- Help a dead fella, sister?
I took a job as a crash test dummy to feed my family.
Now I'm too damn ugly to go home.
That's gotta be worth somethin'.
Thank you.
God bless you.
God bless her.
Oh, my back!
- Shit, my last gallon.
That seems like a logical mistake to me,
based on what we now know
and could not have even imagined at the time.
Well, you can imagine their surprise
when it was discovered that the freshly-dead,
embarrassed, frightened, unsure of what to do
or even what to make of their own situation,
congregate where they know they're supposed to be.
A graveyard.
Here, these people would later describe
that they heard the voices of long-dead friends
and relatives calling to them from their graves.
Right.
But it doesn't take a genius to know
that trying to push six-feet of dirt out of your way
isn't going to happen without some outside help.
- So, they dig them up. - Exactly.
Suddenly, dead people are missing,
graveyards are being desecrated, conclusions are reached.
You know, the first phone call
is always the hardest.
I've been hearing rumors lately
about the possibilities of unionization and labor talk.
Well, in the underground circles,
I've heard that too.
That's not my area of concern, however,
and I am not prepared to make a public statement either way.
So your concerns right now
are mostly the scientific angle?
Well, I guess to be blunt,
I'm not really sure what science means anymore.
- I claim this vehicle for our people,
in the name of the lord!
- Fuck you!
- Let's explain this to her.
Okay.
That's enough.
Give her room! She's frightened!
We don't want to get her unnecessarily violent.
Nobody touch her!
The car is ours.
Forget about her now.
She will join us later, only by choice.
That is our strength!
- Bastards, my food is in the trunk.
You guys don't even eat.
- Howdy.
You need a lift?
Oh, man. You're, uh...
You don't wanna steal my car, do ya?
I mean, they got that scam goin' on
down the road a few miles.
They steal the juice out of all the cars in town,
and they wait for you to get a few miles out, and wham.
They just swarm on you, they're Bastards.
You know? Because they just drive off in your car.
Did they steal your gas right in town?
You, uh, you look really exhausted.
Are you all right?
Is that what happened to you or somethin'?
- Yeah.
- Well, why don't you come in? Let me give you a lift.
Come on.
I'm fine, I'm friendly. I'll give you a lift.
- Stand still.
Don't move.
Fuck it. You win.
Get your dead ass out of this car, now!
- Excuse me.
Hello?
- Yeah, it's past curfew.
Would you please step out of the car?
Now, please?
Curfew?
- Yeah, it went into effect this evening.
No one on the street past nightfall.
All right, I don't care where you got right now, but,
you're not gonna sit in this car all night.
This is my street.
I'm not fuckin' around here. Let's go, out of the car.
Out.
- Funny, you don't look like a suit to me.
I'm neighborhood patrol.
Is that a problem?
- Yeah, where am I supposed to go?
- I'll show you. Come on.
Come on! Roll up the window.
You're not gonna leave all that stuff in the car, are you?
- Oh, yeah.
I have a shotgun and some other stuff in there.
- Right.
And?
- And I get the feeling that you're not in the mood
for any surprises.
- That's very smart.
I wish other people in this neighborhood
were as smart as that, it would save my bullets.
Go ahead. Go ahead, get your stuff.
You're shaking too hard to be dead anyway.
- So what'll it be tonight?
- I got a vagrant here, grandma,
with no place to go and no reservations?
- Oh, come on! I don't have any more room here!
I've got enough people in here already!
- It's marshal law now, lady. No private residency.
Now shut up and put up or I'll arrest the whole bunch of ya.
- Fine, fuck this shit. Send her in.
- You'll thank me later, grandma. She's a real live one.
- You look exhausted.
Come in the kitchen. I'll get you something to drink.
- Thanks.
- Everyone's in the kitchen.
- You want some tea?
- Yeah, sure.
- Really?
Why don't you have a seat in the living room?
I'll cook you up some water.
- It's in there.
- Never mind the tea. - Where am I gonna sleep?
- Upstairs.
- Hey, wait a minute. Jack.
Yeah?
