Adult-FanFiction.org : Television / Streaming

.Escape from Land of the Giants Season 1	By : keithcompany Category: G through L > Land of the Giants Views: 2011 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own The Land of The Giants, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 19
- 20
(Vertag walks slowly down an alley, holding a rifle. There’s a small noise behind him, he spins and fires. The pellet gun nails a rat crawling through some trash. A flurry of images of Vertag shooting, pumping and running, ends with him pulling on some rubber gloves, lifting dead rats to look them over.)
Jackala: (walks up from behind him) You know, we have exterminators that travel all over the city, doing this. Is the SID going to take over their contract?
Vertag: (tossing rat into the corner, turning to face the commissioner) I saw some rats acting…abnormal. I was trying to see if there was some sort of pattern.
Jackala: Get yourself a cat, if you’re worried about the rodent population.
Vertag: (walks towards the sunlight end of the alley. Jackala joins him) Can’t do that. I have 1500 roommates that are allergic to cats.
Jackala: Too bad. They’re about the best thing for rats. In some parts of town, they’re about the only thing people have.
Vertag: (smirk) I thought your exterminators went all over the city?
Jackala: Where it’s politically supported, you know that.
Vertag: Yeah. Politics. (A look of surprise) But the compound can’t have cats. Or any rat traps. Anything that would hurt the rats out would hurt the Earthlings.
Jackala: Yeah. So tell them to stay inside where it’s safe.
Vertag: But what if inside wasn’t safe? (gestures to the alley) What if this was practice? (starts running towards his car)
Jackala: What if WHAT was practice?
(In a drain pipe, Sgt. Styles and a squad of Marines escort Janet. They’re on foot. At an intersection of pipes, they meet Tom, from Episode 3 (“We’re here to rescue you!”), and two other men, with guns, dressed in black like he is. Two more humans are there, dressed in ragged clothes, carrying bundles.)
Janet: Tom! Good to see you again.
Tom: Ma’am! (gets an elbow from one of his friends.) Miss Janet, I mean. Um. Miss Crane.
ArmedMan1: Idiot.
Janet: It’s alright, Tom. Who are these?
Tom: This is Peter and this is Claire. They’ve been living in a toy store on the far side of town. We’ve escorted them here for the rescue.
Peter: Is it true?
Claire: Can we go home?
Janet: Sure. Just as soon as-
Styles: Hold it. (nods her head down one of the pipes.) We’ve got movement. (A Marine shines a flashlight that direction. We see another intersection and a steady stream of rats going past. One pauses and stares at the light)
-----
Roll Titles
-----
Styles: They’re headed towards the compound.
Janet: Should we run?
Styles: No. No, I don’t want to risk coming in second in that sort of race. Let’s go someplace there aren’t rats and figure this out. Tell Command.
Marine1: (on radio) Command, this is Escort One. We have-
(In one of the tents in the EB, techs are taking and responding to a number of verbal reports. A map of the compound is on a large display, red dots appearing at a number of points around it. Adams enters)
Adams: What do we have?
Perez: Rats, sir. A whole plague of them, coming through all the drain pipes.
Adams: Our people?
Perez: Troops are called out. Watch stations have been recalled. There’s at least one outrider we’ve lost contact with. And Crane’s escort is too far to make it back.
Adams: Damn. Have we secured the drain grates?
Perez: Yes, sir, and alerted the giant. Lessala says that the drain pipe in their building is sealed.
Adams: Tell Fleet we may have a problem.
(Reception. Lessala is checking the load of a pistol. She hides the weapon under the desk when the door opens. When she sees it’s Vertag she relaxes and lifts the gun, slamming a clip home.)
Vertag: Lessala, we’ve got to tell-
Lessala: Vertag, the humans say rats are swarming towards the compound. What?
Vertag: What? Oh. Well, never mind my news.   (opens the security door) How many rats are you planning to shoot with that?
Lessala: This is for whoever’s sending them. (they enter security space) If he shows up before we’re all dead, I’m taking him out.
Vertag: Well, I’m not going to give you dibs on anyone. If you want to be first, be fast.
(In the pipe, Tom runs into an intersection, looks left and right, points)
Tom: This way. (everyone else follows. Two Marines in the rear rig a quick Claymore and follow. Just as they finish, an explosion sounds somewhere to their rear)
Marine2: They’re getting closer.
Styles: Then we need to move faster.
