REVEILLE
Andrew Price Carlile, 2022
EXT. EVENING.
It is early evening; darkness has not quite begun to settle in a small clearing. In this clearing is a small stone campfire, around which are arranged some camp chairs, two backpacks with camprolls, an unassembled tent, and some basic light and sound equipment.
ANDY is taking the last readings on the equipment. checks his watch. regards the position of the sun, re-positions one of the lights.
ANDY. Making good time. good time still.
CALEB comes crashing through into the scene bearing an armload of various sticks.
CALEB. I’m back.
ANDY. Did you get wood?
CALEB (shrugs sarcastically at his armload)
ANDY. Did you get the small stuff?
CALEB. I got all kinds. Why are you hassling me about small wood? There’s plenty of light still.
ANDY. We’ve got to use the light to get your take. and we’re going to want to get the fire started for dinner. before it gets dark. and cold. And the small stuff starts faster
CALEB you don’t mean we’re going to be out here all night.
ANDY. we’re going to be out here until we get the take. It’s got to be perfect. It’s fine. I can make it work.
CALEB. So how’s this going to work, anyway?
ANDY. What are you talking about? we’ve been over this. Sit there, and just tell your story. and be honest. talk about that summer in fifty-five.
CALEB. shouldn’t we rearrange one of those lights then?
ANDY. what? no. why?
CALEB. don’t ya think there’s a little too much light on my face?
ANDY. Are you kidding? It’s the golden hour in five minutes. there’s the perfect amount of light I made sure. iit’s all timed out perfectly. Trust me.
CALEB. Should I do a voice?
ANDY. What are you talking about.
CALEB. (muffling his voice) What if I did it a little like this?
ANDY. Why are you doing that? stop– stop it just do your normal voice.
CALEB aren’t you going to hide my identity at all?
ANDY. Would you take this seriously?
CALEB. I’m not taking it seriously? Don’t screw me around! I stay in the house, I ripped out the phone line, I never drink, I don’t drive and I don’t stay out in fields at night, riding around in conspicuous cars! And there’s no one to talk to, because nobody believes you! It’s like a hole in my heart, all because nobody believes–
ANDY. wait wait wait-
CALEB. what?
ANDY. That’s good. but make sure you look into the camera while you do it. and slow down a little.
CALEB. I-
ANDY. say your name first.
CALEB. I want to remain anonymous
ANDY. You have to start with a slate. Your name, how old you were.
CALEB. You can’t go to the news with this. you can’t share it with anybody.
ANDY. it’ll be just between us then. So start with your name.
CALEB. What do you need my name for if it’s just us? you know me since kids.
ANDY. it’s for posterity
CALEB. posterity, my ass.
ANDY. in case anything happens to me. us. ok?
CALEB yeah. Sure
ANDY. go from “I stay in the house”
CALEB. I stay in the house. I can’t go anywhere. Crowds are a nightmare, all I can see is a wall of hands and eyes just waiting to grab you up. or they point and stare. I can’t hold down a job, I can’t think straight, I live like I’m in a fog. I don’t drive, I can’t, it’s too fast- look, i don’t wanna do this anymore
ANDY. nothing bad’s going to happen to you. not from this. This is our way out. to the truth. Whatever you say, I’ll believe you and I’m not going to sell you out or hurt you. please,
CALEB. I get these terrible pains shooting down my skull like someone drilling. but it’s- but it’s
honestly worse when you’re alone, when it’s quiet. then it’s just you and…
ANDY. Have you ever been able to share this with anyone? What happened to you?
CALEB. I tried. There was a girl who loved me and I couldn’t love her back, and I tried to tell her and then she didn’t love me. That’s when the pain in my head started. when I started to forget things.
ANDY. Have you ever had a doctor or a psychologist look at your headaches?
CALEB. What would they know?
ANDY. Sometimes they’re connected. or they can give you pills
CALEB. no way I’m taking pills! no way I’m taking anything they give me?
ANDY. Why not? you’re in pain–
CALEB. I’m in pain from them drilling me! They just want to get into my head and they couldn’t, they tried but they couldn’t then, and I’m not falling for it now, letting the devil in the front door!
ANDY. what the fuck are you talking about.
