The Regulator (Complete First Draft)

Chapter 55: Monica - Devil's Advocate

Panic spread through the crowd like a wildfire as Nick and Brandon dragged off the unresponsive Andrew. Monica could hear it all, everything from the quietest whisper about how they should kill “The Regulator” before he comes back to the loudest cry of fear and confusion. For a moment, Monica wasn’t sure how to handle it. She wasn’t even sure she could handle it. But then again, that only lasted for a moment.

“Gavin, get these people out of here. We don’t need a full blown riot after something like that.” Monica ordered.

“Where do I send them?”

“Back to their cabins. Tell them I’ll hold a meeting in two hours about what just happened.”

“A meeting?” Gavin asked, confused.

“Yes, a meeting. At the stage in east camp.” Monica said, sounding agitated.

“Whatever you say.” Brad shrugged, he turned and began almost herding people away from the main gate, shouting at them to go to their homes and calming down the more unruly people. Most kids were crying, Staff were panicking and ignoring them, and the other survivors were just about in full riot mode. It was not a pretty sight.

Monica walked over to Andrew’s group. The six younger boys were all on the floor crying, probably for various reasons. Fear, shock, sadness… maybe even anger. Ivan was also sitting on the floor, not crying, but he just seemed stunned. The only kid who seemed un-affected was Gabi, who was helping Annaliese try and snap the kids out of it.

“Annaliese, get these kids back to their cabin and stay with them. Calm them down, put them to bed, do whatever you have to do to make sure they do not leave their cabin. Do you understand?” Monica demanded in a tone that was alien even to herself. Annaliese shook her head.

“What about Andrew?” She asked.

“We’ll discuss that later.” Monica said, coldly. She turned and walked off without another word. As she did, Nick and Brandon came running back down from the barn. “Andrew locked up?” She asked.

“Didn’t even put up a fight.” Brandon answered.

“So… what are we gonna do with him? Kill him?” Nick asked. Brandon gave him a slight but disgusted smack to the chest. “What? He just killed four f***ing people and…” Nick began, but Monica interrupted him.

“We’ll discuss it later, and you two will be there for the discussion.” Monica said, they both shook their heads. “Nick, help Gavin keep everyone under control. What Andrew just did’s gonna have everyone really shaken, let’s not let anyone make any out of control decisions. Brandon, take guard on the platform. No one gets in or out. And keep walkers off that sad piece of s*** in the road. Don’t kill him, and don’t let him in. But try and help him survive.”

“Why not just let him in?” Brandon asked.

“Andrew may have just done something monstrous that those people didn’t deserve, but they did not have good intentions, that much we know. He’s not to be let in, but let’s not just leave him to die.” Monica explained. Brandon shook his head and ran to the platform, Nick ran off to help Gavin with the crowds. Monica looked around for anyone else and found Johanna, Delvyn, and Kyle. “You three. Things are going to be getting a little crazy tonight, I can feel it.” Monica said, walking up to them, “I want heightened security. Kyle, get in the treehouse with your rifle. Delvyn got to Peninsula Ventura and post up. Johanna, go put Brad’s body on a table in the mess hall, then Guard it. I’ll figure out a funeral plan later.” Monica asked. All three shook their heads and moved to their posts. Monica walked off, down towards her cabin in the big field.
The full moon illuminated the cold lake just outside Monica’s window. The light of the candle danced across her, Gavin, Nick, and Brandon’s faces.

“I just don’t think killing him’s the right response.” Brandon said.

“Why? He killed five people today. The apocalypse has gotten to his mind, and that Bedlam guy made it all the much worse by putting this ‘Regulator’ idea in there.” Gavin said, coldly. “The kid’s blatantly a threat to everyone around him, and he’s just gonna take up resources that we all need if we try to keep him alive and imprisoned. We should just kill him and be done with it.”

“We could let him go. Just send him away from fireside.” Monica suggested.

