MADHOUSE (entries)

[Adam Isaac]

LA MORT D'UNE HAMADRYADE


Title Card: La Mort D'Une Hamadryade

Music begins: From Grieg's "Norwegian Dance No. 1 in D Minor"

FADE IN:

EXT. FOREST GLEN - DAY

From the leafy branches of a white poplar tree, Leuce, (a youthful nymph, adorned with a crown of leaves and wearing a white peplos with a himation), leaps through the air and hits the ground, running.

Without a break in her stride, Leuce gazes back, in horror, to look back at the tree. A white powder covers her skin, such that it resembles a marble statue, more than human flesh. Metallic sounds, from behind, frighten and horrify her.

Leuce dashes into the edge of

A FOREST.

Leuce scampers down a path and disappears from sight, from moment to moment, behind thick trees and large boulders.

A steady metallic pounding follows Leuce. She emerges from the forest trail, back into the

FOREST GLEN.

With an unnatural speed, Leuce dashes from tree to tree, and peers out, from under their shelter, with a fearful curiosity.

Leuce retreats down an open trail, through the glen. Her movements become unnaturally slow, and she flickers from a ghostly state to invisibility. Pain wracks her body. She staggers upon legs, with no sign of her having any feet.

Leuce vanishes and reappears. Each time, she raises her arms up in pleadings to large trees, to the Moon, and to the Sun.

Spinning clouds provide the backdrop of Leuce's dizzy faint. Black blood splutters from her mouth, as she struggles to reach the agonizing object in the middle of her back, which cannot be seen despite her semi-transparency. She collapses.

A skeleton, adorned with a crown of leaves and wearing a white peplos with a himation, lies across the felled poplar tree, with an ax buried in its back.

Music ends.

Title Card: Finis

FADE OUT:

[Adam Isaac]

IT'S THE WATER! (1 of 2)

EXT. MONTANA - A RESERVOIR - NIGHT

A battered pick-up juts across the access drive that runs along the top of the dam. In the bed of the truck, two rednecks are hip-deep in matte-black steel drums.

Behind them, the city sparkles.

Tailgate down and serving as a plank over the concrete slope, BROCK and COOPER buck the drums towards the dark lake below. Cooper sidles a drum across the bed and GRUNTS as he tips it over the lip... to fall, fall, fall before... BONG!

The drum careens off the side of the dam... out, over and down to... SPLASH! Cooper turns back to the job as Brock bats a smoke out of a Marlboro deck, sparks it up.

COOPER
Hey...

BROCK
What?

Cooper eyes the three remaining drums uneasily.

BROCK
Chill, cowboy. It's just random sh*t... not flammable.

COOPER
When's the man gonna pay us for this?

BROCK
We get paid when we make the problem go away.


INT. THE LAKE - NIGHT

The drum sinks... down, down, down. Trailing vapor as it settles into muck studded with other drums. Some fresh, some spotted with algae. Some ancient. Already leaking.

The fresh drum slashes a breach in ancient steel as it settles among the other timebombs. Two... three... many toxins meet, merge and CRACKLE like frying bacon as synthesis occurs.


EXT. TOP O' THE RESERVOIR - NIGHT

The bed of the truck is clear. Brock snaps the butt of his cigarette off into the darkness.

BROCK
Problem gone. Let's hit the road.


EXT. RESERVOIR - LAKE SHORE - NIGHT

KATHY squats, a letterman's jacket draped over the teenager's bare shoulders as she inhales a rail off a small mirror. Waist deep in the lake, JOSH splashes water at her.

JOSH
It's not getting any colder...

KATHY
Hold on a sec.

She sniffs, swallows. Winces.

Josh frowns, looks back across the lake... the sound of splashing grows louder... closer. Sounds like frying bacon.

JOSH
What the...?

KATHY
What is it?

As the sound nears, by moonlight he sees the source: a wall of fish throwing themselves out of the water.

