allisonpregler replied to your post “Finished reading One Away and I have to ask: why was this made into a...”
Someone thought it would be cheap to film in the desert and say it was based on a book lol
Are you thinking of The Loners? One Away was definitely based on a book, and the guy who wrote it (and the script for One Away) was also a screenwriter.
Jughead smacks his flashlight against his palm and vibrant yellow light spills out. All the trees that surround the four of them illuminate while Veronica checks her phone.
“I have ten more party invites,” she says. “Tell me again why I’m out here instead.”
“Mystery,” Jughead says. “And because Betty said to come.”
Veronica opens her mouth to argue but stops once Betty puts a hand on her shoulder. In a neat sweater and jeans, she holds a notebook full of sticky notes. While she flips through them, Jughead swings the flashlight around and shines the light directly on Archie’s face. He winces and waves a hand at Jughead.
“Quit it!”
“Why?” Jughead flashes the light at him again. “This is more fun for me. And that’s why I’m out here, by the way. For fun.”
“Actually,” Betty says. “We’re all out here for a very important reason and that reason is—”
“To find the Riverdale Roach!” Archie spits the words out one after the other before stopping to smile at Betty. She gives him an indulgent smile back and goes back to her notes.
“That’s right, Archie,” she says. “Jughead and I thought it might be fun to do a little puff piece on local legends and you all very graciously said yes to coming on our adventure. Which we thank you for a thousand times over.”
“Why couldn’t you have taken Kevin instead of me?” Veronica looks sadly at her phone screen as it vibrates with another party she can’t go to. “We’re basically interchangeable, you know. Just substitute one gay for one beauty queen and voila, you’ve got a great team together.”
“Kevin had a date,” Betty says.
“Also, not to belabor the point but,” Jughead says. “You’re here because if Betty asks you to do something, you do it. That’s why you’re both here, anyway.”
“That’s not true,” Archie says. “Jughead asked me to come.”
“Yeah, well,” Jughead says. “Betty asked you second.”
“Anyway!” Pointing with her pen, Betty walks forward with Jughead quickly turning the light over to her. “The legends say that the Roach lives under the bridge between Greendale and Riverdale. He’s supposed to be nocturnal, which is why we’re here tonight to find him and,” she pulls out a disposable camera, “get a snapshot of him.”
“Why’d you bring that?” Veronica points a detersive finger at the little yellow camera. “You’ve got a phone.”
Betty shrugs and puts the camera back into her bag. Without any further discussions or whining, the group heads off into the woods— trampling over leaves and branches. Veronica complains that she isn’t wearing her mystery solving cape and Archie offers to let her use his lettermen’s as a replacement even though the colors clash. Trees grow thicker and taller like arms reaching up into the night sky. Besides their own voices, the sound of Betty’s GPS follows them all the way to the river that runs beneath the bridge. Slick water runs over smooth rocks as the four of them walk with cautious steps across the shallow tributaries.
“Okay,” Betty says. She takes her disposable camera out and cranks it until it clicks. “Now, what the legends states are that the Roach will be friendly if you bring him a gift, which we have. Right Jughead?”
“Uh.” Jughead shoves a hand into his backpack and rummages. What he takes out is a lumpy package covered by paper towels. As he peels them back, a large soggy burger is revealed. “Yep. Got it right here.”
“You brought a burger?” Veronica’s face falls with disgusted surprise. “Are you serious?”
“As a church,” he says. “Archie helped me figure it out.”
Archie shrugs when Veronica turns her look to him and shoves his hands in his pockets.
“Roaches like food, right?”
Betty nods, indulgently again, and takes the burger from Jughead gingerly. She steps over a couple rocks and sets the burger on a big stone dead center under the bridge. Then she jogs back to the group with camera raised and ready. There’s no movement from under the bridge and, collectively, a sense of relief crashes over the group. No one will speak it but there’d been an abiding fear amongst them that the legends were true. They wait a few more minutes before Jughead announces the mission to be a failure.
Then a terrible crawling sound comes out of the bridge and over the rocks skitters a bug as big as a VW van. Its shell is a deep glossy black that reflects moonlight back in a sleek wave of white. With two spindly legs reach out and grab the burger. Everyone’s opinion is that the Roach must’ve eaten the burger but none of them stuck around to see. The minute the legs came out, Jughead had run and everyone else ran after him. Back in the woods, they stop and regroup— panting from exertion and wild-eyed with shock.
“Holy shit,” Jughead says. “That was a big bug.”
“We need to move,” Veronica says. “We all need to move away from this murder town.”
Betty runs a hand over his ponytail that’s begun to come loose. She tugs it tighter and stands up straight.
“So,” she says. “That legend is real.”
“Did you get a picture?” Archie asks. Betty’s face falls and she pats down her pockets with intense fear.
“I dropped the camera!” she says. “I dropped the camera like an idiot! Oh my god!”
“Who cares?” Jughead says. “I say we forget the puff piece and the damn bug and go back to Pops. That’s what we should’ve done in the first place.”
Everyone nods in agreement and follow Jughead’s flashlight back to civilization. Yet, back under the bridge, the Riverdale Roach feasts on its first burger. And it likes what it tastes. And it craves more, much more.
