Platoon Page #12

Chris wanting to cry out, to do something - but can't!

A FIGURE suddenly flares out in the sun, advancing on them. It

is Elias.

ELIAS:

BARNES!!

Barnes looks around. They all look around.

Elias walks right up to him, followed by his men - King, Rhah,

Crawford, others from the rear party. He looks around. The

corpse of the Wife ... the Young Daughter sobbing.

ELIAS (CONT'D)

WHAT THE F*** YOU DOING!

BARNES:

(pissed)

Stay out of this Elias. This ain't your show.

ELIAS:

YOU AIN'T A FIRING SQUAD, YOU PIECE OF SH*T!!

The stock of his rifle swings up fast and hard smacking Barnes

full in the face, breaking two teeth.

Barnes staggers back, hurt, bleeding. Elias is on him like a

leopard. Battering him with his fists.

They struggle in the dust, two titans, their faces equally

consumed with rage, clawing, spitting, punching, kicking,

pounding each other's skulls in the dirt. A dust storm swirls

around them, the men closing around like excited apes at a

bloodfeast.

Most of the men seem to be pulling for Barnes - Chris just

watching neutral.

LIEUTENANT WOLFE

BREAK IT UP! ELIAS! BARNES!

But they rool on, smashing each other's faces in. Both quick,

fast, agile, mean fighters. Sgts.O'Neill and Warren drag them

apart.

BARNES:

You're dead, you're f***ing dead Elias!

ELIAS:

YOU - you're going to f***in' jail, buddy, you ain't

getting away with this one!!!!!

WOLFE:

All right! All right! All right!!! NOW BREAK IT

UP. LET'S GO ...

They compose themselves, the Villagers looking on, grieving over

their loss.

WOLFE (CONT'D)

Alright, Six says torch this place! Blow the weapons

in place. Round up all suspected Vee Cees and shake

it up! We ain't got much light left.

ELIAS:

(to Wolfe)

Why the f*** didn't you do something Lieutenant!

WOLFE:

What are you talking about!

(turns away, goes about his business)

ELIAS:

(spins him around)

You know what I'm talking about!

WOLFE:

No I don't. I don't know what the f*** you're

talking about, Elias!

(goes)

Who wants to be reminded? A silence of shame. The Men moving

away, Warren, Ace, Tony, Rodriguez, Barnes looking back once, a

cold glare.

The Village Chief is a broken-looking man, huddled over his

wife's body.

Elias stands there, frustrated.

Chris glances at him, moves out.

EXT. SMALL VILLAGE - DAY

A zippo cigarette lighter with the engraved initials: 'From Mai

lin to my Bunny Boy'. It sparks a thick flare as Bunny lights

the dry straw on the roof of the Hutch where he killed the Old

Woman and Young Boy.

Their legs sticking out at the threshold. The hooch burning

fast, aided by the strong sun.

Bunny watches with awe.

EXT. SMALL VILLAGE - DAY

Sgt.Warren and Rodriguez lighting another hooch on fire.

EXT. VILLAGE RICE STORE - DAY

Fu Sheng yelling 'FIRE IN THE HOLE!' throws white phosphorus into

the rice stores.

EXT. VILLAGE - WEAPONS CACHE - DAY

Barnes and Huffmeister, a big German kid from Texas, are laying

the cord to blow the weapons cache.

EXT. SMALL VILLAGE - WELL - DAY

Adams and Parker are poisoning the well with a white phosphorus

grenade:
'FIRE IN THE HOLE!'

EXT. SMALL VILLAGE - DAY

Wolfe, Ace, Tubbs, Warren, Rogriguez rope the DOZEN SUSPECTED

VILLAGERS together to take them back for questioning.

Elias watches the Villagers mourn their losses. In the

background, explosions, hooches popping with flames, the yells of

the violations of the Village winding down.

EXT. SMALL VILLAGE - DAY

Chris wanders through this wreckage in the sun, like a dazed

visitor from another planet, not believing it. He sees

something, goes towards it - knows what it is.

EXT. VILLAGE - EDGE OF WOODLINE - DAY

Hidden at the edge of the woodline, King hands back a bowl of

grass to Rhah, the chief head. They're puffing away.

KING:

Whew! - where that come from?

RHAH:

Found it. Growing in a garden.

KING:

(smokes)

Sheeit, beats burning hutches anyway ...

They meditatively look out at the Village - burning hutches

sending up spirals of smoke. Shouts. Shots. Chaos.

RHAH:

Yeah - stoned's the way to be ...

EXT. VILLAGE - DITCH - DAY

In a ditch running alongside the Village, partially concealed by

foliage and anthills, Tony, Morehouse, and the ubiquitous Bunny

have a 12-YEAR-OLD VIETNAMESE GIRL pinned to the ground, gagged

and squirming, naked. They are f***ing her to death. Junior

looks on, both curious and disgusted, but doesn't take part.

TONY:

Take her up the ass ...

As they roll her over, like excited dogs in heat.

Chris, coming up, sees their heads dipping up and down on the

other side of the anthill, knows what they're doing. He makes a

conscious decision to do something. He runs over.

CHRIS:

LET HER GO! YOU HEAR ME! YOU A**HOLE! LET HER GO!

He strides right into them, shoves them off hard. The girl is in

tears.

TONY:

What the f*** you want - she's a dink.

CHRIS:

NO - YOU STUPID F*** ... DON'T ... DON'T ... YOU TOO

BUNNY. MOREHOUSE. OFF! NO! DON'T ... DON'T!

He seems disconnected, dazed by the sun, like he's talking to

dogs - loud, repetitive words coming out of an anger he can

barely control, trying to restore some sanity to a world gone

totally nuts today. Don't they understand? Don'tthey have any

sense of a mind? Any kind of decency?

The Men looking at him as if he's the one who's gone nuts, not

them. Bunny looking at Morehouse looking at Tony looking at

Junior. The irony is lost on them, as Chris pushes through to

help the poor girl put her scanty clothes back on.

CHRIS (CONT'D)

(to the girl)

It's okay ... it's okay ...

Elias appears behind Bunny and the others, sees what's happened.

He signals them to move out.

ELIAS:

Get outta here.

The men grumble and slink off quietly. Elias watching as...

Chris helps her to her feet, wounded in the intestines, she can

barely stand, blood saoking in her nether regions. Chris slings

her up as gently as he can and carries her.

CHRIS:

(as if to himself)

It's okay, it's okay ...

EXT. VILLAGE - PIG PEN - DAY

Near the pig pen, a DOZEN SUSPECTS are being led away on ropes by

Tubbs, Warren, Rodriguez. The others left behind look back at

their village in ruins, homes burning, livestock dead or

scattered, belongings thrown and broken in the dirt. BABIES

wail, the adults squat there on their heels watching with

absolutely no trace of outward emotion.

Past this Bosch-like canvas, Chris - carrying the girl - walks

dazed by the horrors of this long afternoon.

EXT. VILLAGE TRAIL - DAY

The soldiers depart the village. A huge EXPLOSION now rocks the

earth and sends a spray of smoke into the blue sky as the weapons

cache explodes in stages that sound like the end of the world.

EXT. PERIMETER #2 - JUNGLE - LATE AFTERNOON DUSK

The Company is digging into another overnight perimeter on a

ridge with a view of the Valley where the Village was. C-Ration

fires all around the perimeter.

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