In taking on this leadership role, I
believe that you have to anticipate things coming down the ‘pike at you. I
think that is half of it right there. You have to come up with a contingency
plan for when things do go wrong. I need to discuss our plans with the group.
(Some things still need to be handled democratically.)
As the way things stand right now, we
feel that it is a pretty clear cut line. It is us versus the dead. And the
enemy of my enemy is my friend. We have posted pretty openly here on the blog
that if you are reading this, we are your haven. We have security, water, food,
dry beds, defenses… We have it good here and if you are out there, we are
willing to provide you with sanctuary. I guess we just assume that anyone that
shows up is going to be happy to be with us and more than willing to pull their
own weight. I know it doesn’t make for the most dramatic readings on here but
our group gets along… pretty much because we have to. I would say that all of
us trapped in here are good, honest, God-fearing, people.
Did Eric and his crew steal a really
expensive SUV from a car lot to get here? Yes. Does anyone in our group
begrudge them for it? Absolutely not. They stole from a faceless corporation
that doesn’t even exist anymore. I think we all would have felt differently if
Eric would have killed the former occupant, drug them from the vehicle and
claimed it for themselves. But they stole it from a dealership. I seriously
doubt the big man upstairs is going to condemn them for that action.
But ask yourself. It has been 166 days
since Zero Hour hit Langley. Tulsa is gone. Oklahoma City. Dallas. Houston.
Gone. Who is most likely to still be alive after all of this? Is it the normal,
sane individuals; the children of the light? Or is it the people with those
hints of darkness that had less compunction about embracing the anarchy? I
suppose it could go either way and you would have to determine things on a case
by case basis. But what if?
What if we discover after the fact
that this is not someone we want to have in our group? Do we ask them to leave?
They will not exactly go quietly. I wouldn't. Is this one of the subconscious
reasons why we have the guns locked away in the Office? Would we have one of
those reality show blindside moments where we make sure they cannot get to any
weapons, already have all their bags packed, and then we have the "we need
to talk" conversation?
And while this is pretty easy to think
about in theory, could you do it? Could you condemn someone, kicking them
outside of your walls, knowing what is out there? I suppose if the reason is
justifiable then it would be easy. If it was a man and he sexually assaulted a
woman in our group, then it seems like it would be an easy choice. But as you
are kicking them out, do you give them a weapon? If you say yes, I can argue
that they could turn around and fire it at you. But can you really just toss
someone out into the wilds with zoms all running around? Does anyone deserve
that fate? And again, sexual assault would be easy to condemn but what if it
was a minor offense like hoarding food or just something like a personality
conflict.
You know that the closer they get to
the door, the more they are going to beg and plead. It will not be pretty.
Could you do that? Could you just close the door on them? It is easy to say yes
here and now in the hypothetical world but during the real event, it might not
be so easy. My biggest fear is that something like that would erode away a
little bit of our humanity. And we all want to remain Children of the Light. I
can make arguments either way and I don’t know what side of the fence I want to
land on.
Thinking about things like this can
drive you crazy. I guess the best thing to do is to cross that bridge when we
come to it. And I pray we never do…
