The FAYZ Trials Chapter 5
"Members of the jury, standing before us today is Mr Sam Temple a survivor of the so-called FAYZ, an ordinary, teenage boy from California – a boy who, on the night of the Thanksgiving Massacre instructed his fellow people not one of them older than fourteen years old, to arm themselves with weapons and prepare themselves to fight off other students from the nearby Coates Academy. This is a boy who was prepared to risk the lives of the youngest children of the FAYZ by leaving them trapped in a day care centre as a pack of –mutant- coyotes, yes, coyotes prepared to attack and feed off of them. This is a boy who that very night engaged in a brutal and savage fight with his brother using their mutant powers, risking the lives of all those around him and ladies and gentlemen, unless this boy is found guilty of putting these children's lives at risk he will leave this court room without taking any responsibility for his actions – and we don't want that do we?"
Sam watched and listened as Freddy delivered his well rehearsed speech with an almost uncontrollable anger. What did this guy know about the FAYZ? What did he know about stepping up when everyone depended on you? What did he know about life or death situations? This guy was a joke, but Sam wasn't going to say that, not in front of a jury, he didn't want to sound obnoxious like Caine.
"So Mr Temple, do you deny any wrong doing?"
"You don't understand – I didn't have time to consider the consequences or come up with a safer plan, Caine was planning to take over Perdido Beach and I had to stop him!" Sam replied feeling the heat rise to his neck.
"Well then perhaps you'd care to tell the jury exactly what happened that fateful night." Freddy said with a smug, confident grin. Sam wished he could send Freddy to the FAYZ and make him understand the fear and pain he'd been through.
"Basically, we knew that Caine and the kids were Coates were coming to Perdido Beach – Caine wanted to take over and become some sort of leader-"
"And you didn't like that, did you Mr Temple? Because you were in charge of Perdido Beach." Freddy interrupted.
"No!" Sam snapped "I knew I had to stop Caine, he was powerful and ruthless and he knew that Drake was leading the coyotes to the day care – I was the only person who was strong enough to stop him," Sam noticed a few members of the jury shoot him disbelieving looks "what was I supposed to do?" he demanded angrily.
"Mr Temple, I don't doubt your desire to protect your fellow inhabitants of Perdido Beach, in fact you were quite thorough in protecting Miss Astrid Ellison and the late Peter Ellison, in fact you made sure they were as far from the – shall we say: action – as possible by instructing them to hide up in the church tower. Why Mr Temple, would you tell those two individuals to find safety and nobody else?" Freddy was grinning now, barely able to contain his glee. Sam knew where this was going: "Could it possibly be because Astrid Ellison was your girlfriend?" There was a collective gasp from the members of the jury and from the people in the gallery. Sam felt his cheeks redden, trust Freddy to bring his relationship with Astrid up.
"Mr Temple it seems to me that you wanted to play the hero that night and earn the adoration of Miss Ellison and that the safety of everyone else was unimportant to you – am I correct?"
"No!" Sam yelled angrily, Freddy smirked in response and in the corner of his eye Sam noticed Karim signalling him to calm down.
"I suppose it worked," Freddy continued casually "in the end you and Miss Ellison were sleeping together were you not?"
"Objection!" Karim shouted but Freddy had already done the damage, Sam could see the members of the jury tutting and shaking their heads.
"No further questions," Freddy grinned.
Diana sat in the canteen staring at the bowl of soup in front of her. She hadn't touched it. Weird how back in the FAYZ she would have literally killed for a bowl of soup and yet now she couldn't even pick up her spoon. She was too worried about Caine; in about two hours time he would be standing trial again and now she was unable to do anything to help him.
Stupid doctors. Of course she was mentally unstable – she'd just come out of the FAYZ – you didn't need a PhD to work that out.
"What's the matter Princess?" Diana looked away from the soup into the cold eyes of Erica, one of the 'inmates' she was freaky and kind of reminded Diana of Penny. She was overweight and pasty and insisted on calling Diana 'Princess' after Princess Diana.
"Let's hope you don't meet the same grizzly end as she did." Erica had said the day they met for the first time.
"Will you just leave me alone?" Diana growled. Erica ignored her and dipped her finger in Diana's soup, circling it around and around.
"So not allowed to go help your boyfriend huh?" she said ignoring Diana's requests for privacy. "Sucks to be you Princess, my boyfriend shot my step-dad."
"Nice to hear, sounds like a dream boyfriend." Diana muttered darkly.
