Maggots

INT. LAB - DAY
MILA (45-55), white lab coat drooped over her business clothing and Helena (25-30), a lab coat over proper scientific clothing, with safety glasses hung around her collar, rush down the empty hallway, footsteps ECHOING as they do. The walls are a crisp white, aside from the small containers built into the walls. As they walk down the hallway, they pass several glass containers with large dead maggots, streaks of blood coming from the darkened pores on the unmoving animals. Their eyes are drained and lifeless.
 

HELENA: Test 456 was a success; the larvae responded appropriately to the injection.
MILA: Can they break the skin? 

HELENA: We suspect so.

Mila turns to Helena sharply. Her eyes sharpen, like a hawk.
MILA: What does suspect so mean?

Helena GULP'S as she adverts her gaze.
 

MILA: Test it, human trials.
HELENA: Ma’am, we don’t know what side effects, if any, would persist. A maggot entering the skin surely isn’t safe, at least not yet-
MILA: -Why are you still talking?

Helena looks down.

HELENA: Please, we need to run tests-

MILA: Do we have animals ready?

HELENA: All of us here believe that is highly-
MILA: -Helena, respectfully, I don’t care. If successful, this could do wonderful things for everyone. Including the stakeholders, including me-

Mila eyes Helena up and down and puts on a fake smile.

MILA: Even you.

HELENA: But the maggot could also disrupt many important aspects of a brain.

MILA: Or it could improve everyone’s lives overnight.

Helena looks away from Mila as Mila pauses and turns to a glass container, this one bustling with activity from close to fifty maggots', each around the size of the tip of your
finger. Large teeth protrude out from their small mouth, ready to devour anything that poses a threat. Upon Mila’s look, the maggots inch towards the glass. Mila approaches the glass till she’s eye level with them. Mila raises her hand to reach in before Helena grabs it to stop her.

HELENA: I would highly recommend against that, ma’am.

Mila scowls at Helena.
 

MILA: You're right.

Helena takes a sigh of relief.

MILA: You do it.
Helena looks confused.

HELENA: Pardon? I'm not sure what you mean.

MILA: You heard me.
HELENA: I can’t-
MILA: Now, please.

Helena looks down. Mila struggles to contain her smile.

HELENA : We don’t know the side effects-
MILA: -Then I guess we will find out.

Mila’s smile widens.
HELENA: I-
MILA: -Chop Chop.
Mila drops her smile.
HELENA: You can’t be-
MILA: -I assure you, I am.

Helena takes a step toward the case as Mila stares at her coldly. Helena slowly reaches up and pulls the case up, trying to stall as much as possible. As she slowly sticks her
hand in, Mila’s smile returns. In the reflection of Helena’s blue eyes, a maggot inches
toward the outstretched finger. It slowly unclamps its jaws. Helena lowers her hand down as a Maggot latches onto her pinkie. She raises it so that she’s still above the glass
display as Mila grins. Veins throughout the maggot light up red as it slowly sucks Helena’s blood, trying to weaken her.

HELENA: It’s not biting, Ma’am. Just draining.

Mila smiles.

MILA: You're the scientist I thought you understood the importance of-
Helena GASPS as the Maggot rips her whole fingernail off in a single bite. The Maggot begins to attack the spot where the nail, now on the floor, once was.
HELENA: MILA!

MILA: Shhh. It's all okay.

As Helena watches in terror, the outline of the Maggot bites a hole in her finger before climbing into her finger. It initially looks like a large wart on her finger as Helena gasps for air.

MILA: Did it just-
The lump under her skin jolts as the maggot begins devouring the body tissue under her hand. It begins to crawl up her hand, standing out like a massive, moving mosquito bite.

HELENA: HELP ME!

The outline runs up her arm and neck before it begins to move on her forehead. Helena, in pure desperation, begins trying to punch her head. The Maggot’s outline stops between her eyebrows before slipping down to her eye socket, Helena's blue eyes
wide in fear.

HELENA: PLEASE, I HAVE A FUCKING-
MILA: Patience, the importance of Patience. It's important in science. 

Helena pauses as blood begins to DRIP against the white floor. As she feels for where the blood comes from, Mila stays unfazed as she watches the blood drip from behind Helena's eyeball.

HELENA: Mila-

MILA: -It’s okay, it needs to reach your brain to cure you.

The maggot continues to climb until it’s back on her forehead, before disappearing. Helena blinks with her non-bleeding eye.

HELENA: It doesn't cure anything.
MILA: You will feel so much better soon.

Helena’s ears start to bleed slowly as she doubles over. Mila looks confused.

MILA: Guess it’s not quite yet.
Helena drops to the ground, unmoving.
MILA: Helena?

Mila kicks the unmoving body.
MILA: Not again.

Mila seals the case before walking back the way she came. She pauses as she passes Case One, filled with a decomposing Maggot. Mila smiles softly at her progress, while staring at the dead maggot. Behind her, Helena’s blue eyes slowly open, one filled in pool of blood, reflecting Mila ahead of her.