Ground Zero

Can't be any worse than what's going on now, and you might as well be on the winning team.

"Alright, I'm in. What do we do?"

Elliot smiles.
"Glad to have you on board, as for what we do, you'll see. You'll all see. Leon, and Brenda you're all coming with me. The rest of you go back to your rooms, tomorrow your loyalty will be rewarded, I promise."

Elliot and his gang leave, you close the door and go back to sleep without thinking anymore about it.

The next day you hear a lot of yelling and screaming when you wake up, you get dressed and leave your room to see what's going on. You see a crowd of people gathered outside Ron's door. You make you way through the crowd and see Leon holding Nina who is struggling and hysterical. Elliot is nearby speaking.

"I DIDN'T DO IT! YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE ALL LYING! (Sob)"
"I saw her! I saw her lurking around last night when I heard some noises. I just wish I'd done something then! I'll never forgive myself. I just thought she was taking a walk, little did I know she was going into Ron's room and killed him! Why? Because she found out he was having an affair with his secret lover William!"
"What the fuck…?" you say to yourself and take a quick look inside Ron's room. You see Ron's body lying in a pool of blood on the floor in his underwear, his throat has been slashed. Nearby is another body killed in the exact same way. Its William who you really didn't know anything about, you guess you know he was gay now though.

"Huh. I guess that explains why Ron never took any interest in Nina." You say to yourself. Meanwhile Elliot is continuing his speech.

"She even dropped the killing weapon outside her door! Brenda found it when she was going to talk to her this morning! Look!" Elliot shouts when Brenda shows everyone a bloody scalpel.
"THAT'S NOT MINE! I DIDN'T DO IT! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW RON WAS GAY!"
"Oh we ALL didn't know Nina, until we found his dead body! But we all know that YOU had a giant crush on him and practically stalked him. It isn't hard to connect the dots here Nina! You found out he was carrying on with William and you in a jealous rage killed them both! Now granted William and Ron were breaking GZS policy with their behavior, but they didn't deserve this! To be brutally murdered by an insane love sick stalker!"
"I'M NOT A STALKER! (Sob) I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!"
"Enough! It's apparent that we need to punish you, for your heinous crimes. Though I feel you deserve death, I am in no position to determine your ultimate fate…I say the people should decide!"

Some of the people in the crowd begin to chant "Death!", and most of those are followers of Elliot. It doesn't take long for the rest of the crowd to follow. Elliot's got 'em all by the balls. He has completely manipulated this herd of sheep into believing and following him, on little to no basis in evidence. They're all just believing what he's telling them. You know damn well he's set this whole thing up to blame poor Nina. You can't really do anything about it though; nobody's going to believe you.

It's too late anyway, after a few more words from Elliot, you see Leon carry out the crowd's wishes and break Nina's neck. Now Elliot makes another speech.

"It is done…it is regrettable, but it is done. Leon, you and some of the others please dispose of these bodies in the incinerator…I didn't think we would have to use it so soon and under such tragic circumstances. I suppose we'll need another shelter leader now to guide us through this dark time…well whoever is proposed, I hope they will be willing to listen to some of my ideas about how we should increase security around here so nothing like this ever happens again."

"Hey! How about you become our shelter leader Elliot? You certainly know how to take charge of a situation and you obviously are concerned about all of us!" another one of Elliot's lackeys shouts from the crowd where upon a short time later everyone else is following again.

You stand watching a complete fraud take over with mere words. It would appear that even after Armageddon some things never change. Elliot goes through a modesty routine to make him look good and then "humbly" accepts.

You may have just allied yourself with a ruthless sociopath at best or a complete mad man at worst. Time will have to tell.

Five years pass…

Time tells that you've allied with a completely ruthless sociopathic mad man.

The Shelter's population has grown a little; but not excessively. In fact you're likely to have room for quite some time. Elliot employed a vicious sterilization program to make sure of that. Having a medical background he was able to do the procedures himself with the medical supplies in the shelter. Shortly after he started employing that procedure the initial "cult of personality worship" by everyone stopped and a lot of people regained there senses, but of course by then Elliot had already entrenched himself. There were a few attempts to kill him, but those were always averted by Leon. Elliot now walks around with a couple guards at all times, with Leon is his head bodyguard.

He claimed that it was for the good of the shelter and granted perhaps it is going to make things easier, but it's obvious that not everyone was keen on this idea. Most of the people who followed Elliot from the beginning were spared this fate though. Disobedience from anyone is punished severely.

However things aren't too bad for you.

You are pretty much indispensable and you keep it that way. You're now in charge of maintaining the central GZS computer system which you primarily insist on doing by yourself. Eventually you manage to get the damn thing running at near maximum efficiency and nobody has too many problems with things breaking down anymore. You also do something else to ensure your safety which is carrying your gun secretly on you at all times. There have been times where you've wondered if you should kill Elliot, but you haven't ever killed anyone before, let alone with no provocation, you don't know if you have it in you. Also he hasn't really bothered you, if anything you're one of the few people he's consistently been okay with.

As long as he's not bothering you, you don't really feel the need to kill him. He leaves you to do your job and you leave him to do his…

But is it ALWAYS going to be that way? There may come a day when for whatever reason he decides to get rid of you. Megalomaniacs aren't particularly known for their trusting nature.

You have 2 choices: