Gone By Michael McKenzie

michaelmckenzie@outlook.com (520) 370-8657

INT. CRYO ROOM - SPACECRAFT A gasp of air. Shes in pitch darkness. We hear her rummaging around her, looking for something. A CRACK. A faint green light coming from a PAIR OF GLOW STICKS tied together with a string illuminates a WOMANs face. Shes in a dusty cryotube, which looks like a glass coffin. She stirs for a moment, gathering her senses. hits a button at her side. Nothing happens. She hits the button again. Still nothing. She

She puts the glow sticks between her teeth, takes a few nervous breaths, then pushes on the glass lid in front of her. She struggles for a second, but the lid eventually pops open. She sits up and looks at the floor. She dry heaves. Wipes her mouth. She looks up, holding the glow sticks high. The room shes in is in shambles. There are wires hanging from the ceiling. Random bits of clothing and garbage are strewn across the floor. Her cryotube is in a row with five others. She gets up and puts her feet on the floor like someone learning to walk again. She stumbles to the cryotube closest to hers. She brushes away some of the dust with her sleeve and moves the glow sticks to the glass. Empty. She goes to the next tube, then the next, then the next, each time finding no one. She turns away from the tubes and walks out of the room. INT. HALLWAY The woman enters a dark hallway and calls for her crew mates. Ellen? WOMAN Robert! SAM!!

Her voice echoes down the dark hallway. She walks down the hallway, glow sticks still held high. She trips on something. Her body smacks into the ground. She looks to see what she stepped on. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

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A dirty sneaker is laying on the ground beside her. She gets up, swearing under her breath, and continues walking. She comes to a switch on the wall and flips it a few times. Nothing. She presses on. INT. COCKPIT She arrives in the cockpit of the spacecraft. Its just as dusty and abandoned-looking as the rest of the ship. The window is dark. She tries to brush dirt off of the window, but no matter how much dust she wipes away, she still cant see anything. She steps back, defeated. Something at the corner of the window catches her eye. A small green plant has somehow squeezed its way through the seam at the edge of the glass. She rushes over to inspect it. sticks. WOMAN What are you? She puts the glow sticks by the plant and sits into the pilots chair, bewildered. A moment passes. face. A look of realization spreads across her She prods it with her glow

She suddenly gets up, grabs the glow sticks, and runs out of the room. INT. HALLWAY The woman runs down the hallway with a determined look on her face. She jumps over the shoe this time. She runs past the room with the cryotubes, and rounds the corner into a room marked "AIRLOCK."

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INT. AIRLOCK The woman is standing in front of a large hatch. Shes breathing heavily. She stands there for a minute, like shes in a staring contest with the hatch. Finally, she lunges at the hatch. Using all her might and body weight, she slowly gets the hatch wheel to SCREECH open. Eventually, the wheel stops turning, and a loud, low pitched CLICK sound fills the room. The woman stands back and looks at the hatch again, this time only taking a second to take a deep breath. She opens the hatch. Light floods the room.