But, ultimately, I suppose that's up to you, dear reader. Have a look.
"Stir Crazy"
Teaser:
Night. Wind and snow and cold. Fire. A series of wooden buildings lies in ruins. A man bundled in heavy weather clothes stalks the ruins. He carries an old AG-3. He seems tense and scared, even paranoid. He jumps at nearly every crack of the fire. There’s a loud noise to his side, he jumps and aims the weapon. A support beam had simply collapsed. He curses under his breath.
Then he hears it. Whimpering. Slowly, he makes his way through the darkness towards the sound. There, by one of the buildings sits a sobbing, scrawny man. The man with the gun approaches him slowly. As the snow crunches under his boots, the scrawny man stops. He slowly turns and looks up at the gun. His face is filled with fear as his cheeks are covered in rapidly freezing tears flowing from under the glasses on his face. The man with the gun looks him over cautiously. The scrawny man looks like he doesn’t know whether to run or scream.
After a long, tense moment…he speaks, calling the man with the gun by name, Lars. He then begins to plead with Lars in fluent norwegian. He begs in terror, reaching out. Lars’ expression goes from skepticism to anger. He raises the gun and blows the mans brains out, splattering the wall behind him. The scrawny man slumps to the snow. Lars stares at him for a moment, making sure he moves no more. Dead. He then slowly begins glancing around the site again, gun at the ready. He hears another noise in the darkness and aims his gun.
Meanwhile, the scrawny man’s hand slowly clenches shut…
Act 1:
Day. The white landscape. A pair of snowmobiles race across the otherwise pristine landscape. One leads the other, while the driver looks back continuously. They come up on a series of buildings equipment and towers. They race past the small wooden sign “United States National Institute Station 4”. On it, someone has defaced the sign with the scrawled title “Outpost 31”. Several bundled individuals, work outside on various projects. Each of them look up as the snowmobiles whiz past. The two of them make a big circuit around the installation. Within, several individuals look out the windows at the noise. Outside, a man working on one of the large snow cats, looks up at the noise, startled. Confused at first, he grows angry. The snowmobiles skid to a stop, their drivers getting off and laughing amongst themselves. The man working on the snowcat storms towards them. A short distance away, a large black man curses under his breath and makes his way over.
The first snowmobile driver claims victory in the race, calling the second by the name Windows. Windows in turn begrudgingly admits he owes him his prize, calling him Palmer. The man who was working on the snowcat storms up to them and begins ranting and raving as he checks over the snowmobiles. It seems no one gave them permission to take them out, least of all just to run a race with them. Windows seems baffled at this claim. Palmer tells the man to calm down, calling him Fuchs. Fuchs stands up and gets in Palmer’s face, ranting the whole time about his Co around. Palmer doesn’t look at him, just tells him to back off. Fuchs continues to push it. Again, Palmer tells him to back off. It almost comes to blows but just before it does, the black man steps in and shoves the two men apart. The two men look like they still want to fight, but neither wants to cross the black man. He orders Windows to take the snowmobiles and lock them up in the garage. Then tells Fuchs to head back to work. Palmer takes this as a personal victory. He asks Plamer what the hell he’s doing, that there’s only one week left till rotation and he gets to go home, that he should cut the shit. Palmer makes a flippant joke that doesn’t seem to go over well. The black man orders him to go see Garry. Palmer shrugs it off but agrees, calling the black man Childs in the process. As palmer walks away, Childs glances up to see a bearded man in a sweatshirt standing in the doorway of one of the shacks, watching. After a moment, he steps back inside and shuts the door. Childs shakes his head and walks towards the main building after Palmer.
Inside the building, the cook Nauls, the meteorologist Bennings and the Geologist Norris discuss the various reasons people snap out in the antarctic as Nauls prepares the food. Nauls seems to think it could be the geological magnetism playing tricks on the mind. Norris, soft spoken, doesn’t think the pole has much influence on the human body, at the very least stressful one, but suggests Blair or Copper would probably know better. Bennings claims that weather always has an adverse affect on people, he theorizes the potential snow storm brewing to be the cause, mentioning reports from the weather station. Nauls thinks it over, and finally decides that Palmer is just cracked in the head. He glances up to see Palmer looking through the door at him, a wide smile on his face. Nauls doesn’t know how to react. After a moment, without another word, Palmer walks on. After a few seconds, Nauls lets out his breath and asks the other two if they think Palmer is the Mel Gibson kind of cracked or the Jack Nicholson kind.
