The Thinking Dead

THE THINKING DEAD

BY RUSSELL HILLMAN

PAGE 1:

Page 1, panel 1:

Full width panel. We’re in a deserted city during a zombie apocalypse. It’s early evening; the sun is starting to go down. We see five zombies – zombie 1-4 and Bob. Zombie 1 is eating a woman, zombie 2is lurching, crouched forward, zombie 3 is lurching, leant back, Bob is eating the innards of a screaming, not-yet-dead man, zombie 4 is lurching. Indulge your inner Charlie Adlard/George Romero and go crazy – as much gore as you like, a decent mixture of old/young, black/white, male/female among the zombies/food. Bob was a thirty-something dark-haired guy in a plain t-shirt, loose jeans and Adidas trainers.

Letterer’s note: All zombie dialogue is thought bubbles. Punctuated only as stated. Only humans get to speak.

ZOMBIE 1

Flesh

ZOMBIE 2

Meat

ZOMBIE 3

Hunger

BOB

Eat

BOB’S LUNCH

Aaarrrggghhhh!

ZOMBIE 4

Blood

Page 1, panel 2:

Pull in on 3, Bob and 4. Continued from previous panel.

ZOMBIE 3

Meat

BOB

Flesh

ZOMBIE 4

Hunger

Page 1, panel 3:

Close up on Bob, still eating.

BOB

Eat

Page 1, panel 4:

Bob looks up. A strange look on his face. Consciousness?

BOB

Flesh

Page 1, panel 5:

Bob, eating an arm. His lunch is either dead or passed out.

BOB

Eat... flesh...

PAGE 2

Page 2, panel 1: 

Bob has taken a break from eating, and is... thinking?

BOB

Eat... flesh...

BOB (CONTINUED)

Hunger... gone...

Page 2, panel 2:

Bob, now standing up.

BOB

Not...eat... flesh...

BOB (CONTINUED)

Hunger... come... back...

Page 2, panel 3:

Bob lurching. He’s moved on a bit from the previous panel.

BOB

Find new flesh eat

BOB (CONTINUED)

Hunger go away then

Page 2, panel 4:

We’ve moved on a while. It’s getting darker, and we’ve left the city behind. Not quite open countryside, but heading that way. Bob is feeding on a screaming man.

CAPTION:

Soon...

BOB

Meat scream when bite flesh

SCREAMING MAN

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!

BOB (CONTINUED)

Does eat flesh hurt meat?

Page 2, panel 5:

Bob, pulling away. A look of revelation on his face. Well, sort of.

BOB

Meat feel pain when eat meat!

Page 2, panel 6:

Night time. Bob approaching another zombie – zombie 5.

CAPTION

Later...

BOB

Like-self! Does like-self feel pain?

ZOMBIE 5

Hunger

 PAGE 3

Page 3, panel 1:

Bob biting zombie 5. Zombie 5 doesn’t seem to care.

BOB

Like-self cold! Not hot like scream-meat!

ZOMBIE 5

Blood

Page 3, panel 2:

Bob stumbling on. A rat runs in front of him. Zombie 5 is in the far background, oblivious.

BOB

Need eat hot. Not like-self. Not scream-meat.

Page 3, panel 3:

Bob has now crouched down, and is reaching for the rat.

BOB

Hot meat! Not like-self, not scream! Hunger go now?

Page 3, panel 4:

Bob holding a rat with a big chunk bitten out of it. He’s almost smiling. Well, not really.

BOB

Hunger gone! Like-self can all eat not scream-meat now!

Page 3, panel 5:

Bob approaching another group of zombies. There are 5 of them – zombies 6-10 – but we only see two of them in this panel. Put one in a hospital gown.

BOB

Need tell like-self! Can eat small meat now, not scream-meat!

ZOMBIE 6

Hunger

ZOMBIE 7

Flesh

Page 3, panel 6:

Bob and three other zombies lurching along together.

ZOMBIE 7

Meat

ZOMBIE 8

Feed

BOB

Scream-meat not scream if not eat! Like-self find small meat together!

ZOMBIE 9

Feed

 PAGE 4

Page 4, panel 1:

Double wide panel. We see Bob and all five zombies from behind, approaching a farmhouse. The farmhouse has boarded-up windows, but there is some light within. Make zombie number 10 naked.

ZOMBIE 6

Feed

ZOMBIE 7

Blood

ZOMBIE 8

Hunger

BOB

Big place fill scream-meat. Tell scream-meat like-self not eat them now!

ZOMBIE 9

Flesh

ZOMBIE 10

Eat

Page 4, panel 2:

We’re inside the farmhouse, by a boarded up window. One man is aiming a rifle through the window boards. He has a dark crew cut hairstyle and wears a white short-sleeved shirt with a black tie and a “Hi, My Name Is” sticker on his breast pocket with FRANK in big letters. He wears rectangular wire-rimmed glasses. Next to him is a large shaven-headed black man in a check shirt and jeans, loading shells into a shotgun. He is Dale.

FRANK

Here they come!

DALE

Dumb sons of bitches!

Page 4, panel 3:

We’re looking at Bob in a rifle sight, so it’s a round panel (in a black rectangle) with crosshairs drawn on it.

BOB

Need scream head words. Scream-meat need know. Like-self can stop making scream-meat scream!

BOB (SPOKEN)

Unnnnnhhhhh!

Page 4, panel 4:

In silhouette and side on, Bob is falling backwards. The contents of his head are exiting messily from a hole at the rear.

BOB

No! Head words... go...

SFX

BLAM!

Page 4, panel 5:

Dead bob lies dead on the ground. He’s dead, he’s all messed up.

BOB

...

TITLE BOX

The Thinking Dead

Written by Russell Hillman

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