Pitch Black Page #8

JOHNS (O.S.)

Missin' the party. C'mon.

It's Johns, keeping him on a short leash. Leaving, Riddick kicks

a trash bin. Hard.

RIDDICK:

Missin' the party. C'mon.

He leaves. HOLD on the trash bin a beat.

AUDREY (O.S.)

Talkin' to me?

INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

PILGRIM'S POV:
Of Audrey exiting the trash bin and running after

Riddick and Johns.

Pilgrim #3 is at the window of the coring room. He's found a way

inside. By the window's feeble light, he starts exploring. Just

visible at the center of this room is a vertical coring drill.

INT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

IMAM:

...and for this, our gift of drink, we

give thanks in the name of our Prophet,

Muhammad, peace be upon him, and to our

Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and to his

father, Allah the Compassionate and the

Merciful.

PARIS:

(to himself)

The strangest religion....

Pilgrims finish pouring cloudy water into goblets. Riddick gets

the last of it -- the part with sediment. SELECTED CLOSEUPS as

they drink. Nothing ever tasted finer.

PARIS:

Perhaps we should toast our hosts. Who

were these people, anyway? Miners?

SHAZZA:

Looks like geologists. Advance team,

moves around from rock to rock.

JOHNS:

Musta crapped out here, huh?

AUDREY:

But why did they leave their ship?

Silence. It's a question no one has chosen to deal with yet.

Imam notices one water glass unspoken for.

EXT. CORING ROOM - DAY

CLOSE on the "Coring Room" sign. An attached solar panel begins

moving, orienting toward sunlight. When it catches the full

brunt of the suns' rays...

STORM SHUTTERS unlatch on the roof.

INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

Pilgrim #3 hears SHOOTING LATCHES overhead. That sound brings

another sound:
A strange SKITTERING. The pilgrim looks up. Is

there something in the rafters?

INT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

JOHNS:

(answering Audrey)

Well, just a skiff. Disposable, really.

PARIS:

Like an emergency life-raft, right?

SHAZZA:

Sure. Coulda had a real drop-ship take

them off-planet. Long gone.

PARIS:

A toast to their ghosts, then....

Goblets rise.

RIDDICK:

Didn't leave, these people. Whatever got

Zeke got them. They're all dead.

It's like he just pissed in the punchbowl.

RIDDICK (CONT'D)

What, you don't really think they left

with their clothes on the lines? Photos

on the walls?

SHAZZA:

Maybe they had weight limits, you don't

know.

RIDDICK:

I know you don't uncrate your emergency

ship unless there's a f***ing emergency.

JOHNS:

Rag it, Riddick. Nobody wants your

theories on --

FRY:

(to Riddick)

So what happened? Where are they, then?

Fry is the only one willing to look at reality -- or at least

glance its way. At the window, Imam scans outside.

IMAM:

Has anyone seen the young one? Ali?

RIDDICK:

(to Fry and Imam)

Has anyone checked the coring room?

INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

Now the storm shutters start yawning open, spreading daylight

over Pilgrim #3 and...

The ceiling rafters. They're encrusted with thick nests of...

something. The SKITTERING grows louder, more agitated.

Sensing trouble, Pilgrim #3 hurries for a sliver of daylight in

a wall -- the breach he entered through. He never gets there:

Sunlight hits the first nest. It EXPLODES WITH LIFE.

INT./EXT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

As Imam hears the SCREAM.

IMAM:

Ali....

INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

CHAOTIC SHOTS:
More NESTS EXPLODE into individual creatures,

winged hatchlings moving like bats in a fire, talons hacking and

slashing. His exit blocked, Pilgrim #3 veers into...

A dark supply room. He slams the door, MUMBLES A BLESSING and

waits for the storm to pass. He's been cut -- but at least he's

still alive.

EXT. SETTLEMENT - DAY

As the survivors run for the coring room.

INT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

As Riddick stays behind to drink their water.

INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

HINGES ARE BLASTED AWAY. The door caves in. Imam shoulders

past Johns to enter and find...

The empty coring room.

IMAM:

Ali?

A NOISE from the supply room. Is it Ali? Just too scared to

come out? Imam opens the door...

And hatchlings pour out.

Moving with a gang-intelligence, they circle the room in a wave,

soar high into the rafters -- then plunge into the coring shaft,

SQUEALS VANISHING to infinity. Shocked silence, then...

Pilgrim #3 tumbles to the ground. He's been shredded into bloody

kite-tails. There was a nest inside the supply room.

Imam falls on him in grief. Johns and Fry inch forward to peer

down...

The coring shaft. It's littered with human bones. The skeletons

of the settlers. Scattered about and picked clean.

EXT. SETTLEMENT - DAY

Against a blue sunrise, the Chrislams hold a prayer service.

Paris and Audrey attend. Riddick watches from afar.

INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

SHAZZA:

Why was the door chained up? Why the

bloody hell would they lock themselves in

like that?

JOHNS:

Not sure, but tell you what: Chrislams

better not be diggin' another grave out

there.

RIDDICK (O.S.)

Other buildings weren't secure...

They turn. Riddick enters.

RIDDICK (CONT'D)

...so they ran here. Heaviest doors.

Thought they'd be safe inside, but...

(looks down shaft)

Someone forget to lock the back door.

Shazza joins him at the shaft. Gazing on the human remains:

SHAZZA:

So that's what come of me Zeke. An' you

saw it. You was right there.

Riddick nods.

SHAZZA (CONT'D)

You were tryin' to kill him too.

RIDDICK:

(shrugging, "not

necessarily")

Just wanted his O-2.

(a beat)

Though I notice he tried to ghost my ass.

When he shot up that stranger instead.

Shazza can't deny it. She looks at him differently now, the man

she once beat while in chains. She takes off her breather.

SHAZZA:

Take it.

RIDDICK:

(suspicious)

What, it's broken?

SHAZZA:

Startin' to acclimate, anyhow. Take it.

Riddick accepts it awkwardly, sucks down some pure O2. Johns

watches the exchange closely, not much liking the idea of Riddick

being promoted to oxygen-breathing human.

JOHNS:

(to Fry)

Let's board this up and get the hell gone.

They seem to stick to the dark, so if we

stick to daylight, should be all --

FRY:

60 years ago.

JOHNS:

Wha'?

Coring samples line the room, laid out on counters. Fry's been

scrutinizing them.

FRY:

Core-samples are dated. Last one is 60

years ago. This month.

SHAZZA:

Yeah? What's special about that?

FRY:

Dunno. Maybe nothing, but....

But now Fry remembers...

INT. LIVING QUARTERS - SETTLEMENT - DAY

The orrery. The year-counter clicks over to "45" as...

Fry opens the drive box and starts turning the main gear,

accelerating the orbits.

CLOSE on the counter. "56...57...58...59...60."

They all see it:
A giant ringed world eclipses the suns and

plunges their planet into darkness. Persistent darkness.

JOHNS:

Are you f***in' kidding me?

RIDDICK:

Not afraid of the dark, are you?

EXT. SETTLEMENT - DAY

Crossing the yard in wide strides:

FRY:

...need those cells from the crash ship.

Sh*t, still gotta check out the hull,

patch the wings --

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