False Dawn #6 Comic Book Script

False Dawn #6: “The Big Gulp”
Part Two of Two: Drowning

Comic Book Script
Devin Leigh Michaels

Ah, the Fountain of Youth. Anyone thirsty? Ral wants to trade-up from Perishable to Immortal, much to the disconcertion of Lance and Casia, and the Preds decide they want to, too.

Note to Letter: All narrations are Ral’s unless otherwise noted.

PAGE ONE
1—Close-up on Casia. Her arms are crossed, and she’s unrelenting.
CASIA: No.
2—Ral sends her the most innocent gaze he can muster.
RAL: What?
3—Back to Casia. She’s even more angry now.
CASIA: Don’t even think about it.

4—Ral still looking innocent, his arms shrugged.
RAL: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

5—Now Casia motions toward Lance next to her, who’s been staying out of this and trying to be noncommittal. Now, he’s offended. Ral’s amused and thumbs toward Lance.
CASIA: Yeah, and Lance hates to kill.
LANCE: Hey!
LANCE (linked): I don’t LIKE killing. I’m just REALLY good at it.
RAL: See?

PAGE TWO and THREE—Two-page spread with a tiny cell on the upper left hand corner of page two and a tiny cell on the lower right hand corner of page three.
1—Casia’s not amused.
NARR: Yeah, this is normally the time you duck and cover.
CASIA: Hanging out with an immortal and an extended mortal might make living longer seem cool—

2—Two-page spread. Overview of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Lance, Casia, and Ral are standing on top of the steps before the reflecting pool and fountains.
CASIA: —but it’s not.
LOCATION CAPS: WASHINGTON, D.C., WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL, DAWN

3—Close-up on Lance.
LANCE: In fact, it kinda sucks.

PAGE FOUR
1—Casia smacks Lance on the shoulder.
CASIA: See? He agrees with that.

2—Lance looks toward Casia; Casia waves her hand toward him.
LANCE: Of course, being mortal sucks, too. Can you imagine worrying about getting shot?
LANCE (linked): Or even a paper cut. Man, you Perishables might bleed out, and that’s it.
CASIA: Oookay, so not helping.

3—Ral rolls his eyes as he walks away; Lance and Casia are in the background set oppositely like fighting parents.
NARR: As much as Casia thinks she knows me, she’s got me all wrong.
LANCE: Being immortal isn’t inherently BAD.
CASIA: Oh, please. You just think if HE becomes immortal, you don’t have to worry about YOUR curse.
4—Ral’s closing in on the pool.
NARR: I live with them.
NARR: I see what being immortal or having extended mortality does.

5—Flashback-Casia is sitting outside the Blazer and gazing up at the moonlight.
Note to colorist: Since this is a flashback, perhaps this cell could be black and white?
NARR: Night is always the hardest.
NARR: Casia fears the living.
6—Lance is on the other side of the Blazer, holding a set of prayer beads.
NARR: Lance fears the dead.

PAGE FIVE
1—Now we’re back to the present, and Ral’s rolling his eyes again.
LANCE (off panel): That’s so—
CASIA (off panel): —true! It doesn’t matter what happens to Ral. It only matters how it affects you.
NARR: Here they go again.

2—Ral lingers on the edge of the pool, glancing back at the two sneakily.
NARR: And neither of them is looking.
NARR: Neither of them would know until I’m immortal.

3—Ral bowls over, barfing into the pool.
NARR: Neither one of them would—
RAL: BLEH!

4—Ral wipes his chin. (Extreme close-up—Perhaps we see just his chin dripping some sort of liquid?)
NARR: For those of you who don’t know, bile does not taste good. It tastes like a mixture of dog food and pennies.

5—Camera positioned over Ral’s head. He’s looking up at Casia and Lance, who are still fighting but are looking down at Ral.
NARR:…not that I would know what either of those tastes like…
CASIA: You are so full of it.
LANCE: Well, we know Ral isn’t.

PAGE SIX
1—Standing up, Ral smirks. In the background, Casia and Lance are fighting again.
RAL: Ha ha.
NARR: So good to know I have such great “parents.”
2—Ral leans against a wall, reading the text and trying not to look sick. His hand’s around his necklace. A shadow casts over the bottom section of his body.
NARR: They watch out for me.

3—Ral breaks his necklace; the shadows now covers his body.
NARR: They make sure no one comes close to me.

4—Ral whirls, his sword now formed in his hand and lifted to strike.
NARR: They really suck at their jobs.
RAL: AHHH!

5—Ral stops short, his sword lowering.
NARR: Whoa.

PAGE SEVEN
1—Looking at us now is KIT, a tanned girl with sky blue eyes, night black hair, and a charmer’s smile.
NARR: She’s hot.

