Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (53 page)

Squad D (Undated
) 

Squad D
was written in the late 1970s for a Harlan Ellison edited anthology,
Last Dangerous Visions
. Ellison told George Beahm for
The Stephen King Companion
:  

Stephen sent me a story for
Last Dangerous Visions
that needs to be rewritten … I was sent this short story, and I think there’s a lot more in it than Stephen had time to develop. The story deserves better, the work deserves better, and Stephen’s reputation deserves better.  

The anthology itself has never appeared. 

As King has not otherwise published the story it cannot be read, excepting in photocopy form. These photocopies circulate quite freely in the King community.
Squad D
is a fairly short story at “approximately 2000 words,” according to a typed header on the manuscript. The manuscript itself is double-spaced and 11 pages in length. 

Interestingly, there are apparently two versions of this manuscript circulating. The manuscript reviewed in this chapter sets the suicide three years to the day after the death of the rest of Squad D (see below). However, Spignesi refers to the deaths as occurring eleven years later. In Michael Collings’
The Shorter Works of Stephen King
, he also refers to the suicide occurring on the eleventh anniversary of the original deaths. Collings describes the tale as one “…of guilt and forgiveness, of peace growing out of turmoil.” As both these King experts have read the manuscript, one can only presume there are at least two versions in existence. 

The final victim of this tale, Josh Bortman, was a resident of Castle Rock and, as a result, it is classified as a Maine Street Horror story. As a Castle Rock story
Squad D
is linked to all other King stories mentioning “The Rock.” Castle Rock is the main setting for
The Body
,
Cujo
,
Gramma
,
It Grows on You
(but only the
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
version),
The Man in the Black Suit
,
Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut
,
Needful Things
,
Nona
(but only the
Skeleton Crew
version),
Premium Harmony
,
The Sun Dog
and
Uncle Otto’s Truck
.
It is a key location in
Bag of Bones
,
The Dark Half
,
The Dead Zone
and
The Huffman Story
.
It is also mentioned in
Creepshow
,
Dreamcatcher
,
Gerald’s Game
,
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
,
The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill
,
Riding the Bullet
,
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
,
Under the Dome
and
The Stand
(
Complete and Uncut
version only). Unfortunately, nothing more of Castle Rock is revealed in this story other than the fact that the Bortman family lived there, at least during the 1974 – 1977 period.
 

In this tale a soldier is the only survivor of his army squad, (“D”). On 8 April 1974, the Viet Cong had killed nine members of Squad D while they crossed a bridge over the Ky River at Ky Doc in Vietnam. The squad had been on “…a flank sweep of a jungle quadrant of which Ky Doc was the only village.” Josh Bortman was not with his Squad as he was in the hospital, suffering bleeding hemorrhoids. 

Bortman, from Castle Rock, Maine sent a framed photograph showing the nine dead members of Squad D to each of the parents of those killed as some form of atonement for his survival. 

On 9 April 1977 various relatives of Squad D members called the Bortman household after noticing another soldier appear in their photos. Bortman, still only 24, had committed suicide by hanging at his parents’ home in Castle Rock the previous day, the third anniversary of the attack, and his image had now joined those of his comrades.  

As many readers will not have the opportunity to read this classic tale let’s take this opportunity to present further detail. 

One of the key characters is, of course, Josh Bortman. Apparently overcome by remorse over the fact that he was the sole survivor of his Squad, and probably embarrassed by having been in the hospital with bleeding hemorrhoids at the time, he killed himself on the third anniversary of his comrades’ death. From his base in Vietnam Bortman had sent a framed photograph of the nine deceased members of the Squad to each of their grieving parents or relatives. His letter to the Clewsons “was anguished. He called the other nine ‘the best friends I ever had in my life. I loved them all like they was my brothers.’” 

“Rites of atonement with a soft-lead pencil …,” Dale Clewson thought of Bortman’s letter while re-reading it after he noticed the extra “boy” in the photo. Dale thought he could read into the letter and photo a deep anguish:  

Please don’t think I killed your son – all of your sons
–
by taking their picture. Please don’t hate me because I was in the Homan base hospital with bleeding haemorrhoids (
sic
) instead of on the Ky Doc bridge with the best friends I ever had in my life. Please don’t hate me, because I finally caught up, it took me ten years of trying, but I finally caught up.  

This quote, claiming ten years since the original deaths, is from the manuscript your author has seen. As noted earlier there is apparently also a manuscript showing eleven years, rather than three between the deaths on the bridge and Bortman’s suicide noted elsewhere in the manuscript in my possession. 

After his suicide, many of the dead soldier’s relatives noticed another person in their copies of the photograph. We can presume poor Josh is now at peace, joining his comrades in the death he had but temporarily cheated. One interesting question remains: where was Josh buried? If in Castle Rock, his name might reappear in some future King story, as a character wanders through one of the town’s cemeteries, or mentioned as another character is interred there. 

