We're Already Dead
Written: 1998
© Julie Ruffell 1998
Description: A captured solider is tortured for information, but she refuses to yield, while trying to find some glimpse of humanity in her torturer.
"We're Already Dead"
The play opens in darkness to the sound of painful SCREAMING. The lights come up. In the center of the stage is a desk with a black leather chair behind it, and a metal folding chair in front of it. A young FEMALE CAPTAIN lies on the floor, shaking and mumbling to herself. Her face is bruised and a line of blood flows from her mouth to her chin. From stage right, a MALE CAPTAIN enters. He is older, around forty, clean shaven, with short hair. He wears a jacket that is covered in medals. He walks over to the Female Captain and leans down so that his mouth is close to her ear.
MALE CAPTAIN: (loudly) Good morning!
The Female Captain gasps and opens her eyes. The Male Captain walks over to his desks and sits on it.
MALE CAPTAIN: I trust you slept well. My superiors are becoming less and less patient. They want answers and they want them today, or you will die. You have managed to withstand torture for just a little over two weeks, without so much as a word.
He stands and moves over to the Female Captain. He bends down an pulls her into a sitting position, holding her head to look up into his eyes.
MALE CAPTAIN: I don't even know your name.
He drops her head and stands. He moves to stand behind the desk.
MALE CAPTAIN: Please, have a seat.
The Female Captain doesn't move.
MALE CAPTAIN: I said have a seat! Don't make me have to hurt you.
The Female Captain rises to her feet on shaky legs. She slowly moves over to the desk and sits in the chair in front of him.
MALE CAPTAIN: There, much better. See how easy it makes things when you just do what you're asked?
He sits in the leather chair.
MALE CAPTAIN: Let's start with something simple, shall we? Tell me your name.
When the Female Captain speaks, her voice is shaky with fatigue and pain. She speaks as though out of breath, each word needing to be forced out.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: What does it matter what you call me?
MALE CAPTAIN: Don't make me ask you again.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: My name…my name…is not something I will give to you. You haven't gotten anything from me in two weeks. I'm not about to start now.
The Male Captain sighs.
MALE CAPTAIN: Why must you make things so difficult on yourself? You know what happens now.
He pulls a small controller out of his jacket pocket.
MALE CAPTAIN: It hurts me that after all this time, you still refuse to help, and it makes me sad that you continue to make me hurt you.
The Male Captain presses a button on the controller. This sends pain shooting through the Female Captain, through an implant in her head, which sends a painful shock through all her nerves. She screams out in pain, and clutches her head until he takes his finger off the button.
MALE CAPTAIN: (leans forward) Why do you keep making things so hard on yourself? Just tell me what I want to know and you can go home.
The Female Captain is silent for a moment, recovering from the pain.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: No, I can't. You'll destroy everything I'm fighting for. Everything I love.
MALE CAPTAIN: It won't matter if you're dead.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: It does matter, because I will die knowing I gave you nothing.
The Male Captain slams his hands down heavily on the desk.
MALE CAPTAIN: Stop playing these games! Either you tell me what I want to know, or you will die!
FEMALE CAPTAIN: I'm not afraid of death.
MALE CAPTAIN: Maybe you're not afraid of death and obviously pain isn't going to make you talk. So the question is, 'What else do I try?'
FEMALE CAPTAIN: It doesn't matter.
The Male Captain stands and moves over to tower over the Female Captain.
MALE CAPTAIN: It's been a long two weeks, hasn't it? Just you, me and these walls. But I'm able to leave this room. I know all about the war going on out there. I know the death tolls and I know who has the upper hand.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Obviously we do, or I wouldn't be here.
The Male Captain presses the button and the Female Captain grabs her head and screams in pain. He releases the button.
MALE CAPTAIN: Don't get smart with me. You're at my mercy.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Only until the end of the day.
