Free The Aftermath: Parts I and II by Megan E Pearson Page A

the safety of man kind, all that bullshit.  These people are either killed off or join a group like mine.
    My group banded together for one purpose and one purpose only, surviving.  I'll admit it's not the most honorable goal in the world, but it is a goal that will still bring people together and help them in the long run.  See, our leaders had been at one of those "safe places" and managed to get out relatively unharmed.  However, they did learn an important lesson.  They saw the damage that accepting everyone could cause.  They also learned that not everyone can be saved so it's not always worth trying to save them.  The formula is simple, the young, old, weak, and sick are just bait.  But in a world like this bait is dangerous.  You waste time, energy, and supplies on them, and they just go first anyway.  They kind of prove the rule that you don't need to run the fastest, just outrun the slowest.  If you are fighting for survival though, they are a strain that is not needed.
    And that's the problem most people have with this goal of survival.  That you have to go to great lengths to actually live by it.  There are certain things you have to do to obtain this goal that others have a problem with.  Ultimately though, it's the willingness to do those things that separate the survivors from the potential meat sacks wandering around.  It's also how we would pick our new recruits.  How desirable they were to us was based on what they were willing to do.  All were required to show a certain level of submission to our rules.  You want to join, you give us all your supplies and don't question why.  However, the more desirable ones were the ones willing to do just a little more.
    We didn't ask them to kill their groups, but it pretty much ended that way.  See they were the leaders.  The people chosen because they were the smartest, strongest, or just generally the most useful.
    Sometimes it was one, sometimes more.  They were welcome, but the people only alive because of them were not.  We gave them limited time to figure out if it was worth it, and if they did….  Well, that was pretty good evidence that their priorities were in line with ours.  If they decided not to leave their group behind and showed up later, well we had all the proof we needed that they didn't belong.  Although it may seem unforgivable to you that we just let them wander off to what I can only assume was their death, you have to consider whether or not they would have actually fit in with our system.
    Odds are they would have taken issue with our rules, and our brand of punishment.  But then I guess our infamous punishments are part of what has you so curious.  It's true we were pretty harsh.  We had rules, and we had a system for maintaining those rules.  Now you could brand us as cold or whatever else people call us, we were very clear about the rules.  No one entered our community without a full understanding of what we demanded of our citizens and the price you paid for failing to meet those expectations.
    Make a minor infraction and you would be presented with a choice.  You could leave the community, albeit with minor supplies, but still free to go with assurance that we wouldn't hunt you down.  Or the more merciful choice in my opinion, we would kill you.  Pain free, quick and easy.  We would also make sure you didn't come back.  The worst that would happen to you post death is the community would see your covered body going through town and then buried.  It was honestly the most respectful example we would set.  Those little punishments aren't what people talk about though, is it?  No people like to talk about what would happen if you made a major infraction.
    In those cases you didn't have a choice, and you certainly weren't given much respect.  I can admit it, we treated those people like shit.  Some of them we just killed, depending on their crimes.  They were usually our trophies.  You have of course