#K2804 - "World Killer" - First Draft 9/9/97                                                              

ACT TWO

FADE IN

INT. QUINN'S FAMILY HOME - DINING ROOM - DAY

Coleman lanterns and a camp stove set up, coffee all 'round. Quinn 2 sits at the table, trying to take it all in. Quinn leans against the wall.

QUINN2
Funny thing... I've traveled all over.. Somehow I always end up coming
back here. (looks up at them). Good thing I did.

MAGGIE
So for three years, you thought you were the last man on Earth...

QUINN2
I was the last man... I mean, it took a long time to dawn on me...
At first, I thought maybe it was just local.. then I realized -- it
was everywhere. We all tell ourselves, ' I feel so alone,' but you
have no idea... I'd watch movies, play old records, just to hear
a voice that wasn't my own.

QUINN
The device you built must've been a hell of lot more powerful than mine.

QUINN2
This wave of light surged out, covered everything. And when it cleared,
they were gone...

REMBRANDT
A Slidewave...

MAGGIE
And being in the eye of the storm, it didn't take you.

QUINN2
It shouldn't have happened. I did everything right...

QUINN
Except test it...?

QUINN2
That was the test! (forces calm) Look, I know what you must think
of me. But look around. I've paid the price.

QUINN
(stunned) You have --?

REMBRANDT
How 'bout everyone else? You ever think they might not be dead?

QUINN2
I realized they might've been sent somewhere in time or to some other
dimension. But what difference did it make?

MAGGIE
The difference between them being dead and alive.

QUINN2
I mean, what difference in that I couldn't get them back.

QUINN
So you tried to replicate the experiment?

QUINN2
Yes ... but I couldn't get the exact parameters. In the end, I got
so crazy mad, I smashed it all to pieces.

REMBRANDT
Yeah, we saw that.

QUINN
Do you have any notes, diagrams?

Quinn 2 reacts in surprise. And something more -- he doesn't like the question, he's evasive.

QUINN2
Why?

QUINN
Maybe we can rebuild your equipment, get a line on where you sent everyone.

QUINN2
I told you, it's impossible.

REMBRANDT
Well, every now and then, we just manage to do the impossible.

QUINN
We've been sliding a while now. Might know a trick or two you don't.

Quinn 2 weighs it. Then:

QUINN2
There might be some notes in the storeroom...

He exits toward the storeroom. Quinn shoots Maggie a look -- go with him. She follows Quinn 2 out.

REMBRANDT
That's one cold-hearted hombre. It's like nothing matters but him.

QUINN
Destroying your world's hard to face. He's been through a lot...
and hope's a dangerous thing..

REMBRANDT
Or maybe this boy's just cut from a different cloth.

QUINN
What're you saying?

REMBRANDT
I'm saying what might keep you up nights maybe he sleeps through. We've
all seen how different our doubles can be.

Quinn looks O.S. toward where Quinn  2 went, thoughtful.

INT. QUINN'S FAMILY HOUSE - STOREROOM - DAY

Quinn 2 sweeps aside the cobwebs, blows the dust off the top box. Maggie looks on as he starts searching. 

QUINN2
Notes should be in here somewhere, if the rats and spiders haven't gotten them..

Maggie picks up a box.

QUINN2
Careful with that, it's a Nobel Prize. (beat) My dad won it. Not that he cared.
Till the day he died, all he valued was pure science.

MAGGIE
Quite a collection between the two of you.

QUINN2
Mine? Kid stuff, didn't mean a thing...

He takes the box, cautious, almost reverential, places it back.

QUINN2
He was a hard act to follow, you have no idea...

MAGGIE
Maybe I do. (beat) Distinguished Flying Cross.. Silver Palm with
Cluster.. Congressional Medal of Honor.. At home, we called him
the General.

He looks at her, thrown.

MAGGIE
There's lots of us... have ghosts.

There's a fleeting moment of connection. Then he goes back to the boxes.

QUINN2
Aha.

Maggie comes over as he pulls out a big folded paper and unfurls it, revealing a huge, complex schematic of the Sliding Device. Maggie grasps the other end, opens it wide.

MAGGIE
You don't think small, do you?

