The Keepers of the Bees
Screenplay by JG and BC
ACT 1.
The screen turns white for a second before adjusting to the sun. As the sky becomes visible, it becomes clear this is not the world as we know it. Charcoal streaks run across a blood red sky. There is silence as the camera slowly pans down revealing a barren, but somewhat familiar wasteland (see picture below).
The camera rests on this scene. The letters of the title begin to appear (out of order), while a faint buzzing begins. The buzzing grows louder and louder; the constant droning seems to be getting closer. Soon the noise is almost unbearable. Just as the completed title fades the camera whips around to reveal the thousands of bees flying overhead and all around -we're right in the middle of it.
The camera is moving with the swarm now, following the lone human amongst them. They are dressed head to toe as a fencer, and appear to be running from something as they periodically check over their shoulder. As they approach what looks to be a castle a similarly dressed man yells, "Close the gate!"
The swarm and runner dive in just as the wooden doors shut. Inside the castle is a medieval market, except that there are pieces of technology that would place this in the near future, rather than the past. The entire village is populated by fully dressed beekeepers. They all stop what they are doing to see the commotion. The fencer spins around and braces, pointing the tip of their sword towards the massive doors. There is absolute silence in the market as the beekeepers remain fixated on the door. They are noticeably scared. The fencer's sword shakes slightly, but they hold their ground.
Suddenly, the doors shake as a massive boom emanates from them. A few keepers gasp but nobody moves. Again, boom. The fencer stands patiently, waiting. However no third knock comes. Instead the muted sounds of the army leaving can be heard.
Once it is safe to assume they have left the fencer lowers their sword and relaxes. The market goers go back to what they were doing. The fencer removes her mask to reveal her shoulder-length greying hair (she is in her mid-fifties). "Your Highness!" one of the beekeepers calls out as he approaches, "Are you alright?" He tends to a wound on her arm.
"I'm fine, I'll stop by the infirmary." she replies as she jerks her arm away.
"I'm afraid it'll have to wait. The Patrol has picked up a prisoner-"
"One of those things is here?!" she interrupts, now alarmed.
"No, no, a small boy from across the river. He says his camp was burned down." says the beekeeper, reassuringly.
"It's been years since they were that aggressive, we should see what this kid knows."
The two continue walking while the camera stops to show a little bit more of life inside the walls. Beekeepers tend to hives and trade honey-related items amongst each other. All around are bees, living amongst them as equals. Scattered throughout the market are small, birdfeeder-like devices, allowing the bees somewhere to stop and converse.
The fencer opens an aging door, and steps into the dimly lit room. A small boy is curled up behind a crate. He's a little bit chubby but he can't be much older than 11. Noticing the beam of light the door is casting on the floor, the boy rolls over. He squints his eyes and raises his arm to shield the light. He has been crying.
"Hey, it's okay. We're not here to hurt you." the fencer says. The boy doesn't seem convinced. "My name is Vanessa, do you have a name?" she crouches down to seem less imposing.
"...David."
"Well it's nice to meet you David, you're safe now. Those people can't get in here and you're welcome to stay, okay?" Vanessa says.
"Who... what are those things?" David timidly asks.
Vanessa sighs, "we were hoping that you could tell us. Do you remember what any of them look like?"
"There was one with... green eyes, I think," David says fighting off tears.
"Hey, it's okay," Vanessa rubs his shoulder, "they're not really monsters. Underneath all that costume they are just human beings, like you and me."
"Really?"
"Was the green-eyed one wearing a cape?" She asks deflecting the question.
"Uh... yeah, yeah he was." David says beginning to calm down.
"Ken..." Vanessa sighs, a look of genuine sorrow casts over her before she regains her focus, "what could be so important that Ken would show up in person? What does your camp have that they want that badly..." she looks up, "We're going to need Benson."
Cut back to the market. The camera walks ahead, pointing back as Vanessa, David, and the beekeeper briskly move through the crowds of other beekeepers.
"I just don't understand... Why would any human do this?" David asks, slightly out of breath.
"Some people just can't accept us for who we are, who we choose to love and protect," Vanessa replies, not fully paying attention to the conversation.
"But kill people? Because of bees?" David tries to ask but is cut off by their arrival. The beekeeper steps ahead to open a set of lavishly decorated doors. They swing open, revealing a long, grand hallway. At the end of the hallway is a throne, backlit by large stain glass windows. The artwork depicts the biblical rapture, the four horsemen of the apocalypse followed by famine, plagues, and swarms of locust (or are those really bees? It's hard to tell).
