(almost) finished product!!!!!
First part
By Karin Dahlin, Matthew Gerhardt, Kristin Lunz, Brittney Ostlie
(Ellie is sitting, writing in a journal by a creek)
Ellie: (voiceover) It’s only half an hour since Robyn said I should write everything down.
I know writing it down is important to us. Terribly, terribly important. Recording what we’ve done, in words, on paper. It’s got to be our way of telling ourselves that we mean something – which we matter. I don’t know if I’m the right person to be doing this. There are a few little things that can get in the way. Little things like feelings and emotions. There’s only one way to do it, I guess, and that’s to write it down in the order it happened. It all began when Carrie* and I… (Keep talking, fade to a flashback)
(Carrie and Ellie are hanging out in one of their houses)
Carrie: You know we haven’t been down to the river in ages.
Ellie: (uninterested) We’re a little too old for that, aren’t we?
Carrie: Oh, it’ll be fun! We can ask my dad for the (vehicle).
Ellie: Well what would we do?
Carrie: Let’s see if Kevin and Phil* want to come.
Ellie: (showing more interest) Heck yeah, boys! But we’d never be allowed…
Carrie: It’s worth a try.
Ellie: Let’s go somewhere way out. Wouldn’t it be great to go to Hell?
Carrie: You can go to hell.
Ellie: You know what I mean, the place in the woods where they say the hermit lived. Add more
Carrie: We should invite Robyn and Amelia*, too.
Ellie: Yeah! I also want to invite Lee and Chris.
(Carrie looks suggestively at Ellie (no we don’t mean THAT!!!), gets notebook, starts writing)
Carrie: Let’s write this down.
(Cut to scene with everybody)
Kevin: Are you sure we can all go to hell? That would be a tough hike.
Carrie: It’s not too hard for you, Kevin.
Kevin: What’s that supposed to mean?
Ellie: (interrupting) You guys are acting like a married couple…
Carrie: (ignoring Ellie’s comment) Well we’re not any worse than you and Steve during the play…
Phil: Mr. Kassar needed a crowbar to tear you two apart…
Everyone: Ooooh, burn, ouch, etc.
Ellie: (awkwardly, she’s sensitive) Shut up, Phil. That’s all in the past.
(Awkward silence)
Robyn: I’m not sure if my parents will let me go.
Lee: Yeah, Robyn, your parents are religious…they don’t want you to go to Hell.
(Everyone laughs, breaking the tension)
Ellie: Can you go, Lee?
Lee: Yeah, I talked my parents into it.
Amelia: (hopefully) Are we going to have a camper?
Kevin: (teasing, sarcastic) Yes, Amy, and we’ll bring your piano too…
Amelia: Gosh, don’t call me Amy. (With dignity) My name is Amelia!
Phil: (exaggerated bow) Yes, your highness.
(Everyone chuckles. I like that word. Chuckles. *snicker*.)
Robyn: Hey, where’s Chris?
Carrie: I don’t know…
Kevin: (joking) Probably off smoking his ditch weed
Phil: or something else…
Ellie: He said he couldn’t go. His parents are gone and he has to watch the house.
Carrie: Is there anyone else that can’t go?
(Silence, then some people says “sweet” or whatever)
(Go to scene with everyone in the vehicle. Carrie is driving, with Kevin in the passenger seat. Everyone else is in the back. Amelia has been sick; she looks pale. As Kevin gets out, he hits his head. Carrie rolls her eyes and shakes her head, but smiling (AWWW)) (They get their luggage, etc. out.)
Robyn: We should eat lunch first.
Phil: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse…
(The name “Phil” means lover of horses. That could mean something else, too, but we won’t talk about that. “Is this some kind of sick joke?!” That was just for you, Al.)
(Get out >SUBWAY<>
Part 5
Ellie and Carrie are walking along and talking to each other.
Carrie: Ellie?
Ellie: Yeah?
Carrie: (dreamily) I want to go overseas some day, don’t you? I want to see different places and things. I want to stay away for years and years.
Ellie: Carrie! You got homesick during summer camp, and that was only four days!
Carrie: That wasn’t real homesickness. That was because Chris* and them were giving me such a hard time.
Ellie: Weren’t they such idiots? I hated them.
Carrie: Remember when they got caught bombing us with firelighters? They were crazy. At least they’ve improved since then.
Ellie: Chris is still a dork.
Carrie: I don’t mind him now. He’s all right.
Ellie: (rolls eyes; Ellie is not as forgiving as Carrie) So…will your parents let you go overseas?
Carrie: I don’t know. They might, if I work on them long enough. They let me apply for that exchange thing, remember?
Ellie: Your parents are so easy to get along with.
Carrie: So are yours.
Ellie: Oh, most of the time I guess they are. It’s only when dad’s in one of his moods. And he is awfully sexist. All the stuff I had to go through to come on this trip. If I was a boy it’d be no problem.
Carrie: Mmm. My dad’s not bad. I’ve been educating him.
Ellie: (smiles, laughs) And to think I once thought you were innocent!
Carrie: Yeah, about as innocent as you. So what is going on with you and Steve?
Ellie: Nothing. It’s completely over. I’ve moved on.
Carrie: Moved on? So who’s the guy?
Ellie: (uncomfortable) Ummm.
Carrie: (joking) It is a guy, isn’t it?
Laughter, smiles….
Ellie: Yes, Carrie, he is a guy.
Carrie: He’s on this trip with us. I know he is.
Ellie: If you’re so smart who is it?
Carrie: Lee, of course, who else would it, is?
Add more…
Back at the campsite. Everyone sitting around lazily. Phil is the only one missing.
Ellie: You guys we don’t have much food left. We don’t have any more fruit, cheese, milk of any sort, no chocolate---
Kevin: No Chocolate! That’s serious. How are we going to survive?
Robyn: (ignoring Kevin) We could go back to the (vehicle) and get some food. We left plenty there.
Lee: It would be a long hike. Is any one willing to go?
Kevin: It’s like a hundred degrees! If we had chocolate it’d give me the energy to get up to the (vehicle) to get some more. But without it I don’t think I could make the first step.
Carrie is sitting on her sleeping bag reading a romance novel (Dirty! As Karin would say) and looks very absorbed in her book. She isn’t paying attention to the conversation.
Phil walks up quietly behind Carrie with a bucket of water he brought for washing up (or whatever else), and motions for everyone else to remain quiet. Once he’s behind Carrie he dumps the bucket of water on her and she reacts (jumps up, screams….) She drops her book.
Carrie: (outraged) Phil!
Phil: Ooh! What’s this here? (He bends down to pick up her book)
Carrie: Phil, give it back!
Phil: Why? What if I don’t want to?
Carrie: Please, Phil, give it back. I’m on the last page and I need to see if they make up.
Phil: You mean the lovers?
Carrie: Phil!
Phil: (starts reading out loud from the book? *evil look* or should I say *dirty look*)
Carrie: That’s not funny Philip!
Phil flips to the back of the book and quickly tears out the last page and Carrie gasps.
Phil: (hands Carrie the book) You can have your book back now.
Carrie: But the end? What happens? I need to know!
Phil: Well, nothing of interest.
Phil crumples up the page and stuffs it carelessly in his pocket.
Carrie: Fine! I’m not talking to you.
Phil: (being silly now) Ok, I hope you’re still talking to Kevin though because I hate to see it when two romantic couples don’t live happily ever after.
Ellie: (Ellie butts in to the conversation) Now that that’s over we can talk about something else.
Silence
Robyn: You know I don’t want to go back. This has been the best place and the best week.
Lee: Yeah, it’s been great.
Amy: I’m liking forward to a hot shower though, and decent food.
Carrie: Let’s do this again. Back here in the same place with the same people.
Phil: Even me?
Carrie: Yes, even you.
Phil: Ok, I was just making sure.
Robyn: Let’s keep this place a secret. Otherwise everyone’ll start using it and it’ll be wrecked in no time.
Amy: I agree.
Ellie: It is a good campsite. Next time we should have a proper search for where the hermit lived.
Lee: He might have just had a shelter here and it’s fallen down.
Ellie: But he built that bridge so well. You’d think he’d build his shelter even better.
Kevin: Well maybe he just lived in a cave or something.
Carrie: No, that’d be you Kevin.
They begin playing true confessions. I think we should come up with ideas together because that would be fun. Maybe we can begin a game ourselves.
Ellie goes off to bed, not wanting to reveal about her and Steve.
Kevin: Aren’t you going to stay? And tell us all about Steve?
Ellie gives Kevin a dirty look (not like that Karin!) and crawls into her sleeping bag. Ellie has trouble sleeping and so she tosses and turns.
True confessions resume.
The next morning everyone is packing and busy getting everything packed up. Soon they start leaving the campsite and heading back toward the (vehicle).
Phil walks by Amy and helps her along, never going out of her reach in case she needs him (awww! How sweet). Phil helps Amy over a log and Amy smiles at Phil and he blushes.
Carrie: (she rolls her eyes over to Amy and Phil) Do you think she actually likes him?
Ellie: I’m not quite sure. Why?
Carrie: I was just wondering if she was stringing him along.
Ellie: (smiles) It would serve Phil right if a girl did that to him after all these years of taunting every girl and claiming to be unemotional.
Carrie: Think about it: one girl could get revenge for all of us. (Blood will have blood.-Macbeth).
They reach the (vehicle) and have lunch. They start heading back when they reach the river they stop. They see fires burning in the distance, but no one says anything.
Robyn: Hey, we should go for a swim.
Kevin: Yeah. It’s so hot, I’m dying here.
Robyn: To hear you talk you’d think you’re dying all the time.
Kevin: Very funny.
Phil: So who’s for a swim?
Everyone raises their hand except Ellie and Lee.
Phil: Ok, majority rules. Five to two, we’re swimming!
Amy: Good, I need to cool off.
They get out of the (vehicle), and head for the river and get in to swim. Lee and Ellie don’t go swimming, but instead sit on the bank of the river waiting until everyone else is ready to go. Everyone else is laughing and splashing each other in the river.
Ellie: I wish they would hurry up. I really want to get home.
Lee: (looks at Ellie) Why?
Ellie: I don’t know. I’m in a funny mood; a bad mood.
Lee: Yes, you seem a bit wound up.
Ellie: Maybe it’s those fires. I can’t figure them out.
Lee: But you’ve been uptight most of this camping trip.
Ellie: Have I? I suppose I have. I’m really not sure why.
Lee: It’s strange, but I feel the same way.
Ellie: You do? But you don’t show it!
Lee: I try not to.
