Calista ignored Dawn and turned to Hegseth.
Hegseth had already compiled a list of the eight police captives from the registration roster and quickly counted the survivors eligible to vote. There were 32 in total, meaning at least 16 votes were needed for a majority.
"First, Jeffries."
Murphy hauled Jeffries to his feet and forced him to face the crowd of survivors.
His face twisted into a vicious scowl, but surrounded by dark gun muzzles and the growing fury in the survivors' eyes, his bravado rang hollow.
Hegseth repeated, "Those who believe Jeffries' crimes are serious enough to warrant execution, raise your hands."
There was a brief hesitation.
Joan was the first to raise her hand, firm and unwavering. Her eyes were red and swollen as she stared at Jeffries, her lips moving silently.
She was one of the few young women among the survivors. She had originally been surviving alone when O'Donnell and Jeffries found her while they were out. She trusted them because they were police officers and thought they were taking her to a safe camp, only to find herself plunged into hell.
Gorman had raped her several times, and O'Donnell and Jeffries were no better. They frequently abused and humiliated her. Once, furious and desperate, she had gone to Dawn and begged her to do something about it, only to be ignored.
That was when Joan realized that the hospital's so-called leader had no real control over her subordinates.
The corrupt police officers needed victims on whom they could vent their desires, and Dawn, in order to preserve her own position, had tacitly accepted that the survivors would be sacrificed for that purpose.
Joan's raised hand seemed to open the floodgates.
A second hand went up, then a third... Arms rose one after another.
Those who had been beaten and thrown into solitary confinement by O'Donnell and Jeffries for trying to escape. Those who had been injured by them for no reason, then dragged back and forced to work. Those who had been cursed at and kicked simply for looking at them the wrong way...
More and more hands rose until they formed a sea of raised arms. Tears streamed down many faces, but no one hesitated.
Hegseth quickly counted them, then announced the result in an icy voice. "...26, 27, 28. More than half. Passed!"
"No!!!" Jeffries let out a desperate roar and began struggling frantically. "You ungrateful bastards! Without us protecting you, the walkers would've eaten you long ago! You can't do this! Dawn, save me!!"
His struggles were useless against Murphy. Murphy dragged him away from the crowd to one side of the clearing, drew his pistol without expression, and chambered a round.
"Bang!"
The gunshot was sharp and final.
Jeffries' roar stopped instantly. He pitched forward onto the ground, twitched twice, then lay still.
Stifled sobs and relieved sighs came from the survivors, but more than anything, there was a heavy silence.
They had just sentenced a man to death with their own hands. Even if he deserved it, there was nothing easy about that feeling.
Dawn closed her eyes, her entire body trembling violently.
"Next, Gorman."
When Gorman was dragged forward, he looked even worse than Jeffries had.
The crotch of his pants was soaked. His face was ghostly pale, smeared with tears and mucus, and he babbled desperately as he begged for mercy. "Don't kill me! I know I was wrong! I'll never do it again! Those women... I'll apologize to them! I'll compensate them! Please, spare my life!"
He desperately tried to bow down before the survivors, but Leon held him firmly in place.
Gorman's vote went even faster than Jeffries'.
Almost the moment he was dragged forward and Hegseth finished speaking, a mass of hands shot up at once.
The women, led by Joan, glared at him with clenched teeth. Gorman's lechery and brutality had clearly enraged every one of them.
There was no suspense in the count.
"Thirty votes."
"No!!!" Gorman shrieked like a slaughtered pig, then began thrashing wildly. He snarled at Joan at the front of the crowd, "You filthy bitch! I should've killed you a long time ago!"
The same procedure. The same gunshot.
A second body fell beside Jeffries.
Two executions in quick succession left the atmosphere unbearably tense, but at the same time, something seemed to have been released.
When the survivors looked at the remaining police officers now, there was no longer only fear in their eyes. There was scrutiny too, along with the strange tension of people realizing that, for once, the power was in their hands.
The votes that followed were much less one-sided.
"McGinley."
Only a few scattered hands rose, perhaps five or six.
Sweat poured down McGinley's face, and his eyes held the dazed look of someone who had narrowly escaped death.
"Shepherd."
Not a single hand went up.
Shepherd nodded gratefully toward the survivors, her eyes red-rimmed.
Next came Lamson and Licari.
By the time it was their turn, some of the survivors had begun to get carried away by the feeling of repeatedly deciding whether another person lived or died, and hands shot up in quick succession.
Just as Lamson looked ready to cry from fear, an elderly man spoke up.
"Everyone, calm down. Think carefully. Have they really committed crimes serious enough that they deserve to die?"
The survivors were not bloodthirsty people. Once reminded, they quickly came back to their senses.
Several people lowered their hands. In the end, Lamson received twelve votes and kept his life. The votes after that resulted in no more death sentences.
Every name called was a trial of life and death, and the police captives' hearts rose and fell with each tally.
Never before had they seen so clearly what these people they had once governed truly thought of them.
The people those officers had once looked down on and ordered around at will now held the power of life and death over them.
At last, it was time for the final and most important name.
"Dawn."
Dawn stood up on her own. Although her legs felt weak, she forced herself to stand straight, adjusted the collar of her sheriff's uniform, and lifted her chin, trying to preserve the last of her dignity.
Her gaze passed over the survivors, with a barely perceptible trace of hope in her eyes.
Deep down, Dawn still clung to the belief that, overall, everything she had done had been "for everyone's good." She had maintained order. She had protected these people. Surely... not more than half of them would want her dead.
Hegseth's voice rang out.
"Those who believe Dawn's crimes are serious enough to warrant execution, raise your hands."
Arms rose once more.
Slowly at first, but steadily.
Five votes. Ten. Twelve...
Dawn's face grew paler with every vote, and her body began to sway.
She recognized several familiar faces among those raising their hands. People she had once believed would understand her, perhaps even be grateful to her, now stood there in silence with their hands raised.
The count crept toward the halfway mark, then stopped at fifteen.
No more hands went up.
Hegseth carefully counted twice before confirming the result.
"Fifteen votes. Not a majority."
The tension suddenly left Dawn's body. She nearly collapsed and remained standing only through sheer force of will.
Cold sweat covered her forehead as overwhelming relief mingled with lingering fear.
Then a chill rose from the soles of her feet.
Fifteen votes.
Nearly half the survivors believed she deserved to die.
That number brutally pierced the illusions Dawn had constructed around herself for so long. The "necessary evil," the "guardian of order," the "matriarch."
She had believed all her effort and sacrifice would at least earn the understanding of most people, perhaps even their gratitude. Instead, nearly half of them hated her so deeply that they wanted her dead.
Calista walked up to her.
"It seems the people see things clearly. Fifteen people believe you should pay with your life for the system you led.
"Sheriff Dawn, that means what you've done isn't nearly as innocent as you convinced yourself it was."
Dawn opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
All her excuses, all her justifications, seemed feeble and ridiculous in the face of those fifteen raised hands.
The mental defenses she had relied on for so long finally collapsed.
Calista turned away from her and addressed all the survivors and police captives.
"The vote is final.
"Jeffries and Gorman received what they deserved and have been executed.
"The rest, including Dawn, will be escorted back to Rock Fortress for review and reform through labor.
"What happens to them from there will depend on their own conduct."