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RIDDLEY WALKER
Second Draft Screenplay
271217-
Screenplay by GREG STEDMAN
RIDDLEY WALKER
INT. DARK HALL
BROODER WALKER stands in the dark in a large space, lit by flickering light, looking out at an unseen audience. We can hear the audience responding to the story with murmurs, coughs, whispers. Brooder’s face fills the frame at start, gradually the frame pulls back until by the end of his story he is a figure surrounded by darkness.
BROODER WALKER
Every 1 knows about Bad Time and what come after. Bad Time 1st and bad times after. Not many come thru it a live.There come a man and a woman and a chyld out of a berning town they sheltert in the woodlings and foraging the bes they cud. Starveling wer what they wer doing. Dint have no weapons nor dint know how to make a snare nor nothing. Snow on the groun and a grey sky overing and the black trees rubbing ther branches in the wind. Crows calling 1 to a nother waiting for the 3 of them to drop. The man the woman and the chyld digging thru the snow they wer eating maws and dead leaves which they vomitit them up agen. Freazing col they wer nor dint have nothing to make a fire with to get warm. Starveling they wer and near come to the end of ther strenth.
The chyld said, "O Im so col Im afeart Im going to dy. If only we had a littl fire to get warm at."
They dint have no way of making a fire they dint have no flint and steal nor nothing. Wood all roun them only there wernt no way they knowit of getting warm from it.
The 3 of them ready for Aunty they wer ready to total and done when there come thru the woodlings a clevver looking bloak and singing a littl song to his self:
My roadings ben so hungry
Ive groan so very thin
Ive got a littl cook pot
But nothing to put inThe man and the woman said to the clevver looking bloak, "Do you know how to make fire?"
The clevver looking bloak said, "O yes if I know any thing I know that right a nuff. Fires my middl name you myt say."
The man and the woman said, "Wud you make a littl fire then weare freazing of the col."
The clevver looking bloak said, "That for you and what for me?"
The man and the woman said, "What do we have for whatfers?" They lookit 1 to the other and boath at the chyld.
The clevver looking bloak said, "Iwl tel you what Iwl do Iwl share you my fire and my cook pot if youwl share me what to put in the pot." He wer looking at the chyld.
The man and the woman thot: 2 out of 3 a live is bettern 3 dead. They said, "Done."
They kilt the chyld and drunk its blood and cut up the meat for cooking.
The clevver looking bloak said, "Iwl show you how to make fire plus Iwl give you flint and steal and makings nor you dont have to share me nothing of the meat only the hart."
Which he made the fire then and give them flint and steal and makings then he cookt the hart of the chyld and et it.
The clevver looking bloak said, "Clevverness is gone now but littl by littl itwl come back. The iron wil come back agen 1 day and when the iron comes back they wil bern chard coal in the hart of the wood. And when they bern the chard coal ther stack wil be the shape of the hart of the chyld." Off he gone then singing:
Seed of the littl
Seed of the wyld
Seed of the berning is
Hart of the chyldThe man and the woman then eating ther chyld it wer black nite all roun them they made ther fire bigger and bigger trying to keap the black from moving in on them. They fel a sleap by ther fire and the fire biggering on it et them up they bernt to death. They ben the old 1s and be come chard coal.
Out goes the candl
Out goes the lite
Out goes my story
And so Good Nite
CUT TO BLACK
EXT. WOODLAND, WINTER, EARLY DAWN Densely packed stands of alder trees, bare of leaves. Heavy drizzle.
Sounds of thrashing undergrowth.
Hoarse shouts, grunting, pounding feet.
BOAR crashes out from undergrowth into clearing in wild panic, followed by RIDDLEY, followed a few steps behind by 4 older men. All muddy and soaked, all holding a spear and carrying a bow and arrows on their backs.
Boar turns to face men. Older men shout at Riddley. Riddley looks at boar, both look dazed and are breathing hard. Steam rises off bodies. One of older men (BROODER, Riddley's father) takes step forward, another man reaches out and holds him back.
BROODER
Riddley!
Riddley turns to Brooder, still held back, who gives Riddley a stern but encouraging gesture. Riddley turns back to boar, crouches and readies his spear. Boar snorts and runs at Riddley, leaps and impales itself on spear which Riddley struggles to keep hold of. Blood spatters Riddley's face as boar kicks and coughs.
RIDDLEY
(To boar)
Your tern now my tern later.
Other men come forward and each spears dying boar.
OLDER MEN
Offert!
CLOSE UP ON RIDDLEY'S FACE
RIDDLEY
Offert.
Someone out of shot claps Riddley on shoulder.
BROODER (OS)
He done the reqwyrt.
Riddley nods absently.
EXT. WOODLAND, BESIDE STREAM, MORNING
Drizzle easing, brightening. Older men carrying dead boar on pole between them along stream edge. Riddley lagging behind. Some tree trunks have been recently cut. Red alder wood stumps. Riddley notes them, peers into woods, sees a KINCHER in a red jumper working through hanging smoke. Kincher turns his face towards Riddley. He has long white hair, red face, large hooked nose and jutting chin. Riddley recoils, turns to see group of wild dogs led by large brindled dog silently watching him from far bank of the stream.
RIDDLEY
(Shouts at dogs) Gah!
He hurries to catch up with the others, who laugh.
EXT. LOW HILL, DAWN, FULL MOON THROUGH RAGGED CLOUDS
Figures trudging with the boar on a pole along the brow of a hill.
RIDDLEY (VO)
I don't think it makes no differents where you start the telling of a thing. You never know where it begun realy. No moren you know where you begun your oan self.
CLOSE UP ON RIDDLEY'S BLOODIED FACE, WEARY, WALKING
MUSIC: Waukon, Karen Gwyer (FADE UP)
TITLE: RIDDLEY WALKER
MUSIC FADE OUT
EXT. HOW FENTS GATE HOUSE, NIGHT
Riddley walking towards the wooden gate house (a rickety stack of wooden platforms and ladders). He looks up at the boar's severed head stuck on a pole high up on the gate house, lit by smoky torches. He tries to smooth his hair down as he walks towards a ground level ladder lashed to the gate house.
EXT. HOW FENTS GATE HOUSE, DARK
Riddley climbs ladder through to first platform. From over his shoulder as he climbs we see but mostly hear a group of children below playing a game similar to Oranges and Lemons playground game. Riddley murmurs along with the last couple of lines as he climbs. One of the children being passed around to the rhythm of the tune has a sack over his head.
CHILDREN
(Chant)
Horny Boy rung Widders Bel
Stoal his Fathers Ham as wel
Bernt his Arse and Forkt a Stoan
Done It Over broak a boan
Out of Good Shoar vackt his wayt
Scratcht Sams Itch for No. 8
Gone to senter nex to see
Cambry coming 3 times 3
Sharna pax and get the poal
When the Ardship of Cambry comes out of the hoal
EXT. HOW FENTS GATE HOUSE TOP PLATFORM, DARK
Riddley walks across platform to LORNA ELSWINT, an older woman, who is sitting in a doss bag smoking in the open air. The staked boar's head is across from her. Its eyes and blood have frozen over.
Lorna passes joint to Riddley, who climbs into Lorna's doss bag and shakes his head, takes bloody parcel from his pocket and drops it on the floor.
RIDDLEY
Lorna wil you tel for me?LORNA
Theres mor to life nor asking and telling Riddley.
They look at the full moon. It looks sharp and cold.
LORNA
You know Riddley theres some thing in us it dont have no name.RIDDLEY
What thing is that?LORNA
Its looking out thru our eye hoals. May be you dont take no noatis of it only some times. Say you get woak up suddn in the middl of the nite. 1 minim youre a sleap and the nex youre on your feet with a spear in your han. Wel it wernt you put that spear in your han it wer that other thing whats looking out thru your eye hoals. It aint you nor it dont even know your name. Its in us lorn and loan and sheltering how it can.RIDDLEY
Whys it lorn then whys it loan?LORNA
Becaws it dont have nothing to gether with. It puts us on like we put on our cloes. It dont realy like to put me on no mor. I can feal how its tiret of me and readying to throw me a way. Iwl tel you some thing Riddley and keap this in memberment. What ever it is we dont come naturel to it.
Sounds of dogs barking and yowling. Riddley stands up, looks out into the dark. Lorna strikes sparks from a tinderbox, relights joint and inhales, watches Riddley's back.
RIDDLEY
Lorna I dont know what you mean.LORNA
We aint a naturel part of it. It ben here befor us nor I dont know what we are to it. May be weare jus only sickness and a feaver to it or boyls on the arse of it I dont know. Now lissen what Im going to tel you Riddley. It dont think the way we think. Plus like I said befor its afeart.RIDDLEY
(Turns)
Whats it afeart of Lorna?LORNA
Its afeart of being beartht.
EXT. WIDDERS DUMP DIGGING, A COLD WET DAY
A huge, filthy rusting object - vaguely like a gigantic iron skull - is being winched very slowly and noisily and with great effort from a deep muddy pit.
Riddley is among figures turning one of two wheels of a treadwheel crane winching the object up. Each wheel has 8 people turning it, 4 inside and 4 outside. Riddley is on the outside, facing the hole. His wheel is also manned by FISTER CRUNCHMAN, DURSTER POTTER and JOBBER EASTING.
Four men struggle to fit ropes from the crane under the partly submerged metal object. Among them is Brooder Walker and STRAITER EMPY.
Ropes tightening as they walk the wheels round. The metal object starts to rise from the muddy water, groaning like a wounded animal.
INT. WIDDERS DUMP HUT A YOUNG WOMAN is in the final moments of child birth. She cries out.
CHALKER MARCHMAN standing slightly apart, watching. Further away, BELNOT PHIST looks on.
CHALKER MARCHMAN
(Chant)
Gone ter morrer here to day
Pick it up and walk a way
Dont you know greaf and woe
Pick it up its time to goALL
Greaf and woe dont you know
Pick it up its time to go
INT. WIDDERS DUMP HUT
Young woman pushing hard now, encouraged by other women around her. It is apparent from their reaction that the baby's head is becoming visible. Faces go from looks of expectancy to despair.
BELNOT
(Peering down into the hole)
That ain't Eusas head.
EXT. A crow calls from a bare tree on the outer edge of the digging. At the same time the woman's cry echoes in the air. Riddley and Brooder both look up at the mixed noises.
A cracking, shrieking, snapping sound comes from the crane. Riddley slips against the rungs of the wheel, then the whole mechanism starts to rapidly unwind as wooden stoppers are torn away. A brief struggle during which Fister Crunchman appears to be holding back the entire force of the unwinding crane with one arm while also lifting Riddley out of danger with the other. Then everybody in the wheels is hurled away onto the muddy ground as the ropes unwind at great speed and the metal object drops back into the hole and smashes to the bottom.
After a silence the crow calls again and flaps away from Widders Dump.
RIDDLEY
(Dazed)
Dad? Dad!
Montage of scenes of people raising the metal object a small way, this time by pulling on ropes by hand, pulling a body out from under it, a group gathered around Straiter Empy arguing with Chalker Marchman, an older woman holding the dead deformed baby. Then Riddley is climbing and slipping on the metal object madly, as though looking for something. During all this we hear the sound of women's voices in a rising lament. Then the group from How Fents leaving Widders Dump, Fister pulling a drag with Brooder's shrouded body lashed to it. With them is RECKMAN BESSUP, who is bent over with the weight of stacked black iron bricks tied to his back.
RIDDLEY (VO)
Parbly it kilt him soons it come down on him he dint have no time to drown in the muck. My dad kilt by some thing I dont even know the name of. And that babby come into the worl dead same time as my dad gone with Aunty.
EXT. NEAR BERNT ARSE DEAD TOWN
Group walking. Riddley watching isolated columns of smoke rising from a ruined, charred town in the distance. He turns to look further back and sees dogs following their trail a long way back. After a while he turns and resumes walking.
EXT. PATH FROM WIDDERS DUMP TO HOW FENTS
Men around the drag with Brooder's body strapped to it have arrows nocked and bows drawn, seemingly aimed towards Riddley. Confused shouting. They are either angry or scared, probably both. Riddley is walking away from the group, back the way they have come. Riddley's bow is still on his back. He is holding his spear. His other hand is raised.
We see now that Riddley is walking towards the brindled dog he shouted at after the boar hunt. The dog is creeping towards Riddley uncertainly. In the distance is a pack of dogs, circling around, whining and yapping as they look on.
RIDDLEY
Gah! Gah!
The brindled dog is large, powerfully built and its head is heavily scarred. One eye looks blinded. It's head is low as it moves towards Riddley. Riddley stops walking, the dog continues to approach. It's throat vibrates visibly as it lets out a continuous low growl, which comes out in slow drifting wreaths of steam in the cold air.
Through Riddley's eyes we see the dog's head. Then the face starts to flicker between the dog's face, the decapitated boar's head and Brooder's broken face. The shouting and environmental sounds ebb away, replaced by a high continuous ringing noise, waves against rocks, crackling fire, and a close liquid sound like heavy drops of rain spattering on leaves.
Riddley standing with spear ready, as the dog snarls and lunges forwards. We see Riddley's face, eyes wide and staring and still seeing the faces cycling faster and faster until they blur into one, as he lunges forward with a shout and jolts under an unseen impact. After a pause, he lets out his breath in ragged clouds, pulls out the spear. The dog is just a dying dog now, looking with its good eye at Riddley's face.
RIDDLEY
Your - your turn...
He stops reciting, reaches out cautiously and awkwardly touches the dog's head as it dies.
Riddley turns back to look at the others behind him, who are lowering their bows slowly and look sullen and suspicious. He rises, starts dragging the dog's body towards them by its back legs. Someone grumbles darkly about 'first knowing'.
EXT. HOW FENTS, NIGHT
Group approaching the gate. They are wet through from a thin drizzle and look grimly weary. The dog's body is resting on Brooder's legs on the drag.
STRAITER EMPY (calls out to men guarding the closed gate doors)
Trubba not.GATE GUARDS
No trubba.
One guard unfastens and swings open the door cautiously while continuing to look out into the darkness, the other guard has his bow drawn and ready aimed into the darkness.
