“Hey,” Thomas said.


    “Hello Thomas,” Anita said.


    “How’s it going?” Thomas asked.


    Anita gave him a withering stare. “Oh. It’s great. It’s absolutely peachy. Let’s see, I’m dead, and it turns out that there is a good chance I’m going to Hell, and on the way I have to vote for people who I want to die. Exactly how I planned to spend my afternoon, thanks for asking.”


    “Okay, sorry, yeah, stupid question. I was just trying to chat…”


    “Skip the small talk, and ask me whatever you came here to ask. Presumably involving my vote.”


    “Okay.” Thomas looked around the room. There were others, Claire and Peter and Ryan and Lucas, standing in a group nearby. “Could we maybe speak privately in one of the side offices down the hall?”


    “No,” Anita said. “I’m not going to a side office. It’s too great a risk. Too easy for one of us to kill the other, claim it was self defense later.”


    “I wasn’t going to do anything of the sort. I can put my weapons down as a show of trust, if that helps.”


    “It doesn’t help. You could always have more weapons. You could have weapons waiting in the side office. You could have a flunky waiting in the side office, poised to eliminate anyone you send in.”


    “Paranoid, much?” Thomas said before he could stop himself. Of course, he regretted it immediately. He was supposed to be allies with Anita, not push her away.


    She glared at him. “Do you honestly think it’s unwarranted paranoia? Think of the situation we’ve found ourselves in. If anything, it’s a miracle things haven’t descended into an armed free-for-all already.”


    “I guess so….”


    “Here’s what we can do,” Anita continued. “Let’s walk over there, to the edge of the main room. Everyone will be able to see us, so we can’t go shooting each other without repercussions, but if we talk at a reasonable volume, no one will be able to hear us. Is this acceptable?”


    “Sure, that sounds good. Lead the way.”


    The downside to this arrangement, Thomas figured, was it would be really obvious to everyone that he and Anita were having a private chat. Unavoidable, perhaps, but it seemed the sort of information best concealed if possible. Still, perhaps this was why the Leader had sent Thomas on this mission instead of going herself.


    “So,” Anita said when they had arrived at an empty corner of the main room, far from any prying ears, “What is it you want to say to me? Who do you suggest I vote to consign to eternal torture this time around?”


    “Well, it’s not exactly that,” Thomas said. “I represent an organization, a group of us who are committing to pooling our votes each day. The idea is that we can control who is voted for, and always eliminate people outside of the group. We call ourselves the Bloc, and I was wondering if you would be interested in joining?”


    “How many people are in the group?”


    “I’m not entirely sure, but the goal is to have over fifty percent of the remaining people, so that no matter how everyone else votes, the Bloc can guarantee that someone outside the Bloc receives the most votes.”


    “Are you aware of how many such groups there are already?”


    “No…. Are there others?”


    “If there were others I was aware of, I can’t see how it would make much sense for me to tell you.”


    “Oh,” said Thomas. “Well, anyway, are you down to join the Bloc? We are a large group, and joining is the best way to guarantee your own safety. There is strength in numbers.”


    “Who is your leader?” Anita asked.


    It took a great deal of effort for Thomas to avoid his eyes straying to the other side of the room, where the Leader stood. “I’m not at liberty to share that information,” he said, feeling a bit like the secret agent he had always wanted to be.


    “It’s Wendy, right?” Anita said.


    “I can neither confirm nor deny.” How did she know? He had given nothing away. Nothing!


    “When does she need my answer by?” Anita asked.


    “Um, prior to voting, I suppose,” Thomas said. He hadn’t been given specific instructions on this.


    “It’s fine. I’ll give you my answer now: I’ll join your little Bloc. Of course, that’s what I’d say even if I wasn’t planning on being loyal to your group.”


    “Why would you tell me this?”


    “Because it’s obvious, and trust me, I’m really doing my best to avoid insulting your intelligence. Because we’re Blocmates now, and we should be kind to each other.”


    Anita clearly thought she was smarter than him. But there were things that Thomas knew that she didn’t. It wasn’t about what you knew, it was about who you knew, and Thomas had allied himself with Wendy early on. That’s why he was in the Bloc Within the Bloc, a secret subgroup that Anita knew nothing about. A group that would activate once everyone other than the Bloc was eliminated, and would then vote to eliminate those not in the inner group.


    “Okay, welcome to the Bloc, then,” Thomas said, betraying nothing. “Instructions will follow about who to vote for after the Leader has made a determination.”


    It was only later, after he had reported the conversation to the Leader, after he had received instructions on who to vote for next, had distributed those instructions throughout the Bloc, that he began to wonder.