“What? So he can find people with similarly low levels of humanity so he can lead them back and kill us all? He knows the camp, it’d be too easy for him too just sneak around and murder us in our sleep.” Nick said.

“He’s not like that and you know it.” Brandon said, with a hint of disdain in his voice.

“I thought I knew Andrew.” Nick said, looking over at Brandon. “I really did. I’ve spent five summers working with him, eight weeks a summer. He was my CIT, then my co-counselor for two summers. He was my best friend here. I thought he was the kid who came to work everyday, smile on his face, and actually enjoyed working with kids no matter how much they drove him up a f***ing wall. He’d laugh, play games, talk to them like they were actually his friends and not just his responsibility. He was even nicer to the staff, no one could say a bad thing about him. He was kind and generous and funny. That’s the Andrew I thought I knew. The real Andrew, “The Regulator”, came out today. He’s a murderous sociopath who looks for the tiniest reason to kill someone and he’s a threat to everyone here.”

“He killed them because they killed Brad.” Brandon said.

“One of them. One of them killed Brad. And he seemed to be a bit f***ed in the head as well. He had no right to judge killing that man, let alone four of them.” Gavin argued.

“Are you actually sympathizing with Brad’s killers?” Monica asked, disgusted.

“No. But killing them wasn’t a call that Andrew should have been allowed to make. Are you arguing on the side of the cold-blooded psychopath?” Gavin asked.

“No. I’m arguing for Andrew. He’s still in there, he did what he did to protect us, not hurt us. He’s still in there, somewhere.”

“Yeah, well. Tell me when you find him.”

“Will do.” Monica said, her blood boiling.

“Monica, those people out there, your people, are scared. They need a leader who can make tough decisions when they have too. You need to prove yourself if you want them to let you lead.” Nick said, trying to sound sincere. He used a tone that almost sounded soothing, but that just made Monica’s blood boil even more.

“Yes, let me kill the killer. That will show everyone how great of a leader I am.” She shouted sarcastically.

“You want him to go unpunished?” Nick asked, shocked.

“No, but I don’t think we need to kill him.” Monica said, defensively.

“You just don’t want to do it.”

Monica, almost instinctively and with no hesitation, slapped Nick across the face. She could no longer contain herself. Nick reeled from the hit, and turned to look back at Monica. “Don’t you ever, ever, f***ing tell me what I can and can’t do. I am not fighting for Andrew’s life because I couldn’t put him down. I am fighting for his life because I’ve known him for the whole thing. He came to this camp when he was eight. I’ve seen him grow up, see the kind of person he is. That thing, that “Regulator”, is not him. I don’t know where it came from, I don’t know what brought it out of him. But I know for a fact that Andrew and “The Regulator” are separate people. And I will not kill Andrew for actions that weren’t under his control.”

Nick just threw his hands up and laughed, “You’re ridiculous. You’re f***ing ridiculous. You’re crazy and you’re gonna get us all killed because of your stupid…”

“What about the kids?” Brandon interjected, before the argument got anymore heated. Monica looked at him, almost thankfully, but Nick gave him spiteful eyes.

“What about them?” Nick asked coldly.

“They just witnessed the counselor they’ve spent everyday with for the past five months kill four people, shoot another. They don’t even have a counselor anymore. We need a plan for them, Andrew’s clearly not getting them back.” Brandon vouched.

“We can spread them out amongst the other eight-year old counselors…uh… Brendan, Matt, and Justin.” Gavin offered.

“Seems fair.” Monica shrugged. “We’ll do it tomorrow.” She turned to Nick, “And we’ll discuss what to do with Andrew tomorrow. We should sleep on it. Emotions are running to high right now.” Monica declared. Nick snorted but didn’t argue. She turned to Gavin.  “Gavin, go clean-up Brad’s body, if you could. We need it nicer looking for the funeral tomorrow.” And with that, Monica walked out. Emotionally drained from the events of the day.