Francis M. Martinez

Epocha

TEASER

EXT. SKY - DAY

There are large mountains in the background. Above the timberline, a thick blanket of snow covers the jagged mountain peaks. Beyond the peaks appears perfect blue sky with a few fluffy clouds that float across a bright yellow sun. The silhouettes of CAWING crows disappear into the distance.

Below the timberline and near the base of the mountain, the foothills are covered with green grass and flowers. A small creek flows from the mountains, through the hills, and into a river.

WOOD

A bunny rabbit nibbles on a blade of grass. A deer eats a leaf off a shrub.

BUNNY

Must be nice to be so big and strong with such great speed. You even have antlers.

DOE

We have to be careful of predators.

Suddenly, there the sound of loud EXPLOSION rocks the ground and trees. The bunny rabbit gazes at the deer.

BUNNY

Did you hear that?

The deer looks around, nervously.

DOE

Yes, I did hear that. Don’t be afraid. I can protect you. Where did it come from?

BUNNY

Over there.

Bunny rabbit points at a treeline. All ears stand at attention. Eyes dart over the landscape and they nervously turn.
The deer’s and the bunny’s nostrils flare, as they sniff the air.

SKY

Suddenly, a scream cuts through the air. EEEEEEEEEEAK. ZIP. BADABAROOM. A gelatinous blob falls through the sky and crashes on a clear area next beside bunny rabbit and the deer.

THUMP. The bunny and deer draw away and they look at each other.

BUNNY

I want to be brave, but why don’t you go in and see what it is first.

DOE

No you go first.

BUNNY

Well, aright, I’ll just say to myself have no fear, no fear, no fear, no fear, no fear, no fear.

Bunny looks at the hole. A large dark round clump of green and red flesh lies inside a the smolder of a large crater.

DOE

Rocks from the sky?

BUNNY

Lava rocks, they’re red hot, but I can see through them. Wait, there something inside.

IMPACT CRATER

ABBADON, a skinny lizard pushes a tiny hand through a rocky egg and penetrates the membrane. He pulls himself out of the transparent rock.

He slowly rises from the crater. He falls on his knees in pain. His body shivers, his legs tremble and grow as his entire body and arms thicken with muscle.

ABBADON

Ha-ha!

DOE

He’s in pain, maybe we should help it?

BUNNY

I don’t like it. We should go and hide.

DOE

Look.

Abbadon’s body twists and stretches.

BUNNY

That’s awful.

DOE

Poor thing.

Bunny rabbit approaches the Lizard.

BUNNY

Hey, are you okay?

Bunny touches the lizard. In on motion, the lizard clamps down on bunny rabbits paw and grabs his ears.

BUNNY

AK!

Abdadon opens his mouth and pulls Bunny into his toothy mouth, GULP. Abbadon looks at the doe and smiles a toothy grin.

ABBADON

Please, I’m a good guy. I’m hungry.

In terror, the doe sprints back into the forest. The lizard springs after the deer and stretches his muscular arms in front of him. Thin membranes unfold from under his arm and along the side his body. He jumps and floats.

ABBADON

Ready or not, here I come so come out, come out where ever you are?

SKY

The Lizard grabs the deer. The deer kicks his rear legs. He lifts the deer above the tree canopy. The deer BLEATS.

DOE

Help me. Dear lord please help me!

SHRUB

A piece of deer carcass falls on the ground. WHOOMP.

DIRT MOUNTAIN ROAD

The lizard lands on the road. He takes a breath and looks up at the mountain.

ABBADON

Abbadon is free of the prison ship; no more torturing experiments or poking Abbadon for blood. I can start over again in a new world. I must first find a new home.

END OF TEASER

ACT ONE

EXT. YELLOW BUS - DAY

A school bus rumbles on the side of a dirt mountain road, and slams Abbadon from behind. He falls and gets up, but another bus bumps him, and throws him in a nearby ditch along side the dirty road.

BUMP.

JUSTIN BLAKE, 20s, a scraggly youthful man with headphones, clenches the steering wheel and quickly pushes the breaks.

SCREECH.

JUSTIN

What was that.

He scrambles through the bus door, and he runs across the road. He approaches a ditch along the dirty road.

AT THE DITCH

Justin sees something move among the weeds.

JUSTIN

I’m really sorry, I didn’t see you. Are you okay, should I send for help?

ABBADON

Roar.