    What would happen once the Bloc eliminated everyone not in the Bloc, and then the Bloc Within the Bloc eliminated the remaining members of the Bloc? There would still be at least seven people, and only four slots.


    Was there, perhaps, a Bloc within the Bloc within the Bloc that he was not invited to? Were they planning on eliminating him further down the line?


    And if there was, what could he possibly do about it?


    ~


    Ryan came from a military family, which he had always been secretly resentful of. His parents had rarely been around, and when they had been, they were harsh and expected obedience. And it hadn’t been easy for Ryan to make friends and find community elsewhere, because they were always moving.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    But now, in this cursed place, he was grateful for his military upbringing for a few reasons.


    Because he had moved schools so much as a kid, Ryan had needed to learn to evaluate social dynamics. And now, this gave him an understanding of the factions that had developed. The largest group was Wendy’s faction, a group that pretended not to associate with each other but obviously did.


    That faction had controlled the votes so far, eliminating Loris, Milo, and Rhiannon. These had been weak, easy targets, but now things were complicating, because there weren''t many unaffiliated weaklings left, and because Wendy’s group might have fifty percent of the votes.


    Then there was the group Ryan was a part of. He supposed that Claire was their leader, if there had to be one, but it wasn’t a particularly hierarchical structure. The unifying feature of the group was they were fighters. They all had some experience with weapons, or experience in scraps, or were at least the type of people who you wouldn’t want to fuck with in a schoolyard or jailyard.


    Himself, Claire, Peter, George, Julie. They called themselves the Unaffiliated, which was kind of a self falsifying name if you thought about it too much.


    And then there was Lucas. Lucas, who at first glance looked like a strong man, but after you spent an instant of observing him, it became obvious he was stupidly sweet. He cried when people were killed and dragged to Hell, and didn’t even try to hide it.


    “I’m concerned about that group,” Ryan said. He was standing with Claire and Lucas and Peter, gazing across the main room at Wendy and Trinity and Anita and Thomas. “I’m not sure exactly, but they must be close to controlling half the votes. They could vote us off one by one and we’d be powerless to stop it.”


    “They wouldn’t do that, would they?” Lucas asked.


    It was almost cute how naive he was. “Of course they would,” Ryan replied. “That’s basically what’s been happening so far. You think the group has killed off Loris, Milo, and Rhiannon because they are seen as less worthy? It’s just because they are easy targets. It’s kill or be killed out here. It’s a zero sum game. There’s only four slots left, and so the game is eliminate anyone you can.”


    “I don’t like that,” Lucas said.


    “Yes, well, you are probably the most worthy of any of us, and we’ll do what we can to make sure one of those slots is yours,” Ryan said, glancing at Claire and Peter to make sure they were on the same page about this. “But you’re going to have to toughen up, to be willing to advance your own interests at any cost. Sometimes, that’s the only way to survive.”


    “Speaking of survival,” Peter said, “How do you propose we deal with them?” He indicated Wendy’s group.


    “Well,” Claire said, “And don’t say no immediately, but what if we just, like, shot them all?”


    Lucas looked horrified.


    The second reason Ryan’s military background was proving useful was that he knew his way around a gun. Who could have known that would come in handy in the afterlife? But knowing his way around his gun meant he also knew his limitations. Hitting distant moving targets with a handgun was challenging even for someone like Peter, who had apparently been a shooting coach back on Earth, and had demonstrated his skills at hitting targets in front of everyone.


    “Wouldn’t work,” Ryan said. “There’s too many of them. Even if the five or so of us are much better shots than them, there’s what, ten of them? We wouldn’t stand a chance.”


    “Yeah, you’re right,” Claire said morosely.


    The conversation lapsed into silence. Ryan pretended he wasn’t watching Lucas. What did the other man think of him? He wanted Lucas to think of him as a strong protector, a defender of the gentle and kind, but what if Lucas just saw him as a bully? For some reason, it was desperately important to him that the other man liked him.


    “Hey, whatcha all doing?” said a voice.


    “Lucile. What do you want?” Claire responded, not pretending to be cordial.


    “Just coming by to chat, say what’s up,” the younger woman replied.


    Lucile wasn’t a member of the Unaffiliated, but she acted like she was, treating them as friends and allies. More than anyone else here, she put Ryan on edge. And worse, she made Lucas extremely uncomfortable. It was a miracle no one had killed her yet, although she had been in the top three of voting all three elimination votes so far.


    “Hello. You’ve said what’s up. You can leave now,” Ryan said.


