The Crazies Page #5

Russell shrugs, unlocking the shed.

RUSSELL:

Depends what the payload is.

It's an off-hand remark, means more to David than Russell.

He looks at the MASON JAR of tainted water on the hood of the

truck then turns a brooding stare to the north, a pattern of

thought taking shape.

DAVID:

Hopman Bog, what's that drain into?

RUSSELL:

Dwyer Creek.

DAVID:

Which drains into...?

RUSSELL:

Black Pond. Hey, you remember that

monster catfish I -

DAVID:

(turns)

Black Pond? Is that right?

RUSSELL:

Yeah...

Russell isn't following yet.

DAVID:

Russ, where the hell you think we

get our water from?

23.

INT. TOWN PLANNER'S OFFICE - DAY

TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP of the county on the wall. The Ogden Marsh

watershed shaded in blue. David barges in, asking his

question on the fly. The TOWN PLANNER is eating lunch.

DAVID:

Which way's the water flow through

town?

TOWN PLANNER:

Nice to see you, too, Dave. Waste

water or drinking?

DAVID:

Drinking.

Town Planner unfolds a chart. A SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE

TOWN'S WATER SYSTEM, his finger tracing the main pipeline.

TOWN PLANNER:

Comes in from the north, breaks

east west...

DAVID:

Whose house does it get to first?

TOWN PLANNER:

Most outlying. Let's see, uh...

Runs his finger along a certain outlying route to a certain

outlying farm. Looks up at David.

TOWN PLANNER:

Rory Hamill.

Hold on David's face.

INT. MEDICAL CLINIC - DAY

With discreet alarm David shows Judy the water system

schematic at the reception desk. Points to the second most

outlying farm.

DAVID:

Next house is Bill Farnum's. I

mean, am I talking nonsense here or

is it possible they reacted to

something they drank, something in

the water?

24.

JUDY:

If it's contaminated, if the

concentration's high enough - but,

David, we're drinking that same

water. Everybody is. If there's

something in it, we're all going to

get it.

David backs away, crisis on his hands.

DAVID:

Farnum's are a mile out, might not

have made it this far yet. Tell

everybody don't drink it.

He runs out. Judy - the schematic in CLOSEUP - runs her

finger from 'FARNUM DAIRY' across town to the pipeline's end,

five miles from Black Pond, a plot labelled 'DUTTON FARM'.

She contemplates that distance, their safety buffer, then

raises her gaze to the WAITING ROOM.

It’s half full. There is a WOMAN sitting head slumped

forward in the corner chair. Judy walks over, look of

concern. Lifts the woman’s chin. The widow, Peggy Hamill,

unconscious.

JUDY:

Peggy? Can you hear me? Peg...?

Peggy’s eyes flutter open partway. Pupils dilated. Barely

conscious.

JUDY:

You need to lay down?

Peggy ATTACKS without warning. Knocks Judy off her feet,

tearing her blouse. It takes three guys to pull her off and

subdue her as Nurse Violet helps a badly shaken Judy to her

feet.

NURSE VIOLET:

What’s gotten into her?

Peggy Hamill, held down, writhing and shrieking on the floor.

EXT. POOL, MAYOR’S HOUSE - DAY

A flabby white-bread bureaucrat saunters up the steps of his

in-ground pool, toweling off after a morning swim. MAYOR

HOBBS.

MAYOR HOBBS:

That water’s contaminated I’m

Hilary goddamn Clinton.

25.

David puts the jar of toxic water in his hand.

DAVID:

I’m shutting it down, Tom.

MAYOR HOBBS:

(eyeing jar then pool)

Sh*t.

INT. PIPE ACCESS HOLE - DAY

A MUNICIPAL WORKER muscles the wheelcrank on a high-pressure

pipe valve, shutting off the town's water. Done, he looks up

at David from the hole he's in.

MUNICIPAL WORKER

Off.

INT. SHERIFF CRUISER - DAY

David, driving back into town, lost in thought, RADIO

PLAYING.

RADIO:

WKLC Kansas City. News on the hour

every hour. Fire crews in Southern

California continue to battle

wildfires this morning -

The signal goes to STATIC.

David gives the radio a glance. Tries a different station -

STATIC. Flips through all the stations - STATIC. Weird.

And then something weirder. Out of the corner of his eye,

barely seen in the blur of a passing field. Whoosh

A FIGURE IN A WHITE BIOHAZARD SUIT

So incongruous it takes a moment to register. What the hell?

He slams on the brakes. Backs up, craning his neck to see

what he saw. Can't see it from here. Stops the car.

EXT. SHERIFF CRUISER / ROAD NEAR FIELD - DAY

Gets out and comes around the cruiser. Surveys the field.

Nothing there. Nothing but prairie. David stares across it,

haunted, the radio in the cruiser HISSING STATIC.

INT. SHERIFF STATION - DAY

David enters, dazed.

26.

DAVID:

Either I'm losin' it completely or

I just saw a guy in a spacesuit out

by Hadley Road.

Russell gestures over to his shoulder to the holding cell.

RUSSELL:

That makes two guys losin' it.

Bill Farnum is going BERSERK back there. Smashing his head

against the wall. Tearing the cell apart. Uncontrollable

rage. David, awed, steps to the windowed partition and

watches.

Farnum turns. His face is hideous. ONE SIDE PARALYZED LIKE

A STROKE VICTIM, THE OTHER IN VIOLENT SPASMS. He hurls

himself at the glass - WHAM! - almost shatters it. David

steps back as he goes berserk again.

DAVID:

Did we or did we not request a

transfer to Wichita this morning?

Rhetorical question. He picks up the phone. Starts to dial.

Toggles the receiver. Line's dead.

DAVID:

Yup.

Russell tosses him a cell phone. David hits the first two

digits then sees the viewscreen - "SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL..." -

tosses it back.

DAVID:

Even better.

Russell frowns and steps outside, trying to get a connection.

David tries the tv. WHITE NOISE. Turns it off. Clicks the

computer mouse. CANNOT FIND SERVER. Tries the police

scanner. STATIC. Switches it off, smiling at the

improbability.

EXT. SHERIFF STATION - DAY

Russell meantime can't get a signal. David steps out beside

him, surveys the town from the top of the steps. His face

black with foreboding.

DAVID:

You know what...

RUSSELL:

What?

27.

DAVID:

We're in trouble.

EXT. TOWN CENTER - DAY

SCREECH. David's cruiser brakes to a halt at town center.

He gets out. Scans Main Street. An ominous calm. The

SQUEAKING of a bicycle chain turns his head.

A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN pedaling toward him on a girl's pink-

tasseled banana-seat bike, singing in eerie falsetto, an old

hymnal.

WOMAN ON BIKE:

...All things bright and beautiful,

all creatures great and small, all

things wise and wonderful, The Lord

God made them all...

She rides past David, lost in her own world, her haunting

song filling the silence.

ALTERNATE POV (through SLR camera) - From a block away, a

BURST OF PHOTOGRAPHS captures the woman on the bicycle, then,

panning to David, a second BURST captures him as he crosses

Main Street, still watching the woman. As the photos

continue snapping, he slowly turns, sensing he's being

watched, and looks straight into camera...

BACK TO SCENE:

Tight on David's face as he stands in the center of Main

Street, staring at:

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