"Ah... Vanessa, so lovely to see you." says the oldest looking bee you've ever seen, sitting atop the throne.
"Barry..." it pains her to see him this way, "we have some troubling news."
"In times like these, what news isn't?" the old bee says in a weathered voice.
David is motionless, his eyes fixated on the throne. The bee notices his sudden paleness and laughs, "are you alright child?"
"I'm... I'm sorry it's just I've-"
"Never seen a talking bee?"
David nods.
"It's quite understandable... There is a certain fear that accompanies the discovery that you are a second class species." Benson sighs, "Enough fear to drive the whole world mad."
"There was peace for a few years," he continues, "you would be too young to remember, but it didn't last. The bees migrated around the globe, they neglected their responsibility as pollinators. This spread disease and famine, and so the humans brought war... So many innocent lives lost, so much land lost." he turns to peer out of a hole in the stained glass, showing the barren hellscape from before. "This used to be Manhatten... But that wouldn't mean anything to you would it, this war is all you've ever known. We didn't mean any harm, you know, we just wanted to live out our bee lives. But the humans never thought to consider what it would be like to wake up and realise you're the horsemen..."
Benson turns back towards Vanessa, "but you said you had news."
Vanessa swallows before explaining the situation. "This kid saw his camp torched. Says he saw somebody whose description matches Ken."
Benson sits up, now intrigued, "We haven't heard anything about him in months, I'd assumed he was dead."
"Which means that whatever that camp had must have been pretty important." replies Vanessa.
"We'll set up a team to investigate, the kid will need to help scout." says Benson.
"Are you sure? He's just a child." Vanessa replies.
"We'll need his knowledge of the land if we want to survive out there."
"Then I will go with, to protect him." says Vanessa.
"You're getting old Vanessa, it's impossible for someone like you to survive out there for that long." Benson says, concerned.
"According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. It's wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway, because bees don't care what humans think is impossible." she snaps back.
"That's my girl," he chuckles. Barry B. Benson turns back to look longingly at the stained glass window, his smile vanishes. Instead his eyes cast down in worry and sorrow. Vanessa and the others don't see this as they leave the room. Fade to black.
ACT 2. (draft)
Cutting from black, the camera begins close up to a pair of devilish eyes. Dollying out it reveals the bearded face of an old chiseled man rotting with anger. His hair is long and feral much like the look of his eyes.
Faint noises of men talking fill the air.
"That bee is living my life!" exclaims the disgruntled figure, "Those bees are living our lives."
The scene turns silent. The camera begins to dolly even further out to reveal Ken standing on a mound of his victims, cape flowing in the low wind. He clutches a black gas mask, the eyeholes painted a glowing green. At his left side and in his grasp an elderly lady sits on her knees with her head lowered. Her wrikeled face is dotted with tribal tattoos. Surrounding them are dozens of other men clad in ramshackle scrap armour, metal and other... fleshier components.
"The time of reckoning has come upon us, with this village finally under our control, we can begin our search for the tool that will free us all." Thrusting his spear into the air in triumph.
The men cheer.
"And with it, we will take back this world from the bees an-", the elderly lady shouts, "You will never bee half the man Barry is, and he will sto-", Ken backhands her with his left hand, silencing her.
Camera slowly shifts to focus on her. Then cuts to an over the shoulder from her point of view with a clear shot of Ken's face.
Ken kneels next to her, now uncomfortably close. A small amount of blood begins to run from her nose. Looking down at her Ken mutters, "... we will reclaim this world, and you will help us do it."
A slow and hardy laughter builds up. Ken rises to his feet as the camera lifts into the air and dollies out of the village while panning to reveal the whole of the scorched village.
The screen cuts to black, abruptly ending the echoing laughter.
Back at the castle, beekeepers load up a convoy with supplies. David nervously watches as the trunk is filled with food and guns.
"David!" Vanessa calls out gleefully. She's carrying two swords, one much smaller than the other, "I got you this, you'll need your own foil if you want to protect yourself."
She hands David the shorter of the two swords. He runs his finger along the smooth cylindrical blade, "It's not even sharp," he says, confused. He lifts his finger to prick the pointed top but Vanessa stops him.
"The point is coated in Melittin, one poke is all it takes."
David strikes a heroic pose, wielding his new weapon.
"Haha, you're a natural," Vanessa says as she opens the Jeep doors.
