The story

Maria is twenty-one and riding the evening train home when the first creature hits the window. James is a corporal barely older than she is, and he pulls her out of a station that is already lost.

They cross a burning city together to reach the last evacuation ship, with her mother unreachable and his brother somewhere behind them. They make it aboard as the doors close on thousands who do not.

The ship carries six hundred frightened strangers, a captain who never wanted command, and something small that came aboard with them.

The hook

Sixty seconds an episode, and every one ends on a door. Two people who met at the end of the world, a ship that cannot turn around, and a thing in the cargo hold that learns faster than they do.

The people

• MariaTwenty-one. A medical student who wants to save everyone and is about to learn she can't.
• JamesTwenty-three. A corporal who saved her on a subway concourse and has not stopped since.
• The CaptainShe took command when her commander died on the dock.
• The Crime BossHe came aboard with crates instead of people, and he counts votes while everyone else counts rations.
• The GlassmawIt has a glass body, a mouth where its face should be, and it boarded in a crate.