Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26
INT. THE TREEHOUSE — EVENING
Dirk, Flori, Shelly, Leo, and Hannah are busy at work in the Treehouse. The energy that Hannah infused into their efforts when she arrived has dissipated, and the air is sour. The festival, flashing far away but framed so closely in the windows, seems to taunt them.
Everyone stands around Hannah, who sits typing at the computer. Flori and the Generic Afterversion have both disappeared from the computer screens, replaced by some new afterversion. But on closer inspection, you can see that Flori has simply been changed. Her hair is now red, her face slim and pale, and her eyes green. She floats where she floated before, and she seems strangely more mechanical.
Hannah finishes typing some code. Everyone holds their breath.
HANNAH (to Flori)
Are we ready?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
Yep!
A pause. Shelly puts a hand on Leo’s shoulder and stands on tiptoe to get a better view of the computer. Hannah’s finger flutters over the Enter key.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (looking at Dirk)
I’m good. It’ll be fine.
HANNAH (overly excited)
Let’s get it, then!
Hannah presses the Enter key, running the code. The software IDE instantly crashes, the Hereafter window closes, and Flori disappears. Dirk darts forward.
DIRK
Flori!
Dirk takes the mouse beside Hannah. He runs the cursor around the screen frantically, as if he is trying to find where the computer has hidden Flori.
When the software IDE opens back up and Flori reappears, Dirk stares at the screen.
HANNAH
I guess you can’t
expect it to work on the first try.
DIRK
We can’t
do that again.
Dirk closes the software IDE window, leaving Flori to float in the empty screen.
HANNAH (taking the mouse away from Dirk)
Not cool!
SHELLY
Why can’t we try
again?
LEO
Flori isn’t hurt.
DIRK
It’s not safe!
Dirk turns around to look at Shelly. For a moment he seems controlling, demanding, authoritarian even. Shelly doesn’t flinch.
DIRK
It’s not safe.
SHELLY
Safe for who? The program or the person?
We’re doing this for someone real, Dirk.
We’re doing this for Hannah. Hannah’s alive.
She’s breathing. She feels real pain. Look at her.
She’s real! And she’s in danger from a program
that’s just like Flori. Something’s wrong, but we
can fix it. Flori’s just a tool we have.
A useful tool we have to use. She’s not real!
Dirk seems simultaneously ready to jump out a window and rooted on the spot. Flori minimizes her own Hereafter window and disappears from the computer screen. Hannah tries to expand the window, but Flori keeps it closed.
HANNAH (almost talking to herself and unknowingly dissipating the anger and pain flooding the room)
I’d say that Flori’s just about as real
as we are, at least as real as we appear
to everybody but ourselves. And that’s
about the only way to measure it,
I think. Still, either way, no matter what
it’s not up to us. It’s her choice to help or not.
There is a momentary calm, but the tension in the room starts to build again as soon as Hannah finishes talking. Dirk looks like he might leave, taking Flori with him.
But then the door to the Treehouse opens, and everyone jumps. Rich climbs into the room, lifting his broken phone as a sort of strange relic. The phone’s green LED glows like an emerald possessed by a spiritual force.
R.J. (IN PHONE)
Somebody plug me in!
Dirk, Shelly, Leo, and Hannah stare comically. They seem so surprised that their argument has obviously been forgotten.
SHELLY
Rich…?
R.J. (IN PHONE)
I can help.
RICH
We better do what he says. He’s in one of
those moods.
R.J. (IN PHONE)
I can be the wrapper you need.
Flori, looking like herself again, reappears on the computer screen. Her eyes glint with a digital flare, and a glowing light bulb, one of many extravagant emotive Hereafter features, flicks on above her head.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (brilliantly)
Yes!
Plug him in, Dirk.
HANNAH
Wait — hold on a sec.
What’s happening?
DIRK (taking the phone absentmindedly from Rich)
Do we even have enough
plugs to hook him up?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
We should.
R.J. (IN PHONE) (answering Hannah)
I’d tell you what was going on
if I had a clue. I’m just doing what I’m told.
LEO
Well, what’s that mean?
RICH (mysteriously)
Run number one.
HANNAH
Oh great.
They’re spies. They speak in codes.
Dirk plugs Rich’s phone into a chord running from the nearby computer tower while Hannah is distracted.
DIRK
Did that work?
R.J.’s face appears in a new Hereafter window that blossoms next to the window Flori is floating in.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
Looks like
it did.
R.J. (IN COMPUTER)
Sorry to intrude on you like this.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
There’s RAM enough for both of us.
RICH (walking over, to R.J.)
Hey! It’s good to see your face again.
HANNAH (to R.J.)
So what are you supposed to be? The watcher?
Buffy doesn’t need a watcher.
R.J. (IN COMPUTER) (to Flori)
So you’re…?
HANNAH
That’s right.
The slayer.
FLORI (sharply)
No. I’m Flori.
RICH
Then why are you calling her
Buffy?
HANNAH
Why can’t I call her Buffy?
SHELLY (somewhat apologetic)
That’s what
we’ve been calling the wrapper Hannah built.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
That I’m about to trash.
Before Hannah can do anything, Flori overwrites a large amount of the code, which appears on the other monitor.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
How’s this look?
HANNAH (scanning the new code and agreeing without quite admitting defeat)
Good,
I guess. If you want to be a scrambled egg.
FLORI
Hit it.
Hannah presses the Enter key. Dirk, standing behind her, flinches slightly.
Flori disappears. Then R.J. disappears. Both of their Hereafter windows remain open and empty. Rich starts forward, then stops.
After a moment, R.J.’s face reappears in Flori’s Hereafter window. The other Hereafter window remains empty.
FLORI (SPLICED IN COMPUTER) (speaking through R.J.)
