CHAPTER ONE
Salad-colored volunteer jackets stand out with bright spots against the gray ruins of Mariupol. Today, there are four of them, volunteer searchers: SERGEY (20), YEKATERINA (19), ALINA, and YAN. Like for the past eight months, their task is to search for missing people and restore lost connections between loved ones. The quartet in bright jackets and with food kits in bags enters the entrance. Explosions are constantly heard from the side of the sea and in parts of the city. The young people stop at the landing of the second floor. Yekaterina knocks on the door.
EKATERINA
We are looking for Lyubov Ivanovna Pugachyova.
LYUBOV IVANOVNA
(confused)
That's me.
EKATERINA
Oleg and Elena are looking for you, there has been no contact with you for a long time.
LYUBOV IVANOVNA
Those are my tenants!
EKATERINA
We will record you in a short video and give you this food kit.
LYUBOV IVANOVNA
Please, come in. And why are you avoiding me so much?
SERGEY
Many.
ALINA
We try to process about ten requests for finding people in just one day.
LYUBOV IVANOVNA
On March 2nd, the communication was cut off in Mariupol, and we were left without information about each other. Everyone sees a terrible picture on television, for those who still have power, and no one knows what happened to their family. They try to call you on the phone, but it's turned off. The first thought is that you've died.
YAN
We found a colossal number of people who simply had no opportunity to inform their relatives that they were alive.
LYUBOV IVANOVNA
How did you become volunteers? Are you locals?
SERGEY
Not all.
ALINA
Katya is local.
EKATERINA
I am 29 years old. I have lived all my life in Mariupol, in the Kalmyk district. I worked as a teacher in a kindergarten. On February 24th, not a single child was brought to my group. That's when my life took a different turn. During the storming of Mariupol, like other residents, I hid from shelling in the basement, had little food, and, of course, was without communication.
LYUBOV IVANOVNA
And I stayed at home at my own risk. My legs are almost not working. I sat hungry for three days. Thank you, my neighbor sometimes brought food and water.
Lyubov Ivanovna starts crying and covers her face with her hand.
LYUBOV IVANOVNA
And then I looked out the window and saw her sniper shot by the column. – She sighs deeply. How did you become a volunteer?
A month earlier
The parents come to the common changing room to pick up their children. The children get dressed.
ARTEM
Goodbye, Aunt Katya.
EKATERINA
(Smiling)
Goodbye, Artem.
ARTEM’S MOTHER
What was his behavior like today?
EKATERINA
Like all the boys.
LENOCKA
Goodbye, Aunt Katya.
EKATERINA
(Smiling)
See you tomorrow, Lenocka.
BOY
Goodbye.
GIRL
Goodbye.
Ekaterina remains alone in the changing room. She takes off her white robe and puts on her outerwear. She turns off the light and exits into the corridor. She activates the alarm system with a remote control and steps outside. She locks the entrance door and heads towards the residential buildings.
Ekaterina enters the territory of her courtyard. In the center of the yard stands military armored vehicles with the symbols of the Ukrainian army. Local civilians are gathered around it, expressing their outrage.
WOMAN
Why did you bring this here? There are children here. Ordinary civilians.
GRANDMOTHER
Go away, go beyond the city limits. Fight there. You've brought hell here.
TANK OFFICER
(from the tank turret)
We've been ordered to be stationed here. And you'd better get out of the city.
MAN
Get out? My family and I wanted to leave yesterday, but we were turned back at the exit.
WOMAN
Exactly. We're a living shield for them.
