Chapter 1
*Author’s Notes
Chapter 1
INT. ELITE UNIVERSITY
Hope, a pretty eighteen-year-old girl with a smile far too bright for the Uni, sits at her desk, radiating hope and enthusiasm at 199%.
*Is she always like that or did she win the lottery? Drugs?
The class is taught by a holographic Artificial Intelligence. After the third teacher murder in five years, no one wanted this job anymore. Partial AI replacement has become standard practice at universities and schools across the United States.
The students are chained to their desks because ”conflicts" between students have become far too common. A new federal law made the restraints standard practice in schools and universities.
When one of the couples starts flirting, the AI pauses the lesson and remotely unlocks their handcuffs.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
(ADDRESSING ALL STUDENTS)
I hope you haven’t forgotten that raising the birth rate comes before everything else. So if anyone else would also like to go, please do it.
Above every student’s desk, a floating notification appears, like something out of a game:
You have received a message: “Continuation of the Bloodline.”
At the top is the relevant paragraph of the law and the minimum quota. Each student has to receive this kind of message three times a day.
Current status: 1/3.
The students begin tapping their screens to confirm that they have received an official proposal. Otherwise, the lesson will not continue, and the AI will repeat the same question again and again.
*Ugh. These rules. These teachers. So damn annoying.
EXT. ELITE UNIVERSITY - BREAK - A LITTLE LATER
Hope sits in the cafeteria with her classmates.
HOPE
Today was just wonderful, don’t you think?
Rage, eighteen, beautiful, with tattoos across her face, answers first. Right after driving her fork into the table.
RAGE
Today was complete dogshit.
But I hope you all enjoyed it too.
*Typical Rage.
EXT. PLAYGROUND NEAR THE UNIVERSITY - DAY
After classes, Hope swings on the swings with the others.
HOPE
Do you think tomorrow will be the same, or will it be even better?
RAGE
Yeah, fuck this uni. Let’s just stab someone instead so classes get cancelled.
Rage’s sister, a small, mouse-like girl in glasses and the complete opposite of her, can’t keep quiet.
CALMNESS
Rage, not this again...
How did we even graduate high school?
RAGE
Through extreme boredom...
Rage pulls a grenade from her jacket and throws it straight at a car parked behind the playground fence.
BOOM.
HOPE
Why did you do that?! There weren’t any terrorists there! Or people from the Lower Floors!
CALMNESS
Trust me. My sister’s reasons are nowhere near that noble.
Police sirens wail nearby.
RAGE
Hey, losers. Time to get the hell out.
Rage is already sprinting ahead. Hope rushes after her. Calmness follows at her usual painfully slow, lame-ass pace.
CALMNESS
(CALM AS EVER)
Damn. At this rate, I’ll never make it.
She pulls out an adrenaline cube and injects it into her leg.
Then she starts catching up.
Because of Rage’s antics, Calmness almost always has to carry adrenaline cubes. She simply cannot keep up with Rage without “assistance”. Nature didn’t build her “for this”.
INT. HIGH-RISE BUILDING - SOME RANDOM ENTRANCE THEY MANAGED TO GET INTO
All three are out of breath.
Despite that, the joy on Hope’s face refuses to die.
HOPE
(ENTHUSIASTIC IN A WAY THAT IS ENTIRELY WRONG FOR THE SITUATION!)
Do you think, if the police had stopped us, they would’ve given us points for destroying terrorists and potential enemies from the Lower Floors?
Rage and Calmness give her the kind of look usually reserved for ”medical emergencies“.
Rage walks up and grabs her by the throat.
CALMNESS
(MELANCHOLIC, BUT IRRITATED)
Rage. Please stop.
RAGE
She’s completely fucking insane.
In a flash of anger, Rage throws Hope to the floor.
Does she really not understand? Or does she just see the best in everyone?
CALMNESS
(UNDERSTANDINGLY)
Well. You’ll need a little more time to get used to my sister.
Hope can’t understand why Calmness is so critical of Rage. Rage probably just had a bad day. She isn’t really like that. Once her emotions settle down, she’ll feel guilty.
Like hell she will...
INT. DORM ROOM
Hope is left alone in the room.
She thinks about what happened.
Despite Rage’s antics, she is satisfied with the day.
EXT. ELITE UNIVERSITY - NEXT DAY
Classes continue as usual.
Hope is impossibly happy.
Rage, as usual, is breaking things.
SFX - AN ALARM BLARES.
Red light floods the room.
