The hall is overflowing.
People stand along the walls, near the doors, pressed into corners. The air is thick, warm, restless. It does not feel like simple sermon.
It feels like momentum. Like they are going to do something big.
Iyisha slides into the bench. Malcolm sits beside her, close enough that she feels the heat of him.
Rick steps forward and the room quiets without being asked.
"Humanity was not made in comfort," he says, voice steady but charged. "We were forged in famine. In war. In sickness. In extinction."
He lets the words settle.
"What is strength without resistance?"
"What is faith without trial?"
The questions move through the room like sparks.
Then his gaze sharpens.
"ERF tells you to hide."
Iyisha blinked at the sudden addition of the government.
"They build safe zones. They build structured communities. They build walls and call them protection."
Murmurs ripple.
"They say the undead are the enemy."
He leans forward slightly.