2—Ral’s now embarrassed with flushed cheeks. He rubs the back of his neck. His sword is still out, though. Perhaps bile is dripping from his chin.
RAL: S—Sorry. I didn’t realize you were…I was just…I—I—

3—Focus on KIT again, her face twisted in a repulsion. Somehow, she’s still hot, though.
NARR: I should not be so mesmerized, but she’s so hot. And not hot like KIT next store hot. We’re talking hot like she’ll-be-bigger-than-Miley-Cyrus-by-the-time-she-turns-twenty hot.
KIT: Did you just barf in the fountain?

4—Ral wipes his chin in his sleeve.
RAL: Uh, no…

5—Kit comes around and locks her arm with Ral’s, so she’s holding him flirty close. Ral’s completely infatuated with her.
KIT: Those two people—are they with you?
RAL: They don’t have to be if you don’t want them to be.
NARR: Why am I saying that? I don’t mean it, and I’m definitely not THAT cool. \
6—Close up on Kit’s and Ral’s lips, which are close enough to kiss.
NARR: Her breath is like a baked chocolate chip cookie, warm and gooey, and ready to be devoured.
KIT (whispers): Where’s the Universal Pancreas?
7—A dagger slices through Ral’s jacket, drawing blood. It’s nothing more than a slice.
RAL: It’s right—OW!

PAGE EIGHT
1—Ral slaps a hand over his bicep, now glaring at Lance who has his sword out. Casia is next to Lance, holding her staff.
LANCE: Step away from the hormonal teenager.
RAL: Hey, I take—
2—Kit wraps an arm around Ral’s neck and presses a gun against his temple.
RAL: Hey!
KIT: Get back or the Perishable gets it.

3—Casia spins her staff.
CASIA: You’ll never get far, Siren, and we’ll make sure you die and die again if you hurt him.
4—Ral breaks away from the Siren just to barf—right on her Kit’s shoes.

5—Kit keeps her gun trained on Ral, but she’s jumped back. If you have enough room, Lance is lunging toward Kit, sword ready to take off her head.
KIT: Oh, you will pay for that!

PAGE NINE
1—A shot cracks the stone at Lance’s feet, stopping him.

2—On the top stair stands the four attackers from the rest area. This is the Preds—the group that attacked Ral and Co. at the rest area. The group is now wearing camouflage and armed to the teeth. Chevis has a patch with a green beret. On the beret are crossing arrows and a sword reading “De Oppresso Liber.”
CHEVIS: An immortal and extended mortal—apparently Mr. Dawson here isn’t the only one we wish to speak to.

3—Casia’s hand curves to form fire, but there aren’t any flames yet. Lance just looks ready to kill the man.
LANCE: Who are you?

4—Chevis walks toward Ral.
CHEVIS: You may call me Chevis, and all we want to know is where the Universal Pancreas is.

PAGE TEN
1—Ral wipes the bile from his mouth.
RAL: I’m…*huff*…still going with the …*huff*…universal…stomach.
2—Casia claps the bottom of her staff on the ground.
CASIA: The Fountain of Youth is a curse within itself. You do not want what it has to offer.

3—Chevis raises his clenched fist at Casia. She doesn’t lean away. Lance, however, looks uneasy in between them.
CHEVIS: Easy for you to say. Do you know how many soldiers’ lives could have been saved with its power?
LANCE: You know how many soldiers’ lives could have saved without the war?
4—Look at the Chinese American—NANTALE—who is armed in anyway possible. Chevis puts a restraining hand on her shoulder.
NANTALE: You don’t know what it’s like to see the ones you love dying in front of you with no way to save them. You don’t know what it’s like holding onto them until they’re not there anymore.
CHEVIS: That’s enough, Nantale.

5—A dark glower contorts Lance’s face.
LANCE: And you think the water’s going to change that?

6—Chevis now looks back at Ral.
CHEVIS: Oh, yeah. That and more.
CHEVIS (linked): Now up, boy. You’re going to tell us exactly where this fountain is.

PAGE ELEVEN
1—Fists grab the scuff of Ral’s jacket and tug him to his feet.
NARR: He’s just lucky I don’t decorate his shoes like Hottie over there.
RAL: I’m not going to tell you anything.

2—Chevis nods toward Kit, who leans over to caress Ral’s cheek with the back of her hand.
CHEVIS: Maybe not me, boy, but you will tell her.

3—Close-up on her lips again, which are inches from Ral’s ear.
KIT: I know what your heart desires most of all. You know wherever they are, your mother and uncle are in pain.
KIT(linked): You can stop that. You can save them, and all you must do is tell me where the fountain is.

