By Alistair McDowall

Active Ingredients
Seven actors to perform the following roles:
Ollie, female
Fay, female
Gale, female
Keaton, female, small
Zeppo, male
Charlie, male
Moe, male

Recommended Consumption
In scenes Seven and Seventeen, the lines are split between the actors as the
director sees fit, with the exception of those marked.
The actors enter the space with the audience, and remain on stage throughout.
Minimal set and props.
There are no entrances and exits unless stated. They just
Are.

Notes.
A question without a question mark denotes a flatness of tone.
A dash (–) indicates an interruption of speech or train of thought.
An ellipsis (…) indicates either a trailing off, a breather, a shift, or a
transition.
A slash (/) indicates where the next line of dialogue interrupts or overlaps.

2
/one.
[3:42 a.m.
The M60 ring road.
A car circles the city.
Zeppo drives.
Ollie listens.
A Figure in a Cthulhu mask sits in the back.
Zeppo eats Chicken McNuggets and talks at a ferocious pace.]
Zeppo: – nazis take em to this cave, like a basin or something, a basin in the rock, and they
have the ark sat there all gold and shiny, and they’re all sat in these folding chairs – I
don’t know where they got them from, they must just travel with them – And they
have this priest guy to open it, and the sweaty dude with the coat hanger, he’s there,
and Belloq’s there,
And Indy and Marion are like, tied to this pole at the back – And then the priest
opens the ark, and this dust sprays out, and it’s all mysterious,
and all the nazis are all leaning in trying to see what’s going on – But it’s just sand,
like it’s just sand in there. And they look gutted. Like, can’t believe how many
people died for this and it’s just sand – we’ve been carrying this fucking box the
whole way and it was just sand? We could have dumped this out miles back.
So the coat-hanger guy just starts laughing, and the nazis are looking at Belloq like
‘you totally led us astray here’. But then, just when you think that’s it, the whole sky
turns black, and there’s all this thunder, and Indy gets this bad feeling, cos all these
clouds are brewing and shit? So he says to Marion like,
Don’t look at it, you know? Like keep your eyes shut no matter what, cos it’s all
gonna kick off.
So they shut their eyes, and it all goes quiet for a bit and it’s all tense, but then
suddenly all these blue ghosts start coming out of the ark, like weird kind of light
ghosts, and they start floating around and the nazis are loving it, they’re all like ‘It’s
beauuuutiful’ and it’s all mystical and nice, but then, one guy’s looking at a ghost
thing and it turns from like a happy ghost thing into like a nasty fucking ghost thing,
and it pulls this face, kind of like in Ghostbusters? And then all the ghosts turn bad,
and they start zapping all the hearts of the nazis and just killing them, and the coat-
hanger man is just screaming, and the priest – or the head nazi I can’t remember – his
head just fucking explodes – Like, and this is a PG! His head just explodes, and the
coat-hanger guy’s head melts and all the nazis are just getting fucking shanked by
these ghosts, because they’re like the ghosts of God, you know?
And once everyone’s dead, this big dust cloud thing flies up and then sucks the lid
back on and it’s over – it’s all silent. And Indy’s like, we’re alright, don’t worry, it’s
over now.
And then later, it cuts to, like, Indy back in America, and he’s back in his professor
suit, and he’s meeting with all these corporate guys and he’s pissed because he’s like
‘You’ve got to destroy this ark, I saw a load of blue ghosts come out of it and make
dudes’ heads explode’ and they’re just like ‘Don’t worry about that, your job’s done,
leave us to deal with it’ and Marion’s like ‘Chill Indy, you’ve done all you can’. And
you think, what’s gonna happen to the ark? But then it cuts to this guy, like a janitor,
wheeling the ark in a big box into this warehouse, and you can see in the warehouse
that there’s like millions of boxes, and this’ll just be another one, and probably

3
 everyone’ll forget it’s even there, so it’s kind of a happy ending, but it also makes
you think, like, what’s in those other boxes, you know?
So it’s kind of a mysterious ending.
…
Yeah?

Ollie: Yeah. I mean –

It’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Zeppo: Yeah, that’s what it’s called. That’s the film.

Ollie: Yeah. I’ve um – I’ve seen it.

Zeppo: Oh.
I thought you hadn’t seen it.

Ollie: No, I’ve, I’ve seen it. I think everyone’s seen it.

Zeppo: Oh.

[Pause.]

Ollie: Mr Zeppo –

Zeppo: Do you remember in the second one, where there’s this guy, there’s like this cult, and
this guy with a big hat with horns on who rips dudes’ hearts out?

Ollie: Mr Zeppo, do you think –

Zeppo: D’ywan a chicken nugger?

Ollie: N-no thank you.

Zeppo: I got a hundred.

Ollie: I’m fine.

Zeppo: The first time I drove up and said ‘Can I have a hundred chicken nuggers’ they were
like ‘Don’t be a dick’ but I was like ‘Serious. One hundred.’ And they make ‘em for
you.
I get a hundred every night.

Ollie: That’s –

Zeppo: Hey,
Pass one of those from that sack back there.

[Ollie looks in a sack at her feet.

It’s full of Rubik’s Cubes.]

Ollie: One of these?

Zeppo: Pass one right back there.

4
[She passes it back to the Figure, who starts solving it rapidly.]

Zeppo: What’s your name again?

Ollie: Ollie –

Zeppo: Ollie?

Ollie: Yeah –

Zeppo: Like Oliver?

Ollie: Yes –

Zeppo: Like a boy’s name?

Ollie: Yeah –

Zeppo: And what do you want?

Ollie: I came to – I need some – Help.

Zeppo: You need help from me?

Ollie: Yes, I –

Zeppo: Pass another one.

[The Figure has finished. Ollie passes another cube back.]

Zeppo: Someone told you to come find me.

Ollie: They said you know everyone and you know everything that happens –

Zeppo: They told you where I was.

Ollie: They said to wait on that flyover at night and you’d pick me up.

Zeppo: And I did.

Ollie: You did.

Zeppo: So here we are.

Ollie: Yeah –

Zeppo: And you want some help.

Ollie: Yes –

Zeppo: Pass another one back.

[Ollie does.]

Zeppo: So what do you need?

5
Ollie: My sister –

Zeppo: Your sister.

Ollie: I lost her. She’s lost.

Zeppo: You lost your sister.

Ollie: She’s missing.

Zeppo: She’s a missing sister.

Ollie: She came here – She came here, to, to, Manchester, a few months ago, I don’t know,
I know she came here –

Zeppo: And she’s gone.

Ollie: Yes.

Zeppo: She came here and now she’s gone.

[Ollie nods.]

Zeppo: Well that’s a job for the police, yeah? Pass another one.

[She does.]

Ollie: I don’t – I think she went –

They said I can trust you –

Zeppo: Who said this?

Ollie: The person –

Zeppo: The person?

Ollie: The person who told me about you –

Zeppo: They said you can trust me?

Ollie: They said you would help without – Without asking any questions.

Zeppo: That’s not the same as trust.

Ollie: No, I know, but –

Zeppo: I actually would totally not trust someone who asked no questions.

Ollie: No, but –

Zeppo: You don’t want any questions.

Ollie: No.

Zeppo: You want discretion.

6
Ollie: She was involved in some –

Zeppo: Your sister?

Ollie: Yes, she was –

Zeppo: She was into some bad stuff you think.

Ollie: I think – Yes.

Zeppo: And now she’s missing.

Ollie: And I think she’s missing because she did something –

Or –
…
I don’t think I can go to the police.

[Pause.]

Zeppo: Do you know who I am?

Ollie: You’re like a, a, property guy.

Zeppo: I own a lot of the city.

Ollie: Yeah, they said – They said you owned the city.

Zeppo: A lot of it. A lot what’s inside this ring road. Commercial, industrial – Not
residential. Except city centre. Only city centre residential.

Ollie: They said you’re involved in everything –

Zeppo: Nah.

Ollie: No?

Zeppo: I don’t get involved.

Ollie: But –

Zeppo: I just own everything. It’s not good to get involved in everything.
My dad owned the city before me, you know what happened to him?

Ollie: Your dad –

Zeppo: They nailed him to a brick wall with a steel rod through his face.

Ollie: Oh – God –

Zeppo: Right here. Through here.

Ollie: I’m sorry –

Zeppo: You know why that happened to him?

7
Ollie: Because – He got involved?

Zeppo: He got involved. He owned everything so he thought he would start getting involved
in everything, and you know what happens when you get involved?
What happened?

Ollie: He got a, a steel –

Zeppo: Steel rod through the head. Right here. Through his face.
So I don’t get involved. I’m neutral. I’m a very neutral person. I rent my land and my
buildings out to everyone. To anyone. I don’t pick favourites. I don’t ask questions,
like you said. You know what the most important ethos is for today’s turbulent
times?

Ollie: I – What?

Zeppo: Selective education.

Ollie: Selective –

Zeppo: Selective education. You know what that means?

Ollie: That you choose –

Zeppo: You choose what you educate yourself about. That doesn’t just apply to me and my
business, that’s everyone. That’s a big decision everyone needs make. About
everything.

Ollie: B–

Zeppo: Like these chicken nuggers, yeah? I fucking love ‘em. I fucking love chicken
nuggers.
I eat ‘em every night.
I drive round this fucking ring road all night, I take my meetings in my car, I solve
problems, I do business, I eat nuggers. McDonald’s chicken nuggers.
McNuggers.
They’re the best – The batter? No other nugger compares. Accept no substitutes.
But maybe one day I’m thinking, hey, how do they make the nuggers?
And if this was twenty years ago or whatever I’d have to go and like, find a guy to
tell me how they make them. I’d have to make phone calls. Drive places. Ask around.
Probably I wouldn’t bother, because I don’t care that much. Back then you only
looked into things you actually cared about, cos it was effort.
But now? I can find out in like three seconds.

Ollie: About the nuggers.

Zeppo: About the nuggers. I can just type that shit into my phone and I’ll know.
Immediately.
But let me ask you this man, do you think if I look into the nuggers, if I open that
door, am I gonna find out like, positive things? Or am I gonna find out horrible things
about how they turn a chicken into this? Do you think maybe if I look it up, I’m not
gonna wanna eat nuggers anymore?
8
Ollie: Well –

Zeppo: What do you think man? Option 1? Or B?

Ollie: The second one, probably.

Zeppo: Course the fucking second one! Course!

I want to eat these. So I don’t open that door. You know?

