New Eden- The New Eden series book#1 (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 18 "Nobody is killing anyone."

Day 5 11:47am
20h15m

Just when I thought things couldn't be any worse.

We had left Avre and Fink to be guarded by Lewis and Leroy. Something I wasn't too keen on doing, but I did anyway. We went to find Whickham.

The teacher was on the roof looking out over the town. Probably trying to clear his head from the events of the day so far. I didn't blame him.
Everyday since this quarantine, every morning meant danger and death to some, if not all of us.

I've felt a portion of the burden of trying to be a leader. The experience was hard and crushing for me. After losing Dana to the bugs and getting Samantha injured. I had felt like I had let then down. Anger at myself, frustration, doubt, sadness and grief all stirred within me, threatening to drown my sanity in the madness that had taken the town.

I didn't want to be the one to make the big choices. The one reaponsible for the lives, and deathes of people...of my friends....I couldn't stand the pressure.

I was aware that it sounded selfish of me. That in the face of challenges I shyed away from responsibility. But I knew that I wasn't ready to take the pressure. The weight. Not now. Perhaps a little later down the road.
Maybe I'll be ready then.

I had all these feelings and thoughts now as I looked at Brian Whickham. As a teacher, he already was used to having others in his charge, to giving orders.

But this situation probably wasn't something he would of been expecting. He knew how to organize a class. How to dish out discipline. How to grade exam papers.
Now he was rationing food. Making rules. Making sure that people followed those rules. Everything that he did affected those under him. His mistakes meant lost lives.

His actions towards me downstairs suddenly didn't seem as threatening, but protective.
With the loss of Lisa and Davan this morning he probably couldn't bare losing anyone else.

"So who's going to tell him?" Steffan said. He looked at me. I returned the stare.

"Right now, I'm the last person that should be bringing him bad news." I said.
Steffan looked at Brandon. Brandon just squinted up at the sun ignoring Steffan's stare and pretending that he didn't hear the question.

It was just the three of us that came. Kay had stayed behind, saying that she was going to see about Avre and Fink.
I did get her level of compassion.

Steffan sighed. "Whatever!" And he walk ahead to talk to Whickham.

"Hey, Mr. Whick, umm...we talked to the soldier guys and they kinda told us something important."

Steffan went on to tell him everything. I wondered what the teacher was going to do.
The way I saw it, he could let everyone know about the coming attack and organize us to leave as soon as possible, or he could just order us to leave anyway without giving a proper reason.
The problem with the first option was that warning everyone about the attack could create a panic. With that, someone was bound to die.
The problem with the second option was that if Whickham didn't give a reason for wanting everyone to march out of the school then some people wouldn't realize the urgency and probably ignore it. Leroy for example.

Both instances ran the risk of people dying. But it didn't matter which option was chosen. We needed to leave just the same.

"Son of a bitch!" Whickham swore when he had heard the full of the story. He stormed off, passing Brandon and me and headed back inside.

"He actually took it pretty OK." Steffan said rejoining us.

As it turned out, Whickham didn't have to break the news about the military coming to bomb us. Word had already spread to ever ear. And as predicted, things were becoming chaotic.