Home On The Range

Hey there, crime kids. Happy Hump Day. It's time once again to take a trip to the dark side, where your most violent fantasies become sins of the flesh, right here, where the hardboiled action is non-stop, at the coolest crime joint in cyberspace ... at That Killing Feeling.

In Chapter 24 of FILLMORE, Filmore's hooker Brenda goes to Fresno to check on his stable of girls, and then goes on a 'sister act' trick with two other girls and a farmer, which quickly turns deadly ...


EXT. FRESNO - FARMLANDS - DAY
Rolling farmlands as far as the eye can see.

Dozens of MIGRANT FARM WORKERS
pick artichokes in the hot, blistering sun.
We see a modest FARM HOUSE in the distance.

EXT. DOWNTOWN FRESNO - NIGHT
On the outskirts of town where the businesses
start to fade into a residential area
is the hooker’s stroll.

Brenda’s working the track
with some of Slim’s GIRLS.

She turns and looks at CATHY (20’s)
a fresh-scrubbed farm girl.

BRENDA
Business always this bad?

CATHY
(shrugs)
Have good days and bad days.
But we always clean up
when the farm workers get paid.

DOROTHY (27) a local tough white girl
walks up to Brenda.

DOROTHY
Slim pickins, huh.

BRENDA
Tell me about it.

DOROTHY
So you’re one of Slim’s girls?

BRENDA
Yeah. Who’s your man?

LORRAINE (23), another local girl interrupts them.

LORRAINE
Ladies, check it out.
See that guy across the street?

Brenda and Dorothy look. Across the street, JUAN,
a Mexican farm worker is standing in front of
a beat-up piece-of-shit pickup truck.
He smiles and waves at them.

LORRAINE
He wants the two of you to go with me
and party with him.

BRENDA
The three of us?

DOROTHY
Great. Let’s do it.

BRENDA
I don’t know --

DOROTHY
C’mon. I really need the dough.
Just got outta the joint,
and I need a stake.

Brenda looks at her. Thinking. Can’t decide.

CATHY
If you won’t go, I will.

LORRAINE
(points at Brenda)
He wants her.

BRENDA
Okay. Let’s go.

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT
The pickup truck’s headlights cut a bright path
in the dark of night as it passes the farm we saw earlier.

We see the same farm house in the distance.
The truck pulls over in front of an empty field.
Everyone gets out.

EXT. EMPTY FIELD - NIGHT
The deed has been done.
Juan pulls up his pants.
Zips his fly. Buckles his belt.

DOROTHY
Can we get our money now?

JUAN
I ain’t paying you bitches SHIT.

BRENDA
I knew it --
(beat)
I broke the first rule.
Always get paid up front.

DOROTHY
If you don’t pay us, you’re gonna have to
deal with my man.

JUAN
FUCK your man.

He pulls out a GIANT, GLEAMING KNIFE. LUNGES at them.
The girls SCREAM. Start RUNNING into the field.
Dorothy STOPS. WHIRLS around.

DOROTHY
Wait a minute. Little bitch ain’t got nothing but a knife.
I fought tougher girls than him in the joint.

She RUNS toward him. He smiles, waving the knife at her.

JUAN
You want some of this, bitch? Come and get it.

Dorothy JUMPS on him. They HIT the ground.
She GRABS the knife, tries to wrestle it away from him.

He STRUGGLES to hold onto it.
Brenda and Lorraine trot over, watch them.

Juan PUNCHES her in the face with his free hand.
She SCREAMS. GRABS his hand, BITES it.

He SCREAMS, lets go of the knife. She GRABS it.
Starts STABBING him in the chest over and over again,
SPRAYING blood. She stops. Growls.

Wipes the blood off her face. Struggles to get up.
Looks at his lifeless body. Then at the girls.

DOROTHY
C’mon. Let’s get the fuck outta here.

BRENDA
Hold on a sec.

Brenda goes to the body, gets down,
pulls his wallet out of his back pocket.
Stands. Rifles through it.

BRENDA
Bastard had over five hundred bucks.

LORRAINE
Come ON. Let’s get OUTTA here --