THE END OF SUFFERING
By Zack Akers

										©2007
INT. FACTORY ROOM- DAY

The large, cluttered room is dirty and dark. MARK (18) is sitting at the bottom of a staircase that leads to a door. His face is buried in his hands. Scratching noises come from behind the door.

		BRANDON (O.S.)
	Why are we torturing our selves like this?

Mark looks up at BRANDON (17), who is pacing back and forth in the large room. SARA (17) is lying on a table, staring at the ceiling.

		BRANDON (CON’T)
If we wait here, we’ll starve. If we leave, we’ll be eaten. Eaten by people we’ve known all of our lives! Eaten by people that we went to school with! People we worked with!

Sara starts to cry.

		MARK
	Shut up Brandon. I can’t think.

		BRANDON
What’s there to think about? We are going to die! The only question now is how!

		MARK
	Shut up.

		SARA
	(Crying)
	He’s right, Mark. You know it.

Mark rubs his head, thinking.

		MARK
	Help will come.

		BRANDON
	(Angered)
Come on Mark! Think about it! If help was coming it would have already come. Face it. They left us.

Mark stands up.

		MARK
	Shut up!

He looks at Sara, who is crying.

		MARK (CON’T)
	You’re scaring Sara.

Mark puts his head against a wall. Brandon steps behind him.

		BRANDON
	She has no reason to be scared.

Mark turns to Brandon.

		BRANDON (CON’T)
She knows what’s coming. Those tears aren’t the tears of a scared person. Those are the tears of a person who has been cheated!

Mark rolls his eyes and walks past Brandon, towards Sara.

		MARK
	You’re crazy.

Brandon sits against the wall.

		BRANDON
She knows that everyone else got the easy way out.

Mark sits on the table next to Sara.

		MARK
	(Angered)
	I said shut up!

		BRANDON
	We, the survivors, are the ones who will suffer.

		MARK
	(Furious)
You think I don’t know that! Just because I know we’re dead doesn’t mean I have rant on and on about it! That only makes things worse! You have to think positive, even if you know what’s eventually going to happen.

Brandon smiles as Mark starts to cry.

		BRANDON
	Even the fearless leader cracks.

Mark looks at Brandon.

		BRANDON
What do you say we just open the door and get this over with?

No response. Sara sits up and looks at Mark. She puts her hand on his back.

		BRANDON
	It’s either that or we starve to death.

Sara nods. Mark cries as Sara hugs him. She cries silently. Brandon stands up and walks up the stairs, stopping at the door. He puts his hand on the handle and turns to the others. The scratching sounds behind grow increasingly violent.

		BRANDON
	We’ve suffered long enough.

A tear runs down his cheek as he turns the handle.

CUT TO-

BLACK

END