The Passage

Billy and Tammy who are sitting in the grass behind and somewhat to the side

of Martha as she stands next to the fire and soup pot. Billy takes a bowl to

his sister Tammy, sitting without motion or expression at the perimeter. Tammy

says,

Thanks.

Tammy starts eating matter of factly in a casual manner. Martha has stopped

ladling, her ladle frozen in the air, tears forming in her eyes. She catches

herself, taking a deep breath and tries to disguise the emotion in her voice.

Anyone for more?

Tammy glances at her brother and giggles, sharing a joke, both of them unaware

of the waves of emotion buffeting their placid and reliable mother.

Len and Big Tom sitting at a table. Len says,

There are a lot of stories going around about these

camps. Trucks were seen going in on a regular basis

just ahead of the upheavals.

Big Tom is intrigued.

50

Maybe we should get together a scouting party and find

out what's what?

Always loving a good gossip line, Len continues.

Repeatedly, repeatedly and sometimes on a daily basis!

Jed ain't the only one who seed it either, plenty

others seed it too.

Len scoops some soup up with a piece of bread and after biting a piece off

continues with great seriousness.

I'm telling you, they've got a camp there, they got

supplies, and that's where we should be heading.

What they find is not a warm welcome, but interrogation.

_______________________________

Crossing an open field, Big Tom, Len, Herman, and Jane who has insisted that

the woman's touch was needed, are trudging through the overcast day, backpacks

or cloth sacks thrown over shoulders, boots on and jackets open, wearing their

clothing supplies rather than carrying them in suitcases.

Jane brings up the rear, though she is following Len who is actually the slow

one. Jane is doing this out of consideration, steadying him now and then if

he loses his balance by putting a hand up against his back pack, unbeknownst

to him. A kind hearted person, she can see this veteran is a weakened man,

struggling not to show it.

Len is pointing toward a cleft in the hills looming up ahead.

Over there, they drove up and just plumb disappeared

between those hills. Ain't nothing in there that

anyone knows, and the signs say ‘Private Property’.

A lookout on the hilltop is watching the four-some trudging toward him. He

picks up a portable phone and talks into it, softly.

Incoming, 4 o'clock.

The group is approaching a cleft in the hills, trees on both sides. Len is

talking animatedly, waving his arm in this direction or that while he

describes what he or others have seen from a distance. Jane is glancing slowly

from side to side, scanning the skimpy forest they are approaching with a

half-curious look on her face. Suddenly Jane freezes, her hand raising in the

direction of the woods they are fast approaching, her warning frozen in her

throat as a military warning booms out.

Halt! Halt or be fired upon! Identify yourselves.

_______________________________

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A single table is furnished in the large bare room, the lights dim everywhere

but in the center of the room over the table. The foursome come stumbling

into the room, glancing over their shoulders, more worried about what is

behind them than in front of them. General Flood comes walking out of the

shadows opposite their entry.

Who led you here? This installation isn't on the map!

Who led you here!

His voice is firm and his questions posed as though he didn't expect any

resistance. Len is almost squirming, and the others glance at him.

Well Sir, I was formerly in the military and ..

At which point Len gets rudely interrupted by General Flood.

Stick to the point! Who led you here!

Len gulps.

I did.

Big Tom and Jane have been taken aside to another interrogation room by a

group of military interrogators in shirt sleeves with their sleeves rolled up

past their elbows, ties off and shirt collars open. This room is small and

close, so the interrogators are literally in the faces of those they are

questioning. Big Tom and Jane are being questioned relentlessly with staccato

questions meant to rattle them. The questions are broadly based. Colonel Cage

asks,

How many in your group?

Big Tom responds.

My family? Are you including the townsfolk?

Another interrogator asks,

Where did you say you were when it happened?

Big Tom starts to respond.

I was at the ranch, but ..