THE NEW SWINGTON ESTATE
0235HRS
ERIC KAPALDI
[Gets out of bed and heads to the window, parts the curtains and peeps
outside. He does not see anything but hears everything]
Seems to be coming from the new settlement. I can’t follow what’s
being said.
LEAH KAPALDI
What new settlement?
ERIC KAPALDI
The one that has just been set up on the Old Swington.
LEAH KAPALDI
Don’t call it that. We are in Swington Estate, period. There is no Old
Swington.
ERIC KAPALDI
Not anymore. The government dumped all the immigrants from that
ship it had detained at the port.
LEAH KAPALDI
Assholes
ERIC KAPALDI
[Presses his head on the window. He thinks about opening the window
but leaves it be]
Wait. Do you hear that?
LEAH KAPALDI
Hear what? Can you even hear anything in this madness?
ERIC KAPALDI
A siren. I think it’s the police. Thankfully.This will be over soon.
* * *
COSGROVE ROAD
0237HRS
[Siren joins the cacophony. There is a sweeping relief amongst the
disturbed and awake Swingtonites.]
AMBULANCE DRIVER
Wooow! Look at all those lights on, don’t these people ever sleep?
HOOPTE GOBBLEDYGOOK
SHORT EMT
These are not normal times. The day moves at a slower pace. It is like
being under house arrest. Day or night, it doesn’t matter.
AMBULANCE DRIVER
But look at this other side. All dark and gloomy.
TALL EMT
That is the good Old Swington Estate. I used to know a girl who lived
there, back in the day. Now I hear it is a makeshift settlement for the
immigrants. It took one week to set up.
SHORT EMT
The government isn’t playing around.
AMBULANCE DRIVER
I too wouldn’t want it playing around. Heard it was them immigrants
who brought in the flu.
SHORT EMT
You really can’t mean it. I mean it was either this or they get deported.
AMBULANCE DRIVER
No. I am telling you. They carried it across the ocean and then dropped
it on our laps like a hot potato. Cheeky bastards. They probably knew
the PR nightmare would be too much for the government to handle.
Now here we, accommodating the shysters.
SHORT EMT
Shouldn’t we have just sent them back? Or take them in as prisoners of
war.
TALL EMT
You haven’t been reading the Geneva Convention, have you?
SHORT EMT
I read on the papers that the first reported case was of a banker who had
visited some island in the Caribbean.
AMBULANCE DRIVER
Hell no. No way anybody is catching flu from the Caribbean. You go to
the Caribbean for some nice white sandy beaches and fine weather. You
are running away from this mean and icy cold one. If you are catching
anything there, it is something else.
TALL EMT
Forget what you read on the news. It was some punk who ate raw
mongoose in Asia.
SHORT EMT
Raw? Like sushi you mean?
[laughter ensues]
TALL EMT
Yeah like sushi. Feasted on it and then came the aftermath which we are
living in. Walking about in masks like a gang of surgeons. The city has
become one large theatre. And I tell you, it isn’t sterile. Not by a long
stretch.
SHORT EMT
There is this story of a hungry cat that goes to hunt for rats in the
Amazon. What it doesn’t know is that there has been a recent bush fire.
That fire has razed a big portion of the forest. This has had the effect of
HOOPTE GOBBLEDYGOOK
the rats scurrying for cover. It has been a week of survival for those rats.
So by the time the cat arrives they are famished. They decide to use
some of their dead compadres as bait. It is one of those compadres that
the cat comes across while hunting. So, the cat comes and sees a rat,
right there, out in the open. Like a gift. So what does the cat do? It
rushes in to feast. And then Bam!
AMBULANCE DRIVER
Bam?
SHORT EMT
Bam!
TALL EMT
Bam?
SHORT EMT
And Bam! Out of nowhere hundreds of rats come rushing in. They throw
themselves at the cat and bite away. The cat is overwhelmed. It whines
and flails. It tries to fight its way out but cannot escape the killzone.
AMBULANCE DRIVER
Killzone? So the rats kill the cat?
SHORT EMT
Yup.
AMBULANCE DRIVER
That is some dark stuff right there. What is the lesson?
SHORT EMT
Huh?
TALL EMT
The lesson is you step on it. We need to get rolling. Hannington Estate is
quite a stretch. Hey, maybe this is the killzone we need to get away from.
[chuckles]
[Harry obliges and steps on the accelerator. The van lurches forward.
The EMTs curse him out as they reach for support]
* * *