DARK BASEMENT LARGE ROOM – CONCRETE FLOOR – WHITE BRICK WALLS –
THERE IS SEWER PIPES COMING DOWN FROM CEILING AND GOING TO THE WALLS.
THERE IS A CHAIR –
A MAN IS HALF CONSCIOUS IN THE CHAIR HIS ARMS DANGLING TO THE SIDE
TWO WORKER MEN IN BLUE SCRUBS ARE INTERROGATING THE MAN IN THE CHAIR
WORKER MAN 1:
WHO ARE YOU?
WORKER MAN 2: WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?
WORKER MAN 1: WHERE WERE YOU BEFORE THIS?
WORKER MAN 2: HOW DID you get here?
WORKER MAN 1: answer the question ! How did you get down here?
Man in chair:
I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know….
Worker man 1
Come on …. We have no knowledge of your arrival… and we know everything.
Worker man 2 everything
Worker man 1 who sent you?
Worker man 2 who do you work for?
Worker man 1 why aren’t you answering our questions
Worker man 2 we can make this harder
Worker man 1 oh yeah you want to do this the hard way huh?
Worker man 2 ok ok
Worker man 2 kicks the man in the chairs legs out from under him and he falls down the the cold concrete floor
Worker man 1 whips the man up off the floor grabs a chain and locks its around the sewer pipe that goes to the wall
Worker man 2 oh yeah…. We can do this all day
Worker man 2 slaps man in face
Worker man 1 kicks man in kidneys
Chained man screams
Worker man 1 its like you just appeared out of no where where did you come from?
Worker man 2 where were you before this?
Worker man 1
Why wont you tell us? Whats going to happen?
Man in chains
You know whats going to happpen?
Worker man 1
No I don’t know you tell us! You know what happens!
Man in chains
You know what happens why do you keep asking me?
I I I don’t … where I was … I don’t know how I got here
Please stop kicking and slapping me.
Worker 2 oh pedro he don’t like getten kicked and slapped … so just punch him in the face ha ha ha.
Worker 1 punches the man in chains in the face lights out.
Hospital Room
Older gentleman Doctor walks in – sits down bedside – looks down at patient – an older lady.
DOCTOR:
Ahh Mizz Holly – How are we feeling today?
Mizz Holly:
Oh I don’t know doctor. Why don’t you tell me.
DOCTOR:
Well I would say you are coming right along.
Very well soon. You just need your rest.
Mizz Holly:
Im laying in a hospital bed – how much more rest can I take doc?
Doctor laughs
DOCTOR:
Oh you remind me of my late wife – yes a sense of humor– that is the edge we need.
A group of nurses abruptly enter the room. The main nurse has a kit in her hand and whips out a big syringe.
DOCTOR:
What is all this?
HEAD NURSE:
Ahh doctor you might want to leave the room for this….
Authorized Vaccinations.
DOCTOR:
Like hell… I did not authorize any vaccinations.
HEAD NURSE:
State Orders Doctor…
DOCTOR:
Oh no – I will deal with this.
I am officially placing this facility on lock down.
This patient is recovering rapidly..
Everybody out. You – out– now !
Hospital Room Man that was in chains is in hospital bed – hooked up to the machines.
There is an older man sitting next to him bedside
The old man stairs out the window
Finally the man from the basement opens his eyes
Old man
Ehhhi Eddie.
You finally came around.
Man in hospital bed
What? Where am I?
Old man
Uhhh you are in the hospital …. You’ve been in a coma for several days.
Do you remember what happened ?
Man in hospital bed
Uhhh ohh no
Those bad men
Those bad men in the basement
Do they work for you?
Doctor Harold:
Uh What bad men?
Doctor looks shocked with shifty eyes.
The doctor has flashes of killing 2 male nurses in the basement.
DOCTOR HAROLD:
Ed– It’s California…. We don’t have a basement son.
Man in bed
Don’t call me son im not your son
What is all this shit (Man chained to bed rattles chains and grabs feeding tube.)
You gotta get me out of here.
DOCTOR HAROLD:
Edward … you have been here for twenty years.
Man in bed.
Twenty years… no
My name isn’t Edward
You have got the wrong guy
My name is Ray you have to let me go…
Just let me go.
DOCTOR HAROLD:
Okay okay Ray Calm Please. Ray.
Ray…. You just need to rest a little more.
And we can see about that okay?
Doctor Harold's Office
Doctor Harold is on the phone….
Doctor Harold speaks… No wait.. You listen to me… This is my facility – we are subject to orders coming down the pike – but the pike has to stop here– because I am responsible For the well being of these patients…. You have jumped your reach… You jump your reach…
Over and over and over….
