Excerpts + One-shots

1917: Blake Death Scene

The following excerpt is from the 1917 war movie. 

"Oh," Blake said with a gasp. "Oh."

He held his quivering hand over his wound. An unnaturally dark brown bled through his clothes; it was hard to say that it was blood. Schofield ran towards him, seeing Blake's staggering movements that were ready to fall.

"Oh," Blake yelped, looking at his wound. "Oh."

Schofield wordlessly grabbed a white cloth and pressed down on his wound. "Oh!" Blake cried. "No stop! It hurts!"

"We need to close the wound Blake," Schofield shouted.

Blake's breaths formed an unsteady, quick rhythm while he grunted and contorted at the pain. "Stop it!" he began kicking his legs out.

"Blake!" Schofield pushed down on the wound. "We need to get you to the nearest medic!"

"No I can't!"

Schofield did not listen. He let go of the cloth and ran behind Blake, dragging him up forcefully. Blake cursed and cried at Schofield pleading for him to let go, but Schofield continued to drag him. Blake began to flail his feet even more harshly, neglecting the wound.

"Blake!" Schofield said as they both tripped back on to the muddy sod.

"I can't," Blake cried. "I can't! You have to go without me."

"Blake! Get up!" Schofield began to pull him back up, but his strength dwindled at each tug.

Blake's breathing slowed into a slur, while his partner became breathless. "Blake..." Schofield gasped. "You have to get to your brother."

Blake began to breathe in more deeply. "Scho..." he whispered dryly. "You know the way."

Schofield muttered a prayer of some sort, but the words started to drift into the sky.

"Scho... are we being shelled," Blake stared emptyly at the floating embers from the plane.

Schofield looked at the embers of him in a vague disbelief. "...Those are embers," he said.

Blake's eyes squinted, as he stared at the embers. "Scho," he started, with teary eyes. "Am I going to die?"

Schofield waited for a second, and nodded. Blake squeezed his eyes closed. "Can you tell me one last story," he sniffled. "You were always good at those."

Scho entered another silent moment, and then began: "Somewhere on a small coastal town in Normandy, there lived a small family of fishermen, which had a mother and two sons. Since it was summer, the sea breeze softened and allowed merchants, and businessmen to flow into such coastal towns."

"Sounds like my family," Blake thought aloud.

"You lived in a coastal city?"

"No, I have only one mother and one brother."

"Ah," Scho mouthed, and continued. "On one occasion the younger son left to see the market of merchants. It just so happened that walking behind was the son of an extremely rich trader. The spoiled boy tripped on top of the other, and both of them cracked a tooth."

"That's stupid" Blake tried to laugh.

"The crowd walking by recognized the rich boy, and helped him back home showing worry and care, while the other boy was left on the brick ground, with a bleeding tooth. The boy felt angry, and ran back home to his mother, and broke into tears. He explained the whole incident to her and asked: 'I was hurt too, why didn't they help me?' The mother wasn't able to give him an answer, so he ran to his room. The next day, his mother invited him and his brother to see the beach near the house. The boys, reluctant and confused, agreed. Once they reached the shores, their mother took a handful of the ground's mixture. She separated the hard rocks and shells from the sand and told them that the rocks, despite their slight strength, would break down into sand overtime, and return to the ocean. The older boy asked what she was trying to say. And she responded 'no matter how big or small a human is, we all return to ocean, only to find ourselves on another beach.'"

Scho took a deep breath in after finishing his story. "How'd you like the story?" Scho asked. "My dad told it to me when I was young."

No response.

"Blake?"

Scho sighed in realization, and removed Blake's backpack, so that he could rest in a more comfortable position. "Enjoy the ocean, Blake," was all that came to mind.