JOSH
That... is...

He turns and begins to wade back towards the shore.

JOSH (CONT.)
... f*cking... weird.

Behind the frontline of splashing fish, the waters become calm... as if the stragglers are being absorbed. More fish begin to erupt out of the water around Josh... and ahead of him.

The jacket slides off her shoulders as Kathy takes a hesitant step towards the lake.

KATHY
C'mon, Josh... quit f*cking around.

JOSH
I'm not... motherf*ck!

Almost ashore, his pace begins to slow.

JOSH
Sh*t! I'm burning-

KATHY
What?

JOSH (CONT.)
-my f*cking skin is burning! There's something in the water!

His hand smacks the water... it doesn't splash, it SPLOTS! Thicker... holding him fast. He throws out a hand to Kathy...

JOSH
F*ck! I'm stuck! Get me-

She skirts the water but grabs his hand.

JOSH (CONT.)
-out of-

His eyes go wide and he SCREAMS. The water pulls him back and his grasp white-knuckles on Kathy's... and as he is pulled deeper... takes Kathy with him.

The sound of splashing fades... quiets... and the lake falls silent. The quicksilver surface doesn't even ripple. But it stirs... a mercurial movement.

In the bowels of the dam, the pipes begin to MOAN.


INT. THE BRUENNER HOUSE - DAWN

TOBY shrugs on his backpack as he tears through the house. You can see the distant dam through the kitchen window as the third-grader cracks open the 'fridge. He SIGHS and slaps the door shut. Grabs a glass from the drying rack and turns on the tapwater.

MOTHER (O.S.)
Got five minutes, Toby. Pick it up.

He rolls his eyes. Takes three GULPS from the glass... before the first gulp sets its talons into his stomach.

He COUGHS. The glass slips from his grasp and bounces off the floor. Silver-hued liquid splashes across the linoleum. Toby's eyes roll back in his head and he hits the floor... heels drum.

The spilled liquid skitters towards him...


INT. COOPER'S HOUSE - SHOWER - DAWN

Cooper and the MISSUS wrestle under the showerhead. Hot water sluices soapy lather off of their bodies. The Missus throws back her head and MOANS, a deep chuckle of satisfaction. Cooper GRUNTS and accepts her weight as calves scissor 'round the back of his knees.

The showerhead COUGHS... and the Missus takes the full blast of The Change. Her o-face distorts as the MOAN abruptly shifts octaves and becomes a SCREAM.

COOPER
What the-

His legs are kicked out as the Missus tries to escape over him... his head CRACKS against the wall... and they both hit the tile. They stay down. Cooper unconscious, the Missus shuddering in agony, her WAIL unrecognizable as human...

The fluid sluices up over bare flesh... probing for openings... and finding them, invading. Cooper's eyes snap open as his SHRIEKS join with those of the Missus.

[Adam Isaac]

IT'S THE WATER! (2 of 2)

EXT. HOSPITAL - MORNING

Toby is buckled down on a gurney, his body straining against the restraints. A bone CRACKS! as a howl escapes around the rubber ball lodged in his mouth.

The NURSE looks at the boy... his flesh is translucent, skeleton vivid like an afterimage beneath flesh. Eyes wild with the pain.

She tears her gaze away, looks to the DOCTOR:

NURSE
What in God's name is wrong with him?

Her eyes roll to the sounds of pandemonium roiling from every corner of the hospital.

NURSE
... with all of them?

DOCTOR
They're liquefying... it's as if their bodies are digesting themselves.

NURSE
But what-

DOCTOR
I don't have any f*cking idea what the hell it is! Maybe some chemical agent-

A loud TEAR, as a keening WHISTLE blows a hole through the wall of the boy's cheek, followed by a liquid RATTLE.

The Nurse slaps her hands over ears...

NURSE
Christ! Can't we sedate him any more?

DOCTOR
We give him any more morphine, and it'll kill him.

Their eyes meet...

... and the Doctor reaches for the needle.


EXT. THE MISSOURI RIVER - DAY

The quicksilver beast rolls down the Big Muddy, churning waters calming as they are incorporated. Smaller rivers join the union...

... as do the walking damned. The WAILS of thousands, hundreds of thousands of tortured souls fill the air as they march across the dying landscape... to plunge into the waters, seeking release. Their donation is accepted, but not appreciated... the WAILS continue.

As it intersects with the Mississippi, the one flesh spreads... rolling, rolling, rolling... to the ocean.


EXT. HOSPITAL - TWILIGHT - THREE DAYS LATER

The Doctor and the Nurse sit on a bench across from the hosptal, their attention on a young woman taking a silent dive from the tenth story to the street below... SPLAT!

They don't blink at impact.

NURSE
It's so quiet.

DOCTOR
Why bother coming here? No one needs to leave the house to find damnation.

He takes a swig from a bottle of Maker's Mark and passes it to the Nurse. He CHUCKLES humorlessly.

DOCTOR
"It's the water!" Remember that old ad?

NURSE
Olympia?

DOCTOR
Yeah. I think so. Now it's the Gaia Theory gone to hell...

NURSE
Gaia?

DOCTOR
The Earth as a living, sentient organism. Water has always been life, and now it lives. Seventy percent of the Earth is... was water.

NURSE
And us?

DOCTOR
We're mostly water ourselves. The beast is just... incorporating.

NURSE
What can we do... do about this?

DOCTOR
Accept the inevitable.
(beat)
So... wanna f*ck? Before...?

The Nurse tilts the bottle back, takes two slugs and hands it back. Wipes her mouth.

NURSE
'kay.


EXT. THE CITY - FIVE MONTHS LATER - DAY

The concrete valleys lie dead under the morning sun...

... CREAK ... CREAK ...

... aside from the raggedy form of Brock. The man pushes a shopping cart down the center of the street. The cart is loaded with cases of beer.

BROCK
Hello? Is there anyone... anyone out there?

Bearded, filthy after months without water touching his flesh. He cracks a Budweiser and eyes the empty thoroughfare.

BROCK
Hello? Is there... anyone?

A MOAN rises and he darts a glance at the huddled form on the sidewalk. Like the tree it has become one with, it is desiccated. Frosted in silver. Its poached eyes plead blindly at him.

Behind him, a cloud rolls in. Passing between the spires of silent skyscrapers. Its belly is leprous, swollen.

Brock retrieves a semiautomatic rifle from the cart, chambers a round... SHA-SHINK!

... and at the sound, the cloud shifts course. Rolls in towards Brock.

BANG! The damned thing's head snaps back as the .223 takes off half its cranium. Gray matter hits the pavement. The MOAN continues.

Brock SOBS and chambers another round. He doesn't hear the silver rain begin to pour down, a liquid wall moving in on him... crackling... like bacon frying.

[Adam Isaac]

FLYPAPER MAN (1 of 2)


INT. RUMPEL HOME -- HALLOWEEN EVENING

A star of plastic diamonds at the end of a wand makes a dramatic sweep in the air.

Little PENNY Rumpel, 6, in princess Halloween costume adjusts her crown in a mirror. She bends, scoops up a glittery candy bag on the floor, studies the full effect in the mirror- petite elegance.

CORT (O.S)
Where can I find some creepy
dead bugs?

At a doorway, her brother, CORT, 8, covered from head to toe in brown grocery bags taped end to end.

Penny turns, frowns.

PENNY
Cort, what are you supposed
to be?

CORT
Flypaper.

He twists.

CORT
But I need some bugs on me.

Penny pokes a finger to his paper chest.

PENNY
Suebee.

CORT
Suebee?

LATER

Penny empties a jar of Suebee honey into a plate. She dips a basting brush into the gooey liquid, starts to spread it all over her brother's costume.

