'The Meat'
By Tony Lee
Synopsis
This is a four page story.
The story is written as a narrative, with
captions explaining the action unfolding in the panels.
The Earth is attacked by a force of angry
aliens. With no hope of survival against the superior force, the humans are
beaten quickly, people are taken captive and the war is rapidly ending.
The aliens are taking humans and cooking
them, taking strips of flesh and consuming them after roasting them. This seems
to be very important, but only seems to anger the aliens!
Help arrives in the form of an alien
saleman who, after appearing from nowhere makes mankind a deal. For a large
amount of gold bullion, he will provide them with an unlimited supply of 'The
meat'. This is a jerky that when eaten gives the consumer incredible powers.
The humans accept and the armies eat the meat and, using these new superpowers
kill the alien attackers, take their ships and destroy their homeworld. Once
done however, they discover that their supply of meat has dwindled to nothing.
Under duress the salesman tells them where he gets his supply - the cooked
flesh of a planet of demons.
Earth attacks, using the gained alien
ships and guns. They cook and eat some of these aliens, but no powers arrive.
As the story ends, the narrator explains
that they did not realise what was really going on - that while they were
attacking these defenceless aliens, they had become the enemy, and the salesman
was now selling the aliens the
meat... the circle had continued...
The Meat
Script
Page 1
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Panel 1: Wide shot picture. London in flames. Alien spaceships shooting down
fighters with ease. Total 'alien invasion' picture. People screaming, buildings
collapsing. Enough space for title etc.
CAPTION: In the beginning, they attacked without
warning, without provocation.
CAPTION2:
Entire cities lay waste; millions were
killed in the first wave alone.
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Panel 2: A ground level, front-on view of a spaceship ramp. Creatures that
resemble heavily armoured frogs are streaming out, guns blazing. People are cut
down by the beams from these guns. Men, women, soldiers and civilians. There is
no fighting back, just wholesale slaughter.
CAPTION The people of Earth never knew who they were, or why
they attacked, just that they were winning.
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Panel
3: A view of an alien dissection chamber. A woman is
making the facial motions of screaming, struggling to escape as she is strapped
to the wall, watching the frog creatures leaning over a separate table -
obscuring what is happening on it. All that can be seen is a pair of legs. One
of the aliens is passing a strip of meat by forceps over to another, who has
several hanging over a portable cooking unit.
CAPTION: There were the horror tales of
captives, cut up and roasted for the aliens to eat -
CAPTION2:
Although this only seemed to make them
angrier. We obviously tasted bad, but still they ate.
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Panel
4: The Oval Office. The president and his chiefs of staff
stare in shock at a man who has appeared out of nowhere. He is an alien, a
different type to the invaders, and looks exactly like a 50's door to door
salesman complete with tweed style jacket and trilby hat. In his hand is a
briefcase.
CAPTION: And then one day, he turned up.
CAPTION2: With an offer we couldn’t
refuse.
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Panel
5: Front on view of the alien. The
alien is addressing senate, or the UN - something grand along that scale. He
has his briefcase on the podium, open, but you cannot see into it.
CAPTION:
He claimed to have the solution. A
solution that didn't need force of arms. A solution that would only cost
100,000,000 credits in gold bullion.
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Panel
6: Close up of the salesman. He is holding up a small cube of meat -
imagine an OXO cube but slightly larger.
CAPTION: The meat.
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Page 2
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Panel
1: The salesman passes the meat to a soldier who is
putting it into his mouth. Soldier is standard military, not muscled.
CAPTION: At first they were
incredulous.
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Panel
2: Action shot.
The soldier is rigid, stretched taut in that 'pumping with power'
grimace. He is giving off a glow. Holding his hands outstretched and together
in front of him, the soldier fires an energy bolt that destroys a large part of
the building. The on looking military are delighted.
CAPTION: But they were soon to discover the meats
power.
S/FX: MMMMWAAZZZ!
