Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
In this writing, I will first write the story; next I will transform the story into screenplay format.
Plot: a woman is the only surviving victim of a bodega robbery where bodies are everywhere. The group of cops, medical staff, lawyers, and such; help her through her struggle to bring justice to the burglars.
She is pointing at the item on the top shelf behind the clerk. This clerk is turned and reaching for the item. They both hear the door beep. The four men storm into the double doors swiftly and purposefully. The cashier and the female customer have barely time enough to turn towards the noise when they are overcome by the four.
Black boots, black pants, black hoodies, black gloves. Black face masks, like the winter ones that have only eye-holes. The skin underneath has been covered in black make-up. Shotguns and pistols and rifles and machine-guns are wielded by the masked crew.
Two frightened people begin to shiver as they hear "FREEZE" shouted into the small area. Two of the dark figures rush into the back, shooting a male customer at the drink fridges, and before anyone inside this store has a chance to react, the four are victorious in their quest. No calls were made. No alarms triggered. No screams.
One assailant goes around the counter and the other butts up behind the female customer. They both have their large guns to a head. Bad Guy 1 grabs her hair violently and the woman's head is slammed onto the counter top with heavy force. The sound echos and she is stunned and dazed, her brain rattled with his effort. Her face is sideways, facing the back of the store.
There is no sound and she cannot see. The gray fog over her is threatening to turn to a blackout. She is reeling and she can feel her body some and knows that it is moving but she hopes this fall won't hurt. But she is not falling. Her vision is very slowly returning to normal. Her hearing is only pounding at first but turns into noises around her.
The clerk is banging on the register. He is nervous and fumbles and the man with him is throwing curse words. Beeps and clicks eventually pop open the drawer with the cash and Bad Guy 2 empties it out, then grabs the clerk by the neck and drags him to the back. He is slightly disabled mentally from an injury in Iraq. This is his fathers store and he has worked here ever since he recovered from his physical injuries.
Noises from the back start to flood into this woman's ears. Her senses have not returned to normal yet and she is trying to focus her vision. She sees a gum display in front of her. It is not upright and she cannot figure out why. It is moving too. But why?
Her sense of touch is now returning and she feels pain. Lots of pain. But again, why? And where does it hurt?
She suddenly snaps into full consciousness and she realizes that she is being violated from behind. Bad Guy 1 is panting as he thrusts into her and she begins to struggle with all her might. Is this really happening to her?
He finishes and Bad Guy3 had come from the back at some point. He switches places with the first guy and begins his turn. She screams until a handgun is shoved in her mouth and she stops. Tears are pouring out and she gags as the gun is pushed further in. Bad Guy 1 just laughs. He is enjoying watching his buddy "fill her up."
A shot gun blast reverberates through the store and the force causes the front door to move outward slightly. Her ears are ringing and she is waiting to die, but before much longer, she realizes it was not her that was shot. Her lungs hurt from the sudden change in pressure and she can smell gunpowder.
Bad Guy 3 finishes and the another gun shot from a rifle comes from the back of the store. She is being held by a hand on her neck onto the counter. Her hands are holding onto to the clerk side of it and she is still draped over it when the other two guys come from the back. Bad Guy 3 is zipping up. Bad Guy 2 wants his turn. He moves into position behind her and she trembles and weeps as he enters.
Bad Guy 1 shouts, "Hurry up! Dose shots had to uv gotten sumbudies attention and we gots ta bounce!"
The three move towards the back exit and within seconds of starting, Bad Guy 2 finishes and after he adjusts himself, he clonks her over the head with his pistol and she drops unconscious to the the tile floor. For good measure, he shoots her as he runs out, hitting her right leg below the knee.
Two black men, a white guy and a Mexican calmly get into the waiting escape vehicle in the alley. The cash register and the safe in the back were both cleaned out and since it was the end of the day, they walked away with a couple thousand dollars, some jewlery from the four people inside, and a little piece of tail for all but Bad Guy 4. he is fuming in the back seet on the way to the safe house.