4—Ral looks unsure, nervous. He’s ready to crack.
NARR: Her breath smells like the carnations my mother loved to put on my uncle’s bar, the same ones he moved to his office to spare her feelings and his business.

5—Focus on Kit’s eyes, which are brown and beautiful.
NARR: Her eyes even glimmer with the same glint as Mom’s, but her leather jacket looks like the one my uncle wore all the time.
NARR: The one I wear now.
NARR: How can I deny them freedom by just telling her one little—?
SFX: BANG!

6—Small cell—show the bullet hole next to Ral’s sneaker in the concrete.

PAGE TWELVE
1—Lance kicks up Chevis’s hand, making Chevis shoot upward.
LANCE: Don’t listen to her, Ral!
LANCE (linked): She won’t give you anything!

2—Kit drags Ral behind one of the pillars, jamming the gun barrel into his ribs.
NARR: Ow.
KIT: You have five seconds to tell me where the fountain is before I take you from your parents forever.

3—Fire erupts from Casia’s staff and roars upon the ground toward the four military men and women.

4—Close-up on Kit’s hand, which is clenching the wound in Ral’s bicep.
NARR: The pain—it breaks my concentration and her hold on me.
RAL: What’s it to you?

PAGE THIRTEEN
1—Kit’s desperate. She’s spilling like a lunatic, holding onto Ral like he’s her last shred of sanity.
KIT: I can save them. This water—It has the opportunity to save them, and I hear them.

2— Chevis slams hard to the ground, blood tainting his jacket at both his shoulders. Now holding the older man’s gun, Lance turns and fires twice, hitting Nantale in the knee and arm.
SFX: BANG! BANG!

3—Now Kit’s crying.
KIT: I can hear their cries, and I want to save them. I NEED to save them.

4—Casia’s fire melts Gavin’s gun, and he screams as the hot metal burns his skin.

5—Ral’s shocked.
NARR: She believes her own songs.
RAL: Whatever you think the fountain can do, it can’t. Those you lost, it can’t bring back.

PAGE FOURTEEN
1—Casia whirls toward Ari, who’s training a gun to Lance’s head. A simple spark from Casia’s fingers knocks the girl out cold. In the background, Chevis yells to Kit.
CHEVIS: KIT!

2—Kit keeps a hold on Ral while pushing the gun into his ribs.
KIT: Please, just tell me! They need me! They need the Pancreas!

3—Flashback—Lance and Ral sparring with their blades, each in sweats and T-shirts.
Note to colorist—Perhaps this cell can be black and white to emphasize the difference in time?
LANCE: Some lessons can’t be taught. They have to be experienced.

4—Ral points toward the pool.
RAL: That’s it. That’s the Fountain of Youth.

PAGE FIFTEEN
1—Kit runs through the battle and launches herself at the water. Casia’s off to left side, reaching out to Kit. Lance is off to the right.
CASIA (shouting): NO!
LANCE (shouting, too): STOP!

2—Kit disappears under the surface.
SFX: SPLASH!

3—The water is still.
NARR: For a moment, I think the world itself has stopped as another immortal is born.

4—Kit now emerges from the water, her body trembling, her eyes dark, but her face bright with relief and love.
KIT: Kele…?

PAGE SIXTEEN
1—Shot of the pool—there’s no one in it but Kit. On the ground by the edge, Chevis lays.
CHEVIS: Kit, what do you see?
KIT (off panel): Kele, is that really—

2—Kit looks straight into the camera, her eyes filled with terror.
KIT: What are you doing? KELE!

3— A furious wave spurts up from the calm fountain’s surface and swallows her whole. Chevis, bleeding and weak, reaches out.
CHEVIS: KIT!

4—Ral looks at Lance and Casia. Casia’s pale and unsure; Lance looks pissed. They’re looking at each other, not Ral.
RAL: What…What happened to her?
CASIA: I—I don’t know. Apparently, the Fountain doesn’t work like we think…?

5—Nantale, from the ground, growls up at Ral.
NANTALE: Bring her back! What you did—

PAGE SEVENTEEN
1—Lance bends down and takes off his jacket, throwing it over Chevis.
LANCE: Ral did nothing. The Fountain’s power contains mysteries none of us know. For your own sake, steer clear.

2—Gavin hisses as Casia wraps a gauze about his wounded arm.
GAVIN: But what it can do—The lives it can save—
CASIA: The lives it can DESTROY!
CASIA: Overpopulation, rapid growth, and unending war. Imagine super soldiers on both sides unable to die, and mortals caught in the middle.

2—Casia looks at Ral, who’s tending to Nantale.
CASIA: We don’t know just where this comes from and why, or how much is there. You might be dooming the very people you wish to save.

