Scene Abstract

**Keep in mind that this is a story about brotherhood, not focusing on violence.


Setting- It’s lightly raining ash because of the distant bombs filling the sky with smoke. The day is very grey and cold. John and Eric are in an army truck which has been “loved” by bullets, dirt, mud, and a few splashes of blood along the inside of the truck’s walls. They’re riding along with all the other drafts, but have never met before. The truck is in a line of many others, driving at a moderate speed. Everything’s quiet.

The Plot- Eric and John know nothing about each other, and have never met before. They are put into the same truck and they end up squeezed together towards the end of the truck, with a view of the front of another truck behind theirs. Because Eric is the more emotional one, he’s jittery and decides to start up a conversation with John to get rid of tension. Because John is very stiff and doesn’t talk much, he ignores Eric, but Eric keeps talking anyway. John decides that Eric will never calm unless he says something. John is given a vibe from Eric that they both don’t want to be here, so John develops a slight interest in Eric because they share the same situation. Just as John and Eric really begin a conversation, the truck behind them gets bombed. They immediately get the sense that they’re going to become comrades, so they stick together. They’re put through training, drills, front line battles, field battles, the trenches, cold barracks, and rough sergeants. They develop a very close relationship (or a brotherhood, if you will) without even knowing that this would happen. John and Eric’s personality rub off on each other (Eric becomes less jittery and strong willed, but still smiles and gets attached easily. John smiles more and becomes open and attaches to Eric).

Ending scene-John and Eric are together on the battle field where they had already dug a trench for themselves. As they were crouched on the floor looking underneath the smoke from the bombs that had gone off ahead. A grenade was thrown into the trench next to them, and the dirt from the explosion filled half there trench, leaving room for only one man. John and Eric stick together and realized that a line of grenades were being thrown and everybody was running for their trenches. John, seeing that there was only room for one man in their trench, decides to shove Eric against his will into the trench. A grenade goes off behind John and he ducks, but the explosion caught most of his back and he falls over Eric who is crouched in horror in the trench space that John gave up for him. After the line of grenades has finished, the smoke rises and Eric sees John lying on his stomach, unconscious, with a horrible wound from the explosion on his back. Eric regains himself from shock but is still horrified that his “brother” is badly wounded. As he’ carries him to the nearest medical tent he realizes that John saved his life by pushing him into the trench while the grenades were firing off. As he comes to the medical tent the nurses inform him that they are extremely low on medical supplies because the plane that was supposed to ship them was shot down over a battle field. Eric lays him down on a bed and tries his hardest to make him as comfortable as possible. The nurse attends to John, but realizes that the bandages she has wont stop the bleeding or keep his infection from getting worse. She tells Eric that John will most likely not live because of the bleeding and the infection. John barely lives for two more days and Eric visits him on the day second day. Eric talks to him about the adventures he’s having at battle, meanwhile: John is breathing his last few breaths and has flash backs of the good times he had with Eric. He awakes to the voice of Eric telling him about how bad the beef stew tastes, and there’s a sudden silence between them.Eric and John stare at each for what seems hours but only last for a few breaths. They’re both tearing and neither has the strength to say anything, but are both saying everything. Eric takes John’s hand and smiles while tearing, John smiles too and opens his mouth to say something, but instead lets out his last breath.