The STATIC clears and the CAMERA ZOOMS out of DAVE’S EYE.
He is in A COLD STONE ROOM. He is HOLDING A YOUNG TEENAGE GIRL.
This is his SISTER, ATHENA. The room is FILLED with people who appear to be REFUGEES.
THE scene looks BLEACHED OUT. This is A FLASHBACK.
CRYING can be heard from somewhere.
ATHENA
What are they going to do with us?
DAVE
I don’t know.
ATHENA
I thought we’d outrun them.
You said we’d outrun them.
DAVE
We did. These people aren’t Crimson Guard.
They’re just the local militia garrison.
Probably confused as hell by what’s happening.
ATHENA
Why?
DAVE
Because the moment Erebus launched his coup, all communications with the capitol will have gone down.
These guys aren’t trained for this.
That’s why we’ve been thrown in here.
They’re probably taking everyone
Who crosses their jurisdiction into custody.
They’re scared out of their wits. They know something’s happened, just not what.
ATHENA starts CRYING. DAVE turns to his SISTER and looks her in the EYES.
DAVE
Hang in there, okay. Its going to be okay.
We just have to reach the border. Once we get there we’re going to be fine.
I just need you to stay in control, okay?
ATHENA
Why did you call him that.
Why did you call him Erebus?
DAVE
Because that’s what he’s become.
ATHENA
He was our friend!
He was like a brother to you!
You have pledged allegiance to him since you were a boy.
What could he have ever done to make you call him that.
DAVE
You didn’t see his face, Athena. You didn’t see what I saw in his eyes.
He’s lost and I didn’t know how to pull him back.
The man I knew seemed gone, or at least buried under so much anger and lust and wickedness.
He tried to kill me, Athena.
ATHENA
What’s happened, Sven?
DAVE
I don’t know, Athena.
It must have something to do with the Liberation Chamber.
ATHENA
How? I thought it was supposed to make everything better.
DAVE
I don’t know.
It didn’t work, obviously.
ATHENA
So what do we do now?
DAVE
Make it to the border.
That’s all I got.
After that, maybe we can work out what happened.
ATHENA
I still can’t believe it.
I could have lived my whole life without seeing that sight.
Every time I’ve slept since then.
Even when we slept in the forest, before we lost the others, even then, in my dreams I was home.
Except I wake up and I remember.
The palace burning. The marble towers blackened by fire.
The gardens filled with the dead and the dying.
The streets I ran in, just the day before, turned into battle lines.
And the same friends I ran with, chasing us, dragging people off to who knows where. Or cutting them down.
Sven? What happened!!!
ATHENA is NOW on her FEET. Her VOICE has been getting louder as she’s been SPEAKING. She’s now HYSTERICAL.
OTHER REFUGEES are STANDING TOO.
REFUGEE MAN.
You need to shut that girl up!
If you can’t I will.
DAVE
I’ll bear that in mind.
She’s just had a hard time of it.
REFUGEE MAN
Which of us ain’t
Now shut her up!
REFUGEE WOMAN
Ignore my husband. Its just she’s going to wake our baby.
And its been hard enough to get her to sleep with what we’ve all been through.
DAVE
Sure.
ATHENA is FREAKING OUT in the middle of the CELL. DAVE TRIES to calm her.
DAVE
I don’t know what happened. I wish I did.
You really need to calm down!
ATHENA
It’s all gone. It’s all gone!
The Beauty has fallen. Arcadia is fallen.
JAILER 1
And stay in there!
I don’t want to here another word!
MURRAY
Look, can’t you talk to your head man? I really don’t deserve this. I’m a very important messenger on a diplomatic mission from the Eastern Sea. I wish to speak to your chief.
I have items of much magic.
JAILER 2
I’m from the Eastern Sea.
And we’ve had weapons like your own for about a thousand years.
And your computation devices appear totally primitive. I’ll wager you can’t do a simple molecular scan on that.
MURRAY
You’re from the Eastern Sea?
I didn’t anticipate that.
Okay, obviously I’ve said the wrong thing here.
JAILER 1.
Obviously! Look, normally if we find a lunatic like your good self, we’d normally release him immediately to go prance about under the moon and practise eating grass and whatever else takes his fancy. But the last few weeks haven’t been normal. So you’re going to stay in here until I get some answers.
MURRAY
I want to see your big chief, your tribal headman, your head honcho, whatever he is.
JAILER 2.
Why do you talk like an idiot?
MURRAY
People have been asking me that all my life.
Can’t we trade for something?
JAILER 1
What exactly?
Insanity?
They CLOSE the DOOR. Their LAUGHTER can be heard as they walk away.
MURRAY
Oh well, it always worked on SG1
He SITS down NEXT to DAVE. He PULLS out a PLASTIC BAG of SANDWICHES out from SOMEWHERE. He OFFERS one to DAVE.
MURRAY
Cheese and Pickle?
The CAMERA zooms in on MURRAY’S EYE.
STATIC.
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