The Crazies Page #3

Judy nods her agreement.

JUDY:

Sometimes you just get lucky like

that.

EXT. CORRAL, FARNUM HOUSE - DUSK

GIANT WET TONGUES licking something, licking each other in

the process. A disturbing image, but only in close-up...

DAIRY COWS at a salt lick.

Bill Farnum stands in the corral watching, ankle deep in mud,

briefcase in hand, blank expression. His wife DEARDRA calls

to him from the house porch in the b.g., twelve-year-old son

NICHOLAS under her arm.

DEARDRA:

William!

If he hears her, he gives no visible indication. Nicholas

jogs down to the fence.

NICHOLAS:

Supper’s ready.

Farnum stands motionless, mesmerized. Nicholas starts to

climb the fence and suddenly his father speaks, without

looking, as though he was listening all along:

BILL FARNUM:

Be in in a sec.

Nicholas heads back to the house. Bill Farnum picks his way

across the muddy pen to the salt lick. Surrounded by mooing

cows, he stares at it -- brick-shaped, pinkish white,

dripping with bovine saliva -- then bends and gives it a long

disgusting lick.

12.

EXT. DUTTON HOUSE - NIGHT

Crescent moon. David eyeing it from the back porch as he

drinks a beer in his unbuttoned sheriff's shirt.

Judy enters the kitchen behind him. Weary from the day.

Sees him through the door. He holds her gaze for a moment

then puts his hand under his shirt and gives it a little

flutter, meaning his heart still beats for her.

Makes her smile.

INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

They kiss by the old gas stove. He brushes a lock of stray

hair from her face. Married his dream.

DAVID:

Hungry?

(she nods)

What do you want?

JUDY:

(isn't sure)

Omelet?

DAVID:

Sit.

TIME CUT TO:

Judy at the table eating her omelet. David sitting opposite,

polishing her wedding band on his shirt. A ritual of his.

DAVID:

Could drive you up to see your

parents this weekend, if you want.

JUDY:

(smiles)

Penance for your sins?

He smiles a little, slips the ring back on her finger,

restored to its original luster. Then, still troubled by the

day’s events:

DAVID:

Thought maybe the moon was full, I

don’t know, definitely some

weirdness going around. Medical

examiner said he found nothing in

Rory’s system.

13.

JUDY:

Meaning - ?

DAVID:

Meaning, according to the state,

the man I shot was sober.

JUDY:

What did Peggy say?

DAVID:

Saw him at lunch and he seemed

fine.

A mystery. David left with only his instincts. And the

memory:

DAVID:

Looked him right in the eye. He

was under the influence of

something. If it wasn’t alcohol it

was something else.

EXT. FARNUM HOUSE - NIGHT

Cows moo behind the barn. It's after midnight.

INT. FARNUM HOUSE - NIGHT

We drift through the dark hundred-year-old house, past the

stairs, down the hall into the kitchen, past an old potbellied

woodstove to the sink where we find Deardra in a

nightgown looking out the window. Worried. Nicholas enters

in pajamas.

NICHOLAS:

Pa come in yet?

Deardra shakes her head no. Her eyes never leave the window.

Nicholas comes over, sees what she's staring at.

NICHOLAS:

What's he doin’?

Off in the distance, a COMBINE is going around in circles in

a field, its spotlights sweeping the prairie like a

lighthouse beacon.

Deardra takes a flashlight from the top of the fridge.

DEARDRA:

Wait here.

14.

EXT. FIELD - NIGHT

House in the b.g., Deardra crosses the field, spotlights

whipping across her face.

Lit up like a nebula against the night sky, the billowing

dust cloud gives the combine an otherworldly aura. A killing

machine circling for prey, the thresher a gaping mouth of

giant spinning teeth.

EXT. COMBINE - CONTINUOUS

Up close, the noise is deafening. Deardra strides into

range. Cups her hands to her mouth and calls up to the

darkened cab.

DEARDRA:

William...?!

INT. COMBINE - CONTINUOUS

Through the windshield we can see her out there calling to

us, disappearing from view as the combine goes around again.

EXT. COMBINE - CONTINUOUS

Deardra calls once more then jogs over and climbs the metal

rungs to the cab. Opens the door.

DEARDRA:

William Blaine Farnum, what in

heaven's -EMPTY

SEAT.

A haunted pause then Deardra slides in behind the wheel.

Powers down the engine. Turns off the lights.

EXT. COMBINE / FIELD - CONTINUOUS

The big machine grinds to a halt and there's a hush. Deardra

climbs down. Scans the dark, windswept fields.

DEARDRA:

William...?

Her voice carries without answer. She turns on the

flashlight and walks out into the field.

DEARDRA:

William...?!

The swaying wheat. The pulse of cicadas. And then, from

back at the house, a BLOOD-CURDLING SCREAM. Her son.

15.

DEARDRA:

Oh God...

Deardra takes off running for the house. Frantic. Elbows

flying.

DEARDRA:

NICHOLAS?!

Another SCREAM. Deardra, in full flight, screams back.

DEARDRA:

NICHOLAS?!

She crosses the field at a dead sprint. And hears something

worse than a scream as she reaches the house. SILENCE.

EXT. FARNUM HOUSE - CONTINUOUS

She runs up the steps. In the front door.

INT. FARNUM HOUSE - CONTINUOUS

She slows as she comes down the dark hallway. No sign of her

son. No sign of her husband.

DEARDRA:

Nicholas...?

Silence. At the top of the stairs -

A HANGING BULB SWINGS like a pendulum, casting eerie shifting

shadows. Deardra looks up the stairs at it. No sane person

would go up there, except a mother for a child.

She climbs the stairs. Slowly, one step at a time. The old

boards CREAKING underfoot. The bulb’s shadows rocking back

and forth across her face.

INT. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

Topping the stairs, she comes down the hall. Eyes wide with

fear. Shadows dancing. The light is on in the BATHROOM.

Door closed. Deardra reaches out a hand, pushes the door

slowly open -- CREEEEEAK -- and sees...

EMPTY BATHROOM:

She looks down the hall. Darkness at the other end. Voice

trembling, she calls into it.

DEARDRA:

Nicholas...?

16.

As she takes her next step SOMEONE GRABS HER FROM BEHIND,

throws a hand over her mouth and pulls her into the -

INT. CLOSET - CONTINUOUS

Nicholas. Terrified. He gestures for silence, takes his

hand from Deardra's mouth. Their pale faces lit by the light

coming through the crack.

DEARDRA:

What happened? What did he do?

Nicholas, answer me.

NICHOLAS:

He has a knife.

A chill runs through Deardra.

DEARDRA:

(re:
closet)

We can't stay here.

She cracks the door, peers out. Just then, a terrible sound.

FOOTSTEPS coming heavily up the stairs.

And now they have no choice but the closet. Nicholas shuts

the door and grips the handle with both hands, praying he's

strong enough to keep his father out.

INT. STAIRS / HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

Bill Farnum climbs the stairs into view. He is holding a

KNIFE.

INT. CLOSET - CONTINUOUS

Deardra helps Nicholas hold the door as Bill’s FOOTSTEPS come

pounding down the hallway to the closet where they STOP

ABRUPTLY.

Five seconds that feel like forever as Deardra and Nicholas

listen to Bill's HOLLOW BREATHS on the other side of the

door. Both clutching the door handle, expecting it to get

ripped open any second.

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