The other members of the Squad were Jack Bradley from Omaha, Nebraska; Billy Clewson from Binghamton, New York; Rider Dotson from Oneonta, New York; Charlie Gibson, a guitar player from Payson, North Dakota; Bobby Kale from Henderson, Iowa; Jack Kimberley, who liked to tell dirty jokes, from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; Andy Moulton, the squad’s Staff Sergeant, from Faraday, Louisiana; Jimmy Oliphant from Beson, Delaware; and Asley St. Thomas from Anderson, Indiana. This simple roll call reflects the true horror of the Vietnam War, a group of young men from throughout the United States, dying in a foreign land, quickly forgotten by all but their loved ones and close friends. 

The men who died on the bridge in Vietnam and Bortman were not the only victims of the tragedy. The story is from the viewpoint of Billy Clewson’s father, Dale. He was one of those who called Josh Bortman’s father, after noticing a tenth soldier appear in his photograph. At first, Dale thought he had simply mistaken the number of soldiers originally in the photograph but then began to question his own sanity. He was already under enough pressure following the death of both Billy and his wife. 

Billy’s mother, Andrea became a heavy drinker after her son’s death and two years later died of the liver dysfunction and renal failure caused by her drinking. Quoting from the story, “The Viet Cong had killed their son in a place called Ky Doc, and Billy’s death had killed his mother.” 

Considering Bortman’s letter, the condolence letter from the Squad’s lieutenant and the photo itself, Clewson found himself looking at the list of names on the rear of the photo, where all the dead boys were listed, along with the name Josh Bortman, Castle Rock, Me. and an asterisk next to his name, “The asterisk means ‘still alive.’ The asterisk means ‘don’t hate me.’” Now considering the unthinkable, Clewson was tempted to call the Bortmans. “I never hated you, son, he thought. Nor did Andrea, for all her grief. Maybe I should have picked up a pen and dropped you a note saying so, but honest to Christ, the thought never crossed my mind.” 

Clewson could stand no more and called the Bortman home (there was only one Bortman family in Castle Rock) only to find the phone busy. When Mr. Bortman did answer the phone later he immediately demanded to Clewson’s surprise, “‘Which one are you?’ ‘My name is Dale Clewson, Mr. Bortman. My son …’ ‘Clewson, Billy Clewson’s father … And has your picture of Squad D changed, too?’” Unfortunately, Bortman senior had assumed the concerned calls from other relatives were some sort of sick joke. Clewson quickly brought him to his senses, whispering, “You know this isn’t a joke.” Bortman told Clewson Josh had died the night before, hanging himself in the garage. 

Mr. Bortman revealed Josh had been concerned that people might discover the reason he was not with the Squad on the fateful day, but of course the story got out. “Joshua didn’t have many friends when he was growing up, Mr. Clewson. I don’t think he had any real friends until he got to Nam. He loved your son, and the others.” 

Now Bortman, strangely enough, is comforting Clewson. “‘Is he smiling, Mr. Clewson. The others … they said he was smiling.’ Dale looked toward the picture beside the ticking clock. ‘He’s smiling.’ ‘Of course he is. Josh finally caught up with them.’” 

Squad D
is a very powerful and compelling story, ones of those the reader’s mind comes back to over the days after reading and it deserves to be published. The opening sentences are one case in point: “Billy Clewson died all at once, with nine of the ten other members of D Squad on April 8, 1974. It took his mother two years, but she got started right away on the afternoon the telegram came announcing her son’s death, in fact.” 

Considering the uniqueness and power of the story idea it is a little surprising King has not reworked and published it at some point since it was written in the late 1970s. Ellison’s criticism that the work “deserves better” may well be valid but King is famed for working at certain stories, when he wants to, until he gets them to a satisfactory state.  

Squad D
has a
Riding the Bullet
or
The Road Virus Heads North
tone, making it closer in style to King’s writings of the 1970s and 1980s, which in fact it is, than the late 1990s and the early part of this century. This has not stopped King from publishing these types of stories as the mood takes him and we can only hope he might return to this story, which has the makings of a classic, at some point. 

The Stand Screenplays (Undated, 1992) 

“Be strong in the strength of the Lord … and
stand.
Stand like the men you are.” 

Abagail Freemantle to Stu Redman, Ralph Brentner and Larry Underwood as she sent them West to confront Randall Flagg.
From the unproduced screenplay of
The Stand
.
 

King has effectively created five versions of his seminal work,
The Stand
. This will surprise most readers, who would immediately identify two or three versions but would struggle to identify the remainder. 

Regarded by many as King’s masterpiece,
The Stand
was first published in 1978. Subsequent paperback editions used the original hardcover text for a period. The timeline of the events in this first version is 1980. 

