Duel Reality
When she discovers that her VR program to treat PTSD has been hijacked, an obsessed programmer enters her virtual world
to stop a ruthless military contractor from using it to build the perfect soldier.
Co-written with Gerasimos Rozis
EXT. BEACH, VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATION – DAY
A vast, featureless and flat land, bright and deserted, dominated by dust and sand.
A pair of small, brown and skinny legs stand in the golden sand. A pair of worn out shoes dangles in her hand.
Toes flex, scrunch, dig into the hot, coarse powder.
A YOUNG GIRL (5) in a sundress takes a hesitant step. The sand gently shifts beneath her. One more step, then another. With every motion forward there is some backward and down.
Her green eyes stare at the horizon. Stillness.
She opens her palm, caresses an acorn with her fingers.
She tosses it into the sand. The sand swallows the acorn and gives birth.
An oak tree grows rapidly to its fullness, and a tire swing hangs from its lowest branch.
Past the tree. The sand spins like a whirlpool. Grains morph into wooden planks, windows, and doors. The parts connect. A wooden porch extends along a two story beach house.
The girl reaches out and grasps the raw, dark staircase. Her head tilts.
The staircase changes to fresh white paint.
Water seeps up from the ground. Her tiny feet sink into the cool, wet sand.
Water splashes onto her heels. Golden sand sinks beneath an ocean’s rise.
The ocean surrounds the house, the once vast land shrinks to an island.
Dark clouds pregnant with rain infest the sky like a plague.
Gentle waves roll up on shore, ankle deep to the girl.
The ocean bubbles like boiling water. Steam shoots into the air. From within the turbulent waters, a WATER WRAITH launches upward like a missile.