Screenplay Complete Draft

 This was my first complete draft of a screenplay, completed in early December. I felt as though I had most of the broad storyline down and it was mostly dialogue and more specific elements that would be worked on before filming.

UNTITLED SHORT FILM

EXT. ABANDONED PLAYGROUND – MORNING

Grey skies.

Scattered around the floor are what appear to be human bodies, yet they don’t look like dead bodies, they seem to be still conscious and alive, yet somehow unhuman at the same time.

A scruffily clad teenage girl steps backwards into frame and slowly backs into the open space ahead of her, she has a panicked expression and seems to

As she backs up slowly, a news report suddenly breaks the silence.

At this point two other figures break into the frame, slightly stumbling forwards and mumbling quietly, seemingly in English but impossible to properly make out.

The path of the girl is followed as she backs up into a set of swings, into a corner and it is presumed that she cannot escape this danger. An expression of frustration and slight confidence grows on her face and she launches the swings at the two figures and the camera follows her as she runs out of the playground.

 

NEWS REPORTER (V.O)

We have been receiving consistently growing reports of cannibalistic and dangerous humans spreading rapidly from Piccadilly Circus station in London. At this time, we are advising all members of the public to stay inside and not to permit anyone outside their household to enter.

 

Outside the playground now, and the girl is trying to sneak through the surrounding streets as quietly and swiftly as possible.

She stands frozen as two of the ‘cannibals’ stumble past her a few meters away.

The news report flickers on the screen and eventually we are watching a male news reporter standing with the River Thames in backdrop, eyes frozen in fear as he slowly begins to back away from the camera

NEWS REPORTER (SHOUTED)

Oh- Oh Lord. N-no. Get away from me (thuds to the floor and begins to scream in agonizing pain).

PULL BACK (and pan) TO REVEAL

INT. LIVING ROOM - MORNING

Two older people, presumably the girl’s parents, sit motionless, ever so slightly twitching as they stare, blank-eyed, into the continuing news report.

They continue to twitch with no apparent rhythm until suddenly the woman snaps her neck to the right and we see a girl, recognizably the one from the opening sequence, charging out of an open front door and out into the open.

 

EXT. STREET - MORNING

She jogs down the street, shouting at someone across the road.

 

GIRL (shouted)

Where are you going? We need to stay with mum and dad, we need to stay together right now.

 

The other person stops in their tracks and turns to face the girl. He appears to be trying to get away. He walks towards her and cups his hand on her face.

 

BOY (stern)

Tash, they’re gone. If we stay, we’re just gonna put ourselves at risk. I’m not going to let you or myself die because you’re too stupid to realise that they are exactly what the reports are describing. Just come with me.

She pauses.

TASH

No – I’m not leaving them – what if they’re still conscious. (She stutters) what if they’re alive and we leave them in dange-

 

BOY (interrupting her)

I’d rather have a better chance of living and leave them than stay and put me in danger, and if you’re not taking that I’m going to leave, so goodbye Tashy.

 

Tash stares at him, stunned, as he walks down the road and away from her – then gives up, turns back, and heads into her home.

 

INT. HOUSE HALLWAY

It is eerily quiet in the house now, different to just a minute ago when she had left. Her parents no longer sitting completely still in front of the TV, but actually missing from the spot they had previously inhabited. The TV continues reporting on developing events, involving a very discreet message that some of these ‘cannibals’ are actually conscious and deceptive.

Breaking the almost-silence of the report on the TV, a massive thump from upstairs. Tash realizes instantly that something is drastically wrong and considers investigating but ultimately decides to grab a bag and some clothes from her room and run for it.

She sneaks upstairs slowly and quietly, with thumps and bangs coming from various rooms around the house. Ultimately, she makes it to her room just as she hears footsteps coming down the stairs from the top floor.

 

INT. TASH’S BEDROOM

After making it into her bedroom, Tash whips out her phone and calls someone called Jack – presumably the boy from before – but with no answer, again and again.

She does this whilst she grabs clothes out of her closet and stuffs them into her bag, then grabs a long wooden pole from a protest she had been to and wraps a handle into it using some duct-tape.

She leaves him a message, hoping he’ll see it.

 

TASH (panicked, but quiet)

Jack, I need to know where you are, you were right they are gone, and I don’t know what to do please help me – just please text me or something.

 

She pauses in silence for a couple of seconds and opens her bedroom door to complete silence – the power is gone and so the news report has stopped. There is no thumping, no clanging or banging, no noise at all. She begins to sneak downstairs and sees the front door swung open and so charges for it – bursting out into the street and racing in the same direction Jack had disappeared off to earlier.

 

EXT. STREETS – MIDDAY

Tash makes her way from street to street, heading towards what is next revealed to be a large school, or something along those lines. She dashes past the school, sprinting up the hill towards a church and the edge of some woods.

Cutting through a white gate, she begins the stalk her way up a secluded pathway along the fence at the tree line of the woods until she begins to hear voices getting closer paired with the cracking of branches coming from just inside the fence.

She darts to a tree just along the earth on the other side of the pathway – peering just beyond her cover to investigate the sounds she hears.

 

MALE VOICE

I didn’t want to leave her behind. Surely, we- we could have done something right?

 

DIFFERENT MALE VOICE

No, Kyle, no we couldn’t have.

There is a long pause.

She- she was… too much of a risk for us. To us.

 

The second voice was so familiar but too far away to accurately discern, and his face hidden just behind the branches. There was a third person alongside them – a girl. She looked around Tash’s age but looked completely silent, completely calm – something Tash hadn’t seen for hours at this point. Tash was examining her as she took a slight step to her right, cracking a branch loudly and viscerally breaking the silence that had been filling the area.

The two boys snapped their looks towards the tree Tash was hiding behind and began to approach.

 

 

MALE VOICE / KYLE (voice quaking)

Who’s there? Show yourself… please?

 

Tash stepped out from behind the tree holding her hands out, realizing that familiar voice was her brother. She darts towards the gate as he does, meeting him in the middle and reaching the safety of his embrace through the metal bars.

TASH (angrily)

Why didn’t you pick up the phone? I was scared. You just left.

 

Jack begins to explain that the cell towers are down, and he didn’t get her call when a piercing scream breaks their conversation – Kyle has dropped to the floor, the girl standing over him – eyes turned white, blood smeared around her mouth.

Jack turns back to Tash and struggles to get the gate open as the girl approaches him from behind eventually having to turn and uses a branch to force her back.

JACK (struggling)

Tash, go. Go right now

Tash refuses to leave her brother behind and struggles with the gate, trying to open it and help him. Jack shoves the girl off, attempting to reason with her. The girl – Charlie, as Jack calls her – leaps to her feet and charges at him. At the same time, Kyle rises to his feet and stumbles towards him. Tash continues with the gate, watching on as her brother is overpowered by the other two. He yelps in pain but manages to kick Charlie off him.

At the same moment the gate swings open and Tash charges Kyle, launching him backwards and hauling Jack up and out of the gate, jamming it behind them. Tash pulls Jack into another tight embrace.

TASH

Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?

Jack refuses, claiming they didn’t, and suggests that they head somewhere safer and bunker up. The two head down the path everything seemingly resolved, until we see Jack’s eyes, blankly staring, and a scratch on his neck.

FADE TO BLACK