320. Gladiators - Leslie

• FADE IN:


• INT. CAR ON 101 FREEWAY - DAY


• DANNY slouches thoughtfully in the passenger seat of the car, watching the flow of cars.


• LIZA taps her fingers on the steering wheel as they whizz along the freeway.


• The sky around them is thick with smoke from fires north of LA.


• The sun forces its way through the gloom, but visibility is terrible, the hills and buildings disappearing quickly into smog.


• DANNY
• I was driving here a few days ago and there was a whole fleet of fire engines headed up towards the fires.


• LIZA
• Yeah?


• DANNY
• Yeah. It was kind of moving, this army of guys going up to risk their lives and face one of the more terrifying elements. I mean...fire, fire is scary crap.


• LIZA
• Scary crap, yes, yes it is.


• DANNY
• Anyway, I was looking at their faces as they passed, and they all had these looks of quiet intensity. You know? They were prepared, stoic - there was a nobility to them.


• LIZA
• Isn't that romanticizing it all a bit?


• DANNY
• Who're you talking to? Of course it is, but that's what I do. I felt like declaring that I salute all those about to die, or something like that.


• LIZA
• My, my, aren't we over emotional?


• DANNY
• You should have seen it. Modern knights.


• Liza shakes her head and returns to tapping her fingers to the music.


• LIZA
• I think saluting those who were about to die belonged to gladiators, not knights. And the first isn't nearly as noble a calling.


• DANNY
• Look, here come some!


• A line of fire trucks is pulling past them in the lane left of them.


• Liza glances over and catches the eye of a fireman riding behind the driver.


• He looks focused, waiting patiently for his chance to dive into the flames.


• Her face softens as yet another truck moves past.


• The trucks pass, and Liza and Danny watch in quiet awe as the firefighters race north, deeper into the smoke.


• FADE TO BLACK.