The Protagonist System

As I told Tammy my story, which was actually just the memories I had been given at the beginning of my visit here, the bar slowly started to fill up with people. A lot of them waved at and greeted Tammy, whom only nodded in response as she listened to me.

A pissed off Marius waddled into the bar a short time later and stalked right over to our table. Before he could do anything besides glare at me, I jumped to my feet and punched him in his glass jaw again. He dropped like a rock to the floor and everyone in the bar fell silent... then a few of them laughed and one of the younger women made a wolf-whistle at me.

I of course bowed and tipped an invisible hat to her, making her and the girls around her laugh and they started teasing each other. I sat back down and Tammy gave me a deadpan look, as if asking what else I did to him.

“Marius was an asshole when we met and then he tried to shoot me when he lured me over to you.” I said and then chuckled. “I may have also kicked him in the balls as hard as I could after I knocked him out the first time.”

That made a lot of the people around us laugh and Tammy sighed as she gave me the signal to keep talking.

“Where was I before I was interrupted? Oh, yeah. Merle thought it was a wonderful idea to ignore my advice...” I started my story up again and explained all about what happened with the seller, the surprise raid called in by Bobbie when Merle wouldn't pay her for a dead battery, and then dealing with Merle for being so stupid and getting everyone killed while I was locked up and kept safe.

The people around us laughed again, both for me putting the idiot down and the thoughts of being safe anywhere inside a quarantine zone controlled by the government and FEDRA patrols.

I told Tammy about meeting Joan and Ted for the first time after that and she stopped sipping her drink. Her eyes slowly became wider and wider as I described everything that happened, how Ted and Joan acted and reacted to everything, and how they treated me.

By the time my story reached Bill's place and I handed her the unaltered letter, Tammy looked resigned and she pushed her half-finished drink away. A quarter of the bottle of whisky was gone, as was two-thirds of the bottle of soda. She spent several minutes reading and then folded the letter up.

“Can I keep this?” Tammy asked.

“If you want to. It's served its purpose.” I said and she nodded as she tucked it away under her shirt.

We sat there in silence for several more minutes and neither of us said anything.

Tammy stared down at her drink and didn't reach for it. “She wasn't going to leave there for a while.” She said, her mind finally reaching the same conclusions that I had. “She wanted to come and find me, even though she didn't know I was here for sure; but, there was no real rush. It's been many years since the last time I saw her and a few months or more weren't going to make much difference.”

I only nodded and didn't respond verbally as my fingers slowly turned my empty glass.

“You're not sorry you did it.” Tammy commented. She wasn't accusing me or blaming me, either.

“I was starting to have feelings for her and she knew that, used them against me, and she didn't do or say anything to Ted about almost killing me a couple of times. It was like I didn't really matter to her and she didn't really care.” I said and finished off my soda. “After that, I was pretty much just tagging along with them because I had nothing else to do or anywhere else to go.”

Tammy's hand reached for mine that held my empty glass and I let the glass go to turn my hand and grabbed onto hers. Her reassuring smile made me feel warm inside.

“They weren't taking me anywhere after the Massachusetts State House because the resistance cell there was dead. With Merle out of the picture and two groups of Fireflies taken out, there was no one left to tell us where to go. All I knew was to head west and that was it.”

“Joan and Ted weren't going to finish the smuggling job.” Tammy said and gave my hand a squeeze. “The last thing I heard was about four months ago. The Fireflies had a base down in Colorado and it was inside the Eastern Colorado University campus or something. Or it used to be. They could be long gone from there by now.” She said and nodded off to the side.

“I was a part of a scout group that passed by there back then and it was dangerous.” Jenkins said and saluted Tammy with his drink. “It was even worse between there and here. We didn't lose anyone, thank god.”

“Infected?” I asked, just to be sure.

“Like you wouldn't believe.” Jenkins said and shook his head. “I signed out of scout missions after that. I don't want to see another one of those horrible horde swarm things ever again, thank you very much.”

I nodded and held on to Tammy's hand for reassurance instead of letting it go. I should have, because Marius woke up right then and saw us holding hands. His face turned angry and he started to stand up.

“I've got it this time.” Someone said from the next table and a fist swung out and popped him on the chin. He conked right out and fell back onto the floor as the whole bar broke into laughter.

“And that's the two downsides of having a glass jaw.” I said and motioned to Marius. “The first is having one in the first place. The second is that once everyone knows about it, you're fucked.”

