RUNAWAY TRAIN
SCENES 1-18
DISCLAIMER
This fanfiction is a crossover between Gundam Wing and the 1980's film Runaway Train, starring Jon Voight and Eric Roberts. I own neither property.
TEASER
What if the battle in Siberia went differently? What if Duo, Quatre and Wufei sacrificed their own Gundams and were captured? What if Une spearheaded an assault on Heero and Zechs during their Antarctic Duel? And what if our heroes were all incarcerated in a maximum-security facility while OZ takes over the world.
What if?
PS. I've written this in movie-script format, with numbered scenes and everything. Just to help you understand the lingo, EXT means EXTERIOR, INT means INTERIOR, POV means POINT OF VIEW and VO means VOICE-OVER.
Here we Go!
1 EXT. ALASKAN LANDSCAPE - PRISON
A singing voice echoes through the dark.
VOICE ...
But the Yellow rose of Texas is the only one for me...
It's a recording of the song ROSE TEXAS
FADE IN
The wild frontier of the Yukon. Pine layered hills rise up into view. Snow blizzards around the camera and the wind howls. A family of moose stride through the majestic landscape as 'Rose Texas' continues to play.
The camera rises over the hills and an awesome spectacle rises into view.
Perched on a bluff some hundred feet above a wide, boulder-strewn valley is an impressive complex of buildings. They seem to crouch on the cliffs like an evil beast about to spring on its prey. Rising behind the granite structures is a sheer wall of ice, a glacier forming the canvas of this painting.
SUBTITLE - STONEHAVEN MILITARY PRISON, ALASKA - AC 199
2 INT. PRISON - CELL BLOCK
We are in a four level building. On the ground floor a single prisoner sweeps the floor. Above him rise four vertical tiers of cells, each with a balcony, which link into a corridor for each level.
3 INT. PRISON - REC HALL
We stare down through the steel girders that support the roof. The recreation hall is a barren, concrete box. The main feature is a boxing ring, a single occupant practicing by himself, whirring and diving, pummelling thin air.
On the concrete beside the ring a single twelve-inch screen TV is mounted on a wheeled base. A small group of chairs is gathered around, about three occupied. The voice of the anchorman concluding his piece drifts up.
NEWSCASTER:
...All were killed in the subsequent crash of the shuttle. The names of the victims are being withheld.
A prison guard, sub-machine gun in hand, crosses a high catwalk over the ring and we see the lone contestant properly for the first time. A long brunette braid whips behind him as he concludes, grabbing a towel, jumping from the ring and crossing to the TV.
NEWSCASTER:
We now switch to our live representative at OZ headquarters for the latest on the Yuy-Stonehaven prison case. Over to you Sara.
The boxer turns into the camera and we see his face for the first time. This is DUO MAXWELL.
DETAIL -TV An attractive woman in a formal suit stands in front of the OZ parliament building in Brussels. SARA MAGUIRE, the anchorwoman, turns to the camera.
SARA:
We've just gotten word that chief OZ representative Treize Kushrenada has issued his ruling on the Stonehaven case. We don't have all the details but apparently Heero Yuy, the notorious Gundam terrorist who has been welded in his cell for three years has won his civil rights suit against officials at Stonehaven. Stay with us for details and in a few minutes we'll be back for comment from Stonehaven's representative Lady Anne Une.
BACK TO DUO
Duo takes a few seconds to take in the news, and then his face breaks into a massive grin. He punches the air in victory before he jogs off.
DUO:
WHO-HOO!
BACK TO TV
Sara is now killing time until the next interview.
SARA:
Though the identities of the infamous Gundam terrorists beyond their names are withheld Earthsphere News Network is aware that currently, along with 162 former alliance soldiers, Stonehaven holds four of the five pilots who arrived on earth on April 7th AC 195, four years ago, each serving several life sentences for crimes against humanity...
4 INT. GYM
A dozen prisoners are working out in the prison gym, separated from the corridor Duo is walking down by a steel grille. As he jogs along Duo yells to several of the exercising men.
