by Robert Brown
“Arthur, can you get everyone together so we can all discuss everything and take a vote? I need to get something to eat.”
“Sure, Eddie. I’ll let you know when we’re ready.”
*
I finally walk up to the group of freed prisoners surrounded by most of our people. “You all know the position we are in, right?” I look at Arthur, and he nods at me, letting me know he told them our story. “We aren’t the military. We have no large force, and we have not cleared vast portions of the Northwest states. We have a small ranch in the area, and while the housing space will be crowded if you join us, you are all welcome to come. We have some supplies remaining to begin building extra houses and accommodations for you, but at first, you’ll live in tents.
“Fortunately, this store has a lot of supplies remaining, and we can work to bring everything in here back to our place. Unfortunately, there will be plenty of work for everyone to do if you decide to join us. Each person has to pull their own weight, and you can help in a variety of ways—including gardening, cooking, caring for the animals, or construction and defense. Living on my ranch and the protection it provides does not include and will not include threats of violence, rape, or any other forms of degradation that you may have endured in your efforts to survive so far.
“Many of you may not be sure if you want to come, and I bet none of you are sure if you’ll want to stay if you do choose to come. Hell, I may not want all of you to stay once I get to know you better. In any case, I strongly encourage you to join us even if it’s only to regain your strength and spirits before you head out into the world again. One important point is that it is my ranch along with my wife, Simone, here. My wife and I have five children of our own and have included many of the early entries at our ranch into the family category. Regardless of how many people come with us, it isn’t run as a total democracy, it is still my ranch and that is why I am doing most of the talking.
“At my ranch, not every situation will be one where each person gets to vote on what happens. Some things will be my way or the highway, but even in those cases, I encourage everyone to voice their ideas and concerns, so that I can make the best possible choice. I am willing to admit when I am wrong and change my mind when provided with the right alternative.”
I stop for a moment to drink some water. Looking around at the new faces in the crowd, I know we won’t be able to trust them all, but I have to get our numbers up at the ranch.
“All of you have been told that the infected are now running and can manipulate items with their hands. Some of the runners have been trying to open the doors to get in here, so we had to secure all the exits to prevent their entry. Please don’t take the locked and barricaded doors to imply that you are anything but free. You can all come and go as you choose, providing your departure does not put the rest of us at risk. Don’t just open a door and walk out, let someone know if you plan to leave so the store can be secured behind you.
“My group and I are hoping to leave for the ranch tomorrow, and have managed to find two working semi-trucks, with trailers, that we have started to fill with items from the store. For those of you that choose not to join us, you will be outfitted with as many items as you can carry that you will need for your survival, and some types of weapons will be provided for your protection.
“Even though I am offering you all a chance at a real life at my ranch, I am not always the welcoming Mr. Friendly I am being right now. My main concern is the survival of those that I care about, and if someone else’s survival threatens the lives of my family or friends, I will kill them. If you doubt the sincerity of this threat, please speak with any of my people after we are done here about what I have done to those that threatened our lives in the past.
“Now, let’s move on to the prisoners—your former captors and their executions. We will be voting on whether or not they should be put to death and also on if we should do certain experiments on them to understand how the disease has changed.” I look at a notebook while continuing to speak to them. “I understand that there are forty-eight people that worked with Stockton—including nine women and four children under age twelve. Of those forty-eight people, seventeen did not personally participate in your abuse that you people are aware of. Of the seventeen that committed no direct crimes against you, nine have been found to be the family members of your captors, and eight were just people trying to survive—as several of them put it.
“When contemplating the question of their deaths, there is an added implication of using them for experiments. Mr. Fleischer will tell you what his plan is and why he thinks it is important.”
Erde gets up in front of the people and looks much like a skeleton in skin and clothes, the way many of the others do. It causes me to shiver. These people were starving before they were captured and detained here and were barely fed after that. Before he begins, he earnestly looks around at the assembled people while leaning on a cane we retrieved from the pharmacy.
“For everything that we have endured so far, I am the man most directly responsible for all of it. I created the drug that turned our friends and loved ones into monsters. I created it with the intention of saving lives, but it became the thing that we all now fear because I overlooked one of the most basic aspects of the parasite…its relationship to felines.
“Mr. Keeper here was bitten and survived. I believe this is because he had been exposed to the Toxoplasma parasite through his ownership of and interaction with his pet cats. What I want to do is identify any people in Stockton’s group that had cats as pets and infect them with the virus to see if they are immune the way Mr. Keeper is.”
“You just want to test the people that had cats?” someone asks.
“No, not just those people. There is also the issue of slow moving versus fast moving infected, as well as finding out if you, Mr. Keeper, are contagious.”
That gives me a bit of a jolt. I didn’t consider the possibility that I might be able to infect someone else.
Mr. Fleischer looks around at everyone, and continues, “You should assume that if it is voted yes to allow experiments, that everyone in Stockton’s group will be tested. I don’t have a proper laboratory to do non-human testing, and we can’t safely keep these men with us to wait for the proper facilities to be discovered. The quickest way to find out about the disease is to directly infect the individuals with a bite.
“If you vote to allow me to do the testing, I may find a way to protect us from becoming infected by exposing everyone to the natural Toxoplasma parasite. If I don’t test, then we won’t know if there is any way to protect ourselves, and we won’t know why they are starting to move quickly and have higher cognitive function.” Oblivious looks appear on several faces at his mention of cognitive function, so he explains further, “We won’t know why they are now able to make plans and sneak instead of mindlessly attack.”
Erde sits back down, and I give a moment to let people think, then move on with the process.
“We all know what Stockton and his people did here, so if there are no objections, I would like to go immediately to a vote on if they should live or die, and if they should be test subjects before they die. After that, we will vote on the seventeen others individually.
“If there are any questions or concerns let’s hear them now.” The crowd is still and silent.
“Arthur, check with our people on the roof.”
We had to leave several guards on the roof, and they are listening to what is happening on radios. No one is watching Stockton’s men, but we have a small group that periodically goes back to check on them.
“The guards up top are good to go,” Arthur says.
“Okay, every person should take a paper and write three things; life or death, test or no test, and your name, and then bring it up and put it in the box. This vote is for the thirty-one people—including Stockton—that had committed direct violence against those of you that were held captive. We’ll get the votes of the guards on the roof o
nce we have everyone else’s vote. Any missing vote or a vote without a name will be counted as yes on death and testing.”
*
The voting goes quickly with only two No votes on the death issue. The issue of experimenting on them was also surprisingly decided by a large majority, only four said no to that.
The next part is going to be more contentious, I’m sure. It may not be the same world as it was a year ago, but we are still the people that used to live in it. What we do now will have implications for how the world will be, at least for our group of survivors. But I will need to argue against any opposition to make sure everyone stays safe.”
Everyone is quiet, and while some may be uncomfortable with having to vote on others’ fates, everyone seems satisfied with the outcome of the first vote. Time to get the discussion started.
“I think of how lucky my people and I are to have pulled off our trick to free you people. I know all of us could be dead or wish we were dead by now if things ended differently. Those people we have secured back there that weren’t directly involved in your suffering, I don’t want to let them live. I would execute all of them and would only allow those that were held captive to go free.”
A woman from the freed prisoner group speaks up with a physically weakened but defiant voice. “We can’t do that! We can’t choose to kill those people if they didn’t harm us. It is our choice to make. You and your people weren’t here, so you shouldn’t have a vote in it.”
Some of the people with her nod in agreement and express various statements like, “That’s not who we are,” and, “We can’t become evil like them and kill people without reason.”
I let them express their concerns to everyone before continuing. “My family, the people that came here to rescue you, risked their lives to do so. It is dumb luck that the people that captured you and tortured you fell for our plan. And you have to understand that they did not let you free out of some sense of remorse or regret over what they had done. They gave up because they believed they were going to get away with everything they did, with absolutely no punishment. They believed their choice was fight and die or walk free with no punishment. You meant nothing to them in their decision.”
“But the ones that didn’t hurt us weren’t a part of that,” another woman says interrupting me.
I calmly reply, “Do any of you really believe those people had nothing to do with what you went through here? They helped with patrols, they helped with guard duty, and they helped keep watch on the roof. For all you know, those people that you think didn’t hurt you let Stockton and his men know when someone was approaching this store so they could add to their list of victims. It is a great sentiment that you want to move on with your lives and let them go, but why were they left alone while you were starved and tortured? Do any of you have an answer for that?”
This time, Dave, the man from earlier, speaks up, “We don’t know what they did to be left alone, but we can’t punish them for that. It’s not who we are. It isn’t what we stand for as a people. It isn’t what we want to become.” He turns to face the crowd, and continues, “I’m Dave. All of the captives know me. I’ve been here for two months, maybe more. I was in one of the first groups of people captured by these guys, and I’ve seen everything they’ve done. You have voted to punish those that committed the crimes against us, and I accept the vote’s outcome—even while I disagree with it. They hurt us, and you believe that makes us justified in hurting them in return. I understand that. Punishing those that never hurt us just because they might commit crimes in the future makes no sense at all.”
“And what crimes are you referring to, Dave?” I ask and leave the question hanging.
“We all know what these men did to you folks was wrong, but calling it a crime implies that there is a law against it, right? What law is there, Dave? Can anyone tell me what law there is...? The last time I checked there was no police force. No military. No government or constitution. If you truly want to rely on the laws that existed before the disease spread, then my people and I have to leave you here and free Stockton and his men.”
