From the Land of Fear

by Harlan Ellison

  53 EXT. ENCLOSED YARD—FULL SHOT—DAY

  Qarlo and Kagan. (This is the same set where Qarlo arrived in ambulance.) As they enter scene from inside the building Qarlo and Kagan stand close to each other. There now seems to be something of a bond between them. Qarlo winces at the bright day. Kagan’s car is located where the ambulance was.

  KAGAN: On the other side of that gate is the world, Qarlo.

  QARLO: Springin’ out.

  KAGAN: Yes, you’re going home with me.

  QARLO: Home? Define it.

  KAGAN: A place to live, a house, a place where you can rest, where no one locks you in.

  QARLO: Barracks. C.O.?

  KAGAN: No, there’s no C.O. No Commanding Officer, no other troops, no war, nothing but freedom. Do you know what I mean? I’ve told you about freedom.

  QARLO: Where I come from, everyone lives alone.

  KAGAN: Alone?

  QARLO: No one comes up to each other…(indicates Kagan and himself)…like this. We don’t mouthtalk.

  KAGAN: Then how do you communicate?

  QARLO (taps head): In here. Thinkspeek. When the C.O. wants us, he orders us. In here.

  KAGAN: You’ll be close to people now, Qarlo. My wife, my son and daughter. And me.

  QARLO: I don’t grasp. I’ll have to see.

  KAGAN: Yes. You’ll have to see. (beat) We’d better go now.

  They walk to the car. Kagan opens rear door and pulls out a trench coat and hat. He offers them to Qarlo.

  KAGAN: You’ll have to wear these.

  QARLO: Why?

  KAGAN: Because no one knows about you. They want to keep you secret, do you understand that?

  QARLO: I peep.

  He takes the clothes, puts them on. They stare at each other a moment, then Kagan opens the door for Qarlo; Kagan seems frightened suddenly.

  KAGAN: Qarlo…would you hurt me. The way you did when I touched you?

  QARLO: You aren’t The Enemy.

  KAGAN: But…could I be an enemy?

  QARLO (it says it all): You aren’t The Enemy.

  Kagan nods. He indicates for Qarlo to get in. He does cautiously. Kagan goes to the driver’s side, gets in and the car drives off as the gates are opened for them.

  RAPID LAP DISSOLVE:

  54 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE—DAY

  The hillside and the white light that encases the Enemy. We see him as before, trapped halfway between tomorrow and today. Lightning flashes in the sky and thunder rolls heavily as camera moves back from the white.

  55 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE—ANOTHER SHOT

  On the Enemy as a sudden bolt of lightning arcs down out of the sky, and crackles around him. It touches his metal uniform, there is a blinding flash of light and when we can see again, the Enemy is free, completely seen now, for he has been pulled completely through by the lightning. Camera comes in rapidly on his killer’s face, a frightening face. His eyes widen in pleasure, and he laughs at the sky, turning his face up. We hear a steady electrical impulse in his helmet, and he touches one dial on a small machine strapped to his left forearm. The sound grows louder, a spaced, metronomic beat beat beat that matches the voice we hear faintly in his helmet.

  HELMET VOICE (O.S. FILTER): Find your Enemy! Find your Enemy! Kill him…kill him…kill—

  As the call grows louder and matches the beat beat beat of the electrical impulse from the machine on his arm, he turns and sets out to find Qarlo.

  FADE OUT.

  ACT THREE

  79 INT. KAGAN LIVING ROOM—CLOSEUP BLACK CAT F.G.—DAY

  With room in perspective angle: we are up-looking from the cat bulking huge in f.g. to the action taking place at the far end of the room in b.g. At the open door stand Kagan and Qarlo. The soldier fills the doorway, and despite the fact that the people at that end of the room seem small in comparison to the cat, it is obvious Qarlo towers over the group. Greeting Kagan and Qarlo at the door is Abby Kagan, Tom’s wife, a handsome woman who is a trifle too sophisticated and warm to be considered the Momma type. With her are Toni Kagan, an extremely-attractive 20-year-old girl with long hair and a fine figure, and Loren Kagan, 13 years old and very wide-eyed. They stand in a semi-circle, awkwardly, as Kagan allows Qarlo to enter the room before him.

  KAGAN: Qarlo, this is my wife, Abby; our daughter, Toni, and the little one is Loren. He’s—

  Qarol has not been listening. He ignores the people, stalks between them and comes to camera, kneeling down to look directly at the cat and camera. He talks to the animal. The cat tenses. Qarlo speaks in future tongue.

