K - Chapter 1

“Everyone, please settle down! Can I please have your attention?”

The murmurs in the town square subsided, and all of the faces turned towards Gavriel, who was standing on the ledge of the fountain. Seeing that everyone was now listening, he cleared his throat. 

“Wait. There are only 29 of us here, including you,” said Serge, who stood next to Gavriel. He fiddled with the clipboard he held, crinkling the pages between his fingers. “We know that Cole Bauer won’t come out, but we’re still missing someone.”

“Are you sure there were 31 survivors?” he asked Serge, who nodded in reply.

“I was in charge of body counts,” he replied, and started flipping through the pages to check. “I know that someone isn’t—“

“I’m here now,” interrupted a voice.

The crowd turned to see the newcomer. There were disgruntled murmurs and whispers as Meri made her way to the front of the crowds. She felt the stares bore into her, but she just let them slip past.

She craned her neck and looked up at Gavriel. “Sorry for being late, I hope I didn’t miss anything from our newly minted mayor.” She smiled up at him.

“Nothing at all, Meri,” replied Gavriel, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Something irked him about her attitude, about the way she just nonchalantly walked in, with a cocky smile on her face to boot. But he realized he needed to make a good first impression, as his role as mayor was hanging by a thread. He smiled back at her and said, “Next time, it would be best if you were more punctual.”

“Of course, of course,” replied Meri. “Now, it would be wise to continue with your meeting. It is quite cold, and I’m sure we’d all rather be inside.”

Gavriel brushed a curl of hair out of his face. “Very well then.” He straightened up his back and tilted his head up.

“Thank you for coming out,” he said, his voice commanding attention. “This past week has been very difficult for all of us,” his voiced softened, and he gazed out at all of the survivors. “But this is very important, if we are to survive.”

He let out a deep breath and subtly fingered the pocket watch. “We all know that winter is coming fast upon us, but our electricity will be out within three days without anyone with an electrician’s knowledge. We do have gas and wood, but those are all very limited resources, not enough to share amongst all the households.” Gavriel paused to let the information sink in. “Serge, if you will,” he gestured.

Serge stepped off of the ledge and started passing out sheets of paper in the crowd, all of them identical to each other.

Gavriel waited until Serge was finished before he started speaking again. “Therefore, I propose to move everyone into the two largest houses in the town: the Lafite’s and the Hansen’s before tomorrow at noon.”

“Why are you volunteering my house without even bothering to ask me?” asked Shawn, indignant.

“I apologize, Shawn,” said Gavriel gently, “but this is for the good of the town. The houses are next to each other, which helps provide security and accessibility. I hope to put aside the history of differences between our households, if it means that we can all live safely.”

Everyone turned to Shawn with expectant looks in their eyes. He froze, then muttered his assent. Meri didn’t look at Shawn but rather at Gavriel, and noted the smirk that was barely noticeable except at close proximity.

Serge tapped Gavriel on the shoulder and pointed at the clock tower. Gavriel nodded, and placed a reassuring hand on Serge’s shoulder before turning back to his speech.

Gavriel held out one of the pages that was handed out to the crowd. “On these hand-outs, you’ll a list telling you which house you’ll be placed in, and a diagram that shows what room is your designated living area.” A few hands shot up, but he shook his head. “We still have two more items on the agenda, anyone who has housing concerns can find me later.”

He waited until the hands were lowered before he continued. “Next is the matter of food and water. Water is a simple matter, as the lake is only a five minute walk south of here, and we can also boil snow.”

“Who’s going to get the water?” asked Noel. “There’s no way I’m letting Sophia go out in the cold and carry large buckets of water or snow, she’s barely capable at twelve years old!”

“Noel, I can handle it myself,” protested Sophia.

“Come on Noel, stop being an old nag, just let Gavriel continue and leave sis alone,” said Levi, rolling his eyes.

“Levi, do not talk to me in that manner or—“

“Please, calm down,” said Gavriel. “I have already considered physical capabilities and ages, and if you look back at the hand-out that you have, you’ll notice a schedule of who will have water gathering duties on what day. I have excluded everyone under the age of fourteen from those duties.”

“What, so the little snots are just going to laze around?” sneered a girl, twirling her hair around her pinky in boredom.

“I was just about to get to that, but next time we have a meeting, Selena Barres, I would rather you keep the attitude at home.”

Selena blanched and then flushed. The other kids around her snickered, but after a glare from Selena, they all quieted.

Gavriel coughed before continuing. “Before I was interrupted, I wanted to propose that starting tomorrow afternoon, we will all go in groups of three or more to find what supplies we can gather from the houses. It will only be one hour a day until we can be sure that we’ve collected everything useful to us. This will include nonperishable food items, cooking supplies, and weaponry of any sort. Those aged twelve to fourteen will focus on food items, everyone else will focus on finding cooking supplies and weapons.” He looked out at his audience. “Any objections?”

No one said a word or raised their hand, so Gavriel took that as a no. “Great. I have one last thing to say; there will be sign-up sheets located in each household for extra service help. We need those who can cook, those who can help Serge in the clinic, and those who know their way around Sherwood Forest.”

There was murmuring in the crowd, and Gavriel let it subside. He glanced up at the clock tower, and his expression soured as he noticed that he had let the meeting run five minutes later than expected.

He turned his attention back to the crowd and saw a tiny smirk on Meri’s face. He quickly smiled and said, “I thank you all for coming out this morning, and I hope to see you all tonight in the houses. Anybody with questions or concerns can find me sometime today. Meeting dismissed!”

There was a visible sigh of relief as the survivors dispersed to their homes, with the sole exception of Meri. She looked up at Gavriel and said, “Good job today, Mr. Mayor. For a first time, it was really not bad at all.” She smiled, and then walked calmly back to her home, the red ribbon in her hair shining in the sun.

Gavriel smiled back until she left the town square, and only then did he let the dour expression creep onto his face. “Serge,” he said, turning to the doctor who was fiddling with his papers, “I want every piece of information you have about Meri Fallon.”