5 INT. PA ROOM
An ex- alliance commando, Rodgers is operating the PA system. A UESA uniform cap barely clings to his balding head as he idly reads a magazine, allowing 'Rose Texas' to continue to loop on the PA, not bothering to change the discs.
Duo, a demon of energy, bursts into the room and presses up against the grill that separates Rodgers from him.
DUO:
Hey Rodgers!
Rodgers ignores him.
DUO:
Rodgers look at me. Heero's won his case, Trieze wants him out of the hole.
Rodgers doesn't even bother to look up.
RODGERS:
Great that's great
DUO:
Yeah ah Rodgers. That bitch Une's coming on in a few minutes why don't you let the guys in the cellblocks hear that shit she spouts. Put ESNN on the PA.
Rodgers turns a page. Duo begins to loose his temper. He slaps the grille impotently.
DUO:
Hey you got milk in your veins or what? I guess what the guys are saying about the man who blew up an entire OZ base before he was captured must be a lie.
Rodgers slowly looks up.
RODGERS: I was fighting wars when you were swimming round in your father's balls.
He grins suddenly, and laughs.
RODGERS: But you've got some spirit kid! All right, they'll all hear it.
Rodgers leans forward and flips several switches on the bank in front of him and jacks in a feed from a TV. Duo laughs.
DUO: Thanks Rogers, I won't forget this.
Rodgers waves him off.
RODGERS: Get the hell out here kid
Duo yanks the door open and runs out. Rodgers has just crossed the line, and Duo
doesn't want to be around when the hammer falls.
6 INT. CELL BLOCK
Sara's voice booms echoes through the cellblock, amplified ten times over.
SARA'S VOICE:
No one wants prison to be a playground. We all want to see criminals punished and locked up, but don't you think you've shocked the public conscience by keeping a young man welded in a cell for three years.
DETAIL - TV
The screen has split in half. Sara, in the left half is having a live chat with LADY ANNE UNE (Nice persona, hair down, contact lenses) in the right half. Une's screen is clearly labelled LIVE FEED- STONEHAVEN, ALASKA.
Une reacts to Sara's comment.
UNE:
Well a man yes, but Yuy isn't even human. He's trained as a soldier all his life, slaughtered hundreds of men.
INT. CELL BLOCK
An older, embittered prisoner walks out of his cell and jabs a certain two- fingered salute in the direction of the PA speaker.
A few others leave their cells and start screaming obscenities. The tension builds.
BACK TO TV
UNE:
He's, he's a killer. He doesn't care about your life, my life, or even his own life.
7 INT. PA ROOM
Several Guards dart along catwalks and slam into the door of the PA room, but it doesn't give. On the inside, Rodgers has barricaded it with some chairs. The Guards beat the door with the butts of their guns.
GUARDS:
(frantic) Open this door Rodgers.
Rodgers laughs, just like the old days.
8 INT. CELL BLOCK
The tension has broken into a full - fledged riot. Prisoners riot in the corridors and on the catwalks, while others fling projectiles through the windows and chuck flaming bundles of newspaper from the higher levels.
UNE'S VOICE:
He believes in nothing, and he's capable of anything. This is no country club here. When Stonehaven was a civilian prison the average sentence was twenty-two years, and only three people have ever escaped from it in over two hundred and fifty years of history.
BACK TO TV
SARA:
But even given Yuy's record why only confine him and not the other Gundam terrorists.
9 INT. PA ROOM
The guards continue to break down Rodger's door. One manages to break a hole with his gun.
UNE'S VOICE:
Yuy is, how shall we say, unique. He's broken out of here twice, triggered several riots...Do you know a teenager who can set his own broken leg? Or bend steel bars? In Yuy's case I decided the harshest action would be best...
One guard pushes his shoulder to the door and heaves. Rodger's fist suddenly comes through the hole and punches the guard in the eye.
