Arcade

    ALEX
  Can you hang onto my back?

The little boy nods.  He knows that Alex is his only chance of getting out
of here.  Nevertheless, we can tell that he's terrified.  Alex kneels down
next to him.  The wind around them has picked up and the RINGING
increases.  High-pitched, stabbing into our brains.

    ALEX
   (over noise)
  There's a monster here.  We have to kill it
  before we can leave.  That's what we have
  to do.  I know it's scary, but I won't let
  anything happen to you.  Okay?

The boy nods again.

    BOY
  Then we'll go home?

    ALEX
  Then we'll go home.

Alex's wrist display starts BEEPING and...BOOM!  The RINGING is replaced
by the Screamer's shriek.  In the distance, the Screamer is a fireball
spiraling towards the city.

Alex jumps on the motorcycle and pulls the boy up.  He crawls behind her
and hugs her back tightly.

    ALEX
   (pulling down her visor)
  Here goes everything.

She fingers the throttle and the cycle ROARS to life.  It rockets off the
incline and down into the tunnels.

A SERIES OF SHOTS

as Alex maneuvers the cycle through a forest of concrete. It's a harrowing
ride, as her headlight reveals little of what's up ahead.  Somewhere above
the tunnels, the Screamer has arrived.  In the course of the chase, it's
SHRIEK will become louder and louder as it draws closer, locating Alex.

ANOTHER CYCLE

appears out of side tunnels and a chase is on.  The RIDER is dressed in
black with glowing death's head masks.

    BOY
   (to Alex)
  Dark Riders!  If they touch us, we're dead!

The tunnels get narrower and narrower, as Alex keeps pushing the limit off
the bike.

Rider #1 tries to cut Alex off, charging forward and ramming her bike...

Alex almost loses it, but finds balance once again, sweeping left and up
the side of a circular tunnel...

RIDER #1

bites it.  His cycle careens into the wall and EXPLODES in a shower of
GREEN LIGHT.  The death's head tumbles away, spinning end over end.  The
Screamer BLASTS over the remains of the Rider, having entered the tunnels.

TWO MORE RIDERS APPEARS

gaining on Alex.  Rider #2 pulls a staff from his back and thrusts it
forward like a lance.  CHINK!  The staff hits Alex's rear wheel, nearly
throwing her.  The rider pulls off a gloved and reaches a glowing,
skeletal hand towards them.  Death touch.  The boy SCREAMS in terror.

UP AHEAD,

a wall is rushing to meet them.  Alex jams the breaks and slides/skids
sideways, cutting right at the last possible moment...

WHAM!!!  Rider #2 slams into the end wall, not able to negotiate the turn.
Another EXPLOSION of green and the second death's head comes tumbling
away.

Alex looks back.  There should be one Rider left, only now their are
three!  Alex guns the bike and cuts sharply to the right...

NEW TUNNEL --

Alex SCREECHES to a stop, having found yet another fork. The tunnel
branches off into two directions.  Two neon signs with arrows point in
opposite directions.

NEON SIGNS

They read, "THIS WAY" and "THAT WAY". Alex checks her wrist display.  Not
much time left.

    ALEX
  Which way?

    BOY
   (pointing)
  That way.

Alex backs up the cycle and heads down the tunnel marked "THIS WAY"
instead.

    ALEX
  Sorry.

THE TUNNEL

It narrows almost immediately.  Alex hears a ROAR, glances behind her, and
sees four death's head RIDERS on her tail. She makes another turn...

AHEAD,

is a crumbling brick wall with the words "WRONG WAY" painted in blood-red.

    BOY
   (screaming)
  It's the wrong way!

    ALEX
   (over the noise)
  In this world, wrong is right!

SUDDENLY,

the tunnel behind them flares with light, shaking like an earthquake.  The
Screamer has found them.

A KEY

hangs out from the wall, sort of like the brass ring on a merry-go-round.
Alex snags it as she sweeps by.

THE SCREAMER

rockets around the corner, twisting down the narrow tunnel.

