Chapter 43
The prison's current committee consists of Herschel, Daryl, Carroll, Sasha, Karen, Andrea, and Glenn.
Lena wasn't supposed to be a member of the committee, but since she was the first to discover the matter, she insisted on participating in this committee meeting. And no one could dissuade her, so Rick sat down with Herschel at her insistence.
The night was deep, but they couldn't postpone discussing such an urgent matter until the next day.
The most pressing issue right now is the prevention and control of infectious diseases.
“Their entire district has to be quarantined,” Lina said. Although she came to the meeting, she didn’t want to discuss things or have a back-and-forth discussion with everyone; such things just bothered her.
"The first step is isolation, the second step is disinfection, and the third step is treatment. We should start immediately."
“We only know that this infectious disease is deadly, but we don’t know the exact level of infection. If you quarantine an entire district or even more, people will panic.” Herschel also knew that infectious diseases wait for no one, but things don’t always go as smoothly as Lina thought.
“Democracy has its time constraints. What’s needed now is unified control. The death row is perfect; just put them in there. It’s not like we’re sending them to die; it’s just temporary solitary isolation. I don’t understand what’s there to hesitate about. Sometimes, all you need to do is look at how many people you’ve saved,” Lina said irritably. By the time she realized it, it was too late, but at least no major losses had been caused. The main thing now is to keep people under control. If things continue like this, things might…
"If you're unwilling, then let me do it. I'll do it even if you have to take them by the knife one by one," Lina said, slamming her hand on the table as she stood up. Everything that was happening now felt like a death countdown. She had to control the infectious disease, she had to go out and find medicine, and she had to go out and find the governor. That guy must be nearby right now.
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Tyrsey and Karen, who arrived late, looked at Lina with confusion. "Weren't you talking about the Emergency Committee?" She didn't understand why Lina and Rick were here. It wasn't that she thought they shouldn't be there, but she was just surprised.
Andrea patted Karen on the shoulder, gesturing for her to sit down first.
“Wait a minute,” Lina said, looking at Karen and tossing her a mask. “She lives in that area too, are you crazy?” Lina looked at Andrea, who wasn’t wearing a mask.
“Lina!” Andrea scolded, glancing at the uneasy Karen before pulling Lina aside. “You can’t look at them like they’re the source of the infection, no one.”
“But that’s who they are.” Lina irritably shook off her hand. “Stop with your pointless emotions. What we need to do now is help more people survive. Do you want those people to kill you?”
“Don’t say that,” Lina said, not lowering her voice at all, as Andrea looked at her helplessly.
"I absolutely adore you foolish naiveté," Lina said sarcastically.
"Wait, what do you mean? I think I need an explanation." Karen put her mask on, but looked at Lina with confusion. She didn't ignore the offense in Lina's tone, but she didn't understand.
“Patrick died from an infectious disease, so everyone in your area should be quarantined,” Carol said, looking at Lina with some concern. She understood Lina’s anxiety; if she were in Lina’s shoes, she would have done the same.
What's wrong with wanting your loved ones to live? Lina is right, sometimes it's enough to see how many people you save. Carol's eyes hardened; she had so much to protect—Sophia, her family, this home. She would do anything for them.
“We don’t have time to waste. I believe everyone will understand. It’s just a temporary quarantine. What if they’re okay? Right?” Carol smiled. “Just don’t tell them yet.”
“We can’t lock them all up,” Glenn frowned. “Wouldn’t that mean even those who weren’t infected before would get infected?”
“We can seal off Zone D first,” Karen frowned. Although she didn’t like being treated as some kind of evil virus, she had to consider more people. “If anyone shows unusual symptoms…”
“Site A is very clean,” Rick said. Lina had a point, but she never considered the difficulty of doing it.
“Okay, I’ll go back and make arrangements first,” Karen said without delay, getting up and leaving with Tyrsey. Tyrsey, who had been in close contact with her, also needed to be observed. Sasha watched them leave with unease, but there was nothing she could do.
She could only pray in her heart that neither of them had been infected.
“What about Dr. S?” Daryl asked.
“I’ll help him prepare,” Herschel said. “He went to get Patrick checked out; hopefully, he’ll find something.” Herschel sighed.
"I'm going out to find medicine," Lina said, too lazy to stay and watch them agonize over the issue. Why did they have to consider this and that? Why worry about their feelings when they were angry? She didn't understand and didn't want to understand.
“Where are you going to look? The nearby pharmacies are all empty,” Daryl said.
