Season 1 – Episode 1: “The Sound of Crows”

(Dialogue Novel Format – 18+ Survival Realism)

*[Scene opens – early morning. Smoke drifts through a destroyed highway. Burnt cars, twisted steel. The only sound is the cawing of crows. Elias lies face-down among the wreckage, his military jacket torn, his breathing shallow.]

Elias (whispers): “…Where… am I?”

(He pushes himself up, coughing. The ground is littered with ash and bone.)

Elias: “Command… come in. This is Sergeant Elias Grant… do you copy?”

(Static. Only silence replies. A single crow lands on a corpse and pecks its eye.)

Elias: “Guess not.”

(He limps toward a half-burned sign: “Welcome to Auburn Ridge.” The letters drip black soot.)

Elias: “Hell of a welcome sign…”

(He draws his knife and scans the area.)

(A whisper. Movement behind a car. Elias raises his rifle.)

Elias: “Show yourself!”

(A man steps out — older, unshaven, hands up.)

Doc Vernon: “Easy there, soldier. I’m not one of them.

Elias: “Then why the hell were you hiding?”

Doc: “Because people shoot first these days, talk later. You just proved my point.”

(Elias lowers his gun slightly.)

Elias: “…You alone?”

Doc: “Was, until you yelled at the crows.”

(They both look at the sky. Hundreds of crows circle the burnt treeline.)

Doc: “They only gather like that when death’s fresh.”

Elias: “Everything’s fresh around here.”

(They move through the highway wrecks together.)

Elias: “What happened here?”

Doc: “Convoy ambushed. Maybe hybrids.

Maybe something worse.”

Elias: “Hybrids don’t think. They don’t plan.”

Doc: “You sure about that?”

(Elias pauses, staring at the ground — a trail of claw marks leading under a car.)

Elias: “What the hell made these?”

Doc: “Something that wanted to live.”

(A faint metallic thud echoes. Elias crouches.)

Elias: “Stay back.”

(He peers under the car — sees movement, a flash of pale eyes.)

Elias: “Come out slowly.”

(A teenage girl crawls out, filthy, trembling, her eyes faintly silver.)

Zara: “…don’t… hurt me.”

(Elias and Doc exchange a glance.)

Doc: “Kid, where’s your family?”

Zara: “Gone. Everyone’s gone.”

Elias: “You hurt?”

Zara: (shakes head) “No.”

(He notices her wrists — faint black veins pulsing under her skin.)

Elias: “Doc… you seeing that?”

Doc: “Yeah… she’s half-turned.”

Elias: “She should be dead.”

Doc: “Or worse. Yet she’s breathing.”

Zara: “I can hear them…”

Elias: “Hear who?”

Zara: “The ones in the dark. They whisper.”

(A screech erupts from the forest. They all freeze.)

Elias: “Move. Now.”

(They run toward an old gas station nearby.)

(Inside, shelves are overturned, glass cracked. Crows perch on the counter.)

Doc: “They followed us in.”

Elias: “They’re scavengers, not hunters.”

Zara: “They’re watchers.”

Doc: “What?”

Zara: “Someone’s controlling them.”

(Static crackles on an old radio behind the counter.)

Radio (female voice): “—any survivors in the Auburn sector, respond—”

Elias: “That’s… a human voice.”

Doc: “Could be bait.”

Elias: “Or a chance.”

Zara: “Don’t answer. They’ll find us.”

Elias: “Who?”

Zara: (whispers) “The ones that can still think.”

(Elias picks up the radio mic.)

Elias: “This is Sergeant Elias Grant, U.S. Military. Identify yourself.”

(A pause. Then the voice returns, shaking.)

Radio: “My name’s Dr. June Keller. Project Hollow. If you can hear this… it’s not over.”

Doc: “Did she say Project Hollow?”

Elias: “Yeah. That was the cure program.”

Doc: “The one that caused all this.”

(Elias sets the mic down slowly.)

Elias: “Looks like we found our ghost.”

(Zara stares out the window.)

Zara: “They’re coming.”

Elias: “How do you know?”

Zara: “Because I can feel them moving under the ground.”

(The floor trembles. A low groan echoes below.)

Doc: “Jesus Christ…”

(The tiles crack — a grey arm bursts through the floor.)

Elias: “Run!”

(They dash toward the back exit. Elias shoots twice, the creature screeches.)

Doc: “What the hell are these things?”

Elias: “Not hybrids. Something else.”

Zara: “They were human once.”

(Outside — the sun barely visible behind ash clouds. Crows scatter as they burst from the station.)

Elias: “We keep moving west.”

Doc: “And the girl?”

Elias: “She’s coming with us.”

Doc: “You sure about that?”

Elias: “She’s half the reason those things

found us. If she stays behind, she dies. If she comes, maybe we live.”

Zara: “They’ll follow me anyway.”

Doc: “Comforting.”