UNIVERSITY ALARM SYSTEM
(MECHANICAL VOICE)
Red alert. Category red.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Please remain in your seats.
They would love to disobey.
Unfortunately, they are chained down with mechanical restraints.
Gunfire and screams roll in from beyond the classroom.
Hope knows the University Defense System won’t fail them.
Otherwise, why chain them up in the first place?
SHIT.
They are completely fucked.
Rage has no intention of trusting the Defense System.
Thanks to an electric lockpick device -- a gift from some nerd loser she fucked in exchange for it. Of course, he wasn’t the only one she was fucking for gifts. -- she breaks free from the restraints and starts unlocking Calmness.
SHIT. SHIT.
Now they’re definitely getting expelled.
Their parents paid a fortune for this elite university.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
You are violating Security System protocol.
Funny.
RAGE
Shove your protocol up your ass.
Embarrassing.
Her poor sister.
CALMNESS
(WHISPERING, SHEEPISH)
They’re going to dock our points for this. Could you be a little quieter...?
Calmness and Rage move toward Hope.
RAGE
Don’t you fucking even think about moving.
How rude.
But her intentions are good.
Still -- is this how you rescue someone??????!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOPE
(FULL OF ENTHUSIASM AND SINCERE CONFUSION, COMPLETELY WRONG FOR THE SITUATION)
Why are you doing this? Are you stupid or something? Nothing’s going to happen. Everything is fine.
All the students give her a look.
Even the Artificial Intelligence doesn’t understand why the hell she is so happy, and it’s literally fucking hardwired to stay rational and calm.
CALMNESS
Sister, right now, even I don’t understand you.
A miracle, hearing that from her.
Rage is suspiciously quiet. Too focused on the task.
She isn’t herself.
BAM.
Exactly what you’d expect of Rage.
Rage slams Hope.
Hope coughs up a small puddle of blood.
INT. ELITE UNIVERSITY - HALL
Rage runs through the university hall. Calmness follows behind her. Then Hope.
The whole hall is splattered with blood.
CALMNESS
Sister, where are we going?
RAGE
(WITH AN INSANE SMILE ON HER FACE)
To kick these motherfuckers’ asses so they know what it means to deal with people like us... someone like me.
She is definitely insane.
But what can you do?
You don’t choose family.
One is crazy.
The other was apparently born in a barrel of Xanax.
HOPE
Come on. Calmness Relax. Rage knows what she’s doing. She would never let us down. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone.We’ll probably be able to have a nice, reasonable talk with the terrorists and convince them not to shoot us. Or anyone else. And maybe help them work through their inner problems and traumas so they never do anything like this again.
This is fucking weird...
Everything Hope says is weird. But this... Oh God
Rage wants to hit Hope again, but there is no time. Calmness decides to simply ignore the nonsense.
INT. ROOM NEXT TO THE TERRORISTS
The terrorists are fucking shooting students.
Our brave little trio of girlfriends hides nearby. Rage clamps a hand over Hope’s mouth before she can unleash another wave of bullshit.
Then the wall disappears.
*WTF?!!!!!!!! Did they breach the most advanced Uni defense system?!
We see how the three of them are standing directly in front of the terrorists.
Life freezes for our courageous trio.
The group of terrorists aims their weapons at them.
RAGE
Oh, for fuck’s sake! I expected hot chad serial killers, not fat losers ,incels and fucking dirty scumbags from the Lower Floors.
HOPE
Sorry about her language. I’m sure she doesn’t mean it in a bad way!
THE MOST BRUTAL TERRORIST, WHOSE ENTIRE FACE IS COVERED IN BLOOD
(dead inside)
No, I get it.
He raises his Glock and points it at Rage’s face.
Then he fires three rounds straight into her head.
We see in slow motion how Rage collapses to the ground.
Hope’s world collapses in that moment.
One question spinning through her mind:
How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How?
Calmness’s world collapses too.
For the first time, something flickers in Calmness’s eyes.
Something that had always burned in Rage’s.
Something that will never go out of fuel.
INT. GARBAGE TRUCK — CARGO BED
Along with the other 21 students who weren’t killed, they are tied up and thrown into the back of a garbage truck.
Maybe the terrorists plan to dump them at the landfill.
Maybe they plan to play with them first.
BECAUSE GAMES ARE FUN.
And the games they are planning to play will be the most fun of all.
Even if I were dead and lying in a coffin, I would crawl out just to watch it.
That’s how interesting this is going to be.
