“What do you mean?” Cutter asked.
“He means your idiot brother,” Sarah said. “Maybe when we get back we should go ahead and hang him for murder.” His jaw dropped and he stared at all of us.
“You can’t do that,” he exclaimed and pointed at Justin. “And he had no right to hit him.”
“I disagree,” I replied. “Your brother jeopardized our mission and any future missions we might conduct in this area of town. We’ll all have a nice long talk about it when we get back to the school.”
True jumped in the Volvo as we prepared to go back home.
“We should have killed them all,” he said in almost a whisper. “Or turned that boy over to them. This is gonna come back and haunt us. You know that, right?”
I glanced at him and nodded as Kelly put the truck in gear. I caught her looking at me out of the corner of her eye.
“They would have tortured and killed Shooter if we turned him over to them,” she said. “We couldn’t do that. Right?”
“They’re gonna blame all of us for what that idiot did,” he contended. I couldn’t disagree. “If they get a chance, they’re gonna get some payback.” Again, I couldn’t disagree. Kelly would occasionally look at us both as she drove.
Chapter 42 – Court
We’d talked long into the night deciding what to do about Simon, AKA Shooter. What was decided, by majority vote, was downright ridiculous. At least, I thought so. I said as much to Kelly during our usual nocturnal bed talk.
“Would you have really killed him outright?” she asked.
“It really wouldn’t have solved the problem,” I said. “The King Ro gang would have still blamed us. Besides, if we killed Shooter, we would’ve needed to go ahead and killed Cutter too.” I continued. “The most prudent thing to have done at that point was exactly what True said; kill King Ro and his crew. That was the only sure way to eliminate any possible future threat from them.” Kelly and I were spooning, but she turned in the bed and faced me.
“Are you serious?”
“Yep.” She looked at me a moment longer in the dark before repositioning herself.
“What do you think will happen tomorrow?”
“It could go either way. Hell, I don’t even know.”
“Me either, but if he’s found guilty, I wonder how Cutter’s going to react.”
“So, here we are,” I said to Tonya. “Instead of taking care of this on my own, we’re deferring to you and your desire to have some sort of judicial process in place.” She looked at me like I’d just farted and asked her to take a whiff.
“I’m detecting sarcasm.”
“Possibly.”
“I imagine if you had your way, he’d already be dead,” she retorted.
“Nobody would’ve stopped me,” I countered. “In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone was expecting me to do just that and they were fine with it. Well, except for Cutter.” She had no response. I continued.
“Of course, if I chose that course of action, I would’ve killed Cutter as well.” And that was the only reason I didn’t kill Shooter outright. In spite of his dumb-assity, Cutter wasn’t a bad guy.
“But what the hell, I’m very interested in seeing the Tonya Lee judicial process in action.”
Everyone was gathered in the cafeteria. Ruth and Justin acted as, well I don’t know what you’d call them, court bailiffs I suppose, and Tonya acted as the judge. True sat behind Shooter with a sawed-off shotgun, staring a hole in the back of his head with those coal burning eyes of his.
I was the first witness and was directed to sit in a chair positioned in front of the cafeteria tables. I recounted the events starting with the original mission.
“After we’d killed the zombies in the main area of the Emergency Room, we started to go into the rest of the hospital, but we never made it.”
“What happened that stopped you?” Gus was acting as the prosecuting attorney. He was freshly shaven and was even wearing a coat and tie. I would’ve laughed under any other circumstance.
“We received a radio transmission from Kelly informing us of contact.” Gus looked at me blankly so I explained.
“She advised there were two SUVs approaching our location and the vehicles were occupied by six men.”
“What did you do?”
“Team one, that was the team I was in charge of, went outside to make the initial contact. Team two acted as backup and took up positions around the ER.”
“And you were armed.”
“Of course.”
“Please proceed.”
“The gang parked, jumped out of their SUVs and lined up. They were a filthy-looking bunch and all of them were armed. The apparent leader demanded to know what we were doing.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him we didn’t owe him any kind of explanation. A teenage boy, we later found out his name was Roman, stepped forward and said we shouldn’t be disrespecting King Ro.”
“King Ro?”
“Yeah, that’s what he called himself. And then Sarah said he should call himself King Turd because he smelled so bad.” There were a few snickers in the audience. “He got pissed; he seemed to think an awful lot of himself.” Cutter started to stand, but then seemed to think better of it, sat back down and started taking notes, which surprised me. Up until now, I wasn’t even sure he knew how to read. I continued.
“Like I said, this King Ro character became angry and he started to raise his shotgun.”
“So, just to clarify, he was armed with a shotgun?”
“Yes, he was. I believed he intended to shoot one of us, and I was about to shoot him, but before I did, he accidentally shot Roman.”
“Please be specific, how did he shoot Roman?”
“Roman was standing to King Ro’s left side, maybe about three feet away, and maybe a foot or two in front of him. This Ro idiot accidentally discharged his shotgun and as a result, he shot Roman in the right leg.”
“What happened next?” Gus asked.
“The kid fell to the ground and started screaming in pain. When King Turd realized what he’d done, he became even angrier. He was in the process of bringing his shotgun to bear on one of us, but I managed to stop him and get his shotgun away from him.”
“Then what happened?”
“Kelly and Josue had snuck up behind them while all of this was going on. When they realized they were outgunned, they obeyed when we ordered them to disarm.”
“So, they gave up their guns?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “They didn’t want to, but when I told them we had a doctor who’d treat Roman, one of them told his buddies to comply.”
“So, y’all have now disarmed this gang of marauders?”
“Yes.”
“What happened then?”
“Major Parsons began administering first aid to Roman and I started to talk to the rest of them.”
“What specifically were you talking about?” I was getting irritated, Gus was asking too many irrelevant questions, but I kept my emotions in check and answered.
“I asked them to explain why they confronted us and why were they hostile toward us. One of them responded that we were trespassing on their territory. As fate would have it, I recognized him. He’s a year older than me and went to Overton.” Gus looked at me blankly. “It’s a high school in south Nashville,” I explained.
“Ah, please continue.”
“While I was talking to him, Shooter and Cutter started assaulting this Ro character. We stopped them and at some point, one of the men, they called him Sparks, recognized Shooter and Cutter. He said he knew them as being with the River Road group and he didn’t seem very happy to see them.”
“Did he make some kind of threatening statement?”
“No.”
“Was he armed?”
“No.”
“Was Shooter, or anyone else in our group in imminent peril?”
“No.”
“What happened then?”
“Unprovoked?”
“That would be my opinion, yes.”
“And then what happened?”
“Lieutenant Smithson grabbed the rifle out of Shooter’s hands and then knocked him out.” Kyra gave a short but loud laugh. Her sister glared at her.
“And then, Cutter acted like he was going to shoot Justin, but Sarah stopped him. That was basically the end of it. Grant went over to check on the man, but there was nothing he could do for him. I talked to the one I knew for a minute, then they left. After they left, we did some scavenging and then left approximately forty-five minutes later.”
“Your witness,” Gus said with his best imitation of Adam Schiff. Cutter stood quickly.
“Alright, I want to start with what you said at first. You said they were all armed and didn’t appear friendly, right?”
“Yes, when contact was first made.”
“And then you said that there was a confrontation and King Ro was going to try to shoot one of us, but ended up accidentally shooting a member of his group.”
“Yes.”
“And during this, Kelly and Josue had gained a tactical advantage on this group of thugs.”
“Well, yeah that’s a good way of putting it.”
“And they were ordered to give up their weapons.”
“Yes.”
“And now, nobody from this group was armed, including the man you’ve identified as Sparks.”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he had no weapons in his hands or on his person.”
“But nobody had physically searched any of them at that time, so how did you know at that point in time, when he started standing, how did you know right then he didn’t have a weapon?”
“You make a good point,” I conceded. “The only way I can answer is, he had no weapon in his hands at that time nor was a weapon visible.”
“But he could have been armed?”
“I suppose he may have had a weapon hidden on him, but he didn’t have any weapon in his hand when he was shot.”
“So, if my brother was acting on the assumption that this gang member was armed, he was acting in self-defense.”
“Is that a question?” I asked.
“Sure, that’s a question. Are you going to try to put some kind of spin on it?”
“Not at all. I will concede at that time, none of them had been physically searched.” Both Cutter and Shooter smiled at the perceived victory. “But, he wasn’t armed.” He started to ask another question but Tonya cut him off.
“Let’s stop all of this nonsense, I want to know something,” Tonya asked me. “What do you think about this?”
“I think that man was telling the truth about knowing Shooter and Cutter and it’s my belief this man was about to say some things that maybe Shooter didn’t want us to know about. He became scared and shot him.”
“Objection!” Cutter shouted as he literally jumped up and down. “That’s all bullshit speculation.” Tonya waved him off and looked over everyone else.
“Let’s save some time here, is there anyone here whose testimony will contradict what Zach just said?” Cutter quickly raised his hand. Tonya grunted.
“Okay, swap places with Zach.” Once Cutter was seated, Gus started to rise, but Tonya waved him off.
“How did this man know the two of you?” she asked. Cutter shrugged.
“I have no idea. It’s possible he’d seen us around; we’d made contact with some people from time to time. People were always coming to our compound trying to get free handouts and shit. ” Tonya gave him a hard stare, but it wasn’t going to work. He’d rehearsed his story and was sticking to it. Whatever the dead guy knew about Cutter and Shooter, it went with him to his grave.
“It’s sounding like your brother may have acted without provocation,” Tonya surmised. Cutter shook his head vigorously.
“Those men were looking for trouble,” he insisted and pointed at me. “Zach pretty much said so. When that asshole stood up, he was about to charge my brother, I could see it in his eyes, and you heard it from Zach’s own mouth, none of them had been physically searched. For all we knew, he could have had a hideout gun.” He pointed at me again.
“Zach has a hideout gun on him right now. Just because he doesn’t have it in his hand doesn’t mean he can’t get to it and shoot someone if he wanted.” He was right. I had a compact three-eighty concealed in my crotch. I never showed it off or mentioned it, so I was wondering how he knew it. Tonya sat quietly for a minute and then looked at Gus.
“Do you want to cross examine him?” she asked. Gus rubbed his chin before responding.
“I don’t think I’m going to get a truthful answer out of him, so no.” She looked back at Cutter.
“Shooter, are you going to testify?” Shooter started to reply, but Cutter cut him off with a raised hand and shook his head emphatically.
“My client fully recognizes his Fifth Amendment privilege and will not testify.” Shooter started to argue but Cutter stopped him with a harsh look. I had to admit to myself, Cutter was proving to be smarter than I gave him credit for. If Shooter started talking, I think Gus could have gotten him to say all kinds of incriminating things. It would have been interesting, to say the least.
“Alright,” Tonya said and looked out at the audience. “Marc, Ward, Rachel, Brandon, Mike, Mary, Rhonda, and Maria. All of you are now the jury. I want you to go to another room and deliberate. Oh, and Rhonda, you’ll be the foreperson.” Brandon raised a hand. Tonya acknowledged him by staring pointedly over her bifocals.
“We’re deciding whether or not Shooter committed murder, correct?”
“That’s correct,” Tonya replied. The newly appointed jury looked at each other in what could best be described as a reluctant burden, filed out of the room and went to an unused classroom in the back of the school. During all of this, Macie’s puppy started circling my feet and whining.
“I’m taking Zoe outside,” I said to Kelly and stood.
“I’m coming with you,” she replied.
“Me too,” Sarah said.
When we first got Zoe, I thought it was going to be many weeks of frustration and pissed on floors before properly training her, but I was surprised at how quickly we got her house broken. She scampered down the sidewalk and squatted in the dirt without even being coaxed to do so. When she finished, I praised her and gave her a knotted rope to play with. Her tail wagged in joy.
I walked over to the newly constructed guard tower, a square structure made with a mixture of lumber and concrete blocks, sitting a few feet above ground level and surrounded by stacked sandbags. But, all that was wasted, as the door was propped open by a concrete block. Goober was sitting inside and waved cheerfully as I walked up.
“Every time I come around, you're pulling guard duty,” I said. He smiled a big toothy smile.
“Shoot, I don't mind. I kind of like sitting out here. It's nice listening to the birds singing. Besides,” he picked up a drawing pad, “it gives me plenty of time to draw.” Goober showed me some of his work, mostly of birds, and to my surprise they were really nice with lots of detail and shading which made the birds look three dimensional.
“Those are great,” I said. “Do you do people as well?” Goober nodded enthusiastically and showed me a couple more drawings of some of the school group.
“These are really nice.” Goober grinned at the compliment.
“You want me to draw a picture of your two kids?” My eyes widened.
“Would you?”
“It’d be my pleasure,” he replied. “I like drawing kids.” He then thumbed through his pad and carefully tore out a page of the thick paper. When he handed it to me, I think my jaw dropped open. It was an exquisitely detailed drawing of Macie and Frederick.
“I drew that one back at the CDC, but the
y’ve grown some since then. I’ll be glad to draw them again.”
“I’d be most appreciative,” I said. Goober grinned again and bobbed his head.
“Let’s plan on the day after tomorrow. You and your missus dress them however you want and bring them on down here.” He looked around and pointed toward the creek.
“There’s a mighty pretty weeping willow tree down there. I think I’d like to pose them in front of it, and we’ll put little Zoe in there with them.”
“It sounds great, Goober.”
“Consider it a plan then.”
After chatting with him a few minutes, I walked over to the picnic tables where Kelly was sitting. She had the length of knotted rope and was playing tug-of-war with Zoe. I showed her the picture and told her about Goober.
“That’s beautiful,” she said. “I have an idea.” I looked at her. “Let’s make it a family portrait.”
“Good idea. We’ll need to compensate him somehow, so think that over.” I watched as she played with Zoe.
“She’s about ready to start some serious training.”
“How do you think it’s going to go?” Kelly asked. “The decision, how do you think it’ll go?” I chuckled.
“You know, I’m a little surprised at Cutter. He actually did a pretty good job as a defense attorney. He rightfully pointed out that we’d neglected to search them.”
“You think he’ll get off?” Sarah asked. I shrugged. Kate, Kyra and Cutter came outside and joined us. Kyra fished out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. Kate frowned and motioned for one.
“You hope they find him guilty of murder,” Kate said accusingly after taking a deep drag.
“I actually don’t give a shit, but I will say this,” I said as I stared at Cutter. “Your brother is a loose cannon. He’s going to get himself, or someone else hurt or killed one day.” Cutter looked at me steadily. “And you follow him blindly.”
“You’ve killed people too,” he countered. “I’ve heard the stories.” I didn’t respond and grabbed the rope away from Zoe. She barked at me the way puppies do when they want something.
“What happens if he’s found guilty?” Kyra asked.
“It’ll be up to Tonya and the jury, but he’ll probably be banished.” I said.
Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny Page 34
