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shadow skirmisha screenplay
by greg stene
copyright 1997-2003, greg stene
OPEN
EXT. A BUSY NEIGHBORHOOD ROAD -- 1958 -- DUSK
The road is lined by a grassy berm running its length, and rising three feet above the height of the road.
A seven-year-old kid, JIM BARTER, dressed in cowboy hat and holster, takes cover behind the berm as the cars pass by. He sights in on a 1955 Ford, and blasts it from his toy six-gun. The caps in the gun make SHARP REPORTS, and the kid nods grimly at a job well done.
SUPER: 1958
Barter turns and motions for a second kid, WALT, also in cowboy hat and holster, to move up alongside. Together, they watch the 1950's cars go by, their six-guns ready.
FADE OUT SUPER
SECOND KID There's a lot of them, Jim. We can't kill 'em all.
BARTER But we gotta try, Walt.
Barter looks at Walt and nods. Then he throws himself over the berm and races toward the road, his cap gun blazing away at the cars.
MOTHER'S VOICE
(O.S.) Jim! Jim Barter! Dinner's ready. Come home, now, Jim!
Barter continues to charge the cars.
FADE OUT TO BLACK
SUPER: 3
FADE IN
EXT. SAIGON, 1970 -- MACV ANNEX -- A BARRACKS BUILDING -- NIGHT
FADE OUT SUPER
The Annex is an extension of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), the nerve center for U.S. military operations planning throughout Vietnam.The Annex itself is simply the billeting/sleeping area for the people who work at MACV Compound, and for Company C, 716th Military Police.
The Annex is laid out about a quarter mile long, an eighth of a mile wide. Two-story wooden barracks are arranged in neat parallel lines in this rectangle. Three straight roads run the Annex's length. One end of the Annex terminates with an above-ground Olympic-sized swimming pool. One long side of the Annex is lined by an eighteen-hole golf course; the other long side parallels MACV proper. The other end empties into a roadway that leads to Saigon slum and wasteland.On one of the long Annex roads, PAXTON WILCOX has his .45 pistol set to the forehead of a WATER BUFFALO that's wandered onto the road. Wilcox is jumpy, excited and furious. He keeps punching the water buffalo slightly with the end of the pistol. The water buffalo remains immobile.
JIM BARTER stands in the passenger seat of the Military Police Jeep that's blocked by the water buffalo. Barter's pissed to the max and outraged by Wilcox and the pistol. The red light on the Jeep is rotating, and the siren screams holy terror.
Both nineteen-year-old men are Military Police. Wilcox is wearing the honorable faded jungle fatigues of a man in-country for a long time. Barter is wearing the disgusting full-green colors of a man just arrived in country.
BARTER
(screaming)
You can't go around killin' every fuckin' water buffalo that fuckin' gets in your way, Wilcox!
WILCOX
(screaming)I can too! If I can kill fuckin' people, I can kill a fuckin' water buffalo!
BARTER
(shocked)You killed people out there ... in the bush?
WILCOX That's what you do in a war, Barter! You kill people!
BARTER Well, maybe we can start something new. If we don't kill every animal we stumble across, maybe, just maybe ...
Wilcox lowers the pistol and thinks about this seriously.
WILCOX Okay, New Guy. Let me get this straight ... you figure that if we don't waste the ammo on the animals, there'll be more for the people we gotta kill. Right?
BARTER
(shocked)No! No, you see, if we stop the killing of the animals, maybe we can stop killing people after time passes and ...
WILCOX Look, I ain't got time for this philosophy crap. We're supposed to be somewhere in a hurry ... that's what the red light and siren's all about, New Guy.
BARTER We can drive around the buffalo, Wilcox.
Wilcox places the pistol end back on the buffalo's forehead.
WILCOX
(deadly serious)We are in MACV Annex, in Saigon, Barter. This is American soil in the middle of this hellhole they call Vietnam. And I do not drive around Vietnamese water buffalo when I am on American soil.
