We are on the edge of a global catastrophic disaster.
Human conflict.
Nuclear bombs.
Natural disasters.
Chemical and biological warfare.
Without warning, the world as we know it
can come to an end.
44 days ago, a group of volunteers
entered a 10-week experiment
to see if they can survive and rebuild
after a simulated viral outbreak
leaves los angeles and the rest of the planet devastated.
Their new home...
a cordoned-off, 80,000-square-foot warehouse
near downtown los angeles.
They started with no electricity...
no water... nothing.
...and no communication with the outside world.
They're not broadcasting. They're just transmitting.
As part of the experiment,
an outside gang of looters and thugs
challenged the colonists' resources and security.
So far, the volunteers have survived
on limited resources in and around the warehouse.
Mike, we're live.
But their resources are dwindling.
And outsiders have breached their security.
Yeah!
Now illness takes a colonist out.
I'm feeling a little lightheaded right now.
And those who remain work on an exit strategy.
Get that truck built, and get the hell out of here.
Be safe.
Let's take the entire situation, how serious it is,
into the picture.
There's absolutely nothing available.
There's no stores. There's no people.
There's nothing around, absolutely nothing.
Lower amount of food is starting to have an effect.
I think i've gone through every bit of body fat that i have,
and i've lost quite a bit of weight.
Over a month and a half of malnutrition
and sleep deprivation, and now stocks are running dry.
I want to get out of here.
Like, anywhere but in the...
the dirty part of the city.
It just makes it all that much more worse.
With no relief in sight,
the volunteers are now focusing all efforts
on their plan to leave the city.
I've said over and over again
that truck is our exodus, our way out.
Time's a-tickin'. Time's a-tickin'.
We need to get out of here.
If your resources are dwindling or your safety is at risk,
you're going to have to make the decision to relocate
and find better resources or pockets of other survivors.
When i press on this side, does it hurt?
Right there.
If it was appendicitis, i would be able to push down,
and he'd scream.
Kind of went to crack my back, and i'm not gonna lie.
I had my hand in my right pocket,
and just went to kind of grab my
but it felt a little weird, my right one,
and it just sent me to the ground.
I thought i was gonna faint.
I'm feeling a little lightheaded right now, actually.
That's his blood pressure, i expect.
The highest chair i could find.
Can you feel his pulse? Yeah.
Talk to me.
All right.
There's a possibility it could just be, like, a kidney stone.
It takes you down to the floor,
the equivalent to, you know, having birth.
You're gonna need to rest today
and drink lots and lots of water.
Knowing that he's pretty much dehydrated...
no one's drinking enough water...
the thing i'm pointing to the most
is probably a kidney stone.
And it's down lower, which is a good thing.
It's close to passing.
So right now i'm just having joey rest
and drink lots and lots of water.
A kidney stone is a solid mass that forms in the kidney,
moves down the ureter to the bladder,
and exits the body in the urine stream.
Large stones can get caught in the ureter, causing it to spasm.
The lower it gets, the more pain it produces.
For someone like joey to go down,
i know he's in pain.
With dr. George gone,
joey must have faith that allison's diagnosis is accurate
and hope it's nothing worse.
If it's not a kidney stone, it could be fatal.
I mean, there's no medical care.
I mean, allison can only do so much.
I wouldn't want to be in joey's underwear right now.
A cohesive group can create a powerful motivating force
when an integral member of a community
becomes incapacitated.
It's natural for the other members of the community
to rally and take it as a call to action.
With joey down,
the rest of the colonists pick up his call
to work on their escape plan.
We need to start figuring out where we're going
and what's around here.
Reconnaissance.
We do something about reconnaissance.
First of all, we need to get to know our area
much better than we know it so far.
I want to do an electric vehicle.
If we want to make it a recon vehicle, so be it.
We can actually observe what is going around
in any given moment if we decide to do that.
It occurred to me that we could use a balloon thing
and just hoist it up, put a camera on it,
and at least maybe steer it around somehow
and get shots of, you know, the nearby neighborhood.
All right, let's get to it. Let's get to it.
