Morning Star Page #17

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WEBBER:

Your garden was poisoned. Somebodydumped kerosene here.

The Priest looks troubled by the notion. Webber eyes thelittle house which overlooks the garden.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

Who lives in that house there? The

one with the view of this garden?

PRIEST:

No one. That’s the old sacristy...

Well, for a few days last month, Ilet a very disturbed man spend somenights sleeping in there...

WEBBER:

(shows ID)

What can you tell me about him?

PRIEST:

(switching to English)

Almost nothing. He just showed upone day. Looking lost. He wouldn’teven take confession.

WEBBER:

Did he leave anything in there?

PRIEST:

Some junk. A couple of journals...

if you’d like to look...

WEBBER:

Please.

PRIEST:

The key’s inside.

82.

Webber follows the Priest past where those kids are playing.

PRIEST (CONT’D)

It took something for him to standout. Only the most desperate soulscome around here.

The Priest visibly recoils as one of the children, chasing aball, nearly brushes against him. Webber notes this.

PRIEST (CONT’D)

The marketing problem the churchfaces these days is that no onelooks heavenward anymore withanything but dread.

INT. CHURCH -- DAY

Webber looks around as the Priest rummages for the key.

PRIEST:

What did he do, this man?

WEBBER:

He was living a very normalsuburban existence with his wife

and three-year-old daughter. Thenhe killed them.

The Priest responds with a shake of his head. Webber’s gazesettles on an ABSTRACT SCULPTURE that looks out of placeamong the religious objects all around. A WHITE CUBE on atranslucent pedestal. Webber touches it, almost reverently.

PRIEST:

That’s a piece by a Belgian artistnamed Bellocq.

WEBBER:

A little unusual for a church.

PRIEST:

Personally, I’m moved by the purityof it.

Webber smiles. As the priest goes back to rummaging, Webberdraws his gun, holds it behind his back.

WEBBER:

You didn’t seem that surprised whenI told you what he’d done.

83.

PRIEST:

I wasn’t. People think these thingsare inexplicable. But they’re not.

WEBBER:

Explain it to me. Please.

PRIEST:

This man probably settled into apleasant, little suburb with thatwoman and that lovely little girl,

wanting to do it right. Wanting tobe a husband, wanting to be afather. He probably felt that, ifhe did all the things a husbanddoes, a father does - you know,

just kept at it - eventually he’dsomehow, magically transform intothe real thing.

WEBBER:

But the magic never happened?

PRIEST:

He tried. I imagine, he reallytried. I imagine he wanted so badlyto be anything except what he was.

Wanted so badly to love them. Andmaybe he almost convinced himself,

for a while. But, in the end, he

certainly hated them. For makinghim weak. For being so easy tofool.

(“breaking character”)

Is it because I didn’t let the kid

touch me?

WEBBER:

I jumped to a lucky conclusion.

Don’t blame yourself.

PRIEST (KEMP)

Still, I should’ve let the fuckingkid touch me.

The Priest - Kemp - FIRES through the desk. Just misses.

Webber RETURNS FIRE- but not accurately enough to hit Kemp ashe dodges out the door.

Webber charges out into the church proper... but puts on thebrakes as he finds Kemp holding by the neck the Little Boywho brushed up against him earlier. Kemp smiles at Webber’sstanding down.

84.

KEMP:

I didn’t think this would work.

Webber takes cover and keeps his gun trained on Kemp as hebacks with his hostage down the apse. When they duck backthrough the arched stone doorway that leads to the crypts,

Webber runs after him...

CRYPT:

Webber pursues Kemp down spiralling stone steps. At the

bottom, the FLASH of Kemp’s gun makes him take cover behind asarcophagus. He hears the hostage child CRYING.

Peering out, Webber sees the kid, tossed aside, on his handsand knees, sobbing. Webber moves on, crouched low.

Through the gap between two sarcophagi, Webber sees: an ochreCHRYSALIS at the base of a weeping madonna. It pulsates.

Webber knows what it is. He sees one of those fearsome ALIEN

INSECTS crawling over the stone face of the crypt in front ofhim, the larger adult version, with the stinger.

Then he sees another. And another. They’re all around him.

Webber rushes to the kid, pulls him into an empty niche.

He raises his gun at Kemp’s FOOTSTEPS... but freezes as hesees one of the insects crawling up his arm, pronouncedstinger at the ready. Webber remains completely still as thecreature crawls from his arm to the top of the kid’s head...

WEBBER:

Don’t move! Try not to breathe.

The kid stirs, feeling insect as it continues to crawl downthe length of his body. Webber holds him still.

Kemp shows himself, grinning. Seeing Webber won’t dare move.

KEMP:

You really are far gone.

Kemp turns and walks away. Webber is so sorely tempted totake his shot, even if it means the death of the kid in his

arms. But he doesn’t. He watches Kemp slip out of sight.

Only when the alien bug finally crawls off the boy does hemove. He stomps on it.

85.

EXT. CHURCH/ARLON -- CONTINUOUS

Webber comes charging out the vestry door. He catches aglimpse of Kemp’s back disappearing down a flight of steps,

Webber runs after him, pursuing Kemp down what turns out tobe a long series of tiered steps, leading down to the quaintstreets of the town.

At the bottom of the steps, Kemp loses himself in a MOB ofpeople, many wearing peace symbols and carrying protest signsor white flags. Webber curses and follows the crowd.

They’re surging toward a MARKET SQUARE where a DEMONSTRATIONis going on. POLICE DRONES circle above. BLACK-SHIRTS- onewith a megaphone- are baiting a growing crowd.

BLACK SHIRT (O.S.)

...the politicians talk and talk.

But now is the time for action! At

three o’clock today, the enemyfired shots across the DMZ...

There’s jostling in the crowd, incipient violence. Webberpushes through it, focused on searching for his quarry.

And now a SHOT is fired somewhere. In response, a Drone FIRESa smoke grenade into the crowd. A bit tardily people becomeaware that a man’s clothes have CAUGHT FIRE. Some rush to tryto put him out, others watch helplessly.

Webber sees there’s only one other person in the crowd notspellbound by the unfolding tragedy: Kemp. Their eyes meet.

Kemp opens fire, indiscriminately. A woman near Webber falls.

Webber raises his gun but he doesn’t have a shot as bedlambreaks out and frantic, confused people get in the way.

The next glimpse Webber gets of Kemp is him wading into aline of cars jammed by the demonstration, lethally jacking aPuegeot and speeding off in it through the square, clogged

with people...

Webber hijacks a Renault at gunpoint and takes off afterKemp. (The Renault, like the Puegeot, is a slightly

futuristic vehicle with 60s-retro styling.)

At the wheel of the Renault, teeth gritted, Webber tries notto hit anybody. Kemp shows no such restraint. He hits allkinds of people.

Clearing the square, the two retro-futurist Euro sports carsinsanely careen up and down the winding cobblestone streetsof the town...

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