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EXPECT
BY ANSHUMAN ARYA [2016]
ACT III
EXT. CLEARING IN THE WOODS - NIGHT
FADE FROM BLACK
We see the reflection in Rookie's glasses
as darkness turns to light,
light so bright that he brings his arm
over his face to shield it from the bluish white glow.
Centered at the cube,
flows a bluish glowing vapour,
sticking close to the surface of the forest and
then turns up along the trees at
the edge of the circular clearing.
The haze climbs up to about 30 feet
into the tall tree line and fades away.
INT. LOCAL GAS STATION - NIGHT
We see a truck pull in alongside a
dimly lit gas station, a police car already parked there.
Two cops sit in stools in the diner.
The door opens and enters,
old CHUCK THIMBLE (62).
He waves a hand at the police.
CHUCK
Hiya, Officer Clinton.
OFFICER CLINTON
Call me Clint, Chuck! I told ya fore.
CHUCK
Clint. Sarge.(tips his hat)
SARGE
Howdy?
Chuck, adjusting his denims around his paunch,
walks around to the side CLINT (32)
is sitting and orders a sandwich and milkshake.
SARGE(53) is engrossed in a travel magazine,
his reading glasses perched on his nose.
The lady at the counter doesn't
look so pleased and goes inside.
SARGE
(leaning over)
They're pulling that old mansion down finally.
Was getting full of squatters anyhow.
Sore sight. You seen?
CHUCK
Ya I seen. I seen how a beautiful home can
be brought down to nothing with a little evil.
CLINT
(taken aback)
Say what you now?
CHUCK
(sniffling)
I was there when them kids was found. I seen them.
CLINT
SARGE, what's he on about?
SARGE
(calmly)
Hmmm. We got time. Hear him out.
Rookie get yer ass here.
CHUCK
Round thirty years ago...
FLASHBACK TO
INT. GRINSWALD RESIDENCE - DAY
We see a moving company truck outside
the front door of the mansion.
GARETH (27) and CHUCK (30) are standing in the open kitchen,
checking items off their list.
Sparrow, Gareth's female Cocker Spaniel,
runs around the open floor space of the
vacated and refurbished mansion.
Other than a few boxes in the backroom
of the kitchen, everything is out.
Sunlight floods in through the huge open glass windows.
The back garden and lawn are still as
immaculate as before.
Sparrow starts whining and barking.
Alert barking.
Gareth and Chuck follow the barking to
the backroom of the kitchen through the wine cellar.
We see a door behind the remaining boxes
up to which Sparrow has found a way
and is scratching at it.
Chuck moves the boxes away from the door
as Gareth tries to calm Sparrow down.
The door doesn't have any handles and is locked.
Chuck pushes the door but it seems to be
blocked from the other side,
and is not budging the other way.
CHUCK
How come we didn't account for this door before?
GARETH
Kitchen was packed off fore we got here,
Smith's team. And now this!?
CHUCK
Here, help me push it open.
Chuck and Gareth use their shoulders and
body weight to nudge the door,
as Sparrow keeps barking.
They try harder with each shove.
All of a sudden the door gives way from
the hinges and frame and topples over
an obstacle inside,
halfway in and halfway out
across the doorway at waist height.
We see a small dark room,
about 10 feet across,
with masonry packages all over the floor,
used buckets, loose bricks.
Chuck switches his handy light on and points it in.
They pull the door back and see that
the door had been sealed halfway up from
outside with a layer of bricks, rather hurriedly.
Sparrow jumps over this makeshift wall, growling.
She immediately starts scratching around
the edges of the floor, then the center,
sniffing, whining, barking.
GARETH
Jeez, what gotten inna her?
You think she found something?
CHUCK
(jumping in)
One way to find out. Sparrow, out now.
Chuck picks up Sparrow, who revolts,
and hands her over to Gareth,
bends down on the floor of the tiny closet,
and knocks on the wood.
He then places his ear on the floor and
knocks again.
He gets up alarmed!
CHUCK
(hastily)
There's someone in there!
Gareth call the police!
We see a couple of cops and
a team of firemen enter the mansion.
One of the cops, SARGE (21) is fresh out of academy,
walking alongside his mentor, CAPTAIN WALSH(40).
Chuck walks up to them hurriedly and
leads them to the back of the kitchen
through the wine cellar.
CHUCK
(points at the floor)
In there. I can hear movement.
and breathing. and... and... crying...
Chuck leans against the wall to
keep himself from falling.
Sparrow looks alert and worried,
Gareth holding her up in her arms.
GARETH
That's right, officer. She found it.
We done nothing.
We were just making sure we moved everything.
We're movers and packers, see.
(holds up his ID)
Captain Walsh glances at it and
goes over the wall, puts his ears close to
the floor and knocks.
He waits.
CAPTAIN WALSH
(loudly)
Anybody there?
We hear a low muffled groan, like a small animal.
Captain Walsh gets out and
orders the men to break the floor,
with a look of serious dread on his face.
He pulls out his walkie talkie.
CAPTAIN WALSH
(into the walkie)
Dispatch, This is Captain Walsh.
I need you to send a paramedic rescue team
along with backup pronto.
Grinswald Residence.
We have possibly got the children. confirmation on call.
Over.
DISPATCH (V.O.)
Copy that, captain. Team ETA in 7 minutes.
