Ever have one of those times where an idea presents itself, all on its own, and you have no idea whether it can work, or if you should even try to make it work, but it won't leave you alone, so you resign yourself to researching whether or not it might work? Yeah. That's what this is. Only I can't Google it, for fear of the images that might come up. (I have PTSD and have to be careful about what I Google.)
For this reason, PLEASE do not post links to related info unless you're 100% sure there are no graphic photos at the site.
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* Trigger warning, just in case. Discussion of (faked) violent death. *
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Scenario: A woman and her best friend are doing a job for the government when they are abducted by extremists in a country known for political unrest. They're out in the desert, forced on their knees, facing each other, maybe nine or ten feet apart. One of the abductors appears to shoot the friend in the head, killing him. The gun is a pistol (of as-yet-undetermined make/model) and maybe 6-10 inches away from the head when fired. The thing is, while the woman is being pulled away from her friend's body, she thinks she sees a pulse at his throat.
Once she gets home, she asks a doctor about what she saw, trying to figure out whether her friend could be alive or not.
My plan is that the whole thing is a setup. The shooter is an undercover agent who's infiltrated the extremist group. The victim is faking his death. (I haven't quite figured out why, yet.) But he doesn't want to hurt his friend unnecessarily, so he makes certain she sees his pulse before she's dragged away. And eventually, he'll show up and not be dead.
So my questions are:
The simpler this can be, the better. I want the woman to have recurring nightmares about the incident, but at the same time, I don't want what she sees to be gory. Does that makes sense? I want to underscore the fragility of life. How quickly someone can be taken from you, without warning. Granted, she has some warning, since they've been abducted at gunpoint . . . but still, she isn't expecting it. (My god, the torture we put our poor characters through before granting HEAs.)
For this reason, PLEASE do not post links to related info unless you're 100% sure there are no graphic photos at the site.
*
*
*
* Trigger warning, just in case. Discussion of (faked) violent death. *
*
*
*
*
Scenario: A woman and her best friend are doing a job for the government when they are abducted by extremists in a country known for political unrest. They're out in the desert, forced on their knees, facing each other, maybe nine or ten feet apart. One of the abductors appears to shoot the friend in the head, killing him. The gun is a pistol (of as-yet-undetermined make/model) and maybe 6-10 inches away from the head when fired. The thing is, while the woman is being pulled away from her friend's body, she thinks she sees a pulse at his throat.
Once she gets home, she asks a doctor about what she saw, trying to figure out whether her friend could be alive or not.
My plan is that the whole thing is a setup. The shooter is an undercover agent who's infiltrated the extremist group. The victim is faking his death. (I haven't quite figured out why, yet.) But he doesn't want to hurt his friend unnecessarily, so he makes certain she sees his pulse before she's dragged away. And eventually, he'll show up and not be dead.
So my questions are:
- Is it possible for someone to be shot in the head at a distance of 6-10 inches, with a pistol, and survive?
- Assuming not, how long does it take for the heart to stop beating once the brain is destroyed? (Could the doctor tell her that the heart continues to beat for X seconds beyond brain-death and that's why she saw a pulse, thereby making her doubt her belief that her friend is still alive?)
- Assuming all this is even remotely possible, how do you pull off such a stunt? Could the shooter use a blank in the gun? (I know people have been killed by blanks, but I think they were fired at a closer distance?) Could he somehow fire the pistol right beside the man's head, so that, if you're standing at the right angle, it looks as though he's been shot through the head?
- Is a copious amount of blood necessary? Is any amount of blood necessary? (My thought is that a gunshot at close proximity might result in cauterization of the wound, so it wouldn't necessarily bleed.)
- I know, or rather I've heard, that gunshots which pass through the body typically produce an exit wound that's larger than the entry wound. For obvious reasons, there can't be an exit wound of that nature. So, is it plausible that there simply wouldn't be an exit wound, due to the angle of the gun, or something like that? Or could the lack of an exit wound be disguised by him being "shot" in one side of the head and then falling so the other side of his head is against the ground, thereby hiding the non-existent exit wound?
- Going on the assumption that it would be impossible to quickly fabricate the appearance of a bullet wound to the head, is it possible that the man's hair (dark and longish) would hide the entry wound? I don't want the extremists to realize the murder was faked, but they aren't going to examine the body, they're too busy with the woman, who's gone a bit hysterical at thinking she's just seen her best friend murdered.
- What angle does the "body" need to be at for the throat pulse to be clearly visible? Does it work if he's on his side, head against the ground? Or does he need to be lying on his back? (If necessary, I can have the shooter nudge the body after the woman sees the pulse, pushing him into another position to prevent anyone else from noticing.)
The simpler this can be, the better. I want the woman to have recurring nightmares about the incident, but at the same time, I don't want what she sees to be gory. Does that makes sense? I want to underscore the fragility of life. How quickly someone can be taken from you, without warning. Granted, she has some warning, since they've been abducted at gunpoint . . . but still, she isn't expecting it. (My god, the torture we put our poor characters through before granting HEAs.)