JamietheBastard
MemberNoobJan-02-2016 10:25 AMAfter reading some very good Fury Road based fan fiction I was inspired to write my own short Fury Road based story incorporating elements from Mad Max and The Road Warrior. It's a short prequel to Fury Road set a few days before Max is captured by the Warboys.
Mad Max: Gasoline Alley.
PART ONE.
ENGINE MASTER FIRST CLASS MATHIAS. V.O.
I remember a time long past. The vicious wars over water and the black fuel and then the mighty blaze that engulfed this fragile Earth. The sun shone not for many long winters and those that survived were battered and smashed in the chaos, the firestorm of radioactive destruction, the breaking of the world.
Now this blighted place lives once more, the desert once again sprouts great cities of pipe and steel, controlled by powerful warrior clans. In alliance with The Engine Masters and their Apprentices; The Wordkeepers, guardians of the arcane knowledge of the old world; The Priests who worship at the altar of Internal Combustion, the great God that rules this wasted land, they pump the precious crude from deep beneath the earth and refine it into the liquid gold to nourish and sustain our great God.
I remember the High Octane Road War in the place called Gasoline Alley, an area of the wasteland blessed in bounty by the great God Internal Combustion, rich in the black fuel. In the domain of the Wrecker Tribes and the People Eaters we fought the righteous fight, the fuel burning in our vehicles gas tanks an offering to our vengeful God so that He may bless our victory, and yet still I remember the Warrior of the Road, he who was called Max.
OPEN ON:
EXT. WASTELAND - REFINERY TOWN - DAY.
A heavily fortified industrial refinery town: Last Chance. Steel refinery towers pierce the sky. Massive pumps undulate endlessly, pumping the sweet black crude. Ramshackle dwellings and establishments constucted from the scavenged detritus of a long dead civilisation. A Post Industrial hellhole. Wastelander vehicles are lined up at the massive city gates, come to trade for fuel and clean water. Each vehicle is inspected by the Judge Advocate of Last Chance and his militia, if the occupants have items of value they are allowed to proceed into the refinery town.
CLOSE UP ON:
The black V8 Ford Interceptor, auxilliary fuel tanks and spare tyre in the lidless trunk. Next in line, it moves forward as the car ahead is waved on. The Judge Advocate looks over the powerful, high performance Police vehicle and the long haired, bearded man sitting in the driver's seat. He takes note of Max's pursuit driver's leather jacket.
JUDGE ADVOCATE.
You were an officer of the law in the before time, what have you brought to trade?
Max lifts an old fashioned carpet bag from the footwell of the passenger seat and opens it for the Judge Advocate to inspect. It contains a rolled up bundle of furs and skins and some scavenged items: an old mechanics manual; half a dozen ancient tins of dog food; a bulletproof vest; a hand generator powered flashlight and other miscellaneous items.
JUDGE ADVOCATE.
Very well you may enter.
Max nods at the man, puts the Interceptor in gear and drives on into Last Chance. He sees what is clearly a mechanics establishment and pulls over. A man who is tinkering with the engine of a wastelander vehicle, wipes his hands on a greasy rag and walks over.
TURBO.
A V8 Interceptor, been a hell of a long time since I laid eyes on one of these, what's wrong with her Bronze?
Max pops the hood and gets out of the vehicle. He limps slightly and his lower left leg is supported by a brace, the legacy of a healing wound.
MAX.
Dead spark plug, only firing on seven cylinders. Radiator hose is shot and the spare tyre is flat.
The mechanic inspects the engine. The radiator hose is patched with rags and duct tape, Turbo removes the leads from each spark plug in turn and inspects them.
TURBO.
That's all pretty straight forward Bronze, what have you got to trade?
Max shows him the car manual and the dog food.
TURBO.
OK we got a deal, give me an hour.
INT. LAST CHANCE - WATER AND REFUELLING STATION.
Max is bartering with the Fuel Master, the rest of his trade items are spread out on the counter.
FUEL MASTER.
That's the deal take it or leave it. Ten litres of Guzzaline and ten litres of water, what you got aint worth more than that.
MAX.
The water's clean?
FUEL MASTER.
Finest Kind. Pure Aqua - Cola, got a shipment from the Citadel three days ago.
Max just grunts. The Fuel Master writes out a chit and hands it to Max. Max looks at the piece of paper in his hand, turns and walks out of the fuelling station.