CAPTION 2: The meat made you into a
god. Invulnerable. Invincible.
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Panel
3: Ground shot. The president is shaking the salesman’s
hand for the cameras.
CAPTION: And we could have as much as we wanted - for
100,000,000 credits.
CAPTION 2: Of course we bought it. We
needed the meat to win. The price was small -
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Panel
4: Action shot. A group of human soldiers are attacking
an assault vehicle, power streaming from their hands. They are quite obviously
winning.
CAPTION: - And the benefits were
tenfold. Suddenly we had a chance to win.
CAPTION 2: Suddenly we could hurt them.
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Panel
5: A group of soldiers are marching down a street, flags
are waving - the scene is just like when the allies regained France in WWII.
Total tickertape parade scene.
CAPTION:
It took less than a month to regain our
planet. We were now the superior force, and they knew it.
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Panel
6: small picture - two toad warriors are trying to cook
a leg in a dark corner. They look haggard and are obviously on the run. T they
are being destroyed with beams of light, as if troops have walked up beside
them and executed them.
CAPTION: They still continued to eat
their captives...
CAPTION 2: Until we killed them all.
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Page 3
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Panel
1: The alien ships are being sent off into space, once
more with flags waving.
CAPTION: We took their ships, and flew
to their homeworld.
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Panel
2: The same ships are seen blowing up a planet. Nice
explosion.
S/FX: SHA-BOOOOOM!
CAPTION:
And when we found it, we destroyed it. Not
one damned frog lived.
CAPTION
2: AND The meat made us
hungry for more.
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Panel
3: Joint chiefs of staff are congratulating each other.
Lots of back slapping.
CAPTION: In the beginning, there was celebration.
We had won, and gained powers beyond comprehension.
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Panel
4: A soldier stares in shock at his outstretched arms.
The effect of the scene is that he has tried to fire a beam out of them, and
there was none.
CAPTION: And then overnight, we lost
them.
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Panel
5: Atmosphere shot of the salesman. He is in a chair
being questioned. Although only one person is seen, you can make out others in
the shadows, watching. Dark room. Think
FBI more than Gestapo though.
CAPTION:
The salesman explained that he had no more
meat. We had eaten it. Our powers were gone.
CAPTION 2: But he knew how we could get some more.
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Panel
6: A peaceful planet, sunny skies. A nice harmless bunch
of aliens are on it. Peaceful looking, cute even. Frolicking in the grass.
Utopia setting.
CAPTION: He told us where he got his meat.
Caption
2: a planet, easily accessible with our new ships. A race
of unliving demons, whose flesh was infused with the power when cooked.
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Page 4
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Panel
1: The soldiers come running out of the spaceship doors,
blasters blaring. The panel bears an uncanny similarity to the second panel of
the first page.
CAPTION: With our new ships and guns,
we attacked immediately.
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Panel
2: Yet again like the third panel of the first page
where these lovely aliens are being cut down by the blasts.
CAPTION: They didn't stand a chance. We
took them at our leisure.
S/FX: FZZAZ!!
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Panel
3: The soldiers stand around a fire whilst another cooks
strips of meat on it. In the background are slabs with bodies on. These are the
same slabs from the earlier ‘dissection’ scene.
CAPTION: From their demonic flesh we
took the meat, cooking it, eating it -
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Panel
4: tight shot of a soldier. He is furious, throwing
something (possibly some meat) against a wall.
CAPTION: But it didn't work. There were
no powers to be had here.
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Panel
5: Overhead view of the salesman in what seems to be a
senate room. He is speaking to a large audience of the attacked aliens.
CAPTION:
Had we been ourselves, we would have
realised the truth. We had sold our souls. We were now the invaders. And these
'demons'?
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Panel
6: Close up of the alien salesman. He is smiling broadly
as he holds up a cube of meat. It’s a copy of the last time he did this. In the
background the cute aliens are cheering.
CAPTION: - They were about to get an offer that they couldn't
refuse...
!