text: "(Sigh) Fine, I'll attend this exercise in futility, but what the hell are we doing exactly, so I'm not just jumping into shit." You ask as you and Nina walk towards the conference room.
  "Well right now we're voting on a shelter leader. Someone to make the final decisions about important things. So far Ron is tied with another. In fact the only reason why I came to get you, was so you could break the tie."
  "Whoopie, I feel honored I can take an important part in this democratic process. So who's the other person?"
  "Oh, that would be Elliot. He was one of the later arrivals, but is very personable. Not that you'd know since I doubt you've even seen him given that you lock yourself in you room all the time."
  "Yeah, yeah, I know who he is, bald guy. So I take it you want Ron to win huh?"
  "Well... I'd be lying if I said I didn't, but Elliot's seems like a good guy too, so I'm sure he'd make a good leader as well."
  "Why haven't you run? I mean you seem to like to organize things."
  "Me? Oh no, I'm not a leader."
  "Well from what I've seen of Ron, he isn't either."
  
  Nina stops you in the corridor.
  
  "Damn it, stop being an asshole! At least Ron makes an attempt to get involved in things! You haven't done shit since you got here except insult people and lock yourself away! Like it or not we're ALL in this together! And you better start getting with the program and contribute!"
  "What the fuck? I am contributing; I'm going to this goddamn meeting aren't I? And you better watch your tone; remember I'M the swing vote for your boyfriend."
  "Ron isn't my boyfriend! I mean... not yet... uh... "
  "What? You mean he isn't taping your ass yet? Shit, he's stupider than I thought then, because he'd be lucky to get someone who looks like you even if you are annoying."
  
  Nina stands and stares at you in disbelief.
  
  "... could you possibly be any more vile?"
  "Probably, but we don't have time for that, I gotta vote for some dickhead."
  
  You continue to the conference room (with Nina no longer walking with you) and when you finally arrive everyone is there as if they've been waiting for you. You don't even really care who's in charge since more than likely no matter who you vote for is going to be an intrusive bastard wanting everyone to do something.
  
  You can vote for Ron. As far as leadership material, you don't really see him as one, though he seems to have some planning skills and friendly to people so maybe he's got the stuff.
  
  Elliot you barely know anything about, he also seems to be an organizer and friendly to everyone, but not to the point that it's irritating. Though to you there's something a little creepy about him.
  
  Ah what the hell, you know this is something Ron wants more than anything why not give it to him? Besides he's not very "strong" which means you can probably get away with disobeying him on a regular basis without causing a big scene.
  
  "I'll vote for Ron." You say, Nina looks surprised and Ron jumps up and down like an idiot in celebration. You take that as your opportunity to go back to your room, Nina once again stops you in the corridor.
  
  "I just wanted to say thanks for doing this; I know you don't even like Ron... "
  "I don't care one way or another about him, if he wants the headache of running this place he can have it, he better just not ask too much of me, I did my bit. You can think of me as his kingmaker. See ya around."
  
  You go back to your room and that's where you spend a majority of your time. You don't really mix with anyone, and nobody really makes the attempt with you either. You're asked to contribute to some "events" sometimes, but you always ignore such requests and nothing happens. Nina still hangs around Ron like a love sick school girl, but for god knows what reason he seems completely oblivious to the fact. And obviously she hasn't told him how she feels about him. You watch this comical display replay itself over and over.
  
  "Yeah, GZS really picked some excellent candidates to pair up to create families for the so called future, what a joke." You mutter to yourself.
  
  Time goes by and Ron goes about his duties which mainly consist of discussing pointless plans in the conference room. The idiot can't do ANYTHING without talking about it with others he appointed as advisors first! If somebody's shower is broken they have to discuss when, how and WHY it has to be fixed! Naturally everyone disagree about one point and they have to start all over again which usually means nothing gets done. A lot of planning and organizing of ideas, but no actual implementations of those same ideas.
  
  The shelter starts falling into disrepair, a few fixes are made here and there, but they're more jury-rigged ones more than anything. Nobody has perfectly functioning rooms from what you know... well except yours since you do nothing, but study the shelter manual all the time attempting to learn more about how it works giving you an edge in repairing your own room. (In fact you just permanently took a repair kit for yourself out of the equipment room) You really don't understand why other people aren't doing the same instead of waiting around for things to get repaired or complaining about needing things to get repaired. Everyone has the same damn operations manual. Read it!
  
  About six months go by and finally you're given an unexpected visit during the night. You answer your door. It's Elliot and some other people.
  
  "May we come in?" Elliot asks.
  "What do you want?"
  "Just to talk about the future of the shelter."
  "Yeah? Well you can talk to Ron about that, he's the big shelter leader."
  "Yes he is, thanks to you. And that's also why this shelter is in such bad shape. Ron is ruining this place with his ineptitude."
  "Oh no, don't blame that shit on me, that's RON'S fault, not mine. And besides MY room works fine. If you lazy bastards would actually read the damn shelter manual you wouldn't have any problems."
  "Oh I've read the manual, I'm sure many people have. But surely you must realize most people don't have the natural talent to fix thing that perhaps you have. Besides I'm sure you must also be aware that in a community each person has his own talents. For example Leon behind me used to be a bouncer. Don't you think with his skills he'd make an excellent head of security around here?"
  
