So there they were, gathered in on place. Below deck eating fruit and avoiding Jon’s cooking. They’ve been arguing for an hour about their new call to action. Finally, Jon had enough of the bickering; he stands up to say “Do we really have to kill him? I mean, he has been taking care of this island and its people for years now right? He’s a world-renowned general. We could give him a second chance right?” There was an overwhelming amount of agreement around the table; everyone except Brock and Ryan agreed. Ryan doesn’t understand why the rest were contemplating this decision. In his line of work, Ryan has to deal with death every day but he knows these men might not have. As long as it wasn’t the crew he didn’t really feel the pain of loss.
Brock, on the other hand, was livid. His face was getting redder and his body started to shake. Brock took a few calming breaths, stood up, and looked everyone in the eye. And with a deep conviction, as if trying to contain his anger, Brock said, “That man, that horrendous, space wasting, soul-sucking, piece of shit of a man is going to die. One way of the other. am not leaving that island until his blood is spread across my cutlass, and those people are finally liberated from that sea urchin.” There was no room for anything else in his mind, though the others did try to sway him. None of it worked cause the more they talked the more Brock closed himself off to the crew. Luke finally cut in and said, “Everyone deserves a second chance, Brock. Nothing is black and white in our world.” Brock fumed at this. What couldn’t they see what a disgusting creature the general was?
“No,” Brock said, “this isn't your decision to make Captain. With all due respect, you don't know what that beast did and still does to the people of the island. I do though; I have seen the horrors of his war. I still bear the scars of his battles. My friends have died under the general’s tyranny. And I will walk through Hell and relieve that pain over and over again if it means that monster will pay for he has done. Talbott cannot live freely another minute. Now that I finally have a chance to rid this world of that stench; it has been allowed to defiled this world for far too long. So no Captain, I will not be giving him a second chance.”
Brock took a breath to calm himself but it didn't work. He looked around at his newfound crew, hoping to see at least some form of willingness to defend. Only receiving baffled looks of pity, Brock scoffed and stormed out of the room. Ryan looked up from the floor to see the whole crew staring at him for answers. “What?”, he asked. “Well, what do we do?”Scotty asked after a long silence. Ryan shook his head; this wasn’t his story to tell nor can he make Brock open up. Ryan made pointed eye contact with Brian and then looked at the door expectantly. “Go.” Ryan sighed and that was all Brian needed to bolt out of the room after the distraught man.
As it turned out Brian didn’t have to go far; Brock was right outside on the deck. He had broken down against the rail and was close to tears. Brian didn’t exactly know how to proceed; comforting people wasn’t really his forte. Brock glared up at Brian with tears in his eyes. “Are you here to tell me he doesn’t deserve to die as well? It won’t work cause does deserve it.” Brian sighed as brock his head on his knees and seemed to try to shut the world out. Brian knelt down in front of the shaking man and grabs one his hands. Brock flinched slightly and asked, “what are doing?” brian cringed. “I don’t know man, this is new for me.” he plopped himself down on the floor and threw an arm over Brock’s shoulders. In turn, the Navy man hesitantly leaned into him ever so slightly. Small sniffles were the only sounds to be heard from the pair for while. “Hush now it’ll be ok. We’ll make everything ok.” Brian whispered soothingly as he rubbed soft circles into the man’s back.
“But everything is not ok, nor will it ever be. Talbot has done horrible things, Brian. Why can’t you all see that.” Brock barely spoke above a whisper. “Well not everyone is ready to murder people they’ve never met Brock. You need to show them what an evil man The General is. They need the reason, love.” Brian tried to reason but it seemed to scare Brock away, so he stopped prodding and let him sit in silence for the time till he calmed down again. When Brock did calm down Brian asked, “so what's your reason. You don’t strike me as the type to be bloodthirsty for no reason. What’s your story?” Brock took a moment to gather his courage. But when he did he turned to Brian and said, “I had a family”. The sadness in his voice drowned the words in pain. Hesitation clouded Brock’s thoughts; can he really trust this man? “Tell me about them?” Brian felt like his words could break the man next to him. This guy obviously swam in the ghost of his past.
“They were my everything.” Brock smiled with tears in his eyes again as though he was lost in the memory. Brian felt a pain in his chest to know that Brock had a past but he couldn’t his feeling push Brock away. “My wife was endlessly charitable, honest to a fault, and put up with zero of my bull shit. She was a badass bitch and I loved her. Even when we fought she knew what to say. We had a daughter; she took after her mother in every way except the eyes. She had my eyes. General Talbot was my best friend at the time. We had started at the academy at the same and we often went head to head on different strategies. But nonetheless, we were always equal. He was there for me when my baby was born and was constantly over at the house for dinners. So much so my daughter took to calling him ‘uncle Talbott’.
But everything changed when he got passed over for a promotion that was given to me instead. Talbot became my subordinate and he couldn’t handle it. That's when I noticed his violent tendencies become more prominent. With every order I gave him, Talbott would lash out more. But ultimately he had to submit to his superiors. That’s what I thought. One night I woke up to a sound in the front of the house. I thought it was my daughter grabbing a drink of water; she had to be seven at the time. I got up to check on her. I made it to the hallway just outside her room when someone hit me across the back of my head; enough to knock me out cold. I woke up to being strung up by my arms in the town square. By then it was so bright I had to be midday and there was a large crowd gathered. My head hurt so bad, brain, it hurt so bad.”
Brock was no leaning fully onto Brian and tears were falling freely down his face. There was a small hiccup in Brock’s voice that made Brian’s heart skip. Never has Brin ever felt the need to protect someone this much. Brock continued after he gathered himself, “Talbott beat me, insulted me, spat on me, tortured me for hours, and no one did anything. No one even tried to speak up. Finally, he cut me down and forced me to kneel. His men brought out my wife. She fought them with everything she had but it was no use. Talbott pushed her to the floor on her stomach then pulled only her head up by the hair. He held a knife to her throat. I begged and pleaded but no matter how much I screamed Talbott just smiled. That devil cut her throat and left her to bleed out.
Without a second thought, he just shot me in the stomach left me in the pool of my wife's blood. I didn’t see my daughter until I dragged myself to the doctors. In the crowds panic… they trampled her. That fucker killed my only reasons to live so i’m gonna kill the bastard if it the last thing I do.” Brock finally broke and crumbled into the man next to him; face first into his neck, clinging on for dear life. Brian hugged him tightly and whispered sweet nothings into his ears. Little did they know the whole crew was listening from behind the deck stairs. “Luke,” Ryan said. His face looked like he was going to kill some and his tone left no room for arguments. “Yeah, I know. We’ve got ourselves a General to kill.” Luke said before walking off to the war room with his head hung low.