EXT. LAST CHANCE - MAIN STREET - DAY.
Two men follow Max out into the street, one is dressed in a similar leather jacket to Max. They follow him back to Turbo's workshop. As the two men approach Max, he pivots on his right leg, lightning fast despite his wounded leg. Double barreled sawn - off shotgun pointed right at the closer man's face.
MAX.
Why are you following me?
RAND.
Easy pal, we're on your side. I'm Rand, this is Cooper, ex MFP. We've got a proposition for you.
MAX.
Go ahead.
COOPER.
Ten litres of Guzzaline aint gonna get you too far, there's no more fuel for nearly five hundred kilometres.
RAND.
We're running an escort for a Pilgrim convoy. We're heading for a place called the Citadel, it's ruled by a Warrior Clan led by their Warchief the Immortan. We're taking an Apprentice Engine Master who is pledged in service to the Chief Engine Master of Gastown, the Immortan's oil refinery.
COOPER.
We've gotta travel through the turf of some pretty mean Wrecker Tribes and People Eaters and we could use some extra back - up. We were supposed to meet up with one of the Immortan's Imperators for our escort to the Citadel, but we're three days behind schedule and the arsehole didn't wait. We'll pay you in gas, fifty litres down and full tanks with as much extra juice as you can carry when the Engine Master is delivered to Gastown and the pilgrims are safely at the Citadel.
MAX.
How far is the run?
RAND.
Nearly four hundred and eighty klicks as the crow flies, out beyond the Powder Lakes. About four and a half days, those old clunkers the Pilgrims are driving don't move too fast.
CLOSE UP ON:
Max. He is thinking it over, he would much rather travel alone but with only ten litres of gas he doesn't have much choice.
MAX.
Alright I'm in.
RAND.
We leave as soon as we're fuelled up. Meet outside the main gates in two hours.
EXT. WASTELAND - LAST CHANCE - DAY.
The Pilgrim convoy and Rand and Cooper's escort are parked up in the wasteland outside Last Chance's barricade walls. The ex MFP officers and their crew are clustered around Rand's Pursuit Special. Max pulls up and exits his vehicle.
RAND. TO HIS CREW.
Everybody this is the new guy.
RAND. TO MAX.
You know Cooper, this is Katana, she rides shotgun with me. Ballard, Logan and the Black Rider also ex MFP, Juice and Kilmister drive the fuel truck, Longbow, Brutus, Cortex and Hartmann.
Rand's crew give Max the once over. They are a motley bunch: the ex MFP officers are dressed in remnants of MFP uniforms. The Black Rider as his name suggests is dressed in black MFP bike leathers and black mirror visored helmet. Katana is an attractive dark haired woman about 28 years old, dressed in makeshift body armour with a Samurai sword in a scabbard strapped to her back. The rest of the crew are wasteland raider types, armoured, tattooed, armed with crossbows, knives and a few firearms.
RAND.
Okay we still got a long way to go through hostile territory, mount up and move out, standard formation.
The escort crew get into their respective vehicles and one by one in formation the convoy moves out into the wasteland.
EXT. WASTELAND - LATE AFTERNOON.
The convoy has travelled a hundred kilometres the first day. The slow pace determined by the Pilgrim's ancient school buses. The vehicles park in a circle to camp for the night. Max drives on a bit further to scout out conditions for the next part of the journey. The demons of his past threaten to break out of his memories again, Max mutters over and over to himself like a mantra.
MAX.
They can not hurt me they are dead. They can not touch me they are dead. I can not hear them they are dead.
EXT. WASTELAND - MOUNTAIN BLUFFS - LATE AFTERNOON.
Two men are watching the Interceptor. One, Junker, is short, fat, skin greasy with sweat, heavily tattooed and is wearing some type of optical device over one eye. The other, The Skin Feeder, is emaciated, with unnaturally pale, burn scarred skin covered in weeping ulcers and festering sores, corpselike facial features and sharpened teeth. He is watching Max through an ancient, cracked pair of binoculars.
THE SKIN FEEDER.
A road warrior, fat with water and juice, I'll feast on his skin tomorrow.
JUNKER.
Lots of juicy travellers ripe for the plucking. The rendering vats and distillation tanks will be working overtime, and we will all feast on the sweet flesh.
The two People Eaters leave their concealed vantage point and get into a customised Towing Rig, Junker's vehicle. They drive off back toward their canyon settlement.
