Chapter 7

As Thomas kept his distance so as not to be seen, he watched Garfield and Walker hash things out, taking turns to speak as they made their way down the street. He could see in their body language that Walker was clearly upset, and Garfield was having difficulty walking in a straight line as Walker pulled him along through Dawn's square.

The square was nearly empty, save a few people passing through and a young couple sitting on the edge of a fountain. The fountain in the middle of the square held a vast statue of Dawn's founding father, Jackson Weld. The slab of grey stone was carved out in his liking, although it towered over Thomas by a good ten feet. The head of the statue was tilted toward the ground, the eyes unfocused in deep contemplation. The arm of the statue stretched across his chest with an open hand covering his heart. He was standing with one leg on a platform in the middle of the fountain, the other leg bent, positioned atop a spherical object. Water slowly flowed over the bottom platform into the surrounding pool.

Many residents of Dawn assumed the sphere to be the sun, symbolically representing the founding of Dawn. Others believed it to be just a rock, and some as grotesque as a faceless head. Jackson Weld, and the artist that created the statue, had been dead for more than a century, and any inclination for what the sphere truly represented was surely lost in rumors and myth.

Some days, Thomas couldn't help but think it was the rising sun, and Jackson Weld was keeping it from emerging.

Walker and Garfield nearly knocked the couple into the fountain as they hurried by, making a beeline to Walker's residence. Thomas tried to get a little closer to them before they made it inside, hoping to catch some fragments of their conversation. He came up to the couple sitting on the edge of the fountain. The woman was rubbing the man's back as he stared off into nothingness, his face pale and expressionless.

I wonder what she said to him to make him look so bad.

As he passed the fountain, he started to make out the parts of Walker's conversation. He could hear phrases like "never coming back," "can't believe," and "wait until Weld hears."

Weld? Thomas looked back at the fountain, glancing at the statue of Jackson Weld in the center. To Thomas's knowledge, Weld had no children to keep the family name, and he didn't know of anyone else with the last name Weld. He turned back to Walker and Garfield, hoping to catch some more of their conversation before they went inside. As they neared Walker's residence, Thomas heard a splash from behind him, followed by a scream that made him cringe. Walker and Garfield turned around, looking past Thomas and toward the fountain. Thomas followed suit and turned around to find the woman who had been sitting on the fountain, but the man was nowhere to be seen.

It dawned on Thomas what happened right as Walker and Garfield sprinted past him, nearly knocking him over in their rush to the fountain. Thomas gained his composure and ran over to the fountain, reaching the woman right as Walker jumped into the water. Garfield stood at the edge of the fountain as Walker bent down to grab the man who had fallen in. Thomas ran up next to Garfield, reaching toward Walker as he began pulling the man out of the fountain. Thomas and Garfield each grabbed one of the man's arms while Walker stayed in the water to grab his feet and lift him out.

They finally got the man out of the fountain soaking wet, his face void of any color. The woman remained standing a few yards away, her hands covering her face as she stood silent, watching. Thomas and Garfield let the man down slowly until he was flat on the ground, his head rolling to the side, lacking any strength. Walker stepped out of the fountain, his legs drenched. His shoes made a sloshing noise as they hit the brick.

Garfield got on his knees next to the motionless man and looked up at Walker, "Help me, Chuck." He turned back to the man, putting his hands on the man's chest and violently pressed down, the body twitching as he came down.

"Please, Chuck," the words struggled to form as Garfield continued to push down repeatedly on the man's chest, "help me."

"Stop, you're hurting him!" yelled the woman as she stood to the side, helpless and in utter shock. Ribs began cracking as Garfield came down harder on the man's chest. "Make him stop!"

The woman was crying hysterically at this point, and Thomas was frozen in pure confusion, unsure what the hell Garfield was trying to do.

At this point, Walker went and grabbed Garfield underneath his arms and around his chest, pulling him up and off the man. Garfield came up and turned around to face Walker, "Jesus, Chuck, the man is --" Walker swung his fist and punched Garfield directly on his left cheekbone. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as his legs gave away, falling to the ground next to the unconscious man.

The woman fell to her knees, her hands covering her face, sobbing. "He...he killed him. That...man. He killed my husband!" With an open fist, she began hitting Garfield in the chest. People began to gather around, curious about all the commotion.

Thomas grabbed the woman from behind to keep her from hitting Garfield, although a part of him wanted her to continue striking him. She shook in his arms with each gasp of breath she struggled to take.

Walker looked up at him, and with conviction said to him, "Keep her here. Calm her down." Before Thomas even had time to respond, Walker grabbed Garfield's arms and began dragging his unconscious body toward his house, leaving Thomas to deal with the woman and her dead husband.

He could hear the woman mumble between sobs, words like no, b*****d and killed. When she finally caught her breath, she ripped free of Thomas's arms and fell back to her knees. Walker looked up at the statue of Jackson Weld, now looking directly at the woman grieving over her husband.

"You b*****d!"