*Flick*
“When walking in open territory...bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop…
...Destroy him.”*Flick*“That emptiness gnaws and hurts worse than anything else in life…
we take up knives to carve our skin just to escape it…
or run into the arms of a lover to smother it…
but it doesn't go away....It grows.
It is death at work...emptiness causing decay.
No matter how much we feed it SYN…
...it will never fill up.”*Flick*“I found God clutching a razor blade!
He said “look at the fucking mess they made!”
They’d trade their hearts if they were made of gold…
...but they’re as worthless as the souls they sold!!!”*Flick*“Into your sanctum!
You let them in!
Now all your loved ones...
And all your kin...
Will suffer punishments beneath the wrath of God!
Never to forgive…
Never to forgive…”
-"THEM RATS"-
(Suddenly the exact same animated red slash cuts across a black screen as we hear a woman scream and the scene opens to show the outside of a cast iron door as Slappy McGoo sleeps obliviously in front of it as Jack Russow and Alanah O’Connell rush to the door and Jack snaps…)
Jack Russow: SLAPPY!!!
(Slappy instantly jumps up wielding a broomstick looking around panic.)
Slappy McGoo: WHO GOES THERE!?
Jack Russow: Slappy c’mon man, it’s been an HOUR AND A HALF!!!
Slappy McGoo: *yawning* I’m sorry kiddo, he said he was thirsty and wanted some tea and wanted me ta join him then next thing ya know I just kinda...dozed. We should be good though!
Alanah O’Connell: I want to go back on record and say I HATE this...it feels like we’re keeping Mack PRISONER. He’s our FRIEND.
Jack Russow: Babe I know but right now? THAT...ain’t Mack. THAT...is a broken-hearted, purely-aggressive bundle of pained rage and hate.
Alanah O’Connell: He’s just hurting...he’s STILL our friend we should be WITH him...not GUARDING him!
(Behind them, Slappy has opened the door to the bunker like accomodations and we see him wide eyed with concern.)
Slappy McGoo: Ehhh...I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.
Jack Russow: ...wwwwwwhyyyyyyyy?
Slappy McGoo: ...promise ya won’t get mad.
Jack Russow: *sigh* No.
Slappy McGoo: *Deep Breath* He...mmmmmmay or may...nnnnnooooot...be here anymore.
Jack Russow: ...SLAPPY.
(The three of them hustle to go find the others as the door stands wide open and we see carvings on the walls...DARK carvings all over the walls...surrounding a viciously inscribed “MATTIE” above the window.)
“In a captive environment, paranoia is unavoidable. Only the prison authorities call it paranoia; prisoners call it sensible precautions.”
(We see an abandoned warehouse...with a pile of wood almost like a bench...but the difference is in the middle of the building...is a roaring fire. Sitting on the pile of wood with a rat resting on the back of his hand looking at him like an old friend...sits Mack McKane.)
Mack McKane: ...they have taken...THE most precious treasure I own from me…
(Mack looks beside him at the PWS: Apex World Heavyweight Title and picks it up letting the rat rest on it as it sniffs around.)
Mack McKane: Go on, my friend...experience pure gold for the first time. Creator knows nobody in this petulant world would ever let you get THIS close. But I...am your friend, I...am YOU.
(Mack looks around at the billowing black smoke rising against the clear blue sky cleaner of smog since the quarantine has been in effect.)
Mack McKane: No...you can have it all...I don’t deserve it. This title...these friends...I couldn’t protect the one person that made me feel...ALIVE. I...didn’t deserve her. And now they’ve probably murdered her...or they’re...th-...they’re torturing her…
(Mack’s demeanor suddenly changes from heartbroken and mopey to clutching the title as hard as he can with absolute malice in his eyes as he picks his rat friend up and looks at him in the face…)
Mack McKane: ...are you hungry, youngblood? Soon...you’ll have corpses aplenty to feast on. But for now...I must go and prepare them for you.
(Mack lets the rat go and stands up pulling a new sinister looking mask made of what appears to be actual human bones on his face painted black with a red X across the front as he calmly turns...and exits the warehouse...as we see the wood he’s been sitting on...and Mattie’s name has been carved into every piece of it. As he turns the corner leaving we suddenly see a dapper looking gentleman enter the frame kicking a walking stick up under his arm and taking a bite of an apple...it’s Kenny McKane. He turns and sees the rat looking at him as he puts a finger over his lips and shushes him…)
Kenny McKane: Our little secret, innit bruv?
(Kenny tosses the rest of the apple to the rat and continues his tailing of Mack as we go to black…)