(In the staff tent, a tech waves for the Colonel’s attention)
Tech1: Sir! The giant wants to know if we need assistance.
Adams: Ask if he’s got about a dozen terriers in his pocket.
(In a small closet off the room with the Tank in it, Vertag opens a couple of valves. There is a large valve lever on the back wall of the closet, padlocked shut. He removes the lock. Lessala is at the tank, speaking to the humans inside.)
Lessala: Frankly, no matter what happens, you’re in the safest spot in the compound right now. The tank was designed to keep your Marines from busting you out. No rats are going to get in.
Human: So if everyone else dies, at least we get to survive with the memory of the slaughter.
Lessala: (with a smile) Yep! (turns to Vertag, holding a finger to her ear) Terriers? Should I go to the pet store?
Vertag: He’s joking. Hey, tell Adams that we have the city’s water system rigged to flood the drains at his command.
(In the control tent)
Tech1: Understood. Be advised that we’re still trying to get our patrols out of the drain system.
(In the Tank room)
Vertag: Right. Standing by for an all clear.   Lessala, stay here. If anyone screams ‘flood the pipes,’ you pull this lever.
Lessala: Alright. Then what?
Vertag: (walking towards the door) Then we get a lot of mops.
(Tom and his two friends fire towards a large rat crouching in front of them. Their three mismatched weapons make a lot of flash, hitting the rat in various places, but it doesn’t stop)
Styles: DOWN! (Tom&Company drop to the ground. Marine squad opens up. A wall of fire obliterates the rat’s skull. A few wires spark as the thing sinks to the floor) GO! (Marines hustle civilians down the pipe and into a cross-pipe just in front of the corpse. As the last Marine disappears down that, we see another rat squeezing around the corpse.)
(Tom sprints to catch up with Styles who now leads)
Tom: We didn’t need help. We almost had it.
Styles: Listen, kid-
Janet: It’s not a matter of manhood, Tom. You just haven’t got the firepower or the training the Marines have.
Tom: I’m not saying that. I’m saying, we’ve been on the planet longer. (party slows to walk over a grate in the pipe floor. Big rusted sections are big enough for a human to fall through) We know how things work here. We should- (He slips in a patch of slime. Arms windmilling, he starts to fall towards a hole. Styles reaches out and snatches him, yanking him to safety.) Uh…thanks.
Styles: My pleasure. Marines were invented to do this, Tom.
Tom: Yeah, well… (another Claymore goes off in the distance.) Lead on, Sergeant.
(In a giant laboratory a screen shows a rat’s point of view. Tiny people run away from it through a pipe, not terribly clear. The rat pauses. We pull back a bit and see that there is a hand (in a lab coat sleeve) adjusting a control.)
Voice: Yes, yes, we must pursue, little one. (the POV surges forward)
(pan to the side. Next to the workbench with the monitor are racks of cages, each with a wired rat inside. The rats are one to a cage, each sitting perfectly still in the center of its cage floor. Continue to pan to the side, passing rows of racked cages. The room ends. Outside is what looks like a warehouse. Racks of cages climb up to the high bay ceiling. Some are empty. A line of rats marches down a little ramp to the floor. Continuing to pan, we see the line of rats leading to a drain in the floor, climbing down inside.)
(In the shooting gallery, a semicircle of Marines shoots at rats as they wriggle and squirm through the grate, some twisting away bits of the metal)
Marine3: Gunny! They’re chewing through!
Gunny: That’s alright, just makes them easier to shoot.
Marine4: Hey! Why don’t we use the flame-throwing tank?
Gunny: Then burning rats run around inside the building, set it on fire and it collapses on us.
Marine3: Idiot.
Marine4: Shut up.
Gunny: BOTH ya shut it!
Marine5: Collapse…Hey! I got an idea!
(In the center of the Earthling Building, Hummers park around the drain, cupola guns blazing. A few yards away, Adams consults with his staff.)
Adams: I fear we’re going to run out of bullets before we run out of rats. Ideas?
Perez: Fix bayonets?
Peterson: Major, I love you like a sister, but you have to know that’s insane.
Perez: Giant rats with wires in their heads are trying to eat me, and the local support is a shovel.
(In one of the other buildings, Vertag slams a shovel down on little rat heads repeatedly.)
Perez: Insane isn’t even an insult right now.
Brown: Wires?
Perez: Yeah.   Big cables running from a collar to their skulls.
Brown: So, they’re probably either programmed or receiving instructions!
