15. DARK TUNNELS - LATE NIGHT
CONTRAST CUT to Jane, Darcy, and Skuld, tearing through dark subterranean tunnels at a DEAD RUN. Skuld is out ahead of the other two, holding one hand aloft to produce a small sphere of dim white light; as she runs, the light casts strange shadows in all directions. Darcy and Jane are close behind:
DARCY
(while running)
Can't you just - beam us out -
She takes a gulp of air.
SKULD
(shaking her head; while running)
I have to know where I'm going -
The light flickers for a moment as they run on.
SKULD
(continuing)
Really know it, know the terrain.
(beat)
Right now I am taking us down a new path -
Skuld gasps:
SKULD
- to avoid the draugr hive.
DARCY
"Hive"?
(running on)
That's - comforting -
The ground is uneven, and Jane and Darcy both stumble now and then. Their ragged breath echoes in the cavern - but the tunnel is otherwise silent, until -
BOOM! From somewhere in the distance behind them, there is a loud, protracted, CRACKING sound - then the knocking sounds of rocks tumbling to the ground. For an instant, all three women stop short:
SKULD
(gasping for breath)
I think that -
She freezes as the sound of tumbling rock gives way to the resonant, repetitive sound of feet - many feet - hitting the earth.
JANE
(in horror)
They're inside.
They're running again - even faster now, if that were possible. They tear through the tunnels at breakneck speed, weaving as the tunnel takes hairpin turns, slipping and sliding on rocks and gravel. Without warning, the cramped tunnel suddenly gives way to a WIDE CAVERN, and the ground beneath them narrows to a rough path between two steep drop-offs to either side. The three women tear across the cavern, toward the far side, where the path narrows to a sheltered tunnel once again.
CUT ACROSS the path: dozens of draugr are now pouring out into the cavern. They are close enough now that we can see that they are barely recognizable as human - little more than gray, rotting flesh clinging to bones and sinew. Their teeth are bloody, uneven stubs in their gaping mouths, and their fingertips have peeled back to reveal sharpened, claw-like bone. But most jarring of all are their eyes - bright and white, burning deep from within lidless sockets. They hurtle toward the three women, arms outstretched, hungry and vicious.
Darcy hesitates for just an instant at the far edge of the cavern, and looks back at the draugr:
DARCY
(in a whisper)
Jesus.
Around them and above them, there is now a low RUSHING sound -
JANE
Do you hear that?
SKULD
There is a small river above -
Without hesitation, Darcy draws Jane's Colt from her pocket, aims it at the roof of the cavern, and FIRES.
Rocks shower down from the roof of the cavern, clattering off of one other and SLAMMING into the ground. Behind them, a WALL of water slams down into the cavern - a sudden, torrential waterfall that knocks the draugr's feet out from under them. Darcy grins with satisfaction:
DARCY
That should buy us some -
Suddenly, she SCREAMS in abject pain.
A draugr has crawled up out of the water and taken hold of Darcy; it sinks its teeth into her calf, just below the knee. Bright red blood sprays out around the wound - onto the creature, and into the water.
Jane pulls Darcy away from the creature, and then gives it one SAVAGE KICK to the head. The draugr reels backward into the water - still alive, but momentarily pulled sideways by the torrent.
JANE
Are you o-
SKULD
(urgently)
There is no time. Go!
The women begin running again; behind them, out of focus, we can see draugr begin to clamber up out of the water, continuing their tireless pursuit. QUICK CUTS of the three as they run - their faces, hands, feet. Behind them, the sound of the draugr horde is getting ever louder. The harrowing sound of their strange, inhuman barks reverberates through the cavern.
Skuld turns a corner; the tunnel opens up to a much smaller cavern. She suddenly stops short. Without a word, she tugs at Jane's arm, and presses some small, unseen thing into Jane's hand. Skuld then turns to face the tunnel behind them. Jane and Darcy skid to a stop too:
DARCY
(urgently)
What are you doing?
