traffic surges around her. Call her CAT. She’s twenty. Her
figure is lean, boyish, wiry-tough. Her hair is short, raggedly shorn. There is
something wild about her, something quick and feral and not-quite-tamed. Her
pants are leather, old, cracked, badly worn. She wears a loose black uniform shirt
several, sizes too big for her, unbuttoned, over a tight silver-gray
undershirt. Her feet are bare. She looks lost, confused.. .
INTERCUT - CAT’S POV
HEADLIGHTS are coming at her from all
directions, it seems, cars are missing her by inches.
RESUME CAT
She tries to dart toward the shoulder,
misjudges the speed of traffic. A car almost hits her, its horn BLARING. Cat
jumps back.
A second car SWERVES to avoid her. Brakes SQUEAL.
More HORNS sound. Cat spins, searching for a way out. She takes a step in the
other direction, jumps back as two cars SLAM TOGETHER. Metal CRUNCHES with
impact. More HORNS. Off in the distance, we HEAR police SIRENS too.
CLOSE ON CAT
She covers her ears against the noise,
draws herself in protectively, closes her eyes amidst the chaos ...
Suddenly she is AWASH IN BLINDING LIGHT,
and we hear the deep, terrifying sound of a big truck’s AIR HORN. Her eyes snap
open.
REVERSE ANGLE
A huge SEMI is bearing down on her.
RESUME CAT
She freezes, like a deer pinned by the
truck’s lights. Then the fear is replaced by defiance. From under her shirt,
she pulls a WEAPON; sleek and strange, like no gun we have ever seen. Cat
swings it up quickly, aims with both hands, and FIRES. The only sound is a soft
PHUT of compressed air as the weapon spits out a needle.
ANGLE ON THE SEMI
One moment it is roaring forward at sixty
miles an hour, its horn screaming, its headlights blinding. Then it EXPLODES.
The cab blows apart, sending chunks of glass and metal flying in all
directions. The huge truck careens wildly out of control, veers off to one
side, and CRASHES. A second EXPLOSION rocks the truck as its gas tank blows,
sending up a towering ball of flame.
CAT
is turning to make a break for the shoulder
when a spinning piece of debris from the explosion comes flying at her. She
ducks, but not fast enough. She catches a glancing blow on the forehead. The
impact sends her sprawling.
PUSH IN TIGHT
Cat lies on the road, unconscious, bleeding
from a cut over one eye. The weapon has slipped from her grasp, and the sleeve
of her shirt has ridden up to reveal an ornate bracelet clasped around her
right forearm. It’s a strange piece, a Gigeresgue tangle of silvery metal inset
with three parallel slashes of dark plastic, that coils around her arm like a
nest of snakes.
OFF that image, we
FADE OUT
END OF TEASER
ACT I
FADE IN
EXT. - HOSPITAL - NIGHT
SIRENS scream through the night as an
ambulance races down the freeway, closely followed by two POLICE CRUISERS with
lights flashing.
CUT TO
INT. - EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT
An eight-year old boy sits on an
examination table, surrounded by his MOTHER, a young doctor (TOM), and a
heavyset nurse (MADGE).
TOM
Not like that. Look
at that mess. No, you have to keep your hand steady. It’s
a delicate operation.
Mistakes can be fatal. Here, watch.
REVERSE ANGLE
Tom holds up his hand, palm down. He is
twenty-seven, dark haired, rumpled, confident. The nameplate on his greens
reads LAKE. He has a quarter between two fingers. He ‘walks’ it across his
hand, flips it up in the air, catches it, opens his hand. He pulls it out from
behind the boy’s ear.
TOM
What did I tell
you. Magic is easy. Diagnosis is hard.
He grins at the young patient, who LAUGHS with
delight. The nurse and the mother smile fondly. In b.g., we HEAR the sound of SIRENS.
Tom hears it too.
TOM
(to boy)
And for my next
trick, I make you disappear,
(to mother)
He’ll be fine.
