"Cut."
The set went quiet.
Phil looked at the monitor.
Emma leaned closer to watch the playback.
Jack came back into the frame, breathing hard but smiling.
Penny stayed in place, hands braced on the counter, waiting for the verdict.
Christopher replayed the moment where Columbus woke up and saw her face. Then the fall. Then the chair gag. Then the blender lid.
A slow smile appeared on his face.
"That's the one," he said. "We've got the reveal."
Penny's whole body loosened at once. "Oh, thank God."
Jack walked over and held up a hand. Penny slapped it with a relieved laugh.
"I know I already said this before, but you were terrifying. Great job," he said.
Penny smiled through the zombie makeup. "That is the nicest thing anyone's said to me while I looked this disgusting."
Phil checked the shot list and turned toward the crew. "Alright, reset for the chase continuation. Same energy, same pace. And somebody get Penny more water before she turns into an actual zombie."
Penny took the bottle from the crew member again and raised it slightly.
"Hydrated zombie," she said.
Jack nodded seriously. "Very professional."
Christopher pointed toward the monitor. "Let's keep moving."
The next scene was prepped quickly.
The slate snapped...
"Action."
...
406 is right behind Columbus when he reaches the bedroom and tries to slam the door shut. She sticks out her foot as if she's about to slide into third base and tries to stop it.
Jack, as practiced before, moved the door slowly and made it look like the door was hitting her ankle. During the editing, they'll add the effects. The door smashed 406's ankle, bending her foot sideways with a sickening crack. She falls to the ground, screaming, clutching her now diagonally attached foot.
"Cut!" Christopher announced. Then he made a hand sign. "Hurry up."
Two guys from the effects team rushed in with a fake broken foot and strapped it to Penny's right leg and strapped the upper part of her leg with green cloth.
The shoot resumed again...
Jack and Penny got into the characters again...
...
Columbus yelled, "Shit! Sorry!"
Nice as he may be, Columbus tries to slam the door shut again. 406 lunges and gets her arms and shoulders through.
This time, the door has no chance of closing. The broken ankle has HOBBLED her, but she's still coming...
Columbus can't retreat anywhere but the closet or the bathroom. He chooses the bathroom, dashing, reaching it.
Unfortunately, he slips on the wet, MOUNTAIN-DEW-COVERED SHIRT from earlier. He crashes to the floor, pulling the shower curtain out of its rings to try to break his fall. There was soft padding around the area to prevent injury.
Now she's reached his feet, biting, clawing. He kicks frantically and haphazardly, but she's got him by the ankle. He opens the cabinet under the sink for a weapon.
He pulled out tissue, cotton Balls, toilet paper, and he threw them all at the zombie. Columbus rolls his eyes. His arsenal is exclusively soft and fluffy.
406 rises up to jump on Columbus, and he just manages to pull the shower curtain over himself. She lands on top of him, and now they're wrestling, grabbing, punching, with only the curtain in between them.
It was a tough shot, but they managed to get it in a single take.
Columbus falls back to the tile, whaking his head. Now he and the zombie are literally face to face, as if kissing, but with the shower curtain still between them.
406's bloody features press gruesomely against the plastic. Columbus uses the moment to reach up and wrap the curtain around the back of her head, trying to cut off her air.
...
"Cut!" Christopher announced.
They took a brief break. The struggling scene was really demanding, and Penny needed air after pressing her face on the plastic for so long.
"Wow! Okay," Penny said as she sat down while huffing.
"You alright?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm good," Penny waved her arm.
"We'll take ten minutes break," Christopher announced. Then he walked up to Penny and Jack and asked, "You two aren't hurt, right?"
"Nah, we're good," Jack said with a nod as he stood up from the floor.
"Okay, great. We aren't gonna do a second take for the scene since it was really good. So, take a little breather and good job you two," He praised both of them with a smile.
...
[After the break, the shoot resumed...]
406's bloody features press gruesomely against the plastic. Columbus uses the moment to reach up and wrap the curtain around the back of her head, trying to cut off her air.
She gasps, wheezes, chokes, and at last starts to go limp. He thought it was about to be over...
...until she chewed through the plastic, which allowed her to take a deep, raspy breath. "Ahhhh!" Her gangrenous tongue protrudes through the hole, almost licking Columbus on the mouth...