Cut to an aerial shot of the convoy, driving through the wasteland. Inside David and a beekeeper play cards. Vanessa (driving) looks back, "David I'm going to need you in a sec."
Sighing David puts down the cards and says something inaudible to the beekeeper before making his way to the front of the truck. "You have to go south at the river mouth," David says.
"How long from there?"
"Maybe three days, on foot."
"In that case we'll have to find somewhere to stop for the night," Vanessa says, disappointed.
Cut to night time, the convoy has pulled off the "road" and set up camp in what looks like an overgrown warehouse. David sits next to a beekeeper by a small fire. The beekeeper is showing David how to roast a marshmallow.
"...And once it's nice and golden, you just -oh it's a little hot still." the beekeeper says as he smashes the marshmallow onto a gram cracker. "Then you just drizzle on a little honey... and voila!"
David's eyes gleam as the beekeeper hands him the treat, "Wow, thanks..."
"Berkley." the beekeeper responds.
"Well thanks Berkley," David says as he finishes the s'more.
Berkley leans back as he takes of his beekeeper mask. The camera cut to a close-up of David, almost vomiting up the marshmallow he just ate.
"Oh jeez, I didn't realize this was your first time seeing one of my kind." Berkley say, apologetically. His face is a mixture of flesh and pincers. Small bristles of black hair dotted his face. (I've taken the liberty of drawing what this might look like below).
"It's okay, most people's reactions aren't that different."
David, still not convinced what he's seeing is real stammers, "you're... you're... you're-"
"Haha, yes." Berkley's pincers chatter together when he laughs.
"Are all of the beekeepers..." David trails off, eyeing the men around him.
"Some, but not all." Berkley replies, "Back at the Hive though, we're all equals."
David swallows, acclimatizing to his friends appearance. He tries to stick a marshmallow onto his own stick but it is too dull.
"Try this," Berkley says, handing him a pocket knife. David wildes the stick sharp.
"Thanks," David says as he hands back the knife.
"Keep it."
David smiles and puts the knife in his pocket. There is a moment of silence as David roasts his marshmallow.
"I didn't even realize this..." David says motioning to Berkley's face, "was possible."
"Most people didn't think it was. That was until Barry and Vanessa..."
"Wait, Vanessa and... Benson?" David says, wide-eyed.
"Ah, the stories I could tell..." Berkley sighs, "Shame what a war can do to love."
The two look off in the direction of Vanessa. She catches their glances and walks over.
"It's time for you to go to bed, David," she says sternly, "tomorrow's going to be a long day."
Cut to a torch-lit stairway. The camera follows behind as Ken descends the stairs. Behind him arm two soldiers carrying the old woman from before. She is resisting but it makes no difference.
"Open it." Ken demands as the approach an old wooden door at the bottom of the staircase.
A guard forces her hand onto the door. Trails of yellow light burst from her palm and scatter towards the door's edge as she touches its surface. The sounds of gears slowly beginning to turn fill the stairway as the door slowly opens itself. Ken pushes past as the old woman hangs her head in shame. She is no longer struggling.
Once inside Ken heads straight for an old desk. The entire room is made of wood, even some tree trunks are growing out of the wall. Symbols similar to those tattooed on the woman's face are finger painted onto all of the walls. Ken flips through a tattered notebook that he found on the desk. He stops when he arrives on the page he was looking for.
"There." he commands, pointing at a bookshelf populated with chemical-filled glass jars. "Collect all of the ones from row three and four."
The soldiers shovel the jars into burlap sacks and wooden crates.
"You should be proud," Ken snarls to the now defeated old woman, "you just saved the human race."
It's noon, and David plays with the knife Berkley gave him in the back of the jeep. Vanessa looks out at smoke coming from the distance. She pulls over.
"We'll have to walk from here."
It's evening now as the convoy marches on foot. Their body language indicates that it has been a long journey. "Shh, stay low," Vanessa whispers as the party approaches a tree line.
Peering out from the trees, David and the others overlook a crumbling village, still smoldering. David is visibly distraught and looks away from the scene. Across the valley he thinks he sees a flash of light. He looks around but everybody else is focused on Ken. Curious, he squints to see if he can make out what is over there.
"David do you recognize her?" Vanessa asks, drawing David's attention back to Ken. David looks at the old woman, now shackled next to Ken.
"That's our village elder," says David, alarmed.
"...And in our new world, a world once again ruled by Man," Ken rants to a riled-up crowd, "There will be no room for Bee Sympathisers." He says looking to the old woman. "Bring me the flask."
