"Aah!" "Uh!" "Mm... uh..." "Heard you shoot." "What was it?" "Something small and fast." "Rabbit?" "Maybe." "I don't know if it was even really there." "Once that gun goes off, everything living is gone." "Why is it so hard when the only thing there is-you and the rabbit?" "The woods is big, and the rabbit's small." "Can I stop?" "We's all going to." "I was asking my sister." "No need to talk to Mad like that." "Don't you want to eat?" "I'm cold." "Hush." "What is it?" "I saw them." "Saw who?" "Daddy and Nathaniel." "It was only a dream." "But I was right there." "Go back to sleep." "I can't slop hoping they might come home." "No." "Our father and brother ain't deserting no duly." "It was like it was really happening." "They needed me." "What happens when you sleep ain't real." "Come here." "Came sleep next to me." "I look like her." "You do." "This dress feels so nice on my skin, almost fits me now." "You should take it off." "But I just put it on." "Louise, I best not see that dress moving again." "Thought I told you Intake that off." "I didn't feel like it." "Louise, I'm asking you." "Please." "Why you care so much?" "Because you're gonna ruin it." "Don't feel like hoeing." "Don't Like her lookin at me that way, either." "Go change and came back to work." "She's the nigger." "She should do it." "Like I told you, Louise, we all niggers now." "Shh shh." "Shh." "Aah!" "No!" "Ho!" "Louise, what happened?" "Louise, what happened?" "Raccoon." "She was supposed to be working with you." "I can't keep my eyes on her all the time." "These woods, and, you know, sometimes she's got lo learn what's right." "Uh!" "Oh..." "Let's gel her inside." "Come on. 1, 2, 3." "Uh!" "Ohh..." "You need medicine." "Maybe they got some at the Weaver place." "Let me." "You should go." "Whoa." "Clara?" "Hello?" "Mary?" "Clara." "Mary." "Mary." "Thank you, girl." "Augusta." "Caleb." "You... you shouldn't be here." "You seen anybody from out at the Weaver place?" "You seen Clara?" "Mary was the last one I saw." "Mary's dead." "Oh..." "Drank herself some poison." "God forgive her." "Just sitting up there." "You come out here just to tell me that?" "No." "Louise." "Raccoon hither." "You need to turn around and get yourself out of here." " Here." " What's this for?" "You'll know soon enough." "Good girl." "I went to the Weaver place looking for medicine, came here hoping for better luck." "There ain't been medicine here in a long time." "Oh... you should go before they sober up." "I can't go back with nothing." "Wait here." "Thought you said there wasn't none." "I don't hardly call that medicine." "But it'll work." "It might work." "Where you riding to?" "Due east, night's ride." " What you riding?" " A dead horse." "You're gelling Captain." "He's a good horse." "Why are you being so nice to me?" "I knew your daddy." "He was a good man." "He's all right." "Hey, Moll, that should go for..." "Weren't we saving it for someone who needs it?" "See you found more liquor." "Sure thing." "Yeah." "Yeah." "There you go." "Well, what do you know'?" "Heh." "Hey, Mose, this place is luckier than we thought." "Sea, I didn't think they still made them... pretty as..." "You, um..." "You coming over?" "Maybe later." "It's half-empty!" "Yes, I've..." "I got some more, yeah, plenty more um, back..." "Ga upstairs." "You boys hungry for me?" "Mm..." "Hey, you want some, too, hmm?" "Ha ha!" "Hey, where you going, honey?" "Ain't nothing up there..." "Better things to do with your mouth than talk." "Mm mm." "Hey." "Don't think the dog likes much what you're doing." "What I seen, that dog don't like much of anything." "Uh... mm mm..." "Ah!" "Aagh!" "Ugh..." "Uh..." " um." " Um." "Uh..." "Agh..." "Battle." "What?" "The do." "His name is Battle." "He sure sounds like one." "He's a mighty big horse for a girl like you." "You go on now, Augusta." "Someplace you got lo be?" "Maybe." "Yeah." "All on your own?" "No." "She's got people." "Should go." "Go on now." "Go." "Go on." "Oh..." "Don't Cry." "Oh..." "Uh..." "You should try and sleep." "Don't Want to." "I can just keep talking till you do." "I remember Daddy telling a story about a girl and her sister." "A girl who was gonna be killed by a king." "What king?" "I don't know." "Some king somewhere." "Why was he gonna kill her?" "I guess she must've done something he didn't like." "Anyway... the whole town shows up for the execution, including the girl's sister." "And her sister goes over lo the girl, who's crying now, and she says," ""When the king asks you if you have any last words," ""you tell him that you want me to tell you a story."" "So the king asks, and the girl says," ""I want my sister to tell me a story."" "And the king grants the request." "The sister gels up on the scaffold." "She starts telling a story so good, the king can'!" "Help himself but listen, and the dawn has came and gone, and now it's twilight, and the whole town is still standing there stock still, their hearts in their throat, and