Post by LB! on Jul 10, 2010 14:49:54 GMT -6
(We open on a dark, moonless night. A single car, a red sedan, on an endless freeway lined with streetlights, who’s brightness makes the sky appear blank. The camera switches to inside the car, where our hero, the Lightning Bolt himself, is driving. His partner ((in showbusiness! showbusiness!!)) Steve wakes up in the passenger seat. He stretches as well as someone can in the passenger seat of a car.)
Steve: Where are we?
LB: Dunno.
(They sit quietly for a moment. LB looks more calm than he has in years. Steve looks out the window, hoping to see a sign that’ll tell him where he’s going.)
Steve: Did you kidnap me again?
LB: Pfft. Like I know how I got here.
Steve: What, really?
LB: That’s how it always is. I’m driving this car. I’m sure i’ll figure it out.
(They pass an off ramp, but the sign indicating where it leads is missing.)
Steve: Huh.
(A few moments later, a sign. It lists three locations: San Francisco, New York, and Tei Pei. There’s no number for distance.)
Steve: Well, that doesn’t seem right.
LB: Maybe they built a really big bridge.
(LB still looks spectacularly calm. In fact, his responses don’t seem confused at all, for him.)
Steve: This isn’t bothering you? Did you drug me again?
(LB looks at Steve for a moment, shrugs, then looks back at the road. Its still just as empty. They pass another off ramp, again unlabelled.)
LB: To be honest, I think I do know what this is. I’ve been wondering if...if something would happen, or if we just fade away. I think this is the end, pal.
Steve: The end? Are you going to kill us?
LB: Jeez, that’d be a downer. No, i’m driving.
Steve: So what? You think its the end of the world so...no one’s driving and signs don’t make sense?
LB: It might be the end of the world.
(LB looks at Steve and smirks, looking nuts for the first time in the car for a moment, but that fades, and a moment later he looks normal again. For him anyway.)
LB: It might just be the end for us. It couldn’t go on forever, you know. And we’ve had a pretty good run! A lot of characters only get days, some are just ideas. We had pages and pages. Friends and enemies and defeats and injuries and now and then we won a little. Pretty good time.
Steve: So, if its the end...what happens?
(They both go quiet and look forward, as if expecting something right that moment. But the road stays empty.)
LB: I dunno. Thought maybe we’d hit something.
Steve: Seems unlikely.
LB: For a while I thought we’d learn something. Like about me. Who I am, where I came from. But we won’t. ‘Cause there’s nothing to learn, and if there was, there’s no one to care.
Steve: Why would we learn about you now? You haven’t said your real name in ten years.
LB: Yeah.
(They go quiet again, for a few moments. Another off ramp, still unlabelled. And then the sign. San Francisco. New York. Tei Pei.)
LB: I think this is a loop. Heh. I just got it.
Steve: Got it?
LB: Yeah. Its a metaphor for...well, I probably shouldn’t just say it.
Steve: Oh, I get it.
LB: I guess I know what we do at the end, then.
Steve: We go in circles?
LB: Nope.
(They start to reach the next off ramp. LB puts on his blinker and pulls off the highway, without the slightest idea where he’s headed.)
LB: We stop.
(The end.)
Steve: Where are we?
LB: Dunno.
(They sit quietly for a moment. LB looks more calm than he has in years. Steve looks out the window, hoping to see a sign that’ll tell him where he’s going.)
Steve: Did you kidnap me again?
LB: Pfft. Like I know how I got here.
Steve: What, really?
LB: That’s how it always is. I’m driving this car. I’m sure i’ll figure it out.
(They pass an off ramp, but the sign indicating where it leads is missing.)
Steve: Huh.
(A few moments later, a sign. It lists three locations: San Francisco, New York, and Tei Pei. There’s no number for distance.)
Steve: Well, that doesn’t seem right.
LB: Maybe they built a really big bridge.
(LB still looks spectacularly calm. In fact, his responses don’t seem confused at all, for him.)
Steve: This isn’t bothering you? Did you drug me again?
(LB looks at Steve for a moment, shrugs, then looks back at the road. Its still just as empty. They pass another off ramp, again unlabelled.)
LB: To be honest, I think I do know what this is. I’ve been wondering if...if something would happen, or if we just fade away. I think this is the end, pal.
Steve: The end? Are you going to kill us?
LB: Jeez, that’d be a downer. No, i’m driving.
Steve: So what? You think its the end of the world so...no one’s driving and signs don’t make sense?
LB: It might be the end of the world.
(LB looks at Steve and smirks, looking nuts for the first time in the car for a moment, but that fades, and a moment later he looks normal again. For him anyway.)
LB: It might just be the end for us. It couldn’t go on forever, you know. And we’ve had a pretty good run! A lot of characters only get days, some are just ideas. We had pages and pages. Friends and enemies and defeats and injuries and now and then we won a little. Pretty good time.
Steve: So, if its the end...what happens?
(They both go quiet and look forward, as if expecting something right that moment. But the road stays empty.)
LB: I dunno. Thought maybe we’d hit something.
Steve: Seems unlikely.
LB: For a while I thought we’d learn something. Like about me. Who I am, where I came from. But we won’t. ‘Cause there’s nothing to learn, and if there was, there’s no one to care.
Steve: Why would we learn about you now? You haven’t said your real name in ten years.
LB: Yeah.
(They go quiet again, for a few moments. Another off ramp, still unlabelled. And then the sign. San Francisco. New York. Tei Pei.)
LB: I think this is a loop. Heh. I just got it.
Steve: Got it?
LB: Yeah. Its a metaphor for...well, I probably shouldn’t just say it.
Steve: Oh, I get it.
LB: I guess I know what we do at the end, then.
Steve: We go in circles?
LB: Nope.
(They start to reach the next off ramp. LB puts on his blinker and pulls off the highway, without the slightest idea where he’s headed.)
LB: We stop.
(The end.)