Sanitation Run

Chapter 16: Faith

PICKUP TRUCK, STREETS, DOWNTOWN (INDETERMINATE)

There are no cars ANYWHERE. Nothing adorns the concrete and glass buildings, like bone picked clean by a famished carnivore. Valerie and Bruce alone navigate desolate streets empty even of trash.

A buzzing fills the air as they drive; they subconsciously pick their ears. Valerie removes and appraises an earbud.

VALERIE: Do you hear that?

BRUCE: (scratching an ear) Thought it was just me.

VALERIE: The radio--

BRUCE: Off.

Valerie rolls the window down and sticks her head out.

VALERIE: It’s in the air.

BRUCE: I think we’re meant to see this.

VALERIE: Bruce...

BRUCE: We can leave at any time, yeah?

Valerie checks her dwindling phone battery.

VALERIE: (nods uncomfortably)

PICKUP TRUCK, VACANT INTERSECTION, DOWNTOWN (CONTINUOUS)

Bruce stops the truck in the middle of the intersection and gets out.

VACANT INTERSECTION, DOWNTOWN (CONTINUOUS)

The dead stoplights overhead stare like soulless eyes. Bare buildings tower over them on all sides.

Valerie joins Bruce outside the truck. Every step echoes like a GUNSHOT. They might as well be in an empty theater.

VALERIE: Are we but actors on a stage?

BRUCE: The audience is dead.

VALERIE: Everyone is dead. Is this the future?

BRUCE: (grimly) This is all futures.

Empty black windows repeat endlessly up the buildings. Something flits through one: a black on black shadow. They turn to observe more of the same: flits through myriad windows. The buzzing crescendoes as the shadows start to leak through the empty window frames and DROOL down the sides of the buildings in WRITHING, STRINGY masses of bodies.

VALERIE: (backing up against the truck) Have you seen enough?

Something large and black flies overhead, a silhouette against the SEPTIC GREEN SKY. There’s nothing aerodynamic about it. An alien harbinger punctuating human existence.

BRUCE: Go.

Valerie draws her phone like a cowboy. It’s already leaking pink before the shadows can even reach the city floor.

BUSY INTERSECTION, DOWNTOWN (MID DAY)

Honks fill the air as cars swerve to avoid the two “idiots” waltzing through traffic. Bruce’s truck is gone. It’s all they can do to reach the sidewalk without getting run over.

SIDEWALK, DOWNTOWN (CONTINUOUS)

Bruce touches the pistol stuffed into his belt to remind himself it’s there.

They spin, taking in the surroundings:

Present day the way they remember it. Phone-submerged pedestrians draped in vivid colors parade down the sidewalks. Businessmen take calls on handsfree sets.

The drone of choppers grows nearer.

BRUCE: The soldiers are coming. We’ve got to go.

VALERIE: I don’t know how much charge I’ve got left.

BRUCE: We move to “SACRED.” You run.

Valerie scrolls through NEXUS and hovers over S4CR3D. Balks.

BRUCE: What are you waiting for? Another night’s sleep?

VALERIE: (gritting her teeth) A plan. Is a plan too much to ask for?

FLASHBACK: OFFICE, WATER TREATMENT PLANT, CITY OUTSKIRTS (EVENING)

Dave (animated) gestures excitedly at the main computer console.

DAVE: When they hooked our system up to the autos they left it open. You can load whatever you want in there.

BRUCE: Did you report it?

DAVE: That’s the thing. We’re the only two left. There’s no one to report it to.

BRUCE: You’re tellin me that we’re wide open to bad actors, terrorists, black hats--

DAVE: It’s all local. They’d need physical access to the systems first.

BRUCE: So that’s you. Me.

DAVE: If you ever want to go out with a bang... (looks up at the ceiling-mounted camera) Kidding!

BRUCE: It’d affect everyone downstream. The city. I’m not a psychopath.

DAVE: (throwing up his hands) I’m not saying you have to poison the water supply. Just that you have complete control. Like you could make the auto-processing units play Doom if you wanted.

BRUCE: Doom, huh?

DAVE: (shrugging) It runs on everything.

SIDEWALK, DOWNTOWN (MID DAY)

A chopper crosses overhead to land on atop a nearby building. Black-armored units immediately begin to repel down.

BRUCE: Have a little faith, Vale.

Valerie looks hard at Bruce and mouths inaudible profanity as the pink mist starts up around them.