The Crazies Page #7

EXT. HIGHWAY 50 - NIGHT

A sheriff department PICKUP speeds down the fog-cloaked

highway toward Wichita.

INT. SHERIFF DEPT. PICKUP - CONTINUOUS

Russell humming along at eighty miles an hour. Checks his

radio. STATIC. Turns it off. Suddenly, FOUR DEAFENING POPS

AS -

EXT. SHERIFF DEPT. PICKUP / HIGHWAY 50 - CONTINUOUS

-- ALL FOUR TIRES BLOW OUT!

A SPIKE STRIP lying across the road. The truck fishtails out

of control, wobbling violently on its rims, threatening to

roll...

INT. SHERIFF DEPT. PICKUP - CONTINUOUS

Russell struggles, teeth-clenched, not to let it.

33.

RUSSELL:

Sh*t!

Ruptured treads fly off. The pickup careens off the shoulder

and slams to a stop in an irrigation ditch.

INT./EXT. SHERIFF DEPT. PICKUP/ DITCH - CONTINUOUS

Russell has barely righted himself when he’s pulled from the

truck by a DOZEN SOLDIERS IN BIOHAZARD SUITS. Thrown

against the hood, M-16s in his face, Russell’s astonishment

is almost comical.

RUSSELL:

Whoa.

INT. DUTTON HOUSE - NIGHT

Meanwhile David and Judy. Tense words in the kitchen.

DAVID:

Maybe you should go stay with your

parents for a while.

JUDY:

Maybe you should go stay with my

parents.

DAVID:

Look, this isn't -

JUDY:

No, David, you're not the only one

with responsibilities here, half

these people are my -

Sees something out the kitchen window. It scares her.

DAVID:

What? What was it?

JUDY:

(isn't sure)

Shadow.

David grabs his gun and goes out.

EXT. DUTTON HOUSE - NIGHT

David stands at the edge of the property, eyeing the back

field. It's eerily still.

DAVID:

Somebody there?!

34.

Silence. Turning, he sees the light is on inside the

GARDEN SHED:

He walks over, pushes open the door with the gun muzzle. As

he peeks warily inside -

LAWN TOOLS CLATTER NOISILY to the floor. Scares the hell of

out him. David switches off the light and then hears GLASS

SHATTER inside the house.

JUDY (O.S.)

Who are you?! Who are you?!

DAVID!!

He crosses the yard at a sprint, kicks open the screen door

INT. DUTTON HOUSE - NIGHT

And sees THREE SOLDIERS IN BIOHAZARD SUITS forcibly escorting

Judy to the front door. David lunges into the fray, gun

outstretched.

DAVID:

What the fu--?! Get off her!!

His heroics are short-lived. Grabbed, spun, put in a

chokehold, he is disarmed and dragged out the door by the

suited intruders. It's over in two seconds flat - chilling,

the ease with which he is subdued.

EXT. DUTTON HOUSE / BUS - NIGHT

They wrestle Judy aboard an idling SCHOOL BUS. David behind

her, still resisting, choked blue in the face.

JUDY:

Where are you taking us?!

INT. BUS - NIGHT (MOVING)

Hurtling along under armed guard, David and Judy see shocking

images out the windows. FAMILIES BEING PULLED FROM EVERY

HOUSE IN SIGHT. The entire town being corralled onto buses

like pigs off to slaughter.

EXT. BALL FIELD, OGDEN MARSH HIGH SCHOOL - NIGHT

ALL THE TOWNSPEOPLE stand in lines under the lights.

Stunned. No one saw this coming. Raised ten feet and topped

with razor wire, the fence is patrolled by armed guards in

hazmat suits. A recorded message plays over the field's

tinny P.A. system:

35.

RECORDED FEMALE VOICE

...Please remain calm and do not

interfere with the work of the

examiners. Information will be

provided to you as it becomes

available. Thank you for your

cooperation...

Repeating ad infinitum as BIOSUITED EXAMINERS come down the

lines with digital ear thermometers checking temperatures. A

single BEEP means you're okay. A quick triple BEEP-BEEP-BEEP

means you're not and prompts a swift response, which we see

playing out across the field:

Burly MEDTECHS loading the unlucky person into one of the

many golf carts on the scene - pulling wives away from

husbands, husbands away from wives, children from parents,

parents from children - a coldly scientific process that ends

with the golf carts speeding the outtakes up the hill to the

high school while loved ones scream in vain for their return.

Here are David and Judy, as stunned and disoriented as

everyone else. David confronts a passing examiner, his

outrage reflected back at him in the mirrored faceshield.

DAVID:

What did we get exposed to?! What

was it?!

The examiner walks past without reply. Judy meanwhile

appraises the medical teams, the work being done.

JUDY:

Elevated temperature usually means

infection, but a toxin can do the

same thing... I don't know, the way

Peggy was acting makes me think

it's chemical.

DAVID:

So they round us up with assault

rifles, what's that?

JUDY:

Medical response teams train with

case studies, they know the

symptomology, pharmacological

outcomes -

DAVID:

In plainspeak.

36.

JUDY:

(looks at him)

They're as scared as we are.

Judy steps away to help an ASTHMATIC ELDERLY WOMAN who is

leaning against the fence. Soldiers escort MAYOR HOBBS and

his WIFE onto the field.

MAYOR HOBBS:

Governor Hatfield’s a personal

friend of mine!

Nobody cares. They get dumped in a line near David. Hobbs

draws hostile stares. Word of his hasty exodus has

apparently gotten around.

DAVID:

Hey Tom, how's Kentucky?

MAYOR HOBBS:

Bastards spiked our tires, pulled

us out at gunpoint.

DAVID:

Wow, sounds like your civil rights

might have been violated, you

should look into that.

Hobbs frowns at the sarcasm, taking in the angry stares.

MAYOR HOBBS:

(re:
Kentucky)

Is that what everybody's so ticked

off at me for?

DAVID:

You ran. Town needed a leader.

MAYOR HOBBS:

You be the leader.

DAVID:

It's not our town anymore.

David steps to the fence, watches the guards prowling the

perimeter. Otherworldly riflemen with biohazard hoods and

leashed dogs. His gaze finds the old scoreboard behind the

backstop. Lingers on it. Something poignant about it there

behind the barbed wire.

HOME OF THE WILDCATS

But what he sees past it is chilling. Two figures standing

in the tungsten glow of a flood light, staring at him...

37.

JAKE AND CURT HAMILL

Rory's sons. Delirious with rage and vengeance. THEIR FACES

ARE PARALYZED ON ONE SIDE, RIDDLED WITH SPASMS ON THE OTHER.

Teeth and gums exposed by some obscene tightening of the jaw

muscles.

A LOUD DULCET TONE on the PA system makes David jump. He

looks back and the Hamill boys are gone. Haunted, he scans

the dark woods. And suddenly

A HAND grabs his shoulder. He spins, ready for a fight.

It’s his deputy.

RUSSELL:

Funny thing happened on the way to

Wichita.

Gallows humor. Followed by a deadly serious:

RUSSELL:

Who are these f***ers?

DAVID:

Same ones who don’t know anything

about a dead pilot and aren’t

missing a plane.

David surveys the crowd, sensing beneath the fear and

bewilderment a growing rage. It’s palpable, a chemical shift

in their psychology.

RUSSELL:

This don’t end well.

David shakes his head - nope. An EXAMINER comes down the

line checking temperatures. David engages.

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