Nightscape

---

The cause of this?

A bone-white car?

Can you... My son.

Do you see him?

It ain't the night alone

what's dark...

It's the world over.

It ain't the night alone

what's dark...

It's the world over.

You already call 9-1-1?

Come on, Forrest!

Give 'em that

super-truck punch!

Break down that rumble.

502 big block

or something like that.

Look it.

Hoosier drag slicks.

Could be a sleeper.

Sure it's worth a pink slip

to find out?

Another town, maybe.

Another mark.

A lot of "if's" when I got one

in the chute already.

You want me hanging

with the pinks, right?

Better not have a nose full

of nitrous is all I'm sayin'.

He's purely street-legal.

I can vouch for that.

We good now?

Sorry.

Done like dinner, Slick.

It's one flat move to another.

Hey, I could have gone

with one of them.

You know that ain't

what I meant.

You should save

your leg strength,

find a place to bed down.

Looks vacant enough.

It's shelter at least.

Assumin' their ain't no dogs.

You miss it?

The circuit?

That's what you call it, right?

I miss the feel of it.

Look at those stars.

That's what it looks like

nights when I'm goin' at speed.

No road, no horizon.

Just me up against the big

end of the sky.

Just so as you don't launch

yourself into space

from over your own wheels.

Never did like any of those

space shows.

I like my stories

true-to-life.

Dear diary,

the driftin' life teaches you

that no matter your troubles,

there's always somebody

worse off.

Take my travelin' partner:

A natural-born racer

without a ride.

Lost it yesterday

in a grudge match.

He acts steady,

but I know different.

I can tell about people.

Don't know if I'm to blame

for his broken-down luck.

For his sake, though,

I should disappear

down the road.

You writin' about us?

'Bout me, you mean?

You're just incidental.

What are you writin' about...

incidentally?

Where do you figure on goin'?

I don't know.

There's a drag strip...

outside of Boise.

Figurin' on hirin' myself out.

You don't think of nothin'

else, do you?

Everybody's gotta stay true

to their risk.

This is mine.

You got any money

of your own?

Some. Why?

Was wonderin' if...

between the two of us

we got enough to eat for real.

Yeah... probably shouldn't

have had all those marshmallows.

If I remember right...

Comin' in there's a grocery

or cafe not too far up the road.

East to west and back again.

You never know

what you're gonna get,

some of those places.

There's a cafe in Montana,

a couple weeks back...

Let's just say

it wasn't in apple pie order.

The waitress actually had

to run home

to get the ice cream

for my chocolate shake.

One summer...

we went up country to visit

Grandma Hankins,

Our squirrel dog had had like

four pups the day before,

so we took 'em with.

'Course that day was hotter

than a Methodist hell.

Spent the whole time

in the box-seat

rubbin' those pups with ice

just to keep their yippin' down.

They were cute and all,

but I must have smelled like

a wet dog for a week.

Where was this exactly?

Think you're bein' sly?

I told you I ain't gonna make

this personal.

See?

We're edgin' up on civilization.

I sore miss that ride.

You got a pin in that leg?

Pins, staples...

Elmer's, chewin' gum.

Got smashed up so bad

I got bone-chips

the size of baby's teeth.

Lordy...

What a god damn mess

of lives.

What are you doin'?

Miss, are you hurt?

Cursing and crying out...

Can you walk?

Let's get her to the couch.

Let her lie down

and get over the shock.

Cursing and crying out,

our nighted fears made

real...

bound to fall...

Shadow puppets that never

quicken into true flesh...

Wait! Look.

Gunshot.

We need to get her flat.

Miss?

Miss?

Miss?

What the blue hell?

Away from the body, chamo.

You okay?

You know what in the

blue hell's goin' on here?

There's a full howl of

madness over these hills.

As you see,

it is a catching madness.

It has many names:

The Pale Horse,

The Devil-Fetch Car,

Leviathan...

I call it...

La Muerta Blanca.

It brings nightmares,

chaos and carnage.

What you would call

the supernatural.

Yeah, what would you call it?

The world as it is.

This could've been me.

I got black luck that way.

It is the mark

of La Muerta Blanca.

What're you fixin' to do

with that?

Mad science.

You're still talkin' 'bout a

car? That's what I heard you say.

When he passes...

some hallucinate,

others change.

Think of it as a horseman

of the apocalypse...

Detroit-made.

You saw what happened...

La Muerta Blanca...

is always the color of bone.

Tinted windows.

Phantom fast.

All the strange in life

rustles in its wind.

If you see it,

or anything like it...

well... I offer

a generous bounty.

Fair warning...

Do not hope to outrun it,

chamos.

No one is faster than fate.

He is crazy enough to eat

the devil with horns on.

Let's make the 9-1-1 and get.

Excuse me, Mr. El Bi-ter?

El Buitre.

Sorry. That T R E at the end...

We could use a lift

into the next town,

Or farther east

if that's where you're headed.

For your sake, cario,

the roads... are not safe.

Think they'll find

anything of us?

We wiped it down...

and my bullets, untraceable.

That's some pistol.

It's an artifact.

Made special

for this kind of work.

What work is that?

Figurin' the plan for this

world.

Yeah, well, hope shootin' up

demon-headed waitresses

marks the giddy limit.

This is our, uh,

fourth day travelin'.

Picked me up on the coast.

Calls himself

a journeyman racer.

Used to be famous, I guess.

Or coulda been.

My daddy was into cars.

He probably woulda known.

A wheelman, eh?

I'll just get him settled in,

and then text

with the room number.

...Store Cafe, and three others

were killed

at the Scholls Eatery.

Police describe the scene as

a senseless gun rampage.

Kliers, who ran the

restaurant for about 14 years,

was a well-respected member

of the Scholls...

I ain't sleepin'.

Crazy days, huh?

That waitress...

uglier than homemade sin.

Just now sinkin' in I guess.

Makes you wonder what's

possible in this world.

Funny what you said

about luck.

Not ha-ha funny,

just... strange funny.

Here I thought it was my fault.

How's that?

I'm livin' past my time.

By rights, I shoulda gone in

the accident what took my leg.

You out racin'?

Ah, that's the hang of it.

Happened at a four-way stop

in town.

I was just headed

to the corner grocery, and...

a delivery truck crossed

the median

and smashed me head-on.

Stood on the brakes,

but no odds.

Truck rolled me hard

into a parkin' lot.

'Mazin' you weren't more hurt.

There was a boy there

with his mama,

sittin' in a cart.

He spun around...

I looked him in his eyes.

I tried to turn the car away,

but...

It just kept goin'.

He was three year old.

I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.

Wasn't your fault.

I know...

I know.

But it happened...

And the fact that it

happened...

and it happened

to somebody innocent...

thought they were safe.

Today... yesterday...

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes