PITCH BLACK

     EXT. SETTLEMENT - DAY

     He's walking the ghost town, finding dead gardens...upended
     chairs and furniture...broken skylights. Behind his back...

     Audrey and Pilgrim #3 (the youngest Chrislam) scurry through
     FRAME, stalking this curious monster in their midst.

     EXT. MOISTURE-RECOVERY UNIT - SETTLEMENT - DAY

     CLOSE on the other Chrislams, faces charged with anticipation
     while awaiting...

     The first drop of water. It appears at the bottom of a pipette.

     Tongues fight for it. Another drop forms in its place. Now
     another and another. It brings CHEERS.

     INT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

     CLOSE on Paris' hands. Getting ready to celebrate, he unwraps
     crystal goblets...dusts off the refectory table...and rehangs an
     old Christmas garland. INTERCUT WITH...

     EXT. CORING ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

     Hands digging in dirt.

     Covertly, Audrey and Pilgrim #3 watch Riddick digging near the
     entrance of a tall windowless structure.

     He excavates a pair of broken eyeglasses... a shattered light...
     and a child's tin robot, timeless. Riddick thumbs a solar panel
     clean. The robot's language program warbles to life:

                              ROBOT
               "...to all intruders. I am the guardian
               of this land. I will protect my masters
               at all cost. Death to all intruders..."

     Riddick stands and tries the doors. Locked. He peers through a
     small filthy window. Is there something moving inside? Nothing
     now. Riddick removes some windblown trash from a doorside sign.
     "Coring Room."

                              JOHNS (O.S.)
               Missin' the party. C'mon.

     It's Johns, keeping him on a short leash. Leaving, Riddick kicks
     a trash bin. Hard.

                              RIDDICK
               Missin' the party. C'mon.

     He leaves. HOLD on the trash bin a beat.

                              AUDREY (O.S.)
               Talkin' to me?

     INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

     PILGRIM'S POV: Of Audrey exiting the trash bin and running after
     Riddick and Johns.

     Pilgrim #3 is at the window of the coring room. He's found a way
     inside. By the window's feeble light, he starts exploring. Just
     visible at the center of this room is a vertical coring drill.

     INT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

                              IMAM
               ...and for this, our gift of drink, we
               give thanks in the name of our Prophet,
               Muhammad, peace be upon him, and to our
               Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and to his
               father, Allah the Compassionate and the
               Merciful.

                              PARIS
                         (to himself)
               The strangest religion....

     Pilgrims finish pouring cloudy water into goblets. Riddick gets
     the last of it -- the part with sediment. SELECTED CLOSEUPS as
     they drink. Nothing ever tasted finer.

                              PARIS
               Perhaps we should toast our hosts. Who
               were these people, anyway? Miners?

                              SHAZZA
               Looks like geologists. Advance team,
               moves around from rock to rock.

                              JOHNS
               Musta crapped out here, huh?

                              AUDREY
               But why did they leave their ship?

     Silence. It's a question no one has chosen to deal with yet.
     Imam notices one water glass unspoken for.

     EXT. CORING ROOM - DAY

     CLOSE on the "Coring Room" sign. An attached solar panel begins
     moving, orienting toward sunlight. When it catches the full
     brunt of the suns' rays...

     STORM SHUTTERS unlatch on the roof.

     INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

     Pilgrim #3 hears SHOOTING LATCHES overhead. That sound brings
     another sound: A strange SKITTERING. The pilgrim looks up. Is
     there something in the rafters?

     INT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

                              JOHNS
                         (answering Audrey)
               Well, just a skiff. Disposable, really.

                              PARIS
               Like an emergency life-raft, right?

                              SHAZZA
               Sure. Coulda had a real drop-ship take
               them off-planet. Long gone.

                              PARIS
               A toast to their ghosts, then....

     Goblets rise.

                              RIDDICK
               Didn't leave, these people. Whatever got
               Zeke got them. They're all dead.

     It's like he just pissed in the punchbowl.

                              RIDDICK (CONT'D)
               What, you don't really think they left
               with their clothes on the lines? Photos
               on the walls?

                              SHAZZA
               Maybe they had weight limits, you don't
               know.

                              RIDDICK
               I know you don't uncrate your emergency
               ship unless there's a fucking emergency.

                              JOHNS
               Rag it, Riddick. Nobody wants your
               theories on --

                              FRY
                         (to Riddick)
               So what happened? Where are they, then?

     Fry is the only one willing to look at reality -- or at least
     glance its way. At the window, Imam scans outside.

                              IMAM
               Has anyone seen the young one? Ali?

                              RIDDICK
                         (to Fry and Imam)
               Has anyone checked the coring room?

     INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

     Now the storm shutters start yawning open, spreading daylight
     over Pilgrim #3 and...

     The ceiling rafters. They're encrusted with thick nests of...
     something. The SKITTERING grows louder, more agitated.

     Sensing trouble, Pilgrim #3 hurries for a sliver of daylight in
     a wall -- the breach he entered through. He never gets there:

     Sunlight hits the first nest. It EXPLODES WITH LIFE.

     INT./EXT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

     As Imam hears the SCREAM.

                              IMAM
               Ali....

     INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

     CHAOTIC SHOTS: More NESTS EXPLODE into individual creatures,
     winged hatchlings moving like bats in a fire, talons hacking and
     slashing. His exit blocked, Pilgrim #3 veers into...

     A dark supply room. He slams the door, MUMBLES A BLESSING and
     waits for the storm to pass. He's been cut -- but at least he's
     still alive.

     EXT. SETTLEMENT - DAY

     As the survivors run for the coring room.

     INT. MAIN ROOM - SETTLEMENT - DAY

     As Riddick stays behind to drink their water.

     INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

     HINGES ARE BLASTED AWAY. The door caves in. Imam shoulders
     past Johns to enter and find...

     The empty coring room.

                              IMAM
               Ali?

     A NOISE from the supply room. Is it Ali? Just too scared to
     come out? Imam opens the door...

     And hatchlings pour out.

     Moving with a gang-intelligence, they circle the room in a wave,
     soar high into the rafters -- then plunge into the coring shaft,
     SQUEALS VANISHING to infinity. Shocked silence, then...

     Pilgrim #3 tumbles to the ground. He's been shredded into bloody
     kite-tails. There was a nest inside the supply room.

     Imam falls on him in grief. Johns and Fry inch forward to peer
     down...

     The coring shaft. It's littered with human bones. The skeletons
     of the settlers. Scattered about and picked clean.

     EXT. SETTLEMENT - DAY

     Against a blue sunrise, the Chrislams hold a prayer service.
     Paris and Audrey attend. Riddick watches from afar.

     INT. CORING ROOM - DAY

                              SHAZZA
               Why was the door chained up? Why the
               bloody hell would they lock themselves in
               like that?

                              JOHNS
               Not sure, but tell you what: Chrislams
               better not be diggin' another grave out
               there.

                              RIDDICK (O.S.)
               Other buildings weren't secure...

     They turn. Riddick enters.

                              RIDDICK (CONT'D)
               ...so they ran here. Heaviest doors.
               Thought they'd be safe inside, but...
                         (looks down shaft)
               Someone forget to lock the back door.

     Shazza joins him at the shaft. Gazing on the human remains:

                              SHAZZA
               So that's what come of me Zeke. An' you
               saw it. You was right there.

     Riddick nods.

                              SHAZZA (CONT'D)
               You were tryin' to kill him too.

                              RIDDICK
                         (shrugging, "not
                          necessarily")
               Just wanted his O-2.
                         (a beat)
               Though I notice he tried to ghost my ass.
               When he shot up that stranger instead.

     Shazza can't deny it. She looks at him differently now, the man
     she once beat while in chains. She takes off her breather.

                              SHAZZA
               Take it.

                              RIDDICK
                         (suspicious)
               What, it's broken?

                              SHAZZA
               Startin' to acclimate, anyhow. Take it.

     Riddick accepts it awkwardly, sucks down some pure O2. Johns
     watches the exchange closely, not much liking the idea of Riddick
     being promoted to oxygen-breathing human.

                              JOHNS
                         (to Fry)
               Let's board this up and get the hell gone.
               They seem to stick to the dark, so if we
               stick to daylight, should be all --

                              FRY
               60 years ago.

                              JOHNS
               Wha'?

     Coring samples line the room, laid out on counters. Fry's been
     scrutinizing them.

                              FRY
               Core-samples are dated. Last one is 60
               years ago. This month.

                              SHAZZA
               Yeah? What's special about that?

                              FRY
               Dunno. Maybe nothing, but....

     But now Fry remembers...

     INT. LIVING QUARTERS - SETTLEMENT - DAY

     The orrery. The year-counter clicks over to "45" as...

     Fry opens the drive box and starts turning the main gear,
     accelerating the orbits.

     CLOSE on the counter. "56...57...58...59...60."

     They all see it: A giant ringed world eclipses the suns and
     plunges their planet into darkness. Persistent darkness.

                              JOHNS
               Are you fuckin' kidding me?

                              RIDDICK
               Not afraid of the dark, are you?

     EXT. SETTLEMENT - DAY

     Crossing the yard in wide strides:

                              FRY
               ...need those cells from the crash ship.
               Shit, still gotta check out the hull,
               patch the wings --

                              JOHNS
               Let's wait on the power cells.

                              FRY
               Wait for what? Until it's so dark we
               can't even find our way back to --

                              JOHNS
               We're not sure when it happens, so let's
               not --

                              FRY
               Get the fucking cells over here, Johns.
               What's the discussion?

     A beat.

                              JOHNS
               Ever tell you how Riddick escaped?

     INT. SKIFF - DAY

     Alone inside the skiff, Johns and Fry continue with more privacy.

                              FRY
                         (jarred)
               He can pilot?

                              JOHNS
               Hijacked a prison transport, made a
               helluva good run 'fore I tracked him down.

                              FRY
                         (with faint hope)
               Okay, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe I
               can use him to help with --

                              JOHNS
               He also figured out how to kill the pilot,
               Fry.

     A mental shiver.

                              FRY
               You said we were going to trust him now.
               You said there was a deal.

                              JOHNS
               That's what I said.

     He challenges her to read his mind.

                              FRY
               Oh, this is a dangerous game you're
               playing, Johns.