CommUnity

by

Casey Wright

Professor Herrera
ENGL 49B
INT. RICHARD'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

A soft illumination glows throughout the apartment casting

an even light on every surface, which is impeccably clean
and organized to the point where any sense of personality is
lost. Faint music plays.

Toiling in the corner, hunched in front of a screen is

RICHARD, text and code streaming across the screen as he
rapidly types and occasionally mutters to himself. He stops
typing for a moment to sip from a full mug of coffee, and
rubs his eyes. Just as his fingers rest on the keyboard to
begin typing again, his home system interrupts him.

HOME SYSTEM
Unknown visitor at front door.

On the display in front of him security footage of his front

door reveals JULIE standing outside. "UNKNOWN IDENTITY"
flashes across the bottom of the screen. Richard squints and
activates the intercom.

RICHARD
Hello?

JULIE
Mr. Hammond?

RICHARD
Uh, y-yes?

JULIE
Julie McLuhan, CommUnity
Development leader.

RICHARD
McLuhan...(coughs) Julie?

JULIE
Yes, may I come in?

RICHARD
Of course, yes.

Richard swipes his display to open the door, but his elbow
knocks over his coffee mug.

As the door opens, the lights automatically brighten and the

music fades. Julie enters in haste and glances over her
shoulder as the door slides closed.

RICHARD
(looking at spilled
coffee)
Shit.
(looks up at Julie)
Ms. McLuhan! To what do I owe this
unexpected honor?
 2.

JULIE
My apologies on coming here
uninvited, but this is the last
chance we will have to meet
before...I needed to talk to you
about taking over, taking charge of
CommUnity development.

RICHARD
Oh, yes. I mean, it's no problem.

Richard approaches Julie and they shake hands.

JULIE
I'm not interrupting anything too
grave, am I?

RICHARD
No, of course not. I mean, busy
with the transition coming up
tomorrow, but it's a real pleasure
to meet you. You know, I wrote my
thesis on identity replication
through dynamic artificial
intelligence systems--your
systems--

JULIE
Mr. Hammond--

RICHARD
Please, call me Richard. Can I get
you anything? Coffee? Tea?

JULIE
No, no thank you. I must speak to
you about...give you an idea of
what to expect when you take over.

RICHARD
Ah, yes! Fantastic. Please, take a
seat.

They sit and an awkward silence persists for a moment.

RICHARD
So what'd they send you for? Oh,
and hopefully there are no hard
feelings, you know...me taking over
your job and all. I have nothing
but respect for what you
accomplished--and really, it's
damned unfortunate that your new
implement didn't...uhh...take, I
mean there was potential for sure,
but it was a bit regressive,
especially after innovations you
introduced before--just real
game-changing stuff.
 3.

JULIE
Oh you little thing.

Julie's fist crashes down against the table.

RICHARD
(oblivious to Julie's
angry response)
If it had been up to me, I'd have
given you another chance,
considering all you've done, all
your contributions.

JULIE
You have no idea!

Julie pulls a CommUnity mobile device from the pocket of her

overcoat and then pulls a knife from her purse.

Richard leaps up and backs away.

RICHARD
What are you--?

JULIE
You fucking clueless moron! And
you're the one taking my place?
What a joke!

Julie makes a few swift movements on the screen of her

CommUnity mobile device and sighs, relaxing from her rigid
posture.

RICHARD
Security alert--

JULIE
(perfectly calm)
Richard.

RICHARD
--police! Emergency! Computer...?

Richard stares up, expecting a response from his Home

System.

JULIE
We are alone.

RICHARD
What? What are you--

JULIE
I disabled everything, Richard. We
are alone. For the first time in
five years we are alone; maybe for
the last time, no CommUnity.
 4.

RICHARD
I don't--

JULIE
We don't have much time, so I need
you to listen. I apologize for
frightening you. I needed to put on
a performance until I could disable
your stream. This is for your sake.

RICHARD
What do you want from me? Why are
you doing this?

JULIE
Please calm down. There are things
happening that no one knows about.

INT. COMMUNITY SURVEILLANCE ASSURANCE OFFICES - NIGHT

Cubicles fill the CommUnity Surveillance Assurance Offices,

and within each cubicle are screens which cycle through live
feeds. Ocassionally a problem feed will pop up: a yellow
warning light for degraded transmissions, red for halted
transmissions.

CSA MAN 1
Degraded array in C-5275,
transmission compromised,
maintenance requested tomorrow.

A red warning appears on his screen

CSA MAN 1
Uh-oh, halted transmission at
A-3571. Huh...check this out.
CSA MAN 2
Whoa! A-level halt? Someone's on it
already, look.

The red warning has a grey dash through it and an indication

reading "Maintenance in progress."

CSA MAN 1
It's someone named Richard Hammond.
Must be the Richard Hammond, right?

CSA MAN 2
No wonder they immediately got on
it. Must be nice living the good
life, being prioritized like that.

INT. RICHARD'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Richard and Julie are both seated again. Julie slides a
small data card across the table to Richard.
 5.

JULIE
Here, this has all the data on the
votes I could pull before my access
got restricted. It will back up
everything I've told you about the
votes, but honestly, I don't know
exactly how deep this runs. I
haven't had much opportunity to
safely look into it, so I waited
until I could pass it off to
someone who could continue...who
could let the world know what's
going on.

Richard stands up and walks to a bookshelf, lifts a book

just enough to slide the data card under it and walks back.

RICHARD
I don't know. Why me?

JULIE
No one else will have the kind of
access to data you will have, so if
you act quickly, you might be able
to expose this whole thing; and
deep down, you're a good person.

RICHARD
(shaking his head)
I'm just not sure I can do this.
Don't you have someone else you've
shared this with? Someone else you
know...someone you can trust?

JULIE
No. You have to do this, I've only
dealt with CommUnity yes-men for
the last five years. Maybe I'm
crazy. Just look into it. Anyway,
you're a lousy developer, so you
must know your time is limited.
Keep that in mind. They'll flatter
you until they decide to flay you.
Remember, the public won't even
have a say in the matter, so no
matter how well it might seem like
you're doing, when Mikey wants you
gone, you're gone.

There is a loud bang at Richard's front door. POLICE have

arrived and are trying to force the door open.

POLICE (O.S.)
Please remain calm.
Julie grabs the knife.

JULIE
Richard, I'm sorry.
 6.

RICHARD
What?

JULIE
I have to make this look real.

Richard backs away from Julie who has the knife pointed at
him. The door slams open as Julie lunges at Richard, who
screams as the knife plunges into his shoulder. A handful of
tactical POLICE enter the room.

POLICEMAN 1
Target lock! Fire!

Multiple tasers plunge into Julie who falls to the floor

convulsing to the crackle of electricity.

POLICEMAN 2
Med team, get up here!

Policeman 1 kneels by Richard.

POLICEMAN 1
Are you okay, Mr. Hammond?

RICHARD
(panting)
She's...fucking...crazy!

A policeman places a black canvas bag over Julie's head,

slaps handcuffs on her and drags her limp body from the
room.

POLICEMAN 1
Mr. Hammond? Are you okay, sir? Mr.
Hammond?