- Why don't you show the lady up to her room?
- You got it.
Turn around.
It's back where you came from.
The further upstate you go, the worse it gets out here.
Cities are used, so crowded and rioting.
The balance is a little more delicate around here.
- Running out of places to run?
- So what's your story?
Everybody around here's got a good one.
- Sorry.
Just another tragedy.
Tell me about it.
Four years of college for this?
Sorry about that. It's standard procedure.
- No surprises.
- Glad to hear it. I hate making passes at corpses.
You know, you're good lookin'.
- Thanks.
I'm really tired.
I just need to get some sleep.
- Night.
- Howdy.
Is there a working phone in here?
- On the harmonium.
Are you traveling alone?
- Nope, I'm trying to get home. I've got friends there.
Wow, You're lucky.
- Is anybody in the shower? - No, it's over there.
Excuse me.
- Problem?
- My name's Mary. What's yours?
- Susan.
- Howdy, Susan.
Listen, I heard you opening up a bar of soap in here.
I don't have any. I haven't had any for days.
So I must really stink, you know?
I know this sounds really weird,
I mean, we don't even know each other,
but we're both girls, you know what I mean?
It's just that I'm really afraid to be left alone,
and now you're here.
Things have been really weird around here.
I don't mean to scare you, but I'm really scared.
Nobody trusts anybody anymore.
What kind of advantage do you think I have over you?
Here, let me show you.
You see?
Now we're both naked as jaybirds.
And you've got the gun, And the soap.
I'll do your back, if you want. I'm good at it.
Sorry.
I just, you don't know how much I appreciate this.
I don't wanna hurt you or anyone else.
Please, just let me go on.
I just wanna be left as I am.
That's what happens when I stay
in one position for too long.
The blood tends to pool in one place.
It feels kind of gross and it sounds really terrible
when it starts flooding back down to my feet again.
If I know I'm gonna be around people,
I make sure to stand on my head for a while
to get the color in my cheeks.
Do you use the mirror trick to find us?
- Yeah.
- I will give you everything I have
and anything I can get my hands on for this bar of soap.
I need it to move freely.
Help me. I'm not alone.
There are more of us like me than you'd think.
Sometimes it's a real drag.
You gotta keep moving or your blood settles
and your organs go flat.
But I don't even want to, or need to sleep anymore.
- What about taste?
- You mean taste like flavor?
Nope, nothing.
- And you're happy?
- Listen, what're you gonna do?
You're gonna live your life without a home, without a job,
and you're gonna grow old and decrepit and die.
Except, you won't die, 'cause nobody dies anymore.
And you're gonna spend the rest of eternity
wandering the face of the earth in that pathetic state,
wishing you could lay down and rest,
like people did in the good old days, but you can't.
Not anymore.
I'm beautiful, and I will be, forever.
And young and healthy and strong.
Today is the beginning of the rest of my life, for real.
And I'm no burden on society.
I don't consume or waste anything.
So what's wrong with the choice I've made?
Can you look me in the eye and honestly tell me
what it is I've done wrong?
- I don't know.
Yet.
- Well, then what're you waiting for?
- How'd you do it?
- No visible scars whatsoever.
A very professional piece of work, don't you think?
Sleeping pills, a plastic grocery bag,
and a string tied around my neck to keep the bag in place.
A little Beethoven to set the mood...
And there you have the secret of my success.
It was a giddy, exhilarating experience to have all
these poisons trapped inside my body, with no way out,
knowing that I'd fall asleep and when I woke up,
I would be immortal, forever young and beautiful.
- But dead.
- This isn't death.
I still think and feel.
Dead people are the ones who give up hope, like you.
Can't stay in one position for too long.
- I'm going to sleep now.
- I'll turn out the light.
- You up there, Mary?
Can you hear me?
You gonna play for us?
Why?
Did you expect that you would live to see
the last generation of humans,
as we've known them for the last 5,000 years?
Look over there. Look at that tree.
That tree is the end.
That's how clear it is to me. The end!
Does that scare you? Do you see what I'm seeing?
