Flash Gordon Page #24

Season #8

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AURA:

Yes, your darling earthman is here! That is the only thing staying my hand from killing you. If Flash Gordon found it was I who ended you, I would never have him. However, he won’t last long shoveling radium in Vultan’s furnaces and our chances of rescuing him are zero. There are Hawkman guards from this tower all the way down to the anti-gravity conductors. Their brutality is only matched by my father. We have lost, earth girl.

Tears in her eyes, DALE grasps the chrome beam supporting the balcony veranda. She gazes out onto the city.

DALE:

Oh, Flash...

WHIPE TO:

INT. ATOM FURNACES – SKYCITY – DAY

The huge and dark ATOM FURNACE ROOM of the hawkmen’s city. EMACIATED SLAVES in loin clothes, their bent bodies covered in grime, sweat, and whip lashes, SHOVEL radium from huge mounds into the GARGANTUAN FURNACE.

Intermittently, enormous, grated steel doors open and close to the brilliant blinding WHITE FLAMES of the furnace. GIGANTIC TURBINES whir while steam envelops the dank, vaulted chamber.

We see weary men work the enormous turbines and piston machines. A hawkman appears and SAVAGELY whips the backs of the men. The CLANKING of machines and the ROARING of the furnace are mixed with the sound of CRACKING whips.

A large steel door slides open as FLASH, THUN, and BARIN enter the room. They are SHIRTLESS and only wear their BLACK LEATHER SHORTS. They are prodded into the room by HAWKMEN GUARDS carrying chrome spears.

FLASH looks about the amazing chamber. The heat. The noise. It is like some 1800’s British coal-powered sweatshop but deadlier. The HAWKMEN brutally whip at the row of ten SLAVES shoveling the RADIUM ORE into the opening and closing maw of the FURNACE. The doors are operated by two men on the side pushing and pulling on two large levers.

A HAWKMAN GUARD approaches.

HAWKMAN GUARD:

Welcome to Vultan’s atomic furnaces, vermin!

An EMACIATED SLAVE collapses at the levers operating the furnace doors. He falls across a pile of radium.

HAWKMAN GUARD:

If a slave falters, he is “urged” to try again. If he fails to arise...

Two HAWKMEN rush over to the EMACIATED SLAVE and begin whipping him. The SLAVE writhes in agony but is too weak to stand. The two HAWKMEN snatch the man up and TOSS him, screaming, into the fires of the furnace. We see him burn to a CHARRED CORPSE.

HAWKMAN GUARD:

He’ll find himself facing a worse fate than slavery.

THUN:

(sotto)

Is there anything worse than slavery?

HAWKMAN:

Pray you never find that out, lionman! Enjoy your new monarchy.

The HAWKMAN GUARD, along with two other HAWKMEN, begin whipping THUN. He howls in PAIN and LUNGES at the HAWKMAN GUARD. A HAWKMAN bashes THUN in the back of his head with the butt of his RAY RIFLE. THUN drops to his knee.

FLASH:

No, Thun! Our time will come!

A HAWKMAN approaches and points to a charred, half-wall about four feet in height nearby.

HAWKMAN:

Sit and wait behind that lead wall until the next shift change! Go!

The HAWKMEN whip and shove THE THREE over to the black and pitted wall.

FLASH, THUN, and BARIN sit on the sooty floor next to the corpse of a burned man. Barin glances about the mammoth machinery in the steamy gloom.

BARIN:

Remarkable. Look at that, heaps of pure radium. Here is the secret of how the hawkmen support their city five thousand feet above the ground. They burn radium ore in the furnace to create beams of polarized anti-gravity light.

THUN:

No wonder Vultan uses slaves so fast. The radiation level in this room must be incredible.

FLASH:

I don’t know about you two, but I plan on spending as little time here as possible.

THUN:

There’s no escape from this inferno.

FLASH:

There must be some way out of this place, Thun.