As Palmer walks on he passes the lab where Copper and Blair work on their various projects. Copper locks up the Blood Supply cabinet after taking a sample. Blair finishes typing up a report on his laptop before sending it. Further down, Clark finishes sweeping out the dog kennel, stopping to scratch the dogs before locking it back up. Near the end of the hall, Connant, the Computer Technician, sits in the radio room, fixing a laptop. At last Palmer reaches the room marked “Station Commander”. Palmer opens the door. The older man in a military uniform looks up and gives Palmer an incredulous look. Asking him one word “Again?” Palmer shrugs and steps in, shutting the door behind him.
Act 2:
Night. Lars runs through the camp, looking back and forth as if trying to become adjusted to his position. He looks around wildly. He stops and spins in a circle and holds, listening. The sound of snow crunching can be heard in the darkness. He listens, trying to figure out which way it’s coming from. Slowly, a shadow looms out of the darkness behind him. In terror, his breath heavy, he slowly realizes where it is. He spins and begins firing.
Outpost 31. The men are relaxing in the rec room. Bennings and Windows play a game of fooseball. Fuchs, Childs and Norris play poker. Connant is off to the side reading a book, far from the others. Clark stops to glance through the door before getting a look of annoyance at all the people and moving on. Dr. Copper and Nauls sit in front of the TV arguing over movies. Nauls calls Copper crazy. Childs chimes in and asks if they don’t have anything better to argue over. Copper ignores it and reiterates that the zombie genre of horror movies is outplayed and how it all fell apart in the 80s. He insists that instead of slashers and zombie movies, films should have brought more extraterrestrial terrors out. And Nauls asks him if he means like ET. Copper scoffs, telling him not to even get him started on that movie. He continues anyway. He blames ET for ensuring that studios took no risks on alien movies with a darker bend. That After Alien in 1978 they should have come up with something even better. But thanks to ET, there would be no more memorable alien horror movies for the 80s, unless one wanted to bring up Critters or the Blob. Even then neither of them were comparable to Alien. He goes on to state that had they left ET as the horror movie it was intended to be, horror movies would have been better off instead of the utter wasteland of truely good sci-fi horror movies the 80s were. Childs chimes in that he liked that movie They Live when he was younger. Nauls waves it away and states the less said about John Carpenter, the better.
As the bearded man walks in, the others grow quiet briefly as he looks around. The others kind of glance at him, but he pays them no mind, making his way over to the bar. The energy slowly returns to the room. As it does Palmer comes sauntering into the room. He pats Windows on the shoulder getting his attention. Windows acknowledges him and hands him something. As he does, he switches out with Palmer since he was losing to Bennings anyway. Palmer takes a joint from his pocket and lights it up before he starts playing raucously. At this point Fuchs notices he’s in the room. Childs tries to keep him on the poker game, but Fuchs seems more interested in Palmer. Every noise Palmer makes seems to grate of Fuchs. Fuchs yells for Palmer to keep it down. Palmer glances at him with a smile before returning to the game. Palmer goes right on as if Fuchs had said nothing. Fuchs gets more and more agitated, an last finally folding. He stares daggers through Palmer. Finally, he’s had enough and gets up. Childs sets his cards down, but doesn’t do anything other than watch. Fuchs walks past the foosball table, towards the door. He stops. Most of the other take no notice. Childs watches, as does Windows. The bearded man at the bar takes a drink from his glass, but keeps his eyes locked on the scene.
Fuchs turns and walks up next to Palmer. Fuchs asks him if Antarctica isn’t bad enough. Why he’s got to be doing things to everybody else. He complains to him that since they’re all stuck together for one last week, they can at least be civil and not act like dicks to one another. Palmer ignores him. Fuchs slowly grows angry. He asks if Palmer heard him. Palmer ignores him. He asks him again, again Palmer pretends he’s not even there. Fuchs begins ranting, raising his voice as each thing he says doesn’t get one single reaction out of Palmer. At last he reaches his breaking point, he calls Palmer a doped up pot head and grabs the joint from his mouth. Palmer freezes, his hands on either side of the foosball table, just staring ahead. Fuchs thinks he finally got to him and keeps pushing. Palmer just stares ahead. Palmer’s face is blank, but his hands are shaking. Childs is watching their faces, not noticing Palmer’s hands. The bearded man at the bar sits his glass down.
