They stand there in silence for a few moments before a number of deafening sirens sound abruptly from the Detroit city centre.
TIM
'They said there might be more riots tonight. If this keeps up they'll be nothing left by next week'.
The sirens trigger a thought in Luke's head.
LUKE
'You know if that astronaut has taught us anything, it's that here on Earth we watch as all this crime, war and poverty reign supreme, but to him, up there in outer space, on his way to Mars, he sees none of this; that is, he only sees the beauty of Earth. All of these horrible things are lost and the realization of how small and trivial our worries truly are can finally be put into perspective. I mean he may well be the only human to be exonerated from watching this crisis unfold at the moment'.
TIM
'There is one group of people I can think of that have also been exonerated. You'll be meeting one of them soon enough'.
SCENE: SENSORY DEPRIVATION TANK
Ava lies naked in a floatation tank. Fully afloat in the epsom salted water she seemingly doesn't have a worry in the world. She opens the lid of the tank casting the marble tiled room in a luminous red glow. For the people of the western lifestyle blocks, luxury items such as sensory deprivation tanks were trivial.
Ava wraps a towel around her and approaches a cosmetic machine made out of stainless steel. As the machine blow dries her hair we see her scroll through eye colour options on the touchscreen. She selects green and the machine inserts the lens directly onto the surface of her eyes.
SCENE: APARTMENT IN EPIPHANY
Ava looks out from a balcony in an apartment tower in Epiphany. She can see out across the suburbs and beyond past the city walls to the verdant Pacific Northwest woods that stretch as far as the eye can see. In the evening twilight the sky is a dreamy violet colour. Everything looks so peaceful and far removed from the troubles of the rest of the world. Ava takes a look at her watch before entering the apartment and collecting her suitcase.
AVA
'Mom, it's time'.
There's no answer.
AVA
'Mom'!
She drags her suitcase along the ground heading towards one of the bedrooms. She can hear a nursery rhyme parody playing from a speaker in her younger brother's room.
MUSIC
'There was a mobster who didn't like us
and Stensnan was his name-o
S-T-E-N-SON
S-T-E-N-SON
S-T-E-N-SON
and Stensnan was his name-o'
AVA
'Mom I'm going to be late'.
She finds her mom sat reading to her younger brother from a picture book.
AVA'S MOM (reading from book)
'Tiny Tommy, the disobedient boy, strolled into the New York sewer'-
AVA
'Mom we have to go. I should have just taken a taxi from my place; I knew this was a bad idea'.
AVA'S MOM
'Ok, ok, let's go'.
AVA
'Don't read him that story by the way; you'll give him nightmares. And for heaven's sake turn that music off'!
Ava switches off the music.
AVA'S MOM
'He likes it'.
AVA
'I gave him all my old comic books and you read him that horror story'.
AVA'S BROTHER
'I like it'.
AVA
'I bet he likes the Gautenberg too'.
AVA'S MOM
'Avalon just be quiet would you'.
AVA'S BROTHER
'Mommy, what's a Gautenberg'?
AVA'S MOM
'See what you've done'?
AVA
'It's ok. If he behaves himself I'll bring him back a present. If not, he'll just be getting my used pollution mask'.
AVA'S BROTHER
'Wow cool a pollution mask'.
AVA'S MOM
'Are you ready'?
AVA
'Ready as I'll ever be'.
SCENE: PLANE
Ava is seated in a luxurious first class plane cabin as her aircraft takes off from the runway. The cabin is populated by noticeably well dressed individuals. The man seated beside her is wearing a bowler hat and an Edwardian styled suit. Ava stares out the window into the fading dusk light. As the plane elevates it flies directly over the wall surrounding her hometown. Hundreds of feet below she can see clusters of people lingering on the outside of the wall. Some of these people have come to the wall out of curiosity; rubberneckers in every sense of the word. Other-more aggrieved-people have come for a longer stay. These incited people are camped out in protest.
Ava turns away from the window and picks up her in-flight magazine. We focus on the front cover of the publication. The image depicts a glorious art deco styled promotion poster for New York City. The image is so elegant and idyllic that it leaves one with the impression that New York City may well be utopian. We will soon learn that this is not quite the case.
Chapter 3
SCENE: MIDTOWN NEW YORK CITY.
Title: New York City,
The Year of the Snake
(The end of 'Bitter Heart' by Seonna Dancing plays in the background.)
We see the recognisable image of the Empire State Building. It looks just as we would expect it to look except for one difference. Moored to the building's spire is a giant zeppelin balloon. As remarkable as this image is it is overshadowed by the sight of another taller, Gothic themed skyscraper dominating the midtown skyline.
A myriad of advertising balloons hover over the streets of New York. Capitalism has gone wild. No one is immune from the eternal barrage of advertisements and shrewd attempts to break consumer's ever increasingly fickle minds and wallets. One of the balloons displays footage of a female fitness model in a work out video urging people on the street to join in. Another advertisement is promoting 'murder free meat', a type of genetically modified food grown in laboratories that supposedly tastes like meat. A more controversial advertisement being displayed is borderline pornographic. It finishes with the tagline: 'Have babies?have fun?help America's falling fertility rates'.