10 INT. CELL BLOCK
Duo speeds round the corner into the main corridor and narrowly avoids a jet of water from several guards in riot-control gear with a high-pressure hose at the far end. Duo looks at the chaos and cheers.
DUO:
Oh Yeah!
SARA'S VOICE:
Colonel, I mean, Warden Une. Is it not true that you orchestrated the battle in Siberia that resulted in the capture of two of the Gundam pilots.
UNE'S VOICE:
Yes.
Duo begins to climb a vertical beam that supports the catwalk on the next level. He gets his arm under the horizontal railing and yells into the opposite cell.
DUO:
Hey Zechs!
SARA'S VOICE:
And is it not also true that you later captured both Heero Yuy and the traitor Zechs Marquise in Antarctica.
UNE'S VOICE:
Also true.
ZECHS MARQUISE (25), without his mask and long platinum hair pulled back into a ponytail has been shaving in his cell completely unaffected by the riot. Duo yells again.
DUO:
Zechs!
Zechs notices Duo and comes out, wiping shaving soap from his chin. Duo grins like a loon again.
DUO:
Heero did it! He really did it!
Zechs nods.
ZECHS:
Yeah Maxwell. I'll see you in the yard.
Zechs returns to his cell and Duo drops off the ladder, slugs a guard in the face and peels out before someone notices his crime.
BACK TO TV
SARA:
Well if you say he is inhuman then why do the other prisoners have such a high affection for him.
Une pauses, then grins maliciously.
UNE:
Because, they're just as inhuman.
BACK TO CELL BLOCK
The prisoners here those words and freeze, staring at the PA, daring Une to go any further.
UNE'S VOICE:
They refused to accept the new era his Excellency Treize has brought to the world and insist on fighting for a dead cause, for a corrupt government that oppressed the world and it's people...
11 INT. PA ROOM
The guards succeed in breaking down the door and slam Rodgers against the grille, clubbing him with their bats. One guard yanks the feed out of the PA, and Une is cut off in mid-sentence.
12 INT. CELL BLOCK
Silence. The prisoners are frozen in fury. Une has not just mortally offended their pride, she has wounded their very morality. These were the men who saw OZ for what it was, and fought in vain to bring it down. All have lost comrades, and family members to OZ.
The seething hatred erupts as Rose Texas resumes it's irritating beat. The prisoners continue to fight with a new vigour.
13 EXT. PRISON
The windows are being smashed out as the prison gates swing wide open for an unmarked black car.
14 INT. CELL BLOCK
All of the prisoners are back in their cells as Une walks round the corner and up the centre of the aisle. Pooling water on the floor reflects the burning paper that still tumbles from near the roof of the building. As Une progresses she appears unobtrusive, unaffected. In a simple business suit she could even be taken for beautiful. Behind her, several guards in riot control follow nervously.
15 INT. MAX-SECURITY WING
A guard swings open a steel sliding door and Une walks into a single level corridor lined with cells reserved for the more violent prisoners. One yells out.
PRISONER: (yelling) Yuy! You've got visitors.
At the bottom end of the corridor is a second steel door, this one padlocked. Behind are a section of corridor and a single, unlit cell, plunged into darkness. Steam leaks from a uninsulated heating valve.
DETAIL SHOT
As Une passes, hands extend from between the cell bars, holding small mirrors so they can see the end of the corridor and Yuy's cell.
BACK TO UNE
As the final door is un-padlocked we can hear a single repetitive grunting. Une walks through the cloud of steam and flips on a light-switch. The cell is illuminated for the first time in three years.
UNE:
(contemptuous) On your feet Yuy.
16 INT. HEERO'S CELL - UNE'S POV
The bars in this cell are thicker than normal, and the door has been carefully welded to the frame. A single bed is folded up against the wall, and a toilet rests in the corner. Every single wall is decorated in graffiti. One wall has a long tally of the days spent in this hellhole. On the others are various slogans such as 'FREEDOM!' and images of the OZ sigil wrapped in barbed wire. The wall opposite the bed seems devoted to a long essay on man's nature to fight, and how this reflects on his future prospects on earth and the colonies.