LATER STILL

At a window, Penny looks out, checks her princess watch, shakes her head.

EXT. ROAD -- HALLOWEEN EVENING

Cort, alone, grasps a flashlight, surveys a quiet roadway. He spreads his paper arms wide, runs down the road while imitating bigrig truck sounds, VROOOM, VROOOM, BEEEEP BEEEEP

Insects with an eerie "tick" "tick" sound catch against his costume to remain there.

INT. SUV VEHICLE -- CONTINUOUS

DR. HENDRIKS drives along, one hand holds a dictation microphone connected to a tape player on the passenger seat.

DR. HENDRIKS (into microphone)
The mechanics of molecular
generation in subsequent subjects
have thus far failed to exhibit results
conclusive to my theory...

The tape player clatters, he looks down to see the cassette tape unspooling.

DR. HENDRIKS
Jesus Al Roker.

He reaches over to take the tape out, taking his eyes off the road for a moment, then back again, but,
oh, god! too late!

Cort, a deer in the headlights BLAM!!

The boy like a sack of potatoes against the hood, the windshield.

SECONDS LATER

EXT. ROAD

The doctor rushes from his vehicle to Cort on his back on the asphalt. Blood bubbles from the boy's lips, blood pools under his paper-capped head.

The doctor checks for breathing, pulse, looks around, noone has seen this terrible accident.

He picks him up, places him in his SUV.

INT. DR. HENDRIK'S LAB -- EVENING

Test tubes with glowing liquid, computers, books, papers in scattered piles.

Cort lies unconcious with tubes in his arm, mouth. A monitoring device checks his feeble heartbeat as Dr. Hendriks looks down on him.

DR. HENDRIKS
You're dying, dear soul.

He focuses on an insect glued to Cort's costume as it quivers against its restraint.

He looks back to shelves lined with bottles of insect specimens.

The doctor takes a syringe from a table. A sign on the wall beckons him.

"Experimentation breeds genius"

DR. HENDRIKS
God forgive me.

He plunges the syringe into Cort's young heart.

INT. DR. HENDRIK'S STUDY -- LATER

The doctor asleep in an easy chair. A book open on his chest with the title, " Molecular Growth Studies"

A clock ticks on the wall behind him, then chimes. The doctor wakes, rushes to the lab.

INT. LAB

The table is bare, tubes tossed aside, items knocked to the floor.

Wind from a large open window lifts paperwork from tables. The doctor rushes to close it, stares out of it at the darkness beyond with a shiver of apprehension.

EXT. CITY SQUARE-- HALLOWEEN EVENING

A giant inflatable pumpkin next to a festively lite fountain of jetting water.
PEDESTRIANS walk to and fro, an air of celebration in the air.

But, outside a police station, Penny with a coat over her princess costume exits rather dourly with her stricken-faced MOTHER.

PENNY
Mommy, can we just go see
the pumpkin for a minute?

The mother nods and they walk in that direction.

Abruptly, a SCREAM

Pedestrians run in panic.

[Adam Isaac]

FLYPAPERMAN (2 of 2)

EXT. CITY SQUARE -- HALLOWEEN EVENING (Continued)

From the air, Cort, his flypaper body extending several yards wide, scoops down with flypaper wings crisscrossed by transluscent bony spines.

Pedestrians run for safety but some are caught, glued against his body without escape.

Two construction workers with duffelbags run but one falls back into Cort.

CONSTRUCTION WORKER ON CORT
Get me off this thing!

The other pulls at him. Cort twists in panic, lifts off the ground, shrieks of terror from the trapped, Cort flaps back to the ground.

The other worker whips a powersaw from his bag, gears it up. Blades grind against his co-worker's arm, blood spatters everywhere.
Cort relieved of the man's weight takes to the air.

ON PENNY AND HER MOTHER

as they rush up steps to an elevated subway platform.

MOTHER
Come on Penny, hurry!