The group trudges into the torchlight inside the gate.
The gate closes. As it closes we float up to see Fister lowering the drag to the ground on the other side of the gate as people gather. A wailing starts for Brooder, we continue to float up through the rain to see How Fents from above shrink away into the dark wilderness. The wailing becomes fainter, swallowed up by the distance. For a while as we rise there is just the sound of rain and emptiness. Here and there small fires glimmer in the dark. Then gradually we begin to hear the sound of many voices in a rising ecstatic sound (premonition of THE ARDSHIP and the Eusa folk trancing) until finally we disappear into the clouds just as the sea becomes visible in the moonlight. The clouds make everything go black and the babbling voices are suddenly silent.
EXT. HOW FENTS DIVVY ROOF, NIGHT
Lorna is sitting looking up into the dark sky and the just waning moon dipping in and out of clouds. A group of ragged feral children, younger than Riddley, is playing Black Pack around the pole on which the dog’s head is mounted, dancing, clapping, howling and chanting.
CHILDREN
Ful of the Moon Ful of the Moon
Ful of the Moon nor dont look back
Folleree Folleroo on your track
Folleree Folleroo follering you
If they catch you in the darga
ARGA WARGA!
Riddley is nearby, close to a fire pit. He is skinning, disembowelling and butchering the dog at a large wooden block. His hands are slick with blood. He is going about the work with practiced detachment.
RIDDLEY
Tel for us Lorna.LORNA
You heard the story of why the dog wont show its eyes Riddley?RIDDLEY
No I never.LORNA
Time back way back 1 time it wer Ful of the Moon and a man and woman sqwatting by ther littl fire. Sqwatting by ther littl fire and afeart of the nite. The dog were in the nite and looking tords the fire. It wernt howling it wer jus looking at the fire. The man and woman seen the fire shyning in the dogs eyes. The man throwit meat to the dog and the dog come in to them by the fire. Brung its eyes in out of the nite then they all lookit at the nite to gether. The man and the woman seen the nite in the dogs eyes and thats when they got the 1st knowing. They knowit the nite the same as the dog knowit.They began to think on it a littl dint they. They said, 'If the 1st knowing is this good what myt the 2nd knowing and the 3rd be and so on?' Soon they wernt outside in the nite no mor they were inside looking out. Counting counting they wer all the time. They had iron then and big fire. They had machines et numbers up. They had the Nos. of the rain bow and the Power of the air all workit out which is how they got boats in the air and picters on the wind.
When they had all them things they cudnt sleap they dint have no res. They wer stressing ther self all the time with counting. They had the Nos. of the sun and moon fractiont out and fed to the machines. They said 'Wewl put all the Nos. in to 1 Big 1 and that wil be the No. of the Master Chaynjis.' They bilt the Power Ring thats where you see the Ring Ditch now. They put in the 1 Big 1 and woosht it roun there come a flash of lite then bigger nor the hole worl and it ternt the nite to day.
Then every thing gone black. Nothing only nite for years on end. Playgs kilt peopl off and naminals nor there wernt nothing growit in the groun. Man and woman starveling in the blackness looking for the dog to eat it and the dog out looking to eat them the same. Finely there come day agen then nite and day regler but never like it ben befor.
Now man and woman go afeart by nite afeart by day. The dog all lorn and wishful it keaps howling for the nites whatre gone for ever. It wont show its eyes no mor it wont show no one no 1st knowing.
RIDDLEY
Is ther onwith in that story Lorna?LORNA
Now your dads gone youwl be connexion man at How Fents peopl wil be asking you for onwith in stead of you asking them. You bes start putting things to gether for your self.
Riddley has finished cutting up the dog. He looks thoughtful, cleans the blade of his knife and puts it away, dunks his hands in a bucket of water and watches the blood curl out into the water for a while, then starts rubbing it away.
RIDDLEY
That about the 1st knowing in the story. How they got it looking in the dogs eyes. Be that blip or jus a way of saying or what?LORNA
(Lighting a joint)
Why you asking?RIDDLEY
Wel I lookit in its eyes dint I. Nor I never got no 1st knowing out of it did I.LORNA
May be you got it only you dont know it yet.
Riddley thinks, shakes his head, empties the bucket of water to wash the blood off the roof.
A horn blows from the dark beyond the gate. All eyes look towards it. The children are suddenly leaping around excitedly, yipping and shrieking.
CHILDREN
Eusa show! Eusa show!LORNA
Ram come to put the scar on you all ready?
Riddley watches the procession of heavily armed figures approaching the gate holding flaming torches, pulling handcarts, cages of pigeons. Some are beating on drums like bodhrans as they walk. Sound of thunder rolling slowly across the land.
INT. WALKER SHELTER, DARK
We roam around inside the small shelter, which is lit by a guttering candle stub, past the coats and weapons hanging on the wall, piles of clothes, simple writing equipment, two doss bags. The top sheet of paper is covered in writing, Riddley’s copying out of the Eusa Story. The rain has started again, we can hear it hammering hard on the shelter and there are sounds of drips as the rain leaks through the roof. Footsteps of several people approach the shelter.
The door is flung open roughly and HEVVY 1 - a large lumbering man with a caved in face like a boxer - walks in, a lit lamp in one hand.
After a moment ABEL GOODPARLEY then ERNY ORFING follow into the shelter. Goodparley, a tall soft fat man who stoops to get through the door, takes the wet lamp from Hevvy 1 and puts it down on the papers, making the ink smudge.
Riddley enters. We see there is a second Hevvy behind him who remains outside the door. Hevvy 1 takes up position crouched down by the inside of the door as Riddley comes forward.
Goodparley sits heavily on a chair close to the lamp. Orfing takes the fit up from his back and leans it against a wall, remains standing next to it in the shadows. Orfing is as lean, compact and hard as Goodparley is the opposite. Orfing is a woman.
Goodparley gestures for Riddley to sit on a stool next to him. He has had a fixed smile on his face since coming into the shelter, but gradually that fades from his face and he is just staring blankly at Riddley. Then his thoughts return to the room and the smile snaps back on.
GOODPARLEY
(Pulling a very large joint from his coat pocket) Its too bad about your dad Riddley.RIDDLEY
Yes it is.GOODPARLEY
(Lights joint, inhales deeply then passes it to Riddley) Wel thats behynt us now innit. Now youre going to be the new connexion man and making new connexions. Youwl be taking the scar and looking a head.RIDDLEY
(Riddley smokes, eventually exhales, passes joint back to Goodparley who waves it away amiably. Riddley continues to smoke it for duration of scene because he doesn't know what else to do with it, becoming visibly disoriented.) O yes theres a lot to look a head to. Like croaking iron at Widders Dump. We do the croaking and they get the iron.GOODPARLEY
Riddley theres a time for every thing and the time for moving crowds is past innit. You jus cant have all of Inland for your forage groun no mor.RIDDLEY
If our times pas whynt you just wipe us out all to gether?ORFING
You bes not work your jaw too hard your head myt come luce all on a suddn.GOODPARLEY
(To Orfing)
Now Erny I dont mynd taking a littl time with some 1 if I think theyve got the mynd for it.
Goodparley draws out the Eusa Story paper from under the lamp, looks at it for a moment, his lips moving.
GOODPARLEY
Dyou have Eusa 31 in memberment Riddley?RIDDLEY
31 Eusa sed, Is this a dream? The Littl Shyning Man sed, No. Eusa sed, Wuz the uther a dream then? Wen I had a wyf & childer? The Littl Man sed, No Eusa that wuzn no dream nor this ain no dream. Its aul 1 thing nor you cant wayk up owt uv it. Eusa sed, I can dy owt uv it tho cant I. The Littl Man sed, Eusa yu dy owt uv this plays & yul jus fyn me in a nuther plays. Yu luk enne wayr & Iwl be thayr.GOODPARLEY
Wel sed Riddley now tel me this. Have you seen that Little Shyning Man? Ben looking for him have you?RIDDLEY
I dont know how youre asking that. The Littl Shyning Man aint nothing Iwd look for.GOODPARLEY
What if I tol you Im looking for that Littl Shyning Man. Looking for him to put him to gether. Wud you call that good or bad?RIDDLEY
Good?
Orfing snorts.
GOODPARLEY
Erny youre such a downer youre going to down your self right in to the groun 1 day. You can say what you like Im saying wewl get it put to gether weve got it all in front of us and going to make it happen.ORFING
He aint nothing you can dig up like old iron he wernt never meant to be that.GOODPARLEY
I dint come Big 2 to stan in the mud and sing for boats in the air and picters on the wind. Weare going to do things here weare going to get things moving. (Looking back to Riddley suspiciously) Riddley dyou think Im stupid?RIDDLEY
No.GOODPARLEY
Wud you tel me if you thot I wer stupid?RIDDLEY
If you askit me.GOODPARLEY
Yes I beleave you wud.
(Pause)
(Goodparley stands up suddenly, smiling more broadly again. Riddley jumps, surprised by the sudden movement.)
Wel thas a nuf Mincery binses all right les put that scar on you and get you startit.
EXT. WALKER SHELTER, DARK, RAIN
As Riddley walks out of the shelter with the Mincery crowd our point of view and Riddley’s head intersects and merges. We now see through Riddley’s eyes as he moves towards the divvy underroof. We also hear as though inside Riddley’s head (breathing, heartbeat). He is stoned, moving as though he is floating through water and his hearing is alternately overly loud and close or muffled as though sounds are coming from a distance.
There are no people around How Fents as Riddley moves through it. They are all already standing gathered under the divvy roof, waiting for Riddley’s ceremony and the Eusa show. They all turn to watch as he and the Mincery crowd approach. There is a lot of noise now, drumming, horn blasts, chanting.
ALL
(Repeat)
No rumpa no dum No zantigen Eusa cum!
INT. UNDER THE DIVVY ROOF (All still from POV through Riddley's eyes)
Riddley is waiting on the platform near the Eusa fit up. It is very quiet now. He takes off his upper body clothes with fumbling fingers, his breath sounding louder and more anxious now. We can see Lorna off to the side, mouthing words to him which he can’t hear.
He looks around at the crowd of people around him, then down at his bare chest and belly. We see that he is standing on a pile of logs.
Riddley looks up again and Goodparley is suddenly right in front of him, also bare on his top half. We see the three old scars across his taut belly, and Goodparley’s face very close up.
RIDDLEY
(Surprised)
Wheres Eusa?GOODPARLEY
In my belly. Fear belly and brave belly. Hot and col. Emty and ful.RIDDLEY
Wheres his mark?GOODPARLEY
On me from a nother on him from a nother. You asking for that mark?RIDDLEY
Im asking for that mark.
Lorna comes forwards and scratches across Goodparley’s forearm with a pin, smears the blood on her fingers and wipes it across the scar on Goodparley’s belly.
RIDDLEY (VO WHISPER)
I wan tu dark I wan tu lyt I wan tu day I wan tu nyt…GOODPARLEY
My belly to your belly and your belly to Eusa.RIDDLEY (VO WHISPER)
…I wan tu woman I wan tu man…
Goodparley presses his bloodied belly against Riddley. Riddley slips backwards on the log pile, grabs Goodparley to stop himself falling. Riddley looks down to see the bloody print on his stomach, then sees Lorna approaching taking up an iron knife hanging from her belt.
RIDDLEY (VO WHISPER, AGITATED, FASTER)
…I wan tu plus I wan tu minus I wan tu big I wan tu littl…
Riddley looks ahead at Goodparley’s face as Lorna makes the three cuts.
RIDDLEY (VO WHISPER, AGITATED, FASTER)
…I wan tu aul I wan tu nuthinNNGGGGG!
POV alternate, Riddley standing on the log pile, the three cuts spilling blood. Lorna quickly presses clay into the cuts.
Close-up on Riddley’s face as Lorna wraps strips of cloth around his stomach.
RIDDLEY (VO)
I thot of them like 3 moufs on me and waiting to say some thing.ALL
(Chanting, stamping) Eusa! Eusa! Eusa!
INT. UNDER THE DIVVY ROOF
Looking into the Eusa booth, at the backdrop curtain crudely painted with black smoke and tongues of flame.
ORFING
Well whos coming out to show then?
Curtain twitches and Eusa puppet pops up.
(Everyone cheers)
Eusa sweeps his gaze out across the viewers, dives under briefly and then returns with paper, pen, ruler, set square. He appears to be making calculations and writing furiously on the paper. He tuts, mutters and scratches and shakes his head, groans.
EUSA
All these here numbers and that its all too much to keap in 1 head and programming my self. What I nead is a nother head and bigger so it can do some of this hevvy head work for me.
Eusa drops down out of sight again, we hear banging and crashing noises, then hammering on metal.
Eusa returns to view, now wearing a comical metal helmet with a handle on the side, two lengths of strings ending in wooden pegs. He struts around and preens himself.
(All laugh)
He drags a box across into view. The box also has a handle on the side, and various holes and slots cut into it.
EUSA
(Connecting the string pegs into holes in the box) 2 heads are bettern 1.
Eusa turns the handle on his helmet, makes a noise like a dynamo turning. Then he drops a paper ticket into one of the slots in the box.
EUSA
Who am I?
Eusa pulls a ticket from the other slot, he reads it out.
EUSA
(Reading the ticket)
My name is Eusa!
(Gasps)
Eusa starts turning the handle on his helmet again, muttering to himself about the numbers of the rain bow, the fire qwanter, the smallering numbers and biggering numbers.
As Eusa mutters something about the 1 Big 1 Mr Clevver (Devil) puppet leans in, apparently unnoticed by Eusa.
(All boo, shout out warnings to Eusa)
MR CLEVVER
Thats a guvner lot of knowing youre inputting in to that box parbly theres knowing a nuff in there for any kynd of thing.EUSA
I dont think theres many things you cudnt do with that knowing. You cud do any thing at all you cud make boats in the air or you cud blow the worl a part.MR CLEVVER
Wel that cernly is intersting.EUSA
I cant do all that oansome in my head thats why I nead this box its going to do the hevvy head work for my new projeck.MR CLEVVER
What is that new projeck of yours then Eusa?EUSA
Good Time!