Yes, preacher man, I see! I'm scared, too!
- Wrong!
Of what I am seeing right now, you see nothing!
What are you afraid of?
You see the end of the world?
This is god's world. It's never going to end.
Oh, sure, god is gone,
and he's opened a really big can
of theological worms this time,
but he's testing us.
We are the beginning of a better way for the world,
and all that we are seeing is the end of all these things
as we know them.
Something beautiful is beginning.
Man, we're so close to the fireworks, they're behind us!
Join me! Turn around!
I'm not afraid, preacher man!
Tell us what we have to do!
- Now, that's the kind of talk I like to hear.
But are you ready to know?
Ready to know what I know?
Are you ready to have your eyes opened, to be struck blind,
so that you can see with your other senses?
Are you ready to know the why...
Please.
There are people trying to sleep here.
And who are we
to disturb the world
as it slumbers peacefully?
Fuck the world!
- Watch your language!
I mean...
Really, look at us.
Who are we?
Who are we to change the world?
The homeless, the jobless, the forgotten,
and we really smell bad.
Who are we?
Who was Jesus, preacher man?
- Ah, indeed. If not one of us.
A downtrodden wanderer who spoke the truth at all cost,
and has liberated us with that truth and continues to do so.
The redemption of all mankind is 100 years away
from the breath that I am now breathing.
The resurrection is coming.
All those who have died will live again.
In 100 years, when everyone,
and everything on this earth is dead,
we will all join hands, generation after generation
after generation, in flesh and spirit!
The big book says it all!
And we'll all be shaking hands with the almighty himself!
People, I have a very important question
for you to think about.
Are you really ready to sit back
100 years and wait for everyone to die?
The lord is waiting for your answer,
and he is a very busy man.
- Listen, I hope I'm not annoying you.
Thanks for putting up with me.
Susan?
Susan, Susan, wake up. Susan.
- Prepare to be physically challenged!
- All those who are within the sound of my voice,
I demand your attention, as I read aloud from the manifesto
of the new order of every man, woman and child
currently residing on this planet.
- Oh, no. - We are death!
- I'm sorry.
- Tell me I'm dreaming.
Please tell me this is a dream.
- Thank you, god!
Thank you.
- What am I gonna do? This is just the beginning of forever.
- Oh, fucking useless.
- Where do you think you're going?
Sorry, but I'm not up there.
It's not the brain, but the soul.
How do you kill the soul?
I'll get you for this.
God, the ways I'll find to make you suffer.
Shut up, I can't think!
- Prepare to receive your eternal handicap,
as punishment for trying to escape the hand of god.
- Help! She's gone mad!
- Don't fuck with me, dead bitch.
- God hates you!
- Okay, boys, next house!
- Now what the fuck's going on down here?
Holy shit.
- Give me that.
You missed one!
He shoots! He scores!
- Yes! - Yeah!
- Where's my car?
- Hey, whose side are you on anyway?
- I'm packing enough ballistics here
to make you as airy as a fly swatter, holy man.
Where the fuck is my car?
- That's not fair!
- Life's not fair.
- Neither is death.
- I'm sorry to hear about that.
- Welcome to the last days of the old generation, cunt.
This is the beginning of the redemption.
Tell me, what in the past was so special
that you feel the need to hang on so tightly to this?
Awaken.
Join us.
I have more important work to do.
Many more souls to save.
Don't you think that's a little redundant
in this day and age?
I mean, really, times are changing.
- I hate to ruin my last clean shirt
with the back of your head.
- What's your name, lady?
- Susan.
- Susan, don't try to stop me.
It's god's decision that I do what I'm doing.
No earthly force, not you nor anyone,
can stop me, nor has the right to try to stop me.
How very strange.
I think I'm beginning to like you, Susan.
- Jesus, you're good. - Good?
Jesus was the best.
- Dan?
Don't look at me, Susan.
Something bad happened here while you were away.
I'm sorry.
- What happened?
- You've been to the bathroom. You know.
It's me in the bathtub. Was me.
Why don't you sit down?