"Hey!" In a flash Erica threw the bowl of soup across the canteen sending it smashing against a wall. "He deserved it okay! Mark my boyfriend was called, Mark shot him in the eye whilst he slept – it was so cool! But don't you dare speak badly about Mark, Princess." Diana held her hands up in surrender and Erica settled down.
"So tell me about your boyfriend what's his name Caine or Sam? They're both in the papers."
"His name is Caine and he's a sociopath." Diana replied coolly. Erica blinked and obviously didn't understand. "Ok he's killed people, manipulated people, tortured people and proclaimed himself King – oh yeah and he got me pregnant with a demon baby."
"Were you his Queen, Diana?" Erica asked unfazed by everything Diana had just said. "Or just his Princess – Princess Diana?!" she began to double over in a fit of hysterical laughter.
Diana stared at her and secretly began to miss Penny.
Now it was Karim's turn. He adjusted his tie slightly as he stood up to ask Sam his own questions and felt suddenly very warm. This was obviously down to Freddy. All those stupid questions about Astrid Ellison, no wonder the jury were looking so sceptically at Sam.
"Alright Sam," he said clearing his throat slightly "remind us of the exact danger you and the rest of Perdido Beach faced that night."
Sam seemed to visibly relax. He started speaking confidently about how the coyotes weren't normal animals but freakish mutants that could talk and make bargains. He spoke about how Caine posed a real threat to the town and about how he had cemented the hands of those with powers. He spoke about the psychopath Drake and his tentacle whip hand, and all the while Sam gained confidence and the jury looked less suspicious of him and more in awe. Karim noticed that Freddy had sunk in his chair a little and kept twirling his pen around his fingers: a sign of nerves.
"...so as you can imagine, I really had no control over the situation." Sam concluded and he looked over at Karim for some sort of assurance.
"Thank you Mr Temple, and just to clarify; you did provide extra security for Miss Ellison and her brother didn't you?" Sam looked a little uncomfortable but nodded and Karim continued before Sam could say anything. "But why did you do this?" it was a rhetorical question but Sam looked close to answering so Karim decided to cut his long pause short. "You did this because Peter Ellison was autistic: correct?" Sam nodded. "And Miss Ellison believed that her younger brother also possessed some sort of power – is that right?" Again Sam nodded his head. "So you were simply protecting a young boy and his sister because he could have been a very important asset to the children in the FAYZ. Correct?"
"Correct." Sam said with a smile.
"I'm sorry your Honour but are we really supposed to sit here and listen to this garbage?" Karim shot an angry look over at Freddy who had risen from his seat.
"Do you have a problem with the questioning Mister Wishman?" the judge asked.
"This boy was only protecting Astrid Ellison and her brother because she was his girlfriend – I thought we had established that! You can't just ignore that fact." He pointed accusingly at Karim.
"I think we've heard enough from you now Mister Wishman." The judge said sternly but to Karim's dismay, Freddy pushed onward.
"Your Honour, this boy was sleeping with Miss Ellison – he was 15 years old for heaven's sake!" Freddy practically shouted.
"MISTER WISHMAN!" shouted the judge and Freddy visibly bit his tongue. But Karim had spotted a valuable flaw in Freddy's outrage.
"Actually your Honour," Karim said with a smile at Freddy who frowned in puzzlement "What Mr Wishman just said is true, Sam Temple and Astrid Ellison did – er, shall we say; 'consummate' their relationship when Mr Temple was fifteen and underage, but..." and he paused à la Freddy. "at the time of the Thanksgiving Massacre we all know that Mister Temple was in fact fourteen years old." Karim couldn't help but grin as he spotted Freddy swear under his breath and roll his eyes
"Neither Mr Temple or Miss Ellison was committed to each other at this point in time- therefore what Mr Wishman just brought to the attention of the jury is irrelevant and ought to be discredited." He looked at the judge waiting for his response. The judge seemed to contemplate things for a moment then nodded and turned to the jury.
"Mister Smith is correct – please discount everything Mister Wishman just said." Karim beamed up at Sam who returned his smile and Freddy cursed loudly and threw himself back into his chair.
Caine had been watching Sam's trial broadcast live on TV. Karim looked strong today but that useless lawyer was about as reliable as Drake was sane. Freddy on the other hand...
He watched as the jury retired to make their decision and waited impatiently for their result. He watched the live interviews with members of the public outside the court and flicked between channels alternating between live scenes at the courtroom and highlights of the trial.