(All cheer and stamp)
Every thing good and every body happy and teckernogical progers moving every thing frontways farther and farther all the time. You name it wewl do it. Pas the sarvering gallack seas and all that.
MR CLEVVER
Youve got all that in that box have you?EUSA
Ive got the master progam in my regler head which is the 1 on my sholders.MR CLEVVER
Im realy looking forit to having that Good Time seakert yes I am.EUSA
(Turns to face audience. As he speaks Mr Clevver sneaks up on him menacingly, all shout out warnings to Eusa)
O no Mr Clevver this aint no seakert nor it aint jus for you its Good Time for every body.MR CLEVVER
You mus be joaking Eusa who dyou think youre working for.
Mr Clevver leaps at Eusa, takes hold of the handle on Eusa’s head and turns it faster and faster. Eusa is unable to move, shakes violently. He makes a long drawn-out buzzing sound ending in a scream. Mr Clevver stops turning the handle and Eusa slumps forwards.
MR CLEVVER
Now then Eusa can you tel me them Nos. of the rain bow and the fire qwanter.EUSA
(In a dull tone)
I never heard of nothing like that Guvner.
(All cry out in anguish)
MR CLEVVER
Very good Eusa my boy jus 1 mor thing. Whats your name?
(Pause)
EUSA
(Lost)
I…MR CLEVVER
(Brightly)
Bye bye Eusa all bes.
Mr Clevver pulls out the pegs and exits holding the box.
(Everyone boos)
Eusa watches Mr Clevver go, then faces out, lifeless and slack.
Eusa is drawn back behind the backdrop curtain.
EXT. HOW FENTS HY WALK, NIGHT
Riddley sitting on the hy walk overlooking the fence, hood up against the rain. He is watching the Mincery crowd walking out of How Fents, Goodparley and Orfing flanked by bodyguards with drawn weapons and flaming torches.
As the figures recede into the dark Riddley sticks two fingers up at their backs.
(Eusa’s head dream sequence)
DREAM RIDDLEY
You lissening the shapes of it, moon brother?
EXT. PATH TO WIDDERS DUMP. FROSTY MORNING
A magpie flies noisily out of a blackthorn bush making a clattering alarm call. Riddley and a group from How Fents walk a path through scrubland. Everything is glittering with hard frost.
FISTER CRUNCHMAN
Wel Riddley.RIDDLEY
Wel Fister.FISTER
(Nodding slowly)
Wel Riddley you know if I wer you.RIDDLEY
(After waiting for a few seconds)
What if you wer me Fister? Whatwd you do?FISTER
Mynd you I aint qwick Im jus a woar out old hevvy is all I am.RIDDLEY
Every body knows you aint a bit woar out plus youre as qwick as the nex 1.FISTER
Which I aint becaws Im slow nor I aint myndy so how cud I be you. Yet if I wer you and praps youwl let me give a word and to the whys.RIDDLEY
Im craving for it Fister.FISTER
I Trubba not your dad it ben a diffrent time when he come a man this ben stil a moving crowd back then. May be a connexion man cud stil help his crowd to keap a littl bit a head of the cow shit plus may be he bint give no syn which you ben.RIDDLEY
Fister whatre you getting at youre going roun by such a long track Im afeart Iwl dy on the road.FISTER
Riddley you aint no hevvy but youve got the follerme and I aint. You going to use it or not?
Shout ahead. Dog! Dog!
All are suddenly alert, ready with spears and bows drawn. The Bernt Ars dog pack sidles out of scrubby woods in the distance, the black dog at their head. Riddley aims his bow at it, but it is unconcerned. Fister comes alongside.
FISTER
I never noatist that black dog til after he come leader.DURSTER POTTER
I never seen that dog til after Brooder Walker dyd.RIDDLEY
Whatre you getting at Durster Potter?DURSTER
Wel you know theres some wil tel you of peopl dying in the Ful of the Moon and then theres 1 mor in the Black Pack. May be you shud ask that dog to show you hows your father.
Durster smirks.
Riddley jabs Duster’s belly hard with the butt end of his spears. As Durster doubles over Riddley brings the blade ends down across Durster’s face. Durster staggers back to his feet, blood pouring from a long slit along the side of his face. Durster comes for Riddley with his spear point. Fister moves in, grabs Durster’s spear in one hand and casually backhands Durster across the face with the other. Durster flies back into the mud, doesn’t move.
FISTER
Durster Trubba not but wud you mynd if I call Plomercy right there? Im afeart if you and Riddley settl some 1 myt get bad hert. All right?DURSTER
(Muffled)
All right Fister no Trubba.
Looks are exchanged between members of the group, which Riddley notes. He walks on, annoyed, leaving the others behind. They watch him go.
Durster eyes Riddley as he picks himself off the ground, spitting blood and a molar. Fister helps him to his feet.
EXT. PATH TO WIDDERS DUMP
Riddley angrily stamping along the path, staring down at the ground.
RIDDLEY (VO)
You perwel all ways know what youre doing is my beleaf. I wuntve livet to be 12 years old walking that way but that day I musve wantit to give some thing a chance to happen.
Riddley looks up, stops. The black dog is standing alone before him on the path, looking him in the face.
RIDDLEY (Exasperated)
What?
They eye each other. We feel that the black dog is trying to tell Riddley something with its eyes.
Riddley hears the thumping of running dogs' feet behind him. He twists and slips sideways as an arrow slices past him. Behind him on the path he sees two dogs leap upon Durster Potter, bow in hand. One dog is at his throat and the other at his groin. Neither The sounds if Durster and the dogs scuffling is muted by distance and open space as the dogs quickly pull him to the ground and bite his throat. He dies from asphyxiation while scrabbling for his knife. It is an efficient assassination.
Once it is clear that Durster is dead the two dogs lope away into the trees. Riddley stands alone on the path. He turns to where the black dog was, jumps and lets out a small yelp when he sees it has vanished silently.
The others catch up, see Durster’s body and run to him. Riddley has not moved from his position further up the path. He watches as they check Durster’s body, look at Riddley. One of them makes the Bad Luck go away sign towards him. Fister appears to be giving instructions we can’t hear to the others, then he crunches heavily up the path towards Riddley, palms raised, accompanied by 5 others, while another 5 remain with the body.
EXT. WIDDERS DUMP PIT
Riddley is on his knees on his own in a muddy pit. He is filthy and his hair is stiff with dirt. He has been working for a long time, using a wooden stake and his hands to hack at the mud. He is humming the verse tune from the Sheena Easton song So Far So Good under his breath. He is quite cheerful, in spite of his situation.
The pit contains bones, bright fragments of plastic, torn fabric, shoes, glass, rusty metal, bits of broken electronics, leathery human bodies and body parts. It is a mass grave. Some of the bodies are clearly children, others are old men and women, and most have signs of violence such as cut throats and bullet holes.
Riddley works through these items with the same kind of professional detachment as he showed when butchering the dog. The contrast between the work and his manner makes this all blackly humorous.
Riddley has amassed a pile of items of interest beside him. He has found a bright blue plastic bottle cap which he repeatedly looks over to, then he looks up towards the lip of the pit and continues working, still humming.
His work has exposed a sheet of sacking material covering a lumpy shape. Riddley tears away the sacking, now quietly singing the chorus
RIDDLEY
(Singing)
So far. So good. We've been moving right along just like we should-
Under the cloth is a blackened punch puppet. Riddley stares at it blankly for a few still seconds. He tries to pick it up, finds it is stuck into the mud somehow. He moves it sideways, sees that there is a tattooed wrist and lower forearm still attached to the puppet at one end and buried in the ground at the other. He hears voices and footsteps approaching, shakes the puppet and pulls harder. It still doesn't come loose. He mutters under his breath, tries to free the puppet again, this time with more force. There is a dull cracking, snapping sound. Finally the puppet starts to separate from the hand. One last tug and it comes away fully, revealing the hand sticking up from the mud. The little finger is partly missing, and after a sharp shake the finger joint drops out of the puppet’s interior into Riddley’s lap.
BELNOT PHIST
Whats that youve got there?
Riddley looks up, sees Belnot Phist, an albino no older than Riddley, peering down at him with an air of authority.
Riddley hides the Punch puppet behind him, says nothing. We can see from Riddley’s face that he has a cold dislike of Belnot, who was partly responsible for Brooder’s death.
BELNOT PHIST
You bes anser me I said whats that youve got there?RIDDLEY
Whynt you have a look for your self.BELNOT PHIST
All right I wil then give it here.
Belnot holds out his hand. Riddley holds out the puppet, then as Belnot reaches forwards Riddley deftly switches the puppet to his other hand and stows it in his pouch, while grabbing Belnot’s hand and whipping him from the pit edge into a deep sludge-filled drainage ditch at the back of the pit.
Riddley scrambles out of the pit, runs across the Dump dodging past other pits with people working in them, past the broken remains of the crane, up a sloping packed earth bank and over the Widders Dump fence at the top.
He pushes himself away from the top of the fence, slips and rolls down the steep earth bank on the other side and stops in a ditch at the bottom. He drags himself out of it, shaken and breathing hard but unharmed. Immediately in front of Riddley is the Bernt Arse pack leader dog. At first the dog is motionless, then it starts to wag its tail slowly and pant, turns and begins trotting away from the fence, looking back at Riddley. Riddley takes a final look back at the fence, then lets out a joyful whoop and begins to jog after the dog.
RIDDLEY (to camera)
He wantit me to foller. So I follert. I ben waiting for it so long when the time come I jus done it.
Riddley howls, speeds up to close the gap with the dog, leaving us behind by the fence. In the distant line of sight towards which the dog is running we see the remains of Bernt Arse town, grey smoke rising from it. Gradually the rest of the Bernt Arse pack comes into frame from both left and right and forms into a long evenly spaced line behind Riddley.
Slow crossfade to…
EXT. BERNT ARSE
A succession of quiet, desolate views of Bernt Arse, showing what a firestorm, civil war, barbarism and a thousand years of neglect will do to a town like Ashford. Also what a thousand years of unchecked nature will do to a ruined town in the absence of humans. Ivy, high grass, full grown trees, organic decay and moss grows over and through scorched rubble, rust and eroded piles of red bricks. Broken glass and tile shards glint in the winter sun. The whole town is disintegrating and sinking into the ground, as though the land is slowly rising up to absorb it.
EXT. ST MARY THE VIRGIN CHURCH RUINS
The Bernt Arse dog leader approaches a wooden lattice vent set into stonework low to the ground. It pushes its muzzle against the vent, snuffling, then turns to Riddley who has approached in the meantime. Riddley is tired from running. The dog huffs at Riddley then returns its attention to the vent.
Riddley approaches the vent, stands beside the dog and crouches down to get close to the vent. He sniffs and recoils from the smell coming from it.
LISSENER
(Voice from vent)
You jus going to stan there and breave or you going to get me out of this.
Riddley looks around, sees a trapdoor. He lifts it, revealing a flight of worn stone steps heading down into the dark. It looks like a church cellar. The air here also smells bad. Riddley makes a gagging noise as he descends. The dog leader comes with him.
LISSENER
(Muffled from behind door)
That aint my blame the stink they wunt give me no shovvel to burry my dirt with.
Riddley lifts two wooden beams from across a door set in the back of the cellar and pulls open the door.
Behind the door is a small cell. The only light comes from the vent in the ceiling. Inside the cell stands Lissener, a small pale waxy figure with no eyes or eye sockets and a slit for a mouth. Lissener’s nose and ears are small blobs of flesh. She has no hair at all. Her head is cocked at an angle as though she is listening in order to see. She seems to be looking directly into Riddley’s face despite her apparent blindness.
Riddley stares at Lissener in shock at her strange appearance, making the Bad Luck sign.
LISSENER
I aint no Bad Luck. Im whats lef after the Bad Luck ben.RIDDLEY
Yes wel I dont feal all that Lucky. If you want out of here les go I rather not hang a bout.
Lissener gathers her rolled up doss bag from the floor and they leave the cell together. As they approach the foot of the steps the black dog quietly bounds ahead and up towards the open trapdoor. We hear a brief scuffle and struggle from above, then a pair of man’s legs crash through the trapdoor opening, kicking and pouring with blood and urine onto the steps below.
Riddley reaches for the legs when he thinks the kicking has stopped, then pulls back as a final spasm runs through them. He grabs the legs and tugs. The dead man falls heavily onto the steps. His throat is torn through.
Lissener approaches the body, head cocked, seeming to sense the scene in a reptilian way.
LISSENER
Its Keaper. If hes got some stoans in his pockit thems my fealys he took from me.
Riddley finds the stones, which look like smooth stone marbles in various colours and sizes, and a sheathed knife in the dead man’s pocket. He fits the knife in his belt and hands the stones to Lissener, who feels them carefully then puts them away satisfied. They climb the steps, Lissener walking without help.
Outside they find two dogs panting with bloodied mouths and the black dog waiting. The black dog looks expectantly at Riddley and Lissener, starts moving away. Riddley collects Keaper’s bow and arrows, which are leaning against a wall. He tests the bow’s strength, seems happy. The two other dogs wait until Riddley and Lissener start following, then slip in behind them. As they move quickly away from Bernt Arse centre the rest of the pack gradually appears from scattered nearby locations and follow quietly.
After some time Riddley turns to speak to Lissener while they walk. As he begins to speak the black dog turns to look at him and growls softly, after which Riddley speaks more quietly.
RIDDLEY
Whyd they have you in that hoal?LISSENER
Doing the askings. We done Horny Boy and Widders Bel and Fathers Ham and nex come Bernt Arse dinnit. 1 day in 1 and 2 in 2 and 3 in 3 then it wudve ben 4 in the 4th. Come 9 it wudve ben the senter and helping the qwirys. Only Iwl get there without him. Iwl channel the Senter Power my self where theres all the many and no end to me.RIDDLEY
Who ben doing the askings? What ben they asking? I dont know what youre talking about.
Cut to
EXT. OUTER BERNT ARSE, LATE AFTERNOON
Riddley, Lissener, the black dog and the two guard dogs are resting under a sheltering overhang of broken, ivy-covered concrete. There are holly and yew trees around them, so although it is still day it is dark and green.
