The House Part 4

Chapter four in which terrible things happen and things get complicated
Matthew ran to the nearest flight of stairs and took them three or four at a time.
“Hey! Kid!” A Foreman yelled at Philip as he shot out of the staircase on Floor 14. “Slow Down! Where's the Fire?!” The man had the misfortune to get in Philip's way and was shoved roughly into the wall. Philip wasn't stopping for anyone.
Finally reaching the dining hall he ran in. Glancing around wildly he saw Margret sitting with Marcus, John, Matthew, Madeline, Janet, and Allison.
“Why didn't you tell me?!” Philip yelled at her as he ran to their table, “God Almighty Margret! Why DIDN”T YOU TELL ME?!”
“Phil,” Margret said, standing up, “Calm down. What was I supposed to tell you but didn't?”
“What is on page 504!” Philip said the veins in his neck bulging, “This morning how could you not tell me?”
“You weren't supposed to know yet.” Margret said after thinking for a moment, “And anyway, it's not that big of a deal.”
“NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL?!!!” Philip repeated, “How can you possibly say that? I knew nothing! Everyone knows nothing.” He looked around wildly and jumped up on the table.
“EVERYBODY LISTEN!” He roared at the top of his lungs, “We have been lied to and deceived all our lives! But I was chosen as a 16 so now I know the truth. And you know NOTHING! ALL OF YOU KNOW NOTHING!! WE ARE BEING MANIPULATED BY...” Suddenly Philip stopped speaking. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell backwards onto the table.
“Philip! Philip!” Margret yelled and ran towards him. He hit the table hard and rolled over off the table and onto the floor.
“Phil!” Marcus said as he bent down next to Philip, “What happened? Tell me, what did you see?!'
“Page 504....” Philip mumbler, “It...it.”
“GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!” Brien Mary yelled, firing a round of bullets into the air, “GET OUT OF THE WAY OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL KILL YOU ALL!”
Marcus stood up and faced Brien May, pure hatred in his eyes,
“You Maniac.” He hissed, “You absolute and total Maniac.”
“Marcus,” Allison whispered, grabbing his shoulder, “What are you doing? You're going to get us arrested.”
“HE SHOT PHILIP!!” Marcus roared, pushing Allison away and stepping toward Brien, “He stood at the back of the room and shot Philip. He killed him.”
'What?” Matthew asked, shocked.
“It's true.” Margret said, fighting back tears, “He's dead.”
“No!” John yelled, “No...MY GOD!! He posed no threat to you, none! There was no need for you to shoot him! He hadn't committed a crime!!”
“Assault and battery of an officer of the law.” Brien said angrily, “Disturbing the peace. Revealing classified information. I'd say your friend deserved all that he got. Now everyone take a step back or I'll start shooting.”
“Do it.” Marcus sneered at Brien, walking forward so he was an inch away from Brien. “Do it, shoot me, shoot John, shoot anyone, that's what you want isn't it? To shoot and kill everyone. You are a homicidal maniac!” Bang! Marcus fell backwards, blood dripping off his face. Brien had hit him in the face with his gun.
“Now,” Brien roared waving his gun around, “EVERYONE GO ABOUT YOUR BUISNESS AND TAKE A STEP BACK!!!”
“Die a painful death.” Marcus said pulling himself to his feet and spitting in Brien's face.
“You are under arrest for disrespect of an officer!” Taylor August, one of the other Foremen said walking forward.
“Get away from me.” Marcus said warningly, “I'm warning you. Get away from me.”
“Please place your hands behind you back and come along to Headquarters where you will be charged and tried.” Taylor continued, pulling out some handcuffs. He stepped forward and tried to put the cuffs on Marcus but Marcus swung around. Suddenly Taylor screamed, stepped backwards, and collapsed. A butter knife was sticking out of his chest.
“I told him to get away from me.” Marcus said, sounding a little shocked, “I did warn him.”
“You are under arrest for murder.” Ben September, who had just walked up, said, “Marcus please don't make this harder than it needs to be.”
“Forget arrest.” Brien said disgusted. He raised his gun to point at Marcus, “Get out of the way Ben.”
“Brien,” Ben pleaded, “Let's at least give him a trial and time to get his affairs in order.”
“Ben,” Brien said surprisingly politely, “We just saw him stab Taylor to death just for doing his duty. I was going to let his disrespect slide because he was so broken up over Philip October's death but I can't let this slide. Not Murder.”
“Fine.” Ben said and stepped aside.
“BEN!” Matthew said, shocked “How...how can you do this?! How can you just let Brien murder Marcus like this?!”
