We Rule the World

XXII

Month Nine, Year One

12:03PM

'Happy Spring Solstice!' Georgi Prescott.

Her voice roared over the speakers as the crowd of Whitefall gathered close to the stage. They were outside in the long stretch of parkland that cut through Whitefall, to the left of the stage was a large man-made lake and the grassland had been mowed and landscaped the week before in preparations for this event. The grey clouds subsided a few days ago, and the snow a few weeks before, and today they were blessed with a bright cloudless sky as an invigorating sun beamed down upon them.

'Yeah.' Everybody.

The roar of the crowd echoed throughout the region and eclipsed Georgi's voice on the speakers. There was no way that they didn't deserve a celebration and this was it, they had suffered almost one year but now with the influx of food and the good weather conditions they hopefully would prosper. Tomorrow the prospecting crews would start back up, and so would the farms as any large patches of land were all going to be farmed, this meant ovals and most parklands whilst the three farms were going to be expanded exponentially.

'We made it... but there were those who didn't make it as well, some of them you know and some you don't. and I would like for everyone to pay your respect to the ninety-eight souls who died or became lost to us.' Georgi Prescott.

The smiles were swept away and the crowd bowed their heads in respect for the dead, most of whom died due to negligence of a specific topic that would have known if this was the world they were prepared for. Jacob and the others had investigated everyone who was there on the first day and that was the number they had come up with, if it was confirmed that they were dead and if it wasn't, they were put on the list. And that was way too many people, all of them whether they were just names or if they were able to put faces to the names, it was way too many.

Everyone in the crowd no doubt was thinking of someone, the person that to them encapsulated the devastation that this first year had wrought upon them. Some people had lost their entire groups like Levi Manson who now only had Wesley Huon left, or Lionel Borowitz who was the last surviving Watchmen but was now a cripple as his hands had been torn apart by a shotgun shell. And some people had lost those dearest to them, lost their loves or partners or booty-calls. Ricky Parker had lost the very person who she saw a future with even in this grim time, although they were on the outs at the time Mia Wilks had lost Adrian McDonald right at the start of all of this with no hide or hair turning up again.

Bringing their heads up the crowd showed that they had given their moments-silence for the dead. A smile swept across Georgi's face as she leant in towards the microphone. She had had a dramatic change in moods since Dominic was incarcerated and after she and Jacob had had their talk, shedding her old constantly aggravated demeanour into a bossy one, things had seemed to pick up under her.

'Now we have all suffered enough, but with spring officially here and the snow melted from the ways out of the region we are once again connected to the outside world -' Georgi Prescott.

Before she could finish the crowd roared in approval. Jacob could even see Michael Kowalski jumping around in the joyful uproar as Liam done the same, in front of them Allison Greene tried not to be so athletic wearing a ragged and cropped jumper that showed off her belly but would have shown a lot more if she were to jump around like the rest of them. Casey Hodge had no inclination as she leapt into the air truly excited about the spring, only for a brief moment did her gaze move from her friend cutting through the crowd finally resting on James Locke who stood at the edge of the crowd leaning heavily on a crutch as Adam Kahn-Marx stood next to him both with a can of beer in hand. Also, to the sides of the crowd wearing motorbike armour over their school jumpers were the Police Force. Lucas's Police Force who looked far more militarised than Dan's Police Force.