Suddenly, a long arm shoots from among the tall grass and grabs Justin by the neck and throws him in a nearby shrub.

BILLY SMOTHERS, 25, a chubby counselor, and the bus driver from the second bus runs. He pulls Justin from the bush.
The students gaze from behind the school bus windows in terror as Abbadon, now a large shiny lizard with heavy muscles, rises from the ditch.

BILLY

Come on, we have to get out of here. That thing looks mad.

JUSTIN

I’m with you!

Justin and Billy race down the hill.

BUS DRIVER’S SEAT

Billy puts his bus in reverse and Justin follows behind back down the dirt mountain road.

DIRT ROAD

Abbadon runs after the buses. He grabs Billy’s bus from behind and tips the bus over on the side. The lizard’s grows massive hands as he jumps over the second bus and smashes the first bus.

DIRT ROAD

The college students from the smashed lead bus run out side and head down the dirt road. The students from the second bus clamber through the windows and run away, on the dirt road.

The lizard GROWLS at them as they run away. He squats, cocks his lower hips, squats again, then bolts skyward with a powerful jump and approaches mountains.

EXT. TOWN — DAY

A small Town with a post office, grocery store, apartments, and a business office building comes into view. Cars ZIP across an interstate highway that crosses the town in the distance.

Street vendors sell produce at a four way stop light. A grey 2000 FORD FOCUS parks along side a bleacher full of fans that shout at a baseball field in a green park full of trees, grass and colorful flowers.

EXT. BASEBALL PARK — DAY

CHARLES SERRANO, 27, a handsome, and very shy man adjusts his thick glasses and whisks out of the car. He timidly approaches a gorgeous woman that sits on a bleacher. He nervously taps her shoulder.

CHARLES

A...a...a...a...

His eyes fix on the woman. She bats her eyelashes and her eyes mesmerize him.

WOMAN

Yes? Are you okay?

CHARLES

Yes, well...uh...which team is up to bat first?

The woman smiles, then giggles.

WOMAN

The out of town team, I think.

Charles spots TOMMY MARTIN, 10, a small, skinny orphan boy among the players as he runs on the field.

CHARLES

Go Tommy!

Tommy waves back at Charles.

The first batter swings the bat, and CRACK. He sends the ball bouncing straight to Tommy in the shortstop position. As the batter drops the bat and runs, Tommy quickly scoops up the ball and throws at the player on first base.

UMPIRE

Yer out!

CHARLES

Nice job, you can do it Tommy!

BLEACHERS

Charles cellular phone RINGS. He grabs the phone from his front shirt pocket and looks in at the screen and sees MARIA LOYA, 25, a shapely, sexy, and frustrated brunette.

CHARLES

Hi honey. I...

MARIA

You’re late again.

CHARLES

Sorry. I...my God!

MARIA

What’s going on?

EXT. HORIZON — DAY

In the distant sky, an oval, shiny metal object with a happy face etched in the hull wobbles in the sky. The ship’s face opens large eyes with a horrific expression across the face. The ship SCREAMS.

SPACE SHIP

Help, help me, help us!

The ship’s eyes open wide as it drops into view and leaves behind a black trail of smoke. The small space ship blinks and bawls as oily tears stream down the side of the cheeks.

The flying object closes it’s eyes and grits it’s teeth and braces for a CRASH. The ship skids across the surface of a baseball field while the little league players scramble out of the way.

SPACE SHIP

The ship skids, smolders, crumples, and smashes on the ground with a sad face and in apparent pain. Chaos explodes and people smash into each other and fall down.Charles drops the phone and looks up in horror.

MARIA

Hello? Charles?

His heart pounds out of his chest through his clothes at the sight of the animate ship. He watches Tommy under the ship’s tongue. He springs into action, and trips. He falls over his feet on his face while a man accidently trips over him, and kicks him in the head. His glasses fall on the ground in front of him and get trampled.

CHARLES

Ow!

He stands as a small solar system with a sun, planets, and stars dance around his head. The little planets laugh and play.
Charles shakes his head and sheds the solar system and crawls around while he searches for his glasses.

CHARLES

Everything is a blur. I can’t see, damn these myopic eyes!

PEOPLE trample around him, and smash his glasses. He puts on the glasses with scuff marks across the glass. He stand and rushes at the ship.

AT SPACE SHIP He approaches Tommy and with all his strength, lift’s the tongue then falls on his butt.