Ellie: I can believe that. (A pause) Maybe it’s guilt. I feel bad about missing the (show). We exhibit there quite a lot. Dad thinks we should support it. Dad was cool about me going, but I left him with an awful lot of work to do.
Lee: Yeah, I feel the same thing about leaving the restaurant….here they come.
Robyn and Amy are the last two people to come out of the water. They come out dripping and laughing. Amy looks fantastic, flicking her long hair out of her eye and moving with the grace of a heron. Kevin and Phil are talking, but Phil is watching Amy. Amy knows this and is a bit self-conscious about the way she walks, and the way she stands there cooling in the sunlight, like a model doing a fashion shoot on the beach. Amy knew Phil was watching her, and loved it.
Part 6
(They all drive into the driveway. It is eerily silent, there is no parked car and nobody is home. They stop in front of the house. They all get out of the car, Ellie first.)
Ellie: Something is really strange here. Where are the dogs?
(She looks over to the doghouse. Ellie cries out, seeing that there are two dead dogs and one very sick one.)
Ellie: What’s happened??!!
(Ellie runs over to them, with Kevin not far behind.)
Ellie: Kevin, take care of them… I’m going to check the house.
(Ellie and Carrie are in the house first, and the others [except Kevin] come in shortly)
Carrie: Jesus, what’s happened?
(Everyone is silent for a moment, dumbfounded to see a completely normal house abandoned. Everything is neat and tidy.)
Phil: What was wrong with the dogs?
Ellie: They’re all dead except Millie, and she’s nearly dead.
Amy: Let’s try to call someone. I’ll try my parents.
Ellie: No, let’s try Phil’s parents. They’re closest. They’ll know.
(Amy hands Ellie the phone. She begins to press numbers, but realizes that there’s no dial tone.)
Ellie: There’s nothing.
Carrie: (worried look, voice shaky) Oh, Jesus.
(Kevin comes in carrying the dog.)
Ellie: She needs food. It’s in the closet.
Phil: I can get it.
Ellie: (to Kevin, talking quickly and acting unnerved) We tried calling Phil’s parents, since no one was home and they’re the closest and I picked up the phone and it wasn’t working and… we’ve got to do something.
(Phil comes back to the kitchen with a bowl of food and a bowl of water.)
Phil: The power’s off in the closet. And something smells terrible.
Ellie: (absent mindedly) Terribly… it smells terribly.
(Phil just looks at her)
(Robin tries the TV, but its dead, as Amy says…)
Amy: Didn’t they say they were going away?
Carrie: If your grandmother got sick or…
Ellie: Why’d they cut off the power, then?
Kevin: Some big electrical problem? Maybe the power’s been off for days and they had to move somewhere.
Ellie: (snappy) They would’ve left a note… they wouldn’t have let the dogs die.
(Silence)
Kevin: It’s like… like all of that UFO stuff. Like aliens have taken them away.
(Ellie gives him a look)
Kevin: I’m not trying to make a joke of it, Ellie. I know something bad has happened. I just don’t know what it could possibly be.
Ellie: Let’s go back to the [car]. We’ll try Phil’s.
Lee: Wait. Don’t you have a transistor radio? A battery one?
Ellie: Umm, yes, I don’t know where… why?
Robin: There’s a radio in the car.
Lee: Have you heard any news since we’ve been away?
Robin: No. I tried a few times, but they didn’t come in. I think we were too cut off to get them.
Lee: Ellie, can you look for the radio?
(Ellie disappears, showing shots of her wildly looking around the room for it. She finds it and returns to the kitchen. On the way back turns on the radio. When she gets to the kitchen there’s only static. Everyone looks frightened.)
Lee: I dunno… lets just go to Phil’s.
(They leave the house, go to the car, and dive to Phil’s. Ellie is driving, and when she arrives at Phil’s she stops suddenly, skidding on the gravel. Phil whips the door open and runs to the house.)
Phil: (yelling) MOM! DAD!
(Everyone else gets out, except Lee, who turns the [car] back on and drives it into the shade. Kevin and Carrie walk after him, but Ellie watches Lee as Robin stays behind with her. Lee stops the [car], gets out of the [car], and walks towards the door.)
Ellie: (screaming) Lee! You’re wrong! Stop doing this! Stop thinking that! You’re wrong!
Robin: (calmly) He probably is. But the radio…hold yourself together, Ellie. Just ‘til we know.
(Shot to Robin and Ellie entering the house. Phil comes running to them.)
Phil: (urgently) Ellie, do you know how to milk cows?
Ellie: No, sorry Phil, I never learned.
Carrie: I know how.
(Phil grabs Carrie and runs to the back door. Ellie walks into the kitchen and finds Lee. Lee just gets done putting the phone down as she enters. Lee shakes his head. Phil comes in just then.)
Phil: There’s a good radio in the office.
(Amy and Robin enter.)
Amy: Would that be safe?
Phil: I don’t know… who knows anything?
Ellie: This is ridiculous. I know what you’re thinking, and it is completely… absolutely… impossible. Just not possible. These things don’t happen, not here, not in this country.
Robin: (suddenly remembering something) Those fires! They would be out fighting those fires. There were some bad ones, so bad they couldn’t get back.
Phil: But they weren’t that kind of fire. You know that… you know what a bad fire looks like.
Lee: I don’t know much about these things, but shouldn’t there be a lot of talking on the radio if there are all those fires?
Phil: Yes!
(Phil runs into office where radio is.)
Amy: But there’s no power.
Ellie: It has back up batteries.
(Amy, Ellie, and Phil go into the office, which is small, and everyone is crowded.)
Phil: Should we send out a call on the radio, Ellie?
Ellie: We could, but everyone else will be in the same boat as our parents. The authorities must know about this, so it wouldn’t help if we tried to call… we are desperate to find out what’s going on, though….we’d create danger for ourselves… (voice getting unsteady) if something bad’s happened… if people are out there…
Lee: So…
Ellie: Let’s not call.
Phil: I agree.
Lee: Me too.
(The four go into the kitchen, where Carrie and Kevin are.)
Kevin: (to Phil) You mind if we go to our places? We could go by ourselves with [car]… or [other car].
Robin: Wait, we’ve got to think, guys. We can’t just rush off, there’s a lot at stake here. Maybe lives, even. We’ve got to assume something really bad has happened.
Ellie: (angry and yelling) Of coarse it’s bad!! Do you think my dad would leave the dogs to die?
(Brief silence, then everyone loses control. Robin starts crying, Kevin runs his hands through his hair, and Amy has her hand in her mouth and is white in the face. Everyone is talking at once.)
Robin: I didn’t mean to make you mad, Ellie! You know I didn’t!
Carrie: Shut up! Everyone just shut up!
Kevin: Oh God, oh God, what the hell’s going on?
Phil: (suddenly, not in an angry voice) Amy, I’ve heard of biting your nails, but that’s ridiculous!
(Everyone is silent again and looks at Amy. Suddenly everyone bursts into hysterics. After a few moments, Lee speaks.)
Lee: (wiping tears off his face) I think we should listen to Robin.
Robin: I’m sorry everyone… I didn’t choose the best words to say. (Robin takes a deep, calming breath.) Look, all I wanted to say is that we have to be careful. It might not be very smart to drive around going to everyone’s houses. We should try and decide some things, like if we should stick together or break into smaller groups. Or whether we should use the cars. And should we wait until dark…I think we should, and not use any lights.
Ellie: What do you think really happened? Do you think Lee is right?
Robin: There’s no sign of anyone leaving in a hurry. They left awhile ago, and it looks like they expected to come back.
Carrie: They must have gone to the 4th Celebration, to the show.
Phil: (Looking to the table, as if something was there before) Hey! Mom’s sewing project is gone. She was working on it for the contest they have there. She must have taken it.
Robin: So they went to the 4th of July thing, and they didn’t come back. The power has been cut off and there are lots of fires. Nobody has returned home. What would all of this mean?
Lee: You forgot something- the hundreds of planes for the Show, and they were flying low without their lights on.
Amy: (Looking angry) And let’s assume that all you guys are saying is nuts. There are LOTS of things that could have happened! You have to consider those, too.
Kevin: Like what?
Amy: They could be sick, from food poisoning at the show or something. They’re in the hospital.
Phil: What about the fires and the planes? Radio stations?
Amy: Well, the Air Force might have needed to help.
Robin: Without their lights?
Amy: (shouting) We don’t know for sure. Ellie might not have seen those planes well. It was night and she could have been half asleep. She didn’t know for sure.
Ellie: Amy, I saw them, I know I did. Robin, Lee, didn’t you see them, too?
Robin: (snappy) I just heard them.
Phil: Everyone calm down. For Chris sakes if we keep fighting we won’t get anywhere. Amy, what else do you think?
Amy: They could’ve gone to help somewhere, like maybe there was a tornado somewhere.
Kevin: And they didn’t leave any notes? The radio and power?
Lee: Amy, they might be valid theories. I’m not saying you’re wrong, and these things could be coincidences. But the thing is, there is an answer that fits everything so well. Our conversation in Hell, remember, where we said the 4th of July would be the perfect day to do it?
(Amy nods, and tears are streaming down her face)
Lee: If we’re wrong, we can all laugh about this tomorrow or next week or whatever. But for now, let’s say it’s true. That we’ve been invaded. That I think there might be a war.
Part 7
(They leave for Kevin’s. cut to arriving at Kevin’s. dog greets Kevin excitedly.)
Kevin: my house is the same as Ellie’s.
Ellie: So we’re going to Carrie’s next, right?
Lee: Yeah.
Robyn: Your brothers have bikes, right Kevin? We could use them to get there.
Phil: Good idea. Hey, do you know anyone who didn’t go to the fair? That could be a way to find out what’s going on.
Lee: well I don’t think my parents went.
Amy: We should get going.
Kevin: (gesturing toward dog) Can we take Flip?
(Everyone is silent for a moment, realizing Flip could be dangerous to take. Then they decide to take her)
Phil: We might have to make some ugly decisions, though.
(Kevin nods, knowing what might have to happen. They leave for Carrie’s. Cut to arriving. Carrie runs into house first, and then stops short, seeing the shape it’s in. She walks slowly in the living room, shocked. She stands, crying and Kevin comes and puts his arm around her. Stays like this for a little while.
Robyn: We should try to eat before we do any more.
(They agree and get something to eat. Short conference while they eat.)
Amy: Robyn’s house is next.
Lee: we might have more problems there, since it’s in town. What’s a safe way to get there?
Robyn: We should be pretty safe if we go on Coachman’s Lane. There’s also a hill behind my house where we can maybe see a bit of the town.
