Arcade Page #13

THEIR THRASHER BOARDS

now looks like snowboards. It doesn't take Nick long to figure out what

to do.

NICK:

We can take the dunes down like a ski slope.

Pretend you're on a snowboard.

ALEX:

(snapping down her visor)

Never been on a snowboard.

Nick steps on the board and edges it over the crest of the dune. He

begins to slide down, slowly picking up speed.

A SERIES OF SHOTS...

...as Alex and Nick negotiate the dunes. They glide over the sand

gracefully, cutting back left and right to keep their speed down, sweeping

in wide arcs...

Under any other circumstances, they'd be having the time of their lives.

Alex has adjusted to the environment quickly, at ease of the

Thrasherboard.

LATER --

The dunes gradually level out. Alex and Nick slow to a stop.

Alex flips up her visor. Her face is covered with grime now, hardened.

ALEX:

I guess we're walking from here on out.

They pick up their boards and walk.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. LEVEL THREE, DESERT -- LATER

Alex and Nick have been walking for a long time. Nick is silent, just

staring straight ahead at the endless sand. He looks wasted. Zoned out.

His face is beaded with sweat.

Once again, their wrist displays begin to BEEP.

ALEX:

(almost a whisper)

Time's up.

Nick starts to LAUGH, sinking to his knees.

NICK:

We're f***ed. That's it.

Alex pulls on Nick's arm, forcing him to his feet.

ALEX:

Get up, Nick...

Nick isn't going anywhere fast. Alex tries to drag him forward, but she

slips in the sand.

ALEX:

GET UP!!!

And then, from off in the distance...

VOICE (O.S.)

(far away)

Alex...help me...

Alex turns. She focuses on the horizon and sees a tiny speck. She taps a

control on her helmet and her view is magnified.

ALEX'S P.O.V.

Benz is up ahead. buried up to his waist in the blue sand and sinking

quickly. He waves his hands for help. and clutched in one of them is the

second key.

ALEX:

It's Benz!!!

Alex breaks into a run, and after a moment, Nick follows. He's walking,

though...in no hurry to reach Benz.

ON BENZ:

The desert is swallowing him up. Only his head and arms remain. He's in

a state of total panic.

BENZ:

(terrified)

Get me out of here! Oh God!!!

ALEX:

is running at top speed, half-stumbling across the dunes. Her

wrist-display is BEEPING furiously.

BENZ:

His head starts to disappear beneath the sand and his cries are choked

off.

ALEX:

Benz!

Alex reaches the spot and now, only Benz' clutched fist remains. The hand

opens and the gold key falls onto the sand.

Alex DIVES for Benz' hand, but it sinks just before she can reach it. She

SCREAMS and claws at the sand, trying to find him. She digs and digs, but

all she finds is more sand. With each second she becomes more frantic.

Finally Alex stops, noticing the key and idly picking it up.

THE SAND:

around Alex ERUPTS and BONES come flying up into the air, Benz' bones!

Alex SCREAMS. The bones rain down around her in bloody fragments. It's

as if the Earth has chewed Benz up and spit out the nasty bits.

At that very moment, the BEEPS on her wrist-display meld into the single

tone heralding...

THE SCREAMER:

As if on cue, it enters Level Two, breaking the Sound Barrier.

ON NICK:

As he stands some hundred feet away, oblivious to everything. We can hear

Alex SCREAMING, but the sound is muffled, distant. Nick is staring down

at his feet at an area where the sand has hardened like glass. Inside the

sand/glass, Nick can make out fractals. He smiles.

THE SCREAMER:

streaks across the sky towards them, blowing up a maelstrom of sand as it

crosses the dunes...

ON ALEX:

as she sees that a rabbit hole of sorts has been created where the bones

were ejected. Actually, not a rabbit hole, but a circular, pulsing mouth

with razor sharp teeth. Alex realizes, much to her horror, that this is

the doorway to Level Three!

Alex shouts at Nick, trying to break the spell over him.

ALEX:

Run! RUN!!!

But the Screamer is bearing down on him, like a heat-seeking missile...

ON NICK:

as he watches the fractals. ARCADE'S face appears in the mirrored sand,

smiling back at him.

ARCADE:

GOODBYE, NICK.

At the last possible moment, Nick seems to wake from his trance. He sees

Alex, hears her, then turns. He has about one fear-wrought second to

realize that the Screamer has reached him when...

WHAM!!!!!!!!!

The Screamer SLAMS into Nick at about 200 miles per hour. Nick, literally,

liquefies. The human body is 95% water, and Nick EXPLODES like a water

balloon on high impact, blood spraying in a fine mist across the dunes,

Alex, and everything for a good fifty yards.

Alex is frozen with terror. You remember your worst childhood nightmare

monster? The one you'd see in your room at night as your brain cooked

with fever? Too paralyzed to call out for Mom? Well that's the Screamer.

THE SCREAMER:

stands where Nick used to be (a red mess on the blue sand now). Black as

night. Like living, roiling lava. Smoking, charged RED EYES. One third

demon, one third Balrog, and one third rotting corpse. Clad in chains and

samurai armor, CLINKING as it moves. It rear back its head, opens a

fanged mouth, and lets loose a ROAR designed to shake the stars from the

sky.

Then it focuses it's eyes on Alex. And it charges.

ALEX:

unfreezes. She's got seconds to make up her mind, the doorway/mouth or

the Screamer. It's really no choice at all. Alex turns and dives

straight down into the pulsing mouth.

The jaws of the rabbit hole SNAP shut around her. Darkness consumes

everything.

These words appear on screen, "LEVEL THREE -- TOWER OF GHOSTS"

CUT TO:

EXT. LEVEL FOUR, VOLCANO -- DAY

We are looking at a steep cliff face composed of black, volcanic rock.

This world is desaturated, gray, and harsh. The rocks looks sharp as

razors.

As we will discover, the cliff face is also composed of skulls, old and

blackened, set inside the rock.

We hear a HUMMING and Alex "fades in", appearing on the side of the cliff

face. Immediately she starts to fall, realizes where she is, and hugs the

cliff for dear life. Rock shards crumble away beneath her feet. Alex

looks down ...

Big mistake.

She hugs the cliff face tighter, tears and grime streaking her face. She's

alone now and she knows it. She looks up ...

It's a long way to go.

Alex reaches a hand upward. Ouch! The rock's hot. She jerks her hand

back and almost loses her perch.

HER HAND:

Her gloves are smoking and singed.

Alex starts to cry freely now. She reaches inside her chestplate,

fumbling, and pulls something out...

It's the Polaroid of her and Greg. But then the wind catches it and tears

it from her hand.

THE POLAROID:

twists downward, round and round into infinity.

Alex stares after it a moment. Then she lets out a tired little laugh and

starts to climb.

A SERIES OF DISSOLVES...

as Alex climbs, sometimes using a skull itself as a hand or foothold.

We see her "TIME ELAPSED" blocks blinking away.

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