  QARLO: See-Oh! Kwahr-loe Klo-breg-knee, pryte, sihz-fi-wun-oh-too-too-nyne. Reporting.

  The cat stares. Qarlo looks as though he is expecting the animal to answer. It bolts and runs away. Qarlo stares directly into camera and we see his face, which has been hard, crumble. He is lost. He has expected something to happen, and it hasn’t, and he is mystified by this new world once more. He starts to rise as the Kagans come toward him from across the room.

  80 GROUP SHOT—ON QARLO

  as he rises, and the family comes up to him. All but Kagan himself are looking at Qarlo strangely. Kagan is confused, but there is curiosity and a desire to understand in his face.

  KAGAN: Cat. remember? The book? What did you want from the cat, Qarlo?

  QARLO (bitterly): Nothing’s same.

  KAGAN: Cats are different where you came from?

  QARLO: Different. C.O. prowler thinkspeek.

  KAGAN: I don’t understand that, Qarlo. The Commanding Officer, the C.O., uses cats?

  QARLO: On patrol, troopers, cats tied together by think-speek; cats do prowl, spot the Enemy, troopers jump.

  The family is attentive, but their eyes widen at the strangeness of what Qarlo is saying. Kagan explains to them.

  KAGAN: I think what he means is that somehow, by some technique we don’t even suspect, wars in the future are fought by men and animals…the cats used to do reconnaisance work, and by telepathy, they relay their messages.

  LOREN (excited): And…and he thought he could get in touch with his Commanding Officer by talking through Macbeth!

  KAGAN: It makes sense. What a fine patrol prowler a silent cat would make (beat, to Qarlo): It’s not like that here, Qarlo. Macbeth is just a cat.

  QARLO (wearily): Nothing’z here are like war zone.

  ABBY: But we’ll do our best to see that things are pleasant for you here, Qarlo.

  Abby moves to Kagan’s side, puts her arm around his waist. Qarlo instinctively makes a movement toward her. She shrinks back as Kagan stops Qarlo.

  KAGAN: No, Qarlo. It’s all right.

  QARLO: Why does she touch you? There is Enemy and not Enemy…which is she?

  KAGAN: Wife. Family unit, female C.O. Mother. Like your mother.

  Qarlo stares at him oddly.

  QARLO: Mother? My mother?

  TONI: You have a mother, don’t you?

  Qarlo looks superior for a moment, then recites:

  QARLO: Clobregnny. Creche Hatchery 559. I am the State, the State is All.

  They look at him uncomprehendingly. All but Kagan, who goes white, and who looks as though he may be sick.

  KAGAN: Loren, take Qarlo up to his room.

  Loren looks bugged, but turns and smiling indicates Qarlo should follow him.

  They climb the stairs to the upper floor as camera holds past Kagan, Toni and Abby to their passage. Kagan turns to his women when Qarlo is gone.

  81 THREE SHOT—ON KAGAN

  as he wipes a hand across his forehead. There is infinite sadness in his face.

  KAGAN: Now I understand why he didn’t respond to a film I showed him of a mother and child. He has no mother, he never knew a mother. (beat) A creche is a day nursery, a foundling hospital. He’s a product of artificial birth…he has no real parents…he was born and raised in a hatchery, like an egg.

  TONI: And that, about “the State”…?

  KAGAN: The State: his mother, his father, his everything.

 
ABBY: How pathetic.

  KAGAN: He knew about the position of the stars, because a foot-soldier always knows how to navigate by the stars…but he never knew the most elemental kind of love…

  ABBY: Tom, can we help him…he seems so…so, lost, so confused. And from what you’ve said, he’s capable of—of—anything.

  KAGAN: We can help him.

  ABBY: But are you sure, Tom. Loren and Toni—

  KAGAN (intensely): We’ve got to help him, Abby. And not just for him, either.

  He turns and walks toward the stairs as camera holds on the faces of his wife and daughter, following with their eyes. They don’t understand, but they think they should.

  DISSOLVE TO:

  82 INT. KAGAN DINING ROOM—NIGHT

  Qarlo sits next to Kagan, who is at the head of the table. Loren sits across from Qarlo, and Toni next to Loren. The young boy obviously is enthralled by the soldier.

  LOREN: Hey, Qarlo, in the future they got baseball and football and the World Series, huh?

  KAGAN: I don’t think Qarlo under—

  QARLO: Don’t you know there’s a war on?

  He has said it almost by rote, as though it were an explanation of everything.