US paperback editions moved to a new timeline of 1985. The Signet edition of January 1980 was the first of these editions. King’s
Author’s Note
concludes “minor revisions have been made for the Signet edition of this novel.” Books carrying this timeline form the second version. Most, if not all, overseas paperback editions stayed with the 1980 timeline. 

In 1990 King famously republished the book as he had originally intended, in a
Complete and Uncut
edition. In the second part of the preface to that third version of this tale King stated, “… I am republishing ‘The Stand’ as it was originally written…,” although he also comments that certain parts originally cut stayed on the cutting room floor. That first version, as noted, was published in 1978. However, Freddy Krueger is referred to at the end of the “Uncut” Chapter 11. The first
Nightmare on the Elm Street
movie was produced in 1984. There is also a reference (without naming her) to Bobbi Anderson, a character who appeared first in
The Tommyknockers
in 1987. In both those cases we can see that more was added to the manuscript, rather than a simple restoration. There are dozens of examples of this “updating.” In fact, indications are that some 150,000 words were added, whereas it appears 100,000 had originally been removed. King clarified this matter in his
Foreword
to the Revised and Expanded Edition of
The Gunslinger
: “What I reinstated in the late eighties were revised sections of the pre-existing manuscript. I also revised the work as a whole, mostly to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic ….” Therefore, the true Uncut version (or Original Uncut, if you will) has never been published. 

King also wrote a movie script of
The Stand
, set in 1985, which has never been produced and is discussed in this Chapter. This forms the fourth version. Finally, in 1992, King wrote the screenplay for the ABC mini-series and that forms the fifth and, to date, final version! All versions, of course, are part of The Stand Reality. 

As readers and viewers we are fortunate that
The Stand
ever saw the light of day. In section 10 of the “On Writing” section of
On Writing
King tells us that he suffered writer’s block on the direction of the story after five hundred or so pages and was nearly incapable of completing it. In fact, it was the only book length work from that time until
On Writing
itself to suffer being laid away in a drawer, perhaps never to be completed. King’s explosive solution to the problem is detailed in section 10. He also declares, of the fan base’s high opinion of
The Stand
, that “… there’s something a little depressing about such a united opinion that you did your best work twenty years ago, but we won’t go into that just now, thanks.” 

Unproduced Movie Screenplay 

King wrote this screenplay for a movie length production. It has never published. A copy is held in Box 2318A at the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, Orono and readers can access it there. This summary is compiled from the 4th Draft. 

Considering the varying timelines for the different versions of
The Stand
it is interesting that King chose to set this particular script in 1985 (the superflu outbreak begins in Arnette on 16 June 1985 and the nuclear explosion in Las Vegas occurs on 5 November 1985). This may indicate that the version of the script held at UMO was written about 1984, considering King’s penchant for setting storylines one or two years in the future. Various sources note that King began writing scripts for a movie version of
The Stand
as early as 1979. 

King was very true to the storyline in the 1978 book version in this screenplay and readers will recognize this from the summary. However, there are a number of changes from the book, which are reviewed later. 

In this script a superflu virus is released from a government facility and devastates the world, leading to an apocalyptic confrontation between good and evil. The virus escaped into the general populace when Campion and his family ran from the Project Blue Base in California shortly after an accident infected everyone there. A few days later Campion crashed into a gas station in Arnette, Texas where Stu Redman and his cronies were drinking and shooting the breeze. 

The flu, quickly dubbed Captain Trips, had 99.4% communicability and 99.4% excess mortality and quickly engulfed the world. Within two weeks America lay devastated, with the few survivors in shock. As they slowly began to regroup most suffered vivid dreams of an old black woman or of a Dark Man. 

Soon, almost everyone chose to take one side or the other in what appeared to be an upcoming clash between good and evil. A small group, led by deaf-mute Nick Andros, including Ralph Brentner and the intellectually handicapped Tom Cullen made it to the old woman’s homestead in the cornfields of Hemingford Home, Nebraska. Abagail Freemantle, who quickly became known as Mother Abagail, made it clear that God had set her to the hard task of facing the enemy. She and her followers then moved to Boulder, Colorado and the apparent task of rebuilding civilized society. 

They were joined in the Boulder Free Zone, as it had been dubbed, by Redman, who had narrowly escaped execution by the authorities after failing to contract the disease; and his new lover, Fran Goldsmith. Traveling with them was Harold Lauder, who had turned vengeful after his romantic designs toward Fran had gone unrequited. Also joining the Zone were Larry Underwood, a singer who was just enjoying the success of his first hit record when the superflu hit and Nadine Cross, a woman who was more attracted to the dark forces than she was willing to admit. 

