The War In His Mind

Chapter 28

The crowds surrounded him. He was trapped. There was nowhere to go anymore. No exit. No escape. Natasha did her best to encourage them to stay back but they refused to listen to her. There were men and women with guns everywhere. They moved in ever closer to Abraham, who was on edge and struggled to keep the sweat off of his brow.

"I don't know what you all are doing," Abraham raised his hands in the air to get their attention, "But this isn't how we solve problems..."

An angry women shouted at him. "What else can we do?"

It was a valid question that Abraham couldn't answer. Anything, he thought, but what they were doing at that moment. Two men reached out and grabbed his arms. He resisted and broke free. Another stronger man who was twice the size of Abraham picked him up off of the ground. Natasha screamed in horror as he squeezed the air out of his lungs. Abraham couldn't breathe. The suffocating feeling didn't waiver but rather grew stronger. The men around him began to chant "Kill him! Kill him!"

Natasha grabbed the arms of the man and did her best to wrangle Abraham away from him. It was no use. He was too strong, too dedicated to his task. Abraham felt dizzy and started to lose sight of buildings in the distance. A fog descended upon him and fuzzy dots littered his view. He gasped for air but nothing went in. His windpipe was sealed shut as if it were a time capsule sealed in the Earth.

He was slipping slowly into the darkness. It was just as before, when he had died, but it was more like falling asleep rather than being removed from the world. The darkness from the corner of his eyes spread to the center and sealed him into unconsciousness.

***

Israel watched as they dragged him through the ground to a make shift courthouse in the center of the city. There was an old library that was hollowed out in the battle. Books and the debris of pages lined the broken down walls as far as Israel could see. There was a fire there too- but it died out before it could raze the building. It was a graveyard of knowledge and lies. A final resting place for the knowledge base of Uptown. It was fitting, Israel thought, that they would most likely kill him in that empty room. Like the old books, the greatest light the city would wither away in the dull light of a fire and leave the city a dimmer place than before.

***

It was the noise that woke him up. The deafening roar of a crowd behind him. The voices were both ambiguous and innumerable. It was so much so that Abraham wondered if they were about to kill him right on the spot. He couldn't move. He was strapped to a chair with his hands behind the back. He struggled against the rope but it was no use- it only carved further into his flesh and formed what could have been a grotesque rash.

A large man in a judicial robe entered from the crowd and took his place on top of an old bookshelf. He carried with him a seat that might have been found in the administrative wing of the old library.

"Order!" He shouted. He spoke as if he had authority. His voice was deep and powerful. Abraham had never met this man before- nor did he know anything about him. "We've all been brought here for a common cause..."

The crowd interrupted him in a harmonious, damming scream. "Justice!"

"Yes! Yes..." The justice tapered off into a hushed, demeaning tone. "...justice."

Abraham felt his heart sink at seeing his people turn against him.

"Justice is what holds together our society, and when it is not met, there is anarchy in the streets!"

Abraham looked around him for Natasha or Israel but couldn't find either of them. He wanted more than anything to see them, to know they were safe, but it was a luxury he didn't have.