Tornado Warning

by

Art Byrd

(Based on,the suggestions of History of Motion Pictures Class Spring 2010)

FADE IN:

EXT. STREET-WACO, TEXAS - AFTERNOON

It is 4:18 p.m. Thursday. On a clear Texas day, the air can be dry, but today it feels moist almost wet but there is no rain. The sky is very overcast. The downtown streets of Waco, Texas are almost deserted except for a few people walking quickly to get somewhere. There are hardly any cars on West Waco Drive, the main street through the city.

This is unusual for an afternoon in a city of 120,000 where 17,000 people commute to and from work. Not unusual when there is a tornado warning, Waco citizens take it seriously and take cover. Some remember and many have heard stories of the 1953 tornado that ripped through downtown Waco killing 114 and injuring hundreds more. It was known as the worst tornado in Texas history.

Even in the face of perceived or impeding danger, people are still hungry. Ricky’s, a diner located two block east from West Waco Drive on Franklin Ave is an oasis for the hungry and the unafraid. Ricky’s has a 50’s diner style where everything is bright silver.

The silver entrance door reads “Welcome to Ricky’s established 1963.” There is a note taped inside the door saying “Due to the tornado warning, we will close at 5:00 p.m. today.

INT. RICKY’S - AFTERNOON

Ricky’s has a french fries, fried chicken smell mixed with a bleach aroma by the constant wiping of the counter and the equipment. At the counter next to the cash register, you could look straight ahead through the wall opening and see the head of MEL LINGER, 54, the cook, applying his cooking skill of flipping burgers and scrambling eggs.

Johnny Cash’s classic “A Boy Named Sue’ is softly playing from the automatic jukebox in the far corner of the diner.

Right now, there are about seven PATRONS in the diner. Three young people in their early 20’s talking about the Obama administration and sipping coffee sitting in a booth. One man wearing a black cowboy sitting at the counter and eating cheesecake. An elderly woman in her 70’s is at a table reading “The Waco Tribune” newspaper whose headline reads “Tornado Season Is Here, Get Prepared.”

No one seems to be in a hurry to leave.

2.

ALICE EVE, 43, whose twenty-two year waitress career has left her with a partial smile after years of fake smiling. Today’s, Alice’s smile is genuinely generated from the kindness of the young MAN with the tan cowboy hat who smiled and look her in the eye as he said “thank you,” as she poured him coffee. Alice is used to people saying nothing to her.

As she is walking away with the half full clear coffee pot. She is thinking that the nice cowboy and the woman he is sitting with; make a nice couple.

They are not a couple. This is not a date.

U.S Marshall DUANE GIBBONS, mid 20’s, looks older than his actual age yet he looks like a young Tommy Lee Jones, the actor. He is not an impeccable dresser with a red plaid shirt with a bolo tie that has uneven cords. He has definitely not opened a GQ magazine. But, it doesn’t matter with his rugged handsome look mixed with his Texas charm and well maintained teeth. Marshall Duane has no problem putting people at ease.

His job of tracking criminals has taken a small toll on him. The silver flask of whisky in the inside of his beige suede jacket, helps ease burdens of the job. Marshall Duane works alone and has a reputation of getting his man and in this case his woman.

Sitting across the table from him is LIZZIE BORDERS, 20, a redhead whose eyes are ocean blue. The kind that any man would want to swim in. Even with the absence of makeup, she still could be in the pages of Maxim magazine. Lizzie is dressed like a woman who doesn’t want to be noticed. She is wearing a white T-shirt, loose blue jeans and black Hi-Top Converses.

Lizzie is not oozing sexiness. She just has it. It may have cause her the trouble she is in. Lizzie, a college dropout, a cell phone representative at the Killeen Sprint Store and a meth drug dealer has been on the run for three days after the discovery of her former high school castmate, Ray Ray Wolfganger and his two buddies, Keith Petersen and Joe Dyer. All three were hacked in pieces by an axe in a barn in Killeen, Texas.

