Manhunt

"Manhunt" is the 3rd episode of Sweet Escape.

Summary
When Joanna accidentally runs over a stray dog, abandoned in the middle of the desert, the group must decide together what the moral thing to do for the injured beast is. Meanwhile, in flashbacks, we're shown the story of Joanna's crime.

Plot
Joanna Kennedy sits at the dining table in her beautiful kitchen as the sun shines bright and fresh on this wonderful morning. As she drinks her orange juice and digs into her mountain of pancakes, her boyfriend of five years, Sebastian LeBron, enters and greats her with a friendly kiss on the cheek. “Mornin’ babe” he smiles to her. She continues scoffing down her pancakes, not replying. “What time you getting back from work?” she asks him with a mouth full of food. He replies that he’ll have to work later tonight because he needs to help stock up. Joanna suddenly stops chewing her food and then grabs a knife, stabbing it into the table; Sebastian is shocked. “You motherfucker!” she roars at him. He asks what she’s talking about, so as she stands she begins to throw plates and other small objects at him. “You’re screwing that girl again! YOU’VE BEEN SCREWING THE MILK GIRL AGAIN!”. Sebastian, dodging all the incoming objects, tries to calm her down and promises that he’s not having an affair. Joanna scoffs at his attempt at lying and charges towards him, grabbing his neck furiously. She pulls down the collar of his shirt and reveals a hickey. “Now I know I don’t suck on you there” she says before punching him square in the face. He falls to the floor but quickly recovers. “Pack your things and get the fuck out of my home!” she yells. “This is my house!” he shouts in response. “NOT ANYMORE IT ISN’T! I CALL DIBS ON THE HOUSE!” “We’re not married! You get shit all!” he screams at the crazy woman. The crazed woman grabs her bag and begins swinging at Sebastian, chasing him through the house, and revealing that the rest of the house is a tip and in poor shape…the kitchen is the only fully furnished room. She then chases him out of the front door revealing that they live in a small cul-de-sac in a highly deprived part of town. She keeps hitting and hitting at him until he’s in the middle of the road. Bang. A shot is fired at Sebastian and it barely misses. He turns around and looks at the bridge nearby and realizes that gang members are shooting at him. He immediately runs back towards his house and Joanna, alerting her that the Monroe’s have arrived. The Monroe’s are a rival gang to Joanna and Sebastian’s (the Grove Street gang) and they’re identifiable because of the “M” symbol they wear on their clothing. She sprints inside, forgetting the argument she just had with her boyfriend, and pulls out a shotgun and a knife from under the kitchen sink. Sebastian grabs his pistol and then they take cover at the windows. A massive shootout occurs between the Monroe’s and Sebastian, Joanna and the rest of their gang, who are in their own homes. About a dozen people have died or been injured when Joanna and Sebastian decide to move outside to get a better aim and to push the Monroe gang away. Suddenly, Sebastian howls with pain as a bullet pierces his arm. Joanna looks at him with horror but slight pleasure. Before she can help, police sirens are heard approaching. Joanna drops her shotgun and immediately sprints away, leaving her wounded boyfriend. She runs and runs and runs as fast as she can and for as long as she can, not stopping for nobody. Not even when a young couple who just got engaged stand in front of her. Holding the knife, she barges through the couple and unknowingly cuts into the young girl’s chest. Alison’s chest. As Joanna continues to run, the faint shouts of Josh are heard behind her. But she doesn’t give a fuck.

