Future Darkly: Don’t Panic!

COUPLE MUST TRADE SEX FOR SURVIVAL AFTER THE WORLD ENDS

SCENE opens on a couple, Jacob (Logan Pierce) and Katlyn (Elena Koshka), walking hand in hand down a modern city street. They’ve just left dinner, and, through their small talk, it is revealed that the pair recently moved in together. They come to a corner and pause to share a tender moment. While they kiss, a shower of satellites streaks the sky behind them before tumbling to earth and exploding. The couple barely has time to react before everything buzzes and fades to white.

CUT TO TITLE PLATE

SIX WEEKS LATER

Katlyn slowly opens her eyes. She is huddled under a tarp and wearing the exact same outfit as before, except it is now filthy and soiled. Her once pretty hair is greasy and pulled back with string. Dirt streaks her face. As she pulls back the tarp, she realizes that her boyfriend Jacob is missing. The girl freaks out and jumps to her feet, looking for the wood plank she keeps by her side. As she grabs it, Jacob comes around the corner with a jug of water. He is also wearing the same outfit, caked with dirt and filth. He is unshaven and carrying a crude piece of metal. Katlyn rushes into his arms asking if he found food but her boyfriend urges her to be quiet. There is somebody up the road and he isn’t sure if they’re good or not. Katlyn starts to frantically gather their things. ‘He might not be bad. He might know something, like the woman who drove us back in the beginning.’ He continues. Katlyn asks him what he looks like. He looks pretty normal, Jacob replies. They decide to go approach him.

CUT to inside a derelict building. The couple approach the window and a man’s shoulder steps into frame. He is the man Jacob saw earlier, another drifter. The couple wave their weapons above their arms and tell the man they mean no harm. They want to know if he has any information. The man hesitates before slowly sticking his head out of the door. ‘You tell me first,’ he says. The couple look at each other before Jacob replies that they heard it was an asteroid. Nothing works. No GPS, no internet, no electricity. The man pauses before replying ‘I heard it was a nuclear attack, but I’ve only met 13 other people.’ He pauses, before adding ‘I also know where some water is.’ Katlyn jumps in, demanding to know where. The man sticks his head out a little further and says he’ll tell them but only if they give him some of their own water first. Jacob clutches the jug tightly. He weighs his options before Katlyn urges him to do it. Jacob agrees, and the man pulls out a dirty plastic container. Jacob fills it up and the man drinks eagerly, before telling them there is a well two miles up the road. He disappears inside, and the couple turn to keep walking.

CUT to the middle of nowhere. The couple walk through the blazing sun, with nothing in sight. Their jug is empty, and both are growing desperate. They argue about the water before coming upon a body lying in the road. Looking down on it, they root through the person’s pockets but only find a dead phone.

Katlyn pleads that she is hungry, and Jacob tells her that water is more important. They need to keep walking. He tosses the phone in the dirt.

SMASH CUT to a gravel road, as the couple come up a large empty house. ‘It’s probably been raided already,’ Jacob says but Katlyn urges them to check. They go to the front door and enter.

CUT to inside the house. It is still. There are no lights on, except for the natural light streaming in. Jacob tells Katlyn to wait while he checks the rest of the house. While she stands alone nervously, she starts to look around. A coffee cup rests on the table. It is moldy inside. She spots a pencil and snatches it up, stuffing it in her pockets. Then she sees something that shocks her: a flickering light coming from behind a closed door. She screams out to Jacob, who rushes back in.

‘The whole house has been stripped,’ he says. ‘Like I told you.’ Katlyn points to the light. The couple stare in shock. They haven’t seen a single light on since it happened. Guarding his girlfriend, Jacob slowly opens the door to reveal a library with several oil lamps burning. In the middle of the floor, is a pile of tuna cans.

The couple’s eyes go wide, and they pounce on them. This is more food than they’ve had in weeks. They try to chew them open and bang them against the floor and with books to open them. Katlyn even tries to use the pencil she found in desperation. Nothing. They collapse in frustration as a rifle barrel slowly slides out from behind a curtain in the corner of a room. A man, dressed in clean tactical clothes and greased back hair steps out. He tells them to freeze.

Jacob shields his girlfriend and begs the man to put his gun down. They are not bad people, they are just passing through. The man asks them what they know. Nervously, they reply that it might be an asteroid or a nuclear attack. There is no GPS, internet or electricity and there is supposed to be water near here. They think it’s been 2 or 3 months, but they aren’t sure. The man studies them before slowly putting the gun down. ‘There’s a well at the end of my property,’ he replies. Jacob asks if they would be allowed to fill up their jug. The man smiles and sits down. ‘I believe it was Kessler Syndrome,’ he says matter-of-factly. Katlyn asks if he is a doctor. ‘I was a high school science teacher,’ he replies. There is an awkward silence, as the couple stray towards the door. ‘It was a theory proposed in the seventies by NASA,’ he continues. ‘The idea that if enough space objects were to collide, the debris they would cause would litter our atmosphere with so much junk that all the satellites would come crashing down.’ Katlyn asks her boyfriend if that is true. He shrugs his shoulders. ‘No telecommunications, no electrical grids, no laws.’ The man adds, laughing to himself. Jacob asks again if they can use his well. The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a can opener. ‘How about you help yourself to these cans, as well?’ Katlyn freaks out and reaches for the opener, when the man pulls his hand away. ‘I’ll give this to you if you let me fuck your pussy!’ He says, putting the opener back in his pocket. Jacob lunges at him but the man picks up his gun. ‘I will defend myself,’ he threatens. Jacob tells him that his girlfriend is not for sale. ‘It’s a trade,’ he says calmly. ‘Just a few minutes in exchange for a whole week’s worth of food.’ Jacob stares down at the food. ‘I haven’t been with a woman in a long time, I’m sure you can understand my position.’ The man argues. He stares lustfully at Katlyn. Jacob turns and starts to debate doing it with his girlfriend. She is stunned at his attitude. How could he even be contemplating this idea? He tells her to not panic. Just calm down and listen … food is getting harder to find. He’s going to give them water too. Life isn’t like it used to be. Katlyn slaps her boyfriend. He pleads with her to think about them both, not just herself. She can close her eyes. She can get through it. As he speaks, Katlyn gradually realizes that her boyfriend is right. They need the food. Old rules don’t apply. She must do it. ‘If you give my boyfriend the cans and the opener first, then I’ll do it,’ she negotiates. ‘He won’t leave without me.’

The man smiles. He tells her to strip while he carries the gun back to his curtain and tucks it out of view. He pulls out a single wet wipe. ‘Clean yourself down there first,’ he says. Katlyn nervously wipes her vagina while he inspects her. ‘Wait outside,’ he orders Jacob. Jacob looks guilt-ridden at his girlfriend before she tells him to go. She will be out soon. He stuffs the cans into their tarp and leaves, closing the door. Katlyn turns back to the man, tells him she is ready and then starts sucking his dick.