Page 5 panel 2
The engine starts and the boat begins moving. Medium shot of Lullaby as a pair of big, colorful sunglasses appears on her face with a flash. She leans back and lounges in her seat.
Lullaby: ...my awesome shades...
Page 5 panel 3
As the boat moves into the thick, thorny foliage, a nest of black snakes--4 or 5 of them--dangles down from the tangled branches, wriggling and baring their fangs just 2 feet from Lullaby.
Lullaby (suddenly more subdued, the novelty gone): ...and a nice, loaded shotgun...
Page 5 panel 4
Wide shot of the propeller boat carrying Dream Lord and Lullaby quickly over the polluted Dream Stream. They move fast, kicking up a spray of tar-like water/energy behind them. The gnarled, sinister groves of weeds and black, thorny vines and branches are close around them; there is only a small tunnel through which they can move, a crawlspace through the deadly, dark growth. The place is pitch-black except for the glow from a lantern which Lullaby has created, which she carries in her hand to light the way.
Quote: From Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad: "Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish."
Page 5 panel 5
Medium, closer shot of Dream Lord and Lullaby, from behind, gazing out into the unknown reaches of the sickened stream. The only thing they can see is an arc of light from the lantern.
Quote: "The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of overshadowed distances."
Page 5 panel 6
Closeup of Lullaby, half-illuminated by the lantern. She stares silently ahead, scared and deep in thought.
Quote: "There were moments when one's past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence."
Page 5 panel 7
Closeup of the Dream Lord looking up and around himself at the thorns and black tangles. He looks determined, angry, alert.
Quote: "And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention."
Page 6 (7 panels)
Page 6 panel 1
Suddenly, a twisted, awful, insane gray face springs into the beam of Lullaby's lantern, just a few feet from her. She leaps away and shouts with surprise.
Quote: "It looked at you with a vengeful aspect."
Lullaby: Yiii! Dream Lord! Help!
Page 6 panel 2
The crazed, bestial thing leaps out of the dark, dead forest, jibbering madly. It grabs Lullaby, while the Dream Lord reacts with a split-second of panic, losing control of the boat and letting it cut in a wild circle on the black stream
Lullaby: Let go, you goon! Come on, get away! Dream Lord!
Beast: RRAAAALLL!!!
Dream Lord: Oh my God. This is terrible!
Page 6 panel 3
Lullaby tries to push the thing away with her single arm, but the creature just keeps clawing at her.
Lullaby: You're tellin' me! Will you please get rid of this goofball?
Dream Lord: We can't hurt it! Oh God...Stacy, that's a dreamer! It's been transformed by the Bogeyman's corruption, changed into some deformed, demented beast! If we injure it now, we'll damage it for life! Even if we can change it back to its original form, it will be crippled forever!
Page 6 panel 4
Lullaby: Who would you rather see crippled, dummy? Hurry up!
The creature rams a huge, hairy fist down at the girl, which she blocks by materializing a garbage can lid in the air above her body. The creature's fist drives into the lid--hard--but it doesn't break through to hurt her.
Dream Lord: Here, I'll just brush it away, right back into the Fields... (He extends a glowing hand, preparing to use his power to throw the beast off the boat.)
Page 6 panel 5
The Dream Lord releases a golden bolt of energy--but the beast grabs Lullaby by the waist and leaps away, so the bolt disappears harmlessly into the dense foliage.
Lullaby: Help! Dream Lord, you owe me, buster!
Dream Lord: No! Stacy!
Page 6 panel 6
Grabbing a vine with one arm, the beast jumps onto the shore, carrying Lullaby off into the darkness.
Dream Lord (running over the boat after them): Damn it! Stacy, I'm sorry... I'm coming!
Page 6 panel 7
The Dream Lord launches himself into the woods, flying with two whirling buzz saws chopping away the undergrowth before him. He is furious--at himself, at the beast, and at Bogeyman.
Dream Lord: Hang on, Stacy! I'm right here!
Lullaby (off-panel, racing away into the black woods with the beast): I can't...break away from it!
Page 7 (8 panels)
Page 7 panel 1
Still flying swiftly through the tangled growth, Dream Lord loses sight of Lullaby and her captor. He has no idea which direction he should go to catch up with them.
Dream Lord: Stacy? Stacy, where are you?
