Chapter 8: Trial (part 1)
A few days have passed. One day while I was cleaning dishes after dinner in the cafeteria suddenly we heard the sounds of someone repeatedly banging on the door on the first floor. We looked confused at each other. Who would want to enter our school during a zombie pandemic? Xavier approached a window and looked below.
- "Some guy is standing there and banging at the door. He is standing near a car"
- "How does he look?" asked Bernard
- "around 40, wearing black jeans and white shirt."
- "Hmm let's see who he is"
- "What if he will kill us? You never know with strangers?" asked Yuri
- "You know Yuri, we cannot survive assuming everyone out there is some kind of serial killer. We should at least try to talk with him. If he tries anything funny we have weapons to defend ourselves"
- "Ahh okay, sorry…"
- "Don't be sorry Yuri. It's also important to look out for danger"
- "Thanks, I will remember that"
We approached the main door to the school. They were covered with heavy pieces of furniture to prevent any breach. Michael and Arthur started removing them to allow passage. Bernard approached the door and asked:
- "Hello? Who is there?"
- "Are there any humans in there? Can you open the doors?"
- "Yes, I repeat who are you?"
- "I am a homeless traveler, running from zombies. I want to find a place to rest here?"
Bernard opened the door. Behind them was a man in his 40s, with a long beard, standing near a bicycle with only a backpack. He was visibly tired, likely traveling for a long time.
- "Thanks, young man. Zombies overran my home and I was searching for a place free of them. I didn't believe I would meet another human in my lifetime"
- "Please enter, we can give you a dinner and place to sleep for some time, but we don't have that much food"
- "No problem. Are you all group of teenagers here surviving by yourself"
- "Yeah, there are only nine of us here" responded Arthur "We were leaving school when the apocalypse happened. We gathered equipment, weapons and managed to survive here. Wish we knew how long it is going to last"
- "We can guide you to the cafeteria, you can eat something," said Bernard.
I don't know why, but I had bad feelings about this man. I didn't want to say it out loud, since it would look like I don't trust strangers. I marched in silence.
When we entered the cafeteria, Natsuki was sitting there drinking tea. When she noticed the man entering there she looking at him with surprise and said:
- "Dad?"
I couldn't help but notice a brief sound of fear in her voice
- "Natsuki, I can't believe you survived there! I was looking for you all around the town!"
- "Are you the father of Natsuki?" asked Yuri
- "Yes, my name is Dasuki. I haven't seen her since everything began. Come to your papa, I am so glad you are alive, Natsuki!"
She came to him with some reluctance, he hugged her with one arm.
- "Now that you're here, I can stay with you and take care of you"
- "Yeah…"
Natsuki looked at me with fear in her eyes. Did this man do anything to her? I sure do hope not. Maybe she just didn't like him.
- "Do you guys have any beer?"
- "No we don't have any alcohol, but we have some coffee, if you want" responded Arthur
- "Nah, don't worry, I have my own drink" he said as he pulled out a can of beer from his backpack. He must have been drinking a lot because I could easily smell alcohol from him.
- "I am so tired, is there any place I can sleep here?"
- "We can give you some blanket and some pillow and you can sleep in some maintenance room in the school"
- "Thanks, I will be heading right now. Goodnight, everyone"
- "Goodnight, Mr Dasuki" responded Bernard
After he was gone, I decided to approach Natsuki.
- "Hey is everyone okay? You looked really uncomfortable when you met with him"
- "No, there is no problem, i was just… really surprised"
- "Allright, but remember that you can always tell me if there's something wrong"
- "Thanks.. I will remember about that"
An hour later we finally went to sleep. I had bad dreams that night, about being chased by someone. When he almost caught up with me I was suddenly woken up by a loud sound of something crashing followed by a loud scream which sounded like… Yuri! I noticed she wasn't in her bed. I looked at others and they also were woken up. I instantly woke up and in my pajamas ran to the source of the sound.
After running in the corridor I noticed Bernard together with Xavier were also running to the source of the sound. Bernard quickly wore some clothes while Xavier was only in his underwear.
- "Do you know what happened?" asked Xavier
- "No, I just heard a loud scream and woke up. I ran here because I was afraid Yuri is in danger"
Suddenly we again heard Yuri screaming loudly "No, no, no!" from behind the supply room. I ran to the room and quickly opened them. When I entered, what I saw made me want to vomit.
Dasuki was lying on the floor with a knife in his stomach, blood pouring everywhere. He was visibly dead. Yuri was standing above him, trembling and covered in his blood. She looked at us and screamed in agony:
- "I just killed him! I killed a man!"
Bernard entered the room right after me and without hesitation told Xavier:
- "Detain her"
- "Yes, general" responded Xavier and approached Yuri and tied her arms behind her.
- "Go with her to the cafeteria, I will tell Michael and Arthur to go with me, Monika tell the girls to come there, we need to make a meeting to decide what to do"
- "Yes, of course!"
My heart was still beating frantically. Did Yuri just kill Dasuki? WHy did she do that? Is Yuri a murder? I couldn't comprehend what happened. This was the first time in my life I have seen a dead person. Looking into his empty eyes was scary to me. Was Yuri going to kill others too? So many thoughts were running through my head. I entered our sleeping room. Natsuki, Sayori and Linda were already awake.
- "What happened?" asked Sayori "I heard Yuri screaming and you suddenly ran"
- "Everyone, please dress, we need to meet in the cafeteria."
- "But what happened? Can you tell us?" asked Natsuki
- "Dasuki, he is… dead"
- "What?" Sayori shouted at me, not believing. Everyone was looking scared.
- "Did Yuri kill him" asked Natsuki
- "Yes I am afraid, it looked like it. But let's not make any conclusions"
- "What is going to happen now? Are we going to expel Yuri?"
- "I… I don't know. Let's hurry up"
I quickly dressed up and we went to the cafeteria. Boys were already seated near the table. Yuri was sitting on a chair, with her hands tied with a rope. She was still in her pajamas, covered in blood. I shrugged looking at her. When we entered she said:
- "Please don't look at me, I am a murderer!" and started crying.
- "Don't try to resist. We will decide what to do with you" said Xavier, who was guarding her.
When we all sat at the table Bernard spoke:
- "Thanks for coming. As you all may have heard, this night Mr Dadsuki who came to us was killed by Yuri. When we entered the supply room he was laying with a knife in his stomach, while Yuri was standing above him. He was already dead"
- "Is his body still in the room?" Asked Sayori
- "Yes, I closed the room after leaving it so no one can mess with the evidence. We already detained Yuri so she can't hurt anyone else"
- "Why did she do it" asked Natsuki
- "We don't know yet, but I am afraid that we will have to punish Yuri, she is danger to our community"
- "Are you going to kill her?" asked Linda, scared.
- "Well we don't have to do it, we can expel her from our building"
- "But she won't survive. This will be like a death sentence to her!"
- "Do you have any other ideas? What if she kills someone else next night?" Raised his voice Bernard.
- "I have an idea. We need to make a trial of Yuri" responded suddenly Natsuki
- "Trial?" asked Bernard
- "Yeah, I have seen them in American movies. You need a prosecutor, a judge, defense and a jury which will vote on her guilt. I think Yuri needs a chance for version of the story to be heard"
- "Why are you defending her! She murdered your father!" asked Sayori, looking at her
- "You know, even the worst people should have the right to a fair trial"
- "This sounds like a good idea," said Bernard. "I will prosecute her"
- "I will be a judge" said Michael "I know a lot of stuff about a law"
- "Allright Mike, that leaves only an attorney"
- "I will defend Yuri," I responded.
- "Are you sure about this?"
- "Yes" I said with determination.
- "Allright. Michael, I am leaving you to direct trial"
- "Yes, captain. Xavier, you will be a bailiff. You will execute all my directives and keep order during proceedings."