Marshall Duane used a mobile phone tracking system with GPS (global positioning system) along with a satellite network to find Lizzie. He got Lizzie’s cell phone information from the store she worked for. She made several calls to her mother and told her that Ray Ray and the other were about to attack her after drinking. The truth is that Ray Ray and the guys didn’t have the money for the meth they owed Lizzie. With her reputation in jeopardy, she grabbed an axe in the barn.

3.

Based on repeater triangulation of the satellites bouncing to each other, Marshall Duane saw she was heading towards Waco where she had some drug connections. He waited. Lizzie make a call from Ricky’s thirty five minutes ago. As Lizzie was cutting her Salisbury Steak with a wood handle steak knife and fork, Marshall Duane sat down in front of her and explained who he was. The involvement of drugs makes it a federal jurisdiction which the U.S Marshall office works under. They engaged in small talk as Marshall Duane’s coffee arrived.

MARSHALL DUANE

How’s your steak?

LIZZIE

It’s pretty chewing. (laughing)

MARSHALL DUANE

Chewy. We can get A1 sauce. Get the waitress back.

Lizzie laughs.

LIZZIE

Nah, I don’t need any sauce. I am good.

Marshall Duane shrugs his shoulder. Lizzie put down the steak knife.

LIZZIE

You know you could let me go. You don’t have to tell anyone you saw here.

MARSHALL DUANE

I don’t know if I can do that.

LIZZIE

Why not?

MARSHALL DUANE

You did chop up three people. (pause) with an axe.

LIZZIE

(smile and laughs) Well, I had to do that.

MARSHALL DUANE

(laugh, then stop with a serious look..) Oh...

4.

LIZZIE

It was self defense.

MARSHALL DUANE

Was it now?

LIZZIE

It was?

MARSHALL DUANE

With an axe!

LIZZIE

With an axe!

She laughs.

MARSHALL DUANE

Right.

LIZZIE

I may have gotten a little carried away in the heat of passion. But it happens, you know.

Marshall Duane looks at Lizzie whose once beautiful ocean blue eyes seems to be freezing over with the coldness of someone without remorse.

LIZZIE

Just don’t tell anyone you saw me. No one will never know.

MARSHALL DUANE

Can’t do that? You don’t want Dog, the Bounty Hunter to come after you.

Lizzie laughs.

MARSHALL DUANE

You try to go. He will get you.

LIZZIE

I’ll run to Mexico.

MARSHALL DUANE

He goes to Mexico.

LIZZIE

Then, I will go to Canada.

5.

MARSHALL DUANE

He will go to Canada.

LIZZIE

Well, I don’t what I will do.

(laughs)

Lizzie starts to lightly touch the steak knife’s wooden handle.

LIZZIE

I will take my chances. But, I will not go to prison.

Marshall Duane takes a quick look around the diner seeing where everyone is. His instincts are kicking in.

MARSHALL DUANE

(beat)

I can beat you on a sprint.

LIZZIE

You want to try. Wanna race?

MARSHALL DUANE

Try me.

LIZZIE

Okay, let’s go.

MARSHALL DUANE

That is a good idea. Let’s go peacefully.

LIZZIE

I don’t know if we can do that.

MARSHALL DUANE

You could be right. There is a tornado warning.

Lizzie starts to slid from the seat but Marshall Duane notices her right hand now has a tight grip on the steak knife. His right hand slides down past his silver belt buckle that is in the shape of Texas and reads “Don’t Mess with Texas” and moves to his side holster where the butt of his Glock 40 caliber handgun is sticking out.

Lizzie gets up completely and taking the steak knife with her. Her smile is still bright, her blue eyes have become completely frozen and her expression has quickly changed. The smile disappears as she moves towards Marshall Duane.

6.

EXT. RICKY’S

Outside the diner, an eerie silence engulfs the atmosphere. As if the world was set to mute. Through the window, there is a white flash and a muzzled sound that shakes the glass. The door opens wide as the man from the counter runs out without his cowboy hat. There is another white flash that momentarily brighten the window and with the open the door the sound of a gunshot screams out.

We stay on the window. There is no movement.

As we fade to black, loud screeching sirens begin to sound citywide. A tornado is on its way.

Black