A SCREENPLAY SKETCH

The being that I had with me in the seat was no longer my lifetime friend. It was a monstrous creature that seemed to come from sidereal space and radiated unknown and unhealthy forces.

H. P. Lovercraft – The lurker at the threshold

FROM A NOTEBOOK of director Jack Arnold: poultry and other farm animals begin to disappear in a village of Louisiana. A few weeks later, pigs and cows meet the same fate. Some children say they saw a misshapen being wandering through the marshes. It does not take much to make him responsible for the misfortune. Locals prepare and arm hunting parties. Boats ply the waterways. Torches illuminate the swamps. But neither the hounds are able to trace the abominable hunchback. And the incident is attributed to a juvenile prank. Calm seems to return for a while but suddenly an invasion of mosquitoes attack humans and beasts. People lose their pets. First was old Mc Donald’s guide dog. Later, "Precious", the poodle that belonged to Jamie Gumb, the dressmaker. Even the orphans Flora and Miles’ guinea pig vanishes. Calamities do not cease. Fish, frogs and alligators abandon channels and marshes. Rev. O'Hara announces the imminence of the Second Coming. People experience severe behavioral disorders and many bloody events occur. Sheriff John T. Chance is overwhelmed. The Federal government sends in the National Guard. They implement a curfew and a rigorous cord 5 miles around. All pacification attempts fail while news of similar events in Tierra del Fuego, Uganda, Siberia and Canberra keep on coming. Villagers engage in acts of cannibalism. Professor Zellaby believes he’s discovered a vaccine but time is short because Mayor Schaeffer is determined to use a laser cannon to get rid of the so-called "Plague of Torrance Town." Kay Lawrence, the beauty queen volunteers to experiment the serum. The test is successful, and the few survivors advance to the barricades. Soldiers give a warning and then open fire to eradicate the danger of contagion. An unusual lightning illuminates the sky. Inside a flying saucer, a deformed being takes notes: "wildlife fit for consumption but mosquitoes transmit our virus to indigenous species. Demographic catastrophe is ahead".

© Pablo Martínez Burkett, 2014

This short story was published in the #134 of Revista digital miNatura. With a little help of Violeta Balián in the fine tunning.