The Regulator (Complete First Draft)

Chapter 73: The Regulator - Worlds Gone By

Each punch felt like Andrew was smashing his fist into a brick wall. He was hot, he was tired, he was freaked out and wasn’t thinking clearly. All he knew was that he was going to kill The Bedlam. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Every punch was one steep closer to killing him, but every punch he took was one step back. The Bedlam looked frail, but he was surprisingly strong and wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Andrew threw another punch, and another, and another. His knuckles were bloody at this point, and he was having a pretty hard time telling the difference between his blood and The Bedlam’s blood.

The fire in the barn was quickly spreading, spreading up the walls and across the floor. All the old, rotted bodies of the men, women, and children Brad locked away were up in flames, smoldering and filling the air with the smell of burning flesh. Andrew grabbed onto The Bedlam and rolled towards part of the fire. He struggled and struggled to push the monster into the fire, but The Bedlam fought back.

“You’re just stepping further in my direction, Regulator!” The Bedlam screamed.

“Just f***ing die!” He shouted back, punching The Bedlam square across the face. The Bedlam’s face grew a look of pure rage and he literally tossed Andrew straight up into the air, the young Man landing a couple feet away on his side.

“You ungrateful little fool!” The Bedlam shouted, standing up and hulking over Andrew, his frailty suddenly non-existant. “I lead you to enlightenment, I show you what this world has become, I train your mind to accept the horrible aspects of this world, I free your from the responsibility of your flock, I show you how to save this place, and for what! You to damn me, to fight me, to wish death upon me!” The Bedlam erratically moved towards Andrew’s revolver, picking it up and holding it almost awkwardly in his hand. “You see Regulator, you are nothing without me.” He said, walking towards Andrew. Andrew pushed himself up and lunged towards The Bedlam, but The Bedlam simply knocked him aside with the butte end of the revolver. Andrew fell to the ground again, and The Bedlam walked up and pressed the gun barrel to his head.

“Do it, bitch.” Andrew muttered. The Bedlam simply smiled.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you.” The Bedlam said softly, he pressed down the trigger, but at the last moment moved the barrel so the bullet shot out and landed right next to Andrew’s head. The shot rang out and echoed in Andrew’s ear, to the point where he almost felt dizzy for a moment. The Bedlam than picked Andrew up, and held him up by the collar of his shirt. “Your friends betrayed you, your flock fears you, your partner worries about you, your leader died for you. You cause these people nothing but pain, yet you do everything for them. And what do you get in return? Scorn. Hate. Fear.” Andrew looked at The Bedlam with a look of pure hatred, but he stopped struggling. “I can save you. I can make you the leader this new world needs. I can bring you farther than any of these people ever will.”

The Bedlam released Andrew, who quickly stepped back and glared at the Bedlam. The two glared at each other for a moment, and then Andrew turned and walked out of the burning barn. The Bedlam followed him, not far behind.

The two stood on the front porch of the barn, watching as the sun rose over the main field of the camp. Andrew looked out in awe as the sun slowly began to cover the world that he once saw a safe retreat from the real one, and now it was nothing more than a bloody battleground.

“What will you do now, Regulator?” The Bedlam said, handing Andrew back the Revolver. Andrew inspected it, looking it over for any problems, before turning to look back at the sunrise.

“You killed James.” He said, plain and simple. He then quickly whacked The Bedlam in the back of the head, sending the man falling down the stairs of the porch and onto the gravel ground below. The Bedlam didn’t even have a chance to recuperate before Andrew jumped down, landing in front of him, and pulled back the hammer on the revolver.

Then he heard the scream, the blood curdling scream he had only heard once before, on the day Zach got bit, coming from right behind him.

“No, Regulator. You did.”

Andrew turned to face the scream and saw a horror he’d never imagined. James was standing on the porch of the barn, his left arm all the way up to his shoulder covered in flames. The boy screamed and screamed as tears of absolute pain and anguish rushed down his face. And then, with one final exasperated look, James fell over. Dead.

