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Dead Meat

Overview

Show Type
Play
Age Guidance
Mature Audiences (M)
Genders
  • Female: 1
  • Male: 2
Playing Age
Adult, Young Adult, Late Teen, Mature Adult
Style
Dramatic
Length
Medium
Time Period
Contemporary
Time/Place
The Present Day, a living room of a family home
Act/Scene
Act 1

Context

Text

Dead Meat music gets louder.

ZABBY They’re beating the drums, Mr. Sheridan. Do you hear that?

CHUCK (pleading) Dead meat dead meat! Dead meat dead. Meat dead meat dead meat?

ZABBY Oh Chuck. Shut up, already! It would be rude of me to eat in front of our guests, without offering them a bite. Those Things are hungry, and you look…delicious. Give in.

ZABBY picks CHUCK up out of the chair by his hair. She drags him before forcing him to his knees. Thick black liquid oozes from his mouth.

CHUCK (whimpering) Dead meat dead meat dead meat dead meat dead meat…

ZABBY We’re going to eat you, Chuck. Your liver first. I bet it’s – slippery. It won’t be much longer, Daddy. I can hardly wait. Those Things are going to gnash you up in their awful teeth. How I do like to watch you suffer. Can you hear them finishing off Hannah? Digging through her body with their claws. The intestines are the most flavorful, you know! Hear them sucking hers clean? Listen closer.

THOSE THINGS re-appear from behind the couch.

ZABBY TAKE IT!

THOSE THINGS envelop CHUCK. We can no longer see him under the writhing feeding frenzy but we can hear him screaming. Blood pools. ZABBY plops down emotionlessly on the couch and goes limp. She sits motionless as THOSE THINGS eat. Abruptly, she opens wide her eyes, and screaming, rushes down center crazed as though she is going to leap into the audience and eat them.

BLACKOUT.

There are 13 chimes of a clock as NARRATOR speaks.

NARRATOR And so it happened that Zabby Sheridan became the monster her once loving husband accused her of being. Then she ate him. She ate them all. And Those Things fought over the scraps. That song. Dead Meat. Catchy, isn’t it? You know, I’m really starting to like it. They’ve been playing it all day. Dead Meat plays in the dark.

We are back in the living room. The place is once again pristine, and decked out for Halloween. All looks normal, except for the bloody bowl of body parts situated by the front door for trick-or-treaters. There is a knock. ZABBY enters. She looks beautiful. She cradles a baby in her arms wrapped in a blanket and answers the door.

TRICK-OR-TREATERS (off, and to the cadence of the traditional “trick or treat”) Dead or meat!

ZABBY Happy Halloween! Don’t you kids look adorable! Here you go!

ZABBY holds the baby in one arm, and uses her other hand to toss bloody body parts through the door, off, to the TRICK-OR-TREATERS. We hear them growling and tearing into the meat like a pack of animals. ZABBY smiles and closes the door. She crosses down center and addresses the audience.

ZABBY Oh, hello everybody! You’re just in time! I was just about to feed the baby dead meat. Won’t you be tasty! And just look at Those Things behind you! Excuse me, Narrator, could you turn the music up please? It soothes the baby.

NARRATOR Oh yes, Zabby. Of course. Pass a fork would you, dear?

Dead Meat song is turned up louder. ZABBY and NARRATOR laugh. The baby glows red as the lights fade.

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