Pitch Black Page #13

IMAM:

(trembling)

Please...have we been cut? Can someone

tell me if....

He finds his dropped light, thumbs the switch again and again.

Broken.

In the confusion, Paris has been left in the dark. Something

slashes him from behind. It's like the night has claws.

PARIS:

Oh, sweet Jesus....

The bottle drops.

The blood flows.

The CLICKING STOPS.

PARIS:

Oh, sweet Jesus, WILL YOU GET ME SOME

LIGHT OVER HERE!

Faces whip around. But before their lights can rescue him...

Paris is gone, snatched away by a swooping blur.

Light-beams jump fitfully, vainly.

RIDDICK'S POV:
Of predators feasting on Paris. Carrying a

youngling on its back, a female predator arrives late and can't

find a place at the trough. With shocking apathy, it whips the

youngling off its back and begins devouring it. Other predators

start in-fighting, killing themselves for food. POV PANS to a

pair of predators, closer, SOUNDING out new prey. POV PANS

AGAIN to include the object of their desire. Audrey.

CLOSE on Riddick. Trying to figure it out.

CLOSE on Audrey. Listening to the HORRIFIC FEEDING SOUNDS.

Oblivious to all the attention she's getting.

FRY:

What do you see? Riddick?

RIDDICK:

Hunger. I see 60 years of hunger.

EXT. SKY - NIGHT

As clouds mass.

EXT. NIGHT

Into a rising wind, the survivors range on.

Audrey now carries Paris' torch, refueled and COUGHING FIREBALLS

at regular intervals. Fry seems to be handling rear-point fairly

well, until...

The cutter sputters and dies. She ditches it and takes the torch

from Audrey.

FRY:

Bottle-count.

AUDREY:

Four fulls, one half. That mean we're

halfway there? I hope?

Good question. They've just been blindly following...

The light on Riddick's back.

FRY:

Can we pick up the pace?

Working like a mule, Johns growls to himself. "If you think you

can do better...." Abruptly he slaps an arm across Imam's chest,

spotting...

A sled-track. In front of them.

Fry hears a SHOTGUN RATCHET. She spins to see...

Johns out of his chains. Moving forward. Jamming the shotgun

into the back of Riddick's neck.

JOHNS:

We aren't completely stupid.

FRY:

Stay in the light! Everybody! Stay in

the f***ing --

IMAM:

We crossed our own tracks.

JOHNS:

He's running us 'round in circles. Look

for yourself. Look!

FRY:

Riddick? What the hell are you --

RIDDICK:

Listen.

Imagine a hundred Geiger-counters next to a truckload of

plutonium. That's the SOUND that rides the wind now.

RIDDICK:

Canyon ahead. I circled once to buy some

time to think.

FRY:

Think about what?

JOHNS:

About how to kill us and still get these

cells to the skiff. Goddamnit, we're just

doin' the heavy lifting for this prick!

RIDDICK:

(answering Fry)

About the girl.

FRY:

What about her?

RIDDICK:

What it's gonna be like when we hit that

canyon. With her bleeding.

JOHNS:

What're you jaw-jackin' about? Girl's not

cut.

RIDDICK:

(agreeing)

No. She's not.

It hits Fry like a two-by-four. She looks at Audrey.

AUDREY:

(confessing)

I didn't want you to leave me there...

back at the ship...that's why I didn't

say anything....

FRY:

No, we'd never....Oh, God, honey, you

shoulda told me sooner.

JOHNS:

(finally getting it)

Aw, this can't be happening to me....

RIDDICK:

They been nose-open for her ever since we

left. They go off blood.

IMAM:

Well...we must keep her close, then.

Here, she'll be safe if we put her

between --

RIDDICK:

(scanning)

There is no "safe."

An epic beat. The wind gusts...the FLAMES CHATTER...their ears

fill with CANYON SOUNDS.

FRY:

It's not gonna work. We gotta go back.