“And there I was! Cowering for my delicate life as my boyfriend gunned down those vicious men that were out to hurt me!” Joanna says, feigning sadness after telling her “story” about the gang war whilst driving the van. Everyone in the van is horrified at the traumatic tale she just told and Liz puts her hand comfortingly on her shoulder. Joanna shrugs her off “DON’T TOUCH ME THERE! THAT’S ME AND MY DAD’S SPECIAL PLACE”. A curious Joe asks what happened next in the story, putting a smile on Joanna’s face. “Right, next… well it involves a strip club, llama and Korean baker” she says, ready to continue her “story”. However, before she can get any words out, Mary suddenly yells for her to look out. Before she can react, a thud suddenly hits the car and they run over something. Joanna brakes immediately and begins panting. “PLEASE TELL ME THAT WASN’T A KOREAN BAKER. I GET REALLY SUPERSTICIOUS OVER THIS SHIT” she cries. Everybody looks out the rear window and they see a white blog lying in the middle of the road. They all exit the vehicle and they anxiously watch the lump in the road. When the lump begins to stand and limp to the side of the road, whelping in pain, they realize it was a dog. Mortified, Liz rushes up to it to check if it’s okay. Joanna follows behind, walking, and immediately pulls a gun out on the dog. Ali looks to her holster and realizes Joanna stole her gun. Liz steps in front of the dog, shielding it “What the hell are you doing?!” she rages. Joanna carelessly tells her that they should put it down, out of its misery. Liz looks at the injured dog and tells her that it doesn’t seem to be that hurt. “I don’t give a fuck. If we take it with us it’s gonna be another mouth to feed. I already got two so that’s enough!”. Liz refuses to move, so Joanna steadies her aim “Bitch move your pretty self out of the way or your face is gonna be the colour of your hair” Joanna says threateningly. Liz still refuses to move for the dog, testing Joanna. Joanna’s grip on the gun tightens more and more, and everyone else can only watch helplessly. “FINE” Joanna huffs before dropping the gun. “We can keep it. But if he farts half as bad as I do, he’s a gonner”. She heads back to the van, leaving a relieved Liz, who turns to the injured and scared dog before stroking its head.

As the group drives off with their new dog, we’re shown a satellite image of their location which is being viewed on a large computer in a room full of highly advanced technology and scientists. Valentina is stood in front of the computer smiling sinisterly as she watched the flashing red dot on the map, now able to track their location. Inside the van, a close up is seen on the dog’s neck and a tiny flashing red dot is visible.

In a flashback, Joanna is dressed up jogging clothes, preparing for her monthly exercise. It’s a few weeks after the shootout and she is still living in the house with Sebastian. However, since the discovery of his most recent affair, things have been awkward between the two of them. As she heads down the stairs, Sebastian stops her to ask where she’s going, seeming a bit suspicious. “Oh don’t look at me with those wandering eyes, nigga. Remember you’re the one who betrayed me” she says, slamming the front door behind her. A while later, Joanna finds herself jogging around an equally deprived area as her house and then takes a shortcut down an alley to get home quicker. Several creepy looking people are down the alley and Joanna jogs past each of them with caution, knowing anyone of them could be in the Monroe gang. She almost makes it out of the alley until she jogs past two prostitutes who are stood chatting whilst smoking marijuana. “Ugh, honey, Aliza, did you hear?!” one of them gasps. “Hear what Edie?” she replies. “The Monroe’s have gone and put a hit on that Sebastian LeBron’s life” she whispers to her friend. Aliza gasps, shocked for almost a second before asking how much for. “A couple of thousand I here” Edie responds. “That poor boy! I hope the police are able to protect him” Aliza says sadly. As Joanna moves past the two girls, she hears all of their conversation. When she exits the alley, she comes to stop to catch her breath. An evil smile soon follows as Joanna gets a crazy idea.

Back in the present, as Joanna drives and Liz comforts the scared and injured dog, Rena and Joe have a little talk about their past. “So what did you do before…well, this?” the young boy asks awkwardly. Rena explains that he grew up in Portugal most of his life, but when he turned sixteen his family moved to America for new job opportunities. Joe seems impressed and then asks what interesting new job he landed. “A gardener.“ Rena says meekly. Joe can’t help but chuckle at the irony, but Rena doesn’t appreciate it, scowling at him a little. However, he shrugs off the child’s immature response and asks what he used to do. “I was in school…” “Right…” Rena replies, embarrassed. “Well, did you study anything? What do you want to do as a job?” he wonders. Joe tells Rena that he studied the usual classes and he doesn’t really have any aspirations. “I never was the best in school…” Joe confesses. “I never wanted to go. My parents forced me. God I hated them for that” then suddenly it hits the young kid “Oh my God, they’re going to be so scared… They don’t know where I am” he says, worried. Rena looks at the kid with sympathy and asks if he misses his parents. Joe lets out a little nod, holding back his tears. “I know the feeling, kid” Rena sighs. Joe asks if he misses his parents too. “More than you can imagine. They’re dead”. Joe gasps with shock and apologizes. “Yeah…they’re the reason I was on death row” Rena says bluntly. Ali, who can’t help but overhear the conversation, butts in, adding that her parents are dead too because they were killed by a drunk driver. “I know how you feel” she says sympathetically as she strokes his hand. Everyone then goes into an awkward silence for a few moments, thinking about the ones they love and miss. But this peaceful sadness is soon interrupted by the screams of Liz. Everybody turns to her and notices that the dog is lying on its side, shaking out of control as it spasms. “Stop the car!” Liz cries.

