THE CADUCEUS HOUR
presents
THE TWO-HEADED SERPENT
Episode One: “The Sleeper’s Mask”
[MUSIC: Ominous timpani roll, rising brass, fading to a single sustained low string]
ANNOUNCER: The Caduceus Foundation of New York brings you… THE TWO-HEADED SERPENT! Tonight’s episode: “The Sleeper’s Mask.”
[MUSIC: Stinger, out]
ANNOUNCER: Bolivia, 1933. The Chaco War rages between two nations over a strip of jungle nobody wants — and something far older than either army has just opened its eyes. Our story begins on a mountain trail, where a caravan of mules carries medicine to a camp that needs it badly…
[SFX: Mules braying, harness bells, boots on dirt, birdsong]
NARRATOR: At the head of the line walks Dr. Arturo Arsini, expedition leader. Behind him trails a Hollywood face a long way from the cameras — Rex Calloway, star of the silver screen, working the caravan like it’s opening night.
REX: (bright, guileless) Buenas — ah — buenas tardes! Rex Calloway, delighted! And you’d be —
NURSE: (laughing, overwhelmed) Señor, please —
REX: One beer, please! No, wait — that’s not — well. It’s the thought that counts, eh?
[SFX: Footsteps approach; Rex catches up to Arsini]
REX: Doctor Arsini! Fine outfit you’re running here —
[SFX: A single rifle shot, cracking off the hillside]
NARRATOR: The shot takes Dr. Arsini square between the eyes. He is dead before he hits the ground.
[SFX: Body fall. A beat of silence. Then panicked shouting, mules screaming]
REX: (stunned whisper) …Doctor?
SHEN: (urgent) Down! Get down!
[SFX: A scuffle, a body dragged behind cover]
NARRATOR: From the treeline, five rifles and shotguns open up. Dobson dives for a tree. Jean-Pierre hits the dirt in the open. Matilda drops flat and brings her rifle to bear.
[SFX: Ragged volley of gunfire]
DOBSON: (clipped, calm) Count’s five. One’s dressed like a Bolivian officer.
MATILDA: (steady) I’ve got the rifleman.
[SFX: A single, well-placed shot]
NARRATOR: Matilda’s bullet finds the man in uniform. And that’s all the invitation Rex Calloway needs.
REX: (already moving) Right! Excuse me!
[SFX: Running footsteps, a solid punch, a grunt, a body drops]
NARRATOR: One punch. The “general” goes down cold. Rex straightens up, quite pleased with himself — and turns to find four shotguns levelled directly at his chest.
REX: (a beat, then, gamely) …Uno. Dos. Tres. Cuatro — cervezas, por favor!
[SFX: A shotgun BURSTS — a shriek of torn metal, a scream]
NARRATOR: One weapon detonates in its owner’s hands. The other three shots go wide. Rex Calloway, Queensland’s finest, remains — somehow — entirely unshot.
[SFX: Two revolver shots]
DOBSON: (matter-of-fact) That’s two.
[SFX: A massive double shotgun blast]
NARRATOR: Jean-Pierre closes the distance and answers with both barrels. A third gunman is simply gone.
JP: (grim satisfaction) Voilà.
NARRATOR: The last man breaks and runs. He doesn’t get far.
[SFX: A gunshot, then a knife’s thud]
NARRATOR: Matilda’s bullet drops him. Shen finishes it.
[MUSIC: Tension resolves into something quieter, uneasy]
NARRATOR: The camp is safe — for now. But when the party turns to search the men who did this…
[SFX: Slow, deliberate footsteps. A pause.]
SHEN: (low, disturbed) …That is not a man’s face.
NARRATOR: Beneath a mask of stretched human skin lies something else entirely — scaled, ancient, unmistakably reptilian.
SHEN: (grave) I have read of these. The serpent people. A race that has slept beneath the earth since before men kept records.
[MUSIC: Low ominous chord, held]
DOBSON: (searching Arsini’s body) Letter of introduction… a Dr. Gomez, at the camp ahead. And papers — Caduceus Foundation letterhead.
REX: (searching the general, pulling free a folded map) And this fella’s carrying a map. Shen — this mean anything to you?
SHEN: (studying it) …No. Nothing I recognize.
NARRATOR: With the wounded tended and the mules rounded up, there’s only one thing left to do — call for help.