Johns brays.

JOHNS:

Hey, you're the one who got me out here,

turned me into a goddamn sled dog. An'

now you 'spect me to go back like a

whipped dog?

FRY:

I was wrong. I admit it. My bad, okay?

Now let's just go back to the ship.

JOHNS:

I dunno. Nice breeze, wide open spaces --

you know, I'm startin' to enjoy myself out

here.

FRY:

Are you f***ing high again? Just listen

to --

JOHNS:

No, no, you're right, Fry. What's to be

afraid of? My life is a steamin' pile of

meaningless toadshit anyhow. So I say

mush on! Canyon's only couple hundred

meters, after that we're in Skiff City!

So why don't you just butch up, stuff a

cork in that kid, and get --

IMAM:

She's the captain, we should listen to --

JOHNS:

Listen to her? Her? When she was willing

to sacrifice us all?

A beat. Eyes turn to Fry. She wants to protest -- but can't.

AUDREY:

What's he talkin' about?

JOHNS:

During the crash, she --

FRY:

(a warning growl)

This does not help us, Johns.

JOHNS:

-- she tried to blow the whole f***ing

passenger cabin, tried to kill us --

FRY:

Just shut up, okay?

JOHNS:

-- tried to kill us in our sleep. Paris

had it right -- we are disposable. We're

just walking ghosts to her.

FRY:

Would you RAG YOUR STUPID HOLE!

She rushes him, ready to rip his eyes out. He shunts her aside.

JOHNS:

We're not alive because of her -- we're

alive in spite of her.

He swung below the belt -- and connected. Fry's chin quakes,

her knees fail. The undertow of events finally pulls her down.

FRY:

We cannot go through there....

JOHNS:

(lording)

How much you weigh right now, Fry? Huh?

IMAM:

(pushing him back)

Fine, fine, you've made your point. We

can all be so scared as you.

Johns snatches a light away from Imam.

JOHNS:

(to all)

Verdict's in. The light moves forward.

EXT. BONEYARD - NIGHT

They trudge on, slower now, building reserves for the canyon-run.

At rear-point, Fry follows like a broken rudder. Pilgrim #1 now

draws the sled with Imam. And up ahead...

EXT. BONEYARD - NIGHT

Johns falls in step with Riddick.

JOHNS:

Ain't all of us gonna make it.

RIDDICK:

Just realized that, huh?

CLICKING nearby. Johns BLASTS the night, driving the sound

away -- and reminding everyone of who carries the Big Gauge.

JOHNS:

Six of us left. If we could get through

that canyon and lose just one, that'd be

quite a f***ing feat, huh? A good thing,

right?

RIDDICK:

Not if I'm the one.

JOHNS:

What if you're one of five?

Riddick stares. "I'm listening."

EXT. BONEYARD - NIGHT

AUDREY:

What're they doin' up there?

IMAM:

Talking about the canyon, I suppose.

How to get us through.

Overhearing, Fry looks. It's odd to see Johns and Riddick

walking side by side, like equals. Like partners.

EXT. BONEYARD - NIGHT

JOHNS:

Look, it's hellified stuff -- but no

different than those battlefield doctors

when they have to decide who lives and who

dies. It's called "triage," okay?

RIDDICK:

Kept calling it "murder" when I did it.

JOHNS:

Either way, figure it's something you can

grab onto.

RIDDICK:

(doping it out)

Sacrifice play. Hack up one body, leave

it at start of the canyon. Like a bucket

of chum.

JOHNS:

Trawl with it. There's a cable on the

sled. We can drag the body behind us.

RIDDICK:

Nice embellishment.

JOHNS:

Don't wanna feed these land-sharks -- just

keep 'em off our scent.

RIDDICK:

(looking back)

So which one caught your eye?

JOHNS:

Don' look, don' look, don' look....

EXT. BONEYARD - NIGHT

Fry spots Riddick's look -- and Johns' non-look.

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