PREY
"After-Shock"
ACT THREE
FADE IN:
[NOTE: THE DATE IS NOW THURSDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER 1999]
30. INT. HOMO DOMINANT UNDERGROUND CAVERN
[NOTE: This cavern is deep underground, a mile out from the Oaxaca observatory, to which it is connected with secret tunnels.]
WALTER drifts back into consciousness. His eyes take a while to focus due to the bright light in his cage. In another cage, opposite, sits ED.
ED
Glad you could finally make it, Walter.
WALTER
Where is he?
ED
Our captor? Around here somewhere, I guess.
WALTER
I should have told you back at the lab, Ed, I'm sorry. But...I needed to make sure the man responsible for us being here...is the same man who killed Ann last year. I know, I was there.
CUT TO:
31. FLASHBACK - INT. WHITNEY LABS; DR. COULTER'S OFFICE - NIGHT
[THURSDAY 15TH JANUARY 1998, 9:52 PM]
Through the door enters the old man who would later take the identity of PETER TRAVIS. He looks back and forth at ANN and WALTER.
TRAVIS
I'm not disturbing anything, I hope, Dr. Coulter, I don't mean to ruin any...quality moments...
ANN
(nervous despite herself)
Who are you? What d'you want?
TRAVIS
(conversationally)
I freed the chimpanzees, I sure hope you don't mind, but I don't think it's right to keep living creatures caged - stick needles in them all day long...
Walter reaches inside his jacket pocket for the gun he has holstered, but at that instant, Travis throws a tiny dart at him, hitting Walter in the neck. Walter slumps back against the wall. Travis produces a machete knife out of nowhere and in a flash has it at Ann's neck.
ANN
(terrified, barely managing to choke out the words)
What do you want?
TRAVIS
I was impressed with your lecture, Ann - you don't mind me calling you Ann, I hope? Very impressed, and admittedly, rather anxious.
(turns to Walter; sneers)
Not nice, being drugged, is it, Dr. Attwood?
Walter looks like he wants to speak but is unable to.
ANN
Listen, I only want to help, I had nothing to do with the exp-
Travis throws Ann to the floor and smashes the window violently with his elbow.
TRAVIS
Shut up! I'm sick and tired of people claiming to want to help me! It's your fault - I saw you talking to them, you think I'm blind?! You think I don't know you had a hand in his capture? I saw how you acted in court. You're all going to die!
CUT TO:
32. BACK TO PRESENT - INT. HOMO DOMINANT CAVERN
WALTER
(soberly)
For the next...God knows how long...he tortured her to death, and I couldn't do anything. He kept looking at me, smiling, gloating, saying how I'd be next if I didn't keep him informed of developments at the lab...
ED
You spied for him?
WALTER
No, fortunately he was captured the next day. We were given a tip-off by the F.B.I. - probably Tom, now that I think of it.
(pause)
The worst part of it was when he left, she was still half-alive...I couldn't do anything...I don't know what he'd drugged me with. I had to watch her die.
ED
But I tested his blood, he came up human...
TRAVIS
(OOV)
Dr. Tate, do you really trust your computers so implicitly? Today's generation can be manipulated so much more easily.
(steps into view from across the room)
A small lie, spread over a world-wide network of computers as rumour or speculation, can help carve people's beliefs. It's the ripple effect; get the amplitude and frequency right and a small motion can create Tsunamis to drown entire continents.
WALTER
(wearily)
Let Dr. Tate go, he's done you no harm.
TRAVIS
I know, I'm very grateful that Ed - you don't mind me calling you Ed, I hope - that Ed accepted my invitation to come here. After I was so cruelly ignored by Dr. Parker... Where is Sloan, by the way?
ED
Missing.
TRAVIS
How convenient. Considering she is the key - she is the one I...we need to get Tom back.
ED
Tom? What d'you know about that?
TRAVIS
I know they are linked
(taps his head)
up here. I could have used her to find him...
ED
(to Walter)
What does he have to do with Tom?
WALTER
(pause)
From what we now know about their hierarchy, I suspect him to be Randall Lynch's - and Tom's - former cell leader.
CUT TO:
33. FLASHBACK - INT. WHITNEY LABS; DR. COULTER'S OFFICE - NIGHT
[THURSDAY 15TH JANUARY 1998, 10:01 PM]
ANN lies half dead in a pool of blood on the floor. TRAVIS crouches down to talk to WALTER.
TRAVIS
That'll teach her not to fill his head with ideas, don't you think?
WALTER
(groggily)
Who?
TRAVIS
(mockingly)
Who? Who?! Who else, but little boy blue - one of our future leaders. But then, you haven't met him yet, have you? Didn't capture him, didn't stick him full of needles...
(puts the blooded machete to Walter's right eye)
I really want to kill you now, but I think this'll hurt you more.
Travis twists out the dart from Walter's neck and exits the room, not before hanging a blood-stained sign to Ann's neck. A monkey scuttles into view, and prods at the sign curiously.
CUT TO:
34. BACK TO PRESENT - INT. HOMO DOMINANT CAVERN
TRAVIS unlocks the door of ED's cage and pulls him out, throwing him to the floor. He pulls out his machete.
TRAVIS
(to WALTER)
Some memories can be very painful, can't they, Walter. Tell me where Tom is.
