DARKNESS FALLS "THE GRIM ORDER" BY KEN VADEN AND BENJAMIN VANDERNECK FIRST DRAFT PROLOGUE [Thursday, dusk] EXT. GRAVEYARD - DUSK CALEB and MARY KORDERAS walk through the Woods; CALEB with a gun drawn to MARY'S head. MARY carries a shovel. CALEB watches her dig a large hole, gun still drawn. She finishes... CALEB Thanks for waxing Simon. FADE TO BLACK as several gunshots are heard. [Saturday, 6pm] INT. - MARY'S APT. - NIGHT MARY KORDERAS paces in her apartment; LUCAS GRADO sits in a chair in front of her. MARY No. No, Lucas, I told you we're not gonna go through this again - LUCAS Mary... C'mon. Mary, you know you can - MARY What? I can trust you? Lucas, are you even listening to your - Mary sighs. MARY I'm not gonna just let you walk outta here and into the exact same mess that just about got us all - LUCAS Mary, what the hell have I been saying??? Now if you would just step back for a sec and look at this whole thing objectively I think you would - MARY Lucas, when I am willing to do business with the scum of the goddamned earth whom YOU vouch for, and this same scum of the earth starts showing up at My door looking for help when things get out of hand, I get a little less than objective. I get pissed the hell off. I get the feeling that - LUCAS Mary, just -- MARY Just shut up, okay???! Jesus! Lucas, this guy's been coming over, he's - LUCAS Look, I talked to him, okay??? So help me God if anything like that... Mary, this isn't for him, it's for me, I... MARY Lucas. I don't know anymore. I trusted you, but thanks to this... Lucas looks at her damn regretfully. LUCAS Mary, you understand I got no place else to go, right? You understand I wouldn't even consider this an option if I wasn't completely screwed. I don't know what to do... I know you're gonna kill me if I mess up again, okay???? Lucas is about to cry. LUCAS I know you're gonna kill me... Mary pauses thinking and then produces a bag o' drugs. MARY That's right, Lucas. And I really don't wanna do that, man. So can we please try to be a bit more careful out there? LUCAS leaves, MARY utterly begins to break down & cry. MARY makes a phone call. MARY I dunno... Look, I don't know, okay??? I don't think I can do this anymore, Simon!!! I... yeah. Yeah, I understand. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay. It's just that - What? I don't... MARY looks at the gun on her dresser. MARY All right. I'll be there in a couple minutes. [Saturday, 7pm] INT. SIMON'S OFFICE - NIGHT SIMON sits, talking on an intercom-type device. SIMON Yeah, okay, send her in. I'll give a ring if something's up. Mary enters. SIMON So where exactly do you get off - MARY Simon. Don't. Mary produces the gun. SIMON Mary, I don't know what the hell happened with Lucas, but just - MARY So help me Christ, Simon, you push that goddamn button and your head comes OFF. SIMON Mary... I don't... You wanna talk about it? You wanna tell me what happened today? MARY No, Simon. No don't. I want out. SIMON I... Mary, you know it's not that simple... MARY blows his head off. After she leaves, a secretary walks into office, freaks, makes phone call. [Saturday, 10pm] INT. CALEB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT LUCAS stands, talking to CALEB who is holding a bag o' drugs. CALEB'S girlfriend lies on bed in the back. LUCAS Jesus, man, you understand how close I came to just - I mean, total headjob... I don't know if I can... CALEB Lucas, I understand, I... LUCAS No, I don't think you do... I went to bat for your ass. Your whole Mr. Self-Destruct act is coming dangerously close to severing our ties with these people. You like this stuff, you gotta start dealing with the grunt work too. I'm sick of explaining my mysterious psycho companion to this chick. Lucas storms out the door. CALEB Thank you, Lucas. The phone rings and Caleb answers it. CALEB Yeah. Yeah. Really? Goddamn. Yeah, he's on his way out. Yep, I'm watching. Caleb watches as Lucas is walking toward his car. Several FIGURES dressed in black apprehend him as he opens the door. CALEB No, you certainly weren't. No problem. Thank you, sir. [Monday, 10am] INT. SIMON'S OFFICE - MORNING A MAN in an impressive suit sits at SIMON'S desk surrounded by FLUNKIES. SIMON'S corpse is still visible on the floor. MAN Obviously I came up here as quickly as I could. Mary... was special, I think we all understand that. Sold her medicine like goddamn Girl Scout cookies, right? And all without Simon's help. I put Simon in charge of this operation a few years ago... I'm here to tell you I made a lapse in judgment, guys. It happens. The past few months have been