CHARLES

Run Tommy, run home and hide. Lock your doors and don’t let anyone come inside. Get out of here!

Tommy bolts through the street and ducks in an alley way. Charles looks at the mouth of the ship and gets up slowly. He hesitates, and steps on the tongue of the ship spread on the floor inside a large red tongue inside a large open mouth full of teeth

INT. SPACE SHIP — DAY

He sneaks inside the wreckage and braces himself against the hull.Suddenly, the ceiling drips in front of Charles and forms a faceless HUMANOID that resembles a clay man without any features. Another Humanoid drips down and then another.

CHARLES

You must think I’m here to harm you. I’m here in peace. I just want to help you.

The humanoids attack Charles and smash him into the side of the ship. He reaches out and grabs a baseball bat. A Humanoid hand takes the shape of a fly swatter and smashes Charle’s fingers.

CHARLES

Ow. Why did you do that?

Humanoid two squashes him on the floor with a big foot. Humanoid three wraps Charles arms and legs. He pins him against the tongue. The toothy mouth closes.

The ship COUGHS and the Humanoids release Charles. Charles leans against the wall and the ship coughs up phlegm splashing on his face and the sticky substance covers his body. Charles struggles with the Humanoids and runs through the mouth. The Humanoids surround him.

CHARLES

Hey, you guys mind giving me a hand? This ship looks bigger from the inside than from the outside.

Suddenly, the tongue lifts and angles at a forty five degree and bumps Charles through the ship’s throat. A sudden cough shoots him through another passage way in a ninety degree angle.

INT. CONTROL ROOM - DAY

Various crab like alien creatures run around the room from broken cages. The ship COUGHS as Charles wobbles across the floor into:

CONTROL PANEL BASE

The ship GROANS.

SPACE SHIP

Ugh. You are Charles, you climb up to the brain of the ship. We know you come in peace.

CHARLES

There’s something, down, under the control panel.

Charles approaches the controls and faster than he can make sense of what he sees, COBOLT, a small, pink fetal alien scientist lies just in front of the eye socket of the ship.

Charles kneels beside Cobolt.

CHARLES

Hi little guy. What happened to you?

COBOLT

I am Cobolt, a universal researcher on a mission to find a cure for a viral disease that ravages my planet. I search for a cure.

CHARLES

How can I help you?

COBOLT

Perhaps, it is too late. My research team and I traveled the universe to find a cure for our dying people. Our world is dying and I vow not to stop until I find the cure. We reached an uncharted part of the universe and found a race of shape-shifting serpent creatures and took one on-board as a sample to study and hopefully find a cure. We were successful, we did find a cure. We found that the organism could change it’s cell structure to adapt to any environment and fight any infection.

Cobolt coughs. Charles comforts the alien.

CHARLES

Is there anything I can get for you?

COBOLT

No, it is too late for me, but Perhaps you can continue my mission. You see the creature has escaped. It killed my crew, and destroyed my ship. It made a mockery of our weapons. They were no match for him. He simply absorbed them and became one with them. The creatures primary objective is survival and reproduction. It will find a home and make a nest, then it will need to mate. It can adapt so the creature can mate with any life form to reproduce young and ensure it’s survival.

CHARLES

Now the creature infects earth?

COBOLT

His name is Abbadon. He destroyed my ship before I could send a copy of the serum to my people in the far end of the universe. The creature jumped ship and landed in the nearby wood at the outskirts of town.

Cobolt closes his large dark eyes.

CHARLES

Tell me, how can I defeat this thing?

COBOLT

You must promise me to get the serum to my people.

CHARLES

Yes, I promise.

Cobolt asks Charles to get closer to him. Charles nervously bends over the dying alien. Cobolt slowly lifts up his three pronged hands and touches Charles’ temples and injects Charles with a hypodermic needle from his finger tip sending Charles against the wall of the ship.

CHARLES

Aaah. What did you do to me?

COBOLT

The super serum is designed from the creature’s blood and is the serum for my dying people. It will give you super strength and powers.

Cobolt dies. Charles falls to the floor and shakes. He yells in pain as his body grows into a massively large man, his hands dig into the floor, he grits his teeth and closes his eyes, his chest rips through his clothes, his pants tear away leaving behind only bony hands and a heavily muscled man with very large limbs.

END OF ACT ONE

Copyright © 2014 by Francisco M. Martinez