OL

IV
BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE
ER
Written by

Oliver Coker
CO
KE
R
 BLACK SCREEN - OMINOUS MUSIC

TITLE CARD FADES IN: Before The Apocalypse

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INT. MAX’S ROOM - AFTERNOON

MAX is sitting alone in his room, on his bed, playing a game

on his playstation. He’s whispering to himself about the
game. Suddenly, there’s a loud BOOM sound.

He puts the controller down on the bed, gets up and walks

over to the window to see a large METEOR hurling towards the
Earth. MAX starts freaking out.
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ONE LONG SHOT -

(FROM BEHIND WE SEE) MAX runs out of his bedroom and into the
landing...
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INT. LANDING/STAIRCASE - CONTINUOUS

...He runs across the landing and down the stairs, nearly
tripping up.

MAX
Dylan!
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INT. HALLWAY/KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

MAX reaches the bottom of the stairs, nearly falling over

AGAIN. He goes to open the front door but stops because...

DYLAN
Max?!

MAX hears DYLAN and runs towards him in the BACKROOM. While
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running through the kitchen, the house shakes, making the
lights flicker, knocking MAX to the floor and a few
cups/items to the ground. MAX gets back up and runs around
the corner...

(END OF ONE SHOT)

INT. BACKROOM/TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS

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...DYLAN is standing up, watching the TV.

MAX
What’s going on?
 2.

DYLAN continues to look at the TV, MAX starts watching too.

NEWS ANCHOR (VOICE)

We are being told that everyone
should remain calm and that there
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is-

The news flickers in and out, making it impossible to

understand what’s going on.

DYLAN
(pressing the remote)
Come on!
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Another loud crash is heard from outside...the house shakes
again, sending more things falling onto the floor. MAX walks
back around the corner in shock.

DYLAN (CONT'D)
(to himself)
ER
What the fuck is going on...

MAX runs back into the TV ROOM to DYLAN, grabbing him.

DYLAN (CONT'D)
Max?!

MAX
Where is Dad and Leila.
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DYLAN realises that they are out shopping. He looks scared.

DYLAN
Shit, they went shopping.

MAX begins running towards the front door...

MAX
Shit!
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INT. HALLWAY/KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

MAX runs through the kitchen and through the main hallway to
the front door.

INT. BACKROOM/TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS

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DYLAN peeks through the blinds and sees the smoke, fire and
something moving. He looks Terrified.
 3.

DYLAN
(quiet)
Holy shit.
(louder)
MAX!
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INT. HALLWAY/KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

MAX goes to open the door but stops when he hears DYLAN
shouting his name. DYLAN comes running down the HALLWAY in a
panic.

DYLAN
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Don’t open the fucking door.

MAX
What the fuck are you talking
about? Where’s your car parked?
ER
DYLAN
Don’t go outside, Max.

MAX
Call Dad, tell them we’re coming to
get them.

DYLAN
Are you fucking stupid, Max, we
gotta stay put.
CO
MAX opens the front door.

INT/EXT. FRONT DOOR - CONTINUOUS

As MAX opens the front door we see a creature running past

extremely fast, with smoke and fire filling the surrounding
area.
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INT. HALLWAY/KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

DYLAN grabs MAX, pulling them to the floor and shutting the
door with his foot.

MAX
Okay, this is serious.
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DYLAN
Were you not taking this serious?

They both get up.

 4.

MAX
I was...I was but this
is...like...life ending serious,
holy shit.
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DYLAN
Did you not see the fucking meteor
fall from the sky?

DYLAN walks past MAX and double locks the front door. CLOSE
UP of him locking the door.

MAX
We gotta call Dad.
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DYLAN
You call Dad, I’m going to lock the
backdoor.
ER
INT. LANDING - CONTINUOUS

MAX runs upstairs to his room...

INT. MAX'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS

...And he quickly grabs his phone from his bedside table.

