The Shelter: Inquisition (III)

“The answer is no,” said Councilman Julio. The five members of the council had returned to the after deliberating whether to cancel or postpone the trials due to the developments of the previous night. The courtroom they were in was primarily made of wood, and it was the only room of its kind at Logan Camp. During the war it had been used as a non-denominational prayer room, fitted to host Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist prayer services. The first settlers of Logan Camp had no use for religion, so the room was converted into a courtroom. The podium that stood at the front of the room was appended on both sides with wide desks, and raised benches placed behind them. The front pews also had tables built in front of them to allow for the essential people to sit in front of them. It was at the center left front pew that sub-commander Wilhelm sat.

“Why?” he replied, in a tone of voice that was abrupt and authoritative, yet still pleading. “I think I’ve given sufficient evidence that there’s something not quite right going on in the Shelter.” He picked at the rotting wood beneath the table.

Councilman Goose smirked, but a sharp glance from Councilman Julio set his face straight again.

“The council is in agreement that you have a solid case for your claim, and Commander Palmer may initiate whatever investigation he feels like. However, your evidence does not justify postponing the trials.”

“Councilman, the purpose of the trials is to prepare new recruits for daily life in the Shelter, not to face off against a serial-killing monster,” protested the sub-commander.

“Sub-commander, don’t tell me what the purpose of the trials are,” replied Councilman Julio, sharply. “I was there when the trials were first instated. We had a bigger influx of ‘refugees’ from the surface than we knew what to do with, and most of them were worthless cowardly murdering maniacs that wouldn’t last a minute in a real fight. So we decided to cull them by having them fight each other to the death, and the winners got to stay. Those were the original trials.” He cocked his head back slightly. “After a while, we had bigger problems to worry about than overpopulation. Hermosa Brotherhood Camp decided that they wanted to expand their influence and started sabotaging our power plant. In response, we made new recruits run operations against the camp, and for a while, that was the trials. After Hermosa backed off, the trials become collecting five pounds of eating-fungus, and after that it was scouring the shelter for wiring and electrical components.” He looked at the sub-commander. “If we have a new problem on our hands, then the trials will be used to help solve that problem. Do you understand?”

 “Yes, councilman.”

“Do you still have an objection to our decision, then?” asked Councilman Goose. “Or are you going to continue wasting our time with trivial matters concerning people that aren’t even members of our camp yet?”

The room grew silent for a moment before sub-commander Wilhelm spoke.

 “Yes,” he said, “I do.”

“What is your objection?” replied Councilman Julio before Councilman Goose had a chance to speak.

“If the point of the trials, is, as you say, to aid the camp, then won’t you agree that the existing trial of killing a crazy become outdated now? You just said that you agree that an investigation is warranted, so you agree that we have a new concern. Why not make the recruits do it?”

“And how are we going to qualify ‘investigating’?” replied Councilman Goose.

“Good question, councilman,” said Councilman Julio. “I’m not completely opposed to the idea, but we need some kind of objective measure that will determine whether the recruits passed the trials. What are your thoughts on that sub-commander?”

“Well, we need the criteria to reflect the needs of the camp.”

“Obviously.” Remarked Councilman Goose.

“Well right now, being successful in Logan Camp is more than having raw skill. It’s about teamwork and trust. So my idea? Let’s have the recruits hunt down this crazy, and bring it in. Alive. If it has any measure of intelligence, we’ll get good information from it. And if not, we can just kill it.”

“That still doesn’t tell us how we’re going to qualify the recruits.” Said Councilman Julio.

“Simple. If they succeed in their task, they all pass. If they fail, we make them go through the trials again. If one of them lags behind and doesn’t do work, he/she fails even if the rest pass.”

“We’ll need to deliberate on this, sub-commander.” Said Councilman Julio. “We’ll reconvene in 3 hours. For now, please update Commander Palmer on our proceedings.” He stood up. “We’re adjourned.”

Sub-commander turned around and began walking towards the exit of the courtroom, a smile on his face.