Logan's Run Meets Lord of the Flies

SYNOPSIS:

Four teenagers construct homemade parachutes and jump from an 800 year-old city above Salem, Oregon, called Cloud’s Rest. They are 5,822 feet high, confined to this self-sustained metropolis of 1,300 acres and 6,000 residents. There is one law that has been strictly enforced by the city government: no one is allowed to leave the futuristic city and set foot on the Earth. The reason: four hundred years into the lifetime of Cloud’s Rest, a 9.9 earthquake set off the Yellowstone Supervolcano, causing unimaginable havoc and destruction upon the world. The professors called it the Great Shake and Freeze. Billions of people lost their lives to a choking, black atmosphere.

The only thing that saved the “high-scraper” pier from the quake damage was the floating Teflon skids under its anchor pilings. As the quake shook, the giant pier waltzed along, resisting the havoc produced by the extreme yaw, pitch and roll. The citizens of Cloud Rest survived and lived on securely in their indestructible nest. Below, the seas and lakes died; the plants, trees and grasslands shriveled and turned black.

The devastation on Earth spawned wild, rogue tribes and monstrous feral animals, so the rumors said.

The kids don’t believe in Stone Age savages and man-eating beasts. Besides, they have been tortured for acts over which they had no control: hence their decision to risk escape at any cost. The kids are called “dung beetles”; a designation given to orphans who have been discarded like trash and tortured by their overseers.

The four crude parachutes land the kids on the surface in the dead of night. They make a mad dash for freedom in search of the last remnants of a wondrous and peace-loving humanity. They know that any mode of living would be better than the abusive dictatorship of the Cloud’s Rest hierarchy.

Toby Johansson, a seventeen year-old physical enhancement instructor and chosen leader of their band, marches them out into the wilderness. His girlfriend and seamstress, Maria: Justice, an apprentice nurse, and Remy, a solar technician follow Toby obediently. They soon realize that they’ve escaped their city to land in a type of backward and twisted hell. The rumors were true—they’ve entered a nightmare world of rogue hostiles and hybrid monsters. They can’t retreat; the Cloud’s Rest security force is hot on their trail, armed with super weapons and a track vehicle.

Lieutenant Branson, Cloud’s Rest Security, must capture the escapees and drag them back to the high-scraper city to stand trial for treason. Branson holds a very secret association with the kids.

The teenagers are hemmed in.

Not only do the kids doubt their chances of ever finding their safe and glorious haven, but they are now certain they will never live to see their dream come true.

After being captured by a rogue tribe, who accuses the kids of trespass, weapons of “massive destroyment” and believing in a false God, the foursome are confined and put to hard manual labor by the Ripping Claw clan. Remy decides to tunnel out of the prison lodge and is caught. The Ripping Claw Supreme Majesty, Samuel Fowling, sentences the kids to death by a firing squad of arrows.

Lieutenant Branson has tracked the kids to the Ripping Claw village and now is witness to their forthcoming execution. He reacts swiftly and brings heavy super weapons to bear on the warriors and frees the captives. Since Branson’s electric scout vehicle was left behind, they all escape on horseback. They find the scout vehicle burnt, destroyed beyond recognition. Branson has lost two men on the journey to arrest the four. He is now alone and cannot possibly guard the kids for weeks of traveling back to Cloud’s Rest.

Maria possesses a strange map that she retrieved from the Ripping Claw village. It is adorned with pictographs, etchings and symbols which are indecipherable. The kids think it leads to their miraculous Eden. They’re ditching Branson no matter what. It is then that Branson admits to the horror of his childhood. He confesses his secret bond with the kids. He’s a dung beetle. He has endured the same tortures and hardships. With a change of heart, he decides to join them and show them how to follow the clues on the map. They set off on the trek of a lifetime.

Nine hundred miles and 42 days later, the horseback riders are beaten and worn. But they notice that a tall glimmering skyscraper city of chrome and gold looms in the distance. A guard on the outskirts of the city allows them to pass after hearing their desperate plight. They take a winding road toward the city and discover an old plastic sign rendered in red, white and blue lettering. It reads:

WELCOME TO FABULOUS LAS VEGAS