Fog/Mist/Smoke starts to fill his room so he shuts his window
and runs back out of the room in a panic.
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INT. BACKROOM/TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS

DYLAN runs to the backdoor and locks. The house shakes again
making the lights flicker once again. We see MAX at the end
of the hallway just getting downstairs. He quickly runs to
DYLAN and calls his DAD while DYLAN stands on the sofa,
looking out of the window.
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MAX
Come on, come on, come on, pick the
phone up...

They don’t answer.

MAX (CONT'D)
Fuck!
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MAX tries calling him again. But they don’t answer. He

instead tries LEILA (his SISTER).
 5.

MAX (CONT'D)
Dad didn’t pick up, I’m calling
Leila.
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LEILA doesn’t pick up. MAX holds the phone down in defeat.

MAX (CONT'D)
What the fuck are we gonna do?

DYLAN gets down from the window and walks over to MAX. It
goes quiet.

DYLAN
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It’s gonna be fine, it’s gonna be
okay. They’re probably just making
their way back here. We’ll just
wait, it will be okay.

MAX
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But I want to go out and find them,
they could be in danger.

DYLAN
Max, just calm down. They’ll be
okay.

MAX
You saw what I saw at the front
door!
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DYLAN
Exactly, so let’s stay inside!

MAX realises that DYLAN is making a good point and calms

down...

DYLAN (CONT'D)
Let’s just stay here. Dad and Leila
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are probably hiding inside
Sainsbury’s. They’ll be okay.

MAX takes deep breaths before sliding against the wall to the
floor and putting his head into his hands. DYLAN looks at him
with deep sympathy. DYLAN rests against the wall as well.

DYALN
(quietly)
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We’re gonna be okay.

 6.

INT/EXT. BACKROOM/TV ROOM - NIGHT

We see a SHOT OF THE WINDOW. The sky is now black. We hear

distant sounds from outside of the creatures. MAX is sitting
at the table, looking at his phone which is placed in front
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of him. The light is flickering. DYLAN walks in and places a
plate of NOODLES in front of him. Both of them look devasted.

DYLAN
Something to eat.

MAX doesn’t pay attention. DYLAN sits at the other end of the
table. DYLAN tries to eat but can’t. He places his knife and
fork down and looks at MAX.
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DYLAN (CONT'D)
They’re okay, Max.

DYLAN has the radio in front of him. He looks at it and then

starts fiddling around with it. MAX hears what he’s doing and
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speaks, still not looking up from the phone.

MAX
Is the TV still not working?

DYLAN
Most shit in the house has stopped
working. Lights are doing decent,
but they’re looking weaker every
minute.
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MAX
What will we do if they go out.

DYLAN
We’re lucky Dad likes his candles.

DYLAN laughs at his remark but it slowly fades. DYLAN

continues to mess around with the radio. THEN: The PHONE
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PINGS. MAX quickly grabs it. Bit sighs in despair when it
isn’t DAD or LEILA.

DYLAN (CONT'D)
What is it?

MAX reads the message:

MAX
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“This is not a drill, stay inside

at all cost, boarder up all windows
and all doors” over and over.

The radio crackles and starts playing a message:

 7.

RADIO
THIS IS NOT A DRILL, STAY INSIDE AT
ALL COST, BOARDER UP ALL WINDOWS
AND ALL DOORS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,
STAY INSIDE AT ALL COST, BOARDER UP
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ALL WINDOWS AND ALL DOORS. THIS IS
NOT A DRILL, STAY INSIDE AT ALL
COST, BOARDER UP ALL WINDOWS AND
ALL DOORS

DYLAN flicks through the stations but all of them are the
same message over and over and over and over.

DYLAN
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It’s just the same message.

MAX sighs in disbelief. He puts his head to the table and

starts crying. DYLAN sits there in silence for a few seconds,
not knowing what to say.
ER
DYLAN (CONT'D)
Max. It’s gonna be okay.

MAX
Stop fucking saying that, Dylan.

