Well, if anyone fancies a bash at something what I wrote, here's a one pager I did ages ago and didn't get round to offering to Futurequake. It's a little busy, as I have cut it from seven to six panels (the fourth panel was two before).
THE GROWTH
FRAME 1
Establishing shot of a street in a metropolis. The city has been ruined by nature’s vengeance. Tower blocks and office buildings rise from a sea of lush vegetation, made up of thick vines and huge disgustingly organic flowers. There are signs that this was not a creeping reclamation, but rather a sudden attack; stems as thick as oil pipelines have grown through windows and cars, puncturing roofs and doors. Here and there, thinner vines have impaled those trying to flee; men, woman and animals have been skewered by green spikes. This is the Growth.
CAPTION (top left):
THE PLANT WAS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TO MEET EVERY DIETARY REQUIREMENT AND HARDY ENOUGH TO THRIVE ANYWHERE USING THE WHATEVER NUTRIENTS IT COULD FIND.
CAPTION (bottom right):
TO A WORLD RAVAGED BY CLIMATE CHANGE, WITH DUSTY FARMS AND STARVING BILLIONS, IT FIRST SEEMED A MIRACLE.
FRAME 2: Focus on a squat building with a slightly curved roof, surrounded by the Growth. Once it was a cutting edge office, all black glass and marble; now it looks like a bunker. Tendrils and vines rise from the ground to scrabble at the entrances like fingers prying for a way in; the doorway, a previously sleek revolving entrance, is clogged with the Growth. It is also concentrated around the windows. Above the entrance is a sign. Although a few lazy vines cling to it, words are still visible: NUTRI-CORP INC. Underneath this is a slogan: FOOD FOR ALL, FOREVER. Two scientists are inside: BLEAKER and ANDREWS.
CAPTION:
ITS LATIN NAME WAS 82 LETTERS LONG. ITS BRAND NAME WAS NUTRI-CORN. BUT, EVENTUALLY, IT WAS JUST CALLED…THE GROWTH!
BLEAKER (off, from the bunker):
FOR GOD’S SAKE, IT’S ALMOST IN! HOW MUCH LONGER?
FRAME 3:
Change of scene. Int. a computer lab inside the Nutri-Corp office. Dominated by a huge – currently blank – video screen on one wall. Once, the room was a tidy laboratory but now it is in chaos. Clearly, the people who work here left in a hurry; desks and chairs have been abandoned, some have fallen over, and papers are scattered across the floor. Two men remain, both in lab coats. BLEAKER is a middle-aged man with a black beard and bald patch. ANDREWS is younger, maybe thirty, and with blonde hair. In the background, BLEAKER is leaning on a filing cabinet, which in turn has been pushed against a set of double doors. Tendrils of the Growth are whipping at him from the edge of one door, which is slightly open – they are like zombie arms reaching out for their next victim, or the tentacles of a giant squid in a Doug McLure movie. BLEAKER has turned to face ANDREWS, who is in the foreground and seated in front of a computer. ANDREWS points at screen.
ANDREWS:
GOT IT! THE DNA RECONGITION PROGRAM IS READY! I’M CALLING THE PRESIDENT!
SFX (cabinet on door):
BANG!
FRAME 4:
Roughly the same layout as the previous panel. In the foreground, ANDREWS is sitting at a workstation. He is looking up at the video screen on the wall. This has come to life and shows THE PRESIDENT in the Oval Office, looking calm and unruffled. At the door, a tendril of the Growth has reached around and stabbed through Bleaker’s chest, impaling him like a spear. ANDREWS, who has turned from the video screen, is aghast.
ANDREWS:
WE’RE READY, SIR! THE SATELLITES ARE ARMED! ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS FIRE! THE BIO-WEAPON WILL TARGET ONLY THE GROWTH!
BLEAKER:
GUUNGH!
ANDREWS (linked):
NO! BLEAKER!
FRAME 5:
BLEAKER is on his knees, but is pushing himself to his feet with his hands. He looks like a sprinter about to start a race. Tendrils of the Growth have impaled his limbs, head and body. He looks, literally, like a string puppet. BLEAKER is grinning at ANDREWS.
ANDREWS:
SIR! GIVE THE ORDER! FIRE, FOR GOD’S SAKE!
BLEAKER:
HE CANNOT HELP YOU NOW, LITTLE MAN!
FRAME 6:
Cut to the Oval Office. Side view of a smiling PRESIDENT at his desk. He is not, however, sitting. Instead, the lower half of his body has been cocooned by the Growth so that he is half-man, half “pod person”. Tendrils snake across the floor from broken windows and shattered doors. Many plug into the cocoon around him, but others plug into his sides, spine or stomach – in fact, into every part of the PRESIDENT apart from his previously seen face and arms. One even grotesquely plugs directly into the back of his head. In front of him, a large video screen built into the desk-top shows a CU of the contorted final grimace of ANDREWS.
CAPTION (top left):
THE GROWTH WAS DESIGNED TO USE THE MOST PLENTIFUL SOURCE OF NUTRIENTS IT COULD FIND…
CAPTION (bottom right):
UNFORTUNATELY, THAT HAPPENED TO BE MANKIND!
ANDREWS (from monitor):
AARRGH!