(They move through a burnt forest — the sound of distant screams fades behind them.)

Elias: “You said you can hear them. What do they say?”

Zara: “They say we don’t belong here anymore.”

Doc: “Maybe they’re right.”

Elias: “Don’t start, Doc.”

Doc: “Just saying, maybe extinction’s overdue.”

Elias: “Not today.

(They reach a broken bridge. Water below glows faintly — chemical runoff.)

Doc: “You planning to cross that?”

Elias: “You got better ideas?”

Doc: “Yeah. Dying slower.”

(They climb down. Zara pauses halfway.)

Zara: “Someone’s watching.”

Elias: “Where?”

(A glint of metal from the trees — a drone hovers above.)

Elias: “That’s military tech.”

Doc: “Yours?”

Elias: “Mine would’ve been dust years ago.”

(Drone emits a sharp beep and flies away.)

Doc: “Guess the government’s still sightseeing.”

(Elias stares after it, haunted.)

Elias: “If they’re still alive, why the silence?”

Doc: “Because maybe we’re not worth saving.”

(They rest under an overpass. Zara shivers, eyes flickering silver again.)

Elias: “Doc, check her pulse.”

Doc: “It’s there… just cold. Like she’s not fully alive.”

Zara: “I told you… I’m not.”

Elias: “Then what are you?”

Zara: “A mistake.”

(Doc looks at Elias.)

Doc: “Project Hollow… she could be one of theirs.”

Elias: “A lab rat?”

Doc: “Or the reason it all began.”

(Zara looks away.)

Zara: “I didn’t ask to be made.”

(Thunder rolls. Rain begins to fall — black, oily rain.)

Elias: “Shelter. Now.”

(They rush under a collapsed tunnel.)

Doc: “Rain’s toxic.”

Zara: “Not to me.”

(She steps into the open, the rain sizzling against her skin but not burning.)

Elias: “What the hell…”

Doc: “You seeing this?”

Elias: “Yeah. She’s immune.”

Zara: “You’re not. Stay inside.”

(She walks into the storm, crows circling above her head.)

Doc: “That’s not natural.”

Elias: “Nothing is anymore.”

(She returns minutes later, holding something — a dog tag.)

Elias (reading): “GRANT, S.”

(He freezes.)

Doc: “That your name?”

Elias: “No. My son’s.”

Zara: “I found it in the field of bones.”

Elias: “Where?”

Zara: “North of here.”

Doc: “Thought your boy was gone.”

Elias: “So did I.”

(Elias stares at the dog tag like a ghost returned.)

Elias: “If he’s alive…”

Doc: “Then he’s changed, Elias. Nothing human survives that long.”

Elias: “I have to know.”

Zara: “If you find him, will you kill him?”

Elias: “If he’s one of them… I’ll do what I must.”

(Doc looks away, muttering.)

Doc: “We all say that… until it’s family.”

(The storm quiets. Night falls — glowing ash drifts through the air like snow.)

Elias: “We move at dawn.”

Doc: “Where to?”

Elias: “Denver. To find this Dr. Keller.”

Zara: “Then find what’s left of you.”

(A faint light flickers on the horizon — a

burning tower in the distance.)

Doc: “Looks like the city’s still screaming.”

Elias: “Or calling.”

Zara: “That’s where the others are.”

Elias: “What others?”

Zara: “The ones like me. They remember

faces, not names.”

(Crows swoop past again, screeching.)

Doc: “They don’t stop, do they?”

Zara: “They’re not birds anymore.”

Elias: “Then what are they?”

Zara: “Eyes of the dead.”

(A crow lands near the tunnel entrance, head twitching. A red light blinks in its eye.)

Doc: “Tell me that’s not—”

Elias: “A camera. Someone’s watching.”

(He crushes it under his boot.)

Elias: “Let them watch.”

Zara: “You shouldn’t have done that.”

Elias: “Why?”

Zara: “Because now they’ll come themselves.”

(Wind rises. Distant siren wails — faint but real.)

Doc: “That sound… that’s power. Electricity.”

Elias: “Someone’s running a grid.”

Zara: “Or waking one up.”

Elias: “Doc, pack up. We move now.”

Doc: “Thought you said dawn.”

Elias: “Change of plans.”

(He loads his rifle.)

Elias: “If someone’s watching, I want to meet

them before they meet us.”

(They step out into the storm again, shadows long under flickering firelight.)

Doc: “You think we’ll make it?”

Elias: “No. But we’ll try anyway.”

(Zara lags behind, whispering to herself.)

Zara: “They’re awake now… all of them.”

Elias: “What did you say?”

Zara: “Nothing.”

(The camera pans upward — black clouds swallowing the moon. A distant mechanical voice echoes through the static night.)

Voice (drone): “PROJECT HOLLOW— STATUS: UNSTABLE.”

(The screen fades to black. The sound of crows fills the silence.)