Skuld thrusts her arms out; in an instant, a wall of white light slices through the air between her and the entrance of the cave. The wall burns and sputters, as if made of out of solid fire. Just as the wall leaps to life, the fastest of the draugr emerge from the tunnel.
The first draugr runs DIRECTLY into the wall of light, and immediately catches fire - it writhes and howls in agony as its charred body drops to the ground, mere feet from Skuld. The other draugr, seeing this,rear back. They do not flee, nor do they test the wall. Instead they stare at Skuld with a simple, frightening, animal intensity.
Skuld drops her chin to her chest. The wall dims for a moment - then she groans, and it becomes bright again:
DARCY
We have to run!
Jane, who had been looking at the object in her palm, shoves it into her pocket, and shakes her head:
JANE
Skuld - you don't have to do this.
With great effort, Skuld lifts her chin to look back toward Jane and Darcy. Blood is pouring freely from her mouth and nose, down her chin and neck. Her skin is deathly pale. A blood vessel in one of her eyes has burst.
SKULD
(sadly)
Yes - I do.
(beat)
It has to be so.
She coughs hoarsely, and the entire wall of light flickers briefly out of existence - then back in.
SKULD
Do not waste it, Jane.
(coughing again)
Hurry now.
Jane stares at Skuld, struck silent, unshed tears hanging beneath her eyes. Darcy grabs Jane's arm and drags her away.
DARCY
Jane - there's no time -
Darcy flees at a full run; Jane is close behind. The tunnel is dark, but behind them the pale glow of Skuld's wall can still be seen.
Then, ahead of them, without warning, the tunnel suddenly GIVES WAY to a steep downward slope. Darcy and Jane quickly lose their footing and begin skidding down at breakneck speed. They tumble, head over feet, in the darkness.
Then, behind them, the light of Skuld's wall flickers out.
Everything is pitch black.
16. A CLIFF'S EDGE - EARLY MORNING
SUDDEN CUT to a steep mountainside, where the tunnel opens out on to a shallow precipice. Darcy's body hurtles forward out of the tunnel first - then Jane's. Darcy flies forward toward the cliff's edge, while Jane catches a rocky outcropping with one hand, stopping her fall.
DARCY
(panicked)
Jane!
Darcy is holding on to the cliff's edge with just one hand. Jane scrambles over to her, and reaches for Darcy's arm. CUT TO Darcy, hanging off the edge of the rock face. The shot pulls away to show that beneath her - somewhere between the cliff and the ground a half-mile further down - is a wide black RIFT in space. The rift stretches out for hundreds of feet in each direction.
JANE
I've got you. I've got you, Darce -
She grabs at Darcy's arm. Suddenly, the mountainside begins to shake. The impact of the draugr tumbling down the tunnel is triggering an AVALANCHE.
JANE
Darcy! No!
All around them, rocks begin to peel away from the bluff and hurtle down the mountainside. The rocks whiz past Darcy, down into the rift. And in that awful instant, Darcy loses her grip on the rock -
- and Jane loses her grip on Darcy.
Darcy tumbles down into the rift, and in the instant before she vanishes, there is an awful, blood-curdling SCREAM.
Then she is gone.
Jane stares down into the rift in horror and pain -
- but there's no time. The avalanche has slowed, but the draugr are near now, skidding and sliding down the tunnel toward the cliff's edge. Jane pushes herself backward on her hands and knees, then turns and pulls her body up the rock face, above the tunnel's entrance, and safely away from both the falling rock and the draugr. She heaves herself up onto a narrow escarpment, and sucks in air as the draugr below her tumble into the rift below. There are more of them than it had seemed - not dozens, but many hundreds.
Jane throws her body backward onto the rock, and covers her mouth with her hands. The sky cracks with thunder, and a cold wind tears across the steep mountain face. AERIAL SHOT of Jane, lying on the escarpment, as she stifles silent, desperate sobs.