Fade In:
Ext. - Dusty ground -

An ant crawls across the ground.  It stops and picks up a bit of dirt and examines it as if it were food.  A skeletal foot steps and squashes the ant.  Another ant scurries to the squashed ant and tries to put it back together.  Another skeletal foot steps and squashes the arse of the second ant.  A third and fourth ant scurry in and try to help the two downed ants.  They help move the least injured ant.  Another skeletal foot comes down but misses the last two ants.

The skeletal foot is attached to a bone leg, and a body and a skull.  The skeletal form is walking towards a smoke plume on the horizon.  There are several skeletals.  There are a hundred skeltals.

The smoke plume in the distance is rising from a battleground in front of a stone walled fort.  There are humans manning the walls.  There is one female human with a grim look on her face studying the approaching skeletals.  VIKENA snarls and shakes her head.  A shorter humanoid stands beside Vikena.  She has dark, slightly greenish skin.  EVOK removes her helm and runs her hand through her dark hair, over her slightly pointed ears.  She is an okrum.

There is a bright blue flash of lightning in the sky.

Evok:  More.

Vikena briefly glances up and returns to studying the distance.

Vikena: They can't be animated dead.

Evok:  The result is the same.

Vikena looks down the ramparts behind her.

Vikena:  Claude!  Anything?

Below CLAUDE looks up.  He has a small telescope tube in his hand. There is a skeletal on the ground at his feet that he has been studying.  He shrugs his shoulders and turns back to his work.

Vikena:  What?!

Claude: I don't know.  I just don't know.

He starts poking at the skeletal.  He turns back up to her suddenly.

Claude:  I don't have the equipment!  I need more tools!

He throws away the tube.  He kicks the skeletal.  It breaks apart.

SHIN-LO, a very big man walks up to Claude.  He hands Claude a telescope tube.

Shin-Lo:  Try this one.  The very center is fuzzy, but the rest seems to be better.

There is a cry from the far side of the ramparts.  Vikena whirls to look out again.

There is a thousand skeletals forming up outside the walls.  They have picked up swords and some are empty handed.  The one without weapons are flexing their hands as if they were claws.

A tall sturdy man THORN rushes up and kneels beside Vikena.

Vikena: Stop that. Don't.

Thorn slumps down farther.  Vikena gently reaches out and touches the back of his neck.

Vikena: Don't.

Thorn stands before her.  He looks past her shoulder into nothing.

Thorn: Yesterday they did not organize.  Yesterday they attacked as a mob.

Vikena: I understand.

Thorn: Yesterday there were less of them.  Now they have more.

Vikena: True.

Thorn: We have less than yesterday.

Vikena:  True.

Thorn: The more we fight, the better they get.  How do we win?

Vikena:  I don't know.

Thorn:  I have spoken with everyone.  They all have sworn to die before you.

Vikena is shocked.

Thorn: We have sworn to die before you die.

Vikena: I don't want to die.

Vikena reaches out and lifts Thorn's chin.

Vikena: I don't want you to ...

Vikena is bumped from behind.  Claude is standing behind her with a piece of the skeletal in his hand.

Claude: It's here!  Right here.  Sorry.  See!

He holds out a shard of bone in one hand and the telescope tube in the other.  Vikena shakes her head.

Vikena: What?

Claude:  He is using nano-technology.  The motherless son is using nano-technology!  Don't you get it?

Vikena: No, what?

A cry comes from all the ramparts.  The skeletals are advancing on the walls.

Thorn jumps up and grabs a bow.

Thorn:  We have sworn!

Thorn rushes up a ladder to the ramparts. Arrows fire down upon the skeletals.  Some skeletals burst into flames, but there are not enough arrows to stop them.

Claude: This is not necromancy!  Its a technology!

Evok:  What's the difference?

Shin-Lo:  We die anyways.

Evok and Vikena clamber up ladders to the ramparts.  They leave Claude standing with the piece of skeletal in his hands.  He turns back to his work in a frenzy.  Shin-Lo hands him a piece of equipment.

