camera crews. National cable TV news would be picking it up and sending helicopters for aerial views. You’ve seen it: I guy waving a gun and the whole world’s on it. People can suspend their disbelief only so far. If we’re going to keep them onboard, we need cell towers down, we need land-line junctions exploding, WE NEED A CONSPIRACY!
The series potential here is obvious and I think we need yet another layer.
Paul
• • •
Here’s what Blake and I have been thinking:
Jenny is trapped in a storage closet. Randall is going to fight his way back to her. I’d like him to confront Clay, and for them to have a physical tussle. (I think they should stop fighting when Randall quotes a line from the movie ALIENS, as I mentioned in a previous email.) Clay could agree to help Randall get Jenny, but first he needs to get Shanna safe.
Randall deals with Benny and his chainsaw. Jenny deals with Lanz. Adam and Stacie deal with Oasis.
Clay and Shanna get to the parking lot. Clay leaves Shanna with the media—they do arrive because they were called—but Clay is honor bound to go back in to help Randall. But first, he proposes to her.
Clay, on his way to Jenny and Randall, encounters Adam and Stacie. He helps to kill Oasis, and they join Randall to save Jenny.
They do save Jenny, but Randall gets bitten. Jenny refuses to let Clay kill him, and Clay agrees, but will be ready when Randall turns. They decide the way to survive is to get onto the roof and flag down the TV helicopter circling the hospital.
They’re chased to the roof. Clay is down to his last few rounds. Randall becomes a dracula. But his love for Jenny is so strong he doesn’t attack her—he attacks all the draculas coming after them. He wipes out a bunch in a killing frenzy, but is mortally wounded.
Clay can either die heroically, or else get off the roof and wind up with Shanna for a happy ending.
Adam dies heroically, but gets his wife and child into the TV helicopter, which lands on the helipad on the roof.
The army arrives. Jenny stays with a dying Randall on the roof. Just as they’re surrounded by draculas, the army blows up the hospital.
A young, bloody man survives. He’s Mortimer, who changed back into something resembling a human—the real Count Dracula who is now going to turn the world. This is a reverse Night of the Living Dead ending. Rather than the rescuers killing the hero, the rescuers save the villain.
I want the media and the army to come. There’s no need to keep them at bay. The secluded area, and the local cops dead, mean it will take some time for the army to show up.
We’ve only got about 3000 words each to write with our characters, then the slam bang ending where we can divvy up the final scenes.
How does that sound?
Joe
• • •
I’m okay with this, and I do like the finale happening on the hospital roof…Paul does this address your concerns with the isolation, which I also had from the beginning? I’m up for a conference call if we need to flesh this out some more.
Blake
• • •
Here’s what Blake and I have been thinking:
Jenny is trapped in a storage closet. Randall is going to fight his way back to her. I’d like him to confront Clay, and for them to have a physical tussle. (I think they should stop fighting when Randall quotes a line from the movie ALIENS, as I mentioned in a previous email.) Clay could agree to help Randall get Jenny, but first he needs to get Shanna safe.
Okay, I’ll have to rewrite the stairwell scene. I can have C & S forced upstairs by the draculas and bump into Randall and the kid. (Speaking of the kid, it would be cool to have her transform into a dracula while she’s on Randall’s back. He notices these little teeth dropping on his shoulder…)
Randall deals with Benny and his chainsaw. Jenny deals with Lanz. Adam and Stacie deal with Oasis.
Clay and Shanna get to the parking lot. Clay leaves Shanna with the media—they do arrive because they were called—but Clay is honor bound to go back in to help Randall. But first, he proposes to her.
Okay. I’ll have him pull out his MM-1 semi-auto grenade launcher (a la
Clay, on his way to Jenny and Randall, encounters Adam and Stacie. He helps to kill Oasis, and they join Randall to save Jenny.
Okay.
They do save Jenny, but Randall gets bitten. Jenny refuses to let Clay kill him, and Clay agrees, but will be ready when Randall turns. They decide the way to survive is to get onto the roof and flag down the TV helicopter circling the hospital.
They’re chased to the roof. (Can we put this off?)
Clay is down to his last few rounds. Randall becomes a dracula. But his love for Jenny is so strong he doesn’t attack her—he attacks all the draculas coming after them. He wipes out a bunch in a killing frenzy, but is mortally wounded. (Have this happen in the hospital?)
Clay can either die heroically, or else get off the roof and wind up with Shanna
for a happy ending.
We don’t need no stinking happy ending. A wounded Clay will die creating an explosive diversion for Jenny’s escape to the roof.
Adam dies heroically, but gets his wife and child into the TV helicopter, which lands on the helipad on the roof.
The army arrives. Jenny stays with a dying Randall on the roof. Just as they’re surrounded by draculas, the army blows up the hospital.
A young, bloody man survives. He’s Mortimer, who changed back into something resembling a human—the real Count Dracula who is now going to turn the world. This is a reverse Night of the Living Dead ending. Rather than the rescuers killing the hero, the rescuers save the villain.
I want the media and the army to come. There’s no need to keep them at bay. The secluded area, and the local cops dead, mean it will take some time for the army to show up.
Paul
• • •
The media, etc. showing up is what I’d expect, so that alleviates my believability concerns.
Looks like Shanna is the only survivor. She can lead the charge into the next book. I’m already visualizing her visiting Clay’s father, him teaching her to shoot…
Paul
• • •
Nice! I love it…just a thought, What if both Stacie and Adam die, but a young man offers to save their baby at the end, and they let him. We of course, are interested and instantly sympathetic with this guy, and only in the last sentence/paragraph of the book, do we realize the young man is Mort, walking out of the hospital with a baby in his arms, a protege who will help him conquer the world.
Blake
• • •
If you need to kill Clay, I understand. But he’s probably the most fun character in the book. I wouldn’t be adverse to having him live. Or maybe doing the classic: He’s probably dead, Shanna cries, then she sees him tangled up in the fire escape when he jumped off the roof.
Jeff and I have already discussed Jenny and Randall dying. Stacie should survive, with her baby, but Blake and I discussed killing Adam.
I love the idea of the kid becoming a dracula on Randall’s back.
Joe
