Immune-ish

Chapter Twenty-One

EVA:

When we get to the Town Hall, there's already a huge crowd gathered. Xander's town is so much bigger than mine was.

We take our spots in the back and stand in the shade of a house, waiting for what's to come.

I can barely contain how happy I am at the prospect of a cure, but I want severely to keep this façade up. Xander needs a taste of his own medicine, and I can't always be in a good mood anyway. How can I pretend to be happy when everything is piling up on my shoulders?

The front doors to their Town Hall creep open and I let it distract me from my thoughts. Zane steps out from the building and a hush falls over the crowd. I can feel the anxiety coming off of people in waves.

"The best rulers are always the most feared ones," my third-grade teacher once said. I never realized how right he was.

"Welcome," Zane says with his arms spread. "To our makeshift trial."

Trial? I thought this was about the cure. Xander stiffens beside me at the words, too.

"Bring out the defendant," Zane shouts. The doors to the Hall open again and a man pushes out a boy Xander's age with rope encircling his wrists. He is thrown the stone floor, very close to the edge of the steps.

"Erin Morris has been hiding a corpse in his household in Aberdeen." Zane looks at the boy with disgust. "He has been putting our entire town in danger and wasting our food so that the corpse could stay with him."

The same thing could be happening to Xander right now, I realize. If not because of Chloe, then because of me.

"He has broken one of our most important rules here: no corpses within our fences," Zane continues.

Xander won't remove his eyes from the boy above the steps and his breaths are very shallow.

Zane shouts, "And so, Erin is on trial. Although we all know him to be guilty, this is a democracy. So we give him a chance to speak."

The crowd is dead-silent and I have to wonder if time has frozen. Eons seem to pass before Erin yells out into the crowd.

"He was my father!" he shouts. "What else was I supposed to do?! And it's not like he hurt anybody. He was locked up real good, he couldn't have got out." He has a slight southern accent, barely audible through his frantic words.

"We shall have a vote," Zane says, cutting off whatever the boy was going to say. "Those who say he is innocent, raise their hands."

No one moves. I would, but I'd hate to draw attention to myself. Especially when it could be Xander up there next.

"Guilty?"

Everyone raises their hands high into the air, minus me and Xander.

"Then it is settled," Zane says. A smile slowly grows on his face. "Erin Morris, you have been pronounced guilty."

"No," Erin protests over and over. "No, no, no!", until his voice fades into a scream.

Zane reaches into a holster on his belt and pulls out a simple handgun. He takes aim and pulls the trigger within three seconds. Red blooms in between Erin's eyes before his body collapses and his body tumbles down the stone steps, spilling more red onto the shiny stone.

I turn my head away and try not to scream. Xander clamps his hand on my wrist like a vice and he yanks me through the neighborhood and back to his house at a brisk pace. For once, I am thankful I can't feel pain.

He unclamps my wrist to unlock the door. Xander storms inside and I follow. He sits down on the couch and pulls at his hair. "I can't believe he's dead," he whispers. He looks up at me with wild eyes. "And did you see the way Zane was looking at the entire time?! We're next, Eva! I'm next!"