Tres Amigos Episode 2: From an Undisclosed Location

INT. SHELTER. DAY OR NIGHT.
W is in bed reading his bible.

W

We have to know!

Rummy is at the periscope.

RUMMY

We'll die up there!

W

Revelation! People disappearing! Rummy says that the whole city

of Washington is gone! It looks like a dessert! We have to

know what happened up there! We could have missed the Rapture!

RUMMY

A nuclear war is what happened!

Dick sits in front of the computer screen. One hand on the mouse the other out of sight.

DICK

My God W! When did you start believing your own lies?
W

Look, fellas, just read Matthew 23 and 24 and you'll see what I mean.

Dick, still at the computer, closes his eyes briefly. A steady POUNDING sound, from under the desk.

W (CONT'D)

Rummy! Read the chapter! That's an executive order!

Rummy looks through the periscope.

RUMMY

I don't have a Bible!
DICK

Borrow mine. I'll look it up online when I'm finished, er, trying to

make contact.

Rummy get's the bible from Dick's night stand. He carries it toward the window staring at it like he would a foreigner. He opens it. The pages have been cut out to hide a hand gun. He turns a page, the handgun. He looks at Dick. Dick sits in front of the computer. POUNDING NOISES. He grunts happily. Rummy looks at W. W looks at his bible. He runs his finger over a line of text. Looks puzzled, runs the finger over the same line, GROANS. Rummy looks back at the Bible. Then out the window. Instead of the beach scene, Rummy shakes hands with Saddam Hussein.

RUMMY

Jesus!

W

Amen!

Rummy shakes his head, and looks back at the window. A badly burnt child being carried away on a gurney.

RUMMY

Holy Crap!
W

Frightening huh? Better than a Steven King...

Dick, nearing orgasm, let's out a GROAN.

W (CONT'D)

Good for you Dick! I've never seen you this passionate about

something that didn't make money.

Rummy watches the window in horror. A city in flames. A mother crying and cradling a baby in her arms. A crude likeness of him, one of Dick, and one of W, draped in American flags and being burned by and angry mob. Rummy walks to bed, throwing the bible back on Dick's night stand.

W (CONT'D)

I know. It's a hard thing to get through.

W replaces his bible on the night stand.

W (CONT'D)

Just try again tomorrow and we'll get through it together.

Black.
P S:
To read Episode 1 click on Tres Amigos Episode 1 in the recommended links. The authors are currently looking for filmmakers to make Tres Amigos a visual reality. A good format for it would be flash animation, but we are open to any ideas and input. It could even be adapted for theater. Please contact us on this site.

Tres Amigos: Can you say Nuclear? A play by Nathan Huntley and Gilbert Mercier

ON THE SCREEN A NEWS WIRE CAPTION ROLLS...DECEMBER 20 2013.

REPORTER (V.O)

The POTUS faces a growing global crisis.

News footage of people burning American FLAGS and pictures of the POTUS in Syria and Iran, other news reels of RIOTING over food shortages.

REPORTER (V.O)

The rhetoric is heating up, with Syria, Iran and North Korea on one

side, the US and Israel on the other. Today, in a joint statement

at the UN, Russia & China vow to respond to any attack against their

Asian and Middle Eastern allies.

A LAP TOP is opened. A card key is inserted, a RED BUTTON emerges from the keypad. A finger wearing a GOLD RING with a W set in diamonds, hesitates a moment, then pushes the RED BUTTON down.

REPORTER (V.O.)

With tensions this high, a single

shot could start WORLD WAR 3.....

The transmission is interrupted, on the screen we SEE the film melting and burning, we HEAR explosions and slowly..
FADE TO BLACK:

EXT.
From the darkness emerges a COCKROACH, it disappears into a DRAIN PIPE. We TRACK the bug down a title roll on the screen.
DECEMBER 21Th 2014

INT. UNDERGROUND ATOMIC SHELTER (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION)
In the bunker war room, DICK (Cheney) sits at a computer desk. RUMMY (Rumsfeld) looks through a periscope. W (Bush) stands, his back to them, looking out of a FAKE WINDOW displaying an image of a TROPICAL BEACH at sunset. The tension is palpable. The power blinks on and off throughout.

W

Number two, any contact?

DICK

Standing by.

W

Don, anything from the surface?

CUT TO:

EXT. RUMMY POV (PERISCOPE) OF A SURREAL DESERT SCENE

RUMMY (O.S.)

It's still a desert, Sir.

CUT TO:

INT. ATOMIC SHELTER

W

Dick, are you on line?

DICK

Still trying 43.

W

Rummy, what's the radiation level?

We PAN to see a DIAL: low, guarded, elevated, high and severe. The hand is on SEVERE.

RUMMY

High Sir!

W

Jesus! How long will it last?

RUMMY

I don't know... could be six days,

six weeks..I doubt six months.

W

DON, do you think I did the right

thing?...I'm a peace man. Damage to

human life bothers me. I...

The power goes out. A few emergency lights stay on but the room is near dark. Dick starts up a dim staircase.

DICK

So much for that. Anyone for lunch?

Post Scriptum: This is the episode one of a full play originally written for the screen. The authors ( Mercier/Huntley) are currently looking for interested filmmakers to do an animation ( flash or other) version of it. We are open to any suggestions, including an adaptation for theatre. Please contact us on this blog or at Nathanhuntley@sbcglobal.net.

Thanks.