INT. WASTELAND CANYON STRONGHOLD - GARAGE/WORKSHOP.
The cannibal tribe's stronghold was once a government installation devoted to the extraction and distillation of bio - fuels. The rusted steel industrial complex now serves a hideous new purpose: The extraction of water and the rendering of human fats, distilled into an obscene new bio - fuel from the corpses of wasteland abductees.
The Industrial Garage Workshop. Tribespeople are making repairs and modifications to their vehicles.
Kronos, the leader of the tribe enters the garage with his entourage. A large, powerfully built man in his late thirties, bald, twin tubes are inserted into his nostrils leading to a Breather Filter Pack strapped to his back. A gas mask dangles from a strap on the war harness strapped to the muscular chest and shoulders
CLOSE UP ON:
The Skin Feeder standing on a rusted steel walkway overlooking the garage.
THE SKIN FEEDER. (Shouting).
Brothers and Sisters rejoice, a bounty is upon us. Ripe juicy Pilgrims to feast and fuel us through the Dark Night. Vehicles to plunder for spare parts and gas.
KRONOS.
Patience my Children, patience. We cannot make war in darkness, the Pilgrim convoy will await our arrival with the dawn. Sharpen your knives and make ready for the hunt.
Loud war cries echo through the cavernous garage as the People Eaters make ready their vehicles and weaponry. The tribe's Doctor/Priest invokes a benediction upon the War Party.
DOCTOR MECHANISTOPHELES.
Testify Brothers and Sisters. This aint the Garden of Eden, there aint no Angels above, things aint like they use to be, and this aint the Summer of Love. Load your weapons and fuel your engines, for this is the night we ride.
EXT. WASTELAND - PILGRIM CAMP - NIGHT.
Pilgrims are tending fires and preparing meals. Rand and Cooper's men are on watch. Max sits away from the others, staring into the fire. One of the Pilgrims approaches bearing two plates of steaming food, he hands one to Max and sits down. The two men eat in silence. After a while Mathias speaks.
APPRENTICE ENGINE MASTER MATHIAS.
Something troubles you Road Warrior?
Max just stares into the fire.
APPRENTICE ENGINE MASTER MATHIAS.
In these dark times the words of the Prophet, The First Egine Master, can give some measure of comfort. "For seven days and seven nights I wandered the wasteland. On the eighth day the Lord appeared to me and spoke thus: Gather your Children unto you and I shall provide. Teach them the Holy arts of Internal Combustion and Engine Maintenance and you shall want not in body or spirit."
MAX.
The souls of the dead haunt me.
APPRENTICE ENGINE MASTER MATHIAS.
I understand your pain Brother, in the Dark Night we have all lost someone we loved.
MAX.
My wife and son were killed in front of me and I couldn't stop it. I was a cop, survivors relied on me and I failed them, they were all killed.
APPRENTICE ENGINE MASTER MATHIAS.
Many are killed in these dark times, we take comfort in the fact that they are with The Prophet and The Lord in the Halls of Mighty Valhalla.
MAX.
You can take comfort in that, I can't. I'm going for a walk, I need to get some air.
APPRENTICE ENGINE MASTER MATHIAS.
Go gentle in the Dark Night, Road Warrior.
Max wanders off into the desert to be alone with the demons of his past.
EXT. WASTELAND - PILGRIM CAMP - NIGHT.
Rand and Cooper are sitting by a fire, poring over a hand drawn map showing the Gasoline Alley region of the wasteland.
COOPER.
We should pass the Strontium Sea tomorrow. That's People Eater turf, this is where this run is gonna get interesting.
RAND.
You got a gift for understatement, Coop. It's gonna get downright ****ing dangerous.
COOPER.
Yeah but we'll get through, after that it's neutral territory until we hit Gastown. What are we gonna do about our colleague? We really gonna give up a third of our profits to this guy?
RAND.
Hell Coop, he's ex MFP like us, we need him.
COOPER.
We're all just meat now Rand. Once we're through People Eater turf he's surplus to requirements. I want his wheels, a V8 Interceptor would be a very useful piece of hardware in our operation. When we get past the Strontium Sea he's dead meat.
CLOSE UP ON:
Max. Standing in the desert just outside the light cast by Rand and Cooper's fire. A dark shadow unnoticed by the two ex MFP officers.