Barter repositions himself with his hand on the light and siren switches.
BARTER I'm pulling the wires on the red lights and siren if you kill that animal, Wilcox.
WILCOX
(adamant)Man, we ain't where we're supposed to be yet! You can't do that!
BARTER Kill the animal ... and I kill the light show.
Wilcox thinks about it quickly and frustratedly. Then, silently, he rushes to the Jeep, jumps in, pops the clutch, skitters the Jeep around the water buffalo, drives for another ten yards, and pulls to a hard stop.
WILCOX We're here now. You kill the siren and kill the lights. I'd kill the goddamned buffalo if it weren't such a walk back to the damned thing.
Wilcox and Barter turn around to look at the buffalo. The animal looks at them and begins crossing the ten yards separating them.
BARTER Let's get inside. Find out what's so important.
They both slide out of their seats and enter the barracks. As they walk, they tug at their utility web belts, positioning the belt, holster, nightclub/baton and handcuffs to a more comfortable position. A SCREAM from inside the barracks rips a .45 caliber exit wound into the air, and both Barter and Wilcox pull their pistols and move quickly, but cautiously inside.
INT. THE BARRACKS
Wilcox leads Barter as they rush down the center aisle, past the metal-tube bunks on both sides. They pull up at the source of the scream. A RED-HAIRED G.I. moans in agony on the lower bunk of a double bed. He's in shock, under horrendous fever convulsions and sweating profusely.
Barter leans down to say something to the man, and the G.I. suddenly rips a moment of lucidity from his pain and snags Barter's hand in a clawing motion, clutching it in mortal desperation. Pulling himself toward Barter, the G.I. forces Barter's face down into his own. Separated by mere inches, Barter stares helplessly into the jaundiced face breathing death into his nostrils, his hand trapped by this man's grasp.
Barter rips his hand free.
G.I.
(desperate)Hold on to me, man. I won't die if you hold on to me.
Barter looks at the G.I.'s clenching hand, terrified at being trapped again.
G.I.
(pleading)Do it, man. Please.
Their hands clasp.The man drops back into the sweat-soaked mattress. Wilcox crouches next to Barter, looking at the G.I.
WILCOX So this is the way it is. His C.O., the captain back there, says it's malaria. Guys in his squad say he's had it for a while. Didn't like taking his pills. Plus, he's an alki ...
BARTER Huh?
WILCOX Alcoholic, Barter. Been drinkin' even with the malaria eatin' his liver. And he's doin' heroin.
BARTER
(soft)Jesus, H. Christ. What? ...
WILCOX War kills ... funny ways, sometimes, Barter. There it is.
(pause) Look at him, Barter. And if those little pills we take for malaria give you the runs, remember this and put up with it.
Wilcox rocks back on his feet and regards the G.I. with idle curiosity, while Barter looks down on the yellowed face with horror.
WILCOX
(cont.)Guy was flakey to begin with. Thought the malaria pills were shriveling up his dick. But the yo-yo's in his squad actually like the guy 'cause he's funny, so they don't tell the C.O. about his being sick 'cause they don't want to get him in trouble. So they let him come this close to dyin' 'cause they like him.
BARTER Why would'a he gotten in trouble with his commanding officer?
WILCOX Look, New Guy. Not taking those pills ... his C.O. has to take disciplinary action ... endangering government property.
BARTER His body ... is government property?
WILCOX
(defensive)Hey, you want something to make sense, you go back to The World and talk to President Nixon. Nothin' makes sense here.
WILCOX
(cont.)By the way, you're doing the paperwork on this one. Now you keep holding onto his hand. I'm going outside for a smoke. Can't stand watching people die slow like this.
BARTER You think he's going to die?
WILCOX If he was a life insurance company, he'd be filing bankruptcy.
Wilcox leaves. Barter looks at the G.I. then at his hand clenched by the other. Barter brings his free hand up and places it on top of the two clasped hands.
BARTER No problem, man. I got your hand ... you're gonna make it.