“Marcus killed Taylor.” Ben said, trying to remain calm.
“And Brien killed Philip!” John said, not trying to remain calm.
“No He didn't.” Ben said.
“Then who did?” John demanded.
Ben opened his mouth to reply but Brien cut him off.
“Taylor did. He saw Philip standing on the table, we were already searching for him and he heard Philip about to reveal classified information so he took the the shot. He did his duty and was killed for it. Now! Step aside!”
“Die a painful death!” Marcus repeated and prepared himself to be executed.
As Brien leveled his gun and prepared to blow Marcus' head apart Janet stepped forward to block him.
“Please sir.” She begged, “Don't shoot him, he didn't mean to hurt anyone. He was torn apart by grief, don't shoot him!”
“We have laws miss.” Brien said, kindly, “To protect society and innocents. If I let this young man get away with murder then it will set a precedent.”
“What do you mean?” Janet asked, confused.
“Ok,” Brien said, still pointing his gun at Marcus, “Let's say that, hypothetically, a friend of yours has a terrible accident.”
'Ok.” Janet said, trying to follow what he was telling her.
“And after you hear about it you naturally go running to see if they're all right.” Brien continued.
“Naturally.” Janet said..
“And when you get to the hospital you go in to see your friend. He's lying on the bed pretty badly scratched up.” Brien said, everyone was very surprised by this side of the Head Foreman. He appeared to be actually.....sane. “So you walk over and try to comfort him, like any good friend would do. You tell him it will be all right. You tell him that he'll get better. You tell him all sorts of things to cheer him up. But he freaks out an starts screaming at you. You try to calm him down but he gets violent and jumps out of bed and begins not attack you. You try to get him to stop but he is acting crazy and eventually you go down under all the blows and die. But your friend isn't punished because, hey, he was acting out of grief and didn't know what he was doing. Do you see the problem?”
“Isn't that a big jump though?” John asked, respectfully. “That by not executing Marcus suddenly we'll make murder legal?”
“Not really.” Brien answered, sill holding Marcus at gun point, “You see the Founders weren't very clear about their definition of murder.”
“Murder's pretty straight forward in my book.” Marcus said, speaking for the first time in a long time.
“Do you mind if I sit down while you'll debating the morality of killing me?” He asked nastily.
“Fine.” Brien replied, “But you are wrong, murder isn't straightforward at all. For example, you believe that Taylor shooting Philip was murder, correct?”
Everyone who wasn't a foreman nodded except for Margret who was sitting near Philip's body quietly weeping.
“So, just to be completely and totally clear beyond even a hint of a shadow of a doubt,” Brien all of you believe that Philip's shooting was murder and should be treated as such, correct?” Brien asked, relaxing his gun arm and sitting lightly on the edge of one of the tables. Again everyone except the foremen and Margret nodded.
“Ok,” Brien said, “But the reason Philip was executed was because he was breaking a law, which is in the Founding Charter. That law explicitly forbids 16s from revealing their classified information. The information is classified for a reason and it can't just be spread around”
“But,” Mathew said, “Don't you agree that there has to be a balance? The punishment can't out weigh the crime.”
“That is actually very debatable.” Brien replied.
“How so?” Matthew asked, interested. Both he and John loved discussing politics and morality and Brien was very well spoken.
“For example your friend, Philip, was breaking the law against revealing classified information.” Brien explained, “The only way to stop him revealing the information was to shoot him. Now normally that would be too harsh a punishment for that particular crime but in this case it was the only way to prevent the crime from being committed. So in certain cases it is both acceptable and necessary for the punishment to out weigh the crime.”
“You might have a point.” Allison said, speaking for the first time. Prior to this she had been sitting back and listening intently. “But, and I'm just play the devil's advocate here, one might argue that if the only way to prevent a crime is to use a punishment which so greatly out weighs the crime that you should instead simply let them commit the crime and punish them afterward when, hopefully, more punishment options are open to you.”
“But shouldn't the main objective in any situation in which a crime is being committed be to stop the crime?” Brien asked, very reasonably, “And by that same notion wouldn't you also agree that the innocent civilian's life and well being is worth more than the criminal's life and well being?”
“Yes, I would agree with that.” Allison said while everyone else, including Marcus nodded. Margret, who was still sitting alone, sniffled to herself. She neither knew nor cared what was going on.