  Leon folds his big black arms almost daring you to say "No." before Elliot continues.
  
  "My point is me and a few others are planning to take Ron out of office for gross incompetence. Did you know Fred and Greta are planning to have a baby? The first one to be born in here. The population in this shelter isn't going to be stable forever. It's going to grow and we NEED to keep this place running efficiently if we're ALL going to survive. I know you're a solitary person... I even respect that, but the time has come for you to choose between life or death. By joining our group, you're choosing life. By remaining locked away in here, you're choosing death not just for all of us, but for yourself. No man is an island."
  
  Elliot has a bit of duality to his speech. Part of him sounds genuinely concerned for the future of the shelter; he may even have a point. But the other part of him sounds like he's politely threatening you. And you're not sure of the whole "taking Ron out of office" thing. It almost sounds like he plans on taking over by force. You get the impression he and his little group are going to do just that regardless of whether you join or not.
  > join
  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.
  > kill him now
  You need to kill him, things are just going to get worse, or at best stay the same. All the shit that Elliot's done over the years has gotten to you, and you can't help, but feel partly responsible for all of this. Sure you don't like most people, but you're not a BAD guy. However you are serving a bad master. A really bad master, one that needs to be stopped now.
  
  You take a deep breath and pace around the floor for awhile. Trying to psyche yourself up for your plan. You feel like you gotta take a shit, a piss, and vomit all at the same time. It's all in your mind though. Its just nerves. You stare at yourself in a blank monitor screen.
  
  "You can do this... you can do this... " you repeat.
  
  You then leave the computer room, ready to do what you have to do.
  
  You don't get far when you see Elliot walking around with two guards and Leon behind him. You also see him with his wife Brenda and their two daughters. (Of course he didn't feel the need to make a "sacrifice" for the shelter)
  
  "Shit." You say to yourself. You didn't think you'd have to shoot somebody down in front of their goddamned children. You nearly turn back around to re-think this plan, but you stop yourself again. If you don't do it now, you aren't ever going to do it. Besides he's seen you now anyway.
  
  "Hey! How's our techie doin'? I'm surprised to see you out the computer room; I know how much you like to be alone. So what brings you out?"
  "Well, uh... there was something I really thought you needed to see... "
  "Oh? What is it?"
  "Just this."
  
  You pull your pistol out and you hesitate just long enough for Elliot to pull Brenda in front of himself resulting in you killing her instead. Leon catches Elliot from the blow back of Brenda's body and whisks him of to safety. One guard attempts to run at you, but is tripped up when Elliot's two daughters run screaming past him. The other guard reaches you, but you just manage to get a shot directly in his face. Gouts of his blood splatter in your own face temporarily blinding you.
  
   
  The guard, who was momentarily tripped up, punches you in the face knocking you to the ground, he pulls out a knife to finish up the job, but with your hand still on your pistol, you fire a couple rounds in his chest causing him to slump to the floor beside you. You get up only to have the guard you just shot to stab you in the foot as a last act of revenge. You holler pain, and shoot him again, before pulling knife out of your foot.
  
  Meanwhile you begin to hear other people yelling, screaming and fighting. Apparently your actions have caused a small rebellion. You've given people the incentive again to fight back. Of course it's going to be up to you to finish it. You limp as fast as you can attempting to stay out of the way of the major fighting, You see Elliot and Leon fighting some people and making quick work of them, you take the opportunity to open fire, blasting Elliot in the knee, he won't be walking anywhere.
  
  Leon goes to pick him up, but you follow up with another couple shots, hitting him in the side. He goes down and attempts to crawl on top of Elliot, except Elliot kicks him away with his good leg and tries to crawl off instead. You finish off Leon and then kick Elliot in the face hurting your foot since you kicked him with the one that has the big gaping knife hole in it.
  
  Elliot turns over holding his face and addresses you.
  
  "Why? I was your friend! I didn't do anything to you! I left you alone! Look at what you've done to this place! It's descended into chaos! You've destroyed everything I've accomplished here!"
  "I don't care." You say pointing the gun at him.
  "WAIT! GODDAMN IT WAIT! If you kill me, you'll be making orphans out of my daughters! Can you live with that?"
  "No... I guess I couldn't... "
  
  Elliot smiles thinking he's found a loop hole.
  
  "I suppose I'll just have to kill them after I kill you." you say.
  
  Elliot's eyes widen and you gun him down before he can retort. He dies a lot quicker than he should have, but at least he's dead.
  
  You were bluffing of course you wouldn't shoot his children; you just wanted to see his expression before he died. It brought a feeling of satisfaction to you, like you really accomplish something before your own death... 
  
  Someone stabs you multiple times in the back with a scalpel while you were standing over Elliot. You fall mortally wounded, with anarchy all around you.
  
  You don't know if you made things better or worse, all you know is you won't be around to find out.