I grabbed Dave and outlined my plan and he rounded up the same team of people. I told him this time we would start on the west and work east. I had no particular reason for this other than to not do the exact same thing over again. We walked down the main road and I asked about each house we passed. When I asked did you search that one? The answer was always the same. “Yes.” We were nearing the west end of town and were passing the large house that was used by the single men as a dorm
I asked if it had been searched and Dave told me no. When I looked at him for an explanation he said that the entire search team lived there and they hadn't seen her so he figured there’s no reason to waste time searching it. I shook my head and told him we were going to be thorough and we might as well start there. He said okay and we headed up the steps of the big two-story house.
Once inside, I broke the team down into three groups. Each group would search a floor to include the large cellar. I stayed on the ground floor and had been searching only a couple of minutes when the crew in the cellar yelled up they had found her and they needed Doc fast. I called back to the EOC and told them to get Doc down here as quick as they could and I headed down to the cellar. What I found was enough to turn my stomach.
Judy was in bad shape. She had been beaten very badly and her face was a mass of bruises and swollen so badly she couldn't open either eye. From the way she moaned as they tried to move her out from under the old mattress and wood that was piled on her; she also had some broken ribs. Her clothes were torn and she was naked below the waist. I instinctively knew we were dealing with a rape. By this time, Dave had joined me and from the look on his face I could tell he was as shocked as I was. How could this have happened? Who in our community would do such a horrible thing? Those were the questions I now had to answer.
Doc arrived and immediately began caring for her injuries. He assessed that she suffered from exposure along with the damage from the beating. He told me he needed to get her to his office so he could get her warmed up and see what injuries she had sustained. I asked if there was any possible way that she could have fallen and received the injuries and he just looked at me like I was an idiot. I told him I knew what he thought but I had to cover all my bases.
I had to be able to say that there was no other way she could have gotten hurt except in an assault by another person. He relaxed somewhat. "No. She could not have fallen down the stairs and received the injuries I've seen or wound up in the location under the debris the way you described it,” he said. He lowered his voice and added, "Scott, she was raped and you know it."
I nodded. “Yes Doc, I know she was raped. I've seen this same scene hundreds of times. I just can't believe it. Not here, not our people.”
“I understand how you feel but the fact is we have a sexual predator in our town. What’re you going to do?”
I was stunned by what he had said. It was like the proverbial light bulb went on in my head. A sexual predator. A creep, creepy looks, and uncomfortable little girls. I ignored Doc's question and I left him standing in the basement and ran up the stairs. When I got to the top, I grabbed the first security guy I saw and told him to follow me. Without a word he fell in behind me as I headed up the steps.
On the upper landing a hall led away from the stairs with rooms off each side. I moved down the hall opening doors. If the room was empty I moved on. The fifth door I opened I found what I looked for. Marvin was reclined on his bed with his feet crossed and his hands behind his head. He didn't even turn to look at me as I came into the room.
“Hello Marvin. Why aren't you out helping us looking for Judy Davis?” I asked.
Marvin smiled, but still refused to look at me or say anything. I thought to myself, 'It can't be this easy?' but I tried to keep my cool. “Marvin, do you know where Judy is?" I asked.
This time he did turn his head slightly and look at me with the smile still on his lips. "Yeah, she's in the cellar. You guy's found her didn't you?" I told him we had and then asked if he was the one that put her there? He smiled. "Why don't you ask her," and he turned back toward the ceiling, the smile getting bigger.
"I will, Marvin, as soon as Doc gets finished treating her injuries." I watched closely to see how he would react to my statement.
His smile grew larger. "Good try, but I don't think she'll be able to tell you anything." I asked him how he would know whether she could tell me anything or not and he looked at me again and said, "Oh, just a guess."
“You're wrong,” I said, smiling. “She is very much alive and I'm sure she will be able to give me quite a good account of her attack and her attacker.” This was the first time I noticed the smile fade a little but he was soon back to his old self. I asked one final question, "Why Marvin? Why?"
He continued to stare at the ceiling. "Why not?"
We arrested Marvin and took him to the EOC. There were no cells; I hadn't gotten that far in the process. I had truly hoped a jail was something we would never need. I knew our people and just didn't think any of us would be capable of committing so heinous an act on one another. This was another mistake on my part. I know people and people are capable of anything. Someplace to hold a prisoner temporarily should have been one of the first things built here but at the time of Marvin's arrest the only thing we could do was sit him in a chair and have two of our security people watch him.
I did several interviews with him over the next two days and, while he never confessed, he made several incriminating statements. He talked about all the stuck up bitches that wouldn't give him the time of day and how he liked this one girl in the group of survivors he came in with but she wouldn't even talk to him. I asked if he meant Rachel Towe and he nodded yes. When I pointed out that she was only twelve, it didn't seem to register. When I asked about Judy Davis and if she’s one of the stuck up bitches he had been talking about he smiled. "I bet she ain't so stuck up now,” he said. After that, he started to laugh and I had to leave the interview room for fear of killing him.
