The Crazies Page #10

In the aftermath of the military exodus there is an eerie

calm filled with SHRIEKS and GROANS, the INSANE RANTINGS of

the abandoned inmates. With those horrible sounds in her

ears Judy scans the classroom. Her fellow townspeople.

Varying degrees of madness on display:

A middle-aged WOMAN SNICKERING to herself. A teenage BOY

BABBLING incoherently.

48.

A CATATONIC MAN with the same half dead, half twitching face

Bill Farnum had. Others are unconscious, comatose, drooling.

Judy locks eyes, unexpectedly, with a high school girl

strapped down on the other side of the room. Terrified,

trembling, but otherwise asymptomatic. BECCA DARLING. Her

office helper.

JUDY:

Becca?! Becca, honey, are you

hurt...?!

Becca, deep in shock, trembling in terror:

BECCA DARLING:

Is this... really happening...?

Judy puts on a brave face, doctorly instincts taking over.

JUDY:

Don’t worry, it’ll be okay. All

right?

BECCA DARLING:

You don’t really believe that, do

you?

Becca calls her bluff and suddenly it’s Judy battling

emotions. Near tears, she shakes her head no.

JUDY:

Where’s your mom and dad?

BECCA DARLING:

We were hiding... we tried to get

away...

The sentence ends in SOBS. Her parents are dead. Judy tugs

at her restraints, wants to get over there to help but can’t.

And now they have bigger problems. A terrible sound draws

their gazes to the door.

AN OMINOUS METALLIC SCRAPING NOISE COMING DOWN THE DARK

HALLWAY.

Somebody’s coming. You can hear their SHUFFLING STEPS. Judy

shoots Becca a look. Be very quiet. Becca stifles her sobs

as the creepy scraping noise comes CLOSER, CLOSER...

And now it stops. The classroom door swings open with a

CREAK. A figure silhouetted in the doorway. Image from a

nightmare:

49.

A pot-bellied LUNATIC drenched in blood. BRUCE WEBBER. The

A & P Manager. He is dragging a PITCHFORK.

Judy and Becca watch in mute terror, praying he’ll leave.

Instead he enters. Drags the pitchfork to the nearest gurney

and looks down at the insane snickering woman.

He mumbles something nonsensical then raises the pitchfork

and SPEARS HER in the chest. Becca SCREAMS. Bruce extracts

the pitchfork from his first victim and shuffles to his

second. The babbling boy.

SPEARS HIM and continues his murderous ritual, heading

straight for Becca who is thrashing wildly but will never

escape. Judy fights to free her hands, to save Becca. She

can’t.

Stabbing everyone in his path, Bruce arrives at Becca who

closes her eyes as the lunatic raises his pitchfork. Just

then, Judy from the other side of the room:

JUDY (O.S.)

NOOOO!!!!!

The kind of scream even a lunatic can’t ignore. Bruce stops,

turns. Sees Judy over there, strapped down by the

blackboard, helpless. Nudging desks aside, he comes for her

instead.

Hands pinned at her side, Judy stretches her fingertips just

far enough to reach the blackboard chalk tray and, using it

as a rail, gets the gurney rolling. Rolls herself right out

the classroom door, gripping whatever’s within reach.

Bruce follows her out, dragging the pitchfork.

INT. CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

Judy rolls down the row of lockers, grabbing the PADLOCKS

with that strapped hand, pulling herself along. The SOUND OF

THE PITCHFORK right behind her. Blind panic setting in. Her

diversion play quickly shaping up as suicide.

Craning her neck she can see Bruce coming. Quickens her

pace, fingers grabbing frantically at the padlocks. And then

tragedy strikes.

HER HAND:

misses the next lock, the last one in this row, and as a

result she misses the turn. And drifts helplessly into the

center of the corridor...

50.

The wheels of her gurney CREAK to a stop. Her EYES wide with

terror. Her FINGERS still clutching at the air. STRANDED by

a trophy case of old basketballs.

The STEEL PRONGS OF THE PITCHFORK dragging closer. And now

BRUCE:

shuffles into view. Stands above her, leering. The ROW OF

PADLOCKS swinging behind him like a hundred little pendulums.

As he raises the pitchfork

A SHOTGUN BLAST:

Catches him in the arm, spinning him fully around as a SECOND

BLAST RIPS A SIX-INCH HOLE IN HIS CHEST. Bruce Webber falls

in a heap, never comprehending his death. David and Russell

run to Judy, Russell standing guard as David unstraps her.

DAVID:

You okay?

JUDY:

Not really.

Unstrapped, she takes off down the hall.

DAVID:

Where are you going?!

INT. CLASSROOM - NIGHT

Judy unstraps Becca. Becca cries in her arms. Judy holds

her as she might her own child.

EXT. TOWN CENTER - NIGHT

PREDATORY LUNATICS wander the streets, maimed, bleeding,

faces half dead. They attack each other at random, some

unleashing the same murderous fury on inanimate objects. Non-

predatory types stagger through the night babbling. CRAZED

CHILDREN running around like orphans of the apocalypse.

David, Judy, Russell and Becca jog along Main Street, past

shattered shopfronts and parked cars that have been BOOTED to

prevent driving.

RUSSELL:

Nobody’s driving outta here.

An APACHE GUNSHIP flies by overhead. Shockingly fast.

Shockingly loud. David and the others duck around the corner

by the bank. Looks of terror on their faces, knowing they’re

the targets.

51.

They run on. Up ahead, a YOUNG MOTHER sits breast-feeding

her baby on the curb. She’s sobbing, rocking on her heels.

Judy slows. David keeps her moving.

JUDY:

It’s Molly Hutchins.

DAVID:

You can’t help her.

And we see the baby in the young mother’s arms is not a baby.

A PLASTIC DOLL.

EXT. FIELD - NIGHT

They cross a wide field PULSING with cicadas. A mile from

town center it’s almost peaceful. The occasional burst of

gunfire in the distance.

DAVID:

That truckstop where fifty hits the

county line, they're taking people

out of there, putting them on

buses.

RUSSELL:

Where to?

DAVID:

Wichita maybe, wherever, some safe

zone.

RUSSELL:

Hell of a walk, county line.

DAVID:

My cruiser's back at the house.

RUSSELL:

We'll be sitting ducks on the

highway.

DAVID:

I'm thinking the power line road.

It's crap, but we can drive it.

RUSSELL:

Leaves us about a mile on foot.

DAVID:

Exactly.

52.

Judy falls behind, stops in the middle of the field. The

others look back at her, then to David - what’s going on? He

walks back to her. She stands, arms folded, trying to hide

her fear.

JUDY:

What if they’re right? What if I’m

sick?

(includes Becca)

What if we both are?

DAVID:

You’re not sick.

JUDY:

Saying it doesn’t make it true.

DAVID:

If you’re sick, I’m sick -- we

drank from the same tap -- and I’m

not sick. Not yet anyway. So

let’s keep walking.

They head back to the others, Judy with lingering reluctance,

the issue not entirely settled in her mind.

EXT. STONY CREEK - NIGHT

Wide, flat, glimmering with the same toxic sheen as the bog.

David and the others step carefully from stone to stone.

RUSSELL:

(to David)

See those folks in town? Man oh

man, makes you wonder, don’t it?

‘Bout human nature?

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