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Friday 15 June 2018

Day 47: Miffed Matt and the Game of Fives

FADE IN:

EXT. WASTELAND - NIGHT

A foul and corrupted hellscape. Pools of noxious liquid gurgle and plop. Twisted creatures skitter across the rocks. Jets of ignited gases burn and flicker upwards into the black sky. 

SUPERIMPOSE: "Worksop. 2076." 

To be honest, the wasteland we're seeing isn't much different from present day Worksop. Maybe the lifeforms are a little more abnormal, the food less edible, the sense of lingering hopelessness perhaps a touch more palpable. But in every other regard this future Worksop is worse. 

A ramshackle car comes hurtling over the dunes. It looks like the LEGO concoction of a drunk three-year-old, pieced together from all the chewed-up blocks left in the bottom of the box. There's a rudimentary cage welded onto the vehicle's rusted back. Inside, A NUMBER OF PRISONERS rattle the bars and moan. THE DRIVER slams his fist down onto the wheel and yells. 

DRIVER
Quiet, dogs! 

PRISONER #1
Please, just tell us where you're taking us. 

The driver hawks up a wad of phlegm and grebs it behind him into the cage. The prisoners recoil. The loogie lands with a splat by the boot of the one captive who has remained silent -- a jaded, resolute STRANGER rocking only slightly with the bounce of the truck. The Stranger stares straight ahead; what he's thinking, we couldn't guess.

PRISONER #2
(to Stranger)
I know you.

No response.

PRISONER #2 (CONT'D)
Don't worry. I won't tell no one. But I know you. You're the one what walked out of the Kerfon Whorehouse Massacre with not a scratch on you.

Nothing.

PRISONER #2 (CONT'D)
You entered the Land of Ice, and walked back out again, with frozen nuggetz to feed a starving village.

Nada.

PRISONER #2 (CONT'D)
You're
(whispering)
Miffed Matt.

The other prisoners, overhearing this, gasp and cry out.

DRIVER
I told you vermin to STAY QUIET!

The Driver jams the wheel hard to the left and the prisoners roll on the floor, crash into the bars of the cage. All but the Stranger, Miffed Matt, who remains somehow motionless.

The car rattles along, and Prisoner #1 approaches the cab.

PRISONER #1
(to driver)
Maybe there's something you want? We've got some small keepsakes between us. Or information? We could tell you where to find a map to the Tomb of the Last Greggs. I've seen it, the map, with my own eyes.

DRIVER
You want to know where we're going?

PRISONER #1
That's all we want.

DRIVER
I'm not a cruel man. I'm only doing my job. I tell you what, you want to know where we're going? I can let you in on that, little one, I can do that for you. We're going... to Spoon Town.

The Prisoners howl in anguish.

DRIVER (CONT'D)
I thought you'd like that. Heh heh. We're off to Spoon Town, to see my mistress, my pretty mistress, and then, well, you merry bunch are going to get to play yourselves a nice game of FIVES.

The prisoners react. Oh shit. All but Miffed Matt. He simply raises one eyebrow and, imperceptible to all but us, lets the corner of his mouth twist into what might just be the beginnings of a smile.

CONTINUED...

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