FADE IN:
EXT- COUNTRY ROAD- MORNING
A country road somewhere in Eastern California in sight of
Sierras; the land is moderately flat. Vision stretches out beyond eyesight to
north, south and west. The road is made of gravel and dust. Waist-high grass borders
the road, which runs from the mountains out into the plain. An old road-sign
leans to the right beside the road as the camera looks back east.
A short way off from the sign, Mars and Maggie stand
together facing another man. The two stand together on the road and the other
in the grass. Mars is pointing a blaster (futuristic gun) at the man in the
grass- who is likewise armed. The captured man’s blaster is being held towards
the ground. Maggie, who is visibly younger than the two men, steps away from
Mars.
MARS
Is
that all you have to say?
The other man says nothing. He looks at Maggie then back at
Mars. He smiles. Mars shoots him.
The man falls backward into the grass.
MAGGIE
No!
What are you doing?
Maggie runs into the grass, drops down next the man’s body.
The man is bleeding badly and shaking.
MAGGIE
You
shot him!
MARS
Yes.
MAGGIE
You
shot him, you sonnava-bitch!
MARS
Yes.
Maggie tries to resuscitate the man, but it is obvious he’s
dying. She tries for several minutes to save the man’s life but it is a
complete loss. The end result is her shirt is covered with the man’s blood.
MAGGIE
Aren’t
you going to help me? He’s dying.
MARS
I
wouldn’t have shot him if I wanted to help him.
MAGGIE (still trying)
He’s
dead. He’s dead. You killed him. You sonnava-bitch.
MARS
Yes,
that was my purpose.
MAGGIE
Why?
MARS
It
was him or us.
MAGGIE
You’re
crazy. Him or us. I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere with
A
raging psycho.
Mars looks at her, then turns away and walks to the other
side of the road and squats down.
Maggie sighs and looks at her hands. She hastily wipes her
hands on the dead man’s clothes.
She looks back at Mars, who is lost in thought, then stands
up and walks over to Mars. She sits down next to him.
MAGGIE
All
right, I’m sorry, you’re not a psycho, but you’re so… so completely
Merciless.
MARS
No,
not merciless just efficient.
MAGGIE
What?
MARS
Efficient.
MAGGIE
Efficient!
You call that efficient. You just shot a man down in cold blood
And
you have the nerve to call it efficient!
MARS
Yes.
If my father had had his way, then that would have been merciless,
But
instead I was built to be different- a soldier template, so it was efficient.
MAGGIE
Did
you just say built? Like designed, like a machine?
MARS
Yes,
I was built at birth to be the perfect soldier.
MAGGIE
Built
at birth…Oh like a clone!
MARS
No,
after conception my father approached a Gene-scientist who regrouped
My
DNA within my mother’s womb and added and separated certain chains
Forming
me to become a template that more than likely would evolve into the
The
perfect soldier.
MAGGIE
Your
father had you genetically altered to become the perfect soldier so you
Could
do that efficiently.
MARS
Yes-no.
I mean he did have me genetically altered, but he wanted me to be
Templated
to become a general. But his political rivals bribed the Gene-Doc
To
make me a genetic mistake.
MAGGIE
So,
you’re just a screw up?
MARS
No.
The Gene-Doc had his own agenda, he made me into some-kind of super
Soldier
template. So now I am just efficient.
MAGGIE
So,
you’re saying that soldier’s are efficient and General’s are merciless and
What
you just did was because you were born or templated or designed that
Way?
MARS
(checking his blaster)
Yes.
MAGGIE
That’s
crazy. I mean that means your whole life’s been crazy. You can’t just
Go
around killing people arbitrarily like that. You just can’t.
MARS
(checking the sights)
No?
Why not.
MAGGIE
Because
it’s inhuman. We don’t go around killing people we don’t like.
MARS
I
don’t kill people just because I don’t like them.
MAGGIE
Well,
what do you call that? You obviously did not like him!
MARS
Efficient.
MAGGIE
Oh
no, you aren’t going to start that again. Did you like him?
MARS
No.
MAGGIE
So
you killed him, because you didn’t like him.
MARS
No.
He would have killed us. Besides I haven’t killed you.
MAGGIE
What?
You don’t like me. (pokes him in the ribs)
MARS
That
depends.
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