User blog:TheToughGuy/T.U.S.S. - The Split-Up: Part 2

The Assessment
The following day after the confrontation, the Jocks left a gift in front of the Observatory gates. The gift was nothing more than a small cassette tape from a camcorder. Luckily having one with them, the Nerds plugged it in into their and watched the horrific event unfold on the small screen.

The video displayed Jones as he was torn to pieces by Ted’s pet zombie dogs on the pool floor. They watched the whole thing. Watched as the Jocks pushed him down to the deep end; watched as he landed awkwardly down in the foot-deep water, possibly breaking his neck in the process; watched as the undead monsters pounced on their group member and tear his face off.

After watching the video, Algie and a few others could not stand to be in the same room as Earnest. They believe that Jones died in the most horrific death all because of his careless and his lack of immediate action. But the other Nerds believed that Earnest made the right call. They felt that Jones’ death was a necessary for their survival, to let the Jocks know that they won’t surrender so easily.

Everyone was at odds with one another. The clique was falling apart, and Earnest did not know how to control it. After a while, he decided that everyone should sit down in an assembly, to get everyone to talk out their issues and how to prevent something like this from happening again.



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“Should I begin?” Earnest asks as he finally had all the Nerds assembled all around the fire within the Observatory. Everyone except for Beatrice Trudeau, who offered to stand by the gate and keep guard. In case the Jocks tried to do anything while she was out there, all she must do is to run back inside and alert the entire clique. Earnest hopes though for their sake that the Jocks don’t attack while all of them are in the Observatory.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">After a while of everyone looking at one another, Algie stood up from his seat and said what was on his mind. “You let the Jocks take Jones and feel him to some monsters. How could you live with that?” he says to Earnest. “It was necessary”, Earnest tells him. “We can’t just up and leave just because they had one of our guys. We won’t be able to survive out there”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“And how do you know that?” Donald asks Earnest. “We did just fine when the school fell. When we were based over at the Library. We took this place back from a horde of them. Considering how we first did not have walls and took out a bunch of zombies just to make this our base camp, I’m sure we could do it again if we have to”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“Donald, we don’t have anywhere else to go”, Cornelius then replies. “The Library outpost was compromised when our barricade over there fell. There’s probably zombies wondering about on the inside now. We could go to the comic book store if we had a mode of transportation, but we don’t. Over a mile of undead are between us and Bullworth Town. We can’t handle that”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“We got to try”, Donald tells him. “You’re a coward”, Thad tells him. “At least I don’t have a brother who betrayed us just to be with the Jocks”, Donald spat out. “Calm down, both of you”, Earnest tells them. “We’re trying to see logic here”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“What is logic in your sense?” Melvin retorts. “You let somebody die by not complying to the wishes of the overgrown trolls. Hell, why didn’t anyone grab a weapon and try to slay them”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“Can we all just stop arguing for one minute and try to assess this?” Earnest orders. “I get it. Some of you agreed with what I did, and some of you don’t. We all just got to take a breather and understand that it was inevitable that something like this would happen. We knew from the moment that we took this place that someone else would want what we had.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“And it was also inevitable that one of us was going to die. Every time we take a step out there, we take a chance of either getting killed by either a zombie human, a zombie dog or wolf, or even a normal human. We’ve all read Robert Kirkman’s comics, we’ve seen the George A. Romero films, and we also played the Resident Evil games as well as watched the atrocious films. It was a matter of time before one of us got killed. Heck, coming tomorrow we all could die just from many things.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif"> “The point is we got to try and not let this tragedy tear us apart. We got to learn from our mistakes and make sure that nothing like this happens again. We may have to try and get some of our old resources from the Library and use them in the event that the Jocks come back and try to attack us”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">For the first time since the Jocks took Jones to be fed to Ted’s zombie dogs, everyone in the room agreed with what Earnest had to say. Even Algie didn’t have anything to say about that. Of course, that was all short-lived though when Beatrice came walking into the room with a sheet of paper in her hands.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“Is everything all right out there, Beatrice?” Bucky asks her as he stood up and tried to kiss her, only for her to back away. “Bucky, we’re friends. Nothing more”, she tells me. With that said, he sat back with the look of rejection on his face. Poor Bucky, Algie thought to himself. ''Always trying to get her to go out with him. I wonder how it would work out though, considering how we never really leave the Observatory.''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">She turned her attention to Earnest and then told him, “I was outside passing the gate for the fifth time when I came across this note. The message, it’s not pretty”. Earnest took the note from her hand and read it.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">you’re blood will spill on the ground of your precious observatory. We will take what is ours, and you will do nothing to stop us. We deserved to live, you do not. You want war, you get one. ''

