First part

Tomorrow, When the War Began
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 – that we matter. I don’t know if I’m the right person to be doing this. There’s 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 Ameila*, 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. Chucles. *snicker*.)

Robyn: Hey, where’s Chris?

Carrie: I don’t know…

Kevin: (joking) Probably off smoking his ditchweed…

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 say “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. >vehicle<>vehicle<. 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<>vehicle<>vehicle<. 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< sandwiches, etc. Cut to later when they’re about ready to go.)

Kevin: (stops to look where they’ll be hiking) Wow. We’re going to get in there?

Ellie: We’re going to try.

Lee: It’s impressive. I’m impressed.

Kevin: I’ve got two questions, but I’ll only ask one of them. How?

Ellie: What’s the other one?

Kevin: The other one is why, but I’m not going to ask that. Just tell me how and I’ll be satisfied. I’m easily satisfied.

Phil: That’s not what Carrie says.

(shoving each other around, play fighting)

Ellie: (to Amelia, looking at her pack) Just what have you got in that pack?

Amelia: (startled) What do you mean? Just clothes and stuff, same as everyone else.

Ellie: What clothes, exactly?

Amelia: What Carrie told me. Shirts, pants, gloves, socks, undies, and a towel.

Phil: (to Kevin, aside) Ooh, undies? What kind?

Ellie: But what else? That can’t be all.

Amelia: (embarrassed) Pajamas…dressing gown…

Ellie: Oh, Amy!

Amelia: You never know who you’re going to meet!

Ellie: What else?

Amelia: I’m not telling you anymore! You’ll laugh at me!

Ellie: Amelia, we need room for food, you know… (we’re not anorexic like Krissy…)

Ellie: Ok, come on, let’s reorganize…

(group reorganizes backpack, Amy not included. Improv joking conversation.)

Phil: (pulls out small Victoria’s Secret bag) never know who you’re going to meet, eh?

Kevin: Oooh, Amy…

Robyn: (pulls out nice white pants) Dress pants? You brought white dress pants?

(they finish reorganizing the pack and other packs, putting food in.)

Phil: We can’t fit all the food.

Kevin: Well, we don’t want to waste it. I’ll eat it now.

Carrie: (slaps stomach) I don’t want you to lose that six pack…

(Kevin whispers in her ear with a suggestive look on his face. Carrie smiles, but slaps him.)

Carrie: Later! Not in front of everyone!

Phil: (being silly on purpose) Well, let’s make like a banana and split.

Ellie: You’re so cheesy, Phil… (he has the cheesy gene in the homozygous form.)

(They start off. Kevin and Carrie are far in the rear, more absorbed in each other than in the scenery. I know what you’re thinking, you sickos.)

(go to later in the hike)

(Ellie and Lee are walking together, talking.)

Ellie: (voiceover) I walked along with Lee, and we talked about horror movies. He was
an expert: he must have seen a thousand. That surprised me because I knew him mainly for his piano and violin, which didn’t seem to go with horror movies. He said he watched them late at night when he couldn’t sleep. I got the feeling he was probably quite a lonely guy.

Kevin: It’s so hot. Don’t we have some more water? Mine’s all gone.

Carrie: Maybe if you didn’t have such a big mouth it wouldn’t be gone.

Kevin: HA HA HA. Very funny.

Robyn: If you want, you can stop and rest by yourself.

Lee: Or with Carrie.

(laughing. Kevin and Carrie both stop to sit. Kevin sits down on the grass. A few seconds later, he jumps up, yelling.)

Kevin: Ah, there’s bugs everywhere!

(people react)

Robyn: (coming back) You won’t believe what I just found.

Lee: What?

Robyn: (taking them to the bridge) a bridge!

Kevin: Good thing I didn’t let you guys give up back there.

(carrie slaps him)

Amelia: It must be true about the hermit! No one else would have gone to all that trouble.

Phil: I wonder how long he was here for.

Carrie: (defensive) How do you know it’s a he?

Phil: Everyone always talked about him as being a male.

Lee: Most him’s are talked about as males.

Ellie: Stop being such a smartarse.

Robyn: He must have been here years to go to all that trouble for the bridge.

Amelia: And the track’s so well worn.

Phil: If he did live here years, he’d have time to do the bridge and a lot more. Imagine how you’d fill your time.

Kevin: Yeah, the food would be a big thing. Once you organized your meals, the rest of the day would be yours.

Amelia: I wonder what you’d live on.

Phil: Possum. Rabbits, maybe.
Amelia: Ew!