Ollie: Yeah, I guess –

Zeppo: You gotta pick and choose what you give a shit about.
Now it’s so fucking easy to look everything up, we get to see what’s holding the
walls up, you know? But this is not a good idea because inevitably? Invariably?
Every part of our lives and culture and diet and health and the clothes we wear and
the music we like and the films we watch and the friends we have and all of this –
you go deep enough, you’ll find all this stuff, the detritus of our lives, it’s all built on
this foundation of pain and shit and suffering. It’s like it’s impossible to be a good
person now. You can’t be a good person any more. There’s no such thing. There’s
just people who are aware of the pain they’re causing, and people who aren’t aware.
That’s why I don’t get involved with who rents my buildings. I don’t know what
happens in them. I don’t want to know.
Knowledge is a responsibility.
And some of these people,
These are bad people, the people I deal with.
But I don’t pick and choose – I deal with everyone.
My dad just deals with some people, but then those people move on, or they get
killed, and suddenly you’re on a side, you didn’t even know there was sides, but
you’re on one, and now doors are open and your eyes are open and what happens?

Ollie: Steel –

Zeppo: BAM! Steel rod through the head.

So I’m neutral, man. I’m a very neutral person. I don’t get involved.
I just sit outside, and watch everyone going round and round.
I sit outside and I facilitate, and I watch.
Some people can do that.
It’s like a form of time travel.
…
Pass one of those back.

[She does.]

Ollie: Mr Zeppo, does this – I mean – I don’t want to be rude –

Zeppo: Not at all, man.

Ollie: I was just wondering how that relates? To my sister?

Zeppo: …
Is it a good idea to go looking for her?

9
[Pause.]

Ollie: …
I have to find her –

Zeppo: Why?

Ollie: Because she’s –

She’s my sister.
…
I can’t just – Abandon her –
I can’t stop thinking about it. About where she is. Or what happened, or –
I have these nightmares about it. About things happening to her.
And I wake up with all these cuts all over me like I’m clawing at myself in my sleep
–

Zeppo: And you think if you follow that road, it’s gonna lead you somewhere good?
I’m telling you, man.
There are doors.
And there are doors.
And then you’re involved.
And people who get involved, they get steels rods through the head.
Or they disappear.

[Beat.]

Pass another one.

[She does.
Pause.]

Ollie: I have money, I can –

Zeppo: Don’t need money.

Ollie: But –

Zeppo: I don’t need money. I have too much money.

Ollie: But – What do you –

…
I don’t know…

[Pause.]

Zeppo: I like you man, do you like me?

Ollie: Yeah – Yes – I mean – You talk kind of strange –

Zeppo: Most nights it’s just the same,

over and over,
can I have some money,

10
 can I have this building or whatever,
you know,
boring man,
and then you’re here and it’s like, we can actually have a conversation, you know?

[Ollie smiles.]

Zeppo: You’re nervous though, you’re a nervous person man, do you think?

Ollie: Maybe, yes, probably, my – my sister’s the confident one.

That’s probably why she, you know –
…

[Pause.]

Zeppo: People are disappearing.

…

Ollie: … What?

Zeppo: …
I hear a lot of talk about people disappearing.
…
It’s something people are talking about.
…
Hand another one back there.

[Ollie does.
Pause.]

Zeppo: Have you heard of Pomona?

Ollie: Pomona?

Zeppo: Do you know where it is?

Ollie: N – It’s a place?

Zeppo: It’s an island.

Concrete island.
Here.
Right in the middle of town.
Strip of land with the canal on both sides.
Tram tracks and train tracks and roads all surrounding it.
There’s one road in and out and it’s gated at both ends.
Nothing there but cracked asphalt and weeds.
All overgrown.
Street lights don’t work
It’s a hole.
A hole in the middle of the city.
Looks like what the world’ll be in a few thousand years.

11
Ollie: Do you own it?

Zeppo: I own it.

Ollie: Why’s there nothing there?

Zeppo: Because I get paid to leave it like that.

They want it like that. These people.
No reason for anyone to go there.

Ollie: Who rents it from you?

Zeppo: …

[Pause.]

Zeppo: Lot of talk about people disappearing.

Pomona’s a place that finds itself in those conversations.
I don’t know why.
But if you’re looking for someone lost.
…
Might be a place to look.

Ollie: Thank y –

Zeppo: But listen.

…
I don’t recommend it.
…
You know?
…
I don’t recommend it.
…

[Pause.]

Pass another one back.

[Ollie does.
The Figure solves it.]

12
/two.
[Fay is in a phonebox.
Rainsoaked and muddied.
Rain hammers.
She hugs a laptop.
She picks up the receiver.
Pause.
Hangs up.
Pause.
Picks it up again.
Dials 999.
Pause.
Hangs up.
A car passes –
She crouches/shields her face.
Pause.
She picks it up and dials another number.
Pause.]

Fay: Stacy –
No –
…
Yes –
Can you –
…
I’m going to be late back.
…
I don’t know what time, I’m just –
…
I–
I don’t know –
Why is she still up?
She should be in bed –
Put her to bed –
No –
No –
I’ll pay you for the –
I will pay you extra Stacy, you just have to stay –
Because I can’t. I can’t get home now –
…
Later. I don’t know – Stacy, listen –
Listen –
Listen to me –
Don’t answer the phone tonight.
…
No.
No.
Not for anyone –
13
 Because I told you –
Because I’m telling you –
And don’t answer the door.
Don’t answer the door to anyone who knocks, whoever knocks, don’t –
…
No –
I told you you couldn’t have him round –
…
No –
No,
No,
Listen –
No,
Stacy,
Stacy shut the fuck up and listen to me –
Do not answer the door,
Do not answer the phone,
Put her to bed, close the curtains, lock the doors and windows –
Because I’m telling you to –

[Keaton knocks on the glass.

Fay jumps/shouts.]

Fay: Jesus –
What?!
(into the phone) Hold on Stacy –

[Keaton stares.]

Fay: I’m on the phone.

What do you want?
What do you want?!

14
/three.
[Gale is leaning against a locked door, pouring bottles of pills into her mouth, on the phone.]

Gale: Yes I’m still on hold, I’m holding – I shouldn’t have to – I shouldn’t be on fucking
hold –
…
…
Yes – Listen –
Yes –
…
Yes.
I told you the password already, I shouldn’t –
Yes. Will you listen?
I want you to take –
Yes –
I want you to take the money, all the money, from my account –
Take all of the money from the account –
Yes –
All of it –
Take it out, take it out and stack it up – Put it in a pile, a pile –
I want you to pile it up in the street –
In the street –
Yes –
I want you to pile it up and I want you to burn it, understand?
…
Yes.
Yes.
I want you to make a big pile of it in the street and burn it.
All of it.
And if you can do that in front of a, a, food bank, or a homeless shelter, or, or
something –
…
Because I’m asking you –
…
Because it’s my money –
…
Because I’m telling you –
…
Because I hired the fucking Marx Brothers –
Because you cannot trust anyone to do anything and everyone is a fucking moron and
they won’t take me down there –
They won’t take me!
I fucked up and she told me, I saw her and she told me if I fucked up and I fucked up
so they’re coming and they’re here and no one gets out, no one gets out from down
there but they won’t, they won’t take me, no one takes me, you can’t take a corpse,
you can’t take me if I took myself already and I’m taking all the money they can’t
have the money, take the money –
15
 DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE PUT ME ON HOLD AGAIN CRAIG –
…
You calm down –
You calm down Craig –
You are paid –
You are paid to do what I –
It’s my money –
You fucking –
It’s MINE –
What is the use in having an account manager if you won’t manage my accounts the
way I fucking want –
…
BURN IT. In the STREET. BURN IT.

[Screams and noise outside. Shouting.

Gale stuffs more pills in.]

Gale: Are you listening to me?

[Hammering on the door.]

(To the door.) Fuck yourself!

[Hammering on the door.]

Fuck yourself!

16
/four.
[Charlie and Moe under a bridge.
Wet, dark, cars overhead.]

Moe: Come on.

Charlie: I don’t –

Moe: Come on.

Charlie: There must be – Maybe we don’t –

[Moe hits him.]

Moe: Come on.

Charlie: I can’t –

[Moe hits him again.]

Moe: Do it.

Charlie: Stop –

[Again.
Charlie hits him back.]

Moe: That’s shite. Harder.

Charlie: That’s as hard as – That hurt –

Moe: Fucking –

[He lies down on the floor.]

Here. Kick me.

Here.
Kick me here.

[Charlie kicks his face.]

Moe: Again.

[Charlie kicks again.]

Moe: There. Blood. Better.

Charlie: That’s enough…

Moe: This is the story, this is how it happened –

Charlie: That’s enough now –

17
Moe: There were other people, they hurt us, she got away – Take this –

Charlie: No –

Moe: Put it – Take it – Close you – Hold it. Put in my side. Here.

Charlie: I’m not doing this –

Moe: If you don’t then that’s the end of us, alright?

Last chance.
It has to look real and it has to look bad.

[Pause.]

Moe: Do it.

[Charlie stabs him.]

Charlie: Are you okay –

Moe: Again. My leg.

Charlie: No –

Moe: Do it.

[Charlie stabs his leg.

Blood.]

Moe: There. Okay.

Charlie: I have to be sick.

Moe: Give me that.

Charlie: I feel –

[Moe punches Charlie.]

Moe: Hold still.

[Again.
Again.
Again.]

Charlie: Stop it – Stop –

[Again.
Again.
Moe stabs Charlie in the side.
Again.
In his thigh.
Blood.
Lots of blood.]
18
Moe: Stop, stop, that’s it, that’s it –

Charlie: Don’t do any more…

Moe: That’s it, it’s all… Sit down. It’s done – We’re done –

[Charlie slumps to the floor.

Pause.]

Moe: Catch your breath.

[Moe throws the knife.

Pause.]

Charlie: It’s bleeding a lot…

Moe: That’s good, we want it – It has to.

Charlie: You weren’t going to stop…

Moe: I stopped.
I stopped myself.
I wasn’t –
…
I stopped.
…
Sit up.

Charlie: It’s all – Moving –

[Moe looks.
He’s hit an artery.]

Moe: Okay –

Charlie: It’s all coming out.

Moe: Stand up.

Charlie: No…

Moe: Grab me and stand up.

Charlie: … shut up…

Moe: Just – … wait –

[He takes his shirt off and wraps it around Charlie’s leg.]

Moe: Hold that.

Charlie: … no…

Moe: Hold it tight like this. Like this.

19
 Like this.

Charlie: stop yelling at me…

Moe: I’ll phone an, an ambulance.

Charlie: … no –

Moe: Yes –

Charlie: The Girl –

Moe: That’s not – She won’t – This is better, this makes it look more –
…
…
Fuck.

[Pause.
Cars overhead.]

Charlie: we messed everything up…

Moe: We’re going to fix it –

Charlie: … buh…

Moe: What?

Charlie: … it’s better…

Moe: Hold it tight. Hold it. Let me think.

Charlie: … fuh…

Moe: Sit up. Sit up.

Charlie: …

Moe: … Sit up.

