ACOLYTES

Written byShayne ArmstrongS.P.Krause

1FADE IN:EXT. FORESTRY -– DAYWe prowl.EXT. FORESTY/MARSH –- DAY A marshy span of water. A rookery for waterbirds.EXT. FORESTRY/TRAIL –- DAY A white and blue muscle car – a FORD COBRA – speeds along aforestry trail. Light rain patters down.EXT. FORESTRY/MARSH -- DAYWe move carefully through a copse of trees. Ahead, we see theblaze of sunlight on water. Someone is standing on the bank,face to the water.Her name is TANYA LEE.EXT. FORESTRY –- NIGHT -- LATER A MALE FIGURE moves through rain and darkness carrying ashrouded form. Redness has bloomed through thin material. Thefigure passes beneath a NATURAL ARCHWAY formed byinterlocking trees.EXT. FORESTRY/MARSH -- DAY A wind rips past us. We go with it, moving out from thetrees.Tanya Lee is young. Sixteen at most. She hasn’t seen us.We move nearer. She’s still watching the birds. The windthrows up her dark hair and scrapes the water. We stop,almost within touching distance. She senses us. She starts toturn.EXT. FORESTRY –- NIGHT -- LATERMuddy hands lift a shovel high and bring it down with force.Rain belts down.EXT. FORESTRY/MARSH -- DAYThe rookery empties. Birds flee to the sky.EXT. FORESTRY –- DAYTanya Lee runs in the rain. Her blouse is open and trailinglike broken wings. Her arms are raked with scratch marks.Blood mingles with water.

2EXT. FORESTRY –- NIGHT -- LATERWe see frail torchlight through trees and rain and a figureimmersed in a trench. The figure stares into the pit, fixatedon something we can’t see.EXT. FORESTRY/TRAIL –- DAYThe Cobra rounds a corner too fast and fishtails in thesoftened soil. The rain gets heavier.EXT. FORESTRY –- DAYTanya looks back over her shoulder and runs into the bole ofa tree. The impact sets her on her behind.Silence. Blood seeps from one nostril, then the other. Herfeatures relax. Eyes glaze. There’s something wrong with thisgirl beyond fright and injury.She slowly gets up and walks away. She looks as if she can nolonger remember why she was running.EXT. FORESTRY/TRAIL -- DAYTanya Lee steps out of the trees onto a dirt trail.She looks up at a slice of stormy sky defined by the trees.The front of her body is wet with blood. Her nose is broken. An egret flies overhead. Tanya tracks the bird with a blankgaze, blinking in the rain.EXT. FORESTRY/TRAIL -- DAYWe ACCELERATE down a narrow forestry trail. We round a cornerand there she is.EXT. CARWASH –- NIGHT -- LATERThe Cobra passes through a carwash. We cannot see the driver.The car completes the cycle and rumbles away. We see thedamaged front-end. Then it veers around and re-enters thewash chamber. The cycle recommences.EXT. SCHOOL OVAL/BUSHLAND -- DAY A MALE FIGURE appears from the shadows of a school buildingand moves out across an oval. He wears a simple gray schooluniform, bag slung over his shoulder. He’s got an eyebrow andear stud, a dribble of dye in his hair.His name is MARK VINCENT, 17. He reaches a fence, throws hisbag over, and follows it into the commercial PINE FORESTbeyond. He looks around for someone and sees a curl of bluesmoke spilling out from behind a tree.