DYLAN
I’m in the same situation as you,
Max. And I’m assuming everyone
outside this house is aswell. Try
CO
to work with me here. Don’t give up
straight away.

MAX slowly looks up and starts to eat his food. DYLAN does
the same, turning the radio off. They both eat food for a few
seconds in silent before DYLAN decides to try and make
conversation.

DYLAN (CONT'D)
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You saw what I saw right?

MAX
Not right now, Dylan. I think, we
need to just...

DYLAN
I know, I know. I’m sorry.
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INT. MAX'S ROOM - NIGHT

MAX is laying in bed with boards up against his window and

the blinds down. There’s a single light on. He’s staring at
the ceiling. He doesn’t know what to think.
 8.

He gets up and walks over to his TV and tries to turn it on

but it won’t work. He unplugs it and plugs it back in but it
still won’t turn on. He tries turning his playstation on but
it won’t work.
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We see a picture on the TV stand of DYLAN, MAX, DAD and
LEILA. MAX looks at it for a few seconds before walking out
of the room.

INT. HALLWAY/KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

MAX reaches the bottom of the stairs and we follow him for
one long continuous shot...
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INT. BACKROOM/TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS

...Until he reaches DYLAN who is sleeping with a knife next

to him on the sofa. DYALN turns around and sees MAX standing
ER
there.

DYLAN
You good?

MAX
I can’t sleep in my room. It
feels...fucked.

DYLAN
CO
That’s...you can sleep down here,
yeah.

MAX
Why are you sleeping down here?

DYLAN
Uh...the same reason as you, to be
honest. And...just in
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case...something...happens.

MAX
I know.

DYLAN
Yeah.

MAX lays down on the other side of the sofa and rests his
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head up on one of the pillows. He looks other at DYLAN who

shuts his eyes.

MAX does the same thing. He sees FLASHES of a creature,

different faces and the end of the world.
 9.

INT. BACKROOM/TV ROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT

He wakes up in a sweat.

It’s a lot later in the night now. MAX looks over at DYLAN
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who is fast asleep. He puts his head back down to go back to
sleep but stops when he hears a noise outside. He slowly gets
up and picks up the knife that was next to DYLAN on the sofa.

He walks over to the windows and moves some pieces of

cardboard that DYLAN had put up as a MAKESHIFT BARRIER. He
puts two of his fingers between the blinds and peeks through.
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INT/EXT. BACKROOM/BACKGARDEN - CONTINUOUS

We see some sort of shadow in the garden. MAX can’t work out
what it is. He grabs his phone off of the KITCHEN TABLE and
shines a light out on the garden. SUDDENLY: we a quick shot
of an alien creature with bright white eyes look at him.
ER
INT. BACKROOM/TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS

MAX nearly drops his phone but quickly catches up. He slides
down the wall and sits below the window. We see the shadow of
the creature through the blind. We hear the creature make
different monster-like sounds. MAX starts breathing heavily
and falls to the side. The camera moves in closer to his eyes
before -
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MATCH CUT TO:

INT. BACKROOM/TV ROOM - DAY

THE SAME SHOT BUT THE NEXT DAY AND MAX’S EYES ARE NOW CLOSED.

We see DYLAN’s hands enter the frame as the camera slowly

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pulls back. DYLAN shakes MAX slightly to wake him up as he
speaks-

DYLAN
Max, wake up.

MAX doesn’t wake up at first-

DYLAN (CONT'D)
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Max!

MAX jumps up awake - he is still terrified. DYLAN holds his

shoulders to calm him down. MAX looks around in confusion and
then realises it’s just DYLAN who has awoken him.
 10.

DYLAN (CONT'D)
What are you doing on the floor?
What happened?

MAX is trying to catch his breath -

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MAX
I saw something...outside...some
monster...or something.

DYLAN
Holy shit. Was it the thing from
before.
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MAX
I...think...I don’t know...it had
big white eyes...it wasn’t human.

