Arcade Page #14

Time running out and more climbing. Then...

EXT. LEVEL FOUR, VOLCANO RIM -- DAY

Alex stands on the rim of the volcano. At her feet is a golden key. And

before her, a big drop.

ALEX'S WRIST DISPLAY

Her final block of time disappears. The BEEPING starts.

Alex doesn't even pause. She steps off the rim into empty space...

...and just as she's about to fall, a doorway of light appears in the air.

Alex falls through it, vanishing.

"LEVEL FIVE -- KINGDOM OF THE BLIND"

CUT TO:

EXT. LEVEL FIVE, ARCTIC WASTES -- DAY

Snow whips across a world of white in wraith-like sheets. We move in on

one particular bank...

Something is buried there. The wind gradually blows the snow away,

uncovering...

ALEX:

She rises from the snow bank, disoriented. Everything is impossibly

bright, blinding. Alex stands. She draws up her hand to shade her eyes

and we...

DISSOLVE TO:

BEGIN MONTAGE:

Music begins. CELLOS. Like before.

Alex, snowboarding for real this time, over slopes of powder...

Alex's "STRENGTH" diminishing...

Alex catching Fireflies...

Alex jumping across a crevice on her board. (Warren Miller stuff

here)...

"TIME ELAPSED" growing with every moment...

Alex gliding down mountainsides...

A flash of Greg, of Benz, of Laurie...

A flash of Nick...

NICK'S VOICE (V.O.)

I know how to do this. I'm good at these

games. You never play, you'd get nailed in

a second.

And a flash of Nick's horrified face at the Screamer reaches

him...

Alex's face, grim and determined...

EXT. LEVEL FIVE, ARCTIC WASTES -- LATER

Alex glides to a stop even as her wrist display starts to BEEP. This time

a wooden doorway is standing directly in front of her, the golden key

sticking out of the lock.

As Alex reaches for it, the Screamer enters Level Four. Alex slowly opens

the door.

ALBERT'S VOICE (V.O.)

You can get a free life on Level Four, but

you have to wait for the last possible

instant...

Alex turns and waits calmly for the Screamer.

THE SCREAMER:

is a black speck on the horizon, then a bullet, then a nightmarish face

bearing down on her...

IT'S JAWS

flare open to engulf her.

Alex doesn't flinch at all. And at the last possible second before

impact...

BLINK! A stylized figure appears on her wrist-display next to the "TIME

ELAPSED" meter. Beneath the figure it says "FREE LIFE".

Alex feels the breath of the Screamer on her face and falls back through

the doorway...

"LEVEL SIX -- SHOCK CORRIDOR"

CUT TO:

INT. LEVEL SIX, SHOCK CORRIDOR -- NIGHT

Alex steps out of a doorway into a long, narrow hallway. The hallway is

mirrored on one side. It has no doors or windows, and up ahead, it

branches off to the right and the left.

Alex turns and looks behind her. The doorway she came through is gone

now. A mirrored wall stands in its place, with her own reflection staring

back at her.

THE REFLECTION:

There are subtle changes. They shouldn't be noticeable at first, but the

reflection seems somehow more threatening.

Alex starts down the hall, her reflection keeping pace with her. Up

ahead, she hears a BUZZING noise, drawing closer.

LIGHT flickers in the hallway to the left, presumably whatever it is

that's BUZZING. Suddenly a streak of light, running along the floor,

turns the corner and heads down the hallway towards Alex.

The light hits her feet and SPARKS fly. Alex SCREAMS and is thrown back

against the wall, shocked. The streak of light continues past her and

disappears into the mirror at the hall's end. It's like a moving

electrical pulse.

ALEX:

She's been given a pretty good jolt. Her hands shake for a moment, an

after-seizure of sorts, and she stands...

HER MIRRORED REFLECTION

is watching her, arms crossed. This wouldn't be a problem were it not for

the fact that Alex currently doesn't have her arms crossed!

ALEX:

(to her reflection)

F*** you.

The reflection grins and its/her eyes GLOW with fractals.

ALEX REFLECTION:

(in ARCADE'S voice)

ANY TIME, B*TCH.

Spooked, Alex continues down the hallway, reaching the end and turning

left...

NEW CORRIDOR:

Alex moves quicker now, glancing left as her reflection follows.

BUZZZZZ!!! Here comes another streak of light, rushing in along the floor

from a side corridor...

Alex LEAPS over it, and it passes harmlessly under her. Now she's getting

the hang of it. She starts forward again.

BUZZZZZ!!! Here come two at a time from opposite directions...

Alex has to jump left to avoid the first streak and lands directly in the

path of the second. Then she jumps back to the right again...

THE TWO STREAKS:

pass by, zipping away from each other.

ANOTHER CORRIDOR

The pace quickens, with Alex racing down the corridors. She turns corner

after corner. It's become a virtual maze.

We cut back to Alex's "STRENGTH" and "TIME ELAPSED" meters again and

again. Both are shrinking away to nothing.

And all the while, her reflection keeps pace with her, growing

increasingly more nightmarish in appearance. As Alex tires, the

reflection seems to gain more strength.

BUZZZZZ!!! BUZZZZZ!!! The streaks are shooting towards her with more

frequency, and now they're racing along the walls too. Alex is jumping

left and right, with SPARKS exploding around her.

THE REFLECTION:

seems to be metamorphosizing. Each time we see it/her, she looks a little

different. What's gradually happening (as time elapses) is that Alex's

reflection is turning into The Screamer.

Alex moves with increasing urgency as the streaks converge on her. The

corridors are filled with a constant BUZZING and flickering of light.

SPARKS fly and Alex is shocked over and over.

She stumbles, falls to the floor, and rolls to the right, just missing a

streak. It cuts past her face, centimeters away.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Off goes her wrist display! Alex is up and running

now, desperate.

We cut faster and faster Alex running, the streaks of light, the

reflection until...

END CORRIDOR:

She's back where she started. And the corridor dead-ends in a mirrored

wall...

BEHIND ALEX,

Dozens of light streaks are dogging her heels, literally just behind her.

They're so thick that she couldn't possibly leap over all of them.

Seconds before they reach her.

AHEAD OF ALEX,

the mirror shows her own reflection, rushing closer. Her wrist display

indicates that time is up with a prolonged BEEP and her own reflection

vanishes. It's the Screamer in her reflection's place. Only it's

rocketing towards her in the mirror. It's in front of her this time,

instead of behind her.

Rock and a f***ing hard place. Light streaks or Screamers?

It's really no choice at all. Her guts says "Screamer".

Alex leaps and SMASHES into the mirror at full speed. The world is filled

with SHATTERING GLASS and a shower of infinite reflections and then we...

CUT TO:

EXT. LEVEL SEVEN, PIER -- DAY

The sound of SHATTERING GLASS carried through as Alex EXPLODES out of the

sky. And it's the sky itself that seems to be shattering...

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