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">The message was full of grammar issues, but that wasn’t the worst thing Earnest noticed. The message was written in blood, possibly Jones’ blood. Earnest was just about to drop the letter on the ground when Algie snatched it from his hands.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“This is good evidence as to why we need to leave the Observatory”, Algie says right before reading it out-loud to every in the room. “We’re not abandoning our post just because of a scare tactic”, Earnest tells him. “The Jocks will come for us and kill us if we don’t leave”, Algie argues. “Why don’t you leave then, seeing how you are a coward?” Earnest mocks him.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">Everyone in the room then stared right at Earnest with shocked expressions across their faces. “I am not a coward. I’m precautious”, Algie tells Earnest. “What do you do, Algie?” Earnest asks him. “From my standpoint, all you do is argue with me and pee your pants on the spot. Go back to your mom, Algie, or she dead too? Somebody who gave birth to you should have died long ago”. “THAT’S IT, I’VE HAD IT”, Algie says as he slaps Earnest and then slammed his body-weight against his skinny body.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">Earnest got back up and then the two of them started slapping each other. It wasn’t until Algie tried sitting on Earnest’s face when the other Nerds tried to break up the fight. Fatty, Melvin, and Donald pulled Algie off while the other Nerds helped Earnest up onto his feet.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“As of this moment, I banish you and all those who agree with you out of the Observatory”, Earnest says to Algie. “You can’t be serious?” Beatrice says to Earnest. “He doesn’t belong, respect what I do to keep us safe”, Earnest replies. “You’re going to get us killed”, Algie says to him. “You’re no leader. You’re a dictator”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“A dictator?” Earnest in a very low tone as he went up close to Algie. “How do I make myself to be a dictator?” he then asks. “You’re making us stay here”, Algie explains, “you’re making us go to a war that we may not survive. I feel sorry for everyone who decides to follow you. You are going to get everyone killed”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“Who’s the one who encouraged the group to stay strong during the school year, Algie?” Earnest asks him. “Me, that’s who. Who’s the one who tried to run for class president against the very Jock who killed Jones? Me, that’s who. And who’s the one who collaborated with Hopkins against the Jocks around the time of their big game? Me, again.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">“What did you do during the school year prior to the outbreak? You didn’t try to lead our group to victory against our foes. You needed Hopkins to take you to the bathroom, and to the Library after getting a book from your locker. You couldn’t lead this group, even if you wanted to prove a point. Algie, keep doing what you do best, which is nothing. I’ll keep doing what I do best, and that is keeping this group from going into chaos or becoming a meal for a walking corpse”.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">Earnest stepped back from Algie and then told the crowd, “Meeting adjourned”. Everyone in the room except for Algie departed from the fire. He couldn’t believe that Earnest decided to banish him from the Observatory. Then again, maybe it was a smart choice…, for him anyway.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">Maybe I should leave the Observatory. There is no way that we can go to war with the Jocks and survive. Man, do I miss the days when all I had to worry about was a beating here and a wedgie there. Those days are gone. I think I better round up what things I should take with me. It’s going to be a long walk to Bullworth Town. ''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">

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