Hell Hole: The Official Screenplay by Donald Firesmith and Leland Anderson Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Hell Hole: The Official Screenplay
by
Donald Firesmith and Leland Anderson
Genre:
SciFi, Paranormal Horror
When
a huge hole opens up in the path of a controversial new pipeline, the
oil company’s head of safety convinces her estranged husband to fly
up to Alaska’s North Slope and investigate. But when geologist Jack
Oswald rappels down into the mysterious pit, he discovers it is
unlike anything he has ever seen. Giant wolf-like creatures attack
the nearby protester camp, slaughtering both wildlife and people.
When they kill protesters and even the oil company’s armed guards,
a member of a secret society dedicated to defending humanity from
demons has no choice but to reveal herself. The survivors soon learn
there are worse monsters than hellhounds. To repair his broken
marriage, Jack only needs to save his wife, defeat a devil, seal the
hell hole, and put an end to Armageddon. What could possibly go
wrong?
This
movie script for the full-length feature film, Hell Hole, is based on
Donald Firesmith's novel, Hell Holes: What Lurks Below.
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Hell
Holes: What Lurks Below
Excerpt
– In The Hole
“Professor, take a look at this,”
Mark said, squatting down and pointing at the nearest mound of dirt.
He held his hand a few inches over it. “There are small holes, and
I can feel gas escaping from them. That’s weird; it should be
freezing, but it’s actually warm.” He leaned over and sniffed the
air just above the hole. “Jesus, that reeks,” he cursed as he
stood up and rubbed his eyes. I reached down.
There was a surprisingly large flow of gas coming out of the hole. I
looked around at all of the other mounds of dirt dotting the ice on
which we were standing. “Shit,” I exclaimed. “We’ve got to
get the hell out of here.” “Why?” he asked
with a confused look on his face. “We just got here.” “Prudhoe Bay
natural gas is about three fourths methane. One eighth is ethane,
propane, and other heavier hydrocarbons, while the remaining eighth
is carbon dioxide. I’m not worried about the methane and ethane;
they’re lighter than air and will drift up and out of the hole. But
carbon dioxide, propane, and hydrogen sulfide are all heavier than
air and build up in low areas.” “Like the bottom
of this hole,” Mark said as the nature of our danger dawned on him. “Like the bottom
of this hole,” I agreed. Although I was
breathing rapidly, it was becoming increasingly harder to catch my
breath. Both were early signs of carbon dioxide poisoning. Meanwhile,
my eyes were really watering, my nose was running, and my lungs were
starting to burn. Hydrogen sulfide combined with the water on their
moist surfaces to form hydrosulfuric acid. I had a dull headache and
was becoming increasingly nauseated. Worse, the stench of sulfur had
begun to disappear: a classic symptom of hydrogen sulfide poisoning.
“We have to head back up and strap on oxygen tanks and full face
respirators before we come back down.” “Okay,
Professor,” he replied, looking at me with concern. “You’re
definitely not looking so good.” Weak and
increasingly clumsy, Mark had to help me reach the rope and secure it
to my climbing harness. Then he said into his walkie-talkie, “Angela,
there’s hydrogen sulfide and excessive carbon dioxide down here,
and we need to get out of here right now. It’s made the professor
sick, so I’m sending him up first.” “Understood,
Mark,” Angie replied, her voice indicating her concern. “Is he
ready?” “Yes, all hooked
up,” Mark replied. A second later, the
rope began pulling me up. It sped faster and faster until I was
practically running up the side of the hole. Soon, I was up to where
the permafrost gave way to damp dirt. I slipped going over the
boundary, and the rope dragged me face first over the short muddy
slope. Bill helped me climb over the ridge of dirt surrounding the
edge and unhooked my climbing harness. Coughing and unable
to catch my breath, I stumbled into Angie’s arms. The caustic
gasses at the bottom of the pit had set off one of my ordinarily rare
asthma attacks, leaving me gasping for air. I fumbled through my
pockets, found my rescue inhaler, and had to give myself three puffs
before my breathing became easier. Meanwhile, my eyes were still
burning and watering so heavily that I heard rather than saw Bill
throw the end of the rope back into the pit and use the winch to
lower it rapidly into the hole. After helping me wipe the mud from my
face, Angie wrapped me a bear hug, totally heedless of the muck she
was transferring to her own face and clothes. “It’s down,”
Jill said, her voice amplified through our walkie-talkies. Bill stopped the
winch, and we waited for Mark to tell us when he was ready to come
up. “Okay, I’m
ready,” Mark said. “Bring me up.” Bill restarted the
winch, and the rope began winding itself back around its spinning
shaft. Feeling stronger, I
let go of Angie and turned back towards the pit so I could watch Mark
being raised over the edge. It was at that moment, through eyes still
somewhat blurry from tears, that I saw Kowalski. He was standing near
the edge of the hole, a few feet downwind so that the smoke from his
cigarette wouldn’t bother us. He took a final puff and carelessly
flicked the still smoldering butt into the pit. “Stop!” I
croaked, my voice raspy and painful from coughing. Kowalski turned
towards me, and our eyes met. Unaware of what he’d just done, he
was completely confused by the expression of horror on my face. After seconds that
seemed to stretch into eternity, the cigarette butt tumbled past Mark
and eventually reached the depth where the concentration of methane
and hydrogen sulfide reached explosive levels.
