Task: Story Composition
Input (English): Fact1: Boyd is fighting in United States Army, Fact2: body along with are put in cart other dead, Fact3: journey blood drips into Boyd 's mouth, Fact4: rescue party is assembled to get survivors, Fact5: plan is to kill soldiers
Output (English): During the MexicanAmerican War 1846 – 1848, Second Lieutenant Boyd, who is fighting in the United States Army, finds his courage fail him in battle so he plays dead as his unit is massacred. His body, along with the other dead are put in a cart and hauled back to the Mexican headquarters throughout this journey blood drips into Boyds mouth. However, in a moment of bravery, Boyd seizes the chance to capture the Mexican headquarters. His heroism earns him a captains promotion but when General Slauson learns of the cowardice through which victory was achieved he posts Boyd into exile at Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost high in the Sierra Nevada. Shortly after Boyd joins the sevenman garrison at Fort Spencer, a stranger named Colqhoun arrives and describes how his wagon train became lost in the mountains. A Colonel Ives had promised the party a shorter route to the Pacific Ocean but instead had led them on a more circuitous route resulting in the party getting trapped by snow. People were reduced to cannibalism to avoid starvation. A rescue party is assembled to get the survivors. But before they leave they are warned by their Native American scout, George, of the Wendigo myth: anyone who consumes the flesh of their enemies takes their strength but becomes a demon cursed by an insatiable hunger for more human flesh. When the soldiers reach the partys cave they realise too late that Colqhoun and Ives are one and the same. After eating his five companions, his plan is now to kill and eat the soldiers. Colqhoun quickly kills them one by one, including Colonel Hart, the forts commanding officer. Boyd escapes the massacre by jumping off a cliff but breaks his leg. He hides in a pit next to the body of another soldier who he eventually eats to stay alive. When Boyd finally limps back to the fort, he is delirious and severely traumatized. The remaining soldiers who never met Colqhoun because they were on a supply mission dont believe his wild tale. A second expedition to the cave finds no bodies or any trace of the man. A temporary commander is assigned to the fort but to Boyds horror it is Colqhoun, now cleaned up and calling himself Colonel Ives. The men still refuse to believe Boyd because Ives bears no sign of the wounds inflicted on him during the fight at the cave. Secretly Ives tells Boyd that he used to suffer from tuberculosis but when a Native scout told him the Wendigo myth he just had to try by murdering him and eating his flesh. A process that cured his disease. Ives now planned to use the fort as a base to cannibalise passing travellers because, like the notion of Manifest Destiny, the migrants had a calling just like himself. Boyd is soon suspected of murder after a soldier is mysteriously killed. While chained up, he watches helplessly as the last officer is murdered by Ives unexpected ally: Colonel Hart, back from the dead after the massacre. Ives saved Hart by feeding him his own men. But he is now addicted, like Colqhoun, to human flesh. Ives mortally wounds Boyd forcing him to make a choice: eat or die. Eventually Boyd gives in and eats a stew made from the dead officer. However, rather than join the two men in their conspiracy to convert General Slauson, Boyd convinces Hart to free him so he can kill Ives. Hart does so but asks to be killed because he no longer wants to live as a cannibal. Boyd and Ives fight inflicting grievous wounds on each other because their recuperative powers sustain them. Eventually Boyd forces Ives into a large bear trap that pins them both together. Ives taunts Boyd by telling him he will eat him but he dies first. General Slauson arrives, and while his aide looks around the dilapidated fort, the general tastes the meat stew left simmering on the fire. Martha, the sister of George the native scout, sees Ives and the dying Boyd together, closes the door, and walks away. Boyd does not eat Ives and dies.