we can get free food, then really we wouldnât have to pay for much except makeup and explosives.â
âWe need machine guns,â said Bobby.
âRight, right,â said Justin. He looked at Gabe. â Prop machine guns, Mr. Oh No, Weâre Gonna Accidentally Kill Somebody.â
âI knew that you meant props.â
âIf it were up to me, weâd do all old-school practical effects, but thatâs not realistic at our current budget level of zero. So our rule is no CGI blood, but helicopter crashes and giant cracks in the earth and stuff will be computer-generated. Everybody okay with that?â
Gabe and Bobby nodded.
âGood. Now we just need a story.â
4
Justin stared at the screen of his laptop. Eight in the morning came pretty quickly when you were up until four thirty brainstorming ideas, and heâd almost hit the wonderful, wonderful snooze buttonâ¦but no. He had a lot of writing to do today. It was time to use the skills heâd perfected over all these years of waiting until the night before to write essays.
Theyâd divided the story into three parts. Justin had wanted to write the third part, which had the most carnage, but they drew straws (well, pretzel sticks) to decide who got to write what. Gabe got the second part, and Bobby got the third. Theyâd both spent the night at his house and were asleep on the floor. Heâd tried to rouse Gabe, but then he was politely told to die. He knew better than to try to poke Bobby. That was a good way to lose a finger. Theyâd just have to write faster to catch up.
He continued to stare at the screen. Look how blank I am! , the screen seemed to say.
Maybe heâd write better if he got some more sleep.
No. Sleep was a luxury he could not afford if he was going to achieve his goal. Sleep was for losers who werenât trying to make the greatest zombie movie ever. Maybe heâd have permanent dark circles under his eyes. Maybe heâd start hallucinating bloodthirsty orangutans, and maybe heâd become so delirious that heâd forget how to blink. But those were the sacrifices of a true artist.
Then again Alicia might like him better if he didnât spend all day twitching and babbling incoherently.
Heâd worry about his never-gonna-happen relationship with Alicia later. For now he had to focus entirely on the movie. It was time to write.
FADE IN:
INT. CITY STREET â NIGHT
A helicopter crashes to the ground, crushing dozens of zombies. It rolls down the street, leaving a thick smear of squished zombies in its path, until it finally hits a tall building, which crashes to the ground.
As the cloud of dust clears, we hear only the sound of zombies moaning. Theyâre everywhere. The apocalypse has not been kind to this city.
But then, impossibly, the helicopter door opens! VERONICA CHAOS, 15 and stunningly beautiful even with all of the lacerations covering her body, crawls out, wearing a shredded white wedding dress. Sheâs holding a cat.
She gazes up at the sky and howls in primal anguish.
The TITLE appears on-screen: UNTITLED ZOMBIE MOVIE.
[Note to self: Add real title when we know it.]
Perfect! This could not be flowing any better. At this rate heâd be done with his third of the script by lunchtime. In fact, it was going so well that he could get in a quick game ofâ
No! No games. Famous filmmakers didnât have time for video games. If you showed up at Peter Jacksonâs house, he wouldnât be sitting there playing Minecraft . The only thing he had time for was to check Reddit andâ
No! No Reddit. He needed to remain completely focused on this script until heâd written his thirty to thirty-three pages. Especially since he might have to pick up some of Gabeâs and/or Bobbyâs slack. Bathroom breaks were acceptable if they werenât too frequent, but aside from that, Justin needed to maintain laser focus. Cyborg focus. Nothing
Anthony Shugaar, Diego De Silva