ARE WE ALONE? (5 page)

ANTHONY
And, there would be bite marks.
Anthony looks closer at the goats’ throats.

ANTHONY (CONT’D)
And, a coyote probably would have
went for the throat, but...

Anthony takes a closer look.

ANTHONY (CONT’D)
I don’t see any marks around the
their throats. Probably cut the
goats open, while they were still
alive. The goats then died from
blood loss.

Anthony slowly PANS from goat to goat, seeing the horrific
scene.
ANTHONY (CONT’D)
What a way to go.

Christina suddenly appears in the screen of a camera, as she
puts on some rubber gloves, reaches into a pocket and pulls
out a small baggy, along with some large tweezers.

Christina bends down over one goat and takes a sample of some
tissues from around one of the cut marks, carefully placing
it into the baggy.

Christina moves to another goat and does the same thing,
while everyone just watches her with amazement. Christina
moves to the third goat and does the same thing. She then
straightens up and sees that everyone is looking at her. She
sees puzzlement in their faces.

CHRISTINA
What?
They looks down at the baggies and Christina’s rubber gloves.
Christina follows their look and then looks back up at them.

CHRISTINA (CONT’D)
I was a Criminal Justice
major...For a semester. I have a
friend, who works in a lab.

(MORE)

CHRISTINA (CONT’D)
I’ll have him check these samples
for D-N-A, see if it came from
animals or...

GINA
Aliens?
Gina slowly gets the point and then becomes excited.

GINA (CONT’D)
We’ll have proof. Scientific
proof.

YASMINE
(unconvinced)
I’m betting it was coyotes.

GINA
Let’s go back into town and see if
we can find any other WITNESSES.

The students aren’t too excited and Gina notices they’re lack
of enthusiasm.

GINA (CONT’D)
We can’t just stop with one
witness, with one...

Gina looks at the goats.

GINA (CONT’D)
Incident of...of Alien
visitation...mutation. We need
more.

MONTAGE: BEGINS
EXT. TOWN - DAY
The students interview several PEOPLE. Some are obviously
crazy and others appear to be ordinary people.
Occasionally, the students will pose with the PEOPLE, with
photographs being taken.
As the sun starts to set, they run out of PEOPLE to
interview, with the lights of the town starting to FLICKER.

MONTAGE: ENDS
EXT. TOWN - DUSK

The students are loading the equipment into the CAR, as the
sun starts to drop behind the horizon, with Chaz filming.

GINA
All those interviews and no one
else has witnessed a mutilation.

YASMINE
If you would just listen to me...It
was coyotes.

Yasmine wipes her brow.

YASMINE (CONT’D)
I can’t wait to get back to Vegas.
Take a nice hot shower, a cup of
hot cocoa, then to bed.

CHAZ
(moving closer to Yasmine)
Sounds good to me. Although, I
think a nice soak in a bathtub,
with a little wine, would be more
romantic, but hey, whatever you
want.

GINA
I think we should spend the night
here.

Everyone stops what they’re doing and looks at Gina.

GINA (CONT’D)
Look, we came all this way to do a
documentary that would blow
Professor Simmons’ mind.

CHAZ
We have a couple of hours of
interviews with REAL people,
eyewitnesses to several U-F-O
encounters...

ANTHONY
An interview with the author of an
U-F-O book...

CHRISTINA
Possible evidence of mutation by
visiting aliens. We won’t know,
until...

YASMINE
(whining)
What more is there left to do?
GINA
(smiling)
Catch a U-F-O on film.
The others aren’t convinced.
YASMINE
Yeah, right...

(looking at Chaz)
Let nerd boy create a U-F-O and
edit it into our film.

CHAZ
I resent being labelled as...
ANTHONY
You don’t even believe in U-F-O’s.

GINA
(ignoring Anthony)
Come on, it’ll be fun. We have the
camping equipment, we can stop by
the store and pick up some food. A
little cookout, then watch the U-FO’s light up the night sky.

They still aren’t convinced.

GINA (CONT’D)
Okay, we catch a U-F-O on film, we
could make some money.

CHAZ
Count me in.
CHRISTINA
Me too.
YASMINE
Money?
They all smile.
SCENE CUTS TO
BLACK:

FADE IN:
EXT. FIELD - DUSK

Chaz is filming the other students (excluding Christina), as
they get out of the car, which has parked in a small camping
area. Chaz has setup the cameras to cover the campsite and
the surrounding hills. Anthony looks around, then shines a
flashlight on the pamphlet, being held by Gina.