Hell Holes
Book
1: What Lurks Below
It’s
August in Alaska, and geology professor Jack Oswald prepares for the
new school year. But when hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appear
overnight in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle, Jack
receives an unexpected phone call. An oil company exec hires Jack to
investigate, and he picks his climatologist wife and two of their
graduate students as his team. Uncharacteristically, Jack also lets
Aileen O’Shannon, a bewitchingly beautiful young photojournalist,
talk him into coming along as their photographer. When they arrive in
the remote oil town of Deadhorse, the exec and a biologist to protect
them from wild animals join the team. Their task: to assess the risk
of more holes opening under the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the wells
and pipelines that feed it. But they discover a far worse danger
lurks below. When it emerges, it threatens to shatter Jack’s
unshakable faith in science. And destroy us all…
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Hell Holes: What Lurks Below
Excerpt – In the Plane
Once everything was stowed, I followed Mark up the short stairs and into the lavish interior of the business jet. Unlike the cramped commuter planes I usually took when flying up to the oil fields, the Embraer Legacy 500 made first class seem like coach. Either the executive funding our study was desperate to get us up there, or this was the only aircraft the company had left to send. Either way, I was happy for the unexpected upgrade. Unlike typical airliners, the jet’s eight large leather seats were organized around four small tables, two on either side of the cabin. Each table separated two seats, one seat facing the back of the airplane and the other facing forward. Angie and Jill were seated in the first row of the plane leaving the second row seats facing forwards for Mark and me. I’d just sat down opposite my wife when she pointed her finger over my shoulder. Following Mark had prevented me from noticing the unexpected extra person seated in the rear of the cabin. With the satisfied smile of a cat having feasted on canary, there sat Aileen O’Shannon. I wondered whether Angie and Jill had selected this particular seating arrangement so they could glare at the weirdly bewitching beauty in the back. Of course, it may have been to keep Mark and me from being tempted to look at her instead of paying proper attention to our wives. I got up and marched straight to the rear of the plane and said, “I’m sorry, but I never said you could come along on this trip.” “You are?” she asked coyly. “Oh, my. You never said I could not come.” She gave me a stunning smile that I’m sure usually got her everything she’d ever asked for. “I naturally took your silence to signify agreement, so I packed my bag and cameras, and here I am. Lucky for you that I did; you wouldn’t want to get up there only to realize you needed someone to make a visual record of your discoveries. Besides, I know some of the discoveries the Russians made that they didn’t publish.” The co-pilot walked up behind me. “Excuse me, Dr. Oswald. Can you please take your seat now? We’re on a very tight schedule, and Mr. Kowalski wants you in Deadhorse as soon as possible.” I looked up front and saw that the cabin door was already closed, and the seat belt signs were on. Before I could answer, the plane began taxiing away from the hangar. Realizing that it was too late to rid ourselves of the reporter, I turned around and took my seat facing Angie. “I see we still have Miss O’Shannon with us,” Angie said with a hint of irritation. “I thought you’d decided we didn’t need her.” “I did,” I answered as the plane accelerated down the runway. “But the cabin door was already closed, and we were already moving.” “Jack, you’re the leader of this study, and this plane wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you. The pilot would have turned around if you’d asked him to.” “You’re right,” I admitted sheepishly, silently cursing my habit of not questioning authority figures, at least not unless it involved science. “Well, what are you going to do about it?” Suddenly and for no apparent reason, my annoyance with O’Shannon disappeared, and I felt an overpowering desire to keep her with us, with me. I twisted around and looked back at her. She was staring back at me with a knowing smile. God, she looked so mesmerizingly beautiful as her fingers provocatively played with the top button of her shirt. Of course, she should come… “Jack… Jack!” I jerked back around, my heart pounding as I felt my face warming. I was blushing from embarrassment and guilt. I was also confused, unsure of what had just happened. “Jack, I was talking to you, and you just ignored me! What’s gotten into you?”