LISSENER
Goodparley ben doing it. Sharna pax and get the poal.RIDDLEY
Abel Goodparley?
Lissener nods.
RIDDLEY
How many hevvys hes got with him?LISSENER
50 same as he all ways roads with. Plus the out poasts all ways have 6 on regler.
Riddley holds his head in his hands for a while. A wood pigeon crashes around in a holly tree above them.
RIDDLEY
How much does it matter to Goodparley if youre gone?LISSENER
Wel Im the Ardship of Cambry enn I.
Riddley looks incredulous and bursts out laughing. The dogs turn their heads to look at him.
RIDDLEY
And you bustit out befor the 1st chop too. So now its some 1 elses tern inside the circel innit.LISSENER
Thats right. 12 mor years or so and Goodparley can have his self a nother Ardship.
Riddley stares at Lissener, not laughing anymore.
Lissener smirks. The pigeon above flaps away, causing a dead holly leaf to come down. Lissener reaches out as the leaf passes, catches it, holds its spines between a finger and thumb and blows on the leaf, causing it to spin rapidly in place and make a whirring sound.
RIDDLEY
You telling me theres realy such a thing as the Ardship of Cambry?LISSENER
Wel its sharna pax and get the poal innit. 1st the easy askings then its helping the qwirys then its Chops your Aunty and your head on a poal. You know the rime.RIDDLEY
Fools Circel 9wys thats jus a game.LISSENER
It aint too much fun for the Ardship. Its the knowing what the Ardship knows. Him and the Eusa folk. Which thats the knowing of what Eusa done and the knowing of how to do it agen.
Riddley looks up at Lissener, appalled, then drops his head and shakes it slowly. After a while he stands up, stalks around the area thinking and looking back the way they came. He sees several dog’s eyes shining in the darkness between the trees. He places leaves carefully along the ground to cover their tracks. Through the trees and rubble we can see the sun is setting, making it look like the town is catching fire.
Lissener blows the holly leaf away, reaches into a pocket for her stones. She selects two, puts the rest away. By rippling and tilting her hand she makes one stone roll around her palm in smooth orbits while the other one remains still at the centre.
Riddley returns.
RIDDLEY
There dont seam to be no foller on us. Goodparley mus think you ben dog kilt. Which that means you cant show your self no where no mor if you want to keap wide of him. Wherewl you go?LISSENER
Cambry is where Im going.
The black dog walks over to Lissener, sits beside her panting. Lissener rests her hand across its shoulders.
RIDDLEY
Howd you get dog frendy?LISSENER
Im frendy with any thing if it comes in right. Im the Lissener you know. Im all ways lissening thats how I know about every thing. How I pult the dog I lissent him in.
Riddley lies on the ground, hands behind his head. Lissener ‘watches’ then passes his doss bag roll to Riddley, who takes it and uses it to prop up his head. He reaches into his pocket and brings out some jerky strips, passes one to Lissener, another to the black dog. The three chew companionably. Lissener makes a lot of wet noise, which both Riddley and the dog look at in surprise.
Still lying down, Riddley pulls the blackened Punch puppet from his bag, inspects it in the blue evening light. After a while he pulls it onto his hand, and it starts to look around as though startled from sleep. The black dog looks at it curiously, makes some soft vocalisations in its throat.
Punch turns to the three, stares at the dog, Lissener and finally Riddley.
RIDDLEY
(In Punch voice) Wotcha wotcha wotcha.
Lissener smiles, nods.
RIDDLEY
(In his own voice)
Hmm.
Riddley takes puppet off, returns it to his bag, lies back and looks up at the blue evening sky for a long moment.
He closes his eyes.
He opens his eyes. The sky is black and full of stars. Occasionally fast bright tailless objects trail and flare across the sky. Possibly old satellites.
LISSENER
(Voice only)
Time back way back who ben the Puter Leat who ben the Power Leat in Cambry? Eusa folk is who it ben. Us the same and us to blame. Who run the Power Ring who ben too close to Power who gone Badstock crookit and seed of the crookit? Us the same the Eusa folk. Who ben bernt out after Bad Time? Us the same. They kilt Eusa but they dint kil all the Eusa folk they dint bern them all out did they. No they savit out some to keap in memberment that clevverness what made us crookit. Savit a breeding stock in Cambry so therewd all ways be some of us. Theres all ways ben Eusa folk and wil be. And the knowing whats in them the Ardship wil know. Roun the circel of the dead towns to the senter which is Cambry. Becaws weve kep the memberment you see. Kep the memberment of what we done time back way back. The knowing of its in us.RIDDLEY
Dont break the circel yet Lissener.
Showers of sparks in the dark illuminate the side of Riddley’s face as he strikes his flint and steel and uses a piece of charcloth to light a small pile of tinder in a hollow in a rock. He uses this to light a candle stub from his bag. He places the candle inside the hollow.
LISSENER
What dyou mean?RIDDLEY
I don’t know.
Riddley stands, moves off.
LISSENER
Say Fools Circel 9wys.RIDDLEY
(Voice moving around in the dark) Horny Boy rung Widders Bel Stoal his Fathers Ham as wel Bernt his Arse and Forkt a Stoan
Riddley returns to the lit area holding a sturdy branch.
Fork Stoan.
LISSENER
Fork Stone it is then. Its true foller I can lissen that much.
Riddley takes a roll of sticky bandage-like cloth from his bag, unwinds and wraps a length onto the end of the branch and cuts it with Keaper’s knife, knots some twists of twine around the bottom of the cloth head.
Lissener rises. The black dog stands.
LISSENER
Wel Im on my way then. Thanking you for getting me out of the hoal.
Riddley holds the branch over the candle, turning the cloth head over the candle flame. The torch flares brightly. He picks up his bow and arrows.
RIDDLEY
Any where you go its the 2 of us going. We myswel joynt the effert.
Riddley pinches out the candle and stows it, has a last quick look around the clearing and they all move off, the black dog jogging along next to Lissener’s leg, the two other dogs moving slightly ahead. The rest of the pack assemble behind them again as they go into the darkness, with the burning torch lighting their way. A blustery wind makes the torch flame gutter and leap, Riddley looks up into the black sky with a concerned expression.
EXT. PATH FROM BERNT ARSE TO FORK STONE, NIGHT
A squall from off the sea is lashing rain and wind. Riddley and Lissener struggle against the wind towards a small dry-stone-walled building. We can only see this very dimly, if at all, as the wind and rain has all but snuffed out the torch.
We can hear Riddley and Lissener shouting to each other, but the words are drowned out by the noise of the storm. A flash of lightning briefly illuminates the scene. We see the whole Bernt Arse pack is there with them, shining.
Riddley wrenches open the door, puts his head inside briefly, then enters and pulls Lissener in after him.
INT. BARN, NIGHT
Riddley wedges the torch into a hole in the wall. As he attempts to coax the torch back to life Lissener returns to the door and opens it, letting the rain and wind roar in again. Riddley turns in annoyance to see a stream of soaked dogs pouring in through the open door. After some time the last dog enters and Lissener pushes the door closed. It doesn’t fit well around the frame, and the force of the storm pushes rain through the gaps like bullets.
Riddley looks around at the sea of dogs shaking, licking themselves, investigating the barn and milling around. His look suggests he is accusing Lissener for all this. Then his anger ebbs away and he forlornly squeezes water out of his hair and clothes. Long waves of thunder roll over them.
The dogs begin to lie, settle and steam. Riddley and Lissener sit among them, listening to the storm batter and shake the building. A dog sneezes. Time passes.
Riddley let's his head drop back against the wall behind him, closes his eyes. A brilliant double lightning flash beams through the many gaps in the stones. This time the thunder follows almost immediately in a huge crack. Every creature jumps in fright apart from Lissener, who remains blank and expressionless.
LISSENER
Dyou have the gethering dream?RIDDLEY
Whats that?LISSENER
Its where theres all the many nor there aint no end to you there aint no place where you begin nor leave off. Mountins of us valleys of us far far lans and countrys of us. Tits and bellys it wud take you days to walk acrost. Girt roun bums and arms and legs all jynt big and long and long and girt jynt man and woman parts all mullerplying back to gether all what ben de vydit. No mor oansome in the gethering. No mor edge where you leave off and the nex begins jus all of us as far as you can see with all the eyes of us it dont matter whose eyes youre looking out of you dont nead none of your oan. You have that dream?
Riddley looks at the breathing bodies pressed together all around him.
RIDDLEY
No. We have the ½ dream.LISSENER
Whats that?RIDDLEY
It aint a parper dream realy its a fealing comes on you when youre falling a sleap. Youre jus going off easy when suddn its like a bersting in you like youre bersting in 1000 peaces then you come a wake with your hart going fas.LISSENER
Funny. It ben the Power Leat give you that dream yet we dont have it our self.RIDDLEY
What ben the Power Leat any how?LISSENER
What Goodparley calls Eusas head which it ben a girt box of knowing and you hook up peopl to it thats what a puter ben. We ben the Power Leat we had the woal worl in our mynd and we had worls beyont this in our mynd we progammit pas the sarvering gallack seas WE PROGAMMIT THE GIRT DANTS OF THE EVERY THING. WE RUN THE BLUE THE RED THE YELLER WE RUN THE RED THE BLACK WE RUN THE SEED OF THE RED AND SEED OF THE BLACK. WE RUN THE MANY COOLS OF ADDOM AND THE PARTY COOLS OF STOAN. HART OF THE WUD AND STOMP YOUR FOOT. 1 AND 2 AND SHAKE OF THE HORNS AND 1 AND 2 AND SPLIT OF THE SHYNING . . .
Lissener has leapt to her feet, stamping the ground as she shouts and howls in a kind of ecstatic trance. Then she begins to fit, her face and body locks into a series of violent spasms. Riddley grabs her, pushes a wad of cloth between her buzzing teeth as frothing spit pours from her mouth. He clings to her. Her breath comes in whistles and strangled screams. The dogs whimper and whine all around.
After some time the spasms begin to become slower and less powerful, and then Lissener loses consciousness and begins to breathe slowly and regularly, her head against Riddley's shoulder.
Riddley carefully lays her down, unrolls Lissener’s doss bag and manages with difficulty to get her wrapped in it.
After it is all done he sags to the ground again, panting and wide-eyed. The storm goes on, but the strength decreases and it seems as though the worst of it has passed over them now.
Riddley picks up a piece of burnt stick from the floor and uses it to write RW on a stone in the wall. He considers it, pulls up his top, peels off the bandages to look at the livid scars on his belly. He then uses the stick to add the three horizontal lines either side of his initials on the wall.
Lissener starts to snore.
INT. BARN, PRE-DAWN
Riddley wakes with a start to see Lissener silhouetted against the grey light of early morning from the door which she is pushing open. The dogs are streaming out. Sounds of loud pissing against stone and rain-soaked ground. Riddley rubs his face, rises stiffly, gathers up his things and heads for the door. Lissener looks calm and has a half-smile on her face as she ‘watches’ Riddley stumble around. Riddley looks grim in response.
EXT. FORK STONE OUTERS, EARLY MORNING
All are making their way through the smashed, green covered remains of the outskirts of north west Fork Stone. There is a lot of red rust around them, which has turned puddles and ditches opaque red. They don’t know it, but they are following the path of the train tracks from the freight yard south east into the town centre.
Lissener is still half-smiling. She is relaxed and confident. The black dog is by her side, steering her with its flank. She is ahead of Riddley, and occasionally is out of sight as the terrain is very uneven. She is singing in a high reedy voice.
LISSENER (singsong)
Never did the Good Luck brother
Tern a roun to help the other
Never did the other 1
Ever have the sents to run
Riddley is jumpy, anxiously glancing around with his bow already in his hand.
RIDDLEY (VO)
It takes you strange walking in your old foot steps like that. Putting your groan up foot where your chyld foot run nor dint know nothing what wer coming. Old littl Riddley Walkers from time back running a head of me and follering behynt. Yelling ther sylents and singing ther rimes and clyming over old walls stumps and stannings.
Riddley catches up with Lissener, who is standing on a high stump of concrete. She is standing close to the edge, facing the centre of the dead town. Riddley watches Lissener and waits impatiently. He starts to speak twice, both times Lissener gestures for quiet.
LISSENER
Im lissening enn I.RIDDLEY
Youwl lissen us right in to Grabs your Aunty in a minim if we keap on walking. Dont you have nothing in mynd?LISSENER
Youre all ways worrying your self with littl myndy askings.RIDDLEY
I thot may be you being such a telling head you myt even know some thing befor they acturely put your head on a poal.LISSENER
I know you dont have too much balls. But if you cud jus suck your thum qwyet for a wyl and stop giving me inner fearents I cud tune in better.RIDDLEY
I had balls a nuff to get you out of that hoal.LISSENER
Yes you did after I pult the dog and the dog pult you. Hadnt he come for you youwd parbly stil be shovveling cow shit or what ever you done at that form.
Riddley looks angry and hurt, more child than adult for a moment.
Lissener turns to Riddley, puts her hands on his shoulders.
LISSENER
You wont all ways have me wil you.RIDDLEY
Why not?LISSENER
Becaws thats how itwl be nor les not mouf it roun no mor. Jus keap that in you. Be your oan black dog and your oan Ardship.
Riddley takes a long breath, nods. They sit, Riddley pulls out a water skin and both drink.
EXT. FORK STONE CENTRE, EARLY MORNING
Riddley, Lissener, the black dog and the two nexter dogs peer into darkness in front of wide stone steps leading down into the ground. Above is an overhang of heaped broken rubble, bushes and trees growing out of it. It is quiet, except for a low rumbling echo which sounds like very slow regular breathing coming from the tunnel beyond the steps, and the sound of light rain falling on the overhang.
There is a breeze coming from the tunnel, which all feel on their faces. The black dog sniffs at it.
Lissener moves into the dark. His footsteps and voice echo.
LISSENER
The out poasts dont keap sharp. They dont think no one is ever coming in on them.
