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REEL FOUR

I drew a line, I drew a line for you
Oh, what a thing to do
And it was all yellow
And your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
D’you know?
For you I bleed myself dry
For you I bleed myself dry

-- Coldplay, Yellow

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FADE IN:

20. EXT. PALAWAN – DUSK

MANG TONIO, seventy-three and feeling every single day of that age in his bones today, stares at the sprawling patch of scorched earth, all that is left of the nuclear power plant which came within a hair’s breadth of exploding almost half a year ago, but for the heroic and timely intervention of Habagat.

In the end, due to events that are largely beyond Mang Tonio’s comprehension, the entire power plant seemed to collapse in on itself, making an awful noise which had, at the time, sounded like some deafening roar.

Then, there was only silence, and a vast pile of rubble where the power plant had been.

Crying, then, from the gathered crowd, and the news reporters.

Habagat had been inside the plant when it had collapsed.

Was he… dead?

Then, men started to approach the smoking pile of rubble, unmindful of the possibility of radiation. They began to dig, to throw stone after stone away, searching for their beloved hero.

Soon, women and children were helping as well. (Mang Tonio himself had labored that night, his muscles aching for well a week after.)

After about five minutes, the rubble began to stir, and everyone stopped, watching. No one retreated, though. (Afterwards, it had made the old man feel proud that no one had backed away from their task.)

Then there were audible gasps and a chorus of “Susmariosep”’s, as Habagat emerged from the rubble like a resurrected god, lifting a chunk of concrete the size of a truck off himself, and tossing it aside.

The cheers, the applause, were like a solid wave to Mang Tonio’s ears, and they rushed to the hero’s side, to congratulate, to express their gratitude.

Then, politely extricating himself from the mob of near-hysterical admirers, the hero began the long and arduous process of hauling the rubble off into space, where any possible radioactivity would harm no one.

By the next morning, all that was left was this: scorched earth, blackened, as if by a curse (which Mang Tonio is about to discover, is not at all that far from the truth).

The tremors began two days ago, and last night, cracks in the earth began to appear, red steam rising from them. All of Palawan was praying for Habagat to return, of course, to investigate this phenomenon, but Mang Tonio knew their champion was busy deflecting and defusing tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean (he’d seen the Flash Report on Channel 8 at lunchtime).

If Habagat even knows about this, he is far too busy to do anything about it.

When the low rumbling begins though, slowly escalating till Mang Tonio feels it in his old, tired bones, he begins to pray nonetheless.

The black earth shudders, the cracks widening, red steam venting like the very breath of the Devil. There is a smell, the blistering odor of heat and light, of ash and vaporized flesh, a smell that blooms, that permeates the dusk air.

The black earth shudders, then shatters, exploding in midnight fury and poisonous rage, and ZCERNEBOCH, god of the underworld, is loosed once more upon the world.

COMMERCIAL BREAK.

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