Phil: Sounds good. Let’s go, then.
(Everyone goes out the door except Ellie and Carrie – Ellie is throwing away the garbage, Carrie is waiting at the door. As Ellie leaves, she walks by the fax machine and notices a fax.)
Ellie: Hey Carrie, want to see this?
Carrie: What is it?
Ellie: It’s probably an old one but you never know.
(Carrie reads it. Everything from “go camping” onward is underlined.)
Carrie: Carrie, I’m at the office at the fair. Something’s going on. People say it’s just army maneuvers but I’m sending this anyway, and then heading home to tear it up so no one’ll know what an idiot I’ve been. But Carrie, if you do get this, go camping. Take great care. Don’t come out till you know it’s safe. Much love darling. Dad.
(Carrie and Ellie look at each other, then hug and cry. They run outside to tell the others.)
Carrie: Look at this.
Phil: (taking and reading it) whoa.
(It gets passed around.)
Robyn: we have to be extra careful now.
Amy: yeah.
Carrie: I’ve always laughed at Dad for being so cautious, but now I see he’s right.
(They leave – they’re being very cautious now. Cut to them going to the hill behind Robyn’s house.)
Robyn: My house was in the same condition as yours – abandoned.
Amy: What’s our next move?
Ellie: Lee and Amy have to see their houses.
(Everyone nods in agreement.)
Phil: We need to be out of town before dawn. A long way out of town. And we’re running out of time. It’s not going to be quick and easy, traveling around these streets. We’re getting tired, and that alone will slow us down, not to mention the care that we’ll have to take. Also, two people can move more quietly tan seven. And finally, to tell you the truth, if there are soldiers here and anyone’s caught…well, again, two’s better than seven. I hate to mention the fact, but five people free and two people locked up is a better equation than no people free and seven locked up. You all know how good I am at math.
(Everyone is silent – they know he’s right.)
Kevin: So what are you suggesting? Phil: I’ll go with Amy. (Teasing) I’ve always wanted to see inside one of those rich houses on the hill. This is my big chance.
(Amy kicks Phil.)
Phil: Maybe if Robyn and Lee go to Lee’s, what do you think? And you other three take a closer look at >wherever prisoners are kept<. All those lights…maybe it’s their base. Or it could be where they’re keeping people even.
Robyn: Yes, it’s the best way. How about anyone not wearing dark clothes come back to the house and yelp yourselves to some? And we meet back here on the hill at, say, three o’clock?
Amy: (quietly) what if someone’s missing?
(Silence, not liking the thought)
Amy: how about we wait till 3:30 if anyone’s not back. Then move out fast, but come back tomorrow night – I mean tonight. And if you’re the ones missing and you get back late, lie low for the day.
Phil: Yes, that’s what we can do.
(Everyone starts getting ready to go. Kevin, Carrie, and Ellie already have dark clothes and hug people, wishing them luck. They leave. Cut to them getting there.)
(They reach a place close to the place where the prisoners are being kept. They huddle.)
Kevin: We’ll have to be extra careful now that we’re so close. So what’s the plan?
Carrie: Just to get close enough to have a look. We don’t have all that much time. The main thing’s to be careful. I few can’t see anything then we just go back to Robyn’s. If there’s anyone there the dumbest thing we could do would be to have them see us and come after us.
Kevin: Ok.
(Kevin starts standing, Ellie pulls him back down)
Kevin: “What? We’ve got to get moving, El.”
Ellie: That doesn’t mean rushing in like idiots. For example, what if we do get seen? Or if we get chased? We can’t just run back to Robyn’s place. That’d lead them there.
Kevin: Well I guess, separate. It’d be harder for them to chase three different people than one group. Then, if we’re sure we’re not being followed; make our own way back to Robyn’s.”
Carrie: Ok.
Kevin: Is that all?
Ellie: No! If we’re being strictly logical, like Phil was before, we shouldn’t all sneak in close to the Showground. One of us should go and the other two stay here. Less chance of being seen and less loss if one gets caught.
Carrie: No! That’s being too logical! You’re my best friends! I don’t want to be that logical!
Ellie: OK then, all for one and one for all. Let’s go. The three musketeers.
(They cross the road and get close to the light from the building. They stop at the edge, feeling nervous.)
(Suddenly, Ellie goes to a tree just a few steps away. Carrie and Kevin follow. They get there, nervously and relieved. They smile proudly)
Kevin: What’s next?
Ellie: Keep heading from tree to tree. We can get a good view from that big tree over there.
(Ellie goes to next tree. She sees soldiers. When they’re gone, Carrie and Kevin follow.)
Ellie: Did you see the men?
Carrie: Well, yes and no. At least one was a woman.
(They go to the next tree. They see some sort of action – someone they know. Maybe have someone say “that’s Mr. ___”. They go to the next tree – the last one.)
Ellie: Nearly home free.
(Ellie sets off again. Gunfire starts behind her. Gasp from Carrie, cry from Kevin. Ellie dives for cover. Kevin pulls her up.)
Kevin: Run! They’re coming.
(They run. After a little while, they run into someone’s driveway.)
Ellie: I know this place, follow me.
They stop, realizing they’re in a trap – there is no way to get out.)
Ellie: oh god, oh god, I led us into a trap. There’s no other way out. (Pulling herself together) Ok, we have a couple of minutes. This is a big place. They won’t go rushing around in it, in the darkness. They’ll be a bit unsure of us.
Carrie: I hurt my leg.
Ellie: What, did you get shot?
Carrie: No, I ran into something, just back there.
Kevin: It’s a ride-on mower. I almost hit it too.
(Gunfire.)
Ellie: (mumbling to herself) yes, petrol…we could roll it…no, that’d give them time…but if it sat there…matches…and a chisel or something…
Kevin: Ellie, what the hell are you talking about?
Ellie: Find some matches, or a cigarette lighter. And a chisel. And a hammer. Quick, very quick. Try the sheds.
(They spread out, looking for stuff. Later, Ellie talks to Kevin)
Ellie: I have matches. Did you get anything?
Kevin: I go the hammer and chisel.
Ellie: Oh Kevin, I love you.
Carrie: (coming from darkness) I heard that
Ellie: Take me to the ride-on.
(They go find it.)
Ellie: They’re coming. Quick, help me push it. But quietly.
(They move it)
Kevin: What are the hammer and chisel for?
Ellie: To make a hole in the petrol tank. But now I’ think it’ll make too much noise, doing it.
Kevin: Why do you need a hole? Why not just unscrew the lid?
Ellie: Wow, I’m stupid. (Kevin unscrews the lid)
Ellie: We’ll need to be behind the wall and we need a trail of petrol to it.
(Kevin takes off his shirt (that’s what the book said. Not my choice. ;).) And puts it in the tank to soak it – uses it to make a trail.)
Kevin: We need to make sure they’re all together. I saw three of them on the road.
(Ellie takes a deep breath, lets out a short weak moan of pain. The soldiers turn toward them. One calls out urgently in a different language. The soldiers gesture at them, and spread out, walking slowly toward them. When they are close to the mower, Ellie strikes a match. It doesn’t light. She tries again, it doesn’t light. Kevin grabs her wrist and whispers “Do it!” The match lights and the petroleum catches. You hear an explosion. Kevin pulls Ellie away.)
Kevin: run, run!
(We see a fire and maybe some soldiers. We hear soldiers screaming. Ellie, Kevin, and Carrie keep running. They get to a safe spot.)
Carrie: There’s just enough time to get back.
Ellie: how’s your leg?
Carrie: Ok.
(They run some more. Then they stop and walk. Cut to back at the hill. Phil and Amy are there. There are now seven bikes.)
Phil: Thank God you’re here.
Ellie: Where are Lee and Robyn?
Amy: I don’t know.
Phil: I don’t think we can wait any longer.
(They reluctantly get on the bikes and leave.)
Part 8
Chapter Eight
Carrie’s Farm, biking up to it, daybreak. Ellie sings a few unrecognizable words, then,
someone: What’s that Ellie?
Ellie doesn’t answer.
Phil: (Later) on porch Come on Ellie.
Ellie: (Absentmindedly), What do you want to do?
Phil: Just sit down and eat.
Sitting and eating something simple. Talking about what happened. Not sure what you want to include. Very little dialog.
Phil: (afterwards) Don’t feel bad. This is war now. Normal rules don’t apply. These people invaded our land, locked up our families, and tried to kill you three. The (German) Greek? Side of me understands these things. The moment they left their country to come here they knew what they were doing. They’re the ones who tore up the rule book, not us.
Ellie: (sincerely) Thanks Homer.
Kevin: So, what happened to you two?
Phil: Well, we had a good run at first, along Honey Street. But the further into town we got the more careful we had to be, and the slower we went. There wasn’t any excitement until the corner of Malden and West. There’d been some kind of action there. Must have been a bit of a battle I think – there were two police cars, both on their sides, and a truck just down the road that had crashed into a tree. And there were spent cartridges everywhere, hundreds of them. No bodies
Amelia: But blood, a lot of blood.
Phil: Yes, well we think it was blood. A lot of dark stains. But there was oil and stuff everywhere – it was just a big mess. So we went through that pretty carefully, and then cut through Jubilee Park. Out idea was to go down Barker Street, but honestly, it was a disaster area. Looked like those American riots on T.V. Every shop’s had its windows smashed, and there’s stuff all over the road and footpaths. I’d say these guys have had themselves a big party.
It was all dark and shadowy now. So we moseyed along there, across the parking lot, and into Glover Street. Then Amy, who’s got hearing like a bat, thought she heard voices, so we ducked into the public restrooms. Into the men’s of course. It wasn’t that smart, if they’d have caught us in there, we’d have been dead meat. There was someone coming, I could hear them now. I was thinking of using the restroom, but
Ellie: (interrupting), Come on Phil, I want to get to bed soon.
Phil: O.k. O.k., well we slipped into the janitor’s, I mean sanitary engineer’s, closet to hide
Amy: Don’t forget about your graffiti.
Phil: Oh yeah. (A lot of talk about going to the bathroom, I don’t want to write it all out). I didn’t recognize the language that they spoke. Neither did Amy and she know six, don’t you.
Amy: Yeah, German, Polish, French, Russian, Italian, and Spanish. Especially German and Polish!
Phil: After they left, we got back out of the sanitary engineer’s closet and took a peek out the door to see what they looked like. Man, they were a ragtag bunch. Three women maybe, two old guys, and two young ones. They were dressed in rough old uniforms.
Carrie: I guess to invade a country of this size they would need everyone with four limbs.
Amy: Remember the shadows?
Phil: oh yeah, you tell them.