HAWKMAN:

Change shifts!

A HAWKMAN approaches. He raises his whip.

HAWKMAN:

Enough talk! Work!

The HAWKMAN begins lashing at THUN. FLASH jumps up and PUNCHES the HAWKMAN across the jaw. The HAWKMAN goes down. FLASH is overcome by FIVE HAWKMEN who kick and whip him when he is down.

WHIPE TO:

INT. HAREM TOWER – HAWKMAN SKY CITY – DAY

DALE sits forlornly on a chaise as AURA paces back and forth like a feral animal. The door to the HAREM slides open and VULTAN enters. He bows slightly at AURA.

VULTAN:

Princess Aura, you will be pleased to know I have sent your father a message telling him about our forthcoming wedding.

AURA:

You bloated fool! To think Ming will let you get away with such treachery!

VULTAN:

(laughs)

You think Vultan fears even the mighty Ming the Merciless?

(raucous laughter.)

AURA:

Laugh now, hawkman, for when my father’s armada arrives this city of yours is doomed!

WHIPE TO:

INT. ATOM FURNACES – SKYCITY – DAY

FLASH, THUN, and BARIN shovel radium into the FURNACE under the constant whip of a HAWKMAN. Along with SEVEN other MEN, they FLINCH at the IMMENSE HEAT dispersed by the FURNACE.

THUN:

It’s hopeless, Flash, we’ll never get through Vultan’s guards! It’s not possible!

FLASH:

Nothing is impossible, buddy!

A SLAVE stumbles. He begins coughing up blood from RADIATION POISONING. He DOUBLES OVER and falls into the DIRT. A HAWKMAN approaches.

HAWKMAN:

Get up, filth!

He KICKS him.

HAWKMAN:

Get up!

The HAWKMAN begins brutally lashing the SLAVE. FLASH runs over and SMASHES the HAWKMAN across the back of the head with his shovel. BLOOD splatters from the head wound. Another HAWKMAN runs up to FLASH, raising his whip. FLASH throws down his shovel and PUNCHES the HAWKMAN in the face. The HAWKMAN goes FLYNG. The SLAVES cheer.

BARIN stands next to THUN and watches FLASH.

BARIN:

(to THUN)

Your earth friend may be foolhardy, but he makes it up with courage.

FLASH:

Come on, men! Follow me!

CHAOS! The SLAVES raise their SHOVELS and BEGIN fighting the HAWKMEN.

The main entrance to the ATOM FURNACE slides open and a squad of HAWKMEN with ray rifles STORM in.

HAWKMAN LEADER:

Slaves! Halt!

The HAWKMEN begin FIRING on the SLAVES. Disintegrating several. The REMAINING SLAVES scream and cower behind machinery. The mutiny is halted as quickly as it began.

HAWKMAN LEADER:

Who started this? Who’s to blame?!

HAWKMAN GUARD:

The blond-haired prisoner!

HAWKMAN LEADER:

Bring him! Fetch me the clamp!

The HAWKMEN begin whipping and beating the SLAVES back to their posts. FLASH is pushed in front of the HAWKMAN LEADER.

HAWKMAN LEADER:

So, my young friend, you’re not as strong as you thought to be.

FLASH:

(angry)

Strong enough to tear you apart!

HAWKMAN LEADER:

(laughs)

Maybe you’re right.

A HAWKMAN attaches a heavy chrome clamp to FLASH’S lower right shin.

FLASH:

What’s this for?

HAWKMAN LEADER:

King Vultan’s way of dealing with unruly slaves. The mechanism will be attached to a high-voltage circuit and if you attempt to escape, a switch will be thrown, electrocuting you instantly. Now, back to work.

Three HAWKMEN whip FLASH back to the FURNACES. FLASH begins shoveling. He stands near BARIN and THUN.

THUN:

Are you all right, my friend?

FLASH:

Yeah, they gave me a gift from Vultan. We’re getting out of here, Thun!

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