Movieland

Chapter 28

Okay, so a recap, especially for you, Standard:

The movie starts with a woman named Rita, played by Karen Allen, shushing a whimpering baby. She's in an old church that has been converted into a haven for babies. There are trash can fires with metal mesh lids to prevent sparks from burning the church to smithereens.

The baby is so innocent and baby-faced and even smiles. A penny for her thoughts. Someone wrings water out of a washcloth into a bin. The score comes in, a sharp organ blast that cuts to a woman bundled in layers of clothing. She's running along the street, looking behind her, bumping into trash cans. The music is intense and urgent. She sees the clock tower of the church. The spires are wrapped in white ribbons.

The music stops. Silent but for the frightened breathing. The woman looks down to her chest and the bundle of clothes. It's not just clothes. She pulls back a strap of fabric to show a smiling baby. The woman smiles back at her baby and looks up as a snarling corpse lunges at her.

The first time I watched it was also the first time I swore in front of my parents. When the zombie lunged, I screamed, "Oh, shit!"

She dodges the corpse and sprints for the safety of the church. The movie cuts back to the church, where an aerial shot shows hundreds of cots lined up in rows where the pews used to be. Jesus hangs from a wooden cross. The camera holds on the poor condition of the wood, letting us know how rotten things have become.

The woman inside the church is in mid-swaddle when a thunderous banging smashes into the front door. A few heads turn. The smash is followed by a series of frantic thuds. There's no siren needed to sound an alarm. Everyone understands the situation.

Several women in long purple robes rush to the door. Behind it, they hear, "Help! My baby! My baby!"

The women hesitate, and then begin the process of unlatching and unlocking the main protections keeping the bad out.

"Help! Help! Oh no. No no no!!!"

Rita reaches under her cot for an ax. She walks purposefully to the door.

Rather than open the entire door, they open a smaller door in the center. The baby is thrust through like a birthing. One woman swaddles it. Rita wields her ax. The smaller door shuts.

The pounding ceases when the screams begin.

The women walk away to tend to the baby. The sound of chewing and tearing flesh plays over them cleansing the baby in the baptismal font. There is a dark stain in front of the door like a welcome mat. A crimson puddle oozes under the door to signify what everyone else knows. It reaches the end of the stain and goes beyond it.

Everything goes silent.

Rita returns her ax under the cot. A young woman on the cot next to her weeps quietly.

"What's wrong?" Rita asks her.

"None of the babies cry."

"And?"

"One day I'd like to hear a baby cry."

"If one of them cries, all of them cry. And if all of them cry, they'll find us. And if they find us."

The silence provides the answer.

The phone booth thunked down next to a burnt shell of a couch. Ash hung in the fog like flakes of dead skin. The air smelled of expired chopped meat.

"You guys get the picture," I said. "We found Frankie and Shimmer Woman in the bank. I bet we find them in the church."

A rusted street sign reading Woodward was spray painted over with "Death Ave". Flames in pitted metal trash cans lit the street up to the encroaching fog.