“So,” Brien continued, “Let's take that one step forward; if the innocent civilian's life and well being is worth more than the criminal or potential criminal's life and well being and the main objective is to prevent the crime then, logically, if it was a choice between great force being used to prevent a crime and a criminal being hurt or a crime being committed and an innocent civilian being hurt, you would pick the great force and the criminal being hurt correct?”
“Yes, I would.” Allison said, hesitantly, “If those were the only two choices.”
“So,” Brien said, “Just to be clear if those were the only two choices and you were the Foreman you would use great force against the criminal in order to protect the innocent civilian.”
“Correct.” Allison said, after thinking for a second.
“And the rest of you? Do you agree?” Brien asked the rest of the group. They all nodded including, after a few moments of thought, Marcus.
“But you can't compare,” Marcus said, sounding considerably more reasonable than he did before, “What you, or rather Taylor, did to Philip and the type of situation that you are describing. They are completely different.”
“How so?” Brien asked politely, “How is Taylor's actions towards Philip different than what we were talking about?”
“Philip wasn't a criminal.” Marcus said stubbornly.
“But he was.” Brien explained patiently, slinging his gun across his shoulder for the first time during the conversation, “He was revealing classified information that could have, no would have, jeopardized the stability and structure of our society.”
“That's a lie.” Marcus said, shaking his head dismissively.
“Really?” Brien said raising his eyebrows “Margret!”
'What?” Margret asked, wiping tears from her eyes as she looked up.
“We were discussing whether Philip revealing what was on Page 504 would have damaged the stability of The House.” Brien explained, “As the only 16 here who is not a Foreman, what is your opinion?”
“Page what?” Margret asked. She seemed to be very out of it, Philip's death had struck her very hard. “Which page did you say?”
“504.” Brien repeated, kindly. Everyone was a little shocked by Brien's demeanor throughout the whole conversation. The evil megalomaniac Head Foreman had turned into a kind, polite, logical, political philosopher. “Page Five Hundred and Four.”
“What about it?” Margret asked, shaking her head.
“Would it damage our society if it's contents became public?” Brien said patiently.
“Yes.” Margret said, “Yes, Yes it would. It would be very bad, very very bad.”
“Very very bad?” Brien asked.
“Yes,” Margret repeated, “Very bad.”
“Would it be disastrous?” Brien pressed.
“Yes,” Margret said, “It would change society as we know it.”
“In a good way or a bad way?” Brien said. Suddenly Matthew remembered, and whispered to John, that he had once read that Brien, before he became the Head Foreman, was the Chief Legal Counsel for The House, basically the House's chief judge and the person in charge of setting legal policy for the House.
“In a bad way.” Margret sniffed, “It would cause a panic and probably quite a lot of destruction.”
“So,” Brien said, “Very very bad?”
“Yes.” Margret said.
“Thank you.” Brien said, “Thank you very much.”
“But...” John said, “Surely...”
“Don't listen to him.” Marcus said nastily, “He's twisting everything!”
“He's not twisting anything.” Allison said.
“You agree with him?” Matthew asked, shocked.
“Well...” Allison paused, and then started speaking very fast, “Yes, yes I do. I mean I think that he is making a lot of sense. I mean, you have to put the well being of the society as a whole before the well being of a single person. And if whatever is on this page 504 is really that big and important and secret and destructive and Philip was about to give it all away, and the only way to stop him was to shoot him then maybe...”
“What?” Marcus snarled, “Maybe what? He should have been shot?”
“Well...” Allison said, “Yes, maybe....yes!”
“You make me sick!” Marcus said, “I hope you die! I really do. I hope you die a painful painful death.”
“Marcus...” Allison said, close to tears, “I...”
“Die a painful, torturous death!” Marcus screamed and threw a glass that was sitting on the table at Allison's head. It struck her head and exploded into several pieces. Allison fell to the ground. As she hit the ground Brien grabbed his gun and took aim at Marcus. As he fired Madeline jumped in front of Marcus. Red exploded on her chest. She fell backwards, smashing into the table and sliding off, leaving a long sticky trail of red on the table.
Ben whipped out his hand gun and took aim at Marcus.
“I HOPE YOU ALL FALL DOWN DEAD!!!” Marcus roared at the top of his lungs, jumping up onto the table, “AND I HOPE TAYLOR ROTS!!!!”
Bang!
Marcus screamed as his chest exploded. Ben fired again and this time hit Marcus in the head. Blood splattered everywhere. Marcus' body thumped to the floor next to Madeline's body.
“Whhhhho.” Brien blew air out of his mouth and stared down at the four dead bodies lying on the floor.
“Well,” He said acidly, “That could have gone better.

End of Part 1