…
Come on.
Wake up.
Sit up.
Wake up.
Hey.
Hey.
…
…

[Pause.
Cars overhead.
Moe sits down in a heap next to Charlie.
Pause.
20
He holds his hand.
Cars overhead.]

21
/five.
[Fay and Ollie.]

Fay: This is your room.

Ollie: Okay.

Fay: You can do stuff to it if you wanna – If you wanna hang – I don’t know –

Ollie: Decorate.

Fay: You can decorate it. If you want to.

Ollie: It’s fine like this.

Fay: Well you just have to ask Gale. If you want to.

Ollie: If I want to mess with the… the vibe…

Fay: … Yeah.

[Pause.]

Ollie: The TV –

Fay: It doesn’t have channels.

Ollie: It’s just –

Fay: There’s a thing of DVDs –

Sometimes they might want to watch something –

Ollie: In the background.

Fay: Or they’re nervous or whatever.

Ollie: Help the mood…

Fay: Most of them are pretty scratched.

Ollie: And that’s a camera.

Fay: Yeah.

Ollie: In case –

Fay: In case one of them tries to hurt you.

Ollie: Has anyone ever –

Fay: Before I started here some guy cut this girl’s face up with a bottle.

Ollie: Ugh –

22
Fay: Yeah.

Ollie: Jesus.

Fay: I don’t remember her name but he cut her nose half off.

Ollie: Fuck.

Fay: So that’s why the camera.

Ollie: Obviously, yeah.

Fay: I mean they just watch you.

Ollie: They watch you?

Fay: The guys who check the cameras.

Ollie: They just sit and watch?

Fay: Yeah. Don’t go in that room. It stinks of cum.

Ollie: What?

Fay: It really does.

[Beat.]

Fay: Oh, and there’s the red button under the nightstand.

Ollie: The nightstand –

Fay: The little – The thing, the table next to the bed.

Ollie: Okay.

Fay: You press the button and, you know, alarms.

Ollie: Right.

Fay: And in there are also things of lube and toys and wipes. Stuff like that.

Ollie: Okay.

[Beat.]

Fay: It’s a lot safer than other places. That’s what they all say anyway.
The ones who worked other places.

[Ollie nods.]

Fay: Did they tell you everything else?

Ollie: Yeah, um –

23
Fay: They just told me to show you the room.

Ollie: No, yeah, thank you.

Fay: My main tip is just to make sure they shower first – They don’t technically have to
but I always insist. And if they don’t want to I’ll maybe – Like I’ll take my top off,
and that usually – Usually they take one after that.

Ollie: Right.

Fay: Because they’re pretty good showers here, they’re strong, so it’ll scoosh away most
bad smells, or bits of food or whatever.

Ollie: Bits of food?

Fay: My first week here some guy had a lump of chicken in his pubes.

Ollie: What?

Fay: Yeah, just sort of – nestled. Nestled in there.

Ollie: When did you find –

Fay: I was going down on him and I thought it kind of smelt really, you know, bad –
Worse than the usual bad.
And then I saw this weird –
Like I thought it was some kind of tumour, or –

Ollie: Ugh!

Fay: Yeah. It was bad.

Ollie: Blegh.

Fay: Yeah.

[Beat.]

Ollie: So showers, then.

[Pause.]

Fay: So I’m just, like – I’m two doors down.

Ollie: Do you know –

[Beat.]

Fay: What?

[Beat.]

Ollie: Do you –
Are there ways to sort of make…
24
 To increase your pay, or –
…

Fay: Um. You can just do stuff – Do more stuff that the others – wouldn’t do –

Ollie: Yeah – And I guess –

Do you ever –
Make, uh, films, or –

Fay: No.

Ollie: No.

[Beat.]

Fay: Some of the others have. I don’t do that.

Ollie: Okay.

Fay: Maybe talk to them about that.

Ollie: Okay.
…
And –
Fay –
Sorry –
Do you know where I can maybe –
(Coughs.)
Where I can get some, uh –
I mean, I already –
But maybe you know where the better sort of –

Fay: I don’t do that.

Ollie: No, sure.

Fay: I don’t know about that.

Ollie: Yeah.

[Beat.]

Ollie: Sorry.

Fay: Gale doesn’t like that. Don’t let her known that’s –

Ollie: I won’t – I won’t even –

It’s fine.
Thanks.
Thank you.

[Beat.]

25
Fay: ‘Kay.

[Pause.]

Ollie: What happened to the girl in here before?

Fay: She’s gone.

Ollie: She got fired, or…?

[Beat.]

Ollie: What?

Fay: …
Her boyfriend came looking for her cos she didn’t come home.
But she wasn’t here.
She’s gone.

[Beat.]

Ollie: Oh.

[Beat.]

Fay: She’s the second one that happened to.

26
/six.
[Keaton and Charlie.]

Charlie: …
Are you here for –
Did you see my flyer?
… Are you here for Dungeons and Dragons?

[Pause.
Keaton nods.]

Charlie: Cool.
Well.
You’re the first right now,
Maybe some more will come in a sec,
But actually this is like week four and you’re the first person who’s ever come, so
probably not actually.
…
You sure have a lot of expensive stuff.
…
You just walk around with everything on show like that?

[She looks down at herself.]

Charlie: I bet even those trainers are worth like a hundred.

Keaton: Two hundred.

Charlie: Two hundred. Whoa. That’s a lot of money to spend on trainers.

I don’t think even all my clothes together add up to two hundred.
Like, what I’m wearing right now. The whole lot.
Do you have a good job?
Do you have a job that pays a lot?
Sorry, that’s rude.

Keaton: I have a lot of money.

Charlie: Yeah, it looks it.

Sorry, I’m being rude.
My job pays pretty well, but I spend all my money on comics and things like that.

Keaton: You like comics.

Charlie: Yeah, I’m a collector. I’m kind of a hoarder.
I can show you later if you like.
I actually have some quite rare items.

[Beat.]

Keaton: What’s your job.

27
Charlie: I’m a kind of a uh – security guard.

Keaton: You’re small.

Charlie: Yeah. I don’t really – It’s not really a physical job? It’s more just a standing-all-day
job.
…
Have you ever played D and D before?

Keaton: No.

Charlie: Well that’s okay, I can teach you.

Though I should warn you, we’ll be playing a different kind of game than usual – I
write the games myself, so it’s not a standard RPG experience.
Do you know what an RPG is?

Keaton: No.

Charlie: It’s means role-playing game. That’s what the game is. I can teach you everything.
It’s not hard. Actually, I should say it’s not hard to learn, but it’s hard to master.

[Pause.]

How come you fancied coming to my club?

[Keaton shrugs.]

Charlie: You just want to meet people maybe?

Keaton: Yes.

Charlie: Well I hear that. I find it very difficult to meet new people and make friends.
Especially in a city.
That’s the main part of the reason why I started this club.

Keaton: You don’t have any friends.

Charlie: I have like – I have a friend through work.

Keaton: You have one friend.

Charlie: Yeah. What about you?

[Keaton shakes head.]

Charlie: You don’t have any friends?

[Keaton shakes head.]

Charlie: Wow. And I thought I was bad! Don’t worry though, we’re gonna make friends now.
You can’t help but make friends with people when you’re playing RPGs. It’s a very
social experience.
Even though there’s only two of us.

28
 Do you wanna sit?
I can start explaining the game now.

[They sit.]

Charlie: Do you want something to eat or drink?

[Keaton shakes head.]

Charlie: Well, let me know if you do, and I can go get us something. I have lemonade and
crisps and stuff. And dip.
Okay.
So the game we’re going to play is one I wrote myself, it’s called ‘Cthulhu
Awakens’. It’s a Lovecraftian game. Do you know H.P. Lovecraft?

[Keaton shakes head.]

Charlie: Well, he’s a writer who wrote horror and science-fiction stories.
I can lend you a book to take home.
Basically, I’ve based the game on several characters and concepts in his stories,
mainly the character of Cthulhu.
Cthulhu is like a big, giant monster thing, with an octopus head. He looks like this,
see? He’s cool, isn’t he?
He’s actually an evil god. And in the stories he’s one of the ‘Great Old Ones’, which
are – Are you still following me?

[Keaton nods.]

Charlie: The ‘Great Old Ones’ are the beasts that ruled the earth before we did. ‘Cept they’ve
been asleep now for aeons. That’s basically like a long, long time. They’re actually
sort of a metaphor for the universe’s apathy for us and the meaningless nature of life,
but that’s not important for the game.
That’s just context.
Throughout the game, you’ll come into contact with a cult who are trying to awaken
Cthulhu, to begin a new dark reign of chaos (don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler), and
your task is to prevent this from happening.
Do you understand?

Keaton: Where’s the board.

Charlie: Ah, you see, this isn’t like a normal board game, yeah? The board is actually our
imagination.

Keaton: I have to beat you.

Charlie: No, it’s a cooperative game in the sense that I tell the story and present you with
options, and you decide which options to take. Whether you succeed or not is decided
by rolling dice, like in a normal game, ‘cept these dice have a lot more sides, see? Do
you get it?

Keaton: No.

29
Charlie: Well don’t worry, you’ll pick it up as we go.
Shall we start?

Keaton: Okay.

Charlie: It’s going to be fun, promise.

Here’s your character sheet, this is like your stats for how good you are at things.
What’s your name?

Keaton: Keaton.

Charlie: Keaton? That’s a cool name. I won’t even change that. You can be called Keaton in
the game, that’ll make it more immersive.
I’m Charlie, nice to meet you.
Are you ready?

Keaton: Okay.

Charlie: Here we go. You are standing alone on a crowded street. People push past you as if
you’re not there. It’s a cold and lonely city, and you’re not here by choice. You’ve
come here to search for your sister, who came here some weeks ago, but has
disappeared under mysterious circumstances. An anonymous phone call you received
at your hotel told you to head to a tavern called ‘The Palace’. Shall we head there
now?

Keaton: Okay.

30
/seven.
[Charlie rolls a dice.]

Charlie: You are walking through a shopping centre

Keaton: You are walking

Ollie: I am walking through a shopping centre – it has a name but I forgot –

- You’re struck by how sterile it is and how

- isolated you feel.
- The whole centre is a loop
- A circuit
- If you set off walking eventually
- you end up back where you were,
- but you might not realise because all the shops look the same
- big, strip-lit, colourful
- shuttered
- steel barns
- they could decide one day
- to close all the shutters
- but keep the centre open,

Ollie: and I bet people would just keep walking and walking and walking

- round and round and round

- looking for
- an open shop without even realising they were doing
- loops.
- It’s hard to recognise when your life is looping.
- You are walking

Ollie: I am walking

- the loop
- not thinking sort of thinking

Ollie: About my sister

- about the man

- the man in the car
- the road around the city
- what he told you
- and
- it’s getting dark outside
- because the nights are drawing in
- it’s dark early

Ollie: and I’m just

31
 - walking
- and walking
- and walking
- and

Ollie: glancing at the other people shopping

- or walking
- thinking about your sister
- about the man
- about the hole
- the hole at the heart of the city
- You pass a lot of people
- None of them look at you
- All stare straight ahead as they loop

Ollie: then at some point on my

- maybe
- eighth loop
- maybe
- you notice

Ollie: I notice this woman staring at me.