nothing but the "How is Simon gonna piss me off even worse than last time" show, okay? So last week I passed word along to Mary that I'm thinking about letting her take over. End of our worries. Except what does she do? Friggin' wigs out... She does a very good thing by killing Simon for me, but then she decides she doesn't want to work here anymore. And I know you guys don't get in on a lot of the closed-door stuff, but I'm here to tell you that just doesn't happen in the Company. I just finished talking to a man named Caleb, maybe you've heard of him - he's done business with us mostly through Mary. All of Mary's chances are now going to be his. Experienced dealer himself, done a but of cybertheft, occasional bounty hunting, and pimping. So I expect you to treat him with a bit more respect than Simon, because frankly, he's already made a hell of a lot more of an impression on me. FLUNKY Sir, I know a guy who did a few jobs with Caleb, says he's... I mean, he just can't be trusted, totally crazy and not willing to - MAN Orson? First of all, you're repeating the secondhand opinions of one of your junkhead buddies who can't seem to wait to get back to prison, and thus will never get the same opportunities as someone like Caleb. Secondly, I'm well aware of Caleb's... quirks... he needs the proper environment before he can live up to his potential. And I don't know what the hell kind of show Simon ran around here, but you assholes speak when you are spoken to, is that clear? No one answers. MAN You were just spoken to, answer me! FLUNKIES Yes, sir. The man rises to leave. MAN All right. Caleb won't be in for a couple days... he'll be going through the usual... period of adjustment. But as soon as he gets here, he's taking the blood-thirstiest of you freaks and we're gonna settle this Mary thing. Betrayals have been made... highly unforgivable stuff. So get your killing faces on. The man stares at SIMON'S corpse as he walks by. MAN Somebody get that outta here. [Tuesday, 1pm] CALEB'S P.O.V. His GIRLFRIEND is sitting up in bed, staring at him in shock, breathing shallowly. INT. CALEB'S APARTMENT - DAY CALEB is covered in blood, without any cuts. She begins screaming uncontrollably; CALEB ignores her & picks up the phone. CALEB Yeah, is Gareth there? Huh... well, I really need to talk to him... Caleb... yeah, you're working for me now, huh? Hmm. Yeah, you have any idea why I woke up this morning covered in blood & shredded flesh with no memory of the past couple hours and the worst headache? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'll go check that out. What's his name again? Stag? And he's gonna explain all this. Okay. Thanks anyway. [Tuesday, the same afternoon] INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - DAY MARY stands talking to ROB. ROB So you sure you don't wanna stay here tonight? MARY Don't think we wanna go there again, baby... ROB God, gimme a little credit. I know what you're up against, and I don't think these guys are gonna come busting up my place, that's all. I made sure all the girls were cleared on out, y'know? Give my lady a little breathing room. This may surprise you, but my every move isn't part of some master plan to get you back, sweet thang. MARY Well, gooood. And I appreciate the offer, but it's just best that I get outta here... I'm not sure you really do know what I'm up against here. ROB Well... you haven't told me much - MARY For your own good - ROB Yeah, well, I mean... it sounds like these guys put you through way too much crap for you to not strike back. MARY But you don't do that to these guys, you just don't, especially when you're... ROB What? MARY Rob, I was up for a promotion. ROB But wouldn't that have meant no more dealing? Isn't that what had you so burned out in the first place? MARY Yeah, but it's more than the stress... Gareth singled me out for this job. I'm just sitting in a bar and he walks over to me and tells me I'm not living up to my potential. Total stranger, right - I tell him to piss off. Then he tells me I'm not living up to my potential as a dealer, and I about freak. He keeps telling me all this stuff no one else would know about me and I know he's way too good to be working for the government or anything like that... and that's how I got introduced to the Company. And you're right, when he told me about the promotion, I should've been thrilled, but something in my head was just screaming run. Self-destruct mechanism, I guess... always running from the good things because I'm scared to death they're gonna blow up in my face... ROB Where have I heard this