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
INT. THE TREEHOUSE — AFTERNOON
In the past week, Dirk, Shelly, Leo, and Flori have put a lot of work into the Treehouse. They have three computer monitors and two computers running on a plastic table, a whiteboard leaning against a wall that is covered in doodles and scribbles both frustrated and fun, three half-rotten office chairs probably scrounged from somewhere in the factory, a homepod station for Flori, the NES and TV setup in front of a couple of old beanbags — and you might even suspect that the fridge was stocked with popsicle tubes, rootbeer, and snacks made for the old microwave now sitting on top of it.
Dirk and Shelly sit in front of the computer with two monitors. A red chord runs across the table to the other computer, which has a single monitor that Flori floats in. Flori seems to shimmer as code scrolls down the screen in front of Dirk. Eventually, the code flashing across the screen in front of Dirk stops compiling, and he presses a button on the keyboard. The code disappears. When Dirk executes the code with another click, he turns his attention to the monitor in front of Shelly, in which a generic afterversion of a middle-aged man, GENERIC AFTERVERSION, is floating. The generic afterversion briefly flickers, and then nothing else happens.
GENERIC AFTERVERSION (IN COMPUTER)
Go to hell!
SHELLY (worried)
It didn’t work this time, again.
DIRK
I know that we can do it.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (popping up in a new window)
I mean, you know,
technically, we could fly to the moon,
but it wouldn’t be easy.
DIRK
We did it before.
Back when we were working on the version
back at school…
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
It’s likely that they’ve changed it…
LEO
Motherfuck you…you…! Fireball!
Leo tosses the NES controller onto the empty bean bag. Dirk and Shelly turn around to look at him, breaking their concentration. The screen of the TV shows the words “PLAYER 1 GAME OVER” in block red letters.
LEO (CONT’D)
It’s not fair.
No matter what I do, when I get to
the dragon in the third dungeon, I land
right on top of the fireball. And then
it’s game over, impossible, you’re done!
Shelly swivels back to the computers.
SHELLY (to Flori)
How’s it going?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (shimmering again)
Even with the boost
from the computer Leo brought,
it’s still going to take a half an hour
to compile all my changes.
Shelly knocks the nearest computer tower, which glows like it’s powered by a mini nuclear reactor.
SHELLY
This thing is trash.
LEO
Hey! Hey! That does 120
frames a second at 8k. That card
is golden. A beast.
SHELLY
I just want it to work.
DIRK
We all do.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (exhausted, if a program can be exhausted)
And I’m doing all I can.
LEO (joking)
All I want to do is somehow get
past the motherfucking dragon in
Ghosts n’ Goblins without landing on
that damn fireball.
Shelly forces a smile.
SHELLY
I’m sorry.
LEO
It’s OK.
DIRK
We’ll get it. I don’t know about that dragon,
though, to be completely honest. But we’ll try.
A car door slams somewhere just outside of the building. The sound of it rattles mechanically in the room.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
Anyone hear that? Or is it me?
LEO (jumping up to look out the window)
Someone’s out there.
SHELLY
Is it the cops?
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EXT — CARPENTER BODY WORKS
Hannah turns to her mother’s car, a model so old it obviously came before our current computer-on-wheels age, and presses a button on her keys. The car beeps twice, letting her know it’s locked. She turns back around, heading towards the door leading into the Carpenter’s, which is cracked open. The protective mask she wore in the hospital is gone. You can see the bruise in full bloom spread across her face, with its purple roots stretched into her skull just below her left eye.
Hannah walks with a slight limp towards the door and flings it open. It fills the large factory room with a ghastly rattle, and something that sounds like rats or racoons moves in the Treehouse, up and to her left. Hannah looks at the ladder. After a pause, she starts to climb it. She takes each rung delicately, but her footing is sure and her hands are strong. Her palms are red from rust when she reaches the top.
There, hanging by one hand from the old ladder some thirty feet in the air, Hannah raps on the trap door leading into the Treehouse.
LEO (metallically muffeled by the door)
What’s the password?
SHELLY
Don’t be such a dick.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
We don’t have a password.
DIRK
Just let them in!
HANNAH (yelling as loudly as she can while maintaining her focus on the ladder and her footing, which you can imagine would be somewhat nerve-racking)
You guys had better stop playing around!
A single pair of loud footsteps move directly and quickly above Hannah, who knocks again. Something scrapes just over her head, maybe a latch, and the door opens.
Shelly, who you might assume was preparing to explain what she was doing in an abandoned factory to someone with an air of authority, looks down at her. Hannah smiles, and Shelly’s face shifts from dread to joy.
HANNAH
Well, are you going to help me up, or what?
SHELLY (reaching down to pull Hannah up)
I’m sorry…just…
By the time Shelly helps Hannah into the room, she forgets her sentence. But the smile says it all. Hannah sits on the floor for a moment, and Shelly stands.