- The woman is stood

- She’s stood just outside a shoe shop and she’s holding
- She’s clutching
- a laptop
- no bags
- nothing
- she hasn’t bought anything
- that you can see
- and her face is contorted,
- twisted
- up in this expression of horror,
- real horror
- real terror
- as if she’s just seen
- the face of God
- or some unimaginable sight

Ollie: And I stop walking

- You stop walking

- and look at her

Ollie: we’re looking at each other

- she looks at you

- and all the other
32
 - shoppers and
- people

Ollie: Are passing between us,

- You’re looking

Ollie: we’re looking through the bustle of everyone.

- And she moves

- She comes over

Ollie: She pushes through the people

- The sea of people

- The loop
- She pushes through the loop
- Like she knows you
- To hiss
- To whisper

Ollie: To spit

- Like she knows you

- Eyes flash fire and black
- Something about leaving
- Something about gone

Ollie: Something about They

- They took you

- She said
- She thought
- I thought
- You let me
- They’re coming
- She told me
- I told her

Ollie: She’s threatened

- She threatens
- Her hands are on you
- Pulling at you
- Louder

Ollie: She’s louder

- She spits
- She’s screaming
- Something about they
- Heads turn
33
 - She pulls you down
- Down
- Screaming
- Down
- the other shoppers turn
- Heads turn

Ollie: Heads turn to look at us

- At this woman
- The screaming woman
- And more hands
- Hands on her
- Pull at her
- The loop stops
- They come to help you
- You’re surprised

Ollie: They pull at her

- Hands on her
- Pulling at her
- She scrambles for the laptop

Ollie: She bolts,

- She’s gone
- she’s gone.
- A ghost.
- The shoppers move away
- They leave
- They continue

Ollie: And I’m left there

- not knowing what

- She broke the loop

Ollie: she broke my flow of looping and thinking

- The others push

- push

Ollie: the others push past me as I stand

- You stand
- Frozen
- The loop fractures
- But continues.

34
/eight.
[Charlie and Moe.
Charlie drools long ropes of spit onto the floor.]

Moe: Stop that.

Charlie: I’m trying to do that thing – Where you –

Moe: Stop it.

Charlie: Where you make like a long line of spit all the way down then you, you suck it back
up again –

Moe: Don’t.

[Pause.]

Stop it.

Charlie: Do you want to know what my fetish is?

Moe: No.

Charlie: It’s weird.

Moe: I don’t want to know.

Charlie: I have this –

Moe: I don’t want to hear.

Charlie: – this real desire to jizz on everything.

Moe: …

Charlie: Like this,

this sort of,
this urge,
like I want to cover the whole city in my jizz.
(laughs.) Isn’t that weird?!

Moe: Yes.

Charlie: I think about it all the time, about how I could make everything in the whole city
have this thin film of my jizz over everything, y’know?

Moe: I don’t know.

Charlie: It doesn’t even feel like a sexual thing, like I don’t think it’s a sex thing, it doesn’t turn
me on when I think about it –

Moe: Please.

35
Charlie: It’s not a fetish. It’s like this urge. Like needing a piss or something, like I just need to
do it. Even you. I even to put my jizz on you.

Moe: Stop.

Charlie: But yeah, not in a sex way. It wouldn’t be sexy.

Do you know how I first found out I wanted to do this?
When I was really young, like before I even started masturbating properly, but I was
still getting boners, we lived near this hospital, and round the back of the hospital was
this mattress there with a hole in it, like it was all sponge you know? So I would go
and lie down on this mattress and fuck it.
(Laughs.) This was when I was like eleven or twelve or something so I didn’t really
get what I was doing but I just used to put my dick in things all the time. And when I
found that mattress I would just go there all the time and put my dick in it and fuck it
until all my jizz would come out and soak into the sponge. After a while the sponge
got all crusty. Isn’t that gross?

Moe: …

Charlie: Then this one time, the mattress, it was round the back of the hospital, under this
window, and I used to like, crouch, like I’d sneak under the window so they wouldn’t
see, so I could fuck the mattress. So then this one time I actually took a look in the
window, like after I’d jizzed already, and it was basically this room – I don’t know
what they had wrong with them or anything – But it was this room full of people all
sat in these chairs with all wires and stuff coming out of them, all tubes, and they were
mostly old people, and it was like a kind of a ward, except there was not often any
nurses in there or anything, just these people sat in the chairs with all the tubes and
wires. And they all looked at me. I don’t know if they were like, cancer guys or that
thing – what’s that thing with the kidneys?

Moe: Dialysis.

Charlie: Dialysis. Maybe they were that. Cos of all the wires.
They were something, anyway.
And when I looked at them – they all had really sad faces, ‘cept this one lady who
smiled and waved at me, I guess cos I was a little boy, and old ladies like little boys –
but when I looked at them I just for some reason really wanted to like, jizz on their
faces. I just felt like that was something I should do.
And not in some horrible sex way or anything, but like for some reason I thought it
might help them or make them better or something.
Because I knew about sperms, and sperms are basically like a lifeforce, aren’t they?
So maybe I thought if I jizzed on all their faces, all the ill or dying people or whatever,
they’d get better.
And ever since I had that thought I just basically wanted to jizz on everything.
…
Isn’t that weird?

Moe: I don’t want to hear this.

Charlie: I’m just trying to pass the time, conversation passes the time.

36
Moe: That’s not conversation. That’s just you telling me about your dick.

Charlie: It wasn’t really about my dick, it was about my jizz.

Moe: Fine.

Charlie: It was more about my balls than anything.

Moe: Okay.

Charlie: What do you think the psychology behind that is?

Moe: I don’t know.

Charlie: That maybe I think my balls have healing properties?

Moe: I don’t know.

Charlie: Because balls are like the life-givers?

Moe: I don’t care about any of this.

Charlie: I think probably Freud would have something to say about it.

[He goes back to the spitting.]

Moe: This is her now. Stop.

[Enter Gale.
Charlie tries to suck his spit back up but fails and spits down his front.]

Moe: Sorry.

Charlie: I didn’t mean to –

Gale: Have they been today?

Moe: No.

Charlie: I like your car –

Gale: No one’s been?

Moe: / No.

Charlie: It’s a very expensive-looking car. I imagine Tom Cruise would drive a car like that. Or
Jesus. If Jesus lived today he might drive a car like that.

Gale: Make him stop talking to me.

Charlie: Sorry –

Gale: Make him stop talking to me or I’ll punch him in the throat.

Moe: Shut up.

37
Charlie: …

Gale: Thank you. You’re Moe. That’s your name. Your name is Moe, yes?

Moe: Yeah –

Gale: You’re the serious one. He’s the idiot, I remember. You’re the serious one, aren’t you.

Moe: I–

Gale: You are. In the double act of you. You’re the serious one.

Moe: I don’t –

Gale: Shut up. You are.

…
There is a person. A woman –
You’re listening?

Moe: Yes –

Gale: There is a person who needs to not be around any more.

…
Yes?

Moe: …

[Beat.]

Gale: I have a photo, and I have a name, and this person has to not exist any more.
…
I want you to end this person. I want a full stop on this person.
I want you to make this person not alive any more.
That’s layman’s terms, yes?

[Pause.]

Charlie: We don’t really do that –

…
We can’t – We can’t do that –

Gale: It’s very simple.

Charlie: But –

Gale: It’s very straightforward.

I’m asking you to do something, and you’re going to do it.
…
You can throw her off a building, or wrap a wire round her neck, or, or, something –
I don’t care, I don’t mind how it’s done. That’s entirely up to you.

Moe: That’s not what we do –

38
Gale: You do what I tell you to do.

Charlie: But –

Gale: You get paid a lot of money to stand here at this gate.
You get a paid a lot more money than a job like this should pay.

Charlie: But –

Gale: Is this true?

Charlie: Yes but –

Gale: Didn’t I tell you not to speak? Didn’t I tell you?

Charlie: I–

Gale: I will put your eyes out. Believe me. Believe what I’m saying.

Moe: Shut up.

[Pause.]

Gale: This isn’t optional. This isn’t something you can opt out of.
I’m telling you to do it.
So you do it.

Moe: Are there not –

…
More experienced people.
…

[Pause.]

Gale: You do know about The Girl?

[Beat.]

Moe: … What girl?

Gale: The Girl. The girl that doesn’t need a name in a city filled with girls.

[Beat.]

Charlie: She’s a story.

She’s like a, a, an urban myth.

[Gale takes a sheet of paper out of her pocket, balls it up, and drops it.]

Gale: Okay?

Charlie: The Girl’s not a real – She’s not a real thing.

Gale: Fast. Tonight.

39
[She leaves.
Pause.]

Charlie: She’s not a real thing, is she Moe?

[Pause.]

She’s like the monster under the bed or something.

She’s not real.
Is she Moe.
…
She just said that to scare us.
Moe.

[Pause.]

Moe: … Pick it up.

40
/nine.
[Fay and Ollie.
Ollie is beaten and bloodied.]

Fay: Jesus –

Ollie: Can I –

Fay: What happened to you?

[Pause.]

Fay: What happened?

Ollie: I – I got mugged.

Fay: Where?
I mean –
Sit down. Sit –

Ollie: I’m fine –

Fay: Are you alright?

Ollie: I’m fine – it looks worse… than it is.

Fay: Where did this happen? Just outside?

Ollie: Yeah –

Fay: Just right outside?

Ollie: In an alley –

Fay: They pulled you into an alley?

Ollie: Yeah…

Fay: With knives?

Ollie: Yea – No – Just –

Fay: They hit you?

Ollie: I’m okay.

Fay: Have you called the police?

Ollie: No –

Fay: Do you want to –

Ollie: No.

41
Fay: You should probably –

Ollie: I don’t want to.

…
They won’t catch them anyway.
…
Happens every day.

[Pause.]

Fay: What did they take?

Ollie: …

Fay: Just money?

Ollie: Yeah –

Fay: Your card? Did they take your card?

Ollie: Yes.

Fay: We should call the bank then –

Ollie: What?

Fay: We have to call the bank, to cancel the card –

Ollie: No –

Fay: That stops them taking more –

Ollie: I already – Did that.

I did that already.

[Beat.]

Ollie: Can I – I just came in here to borrow some of the –

The wipe things.
I used mine.
…
They have alcohol in I think, or –

Fay: Here.

