Two Winters Past

INT. HOUSE. EVENING.

BLYTHE and SPIDER enter through the front door of the house. SPIDER struggles to walk. BLYTHE helps her to the floor.

BLYTHE: Wait here. Don’t go anywhere.

BLYTHE goes into the back bedroom. As he steps through the door, he is punched in the jaw by SMITTY. SMITTY's ear and cheek have been badly chewed. BLYTHE falls. SMITTY points Tip’s gun at BLYTHE.

BLYTHE: You’re infected. 

BLYTHE slowly rises.

SMITTY: You don't know that. Just cuz your crazy little cooze lost her mind? Where is she? I’m going to break her pretty little neck.

OFF-SCREEN: MAX rasps a breath.

SMITTY: Max? You still alive, buddy?

BLYTHE smashes SMITTY in the side of the head with the blunt side of his axe. SMITTY falls prone.

BLYTHE stands over SMITTY and delivers a two-handed chop into SMITTY’s forehead, killing him.

BLYTHE stares at the body.

SPIDER crawls in the doorway and vomits green corruption. BLYTHE goes to her, leaving his axe buried in SMITTY’s head. She is crying.

BLYTHE: You have to pull yourself together, Spider.

BLYTHE pulls at her clothes while hugging until he finds a scabbed wound on her shoulder.

BLYTHE: Is this a bite? When did this happen?

SPIDER: It was nothing. It barely touched me. I thought it would be all right!

BLYTHE: Turner can protect us. Maybe Sprague has found a cure.

BLYTHE stands, wrenches his axe from SMITTY’s head.

We follow BLYTHE as he goes to the rec room. MAX leans against a wall.

BLYTHE stands over MAX. MAX looks up weakly. BLYTHE raises his axe.

SPIDER: Wait!

BLYTHE kneels beside her.

SPIDER: Let me. I need to.

BLYTHE: I did this to him. It was wrong.

SPIDER: If it’s not him, it will be you.

BLYTHE understands. He backs away in horror. He cannot watch.

SPIDER slithers to MAX, lifting his shoulder to expose his neck.

CLOSE-UP: MAX's face. He is terrified. His breathing quickens.

SPIDER bites into the muscle, swallows a mouthful without chewing and bites again.

MAX screams.

Fade out on BLYTHE’s face. He is disgusted.