Two Winters Past

Scene 2

DARKNESS.

Fade to matching scene with VOICE OVER (VO)

BLYTHE (VO): I was walking along the river the day I decided I had to get out of the city. Army had cleared out most of the rippers, so it was safe to be out, but first winter was setting in. That couple did not dress the baby for the weather. The boy was shirtless, and his skin was as red as his hair. He clutched the baby to his chest. The girl did not fare better. The baby wore only a T-shirt and tiny pants, and its arms were curled up to its chest like a boxer. If it wasn’t dead, it would be soon. These two had been run out of every safe-house and robbed of most everything they had.

BOY: Can you carry him?

GIRL: He makes me cold.

BOY and GIRL walk past along a paved trail beneath a floodwall. A brown river flows along it it. Across the river is a city, and a bridge. Short montage of BLYTHE exploring an empty city with light street clothes on.

Dissolve.

INT. BEDROOM.

SPIDER is in bed. She is a woman in her twenties with black hair.  She wears a shirt and has sheets pulled up to her neck. BLYTHE is by the dresser. He could be twice her age, with a rough, bristly face. BLYTHE dresses.

SPIDER: I had another dream, John.

BLYTHE: A man came this morning. Turner is calling all his soldiers back to the Castle. You should come with me.

SPIDER: We’re safe here.

BLYTHE: I saw five of them rippers yesterday. I thought one caught a whiff of me. The Castle has walls.

SPIDER: What if the zombies learn to climb?

BLYTHE: If those rippers figure it out, we’ve got 100 men with axes to knock them back down.

SPIDER: 100 men that will be trying to pinch and peek.

BLYTHE: You’re not the only woman. There are others.

SPIDER: To cook and clean?

BLYTHE: Turner lets every man or woman prove their worth. You can swing an axe. Maybe we can walk the wall together.

SPIDER: We’re safe here.

BLYTHE: We’re not.

SPIDER: We are. I’m not leaving. I’ve been in a city all my life, and I’m not going back there again.

BLYTHE: It’s hardly a city! I know the name of every person.

SPIDER: No.

BLYTHE: I need to go there alone then. I swore an oath.

SPIDER: Them people kicked you out!

BLYTHE: Obviously Turner wants me back now.

SPIDER: My dreams, John! You will be Lionheart, but if you go to that castle, you will die.

BLYTHE: It’s just a dream.

SPIDER: I saw it so clear, and my dream came true. I saw all this. I saw men eating men in the street and it happened.

BLYTHE: You saw it in a movie, that’s all.

SPIDER throws her arms around BLYTHE. Sheet falls away.

SPIDER: Please John, please stay with me.

BLYTHE extricates himself and dresses.

BLYTHE: Fine. Wait. We’ll give it one more day.

SPIDER: Where are you going?

BLYTHE: I want to take a walk around. I heard some action outside. Could have been a deer.

SPIDER: (Wry smile.) Couldn’t be zombies. Noise I made would have drawn every deady for miles.

BLYTHE picks up an axe propped against the dresser.

BLYTHE: Sit tight here.

FADE TO BLACK