Several laughs came from the men, while the women looked both pleased and upset. That reaction was about average for whenever a teenager cursed in front of adults, in my experience anyway. A few of them also raised shot glasses to me and drank them down. I couldn't tell if they were saluting my death or my success at winning Tammy over, though. They would enjoy the drink either way.

“All right.” Tammy said and stood, her hand still clasped in mine. “I believe you.”

“That's great.” I said and stood as well. “Can I get something to eat?”

“Of course. They serve three square meals a day in the jailhouse.” Tammy said and her hand was like a vise. “Jenkins? Give me a hand securing the prisoner.”

“Only under protest.” Jenkins said and I felt a handcuff slap onto my free wrist and then Tammy did a neat twist thing with her arm and my own was suddenly behind my back and the other handcuff was secured.

“Everyone? We need help gathering up the evidence of Eli's crimes. It should only take a day or so and then we'll hold a trial to ensure due process.” Tammy told them and most of them nodded.

“Do you allow conjugal visits?” The woman that wolf-whistled at me asked and her friends laughed.

“Eli?” Tammy asked me.

“I'm still a virgin.” I said out loud. In this body. I added in my head.

“That's a shame.” The woman said, her voice sad. “I'll have to pass. There's no time to break you in properly.”

I didn't visibly react to her words and that had Tammy and a few other people frown sightly at me. In my mind I was planning on how to either escape or to lawyer up and earn my freedom. Escape was definitely the much better option.

“What am I being charged with?” I asked as Tammy and Jenkins walked me out of the bar. “Any of the crimes I allegedly admitted to, happened before I entered your territory.”

Jenkins chuckled and slapped my shoulder. “That's just the thing, Eli. We're not charging you with anything you've done before.”

I blinked my eyes for a moment and then realized what he meant. “Can I plead extenuating circumstances and temporary insanity for destroying the town's gate and assaulting a local?”

“Don't forget brandishing a weapon, fighting, smuggling, dispersion of stolen goods, possession of stolen goods, encouraging disobedience to the local authorities, and causing a riot.” Tammy informed me.

I sighed and went along willingly to the jailhouse. At least I was going to sleep in a real bed for once. It would be the first time since back at Bill's place. Well, I guess it's Tammy's place now with her being Joan's only living family.

*

Two hours later, Tammy went back to the community centre to oversee the investigation. They would have done it at the jailhouse, except the suspect was there. “What do we have?”

A bunch of people submitted reports, eye witness statements, a list of the contraband and illegal goods, and the damage report on the doors and the road from the heavy truck tearing it up and making it difficult for the horses to trot across.

Jenkins put the shotgun and a box of shells onto the table, too. “We searched the truck and can't find anything else in the cab. Either he was bluffing or he stashed the other boxes somewhere else when we were all looking right at him.”

“Bluff, I think. He's turning 15 soon and he had to wear platform boots to drive the truck.” Tammy said and a few of the others chuckled. It was both funny and really smart of him. “We need a few hours to go over all of this, just in case someone exaggerated their story.” She said and pointedly did not look at Marius.

“We're not going anywhere.” Jenkins said and the rest nodded.

They all settled down to work through everything to put together a cohesive whole of the available evidence, minus one specific viewpoint. That of the perpetrator.

*

The next two days were quite relaxing. I was fed three nice meals a day at breakfast, noon, and night, and had a few people visit. Jenkins apologized and said everyone was subjected to their established laws, or it wouldn't be fair to anyone if they weren't all treated equally.

I would normally agree with that, except I wasn't allowed to influence the investigation with my observations. I would be allowed to present my case only when it was time and it would be weighed against the evidence.

Unfortunately, I didn't really like my odds if I had to defend my actions with reasons and facts, since a lot of it was just my own opinions and I acted as I saw fit and not necessarily as anyone else would. My experiences and thoughts highly influenced my actions, including the implanted memories that were added to my brain. I couldn't use that as a defense, however.

On the morning of the third day, I was brought to the community centre after breakfast and everyone in the town was there. A group of five people sat at a table in the front of the main room and I was sat at a side table by myself. A woman I didn't now sat at the other side table and she had a stack of folders in front of her.

“Attention, all.” A man said from the middle of the five people being judges. “The random draw for the Judge's Council picked us to serve this day and no one objected.”

Someone coughed and he glanced over at the woman at the end of the table.

“Should we tell them that?” He asked.

“It's only fair.” She answered. “It definitely puts her and the rest of us in a much better light.”

The man nodded and looked over the gathered people. “One of the draws brought out Tammy Miller's name...”

A few people made surprised sounds, some of which I was sure was because she wasn't sitting at the table with the judging council.

