"Now and Dead"

"NOW AND DEAD" TREATMENT BY MIKE COLONNA Bruce Davis, a recent graduate of Michigan State University and his young girlfriend Dana drive down a rural eastern Michigan road in an older two door pick up truck. Their two year old German Shepherd is sitting quietly in the short bed. The weather is cool and we see the two having an intense conversation from the side windows. Their conversation becomes very animated. They are not paying attention to the road. While they travel at a high rate of speed we see Bruce making an exaggerated point while looking at Dana, his companion. Dana appears to be preoccupied texting. They've driven through a roadblock that posts "Dangerous Cliff Ahead." Road Closed." They have no idea what lies ahead. Bruce is still focused arguing with Dana, he notices something peculiar outside of her window, unworldly creatures hanging from a trees. As the truck moves faster down the road, more of these creatures are hanging from trees. They resemble, half human, wolf looking, vampires, flashing fangs and claws of lycanthropic beasts. Daylight turns to darkness. The wind begins to howl. Basko, their German Shepherd, begins making strange noises. Rain begins to pour, hail pelts the pickup truck. Visibility is close to zero. As the truck keeps moving forward, the creatures multiply. Bruce motions Dana to look outside. Dana sees the unbelievable, she's shocked.

2. Fog is settling in, rain begins to pour, some of the vampire like creatures are morphing their appearance. Their eye sockets are filling with ocular fluids and the creatures muscles and cartilage can be heard adjusting and forming into whole vampires. Basko is howling, Bruce tries to slow down, but too late. The rain is blinding, and Bruce cannot slow the truck down, the pedal is stuck. The truck catapults off a 100 foot cliff. Basko manages to leap out before the truck hits large trees. As the truck slams into large branches breaking it's fall, we see the young couple bouncing around the inside of the cab. As each branch breaks the trucks fall, the couple moan and groan with pain. Blood is everywhere. The pickup finally slams into the side of a large tree. A small fire starts up under the hood. We hear screaming and moaning. Two young hikers witness the crash, they call 911 and rush to the scene of the crash. The couple is moved by helicopter to a local Michigan Hospital. We see the two laying in hospital beds in life threatening condition. The doctors have operated on both using the latest life saving techniques that include transplanting cadaver bones, marrow and fluids from the local Medical University's cadaver bank. Dana dies on the operating table after losing too much blood. Six months after the operation his personality has changed and now Bruce day dreams about Dana, the crash and the creatures that rushed past them before the horrible event.

He acquires the records from the accident and researches the donor of the bone transplants. Bruce discovers the cadaver bones belonged to a professor at the Sandusky's Medical repository. They donor a Professor Irving Shamsky. He died two months before Bruce and Dana's accident, under strange circumstances. The professor, was in his late 50's, was born in Eastern Europe, he studied Vampirology and received a PHD at Bucharest's University of Medicine in Romania. His studies in Bucharest were in researching ancient Rumanian burial caves that were allegedly inhabited by Vampires. Bruce is now sure that he and Dana were received Shamsky's cadaver bones and body fluids. Months of sleepless nights and visits by strange creatures hanging from the ceiling dripping blood would haunt Bruce's dreams. The dreams turned into nightmares. Bruce, must get to the bottom of his nightmares and find out if there is a connection between Professor Shamsky and his accident. Bruce travels to Eastern Europe. When he arrives in Bucharest he investigates Professor Shamsky's past. He finds two students that graduated from Shamsky's classes. Ivanna, a young attractive, former student and now a producer for a local TV station, and Koman, who now teaches Vampirology and Folklore at another local university in Romania. Bruce is intent on finding out why his nightmarish visions tie into Professor Shamsky's cadaver transplants. Before Shamsky left Romania he was researching sightings of locals residents rising from the dead. They took on traits that resembled Vampires, they were walking among the living.

Bruce discovers that many of the murders of suspected men and women that rose from the dead were mysteriously killed during Professor Shamsky's tenure at the University. Bruce learns that Shamsky was a professor by day, and butcher by night. Local Rumanian police investigating local murders were tracking Shamsky to the dead and missing. A few days before he would be charged, Shamsky left Romania. He revised his resume applied for and was admitted as a full professor at the Medical Hospital in Sandusky, Michigan. Bruce together with Ivanna and Koman begin to search grave sites of Shamsky's alleged victims. Most of the missing or murdered were residents that lived while Shamsky was a professor at the University. Bruce, and Ivanna, would wait till midnight to visit the cemeteries where the Shamsky's alleged victims were buried. The dead people they found were in excellent condition. Their skin was fresh, their lips were vibrant, their eyeballs were black, and their teeth were coated with blood. When the bodies were touched they would hiss, and bare fanged teeth. Bruce, Ivanna and Koman discovered underground tunnels where the dead bodies were buried. Bruce, had crawled through many of these tunnels, finding bones and other human remains. DNA and pictures were used to identity of the dead.

One night, while secretly digging Bruce, Ivanna and Koman observed Vampire like creatures, floating around the cemetery, hanging from trees, morphing from skin to bones, howling...., their black webbed wings fluttering. Interviews with family members of the dead revealed many of their loved ones were students at the University's Medical Center. And Shamsky was one of their professors. All fingers pointed to Shamsky's as the butcher responsible for their death. Further investigation of Shamsky revealed DVD's of interviews he filmed of himself. He discussed his need for human blood, described the taste and aroma, and how he chose his victims. After each kill, he would tape the event, describe how he lured his victims and then buried them alive. Bruce and Ivanna watched hours and hours of Shamsky's DVD's each interview described the horrific details of each death and burial. The DVD's would map out where each body was buried. At night Bruce and Ivanna would dig up grave sites they found dead bodies that appeared recently buried. They bodies seemed to still have the ability to be brought back to life. Through it all, Bruce and Ivanna became close friends. The end of their investigation shocked Ivanna and Bruce. During their grave digging they discover Shamsky's body in perfect condition. Breathing!

Dark spittle pooled behind Shamky's lower lip and dribbled down his chin. Shamsky drank his own blood, he was drawn to the scent of animals, small pigs. Their blood had a tantalizing aroma, rich and pure.