The phone just wouldn't stop ringing, you know?
When my mom died of cancer all those years ago,
I thought that was it, I was rid of the bitch for good.
Ring, ring!
"Hello, son!"
"Hi, mom."
- Dan, that's impossible.
Your mother's been cremated.
What are you saying?
- My youngest sister was killed in a car accident.
Her child safety seat broke free of the seat belt
when we got rear-ended by a silver Cadillac.
Ring, ring!
Where the hell did she ever learn to use the damn phone?
It's insane!
And it just kept ringing.
Every time I answer, a newly forgotten friend,
relative I've never even met or heard of.
So, I took the phone off the hook.
And it still kept on ringing. I mean, what the hell is that?
What was I supposed to do?
And where were you?
Sorry about the mess.
I was really upset.
- Is there something wrong with your face?
- I saved the rest of this for you.
- Thanks.
- Nothing, actually. There's nothing wrong with my face.
Or is there?
- It's always been fine by me.
Very fine.
- You're as sweet as ever, lover.
There, you see?
No scars to hide.
Only shame.
- When I look at you, I can tell.
You're dead.
- It's in the eyes, isn't it?
My face feels like it's floating a foot in front of my head
and the space in between is filled with wet concrete.
Making a face is like
placing a long-distance telephone call.
They won't heal.
Little slits that open every time I make a fist.
Like angry mouths.
Does it hurt?
- On the inside.
But not on the outside.
Not for real.
Jesus, you look beautiful.
Drink up.
That milk is sour.
What's the matter?
- I can't.
I can't do it.
No blood.
Can't get hard without blood.
- But I love you.
We'll find a way.
- I'm sorry. I feel like such an idiot.
Sometimes you get carried away with your emotions
and make rash decisions.
Look at me.
What an asshole.
Look at what I did to myself,
in a sane moment to escape from this insanity.
My sin quite literally on my sleeve for eternity.
I mean, what was I thinking?
Things would be different for me?
That I've just been going, thank god,
mad all this time, and that this would end the madness?
- I feel sick.
- Do you wanna lie down?
- No.
I wanna hear you talk.
- You're crazy. Forever young, forever dumb.
Why didn't I have the good sense
to think of poison for myself?
I guess I love you that much more than myself.
- Poison?
- For the woman I love.
- But that's not fair.
- I know, but you'll thank me later.
I'm not killing you. You can't die.
Death, what a silly word. It doesn't mean anything anymore.
And now we're all equal because of it.
What I am isn't dead. What you're now becoming isn't dead.
I've gone beyond living and I'm sitting here talking to you.
I haven't died.
I'm simply folded a little differently.
And soon, so will you.
- You're fucking out of your mind.
- Why?
You can't tell me you're ready to grow old and die
and watch me stay young and healthy.
Who would be hurting who more in that situation?
You think I wanna stick around, feed you through a straw,
and wipe away your shit?
This way, we can be together as equals.
Come on. I know you're not gonna shoot me.
What's it gonna do?
You'll just end up messing me up.
Can you live with that?
Are you really ready to take care of me forever?
I don't think so.
- You're right.
- You will fall asleep eventually and fold, you know.
- It doesn't bother you a bit, does it?
- Please, don't even think it.
- That's what I thought.
You're not ready to spend eternity
kissing a squashed tomato, are we?
You vain, frightened son of a bitch.
Get out
of my sight.
- Whatever you say.
- Pour me a glass of water.
I can still feel it in my system and I wanna puke it out.
- Careful, babe.
- From the sink.
I wanna see that glass at all times.
Come on, hurry up!
Okay, put it on the table.
Now step back.
- Please go to sleep, Susan.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the lord my soul to keep.
But if I fold before I wake,
I pray the lord my soul to take.
- I should've shot her when I had the chance.
- Look! There's another one.
How did you come to find yourself
in this sorry state, my friend?
- I fell.
- Typical. I understand.
- Please.
Take me home.
My lover's
waiting for me.
- Certainly, my friend.
We'll help you.
Susan!
I've come back.
Please.
Please let me in.