Adams: Think you can jam them?
Brown: Or fry them.
Adams: Just don’t overdo it.
(In the drains, a bloody Marine limps along, dragging his gun. Janet and escort rush up from in front of him. Two Marines step around him to guard in that direction.)
Styles: O’Brien! Are you okay?
O’Brien: Here, kitty, kitty. Come and get the mousy. (collapses. Sgt. points to two of her men to lift him. The civilians step forward.)
Peter: Let us!
Claire: Oh, god, yes, keep your guns handy. (they carry O’Brien.
Janet: Who’s he?
Styles: One of our outriders. Obviously, rats are back the way he came. (turns to shake the shell-shocked jarhead) O’Brien! Is anyone else back there? (he whimpers and covers his face) Dammit. Okay, we go this way. (turns and leads back the way they came.)
(One of the targets in the shooting gallery moves forward with ponderous steps. In the corner, Marine5 manipulates the giant remote control. After two steps, he yanks the joystick. The robot tips forward. Marines rush away from the drain as the huge chestplate drops like a blunt guillotine on the grate. Rats squeak in brief gasps of terminal pain, then fall silent.)
Marine4: Cooooool.
(On the roof of the Earthling Building, one of the gun emplacements’ roof opens. A large sphere rises, strange energies glowing within)
(Down in the control tent, Brown sits at a computer station. The screen shows a map of the compound. Brown moves a mouse. A red dot centered on the EB roof extends to cover the compound. In the corner, there is a number over the caption: Kiloton Equivalent. It grows slowly up to 5.0.)
(Behind Brown, Peterson keys a radio)
Peterson: Vertag! Lessala! You’re going to lose comms for a minute or two. We’re setting off an EMP to see if we can turn off the rats.
Vertag (voice): Won’t that turn everything off?
Peterson: Brown’s limiting the voltage. It won’t overcome the shielding on our equipment, and shouldn’t affect too much of the surrounding neighborhood.
Lessala (voice): Then what about the rats outside of the effect? Won’t they just rush in?
Peterson: Then we set it off again.
Brown: Okay, we’re ready to-
(Bullets stitch holes across the top of the tent. A bulge pushes in that side, rat screeching sounds loudly. Peterson screeches and throws himself to the deck. Perez bounces backwards into the room, emptying her rifle out the doorway. She sees Brown trying to set off the EMP, growls and runs. She tackles him to the ground as more bullets stitch the air where he had been sitting. The wireless mouse tumbles, the red dot grows to fill the screen just before ACTIVATED flashes across the screen. The KT equivalent jumps to 400,000.)
(On the roof, the shiny globe turns red, white, then glows with an intensity that would make Satan wince. A few yards away, two Marines in front of the emplacement hear a loud, rising whine. They look at each other)
Marine6: Ever hear one make that noise before?
Marine7: What?
Marine6: I SAID DUCK!! (they dive)
(The globe goes Kablooey.)
(Down in the control tent, all the screens shine white with static, then go dead.)
(Down at the grate, shooting pauses as all the rats freeze in place. The creatures twitch and shudder for a minute. Sparks pop off of the cables running out of their skulls. Perez runs out into view, grabs a gun off of a Marine)
Perez: (shouting) Shoot ‘em while they’re-
(The freeze wears off. The rats go insane. They attack Marines, each other and a few twist around to bite themselves. Marines redouble their efforts at defense.)
Adams: It didn’t work! (keys radio. Nothing happens) Dammit, Brown!
(Vertag staggers back from a writing rat-storm of fur. Puts his finger to an ear)
Vertag: Did you guys do that thing, yet? Is this the result or what? (whangs with shovel)
(In the pipes, Styles pokes her head from the standard drainpipe into a much larger cement culvert. In the distance to their right, sunlight shows. No rats are in view as she flashes her handlight back and forth)
Styles: Okay. Let’s get outta here. (they drop out of the pipe, sliding down the curve to a small trickle of water at the bottom. The civilians ease O’Brien down, Tom catches him. The squad stretches our and starts working their way to the light.)
