We Go On (THE DELL) (18 page)

I asked if it had been searched
and Dave told me no. When I looked at him for an explanation he said that the
entire search team lived there and they hadn't seen her so he figured there’s
no reason to waste time searching it. I shook my head and told him we were
going to be thorough and we might as well start there. He said okay and we
headed up the steps of the big two-story house.

Once inside, I broke the team down
into three groups. Each group would search a floor to include the large cellar.
I stayed on the ground floor and had been searching only a couple of minutes
when the crew in the cellar yelled up they had found her and they needed Doc
fast. I called back to the EOC and told them to get Doc down here as quick as
they could and I headed down to the cellar. What I found was enough to turn my
stomach.

Judy was in bad shape. She had
been beaten very badly and her face was a mass of bruises and swollen so badly
she couldn't open either eye. From the way she moaned as they tried to move her
out from under the old mattress and wood that was piled on her; she also had
some broken ribs. Her clothes were torn and she was naked below the waist. I
instinctively knew we were dealing with a rape. By this time, Dave had joined
me and from the look on his face I could tell he was as shocked as I was. How
could this have happened? Who in our community would do such a horrible thing?
Those were the questions I now had to answer.

Doc arrived and immediately began
caring for her injuries. He assessed that she suffered from exposure along with
the damage from the beating. He told me he needed to get her to his office so
he could get her warmed up and see what injuries she had sustained. I asked if
there was any possible way that she could have fallen and received the injuries
and he just looked at me like I was an idiot. I told him I knew what he thought
but I had to cover all my bases.

I had to be able to say that there
was no other way she could have gotten hurt except in an assault by another
person. He relaxed somewhat. "No. She could not have fallen down the
stairs and received the injuries I've seen or wound up in the location under
the debris the way you described it,” he said. He lowered his voice and added,
"Scott, she was raped and you know it."

I nodded. “Yes Doc, I know she was
raped. I've seen this same scene hundreds of times. I just can't believe it.
Not here, not our people.”

“I understand how you feel but the
fact is we have a sexual predator in our town. What’re you going to do?”

I was stunned by what he had said.
It was like the proverbial light bulb went on in my head. A sexual predator. A
creep, creepy looks, and uncomfortable little girls. I ignored Doc's question
and I left him standing in the basement and ran up the stairs. When I got to
the top, I grabbed the first security guy I saw and told him to follow me.
Without a word he fell in behind me as I headed up the steps.

On the upper landing a hall led
away from the stairs with rooms off each side. I moved down the hall opening
doors. If the room was empty I moved on. The fifth door I opened I found what I
looked for. Marvin was reclined on his bed with his feet crossed and his hands
behind his head. He didn't even turn to look at me as I came into the room.

“Hello Marvin. Why aren't you out
helping us looking for Judy Davis?” I asked.

Marvin smiled, but still refused
to look at me or say anything. I thought to myself, 'It can't be this easy?'
but I tried to keep my cool. “Marvin, do you know where Judy is?" I asked.

This time he did turn his head
slightly and look at me with the smile still on his lips. "Yeah, she's in
the cellar. You guy's found her didn't you?" I told him we had and then
asked if he was the one that put her there? He smiled. "Why don't you ask
her," and he turned back toward the ceiling, the smile getting bigger.

"I will, Marvin, as soon as
Doc gets finished treating her injuries." I watched closely to see how he
would react to my statement.

His smile grew larger. "Good
try, but I don't think she'll be able to tell you anything." I asked him
how he would know whether she could tell me anything or not and he looked at me
again and said, "Oh, just a guess."

“You're wrong,” I said, smiling. “She
is very much alive and I'm sure she will be able to give me quite a good
account of her attack and her attacker.” This was the first time I noticed the
smile fade a little but he was soon back to his old self. I asked one final
question, "Why Marvin? Why?"

He continued to stare at the
ceiling. "Why not?"

We arrested Marvin and took him to
the EOC. There were no cells; I hadn't gotten that far in the process. I had
truly hoped a jail was something we would never need. I knew our people and
just didn't think any of us would be capable of committing so heinous an act on
one another. This was another mistake on my part. I know people and people are
capable of anything. Someplace to hold a prisoner temporarily should have been
one of the first things built here but at the time of Marvin's arrest the only
thing we could do was sit him in a chair and have two of our security people
watch him.

