Scene 2.16 - Reunion
EST: EXT. Motel - Night.
(The girls are unable to calm CHARITY. She cannot form a complete sentence and is struggling to move as far away from the funeral home as possible. Nearby, the ROADIES and motel guests are huddled around PAUL, who is lying on the pavement, bleeding severely. The ROADIES are trying to administer first aid, having little luck as PAUL is shaking on the ground, in extreme pain.)
PANDORA
Miss, what’s the problem, what is it?
(Another explosion from a few blocks away.)
PAUL
Run, they’re coming, they’re-
(He dies... momentarily...)
SHARON
Where’s the cops and the paramedics? Why aren’t there any sirens?
SARAH
(On the phone, although we don’t seem to see it:) She says they’re on their way... Yes mam. No mam. Yes, he’s stopped breathing.
PERCY
(To CHARITY:) Tell us what’s wrong, who’s after you?
(A roadie screams a man-scream as PAUL takes a bite. Others quickly back away, reacting to the horror, but not before a quick moving PAUL can take down motel guest, killing her. The guest’s husband struggles with PAUL to save his wife and only gets killed by his reanimated wife in the process. Meanwhile, the other roadie and other guests unwittingly back away into POLLY, FAITH and HOPE, who, during all the distractions, have made their way to the motel parking lot. Three more are killed as the remaining guests and the band members quickly move away from the bloodbath. We notice that the bite was superficial, but the lethal blows, i.e. neck-snapping, gut-punching-and-wrenching, immediately cause the dead to re-animate, quick, smiling, open-eyed and insane. No two are alike, yet all move with a disjarring cadence, like marionettes animated with string. There’s nothing shambolic about them outside of what physically would make them so. For instance, the Nazis have been cooped-up in vacuum tubes for one hundred and twenty-five years, of course they’re shambolic, but they were packed to fight. Surprisingly, their vocal chords and larnyx systems are intact and functional. Also for another instance, the grandmother in the coffin at Shady Acres probably died of a stroke in her sleep. Still, if the girls had to bathe her, obviously, the old lady had problems getting around. Now add a kilo of necro-cocaine to their undead diet with a two-liter of ill-begotten ghoul-making-adrenaline. Give them a vampiric collective consciousness and viola! They assist one another like cells in an unholy body. What they kill becomes part of the collective whole. Like a macabe form of draconian zombie-communism. Also, they’re not cannibals. The bite attack was Unnature simply taking advantage of a rare opportunity, like when one walks unknowingly under a wasps’ nest without wearing a hat... Suddenly, machine gun fire mows down some of the growing mob of ghouls, slowing, yet not stopping them, and BOBBY and company arrive in the pickup truck, armed to the teeth.)
DRIVER
Secure that building! Let’s get a perimeter! Dismount!
(BOBBY jumps from the truck and rushes over to PERCY, while the other soldiers continue to fire on the fleeing zombies from a distance, while others pry open the gymnasium doors and shuttle motel guests and wounded soldiers inside.)
PERCY
Bobby!
(They embrace.)
BOBBY
Percy!
PERCY
What’s happening?
BOBBY
Oh, babe. We gotta-
DRIVER
Come on! Inside, quick!
(They move to inside the gym.)
DRIVER (Cont’d)
Barricade that door! Drive the truck across the entrance and flatten its tires -- you two men, find the back door! You two, go to the roof and secure a firing position. If it comes within 50 yards and it ain’t whistlin’ Dixie, blow it’s head off. (Grabs departing soldier, aside:) Make sure they’re head shots. (Turns to the girls:) You ladies, attend the wounded, and you, find a phone.
PANDORA
(Holding cell phone ring/earring set:) We’ve got nine-one-one-
DRIVER
Soldier, get on her phone and report to command -- and keep talking until we get help over here!
PERCY
I’m frightened, Bobby. They’re killing people-
BOBBY
You’re safe. You’re safe. We’re together. We’ll be okay.
DRIVER
Soldier, check that door!
SOLDIER
Yes, sir!
(Two soldiers have taken firing positions from the front door, which has since had a table and other pieces of furniture placed against it to block entrance. BOBBY joins them.)
PERCY
(Panic:) No! Bobby, no!
BOBBY
Stay here! I’ve gotta help!
PERCY
(Won’t let go:) No! No! No! (Drops to floor, embraces leg:) Don’t leave me! No!
BOBBY
Percy, I need you to stay calm! We’ll get through this!
PERCY
(Getting dragged:) No, don’t go, Bobby, please!
(PERCY sobs out “please” and continues crying.)
BOBBY
I’ve got to. (Kneels, puts arm around her and offers her a pistol.) Now I need you to be strong-
PERCY
No, no.
BOBBY
Take it! We’ll be okay, (Hears sirens in the distance.) Hear that? Help is on the way. I’ll be right over there! Stay here!
(PERCY falls limply, loosely holding the weapon. BOBBY moves to the front door of the gym. The zombie mob has outsourced; and has grown considerably.)
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