First Blood
Zacha wasn't always the way she is now; I mean, she didn't always have this freezing streak of hatred. It just sort of developed as she grew and went through problem after problem in her life. She was dealt a crummy hand to begin with, I suppose; I was three when I met her, and I've always done my best to show her the positive side of things... But there are certain things - terrible things - that just have no positive lesson to be learned at all. I remember - she first picked up a switchblade at the age of seven, and put a boy twice her size in ICU. Zacha was generally a very gentle and fun-loving girl who liked to compete and play, but when push came to shove, she could be terribly violent. To my knowledge, the first time she killed a man was when she was twelve. It was awful; she shot him in cold blood, and felt neither guilt nor remorse for him, but rather spit on his grave.
"Son of a bitch had it coming," she told me. "He deserved all that he received... And now, he won't hurt us anymore...." I
had never seen her eyes such an icy emerald green. She even kept the bullet shell - keeps it on a chain in her jewelry box.
But you must be confused by now, so I'll tell you exactly what had happened.
Dum, dum, dum, Honey, what have you done?
Dum, dum, dum, that's the sound of my gun.
Dum, dum, dum, Honey what have you done?
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound....
Zacha was only twelve and was under a lot of stress that she seemed to have buried with the church. A little less than two years before, the Federation massacred the Maxwell Church, killing over 190 children that she knew very well, and two adults that she viewed as the closest things she'd ever have for parents. She seemed to be coping well, but times were hard and she was a bit moodier than usual with the church demolished and her friend Duo having left. In her sleep, she looked ready to cry, and whispered to the darkness that she felt so alone. I didn't know what to do for her; she never consciously let people know how she felt, and had so many secrets that I didn't know who I was hearing talk. I didn't know if it was her or if she suffered from multiple personalities.
During the daytime, when there were people around, she acted as cheerful as could be. But during the nights, when she was
all alone, she seemed so sad and lonely. This went on for a long time, and no one but Carron and I noticed. As time crept
by, things got worse. Food and water rations were getting scarce, and everyone in the house had to fight twice as hard for
much less ration. Then one day, when we were all thirsty and tired, Jason, Master of the House, decided he didn't see a
good enough fight to bother giving food for. No one there was happy about it, but it was forbidden to go against his ruling. I
don't know what happened, but I just snapped; between Carron, Zacha and I, whatever food we won would be shared
between us. But if none of us could win or steal any food, then none of us ate. We were all so hungry, and it all happened so
fast... I don't quite remember what happened, just that I woke up some hour or two later, just past sunset. And Zacha and
Carron looked really worried about me. The fear in both their eyes subsided when I assured them I was fine. But as Zacha
tended my wounds, there was just this look in her eyes.... A cold fire unlike anything that I'd ever seen before... Especially
not in her. If looks could kill, all within sight would be dead. And just before she insisted I lay back down, I heard her say
something under her breath, that I never expected to hear uttered out of her mouth. Just before I fell back asleep, she said:
"This is the last time he hurts us... The LAST... I swear it..."
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her whole world's come undone
From lookin' straight at the sun
What did her daddy do?
What did he put you through?
They say when Janie was arrested
they found him underneath the train
But man, he had it comin
Now that Janie's got a gun
She ain't never gonna be the same....
I guess it was from there that things went from bad to worse. Every time Jason started to come near me, she'd growl -
literally - and reach for her blade, shooting him these death glares that could kill a man. I would always usher her hand
down before Jason saw it, but that one day he did see it marked the beginning of his rage towards her. Jason never liked her
from the day she came to stay; even though he was master of the house, when she arrived, he saw something in her bright
eyes that reflected something that scared him. In her eyes, he saw that her abilities would rival his own, and one day she - a
little girl - would succeed him. So all her life, he treated her worse than all of us; he would make her fight twice as hard for
less, steal twice as much, and so on. But every time she completed one task, he'd give her another even harder. And when
she succeeded those tasks, his eyes would fill with hate. Then he'd beat her anyways. And there was nothing - NOTHING -
any of us could do about it. When any of us got upset about it, we'd all be punished. So it was decided not to say anything at
all... But the more he punished, the further he pushed her over the edge.
