Continued Existence

Pittsburgh. Happy New Year… Cal wakes on the first work day of the New Year, has a normal morning, gets in his normal car on his way to his normal job. Little does he know that it will be the last “normal” thing he does. After a horrific accident, Cal wakes and finds that he has changed. He lumbers along, pulled by an intense, unexplainable hunger in his gut, and the sweet, sickening smell of human flesh in his nostrils. He walks up a hill overlooking the city. He sees Pittsburgh. And it is burning. His adventure begins. "Prologue: Or how it all happened." Patrick and Allison are in the final year of their doctorate program at the university lab. They have been tasked with creating an antibody that rebuilds dead tissue for the Government and are excited that they have completed their assignment right before Christmas break. With no orders for tests subjects going out until after the new year, and intense pressure from the Government to move forward with the project, Patrick decides to find a subject of his own: Allison’s estranged boyfriend, Joe Westinghouse. In a single, jealous act, Patrick injects Joe with the antibody and inadvertently causes the apocalypse. Weeks pass and the city has been ravaged. Killian and Cole are brothers who scour the remains of the city along with their friend, a Russian gent named Ivan. The trio gathers supplies to get as far from the city as possible, before it is nuked off the face of the planet. During their search of a looted gas station, they meet Dakota, the ex-waitress/stripper, who greets them with a shotgun. After a tense standoff, they decide it is best to stay together, as there is safety in numbers. Their adventure leads them through a neighborhood infested with the walking dead, and into an abandoned municipal parking garage, where they find a large truck that they hope to use to plow through any threats that come their way. Cal, who is now officially a zombie, wanders through a neighborhood full of the dead, who have trapped a group in an old building. The nameless group tries in vain to escape, and it is here that Cal gets his first taste of warm human meat. After he has satisfied himself, his gut pulls him along towards his next feast, a hotel near the river in the distance. Killian and company unexpectedly have a run-in with a group of bandits, who hold them hostage and tell them that they are on their way to St. Louis, a supposed safe haven from the quickly spreading plague. The bandit leader makes them a deal: Use the plow truck to pass through a horde of the undead that stands between them and a single boat on the river. After that, he will let them go (Kill them). They have no choice but to agree. In the hotel on the river’s edge, ex-rock star Mike Lafortuna and Autumn, a pharmaceutical sales rep, stand on the building’s roof, plotting to escape the building they have been trapped in for weeks. They, along with a couple of other survivors hatch a not-so-well-thought out plan to create a blanket rope to climb down the side of the building and get to that popular single boat docked on the river. They start down the side of the building, where Cal and his horde of biters await. The snow plow mows down a bloody pathway and crashes at the dock, where Killian and Company shoot it out with the bandits and meet Mike and Autumn for the first time. They reach the boat and must fight off a tsunami of biters as they try to cast off. Ivan is bitten and Dakota is killed in the process. They barely escape with their lives, and sail off, toward St Louis. Towards Uncertainty. Cal walks out of the hotel and stands there, watching the boat float away. He turns and walks towards the city with his army of the dead behind him. The story was adapted into a script at the request of the author, a personal friend who thought that it would make a good film. It is an "Epic" script, in that there are multiple locations, (over 5) and around 8 main characters, with extras. But I feel it still could be done with a modest budget. I can be contacted regarding the script at griffin.erikd@gmail.com