3—Gavin leans back against the concrete.
GAVIN: They’re already dead Our team, they were killed in an onslaught in Baghdad.

4—Lance stands and pulls out his cell phone.
LANCE: Then honor them but not this way. Unless of course, you wish to join them as your Siren has.
LANCE (chuckling): Resurrection, my ass.

5—Chevis looks up at Lance, hopeful.
CHEVIS: Then you know the potential it holds.

6—Lance scowls away, looking at Ral.
LANCE: No. I know the curse it tolls.

PAGE EIGHTEEN
1—Ral, Casia, and Lance turn to leave up the stairs as Gavin yells from below.
GAVIN: This doesn’t end. If this isn’t the Fountain, then we’ll find you, and when we do—

2—Lance only glares over his shoulder.
LANCE: We, even Immortals, have a one-way ticket. Cherish what you have now and know you will see those you love again.

3—Lance puts one hand on Casia’s shoulder and another on Ral’s, pushing them out the exit.
LANCE: Not all of us are so lucky.

4—Long shot as Ral and Co. head back to the Blazer, which is parked not too far away from the memorial but preferably not on memorial property.
NARR: Lance calls 911.
NARR: Cops and us just don’t get along too well.
RAL: What’s a Siren?

5—Ral takes a seat in the trunk of the Blazer, his legs dangling, as Lance begins to dress his wounds.
LANCE: You ever hear the Greek stories of those three women on the rocks who sang songs to men to lead them to their deaths?
RAL: …yeah.

6— Police sirens blare as the lights twinkle in front of the memorial. Lance swipes some antiseptic on Ral’s arm; Casia’s pocket rings.
CASIA: These are their descendants.
LANCE: Just be happy that their bird feet became genetically recessive.
SFX: RIIIING!

7—Casia answers the phone.
CASIA: Hell—…Donnellie? Donnellie, calm down…What do you mean we’re being hunted?

PAGE NINETEEN
1—Ral rubs the back of his naked neck.
NARR: My necklace! In the fight, I must have somehow lost it!

2—Lance listens intently to Casia. When Ral motions to his neck, he waves his hand.
LANCE: Go.

3—As Ral disappears, Casia shrieks.
CASIA: FBI!?
CASIA: Why would the FBI be after us?

4—With both his shoulders bandaged, Chevis looks up at the knock upon the ambulance door.
OFF-PANEL: Knock, knock.
LOCATION CAPS: LATER

5—Instead of EMTs, a man and a woman, each in a black suit, flash their badges.
TOWNE: Captain Chevis Kingston, leader of Alpha Team, aka the Predators?
CHEVIS: We were called the ‘Preds.’
TOWNE: Mind if we talk about your latest mission?

PAGE TWENTY
1—Narrowing his eyes, Chevis lays back in the bed.
CHEVIS: What do you want to know?

2—Agent Skylar climbs up on the opposite side of Chevis.
SKYLAR: Everything, starting with why you went after Raleigh Dawson.
CHEVIS: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

3—Towne takes down his shades to look into Chevis’s eyes.
TOWNE: Try us.

4—Chevis returns the intense gaze.
CHEVIS: His mother and uncle are immortal.

5—Skylar smirks at her partner.
SKYLAR: Bingo.

PAGE TWENY-ONE
1—Ral walks under one of the arches and ties his necklace about his…y’know, neck.
NARR: Yah, I never lost it. I just need to get back to the Fountain.
LOCATION CAPS: EARLIER

2—He bends down to the edge of the pool.
NARR: It’s a Curse, I know.

3—A close-up on Ral’s hand, just before it enters the water. There is a shadow cast over it.
NARR: It’s wrong, but I don’t care.

4—He looks up, and we see a woman looking down at him with bright green eyes, long brown hair tied back in a French braid, and a beautiful smile.
NARR: Mom?

PAGE TWENTY-TWO
1—Small cell—Adeline’s hand hovers just under Ral’s chin.

2—She pulls away.
RAL: No, don’t—

3—She disappears.
RAL: MOM!

4—Close up on Ral. He’s devastated; his cell phone is ringing.
NARR: She…She was there…wasn’t she? She was telling me that this is wrong.
SFX: BEEEEEP!

5—Ral puts his phone to his ear. He’s wiping away the tears.
RAL: Yeah?
CASIA (electronic): Ral, we have to move. Did you find what you were looking for?

6—Ral scoops up water and drinks.
NARR: Almost instantly, the bile’s cut, and the sickness that’s clutched my stomach calms.

7—Ral walks away from the pool, never looking back.
RAL: Yeah, I’ve got everything I need.

THE END