Caine noticed that Sam looked nervous at first but had regained confidence. If the jury cleared his name then there was a better chance that he'd be found innocent at the Mineshaft Incident re-trial. Caine knew how important it was to remain favourable with the public and the juries. But how was he going to persuade people that his involvement in the Massacre was – well, how was he going to get away with it?
He wished he could speak to Diana.
As soon as he was out of the courtroom Freddy flipped out. He pushed past the TV cameras and hurried outside where he could think straight. Damn! Everything he'd learnt about Sam Temple and his relationship with the Ellison girl had been wasted. All that hard work was down the drain. He sighed, it was probably his own fault. If he'd just played it cool like he usually did then maybe the judge wouldn't have been so harsh. Now he was dreading going back into the courtroom, he knew that Karim would be smirking at him and gloating. Freddy was so stressed out that he hadn't even checked his papers to see who was in next for questioning. Not Caine Soren. His trial would take place in the evening and much to Freddy's delight his little girlfriend Diana was locked up in a mental house and couldn't give evidence. Anxious to get back in the swing of things Freddy calmly went back inside and checked the timetable. His heart skipped a beat when he read the next name on the list: Astrid Ellison. Maybe his efforts weren't wasted after all.
Quinn rubbed his sweaty hands together. He'd been following Sam's trial online and things looked tough. His own Thanksgiving Massacre trial was later in the afternoon. He was being trialled for 'Omission of duty' or whatever fancy term they were calling his inability to shoot Drake down and save the kids in the Day Care.
"Seriously?" he'd asked Karim beforehand "they want to trial me because I didn't kill someone?!" but Karim had smiled and tried to put him at ease. However Quinn couldn't quell the churning sensation in his stomach. How bad would it sound when he admitted that he was too afraid to kill Drake? Drake Merwin. Drake Whiphand Merwin!
Quinn took a long, deep breath to steady himself. There was no point in stressing now, he'd be in court within a few hours. He left his laptop on the desk in his comfortable hotel room and went to the mirror to adjust his tie. He hated wearing suits and as he looped his purple tie around his collar he couldn't help but see it as a noose.
Astrid held the small, black leather bound Bible in her right hand. Its cover blank apart from a small, golden cross in the middle. Strange how since coming out of the FAYZ she hadn't touched this once treasured book even one time. She remembered how she used to have a copy of her own in her bedside drawer that she would read every night just before hitting the lamp and going to sleep. She remembered her favourite psalms and passages and how as she'd gotten older she'd made comparisons between the stories in the gospels that repeated and how she'd come to the conclusion that she liked Luke's Gospel the best.
"I swear by the Bible that that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth." She said in a loud clear voice. This had been the moment she'd feared the most because even though the words now felt empty and meaningless the whole act still struck her as serious and consecrated. It dawned on her there and then in the courtroom that after everything she had been through God still held an important place deep down in her heart.
Then suddenly it began: the blonde lawyer, Freddy Wishman stood up to question her.
Sam watched as Astrid took the book and swear that she would tell the truth. He knew that Astrid didn't really even need to swear an oath. She wasn't a liar. But Freddy was a manipulative guy and would try to get her into a tricky situation.
"So Miss Ellison, so nice of you to join us this afternoon," Freddy began smoothly "you see, you've already made quite an impression on our jury already today – but enough about you, I want to know about Sam Temple."
Astrid didn't say anything.
"Well?" Freddy prompted frowning probably wondering if this really was the girl nicknamed Astrid the Genius.
"Well what?" Astrid asked "you simply told me that you wanted to know about Sam Temple which was a statement and not a question. I'm sure you understand that I don't have to respond to a statement." Freddy gawped and Sam grinned, now Freddy was really going to meet his match. "Of course I'll respond to both questions and interrogative orders but not statements." Astrid added with a smile.
"Then tell me about Sam Temple's personality." Freddy growled opting to order rather than question. Astrid paused then spoke;
"Well Sam is rather difficult to set apart: he's a surfer who doesn't hang out with surfers. He's bright, but not a brain. As you can see and surely must recognise Mr Wishman, he is good looking, but not so girls think of him as a hottie." Astrid smirked slightly and met Sam's eye at the last part of her comment and Sam found himself awkwardly turned on. Freddy glared at Sam through narrowed eyes.
"So he's an enigma?" he asked Astrid.
"Well yes and no," Astrid replied
"Ah, so you're the enigma?" Freddy snapped icily and Astrid raised her eyebrow condescendingly.