To the class boards.
To prepare for their exodus,
the volunteers are planning two reconnaissance projects.
First, an electric vehicle to gather supplies
far beyond the spots they've already picked over.
And second, an unmanned airship with security camera
to help see threats and escape routes in the immediate area.
See if i can spell.
It's gonna be a trike.
We're going to have a frame that goes around everything...
like that.
We're gonna need 10 batteries.
And then back here, solar panels.
The trike will be built in four main stages
using scavenged materials and car parts.
First, they'll build the rear driveline assembly.
Then they'll make the front-wheel steering column.
Third, they'll create a throttle.
And last, they'll construct a solar-powered battery bank
to fuel the engine and make it go.
That's gonna be a big build.
Yeah.
In the shop, mike and john v.
Lay out the preliminary pieces of the trike frame...
square steel bars found in the warehouse
and a 120-volt electric motor
found on a scavenging trip 37 days ago.
I don't know if we really want it up that high. Do we?
How big are those rims with the tires?
Show you.
Then they begin the rear driveline assembly.
We got to put a wheel on this.
This is the only shaft we have.
We need to find another shaft.
And i bet you that fan has the half-inch...
or the three-quarter shaft we need.
Let's go look.
A piece-of-crap fan is providing us now
with a drive shaft for our bike.
Come on, john. Come on, come on, come on, come on.
We can weld here and then weld here.
And that's our shaft. Done.
Done deal.
Take our shaft.
We're gonna put it dead center in that plate.
Gonna weld it, gusset it,
and then we have two pillow blocks
that are gonna hold that shaft to the frame,
and then the shaft is adapted to the motor.
No problem.
I'm gonna grind these puppies down,
and then we're gonna go over there and weld.
I have just finished putting on my shafts.
The shafts are welded. The hubs are welded.
So i'm turning both sides. I have a transaxle.
This one's gonna have two-tire drive.
Great traction. Never gets stuck in the mud.
That's it. We're ready to rock.
Morgan and amy cook lunch...
noodles, their last can of tuna, and bannock,
a bread of just flour and water.
Well, room service.
We got some tuna, noodles, and three bannock.
Sold.
I'm glad you're okay.
I know you're hungry, but if you want more,
you're gonna have to ring the bell.
Anything else? You okay?
No, ma'am. Okay.
Thank you. Rest up.
Coming up... oh, my god! Oh, my god!
...the colony gets flooded.
What do we do? What do we do?
And their recon trip takes a dangerous turn.
Get out!
Next gets it!
While contractor joey waits to pass a kidney stone,
in the yard, mike has an idea
for the front wheel on his recon trike.
Amy, hop in and drive.
All right? Yep.
And this is it.
The rear left is gonna be a front end of a motorcycle.
Okay. I like it.
Whack these lines off. I don't care about them.
Just whack it off and give it to me.
Do you want me to do this
while you work on something else?
No.
I was thinking of doing the cut that way.
Right there.
Right through here. It's gonna hit this bolt.
Can i go in and cut this?
Don't even bother.
He'd asked me to do this,
but he never intended for me to do anything.
Whatever. All right.
You could squirt...
when stress levels are high and nerves are already frayed,
it doesn't take much to set someone off.
Minor arguments can become major conflicts.
Amy?!
You see, little sensitive bunnies.
"Oh, you want to do everything."
Okay, you do it.
Amy!
You can cut the arm off if you want!
Want to be so prissy. "I want to cut it."
What if you cut it wrong?!
Then we got to go to the other side.
"I want to cut it."
She had a little fit and walked off on me
and left me alone outside to work.
She doesn't want to learn. She wants to do.
She screws it up, she screws up my bike.
I can't have that.
"I want to cut the metal. So i can't cut the metal."
So you're not out there helping me.
You know why? Shut up!
You gave me something to do and then you do it!
So you run off like a little baby
instead of out there helping me do the job!
Mike, wait a minute. Okay.
I'm the only one that was out there, and i offered to help.
The one person that has offered help,
he's screaming at.
Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah. I got to build a vehicle.
