The Means to Travel : A U.S. History Screen Play Assignment (Scenes 3-4)

SCENE 3

The air appeared dead, everything dull and loud. KHAILEN is looking around, trying to find CARMON with no success. DAKOTA is also looking around, but not for CARMON. He's observing his surroundings.

DAKOTA: Hey, Khailen. I don't think we're in Sarajevo anymore.

KHAILEN finally looks towards him, her expression one of confusion.

KHAILEN: I'm sorry, what?

DAKOTA: Look around. We aren't in Sarajevo. Does this look like Sarajevo to you?

KHAILEN: Lose the attitude, Sargeant. We don't have time for it.

DAKOTA rolls his eyes, now ignoring KHAILEN as he peeks his head over the trench. A bullet whizzes past him and he quickly ducks down.

DAKOTA: (His hands fly to the top of his head and he drops into a crouch. He yelps) YIKES!

KHAILEN turns towards him, a scowl on her face.

KHAILEN: Preferably stay alive. I wouldn't like to enact what I said previously.

DAKOTA: (Murmuring) Sorry.

KHAILEN groans in annoyance. There's a sharp ping as a blue screen appears again. It reads . . .

Congratulations! You have completed the first Quest and followed the Terms! Please continue to complete your next Quest! The year is 1914. It is September 11th.

KHAILEN stares at it for a moment before crossing her arms

KHAILEN: And what is this Quest? Are we allowed to know?

The screen clears its text before remaining blank. Then, as if urgently, it flashes a series of words.

QUEST: You must find your missing soldier while also staying alive and helping your side of the battle. TERMS: Don't die, Don't get caught, Don't destroy the timeline

KHAILEN and DAKOTA stare at the screen for a long moment, pondering on what the screen said. DAKOTA is the first to turn away.

DAKOTA: Welp. Let's go get Carm.

KHAILEN: (Grabbing his arm) Hold on just a minute. The thing said we can't die and we can't get caught.

DAKOTA: (Looking over his shoulder) Reminder that the term 'don't get caught' can vary in meaning.

DAKOTA: (**CONT'D) It can mean 'don't get caught' in the fact that we don't belong in this world, or 'don't get caught' in the term of we shouldn't run out carelessly in the middle of a battlefield.

KHAILEN releases his arm, placing her hand on her hip instead.

KHAILEN: Who hit you?

DAKOTA: (With confusion) I'm sorry?

KHAILEN: I've never heard you speak common sense before.

DAKOTA rolls his eyes as KHAILEN chuckles at her poor joke. Together, the two start to walk around, searching for both weapons and a way to find CARMON.

The screen then flashes to CARMON

CARMON stands alone in confusion, several soldiers pushing past her quickly. The soldiers are shouting in her native language (German). She picks up on various orders and curse words.

She turns, stopping a soldier and forcing them to face her. She speaks.

** With subtitles translating to English **

CARMON: (In German) You. What is going on?

THE SOLDIER: (Also in German) The French and the British are pushing us back. The Commander has ordered us to retreat.

CARMON releases the soldier and watches him run back through the trench. She turns to start to make her way forward, pushing against the groups that shove her back. As she moves, she grabs a weapon for protection. A simple Gewehr 98.

As she moves, she keeps watch for what's going on around. Eventually, she comes to a clearing and she stops. The same screen pops up, showing her the same things that KHAILEN and DAKOTA saw. She huffs.

CARMON: (Mumbling) Way to make my life harder.

She finds the end of the trench and she pokes her head up over the edge. No one seems to notice her. She keeps her head up, looking around. She fails to spot her teammates, so she drops back down.

Several soldiers around her are falling, dropping dead. Grenades were being thrown, flamethrowers on her side were being used. It was ugly.

CARMON was unfamiliar with everything going on, and she barely looked the part of fitting in. She's only lucky that the others were distracted by the battle.

** The screen zooms out, panning out around her before fading to black **

** The camera refocuses on DAKOTA and KHAILEN **

KHAILEN and DAKOTA are in the Allied forces trenches. KHAILEN shows disgust when they come across a small pile of bodies, rats crawling all over them. DAKOTA, however, shows amusement.

DAKOTA: (Raising his hands to his face) Awww! They're so cute!

KHAILEN: Don't touch the rats. Leave them alone.

KHAILEN keeps moving, pushing past the pile. DAKOTA does not follow.

DAKOTA: I wanna keep one.

KHAILEN: I told you to leave them alone, Sargent. Don't touch the-

KHAILEN turns around only to see DAKOTA holding one of the rats in his hand. The creature is squeaking and squealing, squirming to be free. DAKOTA does not let it go.

DAKOTA: (In awe) I'm gonna name him Fred.

KHAILEN: (In annoyance) You just never listen, do you.

DAKOTA: Aye, it's worth it.

KHAILEN: Carmon will have your head if you bring that near her.

DAKOTA: (Shrugging) Too bad for her.

KHAILEN groans, clearly annoyed, but she doesn't waste anymore time arguing with him. DAKOTA chuckles to himself, lifting to rat so it can sit on his shoulder, which it does.

The two make their way up and out of the trench. It's dangerous.

There are several craters in the Earth from grenades. The grass is scorched in several places from the Flamethrowers the Germans were using. Dead bodies laid bleeding on the ground, the field a mess. KHAILEN had never seen much like it, even with her gruesome memory of battles.

DAKOTA winced at the sight of everything, but he didn't speak or make a noise. They eventually joined a small group of French and British soldiers who were creeping across the field to one of the German trenches. KHAILEN overheard one say that their job was to sweep the enemy trench and kill as many as possible.

