Chapter 17: The Victim
Thomas Garter
The wound was unlike anything else Thomas had seen before. It was shaped like a bite and was oozing black pus mixed with dark blood. He wasn't sure why, but when Parker stood up and trained his gun on him, Thomas followed.
"When did you get that?" Parker shouted at him, in a threatening tone.
Brandon turned and put his hands in the air, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid. It wasn't working. "It happened this morning... When we were clearing out the building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He frowned and pointed at the rifle being aimed at his chest. "Why do you think?"
Will and Usui scrambled over each other to see what was going on, and a few of the younger patients and doctors stood up from their table and formed a semicircle around the bitten man just as they had with the squad's entrance. It was almost as if they had rehearsed it. There was Cecil, the man and woman with the dark red hair, and a two others Thomas didn't recognize.
"Just hear me out!" Brandon yelled at them. "Just hear me out...before you kill me..."
"We're listening." said the woman with the red head.
"No, we're not." Cecil replied angrily. "This man is bitten! We've all seen what happens to people with a bite! They get sick, and they die, and turn into one of those things and kill everything they can find!"
The woman frowned. "Stop being such an old asshole. The guy's a person just like us."
The man who looked to be his brother took her by the arm. Thomas remembered his name being Trevor. "Violet... come on."
"Cecil's right. We can't let him live." One of the other people in the circle mentioned. He had short black hair with a stubble and didn't look terribly older than Thomas. He spoke with a higher tone of voice than normal, but had great intensity inside of it. "Stuff like this is the beginning of the end..."
"You know what's the beginning of the end, Mitch?" Parker asked him. "The moment we start killing people every time shit starts to get bad. You want him to die? Do any of you want him to die? Then you do it." He held the rifle out in front of him and gestured towards it sarcastically when no one came forward. "No? I didn't think so. Now, we're going to do something, but we're gonna hear him out first."
"...Fair enough." Cecil grunted.
"You folks done?" Brandon asked in an annoyed fashion. "Good. My name is Brandon Fuller, and I just wanted to tell you all that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that this happened to me, and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help. I am the chief of surgery here, and a few of you might have needed my knowledge. I am so sorry that I couldn't live long enough to help you."
"You're not the only one around here who can sew up a wound." Cecil yelled.
"No, but I am the only one around here who can properly sew a wound together micrometers from someone's vital organs."
"What are you getting at?" Parker asked him. "You're not making an argument for life..."
"I'm not arguing, no." Brandon replied. "The only thing I want, is a last wish."
"And this is?" Parker said.
He sighed for a moment, and looked around the room. Thomas, Parker, Cecil, Will, Trevor, Violet, Usui and Mitch all stood around him, waiting to hear what he had to say. When he prolonged he answer, Thomas started to wonder if he even had one. "When I'm gone... remember me. I never had anyone in life... I grew up in an orphanage, and was never adopted. I never married and I never had any children. I am the first and last of my family line, and I've managed to get myself killed before making a mark on society. I want to have one last moment in the real world before having to leave it."
"What are you asking?" Thomas asked. What he had asked for didn't even sound like an answer.
Tears started to pour to his eyes. He put off the answer for another ten seconds. "Just give me something to do in my last few minutes. I want to be known... I want to be loved..."
"Don't tell me you're asking what I think you're asking." Parker lowered his brow. He had an angry aura around him. "Because if you are, you ain't gettin' it."
"I don't know what I'm asking!" Brandon screamed, dropping to his knees.
"Can't you see he's broken?" Violet asked them, standing in the middle of the circle in front of the man. Parker and Thomas put their guns down so they wouldn't accidentally shoot. "Where is your humanity, people? Let him have his last wish."
"I don't have a last wish..." Brandon confessed. He again, flexed his arm and tried to erase the pain in his shoulder. "I'm nothing... When have I done anything that meant something... Just kill me. You'd be doing the world a favor..."
Parker raised his gun back in the air, but Violet raised her arms out to the side, forming a human shield. "Put the fucking gun down, man!"
Brandon crawled under her arm and knelt before Thomas. When he looked up into his eyes, Thomas could see the man literally had nothing. The only thing he had left was his life, and that was draining away by the second. He put out his arm and took the barrel of Thomas' gun. He placed the cylinder around his forehead with both hands gripped on it. "Just kill me... Get me out of this hell."
"You don't have to!" Violet cried. The tears were flowing to her eyes now too. "You can let him go. Give him some supplies and let him live out there. At least he'll have a chance! But don't kill him!"
Thomas gazed at her brother Trevor, and he saw a strange apathy on his face. Everyone else around the circle was in shock and terror, but Trevor looked like he didn't care. Thomas could almost see a bit of a smile on his face. Mitch looked even more scared than anyone else, and was visibly shaking. Cecil shrugged and put his hand on Thomas' shoulder. "Just do it, son."
"No!" Parker protested. "Tom, you can't do this. It's not right. We have to let him live."
Thomas gazed down into Brandon's eyes just before he closed them. His fingers closed tightly around Thomas' gun and pressed it even tighter against his forehead. He was ready for whatever Thomas would decide.
[A. Shoot Brandon.]
[B. Make Brandon leave.]
57.1% of readers chose to [B. Make Brandon leave.]
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This man was a threat, but how could Thomas kill him? Even though it appeared as something the man wanted to happen, Thomas couldn't do it. Killing was wrong, no matter in what form. "I'm not going to kill you." He said, ripping the barrel of the gun away from Brandon's head and from his grip. "You may be dead, but I'm not going to be the one to do it."