"Ay, das not fair, homes. I didunt get me none. How was she? Her ass was muey calente! Next time I get the sex firss." and the four drive away.
Smell. Horrible smell. Waking. Waking up. ALERT!
She is looking into the faces of two people. A man and a woman. HE is the medical. SHE is the police. Her hearing is still waves in and out, so she looks to these two people and what they are doing. She is kneeling over and he is moving a lot.
His hands are gloved and he moves over her leg now, but her gaze cannot follow his actions. She is looking at the woman ans her mouth is moving but the sound is still far away but is getting closer. The man just hurt her thigh.
The bleeding woman is trying to see why he is hurting her leg. The female cop brings her hands to the victims shoulders to encourage her to stay down.
Sound is muffled but she can hear this woman.
"Stay still. He is helping you. Do you remember what happened here?"
It all came rushing back and Linda began to struggle and freak out. They were hurting her. They were scaring the cashier. They were shooting.
"Shhhhh shhhhh," calms Detective Olivia Benson. "You're safe now. They can't hurt you anymore. We're gunna get you to the hospital and get you all fixed up. Can you tell me your name?"
"Linda Taggert."
"Good. Okay can you tell me how many bad guys were there?" Benson asks.
"Five or sixteen," she looses consciousness.
Olivia looks at the EMT guy and he shakes his head saying, "she is probably concussed from her head wound back here," he points towards the back of Linda's head. "We're gunna get her to Mercy. You riding with?" the detective nods in response.
The patient's eyes flutter open and shut several times before she begins to gain focus. The ceiling inside the rig is her first image, but the woman's kind face is soon in view. She is smiling and Linda feels I might bit safer and she relaxes some.
"How's the owner and his son?" she asks when her head stopped spinning so much. She had NO idea what she was about to hear, and then she remembers the shots. Three shots, from three different locations and three different weapons. She might not know guns but she knew the different sounds she heard. Before the cop could answer, she blurts out, "They're dead, aren't they?" the cop nods and says,
"Along with another customer towards the back of the store."
Linda is visibly shaken and she tries to turn away, but her neck still dons the soft neck brace. She turns her eyes to the shelf with all the supplies to her right.
Det. Benson continues, "they shot you in the thigh," Linda looks directly into Olivia's eyes at that statement.
"He," jetting her thumb towards the man's direction, "says the bullet missed your femur and your main vein and artery. Thinks you'll be able to easily recover from the shot. Now, Linda, do you know how many thieves there were?"
Linda sifts memories and says, "When the door beeped, I turned to look and I didn't see much before the shotgun barrel was shoved into my face." Olivia and the EMT think to themselves, that must be how her right eye is bleeding from the brow and lids are swollen. Linda is continuing,
"Okay so, one guy came around to Freddy and one behind me. Footsteps ran to the back, but it sounded like more than one guy, but not like a bunch, like less than five. May be just two or three went to the back. I guess that makes four or five total? And..." she looks away before she makes her next statement about the ordeal.
"They raped me. I don't know how many guys, but it happened three times. Unless it happened more after the third time, that's when I was knocked out." she begins to cry. The ambulance is pulling into the bay and the woman on the gurney is loosing control and Olivia Benson is calming her with a smooth steady voice and words to give her tools to fight this fear from overtaking the poor woman.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa calm down Linda. Listen to my voice and slow your breathing. You are okay now and you are safe. Open your eyes and look at where you are. Hear the sirens around us. Feel my hand touch your hand," she places her hand on top her the injured woman's and continues, "I am right here with you and I will be as long as you need, okay?"
Linda Taggert has heard the words and drew strength from them and is almost calmed as the doors open and they begin the next phase of the new and ugly nightmare she cannot wake from. She begins to withdraw emotionally and as medical issues are being passed from one medical provider to the next, she stares above with a black drudge filling them as her soul dies inside and her spirit breaks into microscopic shards that will take millions of years to repair. She is in the pit of despair and the quicksand pulls her further down each millisecond. Each new millisecond takes a million years to pass by and she longs for the blackness and it quickly consumes her mind.