[SFX: Climbing, rustling leaves, then a sudden aggressive CHATTERING]
NARRATOR: High in a tree, rigging the radio aerial, Matilda finds herself face to face with an indignant monkey — who settles the argument by dropping something entirely unexpected.
[SFX: A metallic clatter, landing hard near JP]
JP: (alarmed, then curious) Mon dieu — this is no pistol I have ever seen.
NARRATOR: Jean-Pierre turns the strange weapon over in his hands. Nothing about it belongs to this world.
JP: Dobson. Try it.
[SFX: An unearthly, humming discharge]
DOBSON: (flat, unsettled) …I’d rather not do that again.
[SFX: Radio static, tuning whine]
NARRATOR: With the set finally live, Jean-Pierre raises New York.
RADIO VOICE: (tinny, distant) Identify yourself.
JP: This is — the password is “Ocelot.”
RADIO VOICE: (pause) That is not a recognized password.
JP: (undeterred) Then let me explain why you should listen anyway.
NARRATOR: Eventually, the Caduceus Foundation’s man believes them — survivors of an ambush, escorting supplies through hostile jungle. He tells them of a temple, newly exposed by artillery fire. Of a guardian, freed from where the earth used to hold it. And of a mummy that must be recovered and brought home to New York — whatever else happens along the way.
RADIO VOICE: Resupply is available. Twelve hours, if you need it.
[MUSIC: Transition sting]
NARRATOR: With the call ended, the party turns their caravan toward the camp Matilda scouted earlier that day.
[SFX: Camp ambience — voices, cheering, relief]
NARRATOR: Dr. Gomez and his staff greet them like saviors. Dobson wastes no time looking for irregularities in the camp’s books. Jean-Pierre finds the camp’s own radio silent — and sets to work. Shen keeps watch over their unconscious prisoner. And Rex, having thanked every exhausted nurse in the camp twice over, sits down with Dr. Gomez himself.
REX: No soldiers here, then? Bolivian, Paraguayan, either side?
GOMEZ: None, Señor Calloway. Only us.
NARRATOR: Gomez introduces Rex to Juan, leader of the local people, who speaks a little English — and Rex, never one to waste an opening, shows him the map taken from the general.
JUAN: (a sharp intake of breath) This is the language of the sleeper. It should not exist.
[SFX: Paper torn, then set alight]
NARRATOR: Juan destroys the map on the spot. Shen, fortunately, remembers enough of what it showed.
JUAN: Tonight is the Festival of the Sleeper. At the Fifth Pillar. Come, if you dare stand witness.
[MUSIC: Ominous undertone]
NARRATOR: But there is unfinished business back at camp.
[SFX: A struggle, tent canvas flapping, a gunshot, running footsteps]
NARRATOR: The general wakes as the doctors move to revive him — shoves past Shen, past the medical staff, past Dobson’s warning shot, and bolts for the treeline. Rex is faster.
[SFX: Running, a solid punch, silence]
REX: (out of breath) Right. That’s the third time. Somebody tie him down properly this time.
NARRATOR: Jean-Pierre reports the camp radio fixed — and something else besides. It hadn’t merely broken. It had been sabotaged.
[MUSIC: Suspense sting]
NARRATOR: Evening falls. Five of the party follow Juan and a tribesman out along a jungle path, toward the site of the coming ceremony. They pass the wreckage of a battle — Bolivian and Paraguayan dead alike, torn apart by something far larger than any man.
REX: (quiet) Whatever did this stood fifteen feet, near enough. Look at the stride.
[SFX: Jungle ambience, footsteps continuing]
NARRATOR: Among the dead, a discarded flamethrower. Jean-Pierre claims it without a word.
[SFX: Footsteps slow, then stop]
NARRATOR: It is seventeen hundred hours when they reach the Fifth Pillar. And the Fifth Pillar is already broken.
JUAN: (a horrified whisper) No. No, it was sealed. It was sealed —
[SFX: Distant, wet, heavy movement through the undergrowth — slow, deliberate]
NARRATOR: Something enormous, black, and glistening is moving toward them through the trees. Something that has waited a very long time for this moment.
[MUSIC: Full orchestral sting — cut to silence]
ANNOUNCER: Will Rex Calloway’s luck hold? What horror waits at the Fifth Pillar? Find out, next time, on… THE TWO-HEADED SERPENT!
[MUSIC: Closing theme, fade out]
— END OF EPISODE ONE —