Lullaby (faintly, in the distance): Nooo! Let me..
Page 7 panel 2
Dream Lord pauses in mid-flight, the buzz saws whirling in front of him. He listens for any sound that will point him toward Lullaby.
Dream Lord: Stacy? Lullaby?
Page 7 panel 3
Closeup of the Dream Lord as he screams at the top of his lungs.
Dream Lord: Stacy!!!
Page 7 panel 4
Dream Lord aims both hands before him and releases a tremendous blast of energy into the dense woods. The blast sears through the black trees and undergrowth, burning a path through it, sending shards of wood flying everywhere.
Dream Lord: I am not...going to lose you.
Page 7 panel 5
Plunging feverishly into the tunnel he has just ripped out of the jungle, the Dream Lord looks straight ahead for his friend.
Dream Lord: Stacy! Lullaby, where are you?
A shriek suddenly cuts through the jungle around him--a piercing, inhuman scream: RREEEEAARRRGG!!!
Page 7 panel 6
Another shriek bursts through the foliage, surprising the Dream Lord with its sheer volume and animal quality: AAARRRRKKEEEE!!
Quote: From Heart of Darkness: "...a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly in the opaque air."
Page 7 panel 7
The Dream Lord continues to fly through the hole in the foliage, grim and prepared to battle whatever creature is emitting that sound. There is another loud, inhuman scream.
Quote: "A complaining clamor, modulated in savage discords, filled our ears. The sheer unexpectedness of it made my hair stir under my cap."
Page 7 panel 8
The Dream Lord continues flying, aiming at a distant light, an apparent end to the dense jungle. Yet another shriek erupts from the jungle.
Quote: "...to me it seemed as though the mist itself had screamed, so suddenly, and apparently from all sides at once, did this tumultuous and mournful uproar arise."
Page 8 (8 panels)
Page 8 panel 1
A large panel--wide shot of a massive clearing in the black, polluted jungle. The opposite edge of the clearing is not visible. The dark storm clouds hang overhead, with a bolt or two of lightning slashing downward in the distance.
The clearing contains a chaotic, suffering mass of distorted beings, gathered together around twisted stone towers. The beings are all dreamers who have been corrupted and deformed by the Bogeyman. They are the physical manifestations of people on Earth who are dreaming--and they are all warped and twisted and mutated. Some have huge boils or growths and are hunched over with fused spines; others look like infected lepers, literally dissolvin
g where they stand; some lack certain body parts, and others have too many; some of the beings are unrecognizable as humans, looking more like bizarre, dangerous space creatures. They are all gathered around tall, crumbling stone pillars and sections of disintegrating gray block walls--the once-impenetrable walls between the Fields of Sleep. The sickened creatures are everywhere, hopping and gibbering around blazing bonfires; tearing at each other; climbing the pillars and wall remains; or just slumping on the slimy, debris-strewn ground. They are all crazed, bestial, mutilated beyond belief. The clearing looks like a vision of Hell itself.
The Dream Lord flies out of the dense jungle to confront this horrible sight and recoils in disbelief.
Dream Lord: Oh, God...
Page 8 panel 2
Stunned and horrified, the Dream Lord just settles to the ground at the edge of the clearing and looks around at the sickness. Shrieks and moans continue to weave through the air.
Dream Lord: What have I...how could I let this happen?
Page 8 panel 3
The Dream Lord walks out into the clearing, through the screams. Infested, deteriorating creatures cling to his legs, giggling.
Dream Lord: All these dreamers...all these people...mangled and mindless. He did all this...turned the Dream Zone into this hellish nightmare.
Page 8 panel 4
A man leaps up suddenly beside the Dream Lord, throwing his head back and screaming. A huge, slimy leech is stuck to his chest and a trail of blood trickles down his body.
Dream Lord (ducking away and cringing from the awful sight): Oh, Lord...
Page 8 panel 5
Wide shot of the crumbled remnants of a big gray wall, crawling with deformed beings and insects. In the distance, other wall remnants can be seen jutting from the dark jungle.
Dream Lord: The Dreamwalls! They've rotted away, crumbled to the ground! The Fields of Sleep are no longer separated! Everyone's nightmare is part of everyone else's--all combined into a single, infinite wasteland!
Page 8 panel 6
Dream Lord: What can I do? It's too much...too much to stand...