DYLAN stands back up, picks the cardboard sheet back up and
puts it against the window.
ER
DYLAN
We keep all windows boarded up, all
doors locked.

MAX nods in agreement. DYLAN helps MAX up and then walks off
to grab some more supplies to boarder the windows up. MAX
slowly walks towards the dining table. He pulls out a chair
and sits down to calm down. The audio muffles as we focus in
on MAX. We can see DYLAN in the background moving more sheets
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of cardboard around, holding a hammer and moving furniture to
barricade the doors.

CUT TO:

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

DYLAN and MAX are now standing in the KITCHEN. DYLAN is

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standing in front of the KITCHEN side where he has already
laid out a few things - food, drink, etc.

DYLAN
We’ve gotta try to survive this
shit. So! We’ve got to go through
the kitchen and take every single
bit of food, drink, medicine,
anything that we store in the
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kitchen, okay?

MAX
Got it.
 11.

DYLAN
We’ve also got to find any good
weapons and figure out how long we
can survive in here without
leaving.
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MAX
We should be okay for a while
right?

DYLAN
Dad and Leila went out shopping
because we were low on food...so
this couldn’t have come at a worse
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time. On the topic of Dad and
Leila, we’ll call them every hour
from this Nokia phone I found in a
drawer.

DYLAN holds up a NOKIA phone.

ER
DYLAN (CONT'D)
It’s fully charged. I keep it for
emergencies because the battery
life is pretty good.

MAX
What about our phones?

DYLAN
CO
Now, they’ll run out of charge
pretty quick if we keep using them
so only use them when you really
need to. The Nokia contact is in
Dad’s and Leila’s phone, they
should know to call this instead of
our actual phones.

MAX
KE
Okay.

DYLAN
But keep your iPhone battery high
but not using it, just in case they
call you on there.

MAX
Got it.
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MONTAGE

- We see MAX and DYLAN taking all the food, drink, medicine
and other supplies out of the kitchen cupboards, placing them
on the dining room table.
 12.

- We also see them bordering up different windows and doors

in the house, making sure they’re as safe as possible.

- We see DYLAN walk up to the ATTIC and look around from

anything of use but there is only pieces of wood and
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cardboard to barricade the doors and windows with. He shuts
all the blinds in every room as well.

- We see DYLAN look at a picture of the four of them before

this mess began. He looks happy but sad at the same time.

- We then finish the montage with MAX setting up a

whiteboard. DYLAN then counts everything and writes a bunch
of numbers of the whiteboard finishing with him writing ‘24
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DAYS’.

DYLAN and MAX step back from the WHITEBOARD in shock.

MAX (CONT'D)
Is that really it?
ER
DYLAN
Fuck. We’re really low on supplies.

MAX looks defeated. DYLAN notices.

DYLAN (CONT'D)
But it’ll be okay, we can
distribute it across the days.
We’ll make it last longer.
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MAX and DYLAN stand there for a few seconds in silence. We
continue to hear the chaos faintly in the background from the
outside.

MAX
What about the outhouse and shed?

DYLAN
KE
What about them?

MAX
Could we get to them? Doesn’t Dad
have a hunting gun in there?

DYLAN
Oh shit, yeah! The shed is off
limits, that’s all the way around
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the garden but the outhouse is just-

DYLAN goes to unlock the backdoor but then remembers

everything that is happening right now.
 13.

DYLAN (CONT'D)
We can’t go out that way, can we?

MAX
If we want to live...no.
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DYLAN looks defeated. MAX looks like he’s just thought of the
best idea ever. He starts quickly walking down the hallway...

INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

...Until he reaches a door to the left of the front door. He

opens it. DYLAN follows him.
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DYLAN
What are you doing?

MAX
There’s a window in the bathroom
ER
that is connected to the outhouse.
Because Dad got the outhouse added
to the house after he bought it,
remember?

DYLAN
Oh shiiiii-

DYLAN stops himself before getting too exciting because they

see how tight the window is.
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DYLAN (CONT'D)
We can’t fit through there.

