no one he was very close to. Many people envied the lack of suffering William faced after the dead had risen. Those that stopped to think about it realized William lost so little after the outbreak because it had all been taken from him before. His wife, daughter, and son had all been long gone before the world fell apart. He had moved far away from the memories he created with his family and met new people, but people he kept at a distance.
Even William admitted he had a certain amount of luck though. He had talked about the fact that he never had to see his beautiful family turn, or worse he never had to prevent that from happening. It was a nice way to look at it but it begged the question, what kind of world did we live in that he had already lost so much before any of this happened.
Emma had no lovers, and she was from a small family. On the surface it might seem like she was lucky she only lost her parents. However, since she had so little to lose she took the loss pretty hard.
Edna was Emma's opposite, she had many children and grandchildren. They were all gone now. Edna not only felt the pain of a parent burying her children but of a grandparent burying her grandchildren. She had nothing left when she found the town, including hope.
Tess was a mystery. She didn't share, they couldn't force her to either. She was calm, smart, and collected, how could they force her to talk about her past.
They sat in silence again. Tess looked down at the candles as they lowered bit by bit. Every one was glancing around at one another, but their faces were still turned down if they thought anyone might make eye contact.
“The reality is we are deciding whether or not to kill someone that has no idea what they are doing just to save the group,” William said, choking on the last few words.
The entire groups looked at him, he said the words they had all hoped to avoid. He made the gravity of the situation a clear cut reality.
“No one is unaware of what is happening William,” Edna snapped.
“Well they sure as hell are acting like it!” He screamed back.
“Look I understand your perspective, but you have to understand ours. We know the stakes, but we can't focus on those,” Emma responded quietly.
“Some of us can't separate the two,” William grunted.
“Which is good, as long as we eventually reach a decision,” Edna said patting his hand.
“There is a reason you were voted in, your varying ways of seeing the world is part of that,” Tess said softly. “They don't want you to make this decision easily, but the last thing they want is for you not to make it.”
“There is no way to make this easier, someone dies or we all remain at risk.”
Silence filled the room again. Tess knew they would keep reverting to this. No matter how passionate William and Emma were, even they didn't want to vote.
The shadows on their faces became darker and darker. Tess sighed and slowly walked around the room lighting a few more candles and setting them down. As she passed them she handed them each a pad and pencil for voting. Edna opened her mouth to protest, but Tess held her hand out to stop her. She took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly while walking back to her seat.
“When this all began I knew what was going on. I was enough of a horror freak that I got it. Of course I didn't see the signs until it was too late, but when the news first started making reports while still denying I understood,” Tess said then paused to sit down slowly. “Now I am going to tell you the rest of my story and we're going to take a few votes. I feel this might help us as a group decide for the real vote.”
The faces looked up at her a bit confused, but one by one they opened their pads and waited.
“The only family I had that was close was my grandfather. He was of course not a healthy man, but he had meant so much to me for so long. I had to go back for him. I did, and we grabbed some supplies and hit the road. He didn't protest
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