Free The Book of a Few by Austen Rodgers Page A

rose. “Sure, I guess. Why?”
     
    “ I’ll explain later, but Branden is up in the fridge if you want to go talk with him for a bit. I’ll catch up with you in a while.”
     
    Taylor was confused, but I was on a mission. I left Taylor in the break room and began walking for the cage. I took my rifle from my shoulder as I entered the cage serving as a metal prison and sat down in front of Will with the gun across my lap.
     
    “ You eat already?” I asked.
     
    “ Yeah,” Will said.
     
    I was nervous, but ready, and said, “Good. I have one question for you.”
     
    He looked at me with a bored and tired expression and did not say anything.
     
    “ Now’s your chance to come clean, Will.”
     
    He looked confused. “Come clean?”
     
    I nodded. “Before I kill you.”
     
    Will sat up straight with wide eyes. “I’ve been tied up in here for two days! I already told you about the hospital, what else could you want?”
     
    “ Let me remind you of what you did: You subjected a man to merciless torture.” I stood up, walked close enough to Will that I loomed over him, and held my rifle in a ready position. “And that man happened to be my friend.”
     
    “ So why don’t you just kill me?” Will exclaimed.
     
    “ Oh, I’m going to blow a tunnel through your skull, Will. Don’t worry about that,” I said as I pointed the muzzle toward him. “What did you do it for? Was it really for food? Part of me doubts that even that is the truth.”
     
    “ No, I told you about the hospital. It’s the truth!”
     
    “ Uh-huh.” I pulled the bolt of my gun back to double check that I had a round loaded.
     
    “ Fuck you, man! Just get it over with!” A tear escaped the corner of his eye.
     
    “ Not a problem,” I said and pressed the gun against his forehead.
     
    Will shut his eyes as I wrapped my finger around the trigger.
     
    “ I’m fucking sorry,” he said.
     
    I lowered my gun. As much as I wanted him dead, I just couldn’t end his life myself. I turned and left the cage.
     
    Just outside, I heard Will say, “It wasn’t my idea, guy.”
     
    Branden and Taylor were talking in the equipment room. I asked Taylor if he wanted to see Will. Confused, he asked me who Will was, so I proceeded to explain to Taylor how we’d found him and about Will. Taylor of course agreed to meet the man, and he made his way to the cage, leaving Branden and I alone to talk.
     
    “ I don’t know what the fuck to do with him,” I told Branden.
     
    “ Should have left him like I said!”
     
    “ Not an option, Branden. Can’t just leave someone to die like that.”
     
    “ What’s going on with you, Chester?” Branden asked.
     
    “ Nothing?”
     
    “ Come on, you’re drooping your head for fuck’s sake. Never seen you do that.”
     
    I sighed. “I went to the cage to interrogate Will. I wanted him to pop or confess, so I threatened to kill him. I didn’t do it, but that doesn’t change the fact that the further I got into it, the more I just wanted to kill him.”
     
    Branden raised his eyebrows. “That’s something.”
     
    “ I know. It’s just… he could have killed Taylor. Or somebody else! Yeah, the guy was trying to get something to eat, but fuck.”
     
    “ Now I see what’s up with you,” Branden said.
     
    “ Eh, shut up.” I stood in thought for a moment. “He said it wasn’t his idea to torture Taylor.”
     
    Taylor returned to the equipment room.
     
    “ Just think about what we’re gonna do, all right?” I asked loose-cannon-Branden for guidance, that’s funny.
     
    Taylor had kept his conversation with Will short. I could tell that he was uncertain of what to think about Will. I myself know what I think about him, but can’t decide how to act based on moral complications.
     
    Afterwards, I sat for over an hour trying to find a way to remove the locks from our new guns by prying them off and picking them open. I couldn’t remove them, though. I’d guess