After - The Society Fanfic.

22.

Helena and Kelly sat in Allie's living room, finalising the questions for the trial. They have two days to try and finalise their plans, making their case as airtight as possible. Kelly had spent the day helping at the church, hearing from the individuals there what their opinions are. It's not looking good. Kelly had listened to four of the jury members rant about how much of a dictator Allie was and therefore it wouldn't surprise them if she'd done this. That's what they're up against, a jury full of predetermined bias. It's not about planting a seed of doubt in their minds; it's about planting a whole forest. It's going to be hard. Allie and Will had retreated to their room, the weight of everything finally taking its toll. Kelly hadn't seen Allie cry but the weeping from her room could be heard as she went to the bathroom. She sits back, "I just don't understand, I don't understand how they turned on her."

Helena doesn't even glance up; she continues to highlight a passage in a textbook. "It was always going to happen. You have a group of people who were unhappy, to begin with, forced to do labour for food to keep them alive in conditions that are continuing to get worse with the winter coming. They've dealt with a multitude of things that have had, in their eyes, no positive outcomes causing morale to be at an all-time low. They want to place the blame somewhere. Lexie pointed the finger and much like sheep, they followed." She closes the book, picking up her coffee leaning back in her chair. She studies Kelly's defeated posture. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown."

"But Allie has had to do so much for everyone, she's made it possible for us to survive, we should thank her. Without her who knows how fast we'd have gone through all the food and water supplies. Under Harry and Lexie, we might not even survive the winter." Helena offers a small smile toward Kelly. She understands the frustrations. Everyone that has been helping Allie and Will do, but they're merely a small group in a mob.

"The only reason we understand and know this is because we've been working behind the scenes with her. The majority haven't. The unknown unsettles everyone. We're already unsettled in this world, this just made it worse." Kelly sighs, resting her head on her hand, doodling on the edge of her paper. It felt illogical to even consider Lexie's arguments as rational, but the rest of the community did.

"That doesn't explain why The Guard turned on her." Helena freezes for a moment. The Guard had turned on her but it's Luke betrayal that gave it power. The Guard would have stayed in line with Allie, with everyone here, if it hadn't been for Luke siding with them. Their betrayal of Allie and Will came from a misguided place. For starters they're a corrupt police force, so their want of power was for self-gain rather than the survival of the community. Their anger mainly comes from the way Allie had handled kicking them off the ballot. Instead of recognising an unhappy, powerful, group of people and helping them rationalise and rewarding them in some other way i.e. such as allowing a representative on the council, she just shut them down. She shut Luke down. He'd already felt undervalued and this had pushed him over the edge. Simple mistakes had led to the downfall of Allie, but they were mistakes that anyone would have made in her position. They were naive mistakes that could only be seen in hindsight. In the moment, it'd been hard to see it all.

"She denied them what they wanted." Kelly frowns, unsure what Helena means. "They wanted power, Kelly. They wanted to make the rules and enforce them."

"But that's blatantly unfair! Why would they have thought Allie would let them do that?" You can't make and enforce the rules, that's just too much power. Lexie accused Allie of running a police state but quite frankly she'd helped prevent that. Although, Allie had admitted to everyone she hadn't realised the extent of the truth of Lexie's words. She's never have allowed them to hold her in the dark for hours without care. Kelly agrees Allie was blind, but she could have easily rectified that. The Guard needs to be reformed. Laws need to be made in the town. The way they're arresting over certain things etc. They need to stop being called rules and people need to accept that they're here for a while. It's not giving up; it's just accepting that it's not going to happen straight away. Kelly can't help her anger towards everyone, they're all still acting like 12-year olds, hurt and upset at the work they have to put in to live. Yeah, it's not as cosy as it was before but when they all went off to college, they'd have to start doing stuff for themselves anyway. "Bloody idiots."