Mad World Pilot Episode Act One.

Mad World Pilot episode: Act One.

The zombies have arrived but the sleepy desert town of Sierra Verde is in for a rude wakening on this quiet morning.

If you haven't read the opening teaser scene click here: Mad World Pilot Episode Teaser

ACT ONE

EXT. BORDER PATROL SUBSTATION – LATE MORNING

Two border patrol agents stand outside the substation.  John’s SUV swerves into the parking lot.  They hurry over to John’s vehicle.

JOHN

Where’s the ambulance?

AGENT 1

It’s on its way.  They were running a patient to San Marco’s Hospital.

JOHN

Shit! This guy is messed up!  His brother said he was attacked by someone.

The others agents look over John’s shoulder as he opens the door. 

AGENT 2

I don’t think it would have mattered, John.  He’s dead.

Anthony lays slumped off the backseat. 

JOHN

Damn. 

Carlos is crying into his hands in the passenger seat.

INT. BORDER PATROL STATION.

Carlos sits on a small bench outside of a holding cell. 

John can be heard down the hall in his supervisor’s office.

SUPERVISOR

The brother will take the body back with him.  From what he said they lived in Mexico City and left shortly after the earthquake hit.

John peers down the hall at Carlos who is staring at his lap.

JOHN

Where’s the body now?

SUPERVISOR

Dillon and Steven are getting ready to move it.

JOHN

Dillon?! That asshole? I’ll go help. 

SUPERVISOR

You should probably go home, John, take the day off.

JOHN

I will after I make sure Dillon doesn’t do anything stupid.

John walks out of the station. 

EXT. BORDER PATROL STATION

DILLON SPRUCE, 32, a large, muscular border patrol agent.  His BRIGHT RED MOUSTACHE makes him look like a red neck.  He stands next to John’s vehicle smoking a cigarette.

GARY EVANS, 26, a clean cut border patrol agent, walks with John across the parking lot.

GARY

How are you doing John?

JOHN

Fine.  Let’s get this guy wrapped up.

DILLON

Come on, ladies, this dirty spic won’t move himself.

GARY

Spruce, why are you such a douche bag?

Dillon SNAPS ON a pair of gloves and chuckles, ash dropping off his cigarette.

DILLON

I take it you didn’t catch the van though, did you Riley?  Loser.

     (beat)

Let’s do this already.

Dillon throws open the door. 

DILLON

Jesus Christ!!  Someone really tore this guy up. 

John opens the other door.

DILLON

His brother said a person did this?

JOHN

Yea, said he bit him.

Gary lays a body bag on the ground behind Dillon.

John reaches in to push Anthony’s limp body toward Dillon. The body moves on its own

As Dillon uses all his strength to drag Anthony’s body off the bench.  He begins to lower it but then lets it fall into the bag. 

JOHN

JESUS CHRIST, SPRUCE!! YOU STUPID JACKASS!!!

Gary rolls Anthony into the body bag.  He situates the body.

Dillon pushes Gary out of the way. 

DILLON

You don’t have to tuck him into bed, just get him in the damn bag and zip it up.

Dillon pulls the sides of the bag around Anthony and begins to zip it up when

John slams into Dillon.

Both roll on the asphalt, Dillon blocks John’s angry blows from hitting his face.

DILLON

WHAT THE HELL!!!  GET OFF ME!!!

Gary follows them as they roll across the parking lot.

DILLON

I’M WARNING YOU RILEY, GET OFF ME . . . Oh Screw it.

Dillon’s huge muscular body suddenly pins John on the ground.  Methodically he begins to beat John.

Gary attempts to break them up.  He successfully pulls Dillon off of John.  Dillon staggers away from John and into the waiting arms of Anthony.

INT. BORDER PATROL STATION

Carlos still sits in the hallway.  He continues to stare into his lap.

The border patrol supervisor sits at his desk.  He scans paperwork that litters his desktop. 

SFX. GUNSHOTS

The sound of the Supervisor’s chair falling over echoes in the station. 