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody's on the run....
By the end of that week, we'd all had a good taste of it. The three of us were covered in cuts and bruises. And Zacha had it bad; he'd pin her against something and beat her so bad when we were gone. When we'd get back, sometimes she'd be so badly hurt that she wouldn't wake up until the next day. But that week she'd had it with him. It was the fourth night that week that we'd only eaten the equivalent of a bread roll and less than a pint of water with the three of us put together. So that Saturday, we all planned to sneak out past lights out and steal some food to horde. The three of us split up in different directions, and were to meet back at home by 2 am.
I think I was heading towards the south-east market area, not too long after midnight. But about twenty minutes into my
successful robberies, I heard this blood-chilling scream. I didn't know until Zacha came home; Sunday, about noon; that the
scream I had heard was hers. I felt terrible, and even though I know it wasn't my fault, I couldn't stop blaming myself for
not having her join me. She came in, beaten, bruised, broken, and covered with raw areas where the blood had just recently
clotted. Jason was nowhere to be found, and I don't blame him. We would have killed him. For you see... That night, my
little sister Zacha, was raped by Jason.
Tell me now, it's untrue
What did her daddy do?
He jacked a little bitty baby
The man has got to be insane
They say the spell that he was under
the lightning and the thunder
knew that someone had to stop the rain....
Jason didn't come back until late Monday afternoon, and locked his door behind him. Didn't come out until way past lights out. In the attic, we had built Zacha a cubical-like room by nailing up little walls with a small door. We weren't far from her, but it still would take us a few minutes to get to the attic. When Zacha had come in Sunday afternoon, we got her cleaned up and she went straight to bed. She didn't even come out for most of Monday; she said she just wanted to be alone for a little while. I don't blame her. Several times we spied Jason heading up to the attic, but someone would always sidetrack him from going that night. But just to make sure, I snuck up to Zacha's room to knock for her. But when I got to her door, all I found was a note on her pillow saying that she'd gone out and would be back by dawn. She never told me where it was that she had went, but my guess is that she went to seek some form of medical aid.
Just as she promised, she snuck back into her room just before dawn and crashed. She woke up periodically throughout the
day, would pop a few pills into her mouth (which I later found out were still-births), and go back to sleep. For the next few
days, she was pretty quiet. She'd only come out for a few hours off and on, when Jason wasn't there, to avoid any
confliction. Me and Carron pretty much avoided him too; if we didn't there would have been a fight that would have been
talked about for years to come. But as it turns out, it would be Zacha who had the "honor" of a well known fight.
Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
By Thursday everyone seemed to play it off as if nothing had happened between Zacha and Jason; especially them. Zacha was a little colder, but you only saw it if you spied - then if she caught you, you'd get a hard punch in the chest. She hated being spied on. But around everyone else, people just assumed that she was tired from the crazy hours that she was up and whatever medication they had seen her taking. But Thurdsday night, she was restless. She had done her cards and her stones, and every time she did, they said the same thing; that she would be faced with some life-changing obstacle that night. Whether or not she won was undecided, as those things usually are. And when she looked out her window, she was horrified; when she looked at the moon, there was a blood red ring around it. "Blood upon the Moon" she called it. Said it was a bad omen that was always followed by death.
Just around midnight, Zacha snuck out through the window, heading to one of her hiding spots, I guess hoping that the bad
luck wouldn't follow. But the bad luck DID follow her - and his name was Jason. Jason saw her leave from his window and
followed. I saw him leave ten minutes after Zacha, and I, knowing trouble when I see it, followed behind Jason a piece,
making sure that I wasn't caught. I followed them for several blocks, into a much shadier area than we normally tread.
Personally, I knew Zacha enjoyed the thrill of the badlands, but even I thought this place seemed a bit out of her league.
Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away....
