Chapter 10
Trinity
Pam was called to stand to hear the decision the judge made in the argument on whether or not a second execution would be double jeopardy. Standing beside her was her lawyer and ex sister-in-law Susan Hanson.
“All rise,” the bailiff stated and the judge took his seat.
“Be seated,” the judge said as he gathered his papers before him. “This was a first a difficult decision but became very clear to me once I looked at the law and the evidence. The issue that led me to my decision was whether or not the defendant was in fact a human and fell under the umbrella of human law. The issue is what makes a human a human? Is it how you were born? Can that change over time? It leads to the very idea of having a soul. If indeed the defendant was born human and somehow evolved or morphed into something else, did her soul stay with her or leave?
I do realize I am speaking from a religious point of view, but science has not defined what a human is now that we have zombies living amongst us. It is obvious from the science that something has changed, but the very definition of human no longer covers the zombie population. Yet they exist and have most of the human characteristics we humans do. So I had to abandon that line of thinking and go with what I consider to be the law. I had to do this because in my gut I feel that zombies are not human and are not covered by human law. In saying that, the trial that sent her to the gallows should never have taken place. But it did and we can’t go back and change that.
Therefore, as I see it, since the defendant did go through with the execution, an illegal execution at that. She should not be executed again. Not under the law as it reads. Until the lawmakers can address the zombie population, and include them in our laws, I rule that the defendant, Pam Reed be allowed her freedom.”
The crowd erupted once the judge’s decision was read. It was a bombshell as most people expected to see Pam burned at the stake later that day. A wooden pole had been erected in the courthouse lawn just to accommodate that very event.
Sheriff Ed Pool stood at the back of the gallery and felt very nervous. He could see he had a mob in the making who were planning on seeing a zombie burn to death and now were very disappointed. As a zombie himself, Ed felt like his life was in danger. Then he heard a voice on his radio, it was Matthew. “Sheriff, you better come out here, there’s a group of kids messing with your patrol car.”
“10-4” Ed said and took off out the door and out of the courthouse. What he saw was a group of ten or so high school aged kids rocking his patrol car side to side as if they were trying to tip it on its side. With a rush of adrenaline, Ed took off running across the lawn, past the wood stake and over to his car. He drew his gun and pointed it in the direction of the crowd. “Back away!” Ed yelled.
The mob stopped rocking the sheriff vehicle and turned to face Ed. One of the kids stepped close and raised his arms as to say shoot me.
“Get away from the vehicle,” Ed said. He tried to use a calm steady voice.
“You’re not human, I don’t have to do anything you say,” the kid said. His name was Mike.
“That’s not what the judge meant, and he doesn’t have the ability to make that ruling. I’m as much a human as you are.”
“You’re in denial, he said you’re not human, don’t you listen? If you’re a human, why do you look like a freak?”
“It’s part of the disease process, I have an illness, that’s all.”
“Illness my ass you’re an aberration of nature,” Mike said.
“You need to back off and disperse, this is an illegal gathering,” Ed said.
“You don’t have the right to tell me what to do anymore, you’re not the sheriff.”
“Until I am recalled by the county, or I quit, I’m the sheriff, now I said disperse!”
“How are you going to make us do anything? There’s one of you and ten of us.”
Ed knew the kid was right, how he was going to stop them when he was so greatly outnumbered. Looking back, rushing the scene was a bad decision. He called dispatch. “I need backup at the courthouse, send state patrol,” Ed said.
The dispatcher replied, “10-4.”
Then Ed saw a pickup pull up to the curb and two men jump out and walk to the back. They pulled out two more long wood poles and dragged them across the lawn to where the first pole was erected for the burning of Pam. In his mind he had an idea that those two new poles were for him and Matthew. Once the mob turned into a riot, he wouldn’t stand a chance. But his vehicle was blocked and he had nowhere to go.
“See that?” Mike asked. “You and your deputy are going to join that bitch on the pole.”
Now Ed began to panic, he needed to get away before these kids grabbed him. “You lay a finger on me and I’ll put a bullet in your brain,” Ed said as he pointed the gun at Mike’s face.
“Somebody shoot the fucker, he won’t die so aim for his gun,” the Mike said.