They make it to the top as Cort lands on the platform. Pandemonium, but Penny turns, halts.

MOTHER
Penny!

Cort and Penny lock eyes. His eyes are swollen and blood vessels spider across his cheek but she recognizes him.

PENNY
You were supposed to
take me Trick or Treating.

Cort lifts off again, a chorus of exclamations from the square as he lands inside the water fountain under the jets.

The people stuck to him wiggle themselves free, slide off into the water, stumble up and run for their lives.

Cort lifts out of the fountain and lands on the square as Penny rushes up, breathless.

PENNY
Take me. Now.

Cort nods. Penny grabs the severed worker's arm at the hefty bicep and holds on as the two disappear into the night air.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD -- LATER THAT EVENING

Penny approaches a doorstep in her princess costume and candy bag.

She pushes the doorbell in. Noone answers, the door slightly ajar, Penny takes the initative.

INT. HOME

Penny pokes her head in , enters.

PENNY
Trick or treat.

She sees a man slouched in a chair, his face out of view.

A television in a corner on a news broadcast.

ANNOUNCER (O.S)
This evening's horrific
events downtown may have
been a Halloween prank gone
astray.

Penny spots a plate of shiny red apples.

PENNY
These apples don't have razor
blades in them, do they?

She waits for an answer that will never come. The man's face now in view shows a bullet hole in Dr. Hendrik's temple, a gun clutched in his palm.

Penny drops two apples in her bag.

PENNY
The other one is for
my brother.

She skips out of the house.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD

She catches up with the looming shadow of her brother Cort. She takes his hand and they continue along, lite by a number of sidewalk pumpkins on this particular street, all in flickering unison.

you can FADE TO BLACK now.

[Adam Isaac]

THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY (1 of 3)

FADE IN:

EXT. WOODS - NIGHT

PETE MCCOY (15), RONNIE HATFIELD (14), and MIKE MCOY(13) run down a dark trail in the even darker woods. The large rising full moon provides their only light, the long shadows it creates dance in the soft breeze.

Ronnie glances over his shoulder.

RONNIE
Think we lost 'im?

PETE
No way old Mc Gregor would follow
us in here.

They slow to a walk. Ronnie looks around nervously.

RONNIE
Why? Why wouldn't he follow us?

MIKE
Because of the monsters.

RONNIE
Monsters?

PETE
Just some crap my mom made up to
keep us out of the woods.

MIKE
It's not crap! Jimmy Butts',
cousin's friend saw one once, and
Tammy Wag --

PETE
It's crap! Let's go.

Ronnie and Mike shoot a serious look at each other before they follow Pete who forges ahead.

RONNIE
What did Auntie Jan, um, your mom
say 'bout 'em?

MIKE
You haven't heard about them in
Buford?

RONNIE
Nup.

Mike looks both ways before speaking in a hushed tone.

MIKE
Kids have disappeared here, lot
of them. Mom says they live in
the shadows. Sometimes, when Pete
and I are bad, Mom says she'll
send us to the woods, where the
monsters belong.

RONNIE
Bad, like soapin' mister Mc
Gregor car?

Mike nods. Ronnie gulps. A branch snaps. Ronnie jumps. Mike hides his smile.

RONNIE
What's that?

MIKE
It's just Pete.

PETE
Didn't mean to FRIGHTEN you.

RONNIE
I reckon we oughta head back, go
'round the woods. Maybe Mike's --

PETE
Ronnie's a scaredy baby.

RONNIE
I'm not ascared. But --

PETE
There's no monsters! It's all
bull****!

Ronnie cowers from Pete's aggressiveness.

MIKE
Leave him alone, Pete.

PETE
Ok. I will. I'll leave him alone.
I leave both of you alone.

Pete bolts off, Mike shouts after him.

MIKE
Pete no! Wait! I didn't mean...

Mike shoots a worried glance toward Ronnie and then runs off after Pete. Ronnie doesn't wait to follow.


