Hank and Juan's Story

Jeff was not happy. He was stuck in some cruddy office waiting for everyone to decide what to do with him, all over a stupid mistake. He had not meant to shoot Kevin, he was being careful, so he got a little excited? Who wasn't? Other people had been firing too, it could have been one of them that hit Kevin, hell they could have hit Jeff! He was lucky he was not dead, yet he had to take the fall for the friendly fire? This was not right and he was going to complain to...to who? Hank was the leader of this group, though Jeff hadn't elected him, no, he had not, in fact no one had, he was put up there by his friends because he had what? Fought some zombies? Sent back a doctor with gun ammunition? Big deal! Hank led the group, Hank thought Jeff screwed up and deserved to be punished for it, Jeff was going to be punished. Not fair at all. If that prick Kevin had kept his yap shut and covered for him, he knew Jeff hadn't meant to shoot him, yet there he was pointing fingers right after it happened. Kevin was Hank's man through and through too. Everyone liked Hank and everyone thought Jeff was stupid and deserved to go down. What would they do to him? Surely not toss him out with the zombies? Kill him? Fine him? Jeff laughed out loud at that, money had suddenly, drastically become worthless, they would not fine him. What about community service? They could make him do forced labor, he bet Kevin would love that, seeing Jeff working his ass off while Kevin sat around laughing at him. Jeff was in the midst of this mental conversation when the door was opened and a guy he only had seen around a few times came into the doorway.

“Jeff, what are we supposed to do with you?”, asked the man.

Spying other men, rough looking men, behind the guy, Jeff swallowed visibly and answered, “Nothing. You, uh, heard what Hank said, he would decide what to do later.”

“That is just the thing Jeff, you may not have heard but Hank left, took the guy you shot over to the hospital. He is not here right now.”

Letting that sink in, Jeff tried to answer in a confident voice that sounded all too whiny and pathetic to his own ears, “Well, he'll, he'll s-sort me out when he comes back. W-won't he?”

Shaking his head the man said, “No, no, see we all like Hank, but he is a nice guy, too nice maybe, Kevin's been telling us some stories about Hank's life and while we trust him to do what needs to be done, we think”, the man gestured over his shoulder at the other men behind him, “he might be a little soft on you. You see I don't have my two kids with me Jeff, I don't have a wife anymore, or parents or a sister or a niece and nephew. You follow me?”

Nodding in confusion, Jeff answered, “Y-yeah man I get you, you lost a lot of people in this mess, I did too, you know I had a girlfriend and...”, this was a lied and came out like a lie, which seemed to make the man happy. Jeff's voice trailed off, then he asked quietly, “No, no I guess I don't get what you are driving at?”

“I said it already, I have two kids with me, not to mention everybody else here, these guys are my family now, I know that and they know that and you, you, don't seem to know that. Anyone here would have laid his life down for yours last night, before you shot a guy this morning, but now? Now I don't think anyone can trust you, no one wants you in the family anymore. You're a fuckup, you shot your brother. You shot my brother. You want to know what is worse? You could have shot my kids, who are the ones we have found around the area. You could have killed my kid. You have shown that you could still kill my kids or my brothers and sisters or parents again. You are worse than they are Jeff.”

Jeff didn't have to ask who 'they' were. He saw the look of resolve in the man's eyes and he knew, knew something really bad was going to happen. In a quiet voice he asked, “What are you going to do to me?”

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This section was last updated on 30 Jul 2008

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