The group move beside the patient into a sterile trauma room. Det. Benson informs the team that she is a rape victim and the two males in the room quickly leave and find female replacements, so the patient's care would not be compromised.
An IV had been stuck into Linda's hand and she was receiving much needed fluids. The blood loss from the head wound and gun shot, along with adrenaline drop caused her to pass out, but now as the levels were returning to normal, Linda was waking up.
She sees that kind face again as she regains her focus. She is glad for that small favor. It reminds her that the nightmare is over and she is safe. She is talking to the woman who lies face-up with her head now facing the back of the room.
"Linda, can you hear me?" a nod, she continues. "I want to let you know that while you were unconscious, the doctor here did a vaginal exam, to save you the added trauma. With your permission, I would like to have it. It needs to be processed by the department lab in order to preserve the evidence for prosecution." Another nod.
"I have some questions." a nod from the lady cop. Linda begins, "Uhhh what is your name?"
"Detective Olivia Benson, but you can call me Olivia," she says with that smile that provided comfort, she hopes.
"Okay, uhh, have they been found?"
The cop shakes her head in a negative response, with a small look of defeat, "It has only been a few hours though, so don't worry. Our whole department is on your case, and we are working with homicide as well."
"You said that the owner Robert, his son Freddy and a customer where all shot?"
Benson nods and a question is clear on her face. Linda answers the curiosity of the police officer who is very helpful and kind, "I have shopped there for over a dozen years. Even before Fred went to Iraq. He suffered a TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] and lost a bit of his cognitive skills and is, I mean was mentally disabled." she begins to cry again. "He was a war hero! He did NOT deserve to die this way!" Linda gathers herself before she continues,
"So...these guys emptied the register, maybe cleaned out the safe in back?" the cop nods, "raped me and killed a bunch of people. All for...what? What did they get away with?" she looks at Benson.
"About two thousand dollars, some jewelry from all of the...all of you in the store." (she had almost said 'victims', not a mistake the seasoned officer makes unless she gets involved more emotionally in a case) This woman's appearance and strong demeanor are 'getting to Liv' and she snaps back into 'cop mode'.
"The camera's don't work, so we are looking at the footage from anywhere outside of the store. I hate to ask you this, but do you happen to know if the owners have any family?" Benson is taking her interview one question at a time. She needs info, but does not want to push this woman to quickly.
"No," she says swiftly. Then like a light bulb switching on, she remembers and she says, "YES! But I think they are distant, and they are back home in Romania. Some cousins, I think an aunt is still living of Robert's, too." she is staying calm as she answers questions for the next few hours.
"Can you give me a description of the assailants please," asks Benson.
"They were covered head to toe in black. They each had a different gun. I heard 3 different shots from 3 different areas of the store. There was a shotgun; two handguns, one like cowboys use that goes around and the other was a regular one; and a machine gun like in the movie with the two guys from the future and one is trying to kill a lady and the other is protecting her?
"Anyway, uhh, I'm not sure of race by their skin, the ones I saw good enough had black make-up around the eyes. That was the only thing exposed that I saw. I believe by their speech, I could make more on-point race ID's. The one that had the shotgun, was black. The two with the handguns, were white. And the machine gun guy was Mexican. I don'tthink he raped me, but I am almost positive the rest each did. They were all talkers. It was kinda easy to tell by their speech patterns and their words," Linda was mostly staring at her hands during this info. She was mostly holding it together, but she feared too much eye contact would break her resolve. She did not want them to win by breaking her. She would be strong and hold her ground.
Liv just thought of something, "Before we continue, can I call someone for you?" A barely noticeable negative head movement, so Liv keep going, "Lemme know if you change your mind.
"Okay so, Linda, I wondered if you would tell me if you think they might have wore condoms?" a head shake NO.
"Been under the influence of drugs or alcohol?" her eyes rise to make contact with the cop now.
"I did smell cigarettes, that all to familiar breath of a heavy drinker. My dad drank A LOT and when he was home he would beet us and take turns having "sleep-overs with his girls. Also, I smelled pot. It seemed fresh, as did the tobacco smell, not that musty ashtray odor."