Two Winters Past

EXT. CASTLE. EVENING.

All light by torchlight. We see mobile homes lined up. BLYTHE and RANDY are digging a trench along the dump trucks that form the base of the Castle wall. In the distance we can see that a palisade wall has been erected in the trench.

RANDY is a massive man with long, stringy blonde hair. Before the end of the world, he was a farmer, and it shows in his thick chest and biceps.

RANDY chops with a pick-axe, and BLYTHE stands knee-deep in the trench shoveling out the loose dirt.

RANDY: Ratt says you got a motorcycle.

BLYTHE: I stole it from Triangle.

RANDY: How the fuck did you do that?

BLYTHE: I just did it. Shut the fuck up and dig.

RANDY chops three times.

BLYTHE shovels.

RANDY: You think it’s true about them Cooleys?

BLYTHE: What about them?

RANDY: They was attacked by zombies. Everybody’s talking about it.

BLYTHE: Everybody don’t know shit.

RANDY: Maybe you right, them Cooleys got ‘em locked up in barns! This is what those fuckers deserve!

BLYTHE: Conner said it was a thousand rippers in Kilawog. No way the Cooleys had a thousand rippers locked up in barns.

RANDY: Shit man, they follow Route 11 and be in Castle Creek in a day!

BLYTHE: Rippers don’t climb hills, we ain’t in any danger. They  won’t come in five miles of us.

RANDY: They be in Northgate by the end of the week.

BLYTHE: You still be there leaning on that pickaxe when they arrive? I’d like to finish this tonight.

RANDY chops.

BLYTHE digs.

RANDY chops.

RANDY: What’s up with that chick? She ain’t the one you left with.

BLYTHE: Spider got bit. I put her down.

RANDY: Sorry man, she was a cool chick.

BLYTHE: Yeah. Yeah, it was great.

RANDY: So you with her? What’s going on with this other one?

BLYTHE: Shut the fuck up, Randy, am I going to dig this whole ditch myself?

They work in silence for some time.

RANDY: Why is this chick locked up with Sprague? She bit too?

BLYTHE: Stay the fuck away from her, Randy.

RANDY: She bit though?

BLYTHE: I don’t know. I didn’t get any kind of look at her. I don’t think so.

RANDY: We need more chicks up here. This place would be a paradise.

BLYTHE: Mmm hmm.

RANDY: Oh my god, I haven’t been fucked since before the end of the world, and Turner only thinks about new soldiers. All these chicks here are already fucking other guys. My fucking god! Maybe the Cooleys got an idea. We can say whatever we want, but they got thirty women right in there. Probably dead now. What a fucking waste! Fuck!

BLYTHE: Look, I found that girl locked in a bathroom with an old woman that had dissected corpses all over the house, okay? So you leave her the fuck alone!

RANDY stops digging.

RANDY: Fuck! Where was this?

BLYTHE: Over in Maine.

RANDY: No one lives in Maine.

BLYTHE: You dig slow when you talk.

RANDY: Fuck you.

They dig.

RANDY: You found a gun yet?

BLYTHE: I’ve got an axe. That’s what we use here. Ain’t going to have bullets forever.

RANDY: Fuck yeah, we are! We making ‘em now. Down in Northgate.

BLYTHE is shocked.

BLYTHE: Are you serious?

RANDY: Yeah! Turner found a guy that knows how.

BLYTHE: Holy shit, no one told me that!

RANDY: Oh, we got plenty of bullets, Blythe. Plenty. You should see it, a whole fucking room of bullets. That’s why Turner called us all home. We’re going to attack Parlor City.

BLYTHE: Attacking?

RANDY is taken aback, reversing his demeanor.

RANDY: That’s what I think.

RANDY counts off on his fingers.

RANDY: Got Muslims coming up from Pennsylvania, we need to take Parlor City before they can.

BLYTHE: That’s stupid.

RANDY: It’s not and you know it.

BLYTHE: Then why are we digging this ditch?

RANDY: Because Turner is the boss, that’s why.

Continued tomorrow