The three dogs move forward warily. Riddley watches them go, arrow nocked and bow ready pointed into the dark. He hears sounds behind him, turns to see the rest of the Bernt Arse pack taking up positions at the entrance. He follows Lissener and the three dogs into the darkness.
INT. POWER STATION
After some time of moving through darkness we see the five moving against a feeble light at the far end of the tunnel. The breathing sighing sound gets steadily louder. They come out of the tunnel into a huge space which might once have been a turbine hall. The roof is caved-in at the back, and weak morning light illuminates the smashed machinery. A tangle of tree roots hang down from above.
The casings of the machinery are split, spilling disintegrated cabling and pipework from some, and showing bright machined steel spotted with rust in others.
RIDDLEY
Evere thing blippin & bleapin & movin in the shiftin uv thay Nos. Sum tyms bytin sum tyms bit. Cum tu the wud in the hart uv the stoan.
The black dog moves up close to the metalwork, sniffs it, then pisses against it.
They keep moving around the machinery towards the back of the hall.
Under the hole in the roof is a shelter made from woven sticks and clay. Light rain drifts down through the hole onto the straw thatched flat roof. Riddley tilts his head and gestures towards the shelter. The black dog, reading his signal, slinks silently towards the doorway and cautiously eases its head through. After a moment it turns back to Riddley, pants and wags its tail.
The others approach, look inside in passing as they move torwards another tunnel sloping gradually down. Inside the shelter are several beds, a table, and three candles burning on the table. Riddley slowly releases the tension on his bow string when he is sure the shelter is empty.
INT. POWER STATION COAST TUNNEL, EARLY MORNING
The light grows stronger as they walk along the downward sloping tunnel. Gradually the rhythmic breathing resolves into the sound of low waves washing against shingle. The floor of the tunnel becomes sandy, then gritty, then as they near the exit they are crunching on shingle. The sea and sky are grey in the early morning light.
EXT. FORK STONE SHORE, EARLY MORNING
They move east along the beach under the cliff. Lissener finds the pebbles difficult to walk on but she is in a hurry. She stumbles, slips, refuses help when she falls, and carries on as though drawn.
As they round a headland Lissener stops suddenly. Some way ahead a driftwood fire is burning on the beach, and six people stand around the fire, passing around a clay bottle. Riddley sees a way up onto the cliff edge, they make their way up and round until they are behind and above the fire. Riddley and Lissener lay down on the rabbit-cropped turf and listen. The dogs busy themselves exploring rabbit holes futher inland.
Above the sound of the waves and the crackling fire the voices are so faint they are mostly lost on the wind. The words ‘Goodparleys boy’ and ‘that little witey bloak Belnot Phist’ are just about audible, followed by a loud burp and laughter.
Lissener slaps Riddley lightly as she stands and backs away from the cliff edge.
LISSENER
Come on. Theres some thing else here.
There is a brief scuffling sound behind them, a squeak, and Riddley turns to see the three dogs tearing up a rabbit. It rips open and its entrails spill out onto the grass.
RIDDLEY
What is it?
Lissener is already striding away eastwards.
LISSENER
Dont know.
Riddley has a last look at the figures on the beach, hurries after Lissener, the sound of crunching bones coming from behind them.
EXT. THE WARNINGS, BEACH BETWEEN FORK STONE AND DO IT OVER, EARLY MORNING
Gulls squabble noisily over the dark shape of a small chaloupe type sailing boat. The mast is broken and lies across the boat, which floats low in the water and so is bumped against the shingle by sluggish waves. The sail is partly over the boat and partly in the water.
The three dogs and Lissener watch on the beach as Riddley takes his coat off, wades out towards the boat. By the time he reaches the boat the water is up under his ribs. The gulls are tugging and tearing at something in the boat with their beaks, and fly up irritably when Riddley grabs the side of the boat.
Riddley rocks the boat to slosh some of the pinkish water out of it, then holds the prow and begins to slowly pull it towards the shore. The waves help him to run it aground in the shallows.
Lissener approaches.
Riddley drags aside the sail and investigates the inside of the boat. It is still sloshing with water, which is mixed with blood, a few white gull feathers float on the surface. A man lies dead under the broken mast, his hands floating in the water in the boat.
Riddley pulls aside some of the sail cloth and sees the man’s face, recoils with a look of distaste (the gulls) and searches through the man’s clothes and bags. He finds a bow and a quiver full of arrows, a knife, wet food, a bundle of leaves, a candle and flint, and a small waxed drawstring cloth bag. Riddley shakes the bag, pulls open the bag string, looks at the dirty yellow stones inside.
He underarms the bag to Lissener, who catches it and lets out a sudden hissing exhalation and scuttles further up the beach holding the bag to her ear.
Riddley rocks the boat to get more of the water out, then pulls himself in and sculls the boat out to deeper water.
He ties loops of rope attached to a rock anchor around the dead man’s leg, rolls the rock off the side of the boat with difficulty, and as it drops it suddenly yanks the dead man across the boat and overboard. It sinks, Riddley watches the head disappear in the murky water.
Riddley then brings the boat back to near shore. He takes a length of rope, the dead man’s bow and quiver of arrows, jumps out into the shallows again and rocks the boat until it turns over and floats upside down.
Back on the beach, Riddley rejoins Lissener and the dogs. He shakes himself, puts his coat back on. He is shivering, his lips are blue.
Lissener still has the cloth bag to her ear. She is whispering to the stones inside in an ecstatic stream. Riddley coughs.
RIDDLEY
What is it?LISSENER
This is what I ben lissening. I know theres Power in it. And where theres Power theres foller. We bes not ful this circel on no farther. I bes get in to Cambry qwicks I can with this here bag of stoans. Im going to gether deap Im going to work that Power.RIDDLEY
Why do we have to go to Cambry? Why do we have to go for that gethering?LISSENER
What else is there to do? Wait for Goodparley to close his han on us?RIDDLEY
You lissen hes on to us then?
Lissener nods.
LISSENER
I aint sure when only it wer some time after I had the fit.RIDDLEY
In front of us or behynt?LISSENER
I lissen them in front.
You know what the nex thing is.
RIDDLEY
Split up and dubbl our chances. You go on to Cambry with ½ the stoans and gether how ever you can.LISSENER
Whatwl you do?
Riddley looks around him, gestures in a ’no fucking idea’ kind of way which Lissener can’t see. He collects himself.
RIDDLEY
Ill go back to Widders Dump with the other ½. See if I can put some thing to gether with them.
Lissener nods, pulls out some of the yellow stones from the bag. Riddley takes a bag from his pocket, holds it open as Lissener drops them in. He puts the bag back in his pocket, on top of the Punch puppet’s upturned face.
LISSENER
Good Luck moon brother.
Riddley hugs Lissener clumsily.
RIDDLEY
Good Luck to you the same.
Lissener pulls away, faces Riddley. She shakes her head.
LISSENER
Cant be on boath of us tho can it? Now piss off.
Riddley puts the dead man’s bow into Lissener’s hand and fits the arrow quiver across her back.
He lifts the coil of rope onto his shoulder and walks away westwards across the shingle. The black dog moves to stand beside Lissener, who reaches down to touch it. The two nexter dogs stand and follow Riddley. Lissener whistles the Good Luck brother tune as she turns and walks to a fallen section of the cliff which offers a broken slope back up to the clifftop.
EXT. OUTSIDE WIDDERS DUMP FENCE, EARLY MORNING
Riddley and the two nexter dogs slosh through a moat and crawl up the slope to the bottom of the fence. The fence is solid, made from split tree trunk stakes. The tops are sharpened to a point and fire hardened.
Riddley presses his face into a gap. He moves along the fence, looks through another gap.
Satisfied, he uncoils the length of rope, ties a loop at one end and swings it up, hooks the loop over one of the stakes. He tests it with a couple of tugs then pulls and walks his way up the fence. The dogs mill around and huff, Riddley whispers at them to be quiet.
At the top Riddley pulls the rope up and lowers it on the other side of the fence. He quickly and quietly makes his way down to the ground.
A meaty fist smashes down on the side of his head and Riddley’s legs give way as he tries to turn and raise his hands. He crumples to the ground, everything goes dark tinted red. We see from Riddley’s POV and hear the sounds of grunting and breathing as the man hoists Riddley onto his shoulder and carries him away from the fence. Dog barks, getting fainter. Fade to black.
INT. BELNOT PHIST’S SHELTER, WIDDERS DUMP
Riddley comes to, slumped in a corner of the shelter. It is gloomy. He has a bruise spreading across the side of his face. He looks up to see Abel Goodparley and Belnot Phist watching him. Goodparley is smiling as usual. Phist looks uncomfortable and anxious. The Eusa Show fit up is behind them. Standing apart is the man who punched Riddley. He looks like he wants an excuse to do it again.
GOODPARLEY
Wel Riddley yung Walker its ben a long day for you aint it. All the way to Fork Stoan to meet a boat with a dead sailer in it. Funny thing to do in the middl of the nite and such a stormy nite and all. Dead sailer from the other side which he brung you some thing for our frend Phist dint he. O yes he brung some kynd of treats what myt they be myt they be honey sweets or what?
Riddley looks dumbly at them, still stunned from the blow. The bruiser smiles and takes a step towards Riddley.
GOODPARLEY
You know weare going to tern your up side down so what ever youve got whynt you jus han it over.
Riddley hesitates, then reaches into his coat pocket and scoops out the bag of yellow stones. We see Punch’s blackened face peering up from the pocket, dusted with yellow powder.
Riddley holds the bag out in his hands. Goodparley comes forward with a rapt expression, and carefully takes it.
He opens the bag and inhales their smell. He holds one stone up to a weak beam of daylight filtering through from the shelter’s smoke hole.
GOODPARLEY
Riddley what dyou think is in there? What dyou think it myt be?
Phist looks nervous, speaks up before Riddley has a chance to speak.
PHIST
Abel he dont know nothing Ive tol you he aint clevver.GOODPARLEY
O hes bettern clevver. Hes a mover hes a happener. Now Riddley you jus tel me what you think weve got here.RIDDLEY
I dont have no idear what it is.
Pause.
GOODPARLEY
No you dont do you. Realy I wunt have to do nothing only tern you luce and let you run and youwd persoon get every thing all happent out and moving. Thats all itwd take is you and me working to gether. Abel Goodparley and Riddley Orfing. Why cant I have you for Shadder Mincer in stead of that dretful littl Orfing on my back and dragging his feet all the time.
Goodparley returns his attention to the stone in the light.
GOODPARLEY
You can feal it in there pecking to get out cant you. Like a chick in a shel. Whatwl it hatch I wunner?
He puts the stones back into the bag and places it on a table, turns to Phist.
GOODPARLEY
Wel you foun your self a sweets place did you and sweeter nor honey you foun your self the yellerboy stoan the Salt 4.PHIST
I dint fynd nothing Abel I aint no mover nor no happener.GOODPARLEY
No and for a true fack you aint my littl pink eyed frend you aint no kynd of a mover nor happener. ‘Tryl narrer,' you tol me. And all the time you ben waiting on your boat with honey sweets your Salt 4 you yellerboy stoaner you. Whatm I going to do with you I wunner. Howm I going to put you strait it looks to me like youve tyd your self in such a knot there aint no end to it.PHIST
You start beleaving that kynd of thing and any 1 can bring down any 1 they like all they have to do is jus only sen them some colourt stoans or powders or what ever.GOODPARLEY
Powders Belnot? What kynd of powders myt you be talking about?
Phist’s mouth opens and closes, no words emerge. His eyes dart around, but there is nowhere for him to escape to. He looks like he might be sick.
GOODPARLEY
(Looking now at the bruiser, but talking to Phist) Yes wel praps youwl be so kynd to leave us the loan of your shelter and have a nice cup of tea in the gate house wylst I have a word with this here dog frendy oansome travveler.
The bruiser half pushes, half lifts Phist out of the shelter. Phist sobs, gives Riddley an imploring look as he is shoved out the door. Riddley looks away.
Goodparley looks at the door for a long time, during which the smile slowly leaves his face.
There is a long silence as they look at each other, just the sound of the light rain clattering on the shelter roof and Goodparley’s slow heavy breathing. Riddley finally breaks his gaze, looks instead at the fit up behind Goodparley.
Goodparley follows Riddley’s gaze. The smile comes back on.
GOODPARLEY
You thinking on where Orfings got to Riddley?RIDDLEY
Is he gone after Lissener?GOODPARLEY
Gone ahead of him to Cambry. Keaping a eye and a ear on him til I get there.RIDDLEY
Whatwl you do when you get there?GOODPARLEY
Iwl do what I ben doing Iwl go on asking wont I. Do some Cambry asking then its up to Horny Boy and begin that woal Fools Circel over agen becaws it ben broak this time.RIDDLEY
You going to help the qwirys on him?GOODPARLEY
Whats the use of helping qwirys on that poor simpo. I dont think he knows nothing to tel no moren any of them ever do.
Pause
Now we never did emty your pockits did we whats that bulging in there?
Goodparley reaches into Riddley’s coat pocket and pulls out the Punch puppet. He looks at it, his eyes grow larger. He gasps repeatedly, as though he is suffocating.
GOODPARLEY
Where? Where dyou get… O how it twisses my hart.
Goodparley sits down heavily. He holds the Punch puppet in his lap, stares ahead in an unfocused way, his face blank.
When Goodparley speaks again he unconsciously fits his hand into the puppet, causing it to come alive, look around and wave its arms.
GOODPARLEY
Bad Mercy Fents you wont fynd it now its long gone. Bernt down that day in a raid from Outland. We dint have nothing for them to take only our groun and our women which they took boath. My mum 1 of them.They wer too many we dint have no chance I seen my dad go down with a arrer in his hart and others dropping all roun. I droppt as wel and slyd off in the hy grass. When they finisht killing the men I heard them taking the women. Hiding in the woodlings hearing that and smelling the smoak I can stil smel that smoak it wer peopl smoak as wel as wood. When it got qwyet I crep out. Cudnt hear nothing only the crackling and the crows calling 1 to a nother. Wite smoak and arnge flames upping in that grey morning and the dogs coming for the dead.