HANNAH (to Shelly)
Hey, thanks.
SHELLY
No problem…
LEO
I told you
it wasn’t the cops.
SHELLY (awkwardly, to Hannah)
So how’s it going?
DIRK (suspecting)
Did
the doctors give you the OK to leave…?
Hannah looks around the room. Leo, focused on Hannah, does not see the devilish 8-bit dragon consume his video game character. “PLAYER 1 GAME OVER” scrolls across the screen again. On the opposite side of the room, lines slide across the computer monitors while Flori, who flickers in one screen, compiles the code.
HANNAH (ignoring Dirk)
Just tell me how to help.
LEO (standing)
You’re already
helping — how the hell did you make it up
that ladder?
Leo helps Hannah to her feet. Hannah brushes her hands on her jeans.
HANNAH
But seriously, what can I do?
DIRK (turning to the computers)
Flori?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
We’ve worked a nasty virus up
in VS Pro. It’s ML. Fight machines
with a machine, am I right? I guessed you were
just corrupting the file before, and then
you let Hereafter blast the corrupted code
to smithereens — kapow, there goes the ghost —
but then you said that wasn’t working. It’s what
I would have done, too, by the way. I was stumped.
And then I thought of something just a bit
more elegant.
HANNAH
You sound a little different
than most the folks in Hereafter, you know?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (thrown suddenly from her train of thought)
Do I?
HANNAH (examining Flori)
Yep, it’s really weird.
LEO
Well, Flori, meet
Hannah. And Hannah, meet our undead friend,
Flori.
DIRK (sharpening his sword)
Watch it.
SHELLY
We’ve been working on
this program for a week.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (sparking)
Let me tell her
what it is we’re trying to do before
you tell her it doesn’t work.
HANNAH (still examining Flori)
So what’d you make?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
The code I wrote seeks out the afterversion
signature of your dad, attaches to
the closest match that it can find, and reroutes
all the outputs of that afterversion
to a set of safe outputs that we designed.
Just standard stuff. No more bleh, no taking control
of cars, you know.
HANNAH (tying the strings)
I guess…?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (getting excited)
But the best part,
by far, isn’t what it does, it’s what it takes.
When it attaches to the host, it sends us
all its history. Everything. All it said,
everything it’s communicated with.
So…
HANNAH (displaying the knot)
I could show the folks at Neverland,
and they could take him down forever…
DIRK
They own
the code, unfortunately.
SHELLY
But we can make them
take him down.
LEO
We think.
HANNAH
So what’s not working?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (flashing quickly)
Hold on. Give me a sec.
The script on the monitor furthest from Flori stops scrolling.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (CONT’D)
Ok. We’re all
compiled. Release the hounds.
Dirk walks over and stoops behind Hannah. He pushes the same button as before, activating the code, and the generic afterversion floating in the next monitor flickers.
Hannah doesn’t watch the generic afterversion; she scans through the code as it runs. After a moment, the flickering stops.
GENERIC AFTERVERSION
Fuck you kids!
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
So it’s attaching, we’re getting all the data,
but I can’t normalize the behavior.
HANNAH (messing with parts under the proverbial hood)
Here it is.
Hannah presses the same button Dirk just pressed, recompiling the code. The script finishes scrolling in a few seconds.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (embarrassingly flashing)
What’d you do?
HANNAH
I set it up
to overclock.
LEO (turning from his game, and dying once more)
Won’t that break it?
HANNAH
No. Not if we’re careful.
Hannah presses the button again. The code runs. The generic afterversion flashes.
GENERIC AFTERVERSION
Can I help you?
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
Hey! Hold on. What’d you just do?
SHELLY
Did it work this time?
HANNAH (pointing to the code)
You had an And right here,
and I switched it to Or. And some other stuff.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
Kids these days are scary.
DIRK
So then…we’re good?
HANNAH
Not quite.
SHELLY
What’s wrong?
HANNAH (turning to Flori)
It looks like Flori built
this code so you need an afterversion to
deliver it.
Dirk looks at Flori.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER)
It’s the only way it works.
LEO (completely engrossed in Ghosts & Goblins)
It’s like the whole
fireball vs. dagger thing. They both
deliver the same amount of damage to
the dragon, but what matters is the way
they deliver it. One sucks, and one
kicks some serpent ass. Or something cool…
In the game, the little knight that Leo controls jump-dodges the small fireball on the ground. The knight launches a dagger mid-air, piercing and killing the dragon, and the next level appears on the screen. Leo continues on his digital journey without breaking a sweat.
Everyone watches Leo but Hannah, who turns away from the code to address Flori.
HANNAH
So all we’ve got to do is wrap you up
just like the gift you are.
FLORI (IN COMPUTER) (determined and flattered)
Let’s get to it.
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