Amar Khalilollahi's Short Story Proposal

RESILIENCY

Exposition: During the Cold War in 1963, a Special Forces-trained and war-hardened American spy named Harry Dermot is surveying the Soviet Union on a recon aircraft, scanning a huge area for missile silos and nuclear weapon plants. He is able to pinpoint the coordinates of 8 massive missile silos, with hundreds of warheads in each, and they are aimed right at the United States. He sends the data, along with the crucially important coordinates of each silo to Washington via satellite.

Inciting Incident: Harry’s aircraft is spotted by Soviet officials in Siberia, and is shot down with a SAM missile. Harry just escapes death, finding a parachute in his plane and fleeing before the explosion. He lands in hostile territory in Siberia and is soon caught and arrested. He is taken to one of the most infamous gulags in Russia, called Konomchutski in eastern Siberia.

Rising Action: Harry experiences horrifying conditions at the Soviet gulag. Food is served once a week, the temperature never gets higher than -5 degrees, there is no medicine for inmates whatsoever, he is forced to work incredibly hard at dangerous jobs without breaks and is essentially a slave. His stall has no real bed, is not heated, and there’s only a small hole for a toilet. Harry starts to plan a daring escape from the gulag; he has been there 5 miserable years, every day of which he has planned religiously how he will escape. Since day 1 he has planned for a Shawshank Redemption approach to breaking out. After he breaks out, he will trek 600 miles northeast to the eastern tip of Russia, along the Bering Strait. He will then build a makeshift raft with any tools and any materials he can find, and sail/paddle eastward 22 miles to Little Diomede Island, Alaska – which is American territory. In Alaska, he will be welcomed with open arms and cared for as an American hero. His geography and survival skills, along with his Special Forces training will keep him alive on the 600 mile trek (while being chased by Soviet authorities) in the coldest place on earth.

Climax: Harry carries out his plan at night and succeeds. The temperature is so low that his spit freezes before it hits the ground. He treks the grueling 600 miles northeastward and is the closest to death he has ever been in the story, cheating death by hypothermia several times, and probably would have died if he hadn’t succeeded in killing a bull caribou and sheltering himself in its entrails. He eats every single piece of flesh on the animal, desperately hungry. As he finally approaches the Russian coastline on the Bering Strait, he successfully builds a raft and sets sail for Little Diomede Island, having a close encounter on the coast with a Russian Hind helicopter, searching for him. He thought he does a good job evading this patrol chopper and seems to have taken to the sea unspotted.

Falling Action: Harry spots Little Diomede Island in the distance, but hears the Russian helicopter from earlier approaching him. It’s got him locked on target. The infamous, deadly Hind helicopter starts to fire its machine guns on him, then knocks him off his raft with a 30 mm cannon that just misses the kill zone. However, Harry is critically injured. The raging water around him is red. The Hind zeroes in, ready to fire its deadliest gun: an anti-armor missile.

Resolution: Harry knows there’s nothing he can do to save himself. But the American Air Force can. Out of nowhere, a missile hits and annihilates the Hind, and a Bell AH-1 Cobra comes out of nowhere. The angelic helicopter hovers over him, and drops a basket. Harry is bleeding profusely and, as an ominous sign to him, he cannot manage to climb into the basket. A man on the helicopter comes down to grab him and get him into the cabin. They try to bandage his wound in a futile attempt.

Denouement: He is transferred helicopters on Little Diomede and is rushed to an Anchorage hospital. He has a gaping hole in his torso, and his liver is hemorrhaging blood. The president makes a special trip to visit him in the hospital to pay his respects and hear Harry’s compelling story. Harry dies at the hospital right as the president walks out of the room.