Would you like to report anything else? Over.
CAPTAIN WALSH
Just keep it low key, for now.
No Media. Over and out.
The men get to work.
Captain Walsh brings his handkerchief to his forehead,
wipes off sweat and walks over to Sarge
who is in conversation with Chuck and Gareth,
his notepad out, jotting points in.
We hear planks of wood creaking and
cracking out of the floor, the firemen working fast.
Sarge is still looking at Chuck,
shocked, when the cracking stops.
MAN (O.S.)
Sir, you might want to see this.
Captain Walsh leads all of them to the
closet and looks at the floor.
A wide flat steel trap door reveals itself.
One of the firemen grabs the flat
circular knob and pulls it up.
Two more men get behind it and flip it open.
A narrow staircase going down the
floor ends at a large brown door,
10 feet below from where they stand.
Captain Walsh takes charge and walks down to the door.
He turns the door knob.
It doesn't.
The door is sealed at the frame.
He bends and peers in through the keyhole.
Instantly, he falls back and
puts a hand over his mouth.
He looks up and scrambles at
the locked door, screaming.
CAPTAIN WALSH
We need to open her now!
Firemen rush down and pull Captain Walsh out
of the narrow passage and out of the way.
Sarge pulls Captain Walsh up,
who is shocked and catatonic.
As if something has triggered in him.
Chuck and Gareth help him into the kitchen
and lay him on the floor.
Gareth runs to get water for Captain Walsh,
who is convulsing.
We hear axes going at the door rapidly
tearing the wood to shreds,
Sarge shouting at them to break through quickly.
Then we hear a crash.
We follow Chuck.
MAN (O.S.)
no no no no no no noooo....
MAN 2 (O.S.)
(loudly)
We got kids in here! Jesus Christ!
SARGE (O.S.)
Dispatch! Where is that evac team to Grinswald!?
We need them right now!
We've located the children!
Trapped in cellar.
Need Level 1 Medical attention!
Over.
DISPATCH (V.O.)
Almost there, 0-ten. Over.
0-TEN (V.O.)
We're parking in now, where is the extraction point? Over.
We see Chuck standing in shock at the makeshift wall,
looking at Sarge.
Sarge looks at him,
holding his pad and pen with his free hand up.
SARGE
(into walkie)
I'm sending a man out to lead you in. Over and out.
(to Chuck)
You need to go get the evac team here now! Parking lot.
Chuck jerks into motion,
as Sarge jumps over to check on Captain Walsh,
who lies motionless on the floor.
Sarge checks his pulse.
SARGE
(to Gareth)
You tell one of the medics to look at him ok?
Till then stay with him.
Sarge gets up and rushes back into
the backroom down the stairs.
A paramedic team rush in through the
mansion's front door with stretches, and
bags over their shoulders,
Chuck jogging ahead to the Kitchen.
He waits for them to get into the dark room,
which the firemen have now lit
with their electric lamps.
The Firemen make way for them and
come out of the room, looking
shocked, saddened, angered.
One of the younger ones breaks down.
Chuck slips in behind the paramedic team,
and looks in the room.
Time slows down.
Artificial lights fill up the room.
Sarge stands inside, close to the door,
his pen and pad on the floor near his boots.
He looks down at the floor.
We see a murky mixture of feces, mud, urine and
putrefying food, layering the whole surface of the floor.
We hear muffled, distant voices of the
evac team as they examine the children.
Chuck walks in next to Sarge looking at the walls,
white and damp, which are marked with
dark circles drawn using the dirt on the floor,
as far as their hands could reach.
They see the boy, lifting his bony arm,
to shield his eyes from the light.
Next to him a girl crumpled in a fetal position,
fingers curled around a piece of paper,
her eyes still open. Unalive.
Sarge notices the piece of paper in
the girl's hand and the deck of cards falling
out of the boy's trouser pocket as he is lifted up.
The boy looks Sarge straight in the eyes.
The Evac team leaves as soon as they came,
it seems, working efficiently and silently,
taking the children out on two stretchers.
Only Chuck and Sarge remain in the cold dark room,
light falling in faintly down the staircase.
Sarge switches on his flashlight and
picks up his pad and pen.
His eyes fall on the cards on the floor
as the light from Chuck's handy light
catches the piece of paper.
Sarge picks them up too.
SARGE
Maybe, these will come in good use.
Chuck and Sarge walk out to the
Kitchen window to see the sun setting and
a frenzy of media vans and reporters outside,
questioning the police and firemen.
They look at each other and walk towards the door.
END FLASHBACK
BACK TO SCENE
We see Sarge turn his freckled balding head towards Chuck.
SARGE
That night I cried like I'd never cried before.
ROOKIE
What the flying fuck was that about!?
What was written on the paper?
SARGE
The same thing O tells us now, after all these years.
ROOKIE
O? She’s crazy and keeps saying stuff you know it.
What is this specific thing that connects us here?
O looks up at the two of them.
There is an eerie silence engulfing the diner.
A huge flash of light fills up the whole environment.
A booming low rumble is accompanied by
a fleet that is here for O.
Everyone is shell shocked and regaining stability
where O silently walks towards the fleet,
now landing in the parking lot.
O
I expect nothing.
I expect nothing of this life,
except to expect you do the same.
End of Part 1