's. "Supermom" and

"ultrawife" in Army uniform with Colonel's bars taking her

usual stab at breakfast; throwing 4 waffles in the

microwave -- cracking two eggs in a skillet -- She opens a

cabinet, gets mugs, dumps in instant coffee -- suddenly --

A MONKEY LIKE CREATURE HANGS DOWN RIGHT IN HER FACE --

JAXX

(pushes it away,

annoyed)

Jason! Come feed Gumby or he's

going in your omelette!

No response. The Kinkajoo wraps its prehensile tail

around her neck.

INT. MENAGERIE ROOM - MORNING

Jaxx piggybacks the Kinkajoo and a cup of coffee through

the converted sunporch. It's filled with ANIMALS.

FOLLOW JAXX BY THE ANIMALS

Two fish tanks, a fish pond, exotic Parrots, Bright Red

Eclectus, Cockatoos -- and four Yellow naped Amazons. One

sings an opera aria. One wolf whistles as Jaxx passes.

JAXX

(ritual)

Thanks boys. Eat your heart out

girls --