I clum a tree. Down be low me dogs wer grooling and smarling and the dead bodys jerking and flopping amongst them. There I wer and dogs all roun that tree that woal day and on in to the dark. Eat ther fil and come back agen they cudnt hardly walk ther bellys wer that swoal up. Parbly if Id come down out of that tree they cudntve run me down even if they bothert to try only I wernt going to chance it. I slep in that tree that nite I tyd my self in it.
Nex morning I woak up it wer stil smoaking and the dew on the bernt brung the smel up strong. Some of the dogs wer a sleap and others crunching boans. Emty skuls and bits of boan all roun I wunnert which of them myt be my dad. Looking at the smoak stil driffing thru the trees and I seen a littl old wite hairt bloak coming a long he lookit permuch like this here figger only no hump. Granser he callit hisself. Hook nose and a hook chin and a wicket littl eye. He seen me and coming tords me he wernt bothert about the dogs. Some of them looking up and they ruft a littl. He just said Trubba not like you myt to any 1 and peed agenst a tree. The leader of the pack gone over to the tree he sniffit the old bloaks syn then he peed and the old bloak sniffit his syn and that wer that. No Trubba.
He took me with him then I wer his boy til I come in to the Mincery 2 years after that. He showit me this figger which is Mr Punch. And the others.
You know how I partit from Granser?
RIDDLEY
How?GOODPARLEY
I kilt him.
Goodparley gets up, gives Riddley back the blackened Punch puppet and goes behind the fit up, where he continues to talk unseen. He uses his own puppets to act out parts from the rest of his story. Granser is Punch, young Goodparley is the piglet.
GOODPARLEY
Granser he wer what they callit a knowing man he knowit herbs and roots and mixters he done deacon terminations he done healing and curing plus he knowit dreams and syns. We roadit 1 fents to a nother clinnicking and national healfing we done forms and all.Befor my naming day Id tol Granser Iwd be moving out for my self soons I come a man. I tol him that daywd be the end of my boy time. He larft and said O yes. We wer overing the nite at Good Mercy Form we ben roading with a trade crowd. Some of them from Bollock Stoans up near Horny Boy and they wer joaking how they had the mos bollocks and they wer the hornyes boys in Inland. Getting pist and talking juicy. How they wer dying for a littl. Tiret of husbinding ther hans nor you cudnt get near them form women. Wel they begun looking at me and putting ther hans on me. Granser then he tol them being we wer at Good Mercy he wer going to give them good mercy plus itwd be a bye bye party for the end of my boy time so he give them me for the nite. 7 bloaks had me 1 after the other on the nite of the day I be come a man. Hevvy bloaks all of them I cudntve stood up to 1 let a loan 7. He had to do that he had to put his mark on that day he cudnt leave it a loan. Then after they all had good pleasur and good measur that nite he tol me Iwd have to wait a nother year befor I begun to man for my self becaws I ben boying on my 12th naming day. Larfing his wicket larf and he said he wer going to keap me with him 1 year mor. Thats when I stuck my knife in him. He cudnt leave a thing be come what it wer going to be nex. Thats what it wer made me kil him.
Goodparley emerges from the fit up.
GOODPARLEY
I overt that fents and off oansome tho I bint dog frendy and scaret to death I took my chance I put a farness behynt me I Norft up the A28 keaping close to trees for clyming til there come a long a road crowd they wer Mincery bloaks I gone with them and to the Ram.
From somewhere outside comes a high-pitched scream.
GOODPARLEY
Ah! Talky talky. Now Riddley les you and me see if our witey littl frends startit to come strait shal we.RIDDLEY
You rat cunt.
Riddley runs from the shelter, heading for the gate house. Behind him Goodparley emerges, walking in the same direction.
PHIST
DADDY!GOODPARLEY
I wont be tol lys Riddley Walker and you bes keap that in memberment.RIDDLEY
CUNT!
INT. WIDDERS DUMP GATE HOUSE
Riddley comes up quickly into the gate house through a wooden trap in the floor. 4 heavies stand at one end, staring at Riddley in surprise. At the other side Phist is hanging from a beam, his hands tied behind him and pulled up above his head. Beneath Phist’s dangling feet is a spreading puddle of urine. His head is down and his white hair covers his face.
Riddley darts forwards and takes a knife from a desk which has various other metal tools on it. He brandishes the knife at the heavies as he backs towards Phist, cuts the ropes and Phist drops. Riddley tries to support him but slips in the urine and falls. Phist’s head snaps back. His eyes are rolled back, it is obvious that he is dead.
Goodparley stomps up the ladder, breathing hard. The whole gate house shakes with his heavy steps. He emerges into the gate house. He takes in the scene, looks like he is going to fall into a rage for a moment, then visibly calms himself with a long exhalation.
HEAVY
You can see he aint ben bloodyd nor nothing guvner we never-
Goodparley holds up his hand for quiet.
GOODPARLEY
Whatd he say? Whatd he hisper?RIDDLEY
He dint say nothing only that yellerboy stone wud be my onwith then he dyd.
Goodparley looks at Riddley for a long moment. Riddley meets his eyes with a steady gaze. The heavy tries to speak again but Goodparley angrily flashes at him to be quiet and stay quiet.
Goodparley raises his hands to his face, rubs his forehead then drags his hands down to his chin, pulling his face with his fingers. His arms drop.
GOODPARLEY
I never wantit him dead.
Riddley carefully lays Phist’s head on the floor, stands and gives the knife back.
Goodparley gestures to the corner of the room where Riddley’s things have been piled.
GOODPARLEY
You can have your weapons back and go where you like I wont keap you.
Riddley looks doubtfully at his things then back at Goodparley but says nothing.
GOODPARLEY
You myswel have your onwith and all.
Goodparley throws the bag of stones lightly to Riddley, who catches it and lets out a single bark-like laugh. He collects his weapons and bed roll.
Goodparley turns back to Phist with a thoughtful expression.
GOODPARLEY
Iwl see he gets a parper berning.
Riddley nods, leaves the gate house and descends the first few steps of the ladder, watching Goodparley and the heavies for as long as he can before his head disappears below floor level.
EXT. WIDDERS DUMP FENCE, MORNING
Riddley hand-over-hands back down the outside fence rope, drops to the ground and jumps across the ditch.
He walks away from Widders Dump in thin slanting rain. We see a tight shot of Riddley’s face as he trudges. He looks downbeat, eyes lowered to the ground in front of him.
RIDDLEY (VO)
Folleree sed, Lukin for the 1 yu wil aul ways fyn thay 2.RIDDLEY
Folleroo sed, Thay 2 is 2ce as bad as the 1…
Riddley trudges on in silence. After some time we hear but don't see his half of the Black Pack returning. Riddley doesn't register at first. Then one of the nexter dogs pushes its muzzle against his hand and huffs, and Riddley looks around as though waking up, realises they are all about him. Now we see a wide shot of Riddley and the dogs.
He adjusts his gear on his back with a shrug and walks on. The dogs take up positions in front and behind as he orients himself. His eyes are up on the view before him again.
RIDDLEY (VO)
Its al ways whats frontways init.
Riddley keeps walking.
EXT. WOODLAND NEAR PIG SWEET FORM, MORNING
Riddley and the Black Pack walk uphill towards the corner of a stubbled hill field. Ahead of them is a straw-filled scarecrow. A crow is methodically pulling out the straw from its eye. The crow stops briefly to watch them, then carries on pulling straw.
All hear a snorting call of large animals from a part of the field over the rise they cannot see. Riddley and the dogs freeze and scatter into the trees at the side of the field, crouch low and wait.
FARMER
Wo Jooper! Go roun Klisto!
A team of eight oxen and six men crest the hill. The oxen and four of the figures are pulling a large wooden plough through the hard earth, two guards are armed and follow warily.
The plough is being turned to start a new furrow. The oxen are snorting and calling nervously as the farmers try to coordinate them. The people and oxen seem to know that something isn’t right, look around anxiously. They stop, gather together and talk quietly while scanning the land around them.
The dogs are slinking back into the thicker woodland. Riddley does the same on his hands and knees, still facing the field. There is a shout and several arrows whistle towards them and smack into the trees. Riddley flattens himself to the ground and waits. A millipede trundles across his hand.
The two guards appear, crunching through the dead twigs on different paths. The older one gestures for the younger to go in Riddley’s direction. We see that the younger guard is a young woman not much older than Riddley. She stoops to recover an arrow and discovers Riddley as he raises his head. She draws her knife and approaches, realises there are dogs flanking Riddley on either side. The dogs slowly and quietly converge towards her in a semi-circle.
The woman swears in terror under her breath and runs haphazardly back in the direction of the field.
YOUNG WOMAN
Black Pack! Black Pack!
Riddley rises to watch both armed figures run out of the woods towards the plough.
Riddley cups his hands to his mouth and lets out a yoop yaroop howl. Some of the dogs echo it. The farmers repeatedly make the bad luck go away sign in their direction.
He feels a tugging on his leg, a nexter dog is pulling him away into the deeper woods, growling quietly.
EXT. AULDER WOODLAND BY GRANSER’S SHELTER
Riddley and the dogs walk along a stream running through aulder trees. Wood smoke drifts among the upper branches. The dogs sniff at it.
They move past recently felled tree stumps. Riddley stops to look at the tree rings, runs his fingers along them.
A black charcoal mound is visible between the trees. They approach it, reaching a clearing. The mound has many jets of smoke venting from a ring of small holes near the top. A bent figure stands on top of the mound, holding a long pole. He is indistinct among the rising cloud of smoke. He is wearing a filthy red woollen top. He is singing to himself as he tends to the mound.
GRANSER
When the yeller boy comes hoam
Wewl make such a noys
Such a noys
Such a noys
When the yeller boy comes hoam
My good old boys
The smoke moves in the wind and we can see Granser’s charcoal blackened face in profile.
Riddley stops and stares at Granser.
The figure climbs down from the mound using a wooden ladder lashed to its side. He seems oblivious to Riddley and the dogs. He walks with a limp over to a tree and urinates against it. A nexter dogs trot over to the tree, sniff the urine as the man moves away. The dogs then marks the tree with their own urine and return to the pack.
As they pass, Granser turns to Riddley with a leering grin. The pack keeps moving, Riddley stops.
Granser snorts and spits out a black wad of mucus.
GRANSER
Wotcher.RIDDLEY
Trubba Not.
Granser looks sharply at Riddley, his weapons, and the Black Pack.
GRANSER
Trubba Not is it? Dog frendy boy traveling oansome with the Black Pack says Trubba Not. Wel wel.RIDDLEY
I dint get dog frendy it wer the dogs as got frendy with me.GRANSER
O I see youre a very special kynd of bloak then aint you. Parbly 1 day youwl be some thing big like Dog Pry Mincer. What else you have to tel boy?RIDDLEY
Could tel about you right a nuff. Shudve knowit Goodparley cudnt kil a crookit old barset like you so easy.GRANSER
That so? Then you tel Abel that dog frendy boy, nex time you see him. Tel him you cant kil old Granser, hewl ride your hump, hes the Foller Man.
Riddley keeps moving away, catching up with the dogs. Granser watches them go, smirking.
GRANSER
Bye bye dog boy all bes!
Granser doubles over, slapping his leg and wheezing and cackling. Riddley moves on through the trees with Granser’s laughter continuing behind him. The laughter turns into a metallic ringing sound…
EXT. CAMBRY POWER RING, MORNING
The ruins of Cambry rise up in the distance in front of Riddley and the Black Pack. There is a high ringing sound like a wind harp floating around faintly in the air, cycling slowly. Riddley looks around the sky, as if searching for the source of the sound. A strong wind is blowing.
The ringing becomes louder and the wind stronger as Riddley approaches a ring ditch which extends in an unbroken circle in the shattered concrete and dead weed wasteland between them and Cambry.
The sun is bright and low on the horizon, picking out glittering dust in the air and drawing long shadows from ruined concrete standings around the ring. This makes the structure look something like a stone age monument. The ring ditch, which is about 2 metres wide, is also in shadow so it is impossible to see how deep it is.
The dogs become increasingly distressed as they get closer to the ring ditch. They hunker down on bent legs, whimpering, and then split into two groups led by the two nexter dogs, moving around the outside of the ring in opposite directions. Riddley is left alone between the diverging trails of dogs.
He squats down beside the outer edge of the ring and dips his hand into the dark, then pulls it back as though it had been batted by a current. He does it again, holding his hand in for longer. His fingers seem to pull through shadow as though it was fast flowing water. The ringing sound becomes louder and the cycling becomes more rapid until it blurs together into a sustained hum. When he takes his hand away the sound slows and returns to the slower cycling ringing.
Riddley stands, backs away from the edge. He takes a short run-up and leaps across the ditch. The air is suddenly completely still on the inside, and sounds such as Riddley’s footsteps on the gritty ground are heightened, flat and dry (no echo, no reverb etc).
He runs to the central point of the ground inside the ring. There is a crumbling stone structure in the middle, which Riddley scrambles to the top of. From here he looks out excitedly at the whole power ring around him, and at the dogs sitting all around the outside watching him.
RIDDLEY
Spirit of God!
SPI-RIT-OF-GOD!
The ringing sound deepens as darkness rises up out of the ring ditch to form a smoky half-sphere wall. From inside it the landscape changes so stones become brilliant white and the sky turns totally black. The dome continues to rise out of the ground until it is a full sphere hovering above the ground, with Riddley at its centre. The sun disappears, there is no obvious point of illumination. The dogs outside the dome change shape and become translucent and iridescent like deep sea comb jellies and run around the ring in two groups moving in opposite directions. At first they move like dogs on all fours, then they rise up and run more like humans on their back legs, their heads held high in the air.
Riddley pulls off his top to bare the scars on his stomach. His skin is completely black except for the Eusa scars and other old nicks and scars on his torso and arms, which flare a brilliant white. The whites of his eyes are black, his pupils are white. He holds his arms out.
Riddley opens his mouth (black teeth, white inside his mouth).
RIDDLEY
IT STILL IS!
The ringing noise grows louder and louder, like hammers ringing on metal, then into a rising shriek. The dogs spin around faster and faster.
