TRIUMVIRATE SE Chapter Twenty-Five
By The Host
EXT. STREET - LATER
The street is extremely busy, jammed with extremely fast
vehicles, moving about the city despite the prolonged night
and prolonged fight in the skies above. One side of this
wide thoroughfare is lined with dark trees, the other with
bright storefronts. Steve and Willem emerge from the trees.
WILLEM
You’re sure?
STEVE
(Waving his arm into the
street)
Yeah. We can’t walk all the way
around that wreckage. We need a
cab.
WILLEM
And the others?
STEVE
They know where we’re going.
They’ll find us.
WILLEM
You’re sure?
A car speeds by close to Steve; he takes his arm away at the
last minute.
STEVE
Bastard!
(To Willem)
Yeah, I’m sure. Anyway, what
choice do we have?
A taxi screeches to a stop next to them; the CABBIE, a lanky
black man, motions frantically for them to get in.
INT. CAB - CONTINUOUS
The cabbie leans back to them and grins.
CABBIE
Where to, boys?
WILLEM
Corporate Tower, please.
CABBIE
Oh, yeah? Out of the frying pan
into the tower, huh? Hold on!
With a jerk, he speeds away.
EXT. DIRTY STREET – LATER
A dark, busy street. This neighborhood is dank, dirty, wet.
Lights play on the surfaces of puddles. DOZENS OF VENDORS in
rags shout and call to sell their wares; PEDESTRIANS in
great throngs shuffle to gawk or to buy or to move on.
Restaurants that should probably be condemned line the
street, interspersed with vacant buildings, windows broken
and painted with graffiti. PROSTITUTES ply their trade. Over
the din faint explosions of the battle above can be heard.
Macy, Davies and Johnson walk slowly along this street, the
latter two shouldering their heavy packs, Macy looking at a
hand-held monitor. They pass an alleyway that recedes into
unknowable darkness. Davies shudders.
DAVIES
I don’t wanna know what goes on in
those alleyways.
MACY
This way.
He turns into one of the alleys; Johnson and
Davies are forced to follow.
DAVIES
Figures.
EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHT
The cab speeds along the highway, weaving between vehicles,
now heading toward the Corporate Tower, which stands like a
spike before them.
INT. CAB - MOVING
Steve and Willem hold on for dear life as they whisk past
other vehicles. The cabbie, smiling wide, looks back at
them.
CABBIE
So whose side you on?
STEVE
Never mind. Just get us there.
The cabbie looks ahead again, laughing.
CABBIE
Dawson’s side, huh? S’okay. I
don’t give a shit who you fight
for, long as you pay.
Willem watches the traffic flash by. At that moment sirens
wail behind them and lights flash; a police vehicle is in
hot pursuit. Willem looks out the rear window, stupefied,
then turns back to the cabbie.
WILLEM
What the hell? I lived in this
city twelve years; cops’ve never
chased anyone for speeding, and
now there’s a battle going on!
CABBIE
Well, shit. Hold these!
He reaches over and grabs from the passenger seat a pile of
jewels which he throws back to Willem and Steve,
incredulous. He keeps piling stuff on, ending with an
ornately-guilt picture frame.
WILLEM
Wha--?
CABBIE
Stole ‘em from the Tree Museum. I
guess you guys are my hostages.
Sorry. Hold on!
He pulls back on the controls.
EXT. FREEWAY - CONTINUOUS
The cab pulls up, away from the freeway, and, engaging
powerful engines, zooms away through the night. Two police
vehicles follow close behind.
EXT. ALLEY – MOMENTS LATER
Jack and Hawk and Robert move slowly through the dark alley.
Fighters fly by overhead. Rats scurry amongst the trash and
between the dumpsters. A BUM lies propped against a
dumpster, huddled under a blanket, a bottle of some sort of
alcohol by his side. The three pass by him; Macy looks at a
hand-held monitor.
MACY
The Tower should be three blocks
ahead and one over.
The bum calls out to them.
BUM
Are you soldiers?
DAVIES
(Not looking at him)
Yep.
BUM
We’re doomed, you know. The
morning will never dawn.
DAVIES
Okay.
BUM
God watch over you!
JOHNSON
Thank you, sir.
They keep walking; the bum settles down under his blanket.
DAVES
Local color.
MACY
Almost there.
They continue on.
INT./EXT. CAB - MOVING
The cab flies over the rubble and parkland near the
Corporate Tower, still pursued by police vehicles, making
for the buildings on the other side. A fighter nearby is
destroyed; the cab barely misses the flaming wreckage.
INSIDE, the cabbie speaks now without looking back to his
passengers.
CABBIE
Used to be a security officer,
y’know. Corporate Tower. Then they
fired me. Said they was lookin’
for someone more appropriate for
dealin’ with the public. Then they
hired a skinny white boy to
replace me, talks with an English
accent, tells people where the
bathrooms are with grace, I guess.
Anyway, I say, fuck ‘em. I got
nothin’ to lose. If I’m goin’ down
I’m goin’ down, but I’m takin’
something with me. So I know
you’re my hostages – that’s only
in case, just if I get caught,
y’know – but otherwise I’d be
willing to help you, long as you
gonna bring down the Corporation.
WILLEM
You could say that.
The cabbie smiles.
CABBIE
All right. Y’know, you’re my knida
people.
AUTOR'S COMMENTARY:
Most of this chapter I made up as I went along. I had
intended that Steve and Willem would just show up at the
Tower, and so would Macy and Davies and Johnson, but decided
to prolong things a bit more. I had planned on including an
additional action sequence, involving a shoot-out in an
elevator shaft, that doesn’t appear in this version – more
about that later – and decided to keep the momentum going
here, instead of a full stop after the last bit. I wanted
this sequence to be a little lighter, though. I decided it
should involve Steve and Willem – who at this point are in
the scene largely as juxtaposition to the more serious
burdens our main characters bear – and a new character, one
to provide a bit of comic relief and wake audiences up as
the film enters its bleakest phase. On the same token, I
didn’t want things to become suddenly silly, so I cut
between that action sequence and quieter, more serious
scenes involving Davies and Macy and Johnson.
As written in December, this chapter was slightly longer.
The action sequence was a little more drawn-out, and an
altercation between Davies and a homeless woman – broken up
by Macy – was included. I deleted that scene because it was
there primarily to build character, but I didn’t feel it
really added anything to anybody that wasn’t already there –
it just exaggerated the characters somewhat; made ‘em less
believable.
NEXT CHAPTER
PREVIOUS CHAPTER
SCENE ACCESS
MAIN MENU
4/11/2003 10:34:22 PM
(Updated: 4/12/2003 5:56:44 PM)
(Updated: 4/12/2003 5:56:55 PM)
Comment on this fan fiction!
|