SCENE: DOWNTOWN NEW YORK
We see Downtown New York with the Freedom Tower and the newly built Apple Tree towers, a series of seven interconnected sky scrapers each taller than the next stretching to the tallest tower which holds the claim of being the tallest building in North America.
In the streets a line of homeless people are stretched out over the sidewalk in their self defeat. There had been a time once when the homeless had been driven out of Manhattan in an attempt to contrive the city's appearance to tourists and business folks. Those days had long since passed. People hastily make their way past the homeless. A kilt wearing man sprints past the homeless people as though he has just seen a ghost.
SCENE: TIMES SQUARE
The music swells as Ava's taxi drives through Time's Square. She impassively takes in the sight. An oversized image of Mateus McClure, the man vowing to become the first person to walk on Mars screams at her from a cola advertisement atop of the world's most famous intersection. A baby faced late night host smiles at her from another advertisement for a hot selling electric car. The late night host gives the thumbs up before comically being struck by lightning.
People flow hastily in every direction she looks. They all wear surgical masks and their hair is large, thick and eccentric. Their fashion sense is obscene, almost as though they are trying to resurrect the 1980s. The taxi finally makes its way through Time's Square but much to Ava's dismay it veers straight into a protest. The driver anxiously looks for a gap in the crowd but his attempts are in vain.
('Bitter Hearts' by Seona Dancing ends.)
DRIVER
'This might take a while'.
Ava nods and closes her eyes, wishing it would all go away.
> DRIVER
'It might not look like it but this will shut down pretty quickly. The police have plenty of experience with this in recent months'.
AVA
'What are they even protesting about'?
DRIVER
'Well let me see. The End of the world? the impeachment of the President? Wall Street's greed? the cost of the Mar's expedition?the Presidential election?the Turk?rapidly rising unemployment rates?the fact that the currency could be redundant any day from now. Take your pick. Your guess is as good as mine'.
Ava sinks back into her seat. She attempts to wind down the window but with no luck.
DRIVER
'We're not allowed to put the windows down due to the'-
A protestor bangs on the front windscreen thrusting her sign into view.
The sign reads:
'JUSTICE FOR THE GULF OIL SPILL'.
As a zoologist Ava knew all too well the devastating effects the oil spill had caused to wildlife in the Gulf. Even more disturbing were the reports that the sinking of the oil tanker may have been duplicitous.
DRIVER
'There's your answer. That's a new one though? interesting'.
Ava wipes sweat from her forehead. She starts to feel a little claustrophobic surrounded by the mob of protestors. Up front the driver is now playing around with the radio much to her annoyance.
SHOCK JOCK (from radio)
'I don't understand Jake. We live in a time when we can foster hair growth on the baldest nude nut on this Earth and you're sat here without a God damn hair on your head'.
JAKE (from radio)
'It's an age of contrasts. We're about to put a man on Mars but yet we still can reclaim that little bit of the past'-
SHOCK JOCK (from radio)
'You're being selfish'.
JAKE (from radio).
'Who knows? These things could end up being like tattoos where years later they link them to skin cancer'-
SHOCK JOCK
'Don't be ridiculous. You're being selfish to all the men that came before you'-
SHOCK JOCK'S FEMALE ASSISTANT (from radio)
'I like it. I like it. It's refreshing. It's natural. It makes a change from all these men I see on the street that look like Cocker Spaniel dogs'.
As the driver continues playing with the radio Ava's frustration reaches boiling point.
CONSPIRACY RADIO HOST (ranting from radio)
'People, I don't know what I have to do to break this to you but Ricardo Stensnan loves America. And this is a wealthy man! This man was sent the invitation to move out West. He got the golden ticket. He had every conceivable reason to go but he said 'fuck you' to the blitzbucks out there! He sees these rats living in their bubbles and he refuses to have any part in it! And now they see what he is doing out here and they kick him out of the debate. They kick him out of the debate because these people own the politicians. I mean I didn't want to say this but these bubble people are literally rats. I'm not even talking metaphorically anymore these people are fucking vermin'!
Ava has had enough. She throws some cash at the driver.
AVA
'Come to think of it, I'm going to walk'.
Ava flubs her first attempt to fix her pink surgical mask around her mouth.
DRIVER
'Are you allowed to do that? I thought you bubble dwellers weren't'-
AVA (she snaps back at the first sound of the man's derogatory remark)
'How far away is it'?
DRIVER
'Two blocks'.
AVA
'I think I can manage two blocks outside my bubble'!