Close up of Riddley’s face. He shouts CANTEBURY but we can’t hear it over the shrieking, as he stares unblinking to camera with reversed eyes twitching here and there and growing wider, shaking his head.
Very fast succession of hundreds of flickering black and white tree ring reference photographs intercut with animated geometric diagrams of concentric rings.
LISSENER (VO rapid whisper, giggling becoming more pronounced as she goes along until the last few words are lost)
WE PROGAMMIT THE GIRT DANTS OF THE EVERY THING. WE RUN THE BLUE THE RED THE YELLER WE RUN THE RED THE BLACK WE RUN THE SEED OF THE RED AND SEED OF THE BLACK. WE RUN THE MANY COOLS OF ADDOM AND THE PARTY COOLS OF STOAN. HART OF THE WUD AND STOMP YOUR FOOT. 1 AND 2 AND SHAKE OF THE HORNS AND 1 AND 2 AND SPLIT OF THE SHYNING…
Throughout VO we see tree ring images intercut with Riddley's face. Shoots sprout from Riddley’s mouth and symmetrically writhe and fork around his head. Branches like antler horns sprout from his head and finally the naked Littl Shyning Man appears floating and smiling beatifically between them. We hear a roaring like being surrounded by a huge fire.
The Littl Shyning Man nods happily, lazily spinning end over end between Riddley's horns as it looks and sounds like the world is about to explode around him. The roaring fire sound fills everything.
Sharp inhalation of breath.
INT. CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL RUINS, CAMBRY
Riddley awakes suddenly, lying on the stone floor of the Nave of Canterbury Cathedral. The echo of a loud noise but not the noise itself rings around the space. He stares up at the pillars and ceiling, which is cracked and holed. It looks like it has been patched up many times with a variety of materials. Roots reach down from above. Light and rain comes in from holes in the roof and side walls.
Riddley moves his head around, still lying on the floor, looks up at the high stonework. Pigeons move around somewhere above in the echoing space.
He stands, walks around exploring the echoing space. He moves into the centre and closes his eyes. The floor becomes a black mirror, in which his reflection is a stone Riddley. He moves around, strikes odd poses something like a formal court dancer. The stone Riddley matches his actions almost but not quite perfectly. It seems to be pulling Riddley in the direction of the Choir. Riddley resists, so this way the two Riddleys are both dancing and arguing with each other.
After some time of this Riddley opens his eyes facing the Choir, and the mirror/his reflection disappears.
INT. CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL RUINS
Riddley walks hesitantly through the nave towards the Choir. Drawn in chalk and charcoal on the floor of the Choir is a large picture of Goodparley as Greenvine. Goodparley/Greenvine looks like he is trying to scream but the vines block his mouth. Riddley stops and looks at it closely.
Orfing steps out from the shadows, sits on a step. She moves woozily. Her hands are bloody, she puts her hand to her forehead and leaves a smear of blood.
ORFING
Riddley Walker. Twean you an me yor old dad wernt all that mindy for a connexion man no he realy wernt but somehow or other he named you right boy, an thats a fact.RIDDLEY
It wernt Brooder as named me it wer my mother.ORFING
That so?
Orfing gestures and several heavies come out of the shadows between columns and take hold of Riddley’s arms. They bring him forward to Orfing.
RIDDLEY
Whatve you done with the Ardship Orfing?ORFING
I aint Orfing no mor. Im Goodparley now.RIDDLEY
Whats Goodparley then is he Orfing now?
Orfing takes out a rag and wipes at her hands.
ORFING
He aint nothing no mor.
Orfing drops the rag, stands, turns and walks up steps to Trinity Chapel. She gestures and the heavies shove Riddley forwards. He trips on a step and falls, then rises and follows Orfing to the sound of laughter. The heavies follow.
INT. TRINITY CHAPEL
Riddley enters Trinity Chapel. The windows are smashed and clogged with rubble but some gaps let in light from the outside.
Riddley hears a creaking, looks up at the high roof, sees Goodparley suspended in the Corona. Goodparley's hands are tied and raised behind his back bearing his weight. He appears to be unconscious. His head hangs forward.
RIDDLEY
If hes nothing whyve you got him hung up whynt you let him go?
Lissener appears.
LISSENER
O we have to hang him up sames he hung up my father we have to hang him up the sames he wer going to do me.
Goodparley's head comes up. We see he has been blinded, drying blood is smeared down his cheeks and chin.
GOODPARLEY
Dont you look at me like this o please Riddley dont look at me this aint me youre seeing this aint me no mor.LISSENER
O yes it is and its the reales part of you. Its the Littl Shyning Man of you innit. Which thats what you ben looking for this long time Ive heard you say that times a nuff.GOODPARLEY (gasps)
Plomercy Erny.
Orfing looks up doubtfully as Goodparley twists and gasps for breath, then reluctantly unties the rope from a beam and lowers Goodparley. Riddley reaches up and guides him the last few feet to the ground. When the rope slackens as Goodparley's feet touch the ground his tied hands drop behind his back and he bellows in agony. His knees buckle, Riddley just manages to keep him standing. Slowly Goodparley straightens up, breathing hard and leaning against Riddley. Lissener has a look of feral hatred.
ORFING
Wel what is it Abel?GOODPARLEY
Im broakin now Erny there aint no fight lef in me I jus only want to live qwyet wil you give me letshow?ORFING
Now you know Abel you aint a bloak you can jus let go of. Tern you luce and youl be binsyern ever. (Exasperated) You cant live qwyet you all ways got to be doing and moving.GOODPARLEY
Look at me Erny. Look what you brung me to. Are you afeart a broakin blyn man will bring down your Mincery?
Erny seems uncertain, lost.
GOODPARLEY (Sadly)
Erny dont you have no balls at all?
LISSENER follows the conversation with her head, her mouth open and huffing in air as though tasting.
ORFING
All right Abel this is where weve come to now and wewl see where we come to after this.
Lissener hisses and writhes angrily, realising what Orfing is about to do.
ORFING
Iwl give you letshow only you wont be showing Eusa no mor Iwl have a drop or 2 mor of your blood.
Orfing approaches Goodparley, a small sharp knife shining in her hand. Riddley and Goodparley are held from behind by heavies.
EXT. CAMBRY OUTERS, LATE AFTERNOON, LIGHT RAIN
Riddley is standing next to a river bank. Behind him are two nexter dogs. Riddley looks at the rain falling into the river, apparently lost in thought, then rouses himself and moves closer to the flowing water.
EXT. CAMBRY OUTERS, LATE AFTERNOON, LIGHT RAIN
Goodparley is sitting alone holding a long staff-like stick. His hands are untied and his eyes are bandaged now. Beside him is the fit up. He has his Punch puppet on his hand, and Punch watches all around him anxiously.
The Black Pack is gathering and taking up positions about him on the ruins, not making much sound but enough for Goodparley/Punch to know something is happening. He tightens his grip on the stick, pulls himself to his feet and with Punch still looking this way and that he mutters the Folleree and Folleroo chant under his breath.
Ful of the Moon Ful of the Moon
Ful of the Moon nor dont look back
Folleree Folleroo on your track
Oo hoo hoo Yoop yaroo
Folleree Folleroo follering you
If they catch you in the darga
Arga warga
After a while there is a fall of loose stones as Riddley approaches over some rubble. He stops to look at the scene, smirks and slithers down towards Goodparley. The dogs move apart for him.
RIDDLEY
Trubba Not.GOODPARLEY
No Trubba Riddley. No Trubba.
Riddley pulls Goodparley's clothing up over his belly. The cloth is stuck to his skin with congealing blood. Riddley pushes some clay mud against the fresh cut running through Goodparley's old Eusa scar. He presses the clothes back over the clay.
Riddley starts to pull the fit up straps to carry it on his back.
GOODPARLEY
Let me carry the fit up Riddley its me as put this woal thing on our backs.RIDDLEY
Its me as took it on with you.GOODPARLEY
It aint going to hevvy me down Riddley its going to hol me up.
So saying, Goodparley feels for the fit up and struggles to put it on his back. His shoulders are painful so he has trouble with this, but Riddley stays back and eventually Goodparley manages, breathing hard against the pain.
Riddley takes their bundles. They begin walking. The black leader dog brushes against Goodparley's leg. He flinches, then slowly lowers his hand and feels the dog's nape.
GOODPARLEY
Aint ben this close to dogs this long time.RIDDLEY
You myswel get use to it theyre the onlyes hevvys weve got now.
EXT. BUNDEL DOWNS, DUSK, RAIN
After some time of walking across high rabbit-grassy hills Riddley, Goodparley and the dogs approach a long downward slope leading into a distant vale. The bottom of the vale is in the shadow of night already but we can see the valley contains a large wood. Smudges of smoke drift over the trees. Goodparley stops and sniffs the air suspiciously.
GOODPARLEY
Where we going?RIDDLEY
A place for healing and curing.GOODPARLEY
O yes?
Goodparley seems undecided about something, pensive.
GOODPARLEY
You stil got them stoans Riddley?
Riddley goes behind Goodparley and pulls the bag of stones from the fit up, puts it into Goodparley's hands.
GOODPARLEY
Thort you mytve throwd them in a river by now.RIDDLEY
No. My onwith aint they.
Goodparley 'looks' at Riddley for a long moment, then grunts. He pulls open the bag's cords and feels inside.
GOODPARLEY
Iwl tel you sumthing Riddley. Time this yellerboy stoan come in to Fork Stoan being Goodparley wer a hevvyness I wer pernear ready to put down. I dint have my hart in it no mor. I cudnt keap thinking on all them things you have to keap thinking on if youre going to stay on top. Time Id put Orfing on the road to Cambry and Lissener headit the same I musve ben perwel ready to let this happen (he gestures to his face).Any how it dont matter now. The yeller boy is luce ½ with them and ½ with us. This here Salt 4 it wants to be whats in it to be.
RIDDLEY
Whats it want to be?
A gust of wind rushes up the vale, shaking the tree tops and rippling the longer grass as it approaches, then breaks over them as it crests the slope. When the wind has passed Goodparley holds the bag out to Riddley, who takes it.
GOODPARLEY
Master Chaynjis got a foller on us, and nothings about to turn that 1 Big 1 away now. Poor old Erny.
Riddley returns the bag of stones to the fit up.
RIDDLEY (to himself)
The onlyes power is no power.GOODPARLEY
Whats that? What powers that Riddley?RIDDLEY (shakes his head)
Nothing.
They walk on. Riddley lifts Goodparley's arm around his neck and helps him move on down the slope into the dark.
EXT. ALDER WOODS, MORNING, RAIN
Riddley and Goodparley stand on high ground before a fenced-off area of the woods, inside which several charcoal mounds steam, smoke and hiss in the rain. We can hear but not see a river nearby. The Black Pack are gathered behind them, not too happy about being near a fence.
Goodparley is in a bad way. His head is sagging, his movements are slow and laboured. Much of his weight is now being supported with difficulty by Riddley. His bandage is much bloodier now.
Inside the fence, scattered among the charcoal mounds, are several shelters made from a wooden roof supported by poles. A charcoal burner squats in the nearest shelter, his back to Riddley and Goodparley.
RIDDLEY
Trubba not.
The man inside turns quickly, approaches the fence and is obscured by it. We hear him climbing a ladder up the inside of the fence and his head appears from the top. It is Granser.
GRANSER
Is that who I think it is?
Goodparley's head snaps up at the sound of Granser's voice. His mouth is open in shock.
GOODPARLEY
No no no no no. It cant be. I kilt you you rottin old barset. Riddley wot is this? Wot have you done whereve you brung me?
Goodparley pushes Riddley away feebly, totters with arms outstretched and legs bent for a few moments as though about to run, then wavers and collapses to the ground with a groan.
Granser lets out a shout and rushes from the fenced enclosure to clasp and kiss Goodparley's face repeatedly.
GRANSER
Whatve they done to you whatve they done to my poor old Abel?
Goodparley sits limp on the ground and begins to wail and sob hugely.
GOODPARLEY
Theyve put my eyes out Granser I cant see no mor Iwl never see nothing no mor.
Granser looks angrily at Riddley, who shakes his head. They both support Goodparley, who is still wailing and drooling. They get him to his feet and Granser walks him towards his shelter, leaving Riddley standing outside. Granser makes horrified and soothing noises all the while.
GOODPARLEY
Why dint I do a parper job of it when I stuck that knife in you.GRANSER
Becaws you never wantit to kil me o no you dint want to do your old Granser dead you dint want to Drop John him you lovit your old Granser too much for that. I knowit that and I knowit youwd come back to me 1 day my poor dear boy. Youre hoam now.
Riddley watches them go. He pulls up his hood against the drizzle, turns away from the fence and walks off. The Black Pack follows him.
EXT. BEHIND THE CHARCOAL BURNERS FENCE, MORNING, MIST
Riddley stands by the river. A long shallow draft boat is moored in the river, with a large cloth covering it. Riddley puts his foot on the boat and rocks it experimentally. He pulls up a corner of the cloth to see piles of charcoal inside. He leans towards the river, looks along its length and sees freshly felled alder trees along the banks disappearing into the mist in either direction.
He sits with his back to an oak trunk. The dogs wander down to the river and drink. Riddley looks up at the sky through the bare branches.
RIDDLEY (VO)
If you cud even jus see 1 thing clear the woal of whats in it you cud see every thing clear. But you never wil get to see the woal of any thing youre all ways in the middl of it living it or moving thru it.
He lowers his head and pulls the hood down over his eyes, folds his arms and appears to sleep. A nexter shakes water off itself and comes to lie close to Riddley. We hear the woodland sounds for a while.
RIDDLEY
Never mynd.
SLOW CROSSFADE TO
EXT. ALDER WOODLAND, DAY, BRIGHT
From the background woodland sounds we hear distant but approaching sounds of human and dog running footsteps through forest floor. Hard breathing, crashing through branches. As the sounds grow nearer and reach a flurry of close activity we hear an arrow loosed and suddenly vision returns, we see a running muntjac deer with an arrow through its neck being brought down by two Black Pack dogs. Riddley is behind them, still in position with bow raised and the string vibrating. He stows the bow on his back and approaches the dead deer smiling, pulls the arrow through and hoists the deer over his shoulder. He pats the panting dogs, they all walk off.
