1: I Must Want to Die
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The AMBITION of
OMAR SIND
Started 4/Dec/2024
Completed 14/Jan/2025
Written by Silver Keogh
Summary: Omar Sind, assigned with the duty of overseeing a company of Soldiers, flounders and fails until he realizes that the only way out is by fleeing the planet. He remains in this line of work, but must also avoid the glaring eye of Forjeh, his old boss.
Forjeh is furious that his Soldier has fled, and would prefer not to kill him, but threatens this upon him should he not return. Omar finds himself on a planet that has just begun to harvest lightning. The people suspect that this will be used to power a new weapon.
He is pursued by a Soldier-for-hire, Daisy. She tracks him down, but must now evade the alien forces that suddenly overrun the city. She works to find a way off the planet before she can complete her job.
This forces them to take refuge in another city, where they run into a few others who seem to be doing the same, until the team are trapped in the city. It’s nothing wrong, of course. Only problem, depending on your outlook, is that every member of the team is placed under a spell of constant contentment. They cannot explain it, only that they need not leave.
ACT ONE
INT. SUNNY OFFICE, BROKEN WINDOWS
"deixa a gira girar (j g b edit)” by Os Tincoas and millemon - electronic / world music plays
In a dry office building, OMAR steals as many documents as possible from every desk available. He holds up one document, displaying the name “FORJEH’s Company” in red. Below, the names of the contractors who have been making up most of FORJEH’s business.
OMAR speaks these words slowly, not believing what he’s doing.
OMAR: I must want to die.
But he shrugs, and shakes his head with a fearful look.
OMAR: I just can’t handle the job.
OMAR stuffs the documents in a bag.
EXT. TELOWE METROPOLIS-DAY
The city is alive, today. It’s only too easy for OMAR to slip into the crowd. We see FORJEH enter his office, and immediately notice the documents missing.
He glares outside, very little of his face visible from through the broken windows. He has not seen OMAR. OMAR is gone.
He now can roam freely throughout and outside the city. Near him is a small Transport Station. Here, he summons a hover-car from a panel on the wall, among which several more rows of panels are established.
The crowds are not dense at this time. He has no access to ballistic weapons yet. He would best be advised to conceal his knife.
He’s found his hover-car, and disappeared into the heart of the city. He enters a gas station.
INT. GAS STATION-DAY
OMAR sits down in a diner table and sips from a tall blue coffee cup. He writes two notes. The first reads “I’m sorry, FORJEH. The pressure was too much. I had to leave. I think you know who this is. Again, I’m sorry.” the second, “Justin, I’m gonna have to disappear for a while. I did something stupid, surprise surprise.”
He looks at them both for a moment, and walks up to the counter and speaks to the gas station’s OWNER.
OMAR: Do you think you could, deliver these?
OWNER: Pay me.
OMAR: I... yeah.
OMAR digs around in his coat pocket for his wallet, and pays the OWNER.
OWNER: Thank you sir, that works! Is there any point in asking why you can’t send them?
OMAR: Uh, I’m a traitorous thief.
The OWNER nods his head.
OWNER: Don’t stay long. For your sake.
OMAR: I don’t plan on it.
Several gunshots whiz past the back of OMAR’s head.
OMAR dives to the ground. The voice of one of NODA’s SOLDIERS floats across the air from somewhere outside.
DAISY: You’ve gotta come back, OMAR... You don’t have the liberty of choosing. Besides, I thought you wanted to be a leader, and all that.
OMAR ignores her, instead crawling behind the shelf, where the OWNER is crouched. He angrily whispers to OMAR.
OWNER: What is this?! What did you do?
OMAR: Abandoned a company. Didn’t like what I was doing.
OWNER: That’s a pretty shitty reason.
OMAR: I know—but I had to do it.
OWNER: Get her out of here!
OMAR: I can’t do that! This is what I was trying to get away from!
The OWNER groans. His shouts upward, trying to reach DAISY’s ears without leaving cover.
OWNER: Hey! Leave me out of this! He’s gone already, okay? He left for the docks. He told me this himself!
DAISY strides around the building, looking for signs of OMAR’s retreat. Finding nothing, she steps inside with a quiet, threatening air.
DAISY: He’s not at the docks. Throw him out in the open, why don’t you?
The OWNER looks at OMAR with the middle of his brow raised, as if to say “Want me to?” OMAR shakes his head, and facially replies with “No! Of course not!”
The OWNER is shot dead. OMAR jolts, and speeds to the door. DAISY fires after him. Few of the shots hit, except for the one that lands in OMAR’s lower back. He runs faster, just managing to cross through the doorway into the light outside, and duck around a parked car.
EXT. PLAYGROUND OUTSIDE GAS STATION
DAISY does not immediately follow. OMAR looks out through the tinted windows to the gas station’s exit. DAISY does not come through. OMAR takes his chance, and creeps away from the car, out to a large playground.
The blistering heat of the day has resulted in the playground’s current vacancy. OMAR crawls under a plastic blue tunnel, and tries to conceal the sound of his breath under his shirt.
There is no sign of anyone apart from the vehicles in the distance.
__
INT. GAS STATION
DAISY scans the ground with an attachment off the side of her rifle. It displays footprints amongst the broken glass and pieces of counter.
DAISY: Yes. That’s it, now.
She steps over the OWNERS body. The attachment shows more footprints leading her outside. She quickens pace, advancing from one point of cover to the next, losing no time in tracking OMAR down.
Once she runs up against the vehicle that OMAR took shelter behind, she stops.
Listening to every little noise around her, she cleans her gun with a dedicated cloth. She hears only distant crowds. She moves on, having difficulty with the tracks now.
Her attachment is giving faulty readings; that there are four sets of footprints, all coming from a similar spot, just after a wide pothole.
Not all of them are the same tread, but only we can notice. DAISY, frustrated, taps some buttons on the attachment, which causes it to fail completely. DAISY shakes her head. She continues with her search.
__
She enters the office of FORJEH. He sits, waiting, playing with something that looks like Tinker-toys. DAISY moves to his desk, and sits. She plays with them, as well.
FORJEH: How is he doing?
DAISY: Well, I still don’t know if it’s him.
FORJEH: (nod) It’s Omar. Daisy...
DAISY looks up at him. He wags a finger.
FORJEH: Don’t question me. What do you think happened?
DAISY throws her hands up, nearly upsetting FORJEH’s contraption. He glares furiously, until she speaks. She isn’t aware that his toys were nearly disturbed.
DAISY: I don’t know! I lost his trail! Something on my footprint tracker screwed up!
FORJEH breathes out, sets down his contraption, and holds out a hand.
FORJEH: Let me see...
DAISY unslings her rifle from her back, and gives it to FORJEH. He opens up the screen. He asks this next without looking at her.
FORJEH: Did you get water in it?
DAISY: No.
FORJEH prods around inside the motherboard, not looking like he’s changing anything. He hands it back, sounding professional.
FORJEH: Here you are. I imagine it now works as expected.
DAISY nods respectfully, takes the rifle, then exits.
FORJEH watches the door she left through. He returns to his creation; a long pole, affixed to a wheel with several extra poles sprouting from it, a sort of propeller.. He thinks, and spins it around by its main pole.
When DAISY returns to the pothole, she turns her rifle’s attachment back on. It now displays one set of footprints, and they lead over toward the playground.
Under the plastic tunnel, she notices her attachment picking up signs of weapons-fire. She hastily follows. Once she nears a crowded block, she stows the rifle in her backpack.
