Zombies 9.2

By Asa Montreaux

So we’ve all had to consider how it might reflect on the compound if we banish someone, and that’s why once before we had not banished someone, who now has threatened to take someone’s life again. It seems for the order of our small society, the council feels we must banish the man from here.

We will of course conduct another vote. Shortly, we will exit from the boardroom, so you may place your votes, and when we return, we will consider the results of the vote. We ask you to feel compassion for each other, though not to view this man as someone who has not violated the social contract that binds us together. Although we have had the apocalypse, we have tried to recover order, and establish a new mode of living to both control and improve our human condition.

So, now that I have given the last summation, we will exit the boardroom, please place your votes when we have all exited.

After all of the board members had risen, and could not be heard meandering down the hallway, the board placed there votes. Some people seemed to have indecision, seeming to wait almost until the board had come back to make their decision. Some people voted almost right away, seeming deliberate in what decisions they wanted about the break-in and attacks on innocent civilians.

Most people seemed a little bit anxious about what they had voted, and Tom was feeling particularly anxious. It had involved him, so he felt like he might be someone inclined to vote for banishment. All the same, he felt bad for voting to banish the man, and he felt sorry that anyone would perceive that he might have voted for it. It was a tough decision, and it was about him and Nina, about anyone that was vulnerable in the compound, who he didn’t want to be in their situation ever.

The executive council counted the votes, seemingly deliberating over what the count was, what it mean about what kind of society we were. Eventually, they were ready to announce what the vote was, and whether they would uphold it.

We have finished counting the votes, and we have determined that the majority have voted for the banishment of the man who has broken in and attacked these people once more. Banishment is a severe punishment, especially given our times. However the board has chosen while it was away to uphold banishment, and from today, the banishment will be put into effect, and everyone in the compound is to be reassured of there safety, and as always, asked to remain calm, and be cooperative amongst the group of people we find ourselves with.

The man has had recourse and time to think about his actions, and seems to have not acted out of a particular desperation. In his banishment, he will surely die. We estimate he will only live a few more hours, at most, when he has left the compound. Don’t feel too sorrowful about what you have voted, know that the council does not want to wish banishment on any of you, and hopes that you feel alright through your times of struggle. The sense of order and meaning will return to our lives slowly.

After the meeting, Tom though about the banishment and what it meant to him. He felt weirdly happy to see the man pushed, though he’d never been one for justice before. It seemed an outdated and overlooked end. Maybe the promise of some renewed safety. He shivered because it seems still to be a dangerous time, and that they only battled or looked after their lives most days. It was a scary time, and renewal was only a far way promise.

Soon, there would be nuclear war, and they certainty would be in peril again. He hoped it would work. They watched anxiously as construction on the dome reached completion. Each new section of the roof, which seemed much more difficult than the wall, was like something on a clock until the possible end of time. It wouldn’t not work, they would drop the weapons far away, and they wouldn’t kill any people. They couldn’t. And the zombies would be exterminated, how could it go wrong?

Nina watched people on the street sometimes. They would stop and watch the construction, nervous like some debris was going to fall from the sky. It’s not much longer, she said. I think the depression is already setting in.

If you think about it too much, it’s like the walls are closing in around us, like you can’t breathe. So you only need to look to the future. There’s nothing to worry about.

You know my mom was a zombie.

How is that possible?

Haha. You know, she was bitten. And then she turned. It was really scary.

Everyone knows someone who became a zombie. It’s not impolite to say that everyone you knew is a zombie now.

I suppose. Or they were killed by a zombie.

That’s more gruesome, I suppose it’s kind of the way it is now. It was a really scary war.

I don’t know if nuclear war, real ends it, or if it makes it so much worse.

Maybe it ends it, and it’s going to go away, and the compound will have a quiet life.

I suppose. That’s what everyone says now, and we can’t change anyone’s mind, and we can’t let the zombies get any bigger.

No, there’s far too many of them now. This is our one shot as a society.

That makes me want to cry.

It’d be okay, but you’ll have to dry your eyes, we should go inside, they are really trying to finish the dome, it makes everyone anxious to watch it now.  

*

Tom arose and was doing things around the house after his alarm and he realized the dome would be completed that day. When he looked outside, it seemed as though they’d just about finished. How long before they went to war again? Maybe even over the night. He told Nina they were just about finished, and that they should just stay inside today. There were probably some noises in the night. They said to be prepared for the war after it’s completion, that they wouldn’t be calling a meeting when they felt the need to do something about the zombies as soon as they could.

It seems they were right. Soon they could hear the commotion outside. It seemed like the dome was complete and everyone had come outside. When they stepped outside, everyone had said that it was finished, and that the war was happening that night. Everyone looked worried. Some of the women were crying. It was frightful for people, and they felt uncertain because it wasn’t up to them how the war would go. It was really out of our hands now. And it was tough to tell if there wasn’t going to be some response. The zombies couldn’t think. They wouldn’t have known what happened. But it was still scary.

He didn’t want to go to sleep that evening, though he feared he should be in bed when it started. Eventually he went and joined Nina, who was still awake.

Any minute, she said. There will be dead zombies all over the place.

I know, it’s okay you reminded me.

You can’t not think about it right before it happens.

Are we all going to have a heart attack?

I hope not. That would be unfortunate I’d say. You’ll be able to spider sense they are far away.

Is everyone spider-man?

Maybe to an extent. I wonder if any pollution could ever come through the dome. Then we’d surely have mutations.

That’s not a nice thought. We all rationalize this by think we’re saved.

I know. The dome should work.

The epicentre isn’t so far away this time. I wonder how that reflects on our society. I’m not sure, but that’s a very interesting question. The zombies are just more dangerous. It was a whole new kind of warfare, completely twisted.

I remember this now. It’s a wonder people are ever happy anymore.

I know. It took some time anyways. Are you all alright?

I suppose. It seems to me like some people have heart.

People had hearts. The apocalypse didn’t choose. It wasn’t biblical.

Some of the people left have good hearts. And we all feel heavy at heart, even they not have good ones.

I agree with what you are saying, for sure.