EXT. NEAR CHARCOAL BURNER'S FENCE, DAY, BRIGHT
Riddley and the dogs approach the fence. Riddley has the dead deer over his shoulder.
As they walk up a low hill and the enclosure comes more clearly into view the dogs flatten themselves to the ground and growl softly. Riddley drops, not sure why but trusting the dogs’ instinct.
After a while he shuffles forwards a little in the dead leaves to get a better view ahead. He raises his head slowly, sees Granser at the fence talking to a group of men. They are from How Fents. Fister is among them. Granser seems to be explaining something, pointing and laughing. He seems to be acting relaxed while giving off a nervous tension. They exchange bundles. Riddley can hear voices muffled by distance but not the words. He looks around, perhaps for Abel, but sees no one else. He shuffles back and waits, breathing against the earth, frowning and stroking the deer’s ear with his fingertips thoughtfully.
INT. GRANSER’S SHELTER, DAY
Goodparley lies propped up on a mat in the corner. His bandages are clean and his breathing is slow and relaxed. The fit up stands nearby. A small fire pit in the middle of the floor contains smouldering charcoal, which ticks and cracks drily.
Riddley is squatting next to Goodparley pensively. After some time he raises a spliff to his lips and takes a long draw, holds it, and slowly blows the smoke up towards the roof.
Granser sings outside. Riddley turns his attention from Goodparley to the direction of Granser’s voice, frowns.
GRANSER
Mort your clof with Saul & Peter
(Keap the way)
Mort your clof with Saul & Peter
(Wait the day)
Granser comes in with three rough clay bowls of steaming stew. Goodparley stirs, pulls himself up into more of a sitting position. Riddley takes two bowls, puts one in Goodparley's hands. Goodparley eats noisily with his fingers.
GOODPARLEY
What day wud that be then?GRANSER
Day Abel what day?GOODPARLEY
The song you was just singing you old barset. Wait the day an all that.
Granser inspects the burn holes in his red top, tuts and shakes his head.
GRANSER
Im about due for the new red.
Goodparley rises up menacingly. Granser waves and shushes him down.
GRANSER
Alright Abel have it your way. We dont know the day but wewl be ready when it comes. Which I got a scar to show for it enn I.GOODPARLEY
Berners and dyers is it. Les see that scar then I mean les have a feal of it.
Granser pulls up his clothes and allows Goodparley to trace the three parallel scars on the left side of his belly.
GOODPARLEY
But thats-GRANSER
We call that scar the 3 of the 1.GOODPARLEY
What 1 wud that be Granser? That wunt be the 1 Big 1 wud it?GRANSER
Wont never be no 1 Big 1 for us Abel. We aint got the clevverness for it but befor there ben the 1 Big 1 there ben the 1 Littl 1 and wil be agen. Which weare waiting for the day and ready.GOODPARLEY
What with?GRANSER
Ben you lissening to old Granser or not? With 2 of the 3 which is Saul & Peter and chard coal enn it. We ben ready this long time and keaping ready and til it comes.GOODPARLEY
Til what comes?GRANSER
That number 3 of coarse, that yellerboy stoan.
Goodparley starts laughing the words 'yellerboy stoan' as he fumbles at the back of the fit up for the bag of stones. He retrieves it, and still laughing he passes it to Granser, who opens it suspiciously and then starts laughing himself. He leaps up and starts hopping around the shelter. He reaches for Goodparley, pulls him to his feet and they stamp and spin around together.
RIDDLEY
The onlyes power is no power. Goodparley! GOOD PARLEY!
Goodparley's laughter has become unhinged sounding, and fresh blood trickles down from behind his bandages towards his open mouth.
Riddley drops his bowl and hurriedly leaves the shelter, snatching up his bundle and bow, and storms off in fury quickly and stiffly towards the gate. The laughter continues behind him. He screams back at them.
RIDDLEY
THE ONLYES POWER IS NO POWER.GRANSER & GOODPARLEY (singing)
Wewl make such a noys
Such a noys
Such a noys
Wewl make such a noys
My good old boys
Riddley shakes his head in exasperation, keeps walking away. This is intercut with flashes of Granser pounding, grinding and mixing charcoal, saltpeter crystals and sulphur from the stones in a mortar, and Goodparley's ecstatic face as he inhales the fumes from the mixture. Riddley kicks open the gate, the dogs on the other side wake up fearfully at the sound and Riddley's angry bearing.
EXT. ALDER WOODS NEAR CHARCOAL BURNER'S FENCE, AFTERNOON, LIGHT RAIN
View of leafless tree canopy. Woodland sounds and thin column of greyish smoke steadily rising into the sky a little way off.
Close up of Riddley's face, eyes fixed on the area the smoke is coming from.
Riddley takes a very small package wrapped in old handkerchief-like cloth from his coat pocket, unwraps it to reveal a rusty Punch and Judy swazzle bound with thin twine. He gets it in position in his mouth and tries to make noises through it. It doesn't sound right, no buzzing sound. He takes it out, looks at it, puts it back and tries again. The buzzing sound is better this time, but not perfect.
Riddley shuffles on the branch to get more comfortable, momentarily loses his balance and nearly swallows the swazzle as he catches himself with an intake of breath. He coughs the swazzle into his hand, wraps it in the cloth and puts it away. He sighs.
Riddley climbs down from the tree.
EXT. OUTSIDE CHARCOAL BURNER'S FENCE, EVENING, LIGHT RAIN
Riddley stands before the fence gate. He seems uncertain whether to move on. The hearts of the charcoal mounds scattered around glow red in the gloom.
Riddley takes a breath and prepares to call out. A deep whooshing and dull explosion thumps out, followed by the pattering sound of things slowly falling to the ground. Riddley freezes in a crouch, trying to keep his balance as the shockwave passes through the ground beneath him.
Thick white black-powder smoke pours into the sky, shot through with a shower of sparks.
Riddley approaches cautiously. He pushes open the gate and disappears into the smoke. The camera waits, hovering at the edge of the fence. We watch the heavy smoke continue to pour out and upwards.
A minute passes.
Riddley emerges from the smoke with the fit up strapped to his back. He walks grimly towards camera, eyes to the ground, coughing and spitting out the smoke taste as he walks. In one hand he holds the pestle, which is broken and dripping with gore.
Gradually the dogs beyond the fence begin to whimper and howl as Riddley approaches them.
RIDDLEY (VO)
What if its you whats making all this happen? What if every thing you think of happens?RIDDLEY (to camera)
Whats the diffrents?
He lets the pestle slip from his hand as he walks towards and past camera. Within the smoke flames begin to lick up into the sky.
EXT. THE BARRENS, DUSK
Riddley walks, the fit up across his back. Cambry outers are visible in the distance. The sun is setting through the clouds, there is a diffuse pinkish light in the air as though it could soon snow.
The Black Pack is travelling with him. The leader is a black shadow jogging beside Riddley, occasionally casting a glance at his face. Riddley doesn't take his eyes off the horizon. The other dogs are ranged around and behind them into the darkness.
Close up of Riddley's hard-set face as he walks.
The Black Pack leader presses its scarred muzzle up into Riddley's palm. Riddley looks down in surprise then quickly back ahead. As they keep walking, the dog's head against Riddley's palm, Riddley sobs.
EXT. CAMBRY CATHEDRAL, NIGHT
Riddley uses his flint and steel to light a candle stub. From its light we see he is standing by a long thin vertical split in a high stone wall at the Trinity Chapel end of the cathedral. Thick ropes of ivy climb the wall and disappear into the breach. Greanvine is scratched on the wall beside the gap in charcoal.
Riddley peers in through the gap, moving the candle from side to side. He sniffs suspiciously at the air inside, recoils and screws up his face, gathers and throws a handful of small stones in and listens to the scattering sound of claws and echo.
BROODER (VO)
In tu the hart uv the stoan hart of the dans. Evere thing blippin & bleaping & movin in the shiftin uv thay Nos...BROODER VO and RIDDLEY in unison
...sum tyms bytin sum tyms bit.
He takes a deep breath of clean air, pushes in sideways through the gap, taking the candle with him in one hand and his knife in the other. The gap is very narrow, he has to push hard to get through. Again the camera waits hovering at the wall, in almost complete darkness, with the occasional sound of gusty night wind ruffling the ivy leaves.
Riddley explosively thrusts his way out through the gap, the sounds of his scraping shoes and clothes against the stones very loud after the near silence. We hear him breathing hard and fast, trying to control panic, before we see his hand holding the candle and the rest of his body struggles through.
Free, he stumbles away quickly making brief eye contact with the camera in passing. He looks accusing and pained, as though whatever he has seen is somehow our fault. His face has fresh grazes where he has scraped against the stones. He doubles over, hands braced against his knees. After a while he is sick.
EXT. CAMBRY OUTERS, PREDAWN
The dogs are tracking a smell over broken ground. A group begins to mill around a high area and bark. Riddley approaches, knife drawn.
RIDDLEY
Who is it?ORFING
Its Erny Orfing Riddley.
Some stones are pushed aside and Orfing's upper face emerges from a makeshift cave of old concrete.
A short while later Riddley and Orfing are around a small fire in the same spot. Riddley has just spoken. Orfing appears crumpled, defeated, looking at Riddley, trying to take in what Riddley has said.
ORFING
Riddley dyou think theres hoap of any thing?RIDDLEY
Theres new earf on the barrens all the time.ORFING
All them years I never knowit nothing of all that 3 in 1 with them berners and dyers nor Goodparley dint nyther and us the Pry Mincer and the Wes Mincer.RIDDLEY
What dyou think wil happen now dyou think the hevvys at Fork Stoan wil sen ther oan farring seakert tryer to bargam some thing with the other siders for more yellerboy stoan?ORFING
Wel its luce now innit. Its luce and itwl fetch.
Riddley looks at Orfing for a long moment. He sees the inside of Granser's shelter with Granser and Goodparley dead inside through the swirling gunpowder smoke, mainly Goodparley sitting propped against a pole with his legs in front and the pestle punched through his forehead. Then the shattered rat eaten body parts of Lissener and the hevvies barely discernable inside Trinity Chapel by the flickering candle light. Both scenes are described by a slowly sweeping camera which does not show Riddley present.
Riddley looks past Orfing to see the Black Pack leader climb up on a rubble mound and face him against the predawn sky, moving slightly to indicate it is time to move on.
Slow fade on Riddley’s set face with the dawn starting to light it up, to suggest end of main story. What follows is a kind of coda.
INT. WEAPING FORM, DAY, SUMMER, THUNDERY
A crowd is gathering, expectant. Some look excited, some curious, others sullen.
The fit up is already set up, the black backdrop cloth freshly repainted with long bright tongues of flame in a starburst pattern added to the hellfire that had been there before. A small burn hole is at the centre of the starburst. Erny is hovering with some anxiety nearby. She sidles over to the fit up, leans in and mutters something to it, we can’t hear what he says. She nods, turns back to look at the crowd.
POV switch to look out through the burn hole, as though we see through Riddley's eyes. Remember Lorna’s speech about the lonely alien thing looking through our eyes. The rest of this scene is seen either looking out through the hole or looking back at Riddley’s eye framed by the hole in the back cloth from the outside.
We hear the intimate closeness of Riddley's breathing and words in the dark inside the fit up, and the sounds of his slight movements and preparations in the cramped space.
DEAPER FLINTER, Weaping Form's connexion man, comes forward, to a mixture of cheers and jeers. He raises his hands and waves for quiet, nodding and gesturing that things aren’t quite right but it’s going to happen anyway. He addresses the crowd. As he does a buffeting wind begins to blow, so he has to raise his voice several times.
Riddley whispers along with the crowd throughout exchange.
DEAPER
Weare going aint we.CROWD (unconvinced, not feeling it)
Yes weare going.DEAPER
Down that road.
The crowd is uneasy, expecting something that hasn't happened. Finally EASYER stands and calls out
EASYER
With Eusa.CROWD (more confidently now)
With Eusa time and reqwyrt.DEAPER
Where them Chaynjis take us.CROWD
He done his time wewl do our time.
A flicker of sheet lightning, followed several seconds later by a long roll of thunder. Riddley jumps, causing the fit up to move as though it is alive. Crowd responds to this with some fear and suspicion.
DEAPER (trying to keep focused and keep the crowd with him)
Showing for us.CROWD
Hes doing it for us weare doing it for him.DEAPER
Keap it going. Chances this time.CROWD
Chances nex time.DEAPER
New chance every time.CROWD
New chance every time.
A hevvy (RIGHTWAY FLINTER) nods to Erny.
Erny looks up at the clouds, approaches the fit up. When she gets close she obscures the view out, everything goes black for a second or two. When she moves away from the hole it is in jerky slow motion.
We look out on the anxious faces of the crowd, and behind them an almost dreamlike purplish sky swirling and rolling with huge clouds closing in.
ORFING (OS, close, slowed down)
Wel whos coming up to show then?
POV switch from looking out through hole to close up looking at Riddley’s eye, then pull back to see Riddley now standing alone in a black space, with only the boiling storm (mushroom cloud?) above. The Punch puppet is on his hand.
MUSIC: Waukon, Karen Gwyer
Gradually move in towards Riddley’s face, to end at same distance as Brooder’s face was at the start. Riddley’s expression is calm, challenging. He is looking at us.
RIDDLEY
Riddley Walkers ben to show
Riddley Walkers on the go
Dont go Riddley Walkers track
Drop Johns ryding on his back
Music volume increases.
Riddley and his crowd of dogs walking out from Weaping Form in the driving rain. Orfing is further back with the fit up on her back.
Riddley looks about, wipes rain from his face.
RIDDLEY
Stil I wunt have no other track.
He looks quite happy considering. Stay on that for a minute as they get closer.
FADE TO BLACK, MUSIC CONTINUES
CREDITS
END WITH SUSTAINED ECHO OF LAST NOTE MIXED WITH RAIN
END
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