EXT. BORDER PATROL STATION

Dillon holsters his gun. He pulls a cigarette pack from his shirt pocket, slowly walking back to the station entrance.  Blood drips from his elbow as he lights a cigarette.

SUPERVISOR

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE???

DILLON

God damn Mexican wasn’t dead.  He just attacked us.

The supervisor looks over at John and Gary.  Gary is helping John out from underneath Anthony’s headless body.  Blood covers both of them.

SUPERVISOR

John, you alright?

JOHN

Yea, he just bit my hand.

Gary helps John up.  John’s left hand bleeds from a vicious bite.

CUT TO

INT. SIERRA VERDE HOSPITAL – EARLY AFTERNOON

DR. CARL PUNTZ, 60, puts the finishing wraps on John’s hand.  John sits examining the wrappings.  John’s wife, REBECCA RILEY, 22, holds John’s other hand.

CARL

If there is any sign of infection come back. In the meantime I will give you some antibiotics and that should take care of it.

Carl fills out a prescription for antibiotics and hands it to Rebecca.  She smiles.  Her eyes are red from crying.

REBECCA

Thanks, Doctor Puntz.

CARL

No problem.  You’re lucky John, Dillon’s forearm took a lot more stitches.  That guy really took a chunk out of him.

JOHN

Come on hon. We have to let Carl get back to saving more important lives.  Thanks doc.

John extends his left hand to Carl.  They shake.

JOHN

I don’t get it though, doc.  The guy was dead.  He didn’t have a pulse when we pulled into the parking lot. 

Carl really isn’t listening as he’s filling out the rest of John’s Chart. 

CARL

He may have just been unconscious or in shock from the blood loss. 

JOHN

But I checked his pulse, doc. 

CARL

It could have been extremely faint, don’t worry about it, John.  It’s Thursday, you have my permission to start your weekend early.

EXT. SIERRA VERDE REGIONAL HOSPITAL

John and Rebecca walk out of the Sierra Verde regional hospital emergency room.   

Stretched north of the hospital is downtown.  Cars line the streets in front of small mom and pop restaurants and fast food places are busy.  It’s a typical small town lunch hour.

A large red and white suburban stops at a red light.  Inside is DAVID MINDEL, 33.  He waves at people as they honk and wave at him. 

NPR afternoon news babbles on his radio.  The light turns green.  In the middle of downtown is one of the town’s oldest buildings: Sierra Verde Public Library. 

David drives his suburban around the corner.  He stops at a small drive way at the rear of the library.  The drive slopes down to a garage door.  He backs his truck down to the door.

David gets out and unlocks the door.  He lifts it open to the library basement.

David turns back to his suburban and pulls the back doors of the truck open.   Eight very large boxes overflowing with books sit on the floor of the truck. 

A figure can be seen moving slowly out of the darkness of the basement.  David is preoccupied with the boxes the figure approaches.  David hefts one of the boxes into his arms and turns to be startled by

MARGARET YANDEL, 73, tries to take the box from David.

MARGARET

Let me help you with that David.

DAVID

Dang, Margaret you scared me. 

MARGARET

(taking top box)

My mother use to say you only get startled if you have something to hide.  What are you guilty of?

DAVID

Well, I did drive through a yellow light on my way here.

MARGARET

Well that’s it right there. 

Margaret looks over some of the boxes. 

MARGARET

Nora Larson called.  She’ll be home from college this weekend if we need her help.

DAVID

Perfect.  It’ll be good to see her. 

Margaret eyes David.  He turns just in time to see it.

DAVID

(continues)

She can help you go through these books. 

MARGARET

MmmmHmmm.  You are such a dirty old man, David.

The basement is the nonfiction section of the library.  Book shelves fill the large space.  In one corner is a locked cage.  Inside are boxes marked ‘MRE’ and a couple of shelves of miscellaneous gear and a rack of 10 five gallon water jugs. 

Margaret leans against a bookshelf, sweat on her forehead, as David finishes unloading the truck.

DAVID

You can go back up, Margaret. I can get the rest of these. 

MARGARET

Alright.  Call me down if you need help.

Margaret walks through the enormous basement.  Her footsteps are quiet on the carpet.  She makes her way through the shelves to the large staircase. 