"We're all gonna help."
So we're all sitting around talking about it!
I know i didn't deserve that.
I just don't deserve that.
And yes, the project needs to get done,
but you also have to draw a line of how you treat someone.
This is not a forum for tantrums and for disrespecting others.
While mike cools off,
morgan researches airship design
in a book she found in the warehouse.
With her design in mind,
she scours the warehouse for parts
with allison and john c.
This is the right kind of wire.
It's pretty important,
because now we'll be able to check our surroundings.
Before we go out there, we'll know what to expect.
The build will consist of three main parts.
First, the balloons...
a collection of helium-filled trash bags
bound by a system of nets.
Second, a gondola
that will house a security camera and propulsion fans.
And third, the ground unit,
a monitor and wires that will tether and power the device.
This is gonna be the sides of the aerial balloons.
The top is gonna be out of that orange mesh over there.
And then the sides are gonna be out of this material.
Hey, morgan.
What about this for the gondola part?
This styrofoam.
It's really light.
Yes, but i wonder if it's rigid enough.
I'm not sure about this.
As morgan continues piecing the netting together,
allison takes a break and heads up to the pantry
to assess the colony's food supply.
Right now i'm doing the food inventory.
With nine people living here,
we use approximately two to three cans a meal.
The nine colonists are down to a mere 10 days of food.
Resources are alarmingly low.
And on the streets outside,
a further threat to their supplies approaches.
There got to be somebody here.
The s.o.s. Sign. You guys see it?
Yeah.
Who the hell's banging at the door?
Leilani, get upstairs.
Is anybody there?!
We seen the s.o.s. Sign!
Four days ago,
two nomads begged the colonists for food, water, and shelter.
Please! Keep on trucking.
And the colonists gave them almost nothing.
Welcome to the colony truck stop.
Free food and water. Come on down.
In this next phase of the experiment,
a second group will test
the colonists' charitable and survival instincts.
In their ranks will be women, two children,
and handicapped man, and a surprise...
one of the colonists' loved ones.
Who's the leader? Is there any leader here?
Right here, ma'am.
We're just looking for a little food and water, ma'am.
Please.
Got women and children. We're hungry, thirsty.
All we need is a little food and water.
- Please. - Please let us in.
Please let us in.
All right, could you guys give us a couple of minutes, please?
All right?
I need to do this quickly. This is women and children.
They're asking right now for some food and water.
It's up to you guys, but we need to vote quickly
so that someone can go and get food, if that's the case,
and some water.
Honestly, there's two kids out there.
Okay, so next time they come with 10 kids.
Yeah, and 20 kids and 30 people.
We gonna feed every kid that comes here with a mother?
We're talking about sending two kids away without food.
So you guys think long and clear before you make this decision.
Hello? I have two wives looking for their husbands.
Hello?!
I'm looking for my husband, john!
John cohn!
Is there a greg in there?!
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
It's dinnertime!
They're giving food and water away!
Food and water emporium and trading post.
They are not our grandchildren.
They are not our girlfriends.
They are not our wives.
You're exactly right.
Those same two bums are back.
I'm looking for my husband, john!
John who? John cohn.
John cohn?
Cohn.
Hold on.
When does it stop? When does it stop?
My wife is outside?
Yes, your wife is outside.
You've got to be kidding me!
Hold on. We're opening the door.
What happens if they all rush in?
I'll tell them to step back.
I need to go out there.
Step back, please.
Please step back.
Come in. Come in. Come in.
Could you please step back?
We found john c.'s wife,
which is amazing, absolutely exciting,
and i'm so excited for john.
There i am.
I'm hugging my wife, kissing my wife.
And it was really her. I just... i fell apart.
I've been thinking about you.
I've been wondering how you were.
In the backdrop,
there's this really hard, jarring emotional story.
They know i will stay.
Could we have some water, please?
We'll give you water.
We're sending it down right now.
With reserves almost empty,
the colonists are only sharing two gallons of water.
Just be careful.
All right, we'll be on our way, then.
We'll be on our way.
