The House Part 32

Chapter Two in which there is some conflict and Marc makes some very reasonable points
Brien loaded his Zeta 1457 Assault rifle and cocked it. It was a beautiful firearm and Brien had kept it in very good repair. He polished it every three days for at least half an hour and he cleaned all the parts of the gun every Sunday for about an hour. The gun had been made for Brien specifically. In fact the gun was based on a design that Brien had created. It was very light but contained twice as many bullets as most assault rifles. It also was extraordinarily sturdy. Unlike most assault rifles the strap was locked into the gun secured by fourteen different clasps and straps so it was nearly impossible for the gun to fall off during the middle of a battle.
Brien slung the rifle over his shoulder and drew his Beta nine pistol. Unlike the rifle to handgun was not in pristine condition. It was bumped and scratched. The pistol was also quite old, it had been built for Christopher August, one of the first Head Foreman. The gun was used by Christopher August back when he was just a regular Foreman to put down the Anarchy Riots. After the Anarchy Riots ended he was named Head Foreman and proceed to make the position much more important and influential. The position remained powerful until Christopher's death. The gun was then placed in The House History Museum and the Teachers started to chisel away at the Foremen's power. This continued until Brien became Head Foreman. This first thing that he did after assuming the position was to get Christopher's gun out of the museum. He had always looked up to Christopher and was deeply deeply honored to use his gun.
The pistol was from a different time and it was built very differently. Modern handguns were small, compact, and light, The Beta nine, on the other hand, was a hefty gun that was extremely powerful. If someone shot you with that gun you were going down. Brien had once shot a man in the shoulder during a stand off with the pistol and the bullet had passed man's shoulder, shattering the bone into hundreds of little pieces, and hit the man standing behind him.
The barrel of the Beta nine was very long and thick, The handle was stocky and it had a name plate screwed on to the right hand side of it when you are holding it as if to shoot. The name plate hung vertically and read “Insurance Owner: Christopher August Make: Beta Model: Nine Year of Manufacture: 2100 I Make Order.” On the left hand side of the handle was another name plate that also hung vertically and read “Brien May Make: beta Model: nine Year of Possession: 2245 Order Makes Me.”
Brien loaded the gun and placed it back in his belt holster. He sighed and looked around at his companions. Matthew, Marc, Ava, Lara and Allison were still loading their guns but Margret was also already done.
“You ready?” She asked as she tossed him a leather jacket that doubled as a bulletproof vest.
“Not really.” He said pulling it on, “What about you?”
“I have to admit that I have in fact been more ready.” Marget said as she tossed Brien three closed switch blades. Brien laughed and caught the knives. He flicked the knives open and began to juggle them. Margret, Marc, and Allison laughed and began to applaud. Lara looked a little concerned and Matthew grimaced and shook his head, obviously greatly annoyed.
“Careful Brien,'' he said acidly, “You don't want to drop any of them, you could cut and hurt yourself quite badly.”
“Why Matt,” Brien said, smiling and continuing to juggle the knives, “I am getting the impression that you don't really like me all that much, I can't imagine that is the case but.....” He trailed off and stared at Matthew with his eyebrows raised. Matthew didn't back down an inch.
“It is the case.” Matthew said, smiling a sickly sweet smile, “I honestly, truly, and completely don't like you all that much. In fact as soon as we are finished with this mission I am going to leave the House and I hope and I have prayed to every single higher being that has ever been worshiped by any member of the human race who's name I could remember that I will never have the misfortune of meeting you again. I also hope, and I also have prayed, that you will die a extraordinarily painful death and I hope that you die it as soon as possible. You are a sorry excuse for a human being and an extraordinary waster of oxygen. In fact I am so embarrassed and ashamed to be breathing the same air as you that I am strongly resiting the urge to hold my breath right now. I firmly wish that you had never been born because the House would be a much better place. It would be a place that I would not be embarrassed and ashamed to live in. You have made this place a living fiery torment and for that I despise you and I find you to be a despicable human being who, if there is any justice in this world, will die young and burn in fire for eternity.” There was a long silence following this speech. Margret, Marc, Allison, Ava, and Lara were staring at Matthew in complete shock at his angry and extraordinarily venomous speech. They would never have thought that Matthew could be so nasty and hateful. Brien had stopped juggling the knives about halfway through Matthew's monologue and they were still quivering in the floor where they had fallen. Finally Brien broke the silence by beginning to laugh. It started just as a smile and then a grin then the grin grew into a snicker and then the the snicker grew into a chuckle and then into a full on belly laugh. The others stared at him like he was mad, and maybe he was.
“Dude!” He said, still laughing, “You are like the worst peace diplomat in the history of mankind!” He double over with laughter and could not talk again for quite a long time, at least three minutes, Everyone, including Matthew, looked totally taken aback by his behavior. They had not expected the great and the fearsome Brien May, a man who was know for his violent outbursts and violence, would react this way to someone telling him he was a waste of air and deserved to die.
“Matthew dear, please allow me to give you a totally unsolicited and wholly undeserved piece of friendly advice.” Brien said, once he had controlled his laughter and thus regained the ability to speak, “When you are trying to reach out to people who you led a rebellion against because you desperately need their help and are in a tight bind that you not say that you either want them to die or think that they never should have been born, it simply isn't good politics.” Brien laughed again and walked toward Matthew. Matthew looked nervous and began to back away hurriedly. Margret and Marc exchanged worried glances and stepped in front of Brien. Brien looked at the two of them blocking his path and laughed. Marc and Margret looked at each other, very unnerved. Margret glanced over at Allison who shrugged in a 'Don't ask me what the heck Brien is doing, I have no idea, I just work with him.' Brien continued to laugh and, after about a minute or so of uncontrollable laughter he began to talk in a very calm, collected, and reasonable tone of voice,
“Guys be logical about this.” He said as he put his hands on Marc and Margret's shoulders, they looked disgusted and promptly shrugged Brien's arms off their shoulders. Brien smiled and raised his hands in the air. “I don't want to hurt anybody and I've never wanted to hurt anybody...”
“Except for those people who you killed.” Matthew pointed out walking towards Brien, “You did want to hurt them, didn't you?”
“My hand was forced.” Brien countered, “I had to kill them, I had no choice.”
“But you did!” Matthew began but he was interrupted by Marc.
“Lord Almighty!” Marc yelled, “Can we please just cut all the pointless freaking drama?! Matt, we were at war so yeah Brien did some things that might not be the things that might not be totally on the moral high ground, but it is a freaking war! So will the two of you please get over your insane need for everything to be black or white?! War is almost never black or white, it is almost always gray, and this war is no exception! So let's not engage in he said she said, he killed she killed. Both sides did things that they shouldn't be proud of and let's just leave it to historians to figure out who was in the right and who was in the wrong and let's go and take this Master Computer out!” Marc stopped speaking and looked around, breathing heavily. Suddenly, Margret and Allison began to applaud and cheer.
“What the Heck?!” Marc said looking at them with his eyebrows raised, “What was that all about?”
“I don't know!” Margret said, “It just felt like we should cheer and head out to go fight the evil enemy or something, I don't know!”
“You people are really weird.” Brien said raising his eyebrows.