  LOREN: Yeah, I know. But I mean, when you ain’t fighting.

  KAGAN: Aren’t fighting.

  LOREN: Aren’t fighting. Huh, Qarlo?

  QARLO: Why do you peep me drumdum questions?

  LOREN: Peep? Drumdum? Huh?

  KAGAN: “Peep” is a slang word for ask, or show, or anything that informs him. Drumdum means just what it sounds like…I think your word is “square” or “dopey.”

  LOREN: Hey! That’s wild! Peep and drumdum. I gotta use that.

  KAGAN (smiles amusedly at Loren, turns to Qarlo): Isn’t there a time when you aren’t at war, Qarlo? It isn’t drumdum of me…I just don’t grasp…I want to know.

  As Qarlo speaks, Abby comes in from the kitchen, with a tureen of something steaming. She stands listening for a long moment, worry on her face.

  QARLO: When I had not as many time as him—(points to Loren—My Drillmaster gave me my first weapon. I had twelve by the time I killed my first Enemy. (beat) The War has been fighting from before my hatch-time. One hundred eighty.

  TONI: Years? The war has been on for one hundred and eighty years?

  Qarlo nods. They are thunderstruck. Abby brings the tureen, sets it down in front of Kagan, next to Qarlo. Before Kagan can ladle out the soup from the tureen into the soup bowls stacked beside him, Qarlo seizes the bowl and shoves away from the table. He smoothly walks around the table, and into the living room. The sound of him going upstairs lingers in the room as they stare open-mouthed.

  TONI (ruefully): I’ve heard of lousy manners, but that’s a bit much.

  KAGAN: I forgot. In his time, it’s considered obscene to eat in front of anyone else. Not so strange, really; there are primitive tribes that have the same custom. And when you think about it, watching some people eat is rather sickening.

  ABBY: That’s grand, just grand. But what do we do for soup?

  KAGAN: I’ll talk to him. We can pass on the soup tonight, and I’ll have a long talk with him about table manners…but I suspect he’ll think we’re terrible boors.

  They stare at Kagan wide-eyed. He grins, enjoying the reversal of social protocol.

  DISSOLVE TO:

  83 LIVING ROOM—CLOSEUP—LATER THAT NIGHT

  on an alarm clock. Camera pulls back to tight two shot of Qarlo and Kagan sitting across from each other at a small table, the clock on the table between them. Voices o.s. first.

  KAGAN’S VOICE (o.s.): Do you know what this is?

  QARLO’S VOICE (o.s.) I saw a thing like it, once.

  KAGAN’S VOICE (o.s.): We call it a clock. It tells us where we should be from hour to hour. Do you know “hour,” Qarlo?

  QARLO: Sure! Whaddyathink, I’m drumdum? Attack hour, sleeptime, feedtime…hours.

  KAGAN: Yes, that’s right. But you don’t have clocks?

  QARLO: Don’t grasp why I need “clock.” When it’s time to jump, the C.O. tells me…(taps head)…in here.

  KAGAN: Does the C.O. regulate everything you do?

  QARLO: Hey, Kagan. I’ve peeped my warzone to you, but tell me, peep me, your—

  He makes vague hand-movements, indicating the world at large. Kagan grasps his meaning.

  KAGAN: My world? You want to know about my world? Qarlo nods. Kagan looks troubled.

  KAGAN: I don’t know what I can tell you…

  QARLO: Peep me the little one, the one you call “son.”

  KAGAN: Loren?

  Qarlo nods silently.

  KAGAN: He’s thirteen years old. He goes to school—you grasp the “school?”—good. He goes to school, where he learns about this world. Perhaps you can go to Loren’s school, some time, and they’ll peep you about this world completely (idly hits fist on table): Confound it, I shouldn’t be doing this alone…I need a good philosopher, a semanticist, a mathematician, a sociologist…

  QARLO: I don’t grasp.

  KAGAN: Nothing, just thinking out loud.

  QARLO: My time, think out loud, C.O. investigates. Drumdum thoughts are monitored; all thoughts are monitored, on Thinkspeek.

  KAGAN: There are people in this world who want to police thoughts, too, Qarlo.

  QARLO: No monitoring here, none?

  KAGAN: No. None. You can think anything you want, and it belongs only to you. Private. You grasp “private?”

  QARLO: No.

  KAGAN: All your own. No one else can have it, or use it, if you say no.

  QARLO: Execpt the C.O.

  KAGAN: No, not even the C.O. Just you.

  QARLO: That’s treason. State owns everything. I am the State, the State is me. Your “private” is a treason thing.