It isn't an easy decision. That's for sure.
But do you help people if you kill yourself?
That's the question.
Kids are strong.
I know.
They have their mother.
And they're one less person now, so they don't have to feed them.
Oh.
Here, john, where can this go?
The fact that diane waltzes through the door,
what am i supposed to say?
"No, professor, i'm not gonna let your wife in"?
She seems nice.
You know, doesn't have an attitude lik. Som women here.
If you've been reunited with a loved one
after an extended absence,
it's almost difficult to believe
that their existence is real again,
not until you've made them a part of your daily routine,
your life, your experience once again.
This is the shop.
And right now mike is building an electric car.
Here's my flamethrower.
Your flamethrower. Why do you need a flamethrower?
Honey, you need a flamethrower.
This is my transmitter and coil thing.
Oh, my.
Oh, my god.
You guys! We got a water leak!
It's back in the bedrooms. Something's bad.
Ah, shoot.
Honey, put your stuff right down there.
Oh, my god! Where is it coming from?!
As part of the experiment, the water has been turned on
to simulate the sporadic nature of public utilities
after a disaster.
But the warehouse pipes can't take the pressure.
What do we do? What do we do?
Move all the stuff. Move all the stuff.
We can't shut it off!
We've got to shut it off! Back this way!
Right up here, john.
Oh, my god.
Just as suddenly as it came on, the water is turned off.
But the damage is already done.
Sopping it up old-school and throwing it outside
and getting rid of the material.
This means that there's people out there turning on the water.
So, you know, there is life out there.
What about this here?
I don't know.
The toilet just overflowed.
I'm just letting you know
there's pooey-poo coming this way.
Lots of poo. Lots of watery poo.
Who flushed the toilet? It was all the way up.
Oh, man.
Aw, crap.
If it floods in here with raw sewage, we're screwed.
Allison, if you've got a job,
you better do it right now!
Get me some damn rubbing alcohol now!
I am a very good nurse, and i know one thing,
in that mike will never speak to me that way.
Nobody will ever walk into an emergency room
the way that mike was yelling and screaming
and get treated.
I cut myself inside the toilet. Get me some disinfectant.
Never mind. Never mind.
No one talks to me that way. Nobody.
Worthless nurse.
It's not life-threatening.
He will survive, and he will be okay.
Week-old urine.
This is how i got my last staph infection.
It almost killed me.
Isn't she a nurse?
Doesn't she know that stagnant sewage and urine is bad for you?
So now the bleeding has stopped. Either i have staph or i don't.
We'll find out in the next three or four days when i drop dead.
Holy crap.
Now we're looking like some gypsies.
My god.
Diane's been here less than 20 minutes.
She hasn't slept in 36 hours.
And we've got her shoveling poop water.
I wouldn't wish this on anyone.
With the sleeping quarters flooded,
john c. And diane spend their first night together in 45 days
on the floor of the clinic.
Diane is such a strong woman and such a grounded person.
I love her so much.
I mean, this changes everything for me.
It changes everything for me.
He's got a bit skinnier.
His beard's a bit longer.
He's still the same john, though.
And it's great to be here and meet the people he's been with.
It's like a real family. I make number 10.
I love you.
Good night.
We keep boiling, and we still get something.
At least it's brown.
It smells kind of like coffee.
We add a little fresh coffee each day.
More just a... cup with our imagination.
This stuff is brown, but it is not coffee.
The cleanup from yesterday continues,
as amy pulls down the s.o.s. Sign.
It brought diane here,
but everyone voted to bring this down
because they didn't want other stragglers coming in.
The irony of the situation is
that we are not willing to give help...
ah, the impossible task.
The impossible task of building a car in two days.
I don't have a complete shop.
I've got broken hand tools...
a welder that kind of works...
and people that can't stand the sight of me.
He's difficult to work with. He's difficult to talk to.
He's difficult to live with. He's a waste of space.
I have never known a guy claiming to be doing so much
yet whingeing so much.
In the end, mike is a
today, he'll have to work on the trike alone.
