AllFreeNovel
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“Tonight, when we’re finished—”
“Unbelievable,” howled Berg. “Is that the sun coming out?”
“We can fix that in post,” said his assistant.
“No, I need overcast. The forecast said— oh, no, it’s going. Don’t come back!” He shook his fist at the clouds as they swallowed the sun. Eric caught my eye and we both snickered.
“He’s on form,” said Eric.
I groaned. “And how.”
“Watch the clouds vanish halfway through, this great blaze of glory, and it ruins his shot.”
I half-hoped they would, just to watch Berg melt down. But I felt in my bones we’d done good work on this movie, not just me and Eric, but Berg, the whole cast. I wanted this scene and the rest to be perfect. To take the audience on the journey I’d been through with Eric, every high, every low, every bend in the road.
A happy ending,I thought.For us, for our movie.
I flung myself into the grim, violent scene, a fierce jungle battle spilling out to the beach. At first I was acting, and then it got real — gunfire, explosions, the screams of the dying. Extras running everywhere. Bodies underfoot.
I couldn’t find my first mark for the dense, drifting smoke, so I dropped down and crawled for it, scraping in the dirt. The smoke in my face lit up orange, then white. A boot came down on my sleeve and I jerked back with a shriek. I rolled over and over, and I found my mark, an X of blue tape on a steel barrel.
“Kate,” bellowed Eric, somewhere behind me. That meant he’d found his mark, so I was up.
I rose up on one elbow and shouldered my rifle. Some extra ran by and kicked it from my hands. That wasn’t scripted, but I didn’t hearcut, so I crawled to retrieve it and dug it out of the dirt. Then Eric found me and we were fleeing together, tripping and falling, struggling up.
We crouched back-to-back swinging our rifles, searching for targets through sheets of fake smoke. I was “hit” and I fell. Eric helped me up. We stumbled clear of the smokescreen, down to the beach, and nearly tripped over a sprawled, bloodied extra. I dropped to my knees and stared down at him, breathless, then raised my head to peer down the beach.
“Lock…”
Eric stopped beside me. Followed my gaze. The beach was littered with bodies, as far as the camera could pan. Eric did a slow turn, surveying the carnage. The extras had all popped their blood bags, and the sand was stained brownish. Where the waves lapped the bodies, they pulled away red. I used my rifle to haul myself to my feet.
“Who won?” I whispered.
Eric didn’t seem to hear me.
“Did we win? Did anyone? What prize is worth this?”
Eric looked at me. “Dignity… Freedom.”
I hobbled over to an extra with his guts hanging out, one hand opening and closing as he gazed at the sky.
“Fine dignity this is, food for the buzzards.”
“He died for something,” said Eric, but he didn’t sound certain. His gaze darted down to the blood on my jacket. “Kate? Are you hit?”
I looked down at myself. Pressed my palm to my belly. Winced from the pain of the wound that would soon end me.
“Kate?”
I smiled. “Just a scratch. Come on. Let’s get going.”
Eric frowned. “Where to?”
“Does it matter? Away.”
He slid his arm around me and we limped down the beach. Berg yelled outcut,thenscratch that, keep rolling.I looked up and the clouds had thinned, the sun breaking through them.
“Look up,” yelled Berg. “Walk into the sunlight, and look up! Be hopeful!”