I peeked my head around the corner of a building and was able to see most of what happened. And what I couldn't see I heard. Zacha had curled up under some tent-like mass of sheets and apparently claimed that to be her hiding spot. But as soon as she curled up and closed the entrance flap Jason came down on the tent, ripping it right off of whatever was supporting it. I saw Zacha's face light up with terror. But I couldn't move! My feet seemed frozen to the ground, leaving my sister helpless to Jason. I turned my face away, but heard every bit of what he yelled.
"Little bitch!" he yelled. "Since the day you came here you were nothing but trouble. Always breaking my rules, embarrassing me at competitions when you beat the strongest guy I have... Well, now I break you! You WILL learn to respect me and do as you are told!!" I heard nothing from Zacha except for little gasping sounds, then the sound of her tiny fist sending a punch. I peeked my head around again and saw him holding her by the throat, punching her in the ribs, stomach and face. He picked her up by her neck then slammed her onto those sheets that were her tent. Jason had her pinned, but not with a hand. He had removed his right hand from her chest and replaced it with his left, which had a pistol aimed at her heart. Zacha didn't move and neither could I. I heard him mutter a few curses, then picked up the last thing he told her. He said, "You're nothing, bitch. Just mine. And you'd better get used to this, because this will be all that you're good for. And you'd better not tell your brothers, because then they won't be around to protect you. You got me?"
I couldn't take it any more and made up my mind to charge at him. But before I could move myself, an alley cat jumped
down in front of me, drawing attention from Jason. Busted by a cat! On the plus side, Jason let go of Zacha and had
dropped te gun. Jason was outraged and ran at me with a 2x4 plank that he'd grabbed from the pile of rubble. I was ready to
fight, but then something happened. There was one single sound echoing through the alley, then all was still. Jason stood
frozen, his jaw wide open right in front of me. Then the plank slipped from his hands, and I moved as he collapsed,
motionless. It took me a second to realize what had happened, it all went so fast. But then I looked at Jason's lifeless body,
and saw the blood pouring from the back of his head. And then I looked up at Zacha and the smoking pistol in her hands.
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
What did her daddy do?
It's Janie's last I.O.U.
She had to take him down easy and put a
bullet in his brain
She said 'cause nobody believes me
The man was such a sleeze, he ain't never
gonna be the same...
Zacha just stood there, emotionless and unblinking, the gun still poised in her hands. I ran over to her, unsure of what to say or do. I mean, how exactly do you reprimand a kid who just killed her step-father who hurt her the way he did? But as I went to put my arms on her shoulders, the gun fell from her hands and I caught her as she collapsed. I didn't know what to do; Jason was dead. After so many years of Hell and not able to do anything about it, just so suddenly dead.
She woke up a few minutes later, but seemed to be in a daze; we just sat there, her in my arms, unable to speak or cry. I
don't know how long we sat there, but when we finally came out of it, it was because of the sound of police sirens. We were
in *big* trouble; all I could think about was what might happen to us. Worst of all, I thought about what might have
happened to my little sister. In the eyes of the law, she just murdered a man, and no law would look at us and believe
otherwise. I hugged her to me, then pulled us up to run. The cop car to investigate the gunshot was just behind us, but the
siren echoed off the walls, so we didn't know where it came from. We just ran...
Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away......
I can't remember clear detail everything was moving so fast. I just remember that one minute we were running down the crammed alleyway off 16th and Simpson, the next minute we had run head on into a patrol car. Even though these were the badlands, they would at least attempt to get the kids off the streets. The cops got out and before we could run, the other car had pulled up, announcing that there had been a murder a few blocks back, and that we had been spotted running from the scene. One cop looked us up and down, and grabbed Zacha by the shoulders as his partner grabbed me. I motioned for her not to struggle as we were ushered into the car. It felt like hours as we sat in the car, handcuffed and being pounded with questions. They heard our stories, looked over Jason's body, and just looked at us... It was unnerving; Zacha shot out of self defense and they wanted to send me to a detention hall for a year, and her to a prison colony! A twelve year old!
