Events inspiring this story came from several directions, one was reading John Steinbeck's - 'Of Mice and Men' and Harold Brighouse's - 'Hobson's Choice' both conveyed in storytelling screenplay format. Prologue….Currently retired and living in the Vale of Glamorgan with my wife Elly, plus our dog and our cat I enjoy writing stories drawn from amazing life experiences in various parts of the world. Set in contemporary Arizona and presented in storytelling screenplay format this fictional story was inspired by a helicopter flight into the searing heat and mind-boggling terrain of the Grand Canyon for a relaxing picnic. All was well until our pilot advised his six British passengers we could explore the area, the nearby Colorado River etc, but to keep an eye open for rattlesnakes. We all looked forward to lifting off. With the essence of the story being how complete normality changes in the blink of an eye to abject terror I drew on a factual incident when I was a Paratrooper/Medic billeted in a tented camp in the UAE and picked up a football sized rock to bang in a loose tent peg to see a large scorpion crawl from beneath it and halt between my hands before I instinctively reversed the rock to give it a terminal headache. Those terrifying milliseconds of unexpected fear and revulsion are portrayed in the opening scenes and continue, mercilessly, for the entire second half.Barrie David. SYNOPSISLuke Blake's ScreenplayPheonix - ArizonaYesterday… At age thirty-six Jeffrey Blake is a genius at stock market trading whose obsession for more wealth creates scathing contempt in his fifteen-year-old son Luke, a sensitive aspiring writer of screenplays. When Jeffrey's wife Elena persuades a belligerent Luke to go on a man-to-man vacation in an RV with the father he despises hostility reigns until an air clearing blowout at the Grand Canyon brings a fragile truce. Picking up a starving mongrel Luke names Beric they meet grizzled Vietnam Veteran and Campsite Owner Clem Hudson who tells Jeffrey about an isolated lake at the peak of a nearby mountain range. Seemingly the perfect place to further bond with Luke, Jeffrey ignores Clem's warning about the hazardous trail getting to the lake and how a dense fog rapidly descends. For two weeks camped beside the lake all is well until the vigilant Beric warns of a distant rattlesnake severely un-nerving Jeffrey although he shoots it with his Winchester. With the weather changing they hurriedly pack up and leave but when Jeffrey takes the wrong trail the dense fog Clem warned about obliterates their surrounding forcing them to halt for the night where daybreak begins a nightmarish ordeal of stark unrelenting terror

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