Columbus gropes under the sink again, grabs an aerosol can of disinfectant, aims it into her mouth, and fires. It was just a can of water.
406 chokes and rolls off Columbus. He gains his feet, slips back against the toilet, and knocks the fake porcelain lid on the back of the toilet basin askew.
This gives him an idea. He grabs the heavy lid and steps over 406, swatting her hand with it as he runs from the room.
Columbus shuts the bathroom door behind him, and the bedroom door behind him after that.
406 rises to her feet again. She tries to bend her broken foot into place, cracking it from one odd angle to another. No luck, now it's just as twisted in the other direction.
406 gives up on her foot and opens the bathroom door. Then she limps to the bedroom door and opens it, too.
"Hheeekkkk!" Penny made her zombie sound with claw hands.
Columbus is standing in the living room, chest heaving.
"Please listen to me, 406. Listen. If you're in there. You're just sick. Stop. Don't..."
But 406's expression is one of pure, blinded hate. She throws back her head and howls with rage. The sound is beyond scary, like that of a trapped, infuriated animal. She run-drags herself toward Columbus.
"Forgive me," He said under her breath with a slightly sad expression.
With all his might, he belts her in the head with the lid. At the exact moment of jarring impact, Christopher 'FREEZE FRAME' on a still shot of Columbus connecting perfectly, violently with 406's temple.
COLUMBUS (V.O.) in the background.
'You tell yourself over and over, this... this... did not just happen. It did not. It did not. It did not. It couldn't have. It couldn't have.'
"And... Cut!" Christopher announced.
...
The next scene was already in play. Both directors wanted to maintain the energy and mood to keep the scene consistent.
"Alright, Jack. Emotion time, do you need some direction?" Phil asked.
"Nah, I got it," Jack said with a quick nod.
The slate came down...
"Action."
The camera had been moved near the bathroom sink again. It was focused on Jack's face to capture his emotions after the terrifying encounter, and the fact that he killed the only girl he liked, and brushed her hair, and who kissed him on his cheeks after a nice hug. It was painful for him.
Jack showed all those emotions perfectly as usual.
He's washing his hands feverishly in the sink. He's hyperventilating. He's spasming with panting and groans.
He's sitting still against his bathroom wall and trembling from shock and fear.
COLUMBUS (V.O.) played in the background.
'But it did. In the face of every sane thing that came before it, and all I'd come to know and expect about the world... it did.'
...
[Next scene] [Living room]
Penny's body has been replaced with a bloody dummy.
Columbus, with a phone to his ear, still hearing the not-in-service tone. He sets down the receiver. In tears, he carries his shower curtain into the living room.
He stands over 406's dead body, chokes back the smell, then starts to wrap her in the shower curtain, duct-taping the edges. As he goes to move her arm, something makes him stop.
COLUMBUS (V.O.) in the background.
'A 'zombie' isn't a dead person who's come back to life. It's someone who's been infected with the plague of the 21st century - a raging fever where your brain inflames, leaving you violent, hateful... some insist evil. @Zombieism's carried in bodily fluid.'
Near 406's wrist is a severe bite mark that bears the unmistakable imprint of human teeth. Columbus examines the bite mark, his mind racing with the implications.
COLUMBUS (V.O.): 'These fluids are highly contagious and fast-acting when they mix with your fluids. So if you're thinking of going tongue-to-tonsil with your suddenly less cute neighbor...'
A moment of pause.
'...try something more innocent.'
Columbus sadly brushes 406 dummy's hair over her ear, then resumes wrapping her up.
COLUMBUS (V.O.): 'Mom and Dad would have to wait.'
...
"Cut."
...
'How the heck does he show those emotional expressions? Maybe I'll ask him and get some tips. And my part is over. Hope they keep my scene and not cut it at the last moment, saying it didn't make it in the final cut,' Penny thought as she watched from the background. 'Well, atleast I got 15k for the role.'
----
[POWERSTONES AND REVIEWS]...
If you want to read early advance chapters and support me, you can join>:
patr eon.com/XcaliburXc
[I have > 13 advance chapters] > All chapters available for all tiers
+ [Early access: Reborn as Lucifer> 21 chs]