Brandon looked up at him in an act of confusion. He wasn't making any effort to keep the tears from his eyes now. He reached over with his arm that wasn't injured and took Thomas' gun. He tried to aim it back at himself, but Thomas ripped it away again.
"Wha..." He cried. "Why?"
"Because there's a better way." Thomas replied. "You're going to leave. We'll give you a gun. Food. Anything you need...and you'll go make your own way. If you're going to die, you're not going to make one of us a murderer in the process."
Brandon only looked confused. He laid down on his back, looking at all of the people around him. Cecil sneered. "You just showed up... Who the fuck gave you the rights to call the shots? Just give me gun. I'll do it, boy." He reached over with his seemingly frail old hands. Thomas was surprised to find they were stronger than he imagined. Quite soon after it happened, Parker and Mitch grabbed the man by the arms before he was able to aim the weapon.
"What the hell?" Parker shouted at him.
"He said we're not hurting him, you old fuck!" Mitch cried. "Get that through your skull."
Thomas turned to find Will and Usui still standing towards the back of the circle, as though they weren't sure how to respond in a group of people they'd just renounced. Will had his eyes trained on Brandon, who was on all fours beside the wall, and Usui had his eyes on someone different... Violet... He looked at her as though she were the only thing here that mattered. Thomas agreed that she did look rather attractive, but he thought the look he gave her was almost...possessive. He was behind her, so she couldn't notice. When Usui saw Thomas looking back in his direction, his eyes darted away, rather embarrassed.
"The man is broken, can't you see that, you sons of bitches?" Cecil cried as he was pressed against the wall. "He asked you to kill him! I'm giving him what he wants."
"No. You're not." Trevor stepped forward, next to the old man. He had an oily voice and spoke quietly, yet confidently. He looked directly into Cecil's eyes in such a threatening way it caused him to look away. "You're doing what you want. And what you want doesn't matter here. It never has. You are the janitor."
"I was a surgeon!"
"You WERE a surgeon." He shot back. "You haven't been a real surgeon since before any of us got here."
"Go to hell." The old man sneered.
Trevor remained apathetic to his outburst. "Oh, I'm sure I will. You'll be waiting there a while before I finally show up, though."
"No... You don't know the meaning..." Cecil was boiling with rage. "You don't know the meaning of hell! You all think it's so funny to poke fun at me because I'm the old one. Well guess what!" He quickly pointed a finger angrily in Brandon's direction. "He's thirty! I'm eighty! And he's going to be there long before I ever show up! At least I'm still fucking alive!"
Thomas gazed to Brandon on the ground, and was surprised to not see him tripping over himself. Instead, he was in shock from the man's speech. It was as if they didn't know he had it in him. Thomas couldn't lie. He didn't see it coming either. "Just calm down, man..." Mitch said, waving his hands in front of him for Cecil to see.
Will walked into the center of the circle and pulled something off his belt. He presented it to the group and Thomas could see that it was his hand gun. "You see this, people?" He threw it at Brandon and the man caught it. Will then pulled out his shot gun and aimed it at the rest of the men. "This man is walking out of here. If any of you harm him, he ain't gonna be the only one harmed, and it'll be a lot worse for you."
"Will..." Thomas stuttered. "Why?"
"What do you mean, why, Garter? We already decided what's going down. You're the one who fucking decided. I'm trying to help." He turned to Brandon and helped him stand on his own two feet. He spoke quietly to him, but not quietly enough that the rest of them couldn't hear. "I'm sorry this happened to you, sir. I really am. But you understand why we're doing this, right? We're not going to let it happen to us..."
"...I understand..." Brandon sighed.
"Then go. The gun's got five bullets. Use them well." Will patted him on the back. They all watched as Brandon opened the door to the stairwell and stepped out. Just before he shut the door, he shot an emotional look over his shoulder. He knew it was the last time he would leave the workplace, and his coworkers and patients knew it would be the last time they ever saw him. When the door finally shut behind him, Thomas knew it was done. It was over.
Until about three minutes after the door shut, there was utter silence. No one wanted even to sit down after what they had just experienced. Violet was the one who finally broke the silence in the air with her words. "Brandon was a good man."
"He was..." Mitch agreed.
"Better than most of us." Trevor pitched in.
Thomas saw the three of them who had only just shown up. They stood amongst the circle, but they couldn't speak of the man as if they knew him. They could, however, participate in the moment of silence.
There was a woman standing there. The last one who hadn't even said a single word yet. She had black hair hanging down her back and she was standing on crutches, but when she opened her mouth, they were surprised to hear not normal speech, but song. "Amazing grace... How sweet the sound..." She had a particularly beautiful voice. It echoed through the room like it were the only sound there. No one objected to the song. "That saved a wretch like me.... I once was lost but now am found. Was blind, but now, I see."
"T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.
"Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.
"The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.
"When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see."
As soon as the last verse of the song concluded, they all heard a gunshot echoing from behind them. They instantly knew what it was, and a few of them rushed to the window to see. Thomas was among them. He reached the window first and gazed out to find the herd of the dead slowly moving towards the hospital. He gazed down all six stories of the building, and found, just outside the entrance to the emergency room, beside the army truck, there was Brandon's limp body, sprawled out on the ground. The gun was lying beside him.
There were hundreds of walkers approaching the building where they stood, and from this high in the air, Thomas could see all of them. He wished for amazing grace to save them.