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| Category: | General Fiction |
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Posted: | February 2, 2021 Views: 36 |
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Two men seek freedom in the face of certain death
"From Siberia To The Sea"
by forestport12
The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
FADE IN: EXT.
From a barren and frozen land between mountain ranges there appears empty towers and a compound rimmed with barbed wire fencing. Snowdrifts consume mostly abandoned shanties. Outside no one can be seen patrolling and, it looks as if it is an abandoned gulag prison camp.
FADE IN: INT.
A skeletal American missionary prisoner Dennis stands with a horse blanket over his Russian comrade who has been too weak to get up from the dirt floor. A small fire radiates from a metal barrel nearby. The only sound is the howling wind, threatening to cave in the rotted wood frame. Another prisoner lays on an old mattress, lifeless. The bearded American grins with wild artic-blue eyes, as he looms over his sleeping comrade. He kneels down over him, almost falling while placing the extra layer around his shoulders.
Dennis Jasper (American missionary prisoner)
"Wake up Ivan. I've good news. We can leave. The guards have abandoned their posts. I'm sure of it."
Ivan Chekov (Russian political prisoner)
Startled awake looks disappointed but is too weak to make hand gestures.
" No more of your dreams. You ruined mine. I was in a soft bed making love to my wife. And now I have to look at you. I was holding her in my arms."
Dennis Jasper
"Simeon the Muslim is dead. I gave you his blanket."
Ivan (Disbelief then grief washes over him.)
"No pulse. Close eyes then. Let him rest in peace."
Dennis
"No pulse. He's gone."
Ivan (Coughs from his chest)
"I'm Next."
Den
Don't you die on my watch. I've had enough death for one day. We must leave.
Ivan
Ivan
Leave where? Did you forget what keeps us here? It's not the guards or the barbed wire. Siberia. The land is our prison.
Ivan strains his neck. Den stumbles over and slips a pillowcase of hay from underneath the head of the dead Muslim, then he kisses the Simeon on the cheek and closes his eyes. Ivan turns his head and watches while prone on his back. Den takes the pillow and looms over Ivan with it. He crouches down almost falling on him but manages to lift his head and place the straw pillow under him.
Den (Talking in his ear)
"We can make it to the forest. We can see it on clear day. We've always said, if we can make it to the forest, we have a chance. Then over the mountains East. Then we hide in a ship across the Bering Sea."
Ivan (A hoarse, coughing Laugh)
"I see you have it all mapped out in your dreams. Tell me Den, have you consulted with our travel agent about? Do you have our tickets?"
Den
"Live free or die free. Starving to death in prison will not do. I will not die a prisoner for having passed out Bibles in ST. Petersburg Square, as my only crime."
Den stumbles about the body but manages to pull the half-naked Simeon outside into the lashing wind. He returns inside with his eyebrows and beard meshed with ice until it melts where warms himself with the fiery barrel and water runs down his raw face.
Ivan (A hoarse whisper above the outside wind)
"I will not eat Simeon. But I would like to have his pet mouse for dinner."
Den stops rubbing his hands together. He stumbles over to where Simeon hid a napkin of a hard roll. He cuts it with his knife and then dips in a warm pot of weak tea on the fire stove and hands Ivan softened piece. Crumbs spill over his mouth, as they greedily search for them in his blanket. The mouse appears and races over the edge of the blanket for a crumb. Den traps the mouse in one of Simeon's boots.
Den
"I don't have the heart to kill it. He too is our comrade."
Den lifts the boot and snags the mouse in his hands. He strokes the mouse with his gloved fingers.
Ivan
"We should...should call him Simone, son of Simeone."
Den
"Tonight, when the winds die, I will go to the barracks and scan the tower. If the coast is clear, we leave before daybreak."
Ivan (Above a whisper)
"Will you leave me for the wolves? I'm too weak to walk a mile."
Den
"I will make a sled from this door."
Ivan
"Take me to the woods to die then. Be sure to bury me deep enough so the wolves will not eat me. Then say a prayer for me."
Den
"I do not pray for the dead. I pray for the living. I pray you will see your pretty wife one day."
Fade away to darkness
Write A Script contest entry
Author Notes
This is my first attempt at a script or screenplay.
I couldn't get my advanced editor to work correctly and know this is not technically correct in its format. I wanted italics for dialogue and it to be centered correctly.
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© Copyright 2016.
forestport12
All rights reserved.
forestport12
has granted FanStory.com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work. |
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