This Would Be Paradise (Book 2)-A Zombie Novel

Epilogue

All the mirth from yesterday's festivities was long forgotten as people rallied for justice. There was finally civil unrest in Hargrove as the villagers smartened up. Too bad it took the death of one of my companions to get them there.

It was early, the sun having risen a couple of hours ago. None of us who witnessed the atrocity had gotten any sleep, while everyone else was hungover and tired. Not the best time for a trial. Well, trial maybe wasn't the right word – more like a democratic vote. Wyatt had been finally forced to do something under the weight of the evidence. Byron was the killer and Wyatt couldn't just sweep it under the rug this time. Everyone got together to decide what to do and came up with the idea to vote on the murderer's fate. Death or exile.

It could have ended like the situation at the apartments with an angry mob, but these people were more organized. Everyone over eighteen was given a paper to cast their vote, and currently a group of randomly selected villagers were counting the votes together in front of the crowd. If the majority voted for death, then the issue would become who would be the executioner. Unbeknownst to them, I had turned that role down early this morning.

Other than when I originally caught him, Byron had not said a word in his defense. He didn't even deny being the killer. He must have planned to use the guise of the wedding party to kill again, assuming people would be too drunk to notice him in the shadows. As he had been all night, Byron was currently sitting in a condo under constant guard supervision awaiting the decision.

Zoe was...not doing well. She demanded to see the body, even after we tried to talk her out of it. She's been almost catatonic since then. I kept thinking back to yesterday. I had been with Darren for most of the day and suddenly he wasn't here. He was really gone.

His body had been moved to the clinic to prepare for the funeral this evening, and the grass where he had been found, hosed off. I watched as the last evidence of this horrendous crime was been washed into the sewer grates until it no longer ran red. I was drawn from my sad recollection when Wyatt announced that the votes had been tallied.

"Folks, we have a decision. It was close, but majority voted for exile."

The crowd erupted, some yelling about how killing Byron was more just, while others were glad their choice had been picked. John was beside me, nodding his approval at the town's decision. I was honestly torn when I had filled out my ballot. If we didn't sentence Byron to death and merely shoved him out the front gate, what was stopping him from coming back and killing us all? Wyatt could just sneak Byron right back in. I knew John would be disappointed, but I voted for death, I just did not want to be the one who pulled the trigger. Cowardly, I know.

"You're the one who found 'em?" I twisted to see the man I recognized as the groom from last night on the other side of me. This probably wasn't what he had in mind for a honeymoon.

"Yeah," I answered him.

"I'm sorry 'bout your friend. For what it's worth, I knew Darren couldn't have been the killer," he said softly.

I turned to him fully. "What do you mean?" John leaned in, our conversation catching his ear.

The groom looked around himself, then said in a low voice, "There were other murders before Darren arrived. Wyatt told us that if we wanted to stay in Hargrove, we were to keep it to ourselves, and that he was takin' care of it."

"And that didn't set off alarm bells in your head?" I scoffed. Just when my opinion of these people was improving, he tells me that.

"Of course it did, but if it meant we could stay here, then we would stay silent." He leaned closer to me. "There's goin' to be a meetin' later tonight 'bout gettin' rid of Wyatt as leader."