Amy: About two blocks from my place there’s a restaurant, and it was looted like everything else. We were going across the park and some shadows of people came out of the restaurant. I called out because they weren’t acting like soldiers, then they ran away.
Phil: I nearly died when Amy started yelling. But, it is logical that other people are loose.
Now I left out the part about Amy’s home and cat.
Phil: (seriously) Do you know the Andersen’s? You know, the football coach. His house must have been bombed. There was nothing left. (Pause) I suppose we should get some sleep.
Carrie: Yeah, but we’d better have an escape route. Hey, how about the barn? Someone can watch from upstairs while the rest sleep. That way we could get across the pasture without being seen too.
Ellie: Make sure to take the bikes too. We might need them.
Part 9
(Ellie is sitting in the tree house, watching the road. We hear a sound from below, Carrie climbs the tree.)
Carrie: I couldn’t sleep. Too much to think about.
Ellie: I slept, but I don’t know how.
Carrie: Did you have awful dreams?
Ellie: I don’t know. I never remember my dreams.
Carrie: Not like Theo…every day he’d tell us his full dreams from the night before, in detail. It was so boring.
Ellie: He’s just boring all the time.
Carrie: I wonder where they all are now. I hope they’re at the show grounds. I hope they’re ok. It’s all I can think about. I keep remembering all the stories we read in History about World War Two and Kampuchea and stuff like that, and my brain just overloads in terror. And then I think about the way those soldiers were shooting at us, and the way they screamed when the mower blew up. Ellie, I just can’t believe this is happening. Invasions only happen in other countries and TV, you know? Even if we survive this I know I’ll never feel safe again.
Ellie: I was thinking about the games we used to play up here.
Carrie: Yes, yes. The tea parties. And dressing the dolls up. Remember when we put lipstick on them all?
Ellie: Then we lost interest.
Carrie: Mmm, it just faded away, didn’t it? We grew up, I guess. Other things came along, like boys.
Ellie: They seemed like such innocent days. You know, when we got to high school and stuff, I used to look back and smile and think, “Wow, was I ever innocent.” Santa Claus and tooth fairies and thinking that mom stuck your paintings on the fridge because they were masterpieces. But I’ve learned something now. Carrie, we were still innocent. Right up to yesterday. We didn’t believe in Santa Clause but we believed in other fantasies. You said it. You said the big one. We believed we were safe. That was the big fantasy. Now we know we’re not, and like you said, we’ll never feel safe again, and so it’s bye-bye innocence. It’s been nice knowing you, but you’re gone now.
(They sit for a bit, watching in silence.)
Carrie: Do you think they’ll come?
Ellie: Who? The soldiers? I don’t know, but there’s something Phil said…about them not having the manpower to search the whole district. There’s a lot of truth in that, I think. See, my theory is that they’re using this valley as a corridor to the big towns and the cities. I think they’ve landed at Cobbler’s Bay, and their main interest in Wirrawee is to keep it quiet so they can get free access to the rest of the country. Cobbler’s Bay is such a great harbor and remember we couldn’t see it when we came out of Hell, because of the cloud cover. I bet it’s full of ships and there’s traffic pouring down the highway right now. But it’s not as though our town’s going to be a major target for anyone. We don’t have any secret missile bases or nuclear power plants. Or at least we didn’t, the last time I looked.
Carrie: I don’t know. You never know what Mrs. Norris was getting up to in the science lab at school…
Phil: (from below) You children come down from that tree right now! Great sentries you are. (Climbing) And I heard what you said about Mrs. Norris, my favorite teacher. I’m going to tell her when we get back to school.
Carrie: Yeah, in twenty years.
Ellie: Wasn’t it Mrs. Norris’s class when you went out the window and down the drainpipe?
Phil: It could have been…
Carrie: (laughing) What?
Phil: Well it got a bit boring, even more boring than usual. SO I thought I’d leave. The window was closer than the door, so when she turned to write on the whiteboard I went over the windowsill and down the drainpipe.
Ellie: And then Ms. Maxwell came along
Phil: And said,”What are you doing?”
Ellie: Quite a fair question really.
Phil: So I told her I was inspecting the plumbing.
(They all are laughing. They hear a jet.)
Carrie: (pointing) There it is.
Phil: one of ours! We’re still in business!
Carrie: Look! Three more and they’re not ours.
Phil: three against one. I hope he makes it.
(Later, everyone except Robyn and lee are in the tree house.)
Phil: Ok, we need to do something about Lee and Robyn. How about this: you know how I feel about everyone sticking together. It might be nice for our feelings but it’s ultimately stupid. We’ve got to toughen up, and fast. Just because we like being together, that’s not important any more. You know what I’m saying? So, what I suggest is two of us go into town to look for Lee and Robyn. If no one’s turned by midnight say, they make their way to Lee’s place, and see if they’re holed up there, injured maybe.
Kevin: I thought you didn’t believe in friendship any more. Seems a hell of a risk to go to Lee’s if we’re so worried about saving ourselves.
(People roll their eyes and glare at Kevin)
Phil: I’m not doing it just for friendship. It’s a calculated risk. Seven people are better than five, so we take a risk to try to build up our numbers to seven again.
Kevin: And we could end up with three
Phil: We could end up with none. Everything’s a risk from now on Kev. We’re not going to be safe anywhere, any time, until this thing is over. All we can do is to keep calculating the odds. And if it goes on long enough we’ll be caught. But if we do nothing we’ll get caught even sooner. The biggest risk is to take no risk. Or to take crazy risks. We’ve got to be somewhere between one and the other. Obviously whoever goes looking for Lee and Robyn has to be incredibly careful. But I’m sure they can work that out for themselves.
Kevin: So what do the other three do? Sit back here and eat and sleep? Shame there’s nothing on TV.
Phil: No. Here’s what I suggest. They load Carrie’s Toyota with everything useful they can find. Then they go to Kevin’s and do the same. And to my place and Ellie’s if there’s time. They pick up the Land rover at Kevin’s and fill it too. I’m talking food, clothes, petrol, rifles, tools, everything. By dawn we want to have two vehicles fuelled up, packed to their roofs, and ready to go.
Kevin: To go where?
Phil: To hell.
Amy: We’ll make lists. We need pens and paper, Carrie.
(They make lists. Kevin keeps writing ‘condoms’ and Carrie keeps crossing it off. I mean, if they’re the last people alive, they DO need to reproduce. Haha.)
Phil: Carrie, we can’t take things like your mother’s diaries.
Carrie: Why not? They’re so important to her. She’s always said that if the house was burning they’d be the first things she’d save.
Phil: Carrie, this isn’t a picnic we’re going on. We’ve got to start thinking of ourselves as guerrillas. We’re already taking teddy bears and guitars. I think that’s enough.
Carrie: If we can take family photos we can take my mother’s diaries.
Phil: That’s exactly what’ll end up happening. You’ll say ‘well if the photos can go, the diaries can go,’ and then someone else will say ‘well if her diaries can go then my father’s football trophies can go,’ and before we know it we’ll need a couple of trailers.
Amy: Why don’t you pack up all the valuables in the house? Your mother’s jewelry and everything. Then hide them somewhere. Bury them in the vegetable garden.
(They hear a distant noise – a helicopter.)
Carrie: It’s a helicopter.
(They run for the windows)
Phil: Get away from the windows! We forgot to have a sentry. Kevin, go to the sitting room; Amy, the bathroom; Carrie, your bedroom; Ellie the sunroom. Look carefully out of the windows to see if there’s anyone coming by road or across the paddocks. Report to me in the office. I’ll get the .22.
(They do what he said. Ellie sees Flip in the yard. The helicopter swoops by her window. Ellie goes to the office.)
Phil: Well
Ellie: No soldiers, but Flip’s out there, wandering around. They must have seen her from the helicopter
Phil: That might be enough to make them suspicious. They’d be trained to notice anything out of the ordinary. We’ve got a lot to learn, assuming we can come out of this. How many soldiers in the chopper?
(These lines can be overlapping)
Amy: Hard to say
Ellie: Maybe three Kevin: I didn’t see
Carrie: Maybe three or four, maybe more sitting up the back.
Phil: If they do land they’ll probably spread out. A .22 won’t be much use. The Toyota’s still up at the shearing shed. I can’t believe we’ve been so stupid. It’d be no use trying for that. Go back to the same rooms, and see what they’re doing. And try to count the number of soldiers. But don’t give them the slightest chance to see you.
They do what he says. They all go back to the office)
Kevin: It’s on the west side, just hovering there, not landing
Phil: Look guys, if it lands me think we’ve only got two options. We can sneak out on the opposite side to where it’s landed, and use the trees to try to get away into the bush. The bikes are no use and the Toyota’s out of reach. So we’d be on foot and relying on our brains and our fitness. The second option would be to surrender.
(Grim silence)
Ellie: I don’t want to be a dead hero. I think we’d have to take our chances and surrender
Phil: (quickly) I agree.
Kevin: All right.
Phil: Let’s go back to the sitting room. We’ll see if it’s still there
(They go. Kevin goes to the window.)
Kevin: Still there. Not doing anything just watching. No, wait…it’s on the move…coming down a little.
(Amy gives a cry; Ellie grabs her hand to comfort her)
Kevin: They’re staring right at me, but I can’t believe they could see me.
Phil: Don’t move. It’s movement that could be a giveaway
Kevin: I know. What do you think; I’m going to start tap dancing
(Tense silence)
Kevin: (whispering) It’s moving…can’t tell…sideways a little, up a bit, up some more. Maybe going over the house, to have a look at the other side.
Phil: This’ll be the big move, one way or the other. They won’t hang around much longer.
Kevin: still going sideways…up a bit more…no, backing off a bit. Come on, back off beautiful. Yes, backing off now, and accelerating too. Oh yes, Make like a hockey player sweetheart; get the puck out of here. Yes! Yes! Fly away, fly away home. (He turns to them with a casual shrug) See! All I had to do was use my charm.
(Carrie throws something at him. The tension in the room is eased.)
Phil: Let’s get cracking. We’ve been lucky. We can’t afford to make that many mistakes again.
(He herds them into the sitting room)
Phil: We’ll have this conference out here, where we can see the road. Now look, I’ll tell you what I think. If there are any major holes in it, tell me. Otherwise, let’s just do it, OK? We don’t have time for long debates. All right. Starting with the dogs. Flip and the other one at my place, what’s its name.
Ellie: Millie.