Meanwhile, the Dark Man, Randall Flagg, had discovered he could do magic and began forming an empire based in Las Vegas. He recruited a petty criminal, Lloyd Henreid as his right-hand man and began gathering the military might to smash his opponents. They were joined by a demented pyromaniac with a gift for weaponry, who was known only as the Trashcan Man. 

The Zone sent spies west, one of them a hypnotized Cullen. Another, Judge Farris, was intercepted and killed but Flagg was unable to locate Cullen, even after he arrived in Las Vegas. 

Lauder and Cross, now determined to cross over to Flagg, bombed the Free Zone Committee, killing Andros and a number of others. The killers escaped and headed toward Flagg but he arranged for Lauder to crash his motorcycle, breaking his leg. Cross went on and met Flagg in the desert, having sex with him and falling both pregnant and catatonic. Realizing his situation could not be redeemed Lauder committed suicide. 

Freemantle ordered Underwood, Brentner and Redman to leave and walk to Las Vegas. Then, she died. Despite their misgivings and those of Goldsmith, the three men set off that afternoon with a dog, Kojak. As they walked the highway Redman fell and broke his leg at a washout and the others reluctantly left him to his fate. Kojak chose to stay with Redman and brought him small animals to cook and eat. 

In Las Vegas there were signs that Flagg’s iron-rule was cracking, including Cross killing herself. Cullen headed back east as instructed by his hypnotic suggestion. 

Underwood and Brentner were captured as they approached Las Vegas and jailed. The next morning Flagg called all his supporters into the city to witness the proposed execution of the prisoners. As the execution proceeded toward its climax the Trashcan Man arrived with a nuclear weapon as homage to Flagg; and one of Flagg’s supporters called for the crowd to stand up against him. Flagg attacked this last man with a blue ball of fire but it rapidly grew and formed into the shape of a hand before setting off the nuclear weapon, destroying his empire and dreams. Just before the explosion Flagg disappeared. 

Back at the washout Cullen found Redman and took him to a nearby town to recuperate. Along with Kojak they made their way back to Boulder, arriving just after Goldsmith gave birth to her son, Peter Goldsmith-Redman. By 1989 Redman, Goldsmith and the boy were living in Maine. 

King made a number of changes from the first book version in this script. In this version Kojak is Judge Glen Farris’ dog. In the books, the Judge’s name is Richard Farris. The reason for this first name change is King’s elimination of the delightful character, Glen Bateman from this version. It is perhaps lucky it was not produced, as this character deletion would have been very unpopular with fans of
The Stand
!  

In another interesting change from the books King does not give “The Trashcan Man” a name. Of course, in the books his real name is Donald Merwin Elbert. Joe-Bob, the Texas Highway Patrolman who died of the superflu early in the piece, does not have a surname in this version. In the book his surname is Brentwood. In another change, Peter Goldsmith-Redman’s natural father was an instructor at his mother’s graduate school, while in the books the father was a fellow student, Jess Rider. The character known only as “Poke” in this version is Andrew “Poke” Freeman, Henreid’s erstwhile partner in crime in the books. 

The facility in which Redman was held by the authorities examining him changes from being the Stovington Plague Control Center in the books to the Stovington Experimental Center in this script. 

All versions of
The Stand
link to other King fiction (
see the feature panel
). 

Mini-Series Screenplay 

This section was compiled from the Second Draft Screenplay, dated 16 October 1992. That screenplay has not been published and there would appear to be little point considering not only the two book versions of this classic tale but also the fact that readers/viewers may watch the mini-series produced from the script on TV or on DVD. Readers should note that copies of this screenplay do circulate within the King community but are very difficult to secure. 

The screenplay was produced and shown as an ABC-TV mini-series in the United States as
Stephen King’s The Stand
. 

There was at least one questionable casting decision, with most fans of
The Stand
decrying the atrocious choice of Molly Ringwald as Fran Goldsmith. Indeed, her portrayal was as far from the strong young woman described in King’s books as seems possible. The mini-series debuted on ABC-TV on the nights of 8, 9, 11 and 12 May 1994. The four parts were sub-titled
The Plague
,
The Dreams
,
The Betrayal
and
The Stand
. IMDB members give the production a very solid 7.2 rating out of a possible 10. The director was Mick Garris, who also helmed
Sleepwalkers
, the mini-series of
The Shining
,
Quicksilver Highway
,
Riding the Bullet
and
Desperation
. King was credited as co-Executive Producer. The production won an Emmy, for Best Achievement in Make-Up. 

The actors included Gary Sinise as Stu Redman; Molly Ringwald as Fran Goldsmith; Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg; Laura San Giacomo as Nadine Cross; Ruby Dee as Abagail Freemantle; Miguel Ferrer as Lloyd Henreid; Ray Walston as Glen Bateman; Rob Lowe as Nick Andros; Kathy Bates as Rae Flowers; Ed Harris as Starkey; and Cynthia Garris (the wife of the director) as Susan Stern.