Ellie: You know Andy Schmidt? He found a walking stick in the woods. It’s handmade, all carved and everything. Everyone said it must be the hermit’s, but I thought they were kidding.

(they arrive at the campsite)

Robyn: This looks like a good place.

Amelia: This is pretty nice for hell.

Phil: Where are Kevin and Carrie?

Ellie: (suggestively) I don’t think they’ll be here for a while…

Lee: Let’s set up so we can settle down for the night.


(Later. Lee is cooking, Ellie is close by.)

Amelia: (wanders over) What are we having?

Lee: Minute rice.

Amelia: What’s minute rice?

(Lee and Ellie look at each other and grin)

Lee: It’s an awesome feeling to realize you’re about to change someone’s life forever.

Ellie: Haven’t you ever had minute rice?

Amelia: No, my parents are really into health foods.

(Amelia leaves.)

Ellie: (to Lee) I’ve never known anyone who hasn’t had minute rice before.

(Next morning. People are waking up, Lee is at the fire making breakfast.)

Robyn: Did anyone else hear the planes last night?

Ellie: There were a lot. Close together and really low. But I thought you slept through it – Amy was the only one who said anything.

Robyn: There were dozens and dozens, all night long. Lee and I were counting them, but everyone else was sleeping.

Ellie: I must have heard different ones than you.

Kevin: (eating Hershey bar, can of pop) I didn’t hear anything.

Lee: It’s probably the start of WWIII. We’ve probably been invaded and don’t even know.

Carrie: Yeah. Anything could happen and we wouldn’t even know.

Kevin: That’s a good thing, though.

Carrie: Imagine if we came out and there’d been a nuclear war and we were the only survivors. Give me a granola bar, will you?

Kevin: Apple, strawberry, banana.

Carrie: Apple.

Amy: If there’d been a nuclear war we wouldn’t survive. We wouldn’t even know about it.

Kevin: Did you read that book about war last year in English? Z for Zachariah?

Phil: The only decent one we’ve ever read.

Robyn: Seriously, what do you think those planes were doing?

Amy: Well, yesterday was the fourth of July. You know, they have all those plane shows.

Lee: If they were going to invade, that would be a good day to do it. Everyone’s out celebrating. The army, navy and air force are all parading around the cities, showing off. Who’s running the country?

(later. Phil is sitting by the creek, feet in the water.)

(Creek, crick, what’s the difference? People who say cricks are all a bunch of hicks. Or heeks. Spelling doesn’t matter, though phonetics can be rather important. Anyway, I like wasting paper and killing trees with all this extra italic parentheses crap.)

(Ellie moseys on over. You can see the extra parentheses italic crap coming, can’t you? Well guess what, I’m not even going to talk about moseying. Ha.)

Ellie: Hey, what’s up?

Phil: I’m looking for gold.

Ellie: Do you even know anything about gold?

Phil: Nope.

Ellie: Found any?

Phil: (sarcastic funny) Yeah, bags of it. I’m piling it behind trees so the others don’t see it.

Ellie: That’s pretty selfish.

Phil: Yeah, well that’s the kind of guy I am. You know that.

(comfortable silence.)

Phil: Ellie?
Ellie: Yeah?

Phil: What do you think of Amy?

(Ellie is surprised – show in some way)

Ellie: Amy? I love her, you know that. She seems so…perfect sometimes, you know?

Phil: Yeah, you know…I think you might be right.

(Phil gets embarrassed, unwilling to say anymore…fidgets, ‘looking for gold.’)

Phil: (awkwardly) Guess she thinks I’m a big loudmouth, huh?

(he never goes shopping, he just eats what’s in the cupboard.)

Ellie: I don’t know. I haven’t got a clue, Phil. I heard you guys talking on like good friends last night.

Phil: Yeah, I know. (clears throat) That’s when I first…when I realized…well it’s the first time I really paid attention to her. I always thought she was just a stuck up snob. But she’s not, she’s really nice.

Ellie: Well, I could have told you that.

Phil: Yeah, but you know, she lives in that big house and she uses all those big words. And me and my family are just hicks to people like her.

Ellie: Amy’s not like that, you should give her a chance.

Phil: Well, I’ll give her a chance. I don’t think she’ll give me one, though.

(stares, moodily, sighs, stands up. Gets embarrassed, turns red (like brittney!) because Amy’s coming.)

(Ellie leaves, phil and amy making awkward small talk, ellie smiles knowingly.)

(Later – Ellie and Carrie are sitting, talking.)