ED
I don't know!
TRAVIS
I wasn't asking you.
WALTER
Neither of us knows!
TRAVIS
(stabbing the floor close to Ed's head with the knife)
Losing people is becoming a nasty habit of yours, eh, Walter.
WALTER
(changing the subject)
How did you get us past the soldiers at the entrance?
TRAVIS
(simply)
I killed them.
(smiles)
No, actually, I lie. Your people had an observatory to spy on our people. We had one too, below yours. Oh, I hope your friends aren't foolish enough to try to follow us here, I rather carelessly left some tripwires and explosives behind me.
WALTER
(bites out)
You're insane.
TRAVIS
Your fault.
CUT TO:
35. FLASHBACK - EXT. FOREST TRACK - NIGHT
[SATURDAY 27TH DECEMBER 1997, 1 AM]
WALTER struggles forward in the rain and pitch blackness.
WALTER
(muttering to himself)
Are you sure about this, Attwood? You know I hate the rain. The offer sounded genuine... Someone's got to take the initiative at some point.
He approaches a clearing - several figures are encamped around a small smoky fire. He is unable to identify any faces due to the dimness of the light, and as he moves closer for a better look, he hears a twig snap behind him. He spins around to see TRAVIS standing not ten feet away, holding half a twig in each hand.
TRAVIS
That's far enough...Dr. Attwood, is it? It must have taken some courage for you to come here - I'm glad you did.
WALTER
And you are?
TRAVIS
Please, no names. As I said in my message, I want to discuss...terms for our mutual benefit - our reintegration into your society.
WALTER
A truce?
TRAVIS
If you will. An end to hostilities. We are civilized peoples, we can learn to live together.
WALTER
Laws of evolution dictate-
TRAVIS
-That we will one day replace you. We're not some alien race, Sir, we're not interested in conquest or genocide. We are just the first of the new breed, that's all.
(pulls away some loose bark from a nearby tree trunk)
The climate is changing. Your children will probably be born like us, Dr. Attwood. We are on the same side. This fighting is...self-destructive.
WALTER
To be blunt, some of our people don't see you as our next step in evolution, they see your - how shall I put this - lack of emotion, as being wholly undesirable, and, if anything, a step back.
TRAVIS
Emotion is such a primitive concept...
WALTER
Your opinion.
TRAVIS
You would feel the same if you were like us. For decades we existed along side you - nobody got hurt until you found out about us and became afraid.
Close up on Walter's stoical face.
FADE OUT.
FADE IN:
36. FLASHBACK - EXT. HILL ON THE BORDER OF THE FOREST - NIGHT
[SATURDAY 27TH DECEMBER 1997, 1:40 AM]
WALTER emerges from the trees, as line upon line of black-suited agents begin rushing into the forest. Walter looks at ALEXANDRA LUTHOR, who is standing silhouetted against her black limousine, and shakes his head.
CUT TO:
37. FLASHBACK - EXT. FOREST CLEARING - NIGHT
[SATURDAY 27TH DECEMBER 1997, 1:41 AM]
Travis can be seen through the haze, standing very still. Walter has been gone for some time. Eventually Travis returns to the campfire. Two of the dominants encircling are TOM DANIELS and RANDALL LYNCH.
TOM
You were blocking us.
TRAVIS
The less you see of them the better.
(suddenly senses something)
We need to get moving, the plan has obviously fallen through.
CUT TO:
38. BACK TO PRESENT - INT. HOMO DOMINANT CAVERN
ED lies, barely conscious, on the floor. His head is cut and bleeding slightly. WALTER is now lying next to him, in similar condition. TRAVIS is crouched nearby, scraping his knife back and forth along the floor. Suddenly the room rocks to the sound of a large explosion.
TRAVIS
So much for the rescue mission.
(rhetorically, to Ed)
Do you know why Lynch did the things he did, Dr. Tate?
WALTER
(answering for Ed)
He was psychotic.
TRAVIS
No. He was loyal. He did what I told him, without question. Tom...Tom, on the other hand, thought too much. Wanted to know why. You know what I always told him?
(puts a machete knife at Walter's throat)
"Why not."
Travis seems to sense something, springs to his feet, reaches out for a gun. Three MEN burst into the room. Gunfire causes Travis to fly across the room, collapsing next to Walter. Travis, still breathing, painfully crawls close to Walter, and extends his knife to Walter's throat.
TRAVIS
(gasping)
I think this'll hurt you more...
The knife slips from Travis's hand, and his eyes close. The rescuers - three men dressed in smart, grey suits, step forward to examine Travis, and then proceed to pull Walter and Ed to their feet.
SUIT #1
(formally)
We apologize for the inconvenience, Dr. Attwood. You and your colleague are free to go.
WALTER
Who are you people?
SUIT #1
(smiles thinly)
Friends. The way out is over there.
(points)
Walter and Ed manage to stagger away. The three suits watch them leave.
SUIT #2
(quietly, to Suit 1)
We're letting them go?
SUIT #1
Of course. Attwood is our friend.
(laughs hollowly)
SUIT #2
And him?
(prods Travis with his shoe)
SUIT #1
He's a disgrace, an embarrassment. It's their fault, but it's our responsibility. We'll do what we can.
FADE OUT.
END OF ACT THREE