MALE CAPTAIN: You're wrong about the war. You country is falling, but it continues to resist. It's only a matter of time until we overtake you completely. However, why throw away lives when the information you hold can end this now? The sooner this ends, the sooner the killing stops.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: And the sooner freedom dies! I will not yield to you!
The Male Captain fiercely backhands the Female Captain, knocking her out of the chair.
MALE CAPTAIN: My patience is wearing thin.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Don't worry, our time is almost at an end.
MALE CAPTAIN: We conducted a raid on one of you cities recently. It was a very bloody attack.
The Male Captain once more sits in the leather chair, folding his hands on the desk before him.
MALE CAPTAIN: You wouldn't believe the gore.
The Female Captain stands and moves before the desk.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: I've seen it all. Tell me, have you ever been in the battlefield?
MALE CAPTAIN: Of course I have. You don't start at the top.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Then you know the horrors. You've seen the blood and the dead. You've seen the headless corpses, the burnt remains of children and babies lying in pools of their own blood. You've heard the constant sound of gunfire and you've sat amoung your dead comrades in the mud.
MALE CAPTAIN: We're not here to discuss me. Tell me what I want to know!
FEMALE CAPTAIN: All that suffering and you'll stand there and cause more?
MALE CAPTAIN: Without hesitation.
He presses the button and the Female Captain grabs her head, screaming. The Male Captain stands, walks over to her, and grabs her flailing body by the throat.
MALE CAPTAIN: I am in control here! You will answer my questions or you will live your final days in
The Male Captain releases the button. The Female Captain continues to lie on the floor, trying to recover herself.
MALE CAPTAIN: Do I make myself clear?
FEMALE CAPTAIN: I will not give you the…the satisfaction of seeing me break. I am a stone.
MALE CAPTAIN: Even stones can be broken.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: I won't be.
The Male Captain furiously grabs the Female Captain by her hair and pulls her to her feet. He picks up the chair that fell to the floor earlier and throws her into in with a violent display of force. From stage right, a female GENERAL enters. She is taller then both of the Captains, and her features are angular and taunt. Her uniform is freshly pressed, and her long black hair is held back in a tight and neat bun. She is intimidating both in stance and presence. Her eyes are filled with controlled anger. The Male Captain stands at attention.
GENERAL: Do you have the information yet?
MALE CAPTAIN: Not yet, General, but I will. I just need a little more time.
GENERAL: Time we do not have. I want that information.
MALE CAPTAIN: And you shall have it.
GENERAL: I had better, or you'll find yourself scrubbing toilets for the next ten years.
MALE CAPTAIN: Yes, General.
The General exits stage right. The Male Captain faces the Female Captain once more.
MALE CAPTAIN: Our time grows short.
The Female Captain coughs and a trail of blood runs down her chin.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: (sarcastically) I'm so glad.
The Male Captain places the controller on his desk as he sits once more and leans back. The Female Captain stares at it. The Male Captain smiles.
MALE CAPTAIN: You hate it, don't you? All the pain it has brought you. Go ahead. Smash it.
The Female Captain looks cautiously at him, but then she stands, grabs the controller and smashes it to shreds on the desks. She lets out an angry howl as she tosses the now useless controller across the room. She falls back into her chair, and sobs.
MALE CAPTAIN: Was that satisfying? Of course it doesn't matter. There's plenty more where that came from.
The Male Captain removes another controller from another pocket and presses the button. After watching the Female Captain scream in pain for a moment, he lets go.
MALE CAPTAIN: I have nothing against you. In fact, I admire you. You have been able to withstand this, but I have a duty to my country, just as you do to yours. But no one will blame you for giving in.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: I would blame myself. I want my loved ones to remain free. I want to have children and see them grow in a world without war.