The skeletal advance is almost stoppable.  The skeletals reach the walls and use their claws to climb the ramparts.  The defenders fight with their swords and manage to beat back the wave of attack.  As defenders are struck by the skeletals' weapons, their bodies disappear with a blue flash.  There is a blue flash in the sky immediately after each 'death'.

The skeletals fall back from the wallls dragging skeletal pieces with them.

Vikena leans against the rampart and watches them.  Tears form in her eyes.   She puts her head on her arms.

Evok walks up and puts her hand on Vikena's shoulder.

Evok:  I've lost my family.  My whole family.

Vikena:  That's close.

Evok: But still not the same.

Vikena stands rigid and furious.

Vikena:  Who is this guy!

She pulls a telescope out and looks.  Thorn comes up to her.

Thorn:  34 have been sent beyond.

Evok joins Vikena to scan the horizon.  A man is bent over some downed skeletals. The figure is too small to see his features clearly.  The man stands and waves. He bends down and works again.  One of the skeletals rises.  He bends over one another skeletal. 

Thorn:(V.O. for above)  23 have been scratched and infected.  By morning they will be like those.  We must open the gate and put them outside now while they've retreated.

Vikena:  Not yet.

(pause)  Claude comes up excited, but he falls silent as he sees Evok and Thorn silent beside Vikena.  Shil-Lo comes up and falls silent too.

Vikena sees through the telescope that the man is regenerating more skeletals.

Thorn:(V.O. for above) We are fewer, Vikena.

Vikena whirls on him.

Vikena: I know!  Don't you think I know!

She turns and throws the telescope over the wall.

Vikena: (cont'd) Who is this guy!  Who is this motherless son!

Shin-Lo:  It is a technology.

Claude:  Nano-technology.

Vikena: What?

Claude:  If I had time I think that I could alter some of the little nano-buggers and infect all his beasts or thingies or whatever you want to call them. I could infect them right back.

Evok:  How much time?

Thorn:  We don't have time!

Thorn points out at the skeletals.  They are forming ranks again.

Vikena: (quietly cursing) Blue hells.

Thorn: (to Claude) Quit wasting your energy and fight like a warrior!

Claude: No.  (quietly)

Thorn: Die like a warrior!

Claude: No.  (quietly)

Thorn:  Bah!

Claude: (to Vikena)  If I had more time we could get out of this.

Vikena:  But we don't have time.

The skeletals are forming still and assembling some ladders from pieces of bone.

Thorn comes up.

Thorn:  We should hold the walls as long as possible and then fall back to the stone store house.  We have water in there for at least  three days.

Evok:  And then?

Thorn: (to Vikena. He hesitates and takes a deep breath.)   I am sorry I have failed you, Vikena.  I truly wanted top meet your children in this world.

Evok: As did I.

Claude lowers his head.

Claude: I'm sorry.

Shin-Lo has tears in his eyes.  Vikena is standing in shock.  She stares out at the forming ranks of skeletals.

Thorn:  One day there will be an epic song about your stand here today.  It will be sung through the worlds and the ages.

Thorn bows his head.

Evok:  Who will be left to tell it?

Vikena brushes past them and slides down the ladder.  She walks to where the wounded are gathered.  All these people are in pain and grief.  One man has removed the armour from his arm.  He lifts his arm to Vikena to show her a scratch on his arm.  His skin is turning black and flaking away.  He is in severe pain.

MAN 1: I don't want to become one of them.

WOMAN 1: If I do, I know that by tommorrow I will be killing my friends.

Man 2: This hurts.

Vikena: I'm so sorry that I can't stop the pain. I'm sorry.

Man 2:  Don't put us out yet.

Woman 1: Shut up.

She stands.

Woman 1: (cont'd) I'll go now if you want.

Vikena:  Would you rather take you chances on the blue hells or slowly rot in front of us.  You know the screams.  We heard them all last night.

Woman 1: And the night before.

Vikena:  Do any of you want that?

Woman 1:  I swear I heard my father scream all that night.  Maybe what was left of him was the abomination that hit me today.

Vikena: Do you all hear that!

Evok, Cluade, Shin-Lo, Thorn, and others come down the ladder behind Vikena.

