Sanitation Run

Chapter 17: Procession

FLASHFORWARD: BASEMENT STUDIO, RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT (INDETERMINATE)

An older Valerie and Scarred Bruce stand in Valerie’s old room, swathed in shadow.

VALERIE: (nostalgic) I know this place.

Valerie flicks on the lights and walks up to the coffee pot and turns it off.

VALERIE: I lived here for a few months... decades ago. In another life. A dream.

BRUCE: It’s our base of operations. After every plant and switch and lever we pull, we return here.

VALERIE: Is it safe?

BRUCE: (chuckling) Nothing’s forever, Vale.

VALERIE: What do we need to do?

BRUCE: Manipulate ourselves into saving the world.

MONTAGE (VARIOUS)

A series of short scenes play; Scarred Bruce narrates:

DARK ROOM (INDETERMINATE)

Valerie (brow furrowed) taps furiously into her phone, drafting a recruitment ad for a shady courier job.

BRUCE: You need to recruit yourself--your desperate self. You need to bring her into play. Train her for the final run.

RENTAL CAR, STREETS, DOWNTOWN (MORNING)

Bruce sits behind the wheel of a large SUV, watching traffic.

BRUCE: I need to make myself hate autos with a fervor.

He spots a sleek black auto taxi on the road and guns the engine.

VALERIE: Your family! You--

BRUCE: I’ve tried so many times. There’s no other way.

Bruce’s SUV accelerates, weaving against traffic.

VALERIE: No! There’s gotta be--

The screech of tires on asphalt fills the air. Then the rending of metal as the SUV CRASHES HEAD-ON into the auto taxi, causing it to accordion in on itself.

BRUCE: They die on impact. Peacefully. Unlike how they die if we fail. Every. Goddamn. Time.

VALERIE: Bruce...

A wheel rolls across the street. Sirens echo and flashing lights glare off building walls.

BRUCE: I killed them so they might live. Next.

DARK ROOM (INDETERMINATE)

Valerie continues to pore over her phone, face lit by the light of its screen.

BRUCE: It’s not enough that you land the job. You must extricate yourself from your family and friends.

VALERIE: (laughing) What friends?

BRUCE: They will come for them. Question them. Erase them. You must be alone, act alone.

FLASHBACK: CLAIRE’S APARTMENT (EVENING)

VALERIE: (storming to the door) Eat your own dinner tonight. I’m out.

FLASHFORWARD: BASEMENT STUDIO, RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT (INDETERMINATE)

Bruce offers Valerie a plastic bag.

BRUCE: We can’t risk you recognizing yourself. Or me, for that matter.

Valerie takes the bag and removes a jug of bleach and flashy evening clothes: heels and a red dress, a bizarre gold mask.

VALERIE: I won’t be caught dead wearing this.

BRUCE: That’s why it works.

DINER, DOWNTOWN (MORNING)

BRUCE: You’ve lost your way.

The woman in red with long and tangled blonde hair falls into the wall, plastering there a playbill: GO WITH THE FLOW.

BRUCE: Help yourself find it.

LADIES’ ROOM, SHOPPING MALL (LATE MORNING)

BRUCE: You’ve something that can help. Medicine.

The woman in red walks clumsily to the mirror, wielding lipstick like a wand. She slashes the mirror before scurrying into:

STALL, LADIES’ ROOM (CONTINUOUS)

VALERIE: Drugs.

The woman in red sets the pill bottle down and continues slashing the wall with lipstick.

VALERIE: I would never take unmarked pills.

BRUCE: You underestimate your coming desperation.

She disappears in a pink cloud.

PICKUP TRUCK, STREETS, DOWNTOWN (LATE MORNING)

Bruce pulls up on the curb.

BRUCE: We need to make things just right. Guide them through our sculpted realities.

He exits the truck into a pink mist, leaving the door unlocked.

FLASHFORWARD: BASEMENT STUDIO, RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT (INDETERMINATE)

VALERIE: Who are the armored soldiers?

BRUCE: You haven’t gathered?

VALERIE: (shakes her head)

BRUCE: Your “bad actors,” I presume. Wanting to wrest the Nexus from you and try their hand at a future that involves them. The one we’re crafting? They’re not in it.

VALERIE: How do you know all this?

Bruce’s scars look deeper, harsher in the dimness. He can no longer smile. He’s OLD beyond his years.

BRUCE: Trial and error, Vale. Trial and error.

GRAVEL ROAD, FOREST, CITY OUTSKIRTS (INDETERMINATE)

The toxic green sky once again bears that WICKED GASH of complete starless darkness.

Bruce works under the hood of his truck, replacing the entombed battery with something that works.

BRUCE: We’re setting up the pins, Vale.

MOTEL ROOM, CITY OUTSKIRTS (MIDNIGHT)

Valerie creeps through the front door and into the:

BATHROOM, MOTEL ROOM (CONTINUOUS)

She closes the door and cracks a glow stick for light and begins writing on the mirror.

The drip of the bath tap gives her pause. She looks over at the tar oozing into the tub and shivers, as if swallowing something bitter.

BRUCE: Once all the pins are in place we’ll roll the ball.

Valerie slips the glow stick up her sleeve and exits the bathroom into:

MOTEL ROOM, CITY OUTSKIRTS (CONTINUOUS)

And leaves through the front door.

MOTEL PARKING LOT, CITY OUTSKIRTS (CONTINUOUS)

She walks around the corner, phone glowing pink in her hand.

VALERIE: If we’re right, then what?

FLASHFORWARD: BASEMENT STUDIO, RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT (INDETERMINATE)

BRUCE: You made this thing. Why don’t you posit something?

VALERIE: We’ll wink out. All these trajectories sutured except for one. If we’re wrong?

BRUCE: We’re not leaving ourselves another chance. It’s The End.