You’re Doing Too Much.
Underground control room]
SWANN:
Welcome back, Salamander.
Are you all right?
SALAMANDER:
Don't don't come too near, my friend.
I am not yet decontaminated.
I am too weary.
Too utterly weary.
SWANN:
You shouldn't have made this trip, Salamander.
You're doing too much.
SALAMANDER:
Someone has to bring back the food for you, my friend, huh?
You know that the radiation is slowly killing me, don't you, Swann?
SWANN:
You're just doing too much.
SALAMANDER:
I worry about you all the time.
What're you going to do when I am no longer here?
(Salamander walks into a decontamination booth. The Geiger counter chatters.)
SALAMANDER:
The radiation gets a little more each time, huh?
One day, that needle will stay at maximum radiation.
MARY:
Don't say that.
SALAMANDER:
Why, Mary, Colin.
It's my big joke, huh?
Just to frighten you a little.
I've got good news for us.
COLIN:
We can return to the surface?
SALAMANDER:
No, no, no, not yet, but I've found another store of food.
COLIN:
Thank goodness!
SALAMANDER:
And it is undamaged.
Colin, open the last store of wine, huh?
Go on, you help him too, Mary.
(Colin and Mary leave.)
SWANN:
You must take it slowly, for goodness sake.
SALAMANDER:
I'm all right my friend, I'm just a little dizzy.
It's terrible up there, you know.
Swann, you've no idea.
Right, I am ready.
[Underground main room]
(The wine is being poured.)
SALAMANDER:
Here we are, my friends.
(They cheer him.)
SALAMANDER:
Oh please, no. It is enough that I am back with you again and I have brought food for you.
Plenty of food.
SWANN:
Here's to the man who contrived
—
SALAMANDER:
Please, Swann.
I remembered on my way back down here that we are near our anniversary again.
In a few short weeks, We Survivors will have been down in this shelter for exactly five years.
CROWD:
Five years.
SALAMANDER:
Colin and Mary were just teenagers then.
Look at them now.
We fed ourselves.
But what's more than that, we are fighting back!
We are doing something!
CROWD:
Yes! Yes!
COLIN:
Will we return to the surface, Salamander?
SALAMANDER:
Yes, of course we will.
This is what I'm striving for.
But up there, it's terrible still.
The War goes on and on, and you never know when the air is clean or when it's poison.
COLIN:
When can we return?
SALAMANDER:
We have to fight for a while longer, hmm?
Creating natural disasters, monsoons,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
always in the places where The Enemies of Truth and Freedom gather together.
COLIN:
You tell us this all the time, Salamander.
When are we going to escape from this nightmare prison,
that's all I'm asking you?
MARY:
Colin, please.
COLIN:
I want an answer!
SALAMANDER:
You shall have an answer, my friend. You will return to the surface when you have a good chance of survival.
(Salamander staggers.)
COLIN:
You are ill.
SALAMANDER:
No, no, it's all right.
But you must believe me.
Colin, all of you.
You cannot return to the surface until is safe to do so.
Please my friend, we must, we must
(Swann and Salamander return to the control room.)
MARY:
You shouldn't have asked him, Colin.
He's doing his best.
COLIN: I can't help it, Mary. Next time, I'm going to make him take me with him.
MARY: No. You know the others didn't come back.
COLIN:
I've got to.
MARY:
Then take me with you. I'd rather die with you up on the surface than live down here without you.
(At the control room door.)
SALAMANDER:
No, Swann. We must check the power levels, huh?
(Salamander closes the door. Swann returns.)
SWANN:
All right, everyone to their places, please. Salamander wants to check the power levels. Come along there, come on. Full blast, that's right. Check the meter levels. Full power on line one, Salamander.
[Underground control room]
(Salamander has his feet up and is smoking a cigar.)
SALAMANDER:
Oh, good, good.
SWANN [OC]:
No faults indicated.
SALAMANDER:
Excellent.
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