One of the kids ran over to his truck and pulled a deer rifle out of the back seat. He brought the rifle back and tried to hand it to Mike. “No, you shoot him,” Mike said.
“He’s the sheriff,” the kid with the gun said.
“Not anymore.”
Then a shot rang out and the gunman bolted to the right. He turned back with a draining bullet wound in his chest. The sheriff didn’t shoot so they knew someone else did but no one knew who it was. Then a call from Ed’s radio. “Tell them if they don’t back off I’ll shoot again,” Matthew said.
Ed spoke into his radio, “They hear you loud and clear.”
The kids knew the deputy was hiding somewhere taking aim at them. And they knew it was time to go. “If I were you, I’d be leaving soon,” the Mike said. “On second thought,” Mike added as he looked over Ed’s shoulder.
Ed turned to see another mob coming his way. This group was armed and was made up of mainly pissed off adults. “Tie him up,” one of the men yelled. “They got the poles in the ground.”
Ed looked over at the courthouse and saw that the spot where the single pole was erected now had three side by side.
“What are you doing Stan?” Ed asked.
“We expected a roast and damn if we’re not going to have one!” Stan replied.
“That’s murder and you know it!”
“I don’t see it that way Ed, I see it as exterminating a diseased freak. You never should have been voted in as sheriff in the first place. I don’t know what the people of this county were thinking.”
“My deputy has a rifle and he’s going to shoot you if you touch me,” Ed said.
“No, he’s being dragged down off the clock tower as we speak. He’ll be tied up soon,” Stan replied.
“I didn’t commit a crime, neither did Matthew.”
“Like I said, you have a disease and I don’t want you infecting everyone. We’re doing the world a favor.”
“I had a disease, I had cholera, I don’t have it anymore.”
“You look like a dead man, you scare the kids when you come around. People despise you and your kind,” Stan said.
“That’s no reason to kill me,” Ed said. “According to the university, I’m not contagious.”
“What about the woman?”
“Didn’t you read the papers? She was a zombie to start with, she was hiding this whole time!”
“No, she was in your jail and you infected her. Now she’s like you,” Stan said.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re going to burn me to death based on incorrect information! You’re letting your emotions get to you!” Ed yelled.
“I’m not stupid sheriff,” Stan said. “Now give me the gun.”
Ed raised the gun and pointed it at Stan’s face. “No,” Ed said. “Take it from me if you’re so smart.”
“You’re prolonging the inevitable, give me the gun.”
“You think I’m going to give up that easy? I died once, I’ve been through more hell than you’ll ever know and I never
gave up. Fuck you Stan,” Ed replied.
Then Ed felt someone slam into his side and tackle him to the ground. Before he could let off a shot his gun was pulled from his hand and he was dragged across the lawn to where Pam and Matthew were being tied to poles. Raised up on a ladder, a group of men held Ed against the last erect pole while another man wrapped rope around his body securing him. All around the base of the poles was chopped wood that was scattered around and piled up for the fire.
It took only a few minutes to tie up the three zombies to the wood stakes. It took less time than that for a huge crowd to form to watch the show. No one stood up to speak on behalf of the crowd and no one spoke on behalf of the three zombies that were about to meet their fate. Two men poured gasoline on the wood and another tossed on a match lighting up the fuel in a blaze that consumed the three in an instant.
The next day in the paper, it read that a mob had taken the three zombies and murdered them in cold blood on the courthouse lawn. The state patrol came in and found the men who had set the fire and placed them into custody. In the ashes of the fire, a single arm was found, still moving on its own. It was determined that the arm belonged to deputy sheriff Matthew Schultz and was sent to the University of Idaho to be kept for study. It was true that zombism is not a disease and that it can’t be transmitted like the flu, but it did scare a lot of people. The same people who found it so easy to murder three innocent victims because they looked different than anyone else.
In the law enforcement center, a plaque was hung to commemorate the three zombies who had worked for the sheriff’s department and how they died that morning. The county commissioners considered for a time renaming the law enforcement center the “Ed Pool memorial law enforcement center” but it was decided not too since it would remind everyone around what a horrible atrocity was done. The last thing Colfax County needed was bad publicity that made the towns people seem less human than the zombies they killed.
The End
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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