I did several interviews with him
over the next two days and, while he never confessed, he made several
incriminating statements. He talked about all the stuck up bitches that
wouldn't give him the time of day and how he liked this one girl in the group
of survivors he came in with but she wouldn't even talk to him. I asked if he
meant Rachel Towe and he nodded yes. When I pointed out that she was only
twelve, it didn't seem to register. When I asked about Judy Davis and if she’s
one of the stuck up bitches he had been talking about he smiled. "I bet
she ain't so stuck up now,” he said. After that, he started to laugh and I had
to leave the interview room for fear of killing him.

I had no doubt Marvin was guilty.
He knew too much about the condition we found Judy in and his statements were
meant to hint at what he'd done without confessing. Everything seemed to be
about him, how he had been wronged by all the women he knew. How he had never
been able to attain all the things he deserved.

I talked to Kat several times a
day about him and she was convinced he was a narcissist and this was not the
first sexual assault he'd committed. I had to agree and told her that I had
already planned to hold a trial. She asked if I planned to act as judge and I
told her yes, as the one in charge I thought it was my responsibility. She said
this was an unusual circumstance and to give her a few days to help me come up
with the procedure so it would be as close to proper and lawful as we could
make it. She also said that I should start thinking seriously about what we
were going to do with him if he were convicted.

It had been two days since
Thanksgiving and the weather had started to turn ugly. It’s as if nature’s
aware of what had happened inside our compound and expressed her displeasure.
We had Marvin secure for the time being and Judy’s starting to recover
physically. Doc said her wounds would heal. Marvin had tried to kill her and
most likely thought he had but Judy’s a tough lady and will make it. I knew she
would heal physically much quicker than she would mentally and asked Doc to
talk to Albert in order to help both of them through this. He said he had already
started and I thanked him.

That night was cold, just above
the freezing mark and the wind blew from the North West like a banshee driving
the rain almost horizontal. It’s the beginning of the winter storms and most of
us tried to stay inside where it was warm. About midnight, Dave called me on
the radio and told me he had to pull the guards out of the towers. He said the
wind and rain made it impossible for them to stay in the open sided towers and
visibilities so bad they couldn't see anything anyway. I told him to do it but
to keep them in the guard shacks located below the towers and to get them back
in the towers as soon as the weather broke. He said he would. I went to bed
that night troubled. It appeared our luck had taken another turn for the worse
and I dreaded what might be next.

My mind was occupied with the
upcoming trial and trying to figure out what to do with Marvin if he was
convicted. After I finally dropped off, nightmares haunted my sleep and I can
only assume the weather added to my stress level. I awoke earlier than normal
and didn't feel rested at all but forced myself out of bed. As I made coffee in
our small kitchen on the camp stove, I tried to remember the dreams that had
troubled me all night. Although I could remember flashes, I couldn't quite
recall what they had been about except that something chased me as I ran.
Something horrible, and determined to catch me.

I tried to shake it off and
checked the weather out of the kitchen window as I waited for the coffee to
boil. The rain had stopped and the wind had dropped off some but it was still
overcast with low heavy clouds. The leaden sky promised more rain for today and
I didn't hold much hope that the weather would improve soon. My mood was as
dark as the sky and I dreaded the prospect of spending more time in the tiny
interview room with Marvin.

As the coffee came to a boil my
radio came to life with Dave telling me I need to get down to the gate in a
hurry. I told him it would take me a couple of minutes as I wasn't dressed yet;
then asked what the problem was. He sounded out of breath. "We're under
siege!" he said. I was startled by his answer and asked for an
explanation. He told me I'd have to see it for myself and he'd meet me at the
gate. I told him I was on my way.

I dressed and grabbing my rifle
headed out the door. Kat wasn't awake yet so I didn't have to try and explain
what’s going on to her. As I jumped on the ATV, I wondered whether I should
have awoken her but decided I'd go see what was wrong first. I fired up the ATV
and rolled toward the gate.

I could hear the moaning as soon
as I shut off the ATV. I walked over to the gate and peered through a crack
between two of the timbers. A decomposed face with white eyes stared back at
me. As soon as he realized my presence the moaning took on a new intensity and
the gate rocked back and forth as the Stinkies pushed against it.

I moved to the tower and climbed
up so I could see over the wall. When I made it to the platform and looked out
over the fields surrounding our compound I was amazed. There were literally
hundreds of the creatures outside. All I could do was stare open-mouthed as I
watched them struggle to get past the barbwire obstacles. A large crowd had
gathered at the gate pushing on it, trying to get in. They were hung up in the
barbwire and more of them poured through the gap where the road ran out of the
valley to the west. We hadn't seen a congregation of these things like this
since the early day’s right after the Event.

I climbed down and asked Dave if
they had checked the other sides of the compound yet. He said they had and the Stinkies
were all around us. The highest concentration was on the gate side but there
were several hundred on the other side’s as well. I shook my head unable to
comprehend how this had happened. What would make these things come for us now?
We had been doing nothing different and it had been a week or more since we had
sent out a foraging party. There had been nothing to draw them here but here
they were. What were we going to do now?

The Stinkies have been at our door
for about six weeks. We have learned a lot more about how they act and have
found that they’re immune to the cold unless it’s well below freezing. The
colder it gets, the slower they move as they do not generate body heat. We have
tried to clear some of them away from the gate area in case we have to send out
a foraging party. We wait until it is miserably cold, well below the freezing
mark and then go out with bats, machetes, anything we can use to damage the
brain. We've destroyed around one hundred of them but as soon as it warms up
enough for them to move they clump right back up in front of the gate.

At this point it’s hopeless to try
and destroy them a few at a time. We aren’t making any progress. We're going to
have to come up with a more comprehensive plan. We’re working on it. On the
good side, none have been able to make it inside yet. We have seen a few down
on the ground looking under the gate and through the culvert where the stream
exits the compound but they can't get past the rebar defense we installed. I've
thanked Dave several times for that little innovation. Our only real problem is
that we are stuck inside. The hunters have not been able to get out and provide
us with the game as they had been. We’re going through our food supply much
quicker than we had planned. I figure we can make it another couple of months
before we are in real trouble. We will have to solve the problem before then.

Now that it's January the real bad
weather has finally gotten here. We have had several light snowfalls but they
have thankfully melted soon after. Our wood supply’s holding and no one has
frozen to death yet. We go about our daily routine and try not to think about
what’s outside too much. That hasn't been as difficult as one might think.
There’s been a lot happen inside the compound as well as out. Christmas came
and went with little notice. There was a play at the church put on by the kids.
Only the parents and a few others attended. People were not in a very festive
mood after the events of Thanksgiving night. There wasn’t a big meal as we had
talked about while planning the Thanksgiving celebration. Parents did try to
give the kids a few little things as gifts but we were too caught up in the
trial of Marvin and the aftermath.

Jim said it the best when he
commented that we have now gone down a road none of us can ever come back from.
He was right and it has taken a toll on all of us. I hope if we can make it
till spring the good weather will bring every ones spirits back up. Right now,
everyone’s hunkered down just trying to make it day to day. Judy Davis has
recovered from her injuries and I've talked to her several times since it all
came to an end and I think she will be okay. Her husband, Albert, though has
never forgiven himself for not staying with her and walking her home after the
dinner. He knows it wasn't his fault but his sense of security, the ability to
trust his neighbors is damaged and he is not the only one. We all feel it. This
is not the paradise we had hoped it would be.

I talked to Marvin several times
over the two weeks immediately after his arrest. He made several comments that
pointed to the fact he was the one that attacked Judy. Comments we call in
police work, statements against self-interest, but he never confessed. He would
look at me and smile when I asked him if he hurt Judy or if he raped her. He
didn't argue or declare his innocence. He would answer my questions about his
background or about how he had survived after the Event. When we came to what
he had done or where he had been on Thanksgiving night he would become evasive
and tell me if I wanted details I needed to ask Judy. When I told him that I
had and that she had identified him as her attacker he simply smiled and asked
if she said she enjoyed it. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever
done. To sit in that room day after day with him, and not choke the living shit
out of him.

Kat, Jim, Dave and I had a long
talk about what to do next and I told them all as far as the trial went, I
didn’t want a show made out of it. I had a feeling that was exactly what Marvin
wanted. I told them as long as we were operating on a basically Martial Law
type situation that I would act as the judge and we would have essentially a
Bench Trial with no jurors. Kat asked if this was wise and I told her with a
Bench Trial I would be the only one responsible for the outcome. None of the
other villagers would have to feel that they were responsible for punishing
Marvin. Kat pointed out that most of our citizens would be happy to be
responsible for punishing Marvin. I told her I thought that was another
problem. That maybe they would be too willing to punish him and not be able to
be impartial at the trial. Dave looked at me. ”Impartial?” he said. “We all
know he did it and we all want him dead for it." I told him that was
exactly what I wanted to avoid. This was not going to be an act of revenge,
it’s going to be an act of justice.

Later that night, when Kat and I
were alone lying in bed, she rolled to look at me. "You know that any form
of capital punishment is revenge right?" Yes, I told her I was aware of
the fact that capital punishment didn't work as a deterrent. People that were
predisposed to kill another person would do it no matter what the possible
punishment was. She then wanted to know why I wanted to go through the trouble
of a trial then. I told her I couldn't believe she didn't understand, she was a
former prosecutor, after all. She laughed as she pointed out the world had
ended. “As a prosecutor I was perfectly aware that revenge is a normal desire.”
I've been married to this woman for twenty-three years and it never ceases to
amaze me that she can still surprise me. After twenty-three years you'd think
you would know your partner. Not!

My wife did finally agree to be
part of the proceedings though. I asked her to be the prosecutor. It seemed
like the logical position to me. She declined but said she’d act as Marvin's
defense council. Once again, I was left speechless. When I asked her why she
said, "It's the only way to ensure he gets a fair trial." I asked her
if she thought I would be unable to be impartial. She told me she thought I'd
do the right thing but if she was the prosecutor it would appear that we had
stacked the deck against Marvin. I had to agree with that logic and agreed for
her to be the defense council. I wished her luck the next morning as I left the
cottage and she asked what she needed luck for? I told her she would be meeting
her new client today and she would need all the luck she could get in her
dealings with him.

That evening, when I got back to
the cottage, I was greeted by Kat sitting bundled up on the double rocker on
the porch. As I walked up on the porch I could see she wasn't in the best of
moods and she nursed a glass of my bourbon. I tried not to smile as I asked how
her day had gone. She refused to look at me and called me an asshole. I
couldn't help it when I burst out laughing. She eventually joined in and I sat
down beside her and took the glass of Bookers from her. She resisted so I only
took a sip and handed it back to her. Then she told me about her interview with
Marvin. After she finished, she looked at me. "Scott, he is really evil. I
mean in the dictionary under Evil is a picture of Marvin." My only comment
was I told you so.

The trial was set for the week
before Christmas. We used the Community Center as the venue as it was the only
place in town suitable. I acted as the Judge and Kat was the defense council.
The prosecutor’s position was handled by Jennifer Moss. She and Dave were
planning on getting married in the spring and I was surprised that she
volunteered to prosecute the case. She did an excellent job.

We started the trial at 9 a.m.
with Jennifer reading the charging document. In this case, a hand-written page
alleging that Marvin had attacked, raped, beaten, and left Judy Davis for dead.
As in any trial, the prosecution was allowed to go first and present the
governmental view of the evidence against the accused. Judy was the only
prosecution witness and told her story. She spoke with feeling and emotion and
there wasn't a single person who didn't believe her when she identified Marvin
as her attacker. Kat presented the defense case after we had broken for a short
lunch.

Her side of the story took even
less time to present and hinged upon the fact that Marvin had never confessed.
She pointed out that there was no physical evidence that directly connected
Marvin to the crime and that there was only one witness who identified him. She
didn't point out that the witness was also the victim. She knew we all knew she
had a losing case. No one would believe Marvin over Judy.

As soon as Kat was finished, I
recessed the court for an hour while I made my decision. Everyone was aware
this was only a formality. They all suspected I had already made up my mind.
They were right; I had but the reason for the recess was to collect my thoughts
on how to present my findings and how we should punish Marvin. This was the
most difficult part for me. I had avoided thinking of this part for the simple
reason that there was only one punishment for this crime. Death. I had to
sentence a man to die by execution. Sure, I had killed people before this but
in the past it had always been in the heat of the moment. In defending myself
or others. This was different, I had to face this man and tell him that we were
going to kill him. I couldn't believe how hard this truly was.

The hour passed and, long before I
was ready, it was time to present my decision to the court. Everyone stood as I
walked back in and sat behind the table I had used as a bench. I told them to
be seated; then sat for a minute to collect my thoughts one more time. When I
looked up at the gallery I could see the anticipation on the faces of our
citizens. They were wondering did I have what it takes to defend them. It's
easy when you have to fight an enemy that's trying to kill you. Planning a
military style operation’s a piece of cake compared to what I faced at that
moment. Did I have what it takes to be cold, calculating and detached? To
defend them in the moment when the danger was already past, to do what it takes
to insure that future evil is avoided.

I started slow and announced the
verdict first, guilty. There was no real surprise there.  Everyone had expected
that and I think they would have rioted had it been anything else. Then, I
started on the penalty phase and I wanted the entire group to understand why I
made the decision I'd made. "Now we come to the difficult part," I started.
"What to do to ensure this doesn't happen ever again." I looked at
Marvin. "Marvin Hamilton, having been found guilty of rape and attempted
murder, you are sentenced to death. The sentence to be carried out at dawn, two
days from now." Marvin looked bored and didn't comment. I allowed him and
the rest of the gallery to sit.

"We are now at a cross roads
and are confronted with a quandary. A verdict has been found and a sentence
pronounced but how do we carry out the sentence and why death? These are the
questions I asked myself and I want all of you to know why I have come to the
conclusions I've reached." I paused a moment, then continued, "We do
not have the ability for long term imprisonment. It's just not possible. We
can't afford to feed a prisoner who isn't pulling his fair share of the load.
It has always been our rule; to eat you must work. A prisoner is a drain on our
resources we can't afford." After another short pause, "We do not
have the facilities for a long term detention. What we have been using is not
secure enough to ensure the prisoner doesn't escape and it is man power
intensive. We have to have two guards sit with the prisoner twenty- four hours
a day. That's six men taken from the guard force that are needed to help
protect us."

I looked out at the crowd and gave
them time to consider what I'd said. After a few moments, I continued, "If
imprisonment isn't an option; then there are only two options left. One:
banishment. Forcing the guilty to leave the compound and face life out there,"
as I pointed beyond our wall. "This is almost the same thing as a death
sentence but not quite. Mister Hamilton survived for a time alone against the Stinkies
and it's possible he could do it again. While it solves our problem of having
him outside our compound, it puts any survivors he might come in contact with
in the future at risk. If he did this once and was allowed to live I believe he
would try it again. I can't live with the possibility that he could cause this
kind of harm to another when I could have stopped it."

Once again I paused. "The second and in my opinion only
real option is death but that doesn't answer all the questions. Now that the
sentence is passed; how do we accomplish the task? Again, there are options.
Hanging was used as an execution technique right up until the Event. It is
difficult to perform humanely and requires the construction of a gallows. If
not done correctly the prisoner is forced to choke to death and it takes a long
time to die. I admit I am no expert when it comes to hanging a man and I'm not
sure I would know the proper way to accomplish it quickly. I suppose beheading
would be an option. While quick and, I can only assume, relatively painless,
it’s a very messy technique and I'm sure would be disturbing to the individual
tasked with carrying out the execution." I took a deep breath and then a
drink from the glass of water sitting on the table. "In my opinion the
only form of execution that fits our present circumstances is the firing squad.
It’s quick, and therefore as humane as we can possibly make it. Because it’s
quick the amount of pain is limited and it accomplishes one thing that some of
you may have forgotten. A death by hanging or beheading will not ensure that
the prisoner doesn't come back as a Stinky."