46 & 2 Issue Seventeen

Black Dawn

46 & 2 Issue 17:

By

Zachary Smith

PAGE 1.  PANEL 1.

Chino is waving bye to Sho.  It is night in San Francisco.  The boys were at the top of a hill, near a park. 

Chino:  “I’ll let you know how the first day of work went.” 

Sho:  “Steal me some food.”

Chino:  “Yeah, and get fired on the first day.  Wait a couple weeks at least, and I’ll pay you back for this cash.”

Sho:  “When you can.  Later.”

PAGE 1.  PANEL 2.

Chino is riding the BART, he has his head phones on, he has selected “I’m On Fire,” the Bats for Lashes version.

Song:  “Hey little boy, is your mama home?  Did she go and leave you all alone, no?  Got a bad desire.  Ooohooohooooh, I’m on fire. 

PAGE 1.  PANEL 3.

Chino is exiting the BART tunnel.

Song:  “Tell me now baby is she good to you, can she do to you the things that I do.  Oh, I can take you higher.  Ooohooohooooh, I’m on fire”

PAGE 1.  PANEL 4.

Chino is walking to the apartment.

Song:  “Sometimes its like someone took a knife baby, edgy and blunt, put a six inch valley through the middle of my soul.” 

PAGE 1.  PANEL 5. 

Chino is opening the door.

Song:  “Oh, at night I lay at home with the sheets soaking wet, and a freight train running through the middle of my head.”

Chino:  “Scorpio?  You here?  You didn’t answer my text.”

PAGE 1.  PANEL 6.

Chino hits the light switch, but just a shot of his hand finding the switch.

PAGE 2.  SPLASH PAGE.

The burning man has a gun to the back of Chino’s head as Chino looks on at Scorpio, beaten and bloody on the ground.  There is a lot of blood.  There are papers strewn about everywhere, B.M. has been reading.

Song:  “But you, you cool my desire.”

B.M.:  “We’ve been waiting for you.”

Song:  “Ooohooohooooh, I’m on fire”

PAGE 3.  PANEL 1.

Chino has fallen to the ground, not sure what to do about Scorpio.  B.M. continues to hold his gun to the back of Chino’s head, waiting.

B.M.:  “He tried to fight me.  Didn’t want me to read about you.  But that’s not what got me interested.  As soon as I found this one, something was different.  It was almost as if what I’d been looking for for these past few years was almost in my grasp.”

Song:  “Sometimes its like someone took a knife baby, edgy and blunt, put a six inch valley through the middle of my soul.”

PAGE 3.  PANEL 2.

Chino has put his hands over Scorpio, closed his eyes, and is thinking while B.M. talks.

B.M.:  “So we came here, and it was there again.  A feeling of nearing completion.  Trying to find something for all these years, and I’m so close.  Now I know.  It’s you.”

“Oh, at night I lay at home with the sheets soaking wet, and a freight train running through the middle of my head.”

PAGE 3.  PANEL 3.

B.M. still holds the gun over Chino.  Chino is muttering to himself.

B.M.:  “I’ve seen you in my dreams, and you’ve seen me in yours.  I can sense it.  That hand of yours, I remember grabbing something in a dream once.  I tried to pull, and pull, but it wouldn’t budge.”

Song:  “But you, you calm my desire.”

PAGE 3.  PANEL 4.

B.M. lowers the gun.  Chino’s eye bust open in surprise.

B.M.:  “Go ahead.  Heal him.  I’ve read you can do it.  Come on, just like you did me.”

Chino: “What?”

PAGE 3.  PANEL 5.

B.M. stands behind Chino, flame erupting around him, like when the missile burst.

B.M.:  “You’re blood running through me, saved me.  Kept me alive.  Showed me my purpose.”

Song:  “Ooohooohoooh I’m on fire.”

PAGE 4.  PANEL 1.

B.M. lifts Chino off the ground, has pulled him towards himself.  Chino’s feet hang off the ground.