Phil: Yes, Millie. Guys, we have to abandon them. Leave out all the dry dog food you want for them, but that’s all you can do. Second, the milkers. I’ve had a look at ours, Carrie. She’s not only got mastitis, it’s gone gangrenous as well. We’re going to shoot her. It’d be too cruel to leave her here to suffer. Third, the Toyota. We can’t take it now. They will have seen it from the air, so if it goes missing they might notice that. The three people packing the vehicles will have to take everything they can on bikes, and ride to Kev’s and pick up another four-wheel drive there, to go with the Landie.
Kevin: The Ford’s still there.
Phil: Good. One thing I was hoping we could get from here is lots of vegetables from Carrie’s mom’s garden. But I don’t think there’ll be time, unless it’s done in darkness. For now, I think we should go camping till tonight. Take the bikes and anything else that’s absolutely vital, and get going, in case they send troops out from town. I’m sure they won’t come out after dark, but till then there’s a risk. Finally, about tonight. I think Ellie and I should go into town. We need a driver to stay here, and Kevin and Ellie are our best drivers. And it wouldn’t be fair to have an all girls group and an all guys group. Then if you three aim to get to Ellie’s by dawn, we’ll meet you there. If we’re not there tomorrow, give us till midnight tomorrow night, and then leave for Hell. Leave one car somewhere, near Tailor’s Stitch, and go down to the campsite. We’ll find out own way there when we can
(He stands)
Phil: I’m really spooked about that helicopter. Let’s get out right now, and save the looting till tonight. I’ll meet you at the shearing shed. We’ll have to take all the bikes. We need them.
(He picks up the rifle, glancing at Carrie)
Carrie: (hesitates, then murmurs) you do it. (She wipes a tear with one hand, and is holding Kevin’s hand with the other.) I hope Mom and Dad don’t mind us doing these things
(They get to the shearer’s quarters, Phil joins them. Suddenly, a jet comes and bombs the house. Carrie gives a cry. The house blows up. Carrie is on the floor, having a seizure. Phil gets a bucket of water; they splash it on her face. Carrie sits, sobbing and hiccupping.)
10+11 (=21)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA
-------
Part 10/11
(It is nighttime. Kevin and Phil have returned. The group is together [at someone’s house? In a shed?] They are arguing about whether or not to split up. Carrie is crying and clinging to Ellie. Phil is stubborn and refuses to budge.)
Phil: We can’t just hide and stay here until everything is over. So we’ve made a lot of mistakes today, and we’ve paid a hell of a price. But we’ll learn. We have to get Robin and Lee back.
(Carrie nods. It is silent as Kevin, Carrie, and Amy get into the [car]. Ellie and Homer leave on bikes to go to town. Follow Ellie and Homer.)
Phil: Let’s play categories. Name four countries starting with B.
Ellie: Ohhh…ummm…Brazil, Belgium, Britain, and…Bail…Bolivia! OK, five green vegetables, before we get to the telephone post.
Phil: Cabbage, broccoli, spinach. Hey, slow down! Peas, and beans. Name five breeds of dog, before we reach the sign.
Ellie: That’s way too easy… corgis, labs, german shepards, collie, and heelers. Your turn. Name three types of olives.
Phil: Green, black…uuh…who the hell knows another kind of olive?
(They laugh. Shots to them riding into town. They are moving carefully. They finally end up in front of Robin’s house. They get off their bikes and walk through the yard in the dark, while running into things like a wheelbarrow, a sprinkler, and a bush. They enter the house, and come to a rifle point.)
Ellie: Robin!!
Robin: Ellie!! (Robin faints.)
Phil: I’ll get some water.
(Phil walks over to the sink, fills his hands with water, and splashes it on Robin. She wakes up.)
Ellie: Robin, where is Lee?
Robin: He’s been shot. (Quickly, seeing the looks on their faces.) He’s not dead, it was a clean, but big, hit in the calf.
Phil: Where is he? Is he safe?
Robin: He’s in the bedroom, sleeping. It was risky getting him here. When we started heading back, before he got hit, it took two hours for Lee and me just to move one block, because the soldiers were looting. While we were hiding, we heard a noise, and there was a man there hiding, too.
Ellie: Did he say anything?
Robin: Yeah, he said that everyone was at [place]. And that there are two types of soldiers- professionals and ones to make the army look bigger. The professionals were efficient, but the others were badly trained and poorly equipped, and a lot of them are vicious.
Phil: Are they looting everywhere?
Robin: No, there aren’t enough soldiers to do that. They would rather bomb a place than search it. Anyways, as we crept along the street, all the sudden we were sprayed with bullets. We were so surprised and scared, and we couldn’t even tell where they were coming from. Luckily, we were behind thick glass. I ran ahead, but Lee wasn’t behind me. His face was really pale, and he was limping. I knew he had been hit.
(She pauses a minute.)
Robin: So then, I don’t know how, but I ran over to Lee, picked him up, and sprinted down two blocks to a safe building. I set him down and looked outside. The soldiers were gone. I cleaned the wound, and the guy we had met earlier found us. Turns out he was a dentist, so he knew more than I did. He helped him out and brought us food. I was able to carry Lee back with his help, but it took us almost all night.
Ellie: Can he walk?
Robin: Not really. He got stitches, and he should be able to in about a week.
Phil: We’ve got to get out of the city.
Robin: How could we get him back on bikes? We’d need a vehicle. A silent one.
Ellie: Let’s see…golf carts, shopping carts, wheelbarrows, prams, pushers…
Phil: Furniture on wheels, toboggans, skis, sleds, forklift trucks…
Robin: Those bus-carts in restaurants. Hospital beds, stretchers.
Phil: What could we use?
Ellie: We could use a lot of them, but they might hurt him. A stretcher would be good, but we’re too tired to push him. A wheelbarrow would hurt him. And I don’t know how far we could carry him.
Phil: We could steal a car...
(Add in how they will get back to the country)
Part 12
(Later. Ellie wakes up in the hayshed at her house where they've been staying and sees Lee. She is in the sun.)
Ellie: Oh, it's gone up about ten degrees. I'm baking away here. I'll have to move. I must have been asleep longer than I thought. (She picks up her blanket and moves to the other side of Lee.) Do you want anything? Can I get you anything? Did you sleep much? Is your leg hurting a lot?
Lee: I'm fine.
Ellie: (looking out over the property.) It's beautiful, isn't it? Living here all my life, some days I don't even notice how beautiful it is. I still can't believe we may be about to lose it. But it's made me notice it al now. I notice every tree, every rock, every paddock, and every sheep. I want to photograph it in my memory, in case...well, in case.
Lee: It is beautiful. You’re lucky. There’s nothing beautiful about the restaurant. And yet, I feel the same way about it as you do about your property. I think it's because we did it all ourselves. If someone smashes a window they're smashing glass that Dad cut, glass that I polished a thousand times, and they're tearing curtains that Mom made. You get an attachment to the place, and it becomes special to you. I guess maybe it does take on a kind of beauty.
Ellie: (moving closer to Lee) Did you feel awful when you found it all wrecked?
Lee: There was so much to feel awful about I didn't know where to start. I don't think it's hit me even yet.
Ellie: No, me neither. When we got here this morning and I found they'd been here...I don't know. I'd expected it, but I still felt awful, but I didn't feel awful enough. Then I felt guilty about not feeling worse. I think it's like you said, too many things. Too much has happened.
Lee: Yes.
Ellie: And then I think about Carrie and how it must be terrible for her, much worse than for me. For all you guys with little brothers and sisters. That must be terrible. and imagine how Chris's parents would feel, being overseas, probably not being able to get back into the country, not having a clue what's happened to Chris.
Lee: We don't know how widespread this thing is. It could involve a lot of countries. Remember that joke we made, up in Hell, about World War Three? We could have been right onto it.
(Lee puts his arm around Ellie, and they lay there, silent for a while.)
Ellie: I dreamed about you.
Lee: When?
Ellie: Just now, this morning, here on the haystack.
Lee: Did you? What did you dream?
Ellie: Oh...that we were doing something like we were doing now.
Lee: Really? I'm glad it came true.
Ellie: So am I.
(They start to kiss, but Ellie shrugs free)
Ellie: I'd better go and see how Chris is getting on.
(Ellie goes to find Chris, who is on sentry duty. He has fallen asleep. She gets mad at him and starts yelling at him and kicking him.)
Chris: Gees Ellie, take it easy.
Ellie: Take it easy? Yeah, that's what you were doing all right. If we take it easy any more, we're dead. Don't you understand how it's all changed Chris? Don't you understand that if you don't you might as well get a rifle and finish us all off now? Because you're as good as doing that by taking it easy.
(Chris walks away, muttering and red faced. Ellie sits down in his spot.)
(Show this as she speaks. We shouldn't have her say all of this. We can show some of it another way - I'll just copy straight from the book for the moment.)
Ellie: I think I went into some sort of delayed shock. I'd blocked off all my emotional reactions because there hadn't been the time or the opportunity for those luxuries. But it's like they say, emotion denied is emotion deferred. Id' done so much deferring, and now the bank had called in the load. Most of that afternoon is blank to me. Homer told me much later that I'd spent hours wrapped in blankets, sitting in a corner of the haystack, shivering and telling everyone to be careful. I guess I went down the same path as Carrie had, just in a slightly different way.
Homer drove the Land rover up to Tailor's stitch. Somehow, I walked into Hell late that night, crawled into a tent beside Carrie, who was hysterical with joy to see us, and slept for three days, waking only for occasional meals, toilet trips, and brief mumbled conversations. I do remember consoling Chris, who was sure than they’d been the cause of my having a nervous breakdown. I didn't think to ask how Lee had got in to Hell, but when I gradually got my wits back I found that they'd made a bush stretcher and carried him in; Robyn and Homer taking turns at one end of the stretcher and the lightly built Chris carrying the other, all the way down into the dark. So I guess he atoned.
(Ellie wakes up in the tent. Carrie is there.)
Carrie: Hello.
Ellie: Hi.
Carrie: How are you feeling?
Ellie: Good.
Carrie: Hungry?
Ellie: Yes, I am a bit.
Carrie: I'm not surprised. You haven't had anything since the day before yesterday.
Ellie: Oh. Haven’t I?
Carrie: Come on, I'll fix you something. You like eggs?
Ellie: Sure.
(They go and Carrie starts fixing something for Ellie.)
Ellie: (presently) I had terrible nightmares the days I was sleeping.
Carrie: Really? What happened?