On the floor a single figure in jeans and a green T-shirt does a continuous series of push-ups, with one hand. On his head is a woollen cap. The face is turned to the ground, refusing to look up.
UNE (VO):
(confident, calm) On your feet.
The lone figure stops his push-ups with a grunt.
HEERO:
Five hundred.
He climbs to his feet, looking away from us. Slowly, he unbolts the bed and it swings down with a clang. Heero spreads out on it, facing us and we see the face of the perfect soldier at last.
This is not the young assassin who landed on earth 4 years ago. Though still clean-shaven and sporting the same pair of cold green eyes, Heero has been embittered during his time in 'the hole'. He has lost the look of innocence he once carried with himself and in place of that is a more expressive person. But one with a heavy sense of sadistic sarcasm and many dark, hidden depths. His body is still lithe and slender, but a degree more masculine than before, the muscle more clearly defined than the tight growth he had in 195.
CUT TO UNE
UNE:
(smirking) His high Excellency Treize has ordered for you to be let out of the hole. Course I could claim you're dead and leave you to rot. What Treize doesn't know can't hurt him.
CUT TO HEERO
Heero leans back and smirks. Slowly he pulls his cap off his head and his traditional crop of messy brown bangs tumble out.
HEERO:
I'll last. You promised to keep me here the rest of my life. Given up already, cos' I'm not dead yet.
CUT TO UNE
UNE:
I kept you in here for three years. That's good enough for me kid.
CUT TO HEERO
HEERO:
Kid - that's sweet coming from a girl barely out of her teens.
Une waves her hand dismissively and turns to go. Heero springs up and pushes his face to the bars, bearing his teeth in an evil grin.
HEERO:
Give Treize a little kiss for me. Maybe you'd like to tell him the truth at the same time.
CUT TO UNE
She pauses, and turns back, completely unfazed.
CUT TO HEERO
HEERO:
I heard your fifty seconds of fame on the PA even from here. So there's four Gundam pilots in Stonehaven?
Une stares at him, challenging him.
HEERO:
Maybe you'd like to tell Treize that Quatre and Wufei broke out of here three years ago. And it was your incompetence that helped me pull that off. And in those three years you haven't been able to catch them, or even locate the pilot of Gundam 03.
She returns the grin. Even in her 'nice-mode' and dressed attractively, her inherent spitefulness shines through.
UNE:
Its all a game to you isn't it. Well go ahead, make your move. But one-day, you're going to draw a crap hand, and on that day, I'll send you out of here in plastic!
HEERO:
You do what you have to do, and I'll do what I have to do. Whatever happens happens. And on the day I get out of here, I'll be laughing in your face, even if it's in a little plastic urn.
This doesn't throw Une for a second. She gestures to one of the guards.
UNE:
(laughing cruelly) Call the machine shop. Bring him to the yard!
She turns to Heero.
UNE:
(smug) Enjoy your last few moments of peace Yuy.
Une goes, turning the light out as she goes. In the dark, Heero's eyes glint coldly.
17 INT. CELL BLOCK
Une's back in the main corridor, inspecting the damage from the riot. All of the prisoners are pressed against their cell doors, staring at her with visible loathing. As she passes one cell it's occupant blows a long raspberry.
PRISONER:
(sneering) That's Treize's fart-hole Une, the bastard's loud.
Other prisoners laugh lecherously.
Une reaches the end of the row, hands clasped behind her back, not bothered. She scratches her cheek, turns and surveys the whole building.
UNE:
(loudly, not a trace of femininity) You're all punks yelling, hiding there in the darkness. So let me tell you where you assholes stand.
She holds her hand up, single finger thrust up.
UNE:
First there's God..
Second finger.
UNE:
Then me, the warden.
Middle finger.
UNE:
Then my guards.
Forth finger.
UNE:
Then their dogs out there in the kennels.
