Pitch Black Page #10

FRY:

LET'S GET THOSE CELLS!

Sand-cat moving...Riddick jumping onto the rear bed....Paris and

Audrey running, catching up.

SHAZZA:

We stay together! C'mon!

INT. PRIVATE ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

Johns doubles back, grabs his shotgun shells, swings out the

door...

EXT. INCINERATOR - SETTLEMENT - DAY

...and catches up to the sand-cat. Riddick reels him aboard.

RIDDICK:

Don't wanna miss this.

AUDREY:

Lookit. Lookit!

They turn back to see the rim of a giant planet. It's cresting

over the horizon. The luminous arch is the planet's rings.

EXT. RIBCAGE - THE GAUNTLET - DAY

The sand-cat storms through the canyon. As it passes through the

massive ribcage...

The ROLL CAGE SMASHES OUT some low-bridge bones.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DAY

The sand-cat reaches the crash ship. Bodies leap off. Paris

steals a look at...

The rising planet. It threatens to blot out suns, sky, universe.

INT. BATTERY BAY - CRASH SHIP - DAY

Johns yanks the first power cell and starts dragging it over the

deck. Riddick yanks a second cell and, carrying it on his

shoulder, passes Johns with a suck-my-ass grin. Johns shoulders

his cell and stumbles after.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DAY

Shazza wheels the sand-cat around, getting clearance between it

and the ship.

The Chrislams lash a scrap-metal sled to the sand-cat.

Riddick drops the first cell onto the sled, Johns the second.

They're racing the eclipse and each other.

EXT. SKY - DAY TO DUSK

As the rings of the planet eclipse the yellow sun.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DUSK

It's like God just closed a blind: Daylight dims. The change in

light brings a GROWING HIGH-PITCHED SOUND.

FRY:

Don't stop, don't stop....

But Paris can't help himself. He squints to see...

EXT. SPIRED HILLS - DUSK

The spires. THE SOUND seems to come from there.

EXT. SKY - DUSK

As the rings eclipse the red sun.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DEEP DUSK

A second darkness sweeps over the survivors. Now they all stop,

beholding...

EXT. SPIRED HILLS - DEEP DUSK

Something pouring from the spire-tops. Backlit by coronal light,

it first seems to be smoke or ash -- but soon we realize these

are living things, HATCHLINGS SQUEALING IN DELIGHT over their

first nightfall.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DEEP DUSK

JOHNS:

Jesus, how many can there....

They keep coming, filling the sky with thick waves. Mercifully,

the hatchlings seem to be moving away. But now one wave cleaves

from another -- and does a quick about-face.

PARIS:

Just a suggestion, but perhaps we should

flee.

FRY:

Cargo hold, everyone in the cargo hold.

lesgo, lesgo, lesgo.

They run. Reach the cargo hold. Turn back to see...

Riddick and Shazza still coming. Hearing the SQUEALING WAVE

descending on them...

Riddick and Shazza hit to the dirt. Hatchlings torrent just

inches overhead.

CLOSE on Shazza. Horrified. Hard to breathe. Like being

underwater.

CLOSE on Riddick. He watches in awe, no more frightened that a

kid lying on his back looking up at the stars. Experimenting, he

eases a bone-shiv into the hatchlings. Instantly it's whittled

down to nothing. It's like a river of razor blades.

The hatchling keep coming. Shazza whips a panicky look at the

cargo hold. Can she make it? Should she even try?

AUDREY:

Tell her to stay there. Stay down.

SHAZZA, JUST STAY DOWN!

Shazza starts worming toward the cargo hold. Suddenly the

hatchings vanish. A beat. Is it safe? Shazza gets to her

feet...

FRY:

No, no, NO, NO, NO....

...and the wave is back, enveloping Shazza.

INT./EXT. CARGO HOLD - DEEP DUSK

Standing in the mouth of the cargo container, the others get a

last glimpse of Shazza as she flies by the doors, caught up in

the funnel-cloud of hatchlings. Then she's simply gone.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DEEP DUSK

Still on the ground, Riddick checks left and right like someone

about to cross a busy street. Now he gets up, smacks his hands

clean, strolls for the hold. Behind him...

A rising GANG-CLICKING.

CLOSE on Fry. She knows the sound better than anyone.

EXT. SPIRED HILLS - DEEP DUSK

The spires are crumbling, torn down from within.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DEEP DUSK

Reaching the cargo hold, Riddick turns around for one last look.

PUSH IN as he sheds goggles -- and looks at the world with his

jaguar eyes.

RIDDICK'S POV:
In degraded image, we see the predators -- adult

hatchlings -- emerge from the spires. They're large, mammalian,

hammer-headed. They CLICK with echo-location, sounding out the

world they haven't inhabited in 60 years.

FRY:

What is it? What's happening?

RIDDICK'S POV:
The predators launch from the hills, gliding,

SOUNDING, searching.

RIDDICK:

Like I said. Ain't me you gotta worry

about.

EXT. SKY - DEEP DUSK TO NIGHT

The rim of the planet overtakes both suns. The world goes dark.

INT. CARGO HOLD - NIGHT

Vault-like DOORS BOOM CLOSED.

The survivors are locked inside the only secure part of the ship.

Somehow they've been reduced to neanderthals huddling in their

cave, listening to the howls of the sabertooths.

AUDREY:

What if...what if she's still out there...

still alive....

JOHNS:

Well, I don't want to jump to conclusions

here...but 'member that boneyard? These

just might be the f***ers that killed

every other living thing on this planet,

okay? Chances of Shazza knockin' on that

door anytime soon are just about zero

squared.

FRY:

(agreeing)

I saw the cut-marks on the bones. Wasn't

a natural die-off.

IMAM:

Quiet, please. Everyone.

Imam is listening at the cargo door. The others pile up

alongside, ears tuned like radar. CLICKING SWEEPS PAST outside.

AUDREY:

(whispering)

Why do they do that? Make that sound?

IMAM:

Perhaps the way they see. With sound,

reflecting back.

FRY:

(realizing)

Echo-location. That's what it is....

Now MORE CLICKING -- behind them. Lights whip around to find...

Nothing. Only the door of an open container about halfway down

the tunnel-like hold.

A volley of looks. "How the f*** could one get in here?"

FRY:

Breach in the hull. I dunno.

More CLICKING. Johns realizes they expect him to check it out.

JOHNS:

I'd rather piss glass.

RIDDICK:

Well, you got the big gauge.

JOHNS:

Wanna rag your fat mouth?

AUDREY:

Maybe it's just their beads again. Imam,

are you still --

IMAM:

No, no, no, I do not believe --

JOHNS:

C'mon, man, you're drivin' everybody

bugfuck with those things. Why don't you

just lose the goddamn....

More CLICKING -- along with the sound of TOPPLING CARGO.

RIDDICK:

Big beads.

Butching up, Johns sucks on his breather and shimmies toward...

The open container. Leading with his shotgun, he FIRES blindly

around the door. Something SQUEALS -- then silence. Johns eases

his head and a light around the door to spot...

Hatchlings on the ground, blasted into dog food.

JOHNS:

(to others)

Okay. We're okay. Just some small ones

that musta --

Something WHOOSHES for his head, swinging like a scythe. It

catches his shotgun, DISCHARGING IT, giving us...

A flash-image of an adult predator. Up close.

In one thin second, Johns is back with the others.

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