Ollie: Thank you.

[Pause.]

Fay: Was it just one guy?

Ollie: No.

Fay: Was it –
42
Ollie: I don’t really –

Fay: Sorry.

Ollie: I don’t want to talk about it.

[Pause.]

Fay: You look terrible.

Ollie: Thank you.

Fay: No, I mean –

Ollie: I know.

Fay: I don’t think they’ll let you work like this.

Ollie: What?

Fay: I don’t think you can.

Ollie: … Christ.

[She cries a little, tries to hide it.

Pause.]

Fay: Did you really…

Ollie: What.

Fay: …
I don’t think –
You didn’t get –
Get mugged.
Did you.

[Pause.]

Ollie: …

Fay: It’s okay, you don’t have to –

You know.

[Pause.]

Ollie: …
I made a film.

[Pause.]

Fay: You made a film?

[Pause.]
43
 Oh.

[Pause.]

Ollie: …
Four of them –
Kicked me round this basement for a while.
…
It was like a rape –
A rape thing.
That was the story. Of the film.

[Pause.]

Fay: Oh.

[Pause.]

Ollie: Embarrassed.

Fay: No – It’s –
…

[Pause.]

Fay: You got – You got paid a lot?

Ollie: …
not enough.
…

[Beat.]

Fay: Do you owe someone money?

Ollie: …

Fay: How much?

Ollie: … too much to pay back.

Fay: What do you owe it for?

Ollie: …

Fay: Can you – Can you just run away?

Ollie: They find you. They find everybody.

[Beat.]

Fay: What about – Do you have any family?

Ollie: … I have a sister…

44
Fay: A sister –

Ollie: I have a twin sister…

Fay: Okay, can we call her?

Ollie: I don’t know where she is…

Fay: Well what’s her name?

Ollie: … Ollie.

Fay: Ollie? Like Oliver? Like a boy’s name?

[Ollie nods.]

Fay: Where do you think she is?

Ollie: I don’t know. Here, maybe.

Fay: In Manchester?

Ollie: Maybe I don’t.

Fay: Don’t what?

Ollie: Maybe I don’t have one.

[Beat.]

I think I have one, I feel like I have a sister –

I can remember seeing myself places I haven’t been to.
She looks just like me.
But maybe I don’t.

Fay: I – Are you okay? Do you feel –

Ollie: I think she came here looking for me.

Fay: Well –

Ollie: I think she came here to find me…

Fay: Well let’s look her up and –

Ollie: I don’t want to involve her.

Fay: You need –

Ollie: I don’t want to involve her.

…
I’m bleeding all over your –

Fay: It’s fine.

45
Ollie: I’m such a fuck-up.

Fay: It’s okay.

Ollie: You ran away, didn’t you?

[Beat.]

Ollie: They told me. The others. About your husband.

…
He’s in the police.
…
Did he ever find you?

[Beat.]

Fay: Not yet.

Ollie: They said you’re saving up to leave –

Fay: I don’t want to talk about that. That’s not important now –

Ollie: I would have cut his face off.

…
When he was sleeping.
Peeled it off.

[Pause.]

Ollie: Do you hate everyone you fuck here?

Fay: Why don’t we –

Ollie: Do you hate them? All the men who come here.

[Pause.]

Fay: No.
I used to think so.
I don’t like most of them.
…
But not hate.

Ollie: I do.
I hate all of them.
I think I hate everyone.
It’s like a sickness I can feel in my guts.
I wake up every morning and I feel it all over.
I can’t get to sleep because it turns in me.
All this hate.
I think I’d sleep a lot easier if I knew none of us would wake up tomorrow.
Do you feel that?

46
 …
One day I’ll come back to this city on fire.
I’ll have flames pouring from me.
And I’ll keep walking through the streets in circles until everyone and everything is
just ash.
I’ll bring the end to everyone.

[Pause.]

Ollie: Can you promise me something?

Fay: … what?

Ollie: If I go missing like the others.

Don’t come looking for me.
…
I hope no one comes looking.

47
/ten.
[Charlie and Moe in a car. Stationary. Rain.
Silence.
Charlie gets a Gameboy out and starts playing.
Pause.]

Moe: Turn that off.

Charlie: Why?

Moe: We’re working.

Charlie: Can I show you my Pokemons?

Moe: Turn it off.

[He does.
Pause.]

Charlie: We just wait here –

Moe: You have the photo, you know what she looks like.

Charlie: And when I see her –

Moe: We get out and grab her.

Charlie: … do you not want to see the photo too?

Moe: No.

[Beat.]

Charlie: What about the name –

Moe: Don’t tell me anything.

Charlie: … does that make it easier for you?

… if like, if you don’t know names, or –

Moe: Who’s doing the main job.

Charlie: …

Moe: Who?

Charlie: Y-you.

Moe: I am. I’m doing it. Why am I doing it?

Charlie: Because –

Moe: Because you can’t. You couldn’t.

48
 …
Could you.
Never.
…
You’d just wait –
You’d just sit and wait for her to come get you.
Wait for your ending.
So you look after that bit of paper there, you look after that.
That’s your job, alright?

[Pause.]

Charlie: Sorry.

[Pause.]

What shall we talk about?

Moe: Nothing.

Charlie: We can’t just sit here in silence –

Moe: Yes we can.

Charlie: But we should –

Moe: Yes we can.

[Pause.]

Charlie: Do you think she was bluffing?

[Pause.]

You don’t believe her.

About The Girl?
…
She was just saying that so we’d –
…
She doesn’t exist, does she.
She’s like a myth.

Moe: …
…
I don’t know.

[Pause.]

Charlie: Do you know what they say about her?

Moe: …

Charlie: They say if you see her, it’s like seeing death.
49
 No one who ever meets her stays alive.
…
Except, you know.
The people she works for.
Everyone else who ever met her is dead now.
…
And she doesn’t even do the killing, she’s just like the, the judge.
She just decides.
But she decides, like, how it happens.
…
You know?

Moe: Don’t think about it.

Charlie: I can’t not think about it –

Moe: If we do the job, we don’t have to worry about it.

Charlie: The job is still – It’s still – Murder, or –

Moe: She did something.

To have this happen.
…
There are reasons.

[Charlie nods.
Pause.]

Charlie: I – Um –
Appreciate.
What you’re doing –
For me.

Moe: I’m not doing anything for you.

Charlie: No, but –

If you didn’t do…
This thing.
Like you said.
I couldn’t…
We’d be dead.
…
You know, I’m pretty good at not thinking about things, but, this is, this is hard…
I’m having a hard time not thinking about this.
…

Moe: What are you doing here?

Charlie: … what?

Moe: What are you doing in this car with me? Why are you here?

50
Charlie: It’s my job –

Moe: Why don’t you work in a shop or something? A normal job.

Charlie: I’m good at my job –

Moe: Your job is standing with me on an empty plot of land.

Charlie: We have to, to, stop people coming in, and wave the vans in –

Moe: What’s in the vans?

[Beat.]

What’s in them? What are you guarding?

What is your job?

Charlie: Security –

Moe: Security for what?

Charlie: Just like – Stolen goods or something/

Moe: That’s what you think?

Charlie: That’s what I sort of, tell myself. Or like counterfeit, counterfeit –

Moe: That’s what they’re driving in and taking underground.

Charlie: Yeah.

Moe: They need to keep fake jeans underground.

Charlie: Maybe –

Moe: That’s what you tell people.

Charlie: I don’t –

Moe: Your friends, your –

Charlie: I don’t have any friends.

Moe: Whoever the fuck – Whoever you tell. You tell them –

Charlie: I have two friends.

Moe: You tell them you’re a security guard.

Charlie: Yes.

Moe: And you just tell yourself it’s nothing – You just don’t think about it.

Charlie: No –

51
Moe: And now we’re going to do this, and you’re just going to not think about this too.

[Pause.]

Charlie: I–

Moe: This is real. All of this.

Charlie: I know –

Moe: So why are you involved?

Charlie: I’m not involved, I just work –

Moe: Why.

Charlie: Because. Because I couldn’t get any other job.

…

[Beat.]

Moe: No other job.

Charlie: No.

Moe: No other job would take you.

Charlie: No.

Moe: You can’t get a job stacking shelves or –

Charlie: No I can’t. I tried already.

Moe: For how long?

Charlie: I thought you didn’t want to talk.

Moe: You don’t like talking now I’m asking you the questions.

Charlie: I can’t get a job because I have a, a record.

Okay?

[Beat.]

Moe: A record.

[Charlie nods.]

Moe: A jail –

[Charlie nods.]

Moe: You’ve been in jail.

Charlie: A sort of a – Yeah. Yes.

52
[Pause.]

Moe: Bollocks.

Charlie: I did.

Moe: Bollocks.

Charlie: I did as well.

[Beat.]

Moe: For what.

Charlie: …

Moe: What did you do?

Charlie: Nothing –

Moe: You didn’t do anything.

Charlie: No.

Moe: People don’t go to jail for –

Charlie: Well I did.

[Pause.]

My friend. At school.
…
My friend took a gun to school.
…

[Pause.]

Moe: A gun.

[Charlie nods.]

Moe: And he killed someone.

Charlie: … two people.

[Pause.]

Moe: And you helped.

Charlie: No I didn’t help. Course I didn’t help –

Moe: Well you’re helping now –

Charlie: I didn’t help.

53
Moe: Then what?

Charlie: I was just there.

…
By accident.
…
He told me to follow him.
…
Then he went in their – Their form –
And took his gun out of his pocket.
Like an old, an old gun –
…
And he shot them.
…
And cos I was there…
They thought I was –
We planned it or something.
…
I had this notebook that I wrote in.
And it had a lot of angry stuff in there.
I used to be really angry.
So they thought –
You know.

[Pause.]

Moe: No one will give you a job, because it says on your –

Charlie: You have to declare it.

[Beat.]

Moe: So then some guy – You hear –

Charlie: Gale.

Moe: Gale finds you somewhere –

And she puts you with me.

Charlie: … I’m in charge of the mobile.

…
I have to run and hide and call her.
If we see something.
…
That’s my job.

[Pause.]

Moe: Play your game.

Charlie: Don’t want to.

54
Moe: It’s fine.

Charlie: I don’t want to.

Moe: …

[Pause.]

Charlie: What do you think they do.

Moe: What.

Charlie: What’s in the vans. What goes underground.

Moe: …

Charlie: Do you know?

Moe: No I don’t know.

Charlie: But you have a theory.

Moe: No…

Charlie: You have an opinion.

Moe: …

Charlie: What is it?

[Pause.]

Moe: Do you know what a snuff film is?

[Pause.
They sit in silence.]

55
/eleven.
[Fay and Gale.
Fay is clutching a laptop.]

Gale: What are you doing in here.

[Pause.]

You’re not to come in here.