all of a sudden," "at just the most exciting part... she stops." "Why?" "She says to the king," ""You want to know the end?" ""I'll tell you tomorrow" ""if you give my sister one more day."" "Now, the townspeople know that mean, old king is gonna kill them both for sure, but the king, needing to know the end, says yes." "What was the story she was telling?" "I only remember the part about her telling it." "Did the king kill the girl aft?" "Well, the next day, just as soon as the sister finishes telling that story, she starts another one." "And she steps that one before the best part." "And the same thing happens the next night and the next night near a thousand nights." "What happened lo the girl?" "Well... as long as her sister kept telling stories, she didn't have to die." "And her sister..." "I think, after she told all them stories... the king married her." "Didn't know you needed your mouth to walk proper." "You know, if you were the one, then we'd still be sitting back at the whorehouse instead of moving." "Well, I wouldn't actually call what you're doing moving." "Are you sure we're going the right way?" "Road only goes one way." "You know as well as I do you can go any way you want to on a..." "On a what?" "Road." "Don't run away." "Maybe we should slop a minute maybe, huh?" "What's he got?" "Looks like we've gone the right way after all." "Mmm." "Ahh." "The day's half over." "Didn't want to wake you." "She up, too?" "No." "Mm-hmm." "Yep." "Coming back to life ain't easy." "She need to rest." "We got anything to drink?" "Yeah." "Goat's milk." "That is not what I meant." "Mmm." "It's easier the more you drink." "Gets real easier." "Ha ha ha!" "Ha ha!" "Ha ha!" "Oh, ho ho ho!" "Ohh..." "I like the way I feel." "Ah..." "Mmm." "Yeah." "Bill the only one your daddy let drink it." "He used to come back at night thinking it proud." "You was, uh, with, uh, Bill?" "I was." "You wanted to have his babies." "Ha ha ha!" "You miss him?" "I do." "Mm-hmm." "What's it..." "Go on." "With this moonshine in me," "I'm fixed to answer any question you got." "What's it feel like?" "You'll know." "What if I don't?" "What if all the men killed all the other men?" "What if it's the end ol the world and we the last ones left?" "Ain't the end of the world." "Think about all the women sitting in their houses who are supposed to be taken, but ain't, learned to shoot a gun before they learned to bed." "Learned to be a man instead of a wife." "I'm hungry" "Did she say..." "Hungry" "What did you say?" "I'm hungry" "Say it again." "I'm hungry" "She's hungry!" "I's gonna cook you something so good, Louise... come-back-from-the-dead stew, that's what." "Came-back-from-the-dead stew, best stews I ever made." "It is all because you..." "All right." "Mad." "Hmm?" " Mad." " What?" "Shh." "Why you wakes me just to be quiet?" "Listen." "Just... just listen." "Probably a ghost." "Come down with me." "Who's firing'?" "!" "Show yourselves!" "Get inside." "Someone's there." "Go on." "Get inside now." "Louise, wake up." "Louise, wake up." "What's going on?" "We got men here." "They're soldiers, Yankees." "How do you know that?" "You shot the dog!" "♪ He was just a dog ♪" "♪ Tame as you and me ♪" "♪ And when the dog was found ♪" "♪ He will soon be free ♪" "♪ Now there's no more drink ♪" "♪ And there's no more dog ♪" "♪ We've only have this gun ♪" "♪ Then I'm through with my song ♪" "We got any other gun?" "It is downstairs in one of the drawers." "I'm gonna go get it and come back." "No." "Let's get to the keeping room." "We ain't leaving this house." "Too many doors and windows and we gonna fight?" "I don't want to fight." "We can hide." "They don't know we're here." "I just shot the dog." "They're gonna come looking." "How you know what they all wants and what Yankee?" "Because they followed me." "Don't leave us." "Ain't gonna wait all night." "Aug taste..." "You want them up here?" "No." "Then I got to go down." "No." "Girl, who else you got in there?" "You got men, Negroes, help?" "Ha ha ha!" "Girl, what's wrung with you?" "Ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha!" "Oh..." "Ha ha ha!" "Look... ah!" "Help, Mose!" "Aah!" "Aagh!" "Shh." "Why are you naked?" "There was a fire." "I had to put it out." "What?" "Gel over here." "This is your weapon." "I've got to reload." "Watch me and do as I do." "Take the powder." "Take the powder." "Put it in." "Take the ball." "Put it in." "Push it down." "Pull this back." " OK." " You held steady." " All right." " And you pull this." "All right." "All right." " You got it'?" " Yeah, I got it." " You sure?" " Yes." "Yes." " OK." " Girl?" "Girl?" "Mph-." "You got 1010 come out!" "Or we're coming in!" "OK." "1... 2..." "I'm gonna draw them away from the house." "No." "Don't." "Na." "You bar this door behind me." "If a man comes through, no matter what, you shoot." "4... 5..." "6... 