Tight on Paul

as realization starts to dawn. He stares at the bucket, then

across the floor to Delacroix, coming to terms with the

evidence of his eyes--there's no water on the floor or

dripping down the sides of Del's neck.

Paul's eyes widen. A stunned beat of horror. He starts to

open his mouth to scream " NO! ", but Percy beats him to it

with:

PERCY

Roll on two.

Van Hay flicks the switch. WHAM. The electricity hits home

and Del rocks forward, riding the current.

Then things start to go horribly wrong.

The HUMMING loses its steadiness and starts to waver with a

CRACKLING SOUND. Tendrils of smoke begin curling from under

the cap, a mixture of burning hair and sponge. Brutal shoots

Paul a horrified look. Paul responds with a harsh whisper:

PAUL

It's dry!

Delacroix begins twisting and jittering in the chair, his

masked face snapping violently from side to side, his legs

pistoning up and down in his restraints.

There's a MUFFLED POP from under the cap, like a pine knot

exploding in a hot fire. Smoke starts coming through the

fabric of the mask, puffing upward. Del is being cooked

alive. Paul spins to the partition, hollering--

PAUL

JACK!

--but Brutal grabs his arm, whispers fiercely:

BRUTAL

Don't you tell him to stop. Don't

you do it. It's too late for that.

Paul turns back, helpless. The other guards are trading wild

looks, unable to believe what's happening. Even Percy looks

aghast--he was expecting something, but not this.

Del begins SCREAMING--the wild, hysterical sound of an animal

being shredded alive in a hay baler. The HUMMING goes uneven

and ragged, the lights rising and falling...

ON THE MILE

...as Del's screams rise and fall with them, echoing up the

corridor. Coffey's shaking and screaming too, as if feeling

Del's pain. Mr. Jingles squirms out of his grasp and goes

squeaking in terror toward the restraint room door...

BILLY

HE'S COOKIN' NOW! THEY COOKIN' HIM

GOOD! NEAR ABOUT DONE, I RECKON!

RESUME EXECUTION CHAMBER

Wrong. Del's nowhere near about done. He's slamming back and

forth in the chair hard enough to shake the platform,

twisting hard against the leather restraints. We hear BONES

BREAKING. A WOMAN'S SCREAMS. Witnesses start rising to their

feet:

WITNESSES

What the hell's happening to

him?...Are those clamps going to

hold?...Christ, the smell!...Is

this normal?

The mask bursts into flame on Delacroix's face. Van Hay

hollers through the wire mesh, horrified:

VAN HAY

SHOULD I KILL THE JUICE?

PAUL

NO! ROLL, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, ROLL!

Harry scoops up the bucket of water to throw it.

PAUL

No water! No water! You crazy?

Harry backs off with a look of dazed understanding--you don't

throw water on a man getting juiced. Right. He drops the

bucket, races to get the chemical fire extinguisher instead.

The flaming mask peels away, revealing Del's charring face.

His eyeballs are misshapen globs of burning white jelly blown

out of their sockets. The ATTENDING DOCTOR faints dead away.

Pandemonium now in the room. People shouting and hurrying to

exit, chairs falling over, women screaming: