Without Guilt

Chapter XVII: Judge, Jury, Executioner

Dominique's gaze silently traced Kumi's sleeping face, memorising his handsome features for the hundredth time.

She'd lay awake most of the night again, anxieties about the future plaguing her.

She'd heard Pier and Otis leave before the sun even rose, but now the soft grey of the morning light had started to push its way through the drawn curtains, making her feel sluggish.

She didn't know where the two had gone, but she'd be lying if she said it didn't concern her.

The last time Otis had gone off on his own, he'd ended up being cornered by Ethan Murphy. She was sure that swindling pig would still be out to get him once his crew of snitches caught sight of the man wandering around the camp.

It wasn't like she could express these concerns to Kumi though. He'd never had a problem with her relationship with Otis before, though at times he had expressed jealousy, she hadn't thought it was serious. She'd told Kumi before that Otis was no more than a brother to her. They'd known each other from many years before the outbreak, they'd been children and attended the same school.

It hadn't even been a friendship, more like an awareness of each other's existence. Dominique's mother had worked with Otis' mother till she passed, then his father ran her out of the house with racial slurs. She'd been a nurse, taking care of Otis' younger brother who was wheelchair bound since birth and Otis' mother had been suffering from some illness that made it difficult for her to do much on her own.

Dominique had been offended on behalf of her mother. It was difficult enough living in a backwater countryside town where they still held some segregated and sick ideas, but it was another thing entirely for someone to treat them that way in broad daylight. She'd heard them whisper and knew those yellow grins of mockery they shot at her and every other family that wasn't white or American.

But her mother had taken her aside and told her not to take it out on the children. Otto was her age, but he was home-schooled for the most part. She liked talking to him, perhaps she'd been his only friend now that she thought about. She could never get what had happened to him out of Otis though. The last she'd heard before she left town was that he was moving away too, to pursue his college education just like she was.

She'd met Otto at a conference again some years later. He'd been vague and withdrawn like he was ashamed to be recognised. She couldn't figure out why at the time but thinking about it now he wasn't ashamed of knowing her, more ashamed of what his father had done towards Dominique's family. Otto had told her that Otis was in prison but that no one had gone to visit him.

Dominique didn't know why she'd decided to do it at the time, but if she hadn't gone to visit, she probably wouldn't have made it on outbreak day.

Most of Colorado had been overrun from what she heard. If she'd stayed, it was unlikely that she would have made it. That, and… maybe she would have never met Kumi.

She gently traced the faint scar along his jaw, the motion making him nuzzle closer to her.

"Is it time to get up yet?" He asked in a sleepy murmur, his voice muffled into her shoulder.

"You still have… 15 minutes." She declared as she looked to the clock.

He hummed in acknowledgement of this response. "Why you awake then?"

"I was just thinking." She replied quietly.

He seemed to doze for a few seconds before slowly pushing himself to lean up on his arm and look at her. "What's the matter, babe?" He asked with tired concern.

Dominique smiled at him faintly. She knew he cared about her, most of her fears were silly or maybe… they were reasonable considering the state of the world.

She shrugged a shoulder, sitting up and propping a pillow behind her back.

"Dom, you can tell me." He insisted, sitting up beside her and wiping the sleep from his face.

"You sure? You won't get mad?" Dominique pre-empted, giving him a half suspicious look.

Kumi gave her a look which made her sigh. "It's about Otis, isn't it?"

Dominique gave a nod.

It was his turn to sigh. "Look, Dom. I made things right, okay? I paid back my debt, we're not beating each other, we're good." He pointed out.

"I know that." She assured.

"Then what's the problem? Why's Otis Meyer waking you up at early hours?" He was clearly fighting down the urge to blurt out whatever accusations were lacing his tone.

Dominique pointed at him. "It's exactly that."

"What?"

"It's exactly that stupid idea you seem to have in your head. Otis is like an older brother to me, K. I would never think about him in that way." She kept her tone as calm as she could manage despite her frustration. She wanted to iron this issue out and be done with it, never to be discussed or argued over again.

Kumi groaned. "Then just answer my damn question. What's the issue now?"

She eyed him suspiciously for a bit longer, not entirely trusting his temper. "You're acting awful strange."

"I'm acting strange?" He questioned with a light frown.

She nodded but failed to elaborate.

"I don't get you. You wanted us to get along and now that we are, you're saying I'm acting strange." He huffed, throwing the covers aside to find his clothes.

"You're not getting along, Kumi." She insisted.

He clicked his tongue. "What you talkin' 'bout?"

"Kumi. I know you. Things don't fix themselves over night. Even Otis looks uncomfortable with your sudden change in behaviour. Just tell me what the problem is, and we can fix it together." She moved to his side, gently touching his arm.

Kumi did his best to rein in his temper, slowly turning to face her. "Look, I'm just… I'm just going through things, Dom." He expressed, exhaling another heavy sigh. "And I don't even know where to begin. Stuff happened, and I just…" He shook his head, letting the rest of the sentence fall away.

Dominique's heart sank a little at seeing his troubled expression. "C'mere." She prompted, opening her arms out for him.

Kumi snaked his arms around her waist, squeezing her softly as she hugged him. "I don't even know what to think, Dom. I'm not like this."

Not much of what he was mumbling was making sense to either of them in all fairness.

"How about telling me what happened?" She suggested as she gently rubbed his back.

Kumi mulled it over a bit before drawing back. "Dom, I need to know you're on my side here, yeah?" He said, taking her by the shoulders. He could already see the furrowing of her brows with concern. "I just need to know that you trust me, okay? I need that from you right now." He pleaded.

"Of course, Kumi. You know I trust you." She assured, though she was fearing that Kumi had done something he really shouldn't have.

Kumi seemed uncertain. "You know I love you Dominique, that ain't never gonna change, 'kay?"

"Yeah, sure." Dominique confirmed.

"I just… yesterday, I was mad looking for you when I came back with Pier. I didn't know where you'd gone, I thought Mason would since Dor was with Scarlett and all that…" He was slow to work himself up to it, but it was his way of trying to understand his own feelings too.

"I'm sorry, K, it was very important to me." Dominique expressed, her concern lessening as he gave her hand a squeeze.

"No, yeah, I know." He assured. "But everything that's been happening with Otis, you know… what Lewis and Murphy did, I just… I said some horrible things to him- I was angry and all this pressure and shit. I said stupid things I didn't mean." He confessed.

Dominique was patient. "You're scared for him?" It a natural assumption, they'd been close.

"Well, yeah." Kumi agreed unceremoniously, though she sensed there was more to say. "So, anyway…" He turned her hand over in his, distractedly brushing over the light calluses from years of hard work around the camp. "Last night, I went to ask Mason about where you were and he… I mean, I don't think anything happened, I just saw red-"

"Slow down, K. What happened? What did Mason do?" She cut in.

Kumi went very quiet, still seeming like he was figuring out that part for himself.

Dominique looked him over, her eyes searching his face for clues. Before she could ask anything though, he seemed to remember that she was waiting for an answer.

"He had Otis down, and… he was just holding him down, y'know. Like… Otis looked so scared." He expressed in a short breath. The topic was not a comfortable one for Kumi, it was easy to tell. "I've never seen him like that before, I just never expected Mason to do something like that, I don't even know what he was doing, maybe I read into it too much." He added dismissively, shaking his head as though this whole conversation was ridiculous.

He'd refused to process his feelings in the moment and the more he tried to understand, the less he did.

"No, Kumi, you can talk to me." Dominique insisted, following him around as he grabbed his clothes to get dressed. "K, please."

Kumi pulled on his shirt, shaking his head still. "It's stupid, Dom. Forget about it."

"No, Kumi, it's not." She pressed. "Your feelings are important to me. If I made you feel like I cared about anyone else more than you, I'm sorry. You know I love you, fuck Otis Meyer and Mason Anslow, and everyone else on top of each other."

Kumi stopped, his expression delicate as he turned to her again. "That's the problem, Dominique. I want to be angry and hate everyone, but I can't. I'm just as scared of losing him as I am of you." He felt so awful making this confession, stupid and pathetic. Like he was ungrateful for what he had.

He didn't understand how much this could eat away at him.

Dominique was still comprehending what his words might mean, but the expression on her face was one of warmth, her slender fingers slipping between his own. "You mean… like a brother?" She posed the question slowly, a twinkle in her eyes suggesting there was more to her thoughts than that, but Kumi missed it.

"I guess." Kumi took it as the consoling option. It might have been the answer he was looking for.

"I think you should talk to him." Dominique proposed.

"Fuck that." Kumi scoffed. "He can't even talk right now."

"That's a good thing. It'll stop him from saying anything to you that'll freak you out and provoke your temper." She pointed out in light teasing, moving away to get dressed for the day.

"Nah, we're cool. It's fine. Like brothers." Kumi dismissed.

"Are you sure it's not something else?" Dominique questioned as she opened the door.

Kumi stopped to look at her. "… Like what?" He asked stiffly, not entirely sure what that smile of hers was about.

A distant clamour interrupted their conversation, shouting being heard out in the street.

Kumi frowned, heading to pull back the curtains and open the window to peer out.