INT. - HOSPITAL - NIGHT
Two PARAMEDICS rush a
figure is lean, boyish, wiry-tough. Her hair is short, raggedly shorn. There is
something wild about her, something quick and feral and not-quite-tamed. Her
pants are leather, old, cracked, badly worn. She wears a loose black uniform shirt
several, sizes too big for her, unbuttoned, over a tight silver-gray
undershirt. Her feet are bare. She looks lost, confused.. .
INTERCUT - CAT’S POV
HEADLIGHTS are coming at her from all
directions, it seems, cars are missing her by inches.
RESUME CAT
She tries to dart toward the shoulder,
misjudges the speed of traffic. A car almost hits her, its horn BLARING. Cat
jumps back.
A second car SWERVES to avoid her. Brakes SQUEAL.
More HORNS sound. Cat spins, searching for a way out. She takes a step in the
other direction, jumps back as two cars SLAM TOGETHER. Metal CRUNCHES with
impact. More HORNS. Off in the distance, we HEAR police SIRENS too.
CLOSE ON CAT
She covers her ears against the noise,
draws herself in protectively, closes her eyes amidst the chaos ...
Suddenly she is AWASH IN BLINDING LIGHT,
and we hear the deep, terrifying sound of a big truck’s AIR HORN. Her eyes snap
open.
REVERSE ANGLE
A huge SEMI is bearing down on her.
RESUME CAT
She freezes, like a deer pinned by the
truck’s lights. Then the fear is replaced by defiance. From under her shirt,
she pulls a WEAPON; sleek and strange, like no gun we have ever seen. Cat
swings it up quickly, aims with both hands, and FIRES. The only sound is a soft
PHUT of compressed air as the weapon spits out a needle.
ANGLE ON THE SEMI
One moment it is roaring forward at sixty
miles an hour, its horn screaming, its headlights blinding. Then it EXPLODES.
The cab blows apart, sending chunks of glass and metal flying in all
directions. The huge truck careens wildly out of control, veers off to one
side, and CRASHES. A second EXPLOSION rocks the truck as its gas tank blows,
sending up a towering ball of flame.
CAT
is turning to make a break for the shoulder
when a spinning piece of debris from the explosion comes flying at her. She
ducks, but not fast enough. She catches a glancing blow on the forehead. The
impact sends her sprawling.
PUSH IN TIGHT
Cat lies on the road, unconscious, bleeding
from a cut over one eye. The weapon has slipped from her grasp, and the sleeve
of her shirt has ridden up to reveal an ornate bracelet clasped around her
right forearm. It’s a strange piece, a Gigeresgue tangle of silvery metal inset
with three parallel slashes of dark plastic, that coils around her arm like a
nest of snakes.
OFF that image, we
FADE OUT
END OF TEASER
ACT I
FADE IN
EXT. - HOSPITAL - NIGHT
SIRENS scream through the night as an
ambulance races down the freeway, closely followed by two POLICE CRUISERS with
lights flashing.
CUT TO
INT. - EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT
An eight-year old boy sits on an
examination table, surrounded by his MOTHER, a young doctor (TOM), and a
heavyset nurse (MADGE).
TOM
Not like that. Look
at that mess. No, you have to keep your hand steady. It’s
a delicate operation.
Mistakes can be fatal. Here, watch.
REVERSE ANGLE
Tom holds up his hand, palm down. He is
twenty-seven, dark haired, rumpled, confident. The nameplate on his greens
reads LAKE. He has a quarter between two fingers. He ‘walks’ it across his
hand, flips it up in the air, catches it, opens his hand. He pulls it out from
behind the boy’s ear.
TOM
What did I tell
you. Magic is easy. Diagnosis is hard.
He grins at the young patient, who LAUGHS with
delight. The nurse and the mother smile fondly. In b.g., we HEAR the sound of SIRENS.
Tom hears it too.
TOM
(to boy)
And for my next
trick, I make you disappear,
(to mother)
He’ll be fine.
INT. - HOSPITAL - NIGHT
Two PARAMEDICS rush a
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