Vikena: (cont'd) Do any of you want to die like that only to come back against you friends tommorrow?  (silence) Or your family?  (silence) Aren't we all family?

The wounded slowly stand.  Groans are stiffled.  They stand before Vikena.
 
Woman 2:  I'll take my chaces on the blue hells.  What do you want us to do?

Vikena:  Take off your armour.

There are protests.

Vikena:  It does you no good now.  You're already dying.

They start dropping their armour.  Vikena starts to remove hers.

Thorn:  Vikena!  What are you doing?

Vikena:  (to the wounded)  You will move faster without the weight.  You will destroy more of those abominations before you die.  This I promise you.

Man 2: How?

Vikena:  We will go out the gate and attack.

Claude: What are you doing!

Vikena:  If they are a technology, then are they programmed against an attack?

Thorn:  You'll die.

Vikena:  You are telling me that we are already dead here.

Thorn:  But we can survive longer in here.

Vikena: Does that get me closer to my children?

Evok walks over to Vikena and removes her own leg guards.

Thorn: Don't.  This is crazy.

Other soldiers start dropping their armour too.

Thorn:  We should stay here and protect Vikena.  We should form a ring around her and die before her.

Warriors are coming down from the ramparts.

Thorn: This is choosing to die for certain.

Evok:  Aren't we already dead?

Thorn: No, not yet.

Vikena: (to Thorn) I am not choosing to die.  (to the wounded and then everyone)  At this moment, on this day, I am choosing to be alive.  I am choosing to live.

Thorn: Then we will die before you!

Vikena: No!  I want to find my chidren.  (to Thorn) And what about yours?  (to evryone) And yours?

Thorn: But I don't have any children.

Vikena: Yet.

Thorn stands there like he has been kicked in the stomach. This is a new thought.

Vikena: (to Claude)  Get to work.  Find us a cure or something.  Or a way to infect those things back.  Whatever.

Claude:  Right.

He looks at Shin-Lo to follow him.  Shin-Lo bends and picks up a weapon.  Claude rushes to his work

Vikena: (to Shin-Lo)  We need you to help him.

Shin-Lo:  I think I would work faster if I were wounded too.

Vikena shrugs.

Vikena:  Open the gates!

The defenders file out of the gate.

Claude watches them leave.  Claude grabs a clay jar and puts three pieces of bone in it.  He scribbles a note, and then seals the jar.  He picks up a long pole and follows them out.

Vikena leads the way outthe gate.  The skeletals are not formed in their ranks yet.  Vikena sheds the remainder of her armour.

Thorn stands still shaken by the thought of children.  He watches the defenders leave.  He looks around at the empty fortifications.  He holds his hands out and examines the palms.  He flexes his hands.  He flings his helmet and runs after the others.  His armour falls to the ground.

Vikena swings a pole arm.  Archers shoot flaming arrows.  The wounded people fight with a savagery beyond the others.

The enemy commander stands on the hill.  He waves his arms and skeletals move to surround the defenders.  Thorn is late coming and is caught on the outside of the encirclement.

Shin-Lo smashes skeletals in a ring around him.   Evok stays close behind Vikena and stops attacks that Vikena does not see.  Claude swings the clay pot as a weapon, and smashes the heads of skeletals.

Vikena: Up the hill to the man! The battle in the center of the circle forces the skeletals to move back.

Thorn is still on the outside of his friends.  The skeletals tend to ignore him and try to force in on Vikena's group.  Thorn smashes them from the back constantly.

Vikena starts to force a way to the eneny man.  She breaks through the skeletals and breaks for the man.  Evok turns to face any skeletals.  She stands and fights.

Vikena satches a the man opens a blue rip in the view ahead of her.  Vikena sees where the man is headed.  The are desolate plains and an entrance to a valley in the rip in front of her.  Through it she sees a glimpse of a Tall dark tower in a fold of the valley.  She rushes after the man, but stops short and whip her head around at the sound of children's voices.  She sees her two children beside the closing blue time/space rip.She turns and reaches for them.  As the blue rip closes, The images waver and fade to nothing

Vikena holds her hand s above her head and screams from frustration.
 

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