219 INTERIOR: ATLANTIC STREET, CLOSER NIGHT.
PREACHER (voice-over) For the wages of lust are dust, and the wages of sin are death.
Passing us is a nightmare procession of DAZED, HYPNOTIZED ISLANDERS in their nightclothes, oblivious of the HOWLING WIND and SHEETING SNOW. We see ANGELA with little BUSTER in her arms; followed by MOLLY, in her nightgown and carrying RALPHIE; followed by GEORGE KIRBY . . .
FERD ANDREWS . . . ROBERTA COIGN . . . well, you get it. They're all here. And tattooed on each forehead is that strange and ominous word: CROATON.
PREACHER (voice-over)
For if the supplicant is turned away and the seeker given no respite, shall not the hard-hearted be sent hence?
STORM OF THE CENTURY 233
220 INTERIOR: MIKE, CLOSE-UP.
MIKE
(sleeping) Hallelujah. Amen.
221 INTERIOR: THE STUMP OF THE TOWN DOCK.
They march toward THE CAMERA and their death in the frigid ocean like lemmings. We don't believe it ... and yet we do, don't we? After Jonestown and Heaven's Gate, we do.
ROBBIE
(first in line) I'm sorry we didn't give you what you wanted.
He topples off the jagged end of the dock and into the ocean.
ORV BOUCHER
(second in line) Sorry we didn't give it to you, Mr. Linoge.
He follows ROBBIE into the ocean. Next is ANGIE and BUSTER.
ANGIE CARVER I'm sorry. We both are, aren't we, Buster?
With the child in her arms, ANGELA steps from the pier. Next is MOLLY, with RALPHIE.
222 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE, IN THE TV AREA.
He is growing steadily more restive ... as who would not, if subjected to such an awful dream as this?
MIKE No . . . no, Molly . . .
PREACHER (voice-over)
For so little is asked of you, can you say "hallelujah" . . . and yet if you harden your hearts and stop up the porches of your ears, you must pay. You must be branded as one of the ungrateful and sent hence.
234 STEPHEN KING
223 EXTERIOR: MOLLY, ON THE PIER NIGHT.
184
She is as hypnotized as the rest, but RALPHIE is awake and afraid.
MOLLY
We hardened our hearts. We closed our ears. And now we pay. I'm sorry, Mr. Linoge RALPHIE
Daddy! Daddy, help!
MOLLY we should have given you what you wanted.
She goes over the edge and into the black water with RALPHIE SCREAMING in her arms.
224 INTERIOR: THE TV AREA, WITH MIKE NIGHT. He snaps awake, GASPING. Looks at the TV.
225 INTERIOR: TV, FROM MIKE'S POINT OF VIEW.
Nothing but snow. The station has either lost its tower to the storm or ceased broadcasting for the night.
226 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He sits upright, trying to get his breath back.
SONNY BRAUTIGAN
Mike?
SONNY lumbers over, looking disheveled and puffy with sleep, his hair sticking up in the back.
SONNY
Man, I just had the most awful dream . . . this reporter . . .
Now UPTON BELL joins them.
UPTON
On Main Street . . . talkin' about how everybody was gone . . .
STORM OF THE CENTURY 235 He stops. He and SONNY look at each other in mutual amazement.
SONNY
Like in this little town in Virginia, a long time ago.
MELINDA (voice)
No one knew where they went . . . and in the dream, no one knew where we went.
They look toward the draw curtains. MELINDA is standing there in her nightgown.
MELINDA
They're all dreaming it. Do you understand? They are all dreaming what we dreamed!
She looks back toward:
227 INTERIOR: THE SLEEPING AREA NIGHT.
185
The sleepers are in SLOW, TWISTY MOTION on their cots. They moan and protest without waking.
228 INTERIOR: RESUME TV AREA.
MELINDA But where could two hundred people disappear to?
SONNY and UPTON shake their heads. TESS conies halfway down the stairs. Her hair is mussed; she still looks half asleep.
TESS MARCHANT
Especially on a little island, cut off by a big storm . . .
MIKE gets up and snaps off the TV.
MIKE
Into the ocean.
What?
MELINDA (shocked)
236 STEPHEN KING
MIKE
Into the ocean. Mass suicide. If we don't give him what he wants.
SONNY
How could he
MIKE I don't know . . . but I think he can.
MOLLY comes through the draw curtains, holding RALPHIE in her arms. RALPHIE is fast asleep, but she can't bear to let him go.
MOLLY
What does he want, though? Mike, what does he want?
MIKE I'm sure we'll find out. When he's ready.
229 EXTERIOR: THE LIGHTHOUSE NIGHT.
The light swings around and around, briefly cutting through the DRIVING SNOW on each swing.
In one of the shattered windows at the top, a SHAPE stands.
THE CAMERA MOVES IN ON LINOGE, who stands looking out at the town with his hands behind his back. He has the air of a ruler surveying his kingdom. At last he turns away.
230 INTERIOR: LIGHTHOUSE CONTROL ROOM NIGHT.
LINOGE, little more than a shadow in the RED LIGHTS of the control panels, crosses the circular room and opens the door to the stairs. THE CAMERA MOVES IN on the computer screen we saw before. Marching down from the top, replacing the storm surge warning for the morning's high tide, is this message, repeated over and over: "GIVE ME WHAT I WANT."
231 INTERIOR: THE LIGHTHOUSE STAIRCASE NIGHT.
We're looking down this dizzying spiral at LINOGE, who is descending rapidly.
186
STORM OF THE CENTURY 237
232 EXTERIOR: THE LIGHTHOUSE NIGHT.
LINOGE comes out, wolfs head cane in hand, and moves off into the snow, headed God knows where to do God knows what mischief. We HOLD on the lighthouse, then FADE TO BLACK. THIS ENDS ACT 6.
Act?
233 EXTERIOR: THE DOWNTOWN AREA MORNING.
The snow is falling as fast and hard as ever. Buildings are half-buried. Power lines disappear into the snow. It looks like the newscast walk-and-ski we saw in the dreams, only with the storm still going on.
234 EXTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL MORNING.
The cupola with the memorial bell in it is almost buried, and the brick town hall building itself looks ghostly. The WIND HOWLS, unabated.
235 INTERIOR: THE TOWN MEETING HALL MORNING.
About half of the folks who took shelter in the town hall are here, sitting on the hard wooden benches with plates on their laps, eating pancakes and drinking juice. A kind of buffet has been set up at the back of the hall, with MRS. KINGSBURY (wearing a brilliant red hunter's cap with the bill turned around backward gangster-style) and TESS MARCHANT officiating. There's juice, coffee, and cold cereal in addition to the pancakes.
The folks eating breakfast are very quiet . . . not sullen, but introspective and a little afraid. All the families with small children are up of course they are, wee folks rise and shine early and among them we see the HATCHERS and the ANDERSONS in a sleepy morning party of six. MIKE is feeding RALPHIE bites of pancake, and HATCH is doing about the same with PIPPA. The wives drink coffee and talk quietly.
The side door OPENS, letting in a HOWL OF WIND, a SWIRL OF SNOW, and an excited JOHNNY
HARRIMAN.
JOHNNY
Mike! Hey, Mikey! I never seen such a storm surge in my life! I think the lighthouse is gonna go!
I really do!
The ISLANDERS STIR and MURMUR. MIKE puts RALPHIE on 238