The Last Plague

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Punishment

"What's wrong with you?" a man shouted at me as he walked in.

"Honestly, we save your life and you try to kill ours," a woman's voice came in too.

As the man got closer I could see it was Henry. "We rescue you and you repay us like this. I can't believe you. Attempted homicide." Henry laughed. "In all my years of people doing stupid things, this is by far the stupidest. I don't know what you were thinking trying to kill us all like that."

"I'm innocent" was all I said. The stupidest words that could have possibly come out of my mouth. I'm innocent, a pointless comment explaining nothing.

"You have more to say than that I'm hoping," Henry said, pushing for more details.

"I'll tell you exactly what I told Josh over there. I ran to the other side of the hill to get away from the gunfire, and I saw some creatures. I ran back to get a soldier, and he came back with me. When we got back the creatures were all gone; there was an empty space where they were. The soldier, Mark, got angry with me for the rush over there. He charged me with attempted homicide, and here I am. I got ten years of my life that I'll never get back ahead of me." When I said this I became even more saddened. The more I thought of it the worse I was.

This situation. . . . I was amazed to hear it explained. I'd be saying the same thing to Josh and Henry. RADD took things too far with this. Way. Too. Far. I thought the PS was bad with their "tests" and nonsense, but I didn't realize how much worse RADD was. Even while I worked there, I didn't realize what they were doing. I've always wondered how a destroyed, small operation was able to do something so drastic. I still wonder to this day. Raymond could accomplish huge things. He was practically a prisoner of RADD though. There wasn't anything he would've been able to do. I'm glad they got out.

~Trina

"I have no reason to believe you. I don't know who you are, to be honest. I don't know if you are an honest person, or a man with a history of crime. No matter what you say, you'll say you are innocent. If you are lying, you'll say you're innocent; if you are telling me the truth, you'll say you're innocent. There isn't a way to tell if you're lying or tell the truth is what I'm trying to say." Henry sighed, then looked at me sadly. "I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do for you at the moment." He walked out of the room, leaving me and Doctor Rachel with an awkward moment.

"Excuse me," was all she said. She walked out of the room too.

I knew my explanation would seem ludicrous to anyone who heard. If I had heard myself tell my explanation I'd think I'm crazy too. Nonetheless, I still blamed Henry and Rachel for leaving me here. To me, Henry seemed like the elder, the one who makes all the calls, the leader. He seemed like he would be able to get me out of here without anyone questioning him.

"I know you want out," Joshua spoke. "I can't just let you out though, you have to get permission," he told me like it was obvious.

When I thought about it it did seem pretty obvious, I guess I have to convince whoever is the leader to let me out. I didn't know if they had a leader running everything; I didn't know whether or not they had a type of election choosing a leader; I didn't know if they had several people leading together. The only thing I knew was I was in prison, alone. They wouldn't keep me in here for ten years, they just couldn't. I kept telling this to myself, trying to keep my sanity.

"You are the quietest prisoner I have ever had," Joshua said, trying to break the silence another time. "What's your name?"

I sat there for longer, not answering Joshua's question.

"I guess you want to be lonely while you're in there, fine by me. I'm not the one in prison who can't go out with his friends," Joshua repeated, still sounding kind; despite what he was saying was rude. "If you don't want to talk, fine by me," he said, overly pronouncing every word.