Scene 1.10 - Leading The Blind
EST: EXT. Jungle - Night.
(It is very dark and very quiet. We hear a rooster clucking strangely.)
PRIVATE MARS
Hear that?
PRIVATE ARES
I don't hear nothin'.
PRIVATE MARS
No, the rooster. Sherlock. Hear him clucking?
PRIVATE ARES
What does that mean?
PRIVATE MARS
He's only clucking when the breeze picks up. That means Charlie's close.
PRIVATE ARES
What should we do?
PRIVATE MARS
We gotta fire off a flare. I gotta know what’s out there.
PRIVATE ARES
We'll give away our position!
PRIVATE MARS
No we won't. Watch; we got this down.
(He takes a mirror with a tinted, see-through hole in the center and a flashlight and sends a controlled flash toward the rear of his foxhole. Three pinhole lights respond across his flank, looking like no more than fireflies. He flashes again, pauses and flashes twice more, moving in a slightly different direction. Two lights respond, and he flashes once more and turns back to PRIVATE ARES. Yeah, like fireflies. Intelligent, lethal fireflies.)
PRIVATE ARES
What was-
PRIVATE MARS
Wait. Watch. I told fourth squad to send a flare over our position.
(Suddenly, a soft boom echoes from a distance. A moment later, a trail of bright light shoots over the privates, who look at the flare with one eye closed. The flare pops, becomes much brighter and a small parachute opens. The flare rocks back and forth, slowly decending about a hundred yards from the pair. Silhouettes of hundreds of prone, slowly advancing Viet Cong soldiers are illuminated as the flare reaches the ground.)
PRIVATE MARS
Oh, this is bad. This is real bad.
(He frantically flashes messages to the foxholes across the perimeter. Waits.)
PRIVATE ARES
What the- What should we do?
(Three more flares fire from the base, over somewhat-nearby positions far to the rear. A similar situation across the perimeter, guessing from the activity from the firefly swarms.)
PRIVATE MARS
Stay here. Perky's got a radio and he knows the code. Be right back. Don't fire unless they make it to the gulley.
(Back-and-forth, PRIVATE ARES nervously covers both sides of the foxhole. Seconds pass. He thinks he hears a noise, reacts, doesn't fire. More seconds pass. He repeats the action. Even more seconds pass. The third time PRIVATE MARS grabs PRIVATE ARES' barrel from a prone position near the foxhole. His face is suddenly in the face of PRIVATE ARES.)
PRIVATE MARS
Getch-yore stuff. We's buggin' out.
(They begin to low-crawl away.)
PRIVATE ARES
What's happening?
PRIVATE MARS
Charlie's got a few thousand troops on the move this way. What we saw’s just the advance patrol. Them kids were their advance scouts. If we don't move Southeast, we're gonna get cut off. The Colonel's ordered everyone back to the firebase perimeter.
PRIVATE ARES
What are we waiting around here for?
PRIVATE MARS
There's Menendez and Perky. If we take this side path, we can catch up to them in-
(The rooster caw-caws loudly. The rooster is close by.)
PRIVATE MARS (Cont'd)
Wait.
PRIVATE ARES
What is it?
PRIVATE MARS
I never heard Sherlock caw like that.
(Suddenly there is gunfire immediately in front of them. Silhouettes of two soldiers being gunned down by several dozen Viet Cong are seen. The muzzle flashes illuminate the horrendous scene in a strange, strobe-like way. The watching privates are actually behind the advance flank of the Viet Cong and get a vivid picture of their comrades being gunned down.)
PRIVATE MARS
Aw, no.
(Of course, the two, armed with the element of surprise and fully-flanking the enemy squad, open fire and kill the soldiers.)
PRIVATE ARES
Whether it’s too dark for a picture or not, I know we’ve only got a few thousand more o’ ‘em and we’re back home.
PRIVATE MARS
Is it that far away?
PRIVATE ARES
I reckon.
(PRIVATE ARES low-crawls toward the unmoving bodies of Perky and Menendez. Maybe they knew a way out...)
PRIVATE MARS
Wait! The rooster! Hear that?
(A gentle clucking is heard nearby.)
PRIVATE ARES
Naw, man. We'd be crazy to follow a chicken.
PRIVATE MARS
You got a better idea?
PRIVATE ARES
(Flustered:) No.
PRIVATE MARS
He don't like Charlie any more than we do. He'll keep us safe. Get out those C-rats; he gets real hungry real quick.
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