Within a second it happens, Palmer lashes out and grabs Fuchs, Slamming his head into the foosball table. Fuchs hits the ground like a sack of potatoes. Palmer is already on top of him, punching Fuchs in the face repeatedly. Fuchs can do nothing other than take the beating. Palmer has no emotion on his face at all, he just continues to wail on Fuchs. Childs jumps up as the bearded man leaps over the bar. Childs grabs Palmer’s arm, but Palmer doesn’t even look at him, just shoves him away. The bearded man is on him and grabs Palmer in a headlock and pulls him free. Windows and Bennings help the dazed Fuchs to his feet. His nose is bleeding profusely and is likely broken. Childs berates Palmer and tells him to calm down. Palmer just replies that he is calm, telling Mac to let him go. The bearded man refuses. Copper checks Fuchs over, confirming the broken nose. Fuchs looks up at Palmer, still dazed. Palmer tells him calmly that they aren’t finished yet. Mac pushes Palmer over to the door, and shoves him out into the hall, telling him to walk it off and cool his head. Palmer gets up, straightens his clothes, and walks off like nothing happened. Mac watches him walk down the corridor and out of sight before glancing back at Copper tending to Fuchs. Childs curses under his breath and shakes his head.
Act 3:
Mac and Childs stand in the medical room doorway as Blair crosses the hall from the Lab. He asks if there’s some sort of problem. Childs tells him there was just a scuffle. Mac appologises for interrupting Blair’s work, commenting that its a shame how people tend to get in the way of a good experiment. Blair takes it as a serious statement, missing the edge to Mac’s tone. Mac asks Copper about Fuchs. The Doctor cheerfully confirms that Fuchs will be fine, he just needs to keep his nose out of trouble for a bit. Fuchs groans at the pun. Childs asks rhetorically what’s gotten into Palmer lately. Blair chimes in hat it’s just nervs, rattling of a psychological explanation for the case. Childs tells him that it would just be easier to call it going stir crazy. Blair nods, having never considered something so simple. Mac tells Childs that they should keep an eye on Fuchs and Palmer for the next couple days. Childs agrees and tells Mac a story about one of the men once stationed there. How he started acting just like Palmer. The guy got into a fight with one of the others, then, he up and vanished one day. His journal talked about wanting to go home. They found him the next day. He had stripped down naked, packed a bag and wandered off into the night, apparently trying to walk home. He had frozen to death in hours. Mac states that they better not let a Palmerpop happen as he walks off. Blair chuckles to himself as Childs glance back at him, apparently finding the joke in poor taste. Childs then comments how everybody goes crazy here eventually.
Night. Lars flings a burning wood fragment into the darkness as he takes off running. He rushes into the garage and slams the door, bolting it shut. He hunts through the piles of broken machinery. Something begins pounding on the door as he does. The loud slams reverberate through the garage as Lars looks for something. Again and again and again the beating on the door happens. Lars’ panic grows as he tosses bits a pieces aside. And then he finds it, the red gasoline can. As he pulls it free, he stops. Everything has gotten silent. The pounding has stopped. He slowly looks around him. Every settling piece of debris, every swinging chain, every minute sound around him takes on new meaning. He begins to quickly fumble with his pocket, pulling a flare from it. Quickly lighting it, he holds it out, looking at the darkness around him. The dimly lit, twisted shapes all around him give no comfort. He looks at the door he entered through. It seems to be fine. He looks over at the other door, it also seems to be fine. He briefly looks back and forth between his choices. The second door it is. He sets the flare down on the ground and unscrews the cap of the gasoline tank. He grabs the flare up from the floor and holds it JUST far enough from the can to avoid blowing himself up, but not far enough that he can’t if the need arises. He slowly makes his way across the garage towards the second door. Looking all around, he seems to think that something could pop out at him at any second. It takes him a few moments to get to the door. Setting the can down, he keeps the flare ready as he slowly reaches for the door with his free hand. He undoes the bolt as quietly and slowly as he can manage, hoping he’s not heard. He pauses and looks around again. Still nothing. At last he reaches for the handle. He pulls the door open JUST enough so he can peek out through the crack. All he sees is darkness and the orange glow of fire. He bends down and picks the can up. He stands the psyching himself up. After a deep breath, he flings the door open and darts out into the snow. He charges out into an open space, grips the flare in his teeth and begins up ending the can on the ground. As he frantically dumps the gasoline out, he pants in terror, looking all around him. He makes a large circle of gasoline. Meeting up with the other end, he hurls the can away into the night. With one final look around he backs up and drops the torch. The ring of fire goes up bathing him in the orange light. He looks around at the fire he’s surrounded himself with. He seems relatively happy with this. The smile quickly fades as he realizes he’s not alone. He looks up to see the person standing just outside the circle of flames, staring at him. Just staring. Lars begins breathing heavily as the fear sets in, he quickly unslings the gun from his back and aims. Before he can fire a shot, the person vanishes into the darkness. He looks around, but he can see nothing beyond the light of the fire. And then he hears something and spins. Nothing. It comes from another direction. He spins, still nothing. Again it comes, again again and again, each a new direction. Louder and louder. Until we realize it’s voices whispering his name. Calling out to Lars. Over and over and over. As Lars spins in circles. He begins sobbing until the point where he just cracks and screams out into the night.
