Amity and Enmity

Chapter 63

Day: 1509

Days Left: 3971

Lives Saved: 8

Bam didn't know why he even bothered doing a political campaign; it was clear when he went around that everyone would not vote for him, all commenting on his laziness of late or challenging Bam on whether he knew their name or not. Bam even promised to enact whatever rules or policies they wanted if they put him in power, but no one believed him apart from a few of his friends. The only chance he had left was to become another candidate's vice or at least try and push for a candidate from the original group.

Corinna was definitely not an option; not only was she from the other faction, but if she were in official power, she would enact all those rules that would go against Bam's ideals of freedom.

Bam first asked Junior; however, the man gave a lethargic response, saying he was not interested in running despite being nominated. Then, Bam asked Kai who was nearby, but after misnaming him as Dex three times and accidentally saying that Kai would need all the help he could get, insinuating that the guy stood no chance of winning, Bam left the conversation with no ally.

Jules was Bam's first choice, but he struggled to find him anywhere until later in the evening, and by that point, everyone had heard about Bam's attempted bribes and pleads to be someone's vice, so Jules politely declined, saying he had already had someone in mind to be his second.

Sighing, Bam then turned to his last resort with his tail between his legs.

Bruno said 'no'.

Day: 1523

The heavy reality finally settled in Bam's mind that he stood no chance of winning, so he resorted to persuading people to vote for either Jules or Bruno if anyone spared him a moment to listen, which few did. The day of the final debate and the vote arrived. Bam pulled out of the race as he did not want to bother preparing a speech when he knew he would fail anyway. He watched the other speeches dreading as the vote that would change everything loomed closer.

Jules stuttered at first but eventually grew in confidence, focusing on the sappy notion of peace and cooperation can overcome a dragon blah blah, followed by Kai's similar notions of how he wants to ensure everyone's happiness.

Finally, it was Corinna's turn, who had Lili reading out what she wrote. Corinna, the overachiever, had bloody statistics and pictures to present alongside her speech, talking triple the time as the other candidates, explaining what her monthly and yearly goal goals were and the future that she hoped she could make come true for the community. She listed all of her suitable qualities and experiences in leadership roles, explaining the story of how in her previous sector, she upheld the peace and turned the food drop-offs from regular bloodshed to everyone sharing the portions equally and peacefully. The speech finally ended with her new slogan for her political campaign 'let's not just survive but live'.

"Shit," mumbled Bam under his breath as everyone clapped with Corinna smiling so sweetly, pecking Lili's cheek as a thank you for translating.

There was an hour for everyone to ask any final questions to the candidates and then another hour for everyone to think before the vote.

Rita, Rachel, and Rin counted all of the votes up, and Bam watched from afar with bated breath.

"Don't worry," said one of his friends. "You've got this!" he gave a thumbs up.

"Huh?" Bam frowned in confusion.

"I voted for you as I promised," his friend explained. "Though you were weirdly not any of the options, so I had to add you."