Did it work?
RICH
What’d you do to
R.J.?
R.J. (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
It’s fine! We’re good. I’m doing fine.
Rich lets out a sigh. Dirk looks relieved. Shelly bends anxiously over Hannah, and even Leo seems interested. Hannah’s finger flutters over the Enter key.
HANNAH
So — are we ready?
FLORI (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
I’m good!
R.J. (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
Take the shot!
Hannah pushes the Enter key. The code runs, and R.J.’s face freezes. It’s as if the image of his afterversion has gone into a trance.
You might expect, as everyone in the Treehouse seems to, that the afterversion of Hannah’s dad, Paul, will appear on the computer screen, writhing in pain and melting away. But nothing happens.
Only Shelly notices a faint shimmering of blue and red light that pours through the windows of the room and reflects off the metal ceiling.
SHELLY (pointing to the ceiling above the computer)
The police!
Leo is the first to react. He runs to the window, looks out, and turns around carefully.
LEO
They must have seen where we parked our cars
when they drove down Teke.
RICH
I couldn’t see them earlier…
LEO (rewriting the trouble)
Then how’d you find us?
RICH
I guess they came the other way?
Leo quickly and cautiously makes his way around the room, turning off the TV and all the lights.
The metallic crash of the door below them swinging open, the muffled voices of the police, and the deadening sound of boots on concrete stop him from turning the computer monitors off.
DIRK (unnecessarily authoritative)
Nobody
move.
A light flashes in the room below, illuminating the open space leading to the factory.
Everyone keeps still as possible — except for Shelly. She creeps towards the computers, despite Dirk’s waving and silent shouts. When she gets to the computers, she turns the monitors off, shrouding the Treehouse in darkness.
You can just make out enough of Shelly and Dirk to understand the gist of their silent conversation. Eventually, Shelly waves him off. The darkness makes it difficult to tell what is passing through her mind. She makes her way to her purse, which sits next to the TV, and pulls something out of it.
Quietly, going carefully heel to toe, Shelly steps out onto the balcony of the Treehouse. The cops are standing just below her. Shelly glances down at the cops and seems to balance the object in her hand. She looks to a ventilation shaft in the wall to her left, then back down at the cops. She takes a deep breath.
Shelly tosses the object in her hand into the ventilation shaft. The shaft leads down to the opposite room, and the object makes a terrible noise on its way down. The cops are startled. One, BIG COP, jumps back, the other, LITTLE COP, yells.
BIG COP
That sounded bigger than a cat.
LITTLE COP
That’s because
it’s a rat.
BIG COP
Should we…?
But the Little Cop has already gone through the door and passed into the other room. The Big Cop follows him tentatively. The voices of the policemen float up to the Treehouse through the ventilation shaft. Shelly stays rooted to the Balcony while Dirk continues to wave her back.
BIG COP (CONT’D)
It’s probably homeless folks.
LITTLE COP
So like I said, a rat.
The footsteps suddenly stop.
LITTLE COP (CONT’D)
Hey now, what’s this?
There’s a metallic rustling down below as the one of the policemen pick something up.
LITTLE COP (CONT’D)
Look at this.
A moment of silence settles in Carpenter’s as the policemen examine whatever it is that Shelly has thrown into the other room.
BIG COP
So it’s some kids exploring.
Either way, we won’t find them if they’re
up in the works.
LITTLE COP
You might be right…
BIG COP
And it’s
not like they’ll hurt old Carpenter’s, they way
it is these days.
LITTLE COP
Or they could start a fire.
BIG COP
Don’t talk like that, or you’ll really make it happen.
LITTLE COP
Well…we’ve got this.
BIG COP (pretending to be unimpressed)
Let’s do a loop around
and head on back. The chief will want to see
what you’ve got there.
LITTLE COP
Alright. You’re right. He’s going to have himself
a hay-day over this one.
BIG COP
I’d be more worried if
the floats for the parade were still in here…
The policemen, apparently satisfied, take a quick turn through the building and leave as quickly as they came. When the red and blue lights fade from the ceiling in the Treehouse, everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
A single computer monitor turns itself back on before anyone can get settled in or thank Shelly, and a Hereafter window refreshes. R.J.’s afterversion looks anxiously around the room.
FLORI (SPLICED IN COMPUTER) (popping back to life)
It’s done.
Hannah gives a start. She pulls out her phone.
HANNAH
Dad?
Hereafter opens on Hannah’s phone, and after the Neverland logo vanishes, Paul appears.
PAUL (mechanically)
Is there something
I can do for you?
Hannah immediately looks up at the computer.
HANNAH (elatedly determined)
Did you get
the information?
R.J. (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
We got it all, but then —
FLORI (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
There’s something really wrong with Hereafter.
R.J. (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
I don’t know what happened.
FLORI (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
I can’t explain. It’s like —
R.J. (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
Like everything’s alive.
FLORI (SPLICED IN COMPUTER)
Yeah. I don’t know
if we can fix it —
The screen, the computers, everything suddenly goes dark. Flori and R.J. disappear before they can finish explaining what they saw.
RICH
Hey! R.J.?
DIRK
What happened?
SHELLY
Did we blow something up?
LEO
Is anybody
else creeped out?
HANNAH
It has to be the cops.
They turned the power off or something.
Hannah points to Rich, who looks like he can barely tell where she is in the dark.
HANNAH (CONT’D)
Hey Rich,
we’re in home room, I think. Come down with me
and we’ll see if we can get the power on.
Hannah grabs Rich, leading him to the ladder.
RICH
Uh-huh…OK.
HANNAH (to Dirk, Leo, and Shelly)
You guys can watch the screen.
Just see what you can do if they turn on.
Hannah opens the trap door to the ladder, and she starts down with Rich.
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