- "Understood, your honor" responded Xavier
Sayori, Arthur and Linda will form a jury and after a trial will vote whether to convict or acquit the accused. Natsuki is excluded from the jury due to her connection to the victim. To convict Yuri all three members of a jury will need to vote to convict her, upon which I will decide the sentence. Now the proceedings shall start in 15 minutes. Bailiff, please arrange all furniture to arrange a courtroom. Defense has a time to talk privately with accused"
- "What if she tries to escape?" asked Xavier
- "Defense will talk with her in the nearest closet with only one door. That way she can talk privately without possibility of escaping unnoticed"
- "Thank you, Your Honour" I stood up, and approached Yuri.
- "I give the accused permission to go to the closet and talk with her defense"
I approached Yuri who was still seating a chair with blood-covered clothes with her head down"
- "Your Honour, can you please give Yuri permission to change her clothes?"
- "Very good suggestion, we will take pajamas as an evidence in a court"
- "Is it really necessary?" I asked
- "Yes, the pajamas contain blood of the victim, they are needed to reconstruct what happened and conduct analysis. Linda, please go to girls room and bring her new clothes"
After Linda returned with new clothes for Yuri, I went to the closet with Yuri.I temporarily untied her hopes. I handed her clothes:
- "Please dress yourself now, I don't want to see you in those blooded pajamas"
- "Monika, you don't have to defend me, I am a bad person, I deserve to be punished"
- "Nonsense. Everyone should have their voice heard. Please stand up and and tell me exactly what happened so I can defend your honor"
Yuri hesitated
- Allright. So I woke up in the night and went to the supply room. I took my knife…"
- "Why did you take your knife with yourself, Yuri?"
- "I… " Yuri hesitated while taking off her shirt "I was going to cut myself…"
Then I noticed there were fresh wounds on her arms.
- "You are still cutting yourself?"
- "I am so sorry. I need to relieve the stress from living here under siege"
- "I don't blame you, remember what I told you then? Please continue"
- "Please don't tell anyone about this Monika, I don't want boys to know"
- "But we will need to explain why did you take a knife with yourself"
- "Maybe I will tell them I took it to defend myself?"
- "I don't know, it sounds suspicious, maybe just don't tell them the purpose. You don't have to. What happened next?"
- "So while I walked to the supply room I noticed Dasuki was standing there packing some stuff in his backpack including our water purification station. I tried to withdraw, but he noticed me:
« Hey, what are you doing here?» he asked
« Why are you stealing our stuff?» I responded.
« None of your smirking business, stupid teenager. Get out or you will find out!»
« Are you planning on taking our stuff and leaving us?»
« Why are you so interested? Yes I am leaving soon, but before I need to take Natsuki with me, she escaped from me»
« I can't let you take our property, we need it for survival. And I can't let you take Natsuki with you!»
« Enough, i can't take any of it anymore. I gave you a chance to escape!"»
He lunged at me. Instinctively I took out my knife that I hid up my sleeve. He jumped on the blade and cut through his internal organs. I saw surprise in his eyes as life has escaped him. When you discovered me he was already dead. And the rest you know"
- "So he attacked you? Sounds like you were defending yourself. You shouldn't feel guilty. I am sure jury will understand it"
- "If I escaped when he asked me to, he would still be alive. If I didn't bring a knife then he would still be alive. He died because of me"
- "You couldn't predict everything. If you didn't intervene he would steal all of our stuff and take Natsuki with him"
- "He was her father, he wanted to take care of her. Now I took Natsuki's father, whom she reunited with just a few hours ago. I am such a bad person, how will I ever look at her…"
- "We will see. Please gather up, we have a trial to win"
Exactly when I said that Xavier entered the closet and looked at us:
- "Accused, defense, please return to the courtroom, the trial is beginning. Please hand over the pajamas as evidence."
We left and entered the cafeteria. In the middle was a table where Michael was sitting with a metal bell in his hand, instead of gavel. Xavier was standing near with a bow on his arm, probably more for intimidation than as a weapon. On the right was a prosecutor table where Bernard was sitting. Left table, empty, was for defense. Outside was a table for a jury, with Sayori, Linda and Arthur. Michael loudly rang his bell:
- "Accused, defense, please take your seat at the table. The trial is starting"