Transcript
Episode 5 BackWards
Rhona woke up laughing. Laughing loudly uncontrollably drugged up sky-high like the hysterics before her. She realised she was back inside. Rhona trawled backwards in her mind to her late entry to the sleeping block. They had brought her in again, sometime before dawn. The Assessors had talked her into taking the drink.
The dorm was empty but for Rhona’s laughing. No one else was contained within these four sunlit walls. The three other beds were made up and awaiting new arrivals. Rhona struggled to gain control of her body. Pushing her arms down onto the sheet, the mattress, the bed to stop herself raging rocking forward. And the mania did subside.
Rhona was now still. But not wanting to wait around she got out of bed, and walked into the corridor. Looking left, then right, she knew it was the same old place. And she was definitely here to get out. Rhona walked to the open sitting room door and entered.
‘What took you so long?’, the suited man said, the camera swung from his neck as he moved to greet her.
‘Have we met in some place before?’, Rhona said.
‘You can laugh, and you have’, the man said.
Rhona thought though he was not smiling, he was not angry with her. His behaviour seemed to be familiar to her; but not his face, pitted and still raw from shaving.
‘Where is everyone? What’s happening?’
‘There’s been an incident. The staff left first, and then the occupants. I’m just passing through’.
‘Why would you take photos if nothing’s happening?’.
‘There’s plenty to see’.
‘So you are not one of us, you’re just curious?’..
‘I’m neither one of us as you put it, or one of them. You could call me an urban explorer’.
‘So what have you seen, in here?’.
‘That would be telling’.
‘No, that would be seeing. Really seeing what happens in the system. Do you know you're playing with fire?’
‘No, I'm the firestarter, the naughty firestarter and I intend to bring this place down’.
‘So you are one of us, or were in a previous life’.
‘You can’t play the system, the system plays you’, said the urban explorer and he walked into the Corridor. ‘Take a left young lady and follow me’.
‘Are you some kind of trickster?’.
‘Where’d you get that idea?’.
‘Well how did you get in and get everyone else to leave?’.
‘Everyone but the laughing hyena’, he said as he swung sharply to the left.
‘So why did they leave me here?'..
‘You were out of it girl, until the mad cackling’.
‘Ok, I guess no one’s cares about us getting out safely, but what is happening?’.
‘You ask too many questions. Now keep up’.
Rhona fell into line with her unyielding companion. The explorer’s pace picked up and they sped down this corridor unknown to Rhona. ‘These buildings all look the same, I'm surprised that the Assessors don’t get lost’..
The explorer wasn’t listening to her, he was ploughing forward. Half way along the interminable corridor, he stopped and spun around and addressed Rhona. ‘Not one of the lifts will work, they are all out of action. So we need to take the stairs. But there is a problem: the staircase is locked. And I don't have the right key. Please stand back one moment’.
Rhona followed his order and retreated. The explorer crossed the corridor to the set of chairs lining the wall. He grabbed a steel legged chair and lifted it high. Then smashed it right through the locked glass door. ‘We’ll have to find the keys later’, he said, as he stretched his arm through the door to unlock the door.
The explorer took Rhona's hand and guided her onto the first step of the steep staircase, ‘Keep on moving up’.
‘To the top’.
‘Straight to the top. It’s where we want to be’.
‘Have you been here before, you seem to know your way around’.
‘I have seen the plans of these buildings. Even the plans for these rooms which don’t officially exist’.
‘That’s strange, everybody knows there is something odd about this place. Who are they hiding from whom’?..
‘I guess you think you know because you’re an insider. But you don’t really know you just fear the worst’.
‘I suppose the Bluebeard suits have been having a fun time.’
‘It’s messy’.
‘How are we going to get inside?’.
‘You don’t want to do you’.
‘No, I would rather stay here than see what they do’
‘You can’t break the system if you dont crack a few eggs’.
‘The first room’s just the reception’, he took a bunch of fine keys to the lock. The lock was released, but there was still an obstruction. The explorer moved his hands from the bottom of the door upwards, identifying the obstruction halfway up.
He raised his shiny black boot and kicked the door open, and whispered, ‘All who dare, enter.
Rhona froze. Her nightdress was inadequate protection from the cold blast coming from the air conditioner. This room was icy white, not the institutional pink of the wards. Rhona walked to the desk and watched as the explorer powered up the computer.
‘It’s a whole otherworld up here. ‘This computer isn’t on the network and they are totally offline. However an acquaintance of mine has acquired the password, and our way in’.
Rhona had spied a white coat behind the desk and tried it on for size. It was a tight squeeze on the arms and wouldn’t meet in the middle.
