FADE IN:
1 EXT. SCREENED FRONT PORCH – OVERCAST DAY 1
WE OPEN on a rundown rural home with an overgrown lawn. We see BENEDICT’s outline (60s, white, maybe ex-military) through the porch screen, sitting on a rocking chair with MASON (3 or 4, mixed race, helpful) asleep on his shoulder. Peaceful. We push closer through a torn leaf of the screen, and see BENEDICT’s dirt-stained hand grips a shotgun. Dried blood smears his temple. He stares at the one-lane road.
BENEDICT’S POV
Our gaze flicks from the road, to the falling-down house across the lane, to ransacked vehicle in driveway, to the trees lining the front yard. A tree branch quivers, and our view swings back to it. Two tired, skinny hikers (man and woman in 30s with depleting gear) creep into the yard.
PORCH
Benedict rises, hoisting his shotgun, still hugging his sleeping grandson. He shoulders the hinge-rusted screen door half-open, shotgun already pointed. The hikers see him and freeze. They slowly lift their hands.
MALE HIKER
Please. We’re just passing through... You won’t even know we
were here.
BENEDICT doesn’t twitch. Tension rises.
FEMALE HIKER
(teary)
Please.
Benedict shoots. Misses. The hikers scream and scatter. Mason wakes, scared. Benedict reloads one-handed, shoots again. The male hiker collapses in yard. Benedict reloads one-handed. Mason squeezes his eyes shut and hides in his grandpa’s neck. Benedict shoots. The female hiker falls half in the tree line, clutching her thigh and moaning.
Benedict sets down Mason on the porch and crosses the yard to the female hiker. Reloads shotgun with both hands. The hiker is in too much pain to look up. He shoots her dead.
CUT TO:
2 EXT. GRASSY RIVER INLET – SUNNY DAY 2
WATER TRICKLES gently. Benedict sits on a bleached log, surrounded by grass and bed pebbles. We can see a broader river beyond. Benedict’s shot gun leans on the log beside him. Mason has a hand on Benedict’s knee, watching Benedict untangle a fishing pole’s line. Mason cups a trout spinner with a hair jig in his palm. Benedict’s teeth keep the fishing line taut.
BENEDICT
(through teeth)
Stick.
Mason passes his grandpa a 12-inch stick. Benedict starts wrapping the stick until the loose line is controlled. He passes the stick to MASON, positioning Mason’s thumb so the line won’t unravel.
BENEDICT
Hold. Nope. Hold here.
Mason’s thumb slips. He gasps as the fishing line flicks loose off the stick and unwinds a few fast loops.
BENEDICT
(patiently)
That’s okay. Nope, that’s okay. Keep your thumb down. Yep,
stay like that.
Benedict angles the fishing pole and reels the line slowly. The line slips out of his teeth, and he uses two fingers to help Mason unwind the line a few loops at a time.
CUT TO:
THE ROCKY RIVERSIDE – THE SLOWER CURRENT
📸 Photo by Photo by Nikolai Artamonov on Unsplash
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