Scavengers

INT. CAR - FOREST ROAD - NIGHT
BENJI’s (18) athletic with a shaven head, bloody lip and frantic eyes -- eyes that won’t stop looking at the cop car chasing him and his rusted 2000 Honda Civic.

His attention shifts between the cop’s lights and the Google Earth printout in his hands. 

He waits for the right moment and...GOT IT. The cop’s lights disappear when the road hits a bend. VROOMMM. Benji guns it.

No letting up until he sees a dirt side road. 

SLAMS the breaks. HARD LEFT. He nearly slides off the bank but has just enough traction to stay on the gravel shoulder.

He flies down the hidden road then cracks a smile when he sees an abandoned red house. He parks behind it. 

Rips a flashlight out of a camo backpack. Throws the bag over his shoulders and sprints out into the forest, map in hand. 

EXT. FOREST - MOMENTS LATER
Still sprinting, he reaches the edge of a hillside. Doesn’t think twice and throws himself over, sliding down to a creek. 

He jumps on his feet and splashes to the other bank. Stops. Looks above. He can still hear sirens. He takes off again. 

EXT. SAME - MOMENTS LATER
Finally, he stops to catch his breath. No more sirens, not in the middle of the forest. Just thunder rumbling in the distance. He shines his light on the map.

BENJI
Where the hell are you?

Following the map, he walks into a thick set of trees. Stops. Listens. A faint noise flutters beyond. He keeps walking. 

The noise grows louder and distinctively unnatural. 

Squinting to focus his eyes, the sound now glints back. He stops squinting to enjoy the full picture.

BENJI 
Oh, sweet mother.  

He sprints forward to the-

EXT. ABANDONED HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
Wind chimes echo and reflect flashes of lighting. They’re attached to a forgotten house, hidden by a fortress of trees that border the field it’s in.

“No Trespassing” signs decorate the wooden sides. 

He approaches the porch. Takes out a knife from his backpack. Holds it in one hand. His light in the other. 

The thunder and chimes grow angrier as he tiptoes to the door. He slowly turns the knob and pushes the door open.

INT. ABANDONED HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
Baby stepping, he creeps in. 

BOOM!

He throws himself inside as lightning strikes what feels like his feet. A downpour of rain follows. 

He frantically shines his light everywhere, searching for any murderer or monster lurking in the darkness. He moves into-

INT. ABANDONED HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS
He jumps back. 

BENJI
Ah. Crap.

It’s just a raccoon, but still. He juts his knife out. The raccoon scurries into the kitchen. 

He runs to the kitchen door. Slams it. It swings back open. The latch is broken.

​

CRAP! 

His flashlight flickers off. He smacks it. Back on but flickering worse. CRAP!

Thunder booms even louder.

BENJI 
You gotta be kidding me.

He drags a recliner and barricades the door. Shines the light at a noise from the other entrance. Another raccoon.

BENJI 
Screw you. You rabid, devil-rat. 

He launches an end table at the raccoon. It flees to the front door. Benji runs.
He pulls shut the 1970’s retractable door that moves into the wall, just as his flashlight dies. 

Using the lightning flashes, he sees his way into the corner, where he cowers against the wall.

He unzips the backpack. Takes out a flask. Chugs all of it.

Thunder booms its loudest as the raccoons scratch frantically against the doors. He clenches his knife and prays- 

BENJI 
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee...

FADE TO BLACK.

TITLE OVER: 
THREE DAYS EARLIER

FADE IN:

INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
Old Eminem blares. A “CONGRATULATIONS” banner’s tacked onto the peeling wallpaper. 

SWISH! A ping-pong ball flies into the beer-pong cup on the dining room table. SWISH. Another one.

Benji now has no bloody lip but still the same frantic eyes, bouncing from one idea to the next. When he smiles, it’s radiant. When he’s mad, step back. No emotion is half-assed.

He yells into the phone while throwing ping-pong balls. 

BENJI 
You better be on your way, or

I swear on my life...ahhh. 

CLICK. He fires the phone into the couch. 

 

A WOMAN, neither old nor young but still pretty under her cigarette skin, enters. 

She hands Benji a beer and then grabs her keys off the mantle. 

BENJI 
Where the hell are you going?

WOMAN
Well, I thought you’d be with your

friends, so I kinda made plans. 

BENJI
(smiling from anger)
You’re bailing too!? This is

supposed to be my night. 

WOMAN
I’m sorry.  It’s karaoke night. 

BENJI
You’re a terrible mother. 

She grabs a ping-pong ball and swishes it into Benji’s cup. 

