August 1863. James Clavering is a confederate scout attached to General Johnston's 5th Infantry Division, detailed to make a reconnaissance of enemy lines in South Georgia. James leaves his division to scout ahead as there has been no sign of the enemy for some days. Creeping through undergrowth, he conceals himself behind a wall, from which he spies on an enemy camp nearby.

Readying his gun, he climbs to the top of the fortifications, where he sees a well with a dead, naked man at the bottom. Still concealed he looks down on the camp. Out of James's earshot, the Yankees decide to destroy the wall, to avoid leaving cover for confederate soldiers.

As James aims his gun, the Yankees fire their cannon at the wall. James comes around to find himself buried in rubble. The muzzle of his gun points right between his eyes. He tries to move, but is stuck fast.

James begins to relive his recent past. He remembers his division, and loading his gun. This memory causes him to panic and he tries frenziedly to move his face out of the line of the gun's barrel. He imagines himself running through the woods, pursued and shot by himself. He visualises himself at the bottom of the well.

He cries out and continues to scream, but there is only empty landscape around him and no one to hear. He fantasises that soldiers will come and find him, but they do not.

A spider drops from the end of the gun onto his face, and James begins to panic and scream once more.

Finally, James dislodges a bit of wood and finds that he can reach the trigger of his gun with it. He pushes the trigger.