Chapter 212: What to do with Augustus
Augustus did not put up a fight as he was already overpowered. His clothes were stripped from his body, and he started shivering immediately as the chill in the room massaged his skin.
"It is very cold beyond the walls." Carson told him. "It is so cold that I heard people are beginning to freeze if they are outside for more than four hours. It is only going to get worse from here."
Augustus’s teeth started to chatter, and his eyes darted between his clothes and the fireplace. Any of them seemed like a great option right now.
Carson calmly sipped his hot coffee. "Would you like some?"
Augustus wrapped his arms around himself, shooting Carson angry looks that promised death--painful death.
Carson put the cup down, shaking his head and curling his lips in distaste. "It has only been a few minutes, but my hot tea had become iced tea." He smiled at Augustus. "It is cold my friend, very cold. If you tell us where your friends are hiding, we might be generous enough to go out there and rescue them. You wouldn’t want them to freeze to death out there now, would you?
A warm prison on the base and guaranteed food daily is heaven to life out there, scavenging through the snow while fending off hungry predators."
Augustus fell to his knees and yet his lips refused to reveal what they wanted to hear.
Carson looked at all the tattoos on Augustus’s body. He had started identifying them as soon as the man was stripped.
Spider web, four dots, a gun, some initials and the number ninety-nine. The man’s skin was a coloring book of prison tattoos. He had done hard time. If Carson had to make a wild guess, the man had escaped sometime during the meteor shower or acid rain. Or the prison had opened its doors, and the prisoners had been released because the whole world was going to shit!
"Who did you kill?" Carson asked him, out of curiosity.
"Ni...." Augustus’s teeth chattered, "Nine men. It is why they call me Ninety-nine."
He started to chuckle, hoping to see revulsion or fear on Carson’s face.
But Carson remained stoic, like a man who had seen everything. There was no surprise on his face. He tilted his head and made another observation, "You were also in a gang...a biker gang. You sexually assaulted someone...maybe I should just say rape." He shook his head. "I will never understand why scum like you tattoo their crimes on their skin and wear them like badges of honor." He leaned forward. "I am guessing that the rest of your friends also came from prison just like you. Probably old friends from the same gang."
Augustus stopped smiling.
Carson stood up, wincing as he approached Augustus. "Let’s see...." He stood over Augustus and looked down at him. "I know my biker gangs very well because I served with a former biker in the army, a hot head named Eddie Angel. He had this notebook with the insignias of all biker gangs in the country. He carried that thing around like it was his bible. It actually saved his life once when he was shot in the ass.
I borrowed Eddie’s bible while he was recovering and did some studying on biker gangs. On your arm you have a tattoo of a chain wrapped around a skull with green fire in the eye sockets. That means you belong to the Ghost chain brotherhood."
He slapped Augustus on the back, "Even if you don’t talk, I will find the answers I want."
Carson went back to his chair and sat down. "Eddie used to say that Loyalty above all is the biggest code for biker gangs. Betrayal is the ultimate offense. Members have a club first mentality, above their families and themselves. If you are still living by the code, then you are still serving the leader of your gang or someone pretty high up on the food chain. Would you care to tell us who that is?"
Augustus was pale and he looked ready to pass out.
Carson gestured to the soldiers. "Dress him up, feed him something light and after the doctors warm him up, sit him outside in the cold. Sooner or later, he is going to break."
Carson left the interrogation room with his cup and joined those that were watching from the monitoring room.
Elio whistled immediately. "I heard you were good at figuring things out, but I did not realize you were this impressive. How did you know about the prison thing?"
"Amateurs are always desperate to talk." Carson placed the cup on a table and sat down, facing Sunshine and Hades. "He was too calm in the prison cell and even calmer in the interrogation room, even before I started. I figured that it was not his first gig. I just didn’t think that he was such a dangerous man."
"He has got to go." Hades bellowed abruptly in a determined voice. "We are not going to have a rapist on the base even if he is in prison."
"But we don’t have answers yet." Elio said quickly, pushing his body out of the chair. "The rapist, murderous scum is human but the one he serves is a superhuman we need to kill. We have two evils but one is greater."
"I agree." Carson said.
Both men looked at him.
"With whom?" Sunshine asked him.
"With the boss." Carson gestured at Hades with his hand. "The apocalypse is unpredictable. What if that murderous rapist scum awakens while he is in prison? He will be ten times more dangerous than he was when he was an ordinary human."
"So, what are you suggesting?" Sunshine asked him.
"We let him freeze to death." Carson said flatly. "His goal is obvious, to me at least. He was sent here to case the base like a thief. To learn our security protocols, weapons and other important things. After learning this, he will probably find a way of leaving the base and sharing what he knows."
"Or he was sent inside to open gate for his buddies." Sunshine said slowly. "One superhuman and a group of bloodthirsty men can do so much damage if they make their way into any base."
"Also, we cannot open the market at the base of the mountain as long as they are hiding out there somewhere in the forest." Hades mentioned. "Every time we leave the base, we risk being killed or taken hostage."
"Back to Augustus." Carson knocked his knuckles on the table. "What do we do with him? We cannot keep him here alive, and we cannot send him to Jon’s base. We should vote on when to end his miserable life. I say we do it in two days because I am sure I can break him within that time."
He raised his right hand and looked at them expectantly. Carson had the gut feeling that a dead Augustus was good for everyone. If he was left alive, they would regret it.
Sunshine moved to Carson and pushed his hand down. "If you plan to end him, don’t bother putting him out in the cold because even cold air can stimulate an awakening. Do it quickly and do it soon. Burn the body too."