GINA
Is this the spot?

ANTHONY
Yeah, according to the sign guy’s
map.

They look around at the destitute area, not seeing any other
campers. Yasmine holds her camera. Yasmine and Chaz begin
to PAN around the area, with the POV switching from one to
the other, focusing on the area, as well as their faces.

YASMINE
Kinda scary.

CHAZ
Yeah, like a scene out of some
horror movie.

YASMINE
Like I suggested, I say Chaz shoots
some video, then he can edit it,
adding some spaceship lights and
then...

GINA
This is a documentary, not a
fictional film. There will be no
editing and no creation of
spaceships.

(pause - looking at
everyone)
Understand?

CHAZ
Wow, I can totally see you as a C-EO, doing a hostile takeover.

GINA
(softening)
We’re already here. It’s Wednesday
night, which everyone we’ve talked
to, says is the night when most of
the U-F-O sightings occur.
ANTHONY

Gina is right. Besides, if we
actually get footage of a U-F-O,
it’ll guarantee us an A on the
project. I’m in.

GINA
Great. Chaz?
CHAZ
Yeah, okay.
GINA
Yasmine?
YASMINE
Sure, why not.
GINA
Christina?
No response.

GINA (CONT’D)
The last interview? We didn’t
leave her, did we?

They look around.
CHAZ
Come on, let’s check.

Gina, holding the keys to the car, starts to open the door,
when she comes face-to-face with Christina. They both
SCREAM, with Gina dropping back to the ground and dropping
the car keys.

PAUSE.

Christina opens the door, as Gina starts to get up from the
ground, with Chaz having moved up to her. Chaz looks down at
the car keys and picks them up, putting them in a pocket.

CHRISTINA
You scarred the shit out of me.
GINA
Me? I scarred the shit out of you?
Christina looks around.
CHRISTINA
Is this the place?
GINA
Didn’t you hear us?

CHRISTINA
Looks like the kinda place you’d
see U-F-O’s.

GINA
What were you doing in the car?
Why didn’t you...

Gina moves closer, as the interior LIGHT from the CAR
slightly illuminates Christina. Gina sees that Christina has
earphones in her ears.

CHRISTINA
Yeah, well, I think I’ll sleep in
the car...Wake me if you see any UF-O’s. If they want a specimen, I
suggest they take you. That will
ensure that they won’t come back.

Christina starts to turn back to the car, as Gina pulls out
one of the earphones, with MUSIC blaring.

GINA
(with authority)
We’re all sleeping out. No one is
sleeping in the car. And...

(pulling out the other
earphone)
This is serious. Everyone needs to
be alert.

(looking at everyone)
Understand?
Christina stares at Gina.

CHAZ
(to Anthony)
She says that one more time and I’m
going to tie her to a stake,
pleading any passing U-F-O to take
her away.

ANTHONY
I’m with you, brother.
GINA
Chaz? Setup a camera, facing...

Gina slightly spins around, then looks at Anthony.
GINA (CONT’D)
What direction did that old guy say
the U-F-O’s typically appear?

ANTHONY
South.
Gina looks at Anthony, who points in the direction of South,
where the outline of a slight hill comes into view.

GINA
Oh, okay. Chaz, setup a camera,
focusing on that hill.

CHAZ
(with sarcasm)
Si, comandante.
Chaz moves and sets up a tripod and then sets up a camera, as
the others begin setting up camp.

CHAZ (CONT’D)
(to himself)
Chaz, set up the camera. Chaz,
load the car. Chaz, unload the
car. Chaz, do this, Chaz, do that.

Chaz looks through the camera and sees Yasmine.
CHAZ (CONT’D)
Yeah, Chaz want that.
Chaz spins the camera around, making some adjustments. He
starts to look through the viewfinder.
CHAZ (CONT’D)
(excited)
Hey, hey, we’ve got movement.
Everyone looks up, as Chaz points up into the sky, but still
looking through the camera.

CHAZ (CONT’D)
Get the other cameras rolling.
It’s getting close.

Chaz senses that no one is moving and he looks away from the
camera, seeing everyone looking up into the sky.
CHAZ (CONT’D)
What the hell are you waiting for?

ANTHONY
Uh, Chaz, buddy, that’s a passenger
jet.

Anthony points up to the sky, with Chaz slowly looking in
that direction, seeing FLASHING LIGHTS of a passenger jet.

ANTHONY (CONT’D)
It’s moving too slow for a U-F-O
and the flight pattern doesn’t fit
what eye witnesses have said about
U-F-O’s...They don’t travel in
straight lines.