MAX examines the tight squeeze...

MAX
I think I could.
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DYLAN
You really think you could fit
through there?

MAX
Maybe. If you helped me through it,
probably, yes.
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INT. OUTHOUSE - MOMENTS LATER

THE CAMERA is pointed at the ground of the OUTHOUSE. We hear

MAX trying to squeeze through the gap with DYLAN giving him
guidance. MAX them lands on the ground.
 14.

MAX
Ow, shit!

DYLAN
Are you okay?
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MAX stands up and brushes himself down.

MAX
Yeah, I’m good.

MAX then sees the HUNTING RIFLE hung up on the wall next to
some ammo. Next to that is the spare key for the outhouse.
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DYLAN
Do you see it?

MAX
Yeah. The spare key is there as
well, I’m going to lock the door
ER
after to make sure nothing gets in.

DYLAN
Okay, cool, be quick!

MAX walks past a fridge in there before noticing it and

opening it. Inside is a dozen drinks. He checks the bottom
door and then the freezer next to it which are sadly both
empty. He grabs the drinks and starts passing them through to
DYLAN.
CO
INT. DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS

DYLAN sees the drinks coming through the top.

DYLAN
Woah, where’d you get these?
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MAX
The fridge out here is full. We
obviously needed to start using it
more!

INT. OUTHOUSE - CONTINUOUS

MAX finishes putting the drinks through and then focuses his
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attention on the rifle, ammo and keys once again. He goes to

walk towards them when BANG. Something jumps on the roof of
the outhouse.
 15.

MAX crouches down to the ground. The outhouse roof is semi-

transparent. We can see the silhouette of a creature moving
on top of the outhouse.

DYLAN (O.S.)
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What’s going on?!

MAX
Shhhhhh!
(whispering)
There’s something here.

INT. DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS

IV
DYLAN
Oh shit.

DYLAN stands on the small window side and peeks through the
small window. We see through the small window. We can MAX
ER
moving slowly towards the gun on the floor.

INT. OUTHOUSE - CONTINUOUS

The monster makes loud noises - like screeches. MAX continues

to crawl along the floor. He then stops when he hears the
creature jump down off of the roof and onto the floor in
front of the door. MAX quickly gets up and grabs the gun. He
puts the ammo in his pocket but not before taking two bullets
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and loading the gun up. He then grabs the keys ready to lock
the door.

THEN: The door handle slowly turns and the door starts to
creak open. MAX stands in the corner behind the door,
terrified. We see the creatures long, creepy arm start to
enter the outhouse. The creature continues to make noises.

MAX starts heavily breathing. He aims the gun at the arm.

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THEN: the creature hears another creature’s screech. We see
the arm stop moving and then back out of the outhouse. MAX
then sighs in relief, shutting the door and then locking it.

THEN: The arm crashes through the door’s head-window and

grabs MAX’s face. MAX manages to escape, throwing the rifle
through the window and climbing through-
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INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

-himself. We see DYLAN and MAX jump out into the HALLWAY,
shutting the BATHROOM door behind them. MAX lays on the
ground while DYLAN gets up.
 16.

DYLAN
Are you okay?

MAX doesn’t respond. DYLAN then picks up the gun and takes
the ammo from MAX. He slowly starts moving down the hallway
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towards the kitchen. SUDDENLY: The creature bursts through
the backdoor. DYLAN pushes MAX into another room to protect
him.

MAX
DYLAN!

DYLAN loads the ammo into the gun while the creature slowly
moves towards him. DYLAN then ducks behind the wall. He cocks
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the gun back ready. The monster screeches and screams. It
starts to charge towards DYLAN and MAX. DYLAN looks over to
MAX.

DYLAN
It’s gonna be okay. Stay there.
ER
MAX covers his mouth in fear. DYLAN gets ready and jumps out.

CUT TO BLACK.

We hear a gunshot, a scream and a monster screech.

THE END.
CO
KE
R