EXT. CLEARING - LATER

The shadows of the dark forest crowd the clearing's edges.

Out of breath, Mike and Ronnie enter a patch of moonlight, then both stop to examine their surroundings. They huddle close together as call out for Pete.

RONNIE
I reckon he's gone.

MIKE
He wouldn't, Mom would kill him.

RONNIE
You know the way home?

MIKE
Nope. I stay out of the woods.

RONNIE
Shoot! Just my luck.

MIKE
What?

RONNIE
I'm lost in the woods with a
mama's boy.

[Adam Isaac]

THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY (2 of 2)

MIKE
I am not a mama's boy!

Mike pushes Ronnie. Ronnie pushes back.

RONNIE
You are!

MIKE
I am not, you dumb h--

PETE (O.S.)
You are too!

MIKE AND RONNIE
Pete?!

They search for his voice but find only dancing shadows.

MIKE
Where are you?

PETE (O.S.)
Over here.

They approach his voice with caution. As they near the edge of the clearing, the shadows seem to reach out for them.

MIKE
I can't see you.

PETE
I'm right here.

Pete appears from the darkness. Mike and Ronnie breathe a sigh of relief.

RONNIE
We thought you'd run out on us.

PETE
Would I do that to --

Pete struggles, jerking his arms and legs. Mike and Ronnie take a step back.

PETE
What's going on? Hey! Let go.

Pete screams and flails wildly as he falls back into the darkness.

Mike and Ronnie shout with fear as they back up toward the center of the clearing. They hug one another tightly.

MIKE
Oh god! They got him. The
monsters! Did you see them? We've
got to help him.

Mike tries to tear away from Ronnie but Ronnie holds tight.

RONNIE
Are you plumb crazy? He's dead!

MIKE
He's my brother.

Mike tugs himself away and runs off toward the edge of the clearing. Ronnie doesn't budge but shouts after him.

RONNIE
Mike no! Don't go! Mike!

Ronnie hugs himself nervously as he scans the clearing. Mike has disappeared into the shadows.

RONNIE
Stupid. Mike?

A scream as Mike barrels out from the shadows. He shouts at Ronnie as he passes.

MIKE
Run, it's them! Run!

Ronnie's stare follows Mike, perplexed.

PETE (O.S.)
Mike? Come back!

Ronnie snaps his head toward Pete's voice. A dark boy sized figure is just distinguishable inside of the shadows at the edge of the clearing.

RONNIE
Pete? That you?

PETE
It's me.

RONNIE
You trying to scare us?

PETE
I'm trying to help. Come with me
now and I'll show you the way.

RONNIE
Mike? He --

PETE
He's taken care of.

The boy shadow separates from the larger shadow of the clearing's edge. Ronnie gasps.

RONNIE
You -- you're one of 'em!

Shadow Pete drifts closer. His black arms extended. He reaches toward Ronnie.

PETE
Don't be afraid, Ronnie. You'll
feel better after you join us.

Ronnie bolts away from Pete. As he reaches the opposite edge of the clearing a smaller boyish shadow drifts toward him.

MIKE
Join us.

Ronnie, frightened and uncertain, runs perpendicular to both. The shadows follow him at a steady pace.

PETE AND MIKE
Join us...Join us...

Ronnie runs into the shadows at the edge of the clearing.

THUMP!

PETE
What was that?

Mike yanks off his black Balaclava and runs to the edge of the clearing.

Ronnie lies flat on his back. A big gash on his forehead. Mike shakes him.

MIKE
I think he hit a tree -- I think
he's dead.

[Adam Isaac]

THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY (3 of 3)

Pete pulls off his Balaclava and one of his black gloves as he arrives. He feels Ronnie's neck for a pulse.

PETE
S***!

MIKE
Play a joke on the dumb hick you
said. He'll fall for it you said.
He's dead Pete! Dead!

