she knew what she needed to tell them. She only hoped that they would take it in a positive light.
“He told us to take back this city and get ready.”
“Ready? Ready for what?”
“People.”
“People? Come on, you gotta give us more than that.”
“There is nowhere else for them to go, and there is not much more to give you. To his knowledge, there is nowhere else where they have fared as well as we have. Our radio broadcast has gone viral and is being played on computers, radios, and phones across the nation. They are all trying to come here, and we have to get ready.” She could tell by the looks on their faces that they weren’t quite getting it. They understood her words but were still confused.
“How are we going to stop them?” someone asked, and it was Lisa’s turn to be confused.
“Stop who?”
“The people who are coming to take our town,” someone else said, as if it were obvious.
“Take our town? They aren’t coming to take our town. They are coming to join with us because we are it : the last bastion, humanity’s hope. We need them and they need us; without that, we will have nothing. We have to join together and fight the millions of dead who want to make a meal of us.”
“But how will we feed them all? Not to mention, house them.”
“We just had a city empty out and there are tons of stores, warehouses, and semis filled with food. The farmers are already organizing to help and be a part of what we’re doing.” Lisa paused as she tried to collect herself and control the rage that was starting to simmer within her. It galled her that these people, who were themselves rescued and provided with a haven, would deny that to someone else. She eased her breathing and looked at the crowd, not wanting to know who had made the last statement. She started slowly maintaining her calm.
“From my understanding, billions of people around the world have fallen victim to an unknown sickness that kills then re-animates. Hundreds more have died in order to see that we few survived. How do we repay that sacrifice? Those lives that were lost? We re-start. We do whatever we can to see that humanity as a whole has a chance to survive. We don’t do that by fighting amongst the living or being selfish and creating divisive factions over food or weapons. We join together and fight those things that want us dead. We are not food, nor are we rats who squabble over every last crumb. The time of selfishness is over; now is the time to be selfless. All races and religions are welcome here. If that doesn’t work for you, there will be rations—enough to last a couple of days—provided for you at the gate as you leave.” She looked over the crowd and saw most nodding their heads in agreement, but there were a few …
“Get some sleep … we have a lot to do,” she said with a small smile, not really sure where they stood and distressed that someone was already thinking of isolation.
She walked out into the parking lot, wondering how many would be on board with what they were planning—with what they had to do. How much should she tell people? What exactly did they need to know? Should they be voting on something like this? Did people even know what they want? Could anybody truly be denied refuge? Something told her that pushing away the future refugees would turn out a lot worse than opening the doors for them, but it would have to be done in a way that people would accept it.
Lisa suddenly felt dirty. She wondered if a politician ever felt dirty as they manipulated opinion toward what they felt was in the best interests of the people … or in this case, humanity. The realization that more was needed here hit her like a wet rug across the face. They couldn’t be a fortress; this had to be a city with free trade and laws or it in itself would crumble to the laws of the jungle. Only the strong survive in the wild but within humanity as a whole, this was not the case. This was the primal
Morten Storm, Paul Cruickshank, Tim Lister