Script for a short film. Runtime approximately 5 minutes.
FADE IN:
Exterior of a small dome-style House built on a hill. A blizzard is howling. It is daytime, but the blizzard makes the lighting dusky.
The TONE sounds.
CUT TO:
Interior of House. Slow pans reveal that it has been neglected. The remains of a simple meal have been dropped on the floor in the kitchen. A small oil-burning stove has gone out. A glass of water left on a table has frozen solid.
The TONE sounds.
CUT TO:
The MOTHER lies in bed. She is dead. Her eyes were bleeding before she died, but they have frozen.
Next to her, the FATHER lies in a fever. He is wrapped in many blankets but is shivering. His skin is mottled with blood pooling beneath, and his eyes have begun to seep blood. He does not seem aware that the Mother is dead.
The TONE sounds.
In delirium, the Father sees a vision of his YOUNG DAUGHTER standing in the doorway. She smiles at him and beckons as if she wants to show him something. He tries to rise from the bed, but stumbles and falls to the floor. He is barefoot.
The Daughter smiles and beckons. He crawls to the door, following her.
The TONE sounds.
In his vision, the House has changed. It looks warm and inviting now. A fire glows in the stove. The Daughter beckons him down the hall toward the front door, still smiling. He smiles back. He uses a door frame to pull himself upright and staggers after her. She walks through the door and disappears.
The TONE sounds.
The Father opens the door. He sees a vision of the hill covered in soft grass under a rouge-colored sky. The Daughter is standing next to a wooden chest about 100 feet from the door. She smiles and holds her arms out to him. He lifts his arms toward her and steps outside.
As he crosses the threshold, the vision disappears and he feels the raging blizzard. The wind knocks him down. He looks up, and he sees that the chest from the vision is real, but it is white plastic and marked with a blue caduceus. There are marks in the snow which suggest the chest was dropped on a parachute.
The TONE sounds. It is accompanied by a flash from a white light on the chest. The chest is the source of the tone.
The Father recognizes what the chest is and begins struggling toward it, alternately staggering and then crawling again as the screaming wind knocks him down. Before he reaches it,
CUT TO:
The DAUGHTER awakens in her bed. She is older than in the vision, a teenager. She has the same signs of illness as the Parents, but they are much less severe.
The blizzard has stopped. Cool light shines in through the bedroom window.
The Daughter looks down at her arm and sees the it has been gouged several times. She looks at the floor and see the Father lying there. He is dead. Several syringes marked with the blue caduceus lie scattered about him. Most of them are full or partially full, but one is empty.
CUT TO:
The Daughter lights the oil stove.
CUT TO:
The Daughter thaws frozen bread and water over the stove. She devours it, ravenous.
CUT TO:
The Daughter sits near the stove, staring blankly toward the rooms where her parents lie dead.
CUT TO:
The Daughter huddles next to the stove with a blanket wrapped around her, sobbing.
The TONE sounds. She hears it, and her sobs become less intense. It sounds again, and she looks up, toward the door. Her tears stop. Resolution builds in her face.
CUT TO:
Exterior of House. The Daughter is dressed in warm winter clothes. She is filling a backpack with syringes from the white chest. When it is full, she slings it over her shoulder and begins walking down the hill.
The camera turns and sees that there is a village at the bottom of the hill, with many houses.
CUT TO BLACK
THE END