Iris

ACT SIXTEEN: Finale

CHARACTERS: Iris Ash, Sarah, Sashique, policemen

The forest is burning.

Sirens faintly wail in the distance as the scene slowly pans to Iris. She is lying - unconscious or perhaps dead - in the middle of a circle of felled trees. Some of them are quietly smoldering, but there is a more intense fire spreading past the initial shock circle.

The scene changes to show the road outside of the forest. Sara pulls up in a junky old car and stares up at the rising smoke with horror before plunging into the forest.

She dashes through the trees, following burning plants and smoke that form a macabre trail. Soon, she is met with a wall of flames. She skirts around it, continuing to delve deeper into the woods, now holding an arm over her face and crouching to minimize the amount of smoke she breathes in.

Finally, she reaches the clearing in which Iris is lying. Arm lowering and mouth opening in shock, Sara dashes across the clearing and sinks to her knees. She feels desperately for a pulse on Iris's neck and finally sighs in relief, eyes fluttering shut as she sinks back on her heels. The gratefulness is short-lived, however, as it is interrupted by a terrific coughing fit. Once she recovers, Sara hooks her arms underneath Iris's and hauls her to her feet. She hooks her companion's arms over her shoulders so that the woman is draped across her back. Then, she begins trekking back out of the forest.

This journey is more difficult than that into the forest. She has to frequently stop to cough. Sometimes, she stumbles. Only once does she fall, scraping her forearms badly enough to draw blood. She forges onwards regardless.

Several police cars have pulled up to the sides of the road and are eyeing Sara's borrowed vehicle with concern. Sara sees them and forces herself to walk just a little faster, gasping for breath and clearly exhausted.

A policeman catches sight of her and shouts to his coworkers just as she collapses to the ground and the scene goes dark.

When Sara next regains consciousness, it is in a hospital room. Sashique is seated in a chair next to the door, reading quietly. When she sees Sara glancing around in confusion, she hurriedly puts down the book and rushes over to her bedside.

SASHIQUE: [relieved] Sara! [concerned] How are you feeling?

Sara attempts to speak but instead devolves into a vicious fit of coughing. Sashique hands her a cup of water from the bedside table and she downs the entire glass before speaking again in a raspy voice.

SARA: [dryly] I feel like a torch was stuck down my throat.

SASHIQUE: [with a small smile] Your lungs were damaged by the smoke, and that's on top of the entire plane crash situation and other injuries simply from falling in the forest. You're lucky to have survived any step of that journey.

SARA: [suddenly worried, struggling into a sitting position] Iris! Is Iris alright?

Sashique sighs and shrugs, shaking her head.

SASHIQUE: [sadly] Honestly, we don't know. It took all the string-pulling I had in me to get her discharged from this hospital before they delved too deep into her body composition -

SARA: [angrily] Why would you do that? She needs to be in here, getting treatment! She got hurt a hell of a lot worse than I did!

SASHIQUE: [soothingly] They couldn't do anything for her here, Sara. She's not human. They aren't even aware creatures such as her parents exist, let alone sometimes are forced to create mixed specie children.