B.M.:  “Who’d have thought it’d be a little runt like you.  I thought it was something divine, or maybe some freak chemical.  This whole time it was a piss ant little cry baby.  Been reading you’re file, the only thing you do more than fucking up is crying about it.”

PAGE 4.  PANEL 2.

Chino hits him and B.M. goes flying back against the door.

Chino:  “Hehe.  That must be someone else you’re talking about.”

PAGE 4.  PANEL 3.

B.M. has his guns out, and is pointing them at Chino and Scorpio.

B.M.:  “Move one inch and he’s dead.”

Chino:  “Don’t give a shit.”

B.M.:  “How about yourself?  I don’t think you’re bulletproof, not in this state.”

PAGE 4.  PANEL 4.

Chino hesitates.  Both guns are now pointed at him.

B.M.:  “That’s what I thought.  You don’t even know what you can and can’t do.  Like you’re different people, is what he wrote.  Each side having some different ability.  That was obviously your super strength.”

PAGE 4.  PANEL 5.

Chino is growing impatient.  B.M. has started to stand, his gun on Chino.

Chino:  “You bought the trading card, good for you.  What do you want?”

B.M.:  “Since I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you, I thought it’d be wrong to kill you.  But seeing all the shit you’ve caused, the people you’ve killed—“

Chino:  “You’re one to talk.”

B.M.:  “Innocent people you’ve killed, maybe I’d be doing the world a favor.  So how about we play a game.”

PAGE 5.  PANEL 1.

They are almost standing face to face, but with the B.M.’s guns in between them.

Chino:  “Don’t like playing anything where I can’t win.”

B.M.:  “You can win or lose.”

Chino:  “What?”

B.M.:  “Everything.”

PAGE 5.  PANEL 2. 

His left hand is putting the gun away.  They don’t get any closer to each other.

Chino:  “You playing?”

B.M.:  “Have to, it’s no fun with one person.”

Chino:  “What do you win?”

B.M.:  “Same as you.”

Chino:  “Everything?”

B.M.:  “Exactly.”

Chino:  “What’s the game?”

PAGE 5.  PANEL 3.

B.M. holds a .38 snub nose revolver in his left hand.

B.M.:  “Take a guess.”

PAGE 5.  PANEL 4.

Chino looks frightened.

B.M.:  “Come on, you’re not game?  You scared?  You killed somebody, this would only be fair.”

Chino:  “A-and you?  You’ve killed people too.”

B.M.:  “That’s why I’m willing to play.  Since I was saved, I figure I was done so for a reason, and I’ve barely started.”

PAGE 5.  PANEL 5.

Chino looks confused, his hand to his head.

Chino:  “Wha-what are you talking about, who are you?”

B.M.:  “Perfect timing, Lenny.”

Chino:  “My names not…”

B.M.:  “Not Lenny, Fei.  I know.  Think for a moment, and you’ll remember what I was talking to your other self about.”

PAGE 6.  PANEL 1.

Sho is walking around a park, looking at the sky.  There is shadowy figure, not close to him, but not very far away.  Quietly approaching him.

PAGE 6.  PANEL 2.

Sho does not turn around.  The figure stops.

Sho:  “I know you’re there.  I know you’re like me.  I can’t read you, which is impressive.  What do you want?”

Scarlettt:  “Help.”

PAGE 6.  PANEL 3.

Scarlettt comes out of the shadow.  She is in ragged clothes, and flip flops.  She looks like she has never seen light before.  Sho has turned around to face her.

Sho:  “You’re one of them.  The missing ones.”

Scarlettt:  “No, not lost.  Never existed.  Can’t be lost if you were never there.”

PAGE 6.  PANEL 4.

Scarlettt collapses, and Sho goes to grab her.

PAGE 6.  PANEL 5.

Sho holds her up, but she has fainted.

Sho:  “This is going to look interesting on the BART.”

PAGE 7.  PANEL 1.

Chino and B.M. sit at a table across from each other.  The .38 snub nose sits on the table between them.  B.M. sits back, calm and relaxed.  Chino is nervous, hunched forward. 

B.M.:  “Nervous?  How about we add another dimension to this.  A bit of confession always helps the soul at this point.  So close to the end, you might need to get some things off your chest.”

Chino:  “You know everything I’ve done.”

PAGE 7.  PANEL 2.

B.M. is holding the gun, opening the cylinder. 

B.M.:  “Hmmm.  I know what you’ve done recently.  But we all have those little secrets.  Also, it would make me feel better if you’ve done something awful, and then you die.  Something you can’t blame on some alternate personality shit.  Something real.”

Chino:  “And you?”

PAGE 7.  PANEL 3.

B.M. is emptying the cylinder, five bullets are being emptied onto the table.

B.M.:  “What would you like to hear about:  The kids in Baltimore, the bikers in Detroit, the—“

Chino:  “None of that.  I want to hear about before as well.  Something that you can’t blame on me.  What you did while you were in Iraq.”

B.M.:  “Hnnn.”

PAGE 7.  PANEL 4.

B.M. puts one bullet into the Cylinder.  He is looking at Chino as he does so.

Chino:  “Deal?”

PAGE 7.  PANEL 5.

Tight shot of B.M. spinning the cylinder. 

PAGE 7.  PANEL 6.

B.M. has put the cylinder against his head.

B.M.:  “Deal.”

PAGE 8.  PANEL 1.

The desert surrounding Bagdad.  4 soldier are walking along a desert path, near a cliff.

B.M. (caption):  “We were doing insurgents checks on the outskirts of Bagdad, ten miles out, checking for some Iraqi’s who had gotten away with a military vehicle.”

PAGE 8.  PANEL 2.

B.M. is in the lead.  He has on goggles and a bandana or piece of cloth blocking his face.  Still want to avoid identifying his ethnicity.  There is something making sounds next to them in the brush. 

B.M. (caption):  “We would fan out every couple of miles to see where the tracks were leading too.  On this check, I ran into something very…”

PAGE 8.  PANEL 3.

He has gotten into the prone position.  Something is parting the brush next to them.

B.M. (caption):  “…peculiar.”

PAGE 8.  PANEL 4.

The brush is parted and the possible enemy is revealed to be a puppy.  All the soldiers are laughing, except B.M., he has simply lowered his weapon.

B.M. (caption):  “You run into strays a lot, and mostly we just shoot ‘em.  Put them out of their misery, today was different though.”

PAGE 8.  PANEL 5.

All the soldier are playing with the dog, he is reveling in the attention.

B.M. just looks on, removed from it.

B.M.(caption):  “They were having a good time, and we don’t have too many of those occasions there.”

PAGE 8.  PANEL 6. 

B.M. has now bent down to pet the puppy.

B.M. (caption):  “I knew the time had to end though.  These guys get soft for too long and it could mean death.  Plus, we can’t have dogs on the base, and no way any of us wanted to carry the thing back those ten miles.”

PAGE 8.  PANEL 7.

B.M. has grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck, and is looking at it eye level.

B.M.:  “Cute thing.”

PAGE 9.  SPLASH PAGE.

B.M. is throwing the dog off of the cliff.

B.M. (caption):  “Fun had to end sometime.”

PAGE 10.  PANEL 1.

B.M. has the gun against his head.

B.M.:  “Let’s see if I deserve to die for that.”

PAGE 10.  PANEL 2.

B.M. pulls the trigger, but there is a click, not a bang.

PAGE 10.  PANEL 3.

B.M. is handing the gun over to Chino, his other hand is reaching into his cloak.

B.M.:  “Guess God isn’t an animal lover.  Your turn.”

PAGE 10.  PANEL 4.

Chino looks at the gun, B.M. has taken one of his pistols out and is pointing it at Chino.

B.M:  “Just in case you’re thinking about using that on me, I’ve got one in the chamber already.”

PAGE 10.  PANEL 5.

Chino looks determined, he is spinning the cylinder.

PAGE 10.  PANEL 6.

Chino has slammed the cylinder back into the gun.