Ellie: It was terrible. Demonic figures ran screaming from me, I felt skulls crush under my feet. There were burning bodies stretched out their hands, begging for mercy. I killed everyone, even the people I loved most. I was careless with gas bottles and caused an explosion which blew up the house, with my parents in it. I set fire to a haystack where all of my friends were sleeping. I backed a car over my cousin and couldn't rescue my dog when he got caught in a flood. And I ran around everywhere begging for help, screaming to people to call an ambulance, but no one responded. They seemed uninterested. They weren't cruel, just too busy or uncaring. I was a devil of death, and there were not angels left in the world, no one to make me better than myself or to save me from the harm I was doing.
Carrie: what do you think it means?
Ellie: I don't know...I think it's because of killing those soldiers that night, blowing up the mower. It has bothered me ever since. I took lives. I don't know if I'm doing this because I care for my friends or because I value my life above the soldiers'. I mean, how many lives would I take to save my own? A hundred? A thousand?
Carrie: Ellie, we're in a war now. There are different rules.
Ellie: I know.
(Silence for a while.)
Ellie: Carrie?
Carrie: Yeah?
Ellie: I'm confused.
Carrie: About what?
Ellie: The other day in the haystack, I was sitting with Lee, and...We started kissing.
Carrie: (Surprised) What?!
Ellie: I don't know. I'm so confused right now. I mean, there is so much happening. The day before, on the way to get Robyn and Lee, I had been holding hands with Phil, and feeling so warm and good about it, and then the next day, there I was with Lee. I didn't kiss him, I mean; I didn't have plans to become the local slut, and didn't want to get involved with two guys at once. But then there's Amy and Phil...I don't know what to think.
Carrie: Wow.
Ellie: I don't know...I mean, I don't know if anything will come out of it anyway. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Besides, I feel like I shouldn't be worrying so much about this when there's a war going on.
Carrie: Ellie, it's normal. Don't worry about it. I think you're doing the right thing. Come on; let's go see if we can get anything on the radio.
Chapter 13
Carrie, sitting on a log, testing out the transistor radio.
Carrie: O.K.
Ellie: Say, Carrie, let me see that radio. (Pause) Hey, guys, this is a short wave radio. A French (German(Polish!)) one at that.
Start twisting dials to pick up stations(Yeah, I’m not quite sure how well that will work with a radio station so close at my place, all we’ll be able to get are KSUM and KFMC.
Amy: Hey, that’s German, pause, listen, that’s Polish!
I really don’t know what to do about the radio reports. We need to talk about them together. Maybe we could have a tape, but there is a lot of talk about America getting involved, so I’m not sure what to do.
Phil: Let’s all write down what we think we heard, then compare note’s in a couple of minutes.
Amy: again U.S. references They’re reminding America of Vietnam
Robin: International outrage, that sounds promising, doesn’t it?
Kevin: What does it mean, reducing imbalances within the region.
Robin: I guess he’s talking about sharing things more equally. I guess we’ve got so much land, and other countries are packed in like hens in a commercial henhouse. You can’t blame then for the resentment.
Kevin: Well that’s the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.
(Also cheesy in the homozygous form.)
Robin: Now they’ve taken the whole jar of cookies.
Kevin: You sound like you don’t mind. Is that what they teach you in your church?
Carrie: Not much chance of that.
Robin: Of course I mind. If I were a saint then I wouldn’t. They aren’t acting in a religious way either. At least I don’t think religion would tell someone to steal and kill whatever they want. But I can see their side too, always growing up poor and stuff.
Kevin: It’s not right.
Robin: yes, but neither is your view of it either.
Kevin: So you won’t fight them?
Robin: I guess I already have.
Phil: Maybe its time to decide what we’re going to do. We’ve rested up and thought about things. Now we need to decide if we are going to hide, or do something about it. Some of those soldiers looked younger than us.
Robin: I saw two who looked a lot younger than us.
No one speaks for a moment.
Ellie: I can understand why the Hermit chose to live down here, away from it all.
Carrie: It’s our own families, that’s what everyone’s worried about, isn’t it? I guess I’d fight for my country but I’m going mad wondering what’s happened to my family. We don’t know if they’re alive or dead. We’re thinking and hoping that they’re at the Showground, and we’re thinking and hoping they’re being well treated, but we don’t know any of that. We’ve only got Mr. Clement’s word to do on.
Ellie: Seeing Mr. Coles at the Showground helped. He looked healthy, he didn’t look too terrified or injured either.
Amy: I think we should try to find out more about the Showground. If we know they’re being taken care of, we would all feel a lot better.
Homer: It sounds like we should try to find out more about the Showground then. It won’t be easy, though. Everyone else has been spotted but Amy and Me. (horrible grammar!)
Ellie: Were you striped.
Groans throughout
Lee: I don’t think this will turn into tortures and mass executions though, the world has changed, and they won’t allow it.
What? No more master races?
Kevin: I hate them. I don’t know why you guys are being so understanding. I just hate them all. If I had a nuke…
Awkward Silence
Amy: The most important things to our families right now is that we our safe. They don’t want us dead trying to save them. I’m scared, but I’ll go because I can’t imagine the rest of my life if I don’t.
All: Agreed.
Homer: I never thought I’d have to hurt people to live my life, but my Grandpa did it in (WWII or Korea or Vietnam) pause. We need some kind of observation place, where we can safely watch enemy movement. We need to live off the land and be guerillas ready whenever and wherever needed. We can send people in 48? hour shifts. We’ll have to organize rations, and Ellie and I can do some butchering.
Carrie: We could bring animals in here, sheep, cattle, or (groan of disgust) goats.
Decide who pairs to go into town, include dialog. This section includes Chris, who is now cut from our movie.
Ellie: We could also set up a fake camp, so if anyone is caught, they can lie about where they have been staying.
Kevin: What about under the (building)
Part 14
(Phil is driving the vehicle; they’re on their way back from getting chickens to take into Hell. Ellie, Phil, and Amy are in the vehicle. Ellie picks up a bible, closes her eyes, and opens it to a random spot.)
Ellie: Through my psychic finger I will find a sentence that applies to us. (She points to a spot and opens her eyes.) “I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
Amy: Wow, I thought the Bible was meant to be full of love and forgiveness and all that stuff.
Ellie: Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their heart, and stir up wars continually.
(Everyone is impressed.)
Ellie: See? I told you. I do have a psychic finger.
Phil: Try another one.
Ellie: No, you’ve heard the words of wisdom, that’s all for today.
(Amy grabs the bible and tries the same thing. The first time she gets a blank page. The second time, she reads :)
Amy: Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
Ellie: It’s no good. You’ve got to have the psychic finger.
Phil: (to Ellie) maybe the one you read would make Robyn feel better about gunning soldiers down.
Ellie: Mmm. I’ve marked the page. I’ll show her when they get back.
(Later. They’re walking into Hell. Ellie sees that Lee is on the other side of the clearing to where they left him. He is breathless sweating.)
Ellie: Lee! You’ve risen from the dead!
Lee: I should have chosen a cooler morning, but I got sick of sitting there. Thought it was time for some exercise, now that I’ve recovered from that truck ride.
(Ellie rinses a towel in the creek and wipes his face.)
Ellie: Are you sure you should be doing this?
Lee: (shrugging) it felt right.
Ellie: The day you can sprint from one end of this clearing to the other, we’ll chop of a chicken’s head and have chicken dinner.
Lee: Robyn can cut the stitches out when she gets back from Wirrawee. They’ve been in long enough.
(Ellie helps Lee to a shady place near the creek and sits down by him.)
Lee: Ellie, (he clears his throat nervously) there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. That day back at your place, in the haystack, when you came over to where I was lying, and you laid down and we…
Ellie: All right, all right, I know what we did.
Lee: I thought you might have forgotten.
Ellie: What, do you think I do that kind of stuff so often I can’t remember? It wasn’t exactly an everyday event for me you know.
Lee: Well, you haven’t looked at me since. You’ve hardly even spoken to me.
Ellie: I was pretty out of it for a few days. I just slept and slept.
Lee: Yes, but since then.
Ellie: Since then? (Sighs) Since then I’ve been confused. I don’t know what to think.
Lee: Will you ever know what to think?
Ellie: If I could answer that I’d probably know everything.
Lee: Have I said something to upset you? Or done something?
Ellie: No, no. It’s just me. I don’t know what I’m doing half the time, so I do things and I don’t always mean what I think I mean. Do you know what I mean?
Lee: So you’re saying it didn’t mean anything?
Ellie: I don’t know. It meant something, at the time, and it means something now, but I don’t know if it means what you seem to want it to mean. Why don’t we just say I was being a slut, and leave it at that?
(Lee looks hurt, Ellie is sorry for what she said.)
Lee: It’s a bit difficult sitting down here. If you want to get rid of me, you’re the one who’ll have to go.
Ellie: Oh Lee, I don’t want to get rid of you. I don’t want to get rid of anyone. We all have to get along, living in this place the way we are, for God knows how long.
Lee: Yes. This place, Hell. It seems like Hell sometimes. Now, for instance.
(There is a silence.)
Lee: Do you still think about Steve a lot?
Ellie: No, not Steve. Oh I mean I think about him in the same way I think about a lot of people, wondering if they’re all right and hoping they are, but I don’t think about him in the way you mean.
Lee: (exasperated) Well if I haven’t offended you and you’re not with Steve any more, then were does that leave me? Do you just dislike me as a person?
Ellie: No! Look, sorry I can’t give you a list of my feelings about you, in point form and alphabetical order. But I just can’t. I’m all confused. That day in the haystack was no accident. It meant something. I’m still trying to figure out what.
Lee: (slowly) you say you don’t dislike me…so that does mean you like me?
Ellie: Yes Lee, I like you very much. But right now you’re driving me crazy.
Lee: I’ve noticed you looking at Phil kind of…special since we’ve been up here. Have you got a thing for him?
Ellie: It’d be my business if I did.
Lee: ‘because I don’t think he’s right for you.
Ellie: Oh Lee, you’re so annoying today! Maybe you shouldn’t have tried walking on that leg. I honestly think it’s weakened your brain. Let’s blame it on that, or the weather or something, because you don’t own me and you don’t have any right to decide who’s right or wrong for me, and don’t you forget it.
(She storms off. She goes to the creek and starts walking in it. Show her walking in the creek in different places. Voiceover :)
Ellie: I don’t know why I was talking the way I was. It was all happening too unexpectedly. It was a conversation I wasn’t ready for. I guess I like to be in control of things, and Lee had forced this on me at a time and a place that he’d chosen. I wished Carrie were there, so I could go and talk to her about it. Lee was so intense he scared me, but at the same time I felt something strong when he was around – I just didn’t know what it was. I was always very conscious when I was near him. My skin felt hotter, I’d be watching him out of the corner of my eye, directing my comments at him, noticing his reactions, listening more for his words than for anyone else’s. If he expressed an opinion I’d think about it more carefully, give it more weight than I would, say, Kevin’s or Chris’s. I used to think about him a lot in my sleeping bag at nights, and because I’d be thinking about him as I drifted into sleep I tended to dream about him. It got so that – this sounds stupid but it’s true – I associated him with my sleeping bag. When I looked at one I’d think of the other. That doesn’t necessarily mean I wanted in my sleeping bag, but they had started to go together in my mind.
