Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Animal Days by Ricardo Serrano



Hawkeye, Fraction (w) and Ajá (a).

Animal Days

By: Ricardo A. Serrano Denis

This story is about the things that survive the end of humanity. It follows a group of dogs surviving a post-Apocalyptic world in which new monsters roam the streets without paying much attention to anything other than the stray human survivor. These dogs form their own alliances, and they have a knack for betrayal. I'm going for a 28 Days Later meets The Warriors meets White God with this one. Here's a sneak peek.

Animal Days

Page 1

Panel 1: Side-shot of a German Shepherd, called Pope, walking down a ransacked cereal aisle in a deserted grocery store in Zodiac City (a big West Coast city known for being dog-friendly to a fault). The store is small and looks like it was tossed over in a hurry by people who knew packaged meats and canned goods were quickly about to become a thing of the past. We see torn cereal boxes, cereal spilled around the floor, broken shelves. This is what a grocery store looks like after the apocalypse, which hasn’t shaken Pope’s hope of finding what he’s looking for.

Pope VO: You have to wait it out. Not panic.

Panel 2: Same shot but with Pope advancing further down along the aisle (Pope’s in the middle of the panel). We see more food, boxes and cans, strewn about. We also see rotting food on the floor, flies hovering over it.

Pope VO: The trick is to let people fight for their stuff first, and to watch it all from a safe distance. Very bad stuff will happen.

Panel 4: Same shot but with Pope now looking up as he walks. He’s found what he was searching for and it is just off-panel. He’s walked past a badly decomposed body, a dead shopper missing an arm and a leg. They look like they were ripped off.

Pope VO: It’ll die down eventually though. After that, all you gotta do is trust in this simple fact: when the world ends…

Page 2

Full-page shot: Shot of Pope sitting in front of three shelves fully stocked with giant bags of dog food. The shot feels bright, colorful, with various brands on display. Pope is wagging his tail.

Pope VO: …everyone leaves the dog food behind.

Pope: Bingo.

Page 3

Panel 1: Shot of Pope looking to his right as if he’s been alerted by something moving close by. He’s snapping to attention.

Panel 2: Shot of Pope looking towards the end of the aisle at an infected butcher monster walking towards him. (The monsters in this story are people infected by a virus of unknown origin that mutates their bodies into bloated alien-like creatures. After infection, the jaw splits apart, showing a long stinger-like tongue and sharpened teeth. There are two large and thick fangs coming out of the inner edges of both jaw sections. The infected also become obese, like big blood balloons ready to burst. They look like they’re in the process of transitioning from human to primitive alien creature. Last but not least, our infected are dumb, violent brutes…and they look it. The infection devolves the human subject and transforms it into something else.) Pope stays put, looking calm and unpreoccupied. The butcher monster has a hatchet stuck to his head. He’s also holding a big butcher’s knife on one hand, casually. The hatchet on the head immediately communicates the fact our infected don’t die from head wounds. In fact, they don’t die at all.

Panel 3: Shot of the butcher monster walking past Pope without even noticing he was there. Pope remains calm, looking up at the zombie. The monster poses no kind of threat. Dog is not a food source for it (yet), nothing worth fighting over. Just part of the scenery.

Panel 4: We see the butcher monster walking towards the doors that lead to the street outside, Pope looking at a big, black but sickly-looking Doberman standing at the other end of the aisle (close to the entrance). The Doberman looks like he’s ready to rush at Pope and spill some blood. He wants the same thing Pope is currently standing in front of.

Panel 5: Extreme close-up of the Doberman’s angry eyes. He’s growling although we don’t see him bearing his teeth here. We can tell from the eyes. The Doberman’s building up towards the fight.

Page 4

Panel 1: We return to Pope for an over-the-shoulder view of the Doberman in the distance (the shot comes from behind Pope). The Doberman is ready to attack. We see the butcher monster in the background, wandering. He has no interest in the dogs.

