Justice (32 page)

I was still in shock when Melinda stood up.
 

“My name is Melinda Lemoine. I was at this base from the very beginning. I don’t even know what it’s like out there. But, I know what it’s like in here. I know that to pay for a night with a girl, the bikers used to accumulate food credits. This was earned by doing certain undesirable chores, or going on food runs and bringing back supplies. One of the biggest ways to earn food creds was by being a scout or lookout. Rebel was both, he had a lot of food creds.
 
When he wasn’t on lookout, he liked to use his food creds on me.” Again, a gasp from the crowd. But I knew what was coming. Melinda wouldn’t let me down.
 

“He had a sleeping bag in his cubby and he let me sleep on his cot, while he slept on the floor. He never touched me, he hardly even talked to me. Said he didn’t want to make me feel obligated to like him,” she laughed. “He saved me because Spider had voiced his interest in me. That was all it took, and most of my nights were spent with him in relative safety. All because of one comment from that sadist. I owe my sanity to Rebel.” She sat down, but then stood up abruptly. “And yes, when he was sick with the flu, I wanted to sneak him out of this place. He doesn’t deserve to be tried like the rest of these animals. He’s a good person. If you want to look at me like I’m guilty too, so be it. You’ve got the wrong man up there.”

Everyone sat in stunned silence, even me. I looked around at the crowd and everyone was regarding Melinda with respect, not suspicion.
 

No one stood up after that and everyone looked at each other. They were probably thinking, was this it? Nothing juicy. Nothing worth getting worked up about.
Would they give a judgment now? Was I guilty?
Poche went to get to his feet when the screech of a chair on the linoleum had my head shooting up.
 

It was Hannah.

“Hey.” She gave a wave of her hand.
 
“Hannah Klink, street name Baby,” she smirked and Alexis barked out a laugh. “Y’all might remember me, I was the one that helped you get this base back from the
evil
bikers.”
 
That smirk again.

“I was the one that brought Rebel in. He was protecting the children when I found him and he came in without a fight, he even wanted to help when he found out we were with the military.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at the judges.
 

“I was also the one that risked life and limb,
with Rebel
, lost a good friend, almost died, all to get you power. I might add that when we lost Murphey, Rebel was right there. He saved my life. Got me to safety and made sure we still finished the mission. Then he came back here and taught y’all how to install the equipment. To bring electricity to this place. Without him, you wouldn’t have gotten in contact with Fort Polk. Oh, and then you stuck him in a cell and then put him on trial for human trafficking. Does that about cover it?”
 

The judges were staring at her like she was insane. I could have gotten up right there and kissed her. She was amazing.

“And yeah– one more thing. I’m pretty sure I’m in love with him, so if you exile him, or worse– consider me gone too.”

SIXTY-FIVE | More Conviction

My speech worked. They didn’t spend thirty-seconds locked away behind closed doors before they came back and said simply, “Not guilty.” It was Zach who announced it and he smiled at me as he said it.
 

“I’m pretty sure we would have voted not guilty without you shaming us,” Zach said as he patted Rebel on the back as if they were old friends. I glared at him.
 

“Then why the charade?” I asked.
 

“It wasn’t a charade. We said before we knew about Rebel that we would try all of the Southern Clan members. If we went back on it for any reason, others could get out of it for this reason or that. We didn’t want to give any reason for someone to call into question our judgment. We plan on doing things like this from now on. If we go back on our word in the first pursuit of justice, what precedent would that set?” He said it earnestly. And he was right.
 

“We also would like to invite you to join our group,” Blake added as he walked up to us. “We could use someone with your talents and well, Baby, she’s indispensable,” he laughed.
 

“Where she goes, I go,” Rebel said and he caught my eye. “Just, are we leaving anytime soon?”

“No, we still have a few more trials and then we’ll head back,” Blake said.
 

“Good, so I can go back to my cell?”

“You – you’re free to do whatever you want, Rebel,” Blake said confused. “Why would you want to go back to your cell?”

“It’s got four walls and a door, better than anything y’all got.” He looked at me and winked. I shook my head and smiled.
 

“Yeah,” Blake laughed and looked at Zach like they could relate. “It’s all yours.”
 

“Thanks,” Rebel said as he dragged me away.
 

“So, you think you love me?” he asked when we got to the stairs. He hadn’t let go of my hand.
 

“Something like that,” I replied.
 

“Not a very assertive statement. You would think if you were going to declare your love for someone in front of a crowd of people, you would do it with a little more conviction.”
 
He turned to me as we got to the second floor, a smile on his face.
 

“I didn’t want to scare you off,” I smiled back.
 

“Nothing you can do will scare me off, Hannah Klink, street name, Baby. I’ve been in love with you since you told me to put my hands up and called me a fuck face.” He pulled me to him and brought me to my knees with one of those leg-shaker kisses.
 

I came up for air and realized we were in the middle of the lobby which was being used as the communication room. Everyone was staring.
 

“Now, you have to admit, that’s how you do it,” he chuckled, grabbed my hand and pulled me into his cell.
 

Gillian Zane

Gillian Zane is the author of the NOLA Zombie series. Zane is the pen name of a prominent blogger in the publishing industry, which will remain a mystery unless you Google it. Since she can remember her goal has been to become Master of the Universe and has decided to focus first on the literary world. Things are progressing nicely.
 

Zane has been a freelance writer for the last ten years and has published a few non-fiction works, none of which was very exciting. Zombies are much more exciting and a way for her to combine her two current obsessions, hot boys with guns and Doomsday Prepping. When she isn't stockpiling MREs (Meal's Ready to Eat) or researching how to build a cistern on a budget, she's taking care of her little family and exploring the city that she loves, New Orleans.
 

Follow Gillian on Twitter:
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Survivor Book Five in the NOLA Zombie Series

ONE | Life and Death

Romeo

Deciding whether a man lives or dies is a sobering experience. I stared at the group around me and added my voice to the mix.

“Guilty.”
 

And he was, he was guilty as hell. A real monster of a human being. The fact that the world was now ripe with these kind of people made me question if the human race deserved to continue. Maybe we should call it quits. Throw our hands up in the air and say, “Fuck it.”
 

I wasn’t one to throw in the towel, but I didn’t like this job of judge, not at all. Zach was up in the communications room, back and forth with Fort Polk, and he couldn’t sit for this trial. Blake had sneaked off to look for Junior. The biker who escaped yesterday. Of all of them to get away, we fucked up majorly with that one.

Today’s trial was one of the last ones. After this one, we only had one more.
 

Two more times to hear the sound of the firing squad. And then it would be over. We could go back to the compound and be done with this place.

I know Zach was talking about trade and working out deals, all that
bureaucratic
nonsense. I wanted to get back to my routine.
 

I walked into the big room and stared the surly biker down and remained stoic as Graf, the National Guard representative, delivered the verdict. Guilty, the sentence is death.
 

Bye bye, motherfucker. Shouldn’t have had a thing for raping underage girls.
 

The tweaker had no clue at this point. He was itching so hard you could have shot him right there and he would be clueless. The tweakers had been left for last, thinking it would give them more of a chance to dry out. Isaiah Smith, resident doctor, had been feeding them low dosages of meth to wean them off slowly, but it wasn’t working.