(She stops short, seeing the hermit’s hut. Outside there are several attempts at growing flowers: roses, an apple tree, white daisy, patch of mint. She goes forward to it, slowly on tiptoe. She goes in. It is very old; there is a bed, a table, and a chair. There are some shelves, a fireplace. There is a small metal trunk. Ellie hits her head on a meat safe. Ellie opens the chest. It takes some work since its old. She sees some tattered odds, bits of paper. She pulls everything out. There is a belt made of plaited leather, a broken knife, a fork and a few chess pieces. The papers are mainly old newspaper. There is a book – Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Ellie puts everything back except the book and belt. She goes back to the clearing.)
Phil: (angry) Where have you been? We’ve been getting worried.
Ellie: I’ve been having a close encounter with the Hermit from Hell. A guided tour will leave soon; well, as soon as I find the Ho-Hos. I’m starving.
Part 15
(It’s nighttime. Amy and Ellie are in their sleeping bag lying awake, facing away from each other or on their backs. )
Amy: Ellie, what am I going to do about Phil?
Ellie: You mean how he likes you?
Amy: Yeah.
Ellie: Mmm…that’s a problem.
Amy: I wish I knew what to do…
(Ellie rolls over and faces Amy. Ellie props her head on her hand.)
Ellie: Let’s see, we have to start somewhere… do you like him?
Amy: Yes! Of course!
Ellie: But I mean…
Amy: I know what you mean! Yes, I think I do. Yes, I do. I didn’t at school. But honestly, he was such a moron there. If anyone had said to me then that I’d end up liking him… I mean, he was so immature!
Ellie: Yea, do you remember that water fight at the Halloween Party?
Amy: Oh, don’t remind me!
Ellie: So if you like him, what’s stopping you?
Amy: I don’t know. That’s the hard part. I don’t know if I like him as much as he likes me, that’s one thing. I’d hate to get into a relationship with him where he assumed I felt as strongly as he does. I don’t think I ever could like him that much.
Ellie: So that is the only thing stopping you, that you don’t feel as strongly as he does?
Amy: Sort of. I feel like I have to keep him at arm’s length or he’ll just take over. It’s like you build a dam upstream to stop the town from being wiped out. I’m the town, and I build a dam by keeping cool and casual with him.
Ellie: That might make him like you more.
Amy: Oh, do you think so? I never thought of that. Oh, its so complicated! (She yawns.) What would you do in my place?
Ellie: (After brief pause.) Don’t lead him on forever. Phil likes excitement. He gets bored easy, and he will quickly lose patience.
Amy: (Sleepy) Do you think I should go for it?
Ellie: ‘Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ Go for it, what have you got to lose? Don’t spend the rest of your life wondering what might have been.
(Amy and Ellie drift off into sleep. It’s the next day at lunch. Lee and Ellie are talking off by themselves.)
Lee: Hey, Ellie, do you think you could show me the Hermit’s place this afternoon?
Ellie: (startled) But yesterday, when the other two came… your leg…
Lee: Yes, I know. But it feels good, and I’ve used it a lot lately. I was in a bad mood with you lately.
Ellie: (grinning) OK, I’ll take you. And I’ll pull a Robin by carrying you on my back.
(Later, Ellie and Lee are walking in front of the Hermit’s.)
Lee: It’s the perfect path because we don’t leave any tracks.
Ellie: Mmmm….you know, on the other side of this place there are a couple of rivers. It’d be interesting if we could find them by following the creek.
(Lee sits on a log outside the hut.)
Lee: I’m just giving my leg a rest.
Ellie: Is it hurting?
Lee: A little, from being used again. I think the exercise is helping it. (Brief pause.) Y’know Ellie, I didn’t ever thank you for rescuing. You guys were heroes. Seriously, I’m not going to forget that for the rest of my life.
Ellie: (Ackwardly) That’s OK. You did thank me before, and you would have done the same for me.
Lee: I’m sorry about yesterday.
Ellie: Don’t be. You spoke your mind, more than I did.
Lee: What did you want to say?
Ellie: All right, I’ll say what I think I think. (Dramatic pause.) Lee, I do like you. Very much. I think you’re interesting, funny, smart, and you have the best eyes. I’m just not sure I like you in that way, y’know? There’s something about you that makes me a little nervous, I’m not sure what. I’ve never met anyone like you. Suppose we would go out, and it didn’t work out. Here we are, the eight of us, our lives out of whack, but we mostly get along with each other. I wouldn’t want us to destroy it by being embarrassed to be together.
Lee: Oh, Ellie, why do you have to think through everything? The future will take care of itself. If you sit guessing, you will have missed living.
Ellie: That’s not true! When I rescued you, I didn’t stop and think it all through. We didn’t have time to go through the possibilities.
Lee: But I remember you saying that you changed the plan along the way. I think you should go with your gut more often.
Ellie: Like I’m all head, no heart, like I’m heartless!! Like I’ll end up like this hermit, alone in the wilderness, living in a shack with no friends, eating worms.
Lee: No, not like that. I’m saying when you like someone, you are too careful. Your feelings come out, but your brain messes them up. (Pause, smiles.) Ellie, I love you for your mind. I really do.
(Pause)
Ellie: C’mon cripple, let’s look in the hut.
(They go inside)
Lee: Wow, this is really well made. These joints have metal in them.
(Ellie walks over to Lee, by a window joint.)
Lee: See, look. (Lee takes out the sill.) What? (He finds a box and lifts it out.)
Ellie: Wow!
(Lee takes out papers and documents)
Lee: Fascinating! He must have been a war hero.
(He takes out a picture)
Ellie: Those must be the ones he killed.
Lee: Odd… why would he keep the picture of the people he killed?
(He takes out a newspaper article and begins reading.)
Lee: A small group of mourners were in attendance at the Luthern Church on Monday, where Rev. Joseph Green conducted a service for Burial of the Dead. Laid to rest were Elizabeth Mary Christie, of [TOWN], and her infant child Alexander John Christie, aged three.
The Christie family were not well known, being newly arrived, living on a small farm away from town. Although the family was reclusive, the tradegdy caused considerable sentiment in the area, which was touched on by Rev. Green in his address, which included the text ‘Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery; he cometh up and is cut down like a flower.’
The deceased were then interred in the Lakeside Cemetary.
A public meeting will be held in Central School on Monday next, under the chairmanship of Dr Louis McDonald, to discuss the possibility of obtaining services of a medical practitioner for the district. The Christie Tragedy has led to agitation for a provision of local medical services.
An inquest into the deaths of Mrs. Christie and her child will take place at the next visit of the physician to the district, on April 15th. In the meantime Sheriff Johnson has cautioned against idle tongues making loose speculation upon the facts of the case; a sentiment most earnestly shared by his correspondent.
Ellie: That makes more questions than answers. (She picks up a stiff formal card.)
In conveying his fellow-soldier safely back to his own private lines Private Christie engendered his own life and displayed conspicuous gallantry, for which the United States Army is pleased to honor Private Bruce Christie with this honorable award.
Lee: Odd…very odd.
(They search through the documents some more. They at last come to a formal document. Lee and Ellie sit down. Ellie starts reading.)
Ellie: Be it known by all persons that I, HARRY ADAM DOUGLAS BENNY, being duly appointed Coroner of the District, make the following findings and recommendations with respect to the deaths of ELIZABETH MARY CHRISTIE, aged 24, married woman of this parish, and ALEXANDER JOHN CHRISTIE, aged 3, infant of this parish, both residing at 675 90th Street, [number of miles] south of [town]:
1. That both deceased met their deaths on or about July 24th, at the hands of BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE, as a result of bullet wounds to the head.
2. That both deceased lived with BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE, farmer, in the relationships respectively of wife and son to the said BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE, in a wooden cottage at the above address, this being a particularly remote part of the district.
3. That there is no evidence of marital disharmony between BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE and ELIZABETH MARY CHRISTIE, and that on the contrary BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE was a loving husband and father, ELIZABETH MARY CHRISTIE was a dutiful and even-tempered wife, and the child ALEXANDER JOHN CHRISTIE a sweet child of good disposition, and that is the testimony of WILSON JAMES POTTER, farmer, and neighbor to the deceased, and MARTHA JANE MALLERY, married woman and neighbor to the deceased.
4. That the nearest medical practitioner or nursing sister to the Christies was at [town], being a day and a half’s ride away, and further
5. That severe prairie fires occurred around the local area, which isolated the Christie property, and that this information is known to BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE.
6. That both deceased met their deaths EITHER as a result of fire consuming the Christie residence, during which both were terribly burnt, and that BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE, believing their injuries to be mortal and unable to bear their suffering, and knowing also that medical aid was beyond immediate reach, killed both deceased with single shots to the head from a rifle owned by BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE; and that is the testimony of BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE.
OR that both deceased were willfully and feloniously murdered by BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE with the aforesaid rifle, and the bodies deliberately burned in an attempt to conceal the facts of the case.
7. That medical science cannot decide as to which came first, the bullets or the burning, and that is the testimony of Dr JACKSON WALTER MURFIELD, medical practitioner and forensic scientist of the district.
8. That police inquiries have been unable to locate any other persons with evidence bearing upon the deaths of ELIZABETH MARY CHRISTIE or ALEXANDER JOHN CHRISTIE, and that is the testimony of Sheriff FREDRICK JAMES JOHNSON of the police station.
RECOMMENDED:
1. That urgent consideration be given to the provision of medical services of the district.
2. That the Chairman of Public Prosecutions lays an information of WILFUL AND FELONIOUS MURDER against BRUCE HAROLD CHRISTIE.
Chapter 16
There were two other documents in the box. One was a letter from Imogen Christie’s mother.
Ellie: What’s this? (she picks up the letter and opens it) It appears to be from Imogen Christie’s mother. It reads: Dear Mr. Christie.
Lee: Mr. Christie!
Ellie: Well, they were very formal in those days.
Lee: Keep reading it then. I want to hear what it says.