before? MARY Rob... Look, I gotta go. I'm sorry I can't say more than I have... it's for your own good. Stay out of trouble. ROB Yeah... you too. [Tuesday, 12 midnight] INT. THE DUNGEON BAR - NIGHT CALEB sits talking to STAG. STAG Yeah, my first couple days were pretty rough too. I woke up in the desert surrounded by all these dead Sisters of Santa Maria, smelled like goat blood & bad burritos. Initiation. Gotta love it. I gotta say, you're already a lot easier to get along with than Simon. Guy just could not drink - always looking over his shoulder, y'know? Spirits are high around the company these days, sir. CALEB Aw, don't start with that, bro... things are crazy enough already and here you gotta make me feel like this authority figure. STAG Authority figure nuthin', man, you're the guy, the chosen one, the punisher. Gotta set things right again. CALEB What do you mean? [Tuesday Night] INT. MARY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT MARY sleeps. CUT TO: MARY'S "DREAM WORLD" MARY crawls around until CALEB appears behind her; they both draw guns but neither fires CALEB YOU'RE GOING TO DIE. [Wednesday, 9am] INT. MARY'S APARTMENT - DAY A figure stands above her. MARY Whuh... huh... RAPHAELA Shhh. MARY Aaaahhhhh!!!!! No, no, whoa, I... those people... RAPHAELA Shhh. MARY Okay, I, I know I'm not an upstanding person or anything, I'm - screw it, I'm a drug dealer. I make money, people trip, it's win-win - I'm not evil. I just worked for evil people, people who knew everything about me... and they wanted to make me just like them and I - RAPHAELA And you turned them down. And that was not unnoticed. MARY Unnoticed by whom? RAPHAELA By my Company. MARY Are you an angel? RAPHAELA You are. RAPHAELA is gunned down from outside. MARY runs to the window & several FLUNKIES, including STAG step out. Chase ensues culminating in CALEB getting apprehended by COPS. [Wednesday] INT. JAIL CELL - DAY Enter ATTORNEY EDGAR SNYDER. CALEB sits in the corner. CALEB I'm just going to tell you what I told the assholes up front. That girl needs to die. We have laws established within our organization like your laws. We consider desertion an unforgivable crime, punishable by death. We call these people Trangressors. She rejected the destiny handed to her on a platter out of cowardice. What guys like you can't handle is the fact that the people I answer to have the real power to play with people's lives. To judge. And I am their appointed punisher. And right now you're just wasting my time. You do so at your own peril. Do your job and let me do mine. SNYDER'S notebook begins to bleed; he returns CALEB'S smile. [Thursday Afternoon] EXT. STREET - DAY MARY awakens from a daze to a changed world; sits down on bench. A LADY with an empty stroller sidles up next to her. MARY Excuse me? LADY This is it, honey. MARY Uh, okay... listen, lately I'm a little more inclined to ask total strangers stuff like this. I, uh, I just quit my job a few days ago. Only I didn't realize what my job was. And last night this woman told me, she told me I was an angel. And she was so kind, and so sweet, I kind of had to believe it, the way things have been going lately. Only she died. And, and I almost died. And I just couldn't go home again, I couldn't... nothing really made sense. And I wake up this morning and I can't even trust my eyes. I really feel like part of something way too big to understand and I can't say that I like that. LADY It's going to be that way for the rest of your life. The lady leaves. MARY Wait! Hey! Oh, God... A gun suddenly appears in her hand. A pay phone rings, she picks up... LADY meets STAG across the street - they began to converse, staring at MARY... [Wednesday, Evening] EXT. GRAVEYARD - DUSK ROB lies on the ground, hands trapped beneath a large tombstone. CALEB lazily waves a pistol at him. FLUNKIE Any day now, baby. STAG Stay focused. Car pulls up cemetery road. MARY exits - she slams car door; without a second's hesitation, CALEB blows ROB'S head off. MARY keeps walking, gun drawn. CALEB Wow, you really are hardcore. MARY Kiss my ass. CALEB This is your destiny, bitch. You screwed Gareth, you screwed all of us, you screwed yourself. MARY I'm not like Gareth and I'm not like you. CALEB Oh, that's right, you've been talking to angels now. You're no angel. You BROKE the LAW, Mary! MARY YOUR law. CALEB The law of the ORDER. She empties her clip into him, he recoils & comes back unharmed - he laughs, she drops her gun. CALEB Better get started. You know the rules - unhallowed ground. Honest to God, I don't know how you could be so goddamn stupid.