"What I mean is: Sam isn't a mysterious person, he isn't aloof or standoffish he just doesn't belong to any clique. I suppose he's just his own person really."
"Well that was a great deal of help," Freddy said with sarcasm which annoyed Sam. "Did you notice a change in his personality once the FAYZ began?"
Astrid hesitated and Sam wondered what she was going to say. "Miss Ellison?" Freddy prompted his eyes flashing with excitement as though he was ready to rip her to shreds at any second.
"Well if I'm being brutally honest," she began
"Which you must be!" Freddy quipped nodding toward the Bible placed next to Astrid. She didn't flinch;
"If I'm honest I never really paid any attention to Sam prior to the FAYZ." She admitted. Sam smiled at how uncomfortable she looked at admitting her lack of interest in him.
"Ah! So it wasn't until the FAYZ began that you developed an infatuation for him?" Freddy asked with a wry smile.
"It was more than an infatuation Mr Wishman." Astrid replied with impatience "you must understand that my relationship with Sam is based on a lot more than eye candy and decent conversation. We were living each day as if it were our last, we had nothing! We were two people who cared deeply for each other at a time when all hope was lost."
"Well I am most touched Miss Ellison but you didn't answer my question." Freddy said with equal impatience. Sam had never seen two people display such obvious dislike for each other in a long time.
"Fine! I only began to develop emotionally charged feelings for Sam once the barrier came up."
"But what was it that – to want of a better turn of phrase – 'turned you on' Miss Ellison? After all, by your own admission Sam is bright, but not a brain and he is good looking, but not so girls think of him as a hottie." Freddy replied his confidence seeming to build as he paced the court room floor and occasionally talked directly to the cameras. "What was it about Mr Temple that got your heart racing?" Sam noticed that Astrid was looking slightly flushed.
"I suppose it must be his...his caring nature." She said weakly. A part of Sam felt highly insulted that there was nothing better about himself that had turned Astrid on but he didn't let it show, even when Freddy chuckled pompously.
"Interesting Miss Ellison," he said with a smugness to his voice "but won't you elaborate for us? What did Sam Temple do that was so caring? Offer you his last Twix? Walk you home after dark? Oh! Did he make you a little Sammy Sun with his superpower? Perhaps it was his powers that turned your head Miss Ellison? And not just hypothetical powers like money or status: real mutant powers! No doubt he made you feel very safe indeed!"
Astrid looked horrified,
"Are you suggesting that I was nothing but a damsel in distress who ran to the most powerful person for protection? I beg your pardon Mister Wishman but I am quite capable of taking care of myself – with or without Sam's help and powers!" she said haughtily.
"Very well Miss Ellison," Freddy said still confident "but what about your little brother? He was autistic right? And you took care of him during the FAYZ – except that on day one you didn't even know where he was and it was Sam Temple who climbed over the barbed wired fence into the Power Plant to find your brother, it was Sam Temple who made sure that your brother was unharmed by the mutant coyotes by using his powers and it was Sam Temple who essentially kept him safe from harm right until his death, the day that you threw your autistic younger brother into the jaws of a mutant flesh eating bug!"
Astrid stood frozen in the witness box her mouth just open a tiny bit with a single tear rolling gently down her cheek.
Diana was watching Sam's trial on the TV in the 'relaxation room.' She wasn't alone to her annoyance, three other girls whose names she didn't know were watching too. It was all a bit distracting because every time the camera panned to Sam one of the three would swoon and start hyperventilating.
"He's sooo handsome!" she squealed and then turned to Diana "much better looking than your ugly boyfriend." She smiled spitefully but Diana ignored her. She was trying to listen to what Astrid was saying. She'd already outsmarted the prosecutor with her whole 'question and statement' monologue and Diana had rolled her eyes at her modest description of Sam. But now the prosecutor was rallying out some sort of speech and Astrid looked upset.
"Look at her crying like that!" one of the other girls laughed pointing at the screen "give the girl an Oscar!"
"Would you shut up?" Diana snapped "I want to hear what's happening!" The girl, who had jet black hair sneered at Diana.
"You're just jealous that Sam's girlfriend is allowed to go to court but you can't!" she scoffed.
"Excuse me?" Diana laughed "are you saying I'm jealous of this sanctimonious bitch? You're out of your mind!" The girl rose angrily to her feet and stared icily at Diana. "What are you going to do?" Diana asked lazily "attack me and lose all your free time by getting yourself kicked out? Go ahead, be my guest."
