-- the darkened panic room, where the dozen small video screens all suddenly wink to life, showing a dozen views of the house. whatever she pushed turned these on too, probably not what she meant to do, but at least she got the alarm on for the night.
she walks into the bathroom and feels around for a light switch, but can't find it. she blinks, squints, tries to get her bearings. the only light is a harsh white glow that comes from along one wall, from a bank of tiny video monitors.
on the monitor, we see the three men leave the kitchen and start up the stairs.
meg steps into the panic room, raises her hand to the light switch --
watching the video monitors, meg stares in horror as the image of junior slipping is verified by the slap of his hands on the stairs as he catches himself, audible through the open door to the panic room.
meg moves. leaps to her feet and dashes out of the room.
meg and sarah trip over each other coming through the doorway, they tumble to the floor of the panic room, the door wide open behind them. meg spins around, hurls herself at the red button on the wall --
meg rolls over and pulls sarah into her arms, both of them breathing hard, asking each other if they're okay, scared out of their minds.
very close on the metal door, from inside the panic room. an ear moves slowly into frame, presses against the cold steel. listens.
in the panic room, meg is sitting cross-legged on the floor, leaning against a wall, but sarah is in motion, sorting through shelves, opening drawers. every drawer has something in it, sealed under plastic. she opens and closes, sorts and lifts finds the following:
in the panic room, meg stares at the video screens, eyes wide, terrified. she watches them. can't take her eyes off them.
meg's hands are over her mouth, she's trembling, shaking her head from side to side. this can't be happening.
meg pushes herself back into the corner of the panic room, horrified. sweat has broken out on her forehead, her whole body seems to vibrate. sarah comes over, leans in front of her.
-- in the panic room, where she always was, and that pounding is real, it's right outside the door, it's like somebody's trying to smash their way right through the wall.
-- and come out in the panic room. three red streamers, tied to the air vent, flap to life as the gas hisses into the panic room.
meg, at the vent, falls back, two lungfuls of propane, and drops to her knees on the floor.
meg and sarah are down on the floor, rags covering their mouths, trying like crazy to filter the air, but it's not working. sarah is crawling around the base of the wall, near to where she was before, clawing at the strange portal thing again.
in the panic room, meg knows this can't go on forever. she turns away from the portal, looks up at the vent, where the streamers still stream.
meg whirls, goes to the door herself, screams right back. we can hardly make out a word she's saying, but it sounds threatening.
thunk. meg's head falls back against a wall; she sags to the floor, legs folded in front of her, completely drained.
in the panic room, meg punches 9-1-1 on her cell phone with trembling fingers.
meg raises the cell phone to her ear --
inside the room, meg doesn't seem upset. rather, she's staring at the cell phone in her hand, thinking. remembering something.
meg steps up, onto the shelf she climbed earlier, and comes up next to the vent.
that same starting gun has been fired in the panic room. with a strong rip, meg pulls the whole bundle of multi colored wires out of the wall and drops onto the floor with it. she trusts it at sarah, finds a wire cutter in the assorted tools, and gives her that too.
meg and sarah are like animals, clawing and tearing at the ends of their respective phone cables, foregoing tools and stripping the wires with fingers and teeth, it's faster.
meg tries another wire. still no dial tone. sarah shoves another wire at her. she tries again. nothing. she moves on.
another wire. nothing. another wire. dial tone!
the phone is ringing. an operator picks up.
muzak continues to play.
meg listens as a phone rings on the other end. and rings. and rings again.
on the other end of the phone, a husky male voice answers; clearly he's been awakened.
with an abrupt shriek, the line goes dead. meg pauses, can't believe it.
meg has torn open one of the water packets and is trying to get sarah to drink, but the little girl has gone completely pale and seems to have lost some of the strength in her neck, she's having trouble holding her head up. most of the water runs down her chin.
meg rifles the foodstuffs that are stored in the room. sarah, in the corner, is starting to tremble.
sarah is staring at the video monitors, eyes wide. she raises one trembling finger, points at the kitchen monitor, tries to mouth the words, can't.
meg, watching the monitors with sarah, gasps as she sees the man, whose name is harris. while she and sarah watch --
sarah and meg see the horrifying sight on the video monitors.
meg and sarah shout in horror, she covers her daughter's face, turn her away from the screen, screams in incoherent anger of her own.
while meg watches, the monitor that cover the master bedroom abruptly goes black, mercifully sparing them the sight of harris's beating.
meg tries desperately to see something on the bedroom monitor, but it's hopeless, it's covered. on the hallway monitor, she can just see shadows, as two men in the bedroom lift a third off the floor and carry him across the room.
a hand comes down into frame and picks up the glucogen and the leather pouch. burnham stands, looking down at them. raoul grabs him, pulls him to the far end of the room.
sparks fly as burnham goes to work on the floor safe with a small, specialized drill.
sarah holds the intercom button down with a trembling finger.
in the panic room, sarah has her hands clamped over her ears, her mouth is wide open, and a hideous metal shriek seems to be coming out of it.
the safe is almost cracked. raoul is watching the monitors carefully.
-- and arrive inside the panic room, where burnham is this close to getting the safe open, when all of a sudden --