Thumb.
UNE:
And finally you. Pieces of human waste. No good to yourselves, or anyone else.
She's an impressive sight, the sound of her voice betraying her slight frame, flanked by six guards like a military parade.
The cellblock is silent.
18 EXT. EXERCISE YARD
Heero, mattress rolled up on his shoulder, his few possessions bundled up inside, steps through a gate into the exercise yard. The gate slams shut behind him and he squints, blinded by the unaccustomed brightness.
Heero enters the snow covered- overcrowded yard to a hero's welcome. Lot's of handshakes, backslapping and cheering.
Duo (wearing a pair of sunglasses) and Zechs (turtleneck and trench coat) stand behind him, watching. Heero hasn't noticed them.
The cold is biting, all the other prisoners are bundled up, but Heero wears only a denim jacket over his T-shirt and jeans, unaffected by the snow and wind.
The crowds around began to dissipate - Zechs speaks up.
ZECHS:
(glad to see him) There he is - Heero Yuy.
Heero spins, trying to focus on the familiar voice in the white glare.
Zechs steps in front of him.
ZECHS:
It's me.
HEERO:
I'm blind Zechs - I can't see.
Duo steps up and hands Heero his sunglasses. Heero takes them.
HEERO:
Hn. Thanks.
DUO:
(pointing at the mattress) Hey let me take that for you.
Heero slings his mattress at Duo.
HEERO:
(not quite sure) Duo right?
DUO:
Yup. Pilot of the Gundam Deathscythe.
HEERO:
Heero Yuy. Pilot of the Gundam.
DUO:
Yeah I remember Evil Kinevil. Last saw you in May 195.
Heero shrugs and turns to Zechs.
HEERO:
What's been happening these last three years.
ZECHS:
Just what you know. I finally got my court-martial and Trieze gave me ten years.
HEERO:
He's soft. Treason deserves death by firing squad.
Zechs laughs and Heero smirks slightly.
A prisoner comes up and tries to talk to Heero. Duo fends him off like a bodyguard. At the same time a voice comes over the PA.
VOICE:
The following men have visitors. Voight...Roberts...DeMornay...
Heero turns to Zechs.
HEERO:
Any news about Quatre and Wufei.
ZECHS:
No. All that's certain is that Une's not letting anyone cotton on to the fact that they've escaped.
Heero stalls mid step.
HEERO:
(amazed) You mean there's been no search attempt?
Zechs shakes his head. Heero considers this.
HEERO:
Three years and no sign of them?
ZECHS:
Quatre probably went back to his father on L4. Wufei's most likely on some crusade somewhere.
HEERO:
(lowering his voice) And Trowa?
ZECHS:
Before I got captured I saw him again. Wing and the Tallgeese are secured with his Heavyarms. The others were all destroyed by their pilots. Trowa said he was going to try and get work somewhere around here where he'd be aware of any breakouts by one of us...
HEERO:
Don't worry, I'll get us out.
ZECHS:
Not in this winter.
HEERO:
I haven't forgotten that duel you still owe me Zechs.
Zechs laughs again.
Heero notices Duo chatting to another prisoner.
HEERO:
How the hell did he end up here? I though he was captured in the colonies.
ZECHS:
What, Duo. He's not a bad kid. He broke out of L2 and attacked the lunar base. Some new mobile suit developmental project. He took out the designers and the prototypes before he self-detonated. Ended up here.
Heero nods thoughtfully.
ZECHS:
Besides which he-ah - pushes the laundry cart.
For the first time, Heero laughs out loud and slaps Zechs. Duo looks at him quizzically. Heero leans against the chain-link fence that surrounds the compound and stares out at the thin part of the outside world visible through the prison gate.
HEERO:
Yeah! I'll get us out, winter or none.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N.
Well, if anyone's reading this, I hope you're enjoying the new, re-formatted Runaway Train. Tune in next time for a violent boxing tournament and Heero and Duo's escape.
Cheers!