MARGARET

I have sandwiches and fresh coffee up here when you finish.

DAVID

Okay.

Margaret emerges from the large staircase rather quickly.  Her footsteps echo amongst the shelves.  She makes her way around to the large circular customer service desk in the middle of the library.

Suddenly the front doors burst open and STEFAN BAUER, 13, stumbles through the large thick doors. 

Startled Margaret runs to see who it is.

MARGARET

Stevie?! What are you doing?!

Stefan runs to Margaret.

STEFAN

Help me Margaret! They’re going to kill me!!!

Three other boys run into the library.  They see Stefan and continue toward him.  Margaret steps between Stefan and the boys.

MARGARET

You boys better get out of here before I call the cops.

The ringleader, CHARLES DETEARUVE, 15, points at Stefan and then drags the finger across his neck.

CHARLES

Whatever, this library won’t keep you safe forever Stevie.

You have to come out and I’ll be waiting.

Charlie follows his buddies out of the library.

Margaret looks down at Stefan.  She walks back to desk.

MARGARET

Go close those doors.

(beat)

What are you doing out of school, Stefan?

Stefan smiles and happily does as he’s told.

STEFAN

I was going home for lunch when those guys tried to jump me.  Where’s David?

LIBRARY BASEMENT

David locks the basement garage door and slides a large metal bar across the doors.  He goes to the cage and unlocks it. 

He opens the creaky chain link fence door.

David carries the last remaining box into the cage and places it on a small table.  He looks around the basement before opening the box.

The box is filled with cases of rifle and pistol ammo.  David takes cases out and walks to the back of the cage to a locked footlocker.  He stops and looks down at the pad lock.

DAVID

Crap.

STEFAN

What?

Startled, David jumps a little bit.

DAVID

Stevie?  Shouldn’t you be at school?

STEFAN

Cool!!

Stefan gets to the box on the table before David.  The boy begins pulling ammo out.

STEFAN

Let me see some of it.

DAVID

No. 

(pulling ammo out of Stefans hands)

Stop.  Why aren’t you in school?

STEFAN

Charlie and his thugs were chasing me; I bet they’d leave me alone if I had a gun.

DAVID

I bet you’d shoot yourself in the foot then you’d be unable to run away.

STEFAN

Whatever, I can shoot, my dad use to take me shooting at Eye hole all the time. . .

But anyway, I can shoot.

David takes the last box of ammo from Stefan’s hands and slams the flaps of the box shut. 

STEFAN

(attention on a bike hanging from ceiling)

Or if I had that bike I could ride away from them instead of running.  Why do you have a bike in here?

David sets the ammo down on the locked footlocker.

DAVID

Just in case my truck doesn’t start.  It’s a long walk. 

Stefan begins milling around the cage.

STEFAN

Why do you have all this stuff?  Water, M-R-E’s, what are MRE’S? 

DAVID

Meals Ready to Eat, army food. Now stop touching everything. 

STEFAN

My dad hated these. 

DAVID

So do you want me to drive you back to school?

STEFAN

Nah, they’re probably gone by now.  Besides I can hang out here.

(He spots the new shipment of books)

I can help you unload these books. 

Stefan hurries over to the books.  David quickly follows him out, locking the cage behind him.

DAVID

Nope, let’s go.

STEFAN

Ahhh, Davie!! Come on!!!

DAVID

(sarcastically)

Ahhh, Stevie, Let’s go!!

STEFAN

Don’t call me that.

DAVID

Well don’t call me Davie.

EXT. LIBRARY

David and Stefan walk out the large front doors of the library.  Margaret waters some flowers on the front steps. 

DAVID

Hey Margaret, I’m taking Stefan back to school.

MARGARET

Okay, see ya.  Bye Stevie.

STEFAN

Bye.  I’ll be back tonight and help you unload those books.

MARGARET

(Chuckles)

I look forward to it. 

As David and Stefan drive down the street Charlie and his buddies are standing on the corner.  David honks at them and Stefan flips them off.  Charlie and his buddies chase after David’s suburban.

END OF ACT ONE