I had no doubt Marvin was guilty. He knew too much about the condition we found Judy in and his statements were meant to hint at what he'd done without confessing. Everything seemed to be about him, how he had been wronged by all the women he knew. How he had never been able to attain all the things he deserved.
I talked to Kat several times a day about him and she was convinced he was a narcissist and this was not the first sexual assault he'd committed. I had to agree and told her that I had already planned to hold a trial. She asked if I planned to act as judge and I told her yes, as the one in charge I thought it was my responsibility. She said this was an unusual circumstance and to give her a few days to help me come up with the procedure so it would be as close to proper and lawful as we could make it. She also said that I should start thinking seriously about what we were going to do with him if he were convicted.
It had been two days since Thanksgiving and the weather had started to turn ugly. It’s as if nature’s aware of what had happened inside our compound and expressed her displeasure. We had Marvin secure for the time being and Judy’s starting to recover physically. Doc said her wounds would heal. Marvin had tried to kill her and most likely thought he had but Judy’s a tough lady and will make it. I knew she would heal physically much quicker than she would mentally and asked Doc to talk to Albert in order to help both of them through this. He said he had already started and I thanked him.
That night was cold, just above the freezing mark and the wind blew from the North West like a banshee driving the rain almost horizontal. It’s the beginning of the winter storms and most of us tried to stay inside where it was warm. About midnight, Dave called me on the radio and told me he had to pull the guards out of the towers. He said the wind and rain made it impossible for them to stay in the open sided towers and visibilities so bad they couldn't see anything anyway. I told him to do it but to keep them in the guard shacks located below the towers and to get them back in the towers as soon as the weather broke. He said he would. I went
to bed that night troubled. It appeared our luck had taken another turn for the worse and I dreaded what might be next.
My mind was occupied with the upcoming trial and trying to figure out what to do with Marvin if he was convicted. After I finally dropped off, nightmares haunted my sleep and I can only assume the weather added to my stress level. I awoke earlier than normal and didn't feel rested at all but forced myself out of bed. As I made coffee in our small kitchen on the camp stove, I tried to remember the dreams that had troubled me all night. Although I could remember flashes, I couldn't quite recall what they had been about except that something chased me as I ran. Something horrible, and determined to catch me.
I tried to shake it off and checked the weather out of the kitchen window as I waited for the coffee to boil. The rain had stopped and the wind had dropped off some but it was still overcast with low heavy clouds. The leaden sky promised more rain for today and I didn't hold much hope that the weather would improve soon. My mood was as dark as the sky and I dreaded the prospect of spending more time in the tiny interview room with Marvin.
As the coffee came to a boil my radio came to life with Dave telling me I need to get down to the gate in a hurry. I told him it would take me a couple of minutes as I wasn't dressed yet; then asked what the problem was. He sounded out of breath. "We're under siege!" he said. I was startled by his answer and asked for an explanation. He told me I'd have to see it for myself and he'd meet me at the gate. I told him I was on my way.
I dressed and grabbing my rifle headed out the door. Kat wasn't awake yet so I didn't have to try and explain what’s going on to her. As I jumped on the ATV, I wondered whether I should have awoken her but decided I'd go see what was wrong first. I fired up the ATV and rolled toward the gate.
I could hear the moaning as soon as I shut off the ATV. I walked over to the gate and peered through a crack between two of the timbers. A decomposed face with white eyes stared back at me. As soon as he realized my presence the moaning took on a new intensity and the gate rocked back and forth as the Stinkies pushed against it.
I moved to the tower and climbed up so I could see over the wall. When I made it to the platform and looked out over the fields surrounding our compound I was amazed. There were literally hundreds of the creatures outside. All I could do was stare open-mouthed as I watched them struggle to get past the barbwire obstacles. A large crowd had gathered at the gate pushing on it, trying to get in. They were hung up in the barbwire and more of them poured through the gap where the road ran out of the valley to the west. We hadn't seen a congregation of these things like this since the early day’s right after the Event.
I climbed down and asked Dave if they had checked the other sides of the compound yet. He said they had and the Stinkies were all around us. The highest concentration was on the gate side but there were several hundred on the other side’s as well. I shook my head unable to comprehend how this had happened. What would make these things come for us now? We had been doing nothing different and it had been a week or more since we had sent out a foraging party. There had been nothing to draw them here but here they were. What were we going to do now?
Chapter 17
The Road of No Return
The Stinkies have been at our door for about six weeks. We have learned a lot more about how they act and have found that they’re immune to the cold unless it’s well below freezing. The colder it gets, the slower they move as they do not generate body heat. We have tried to clear some of them away from the gate area in case we have to send out a foraging party. We wait until it is miserably cold, well below the freezing mark and then go out with bats, machetes, anything we can use to damage the brain. We've destroyed around one hundred of them but as soon as it warms up enough for them to move they clump right back up in front of the gate.