Voice on the other end (of the phone)
Look Doctor – Your facility is going to comply – we are sending a team down there – You really need to step aside on this one.
Doctor Harold hangs up the phone and places his fingers over his brow.
There is a knock on the door.
Doctor:
Yes.
The door opens – A nurse A very tall black man....
Stands next to the patient found in the basement.
Doctor Harold picks up a little voice recorder and clicks record holds the recorder up to his mouth
This is Doctor Harold
This is session 2
Patient is Ehhh.. Ray.
He has recovered from injuries suffered in the cafeteria
After 4 days in coma Was respondent - very little in first session. well...
Some recall… describing past events. Etc.
Now we shall begin the session two proper
Ray sits down in the chair opposite the Doctor.
long pause as the doctor looks at 'the man from the basement'
DOCTOR HAROLD:
You are my most difficult and yet one of my most favorite patients ….
Maybe this is my challenge because I have been in this ward for 30 years…. And I've never come across a patient as unique as you…. So then Ray… in our first session – you explained to me something about you remembering
Things about your past? Lets just recap where we were…..
Doctor Harold flips on his little reading glasses and flips through the pages on a clip board.
So you were uh… You claim to have been abducted while you were in your apartment. And a lady with a machine gun uh… loaded you in a large plane… you flew on the... over the ocean to the other side of the world … and the two of you snuck into the Haldron Collider – and uh somehow you got inside the machien and you ran directly at the beam…. And that is how you ended up here. Is that...
PATIENT:
Yes… I remember now.
And I am recovered now.
I am fully at my wits.
And you have to let me out of here.
DOCTOR HAROLD:
Ed… I'm not sure what is going on here. But I looked at the video tape from the day in the cafeteria where you supposedly fell – and look at this . Look what I found.
Doc Harold clicks play on surveillance tape
Patients standing in line to get food in cafeteria
A black man is in front of Ray in the line – all the sudden the man jerks up
And whips his cafeteria tray up and turns around as to hit Ray – then Ray sizzles with little electric bolts all over his body and then the light explodes inward and Ray disappears.
DOCTOR HAROLD:
You have had some of the most imaginative stories over the years.
But this is proof there is something extra happening … I cannot deny that now.
But you see this institution and the higher ups … they don’t want to lose any of these patients
They don’t want them to get better – they don’t want the government deciding how to treat them… they just want more money … more and more and more.
And now they are force threading all the patients with a deadly toxin – and if that needle don’t make you brain dead it will kill you…. So it seems like they are going to lose there money and their patients – and everything else…. So this place… and their story… all this…
it aint got no happy ending.
My apologies … I can see you are suffering at my words…
I am just blah blah blah…..
But you know what …
Doctor Harold opens the curtain to his office window
This is the only office with a window you can see out of ….
And your hospital room was the only hospital room in this building with a window you can see out of….
who am I really helping by staying here… who have I helped to recover
And live a fully functional life after all of this….
So suppose … I get them to approve… and I release you
I mean… where are you gonna go ?
Ray:
You could just… get me an apartment… and they can pay for it.
Doctor Harold laughs.
Doctor Harold looks around the little apartment.
DOCTOR HAROLD:
Well. Mister Ray. This is all happening really fast.
I may be retired – but you know what.. Im just a phone call away
Doctor Harold flips out a business card to Ray.
Ray:
Uh Uh I don’t know what to say.
Doctor: You don’t have to say anything.
Now you are a changed man – you gotta take care of yourself–
You can do this Ehh Ray.
Don’t make me regret signing you off your treatment.
Doctor Harold sits back on the brick planter outside the apartment where Ray is now residing.
A tall black man kicks back next to Doctor Harold.
BLACK MAN:
Dahm Doc – How did you pull all this off.
DOCTOR HAROLD:
Ahh – I paid for Ed’s apartment out of my retirement money – how else could I get it done in this broken system. Ha ha ha.
BLACK MAN:
Ha ha ha I think the crazy house made you crazy doc.
I cant believe you are retired now….. We are gonna miss you.
Big time.
Black man reaches out his hand.
Doc shakes black mans hand.
DOCTOR HAROLD:
I shall miss working with you – but I am not missing the titanic. You keep your life vest close by Ferguson.
Well you know where to find me.
FERGUSON:
Ahh yeah… so whatever happened to mizz Holly?
Doctor Harold pushes Mizz Hollys wheel chair
DOCTOR:
I don’t know … probably keeping away from the needle pushers.
Mizz Holly looks up. Uhhh Yep Fur sure. You can bet your life on it Doc
Ferguson laughs and waves his hand walking the other way.
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