The night was grueling; it was almost dawn when they finally exclaimed "Oh, they don't HAVE any parents, they belonged
to Jason's House!" which was what we had been saying from the start. But they still wanted to ship us off. But the one
officer who had taken Zacha had been eyeing her carefully the whole time. His name was Charlie O'Malley. After several
hours, the other cops went off to do other things and make arrangements, he stayed with us to get detail and background
info. Turns out the he was the only cop who really believed us, and that Zacha wouldn't have shot him just for the hell of
it... At the time, Charlie was our only hope; he was going to defend us so we wouldn't have to go through separation, and
worst of all never seeing each other again. I would have been released in a year or so, but Zacha would have been shipped
off colony for good, living in a juvenile hall until she was 18, and from there a few more years on the prison colony.
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Everybody is on the run....
Charges of homicide, several accounts of theft, malicious mischief.... Zacha's list of charges went on and on, even though she had never been arrested. But, at the same time, Jason's records weren't that grand either. He'd been arrested many times on fraud, blackmail, grand theft auto, battery with an assault, rape, possessing unregistered weapons.... His was extensive. But all the same, a child had killed him and some thought she should be tried as an adult. Officer Charlie was doing all he could, from trying to find tapes from the alleyway cameras to asking around the neighborhood about Zacha and Jason. It was a dark fight, and a pretty rough lawsuit. It was all over the colony news about our case, and Officer Charlie was trying to get as much support as possible. There was even a public vote and petition about whether Zacha should be freed or sent to prison for life. In truth, no one missed Jason; people all agreed that he was bad news and deserved to die after all that he had done. But also that Zacha needed punishment. I don't think there was a single person on the colony who didn't have their opinion of the case.
When the day of the trial came up, up until that point I've ever been more scared for Zacha in my life. But as we got ready for the trial, I just kept on reassuring her that everything would be alright. That we'd make it out. The long minutes of endless and pointless questions just dragged on and on. "Where were you April 23nd?" the lawyer asked. "On Juniper street." Zacha answered. "And what were you doing on Juniper street after midnight?" "Picking posies," she answered with a smirk. "I was getting FOOD; I hadn't eaten in several days. In case you people have been too busy to notice, orphans like us aren't exactly offered food." "And then you claim that Jason raped you on Juniper street?" "Yes.." "And what were you doing at the time?" That's how it was, the whole way through. On either side of the defense, it was the same thing; objection, overruled; objection, proceed. Zacha was just dying to get off the stand and let them shoot her just so the lawyers would leave her alone. But I had a plan. All through the trial, I kept looking at my watch. At precisely 11:24 am, our saviors would come. A few nights before, Carron had arranged for a few friends to come and speak at the trial.
The minutes just crawled by, but they had arrived, a on foot shooting their rifles outside the courthouse. But then things really heated up as two Leo suits hovered outside, firing at one another, blasting everything in sight. Large chunks of debris sprayed everywhere, breaking through the windows and blocking the doors. Everyone was in panic as things around us went up in flames, the suits battling it out right on top of us! There were about a hundred people, all who had something to do with the case, and they were stampeding in every each direction, some actually getting trampled. But in the commotion, I ran to the witness stand, grabbed my very frightened sister and ran to the wall on the far side, just before the chandelier above it came crashing down, along with a lot of the ceiling. I turned around, and saw a few patrons get out as we made our way to a special door. The rest... We had no time to worry about the rest; I was informed that we would have seven minutes to get out of the courthouse and into the under-roads, or else we'd be crushed.
The door was in the back of the courthouse, behind a large painting of Heero Yui, the political figure. It was a secret passage for emergencies if we had important people visiting or something. But we ran, I pulling her by the hand and making our way through the narrow corridor. It seemed to take several minutes for us to reach the exit, the smoke in the corridor so thick we could barely breathe. I could scarcely see in front of me, and the smoke was getting thicker, the fire's heat and sound of explosions getting louder and louder. Behind me, Zacha collapsed from the smoke. I picked her up and ran until we got to the exit. I think we must have sat in the alleyway at the end of the block for several minutes, Zacha's head resting on my shoulder while I watched the courthouse collapse into rubble and flames. The case was dropped after the attack, in fear of another. But everyone remembered the case, and very few firmly believed that Zacha and I were dead. But from that point, my little sister was never the same.
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Because Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Because Janie's got a gun