"It was Meyer!" Ashton screamed, desperately struggling against the two men dragging him through the QZ.

"Yeah, yeah. Come on, big guy." The man on his left huffed, doing his best to keep pulling the large man who was dragging his feet on purpose.

"I'm fucking tell you-!" He wheezed, coughing up more blood. He was yellow skinned and red eyed, dried blood clogging his nostrils. His appearance alone made the gathering crowds move away in fear of whatever he looked like he had. "It was Meyer!" He insisted.

Layla and Phil stopped on their way to their shift at the warehouse, exchanging confused looks before sifting through the crowd to get a look at whatever was happening.

"Stay back." Another few men and women stepped forward, their weapons marking them out to be the Leader's guard. They were the few who were given the best of gear and body armour that had been ripped from dead FEDRA soldiers. Most of them had only been teenagers when this whole thing started, now they were perfect little 'soldiers'.

Already whispers were going through the crowd. "Is he infected?"

"Amin," A familiar voice addressed Layla, Hisayuki Machii making his rare appearance in the crowd. "Where's Otis Meyer?" He asked.

"Boss." Layla gave a nod of her head in respectful greeting to the leader. "I'm not sure. His group were scheduled for supply run, I think they already left." She told him, doing her best to ignore Ethan Murphy who was buzzing around Hisayuki like a fly.

Hisayuki Machii was a Japanese man, his dark hair streaked with silver and sharp eyes dead enough on the outside to make it hard to hold his gaze. He'd been one of the five original insurrectionists that revolted against FEDRA, using the backing of the Fireflies to cease control of the Pittsburgh QZ. He survived the systematic head hunting of the military that took out three of the five, then killed the other two when they refused to then turn on the Fireflies. His regime was quickly established, a charismatic and generous exterior gaining him many loyal followers and securing his leadership over the group that would then become the Hunters.

He knew people. He knew how they thought and what they would do to survive. Hisayuki was dangerous.

But right now, there was another issue - when had Murphy returned and what was Lewis screaming about?

Hisayuki stepped out of the crowd, his mere presence commanding them to silence. "What's going on?" He questioned the two men that had been escorting Lewis out of Med Bay.

"We think he's positive, Boss." The first spoke.

"I'm not infected! I'm fucking telling you, Meyer and Pier did it! They gave me this fucking poison-!" Ashton's attempt at explaining was rewarded with the butt of a gun cracking down on his skull. A gasp was raised from the crowd as the whole 6'7" of him went crashing down like a ton of bricks.

"When I talk to you, you answer." Hisayuki stated, wiping the end of his revolver with a handkerchief.

The two men exchanged nervous glances, not daring to move from their spot.

The second steeled his nerves before holding out a pill bottle to the leader. "He had this on him. Reckon he might've been trying to hide it."

Hisayuki collected the bottle with the handkerchief, not wanting to touch it even with his gloves on. He turned it over to inspect the label, ignoring Ashton's pitiful sniffling at his feet. "Antibiotics. Predictable." He sighed like this was merely some minor inconvenience. He dropped the bottle back into the accompanying man's hand. "Penny, check the inventory. Does Erythromycin match our missing stock?" He called to one of the young women.

Penny jogged over with the clipboard already in hand.

Apparently Hisayuki and his merry band of gun totting dogs had already been on the hunt for the thief that entered the storehouse last night.

"It does, sir. Full bottle of Er…" Penny squinted at the clipboard as though that might help her pronounce the word.

"This pig inhaled the whole thing in one night. And now he's screaming about poison." Hisayuki tutted, tilting his head at Ashton like he was observing some lesser creature.

Another series of whispers broke out.

"What was he doing in Med?" Hisayuki questioned the staff.

"Leg wound." They answered obediently.

Hisayuki turned his head in Penny's general direction as though to confirm. "Bled a lot I imagine."

"There was blood on the stairs and in the storeroom, sir." She verified.

"I didn't steal anything, I'm not infected-" Ashton protested his innocence, his wild eyes searching the crowd for some way out of this hellish situation he found himself in. "Murphy! Murphy will tell you, it was Meyer, he shivved me, I didn't steal nothing!" His shaking hand pointed an unsteady finger towards the man. "Murphy tell 'em, tell 'em me and you were settlin' scores with Meyer!"

Ethan Murphy spat on him. "Like I would have anything to do with you!" He denied. "He's a liar, a thief, and a woman beater!"

These words incited the crowd, especially the women.

Whatever else Ashton had to say about his innocence was drowned out by the throng, the mass swarming in as soon as Hisayuki stepped back, leaving him at their mercy.

Please R&R!