Fay: Where is she.

Gale: This is my office, you can’t come in here.

Did you hear me?

Fay: Where is she.

Gale: Where’s who?

Who are we talking about?
…
Your little friend?
Your buddy?

Fay: …

Gale: She’s gone.

She left.

Fay: She left.

Gale: She left.

Fay: Like the others.

Gale: It’s not a long-term job. People leave.

Why do you have my laptop?

Fay: What happened to her.

Gale: I told you –

Fay: All of them. Three now. All just left.

Gale: She came to me –

Fay: She came to you –

Gale: She came to me and explained she was leaving.

Fay: Overnight.

Gale: Yes overnight. She left.

56
Fay: Where.

Gale: I’m not her keeper.

…
Put it down.
…
She left.
I don’t know where.
Just because you haven’t the strength to leave yourself –

Fay: They didn’t leave –

Gale: Just because you’ve nailed yourself to that bed, doesn’t mean others –

Fay: They didn’t leave. They’re gone.

Gale: People move on. This is what happens. When you save enough money to leave, you
leave.
…
Put it down.

[Pause.]

Fay: I broke in here.

Gale: I can see. I see this.

Fay: I broke the door to get in here.

Gale: And now you’re fired. Can you understand that?

You’re fired.
You don’t even have this any more. You don’t even –

Fay: Why do you have our blood types.

[Pause.]

On your laptop –

Gale: That is my / personal –

Fay: On your laptop. You have a list of everyone’s blood type.

All of us.
Everyone who ever worked here.
People who left – Who I thought had left, maybe you took them too –

Gale: I don’t take anyone –

Fay: All of us.

…
Why do you have this?
How do you even get this –

57
Gale: Put it down.

Fay: What’s happening here.

Gale: Put it back on my desk and walk –

Fay: Where are they?

Gale: You –

[She steps forward – ]

Fay: Stop. Stand. I’ll scream –

Gale: Listen –

Fay: I’ll scream and bring everyone running in here

Stand there. Still. Don’t fucking move!

[Pause.]

What’s happening.

Gale: Nothing is happening –

Fay: Fuck you.

…
I can feel it. I can literally feel it. Right now. All around us.
All around this.
This is something –

Gale: Why do you care?

Fay: You –

Gale: Why are you getting involved?

…
Why do you put yourself in these situations?
Over and over.
Pain and misery, pain and misery, again and again, again and again.
You climb out of one hole and dig yourself another.
As if you want it.
As if you crave it.
…
And now you’re going to get involved in this?
Over her?
Over some drifter who’d do anything if you waved enough money at her?
…
Did she tell you the kind of films she was making?
…
Put it down, walk away, forget about it.

58
[Pause.]

Fay: Sit.
Sit down.

[Beat.
Gale sits.
Pause.]

Fay: I’m leaving here with this.

Gale: Listen –

Fay: Shut up. Stop talking.

I’m leaving with this.
I’m taking it to the police, to, to, to everyone –
I’m going to show this to everyone.
Do you understand?
…
They’ll come here –

Gale: You’re going to go to the police.

Fay: Yes.

Gale: You, with everything –

Fay: Yes.

Gale: Everything that happened to you.

…
Straight to the police.
…
Straight to him.
…
I wouldn’t recommend it.

Fay: I don’t care –

Gale: I wouldn’t recommend it.

Fay: Shut up.

[Pause.]

Gale: If you leave here, with that.

If you call the police, if you don’t call the police –
There are people who will come looking for you.
…
Okay?
There are people who will want to know who you are, and what you look like, and
I’ll have to tell, I’ll have to tell them.
59
Okay?
They’ll come looking for you.
And they’ll find you.
These people –
They find everybody.
Doesn’t matter about police.
Doesn’t matter how far you run.
How fast.
Where you go.
They find everybody.
Do you understand?
…
Do you hear me?
…
Do you hear me?

60
/twelve.
[Keaton and Charlie.
Keaton rolls dice.]

Charlie: Success! The door swings open and you flee from the sacrificial chamber clutching
the Necronomicon book to your chest.

Keaton: Which way do I go?

Charlie: The hall splits in two, will you go left or right?

Keaton: Uh – Uh – Left – No, Right!

[Charlie rolls dice.]

Charlie: As you run down the hall you collide with the High Priest of the Cthulhu Cult –

Keaton: No!

Charlie: (in character) You miserable worm, you thought you stood a chance against the
might of the Old Ones?

Keaton: What you’re doing is wrong –

Charlie: Wrong? Such a ludicrously human concept. The universe cares not for wrong, girl.
And soon, neither shall you –
He pulls a rusty hook from his robes –

Keaton: Uh – Uh –

Charlie: (Remember you’ve still got the revolver.)

Keaton: Uh – Duck between his legs and run past him!

Charlie: Duck between –

[Keaton and Charlie roll dice.]

Charlie: Wow! You duck between his legs and run; after a moment of confusion he dashes
after you, waving his hook –
It’s too late, girl!

Keaton: Run!

Charlie: The dawning of the new age shall make slaves of you all!
The walls and floor around you start rumbling –

Keaton: Run!

Charlie: He is risen! Prepare the fruits of your body for sacrifice!

Keaton: Run!

61
Charlie: The stone starts crumbling, the walls are falling around you, you hear an unholy
noise and turn to see –

Keaton: What?

Charlie: Wait!
…
I need a wee. Wee break.

[He dashes off.

Keaton sits.
She is perfectly still and silent.
Time passes.
Charlie comes back in with lemonade.]

Charlie: I brought lemonade. I’m thirsty. Are you thirsty?

Keaton: Okay.

[He pours it.]

Charlie: It’s like proper stuff, it’s yellow, see? Old-fashioned.

[They drink.
Pause.]

You’re playing really well, but you could definitely afford to use your weapons more.

Keaton: I don’t want to.

Charlie: That’s what they’re there for –

Keaton: I don’t like to.

Charlie: Okay.
Well that’s the great thing about RPGs, there’s no limit on the ways to play.

[They drink.
Pause.]

Do you think you want to do something else another time?

Keaton: What.

Charlie: Do you want to go to the cinema one time?

Keaton: …

Charlie: We can go watch a film or something. If you want.

Keaton: … why.

Charlie: Why?
…
62
 Cos – We’re friends.

Keaton: Oh.
…
I can’t.

[She drinks.]

Charlie: Oh, okay.

[He drinks.
Pause.]

Charlie: I can’t play for much longer. I have to go to work.

Keaton: Why.

Charlie: Because, it’s my job. I’m a security guard, I told you.

Keaton: What are you a security guard for.

Charlie: Like, why am I a security guard, or, like, what do I keep secure?

Keaton: What are you guarding.

Charlie: It’s kind of –

I actually don’t know –

Keaton: Why.

Charlie: It’s a secret.

Keaton: Why.

Charlie: Because – Uh – I don’t know if it’s, um, legal, or not.

Keaton: Why.

Charlie: You talk weird.

Keaton: … I do?

Charlie: Yeah.

Keaton: … why is it illegal?

Charlie: I don’t know it’s illegal, I just – They don’t tell me what it is, so maybe it’s not legal.
…
Do you know where Pomona is?

[Beat.]

Keaton: … what.

63
Charlie: It’s like this weird place in town, like, right in the centre. It’s like an island? I think it
used to be a dock, but now there’s nothing on it, it’s just this bit of land with the
canal on either side, and it’s all full of crumbly cement and weeds and stuff.
No one goes there, it’s sort of like a forgotten place.
That’s where I work.
It’s kind of creepy at night because there’s no street lights, so it’s just pitch-black
there –

Keaton: Why do you work there.

Charlie: Because. I do. It’s weird, I know –

Keaton: Why do you have to guard it.

Charlie: I don’t guard the whole of it – There’s just only one road that goes in and out, and me
and my friend we have to stand there and stop people going in, cos it’s like, private,
you know, and then, most days this van shows up, and we have to unlock the gate
and let it in.
It’s a very easy job.
Boring though sometimes.

[He drinks.]

All the vans that drive in, they drive right to the middle, cos there’s this hatch there,
that leads underground?
And there’s these tunnels that used to have all cables or something to do with the old
dock stuff, but they’re just tunnels now, and apparently if you follow them they lead
to like these huge old air-raid shelters. Like these sort of massive caves they dug in
the war.
I never saw them, but that’s what they say’s down there.
And I heard now they have power down there and everything, like it’s this big
warehouse down there, all done up –

Keaton: You shouldn’t work there.

Charlie: What – Why?

Keaton: …

Charlie: I don’t ever go down there, I just let the vans –

Keaton: I don’t want to talk about it. I want to play again.

[Pause.]

Charlie: What’s wrong?

[Beat.]

Keaton: I want to play.

[Pause.]

64
 Stop talking and play the game again.

Charlie: Okay – Hang on – Uh –

So –

Keaton: I’m running.

Charlie: Yeah, you’re running, but the stone is all crumbling, the walls are falling around you,
and then you hear an unholy noise and turn to see –
Hold on –

[He fumbles in a bag and pulls on a Cthulhu mask.]

Charlie: The mighty, horrific form of Cthulhu rising up from the ground and destroying the
castle behind you –
Evil has awoken! The Dark Lord has risen to reclaim what is his!

[Keaton’s phone beeps.

She looks at it.
Beat.]

Keaton: I have to go.

Charlie: Oh –

Keaton: I have to go now.

Charlie: Well maybe tomorrow –

[She’s gone.]

Bye.

65
/thirteen.
[Fay and Moe.]

Fay: The shower’s just in there, there’s towels in there.

Moe: Oh –

Fay: Just shower up and we can start.

Moe: I don’t want a shower.

Fay: Afraid you need to have a shower.

Moe: I don’t – I mean –

Fay: Afraid I insist on showers.

Moe: I don’t want to have any – What you think I want. I don’t want that.

Fay: What’s that?

Moe: S-sex. I don’t want sex.

[Beat.]

Moe: Sorry.

Fay: You’d like a massage.

Moe: N-no. No.

Fay: So what do you want.

[Beat.]

Moe: I’d just like to –

…
Can we just sit. And talk.
For a while.

[Beat.]

Fay: Okay.

[They sit.
Moe sits as far away as he can.
Pause.]

Fay: You just want to sit like this?

Moe: For a bit.

Fay: And talk.

66
Moe: Yes.

Fay: Talk about –

Moe: About anything.

Fay: …

Moe: …

Fay: Well it’s up to you –

Moe: Do you have any family?

Fay: I’m not talking about that.

Moe: Why not?

Fay: Because I’m not talking about personal – Personal things.

Moe: What if I pay you more?

Fay: You can’t buy conversation.

Moe: It’s not, it’s just –

Fay: I’d drop it. I’d drop this.

Moe: Sorry.
…
Is this a good place to work?