Hell
Holes
Book
2: Demons on the Dalton
When
hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appeared overnight in the frozen
tundra north of the Arctic Circle, geologist Jack Oswald picked
Angele Menendez, his climatologist wife, to determine if the record
temperatures due to climate change was the cause. But the holes were
not natural. They were unnatural portals for an invading army of
demons. Together with Aileen O'Shannon, a 1,400-year-old sorceress
demon-hunter, the three survivors of the research team sent to study
the holes had only one chance: to flee down the dangerous Dalton
Highway towards the relative safety of Fairbanks. However, the
advancing horde of devils, imps, hellhounds, and gargoyles will stop
at nothing to prevent their prey from escaping. It is a 350-mile race
with simple rules. Win and live; lose and die...
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A geek by day, Donald Firesmith works as a system and software engineer helping the US Government acquire large, complex software-intensive systems. In this guise, he has authored seven technical books, written numerous software- and system-related articles and papers, and spoken at more conferences than he can possibly remember. He's also proud to have been named a Distinguished Engineer by the Association of Computing Machinery, although his pride is tempered somewhat by his fear that the term "distinguished" makes him sound like a graybeard academic rather than an active engineer whose beard is still slightly more red than gray.
By
night and on weekends, his alter ego writes modern paranormal
fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and
relaxes by handcrafting magic wands from various magical woods and
mystical gemstones. His first foray into fiction is the book Magical
Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore written under the pen name Wolfrick
Ignatius Feuerschmied. He lives in Crafton, Pennsylvania with his
wife Becky, and his son Dane, and varying numbers of dogs, cats, and
birds.
The
idea for this book series came to me when I first heard of the
discovery of several large mysterious holes in the permafrost of the
Yamal Peninsula in Northern Siberia in mid-July of 2014. By the
summer of 2015, some 20 to 30 such holes had been spotted. As in the
book, scientists have measured high levels of methane gas in the
holes. The holes are mysterious because of their large size, their
existence in frozen ground (permafrost), their steep cylindrical
shapes, and the fact that the contents of the holes is nowhere to be
found.
There
is no scientific consensus as to their cause. Scientific explanations
have ranged from the explosive release of methane from buried methane
hydrate ice to the melting of pingos (i.e., large dirt-covered plugs
of ice) due to rising temperatures from Global Climate Change. Other
less-believable proposed explanations have included meteor strikes
and alien excavations. The best current scientific explanation is
that as warming temperatures melt the ice in pingos, the pressure on
the underlying methane hydrate ice decreases, causing methane
explosions that blow out the soil that once topped the pingos. The
holes are essentially the voids left behind once the pingo’s ice
has melted.
The
Hell Holes series is based on the following scenario: (1) thousands
of such holes begin to show up around the entire Arctic including
Alaska, (2) these holes were even larger than the initial ones in
Siberia, and (3) there really is an “alien” connection with the
holes.
For
more information on the real Siberian holes, see:
- Russian documentary on YouTube) The Permafrost Mystery: Scientists Explore Giant Yamal Sinkhole
- EarthSky Magazine article) New Explanation for Siberia’s Mystery Craters
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