Free Fear the Dead (Book 4) by Jack Lewis Page A

joined
Bleakholt. I knew that nowhere was permanent anymore. There was no such thing
as living; survival was the best we could hope for.
     
    “Think about what you’re saying,” I
said. “What are you searching for, Darla? Some kind of utopia? It doesn’t
exist. Every day you spend with your heart beating and lungs breathing are a
victory.”
     
    I looked up at the people around me.
     
    “Surely you don’t all agree with
her?” I said.
     
    “We’ll have a vote,” said Darla. “The
ten of us. To stay or leave.”
     
    As the morning wore on we debated
back and forth until my head began to throb. I threw the same arguments at
Darla and she spat words back at me. Other residents would chip in from time to
time, most of them supporting Darla.
     
    When it came time to vote, I looked
at the faces of the people in the circle and I felt empty. I didn’t see any
sympathy in their eyes, and I knew that this was a vote I was sure to lose.
That meant that the people would follow Darla, and they would leave camp.
They’d follow her to their deaths.
     
    Just before the vote, one man raised
his head to speak. He had stayed silent throughout the meeting, but now Reggie
looked like he had something to stay. I knew this wouldn’t work in my favour.
Reggie’s son had been brutally killed while in camp, and I had personally
exiled his wife. Under my watch, Reggie’s family had been torn apart.
     
    “We’re making a decision that will
change us forever,” he said, his voice croaky. “The kind of thing we need to
get right. We need to. I’ve lost as much as anyone here.”
     
    He looked down at the ground and
paused for a few seconds as if he was thinking about what he had lost. From
somewhere across camp came the pathetic sound of someone retching. The birds in
the forest were silent.
     
    Reggie looked back up.
     
    “And even with everything I’ve lost,
I still follow Kyle. There are kinds of men who can keep themselves alive in a
world like this, and then there are the kinds who allow others to survive. Kyle
doesn’t just look after himself. He does what he needs to do, and he does it
because he’s the only person with the resolve that we need. I’d follow him
anywhere. If he said we need to go, I’d leave. And if he says we should stay,
then I’ll stay.”
     
    The circle took in Reggie’s words.
Coming from a man who had lost everything, they seemed to carry weight. I
thought of my role in the fall of Reggie’s world, and I felt guilt weigh down
on me until I thought I would crumple to the ground. I didn’t deserve his
support, but I needed it.
     
    Finally Stacey broke the silence. Her
blonde curls swirled in the gust.
     
    “I vote to stay,” she said.
     
    There were murmurs of assent, nods of
agreement. Within ten minutes all the votes were cast. Seven voted to stay in
camp, and only three voted to leave. I had won. I knew that I should have felt
relief, but instead I was tense. It was a hollow victory.
     
    “Fine,” said Darla. “It’s on your
heads. I want you to all remember this day. When you’re lying on the floor
spitting blood. When the infected tear apart your families. Remember what you
did today.”
     
    It was a victory, but not one I would
celebrate. I knew deep down that we had to stay here. For now at least, it was
the safest place we could be. After today though, I was aware that my power was
slipping. It would only take one thing to go wrong, one more person to die, and
everything would crumble.
     
    If we travelled, then we’d die. The
cities and towns were full of infected. The food in the supermarkets was
rotting, and the water systems were corrupted years ago. Out here, nestled in
the greens of nature, we had a chance. Yet if something were to go wrong, the
knife edge would turn and it was me who it would cut first. Some people needed
only the tiniest excuse to start following Darla.
     
    I wouldn’t give it to them. This had
to work.
     
    We saw Lou walking toward us