PETE
I -- I didn't mean --

MIKE
How we gonna tell Mom!?

The wind picks up and the leaves rub together in a rustle that sounds like an ever growing growl. It catches the black clad boys' attention.

An undulating man-sized shadow reaches out for them, MC GREGOR.

MC GREGOR (O.S.)
Thought you get away with soapin'
up my car, didn't ya?

The boys tremble and stare at Mc Gregor.

MC GREGOR (O.S.)
You little monsters ain't never
gonna learn...

Mc Gregor's shadow devours their horrified expressions with its darkness. A rifle cocks.

BLACK

MC GREGOR (V.O.)
Don't go in the woods.

BANG!

FADE OUT.

[Adam Isaac]

ATSHEN (1 of 2)


FADE IN:

EXT. NORTHERN WOODS - DAY

Summer shots of forests, lakes, boulders, and muskeg, follow the pace of the NARRATOR's voice.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
Some say that the black flies will drive a man insane, pestering and biting him, in their swarms. Moose, bears, and wolves have drowned in the muskeg, trapped in murky waters having fled there and become stuck in the mud. What happened to Jack-- I'll call him Jack, 'cause that wasn't his name, and to spare his family from any more pain-- was unholy. Never before, nor since, has anyone supposedly been eaten alive, stripped to the bone by black flies. To tell the truth of the matter, I don't think that it was the black flies, but it's a more convenient truth that let's me sleep, at nights, in a dark room.

EXT. HUDSON BAY - DAY

JACK, BOB, and the Narrator, (husky men in their 20s, attired in the hunting fashions of the 1940s), paddle a large canoe, packed with supplies, offshore.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
Jack, and Bob-- and his name wasn't Bob-- and me, went up to Hudson Bay, for some prospecting, fishing, and exploring. The summer days are long. After a few weeks, we'd grown tired of eating fish, baked beans and wild berries, none of our mineral specimens looked promising, and anybody would have been a welcome sight, as we hadn't seen a soul since we left civilization, at the railhead.

The men spot smoke from campfires, onshore, in the distance.

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)
Jack saw a column of smoke, late that afternoon. We paddled our canoe for it, attracted like a needle to a magnet.

The men paddle with vigor toward the distant shore.

EXT. INUIT CAMP - DAY

Jack, Bob, and the Narrator meet a group of INNU HUNTERS, (attired by the Hudson Bay Company's trading post), in a squalid campsite, and exchange greetings. Innu women and children retreat into the tents, after a peek at the visitors.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
When we came ashore, we were met by a crowd of Eskimos-- they call themselves the Inuit-- at their summer camp. After a peek at us ragged white men, most of the women and kids retreated back into their tents. The men greeted us, pleasantly enough, and asked if we had any tobacco. To them, cigarettes were gold.

The Narrator passes out the contents of a cigarette pack, and Jack lights up the smokes for all to enjoy.

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)
Hunting had been poor. We celebrated, opening some canned ham, and shared some of their venison soup, made from bones gnawed down to the marrow.

The Innu SHAMAN, an aged man, stretches animal hides over a crude framework of saplings, away from the other tents.

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)
Their shaman, a toothless gnome, going to consult the animal spirits and communicate with nearby villages, that night, by way their shaking tent ceremony. Imagine a few animal hides thrown over a couple of saplings, no larger than a telephone booth, and that was the Eskimo radio station to their ghosts and gods.

EXT. INUIT CAMP - NIGHT

A bonfire lights the camp and the Shaman's tent. Jack, Bob, and the Narrator watch three Innu ELDERS and the Shaman climb into the Shaman's tent. The tent begins to shake violently.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
Jack just wouldn't play along. The old shaman and elders had squeezed into the tent, and, it was bouncing back and forth, and full of shouting and screeching.

To the dismay of the Inuit men, Bob, and the Narrator, Jack breaks into a boisterous fit of laughter.

