When The Bombs Came Down

Synopsis by Rich Gibbon

Four middle-class women are thrown into an apocalyptic world; their only options for
survival are hiding, fighting, and dancing.
Gillian, Michelle, Christina, and Ruth are friends from a local Joga (judo/yoga hybrid) class.
When nuclear bombs drop on the country town of Hadley, they are thrust into a performance-
based dystopia that separates them from their friends, family, and the lives they lead before.
Late one night, the group are forced to leave the Warehome – a warehouse they have come to
be the inhabitants of, and aptly rename. An unknown faction seeks to take it as their own and
is invading from the outside. Christina immediately objects to the notion of leaving the
Warehome, as she has yet to reseat the banana, she believes has divine powers, in the shrine
she made for it. The group leave regardless. After escaping from what was once theirs, much
to Christina’s dismay, the girls wander aimlessly for the rest of the night. They eventually
decide to sleep in a seemingly empty field.
Michelle wakes with a start. She notices immediately they are surrounded by a motley crew
of mutated humans. The so-called Mutants of Mutopia. Slick Rick, the leader of the group,
informs the girls they can either dance or die. A well fought dance-off is all that can save
them now.
They gyrate and jive, pop and lock, and give it everything they’ve got but, just as it seems
like they are winning, the event is interrupted by a rival faction of bandits. The bandits
charge, weapons ablaze, scattering the mutants. The girls go to run, but see Christina is
injured. Christina is lost in the combat. Her final wish is for her banana to be returned to its
rightful place in the shrine.
The girls regroup away from the battle site, and decide they must recapture the Warehome.
They suit up and set off toward their old home. They attempt to retake the home but fail
miserably. All seems lost.
The rogues who capture them mention in passing they are putting on a play the following
night and Ruth decides to volunteer the girls to perform, in a bid to escape. They learn their
parts in a musical number and are ready to perform. Just as the show is about to begin, the
leader of the faction returns: it is Ruth’s (presumed dead) husband, Chris.
The girls perform the musical number with Ruth taking the lead, in order to seduce her
husband and gain the faction’s trust. She is successful and the Warehome is theirs once more.
The girls reseat the banana, in memory of Christina. A click is heard. An undetonated bomb
rolls out the bottom of the shrine. A timer starts.