Pope VO: Then there’s this.

Panel 2: Side-shot of the Doberman rushing towards Pope, bloodthirsty. There’s foam on his mouth making him look more than just violent. He looks vicious.

Pope VO: This isn’t so much an enemy as it is a victim. He’s confused. He doesn’t know this place’s taken.

Panel 3: Front-shot of Pope barking calmly, composed. He’s going to call on a friend who’s close by.

Pope VO: And it looks like he’s decided to learn about it the hard way.

Pope: Rory.

Panel 4: Shot of a bigger, meaner, and more healthy-looking Doberman coming into the aisle behind Pope. His name is Rory and he looks ready for a fight. He evokes strength, wisdom, discipline. He also looks like he can turn anything into a massive bloody wound should the situation call for that kind of thing.

Pope VO: Survival depends on surrounding yourself with problem solvers.

Panel 5: Shot of the sickly Doberman stopping in his tracks. He’s scared. A new threat has entered the arena and it doesn’t look like something that used to losing in a fight.

Page 5

Panel 1: Shot of the sickly Doberman looking at Rory, Pope next to him, from a short distance away. He knows not to get closer.

Pope VO: This one’s mine.

Panel 2: Pope barks at the sickly Doberman while Rory stands ready next to Pope, like a bodyguard. The sickly Doberman has his down. He looks ashamed.

Pope: Place’s claimed. Had you been here a couple of minutes earlier it would’ve been us doing the trespassing.

Panel 3: Close-up of the sickly Doberman, head bowed, speaking. He’s answering Pope.

Sickly Doberman: I was already here when you came in, hiding. You’re the ones trespassing.

Pope (off-panel): You saying you want to fight for this place?

Panel 4: Close-up of the sickly Doberman looking up at Rory, who’s walked up much closer to the sickly Doberman. Rory’s looking down at him, serious. He’s not growling nor is he showing his teeth. His presence is enough.

Rory: Doesn’t seem like that’s something you can say ‘yes’ to, is it?

Page 6

Panel 1: Front-shot of Pope and Rory standing in front of the entrance to the grocery store, watching Rory walk away defeated and tired. The place is a mess, made by people rushing and fighting their way through the store to grab as much food and supplies as they could. It now looks empty and forgotten. A hollow place were it not for the dog food we already know everyone left behind, and the wandering butcher monster.

Pope: Hey!

Panel 2: We pull in for a shot of Pope and Rory still looking at the sickly Doberman. Pope makes one last remark before their parting.

Pope: Keep your chin up. Like the guy who bought me used to say every time he took me to the park.

Panel 3: We flip the image to see Rory answering Pope dismissively. Behind Rory we see a street filled with bloated and hungry monsters.

Pope (off-panel): The world is your oyster.

Page 7

Panel 1: Rory talking to Pope as they look at the horde of infected dressed in all variety of clothes (we see infected tourists, doctors, soldiers, maybe a clown, our version of the Hara Krishna zombie from Dawn of the Dead).

Rory: Your owner really used to say that?

Pope: Yes. And he didn’t own me. He just paid for my company.

Panel 2: Pope walks back into the store. Rory stays behind taking one last look at the horde.

Pope: Let’s get our stuff. It doesn’t look like it moves by itself, you know.

Panel 3: Shot of Pope looking up at the butcher monster. The thing’s standing right in front of Pope, trying to make sense of it, like a child contemplating a new discovery.

Butcher monster: D…dd…dd-d…

Panel 4: Rory comes up behind Pope. Pope is still looking up at the butcher monster.

Rory: That horror trying to speak?

Pope: I don’t know. If it is, do you think it’s something we’re going to have to worry about down the road?

Panel 5: Pope and Rory walking back towards the dog food. We see the butcher monster half-turned, still looking at the dogs.

Rory: So long as it doesn’t ask me to roll over it can say whatever it wants.