MALE CAPTAIN: There will always be wars. Mankind was not made to agree. You know, in ancient Greek myth, they believed Prometheus created man after all other creatures. Being last, he had no more gifts to give man to protect himself. The cheetah had swiftness, the lion had claws, the eagle could fly and the cobra had venom. So he gave us intelligence, the ability to outthink those who would do us harm. In reality, he gave us an incurable disease. Thoughts allow ideas to form and from ideas, grow conflict. Your government had one idea, and mine another, and so, here we are. Killing each other. Not for survival, but because of a thought.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: So why do you add to it?
MALE CAPTAIN: Why do you? It's our duty to fight for our country, and do as we are ordered.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: I fight in the hopes that bloodshed can end and children not have to learn of it. Is that the legacy we want to leave them? Death?
They are both silent a moment.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Do you have children?
The Male Captain does not answer at first, weighing whether this route can help him to break her.
MALE CAPTAIN: I have a little girl.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: And is she safe from this bloodshed? Don't you fear for her life?
MALE CAPTAIN: (angry) Of course I do! She's all I have left! This war took my wife and son!
He realizes that he said that without meaning to. The wound is a raw one. He tries to regain control over his emotions, but he can feel the tears at his eyes and the emptiness in his heart.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: In war, both sides lose.
MALE CAPTAIN: There's nothing you or I can do about it, except help our side win. I intend to be the winner.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: You can't win. Death already has." She stands and leans over the desk. I remain sitting. "Don't you see? There is a way to make people understand.
MALE CAPTAIN: (curious) How?
She stands.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Allow your people to see me. Allow me to talk to your government. Let them see that their enemy has a face. Let them know my name. It's a lot harder to kill someone when you look them in the eye and see that there is no difference between them and you. The world was not created with lines drawn upon it. We are all made from the same mold. If not for these uniforms, we could be friends, or even fall in love.
MALE CAPTAIN: Enough of this! Time is running out. I need the information.
The Female Captain turns away, both angry and upset that she keeps getting so close to reaching him, and then he pulls back. She's desperate. She turns back, pleading with her words, her voice, her body language for this man to see reason.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Can you be so dense that you can't see what is happening? This madness has to stop! Allow yourself to be freed from your shackles! Let go of your blind hatred!
The Male Captain stands, not liking how the Female Captain is crowding him.
MALE CAPTAIN: What would that accomplish?
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Peace!
MALE CAPTAIN: Peace is an illusion. War decides who wins and who dies. Who leads and who follows. Peace is an impossibility!
FEMALE CAPTAIN: War is easy, for cowards. Peace is the route of the brave and the strong. If we continue to be weak, then only Death will win.
Both are silent again for a moment. The Female Captain pleads with her tear filled eyes. The Male Captain slowly looks down at his desk.
MALE CAPTAIN: This war has cost too much. The lives of all those killed. For what? The life of my wife. The life of my son! I wish it were possible to remove the images from my brain.
He faces the audience.
MALE CAPTAIN: The city had been bombed. Nothing was left but debris. I found my crumbled home, and I dug at it until my hands were bleeding. They were all together, huddled in fear. Shards of glass had imbedded themselves into my wife's beautiful face, making it unrecognizable. A rock had crushed my son's skull, his blood was everywhere. I found my little girl, my angel, my light, hidden underneath her mother. She lived, but she'll never walk again. She'll never leave behind the shadows, the screams or the fear.
Tears flow down the Male Captain's face and the Female Captain walks over to him. She touches his shoulder but he pulls away from her, as though her touch were fire.
MALE CAPTAIN: What are you doing?
FEMALE CAPTAIN: You're a fellow human being who is suffering. I'm trying to offer you comfort.
MALE CAPTAIN: 'Comfort'?! How can you show my compassion when all I've given you is pain? I don't understand you.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Because you don't know me! That's why people need to see their so-called 'enemy.' To understand. Then this could end. We could go home and be with our loved ones. We could sit down in front of a warm fire with a good book, rather then knee-deep in mud, waiting for death to fall from the sky!
The Male Captain wipes away his tears and faces her. She has reached him.
MALE CAPTAIN: How could I cause you pain?
