In this short screenplay, two friends cautiously explore the outdoors.

EXT. A WOODED GLEN - DAY

The ROAR of the river is everywhere. Two girls with simple school-style backpacks are walking down a well-worn dirt path. ANNA is about fifteen, tall and beautiful. Her blonde hair is mostly concealed under a faded snapback hat.

A few paces ahead of her is BETH. She is a few inches shorter than Anna, perhaps a few pounds heavier. Her strong legs and sturdy boots compete with the sound of the river as her feet fall on gravel, in the space between the path and river's edge.

Beth, and then Anna, stoop down to examine a much larger hiking backpack that they've discovered. Beth flips open the top pocket cover and starts removing items one by one.

BETH

Idiot.

ANNA

Stop.

They continue looking through the bag. Beth sees the frame is in two pieces, the bag only held together by the soft parts that make up the various storage compartments.

BETH

It's broken.

ANNA

Fine, whatever.

As they search, Anna carefully discards items one at a time on the dirt. She holds up a folded camping pan. Both sides are connected with metal handles and wing nuts & screws.

ANNA
(softly)
What even is this?

BETH

Let me see it.

ANNA

You have eyes.

A beat.

BETH

Stupid idiot.

ANNA

Whatever.

Beth picks up the pack and just as quickly drops it on the ground. There is quite a noisy clatter.

ANNA

What are you doing?

Beth holds up the shoulder straps to reveal where they were destroyed. Not simply cut, but the ends show burn marks.

BETH

Look at this.

ANNA

Whatever, lets get going.

They quickly pick through the items that spilled out of the bag when Beth dropped it. This is done silently with relative efficiency.

The scavenging completed, they get back to walking on the path.

We see the inverted legs of a man in the reeds along the river. Burn marks are evident on dead skin amidst the singed holes in the jeans. the The torso and upper body is entirely underwater. There are divots in the earth all around the body.

The girls look back one last time at the carnage.

BETH

Idiot.

ANNA

Such a waste.

EXT. ABANDONED RESIDENTIAL STREETS - AFTERNOON.

Establish.

The girls silently approach the row of homes. They are creeping along on a sidewalk under the cover of trees.

The eerie quiet is punctuated only by their low voices.

BETH

No fires.

ANNA

Nobody here.

CLOSE ON - THE NEAREST HOME'S SIDE YARD

There are no lights on inside the home. Not a single window that isn't broken. The door is off of it's hinges. In the yard there is a freestanding stake and a length of rope over a worn down patch in the overgrown grass. the end of the rope seems to have been chewed through, suggesting there was once a dog tethered here.

ANNA
(o.s.)
Next One.

ABANDONED STREET - CONTINUOUS

The girls took in the view of this side yard from just beyond the fenceline. BETH looks to ANNA.

BETH

Yeah.

They continue along the fenceline. Beth in front.

A sudden CRACK shatters the silence.

Beth has stepped on a fallen branch, making a much louder noise than seemed possible.

BETH

Shit.

ANNA

Move!

They scatter. Anna turns back and runs for the woods. Beth makes a sudden turn and cuts through the side yard. She catches her shoe under the rope, near the stake and trips, falls to the ground.

Anna makes it as far as the edge of the woods before turning to realize Beth isn't with her.

POV - ANNA LOOKS BACK

From across the street, Anna can't see into the yard. In the distant sky - perhaps 500 yards away - there are some specs on the horizon. A sound akin to a swarm of bees grows steadily louder.

THE SIDE YARD OF THE HOME - CONTINUOUS

Beth gathers herself up and runs through the open door. Her pack is in the yard.

The NOISE grows louder. Four identical shapes appear in the sky.

They are qudcopters with ominous black fisheye lenses on the udnerside of each. They hold their position for a beat.

One of the four peels off in the direction of the woods, where Anna fled to. A split second later another one follows.

The last two copters descend slowly to the yard.

One of them hovers a few feet above the backpack, making slow cicles in a halo above. The last copter stops at each broken window, eventually making entry into the house from the open door.

INSIDE ABANDONED HOUSE - CONTINUOUS

The copter proceeds down a hallway. It finds a living room and then turns back.

As the copter reaches a kitchen, it's companion enters the same room through a broken window. They search meticulously, under the dining table, above upper cabinets, scouting spaces even too small for a person to possibly hide in...

A louvered pantry door is firmly shut in the back of the kitchen.

POV - BETH INSIDE THE PANTRY

Beth can only see faint daylight between the close slats of the pantry door. She has a grip on the door edges, there is no handle inside. She does her best to remain motionless, breathless.

There are small shadows that track vertically, up and down the light that permeates the space. She unconscioulsy takes a step back, losing her grip on the door. Her hands cover her own mouth.

On the other side of the pantry door the two drones are furiously trying to find a way to view inside. They alternately fly up, then down. Like a pair of guard dogs jumping at a fence that is too high, they are trying for any vantage point that would let them see inside the pantry.

One of the copters emits a loud BEEP. A ring of red light appears above and around it's fisheye lens.

INSERT - THE 'LOW BATTERY' INDICATOR ON THE COPTER

With no hesitation, this copter turns and flies away.

A few moments later, the second one also beeps, turns red, and flies away.

Beth sighs audibly from inside the pantry. She cautiously pushes the door open.

THE SIDE YARD OF THE HOME - MOMENTS LATER

Beth surveys the outside from her vantage point on the other side of the kitchen window. The backpack is nowhere to be seen.

ABANDONED RESIDENTIAL STREETS FROM ABOVE

The two copters that had pursued Beth are flying quickly away. Each street below looks like each other one. No signs of human habitation. Evidence of past bombings - small explosions - are evident in clusters of destruction.

A larger, slower moving, quadcopter is tracking the same vector through the sky that the two scouts took. It is slower as it is carrying Beth's pack.

FADE OUT.

Andrew Fisher

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