Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Part 5


INT. AN OFFICE

Dozens of sweaty men and women, some wearing dust masks, rush between tiny cubicles waving documents and SHOUTING into mobiles. workers are wearing dust masks, everyone has a cup of coffee on their desk. DAN, thirty, wearing a white shirt, black tie and thick rimmed glasses, is sitting at a small desk covered in paperwork in the middle of the room. He is reading a small memo. His hand shakes as he runs it through his hair. He looks over and sees his coffee is empty. He wearily stands up folding the memo into his pocket and walks through the spiral of cubicles to the door.
INT. FACTORY FLOOR
Dan opens the door onto a metal walkway above a huge noisy factory floor. A man is SCREAMING. Terry and his crew are trying to fix a malfunctioning walker. It is sparking and jerking spasmodically. One of its giant arms has pinned one of his crew to the wall. Terry is clinging to an open panel on the walker's chest, it swings from side to side as he finishes adjusting a circuit board with a screwdriver.
TERRY
Done!
The panel crushes his fingers as it swings shut. Terry SHOUTS in pain as he falls to the deck. The arm releases JOHN, who falls to the floor as the walker straightens into standby position. Other workers gather round.
WORKER
John! You alright mate?
John's BREATHING is laboured and he GROANS. Terry, clutching his battered fingers, gets up and goes over.
TERRY
Someone get a fucking medic!

Dan turns and moves up the walkway, the factory floor stretches as far as the eye can see. He crosses a gangway to the other side and goes through the door.
INT. SMOKING AREA
Dan walks down a dreary damp corridor, passing an out of order Cola machine. He walks past a poster, it shows an attractive male and female office worker at a desk with dilated pupils, huge smiles and a pair of steaming cups of coffee, the writing on the poster reads CAFELICIOUS COFFEE. FOR THOSE SMOOTH MOMENTS. Dan comes to a battered wooden door. LAUGHTER is coming from inside, he goes in. The room is full of smoke, TRACY and SHARON are sitting at a plastic table smoking and GOSSIPING loudly over their coffee. They are in their thirties but look fifty, overweight and wearing thick make-up and tight dresses. There is a CCTV camera in the ceiling and another door at the back of the room. TOM, a smug steroid thickened office worker with spiked blond hair is using the coffee machine at the far end, taking his time as he has his phone in one hand. Dan leans up against the end of the counter furthest from Tom and takes out the memo.
TO EMPLOYEE 667C18DG (GARDNER); YOU ARE TO ATTEND A MANDATORY TEAM BUILDING EXERCISE. PROCEED IMMEDIATELY TO THE PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT CENTRE UPON READING THIS MEMO. DIRECTOR, HUMAN RESOURCES.
SHARON
I read in Celeb mag that Cheryl's had her tits done again!
TRACY
So has Jade from admin!
SHARON
She never!
TRACY
She did! Aaaand, have you seen that Carol from sector 13 lately?
SHARON
No!?
TRACY
Comes in on the boats, She looks like a fuckin corpse these days. Must be something in the water!
They both CACKLE, showing cracked yellow teeth. Sharon checks her phone.
SHARON
Get this right! Chanelle's status says I really hate Nathan right now...
Tracey checks her phone.
               TRACY
Nathan's status says I'm really sorry Chanelle! I wonder what could have happened?
Dan SIGHS, still studying the memo, the lights flicker, Tom looks over.
                TOM
Doing  your homework mate?

Dan looks at him deadpan and nods.
DAN
Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm doing.
A toilet FLUSHES. The door at the back of the room swings open and a fat balding SECURITY GUARD bowls in pulling his trousers up.
TOM
Alright mate.
SECURITY GUARD
Alright. You hear about that terrorist attack in sector 12 last night?
TOM
Yeah. Bastards!
SECURITY GUARD
They wouldn't have got far if I'd been there!
He pats the gun on his hip. Dan sips his coffee, looks down and sighs, the lights flicker.

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