Chapter Five - The List Behind the Backup Door

"There isn't enough water either way." "So you're asking me to admit somebody dies of dehydration." "No," Elliot said, meeting her eyes. "I'm asking you to admit somebody already is." The words cut through the room's last layer of denial. Mara closed her eyes, struggling against something. Nad folded in on himself, shoulders trembling. Nobody here was choosing between good and evil. They were choosing who died first. "Do it," Carl said first. "At least the equipment lives." "You can decide that like it means nothing?" Lucy asked. "I've watched too many fire pumps die in the last ten minutes of a station fire," he said. "Equipment first, people after. The order doesn't make the bodies less real."