(Vertag staggers out into the compound, tossing his shovel overhand back into the building, a curse word not quite voiced. He turns and sees a Marine waving a signal flag at the door to the Earthling Building)
(In the tank room, Lessala kneels with an ear to the floor. )
Lessala: I think I hear them squeaking…
Vertag: (running in) Throw the… What are you doing? (shakes his head and steps past her. She jumps up, they both grab the valve handle and pull it down. It resists, they brace feet on the wall and yank)
(In the Earthling Building, water jets out of the grate, flushing rats out of sight. One even gets dragged back into the pipe. Marine’s finish off the remaining ones)
(In the shooting gallery, water sprays out from under the target in a flat circle. Marines step back as the water hits their boots like waves lapping at the beach)
(On the roof, shards of EMP globe shimmer and glitter as they fall out of the sky and impale the roof. Marines 6 and 7 hold their helmets tight and lay still)
(In the culvert, everyone pauses as they hear rumbles. Suddenly, water shoots out of a cross-pipe near the opening. The jet blocks the sunlight and the occasional rat corpse is silhouetted. Water starts to rush down the culvert, towards the group)
Styles: Okay, new plan. (points to a cross-pipe nearby, on the opposite side from the water source) Up there! (Shoulders her weapon and turns to offer cupped hands. Tom slots in beside her. Together they lift a Marine into the pipe. He slithers in weapon-first)
(More water starts rushing from a second cross-pipe, closer to the group. Water courses past the waiting humans, up to the tops of their boots)
Marine8: (in pipe) Clear!
Styles: Everybody! (Civilians lifted up first, then the wounded Marine, then the rest of the squad)
(water shoots out of a third cross-pipe. A rat hits the far wall with a resounding splat. The next cross-pipe is the one opposite the humans. Water rises above their knees, the current flow quickening)
(Styles lifts Tom up to the pipe. He slips at the edge, kicking out. The boot connects with Styles’ face, knocking her down into the water.)
Janet: STYLES! (she jumps into the growing torrent. Across the pipe, some rat screams sound just as water bursts into view. Marines yank Tom up to safety and start running down the pipe. A rodent body wedges in the opening, reduces the flow enough that they can get safely away.)
(In the Tank room, Lessala and Vertag stand up.)
Vertag: You okay?
Lessala: Yeah. You?
Vertag: Let’s go find out. (Glance at Tank. Humans are collected on the top floor. One nods at the giants, they go outside)
(In the Earthling Building, work gangs roll rats off of equipment, collapsed tents, a few Marines. Medics run everywhere, directing other Marines to grab stretchers, hold a bandage in place or apply pressure. Adams finds Brown and Peterson lifting half a rat off of Perez. Adams pulls the bayonet out of the dead rat’s eye and hands it to his XO. Turns to Brown and shakes his dead handheld.)
Adams: Something you’d like to explain to me?
(Fade out, fade in: A giant in a telephone booth taps the hook switch repeatedly, trying to reconnect with their party)
(Fade out, fade in: A giant stands beside her car in frustration. Another giant steps into view and she says, ‘it just won’t start! It was working when I drove here, but now…”)
(Fade out, fade in: A group of giant kids sit in a semicircle around a TV set. Static shows. One stands and slaps the screen a time or two. Nothing changes. “Mom!”
(Fade out, fade in: A giant policeman is startled up out of his seat as a bank of red lights on the wall behind him light up, bells ringing. “Chief! Every burglar alarm in the city just went off!”)
(Fade out, fade in: Tom leads the survivors out of a storm drain. The Marines pull signal mirrors out of pockets and flash the lookout-towers on the wall of the compound across the street.)
(Fade out, fade in: In the Earthling Building, Lessala and Vertag shovel piles of rat corpses into a trash can. Adams and most of his staff walk up. Roth is busy elsewhere, of course)
Adams: Appreciate the help, Agent Vertag.
Vertag: Wish I could have done more, Colonel.
Adams: Yeah, well, we got through it. All of our electronics are out. We have no vehicles, no contact with the Fleet. We have a whole mess of wounded people I’d like to evacuate on the shuttle, but no way to call for it.
Lessala: Won’t they come investigate why you’re not talking to them?
Adams: (shakes head) No, after the previous attack, standing orders are not to send the shuttle in if it might be a trap. The assumption was that we’d at least be able to give them the information to make an informed decision on that.
Brown: I’m sorry. Damerae knocked me-
Perez: Damerae saved me, you mean.
Adams: (wearily) Enough. (they silence like a switch was thrown.) Can you call one of the other Exchange stations?
Lessala: Phones are out. As are a lot of streetlights. Some cars aren’t working. TV, radio, all transmission bands are just messed up. And that’s just what we can see from the sidewalk out front.