Fay: No.

Moe: It’s not.

Fay: Of course it’s not.

Moe: Why not?

Fay: Because I have to have sex with people for money.

Moe: (nods) Right. Yeah.

[Pause.]

Fay: What do you want?

Moe: I–

Fay: If it’s weird, just ask. I’ll only say no.

Moe: I’d just like to touch you.

Fay: Touch me.

67
Moe: Yes.

Fay: Just touch me.

[Moe nods.]

Fay: This is like – Your thing. This is what you like. To touch.

Moe: No –

Fay: It’s fine.

Moe: No, it’s not that. It’s not a, a sex thing –

Fay: What then?

[Pause.]

Moe: … I have some –

Issues.
I have issues with, uh –
Violence.
…
…
I’m in groups. I’m in a lot of groups.
For my violence issues.

[Beat.]

Fay: We have a lot of security here –

Moe: No – I won’t – I won’t hurt you – / I have –

Fay: You can leave if you’re thinking –

Moe: No – I’m not – I wouldn’t. I’m just sitting all the way over here, it’s not an issue, I
won’t –
I won’t even come near you.
I’ll sit here.
I’m all the way over here, so you don’t have to…
…
I’m getting help for it.
I’m in groups. Like I said.
…
It’s a lot of exercises.
And,
Positive thinking.
Things like that.
…
I used to be very…
But now –
I’m not –
68
 I don’t hurt people anymore.
…

Fay: So now you pay women to touch you.

Moe: No, I – Not to touch me, I –

Fay: What.

Moe: I can’t touch people. Any more.

I don’t –
I mean, I haven’t touched anyone.
For a long time.
Because I was scared I’d –
…
I feel very disconnected.
Because I don’t touch people.
I feel very,
Uh,
Disconnected.

[Pause.]

Fay: I don’t feel sorry for you.

Moe: No – Definitely –

Fay: I have no sympathy.

Moe: No.

[Pause.]

Fay: Who did you hurt?

Moe: … a lot of people.

…
My family.

Fay: Your wife?

Moe: (nods) My ex-wife.

…
A lot of people.
My parents.
My brother.
Just people – On the street.
I got in fights with people on the street.
I’d just hit people on the street.
…
I put a lot of people in hospital.
I can’t count how many.
69
[Beat.]

Fay: That’s disgusting.

Moe: Yeah.

Fay: That’s awful.

Moe: Yeah.

[Pause.]

Have you ever hurt anyone?

Fay: No.

Moe: Has anyone ever hurt you?

[Pause.]

Fay: … my husband.

[Moe nods.]

Fay: My husband hurt me.

And my daughter.
…
Can you understand that?

Moe: I can’t… really –

Speak for anyone else.
I don’t know him.
…
Do you think I’m like him?

Fay: … no.
You’re quiet.
…
He hates women.

[Moe nods.]

Fay: Do you hate women?

Moe: No.

Fay: The whole world hates women.

Moe: Maybe. Not me. I don’t think.

…
Are you safe now?

Fay: Never.

70
 Never safe.

[Moe nods.
Beat.]

Fay: You think you’re different.

Moe: I–

Fay: You think you’re different from other men.

Don’t you.

Moe: …
The people in my group – a lot of them –
They’re like your –

Fay: My husband.

Moe: Yes.

Fay: But you’re different.

Moe: I don’t…

[Beat.]

Moe: …
I just want everything to stop.

Fay: You want to kill yourself.

Moe: No.

Fay: What then.

Moe: I want to… go to sleep.

And wake up.
And there’s no one left.
Everyone’s gone.
…
Then I could die.
Knowing it was all done.
I think that would be amazing…
An amazing kind of peace.

[Pause.
Fay takes her shoe off.
She very slowly stretches her leg across the gap between them.
Moe reaches, tentatively.
He stops breathing.
He holds her foot.
The world falls around them. \ ]

71
/fourteen.
[The lights die.
Ollie is underground.
She walks down a long tunnel with a flashlight, breathing hard.]

72
/fifteen.
[Gale and Keaton.
Silence.]

Gale: She has –

Left.
With the, the lap – My laptop.
…
But –
I have two men…
I’ll give them all the information.
I’ll tell them.
They’ll find her.
…
And she won’t go far –
She has previous –
Her husband –
She won’t go to the police.
If she can help it.
…
At least not immediately.
Not for a, a while.
…
And the men –
They’re good. They’ll find her.
I’ll – I’ll tell them to –
They’ll get it done.

[Pause.]

Of course, now you know who she is, and –

If you wanted –
To just take her…
Yourself. You could take her yourself –
…
I mean.
It’s my mess.
I’ll clean it up.
Of course.
…
It’ll –
It’s not a problem.
I promise you.
I’ll fix this.

[Pause.]

Gale: If you need to know anything else, maybe –

If there’s anything else you need –
73
 …
Otherwise –

Keaton: Do you know what happens to the girls you give them.

[Pause.]

Gale: I have an – An idea.

[Pause.]

I think maybe –
You – They –
I think they use them to make sn-snuff films.
…

[Keaton shakes her head.]

Gale: No, yes.

[Pause.]

Not, not that.

Then, I think maybe –
I don’t, I don’t know.
…

[Pause.]

Gale: Is that –

Keaton: They do two things.

[Pause.]

Gale: I really don’t need to –

Keaton: They take the people.

The ones you give them.
And others. From all over. Men and women.
And they take all the organs out and sell them.

[Pause.]

And maybe they’ll do that to you.

If I tell them.
I’ll tell them to, and I’ll tell them not to put you to sleep like they do with the others.
You’ll be awake when they take yours out.

[Pause.]

Can you guess the second thing.

74
[Pause.
Gale shakes her head.]

Keaton: They take the girls that you give them.

And some others.
And they tie them down.
And they put babies inside them.
And then when the baby’s ready,
They take it out and sell it.
And they do it again. And again. And again.
And they keep going for years until they can’t any more.
And then they take their organs out.
So maybe I’ll tell them to do that to you instead.
Because it’s both.
I’ll tell them to put a baby in you.
You look like you’d make the kind of baby they could sell easy.
They’ll make a lot of babies with you and then after years they’ll cut you open while
you’re awake, they’ll take out what’s left.

[Pause.]

Would you like that.

[Pause.]

Now that I’ve told you, you know.

So you’ll fix this now.

Gale: …

Keaton: Because if you don’t fix this by tomorrow.

Then I’ll come and see you again.
And I’ll tell them.
And they’ll come and take you.
And I’ll tell them to keep you awake.
And you’ll be awake for a long time.

Do you see.

75
/sixteen.
[Charlie and Moe under a bridge.
Rain. Cars overhead.
Fay kneels on the ground in front of them, hands bound, a rucksack zipped over her head.
Pause.]

Charlie: Do we do it now, or…

[Pause.]

How are you going to, to –

Do it.

[Pause.]

How are you going to, to –

Do it.

[Pause.]

She said we had to get a laptop.

She didn’t have one with her. I didn’t see one –
She said that’s important. It said on the note we have to get the laptop. If we mess
this up, then –
…
We have to get the laptop.

[Pause.]

Where’s the laptop?

…
Please?

[Beat.]

She can’t answer with the bag –

I have to –

[He goes to take the bag off.]

Moe: Don’t do that.

Charlie: But –

Moe: I’m fucking telling you. Leave it.

Leave it on.

[Pause.]

Charlie: But the bag –

The bag makes it worse –
…
76
 I can see –
She’s breathing and it’s making the, the material move –

Moe: You want her looking at you?

Charlie: Well she is – She is looking –

We can’t just tell ourselves she’s not looking –
We can’t just pretend we’re not –
…
I don’t think we should do this,
I don’t think we should do this now.
…
I think we shouldn’t – We should…

[Beat.]

Moe: What?

Charlie: Something, some other – Some different –

Moe: There’s no other way.

She’s involved.

Charlie: We don’t know –

Moe: She’s involved, we’re involved. So we’re here.

Charlie: We don’t know that. We don’t even know what it is – What it is we’re involved in –

Moe: Stop crying.

Charlie: …

Moe: Stop it.

[Pause.]

Charlie: I don’t want to do this any more…

I can’t do this job…
I can’t pretend any more.
I can’t just put my fingers in my ears –
We’re not security guards. We’re not.
I can’t make myself believe that any more –

Moe: Calm down.

Charlie: I can’t do this now.

I’m a good person.
I try to be –
I think I am –
I’m trying –
I try to be a good person.

77
 But this isn’t –

Moe: Stop.

Charlie: I keep thinking that everything will get better but it doesn’t, it just gets worse, it’s
always got worse, and if I do this then it’ll be even worse than that.

[Pause.]

Moe: She’s involved. We’re involved.

This is what happens.

Charlie: But –

Moe: If we don’t do our job, then they’ll find us in pieces in the canal. Okay? Remember?
She will come and find us.

Charlie: She’s not real…

Moe: It’s all real.

All of it.
Everything bad is real.
…
And this is where the roads meet. This is an inevitability.
…
And I don’t care what happens to me.
But you’re in this. You’re involved.

Charlie: You don’t care about me…

Moe: …
I wish I didn’t.

Charlie: You don’t.

You don’t care about anything.

Moe: …
When I think about you getting killed over this,
I feel like that’s, that’s something I wish didn’t happen.
…
I haven’t felt like that about anything for a while.
…
Even if it is –

Charlie: You know her.

[Beat.]

When you saw her, you looked at her funny because you know her.
…
And you’re still going to do it.

78
Moe: I don’t –

Charlie: You’re still going to do it even though you know her –

Moe: What does it matter?

What does it matter if I know her?
Would it make it better if I didn’t?
…
What does any of it matter?
All of this.
All of it.
It’s just a cycle of shit.
A drowning in oceans of piss.
I should be in jail. Or dead. Even better.
Why aren’t I?
Why didn’t anyone make that happen?
What kind of fucking world is this where I’m still allowed to walk around?
Why would I want to live in a world that would let me walk on it?
Why would anyone want to live somewhere like that?
…
But I believe in you. You’re a good –

Charlie: I’m not –

Moe: You’re a good person.

You’re trying to be a good person.
…
And that’s enough.
It’s enough just to try.

[He takes a knife from his pocket.]

Moe: So if I have to do this to keep you above water, then that’s –

That’s okay –

[Charlie goes to take the bag off.]

Moe: Don’t –
Don’t fucking touch her –

[The bag is off.

Fay, gagged, looks at Moe.
Pause.
She wobbles to her feet.
Pause.
She runs off.
Pause.
Charlie wipes his face on his sleeve.
Pause.]

Moe: Hit me.

79
/seventeen.
[Ollie is deeper into the tunnels.
Her flashlight illuminates Charlie.]

