Returning home from a war, an ex-soldier reuniting with old friends must regain his killer instinct when they stumble upon townspeople so ravaged by starvation that nothing is off the menu.
Synopsis:DYLAN, back from a tour of duty, is out at a restaurant with his brother, NICK, and two friends, MASON and NATHAN. They all seem to have a good time, except for Dylan who steps outside. Mason is seemingly insulted by Dylan's attitude, but Nick and Nathan seem more sympathetic. Nick checks on Dylan outside, he lets it slip that Mason cheated on his then-fiancee while he was away. Nick didn't want any bad-blood between him and Mason so he planned this trip, but Dylan is infuriated.
Mason and Nathan come out with a group of girls. Mason flirts with JILL who hands him her keys to her father's condo. They all enter Mason's SUV and head for their trip. After hours of looking for Marijuana, they begin to run late. An inebriated Mason takes a short cut that the girls told him about.
Mason, driving recklessly for hours on a deserted road, plows into something causing him to flip the SUV on its side. Everyone comes out unscathed. They walk back to see what they hit and are surprised with what they find. It's one of the girls from the restaurant mangled on the road and barely alive. There's no signal on their cell phones. Mason freaks out, but Dylan keeps his composure, looks at a map and finds a nearby town that they can walk to. before they leave, Dylan grabs Jill's keys from inside Mason's SUV.
They finally make it to the town, but it looks abandoned. Everyone loses hope, but Dylan sees a light flickering in the distance. They reach it and it's a crumbling building that you could barely calla home. Dylan knocks on the door and an elderly woman with her brutish son, JEFFERY, opens it. She is very welcoming, but he is dead silent. Dylan asks her questions but she avoid him and serves them soup which Nathan eats. Just as Dylan loses his temper there a knock at the door and a man demanding to know who is in the house. Knowing they are in danger, they make a dash for the kitchen and Nick tackles Jeffery. Mason runs into a cabinet with the butchered body of one of the other females from the restaurant on top of it. Mason and Nathan make it out the back door as Dylan tries to help his brother fight off Jeffery. When Jeffery accidentally kills his mother, Dylan and Nick make their escape.
They all make it to an abandoned building and discover there's a large group coming for them. Nick's leg is severely injured. Dylan decides that they should try to make it to the apartment across the street since it will be harder for them to find them. The tenant tries to attack, but Dylan stops him. he puts the knife up to his throat and starts trembling. He can't kill him. So Nathan rushes up and forces the knife into the tenants chest. They make it over into the apartment, but there's a group of people breaking down the door. Mason jumps out of a window and amazingly lands safely on some garbage. Nathan follows him. Nick screams at Dylan to get out there and tells him he'll be right behind him, but once Dylan is hanging out, Nick pushes him and shuts the window. Dylan, incapable of helping his brother, is forced to following Nathan and Mason.
The three of them make it to a brick elementary school building. They walk inside and rest in one of the classrooms. Dylan and Mason argue and ends with Dylan refraining himself from hurting Mason. Mason mocks him. Then, suddenly, they hear a noise down the hall. As Dylan ventures down the hallway by himself, little shadowy figures sneak up behind him. Nathan shouts to warn him from outside the classroom, one of the shadowy figures rushes up to him and stabs him with a long, spear-like stick. Mason slams the door shut.
Dylan hurries and closes the door to another classroom, but he's not alone. A little feral child tries to kill him, but he captures him and uses him as a hostage. As he makes his way out of the classroom, they following him but don't attack. he makes it to Mason and Nathan. They finally make their way outside when the children try to attack, Mason runs off down the street leaving the severely injured Nathan behind. Dylan runs up to Nathan and struggles to help him outrun the children. They barely make it into a dark alley where they make a sharp turn and the children keep running straight towards Mason. A couple of children slowly walk into their alley, but are stopped by some adults. Dylan and Nathan sneak out of there as the two groups fight.
Mason manages to run tot he outskirts of town stopping the children in their tracks. he starts to make his journey through the barren valley. Meanwhile, Dylan drags Nathan to an abandoned factory warehouse and lies him down. he finds filthy rags and duct tape to try to stop the bleeding. Nathan, barely able to remain conscious, points that someone is behind him. Dylan slowly walks to the back of the room. he discovers that it's Jill from the restaurant. She's in shock and doesn't trust him, he shows her the keys that she gave to Mason and she comes around. She tries to convince him to stay there, but he needs to at least try to get Nathan help and he doesn't feel that it's safe to stay in one spot.
Dylan helps Nathan out as they leave Jill behind. They walk through the industrial park and see a small figure run past them. Dylan sneaks closer to the end of the building and is suddenly hit with a blunt object. Before he loses consciousness, he hears Jill trying to defend him.
Dylan wakes up tied to a table. He sees a skinny, grizzled man, RICHARD, walking past him before he realizes he's awake. he tells him the only reason he's still breathing is because he recognizes the last name. Dylan convinces him to let him go, because he will let the people in the rest of society know what's going on there. Once Dylan gets out, he threatens to kill Richard, but Dylan then sees Richard's young son, JARED, and lets him go. Richard informs Dylan that Nathan died, but Jill is safe in Jared's room. Richard warns him about a prison he used to work at that has been overrun and that will be his biggest obstacle. Richard also tells him that if he wants his help escaping that he'll need nutrition from his deceased friend. Dylan refuses, but give in knowing he'll need him.
As Richard tells Dylan their methods of cannibalism, he lets him know that they keep their victims alive as they feed on them. Dylan realizes that Nick is probably still alive. Although Jill tries to keep him from going, Dylan puts on some of Richard's clothes and sneaks back to the apartment complex that he left Nick in. He figures which apartment has him and he breaks it down inadvertently hurting a woman in the process. He beats the husband and looks in the room from where he came. There on the table lies his brother with a blood-stained blanket laying over him. He takes off the blanket and sees that his leg below his knee is nothing but bone. Nick pleads with Dylan to kill him. Dylan refuses, but ultimately cuts off the belt strap that's keeping Nick from bleeding out. Dylan beats the husband to near death, but keeps from going any further.
Dylan makes it back to Richard's house and passes out. When he wakes, Richard and Jared are eating what was once his friend. Weak and trembling, he makes his way to the table and asks for something to eat. Jill asks what he thinks he's doing. He tells her that he killed a child during the war and hasn't been able to pull a trigger since. Dylan tells her that if they want to survive he needs his strength. He needs to eat to survive. He reluctantly eats his "meal."
There's a knock at the door, it's the elderly priest HERBERT. Richard quickly hides Dylan and Jill in Jared's room. Herbert knows someone is there, the same person that nearly beat a man to death. Before he can discover them, Richard threatens them with his rifle.
**I'm out of characters for the rest of the story. Hopefully this gets you to read the screenplay***
This is the third draft that I went through a year or two ago. I got some great feedback and changed some of the dialogue, added some detail, and took out a few things that didn't seem to work.