EXT. RADIO SHED - DUSK (N1)

An electronics store, abandoned like everything else.

QUINN (O.S.)
Remember, skip anything with water damage, corrosion...

INT. RADIO SHED - DUSK

PAN past a dusty SIGN reading EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK with a PHOTO showing a squeaky-clean MANAGER in suit and tie. ARRIVE at Quinn, Rembrandt, Maggie (with Shotgun) and Quinn 2 filling hand baskets with equipment to rebuild the Sliding Device. There's a dim light from outside. Dusk is fast approaching.

QUINN
Grab the best of what's at hand. (to Remmy) You finding those lithium-ion
batteries?

REMBRANDT
Got ten of them.

Quinn tosses two more in Rembrandt's basket.

QUINN
Take twelve.

REMBRANDT
This world gives self-serve a whole new meaning...

ON QUINN 2 AND MAGGIE

She's going through a pile of circuit boards, selects a few. Quinn 2 checks them.

QUINN2
Too rusty.. but these'll do.

She tosses them in the basket.

QUINN2
Not that any of this is going to work, you know... I tried.

MAGGIE
Don't like the idea of someone doing something you can't?

QUINN2
(flares) I don't like wasting time. This can't be done.

This settles. Maggie studies him intently.

MAGGIE
You're afraid. What of..?

His eyes evade.

QUINN2
Nothing. Let's get this over with.

QUINN

loads several electronics parts in his basket, including a hand-held BIO-MED SCANNER, as Rembrandt comes up.

REMBRANDT
What's the deal? That's not on the list.

QUINN
It's a bio-med scanner. If the world he slid everyone to already had
people on it, we'll need some way to differentiate the ones from here
so we can slide them back. (off scanner) I might be able to adapt this
to detect a trace sliding signature in their cells...

REMBRANDT
You know, I was gonna suggest that exact same thing...

Rembrandt cracks a grin. Quinn smiles back. Just then, DOG HOWLS from O.S.

WIDE

As everyone reacts. Maggie hefts her shotgun.

MAGGIE
Time to be moving on. We got what we need?

Quinn makes a quick scan of the carts.

QUINN
Yeah.

REMBRANDT
Now all we gotta do is put it together.

ON QUINN 2

Contemplating that, ambivalent and anxious.

                                                                    DISSOLVE TO

INT. QUINN'S FAMILY HOME - DAY - LOW ANGLE - CLOSE ON THE SLIDING DEVICE (D2)

SLOWLY PUSH IN -- it looks huge and impressive, all gleaming metal and GLOWING LIGHTS. Then Maggie appears behind it and we see that it's actually about eighteen inches high.

MAGGIE
That's powerful enough to slide everyone on the planet...?

WIDEN to include Quinn and Quinn 2. Other equipment and tools are scattered about.

QUINN2
The original was smaller, but I had to make do.

Quinn reacts to that, surprised. Maggie picks up on it.

MAGGIE
What's the matter, Quinn, got device envy? (beat) So when we jump
to the other world, this'll send out a Slidewave?

Quinn attaches a BATTERY PACK to the device.

QUINN
No, we reset it for a narrower field...

QUINN2
Besides, it'd take alot more juice than this battery pack could crank
out... First time, I crashed the entire West Coast power grid.

QUINN
For a test...?

Quinn 2 grows uneasy, but is saved by:

REMBRANDT (O.S.)
Gizmo's looking pretty good...

Rembrandt appears, coming down the stairs.

MAGGIE
Hey Rembrandt, where've you been?

REMBRANDT
No telling what kind of world we'll be sliding into... so while you two
eggheads were jerry-rigging this baby, I figured I'd get us some coin
of the realm.

He reaches in his pockets, pulls out handfuls of 500-dollar bills, gold coins and loose diamonds, dumps them on a work table. From inside his coat, he withdraws a comic book.

REMBRANDT
Not to mention a mint copy of Superman number one.. This world might be dead,
but it does have its advantages.

He stuffs it all back into his pockets, as Quinn turns to his duplicate, gestures toward the Device.

QUINN
So. The big moment. You want the honors?

Quinn 2 stiffens, shakes his head, steps back. Quinn eyes him, probing, then hits the button -- the VORTEX appears O.S. Old news for our guys, but Quinn 2 gazes at it in amazement. Quinn puts on a backpack. Maggie grabs up her shotgun.