MOM
Drink up, honey.

He does. She kisses his forehead.

MOM 
Babe. Can you promise me this is the

last end-of-house arrest parties

we have? College is almost-

BENJI
-you’re killing the small

buzz that I have left. 

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

BENJI 
Thank goodness.

His mom looks out the window.

MOM
That’s not your friends.

It’s OFFICER MANNY. 

BENJI
Oh, ef off. Why is he here?

MOM
(panicking)
I don’t know. Just answer the

door. But DON’T let him in.

She hides the beer bottles the best she can. Benji walks to the door. Cracks it open. Slides outside-

EXT. BENJI’S HOUSE - PORCH - CONTINUOUS
-and closes the door behind him. 

Officer Manny’s your seasoned vet, two years from pension with no-nonsense on his forehead but worn-down compassion underneath. 

OFFICER MANNY
You’re not going to

invite me inside?

BENJI
Um. You know. I’ve been on house

arrest so long I just can’t get

enough of this fresh air.

OFFICER MANNY
You’re allowed outside on your

property. You’d think you’d know that

after your third house arrest. 

BENJI
Yeah. You’d think so, right?

OFFICER MANNY
I dropped by to say your house

arrest is officially over-

BENJI
Sweet! Thanks for dropping by.

Benji cracks the door open to return. Officer pulls it shut.

OFFICER MANNY 
-and to say that this is your

last chance to do right with

your life. You’re now eighteen.

As Manny drones, Benji nods his head like a ten-year-old that’s being scolded by their best friend’s mom. 

OFFICER MANNY 
Your slap-on-the-wrist days are over.

You screw this up, you screw up the rest of

your life. Do you understand that?

 

BENJI
Yes. Yes, sir. 

OFFICER MANNY
I’m serious. Do you-

BENJI
I do. I really do. 

OFFICER MANNY
Okay. Hopefully, this is the

last of us seeing each other.

Have a good night, son. 

Benji ducks inside as soon as “have a” leaves his mouth.

INT. BENJI’S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
His mom waits in the entryway with her bag in hand. 

MOM
What did he want?

BENJI
Just his usual rehearsed nonsense

about turning my life around. 

MOM
He gives me the same speech. I bet

they love us down at the station. 

BENJI
You know the night’s a failure when

the only visitor you get is a cop.   

He angrily chucks a ping-pong ball off the wall, but the airy, anti-climatic result only increases his anger. 

MOM
I almost forgot.

She pulls a camo backpack from the closet. Hands it to him.

MOM 
I found it in the attic. It’s your Pap’s. Thought

you’d like it. Anyway, sorry about your friends.

If you do anything, be safe, and absolutely

no driving. Okay? Goodnight, honey. 

She gives his head a kiss and then exits.

EXT. BENJI’S HOUSE - PORCH - NIGHT
He sits on the crumbling concrete stair. Lights a cigarette. Just as he unzips his Pap’s backpack -- DING. DING. DING.

Four texts pop up simultaneously on his cracked Walmart phone:

[Note: text messages are in bold.]

JON: Sorry, man. Tomorrow we rage. 
LUKE: What Jon said. 
MANDI: Zombie apocalypse at midnight. Can’t risk it.
CHRISTINA: What Mandi said.

BENJI
Screw all of you. Friends my ass.  

 

DING. Another text.

​

This one’s from BABYGIRL: Sorry I can’t be there tonight-

He lacks the strength to continue reading the text, and the phone falls through his hands onto the porch. 

Even his cigarette bailed on him, so he lights another. 

He sits there smoking, thinking. A few raindrops fall as thunder rumbles. A massive smile overtakes his face. 

He flicks the cig, runs inside. Returns with a handful of beers that he stuffs into his new camo backpack. 

INT. BENJI’S CAR - STRIP MINES - LATER
Rain pours as Benji joyrides on a mud road meant for trucks, not his Honda Civic.

“My Name Is” blares as he speeds through crater mud puddles. 

He finishes a beer. Throws it in the backseat with the other empties. A ten-yard-long puddle blocks the road. He stops.

BENJI
You’re mine, you piece of shit. 

He restarts “My Name Is”. And, VROOM! His Honda fishtails for ten feet before it hits its stride and BLASTS into the puddle. Water geysers on all sides. Then, nothing. 

A few feet short of the end, the car stalls. He turns the ignition. CLICK. SCREECH. CLICK. It’s dead. 
 

BENJI 
Looks like I’m the piece of shit. 

 

He calls each of his four friends, no answer.