She fixes her mask correctly and exits the vehicle entering the strange new world around her. Almost as soon as she enters the street her senses are overwhelmed; Sirens blare, neon lights flash, incited protestors bump her in their protest. It's quite some introduction. The first thing she sees upon passing the protest and regaining her senses is a pickup truck with a band playing in the back. She shakes her head; nothing could prepare her for this. She passes a number of young men and women dressed in suits begging on the sidewalk. It isn't money that these people are after though-it's jobs.
SUITED MAN
'What ever happened to on job training? We're bright people, we can learn. We've got degrees that we slaved away for years achieving. Our debt is the scars we bear for it. We just want a chance from this fruitless job market. Just give us a chance'.
SUITED WOMAN
'It's all we ask for. Please take a chance on us'.
Further down the sidewalk she passes an excitable crowd which are congregating around an escalating bonfire. The passionate crowd are being spurred on by a man who stands elevated on a podium holding aloft a flyer. The crowd are throwing the same flyer into the rising fire while uttering obscenities; their anger is very much evident. A riled up man tries to give her one of the flyers, urging her to throw it into the growing fire. She declines the man's advances.
RILED UP MAN
'This man hates America. The Turk hates Americans. He hates us with a vengeance. Why do you walk away? Do you not love America'?
Ava forces her way past the very forward man.
RILED UP MAN
'At least sign our petition to get him banned in all fifty one states'.
Ava spots her hotel but she's forced to wade through one final gathering of people who are fixated to a pre-recorded broadcast that is playing from a skyscraper. She catches a glimpse on the monitor of a giant, broad shouldered man, with a horseshoe moustache and a trucker's cap. He is a man she instantly recognises as the media's new adopted darling, Duncan Strepfield. The self narrated broadcast is displaying a montage of Strepfield's various shameless public relation stunts that have caught the nation's attentions in recent weeks. The montage shows Strepfield using his bare hands as a human jaws of life to extricate crash victims from a car accident. We see another video of him pulling a broken down train with merely his hands and a rope. Finally we see a very symbolic stunt where he drags a seven thousand pound, full size replica of the Wall Street Charging Bull statue through the streets of Manhattan.
DUNCAN STREPFIELD (narrating montage)
'At a time when we are run by weak, spineless leaders the world screams out for strength. What better man to turn to than literally and figuratively the strongest man in the world. At a time when the people of the world are beset with panic what better person to turn to than a man who even in the tensest moments of his most dangerous missions for the Special Operations Forces was immune to pressure. Even when my life hung precariously in the balance, when the odds of me losing my life were greater than me surviving I kept my nerve. I never spent a second wasting my energy worrying. Instead I focused all my energy on all the successes I would achieve and have since achieved. I sure as hell am not going to start worrying now this so-called perilous comet is at our doorstep. I urge everyone to follow my lead and carry forward with your lives. Grit, determination and confidence-that's the reason for my success, that's the reason I stand before you today as an American hero. If the nation can replicate these attributes then we will get through this together'.
Such is the people's admiration for the man that some are even writing down what he is saying.
ONLOOKER 1
'The toughest man on Earth they say'.
ONLOOKER 2
'What a great American'.
Ava is only yards away from the hotel entrance now but her attention is diverted by an unmanned hot air balloon flying in the air directly above her.
SECURITY GUARD
'Excuse me ma'am, this is not a safe space. Please don't stand idle on the sidewalk'.
AVA
'I'm literally just standing on public property'.
SECURITY GUARD
'Unless you can answer the question of who owns and flies that mysterious hot air balloon I may have to charge you with loitering'.
Ava has neither the time for the man's odd sense of humour or to con
template the origin of the hot air balloon.
AVA (sarcastically)
'Maybe it's the wizard of Oz. Why don't you go ask him for something you already have inside you'.
And with quip she passes through her hotel's revolving entrance and into the lobby.
SCENE: HOTEL ROOM (NIGHT)
Ava is slumped on her bed which has piles of notes strewn across it. Having worked all afternoon, she is restless and frustrated with the progress she is making. In the background a television is broadcasting noticeably high definition images of the first Presidential debate between two men who are the complete antithesis to each other.
One is a youthful, rebellious looking man with a pop star haircut that is borderline mullet while the other is a man of advancing age who appears to be in his early eighties. It's the ultimate contrast; youth vs. experience. The youthful politician talks directly to the camera. He speaks with the measure one would take knowing that an audience in the extent of one hundred million people were watching.
YOUTHFUL POLITICIAN
'This is your moment America, this is the crossroads of history. You now have the decision to make. What path will this country take going forward? Two new faces. Who will you decide to follow'?
Ava has had enough. She spontaneously makes the decision to venture into the streets of the so-called 'greatest city in the world' to see what all the fuss is about. She turns off the television and puts on her coat. Technically, she shouldn't be leaving the hotel room without security but what Perkins didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Just before leaving she is faced with the bizarre decision of which coloured surgical mask she will wear. She picks out a purple mask and fixes the retched thing to her face. Belittled, she makes tracks for the lobby.