Charlie: After following the tip from the man in the car, you find head to Pomona and sneak
past the two guards.
It is barren and empty and overgrown and you see and hear no one but cars passing in
the distance.
You walk on cracked concrete until your foot steps on metal and you find a hatch
hidden in amongst the tall grass.

[Moe and Gale roll dice.]

Charlie: You find yourself in a deep underground tunnel.

Looking around you, it seems to have originally housed cables, but is tall enough for
you to stand up in. The water at your feet is brown with rust and dirt. Far ahead of
you you see a dim light.

Ollie: Keep going.

[Zeppo and Keaton roll dice.]

Charlie: You press on until the light grows nearer, and you find yourself at a large, steel door.
It looks newer than your surroundings, and is locked firmly.

Ollie: Um – Pick the lock –

[Fay and Charlie roll dice.]

Charlie: You fail.

Ollie: Look around the tunnel –

[Moe and Gale roll dice.]

Charlie: You find nothing of use.

Ollie: Uh –

Charlie: You hear voices on the other side of the door –

Ollie: Hide in the shadows –

[All six roll dice.]

Charlie: You press against the wall as the door opens and a tall man in a leather jacket comes
out into the tunnel to smoke.

[Zeppo and Keaton roll dice.]

Charlie: He walks a way down the tunnel into the gloom –

Ollie: Head inside –

80
[All six roll dice.]

Charlie: You find yourself in a brightly lit hallway.

The floor beneath you is tiled and spotless. Strip lights buzz above you.

[Fay and Charlie roll dice.]

Charlie: There are two doors – one to your left, and one ahead of you.

Ollie: Straight ahead.

[All six roll dice.]

Charlie: The door opens into a long room with a tall ceiling. It seems to be a medical ward of
some sort. It is white and sterile. The walls are lined with beds.

[All six roll dice.]

Charlie: In most of the beds lies a figure tied down with straps. None of them are moving.

Ollie: Look closer –

[All six roll dice.]

Charlie: You step closer to one of the beds and find a young man strapped down. He wears a
hospital gown. A drip is attached to his arm. His head is covered with a thick white
stocking. A tube runs through the fabric into his nose.

[All six roll dice.]

You look under the gown at his body. There are a number of long cuts sealed with
stitches. Some are bleeding. A catheter runs down his leg.

[All six roll dice.]

The ward is filled with about a hundred beds, a man or woman is strapped to the
majority of them. The other beds are empty.

[All six roll dice.]

There’s another door at the end of the ward.

Ollie: Go – Go through the door.

[All six roll dice.]

Charlie: You step into another almost identical ward, with a similar amount of beds. This time
the patients are all women.

[All six roll dice.]

Charlie: The women are all at varying stages of pregnancy. Some have stomachs swollen at
full term, others appear to be in much earlier stages. All seem to be asleep or
unconscious. All are wearing the white stockings over their heads.
81
 - You hear voices in the previous room –
- There’s a door ahead of you to another room –
- The voices get closer –
- Go through the door –

Ollie: No, wait –

- You emerge into a hallway

- Two more doors.

Ollie: Go back –

- You are looking for your sister –

- You enter the left door.
- Another white room
- Another ward
- Rows and rows of clear plastic cradles
- Some empty
- Some with child
- Babies here
- Arms and legs swimming in the air
- A voice at the end of the room shouts
- Move
- Quickly
- Get out of here
- Back out
- Into the hall
- One door left
- Looking for an exit
- You are looking for your sister
- The door is different
- Steel and heavy like the first
- Open
- Pull
- Into the room
- The last room
- And the heat overwhelms you
- Blinds you
- The smell invades your skull
- Makes you sway
- Drunk with the stench
- The furnace dominates the room
- The flames furious
- A second machine grinds
- Churning
- There are huge plastic tubs on wheels
- Filled with ash
- Grey gravelled
- Ash
- Filled
82
 - Turn and leave
- Quickly
- You are looking for your sister
- They will find you
- Do not pass this point.
- You are looking for your sister –

[All seven roll dice.]

- You want to see the daylight again

- Back
- Back in the room

[All seven roll dice.]

- Back in the ward

- The ward with the women
- Voices in the next room
- You are looking for your sister –

[All seven roll dice.]

- Under the bed

- Hide under the bed
- Voices near
- You are looking
- Two men
- Are putting a new one
- A new patient
- The new patient
- You won’t get out
- Strapping her to the bed
- On this bed
- Tied down
- Strapped down
- Her clothes fall around you
- Your heartbeat deafens
- can’t breathe
- can’t blink
- You won’t get out of here alive
- You’d be
- Lucky
- You’d be lucky

[All of them roll dice, again and again and again throughout the following.]

- You’d be lucky to get

- You feel the hand close around your ankle
- You’d be lucky
- You feel the hand
- The hand
83
 - The hand pulls
- The hand pulls you out into the open
- You’d be lucky to get out of here
- dead.

[One last dice is rolled and they all lean in to see the number.]

84
/eighteen.
[Charlie is flying high over the city.]

Charlie: Whoa –

[He looks down at the sprawl beneath him.]

Charlie: Am I dead?

[Zeppo is here. He’s a seagull.]

Charlie: Hey. Hey – Excuse me –

Zeppo: What?

Charlie: Am I dead?

Zeppo: What?

Charlie: Am I dead? Am I like a ghost now?

Zeppo: I don’t know. I don’t know you.

I don’t know if you’re dead or not.

[Pause.]

Charlie: What kind of bird are you?

Zeppo: I’m a seagull.

Charlie: Am I a bird?

Zeppo: I don’t know.

Charlie: … You’re a seagull?

Zeppo: I told you.

[Beat.]

Charlie: How come you’re here?

Zeppo: What?

Charlie: This isn’t the sea – Aren’t you supposed to be at the sea?

Zeppo: I can fly wherever I want.

Charlie: I just thought seagulls only stayed near the sea.

Zeppo: Well I don’t care what you think. You’re not in charge of me.

[Beat.]

85
Charlie: I was just asking.

[Pause.]

Zeppo: I’m working.

Charlie: You work here?

Zeppo: Yes.

Charlie: What’s your job?

Zeppo: I’m trying to cover the whole city in shit.

Charlie: Wow.

Zeppo: Yeah.

Charlie: All of it?

Zeppo: Everything.

Charlie: The whole city?

Zeppo: Yes. I want to cover everyone and everything in my shit.

You won’t be able to even tell it was a city ever,
Cos it’ll just be covered in my shit.

Charlie: That’s impressive. I have a similar plan, except with jizz.

Zeppo: With what?

Charlie: With my jizz. Semen.

Zeppo: …
That’s weird. You’re weird.

[Pause.]

Charlie: I never finished the game.

Zeppo: What game.

Charlie: My game I was playing with this girl.

Zeppo: There’s always a girl.

Charlie: We were on a cliffhanger…

Zeppo: You should’ve killed her.

Charlie: What?

Zeppo: The person. You were supposed to kill. She’d have been better off.

86
 You’d all be better off.

[Beat.]

Charlie: couldn’t.

Zeppo: Why not.

Charlie: …

Zeppo: You were happy when your friend killed those two kids.
Weren’t you?

Charlie: …

Zeppo: You didn’t realise till afterwards.

But you were glad.
You’re still glad.
You just wish you hadn’t seen it.

[Pause.]

Charlie: Everyone looks so small.

Zeppo: They are small.

Charlie: …

Zeppo: They’re nothing.

87
/nineteen.
[Pomona.
Keaton is here.
Ollie stumbles around aimlessly, cheerfully. She wears a hospital gown.]

Ollie: Hey.

[Pause.]

Hello.

[Pause.]

I just came out of the ground over there.

[Pause.]

Do you recognise me?

[Beat.
Keaton shakes her head.]

Ollie: Oh.
…
I came out – There’s a hatch – I came out the ground over there.
…
I woke up in a bed wearing this.
There were all wires coming out of me.
And I felt a hand on my leg and it pulled me out of my sleep and into the light.
I don’t think I was supposed to wake up, but I did.

[Pause.]

Ollie: There’s all people down there. In beds, like me.

And I saw a woman under a bed and they pulled her out of the bed and I was awake
so I got up and left.
There’s lots of people down there.
…
Shall I show you?

[Keaton shakes head.

Beat.]

Ollie: What’s your name?

Keaton: … keaton.

Ollie: Keaton. Hello Keaton.

I don’t know my name.
…
Are you okay?

88
Keaton: My friend is dead.

Ollie: Your friend is dead?

Keaton: I saw him over there. Under that bridge. He’s dead.

[Pause.]

Ollie: I’m sorry.

…
I’m sorry about that.

[Beat.]

Keaton: I won’t know how the story ends now.

Ollie: The story?

Keaton: We were playing a game. With a story. And he didn’t get to the end.

Ollie: Oh.
…
I’m sorry about that.

Keaton: A great evil force awoke and I had to defeat it. But I won’t know how.

[Pause.]

Ollie: Are you sad about your friend?

Keaton: …
What?

Ollie: Are you sad? About your friend being dead.

[Pause.]

Keaton: Yes.
…
I am.
…

[Pause.]

Ollie: I’m sad myself.

Keaton: Why.

Ollie: Because I’ve lost my sister.

Keaton: You have a sister.

Ollie: I think I do.

89
 I think I have a sister and I think she came here somewhere and I think she’s in
trouble now.
…
I think she’s in trouble.
…
Do you know how I can find her?

[Pause.]

Keaton: There’s a road that goes all the way around the city.

Ollie: Yes.

Keaton: You have to go and stand on that road at night.

Ollie: Yes.

Keaton: A man drives round it every night in his car.

Ollie: Yes.

Keaton: Late at night.

Ollie: Yes.

Keaton: And the man knows everything about the city because he owns most of the city
himself.

Ollie: Yes.

Keaton: If you ask him he might know how to help you.

Ollie: Yes.
…
The road around the city.

[Pause.]

It’s very quiet here, that’s for sure.

[They stand and listen.

Cars on the busy road off in the distance.]

Keaton: I should burn it all down.

Ollie: What?

Keaton: I should burn it all to nothing.

But they’d just start again.
…

[Ollie smiles at her.

Pause.

90
Keaton picks up a Rubik’s Cube and starts solving it.
Ollie does the same.
Soon, all seven characters are solving a cube each.
When they finish, they drop their cube and leave the stage.
One by one.
Ollie is last.
She tosses her solved cube to the floor.
She listens to the road.]

Ollie: … It sure is quiet here…

[She leaves the stage.]

[Exit.]

91
 The actor playing Ollie plays two characters.
In Scenes One, Seven, Fourteen and Seventeen she plays Ollie.
In Scenes Five, Nine and Nineteen she plays Ollie’s twin sister.

The actors playing Ollie and Fay should not at any point be wearing sexually
suggestive or revealing clothing, despite their employment.

92