The rest of the colonists, including the newest member,
focus their attention on the dirigible.
So far, all that's complete is the netting.
Now they need the balloons.
You know, mike went off on a rant.
We've made it large enough so that 30 will fit.
Morgan and allison inflate plastic trash bags with helium
from a tank found in the warehouse.
We should have just enough room for one more row
after that one.
So there will be four more after that one.
The gondola is pieced together
using styrofoam, computer fans,
and a security camera john c. Scavenged from the warehouse.
I still have to attach the camera,
'cause i didn't want it dragging on the ground.
The thing goes right here? Mm-hmm.
Okay.
As the dirigible build takes off,
amy starts sanitizing yesterday's sewage spill.
Preparing to battle some e. Coli.
She mixes bromine tablets found during the hospital scavenge
with water to create a sterilizing cleaner.
There's a lot here.
What's gonna stop this from flipping all the way over?
We're gonna tether it.
This side is tipping up.
Are we still buoyant? Yep.
All right, next phase.
All right, let's just make sure real quick
that these two fans work.
Oh, yeah! It's on!
Yeehaw!
The camera's working, too.
Can you see us? Yes.
Yay! It works! You can see our feet!
A dirigible or airship capable of being steered
is a highly efficient platform,
although weather conditions need to be perfect to avoid disaster.
Oh, it's so windy outside.
Got it? We got it?
I'll let you know when i'm out. Okay.
Watch out for the solar panels.
Okay, we're out.
Ooh, it's all kinds of windy. I don't know about this, guys.
You're going to need more than 75 feet.
That's for sure.
I don't like this at all, guys. It's too windy.
Diane, let go.
Do we have anything on the monitor?
Yeah.
Let it go! Let it go! Don't hold it!
You need to hold it.
You let go of it,
it's just gonna go right into the building.
I don't think we're as buoyant as we need to be.
Let's go that way.
Guys, guys, guys!
You pull it, it's coming down!
I'm not pulling it!
There's a screen here. Calm down.
This is my project! Shut up!
Let go. Let go. Let go.
I see our yard. It's totally twisting, guys.
Aah!
View from the roof.
Uh-oh.
Right into the razor wire.
We did that just a little bit too long.
Morgan, i think, struggled a little bit with the project.
It couldn't be steered or anything in the stiff wind.
It was a really stiff wind.
Coming up...
all hands on deck...
hey! Get out!
...and a fight for survival.
Next gets it!
The aerial recon build is a bust.
The colonists are almost out of food.
And joey is still down for the count.
The only chance the colonists have to find food...
mike's trike.
All right, guys, we're running out of a lot of our essentials.
We have no canned food as far as, like,
the beans or the fresh beans.
So we have a deadline.
Mike, you need to finish that car, and that's it.
Now let's get to it.
I can't do it alone.
You will have all the help that you need.
Everybody's gonna chip in. Everybody has a task.
And we all know that this is a priority
in order to be able to get all of those supplies.
And please, guys, everybody's on edge.
So just sort of calm down and everything.
We are a family.
We have a new member. Let's be on our best behavior.
So let's get to it.
All right.
And i got to find a new belief in god,
because that's the only way i'm gonna finish this bike.
Now it's on.
The colonists are full-force on the trike.
And even with night falling, they decide to keep working.
Something just came over all of us,
and we decided we were gonna work until it was done,
and that meant working all through the night.
They still have
the final three stages of the build left...
the front steering column...
24 volts coming on board.
...the throttle...
so i can tack this on here.
...and the batteries.
This thing has to be done a.s.a.p. If we want to survive.
Comes back to center.
Vlad is there elbow to elbow with me,
busting his butt to finish the bike.
So is amy, and so is john v.,
and the professor is putting together the batteries.
It's a team effort.
It looks awesome,
and i loved staying up with you guys and working on it.
I enjoyed this more than almost anything we've done.
Yeah, everyone busted butt today.
I mean, you don't spend the night working on something
and don't call it busting butt.
Yeah.
The colonists press on.
The final stage, attaching the solar panels.
One... two panels.