There is a long silence.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: I forgive you.
The Male Captain brushes a lock of hair out of the Female Captain's face. The General enters from stage right. The Male Captain quickly drops his hand and moves away from the Female Captain, while placing his hands behind his back. The Female Captain backs away from both of them.
GENERAL: Her time is up, and so is yours in this army if you don't have the information I want.
The Male Captain looks at the Female Captain, then stands straighter as he faces the General again.
MALE CAPTAIN: She has refused to yield.
GENERAL: Incompetence! Give me the controller!
MALE CAPTAIN: I'm not finished, General.
GENERAL: Yes, you are.
The General holds out her hand for the controller.
MALE CAPTAIN: (quickly) She didn't release the information we were after, but she gave me something better.
The General drops her hand.
GENERAL: Let's hear it.
MALE CAPTAIN: She told me how we can work towards the end of this war through peace.
The General laughs loudly.
GENERAL: Peace! Did she brainwash you? There's only one way to get peace, and it's by eliminating them all.
The Male Captain slams his hands on the desk, dropping the controller has he does so.
MALE CAPTAIN: We can't win like this.
He realizes too late that he's dropped the controller, and the General quickly takes possession of it.
GENERAL: You've become soft.
MALE CAPTAIN: You can't kill her.
GENERAL: (toying with him) Why not?
The Male Captain now speaks with the same desperation the Female Captain has shown throughout the play.
MALE CAPTAIN: Look at her! She's not some dark shadow in the night! She's right there in front of you! Look her in the eye! She has a face!
GENERAL: The face of the enemy.
MALE CAPTAIN: No! How can you look her in the eye and kill her? She's a human being!
GENERAL: No, she is our enemy. When you stepped through that doorway into this world, you left your conscience out there. There is no place for it in a war.
The Female Captain takes a tentative step forward.
MALE CAPTAIN: There's room for compassion anywhere.
GENERAL: Compassion makes you weak. It prevents you from doing what needs to be done.
MALE CAPTAIN: You're wrong. It makes you stronger.
GENERAL: I've been here longer then you have, and I've seen things you can't even imagine.
The Female Captain speaks quietly.
FEMALE CAPTAIN: Then you should want to let it go.
The General turns to her with cold eyes.
GENERAL: You had your chance.
The General cracks the dial and presses the button, setting it to full power. The Female Captain falls, and screams throughout the following conversation. The Male Captain moves to help her, but the General grabs him with a vice-like grip, forcing him to watch, leaving him powerless to help.
GENERAL: You can't be weak. You must be strong to survive.
MALE CAPTAIN: Brute force isn't strength!
GENERAL: What do you know?
There are tears in the Male Captain's eyes, and his voice chokes with emotion.
MALE CAPTAIN: I know you don't need to kill her!
GENERAL: Yes I do. I have to kill her to show you what you must become.
MALE CAPTAIN: I don't want to be like you!! Not anymore!
GENERAL: Because you're weak. People like you are what brings failure down upon us.
MALE CAPTAIN: Please stop this! Don't kill her!
GENERAL: It's what has to be done.
The Male Captain tries to look away, but the General turns his head and makes him watch every agonizing second. Then, the Female Captain stops screaming and lies dead on the floor. The General releases the Male Captain and tosses the controller on the desk.
GENERAL: That's what it takes to be a part of this world. I suggest you kill whatever conscience or compassion you found during your time with her. Despite this failure, you're still the best we have. Take a few days to yourself, and then report for evaluation.
The General exits stage right. The Male Captain moves with quivering legs to the side of the Female Captain and drops to his knees. His shoulders are wracked with silent sobs. He closes the eyes of the Female Captain, then removes his jacket, and covers her body with it.
MALE CAPTAIN: I didn't even know your name.
Slowly, he stands and leaves the room, defeated. The lights remain up on the Female Captain's body several moments longer, then slowly come down.
FIN
