Martin has turned to run but the Gunslinger tackles him. They fall and roll. The Gunslinger punches viciously. Martin’s face is cut. He twists away. Another punch misses, and strikes the stone floor with a metallic clang.
Martin wrestles free. The Gunslinger punches and knocks him back. Martin turns into a punching bag for the rhythmic, mechanical blows of the Gunslinger.
Whenever Martin is able to hit the Gunslinger, he responds with the same mechanical quality, feeling no pain, simply getting up quickly, attacking again.
Finally Martin maneuvers around so that there is a barred grating between himself and the Gunslinger. He is gasping for breath, looking for a respite. There is none—the Gunslinger’s hand darts through the bars and gets Martin by the throat again.
This looks like it for Martin, but he picks up a sword from the fallen body of one of the attendants earlier seen, and with a single swipe cuts off the Gunslinger’s arm—or at least, he would have, except there is the clang of metal against metal. The Gunslinger’s arm does not release its grip. Finally, with more sword strikes, it does. But there is no injury to the Gunslinger.
Martin, once released, falls coughing to the ground. The Gunslinger comes over to deliver the coup. Martin backs off. The Gunslinger lunges.
Martin can’t take much more of this, but he rolls and misses the Gunslinger. Martin staggers to his feet. His face is cut and bleeding. His clothing is torn. The Gunslinger stalks him. Martin backs off.
The Gunslinger delivers two lightning-punches, and Martin crumples. His face is a bloody pulp. He is no longer resisting, really. He tries in some vague way to get away, but none of his movements are effectual anymore.
The Gunslinger moves in again, slowly, and then darts. Martin rolls. The Gunslinger is tripped up by Martin’s rolling body and falls against the rack. One arm is pinned down by the click of the wristlet. The Gunslinger struggles to free himself. Martin lies numbly.
The Gunslinger is trying to get free . . .
Martin looks up, gathers his energy for one last move, and springs on the Gunslinger’s feet. He gets one foot into the foot-catch on the rack. Then the Gunslinger kicks Martin away.
We now have the Gunslinger with one hand and one foot caught in the rack. But he is getting his hand free with his other hand.
Martin has been kicked across the room, but gets to his feet, sees what is happening, and in a last desperate lunge, flings himself at the control wheel on the rack, tossing off the safety ratchet. The wheel begins to spin wildly.
The rack stretches, and the Gunslinger is literally pulled apart, his torso separating into two pieces, revealing sputtering machinery that hisses and spits as the Gunslinger dies with a mechanical scream.
CUT TO:
Martin turned away from the destruction, in order not to be burned by the sparks. He now looks back. The Gunslinger is destroyed. Martin limps across the dungeon, sits down in utter exhaustion next to the dead robot Girl he previously tried to help.
Martin is apparently oblivious to her presence. He gasps and heaves, staring forward. He is really out of it. Finally he begins to smile.
Then he gets up and walks out of the dungeon. As we track him, we have the Girl in the foreground, staring sightlessly at us as Martin walks away in the background.
FADE TO BLACK.
END CREDITS.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Still in his early thirties, MICHAEL CRICHTON is a man of many trades. Born in 1942 in Chicago and educated at Harvard College and the Harvard Medical School, he received his MD in 1969. As an author, he made his reputation with The Andromeda Strain which was both a bestseller and a major motion picture. Since then other books have appeared, pseudonymously and otherwise, notably Five Patients, a work of medical nonfiction. But a good part of his time is now spent on films. Dr. Crichton has written the screenplay for the film of his recent novel, The Terminal Man, and his most recent project is the futuristic Westworld. Michael Crichton—who is in fact not only author, physician and moviemaker but also a Post-Doctoral Fellow on leave of absence from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California—confesses that he has a half dozen other book and film projects in mind.
Table of Contents
Back Cover
Preview
Movie
Titlepage
Copyright
Foreword
Shooting Westworld
WESTWORLD
Start reading
About the Author
Delos 1 - Westworld Page 9