Andrew shattered. James was gone. Gone. His camper. One of the one’s he had been trying to protect. He was gone. Dead. And because of Andrew’s own stupidity. Andrew felt the world falling apart around him. The Bedlam didn’t matter. Nick didn’t matter. Anna didn’t matter. Brad didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Andrew had just killed one of his campers.

“Dude, don’t worry about it. Everyone hurts a kid at some point.” Kyle said, putting his hand on Andrew’s shoulder.

“Yeah, it was just an accident. And he’ll be fine too. Bloody nose? From a dodgeball? You’ve got nothing to worry about.” Nick reassured Andrew as well.

“I still feel bad, maybe I shouldn’t have played as hard.” Andrew said, scratching his chin.

“Dude, s*** happens. A mistake is a mistake. You can apologize or what not, but the kid’s not gonna hold a grudge. It’s dodgeball. He knew what was gonna happen.” Kyle reiterated. Andrew nodded his head, and then looked over at James who was sitting alone on the side of the field, a bloody tissue pressed up to his nose.

“Nick, you mind lining up my group to go to lunch? I’m gonna go talk to him.”

“No problem, bro.” Nick called out for his and Andrew’s groups to line-up while Andrew himself walked off towards James. As he approached, James glared at him.

“How’s it feeling?” Andrew asked.

“Betterish.” James said, taking the tissue off his nose for a second. “Is it still bleeding?”

“No, no it’s not. I think you’re gonna be fine.” Andrew said, smiling. James didn’t. He simply stood up and started walking towards the line Nick was forming. “James, I’m sorry about hitting you in the face that hard. I was playing a little to rough, I know.”

James turned to look at Andrew and shrugged, “It’s no big deal, mistakes happen. Besides, I know you wanted to kill me. It’s the only ay for you to be The Regulator.”
Andrew shook his head in confusion. “What?” He asked.

“I said I know you wanted to hit me, I was taunting you pretty hard.” James said, sounding confused.

“Ah, right, that you were.” Andrew laughed as the two walked over to Nick. “James?” He asked quickly.

“Yeah?”

“Would you ever kill somebody for any reason, even if they hurt you?” Andrew asked, he couldn’t even tell what possessed him to ask an eight year old boy such a thing.

“No, I wouldn’t. I like to give people a chance. But I think you already knew that.” James said, turning and joining the line. Andrew wanted to say something else, but felt as if the chance had passed. Nick stood at the head of the line and Andrew approached him to take his spot.

“I see you thinned the flock.” Nick said.

“Excuse me?”

“I see you thinned the flock. It was too big, and you needed to learn to let go. This is how you become The Regulator. You deal with loss, you realize you can’t become attached. Now you’ll detach yourself. That was the whole point. To turn you into The Regulator. To make a person that could control the wasteland, not be clouded by emotion.” The Bedlam said. Andrew quickly looked around. It was dark and cold, not sunny and warm. He was in the middle of a forest, not an open field. None of the kids or his friends were anywhere in sight. It was just him, standing over The Bedlam, holding a gun to his head. “You chase me out here, and for what? Without me you’re nothing.”

Andrew was dazed and confused, but as he gained a grasp of the situation he spoke, “I want to kill you. Every fiber of my being wants too.” As he said this, he holstered his revolver. “But I’m not going too. You killed James today, not me. I was you’re weapon. You killed James by using me. But I knew James better than you, and I know that he wouldn’t want you put to death for any reason, even his own death. I fought with him enough over murder and killing in the final moments of his life, so I’ll honor him by letting you live. Today. But If I ever see you again, for whatever reason, I won’t be honoring James anymore. I’ll be doing what I want to do, and I will kill you.” Andrew said.

The Bedlam simply smiled “Regulator, you and I both know this is far from over. Our story doesn’t end for a long, long time.” But he didn’t do anything further. He simply stood up and walked away, into the forest.

Andrew breathed in a slight sigh of relief as The Bedlam’s form disappeared into the mist, and then he headed back towards Camp Fireside.