Pitch Black Page #5

PILGRIM #2

Assalamoo ahlaykum!

JOHNS:

Long gone. Whoever they were.

They move around a building -- and pull up short. Before them

looms a moisture-recovery unit, a hulking machine in disrepair.

Old jugs litter the ground.

IMAM:

Water...water there was here....

PILGRIMS:

Allahu Akbar....

IMAM:

(translating)

"God is Great," yes?

JOHNS:

I'm born-again.

Fry manages a weary smile -- but soon her eyes revisit the

abandoned buildings. "Who were these people? Why did they

leave so much behind?"

INT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

Through a window, we see the Johns and the Chrislams crawling

over the moisture-recovery unit, assessing repairs. PULL BACK to

include Fry inside the settlement, inspecting...

Refectory table. Place settings out. Years of dust.

Photos on the wall: Settlers working modest gardens. Playing

baseball. Posing with children.

INT. LIVING QUARTERS - SETTLEMENT - DAY

Fry enters a dark room.

FRY:

Lights.

No response to her command. She pats around for old-style wall

switches. Nothing. Perceiving black-out blinds on a window, she

throws them open to reveal...

A man standing right outside.

JOHNS:

(through window)

Hey. Don't go too far, huh?

Fry nods. Johns smiles, leaves. Just as her heart settles,

SOMETHING CREAKS behind her.

It's an orrery, a mechanical device that shows the motion of the

planets around their suns. Solar powered, the orrery starts

turning, CREAKING. One planet seems always to have sunlight.

FRY:

No darkness. No lights because no

darkness....

EXT. PORCH - SETTLEMENT - DAY

Fry reaches a porch. It looks out over the rear of the

settlement and more unforgiving terrain. She starts back

inside -- but something glints at the edge of her vision. Fry

turns back...parts clothes on a laundry line...and sees the

source of the glint.

Excited hits on her breather.

Fry vaults off the porch -- and starts walking as if on magnetic

bearing. Soon she's running.

EXT. SETTLEMENT - DAY

FRY (V.O.)

Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!

Johns and the Chrislams trade looks.

EXT. SKIFF - DAY

FRY:

Allahu Akbar!

Fry stops on a groomed runway, out of breath. The others catch

up. They too marvel at...

The skiff, a light-duty vehicle of hybrid technology -- part bush

plane, part space craft. Its fabric wings are wind-torn -- but

the hull looks intact.

EXT. TOP OF CRASH SHIP - DAY

CLOSE on caviar being added to toast-points.

A SCRABBLING SOUND stops Paris in mid-bite. He eases out of his

rocker, moves to the rear edge of the ship and looks down on...

A shadow ducking under him. Small rocks still trickle down a

dirt rampart just climbed by...someone.

PARIS:

This now qualifies as the worst fun I've

ever had. Stop it.

No response.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DAY

War-pick in hand, Paris eases to ground-level. He checks the

perimeter, looks inside the ship. Nobody. Is he being f***ed

with? Again? He hopes?

PARIS:

Audrey? Oh, Audrey....

AUDREY (O.S.)

What?

Paris spins. The voice came from the cargo hold -- and not where

he expected.

INT. CARGO HOLD - DAY

Blades of sunlight stream in through cracks in the hull. Paris

enters to find Shazza and Audrey cutting open containers,

searching for usable goods.

PARIS:

Tell me that was you.

AUDREY:

Okay, it was me. What'd I do now?

PARIS:

Assailing my fragile sense of security,

that's what.

SHAZZA:

What're you goin' on about? She's been

right here for the last....

They all see it:
Sun-blades are momentarily blocked by something

passing outside. Someone.

SHAZZA:

(a quiet probe)

Zeke?

No answer. Audrey springs to the other side of hold, puts an eye

to a crack there.

HULL-CRACK POV:
Far away, Zeke finishes digging the grave. He

starts toward the ship.

Audrey whirls back, mouths a silent alarm: "RIDDICK!"

Paris goes bloodless. Shazza grabs the war-pick out of his

frozen hands, moves catlike to the main doors and poises there,

ready to strike. Audrey follows with the hunting boomerang.

All eyes watch as...

The sun-blades, winking off and on, chart Riddick's approach:

We feel like we're inside a magician's sword box, watching the

blades shave closer and closer to us. Suddenly he appears...

And Shazza swings hard.

AUDREY:

No!

Facing them is a TOTAL STRANGER -- burned, half naked, one hand

still clutching the emergency-release lever of his cryo-locker.

Shazza stopped one inch short of killing him.

TOTAL STRANGER:

I thought...my God, I thought I was the

only one who....

He lurches toward Shazza, trying to embrace her -- and sees blood

and brain-bits BLAM-BLAMMING against her. His own. The stranger

sinks bonelessly to the ground. FAST RACK to reveal Zeke in the

background, pistol leveled. He reads Shazza's horrified face --

and understands what he's done.

PARIS:

Oh, Lord....

AUDREY:

It was just somebody else. From the

crash. He was just....

ZEKE:

Cripes galore, I thought it was him. The

murderin' ratbag. I thought he was....

He rushes over to check the dead stranger. As he bends down,

FAST RACK AGAIN to reveal Riddick in the background. He stands

20 paces off, still unseen by the others. His goggle eyes

covet...

Zeke's breather.

EXT. SKIFF - DAY

Fry exits the skiff.

FRY:

No juice, looks like it's been laid up

for years. But we might be able to

adapt --

JOHNS:

Shut up.

Outside, Johns has an ear cocked to the wind.

JOHNS (CONT'D)

Sorry. Thought I heard something.

FRY:

Like what?

JOHNS:

Like my pistola.

EXT. GRAVE SITE - SPIRED HILLS - DAY

START on the drag-sled carrying Corpse #4-- the stranger.

Zeke reaches the grave. The sun-tarp has fallen on one side,

blocking the sight-line between ship and grave. Zeke starts to

unload the body -- but sees something he didn't notice before:

There's some kind of opening at the bottom of the grave.

ZEKE:

Now what the bloody hell....

Zeke hops down into the grave. CAMERA MOVES to reveal Riddick

hidden among the spires. He's been waiting for a chance just

like this.

EXT. GRAVE - DAY

Zeke drops to all fours. Looks into the tunnel. There seems to

be some kind of burrow beyond.

BURROW POV:
Staring back at Zeke.

Zeke takes a handlight off his belt, shines it into the burrow.

It's the last thing he ever does.

INT./EXT. CRASH SHIP - DAY

As MORE GUNSHOTS jar Paris, Audrey, Shazza.

EXT. GRAVE - DAY

FURIOUS CLOSEUPS: Zeke fighting for his life. PISTOL BLASTING.

Something slashing at him. Blood dancing on air.

EXT. CRASH SHIP - DAY

Shazza sprints across hard-pack, heading for...

EXT. GRAVE SITE - SPIRED HILLS - DAY

The grave. She slaps aside the tarp to find...

Riddick. Bone-shiv in hand, he just stands on the other side of

the grave. Shazza looks down. And SCREAMS.

EXT. SPIRED HILLS - DAY

CAMERA PURSUES Riddick as he lopes through the spires, running

from the scene of the crime. He turns a blind corner -- and

SOMETHING NEARLY BLOWS HIS HEAD OFF at close range. He hits

ground. A boot steps on his neck, keeping him there.

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