Alex grinds the motorcycle forward for all it's worth, and the Screamer is
literally breathing down her neck.  She turns corner after corner, faster
and faster, scraping the bike into the scum-covered walls and shooting out
showers of SPARKS.  If she takes one second too long to negotiate a turn,
pauses for even an instant, the Screamer will be on them...

A CLAWED HAND

lashes out and tears away the cycle's tail-pipe.  Another hand takes out a
chunk of the seat...

THE BOY

is WAILING, curling low to avoid the Screamer's claws...

AHEAD,

the tunnel narrows to a dead-end.  Alex and the Screamer are on a
collision course.  A hundred miles an hour and gaining...

The Screamer LASHES out again, gouging a bloody gash in Alex's shoulder
and cutting clear through her armor.  It's claws sink into her flesh,
latching on.  Alex CRIES OUT in pain, her face contorted into a mask of
agony and fear. She pulls out a knife with her left hand a stabs blindly
into the monster...

THE SCREAMER

LURCHES forward onto the motorcycle and opens its jaws wide.  Black saliva
and ooze flow from it's mouth splashing over Alex's shoulder's and neck.
It's going to bite her head off.  It's going to...

Alex and the Screamer SLAM into the dead-end and a spectacular fireball of
GREEN LIGHT consumes the screen.

"LEVEL NINE -- THE GHETTO OF GREED"

        CUT TO:

EXT. LEVEL NINE, CRUMBLING HONG KONG GHETTO -- NIGHT

We're on a dark, crowded street lined by decrepit tenements which are
caving in upon themselves.

There is a flash of GREEN LIGHT.  Alex and the boy suddenly appear on the
street in a whirlwind of papers, sans motorcycle, but still sliding
forward at a good thirty miles an hour.  Were it not for their armor,
they'd be torn to shreds.  They skid to a stop under a sputtering
streetlight.

Alex and the boy are still SCREAMING.  Anguish is the word for Alex.  She
clutches her shoulder which is gushing blood and stumbles to her feet.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!!!!!!

It's her fucking wrist display again and TIME-IS-FUCKING-UP!

Alex SCREAMS, pushed to the absolute breaking point.

BOOM!  Once again the streets begin to vibrate as the Screamer enters the
level.

    BOY
  It's here!!!

    ALEX
   (manic)
  Oh God...oh god...

THE STREETS --

Impoverished PEOPLE bustle back and forth everywhere. Alex grabs the boy's
hand and all but drags him down the darkened streets.  It becomes a mad,
blind dash through Hell.  She SMASHES into peddlers, stalls, tripping over
or knocking down everything in her path...

The SHRIEK/SONIC BOOM of the Screamer overwhelms everything else.  With
each level, it's gotten louder and louder. Wind is tearing down the
streets...

A BLACK-CLAD FIGURE

spins out of the shadows, landing in front of them.  It's a Ninja, two
swords spinning in its hands.

Instinctively, Alex reaches to her side, and sure enough, there's a gun
there now.  She unholsters it and FIRES in a blind panic.

BLAM!  Down goes the Ninja #1, spouting blood from its chest.

THWUNK!  THWUNK!!!  Two throwing stars imbed themselves into Alex's
chest-plate...

...and Jesus-fucking-Christ, Ninjas are crawling out of the wood-work!
They dive out of the shadows, weapons spinning and glistening in the
moonlight.  Throwing stars are flying like hail now, CLINKING! into the
concrete walls behind Alex and the boy...

    ALEX
  Shit!!!

ALEX

spins around, shooting indiscriminately into the crowd of bodies.  BLAM!
BLAM!  BLAM!  Ninjas fall right and left, but in no time, twice as many
move in to take their place. They're like the hornet's nest of Alien
monsters, black-clad shadows creeping towards them.

A shot hits the streetlight above, casting a sputtering, strobing light
over the whole scene and adding to the chaos.

The world is shaking apart.  It's the end of everything. It's flashes of
light and noise, nightmares and blood, chaos heaped on chaos...

Alex FIRES her gun again and again and again...

...and in the midst of this mess, here comes the Screamer again.  It
shoots down the street like a guided missile.