  KAGAN (sadly, nods): There are some in this world who think just like you, Qarlo…

  Camera holds on the two men as we

  DISSOLVE TO:

  84 INT. KAGAN HALLWAY AND BATHROOM—NIGHT

  Toni, in bathrobe, stands with toothbrush in hand, by the half-open door of the bathroom, talking to Abby, Camera med. close on them as they talk softly.

  TONI: Mother, you’re getting hysterical. Daddy would never have brought him home if he thought we were in danger.

  ABBY: Your father was born type-cast as the trusting scientist. All he knows is that—that creature may give him clues to the future.

  TONI: Oh, I don’t know. He’s not Tony Curtis, but in a way he has a certain charm…

  ABBY: Charm?!!

  TONI (another suggestion): Sex appeal?

  ABBY (trapped): I’m beginning to wonder who has what to fear from whom!

  TONI (lightly): I’m just a jazz-mad baby, livin’ a life of sin.

  Abby throws up her hands in exasperation, turns and goes into another doorway, obviously a bedroom. Toni grins, and opens the bathroom door. Camera shoots past her as she thrusts open the door suddenly and Qarlo spins around, his arms upthrust as though to strike her with a vicious karate chop. She gasps, falls back against the wall.

  85 INT. BATHROOM—ON QARLO TO TONI

  The water in the sink is running, and his face is wet, as is the floor and the front of his metal suit. His hands drop water as he speaks.

  QARLO: Get out!

  She doesn’t get out. Her fear drains away and is replaced by temper and surprising verve.

  TONI: I’ll do no such thing. I live here, too, you know.

  QARLO: Sleeptime is for aloners.

  TONI: I feel the same way about it, friend, but I still have to brush my teeth, and right now you’re blocking the water. (beat) Say, what’re you doing?

  QARLO: Drinking.

  TONI: Haven’t you ever heard of a glass?

  Qarlo stares at her uncomprehendingly. Obviously he hasn’t.

  TONI. (continuing): Forget it.

  They stare at each other silently for a moment. The girl is obviously appraising him, and Qarlo, for his
part, is intested, but suspicious. Very suspicious.

  TONI (continuing): Anything I can help you with?

  QARLO: Help me?

  TONI: Yes, do you have a towel, a wash cloth…a partridge in a pear tree?

  QARLO (suspiciously): What do you want from me?

  TONI: What do I want from you? Oh, brother, how it saddens me to know men haven’t changed a bit, even eighteen hundred years from now.

  Qarlo backs away from her. He becomes wary.

  QARLO: You’re a one more danger to me than Kagan. What do you want from me?

  TONI: Don’t you trust anyone? Can’t you even see we’re trying to help you? Didn’t you ever want to get near someone, talk to someone?

  QARLO: That isn’t possible. We can’t close to each other, anyone can’t. Thinkspeek comes best, not to touch.

  TONI: You don’t know what you’re missing, friend. (then, soberly) What a lousy, lonely life you must lead.

  QARLO: That’s my world. It’s fine.

  TONI: Mm-hmm. Just fine. And I guess if you’re blind from birth you don’t miss the color red.

  QARLO. I don’t grasp.

  TONI: Forget it.

  QARLO: Fret it.

  TONI: I’ll do that little thing.

  He stares at her a moment, passes her and goes out. She stands tipped onto one hip, tapping her toothbrush against her palm. She shakes her head wearily.

  CAMERA COMES IN on Toni. Closeup.

  TONI: You’ll never make it, Tiger. I hope…but I don’t think so.

  CAMERA HOLDS on Toni as we

  CUT TO:

  86 INT. LOREN’S BEDROOM—CLOSEUP LOREN—NIGHT

  as his eyes widen and he looks about to shout something loud and nasty. Camera pulls back to wide angle as he speaks.

  LOREN: Hey, what’s this?

  WIDE ANGLE OF ROOM shows all the furniture jumbled and piled in one corner. There is a desk and several chairs and a toy box and all manner of other kid’s things on the bed, leaving a wide empty space in the middle of the room. The walls are pennant-covered, teen-style. Qarlo is lying in the middle of the floor, and as Loren comes in through the door, and speaks, Qarlo rises up, a heavy brass bookend ready to smash.

  LOREN (anxiously): Hey, hold it, stop, wait a minute!

  QARLO: Sleeptime’s for aloners.

  LOREN: I just came in to get a comic book. They got me bunkin’ in with Toni, I didn’t mean to disturb you.