PAGE 10.  PANEL 7.

Chino has put it against his head.

Chino:  “My turn.”

PAGE 11.  PANEL 1.

Chino is young, sitting in Church, about nine years old.  There is a preacher on the pulpit, but not Joshua Connor.  An older, white gentleman.  People in the service are clapping and nodding in agreement.

Chino (caption):  “I hate church.  I always have, even before this happened.  I hated being forced to do something that should have been voluntary.  Anyway, we used to have this preacher, piece of shit.”

PAGE 11.  PANEL 2.

The man was on the pulpit is talking in a joyful manner.

Chino (caption):  “Give you three guesses what this asshole did, and the first two don’t count.”

PAGE 11.  PANEL 3.

Kids are playing outside, on the churchyard. 

The preacher is playing hopscotch with a young, Hispanic girl.

Chino (caption):  “Not all of us.  He never touched me.  None of them talked about it, but I knew something was wrong because of what I can do.  I knew things weren’t right.  And you want to know what I did?”

PAGE 11.  PANEL 4.

Chino walks away from the Preacher as he comes towards him.

Chino (caption):  “I ran.  Anytime he got near.  I could sense that a lot of the kids were afraid of him, and when I tried to read them, in the capacity that I could back then, it was nothing but horrible images, and shame.”

PAGE 11.  PANEL 5.

Chino is eating in a restaurant with his mom.  A younger Joshua Connor is there eating in the booth across from them.  Chino is staring at him.

Chino (caption):   “I didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t know if these were my own thoughts, or theirs.  Was it real?  I didn’t want to get him in trouble if he hadn’t done anything.”

PAGE 11.  PANEL 6.

Joshua makes a funny face at Chino.

Chino (caption):  “I was out to eat with my mom when I met the man who would change my life.”

PAGE 11.  PANEL 7.

A fight has broken out between a bigger man and a smaller man.

PAGE 12.  PANEL 1.

Everyone is scared.  Chino has huddled up next to his mom.  Joshua sees how scared Chino is.

PAGE 12.  PANEL 2.

The younger guy is getting his butt kicked.

PAGE 12.  PANEL 3.

Joshua shoves the bigger guy off, putting himself between the big man and the small man.

PAGE 12.  PANEL 4.

The big man tries to get in Joshua’s face, and seem intimidating.

Chino (caption):  “I’d never seen anyone so fearless.  He could handle anything.  Maybe…”

PAGE 12.  PANEL 5.

Joshua cowers the bigger man by yelling right back at him, even though he was smaller.

Chino (caption):  “…he could fix my problem.  If I was too big of a coward, I could fine somebody who wasn’t.”  

PAGE 12.  PANEL 6.

Joshua is outside having a cigarette, Chino has wandered away from his mom.

PAGE 12.  PANEL 7.

Chino pulls on Joshua’s shirt, and Joshua looks down at him, Chino is beckoning him to come down to his height.

PAGE 12.  PANEL 8.

Chino whispers in his ear.  Joshua’s expression is normal.

PAGE 12.  PANEL 9.

Chino whispers in his ear.

Joshua appears very angry.

PAGE 13.  PANEL 1.

Chino is talking with the gun against his head.

Chino:  “That’s how I got rid of the bad guy, and got the good guy.  All the while I could have gotten rid of him much sooner if I wasn’t so fucking scared.”

Chino:  “Let’s see if God hates cowards.”

PAGE 13.  PANEL 2.

Chino eyes and mouth are clenched shut, he squeezes the trigger.

PAGE 13.  PANEL 3.

There is a click, but nothing happens.

PAGE 13.  PANEL 4.

Chino looks relieved.

B.M.:  “Hand it here.  I guess that counts.  Good thing you got rid of the kiddie fucker.”

PAGE 13.  PANEL 5.

B.M. spins the cylinder.

B.M.:  “Kids are a wonderful thing, aren’t they?”

PAGE 13.  PANEL 6.

B.M. has the gun pointed against his head.

