Two Winters Past

EXT. HIGHWAY. MORNING.

VALENTINE and CHLOE ISIS hide behind a car.

The monster lumbers to them, lifting cars and looking under.

CHLOE ISIS and VALENTINE navigate through a maze of dusty vehicles, keeping low to avoid the monster’s sight.

CHLOE ISIS and VALENTINE have to move slowly and are losing ground to the monster.

Monster shoves aside the cars that block it and slides over those that don’t yield. The skin boils and splits apart where it cannot contain new muscle.

The monster sees CHLOE ISIS and VALENTINE and gallops in pursuit.

CHLOE ISIS and VALENTINE scream and flee, but the monster is faster and knocks them down with a swipe of its tentacles.

CHLOE ISIS and VALENTINE are down on their backs with the monster towering over them.

A dark shape leaps from the cover of a car and wraps a chain around the monster’s neck, dragging it off balance enough to come down to one knee.

The attacker is MOLAY. He is a young-looking man in a black trench coat. He wields a broadsword and keeps the monster at the end of a chain leash, dodging as the monster tries to attack him.

MOLAY slices off two of the tentacles and gets behind the monster, bringing it down. He plunges the sword into the monster’s chest, and it flails with its arms.

MOLAY dances out of its reach, wrenches the sword free, and lops off the other arm at the shoulder as the monster rises. It bats him away with the remaining tentacle, but MOLAY ducks when the monster swipes again at his head.

VALENTINE tries to join the fight.

MOLAY: I’ve got this. Get somewhere safe.

The monster attacks, and MOLAY cleaves its forehead. The monster is stunned, but continues to attack.

CHLOE ISIS and VALENTINE run.

MOLAY brings the monster back into control with the chain and chops through its leg, bringing it down on its face.

The monster is not dead, but is mostly incapacitated.

MOLAY releases the chain and runs after Chloe and Valentine.

MOLAY: Hey! Slow down! It’s not chasing us anymore.

CHLOE ISIS and VALENTINE stop running to let MOLAY catch up.

VALENTINE: What was that thing?

MOLAY: That is what happens if the infected people survive long enough. Before winter, they were rare, but I’ve seen more and more. Where are your shoes? Your feet are a mess.

CHLOE ISIS: Who are you?

MOLAY: Jack. Jack Molay. Good to meet you. You come from Marathon? Where you headed?

VALENTINE: We escaped the Cooleys. Do you know them?

MOLAY: Let’s go, if you’re okay to walk. That thing won’t stay down long. I’ve heard of the Cooleys.

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