‘Dressed for action?’. Because we are in. The door code is F.R.I.D.G.E.1.2.3’.
Rhona punched each letter in and the door unlocked. She entered the Fridge Corridor. Her bare feet skidded about and bounced. She tripped and tried to right herself, but fell forward into the wall. Softly. The wall was lightly padded. And she slid to the floor.
‘Get up. We need to check out each cell’.
‘Give me your arm then’.
‘Hold on tight’, the explorer pulled Rhona from the floor onto her feet. Rhona grabbed the explorer’s arm to steady herself. He tried to flinch her off as they walked, but she just tightened her grip.
‘Are you going to loosen your hold on me?’.
‘No, you’re all I have’.
‘You don’t have to be here’.
Rhona released her grip. Hidden by her fringe falling over her face, tears fell gently from her eyes, and she remained silent.
‘This cell has double doors, and can only be opened from the outside. I guess they left sleeping beauty in there to sleep into the neverafter’, and the explorer keyed in the code F.R.I.D.G.E.1.
‘They left her to suffocate?’,
The explorer yanked open the door and he approached the bed in this padded room. Sleeping beauty was snoring softly. ‘Wake her up’.
Rhona stretched her hands out to the young women held high on this padded podium. The young woman’s hands were warm. Rhona squeezed the woman’s fingers and chanted, ‘wake up, wake up, wake up’.
‘Who are you?’, the young woman said.
‘You’re in the Fridge, blondie’, said the explorer. ‘And you don't want to be here. So we’re getting out now’.
‘Not the Fridge. What a girl has gotta do to get a decent night’s sleep. What’s the quickest way out?’, the young woman said.
‘Look at yourself, you’re hardly dressed for a big breakout’, the explorer said.
The young woman looked down and towards her bare back, then back to the explorer. She was going to brazen out the hospital gown look, because it was the only look available to her.
‘Take my jacket for now’, the explorer said, and he held the jacket as the young woman inserted her arms into the sleeves.
The explorer ahead of the underdressed women, walked the corridor to the second cell. Through the observation window he saw that it was empty. He muttered to himself something which neither of the women could hear.
‘Where are they all?’, the explorer said. The three cellmates had reached the next cell and again it was empty.
‘Who are you expecting to find?’, said Rhona.
‘Come on let’s go. I really don’t want to be here any longer’, said the young woman.
‘We are on our way out. But I need to check the Tower’, he said.
The young twins sat on the floor and stared at the locksmith. Too tired to kick and hit out to break down the door. Too cold and hungry to sleep. Whilst the old woman fiddled with her tweezers in the keyhole.
The fluorescent light above them buzzed intermittently. Sean watched how the flies fell, attracted to this electric trap. And the spiders danced on the walls to catch them in their webs.
Daryl removed his shoe and slammed it on the floor. slam, slam, slam. Then on the low lying pipes. A dull thud ringing into the neverworld.
‘Why are they so interested in twins?’, said Rhona, not that anyone was listening. She stood back from the photos of twins on the board. Young and old twins, all of them identical.
‘What are we doing in here, it’s just an office. We need to get out’, said the young woman.
‘No one’s going anywhere’, said the explorer. ‘Until we clear the tower’.
‘Clear the tower of what exactly?’ said Rhona.
‘Inhabitants’, said the explorer. He inputted the passcode T.O.W.E.R.1. Correctly. And the door released. He pushed forward into this concrete coffin, but left the two women in the warmth.
A single bulb lit the stairway going up and the stairway going down. The explorer descended. Six flights down and the stairway stopped dead. A tinkling sound alerted the explorer to the tampering. He would not be kicking this door in as a heavy iron latch crossed the doorway.
He removed the latch and pulled open the door. The startled old woman dropped an object onto the floor. And two young men bounced up to the explorer.
The urban explorer walked the grounds. Checking the ground for obstacles, and anything that might be out of place. He wasn’t coming back here in a hurry. No one was coming back.
Daryl and Sean were fidgeting, tickling and thumping each other. Rhona was upfront in the beat up blue minibus reading an abandoned atlas. This minibus was parked up on the incarceration side of the BackWardz exit.
‘Where is he? What could he be doing?’, said the young woman Agnes. Now she was dressed in a collection of castoffs, ready to take on the world.
‘He’s doing his best, that’s all he can do’, said the old woman.
The explorer slipped into the front seat. He turned to those assembled and said, ‘It’s a ten minute journey into town. I’ll drop you all at the library. And no looking back’.
If the assembled crew had looked back they would have seen the smoke rising or heard the explosions. All the BackWardz buildings were raised to the ground. The redevelopment process was now able to proceed without objections.