Virginia.
The word immediately caught Calista's attention.
In the original storyline, it was Noah who later led Rick and the others to Virginia, opening the door to a new chapter at the Alexandria Community.
Alexandria...
There were quite a few capable people there. At the very least, Calista was extremely interested in Deanna and her husband, the community's leaders.
Now that she intended to expand Rock Fortress and build it into something greater, she needed to gather as much talent as possible.
"You want to go back and find them?"
An idea had already formed in Calista's mind. When she looked at Noah again, he suddenly seemed like a gleaming golden key.
Noah nodded firmly.
"Yes. I have to go back. I promised my father. And... that's our home.
"Maybe... maybe my brother is still alive. Maybe things there aren't as bad as they seem."
Calista studied him for a moment before speaking.
"Noah, Virginia is a long way from here, and the road is full of danger. On your own, you have almost no chance of making it."
Noah's eyes dimmed, but he stubbornly pressed his lips together.
"Rock Fortress has an outpost nearby. The prison," Calista continued. "It's relatively safe, there are supplies, and there are other survivors there.
"You can go there first and recover. You're far too weak right now.
"When the time is right, we may be able to help you with weapons, maps, maybe even..."
She paused.
"If circumstances allow, the prison may be able to organize an escort to take you there."
She didn't make a firm promise, but she gave him something tangible to hope for.
Noah listened carefully, and the light returned to his eyes.
"I-I can work. I won't take the weapons or supplies for free. I'll earn them.
"Thank you, Commander!"
He gave her a sincere bow.
Calista nodded and signaled Hegseth to make a special note of Noah's situation and what he needed.
Once the ordinary survivors had been given a preliminary arrangement, a more difficult problem remained.
What were they going to do with the eight members of the Police Gang?
By Rock Fortress's usual standards for dealing with hostile groups, leaders and key members who were clearly responsible for murder or other serious crimes were normally executed on the spot as a warning to others.
Those guilty of lesser offenses would instead be classified as "redeemers." They would earn points through forced labor and other dirty, exhausting work. Once they accumulated enough points, they could become full members of Rock Fortress.
But the situation at Grady Memorial Hospital was different.
From what Calista remembered of the original storyline, the Police Gang wasn't completely united, nor was every member of it an irredeemable bastard.
The problem was that she couldn't remember exactly what each individual had done.
And now that they had been completely subdued without any ability to resist, with the loudest troublemaker already dead, there weren't any obvious ringleaders left to single out.
Some of the officers really had only been following orders. A few had even secretly helped survivors when they could.
As for Dawn's system of forcing survivors into debt and making them work it off, it was fundamentally exploitative and coercive.
But to some extent, it had also kept the hospital community functioning and maintained enough order for those survivors to stay alive in the post-apocalypse.
While Calista was considering the problem, Dawn, who had remained silent and dejected until now, suddenly raised her head and pleaded hoarsely.
"Commander Calista, my people... a lot of them were only... only following orders.
"In this damned world, they were just trying to survive.
"Please... please don't kill them all. Give them a chance..."
Calista looked at her, her gray-blue eyes completely calm.
"There are a lot of ways to survive.
"Sheriff Dawn, you chose one that required oppressing other people, and you turned your subordinates into tools of that oppression.
"Now you're asking me to spare them.
"On what grounds?"
Dawn fell silent.
Pain and humiliation flashed across her face.
Then Joan, standing among the survivors, suddenly gathered her courage and called out.
"Commander! Shepherd secretly gave me medicine when I had a fever!
"And McGinley, when he was on night patrol, if he saw Gorman trying to harass someone, he'd deliberately make noise to scare him off.
"They're not all bad!"
Her words caused a small stir among the survivors.
Several people quietly agreed and nodded, looking toward certain officers among the prisoners with complicated expressions.
Shepherd and McGinley looked up in surprise.
Shame appeared on their faces, along with the faintest trace of hope.
They hadn't expected such small, casual acts of kindness to be remembered, much less appreciated.
Calista saw all of it.
After a moment of silence, she raised a hand for everyone to quiet down.
Her gaze moved across the survivors, then over the anxious police prisoners, before finally settling on Dawn.
"Sheriff Dawn, you've spent a lot of time talking about fairness. About how you maintained order.
"So now I'm going to give you, and everyone here, a genuinely fair opportunity."
Calista paused.
"Every survivor here except these police officers witnessed what they did in this hospital.
"You know better than anyone who the real scum were.
"So now, you decide.
"We vote."
The entire crowd erupted.
The survivors stared at one another in disbelief.
The captured officers' expressions changed dramatically. Some looked stunned. Others immediately sank into despair.
Calista glanced at Dawn's bloodless face and continued coldly.
"The rules are simple.
"My people will read out the name of every member of the Police Gang.
"Each survivor gets one vote.
"If you believe that person's crimes were serious, unforgivable, and deserving of execution, raise your hand.
"If more than half of the survivors present raise their hands, the vote passes.
"Anyone who receives a majority will be executed immediately.
"Anyone who doesn't will be taken back to Rock Fortress for labor reform. Their future will depend on how they perform.
"And Sheriff Dawn..."
Calista looked directly at her.
"The same rule applies to you.
"More than half means death."
She swept her gaze across the crowd.
"The vote will be public.
"You don't need to fear retaliation, because from this moment on, your fate is in your own hands.
"This is the fairness and the voice you've always wanted."
The survivors were stunned by the enormous power that had suddenly been placed in their hands.
Then complicated emotions began to spread through the crowd.
People exchanged looks.
Their breathing grew heavier.
The police prisoners, meanwhile, fell into outright panic.
Jeffries suddenly lifted his head and swept a venomous glare across the survivors.
His lips trembled as if he wanted to say something, but Murphy immediately pressed the butt of his rifle against him in warning.
Gorman kept his head lowered, his body trembling slightly.
Shepherd, McGinley, and the others had gone pale as they looked pleadingly toward the survivors they had once helped.
Dawn stared blankly at Calista as though she'd been struck by lightning.
For the first time, she truly understood how frightening this woman was.
Dawn's self-righteous ideas of fairness and order had been shattered, then twisted back against her through a form of cruel, direct "democracy" she had never imagined.
"No... you can't do this..." Dawn shouted hoarsely, fear and despair filling her voice. "You're inciting a mob! This isn't justice!"
"Justice?"
Calista gave a quiet laugh, but there was no warmth in her eyes.
"You ran my people down, dragged them back to the hospital by force, then pretended to save them so you could put them in debt and make them work it off.
"Where was justice when you ruled the survivors in this hospital through fear?
"Now they get to decide the fate of the people who oppressed them.
"That's the justice I'm giving them.
"Begin."
...
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