The group continues on, eventually sliding into one of the trenches. KHAILEN and DAKOTA force their way through, sneaking off and away from the group. Their uniforms gave them away, so they had to be careful. It wasn't long before they found CARMON.

KHAILEN: (Sighing with relief) God, that was hard.

DAKOTA: You're being dramatic.

CARMON hasn't noticed them yet, but when DAKOTA places his hand on her shoulder, she jumps and turns around, her rifle raised.

DAKOTA: (Hands raising in surrender) HEY! Woah! Easy!

CARMON: (Slowly lowering her weapon) Dakota? Jeez, you scared me.

KHAILEN: No time for pleasantries, sorry Lieutenant. We gotta get out of here.

CARMON nods in agreement. However, when they grab hold of each other, nothing happens. They look at each other with confusion.

DAKOTA: Why isn't it working?

KHAILEN: I'm not sure. We helped our side by sneaking in with the Trench Sweepers.

CARMON: (In sudden realization) Oh, well. Sorry. Lemme just-

CARMON turns, facing the warfare. She raises her rifle and fires a shot. Even though it misses its target, it's still qualified as 'helping'. In a flash, the trio is dropped and transported again.

**End SCENE 3**

SCENE 4

The flash was bright, the group falling briefly before landing roughly on hard ground. No grass, no field. KHAILEN sits up, instantly examining her surroundings. CARMON and DAKOTA sit up next.

CARMON: (Rubbing her shoulder) I wish we would stop falling like that. It's painful.

KHAILEN: (Waving her hand to hush CARMON) We'll fix that later. We need to figure out where we are.

DAKOTA looks around for a moment before pouting.

DAKOTA: I lost Fred.

CARMON looks over at him, pure confusion plastered on her face.

CARMON: I'm sorry, who?

DAKOTA: Fred.

KHAILEN: A nasty rat from one of the trenches.

CARMON: A what?!

DAKOTA: He wasn't nasty!

KHAILEN: Well, he didn't smell like roses either.

The two bicker for a moment. CARMON stands up then, brushing herself off. She looks around.

Upon looking up, she can see clearly four black tubes that are expelling black smoke from them into the sky. She notices several soldiers in blue, red and white wandering around either sweeping, or doing some other chore.

She notices that they are swaying slightly. She looks over to see nothing but ocean water.

CARMON: A ship.

Her words catch the other two's attention and they both look up at her.

DAKOTA: What?

CARMON: A ship. (She looks down at him) We're on a ship.

DAKOTA and KHAILEN look at her, their gazes filled with concern. They, too, also stand up and look around.

They see the same thing CARMON is seeing.

KHAILEN: My god . . .

DAKOTA: I feel like we should be more concerned with why this is going on.

KHAILEN sighs, running a hand through her curly hair. DAKOTA rubs the back of his neck, his other hand resting on his hip.

CARMON: We can figure that out later. We just . . . need to survive.

DAKOTA nods in agreement and he turns away. If they could make it out of these scenarios alive, then they would have the time later to research what is going on.

KHAILEN makes her way forward, her boots thumping against the wooden deck. She walks over to a soldier, her hand falling to his shoulder.

KHAILEN: You. What's the name of this ship?

THE SOLIDER: The RMS Lusitania, ma'am.

KHAILEN nodded, then waved the soldier off. They knew nothing of what was going to happen . . .

Upon looking around more and pretending to help, the trio worked together to pick up on tad bits of information. They learned that this world is in the middle of a war. A world war. They learned they were on a British ship, off the coast of Ireland.

They had been working with the other soldiers, or sailors for instance, to clean and move cargo around. It had been roughly 3 hours. The sun was high in the sky, only the black smoke swirling around and rising up.

The air smelt of the salty sea, the ship swaying gently with the waves. When the group moved to a more secluded part of the ship, the familiar blue screen popped up in front of them.

The year is 1915. It is May 7th. Complete the Quest to continue.

KHAILEN: (Groaning in annoyance) What. Is. The. QUEST! 

The screen shifts and glitches before flashing a response.

Quest: Survive.

The trio glance at each other, then back to the screen. Before they can do much of anything, the floor of the ship shakes and creaks. Suddenly, the Lusitania is shoved to its' side, tilting at such an angle that the trio slam into the railing next to them.

The ship eventually creaks and groans, leveling itself out as it trembles beneath their feet.

CARMON: What was that?!

KHAILEN: I don't know, but I have a feeling we'll be finding out soon enough.

Several sailors push past them, shoving them aside as they run. They were going to the other side of the ship. To the Starboard.

The group joins in the rush, following the others to where they needed to be. Shouts could be heard, smoke billowing up past the edges of the pipes . . . but it's not just coming from the pipes anymore.

Panic is raised, several people screaming. DAKOTA rushed over to another soldier and grabbed their arm.

DAKOTA: What's happening?!

THE SOLDIER: The Germans are attacking! We're sinking!

The soldier ran off as DAKOTA released his grip on them. DAKOTA then looked at KHAILEN. They had to find a way to survive. CARMON was the first to find something.

CARMON: Here! Safety raft!

The others quickly nodded and the trio as well as a few other sailors climbed into the raft and made it onto the sea.

Just as they started to float away, a second German torpedoed into the RMS Lusitania again. It started to sink faster.

In another quick flash, the trio was gone and falling through air again, on to the next Quest.

**End SCENE 4**