Chapter Sixteen
Following the accident, Rob, John and Matt began to feel increasingly nervous. They complained almost constantly about being inside of the space.
There was a deep sense of uneasiness within their composure. They simply could not get comfortable, no matter what they did.
There was nothing Rob could drink that could alleviate him. There were no quotes to provide Matt with a buffer against the omni-present sense of disease he felt each day.
John became physically ill, and couldn't keep his food down, for the anxiety he felt. Al, on the other hand, continued forward as though nothing was wrong.
He was sensitive to the troubles of those around him, but he did not feel anything negative about the space or the food.
Harry continued to feel a sense of relief. He no longer felt the desire to drink his consciousness into oblivion. He felt less self-loathing and more gratitude each day.
Rob and Matt were jealous of Harry's display of health, but were too cowardly to express their own toxic sentiments to a trained soldier.
As the days went on, each of the five opened up a bit more, and they spoke of their crimes and activities over campfires as they began shutting down for the day.
Rob was the first to tell of all of the women he had seduced, and how much dope he had spilt. He spoke conspiratorially about the people he had ripped off in order to take care of his habits; pride clear in his voice.
John spoke of his time as a hacker with hushed enthusiasm, as though he were telling a favorite story, but was unsure how it would be received. Rob interrupted John's story, in order to recount the gas station arson and murders that had landed the two of them in prison.
Al's descriptions of his crimes were detached, and clinical, as though he were reading them from a report. He kept his comments brief, and simply told the others that he was in prison for murder.
An awkward silence followed the truncated account.
Matt too opened up to the group. He spoke of how he had appealed his death sentence several times, but after a number of incidents, his most recent appeal had been lost.
Matt ended up in prison after sabotaging a bus before it left the depot.
The bus was due to pick up two passengers that Matt had targeted for vengeance.
Due to his lack of peripheral awareness, or social conscience, he managed to completely ignore the fact that his mechanical tampering would also lead to death or serious injury for a bus full of citizens.
The bus ended up throwing a rod at a critical juncture of a downhill cliff. The rod was thrust up through the bottom of the vehicle, and impaled the bus driver.
Matt observed the success of his carefully executed mechanical malfunction, from a nearby vista. He held a remote controller in his hand, and detonated a small explosive on the brake lines and transmission, so the bus would descend in a free-fall along its seaside route.
Matt sipped lemonade through a shiny, red, bendy-straw as a bus, half full of people, careened off a cliff, and into the Pacific Ocean.
The accident was televised that evening, and the death count was totaled at five people including one of his intended victims, the bus driver, and three kids on their way to school.
Several others were injured, and the remainder of the bus passengers never felt safe on public transportation again.
The bus company would have been sued for mechanical failure, but for the culmination of evidence left by the explosives; a few droplets of blood found at the bus depot; and the text message to the two bankers providing the trail of crumbs leading to Matt's incarceration.
Once his two targets had got on to the bus, they both received a message from him with the following statement:
“Vengeance is mine, so sayeth the Lord”
His favorite bible story was when Jesus whipped the money changers in the temple. He loved to watch people's faces as he told them that their savior rent the flesh of the corrupt with a flail.
The unfortunate person on the other end of this frequent conversation invariably had nothing to say at such a statement. Most of the time, they were not even sure that his claims were biblically accurate.
“Do you think that Good Christians ought to follow Jesus?” he would ask.
The question was a trap, because the answer is, “Yes.” After the person had answered in the affirmative, Matt promised to crucify them if they did not flay the skin of a bank manager with a cat-o-nine tails.
The people in question would usually pale terribly, and break into a cold sweat. Matt would then break out into a maniacal laugh, and the person would find some way to excuse themselves.
As Matt's victim of the day departed, he would call out, “At least I didn't ask you to be my sacrament,” referring of course to the vampyric and cannibalistic critical interpretations of the last supper.
Deep down, Matt desired to belong to a community of true believers, but he was too bitter and vindictive to recognize spiritual authenticity when it showed itself.
When the police came, Matt did not resist the arrest and he was the portrait of composure during his time in the courthouse.
He claimed his actions would be vindicated by the divine for burying those scoundrels, and it must have been God's will that the other people die, since God is omniscient, and therefore knew that Matt would dispatch the bankers.
Not a single member of the jury ruled in his favor, and the case was the speediest the judge had experienced in months.
Matt cried out as he was led, handcuffed, from the courtroom.
“…AND WHEN HE HAD MADE A SCOURGE OF SMALL CORDS, HE DROVE THEM ALL OUT OF THE TEMPLE, AND THE SHEEP AND THE OXEN, AND POURED OUT THE CHANGERS MONEY AND OVERTHREW THE TABLES…”
In spite of his demonstrated fervor whilst leaving the courtroom, he behaved exceedingly well during his incarceration.
The only time he ever violated the standards of conduct set before him was in response to witnessing two inmates assaulting a third.
He brutally attacked the two inmates while quoting scripture.
“…SO I WILL POUR OUT MY WRATH ON THEM AND CONSUME THEM WITH MY FIERY ANGER, BRINGING DOWN ON THIER OWN HEADS ALL THEY HAVE DONE, DECLARES THE SOVEREIGN LORD…”
His appeal to be removed from Death Row was initially dismissed due to this infraction, but as the testimony of the other prisoner came forward, and the security footage was reviewed, it was decided that it would be better to permit this prisoner to participate in a government sanctioned study, than hazard the liability of keeping him in an institution.