Ellie: I am in receipt of your letter of November 12. Indeed your position is a difficult one. As you know I have always stood by you and defended your account of the dreadful deaths of my dear daughter and grandson, as being the only possible true one, and I have always believed and devoutly prayed it so to be. And I rejoiced, as you know, when the jury pronounced you innocent, for I believe you have been a man unjustly accused, and if the Law does not know a case such as yours then more shame on the law I say, but the jury did the only thing possible, despite that the Judge said. And you know I have always held to the one point of view and have said so from one end of the district to the other. I cannot think that I could have done any more. No man, and not woman either, can still wagging tongues, and if they are as bad as you say and you will be forced to leave the district it is a shame but there is no stopping women once they begin to gossip, and I say it although I am a traitor to my sex, but there it is, that is the way of the world and no doubt always will be. And you know you will always be welcome under the roof of Imogen Emma Eakin
Lee: What’s that at the bottom of the letter?
Ellie: A poem, I guess. In this life of froth and bubble, two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own.
Lee takes the letter and everything else, wraps it up, and places it back into the tin which he places back into the cavity with the windowsill over it. Ellie says nothing.
Lee: Let’s go.
They walked along in the creek. Ellie was walking in front with Lee behind her splashing nosily in the water. Suddenly Ellie turns around and wraps her arms around Lee giving him a hug. At first Lee just stands there, shocked, but after a moment he puts his arms around Ellie and drops a light kiss on her head. They stand hugging in the creek.
Ellie: That coroner’s report…
Lee: Yes?
Ellie: We were talking about reason and emotion.
Lee: Yes?
Ellie: Have you ever known emotion dealt with so coldly as in that report?
Lee: No, I don’t think I have.
Ellie turns her head so that she can nuzzle into his chest.
Ellie: I don’t want to end up like a coroner’s report.
Lee: No (Lee puts his hand up and strokes Ellie’s head) Let’s get out of this creek. I’m freezing by slow degrees. It’s up to my knees and rising.
Ellie giggles.
Ellie: Let’s go quickly then. I wouldn’t like it to get any higher.
Back in the clearing it was obvious that something had happened between Amy and Phil. Phil was sitting against a tree with Amy curled up against him. They weren’t talking, and when we arrived they got up and wandered over, Phil a little self-consciously, Amy quite naturally. They seemed a bit like 12-year-olds on their first date (aaawwwww! How sweet! Young romance!)
Later….Amy and Ellie have gone off for a little talk.
Amy: He’s so down on himself. Everything I say about him he brushes off or puts himself down. Do you know he’s got some weird thing about my parents being solicitors, and living in that stupid big house. He always used to joke about it, especially when we went there the other night, but I don’t think it’s really a joke to him at all.
Ellie: Oh Amy! How long did it take you to work that out?
Amy: (Amy looks a bit worried) Why? Has he said something to you?
Ellie: Well, your lifestyle’s a lot different to his. And you know the kind of guys he’s always knocked around with at school. They’d be more at home hanging out at the milk bar than playing croquet with your parents.
Amy: My parents do not play croquet.
Ellie: No, but you know what I mean.
Amy: On, I don’t know what to do. He seems scared to say anything in case I laugh at him or look down my nose at him. As if I ever would. It seems so funny that he’s like that with me when he’s so confident with everyone else.
Ellie: If I could understand Phil I’d understand all guys.
Later at the campsite Phil and Amy are getting ready to leave.
Phil: We’ll head up to the vehicle and wait for the other guys. They should be back by morning.
Amy: And we’ll bring food back too. I think we’re running low again.
Lee: Sorry I can’t come with. I feel so helpless with my injured leg.
Ellie: I’ll stay with Lee and wait for you guys to come back.
Phil: Ok, see you then.
Everyone says bye.
Later…It is late at night, about midnight. Lee is asleep at the campfire while Ellie sits a little way from camp thinking to herself.
Ellie: (voiceover) I remember thinking about this place, Hell, and how only humans could have given it such a name. Only humans knew about Hell; they were experts on it. I remember wondering if humans were Hell. Like the Hermit for instance; whether he’d committed an act of great love, or an act of great evil. He and the people around him had sent him to Hell. He didn’t have to come here. He carried Hell with him, as we all do.
I too had blood on my hands, like the Hermit, and just as I couldn’t tell whether his actions were good of bad, so too I couldn’t tell what mine were. Had I killed out of love of my friends? Or had I killed because I valued my life above others? Would it be ok to kill a dozen others to keep myself alive? A hundred? A thousand? At what point do I condemn myself to Hell? Or have I already done so?
I don’t feel like a criminal, but I don’t feel like a hero either.
Ellie stays sitting there as we leave her in her thoughts.
Chapter 18
(Kevin is in the creek, robyn is reading "My Brilliant Career", Chris is smoking, Carrie is sitting next to robyn with her radio out. Ellie is curled up to Lee, Amy and Phil are together)
Ellie: (to Robyn) good book?
Robybn: Yeah, it's ok. We have to read it for English.
Phil: (after a while) Well. We've got to make more decisions guys. I've been looking up at the sky every five minutes, waiting for troops to drop down in their big green choppers, but there's no sign of them yet. And carrie hasn't heard any news flashes yet, to tell us that help is on its way. So we might just have to do it on our own for a bit longer. The way I see it, these are our choices, now that we know a bit more about the deal. One, we can sit tight and do nothing. And there's nothing chicken about that. It's got a lot to recommend it. We're not trained for this stuff, and it's important for ourselves, and for our families, and for that matter even our country, that we stay alive. two, we can have a go at getting our families and maybe other people out of the [showground.] That's a tough one, probably way beyond our reach. I mean, we've got rifles and shotguns but they'd be popguns compared to what those guys are using. Three, we can do something else to help the good guys. (he grins.) That's us, I might add, in case anyone's confused. We could involve ourselves in some way that would help us win this war and get our country back. There's other things we could do too of course, other options, like moving somewhere else, or surrendering, but they're so remote I don't think they're worth discussing, although we will if anyone wants to of course. So, that's the deal, that's for real, that's what I feel. Three choices, and I think it's time we made one and stuck to it.
(silence.)
Robyn: I'm still not sure what's right or wrong in this whole setup, but I don't think I could sit around here for months, not doing anything. It's just an emotional thing - I couldn't do it. I agree with Homer that the showground's beyond our reach, but I feel we've got to get out and have a go at something. On the other hand I don't want us to go around killing a lot of people. I've read those Vietnam books like Fallen Angels, where the woman hid a mine in her own kid's clothes and gave it to a soldier to hold, then it blew them both up. I still have nightmares about that. I'm already having nightmares about the people we've killed. But I guess my nightmares are small suffering compared to what some people have had. My nightmares are just the price I have to pay, I know that. Even though they say it’s a "clean" invasion, I think all wars suck. There was nothing clean about them blowing up Carrie's house, or killing the Francis family. I know this might sound a bit different from what I said before, but I don't think it is. I can understand why these people have invaded but I don't like what they're doing and I don't think there's anything very moral about them. This war's been forced on us, and I don’t have the guts to stand up against it. I just hope we can avoid doing too much killing.
(more silence.)
Amy: (looks white and miserable, well Krissy always does. Albino. Anorexic.) I know logically we should do this and we should do that. But all I know is that the thought of doing anything scares me. All I really want to do is to go down to the Hermit's hut and hide under his moldy old bed till this is over. I'm really fighting myself to stop from doing that. I suppose when the time comes I'll probably do whatever I have to do, but the main reason I'll do it is because I feel the pressure of keeping up with you guys. I don't want to let you down. I'd feel so ashamed if I couldn't match you in whatever it is we decide to do. I don't think there's any way we can help our families right now, so keeping up with you all has become my biggest thing. And what worries me is that I can't guarantee I won't snap under pressure. The trouble is, I'm so scared now, that anything could happen. I'm scared that I might just stand there and scream.
Lee: (sympathetically, slightly sarcastically) Peer pressure.
Phil: Don’t worry, we all feel like that. We have more responsibility now, and feel like we aren’t strong enough. But we are, and we have to take action. What do you think we should do?
Ellie: We have to do something that will harm them without killing them or being face to face with them.
Kevin: We should blow up their base!
Carrie: Yeah, with our parents in it.
Kevin: oh…
Phil: No, it’s a good idea.. (people look at him thinking he’s crazy) Destroying something, I mean.
Lee: Well, there’s that bridge, right? The one where they transport supplies and stuff. There isn’t another way if we destroy it.
Kevin: Yes, let’s blow it up!
Carrie: Calm down, SWEETHEART, (it’s dripping in honey, peeps marshmallows, and other sugary confections.)
(……..moreoftheplan………)
Lee: If we do this, if we succeed, I’ll be able to feel pride again.
Ending
(they go through with the plan, and are now running away. Carrie is shot, close to the clearing – she collapses into the woods/bushes, she is struggling to breathe and tears are running down her face.)
Ellie: Carrie!
(they all come to her side. She is unconscious now. Kevin is holding her head, aww and talking to it. It’s still connected to her body.)
Kevin: Carrie! Wake up! Oh my god, oh my god…carrie…(etc.)
Phil: Where is she shot?
Ellie: In the back.
(Kevin rips off his shirt, proudly and gaily prancing about. No, we’re kidding. Except for the shirt thing. Anyway, he uses it as a bandage.)
Amy: What are we going to do?
Phil: We’ll have to take her into town. We know the Hospital’s still functioning. We’ll have to trust them to look after her. There’s no other choice.
(they solemnly carry her to the backseat of the vehicle and lay her in. She is still having a hard time breathing.)
Phil: This is going to sound cruel, but the only thing to do is to take her to the gate of the Hospital, abandon the car with carrie in it, ring the bell, and run like hell. We’ve got to try to think rationally about it. Six people are better than five. If we lose not just carrie but someone else too, well, it weakens us badly. Not to mention the unpleasant questions that person would have to face.
Kevin. No. I don’t care what’s rational and what’s logical. I love Carrie and I’m not going to leave her and run. It has to be me or Ellie because we’re the only drivers, and Ellie, if you don’t mind, I want to do it.
(Ellie doesn’t say anything, she’s frozen. it’s an understood agreement. Kevin gets in the driver’s seat. Robyn is crying, as is Amy. They’re consoling each other, hugging or w/e. Phil is holding back tears. Lee is next to Ellie, being the “rock” that’s there for her. Cheesy, I know, cheesy in the homozygous form.)
Lee: Good luck, Kevin.
Phil: yes, ‘luck Kevin.
Ellie: Kevin, give my love to carrie.
Kevin: I will.
Ellie: And to you.
Kevin: Thanks, Ellie.
(The car leaves. They watch solemnly.)
posted by Tomorrow @ 5:03 PM
1 comments
