- [while hiding under oil drums, the refugees are attacked by gigantic shrews]
- Thorne Sherman: Don't let their head get under! They'll flip us over!
- Ann Craigis: You're a strange man, Thorne. I never met anyone like you. You seem so disinterested in everything. Aren't you the least bit curious? Don't you wonder about the unusual things around here? The guns. The fence. The shattered windows. My accent. Anything?
- Jerry Farrell: In my book engagement isn't a casual thing.
- Ann Craigis: In *my* book it isn't either. But what happened last night ended *ours*.
- Thorne Sherman: [finds Rook's gun] This is the gun we keep on the boat.
- [finds part of Rook's jacket, to Jerry, murderously]
- Thorne Sherman: They don't leave much, do they?
- Dr. Milo Craigis: Well, I'm attempting to-to decrease the size by maintaining a low metabolism and result in a longer life-span.
- Thorne Sherman: What reason?
- Dr. Milo Craigis: Over-population. Not a problem now, but it will be in time. If we were half as big as we are now, we could live twice as long on our natural resources.
- Ann Craigis: But this ends it. If we ever get off this island, I'll never have anything to do with it again.
- Thorne Sherman: What will you do?
- Ann Craigis: Live normally, like normal women do. It may seem a little dull after the life I've been living. But rather dull and alive than excited and...
- Thorne Sherman: I'll take a dull, alive woman every time.
- [They appear to be leaning to kiss when FADE OUT!]
- Dr. Radford Baines: [after being attacked by a poisonous shrew] Just ripped my trousers, that's all.
- Dr. Milo Craigis: Are you sure?
- Dr. Radford Baines: Yes, I know.
- [goes to typewriter, writes report, collapses dead]
- Dr. Milo Craigis: In 24 hours there will be one shrew left on the island, and he will be dead of starvation. An excellent example of overpopulation.
- Thorne Sherman: You know something doctor?
- Dr. Milo Craigis: What's that?
- Thorne Sherman: I'm not going to worry about overpopulation just yet
- [Kisses Ann, Fade Out]
- Ann Craigis: I know, but I'm not saying you created them, Jerry. I am saying that because of your drunken stupidity in leaving the cage door open you created the horrible situation that now exists.
- Jerry Farrell: Look, Ann, this is a mistake any one of us might've made. And I'm getting a little sick of being called an irresponsible drunk, now believe me I am.
- [first lines]
- Narrator: Those who hunt by night will tell you that the wildest and most vicious of all animals is the tiny shrew. The shrew feeds only by the dark of the moon. He *must* eat his own body weight every few hours - or starve. And the shrew devours *everything*: bones, flesh, marrow... everything. In March, first in Alaska, and then invading steadily southward, there were reports of a new species: the giant, *killer* shrew.
- Dr. Milo Craigis: Mario was killed by poison.
- Dr. Radford Baines: [with enthusiasm] Doctor, I wonder if you've thought... the system of the Sorex enabled them to assimilate that poison. It remained in the salivary glands of their jaws. Isn't that wonderful?
- [pauses, then remorsefully]
- Dr. Radford Baines: Oh, I am sorry. Of course, I always speak from the clinical point of view.