Arcade

Nick crosses to the monitor and flips the "OFF" switch.  He tries it again
and again, but the game won't turn off.

    ALEX
  It's alive, Nick.  It's listening to us ...

Nick spins around, angry, maybe a little freaked out.

    NICK
  Just shut up!  Enough already, okay?

Silence for a moment.  Nick takes a deep breath.  Over-reacted.  After a
moment...

    NICK
  Sorry.  Maybe I need the Valium.

    ALEX
  Call the others.  Laurie, Benz...

Nick acquiesces.  He pulls out his phone and punches in a number.

    NICK
  I'll try Stilts.  He's got insomnia.

Nick and Alex watch each other in silence as the connection is made.  We
can faintly hear the phone RINGING.

No answer.

    NICK
  Okay...Laurie, then.

Alex turns away, sinking to Nick's bed.  All the anger has drained out of
her.  She knows they won't reach them.

ON NICK

As he listens for an answer.  Three RINGS, four, five... He hangs up.
Punches in the final number.

    NICK
  Benz...

Again.  No answer.

Nick hangs up and sets the phone aside.  He looks at Alex.

    ALEX
   (fatalistic)
  Something's happened to them.

    NICK
  It's the middle of the night.  They're
  asleep.  Phone didn't wake them.

    ALEX
  All of them?

Nick shrugs.  He's not willing to accept anything, but he's uncomfortable
all the same.

    NICK
  Look, why are you fucking with me like this?

Alex rises.  She's tired.  Tired and scared.

    ALEX
  Because I didn't know where else to go.

    NICK
   (glances at a clock)
  It's two o'clock in the morning.  Go home.
  Go to sleep.  We'll figure something out in
  the morning.

And then, more for himself than for her.

    NICK
   (continuing)
  It's not this weird.  It'll make sense.
  Everything gets weird this late anyway,
  right?

    ALEX
   (half-hearted)
  Sure.

She turns and climbs back out the window onto the roof. Then she ducks her
head back in.

    ALEX
  If I were you, I'd think twice about playing
  that game again.

Then she's gone.  Nick moves over and watches.

NICK'S P.O.V.

As Alex drops down from the roof and makes her way to Greg's car.  The
streetlight outside is still flickering.

Nick turns back to his room.  Moves back to the monitor and watches the
fractals unfolding.

He gives the "OFF" switch a token try.  Nothing.

THE FRACTALS

We move in on them, losing ourselves in the labyrinth of swirling colors
and we...

        CUT TO:

INT.  HIGH-SCHOOL LIBRARY -- DAY

ALEX

moves down the aisles of books, dwarfed by shelves which reach clear to
the ceiling.  She looks a little haggard, like she hasn't had any sleep.
She turns...

NICK AND STILTS

are sitting at a study cubicle.  Nick looks equally tired, but Stilts is
jawing away.

As Alex joins them, Nick looks up.

    ALEX
  Well?  Where are the others?

Nick shrugs, looking elsewhere.

    STILTS
  Sick?

    ALEX
  Everybody's sick, huh?
   (glances at watch)
  It's fifteen after.  We always meet here,
  you know that.

    STILTS
   (to Nick)
  What's her problem?

    ALEX
  Did you play ARCADE last night?

    STILTS
  Actually, no.  I was just telling Nick,
  here, that my t.v.'s busted...

Alex nods, glaring at Nick.  His reluctance to believe her is
understandable, but the events unfolding are scaring him.

    ALEX
  You want to hear something else, Nick? I
  tried to call them this morning...Greg,
  Benz, Laurie...  Their phones are out of
  order.

Alex reaches into her bag and pulls out a sheet of paper with names on it.

    ALEX
   (continuing)
  And then I started thinking...about everyone
  else that was at Dante's yesterday.  I drew
  up this list. DeLoach, those other jerks ...
  their phones are out of order too.

Stilts starts HUMMING The Twilight Zone theme.

    NICK
   (annoyed)
  So what do you want me to do?

Alex softens, then reaches for Nick's hand.

    ALEX
  We have to find out what's happened to them.
  I think they're gone...

    NICK
  No way.

    ALEX
  If they're sick, great.  But let's make sure.
   (pleading)
  Come on, Nick.

    NICK
  Okay.  We'll see what's up.  But if things
  are cool, I don't want to hear anything more
  about this.  Life's too short, know what I
  mean?

Nick and Alex rise.

    STILTS
  So you guys are cutting school?  Lemme go
  with you.

    NICK
  Just stay here, Stilts.

    ALEX
   (dead serious)
  And don't watch any television.

Stilts thinks Nick and Alex are involved in some sort of joke, but he's
playing along, grinning.

    STILTS
  Oh, okay.  Forget Twilight Zone, now we're
  talking Outer Limits here.  We control your
  horizontal, your vertical...

    NICK
  Just do what she says, Stilts.  And if we're
  not back...

    STILTS
  I'll call the National Guard.  I got it
  under control.
   (giggles)
  Oh, just one more thing.  Is it a
  supernatural thing you guys are going off
  to fight, or is it aliens, like Pod People
  and stuff like that?  Cause there's a
  difference, you know.  One you need garlic
  and silver bullets for, the other...

    NICK
   (irritated)
  Look at me, Stilts.  Am I laughing?

The grins fades from Stilts' face.  Nick is definitely not laughing.