Vertag: Lessala, take my car, drive down to Mining Port. It’s about an hour.
Adams: Does your car start?
Brown: We’ll make it start, sir, one way or another.
Adams: Good. Department heads have summaries available to Brown in ten minutes.
Brown: Me, sir?
Adams: You’re going to contact the Admiral from Mining Port. Take a rough shopping list of what we need repaired or replaced.
Brown: Um, everything?
Peterson: Succinct. I’ll take care of that. You get the ignition to work.
Adams: Whatever. (turns to Perez) Major, Dr. Roth is busy. Get some nurse to give you a head count on wounded and dead. Get to it, people. (They nod and march off. Brown stops suddenly.)
Brown: An hour? Sir, I should really be here, fixing what I can. (Lessala leans down to scoop him up)
Lessala: Aw, come on, it’ll be okay.
Vertag: Her driving is part of her cover persona. In my car, and (nods to the rest of the city) with that going on, she doesn’t have to play suicidal taxicab for any watchers.
Brown: Oh. Okay, then. Let’s go look at the car. (they leave. Vertag picks up the last few corpses)
Adams: Um, Agent Vertag? How will the authorities look at this?
Vertag: You mean, will they recognize it as an Earthling terrorist attack? I don’t know. We’re on the edge of town. If they can track the effects accurately, we’re in the center. But if the whole town was affected and there aren’t a lot of reports from the countryside… We may get lucky.
Adams: (looking around at the destruction) Lucky.
Vertag: Hey, whoever started this, this probably isn’t what he expected to happen. We probably won.
Adams: Yeah, what about him? Is he going to try this again? (Vertag shrugs, lifts bucket)
(Fade out, fade in: The evil genius’ lab again, starting at the drain. A few rats twitch here and there, one walking around in tiny circles, bleeding. The camera pans past the rows and rows of cages. All are torn and bashed, some ranks have tipped over. Very few rats are in view. Camera continues to the lab, all the cages are demolished. More rats are visible, all bloody and dying down. The screen is awash with snow. The lab-coat-sleeved hand, bloody and torn, twitches a bit, almost reaching a button marked ‘Emergency Shutdown.’ A rat crawls out of the coat sleeve, muzzle covered with blood. It staggers and falls off the edge of the desk)
(Much later, after dark, Vertag walks around the North Corner of the compound. He sees Lessala sitting next to a small fire and walks closer. She is folding come colored paper in an intricate pattern, with some parti-colored ribbons sticking out of the corners. He stops as she holds it over the fire, closes her eyes, mutters and drops it down to burn.
Lessala: (eyes still closed) If you say ‘silly superstition’ I’ll shoot you right between the eyes.
Vertag: Not what I was going to say. (walks up to kneel down beside her)
Lessala: Then what?
Vertag: That it’s unnecessary.
Lessala: You think she’s dead…?
Vertag: If she is, then she died without having the last word. She’s too stubborn to go before that.
Lessala: (small snort of laughter, but with tears) But they’re so small. And all alone.
Vertag: Yes, it’s very unfair. Two human women loose in Coastal City somewhere. The city hasn’t got a chance.
Lessala: Tell me they’ll be okay.
Vertag: They’ll be okay. If you… If you don’t want to go home, you can sleep in Janet’s room tonight. I don’t think she’d mind.
Lessala: (looks up sharply) Tha- thanks. I’d like that.
Vertag: Go ahead. You can even use the shower first.
Lessala: (glances at the fire. The folded paper is almost completely gone, ribbons twisting up in the flames.) Okay. Thank you. (she leaves. Vertag stands, watches her go)
Vertag: (mutters a bit, pulls a bit of folded paper of his own out of a pocket, tosses it in the fire. Stands watching it burn) Come home, Janet.
(Fade out, fade in: The camera pans across the dark streets of Coastal City from a high POV. A few streetlights flicker feebly. Some buildings have power, not all. A few cars move. Finally we see the beach. A storm drain extends under a pier, dark water flowing out the end to drain into the sea. The camera tracks the flow from the pipe to the surf, then glides between the piles under the wharf. Where the surf touches the sand, a pair of tracks lead up out of the water. The camera finds Janet and Styles, leaning on each other, as they stagger into the meager shelter of a couple of rocks leaning on the last piling.)
-----
No animals were harmed during the writing of this episode.
-----
End of Season One.
-----
Roll credits
- 19
- 20
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

.Escape from Land of the Giants Season 1