7..." "B..." "N-n-n-n-nine... 10!" "Ohh..." "Shh shh shh shh shh shh shh." "You followed me." "Yeah, I did." "Why didn't you kill me with Caleb and that woman?" "I wanted to keep you for a while." "Shh shh." "Huh!" "Aah!" "Aah!" "Oh... oh..." "Damp powder." "Must be as old as this gun." "Something about you makes me want to... sit down." "Then why you come like you want a war?" "Don't know how to stop." "Why don't you came out?" "I want to see you." "Why don't we just put down the guns?" "We can get a lot closer without them." "Well, maybe it's just you and me now." "If you don't stand still," "I just might have to shoot you." "Aah aah!" "Shut up!" "Don't make me hurt you." "Mmm!" "Oh... oh." "Girl.." " Um." " Om." "Hmm..." "Hmm..." "Ahh..." "Ah." "Ahh..." "Oh!" "Uh-uh." "Aagh I." "Go on." "At my second farm, there was this one shed we wasn't allowed in." "All of the other buildings had their jobs... one for feed... one for tools." "There was this one shed we was told never to go in, not to play near it, not to get curious." "We made up all sort of stories... gold... ghosts..." "God." "Then, one day when I was about 10, a man told me to go to the shed." "I was going to the shed." "I would get to know." "I walked to the shed, my heart coming out my dress." "I was gonna get to know." "I was gonna get to know." "I was gonna be the one to tell all of the others." "I opened the door." "Only thing in there was a low cot and no windows." "I stood there a minute so I'm sure, so sad, wondering why we wasn't supposed to know for so long." "And than a man come in... and he had me." "He was so big, and I was so small... so small that I didn't even know what was happening." "That was the first time, and there were many more." "Sometime they out the baby out." "Other time, they keeps them." "Don't know where they are new." "There are many kinds of monsters in this world." "You never know which one gonna be yours." "Don't know what happened to mine, probably die or unhappy," "But yours." "You killed him." "That right." "Yes." "Your monster dead." "Oh..." "You come back." "Oh... yeah." "I just wanted to hear that old voice again." "It's over." "It's all over." "What you mean?" "You takes yours soon." "Mmm." "They coming." "They 00..." "Oh..." "Where's Augusta?" "Mad." "What's going on?" "He come back." "I ain't angry with you, Augusta." "This ain't great because I come close to killing him myself." "But we wanted him dead." "They'll never forgive me if I was the one done it." "When you gonna learn?" "What don't happen don't matter." "You just go on." "Might be another man out there, one that's dead." "Ain't no time to think on love." "There is another man out there." "We ain't gonna wait for him." "We going out there to hunt him... and we ain't coming back till he ours." "This is some fine moonshine." "My daddy made it." "Your daddy made some fine moonshine." "I've been wailing for you." "I've been looking for you." "You found me." "I like this room." "I like it, too." "Uh..." "What's your name?" "It's Moses." "Like the baby." "Yeah." "Just like." "Why are you doing this, Moses?" "Oh, me and him are boomers." "We, uh... we're sent ahead to forage the land for food and... deserters and sun-survivors." "The whole army is behind... already took Georgia." "Uncle Billy's coming, burning down everything in his path." "Rest assured, it will be cruel." "The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." "We can hold them." "Girl, I believe you can." "Ohh..." "You know how many battles I fought?" "Don't seem like many, easy as you went down." "Ha ha!" "Oh, it don't-ha!" " but it was... and now here I sit." "Fuck, you're beautiful." "I'd like lo know your name." "Augusta." "Augusta." "Augusta and Moses." "Things could've been different." "But they..." "And now that it's over... the truth be told..." "I'm heartened." "Don't think I'd know my way home from here... but I'd appreciate if you showed me the way." "You about finished with your drink?" "Just about." "That was strange he showed up here tooking like a Yankee." "Maybe he was free." "Then he came back." "I didn't know people lock the same way whether they was dead or alive." "He gone... but He don't look so bad, like he's sleeping, maybe." "He look dead." "But He look good." "You sure you don't want to dig him another hole?" "Ain't time." "His strength." "Don't think he should go in the same place as them." "Don't worry." "Ain't going to the same place." "Augusta!" "Looks like the sky's on fire." "Looks like the whole world's on fire." "They're coming." "It's our home." "We gonna have to fight." "It's our home." "We're gonna defend it." "What if we didn't stay here?" "What if we went?" "Where?" "Out there." "No." "All them Yankees walking right for us, we can't just walk right back." "They're walking here either way." "Don't See what a few bullets is gonna do to keep them out." "We can keep it safe." "Keeping what?" "It's just walls, Augusta." "Ain't nothing safe." "Three women coming against a Union army don't mean nothing." "What if we was men instead of women'?"