INT. A MILITARY AMBULANCE -- MINUTES LATER -- NIGHT
Barter's in the back of the enclosed ambulance truck holding on to the G.I.'s hand. The interior lights show that the AMBULANCE ATTENDANT is trying to slip a second I.V. into the G.I.'s other arm. The ambulance swings with the motion of fast driving.The I.V. needle rips out of the G.I.s arm and blood flows fast from the vein. The Attendant grabs quickly for a compress and wrapping.
The G.I.'s eyes suddenly startle open and he intakes a sudden rush of air and convulsively pulls his hand free from Barter. The G.I. SCREAMS. He stops the scream midway, and lost, looks at the hand Barter had hold of. He SIGHS and rolls himself back prone to the cot, closing his eyes.Barter looks at his own now-empty hand. Then the G.I. Then he begins pounding frantically on the wall separating him from the driver.
BARTER
(screaming)Move! Faster! Mooovve!
The Attendant grabs hold of Barter's shoulder and tries to pull him from his frantic pounding on the wall. Barter, SCREAMING UNINTELLIGIBLY, turns and swings out at the Attendant, slamming his palm into the Attendant's face and throwing him back against the bay back door.
EXT. THE UNLOADING COMPOUND FOR 3RD FIELD HOSPITAL/U.S. FORCES SAIGON -- NIGHT
The ambulance sits under harsh arc lighting. The compound is surrounded by high concrete walls, and vegetation grows everywhere except for the ambulance unloading section. This area is just dirt. The ambulance is parked in front of the Emergency Entrance to the hospital.Wilcox pulls the M.P. Jeep up to 10 feet behind the ambulance. HOSPITAL ATTENDANTS rush to the ambulance as the Ambulance Attendant throws the door open and stumbles out, holding his face, blood seeping between his fingers from his nose.The Ambulance Attendant rages over to Wilcox.
ATTENDANT
(furious)You get your buddy under control or I'm making sure we lose his medical records. You know what that means, Wilcox. We have to give the bastard every fucking shot he ever had in his life all over again. From ground zero. We're gonna be a real pain in his butt. Oh, yeah ... the guy died, if it matters.
WILCOX Willie, it's my man's first day on the job. And you know sumpin', I bet the guy's never even seen anyone croak before.
ATTENDANT
(shocked)You stuck me in there with a Fuckin' New Guy?
WILCOX I'm sorry, Willie. Next time, I ride with you. Okay? But I can break your nose and punch out some teeth. Don't lose his records.
Barter stumbles out of the back of the ambulance, following the stretcher as it's pulled out by the Hospital Attendants. Wilcox notices Barter and walks over.He looks down on the white sheet covering the G.I., then over at Barter's hands which are wringing each other unconsciously.
WILCOX You let go of the funny man's hand. And he died. It's all your fault, Barter. The man'd be alive if you'd just held on.
(pause)
You believe that shit? Man, what kind of idiots are they sending over here these days? Are you one of those college-educated idiots or something, Barter? Look, you didn't kill the guy, and it's not the end of the world.
(pause)
It's just the beginning of some time in Vietnam.
BARTER(stunned) He made this ... this noise, Wilcox ...
WILCOX Yeah, okay. Look, I got something to show you. Get in the fuckin' Jeep. You're driving.
BARTER
(angry)I just watched a man die! Held his hand while he did it. You can't possibly ... can't want me to drive.
WILCOX
(pleasant)Yeah, I do. Now, get in the Jeep. I'm gonna show you something.
Wilcox drops into the passenger seat and looks straight ahead, expectant. Barter looks at Wilcox, then walks angrily to the driver's seat. He sits down and slams his hand into the wheel.
BARTER Damn it, Wilcox.
WILCOX I know. You just saw the ugly thing. There's a lot of that happening here, so get used to it. But you gotta do somethin' more than get used to ugly stuff. You gotta find something beautiful to look at, too. And that's where you're takin' us. Now, start up the engine, son.
BARTER
(lost)Damn it, Wilcox.