The Passage

But is interrupted by a second interrogator.

Herman, who?

Still struggling to answer the questions put to him, Big Tom says,

He’s, he’s the major of the town.

Big Tom is trying to answer the question as though they are factual, not

understanding, as Jane does intuitively, that they are intended to rattle

them. She is composed, and finally confronts them in a clear calm voice.

How long do you think it will be before the whole town

arrives? What will you do with them?

Her question silences the interrogators, as she has seen past their bravado to

their point of panic.

52

_______________________________

Finally allowed out into the camp yard, Big Tom and Jane come out a door to

join Herman and Len. They are all standing close together, waiting, in the

center of a complex of bland colored huts.

General Flood and his ever present attache, Sergeant Hammond, are to the side,

being briefed by the interrogators, Colonel Cage among them. Colonel Cage is

shaking his head slightly as he walks up to the group, indicating their lack

of success. General Flood reports.

It doesn't matter, the little rat broke. They came

from the Shaw ranch just north of here.

The General pauses, then says:

Make sure they aren't followed.

General Flood turns abruptly and walks off, leaving his orders ambiguous.

_______________________________

A despondent Big Tom and Jane and their guards are returning to the farm,

backtracking along the path taken to reach the camp. The path is going along

a narrow valley between rolling hills. All are walking single file. The half

dozen military men are holding weapons, casually pointed down and to the side

as they walk but nevertheless at the ready.

Big Tom is in the lead, and is walking slowly, trying to think of escape and

stalling, not wanting to lead them back to his family. The soldier behind him

gives him a shove, making him stumble slightly. Colonel Cage, who has been

walking behind Jane, comes forward quickly, reprimanding the soldier in a

quick aside, and begins walking side by side with Big Tom. Colonel Cage picks

up the pace to put a little distance between themselves and the others, and

begins to talk to Big Tom quietly.

Is there a break up ahead where we can take a stand?

Big Tom doesn't miss a beat, having sized up the colonel as a good man, and

after a moment of mulling it over, answers.

At the creek up ahead. It gets rough ..

The conversation is interrupted, Colonel Cage jerking his head around, hearing

a slight but familiar sound, and immediately bolts back along the line. He

says,

Where is she!

His question is met with a cold stare, but as Jane and two of the soldiers

have disappeared, the Colonel has his answer.

53

Colonel Cage continues back along the trail, picking up his pace, and soon

finds what he feared. Behind a group of trees, Jane is struggling with one of

the men who is trying to tear her pants down, while the other holds the

automatic weapon in a relaxed manner, watching and leaning back against a

tree.

The soldier with the gun jerks his head around, seeing Colonel Cage running up

to them. The rapist shoves Jane away and quickly adjusts his pants at the

fly, trying to conceal what he was up to. The soldier with the gun raises his

gun and shoots Jane, who has staggered back, in the face with a short burst

from the automatic. Colonel Cage wrenches the gun away from the soldier. The

soldier says,

She was trying to escape.

Without missing a beat, Colonel Cage lowers the weapon and shoots this soldier

in the stomach, swinging it quickly to do the same to the rapist. While the

two of them are writhing on the ground, in agony, Colonel Cage walks over to

Jane, determining at a glance that she is solidly dead as her head is

essentially blown off. He turns on his heels and strides back the way he

came, his face full of tension and a film of sweat on his pale face. He is

breathing heavily, from the run and adrenaline, and runs his fingers thought

his hair, front to back, combing it as he strides back to the waiting line of

men.

Lets go.

He walks to the front to rejoin Big Tom who is waiting with an anxious look on

his face.

They're all dead, it's over.

_______________________________

The women are washing clothes on some rocks along the creek. Netty is

snappish with Daisy, who is sitting back and barely dipping her batch of

laundry into the water, as though she expects to be rescued. Netty snaps at

her.

I'm not going to do it for you this time. Wake up to

it, it's this or living grungie.