MAGGIE
I'll take point.

She dives O.S.

REMBRANDT
I never argue with the lady who's got the gun...

He follow her into the O.S. vortex. Now it's just the two Quinns, gazing into the O.S. energy field. Quinn picks up on his duplicate's hesitance.

QUINN
The world you made... Not up to it?

Quinn 2 shoots him a sharp, defiant look.

ON THE VORTEX

as Quinn 2 dives through, Quinn beside him, who grabs up the Device as he goes.

INT. VORTEX

Different from what we've seen before, wilder, more jumpy and shattery, as if in danger of collapsing any second. LIGHTNING arcs across the varied surfaces.

INT. QUINN'S FAMILY HOME - BASEMENT - DAY

Quinn 2 and Quinn arrive, spilling out of the O.S. vortex, Maggie and Rembrandt waiting, rumpled and worse for wear. It's a hard landing, and they've had hard traveling. We hear the O.S. VORTEX CLOSE, ENERGY ARCING all about it -- a COLLAPSE, a SHATTERING.

The Sliding Device is GLOWING RED HOT and SMOKING. Quinn drops it like a hot potato. Quinn 2 gets shakily to his feet, rubbing a bruised leg.

QUINN2
Is it always that rough?

REMBRANDT
You mean, like being dragged behind a truck in a canvas sack?

There's a smudged and smoking OUTLINE on the wall where the vortex had been. Quinn runs a hand along it.

QUINN
No... the Slidewave may have damaged the dimensional pathway...

REMBRANDT
So what'll that do?

QUINN
I'm not sure yet...

MAGGIE
How's the machine?

QUINN
Cooling down... but I'll want to run a diagnostic. (scans its readout)
But I'll say this for it, it landed us just where we set it to go.

Quinn 2 is checking out the surrounding. There's no lab equipment, only piles of boxes and other stored stuff.

REMBRANDT
Pretty wild, huh? You travel between dimensions, all to wind up in the same room.

QUINN2
Only none of this is mine...

A CREAK on the stairs. Maggie spins, aiming the shotgun. But Quinn pushes the barrel aside, seeing what's there.

QUINN
No, Maggie....

HIS POINT OF VIEW - ON STAIRS

At the top of the stairs is a LITTLE BOY (6), in worn but clean clothes. He stares at them wide-eyed, noncommittal. 

REMBRANDT

draws near the Boy, putting on a friendly face.

REMBRANDT
Well, hey there, buddy...

LITTLE BOY (O.S.)
Sister! Sister!

Our guys look at each other -- what now? Maggie motions them to follow her up the stairs, gun at the ready.

INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS

As Maggie tops the stairs, the others behind. Before she can check out the room, a CROWD OF WHAT LOOKS LIKE HOMELESS PEOPLE surge up and swarm over our guys, grabbing at them, their possessions, SHOUTING to each other, a wild, overlapping BABBLE.

HOMELESS PEOPLE
New clothes! This one has a wallet, with money! Etc.

Maggie's grappling with several over the shotgun. Rembrandt and the two Quinns are overwhelmed by people pushing them down, tearing at them. A SOUND cuts through the DIN -- A SHOTGUN BEING PUMPED.

SISTER CELINE (O.S.)
Back off! Now!

The crowd instantly releases our guys, clears away -- to reveal SISTER CELINE, a tough-eyed Latina nun wearing a traditional habit -- with the exception that, instead of a crucifix, she wears a chain dangling a rough stone. She approaches Maggie, aiming her SAWED-OFF SHOTGUN.

SISTER CELINE
And as for you, put up that weapon... or you'll be one less soul on this
blighted Earth.

A tense moment as they glare at each other, weapons in hand.

SISTER CELINE 2 (O.S.)
You'd better do as she says...

They look over to see:

SISTER CELINE 2

A duplicate, except that her wimple is different color, her chain has a cross on it and she doesn't have a gun.

SISTER CELINE 2
She's not one to bluff...

ON QUINN, MAGGIE AND REMBRANDT

taking this in, as we....

                                                           FADE OUT

END OF ACT TWO