    NICK
  Just do what she said.  Don't watch
  television.

Nick spins around and takes Alex by the arm, leading her away.

        CUT TO:

EXT.  BENZ' HOUSE -- DAY

Nick sits in the passenger seat of Greg's car, glancing across the street
at...

ALEX

She's standing on the front porch of Benz' house, talking with his MOM.
Mom is currently shaking her head.  Alex turns away and heads back towards
Nick.  She comes around the Skylark and pulls open her door.

    NICK
  Well?

    ALEX
  She thought Benz was at school.

Alex remains calm.  She sits for a moment, staring ahead. Finally she puts
the key in the ignition.

    NICK
  Where to now?

    ALEX
  Laurie's.

        CUT TO:

EXT.  LAURIE'S HOUSE -- DAY

Alex pulls the Skylark into Laurie's driveway.  The house is run down.
You wouldn't want to live here.  Above, the sky has clouded over.  It
looks like it's going to get nasty.

    ALEX
  Come on.

Nick follows Alex to the front door and Alex hits the buzzer.

    ALEX
   (to herself)
  Laurie...answer...come on...

Alex tries the buzzer again.  Persistently.

    ALEX
  Shit.

Alex looks close to cracking.  There's a desperation in her face.

    ALEX
  This is like a movie or something.  I mean,
  am I paranoid or what?

    NICK
  It doesn't necessarily mean she's...

    ALEX
   (cutting him off)
  Let's go around back.

Before Nick can stop her, Alex is running around to the back.

EXT.  LAURIE'S HOUSE, BACK PORCH -- DAY

The backyard is in a sorry state, with junk strewn everywhere.  There's a
cannibalized car, piles of scrap wood, and a swing-set that's hopelessly
rusted.

Alex winds her way to the back porch and a set of dusty glass doors.  She
steps up and clears a spot to look through.

    ALEX
   (visibly relieved)
  She's here!

Nick joins her at the window, peering inside.

THEIR P.O.V.

They are looking into a cluttered living room, dark except for the light
that's issuing from the television.  The television faces away from us,
but we can see Laurie, siting in front of it, mesmerized.

LAURIE

She looks like shit.  Wan, with sunken eyes and mussed up hair.  Mascara
has run down her cheeks, and even now, tears are trickling from her eyes.
Yet despite this, there's a dazed smile on her face.  We can't hear her,
but she seems to be talking to the television.

ALEX

steps back a moment, concerned.

    ALEX
  It is the game.

She taps on the window.

    ALEX
  Laurie!

INSIDE,

Laurie continues to watch the screen, oblivious to the rest of the world.

Alex TAPS the harder, using her fist now.

    ALEX
   (louder)
  LAURIE!

Nick joins Alex now, and the two of them are banging on the glass.
There's no way in hell Laurie wouldn't be able to hear them.

Alex steps back from the window again, panicking.

    ALEX
  Nick, what do we do?!

Alex looks around, sees a two-by-four, and snags it.

    NICK
   (realizing)
  No, Alex!  Alex, wait a minute...

Alex swings the two-by-four like a club and SMASH!!!  Down comes the glass
in a shower.

INT. LAURIE'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - DAY

Alex and Nick enter and immediately sense that something is wrong.

The LIGHT from the t.v. screen continues to flicker and a low-pitched
electric HUM permeates the air...the sound a live wire might make.  And
the HUM seems to be mobile too, coursing through the walls...up, down, and
around Alex and Nick.

Nick's eyes try to track the HUM as it races overhead.

    NICK
   (freaked)
  What is it?

And as Nick speaks, his breath escapes his mouth in a frosty plume of
mist.  It's cold in here too.

Laurie, meanwhile, has failed to notice Alex and Nick's arrival.  Alex and
Nick step further in, to get a view of the t.v.

STATIC

fills the screen.  Static and strange WHISPER/VOICES.  It's all
indistinct.

    ALEX
   (shaking Laurie)
  Laurie...wake up...

Laurie's face is a mess.  Tears are running down, but she's grinning all
the same.  It's frightening.

    LAURIE
   (voice distant)
  I am awake.
   (grins wider)
  Don't you see them?

    NICK
  See what?

Laurie points to the t.v. screen.

    LAURIE
  Angels.  There are angels inside.

But we see only static.

    ALEX
  We have to turn it off, Laurie.  I'm turning
  it off...

As Alex reaches for the "OFF" knob, a face coalesces out of the static.
It's Greg again.

    GREG
   (static-laced)
  Alex.  Don't leave me here.

    NICK
  Jesus Christ!

AND ON THE SCREEN,

Greg's face metamorphosizes into ARCADE's!

    ARCADE
   (mocking Greg, electronic)
  "DON'T LEAVE ME HERE".

And even as ARCADE speaks, the VOICE seems to come from all around them,
from the HUMMING coursing through the walls.

Nick backs away from the screen, petrified.

    ARCADE
   (seductive)
  HI, NICK.  READY TO KISS REALITY GOODBYE?

The HUMMING around them has increased.  Laurie begins to shake.

    ALEX
  Change the channel!

    NICK
  What?!

Alex snatches up the remote control and stabs the buttons.

ON SCREEN

Every single channel portrays the fractals. recombining and growing.

The screen flickers and ARCADE's face appear again, reestablishing
control.

    NICK
   (angry, scared)
  Who are you?!

    ARCADE
  GOD.