Chaz looks into the sky, as the jet continues to slowly move
across the sky. Chaz looks back into the camera viewfinder
and slowly PANS the sky, failing to see anything. As Chaz
bumps the camera, moving it to ground level, a BLURRED SHADOW
moves between some trees, without Chaz noticing.

CHAZ
This is a waste. The only aliens
out here are...

Chaz PANS the camera around, with Gina, Yasmine, and
Christina coming into view. Anthony is building a small
campfire, as the girls take items out of some ice coolers.

CHAZ (CONT’D)
Chicks from Vegas.
Chaz ZOOMS in on Christina, who is leaning over, getting into
an ice chest, with her cleavage coming into view.

Chaz moves the camera, ZOOMING in on Yasmine, who is bending
over, with her buttocks towards Chaz. Chaz ZOOMS in on the
swaying buttocks.

CHAZ (CONT’D)
Yeah...
Suddenly, Gina’s face ZOOM into view, looking directly at
Chaz, and startling him.

GINA
Quit wasting film. Set the cameras
up.

Chaz turns the camera back towards the hill and then looks up
into the sky.

POV switches to behind Chaz, watching him, then looking at
the other students.
POV moves, as though someone is circling the camp. Chaz
moves to the campfire and sits down, with Christina handing
him a hotdog.

CHRISTINA
A wiener for a...
Christina smiles, with Chaz taking the hotdog.
CHAZ
I get it. Very funny.
Chaz moves and sits down and starts to eat, as the others
also eat. They all nervously look around, eating in silence.

Anthony finishes and picks up the book. He thumbs through
some pages and then stops, reading. He seems to have
memorized the words, as he then looks up into the sky.

ANTHONY
They sent us emissaries over the
years. Every time they did, we
either treated them like gods or
tried to kill them...

GINA
Like the Mayans.
YASMINE
Egyptians. The pyramids.
CHRISTINA
Southern Baptist.
They look at Christina.
CHAZ
Independence Day.
Everyone looks at Chaz, who takes another bite of the hotdog.
He looks back at them and then swallows.

CHAZ (CONT’D)
Yeah, you're thinking that I'm
stupid and shallow, but after
aliens visited the Mayans, they
started doing human sacrifices.
After aliens visited the Egyptians,
they used slave labor to build
pyramids to bury their gods. I
think there’s a pattern of aliens
visiting and then people dying.
Besides, who keeps track of
visiting aliens?
It’s not like aliens are checked by
Immigration on their way in and...

ANTHONY
(evil smile)
Something to think about, while
we’re waiting out here, in the
middle of nowhere, for the
miraculous appearance of aliens.

Anthony struggles and then takes out a cell phone, holding it
up and moving it around.
ANTHONY (CONT’D)
With no cell service...
Yasmine and Christina suddenly remember their cell phones and
they also pull them out, looking at the screens.
YASMINE
No service.

CHRISTINA
No service. Brian was suppose to
call me tonight and...

GINA
No service either.

ANTHONY
Think about this. You know what
our Government has done with alien
EMISSARIES?

GINA
Here we go, the alien conspiracy
theory.

ANTHONY
They've killed them, dissected
them, cut them up into little
pieces, just to find out what makes
them tick.

Anthony tosses the remains of his hotdog into the fire, with
the hotdog starting to SIZZLE.

ANTHONY (CONT’D)
Sometimes, the aliens were still
alive, when they were dissected.

Everyone looks at the SIZZLING HOTDOG.
ANTHONY (CONT’D)
Now, if that Emissary was your
brother, father, uncle, or
whatever, do you think you'd be
coming to Earth, in peace?

(pause)
Now, maybe you can explain one or
two incidents away, as maybe
Earthlings are a bit jumpy about
visitors from other solar systems,
but what if every single time an
alien comes to Earth, he ends up on
a stainless steel bed, cut up into
pieces...

Anthony looks at the still SIZZLING HOTDOG, which has now
turned BLACK.
ANTHONY (CONT’D)
Like pieces of a hotdog.
Christina looks down at her hotdog, then tosses it into the
fire. Yasmine does the same thing.

ANTHONY (CONT’D)
No, there's no disagreeing that OUR
space brothers are more
intellectually advanced than us,
but how long do you think they're
gonna tolerate our less then
hospitable treatment?

CHAZ
My uncle worked oil rigs in the
Amazon and he said dealing with the
natives, who were just a couple of
hundred years behind us, was almost
impossible.

Chaz looks up into the sky.