JAMIE
Deep-space…
Jamie hesitates again, shakes her head in confusion.
JAMIE
Psychology? I think. My specialty is…
She reaches the crest and slumps across it, head on one side, legs on the other.
JAMIE
Adaptation to confinement? How long, dear God? How long?
THE SIREN BLARES.
Jamie raises her weary head. Her determined eyes glare toward the ceiling.
JAMIE
I need to rest!
Again we hear the SIZZLE AND CRACKLE of electrical current.
Jamie screams. THE BEEP INCREASES. She strains to raise her body off the painful torturing peak of the slope. In a frenzy, she topples over the rim.
On the opposite side, she tumbles, groaning, down a slope. She lands hard on a level surface.
She struggles for breath, kneels, and manages to stand.
JAMIE
My name is Jamie Neal. I'm twenty-eight. I'm an assistant professor of…I'm a human being. And no matter how much you break your word, no matter how much you torture me…! I'll fight back! I swear it! I'll fight back!
THE SIREN WAILS.
JAMIE
flinches. THE BEEP INCREASES. But she stays in place.
Abruptly the current CRACKLES AND SIZZLES, and as if thrust by a cattle prod, she lurches forward. THE BEEP becomes EVEN MORE RAPID.
JAMIE
You broke your word! I'll break mine!
MORE CRACKLING AND SIZZLING.
Her face contorted with agony, Jamie stumbles across an open space and reaches a metal ladder. Prodded by the SIZZLING electrical current, she scurries upward.
JAMIE
Jamie Neal. Jamie Neal. Jamie Neal.
She disappears through a circle in the ceiling above the ladder.
The SIZZLING stops as Jamie topples from the ladder and lands hard in another area. Groaning, she slowly raises her head.
Squints.
Shakes her head to clear her vision.
JAMIE
(seeking refuge in her song)
"The oceans and the forests, the earth and the sky belong to you and me."
The room is filled with mirrors, like a "fun house" in an amusement park.
JAMIE
You changed it again!
With enormous effort, she stands. THE BEEP INCREASES.
JAMIE
It's all a lie! You never meant to…!
She struggles forward, glaring toward the mirrors.
Each reveals a different image. She's fat. She's thin. She's tall. She's short. She's twisted. Concave. Convex.
JAMIE
Now I'm the one who's a monster! You've turned me into…!
(recoils from the mirrors)
You! I'll get even! I swear I'll get even!
OFF STAGE, WE HEAR A HISS. Jamie spins in terror, THE BEEP EVEN FASTER. A door slides open. A shadow fills the entrance. Jamie cringes.
The shadow becomes a…what to call it?…not human…misshapen, with ganglia, and boils, and several eyes.
MONSTER
(voice distorted, an electronic simulation)
You've done very well. Today you've been especially adaptive…and especially amusing. You've earned your reward.
The monster raises a flat box.
MONSTER
Your nourishment. Just the way you prefer it. With double cheese and black olives.
JAMIE
I'm allergic to black olives.
The monster's grotesque arm sags.
MONSTER
I'm sorry. I'm new at this facility. I was told that your species craves those foods.
JAMIE
straightens, braces her shoulders, inhales, and glowers. THE BEEP BECOMES VERY RAPID.
JAMIE
And I told you I'd fight back. You broke your bargain. Now I'll break mine.
MONSTER
There's nothing you can do. This is the way things are. You have one more task to perform before you can eat.
Suddenly horizontal RAYS OF LIGHT fill the space between them. The rays are like transparent, multicolored poles in a grotesque climbing gym. They CRACKLE AND HISS with electrical current.
JAMIE
looks more angry.
JAMIE
I'm Jamie Neal!
MONSTER
We know.
Jamie crawls under one of the rays. A portion of it touches her back and shocks her.
Groaning, she stands. She squeezes between two other rays but comes too close and again gets shocked.
JAMIE
I'm a human being!
MONSTER
We know that, also.
JAMIE
Wrong! You don't have the faintest idea! Watch me prove it!
She braces herself and walks straight into the remaining rays, electricity jolting her. As the CRACKLE becomes unbearable, she takes slow, agonized, determined steps, plodding toward her captor. Blisters appear on her face. Emerging from the rays, she staggers toward the monster, grabs the box, hurls it angrily away, wavers, then falls to the floor.
CLOSE UP on her burned, bleeding hand as it twitches, then becomes motionless.
THE FRANTIC BEEP STOPS.
The monster stares down in bewilderment.
A section of the ceiling slides away, revealing another monster.
MONSTER 2
(distorted voice)
How unfortunate. She was particularly entertaining.
MONSTER 1
After all this time…I still don't understand their emotions… but…
(lowers his head)
I suspect that I'm feeling…what do they call it?
MONSTER 2
Grief.
MONSTER 1
Yes. An unusual emotion. The experiment failed.
MONSTER 2
Not totally. We learned something.
MONSTER 1
What?