Still walking, he sees a gang of grotesque beings stuffing another being into the mouth of a massive cockroach.
Page 8 panel 7
Dream Lord: ...too much to heal.
A group of dying, mutilated creatures bundles together, sprawled around sand and rags and bones.
Quote: From Heart of Darkness: "Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair."
Page 8 panel 8
Closeup of the suffering, pitted faces of the creatures.
Quote: "They were dying slowly--it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now--nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom."
Page 8 panel 9
Dream Lord (flinging his head back to scream): Stacy!!!
Page 9 (6 panels)
Page 9 panel 1
Dream Lord suddenly soars into the dark sky, glowing with brilliant golden energy, casting bright light over the huge, mad clearing. Below him, all the creatures look up, startled by the light, squinting and jabbering and staring at him.
Dream Lord: I can't find you!!!
Page 9 panel 2
The Dream Lord hears a sound like a car horn: Honk honk!!
Dream Lord (turning quickly to look in the direction of the noise): What...?
Page 9 panel 3
In the distance, a large, neon arrow points toward the ground. The arrow is lit up with the flashing word HELP.
Dream Lord: She's still alive!
Page 9 panel 4
In a blur, with a stream of bright energy crackling behind him, the Dream Lord rockets through the sky toward the arrow, a grim expression tattooed on his face.
Dream Lord (shouting): Stacy, I'm coming!
Page 9 panel 5
Swooping around the big neon arrow, the Dream Lord sees Lullaby on a pile of rocks below him--encircled by glowing cartoon characters she has created to defend herself from the horde of sick creatures trying to attack her. There are cartoon bears, and rabbits, and ducks, like Yogi Bear, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck--plus a character like the Tasmanian Devil and a big coyote. The cartoon figures are wrestling with the creatures, slugging it out with them to keep them away from Lullaby.
Lullaby (looking up at Dream Lord from her hill): Dream Lord, would you please give me a lift? I'm sorry, but I'm really not having fun anymore. The novelty has worn off, y'know?
Page 9 panel 6
Lullaby (as a screaming creature plunges past her cartoon defenders, holding a spear): These dudes are buzzed! They are too freaked out! It's like Night of the Living Dead.
Dream Lord races down from behind her, clenching his fists.
Page 10 (8 panels)
Page 10 panel 1
Lullaby: Either that, or the kids at my high school.
Dream Lord grabs Lullaby around the waist with one hand and punches the creature in the face with the other. The thing's spear, already thrown, hurtles past them into the darkness. The creature screams with pain.
Page 10 panel 2
Lullaby (as the Dream Lord continues to fly up and away from the chattering beast): So where were you, buster? Did you have to make a pit stop or something?
Dream Lord: No. I was coming up with more reasons to kill the Bogeyman.
Page 10 panel 3
Lullaby: I hear you, buddy. Those people are seriously nuked! They need some heavy-duty help, and I guess we're the only ones who are gonna give it to them.
Dream Lord: That bastard will suffer for this. He is going to know more pain than all those dreamers--every one of them he's twisted and contaminated--put together.
Page 10 panel 4
Lullaby (as they both continue to fly through the stormy, black sky): So, what next? Back to that stinky black river?
Dream Lord: No, we don't have to go that way anymore. All of the Dreamwalls from here on have collapsed. There's nothing to separate the Fields of Sleep--and nothing to block us from flying through. We can get to the source of the infestation in no time at all.
Page 10 panel 5
Dream Lord and Lullaby continue to speed through the dark sky, right past a bolt of lightning.
Lullaby: We're getting down to the heavy stuff, huh? What do we do after we find him? What's the plan?
Dream Lord: Execute him.
Page 10 panel 6
Lullaby: Great, but I don't think it'll be that easy. He won't be too thrilled with the idea, you know. How are you gonna get him?
Dream Lord: I'll think of something.
Page 10 panel 7
Lullaby: What if he thinks of something better?
Dream Lord: I'll make him stop thinking.
Page 10 panel 8
Lullaby: Good strategy. Remind me to never play chess with you.
Dream Lord: Look, we're getting closer to him. See how the sky is getting darker? And below--the Fields are swarming with deformed dreamers. Everything's becoming sicker, blacker, denser.
Mr. Sandman Page 13