Act 4:
Mac sits in Garry’s office, having a drink with him. Garry leans back in the chair at his desk, staring at the ceiling, his shirt untucked and partially buttoned. He chuckles and tells Mac that he had good money on the fact that it was going to be him who was the one to crack. Mac just smiles. Garry sighs and continues rocking. He states that he’s glad time is almost up, but he just know’s he’ll be back next rotation. Mac still says nothing. Garry stares at him for a long moment. Then states that it’s not like they have much choice. Mac confirms this with a nope. Garry goes on to wonder just what the hell the point of sending men out to this place IS. Of all the research they do, he wonders just what the hell it is out here that can’t be done in a warmer climate. He sits up and rambles on about their various works in biology, meteorology, geology, and etc. Of all this stuff, what exactly requires men to sit their asses out in a frozen wasteland and slowly go nuts. He complains about his job of herding ducks and wonders just what the point is. Mac takes another drink, emptying his glass. He sits up and grabs the bottle, intending to fill up another glass. He begins telling Garry a story. About a buddy he had back in one of his units. He tells Garry that this guy was a lifer. Been with the military forever, raised a rank once every two or three decades at best. He tells him that he went all the way back to vietnam. Used to tell stories about it all the time. Mac goes on, stating there was one story he remembered in particular. How they had these stations in the field. You would have the low numbers close to base and higher ones as they went out into the field. The lower the number, the safer you were. But of course, you couldn’t fight charlie if you didn’t go out there. Every victory would give them another station, but of course, the next one would be even harder to claim. After station 29, he said things beyond that were just hell. Men were killed, instantly, just for setting foot passed it at time. The others weren’t totally safe, but 29 was the worst. He then told me, one day, the orders came in. He and his unit were being sent out there, out past 29. The brass wanted an advance. The men heard it as a death sentence. It was at this point that his story trailed off, that he never quite wanted to give details. Just mentioning them, he would get a look in his eyes like nothing you’d ever seen. Mac would push him from time to time. Curiosity. And unfortunetly, one night after some heavy drinking, he got his answer. He told him about a village. Women and children. No men. They were all out hiding in the fields and their tunnels. The men of his unit were terrified, there were out in hell afterall. They rolled into the village and… nothing. Nothing seemed amiss. The women and children didn’t like them there, but they weren’t hostile. The men relaxed a bit. His co decided they would set up shop right there. The bastard figured that if charlie came along, they would be less likely to fire on them with a bunch of meat shields around them. Well, they rested. That night… it happened. They were attacked. Gunfire and darkness. Everywhere. Screaming. They fought. But he said there was this sense of terror. Like the enemy was everywhere. The men were panicking. Like not a damn one of them had been trained at all. All around him, his buddies died, one by one. He said you could hear them, circling in the bushes like animals waiting to strike. This was a man Mac never knew to show fear, but that night, he claimed he felt it to his very core. They fought though. Fought hard. He estimate for every man they got, they got triple that or more. But it took all night. He said, that as the sun began to rise, they slowly began to realize that they had won. Or at least survived. The fighting had stopped. When the sun came up though, they knew it was time to search for dead and wounded. That’s when they found out the truth. They found the bodies of their buddies… and the enemy. Not a single one of them were charlie. Not one was a man. In the dead of night, they had gotten up, armed themselves and attacked. The women and children had attacked. The terrifying animals that attacked them in the dark were the women and children. They had wiped out the village and lost half their unit in the process, including the CO. The brass had won their Outpost 30, but it was mostly pointless as the war ended shortly after. Mac tells Garry that he just sort of stared at him. And said that after that night he never saw a civilian again. And after that, he would always refer to his own concept of hell. A place beyond the borders of hell, when men cease being men and nothing makes sense as in the normal world. But that the bitch of it is, that there would always be someone to push out there to find the next limit. Beyond 30. Mac takes a drink from the glass as Garry sits there, mulling over the story, staring down at his desk. After a moment he chuckles. He looks up at Mac with a smile. Garry asks him that Palmer wasn’t the one who defaced the sign outside, was he. Mac just smiles.
Suddenly from out in the hall there’s screaming. Mac and Garry jump up and rush out to see the problem. They find Bennings in the hall, yelling his head off for help. One by one the rest of the crew appears. Childs, Mac and Garry rush up to Bennings. Garry shakes Bennings out of his stupor. It takes him a moment, but he blinks and begins to talk. He says that he had decided to check on Fuchs before bedtime. But when he went into his room… He simply points through the open door. Mac and Childs slowly enter the room and look on in surprise. Covering the bed, the wall and several feet around is blood. Everywhere, blood. Like someone had been ripped apart. But just blood. The is no body. Childs growls and storms from the room. Mac continues taking in the sight as Copper enters the room, covering his mouth in shock.
Palmer protests as Childs forcefully locks him in one of the supply cages. He angrily calls him a sick son of a bitch and demands to know what happened to Fuchs. Palmer looks at him, baffled and insists he doesn’t know, that he didn’t do anything. Childs calls it bullshit and storms out of the room. Palmer loudly demands to be let out, that he didn’t do anything. One by one the group leaves, Mac and Garry are the last ones. Palmer pleads with Mac to believe him. Mac stares at him silently for a moment, before turning and leaving too. On his way out, he gives Garry a knowing look. Palmer bangs on the cage, yelling to be let out, that he’s innocent. Garry shuts the supply room door and locks it.
Lars sits in the snow, on his jacket, the flames surrounding him keeping him warm enough. He sits there, hand on his gun, waiting. His eyelids are drooping and he seems on the verge of falling asleep. Suddenly there’s a noise that shakes him from his stupor. He looks around and realizes he can see. The sun is almost up. He stands up, looking around but can see nothing but the ruins. At last, he recognizes the sound in the distance. A helicopter. He looks around him in a panic but he sees nothing. He knows that he’s almost out of time. He gains his bearings and finally spots the building he was looking for. Putting his coat back on, he sets himself and dives over the ring of fire. Lars runs as fast as he can, kicking the door open and charging inside. He looks around, making sure he’s alone, then heads for his target. He grabs a crate from under his cot and opens it. Inside is a dozen thermite grenades. He hears a noise behind him, grabs one of the grenades and spins, holding the pin, ready to pull. Nothing. He realizes then that the chopper is landing.
Outside, the pilot lands the chopper in the middle of the camp and looks around in shock at the devastation. Shots ring out and the pilot jumps back as the rounds hit the snow in front of him. He curses loudly in norwegian. He looks up to see Lars advancing on him, thermite grenade in hand. He asks Lars what the hell is going on. Lars calls him Matias and demands to know if he is himself. Matias is confused and tries pleading with Lars. Lars demands to know where Matias came from. Matias is convinced Lars has gone mad at this point. Lars looks him over, seeming to come to his senses. He looks around, asking Matias if he’s seen it. Matias is still confused. Lars slowly closes the distance to Matias, asking how fast he can get help, telling him the radios are dead and the vehicles trashed. Matias fumbles rattling off the distance to the town of Big Magnet and the weather station. Lars yells at him to come up with a straight answer, causing Matias to jump. Matias then answers, the closest help is probably the american station. Lars nods, seemingly considering this the perfect solution. Matias asks Lars what the problem is. Lars smiles at him about to say something, but as he looks up, something catches his eye. His smiles fades as he turns. Matias is confused, but slowly turns to see what he’s looking at. He spots it too. There, a short distance away is a huskie dog, just standing there staring at them. Matias stupidly says “a dog?” Lars whispers a “no.” and with that, the dog takes off like a shot, running away from camp. Lars begins a string of “No”s as he panics, runs back inside, grabs the crate of thermite and runs for the chopper, yelling for Matias to get in, that they have to stop it. Matias is confused, telling Lars that it’s just a dog. Lars screams at him in terror, “That’s not a dog! It’s a THING!”
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