CALEB. I’m talking about the truth! isn’t that what you dragged me out here– out here! to say? I’ve been saying t for years it’s obvious. it’s like they’re taunting us, waving it right in our faces. I’m talking about the coverup! They could kill me. they could kill you. or worse, they lock you back up in one of their labs like another rat.
ANDY. I mean the fuck are you talking about labs and rats for?
CALEB. In the summer of 1955 twenty six boys, aged thirteen to sixteen went missing from rural counties in Arkansas, Missouri, and kansas. six of them, and not one made it to the evening news. nothing in the times, or the herald. There was a paragraph in the Boise register that called for increased vigilance against vagrants; five of them were later found dead, mutilated. They weren’t kidnapped by bums on trains! They were abducted, probed, and vivisected by extraterrestrials. That’s what I’m fucking talking about!
ANDY. extraterrestrials?
CALEB. hyper-advanced visitors from another planet.
ANDY. What the fuck does that have to do with us? with Adam?
CALEB. don’t you get it? That is what happened to adam.
ANDY. That is not what happened to him. to us. and you know it.
CALEB. I’ve done my research. it’s obvious.
ANDY. no, no, no. This isn’t about aliens. This is about the systematic abuse that ruins lives and kills kids. it’s still going on, and I need you to help me stop it. I need you to tell the truth.
CALEB. Which one do you want? Do you want me to read your script or tell you the truth?
ANDY. I need you to wake up and listen to me! what happened to us, it’s real, but it’s not this. and you have to stop, you have to wake up. please. for me, for adam. for the hundreds of boys still going through the pain that we almost didn’t survive. the pain that we’re still going through. please. it’s real and you have to look at it. It’s not science fiction.
CALEB. You sound just like everyone else. as soon as i try to tell them it’s all histrionics. I’m telling you I’ve suffered, and it’s because I haven’t turned away from it! I dug in deeper. and just like everyone else, you turn on me because you can’t handle the truth. I’ve suffered. The only people I could trust are the savvy ones like me who woke up to what the government was doing to us!
ANDY. So it’s the government now? not extraterrestrials?
CALEB. Don’t mock me. wouldn’t you do everything in your power to get your hands on that kind of technology? of course they would. space craft, force beams, mind control- it’s the same shit they’re testing on college kids in berkeley and blacks in tuskegee. some of these guys i’m talking to, they’ve been through it, and they’ll tell you about sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, and tubes to force feed you all sorts of toxic crap. they’ll tell you!
ANDY. How could you believe all this?
CALEB. because I met one of them. It was when I just started getting sick, I was in a group where we’d talk together. So we started talking. He showed me where they tattooed him. Like a brand. It was small. just a bunch of straight lines and symbols I couldn’t recognize. He said they just let him go, because they knew nobody would ever believe him.
ANDY. So why am I hearing about this just now? Why didn’t you mention this guy before? we could meet him too.
CALEB. because he’s dead. happens to each of them, eventually. some quicker than others. because nobody will believe it. Nobody can handle the truth.
ANDY. I can handle the truth. I’ve had to handle it for fifteen years, when my family turns on me, my community turns on me, I’m paraded around on talk shows for years like some kind of a freak! and I had to go alone, I didn’t have my shady circle of nutjob friends. I only had two friends, and one’s dead and the other is you. And you just became this ghost instead of facing it. and I needed you. please. It’s hard to face the past. when you’ve had a trauma, your brain will make up any old thing just to not have to go back through that again. but you’ve got to, don’t you see that? you’ve got to face it. There is no government conspiracy! You and I and probably each one of those twenty six kids you found were groomed and abused at our fucking summer camps, then when they took Adam away it wasn’t so they could milk his brain or whatever it was so they could diddle him and dump his body and nobody would look into it because of you fucking loonies and your conspiracy theories. please. just say it.
CALEB. (stands.) I saw it. All of it. (shows his tattoo) The lights. the cells. the thing. It had– It had moonlight for a face. I wish I could just forget. blow out the lights.
(CALEB leaves. ANDY tries to disassemble the equipment but his hands are shaking. STRANGE SOUNDS– maybe a SHOT? ANDY goes looking past the clearing. He is bathed in a bright light. Humanoid figures are silhouetted, backlit in the glare. Andy’s face gices way to a silent scream of terror as the shadows reach toward him.)