My short play

(This script is set up as more of a screenplay treatment, but can be adapted to the stage.)
The players: Eddie, Linda, Mike

The setting: a secluded college town in the rolling hills of the Pennsylvania backwoods.


The scene opens on a Saturday morning, in the house that the three college students have rented for the semester.

Mike: Eddie, wake up.
Eddie: (groggy) What’s up man?
Mike: Something weird is going on.
Eddie: Huh? What do you mean? Where’s Linda?
Mike: Linda’s still asleep. It’s 6:30.
Eddie: Then what the fuck are you waking me up for?
Mike: I told you, something weird is going on. All the power is out. No phone, no radio, nothing.
Eddie: Is this supposed to be blowing my skirt up or something?
Mike: I think we’re under attack.
Eddie: Jesus, I knew you were paranoid, but not stone cold nuts.
Mike: I’m fucking serious dude! There’s some crazy shit going on. People are attacking and killing each other!
Eddie: What!? Says who?
Mike: I saw it myself. I just walked down to the store for a paper and coffee. This group of people had a guy down on the ground and they were tearing him apart! They were fucking eating him! It’s all over town.
Eddie: I don’t understand. How could this be happening? (towards the stairs) Linda! Get up honey!
Mike: I don’t know. An Army helicopter just flew over shouting information over a loudspeaker and dropping these leaflets. They’re telling us to evacuate.
Linda: Is something wrong?
Eddie: (looking at a leaflet) Holy shit, this is for real.
Mike: I told you. (screams from outside)
Eddie: Oh my God! They’re next door. They’ve got Mr. Mahler!
Mike: We need to get the fuck out, right now!
Eddie: Linda! Get your ass down here! We’ve got to go!
Linda: What the hell….Oh my God!
Mike: Let’s go! Get dressed fast! We’ll take my truck.
Linda: What the hell is going on!?
Eddie: I don’t know hon. We just have to get outta here right now.
(all three pile into Mike’s ’78 Ford Ranger)
Mike: Alright, they were saying that there was a rescue facility set up at the state police barracks in Homer City. We just gotta get there.
Linda: This can’t be happening. Why can’t I just wake up?
Mike: This is the real deal Lin.
Eddie: Look out!
(the truck slams into one of the attackers and sends it into the telephone pole breaking it in half, the truck screeches to a halt)
Eddie: Oh fuck man.
Mike: I couldn’t stop in time. I…
Linda: Look at it.
Eddie: It, it can’t be.
Mike: How the fuck can it still be moving? I had to of killed that bastard!
Eddie: It’s not living. It can’t be. No living thing could have survived that!
Linda: Then how the fuck is it getting up!?
Mike: It’s got to be a resurrected corpse. There’s no other explanation.
Eddie: You mean a zombie?
Mike: No, not a fucking zombie. I mean a reanimated dead body. These things aren’t zombies!
Linda: Can we argue semantics later? Let’s fucking go!
Mike: We’re outta here!
(driving down the country road, they come upon a blockade of living dead)
Eddie: How are we gonna get through that?
Linda: Can we just plow through?
Mike: There’s too many. I think we might get stuck.
(a loud rumbling rises from behind the truck like rolling thunder)
Eddie: What’s that?
Linda: It’s a helicopter!
Mike: An Apache! I hope they see us.
(the helicopter opens up on the blockade with machine gun and rocket fire, opening a path in the road)
Mike: Hell yeah Mother Fucker!!
Eddie: Yeah man!! That’s the shit right there!
Linda: Thank God someone’s trying to help us!
Mike: Here we go!
(arriving at the police station, refugees are being evacuated in helicopters)
Soldier 1: This way! Let’s go!
Linda: What’s going on?
Soldier 2: Just get on the chopper!
(lifting off, they can look back and see the remains of the town)
Pilot 1: (over the radio) Roger, we’re 15 miles south right now, clear of the hot zone.
Pilot 2 to crew chief: Here we go! 15 seconds!
Crew Chief: Okay, everybody face down right now! Face down to the floor!
(a blinding white light fills the cabin then fades, looking back towards the town, Mike, Eddie, and Linda can see a billowing white cloud climbing fast into the morning sky, the shock wave ten miles wide emanating out from the center at the speed of sound)