 

He group texts them: My car’s stuck at the mines. Help me you a-holes. 

Sent. He reclines his seat and opens another beer. Only sound is the rain that pounds against the roof of his car. 

EXT. SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOOD - MORNING
A LITTLE BOY runs to the sidewalk clenching his hand. He waits patiently, seriously, but finally cracks a smile as a music-less ice-cream truck turns down the street. 

He inches forward, smiling wider as the truck gets closer, and closer, and -- drives right past him.

His fist opens. Coins bounce off the pavement. Tears well under his eyelids as the truck drives off. But then it stops, peels into reverse until it reaches the kid.

JON, (18) tall and ornery with a plastered look that children get RIGHT before they do something bad, sticks his head out the driver’s window. 

JON
It’s nine in the morning. Who said

you could eat ice cream? Go get

a banana or somethin'. Goodness. 

 

Jon HITS the gas then SLAMS the brakes, popping his head back out the window. 

JON 
And how did you know we were

here? Our music isn’t even on.

The kid stands there, scared, nervous, and sad as hell. Jon gives up his hunt for answers and drives off. 

DAVID (18) pokes his head from the server window and chucks a Ninja Turtle pop to the kid’s feet.

DAVID's a long-haired, halfway-to-hippie life ponderer. That dude who never shut the hell up at grade-school sleepovers when you just wanted to sleep.

INT. ICE-CREAM TRUCK - NEIGHBORHOOD ROAD - CONTINUOUS
David walks into the cab of the truck. 

DAVID
Why’d you have to be such a jerk? What

kid doesn’t want ice cream for breakfast?

JON
I’m doing him a favor. He needs to
learn you can’t get everything you want.

DAVID
You ate a Choco-Taco as soon as

we got into the truck this morning.  

JON
But I wanted two. So by eating

just one taco, I deprived myself

of one additional taco, thus learning

I can’t have every taco I want. 

DAVID
Jesus has to be so proud of you. 

JON
Yeah. No crap He is. Now,

where am I going again?

EXT. STRIP MINES - MORNING
Benji’s soiled car sits in the mud puddle. A red house can be seen well beyond the fields and woods surrounding them.  

Jon peeks inside the car. Benji’s passed out. 

BANG BANG BANG! Jon opens and slams the door repeatedly. 

JON
Wake up if you think your mom's hot.

Benji jumps forward, startled. Puke covers his shirt. 

JON 
(genuinely delighted)
So he does think she's hot. Wow.  

DAVID
Heck of a test, brother. 

David gives him a thumbs up. Jon takes a bow. 

BENJI
What the hell happened?

Benji’s face shows us how bad his stomach feels. 

JON
That same thing that

happened three months ago.

And two months before that. 

Benji tries to talk but only gets out a burp. 

DAVID
See if your car starts. 

Benji tries -- still dead. Luke goes to the truck. Jon tip-toes through the mud and pops Benji’s hood. Benji lays back down, closing his eyes, wanting to go back to bed. 

BENJI
Thanks for coming to my

party last night, assholes. 

JON
Yeah. Sorry about that.

 
BENJI
(beat)
That’s seriously all you have?

JON
Well, we had orientation. 

BENJI
I told you. That's not mandatory. It’s for

the losers, YOU GUYS, to make friends

before the first week of class. 

JON
Luke? You got this? 

David connects the jumpers from the truck to Benji’s car. 

DAVID
We wanted to come. Truly. But the

higher road was to stay away. 

Benji pulls himself forward. Sticks his head out the door.

BENJI
What the hell does that mean?

DAVID
(prepared)
Well, we’ve been to your last night of

house arrest parties, and we feel if we

keep attending them, we’re enabling

you to do it again. With college

in a few weeks-

BENJI
(groans)
-you guys make me sick. What are we, old

men? Do you have an intervention

planned next?

JON
No. We decided you’d relapse

even worse if we had one.

Benji shoots him a sharp glance, “Are you serious?” Jon shrugs back, “Well, yeah.” Benji’s disgust grows. 

David hops into the truck. Turns it on. 

DAVID
Fire her up, dude. 

Benji tries it. Nothing. Again. Nada. Hits the gas. Vroom! 

BENJI
Thanks for the help. And just to

be clear, screw both of you guys.  

Jon leans over to Benji’s car. 

JON
Dude, we love you, but you

need to stop doing this shit.

Benji looks at him once more in disgust, then floors the gas. A muddy shower flies at Jon who dives out of the way. 

DAVID
Looks like someone could

sure use a Choco-Taco.

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