One of the beauties of this trike idea
is it's using solar energy
that, at this point, we can't use all we make.
So, the fact that we can actually use our solar power
to not only charge our house battery
to run this car, as well, is great,
because otherwise the energy goes wasted.
With the panels in place,
all they have to do is wire them up.
Guys, i think the electrical system is set.
I just want to walk you through it.
Okay, this is our step controller.
We've got multiple contacts.
When you go here, you're on 12 volts,
and you're going fast.
And you go to 24 volts, faster.
And 36 is warp speed, and i'm guessing that
you don't ever want to go faster than that.
This is the dead-man switch.
When you put that in there, it's live.
If anything bad happens, you just pull this,
however you get that out of there,
and the whole system is dead.
Okay?
Whoa!
Look at this thing move.
And now we're cool. All right?
What's the best way to do it?
If you guys lift, i'll pull that brick out.
Go. Okay, go.
Watch your feet.
All right. Let's check the brakes.
Brake check. Brake check.
I'm gonna push you forward.
Yeah. He has left brake.
Brakes work.
So, we're gonna push our way out? Yes.
All right, my baby. Take care. Take care of them.
Watch yourself.
This frame... i don't think you can push on the frame.
All right. Let's go for a test drive.
I really don't want to run over the railroad tracks.
Here we go. Fire in the hole.
Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!
Yay! Yeah!
Look at this thing go!
Whoa!
Oh, yeah!
This is sweet!
All right! Hey!
This thing hauls.
Wow.
High fives, baby! We did it!
All right. Rock 'n' roll.
Okay, mike.
With the trike running,
mike and vlad waste no time getting on the road.
Be safe.
Their mission... scavenge for food, fuel,
and any other resources they can find.
Stop.
Let's go and check this out.
As part of the experiment,
an abandoned trailer park has been cordoned off
and stocked with hidden supplies.
Someone's here. Someone lives in there.
I'm coming in.
I'm gonna go around back.
It looks like somebody lived here.
Hello? There's candles lit.
Somebody's still here, definitely.
Where are you?
Mike? Is that you?
Yeah, that's me.
Hey!
What the hell are you doing?!
With the floodwater finally cleaned up,
allison and morgan move back into the bedroom.
Okay.
Hey, this is better than nothing.
In the bathroom,
joey makes another attempt to pass the kidney stone.
I passed a kidney stone.
All i know is it was one of
the most uncomfortable periods of my life.
What the hell are you doing?!
All right! Relax! Relax! Relax!
Get out! Get out!
Get out!
Chill. Chill out.
Get out!
Chill!
Hey! Whoa, whoa, whoa!
These hostile outsiders have been instructed
to not harm mike and vlad, but they don't know that.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You came in to our colony trying to take our stuff!
These seven people, they call themselves a colony.
It really put the shoe on the other foot.
We were the marauders, the invaders,
even though that wasn't our intention.
Get out! What?!
Next gets it!
Turn the thing around, get the out,
and go back to where you came from, and stay there!
Do not come back here! You are not welcome!
Just get out!
Get out of here!
The solar panels are trashed,
but the batteries are charged enough
to get them back on the road.
If anything happens to vlad, i will be...
very upset.
Back. That's them.
All right.
Gonna have to swing both.
You want both of them open, right?
Coming in. Coming in.
Clear, clear, clear. Coming in.
Whoa. What happened to you guys?
Damn. What happened to the panels?
What happened to that?
That was no drive in the country, man.
We barely got out of there with our butts.
If that doesn't bring home the seriousness of our situation,
then i guess the funny bunnies are truly just clueless.
They started smashing the trike.
They broke all the solar panels on the trike.
I mean, they smashed everything.
Mike jumped on the truck. "You"
i mean, it was just terrible. Nobody wants to give nothing.
It looks pretty barren out there.
There wasn't much out there at all.
I mean, we're talking empty.
Not a dog, not a cat, not a nothing.
There was nothing around.
There was nothing left in the city
except people who really mean you harm,
and we have to go and look for a greener pasture.
This city is done.
We got to get the hell out of here.