Platoon Page #16

ACE:

Sir! Shot out. Arty's on the way!

BARNES:

(hurrying back to the front)

Get that a**hole O'Neill up here willya!

EXT. JUNGLE - FU SHENG'S POSITION - DAY

Fu Sheng is laying out fire when he senses something, looks up.

The artillery shell sounds too close. Getting bigger and bigger

on the horizon. Too big, too loud. A groan of fear on his face,

then knowledge. Then ... a huge EXPLOSION engulfs him.

EXT. JUNGLE - HAROLD'S POSITION - DAY (RAIN)

BIG HAROLD:

Short round! It's short, man! They f***in' got Fu

Sheng! BARNES! OVER HERE!

EXT. JUNGLE - DAY (RAIN)

Barnes hearing it, starts forward. Another huge shell starting

to whistle in on them.

BARNES:

That f***in' idiot!

It explodes. This is about three times the intensity of the RPG.

The jungle floor shakes, trees splinter. Barnes is knocked to

his knees, rimaces in pain. Hoyt, Barnes' radio operator,

screams out as a fist-sized chunk of hot shrapnel sticks in his

back. He's screeching, frantically trying to shuck the radio

from his back, his fatigue shirt smoking.

Barnes jerks the radio off Hoyt's back, knocks the man to his

knees and unsheathes his bayonet. Ripping off the back of his

shirt, Barnes sets to digging out the shrapnel.

EXT. MOREHOUSE'S POSITION - DAY (RAIN)

Morehouse is decimated by a third explosion, chunks of shrapnel

whirring like battleaxes into the tree trunks.

EXT. JUNGLE - HAROLD'S POSITION - DAY (RAIN)

Big Harold is tearing blindly away from the front, helmet gone,

rifle dragging in the mud when he stumbles, sprawling face down.

He jumps up, looks back, sees now the wire over which he tripped.

It takes a second to register. He shares a look with Bunny who's

already on the ground.

BUNNY:

Satchel charge! GET DOWN!

Harold goes for the ground the same instant the satchel explodes.

EXT. JUNGLE - CHURCH - DAY (RAIN)

Chris, further back, dumps Lerner with Doc who's got more than he

can handle.

CHRIS:

Take care of him Doc! Please!

Doc looking at him, a dark look of hopelessness. Lerner is a

mess, groaning, reaching for Chris' hand.

LERNER:

... don't ... don't leave me man ...

A look between them. Rhah instersecting.

RHAH:

Taylor - get your ass over here. Move!

CHRIS:

Hang tough, Gator. Hang in there, man, you're gonna

be OK ... just hang on.

Feeling like a liar, peeling the man's hands off him, leaving him

there looking numb. Chris is shaken, Lerner's blood all over

him.

He tears out after Rhah, linking up with Elias and Crawford.

Elias motioning them to hurry. Another huge artillery round

exploding out to the front.

EXT. JUNGLE - O'NEILL'S POSITION - DAY (RAIN)

Sgt.O'Neill, scared out of his mind, hugging the earth, tries to

crawl into a small cut in the ground but finds it occupied by a

cringing Junior.

EXT. JUNGLE - WOLFE'S POSITION - DAY (RAIN)

Barnes rushes up out of the forest like Achilles, towering in his

rage, at Lieutenant Wolfe, ripping his handset from him as the

Lieutenant reads off the coordinates off his map.

BARNES:

YOU IGNORANT A**HOLE! - What the f*** coordinates you

giving! You killed a bunch of people with that

f***ed up fire mission! You know that? ... ah sh*t!

Wolfe stares at him, open-mouthed. Disgusted, Barnes hunkers

down to read the coordinates from his own map into the handset.

BARNES (CONT'D)

Redleg Romeo .. Ripper Bravo Two. Check your fire,

check fire, you're short on our pos! I say again,

check your f***in' fire! ... From Registration point,

add one five zero, left five zero, fire for effect!

New incoming fire drowns out Barnes.

EXT. JUNGLE - ELIAS' POSITION - DAY

Elias - a defiant look on his face - moves fast but cautiously

back across the Church landmarks. Chris following then Rhah and

Crawford. The RAIN has now settled into a mist hugging the

ground.

ELIAS:

Move it! Move it!

Elias comes to a stop, looks. Behind them we hear the sounds of

battle, gauging their distance from the main body.

The spider holes are still empty. But he listens, senses

something out there getting closer.

ELIAS (CONT'D)

They're coming ...

Chris looking at Rhah. How does he know?

Elias points out an imaginary line across the breaking mist.

ELIAS (CONT'D)

Stagger yourselves across this line, shoot anything

that moves. They'll be coming from here.

RHAH:

(team leader)

Gotcha.

ELIAS:

One of them gets through it's curtains.

RHAH:

Where you going?

ELIAS:

Down along the river 'bout 100 metres, 'case they try

to flank us there. Third Platoon's coming up on our

rear so watch for 'em.

CHRIS:

I'll go with you.

ELIAS:

No ... I move faster alone.

(a grin)

Elias, his pack stripped, is gone, like a fleet leaf, vanishing

into the Jungle.

RHAH:

(stringing them out)

Okay Crawford - over here. Taylor - down twenty

yards behind that tree.

EXT. JUNGLE - WOLFE'S POSITION - DAY (MIST)

Barnes has finished correcting the fire mission, hurls the

handset back at Wolfe, a wild look in his eyes, studying the

incoming fire. Makes a decision.

BARNES:

Let's move back, link up with Three. Let the arty do

a little work.

(to Ace on radio, ignoring Wolfe)

Push Two Alpha and Two Charlie. Tell'em to haul ass

and re-group at the church. Tell'em NOT to fire.

(Ace transmits)

WOLFE:

What about Elias? We pull back they'll be cut off.

He needs cover fire.

BARNES:

(looks at him like he's stupid)

I'll get him.

(with a threatening undertone)

You just haul ass too lootenant.

(going, to Ace)

... don't send Bravo Three up till I get back to the

CP. Now move out, all of you.

As he snaps his weapon onto full auto and runs off after Elias in

a crouch ... a man with a mission.

EXT. JUNGLE - RHAH AND CHRIS' POSITION - DAY

Next to the Church deployed in the jungle, Rhah looks on, silent.

Chris in his position, waits. It is so silent in comparison to

the racket from the battle across the forest. The Mist clings to

the trees, moist and lovely. Then, a flicker of movement, sound.

Chris hears it, tightens. His POV - at fifty yards. An

evanescence of beige and green uniforms moving towards him very

fast, scurrying. They look like headless ghosts.

Chris opens fire.

CHRIS:

GET EM!!!!!

Rhah and Crawford open up. A rachet of sound, one of the fiures

seems to go down, then another but at this distance through

jungle it is difficult to say. The firing just as suddenly

breaks off and the silence returns.

CHRIS (CONT'D)

(ecstatic)

Yeah! I got two of them f***ers ...

RHAH:

I got one ...

CHRIS:

... See them go down? Like f***in' target practice

man, f*** you Charlie!! Ho Chi Minh sucks dead dick!

... Crawford!

(sees him, stunned)

Crawford, the blond-locked California beach boy, lies on the

earth, hit in a lung, having difficulty breathing, moaning in a

soft undercurrent. Chris runs up on him.

CHRIS (CONT'D)

Oh man! ... man!

Attending him. Rhah runs up.

RHAH:

Looks like a lung babe. But you're gonna be all

right, you only need one of them f***ers.

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