Not If You Were The Last
An apocalyptic drama exploring reconciliation as the cost of survival
When the world begins to end, a victim and her bully find themselves isolated at their boarding school. As fear and resentment blur together, they must decide if reconciliation is possible, or if survival would demand separation.
Synopsis
Mary and Vanessa are both students at an all-girls boarding school. After Vanessa played a cruel trick on Mary with some of her friends, both Mary and Vanessa were given Saturday detention. Christmas break started on Friday, leaving them the only two students not yet home for the holidays. Tension simmers between them as they sit in the empty school. When their supervising teacher leaves to investigate strange noises in the corridor, something inhuman attacks, marking the start of an unexplained apocalyptic event.
Six months later, the girls have turned the school into a makeshift survival shelter. With no contact from the outside world, they have no idea what is happening, or if anyone else is alive. The power dynamic between them has shifted due to the overriding fear of survival. Van’s cruelty towards Mary has faded, replaced by a codependency and need to stick together for survival. Mary remains guarded, unable or unwilling to forget the trauma Van created in exchange for friendship amidst the panic.
As supplies finally begin to run out, Mary is trapped between the belief that she must leave in order to attempt to find her family, and Van’s belief that staying put is safer, that someone would eventually come for them. Van remains terrified of facing the outside world, and Mary has been unable to leave her alone so far, also afraid of being separated completely.
As Mary walks around the school alone and Van stays by the fire they built in the library, part of their pasts are revealed through flashbacks. The extent of Van’s bullying is revealed as she and her friends beat Mary up after writing a nasty comment on her locker. Glimpses of Van’s own abusive homelife are also revealed, complicating the division between victim and perpetrator. We see now that both girls are shaped by fear, and Van had just become what she had been taught to endure, passing the abuse on to Mary.
Mary finally prepares to leave, hastily packing a bag and rushing into the hallway, where she is confronted by Van. Van desperately pleads with her to stay, breaking down with the fear of being alone and abandoned, yet still unwilling to face the outside world and what it may have become in this time. As Mary is faced with the large exit doors ahead, she must decide if leaving alone would be best, or if she should stay with Van and choose reconciliation.