Desperate Houserenters

Act One; Scene One -
The scene opens on a pleasant block in Historic Hoodville, PA.
Large shade trees line the block, providing perfect cover for those strolling along the way, and for those running from the cops.
The homes have flags flying out front, and hung in windows, and painted on cars and wadded in heaps in backyards.
It's Saturday, the sleepy kind where folks stay in their jammies past noon and keep the coffee pot on all day long.
Just after 2 p.m., when it's time to put on a baseball cap and make a Target run...
"Pop... pop, pop, pop, pop!" Shots ring out.
Veteran neighbors peek out the window to see if they can i.d. anyone. Others, like the Midwestern transplants, hit the ground and army crawl to the basement.
Close scene.

Act One; Scene 2 -
Scene opens on empty aforementioned street. No one is hurt, the hoodlums have fled, the neighbors are crawling up from their basements (some of them anyways) and the police are on the scene.
Police: "Who do you know, what did you see, where did they go..."
Neighbors (collectively): "Uhhhhh?"
With the exception of one wacky landlady.
Landlady: (screaming into the street at no one in particular) "I have surveillance cameras on my home! You can't get away with this on my block! I'm going to find out who did this and report you to police!"
Close scene.

Act One; Scene 3 -
Scene opens as landlady sits at her day job desk.
Phone rings.
Caller: "I have checks to cash with you." (Code language for I'm going to snuff you out if you rat on me to the cops.)
Landlady: "Uhhhhh...? "
Finally silenced, the landlady goes into immediate hiding, leaving her tenants to fend for themselves.
Close scene.

Act Two:
(This act will simply be told by the narrator to speed up the story.)
Narrator: While the landlady is in hiding, she stands up her tenants for a meeting regarding the sale of the buildings they are living in. One day later, the heat to the building is turned off b/c the landlady has failed to fill the tanks with oil. This comes just in time for the first real cold snap during the peculiarly warm winter.
The landlady is unreachable, as she is still in hiding, and the tenant are being frozen out. The one year old child who lives with her rents in the upper is taken somewhere warm and the other tenants are so cold they go to the gym just to get their blood pumping again.
Despite the cold, and the drama, and the lack of communications, Landlady sends a Realtor and possible buyers to look over the house (the tenants have yet to be formally told the house is actually up for sale).
Moments away from the tenants contacting the Attorney General's Office, The landlady's oil company and handyman magically appear, and the heat is turned back on.
The tenants are pissed - and in so many words, they let The landlady know.
Now Landlady is pissed.
Everyone is pissed.
Close scene.

Act 3; Scene One -
It's 1 a.m. the day after the pissy conversation. The neighborhood is finally quiet and the heat is back on.
The tenants have relaxed and they are all cozying into their beds for some zzz's.
The female Midwesterner is still awake, but barely. As she drifts off to sleep, she thinks she smells something.
She sits up in bed and sniffs the air.
Girl: "Is that smoke?"
Girl brushes off the scent as sleep deprivation and goes back to bed.
Moments, seconds, later-
The sounds of sirens accompanied by their flashers fill the sleeping homes. Girl shakes her partner awake and the Midwesterners look out the window to see the landlady's home veiled by plumes of smoke.
Everyone gets out, and the landlady and her bed buddy are not staying at the house (they are STILL in hiding).
The firefighters rescue the people in the other apartments and the animals and then set out to demolish the fire, and everything it's touching.
The newly renovated home is pick-axed into an oblivion so they can soak the burning material and all of the landlady's thing quickly turn into items that smell like, or resemble, dried beef.
The neighbors all come out into the street, in various stages of undress. One is wearing a blanket, others have hastily thrown on soggy slippers instead of shoes.
They stand in the rain for hours, trying to stay up long enough for the landlady to show, but as 4 a.m. rolls around, they slowly shuffle back to their homes and the firefighters pack up their hoses and leave the home in a smokey, sloppy, ashy mess.
Landlady never shows.
Close scene.

Act 3; Scene 2:
Pretty much unwritten as all the events prior have yet to be resolved or communicated about. The landlady has made a few brief appearances over at the fire house, but none at the tenants homes (which are still for sale as a sign appeared in the lawn this morning.)The fire was called "electrical." The neighbors are whispering "arson."

The rest, is still unwritten.