"There's so little left..." Edwin muttered, placing a hand on the last full bag of potatoes. "We won't last more then a week with these supplies, and I'm all out of painkillers and such...which have the others riding my ass...uh...father."
Ignoring him the grey-robed preacher stepped into the dark basement room.
It wasn't as spacious as Edwin had believed when he first walked into it. Back then it had seemed so large, filled with supplies. Now a mere week later much of the room was open space, that and piles of empty crates and a far to fast diminishing supply of foodstuff that by now had been pushed into one corner to separate it from the empty crates and bags.
Not only that but Edwin had reason to suspect rats had somehow gotten into the place...some of their food had been nibbled, and with them being out on every medicine they were pretty much screwed if any disease broke out among them. Of course someone might be breaking in and...Edwin pushed the thought aside, last time such an accusation was thrown about a man had been executed by the sisters and thrown to the zombies outside.
"Then we will cut rations." The preacher interrupted his thoughts as he turned to look at him. The preacher was a middle-aged monster of a man, so fat that he was almost round, his greying hair always sweaty...as was his equally round face. He was not laughable though, they grey eyes looking back at Edwin were hard, and Edwin had seen the man bend a steel bar to prove the might of the emperor...
At first he only stared at the preacher, unable to understand, then he grew cold. "What? Again!? Are you crazy!?" At the mere thought of cutting rations his stomach rumbled, they already ate too little, some of the older people were looking paler and paler...and he was sure that boyfriend to the pregnant woman hadn't eaten at all for days now, his rations going to her.
"Oh ye of little faith." The man even smiled at him!
Shaking his head furiously Edwin made an exasperated gesture. "Didn't you hear me!? We're out of medicine! If we cut rations people will start to get sick! Without anything to help against that we might as well shoot them!"
The preacher's eyes squinted at him, the pig-like face crunching up in irritation, the young medical student found himself swallowing. "Do you doubt the power of faith? The emperor will deliver us from this hell! And when he does he will not save any unbelievers, they will be left with the rest of the unfaithful." Unfaithful...an odd word for a slavering monster that had once been your friend...
"Well of course not." Edwin hurriedly answered, to be truthful he had doubts about their rescue, mostly during his nightmares...though it was becoming harder and harder to maintain faith while awake nowadays as well. "I see the power of the emperor as well as you do, every day while up on the ramparts actually. It's just...the emperor might protect us against the evil of chaos and the like...but he can't really fill our stomachs."
The preacher shook his head, smiling slightly. "You still do not fully understand the power of the emperor, a few weeks ago I would have taken the whip to educate you..." He chuckled, finding something funny in it even as Edwin paled. "But now I will ask a question instead, how much do you think the sisters eat?"
"Erm..."
"Half a loaf of bread and two glasses of water a day, some even less." The large man's smile was the same he got when he preached out on the main floor, which he did most of the day. "Yet they are filled with vigour! They speak of victory! No hesitation! No fear! No weakness! They do not need to feed like us! For they have faith! We must inspire this faith within each and every one of us to survive until our liberation!"
Edwin wished he could be that positive about their chances, he also wished he had the balls to tell the preacher that others didn't have enough body fat to survive for a month without eating... "I guess that will be your department then, but I'm telling you right now, cut rations and people will start to die."
"To thin the herd of the weak and the unfaithful is a blessed work, for he who sees all will judge them, and us for being strong of faith." The preacher's words sent a chill down Edwin's spine. Of course he'd seen executions and the like...but he knew these people! And there were so few left...and so close...he didn't want anymore death. Not one spoken of so easily either... "Do not worry boy, do your duty and do it well, with faith in the emperor no harm will befall you, nor blame."
"Would you tell the others that?" Edwin grimaced.
A hearty laugh escaped the man, making Edwin's grimace even worse as he remembered his old man, whose beer gut also shook like that when Edwin got to him with an honest question. Why did people always laugh at him anyway!? "Do not fear, the emperor provides."
"That he does." Edwin sighed, shoulders dropping. "Though I'd like to be able to walk around without people glaring at me..."
"A small price to pay for survival."
"True..."