"Take a look in the mirror Ladris," the girl growled returning to her seat "you call me mental and yet you're also a patient here." And she and the other two girls laughed cruelly at Diana's irritated expression in delight.
Astrid felt her chest tighten and her head swoon. How could this man make out she killed Petey in cold blood? Why was she being ripped to pieces? She was supposed to be defending Sam and somehow Freddy Wishman had managed to turn the whole situation into a scandalous love affair story.
Luckily for her Karim had demanded that Freddy stop the questioning and had given her a brief enough pause to wipe away her tears and clear her mind.
"Stop as much as you like," Freddy gloated "I've still got lots of questions to ask!"
"Are any of them actually relevant to the case?" Karim demanded angrily. Astrid knew he was trying to help her out of the situation but deep down she realised that what Freddy had been saying really was relevant. After all, the jury would naturally be wondering why Sam always went out of his way to protect her and Petey and why she was away from immediate danger the night of the massacre.
"Miss Ellison, are you ready to continue?" the judge asked her with an impatient tone.
"Yes your Honour." She stole a glance up at Sam and he smiled down at her.
"Alright now that the waterworks have dried up I can carry on with my questions," Freddy muttered looking at his notes with the air of a world leader checking his lunch schedule. His arrogance made Astrid's blood boil but she held her tongue and waited for his inquisition to begin. "So, we've established that you and Mr Temple have an 'exclusive' relationship, now I want to know about the events that night; Mr Temple is being trialled for knowingly endangering young children and you should know that it's a miracle he's not being charged with manslaughter-"
"How ridiculous!" Astrid shrilled "Sam had no idea that the coyotes would attack the way they did, he assumed they were under Caine's orders and that Caine was just baiting him."
"Oh really?" Freddy smirked "Well perhaps Mr Temple shouldn't be so presumptuous in future – especially when young lives are on the line." He cast a dark look up at Sam and Astrid saw the camera man pan in for a dramatic shot. This whole thing was a farce and Freddy Wishman knew it – Astrid hated him.
"Look," she sighed "Sam was trying his best to protect everyone; he made sure that the people with powers were prepared for a fight and that the young ones were with Mary Terafino!"
Freddy laughed again "Oh-ho! Poor Mary, now she is a tragic case – but surely she wasn't the most stable person to take care of pre-schoolers?"
"You've clearly done very little research Mr Wishman," Astrid said icily and Freddy looked livid in return. "Mary was wonderful with the kids, without her you'd have plenty more graves in the town plaza! Her breakdown was a result of the Gaiaphage until then she was perfectly capable of taking care of them!"
"What an alibi this Gaiaphage is turning out to be," Freddy muttered and Astrid simply smiled down at him superiorly.
"Members of the jury!" Freddy declared and Astrid sighed inwardly knowing that the questioning wouldn't last much longer from his part. "What you have heard today proves that Mr Temple was thoughtless and careless and ultimately selfish on the night of the massacre. A massacre which surely could have been prevented had he only tried harder to work in harmony with Mr Caine Soren and the children from Coates Academy. It is clear that he and Miss Ellison cared only for each other and gave no thought for anyone else that night or any other night for that matter. I can see it only fitting that this boy is to be punished and I sincerely hope that you all agree with me." With that he nodded at the judge "No more questions."
Now it was Karim's turn. He was livid with Freddy and he could tell just be the expressions on the members of the jury's faces. They were looking suspiciously up at Sam and tutting at Astrid after Freddy's desperate last speech. Standing up, he pushed his hair from his eyes and turned to Astrid.
"Miss Ellison, I think now would be an appropriate time to explain to the jury exactly why your younger brother Pete was so important to the FAYZ." He saw Astrid visibly sigh with relief and when he glanced toward Sam he too looked relieved.
"Pete had powers," Astrid explained "he was very, very powerful but he was also severely autistic. He had little to no control over his powers and was very volatile. What we did learn was that Pete played a vital role in creating the barrier that surrounded us. Sam and I knew that it was crucial to keep Pete safe because we believed him to be our only chance of survival."
Karim nodded as she continued to explain Pete's situation and he noticed Freddy looking angry in his chair. Gradually the jury looked less and less suspicious of her and much more thoughtful. By the time she was done and sounding a little emotional Karim was convinced that the jury had seen through Freddy's elaborations. Astrid stopped talking and turned to him, braced for the next question but Karim simply smiled at her, Sam, the jury, the judge and at Freddy and said;
"No more questions."