B.M.:  “Except for when they’re trying to kill you.”

PAGE 14.  PANEL 1.

Night, inner city Bagdad.  A soldier kicks in a door. 

PAGE 14.  PANEL 2.

Other soldiers coming rushing in through the door, they have night vision goggles on, and there are tracer lasers emitting light from the tops of their rifles. 

People are starting to scatter in the foreground. 

B.M.:  “We had a tip that their was a suicide bomber hiding out, waiting to carry out their plans.”

PAGE 14.  PANEL 3.

B.M. with night vision goggles, and rifle in hand is walking down a hallway. 

B.M (caption):  “The family had all been sleeping in the same room.”

B.M. (caption):  “When they scattered, we each picked one to follow.”

PAGE 14.  PANEL 4.

B.M. has his sights on a man strapping on a bomb.

B.M (caption):  “I was the lucky one.”

PAGE 14.  PANEL 5.

Tight shot of his finger almost fully squeezing the trigger.

B.M. (caption):  “Asshole didn’t even care that he’d kill his whole family in the process.”

PAGE 14.  PANEL 6.

A smaller figure is running at B.M. as he is turning around to meet the smaller figure.

B.M. (caption):  “I heard something coming towards me and reacted out of instinct.”

PAGE 15.  PANEL 1.

B.M. has shot a kid through the head.  He is seeing it through his night vision goggles.

B.M. (caption):  “He didn’t care that he was going to kill his whole family, but when I did it, he lost his concentration.”

PAGE 15.  PANEL 2.

The suicide bomber, bomb not yet strapped to his chest, has tackled B.M.

PAGE 15.  PANEL 3.

B.M. is struggling underneath the man, as the man is trying to choke him.

B.M.:  “I should have shot him with that bullet.  It’s who it was meant for, until I fucked it up.”

PAGE 15.  PANEL 4.

B.M. is looking at the man through the night vision goggles.  His face all anger and fury.

PAGE 15.  PANEL 5.

The face of the man has changed, panic, shock, sadness.

B.M. is cutting the man’s throat.

B.M. (caption):  “I don’t regret the second kill at all.”

PAGE 15.  PANEL 6.

B.M. has gotten up, and is looking around.

PAGE 15.  PANEL 7.

A night vision shot of the dead child, small, ragged clothes.  Blank face of death.

B.M. (caption):  “This one though…”

PAGE 15.  PANEL 8.

B.M. is squeezing the trigger of the .38 snub nose.

PAGE 16.  PANEL 1.

The hammer clicks down, no bullet in the chamber.

PAGE 16.  PANEL 2.

Shot of B.M. through the muzzle.

B.M.:  “I thought for sure I would get it for that.  Your turn.”

Chino:  “It was a mistake, you didn’t mean to.”

B.M.:  “A rock or a grain of sand, in water they sink the same.”

PAGE 16.  PANEL 3.

Chino is spinning the cylinder. 

Chino:  “All crimes are equal.”

B.M.:  “Eventually.”

Chino:  “Then I will probably die on this next one.”

PAGE 16.  PANEL 4.

A shot of the little girl hopscotching from PAGE 11.  PANEL 3.  The preacher is behind her again.

Chino (caption):  “Like I said earlier, I never had my person violated, but it doesn’t mean that he didn’t violate me personally.”

PAGE 16.  PANEL 5.

Chino is with the little girl, she is crying.

Chino (caption):  “Breanna and I grew up together.  When the asshole was disposed of we were still there, trying to pick up the pieces of the victims.”

B.M (caption):  “Rather poetic.”

Chino (caption): “Shut the fuck up.”

PAGE 16.  PANEL 6.

Chino and Breanna are a little older, around 13.  They are kissing in Chino’s room.

Chino (caption):  “Breanna was my first girlfriend, and biggest mistake.”

PAGE 17.  PANEL 1.

Breanna has pulled away, Chino leans forward wanting more.

Chino (caption):  “Neither of us understood the amount of damage that had been done.  She became a contradiction.”

