Arcade Page #6

WINDOW:

It looks in on Nick's room. Alex draws close and TAPS on the glass.

Nick appears immediately, grinning like an idiot. He raises the window.

NICK:

Alex, you don't know how long I've waited

for this.

ALEX:

Funny.

Alex climbs in.

INT. NICK'S ROOM -- NIGHT

The room is an intricate shrine to Nick's obsession...computers and

computer-generated images. An entire wall is covered with a collage of

cut-out pictures from magazines. On his shelves are miniature

armatures...flexible models of human musculature.

And of course, there is Nick's computer set-up.

Even as Alex climbs down onto Nick's bed, she notices that his computer is

up and running...connected to the ARCADE home version.

ALEX:

What's that?

Nick turns back to the computer monitor.

FRACTALS:

(as seen earlier) are blossoming on the screen.

NICK:

Isn't it amazing? It's a sort of rest

position in the game, when you're between

levels.

Nick pulls Alex closer. She's wary. But Nick is suitably impressed,

excited even.

NICK:

(continuing)

They're fractals. Visual representations

of mathematic equations. The game is

totally brilliant. I mean, look at it,

it's like a DNA molecule or something...

And in truth, the fractals are beautiful.

Alex turns back to Nick. And for the first time, Nick stops grinning.

It's clear that Alex is upset.

ALEX:

Something weird's happening.

Nick sits down on his bed.

NICK:

What do you mean by "weird"?

ALEX:

Greg never came home. A few hours is one

thing, Nick, but this is different.

Something's happened to him.

Alex glances at the computer monitor again. On the lower right-hand side

is a little pulsing GREEN light, on and off, on and off, like a heartbeat.

ALEX:

Can you turn off the game?

NICK:

I'm in the middle of it...

ALEX:

(upset)

Turn if off!

Nick is taken aback, but he rises and turns off the computer all the same.

And this time, the game stays off. Nick comes back to the bed.

NICK:

Happy?

ALEX:

No.

(frustrated)

Look, I know you're not going to believe me,

but listen anyway...

(carefully)

I think the game's alive somehow.

The look on Nick's face says it all. He moves to speak and she stops him.

ALEX:

(continuing)

No, wait. Just listen. I hooked it up

earlier tonight, and it said my name. As

soon as I turned it on, Nick. It said my

name. How could it know? And then, I

asked it where Greg was, and it said, "In

here".

NICK:

Alex, I think you're freaking out. Greg's

gone, I'll give you that. And maybe he's

in trouble. But it's not ARCADE that's

doing it...

ALEX:

(insistent)

It is.

NICK:

How?! It's a machine, Alex. Machine's

don't think. They're not alive. It's a

good program, a brilliant program, it was

designed so it would act as if it were

alive, but it's not alive.

ALEX:

So how did it know my name, then?

NICK:

(shrugs)

You imagined it.

Alex is furious. She rises and begins pacing back and forth, voice

growing louder. She draws in close.

ALEX:

See, men always do this. "Quiet down,

honey. Chill out. Take a Valium". I'm not

a f***ing idiot, Nick!

(screaming)

I DID NOT IMAGINE IT!!!

NICK:

(a strained whisper)

Quiet. I do have parents, you know.

Alex spins around and points at the computer monitor.

ALEX:

There!

THE MONITOR:

ARCADE is back on again, fractals unfolding and green monitor light

blinking.

ON NICK:

Okay. Alright. This does throw him for a second.

ALEX:

It turned itself back on, Nick.

NICK:

No it didn't. It's just a faulty relay or

something. It happens.

Nick crosses to the monitor and flips the "OFF" switch. He tries it again

and again, but the game won't turn off.

ALEX:

It's alive, Nick. It's listening to us ...

Nick spins around, angry, maybe a little freaked out.

NICK:

Just shut up! Enough already, okay?

Silence for a moment. Nick takes a deep breath. Over-reacted. After a

moment...

NICK:

Sorry. Maybe I need the Valium.

ALEX:

Call the others. Laurie, Benz...

Nick acquiesces. He pulls out his phone and punches in a number.

NICK:

I'll try Stilts. He's got insomnia.

Nick and Alex watch each other in silence as the connection is made. We

can faintly hear the phone RINGING.

No answer.

NICK:

Okay...Laurie, then.

Alex turns away, sinking to Nick's bed. All the anger has drained out of

her. She knows they won't reach them.

ON NICK:

As he listens for an answer. Three RINGS, four, five... He hangs up.

Punches in the final number.

NICK:

Benz...

Again. No answer.

Nick hangs up and sets the phone aside. He looks at Alex.

ALEX:

(fatalistic)

Something's happened to them.

NICK:

It's the middle of the night. They're

asleep. Phone didn't wake them.

ALEX:

All of them?

Nick shrugs. He's not willing to accept anything, but he's uncomfortable

all the same.

NICK:

Look, why are you f***ing with me like this?

Alex rises. She's tired. Tired and scared.

ALEX:

Because I didn't know where else to go.

NICK:

(glances at a clock)

It's two o'clock in the morning. Go home.

Go to sleep. We'll figure something out in

the morning.

And then, more for himself than for her.

NICK:

(continuing)

It's not this weird. It'll make sense.

Everything gets weird this late anyway,

right?

ALEX:

(half-hearted)

Sure.

She turns and climbs back out the window onto the roof. Then she ducks her

head back in.

ALEX:

If I were you, I'd think twice about playing

that game again.

Then she's gone. Nick moves over and watches.

NICK'S P.O.V.

As Alex drops down from the roof and makes her way to Greg's car. The

streetlight outside is still flickering.

Nick turns back to his room. Moves back to the monitor and watches the

fractals unfolding.

He gives the "OFF" switch a token try. Nothing.

THE FRACTALS:

We move in on them, losing ourselves in the labyrinth of swirling colors

and we...

CUT TO:

INT. HIGH-SCHOOL LIBRARY -- DAY

ALEX:

moves down the aisles of books, dwarfed by shelves which reach clear to

the ceiling. She looks a little haggard, like she hasn't had any sleep.

She turns...

NICK AND STILTS:

are sitting at a study cubicle. Nick looks equally tired, but Stilts is

jawing away.

As Alex joins them, Nick looks up.

ALEX:

Well? Where are the others?

Nick shrugs, looking elsewhere.

STILTS:

Sick?

ALEX:

Everybody's sick, huh?

(glances at watch)

It's fifteen after. We always meet here,

you know that.

STILTS:

(to Nick)

What's her problem?

ALEX:

Did you play ARCADE last night?

STILTS:

Actually, no. I was just telling Nick,

here, that my t.v.'s busted...

Alex nods, glaring at Nick. His reluctance to believe her is

understandable, but the events unfolding are scaring him.

ALEX:

You want to hear something else, Nick? I

tried to call them this morning...Greg,

Benz, Laurie... Their phones are out of

order.

Alex reaches into her bag and pulls out a sheet of paper with names on it.

ALEX:

(continuing)

And then I started thinking...about everyone

else that was at Dante's yesterday. I drew

up this list. DeLoach, those other jerks ...

their phones are out of order too.

Stilts starts HUMMING The Twilight Zone theme.

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