"Some distant town or something," Lina mumbled.
"Macon?" Daryl slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "Are you going out to die again?"
"I've really had enough of you all. Yes, you're a bit older than me, but that doesn't mean you're right. I can take responsibility for my own decisions, and you have no right to tell me what to do." Lina's emotions had reached a breaking point. She just wanted to get rid of this mess as quickly and easily as possible. What had she done wrong? She never expected anyone to be grateful to her; she did these things simply because she wanted to.
But she was fed up with how these people disciplined her every day, even though she knew she was right!
"Calm down!" Rick quickly stepped forward, grabbed Lina's arm, and pulled her away, trying to make her face him and leave the place.
“Don’t tell me to calm down. You don’t know anything at all,” Lina said, shaking off Rick and glaring angrily at everyone. “I never expect anyone to understand me, and I never think I’ve caused anyone any trouble. I’m just doing the right thing. Danger? When is living not dangerous? But I didn’t ask you to take risks with me, so just shut up and quietly accept my arrangements.”
"...What do you take us for? A burden?" Daryl clenched his fist on the table, glaring angrily at Lina. "Do you even have a heart?"
"You want us to watch you run out to your death, time and time again, because you think it's for our own good?" Glenn nodded, then laughed angrily. "You're a bastard, Lina."
"Who do you think you are? Who do you think we are? Who gave you permission to repeatedly put yourself in danger under the guise of doing what's best for us? Do you think we'd be happy about that? Do you think we can just pretend we didn't hear or see anything, like you say, and sit at home watching our savior Lina run around doing all this until she gets herself killed? Is that what you're thinking?"
“Stop talking,” Carroll snapped. He was going too far. They were just worried about each other, but he kept using the most hurtful words.
“Why, keep talking about Glenn, tell this great hero how grateful we cowards are to her.” Daryl’s voice was unusually calm, but everyone could see that his anger was unprecedented.
Lina opened her mouth but didn't know what to say. She didn't see them as cowards, nor did she want to play the hero; she just wanted to do something.
Glenn's accusations made Lina hang her head in dejection, seemingly devoid of any spirit.
“What kind of damn family are we?” Glenn’s voice trembled. He seemed to be struggling to calm down. He wiped his face, pushed open the door, and walked out.
Rick sighed and pulled Lina outside.
Lina, looking utterly lost, was led by Rick to the meadow outside. Rick let go of her, and Lina stood there blankly, lost in thought.
“I’m sorry, I’ve also been…” Rick looked like he had something on his mind lately, “I’ve also been running away. There’s been so much going on. I think I can finally take a break. You know, when I see the way everyone looks at me, sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe. I keep thinking, am I doing the right thing? Can I do this?”
Lena looked up at Rick, who was staring at the dark sky. In reality, he hadn't relaxed at all during this time.
“And Carl, I didn’t do a good job. I almost turned my son into…” Rick gave a wry smile. “And you, Lina, we’re family. I truly believe that.”
“But Lina, I’m willing to do anything for Carl, but just thinking about Carl doing this for me… No, Lina, no, I can hardly imagine it…” Rick turned to look at Lina. “It’s the same for you. You’re reliable, but that doesn’t mean you’re invincible, Lina. We’ll worry. There’s a way to take it slow. Maybe it’s not the right way, maybe it is. None of us can guarantee anything, but I just want to do everything I can to keep my family safe.”
"Lina, please trust us a little more."
“I never distrusted you,” Lena sighed. “Rick,” Lena’s words caught in her throat. She wondered how to remain calm knowing what was about to happen, how to watch these people die, how to watch the prison fall.
She couldn't do it, so she was in pain, so she wanted to do more, she wanted to help.
“I sensed your loneliness ever since we were at the Atlanta camp,” Rick said, looking at Lina. “The kind of loneliness you exuded without even realizing it was, I don’t know how to describe it, like you were detached from the world. You looked at us like you were looking at a book you’d already read.”
Lina was taken aback. Was it that obvious?
“Lina, like you said, where in this world isn’t dangerous? Who is guaranteed to survive? But we have the right to fight. You can’t, you can’t protect anyone forever. You know that’s impossible. Don’t, don’t carry the fate of any of us on your shoulders.” Rick bowed deeply, staring into Lina’s eyes, and said solemnly.
Lina's lips twitched slightly, her eyes darting away. This would have been worse than a scolding; why did they expose all her secrets so easily? This was terrifying!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
