[STATIC SNOW ON SCREEN]
[muffled voices]
[static resolves, the screen clears: the camera is on it’s side.]
“Ah, hell.”
[she fixes it, turning it rightside up. the girl is young, a teenager, looks younger. red hair, kind of unruly, cut short, bright green eyes, glasses, freckles. she’s wearing a spiderman t-shirt and jeans, looks to be about 5’2.]
“Better. Ok. So.” [she scratches her head.]
“Um, vlog video number one- that sounds so cheesy. I’m never gonna be youtube famous with this. Whatever. Alright! Here we go, Cool and Simple Science starring me, Piper Parker. Please watch this video, I am young, small, and broke as frick so I need the money. Please help me get to college.”
[she grins. her smile is wide and innocent in the ways that mischievous young girls often are.]
“I am recording this with my phone cause, well, see previous.”
[she pauses, shrugs.]
“Sixteen and broke guys, dunno what else you expected. But! Tomorrow’s my birthday, so if you wanna like and reblog and subscribe and share this I would sooo much appreciate it. And now! To the science. Here I have set up a simple demonstration of how I think the Margret managed to come back from the sea after missing for so long, and in the spirit of things I also have a demo of what could be causing disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. Hint! It’s not superstition, just really cool science! I -“
[faint yelling.] “PIPER! PIIIIPER?” [another woman, as if through a door or a wall. Piper sighs.]
“Goddammit- YEAH SUZY?”
“Nick called in. Can you come work his shift?”
[girl slumps, apparently Very Done.] “Yeah, ok.” [looks at camera] “Oh well. [mutters] “This take sucked anyways, I guess. Time to go sell another piece of my soul to capitalism. Think of college, think of college.”
[CUT TO BLACK.]
[scene opens in what appears to be a messy room. there is an ACDC poster on the wall as well as one for Spock and Bill Nye. the bedspread has the orion nebula on it. there’s a pile of dirty clothes overflowing a laundry basket and an older TV with duct tape on it and a Playstation. the desk by the window has a cinderblock for a leg and an old laptop.]
“Ok. I am recording this NOT for freaking Youtube. I just want confirmation that I’m not insane.”
[pans to Piper- except now her hair is stark bone white, snow white, blindingly so, and her eyes are red and wide. she is wearing wonder woman pajamas.]
“What. The. Actual. Shit. I woke up like this. Like. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? I don’t- this dye won’t rinse out and I’m not wearing contacts! MY EYES ARE RED. Am I sick? Look!”
[zooms in to her eyes as she takes off glasses, pulls up her eyelid, pans to the roots of her hair.]
“EVEN MY EYEBROWS! Did I just get luke, super punked or something? What is going-“
[she stops. looks around, up, out the window. frowns, confused.]
“What is that noise? Like… singing?”
[more listening. the phone’s mic does not hear a song, though Piper clearly does. Her face goes distracted, sort of blank for a moment, listening.]
“That’s not anything I have on my phone… I think it’s coming from outside… Be right back. Too early for this crap.”
[CUT TO BLACK]
[camera on abruptly, in shaking hands. turns in a blur to focus on Piper. she’s in her room, but the room is trashed. all the furniture is over the trapdoor that leads below; it is apparent now that she lives in an attic studio. Piper herself looks horrible: old porridge pale, dirty, a streak of blood and gore down her front, teartracks on her face, red nose like she’s been crying. she scrubs her face with the sleeve of her hoody.]
“I-I’m- I don’t know who I’m gonna show this to- just wanted to- I have to document it, you know? So- so someone d-d-does.”
[sniffling, a deep shaky inhale, tries to firm her resolve.]
“Something- happened. I don’t know what. Internet and phones are all out. No communication with the outside. I think it’s related to the Margaret. She c-c-came back and then the song and the F-Fog did. That song? Everyone just- I watched them all just, just walk out of thier houses into the sea and they, they, they j-j-just didn’t come back. Everyone left, Suzy left, everyone and I wanted to follow but I didn’t, the song made you wanna- but I didn’t, I turned up ACDC really loud and I just-”
[an incoherent choking noise. she’s clearly shattered, barely holding on. sob, sniffle, swallow.]
“And then they did come back. I am not shitting. Except- fuck. I’m in an episode of the fucking w-w-walking dead. Look! Look at them! I t-tried to go downstairs and Suzy was there and she, she was- she was- she attacked me- look at them.”
[picks up phone, presses it to window. outside, the scene is hellish. zombies and draugr roam the streets. the fog blankets everything, and black shapes writhe in it, barely out of view.]
“A-A-And it gets wierder, a LOT wierder.”
[she’s talking fast, now, somewhere between animated and slightly hysterical, trying to explain as quick as she can. outside someone or something screams, a gutwrenching noise. she flinches and shrinks tighter into herself.]
” I- Suzy- well she wasn’t Suzy, not anymore, none of them are- she attacked me and I did- something- I don’t know what. She stabbed my hand with some broken glass and I just- I felt all buzzy, like hitting your elbow, but wierdly good, you know? And I like… blood-blasted her back fifteen fucking feet through the store window and I hauled ass up, up here. I hit her with my blood. Like. Avatar the Last Airbender style. Not to MENTION my hair and eyes have NOT changed back and that happened on the SAME FUCKING MORNING the Fog came? Coincidence? I think fucking not.”
[she stops, tries to center herself again, breathing deeply.]
“And then there’s… the dreams. The- the w-w-whispers.”
[she stops.]
“I don’t wanna talk about that yet.”
“So, so I haven’t been downstairs since. It’s been three days and I’m out of food and water and I- I should look for other survivors- I gotta try to help. The first day, there was just, just screaming as they… so much screaming. I- I have to do something. I have to help. Like, they can’t get me up here, not with the ladder pulled up but I have no food and I can’t stay. I gotta… I gotta g-g-go outside. I don’t wanna. I-I-I, I wanna scream and, and cry and I just- god, Suzy– this is so insane, actual zombies-“
[she has to stop again and turns the camera away for a few minutes. she’s crying. camera turns back later.]
“I g-gotta try, though. I don’t know why I… or how- but maybe I can help save everyone else. I’ve got a backpack ready and, and I’m gonna try to get some supplies from the resturant downstairs if there are any left, if Suzy hasn’t…”
[a deep inhale.]
“If there’s like nothing after this, I fucked up and died or- worse. I guess. I… think I’m procrastinating at this point, so… time- t-t-time to go.”
[Piper swallows visibly. she picks up her backpack.]
[CUT TO BLACK]
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