A soldier from the crowd brings out a glass flask filled with the same chemical that was taken from her lab. Ken takes it and, like a magician, presents it triumphantly presents it to the crowd. The men cheer on queue.
"Not a single bee sympathizing cell will be left by the time I'm done with you." Ken says, turning his attention to the old women. He lifts the flask to the resisting woman's lips.
"No!" David screams, his eyes on the verge of tears. Ken stops what he's doing to turn towards the boy, timidly pointing his foil at Ken.
"How rude..." Ken mutters to himself before motioning for the guards to detain him.
"Fuck," Vanessa sighs drawing her own foil and pulling David behind her. Berkley fires two shots from behind cover. The darts hit the first two soldiers, immediately puffing up their face as the Melittin courses through their blood. Vanessa strides past the two crippled soldiers, and charges for the third. He throws his spear but it is deflected by Vanessa's sword. He reaches for his own sword: a scimitar looking blade, holstered in his belt. He draws the sword but it is too late, Vanessa's foil thrusts into his chest. He freezes like a paralyzed starfish before falling over limp. Without pausing she ducks underneath an incoming sword and spins around slashing a wound across the soldier's chest. He screams as his exposed skin is inflamed by the toxin.
"Vanessa!" David calls out, scared. She turns to see David and the others being bound by the soldiers. There are just too many of them. Before she can get up to help a soldier from behind clocks her with the butt of his sword, knocking her out. Cut to black.
Guards pull a burlap sack off of Vanessa's head. She tries to make out her environment while her eyes adjust. It's night time. They aren't in the village anymore. David, Berkley, and the other beekeepers are similarly tied up beside her.
"Ah, I see you've finally awoken my love," Ken says kneeling down next to her, "I would have hated for you to miss my big day." He runs his hand through her hair. Rising to his feet Ken addresses his army, "Plus you will be a far better example of my new power than that deranged witch."
The crowd cheers as he once again presents the flask of liquid. Vanessa struggles to free herself, but to no avail.
"Killing me will stop nothing!" She screams.
"Kill you?" Ken says, genuinely confused, "Honey, no, I'm saving you." He looks longingly into her eyes, "I'm bringing you back."
"Sir, these men were just picked up near the west gates." Says a guard escorting two restrained beekeepers. Unlike the other beekeepers however, these men are dressed in complete black.
"Put them with the others." replies Ken.
Vanessa looks confused. Ken notices this and laughs. With one eyebrow raised he says, "I think it will all make sense quite soon."
"Are you aware of a chemical called 10-HDA?" Ken says touting the glass flask, "ten-hydroxy-two-decenoic-acid. See, queen bees release this to attract mates. But our friend Barry, well he's been releasing the stuff like crazy. I doubt he was aware of his effect at first..."
Ken suddenly notices the two black beekeepers, "Now let me guess, Barry sent you after Vanessa didn't he?"
The beekeepers don't respond.
"After too much time away his pheromone would lose its effect. Am I wrong?"
The beekeepers hang their head in shame but say nothing.
"That's not true, I love Barry for who he is." Vanessa says, a twang of doubt in her voice.
"We'll see about that..." Ken says, once again (for let's be honest, like the fifteenth time) raising the flask to her lips. He pours it into her mouth, and with a little resistance, she swallows.
"...No, I love..." Vanessa whispers, but deep down she knows the truth.
"You can untie her now, she's no longer under his spell." Ken says as he motions to the guards. They untie her and the two embrace. Vanessa is crying now.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know..." She says as he pats her back.
"It's okay, you're safe now."
David shifts his legs, fishing out his new pocket knife. "Vanessa, surely he still means something to you?" Berkley pleads.
"He's just a stupid bee." Vanessa says, struggling to look at him. "They're all just bees..."
Vanessa and Ken turn their backs and walk away.
"Sir what should we do with the prisoners?" a guard asks.
Ken looks at Vanessa, she thinks for a second before slowly nodding.
"Kill them all." Ken commands.
David finishes sawing through his and Berkley's restraints. He dives for his foil and points it at Ken's back.
"I won't let you do this Vanessa!" he yells, tears forming in his eyes.
Before either has a chance to turn around, David is tackled by Berkley and swept into the air. "No! We can't just leave her!" David screams, crying. "There isn't any time." Berkley says, holding back tears. He flies on towards The Hive, determined. A flurry of gunshots go off in the distance. Berkley continues flying.