    Lucile stuck out her tongue at him. “I was just wondering, you know, whether it’s occurred to you yet.”


    “Whether what’s occurred to us?” Claire asked.


    “Oh, just that one of you is going to be killed today.”


    “What makes you say that?”


    “Well, I figure it’s obvious, that that Bloc over there is going to pick us all off one by one.”


    “Screw off,” Ryan said, but at the same time Claire said “And who do you think it’s going to be this time?”


    “Probably him,” Lucile said, indicating Lucas. “Or possibly me, but given that they haven’t gone for me yet, I assume they are saving me for later. Anyway, I’m sure you will figure out how to save your friend, as it’s pretty obvious. I’ll leave now, as you so clearly desire.” She began walking back the way she came, with a nonchalance that had to be fake.


    “Wait!” Ryan said.


    Lucile turned. “Oh?”


    “How can we stop them?” Ryan asked. “How can we stop them from voting for Lucas?”


    “I thought you wanted me to leave,” Lucile said. “Screw off, I believe you said. I’m getting mixed messages here. I’m not sure if I should share my master strategy, or continue on my merry way.”


    “Ugh,” Ryan said, “Just come back and tell us what you are thinking.”


    “It is nice to be needed,” Lucile said. “Think of the power I have now. I have something you want, and you are there with no leverage. What are you going to do now, big man?”


    The third reason that Ryan was grateful for his military background was that it had taught him to do whatever was necessary to achieve his goals, no matter the cost. It was an ideology that had been instilled in him from a young age, growing up on military bases surrounded by military families.


    “I’m sorry,” Ryan said, trying not to clench his teeth. “I shouldn’t have treated you like that. Come back, please. If you actually have some good idea, we can make a pact to protect each other.”


    “I’m not sure I’d trust you,” Lucile said, but she turned and walked back to the Unaffiliated.


    “This better be good,” Peter said.


    “Okay, so here’s the tea,” Lucile said, lowering her voice conspiratorially so they all had to lean in to hear her. “I have a pretty good count of the Bloc – that’s what Wendy’s group calls itself. And they are either already at over fifty percent of the votes, or they will be after one more elimination goes their way.”


    “How do you have such an accurate count of their numbers?” Claire asked.


    “I’ve been sniffing around, mostly just antagonizing people and reading their reactions. As far as I can tell, we are just a random collection of people, and most people are not well prepared to play a game of subterfuge.”


    “Okay, let’s assume you’re correct. What then?”


    “Well, if they do indeed control half the votes, there is no way for us to outvote them, even if we all pool our votes on one person. We have no power. Democracy, more like tyranny of the majority, am I right or am I right? No, the only way for us to have any chance is to flip members of the Bloc.”


    “And how are we to do that?” Ryan asked. “It seems like a pretty cushy gig, being part of this Bloc. You are protected from elimination, and you get to eliminate someone who isn’t a member every day. And it’s probably too late for us all to join the Bloc.”


    “I know this might be challenging for you, but try thinking further ahead,” Lucile said. “Imagine the Bloc eliminates everyone not in the Bloc. What then?”


    “Then we’re dead,” Ryan answered. “Like, dead again. In Hell, whatever.”


    “Your theory of mind is lacking. I mean, what happens to the Bloc? Obviously, they must eventually turn against themselves, cannibalizing their own members. Since there are twelve of them, and only four slots. So their alliance has an expiration date.”


    Claire said, “I don’t see how that matters, if we are all dead by then. I still think we should take our chances shooting them.”


    “It matters,” Lucile replied, “because their trust in each other must surely already be fraying. And if it isn’t, we can make it fray. All we need to do is make sure they are aware that their allies are destined to turn on them, and they will realize that they will have the advantage if they turn on their own allies first.”


    “This is making my head hurt,” Peter said. “Wouldn’t they still want to eliminate us all first?”


    “Not necessarily,” Ryan said. “They might think it’s a better strategy to eliminate at least some Bloc members first. Maybe. It’s not the worst idea.”


    “Great!” Lucile said. “I’m glad you like my idea, and even more glad that you were too dumb to think of it yourselves. So we are allies now, as promised! And in the spirit of our new allyship, it’s up to you to sow the seeds of dissent among our enemies.” She pointed to Lucas.


    “Why him?” Ryan asked.


    “Cause he has a reputation for being honest, and is actually likable. And so people are more likely to believe him.”


    “You don’t have to do it,” Ryan said. “It seems dangerous. I can talk to the Bloc members myself.”


    “No, it’s okay, I can do it,” Lucas said. He gave a small smile to Ryan. “It’s about time I started contributing to the group anyway.”