I continue to talk through the gasps and concerned looks. “You and I all know I don’t have any legal authority to capture and hold people just because they committed crimes. In fact, if you want to get technical, my people and I are illegally acting as vigilantes. We are currently guilty of kidnapping, impersonating the U.S. military, and threatening bodily harm with deadly weapons.
“Do you people want us to let those that helped Stockton and his people free? Then we can return to our ranch so everyone can await the proper response from authorities, or should we stand together as the decent people we know we all are and deal with the threats we now face in the only manner we have available? The world has changed. Life as we once knew it is gone and it isn’t coming back.”
“But it is coming back. At least it can if we work on it,” Dave says forcefully. “The infected are dying out, and we can start reclaiming the world.”
I shake my head slowly, wondering why these people refuse to understand what’s going on. “There are runners now,” I say, leaving a moment for it to sink in. “We aren’t facing the same numbers of the infected, but the ones that are left are more dangerous.”
Everyone starts shifting and looking at each other.
“They don’t just slowly come after us anymore. They are hunting us and coordinating with each other to do it. They run fast and can use their hands to manipulate things.”
“When I arrived this morning, we knew about just three, the one that attacked me yesterday and two others we killed on the way here. But today, while we were working on your release, my people were split up into smaller groups. Three different runners were seen circling the area, trying to sneak up and attack.
“What this means is the only people we can rely on are those we can turn our backs too without them stabbing us. Those people that had Stockton’s protection traded your lives for their own safety, and they will do it again if given the choice.”
“You don’t know that!” the first woman that spoke says, with tears in her eyes. “We can’t kill them. We have to trust them. They could have been us. How is what we are planning to do any different from them? We are trading their lives for our own safety.”
“No,” I say with an angry finality. “We don’t have to trust them and it wasn’t you. Did any of you agree to turn on other survivors to end your rape and torture? Did any of you agree to work with those bastards in order to keep yourselves or your family out of the cages? All of you could have done it. Why didn’t you?” The group is silent. “The world is more different now than the first few months of the infection. Before these things started to run, we always had the chance to come back. All of us could have survived with the infected dying off. We could have eventually overcome the criminals and opportunists to rebuild society. But we don’t have the luxury of giving people the benefit of the doubt anymore. Any threat to our survival has to be destroyed now, not just avoided.
“Voting to kill these people for our own safety will do nothing to end society. It has already ended. But voting to let these people live could be the end of the dream of the life we once lived. Letting a known threat live is no different than letting a rabid animal go because it hasn’t bitten you yet. I don’t want to take that chance. You have to decide amongst yourselves if it’s a chance you will take.”
“Can we at least have time to think about it?” another woman asks.
“I want to speak with them,” Dave says. “At least give those people an opportunity to explain their situation. We have to take into account each individuals behavior and should have every one of them come forward to speak for themselves.”
“That is an excellent point and something I can completely agree with you about, Dave,” I say while nodding. “We will hear what they have to say for themselves before any vote is made. What we do with the four children is going to be especially difficult for us to decide on. From what I u
nderstand, they are all the children of the people that directly hurt you.”
This discussion has given me a headache. If we didn’t need the extra manpower so badly, I would just say fuck it and kill everyone that was with Stockton. I’m not the type of person to just take all of the supplies and leave the freed prisoners to fend for themselves, though, so I’ll have to keep my desire for expediency in check and continue listening to their concerns. Plus I have to admit, as much as I dislike Dave, speaking with those other people should have been considered much earlier in the discussion. I’m glad he brought it up. I turn to walk to the other side of the store to get some more sleep and stop in front of Samantha.
“I’m sorry we lost Emily, Samantha,” I say and walk around her.
“Eddie?” she says.
I keep walking. I just can’t take anymore of anything right now.
“Are you going to be all right, Samantha?” Simone asks.
“It’s my fault we’re here,” she says, and she drops her head and starts to cry again. “Emily is dead because of me, Simone. This is my fault.”
Simone grabs Samantha in a strong hug and lets her cry onto her shoulder. “There isn’t anything you could have done here, Samantha. You know it isn’t your fault.”
Pulling back and straightening up, Samantha looks Simone right in the eyes. “You’re wrong, Simone. My daughter is dead because of me.” The serious tone and stern look concerns Simone.
“About two months ago, Connor, Jake, and I were scouting at the edge of Grants Pass to check the area for infected numbers, and I spotted this group. I saw them take someone prisoner, but I didn’t tell anyone about it. Even Conner and Jake didn’t know what I saw. When we returned, we just said that there were some people holding up in the Wal-Mart here, but weren’t positive if they were criminals. I even convinced myself after a while that they were probably good guys that were just catching someone that had attacked them.”