FADE OUT.
EXT. WASTELAND - PILGRIM CAMP - DAWN.
The first light from the rising sun begins to pierce the darkness. Rand is bedded down next to his vehicle, an old yellow and blue MFP Pursuit Special. The car has been heavily modified, the body is dented and the paint is cracked, peeling and faded. Cooper kneels down and shakes the sleeping man.
COOPER.
Rand wake up he's gone, wake the **** up.
Rand's eyes open.
RAND.
What?.........Who's gone?
COOPER.
Your friend, our former colleague.
Rand sits up, yawning.
RAND.
Calm down, he's probably just off taking a dump.
COOPER.
No you idiot he's gone. His wheels are gone, eight jerry cans of gas are missing and this is the best part the ****ing Engine Master is gone too.
Rand is alert now. He springs to his feet.
RAND.
He must have overheard you last night. Without the Engine Master we're screwed, the Immortan aint gonna cough up the rest of our gas if we don't deliver him intact. I'm going after them, get Katana I'll take her with me. Help me load up some extra gas then get everybody moving.
The two men collect extra jerry cans and load them into Rand's vehicle. Cooper goes off to fetch Katana.
Rand jumps into his vehicle and starts the engine, the powerful high performance engine thunders loudly in the pre dawn stillness. Cooper returns with Katana and she gets into the vehicle.
RAND.
If I aint back to the convoy by midday, wait up for me at Megaton Mesa. Make camp and hang tight, when I've got the Engine Master I'll signal with a flare and wait for you to catch up.
COOPER.
You just get that ****er and the Engine Master, I'll keep the rest of the gas safe.
The Pursuit Special roars off into the wasteland.
INT. INTERCEPTOR - WASTELAND - STRONTIUM SEA - DAY.
Max at the wheel. Next to him in the passenger seat is the Engine Master, bound and unconscious. He begins to come around, he is groggy and disoriented.
MATHIAS.
What..........Where........Where am I?............
Max doesn't speak.
MATHIAS.
Road Warrior........What has happened?............Why am I bound?
MAX.
I'm taking you to the Citadel. My ex colleagues were planning on double crossing me once we had passed through People Eater territory. They planned to kill me and take my vehicle, so I acted first. I'm going to deliver you and collect their fuel from your new employers.
MATHIAS.
What about the flesh eater tribes? We won't have a chance on our own.
MAX.
No we won't, that's why I'm going to find a spot where we can watch the route the convoy will take. We're going to let them pass, they will draw out the cannibals and keep them occupied whilst we slip through unnoticed.
MATHIAS.
I understand your motives Road Warrior, but we can't let the Pilgrims be slaughtered and devoured.
Max doesn't reply, he is scanning the wasteland ahead for a place of concealment to await the convoy's arrival. He spots a likely location amongst some low hills and pulls the Interceptor in and kills the engine, he takes a pair of binoculars and goes to exit the vehicle.
MATHIAS.
My arms are numb, can you release me from my bonds?
MAX.
If I release you are you going to give me any trouble?
MATHIAS.
I give you my word, I will not make trouble for you.
Max takes out his knife and cuts the ropes, he gets out of the car.
MAX.
Just in case you are thinking of taking my vehicle and stranding me here, it's immobilised. I've set the killswitch.
MATHIAS.
You doubt the word of a man of God? You have no faith Road Warrior?
MAX.
No.
MATHIAS.
I won't try to escape. Do you have any water?
Max tosses the Engine Master his canteen and goes to check the convoy's route.
FADE OUT.
"This aint the Summer of Love" By Blue Oyster Cult.
EXT. WASTELAND - ROCKY OUTCROP - DAY.
Rand is scanning the wasteland. Suddenly he bactracks with the binoculars.
BINOCULAR POV.
The front end of the Interceptor is visible in the gap between two low hills.
RAND.
Got you.
He scrambles back down to where his Pursuit Special is parked. Katana is standing by the vehicle.
RAND.
We got 'em. He's done exactly what I would have done, holed up and wait for the convoy to pass, use them as a decoy to get through the flesh eaters.
Rand takes a flare and sets it off.
KATANA.
He's going to be watching the route, he'll see us coming.
RAND.
I'm gonna drop you off out of sight, I'll keep him talking, you come from behind and get the Engine Master. Let's move.
They get into the Pursuit Special and speed off.