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)
Jack began to roar with laughter. The shaking stopped. Three somber elders came out, quaking in fear. Jack was about to poke his head into the tent, when the shaman crawled out, gasping for air, and covered in sweat. Jack laughed some more, grabbed the side of the tent, and shook it back and forth.

JACK (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
Some show, eh?

SHAMAN (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
You laugh?

JACK (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
I'm no fool to your tricks.

SHAMAN (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
Come inside, you watch.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
The shaman crawled back inside the tent, followed by Jack. He waved for Bob and me, to join in his bit of fun. He held up the flap of hide, while we crawled inside.

[Adam Isaac]

ATSHEN (2 of 2)


INT. SHAMAN'S TENT - NIGHT

Cramped together, Jack, Bob, the Narrator, and the Shaman squat down and sit shoulder to shoulder. The Shaman begins to chant and closes the flap of hide, plunging the tent into total darkness. Jack flicks out his cigarette lighter and sheds some light on the proceedings.

JACK (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
Grab his arms. I'll sit on his legs. We'll see what tricks he can do then?

Jack, Bob and the Narrator seize the Shaman. A gust from behind Jack blows out the lighter's flame.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
I felt a jolt, like static electricity, come off the shaman's arm, but didn't let go. Howls and screeches burst upon us, and the tent battered against my back.

Tiny pairs of disembodied red eyes multiply across the walls of the tent and begin to spin about with a whirlwind's speed.

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)
Then, the eyes appeared, or, rather what like the reflections of animal eyes caught in an auto's headlights, appeared against sides of the tent, but they were very small, as if we'd been invaded by a horde of mice.

JACK (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
Are you holding him?

BOB & NARRATOR (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
Yeah!

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)
The shaman fell limp. Something like an elephant's trunk reached down from top of the tent, brushed past my face, and slapped Jack's face.

Jack screams, and, speedily retreats outside, followed by a streak of hundreds of tiny disembodied pairs of red eyes.

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)
Jack screamed. He grabbed the side flap and scrambled outside. A buzzing filled the inside of the tent. Those red eyes streamed out after him.

BOB (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
Let's get out of here!

EXT. INUIT CAMP - NIGHT

Bob and the Narrator stand next to the Shaman's tent and look to see which way Jack went. The bonfire casts giant shadows against the shrubs and trees of the woodland.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
The Eskimos pointed to a path.

INNU HUNTERS point to a path into the woods.

INNU HUNTERS (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
He go. Atshen go, too.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
In the darkness, a hundred yards away, Jack shrieked, then silence.

Innu Elders, with grim attitudes, restrain Bob and Narrator from going into the woods and pull them back to the bonfire.

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT’D)
Bob and me wanted to go rescue Jack, but the Eskimo elders latched onto us and pulled us towards their fire.

INNU ELDERS (V.O.)
(via Narrator's voice)
He dead! Atshen! Don't go!

EXT. INUIT CAMP - DAY

The Inuit mourn and wail at the stony grave of their Shaman.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
In the morning, the Eskimos buried their shaman under a pile of stones.

EXT. TRAIL ALONGSIDE THE MUSKEG - DAY

The Innu Elders and Hunters lead Bob and the Narrator along a woodland trail bordered by muskeg. The Hunters find a black object next to the trail. Hitting it with a long stick, a cloud of black flies rises and disperses, to reveal Jack, whose boots are stuck in the mud, and who has been nearly reduced to a skeleton sprawled across the mud.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
It wasn't until noon that the elders let us go look for Jack. At the side of the trail, stuck in the mud, Jack's boots held what little was left of him. We buried him, under another pile of stones, next to the shaman.

EXT. HUDSON'S BAY - DAY

Offshore, Bob and the Narrator paddle their canoe, away.

NARRATOR (V.O.)
Bob told me that the Eskimos showed him many marks in the mud, that looked like tiny human footprints and animal tracks. I have to disagree. Jack was eaten alive by the black flies.

FADE OUT: