Sunday, July 26, 2009

#0038 | 07/26 | 04:20 PM

They've banned my usage of fire-arms. Anna too, I think, but they didn't exactly say it. But Sean pointing the rifle at her face and threatening to fire sort of implied it.

Hard to believe, just a few days ago, I thought things were going to be alright. Oh, sure. Things were shit and getting shittier by the minute, but at least comparatively, things had evened out fairly. We were surrounded by death. But we'd found a home. No hope in sight. But friendship in each other. Our continued survival threatened around every corner. Yet the means to protect ourselves within our grasp. Those were the promises that seemed largely certain in the horizon.

Around midday, Colin got away from Henry and Hector's supervision. Out from the infirmary which he had refused to leave since the disputed incident with his mother and Anna.

He should have been watched more carefully. And I should have realized the kid was more fucked up than a whore. But shit, seems obvious in retrospect. That kid's entire family was probably butchered. Some by each other maybe. And maybe in front of his eyes.

That can't be healthy to a little boy. But I'm not exactly one to judge...

Seeing that, and only having his mom left with him, it's bound to cause an unhealthy obsession with protecting her. So when he saw what he imagines he saw conspire between Anna and Monica, he snapped harder than I thought he did.

He got away from supervised eyes and he picked up a rifle. We keep them (our entire stock of guns and ammo) under the central buildings inner stairwell, in an out of the way janitor's closet that we originally found stacked with soggy, old, worn textbooks. Unfortunately, unlocked. But Sean promised that's about to change.

And then he took the rifle (that's nearly half his size for Christ's sakes), walked up to the second floor of the central building, walked along the outside path, crouched, and pointed the weapon at Anna, over the railing, who was sitting out on the small grassy part of the yard, under a large tree.

She's told me she likes to go there, at least once a day, surrounded by the small amount of greenery available to her and release her pint up worries and secrets into the wind. The same things she likes to share with me.

When I asked her why she would bother to do such a thing - tell both me and nature her worries and fears, she smiled and said she likes having her secrets in two places. Places equally unreachable. One in the world and one in the heart.

And she would have died. Right there, while she was doing something like that. Something so incredibly innocent and free. She would have been murdered in cold blood by that crazy son of a bitch. But I walked out from the northern building then, saw the kid on the second floor, then panned and saw what he was gunning for.

And thank god he hesitated. The little monster wasn't too far gone for that. He hesitated. And thank god for that.

In the small time that he took to reconsider his actions (but never lift his finger from the trigger) I swung my rifle from my shoulder, lifted the barrel, aimed with more intensity than I can ever recall aiming, and squeezed a quick round at the brat.

Two rounds of the burst hit the wall behind him. I saw the wall cake and crumble as they hit. Another two, amazingly, hit the railings underneath him, and somehow rebounded. Must be some damn hard metal that made that railing. And one slug hit the rifle the brat was aiming. It would have missed but the first rounds surprised him from his intent concentration and caused him to perk up and swing his weapon straight into the last shot's path.

He almost dropped it. The rifle that is, although I suspect his bladder as well. But it looked like he grappled it at the last moment before fleeing.

Anna looked up then, saw Colin ducking behind the railings, and then saw me, rifle cocked up at the little fucker.

I screamed at her to get out of sight. That Colin was armed. And he was going for her.

She looked in my direction for less than a second before ducking behind the large tree, effectively hiding her from Colin.

Then, I raised my weapon, and followed Colin's little form as he skittered down the passage, trying to get out of sight. I had him then, a sheer second away from clipping down his small frame
and ending it there, when my name was called out from below, from the central building.

It was Hector, with his weapon cocked in my direction. He told me to put the weapon down. When I refused, he promised he would shoot my sorry ass if I didn't.

I hesitated. Anna was still out there behind that tree. Colin had gone west, toward the west-end of the central building. And he still had the rifle he'd taken. He was still capable of stopping and taking out Anna if he tried. I couldn't let that happen. I didn't drop my weapon.

Hector fired.

The rounds hit the floor next to me. Then he promised that if I didn't drop the fucking gun, he'd take me out. He said it twice, and I I took one look in his eyes, and I saw that he wasn't kidding. So I complied.

Minutes later we were gathered in the office for a little communal meetings. Me and Anna were seated on the reception side of the room with Henry sitting across the counter, Sean and Hector behind him, pointing rifles at our faces. The noticeably missing participant, Colin, no where to be found.

I explained the situation calmly to the others. Explained how I'd stumbled upon Colin about to coldly murder, the once-again-the-victim, Anna. Explained that the kid was cracked. And that worse yet, he was armed. That we needed to find him and apprehend him before he hurt anyone with the damn rifle he still had.

And then Sean told me to shut the fuck up.

Flatly, they informed me that they didn't believe Colin had a weapon. That they believed I had attempted to murder Colin, on Anna's behalf.

When Colin had left the infirmary, he had departed with the cryptic message: "Alex is calling me."

They told me and Anna to go up, to our rooms. I was warned to not even think about getting a gun, that the small armory would now be under lock and key. Protected by an armed Sean.

Henry and Hector planned to go out searching for Colin, who they actually seem to think is the victim in all this.


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