“Stop the car!” Liz repeats, angrier this time. Joanna ignores the ginger’s request and keeps on driving, slowly picking up more speed. The dog begins to vomit and foam at the mouth, disgusting Ben, who demands Joanna stop the car as he’s making a horrendous mess. She still refuses to stop “I’m not gonna stop for some shitty piece of animal! I got places to be!” she roars. Mary shuffles towards the shaking dog and offers help, claiming that she has a slight expertise with wounds and medicine. “It’s better than nothing” Liz tells her. Mary calmly asks Joanna to stop driving so she can take a better look at the dog without the car shaking, but the black woman keeps on refusing. Liz then grabs the gun from Ali’s holster and points it at Joanna’s head. “Can people stop taking my god damn gun!” Ali huffs. Liz cocks the gun and then tells Joanna she has until three. “One…” she starts, but before she can continue counting, Joanna immediately slams on the breaks, sending everyone forward a bit. “Fine! Fucking save it” Joanna grunts as she steps out of the car. Ali snatches her gun off Liz, giving her an angry glance, and then puts it back in her holster. With the car now stopped, Mary is able to help the dog with what limited medical supplies they have with them. Everyone looks down at the dog with concern.

In a flashback, it’s late at night. Joanna is stood outside of Sebastian’s house in the middle of the road, staring blankly at it. She pulls a gun, armed with silencer, from the back of her pants and holds it firmly in her hands. She takes slow steps towards the house, her heart beating faster and faster with anticipation as she gets closer. She slowly opens the unlocked front door, hiding the pistol behind her back, and calls out for Sebastian. There is no response. She looks around the living room, nothing. In the kitchen, nothing. She makes her way upstairs and checks the bedroom, thinking he’s fucking another girl, but no, he isn’t there. She stands motionless for a moment and then scratches her head. “Well, shit” she sighs, frustrated. Suddenly her stomach rumbles loud. “Oh man I wish I didn’t eat that fried tarantula” she says, almost throwing up. She rushes to the bathroom to release herself, but when she enters, she is met by the horrific sight of Sebastian sat on the toilet… dead. A bullet through the head. She falls back with pure fright and begins gasping for air. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” she howls. She falls to the floor, in utter shock, but something catches her eye. A golden chain with the letter M on it. The Monroe’s signature. She picks it up and clutches it in her hand furiously. “That’s my money you sons of whores!” she roars to the heavens. With that, the front door bursts down and the police begin shouting for everyone to freeze. Holding the gun and knowing she’ll be blamed for the death, Joanna attempts to hide it in toilet, but before she has a chance, two officers charge upstairs, armed with guns. Joanna is shocked to see that the two officers are actually the two hookers she heard in the alley. “You set me up…” she mumbles quietly. The officers, Edie Winters and Aliza Stonebrooke, look at the body with immense guilt, but then turn their attention to Joanna, stating that she’s under arrest for murder. Joanna gives up and drops to the floor in utter shock. They proceed to handcuff her.

Back in the present, it’s a while after Mary started her procedure on the dog, but he seems to have recovered nicely now. Ali and Josh are sat together, looking at the poor dog with sympathy. “What should we name it?” Josh wonders. Ali thinks for a moment and then a wide grin appears on her face “He looks like our helicopter. Let’s call him Rocky”. Josh smiles and agrees that it’s a nice name. Meanwhile, outside the van, Joanna approaches Liz and apologizes for her behaviour, adding that there was no excuse for what she did. An angry Liz tells her she’s right and then ignores the fat black woman, walking away. Joanna looks guilty. Joe approaches Josh and Ali and asks if the dog will be okay, so they assure him that they think so as Mary did a great job. The three look at her with a grateful smile and she smiles back humbly. “How did you know to do that?” Josh wonders. “Let’s just say I had a bit of a physical job before this happened… so a bit of first aid came in handy”. Realizing she wants to be discrete, they ask no more further questions. Joe then turns to the couple with a big grin and then asks “So… Can I drive next?”.