Two Winters Past

EXT. DEPOSIT. MORNING.

LOGAN exits the school  into the yard. KOTE is waiting at the door.

LOGAN: Kote. What do you need?

They walk and talk. In the yard the BARABAS pound lumber into fortification. Scaffolding and catwalks are added and reinforced along the wall. Cars have been piled to seal the gate.

KOTE: Your breakfast is ready, Barabas. Stokes said I would find you here.

LOGAN: I’m not hungry.

KOTE: Forgive me, Barabas, but battle can’t be joined on an empty stomach.

LOGAN: Who told you of battle.

KOTE: Scared men talk. The rider was loud.

LOGAN exhales hard.

KOTE: Stokes and Villoff wait in Stokes’s quarters.

LOGAN: Villoff knows?

KOTE: The others should have arrived by now.

Men salute LOGAN as they pass to STOKES’s shed.

KOTE: I’ll have food sent here for all.

KOTE leaves as LOGAN enters the building.

Upstairs, STOKES, VILLOFF, and RICHARDS are seated. All stand and salute.

LOGAN: Where is Tartell?

STOKES: Two of his men were caught trying to desert.

VILLOFF: They should be hung in the yard as a warning.

LOGAN: (sighs) They should, but we can’t afford to spare them, and they don’t deserve an easy out. They will be stationed with my reserve force.

VILLOFF: You’d put yourself with men we can’t fully trust?

LOGAN: I want you up there with your very best. I don’t want Damascus to touch our walls, Villoff. We will turn them aside, we will protect Deposit, and we will be stronger when the next threat arrives.

RICHARDS: You told us of reinforcements.

CLOSEUP: LOGAN takes a deep breath through his nose.

LOGAN: (hesitates) I’ve brought the word of the Preacher to survivors as far as the Tappan Zee Bridge.  I have traded with them, and I am friend to them. If we ask them for help, they will come. It may take a week to get the message all the way, and I fear that may be too much time.

RICHARDS: How long can we sustain a siege?

STOKES: We have rations for a month.

VILLOFF: That’s bullshit, we start rationing...

STOKES: That is with rationing. We have nothing. The canned food is nearly gone. We’ll be living on bread.

RICHARDS: We need to be out there ploughing fields.

LOGAN: I know a few hundred people at best. I have maps, but there is much travel. Two men could reach Goshen in three days. We have friends also in the north. An army is gathered near Castle Creek, and a king has established himself in Marathon. These are good, Christian men, and they will help us. A siege could be lifted by fifty strong men with guns. I can bring that at least.

RICHARDS: What do you say, Villoff? Are you against it?

VILLOFF: You give me first vote?

VILLOFF looks around the room.

VILLOFF: This fortress is strong, I think we could hold it. We bring out the guns the first day, they may turn around and go home.

RICHARDS: We don’t have enough ammunition for that.

VILLOFF: We blow them apart the first hour, then Tartell lets loose with the arrows until these spooks back the fuck up.

RICHARDS: (firm)  Do you think we should send scouts?

VILLOFF: Fifty men? That sounds worth the mess.

RICHARDS: We send scouts.

VILLOFF: You bring fifty men, and I will proudly call you Barabas when this is over.

LOGAN: Stokes?

STOKES: I am not right for this vote.

LOGAN: I want your opinion as well.

STOKES: (Looks at the table) We need reinforcements, or we will be dead regardless.

LOGAN: Each of you select a man. One you can trust. Send him to me in the chapel.

LOGAN stands. Captains voice their approval. All exit.