“...and she recused herself, because of the suspect's crimes and her own opinions being influenced by said suspect before he was charged.” The man continued as if he hadn't been interrupted.

Nearly everyone in the room turned to look at the spot where Tammy sat, myself included, and she smiled and nodded, confirming the judge's words. A scowling Marius sat beside her and he glared at me, so I smiled and nodded back, even if I thought my odds just dropped because she wouldn't be there to put in a good word for me.

“Chosen Presenter, please give the description of the charges and the evidence.” The man said and sat back to relax.

I sat there and stayed quiet as everything I did while there was presented in the worst possible light. My heart plummeted as everything was proven, especially the destruction of the gate that terrified a lot of people and the multiple assaults on Marius. His exaggerated report on my confrontational attitude and how aggressive I was the whole time, forced me to hold in my laughter.

A lot of the people in the crowd scoffed at his descriptions of me and I felt a little better about the smear campaign being levelled against me. It was still a horrible picture that had been painted against me and I was going to have a difficult fight ahead.

“The accused can now preset his defense.” The man in the middle said.

I stood up and everyone saw how much shorter I was than everyone else. “Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present my case and not just killing me off out of sight like everyone else would have.”

That brought the entire room to silence and the five judges looked surprised.

“I could stand here and defend my actions for the next few hours, countering every single point the presenter gave you, including how biased Marius was against me from the very start and that it was his confrontational attitude and not mine that caused this whole thing to happen in the first place.” I told them.

A lot of people in the room nodded, including Tammy. Marius just scowled.

“However, I'm not going to do that.” I said and a few people gasped. “You see, I realized something important as I sat in a jail cell for two days and thought about everything.”

“And what did you come up with?” One of the other judges asked.

“I wanted to remind you all that I crossed most of the country, from Massachusetts on the east coast to all the way here to Wyoming, all by myself. I travelled through hostile territory the entire way to reach here because someone that was hired to deliver me to the Resistance had failed in that job.” I said and everyone was silent. “I've gone through more things than most people can imagine and I've adopted a survivor's mentality.”

“What's what mean?” The woman on the end of the judge's table asked.

“It's exactly what it says. I will do everything I can to ensure my own survival above all else. Both my comfort and mental stability are secondary to staying alive. Everything else can be reasoned away under the thought that I have to live to see another day and to somehow get back to my loved ones. Nothing else is as important.” I clarified. “That is the only reasonable defense I could present, so thank you for allowing me to voice it.”

Silence fell and no one moved or spoke for several minutes.

“We need to deliberate.” The middle man said and stood. “Lunch will be brought here and we will return afterwards.”

The five judges shuffled out of the main room and everyone started talking.

“That's not going to be enough to get you off from all the charges.” Jenkins whispered next to me.

“I know.” I whispered back without turning around. “How did the door rebuilding go?”

Jenkins chuckled. “Your ideas for reinforcing it and then adding braces to embed into the ground when they're shut? Everyone's praising the work crew for protecting the entire town better than ever.”

“I'm glad.” I said and a tray of food was given to me. I looked up and it was the woman that wolf-whistled and I couldn't resist teasing her. “My birthday's next month and you could give me one hell of present.”

Jenkins laughed at her surprised face and didn't try to muffle it. “You've got huge balls, Eli. Huge balls.”

“They haven't dropped yet; but, they're getting there.” I joked and he laughed some more.

“Why couldn't you be a few years older?” The woman asked and she carried her own tray of food. We were suddenly surrounded by three other women carrying some chairs and they crowded around us as they put the chairs down and they all sat at the small table.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked them and one of them with short black hair gave me a sexy smile and the rest shrugged. “I am a confessed criminal, after all.”

“A little danger can spice things up sometimes.” The woman with short black hair said and started eating.

“Plus, you're really cute when you argue.” The blonde beside me said.

I gave her a single raised eyebrow and she blushed slightly.

“I stand by what I said.” She said and kept eating.

I looked at their faces and none of them seemed angry or upset at all the crimes I had committed against their community. “You ladies are far too nice to be associated with me.”

“Damn right.” The woman that wolf-whistled said, a smile on her face.

“Give me about a year to get used to things.” The woman with short black hair said. “I should be able to convince myself that having a cute boytoy is a great idea by then.”

I blinked my eyes at the admission and she gave me that sexy smile again. “Excuse me for a moment.” I said and didn't get up. I instead dropped my hands below the table and visibly adjusted myself. “Whew, that's better.”

It was her turn to blink her eyes at me, because I had become hard just from her words. The other three women also needed a moment to come to grips with that and then they all smiled and resumed eating.