At this point it’s hopeless to try and destroy them a few at a time. We aren’t making any progress. We're going to have to come up with a more comprehensive plan. We’re working on it. On the good side, none have been able to make it inside yet. We have seen a few down on the ground looking under the gate and through the culvert where the stream exits the compound but they can't get past the rebar defense we installed. I've thanked Dave several times for that little innovation. Our only real problem is that we are stuck inside. The hunters have not been able to get out and provide us with the game as they had been. We’re going through our food supply much quicker than we had planned. I figure we can make it another couple of months before we are in real trouble. We will have to solve the problem before then.
Now that it's January the real bad weather has finally gotten here. We have had several light snowfalls but they have thankfully melted soon after. Our wood supply’s holding and no one has frozen to death yet. We go about our daily routine and try not to think about what’s outside too much. That hasn't been as difficult as one might think. There’s been a lot happen inside the compound as well as out. Christmas came and went with little notice. There was a play at the church put on by the kids. Only the parents and a few others attended. People were not in a very festive mood after the events of Thanksgiving night. There wasn’t a big meal as we had talked about while planning the Thanksgiving celebration. Parents did try to give the kids a few little things as gifts but we were too caught up in the trial of Marvin and the aftermath.
Jim said it the best when he commented that we have now gone down a road none of us can ever come back from. He was right and it has taken a toll on all of us. I hope if we can make it till spring the good weather will bring every ones spirits back up. Right now, everyone’s hunkered down just trying to make it day to day. Judy Davis has recovered from her injuries and I've talked to her several times since it all came to an end and I think she will be okay. Her husband, Albert, though has never forgiven himself for not staying with her and walking her home after the dinner. He knows it wasn't his fault but his sense of security, the ability to trust his neighbors is damaged and he is not the only one. We all feel it. This is not the paradise we had hoped it would be.
I talked to Marvin several times over the two weeks immediately after his arrest. He made several comments that pointed to the fact he was the one that attacked Judy. Comments we call in police work, statements against self-interest, but he never confessed. He would look at me and smile when I asked him if he hurt Judy or if he raped her. He didn't argue or declare his innocence. He would answer my questions about his background or about how he had survived after the Event. When we came to what he had done or where he had been on Thanksgiving night he would become evasive and tell me if I wanted details I needed to ask Judy. When I told him that I had and that she had identified him as her attacker he simply smiled and asked if she said she enjoyed it. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. To sit in that room day after day with him, and not choke the living shit out of him.
Kat, Jim, Dave and I had a long talk about what to do next and I told them all as far as the trial went, I didn’t want a show made out of it. I had a feeling that was exactly what Marvin wanted. I told them as long as we were operating on a basically Martial Law type situation that I would act as the judge and we would have essentially a Bench Trial with no jurors. Kat asked if this was wise and I told her with a Bench Trial I would be the only one responsible for the outcome. None of the other villagers would have to feel that they were responsible for punishing Marvin. Kat pointed out that most of our citizens would be happy to be responsible for punishing Marvin. I told her I thought that was another problem. That maybe they would be too willing to punish him and not be able to be impartial at the trial. Dave looked at me. ”Impartial?” he said. “We all know he did it and we all want him dead for it." I told him that was exactly what I wanted to avoid. This was not going to be an act of revenge, it’s going to be an act of justice.
Later that night, when Kat and I were alone lying in bed, she rolled to look at me. "You know that any form of capital punishment is revenge right?" Yes, I told her I was aw
are of the fact that capital punishment didn't work as a deterrent. People that were predisposed to kill another person would do it no matter what the possible punishment was. She then wanted to know why I wanted to go through the trouble of a trial then. I told her I couldn't believe she didn't understand, she was a former prosecutor, after all. She laughed as she pointed out the world had ended. “As a prosecutor I was perfectly aware that revenge is a normal desire.” I've been married to this woman for twenty-three years and it never ceases to amaze me that she can still surprise me. After twenty-three years you'd think you would know your partner. Not!
My wife did finally agree to be part of the proceedings though. I asked her to be the prosecutor. It seemed like the logical position to me. She declined but said she’d act as Marvin's defense council. Once again, I was left speechless. When I asked her why she said, "It's the only way to ensure he gets a fair trial." I asked her if she thought I would be unable to be impartial. She told me she thought I'd do the right thing but if she was the prosecutor it would appear that we had stacked the deck against Marvin. I had to agree with that logic and agreed for her to be the defense council. I wished her luck the next morning as I left the cottage and she asked what she needed luck for? I told her she would be meeting her new client today and she would need all the luck she could get in her dealings with him.
That evening, when I got back to the cottage, I was greeted by Kat sitting bundled up on the double rocker on the porch. As I walked up on the porch I could see she wasn't in the best of moods and she nursed a glass of my bourbon. I tried not to smile as I asked how her day had gone. She refused to look at me and called me an asshole. I couldn't help it when I burst out laughing. She eventually joined in and I sat down beside her and took the glass of Bookers from her. She resisted so I only took a sip and handed it back to her. Then she told me about her interview with Marvin. After she finished, she looked at me. "Scott, he is really evil. I mean in the dictionary under Evil is a picture of Marvin." My only comment was I told you so.
We Go On (THE DELL) Page 19