PAGE 17.  PANEL 2.

Breanna is crying again.

Chino (caption):  “And I was too stupid to understand what that meant.”

PAGE 17.  PANEL 3.

Chino is in a tux, a little older.  He is wiping off his pants, Breanna is gargling mouth wash.

Chino (caption):  “Sexual one minute…”

PAGE 17.  PANEL 4.

Chino tries to hug her, and she deflects him.

Chino (caption):  “…cold the next.”

Chino (caption):  “I was kid.  How was I to know?”

PAGE 17.  PANEL 5.

Chino has been knocking on Breanna’s door, and Breanna’s arm is opening the door, and there are visible cuts and burns on her arm.  Chino and Breanna are in the same clothes from the flash back, this is a few hours before.  Chino is wearing a back pack.

Chino (caption):  “For starters I could have been more attentive.”

PAGE 17.  PANEL 6.

Breanna is covering her arm with her long sleeve as she invites Chino in.

Chino (caption):  “I could have asked her.”

PAGE 18.  PANEL 1. 

Breanna is taking out an arm load of beers from a 30 pack in her fridge, Chino is holding a back pack, giving her the thumbs up.

Chino (caption):  “Kids know what they’re doing.  That kid rushing you?  Knew exactly what he was doing.  And so did I.  Maybe if I was good, and I got her really drunk this time…”

PAGE 18.  PANEL 2.

Chino is helping Breanna over a fence at a school.

Chino (caption):  “Maybe she’d finally let me…”

B.M. (caption):  “Fuck her.”

PAGE 18.  PANEL 3.

The two of them are sitting under the bleachers at the high school.  There are beers around them that have already been drunk.  Both of them are laughing, Breanna has her hand close to Chino’s thigh.

Chino (caption):  “…yes.”

PAGE 18.  PANEL 4.

Breanna is yawning, and rubbing her eyes, shaking her head no to Chino motioning with his thumb to leave.

Chino (caption):  “But we had spent the whole night on the phone the night before, and she was tired.  I wish that would have been my sign that nothing was going to happen.”

PAGE 18.  PANEL 5.

Breanna is sleeping on Chino’s thigh.  He is looking at her breasts, the little bit of cleavage that is showing from the top of her outfit.

Chino (caption):  “I wanted to touch her so bad, I just didn’t care anymore.”

PAGE 18.  PANEL 6.

Chino is touching Breanna, and himself.

Chino (caption):  “…”

PAGE 18.  PANEL 7.

Small panel of an eye startled awake.  Breanna’s eye.

PAGE 19.  PANEL 1.

Breanna has gotten up, covering herself.  Chino looks up at her.

Breanna:  “What are you doing?”

Chino:  “I was just…just seeing if you were awake.”

Breanna:  “Yeah right!”

PAGE 19.  PANEL 2.

Breanna still covering up, but Chino now looks away from her, ashamed and embarrassed. 

Breanna:  “How could you?  You know what happened to me.  You were there for all of it, and you think that would turn me on?  Touching me when I didn’t ask you to.  That would make me want to fuck you.  FUCKING ASSHOLE!”

Chino:  “…”

PAGE 19.  PANEL 3.

Breanna is now yelling at Chino, he is trying to cover his erection.

Breanna:  “God, you’re pathetic.  I hate you so much right now.  I don’t ever want to see you again.  Don’t call me, talk to me, avoid me at school you fucking rapist.”

PAGE 19.  PANEL 4.

Breanna is storming off.  Chino sits under the bleachers.

Chino (caption):  “And I didn’t.  I never sought her out, called her, or tried to talk to her.  She was right.  Everything she said about me was right.  Who knows how far I would have gone if she hadn’t of woken up.”

PAGE 19.  PANEL 5.

Chino has the gun against his head.

B.M.:  “Pull it.  You deserve it.”

Chino:  “…I know.”

PAGE 20.  SPLASH PAGE.

Chino has pulled the trigger and the gun has fired.  The bullet goes through the side of his head, but doesn’t exit.

THE END