The next morning, Tom was awakened by someone knocking on his door.
"Tom? Tom! John wants to see us. Are you even up yet?" Derek asked from the other side of the door.
Rolling carefully out of bed, wiping the spit he suddenly felt on his chin off with his hand, and running the other hand through his hair then at his eyes, Tom walked slowly to the door. When he reached it, it stretched one time really big, and let out a groan as he felt his back pop. He then grabbed the handle and opened the door.
"Well, good morning sunshine. The earth says hello." Derek teased with a movie quote after seeing Tom's disheveled appearance. "Sleep well, I presume?"
"Best sleep I've had post-apocalypse, hands down," Tom said through a massive yawn. "So what are we doing again?"
"Geeze, you did sleep well. We have to have the farewell for Seth." Derek said solemnly.
Tom suddenly felt completely awake. "Oh, right. Give me a few minutes to get ready and I'll be out."
He closed the door to his room as Derek turned to leave. Sitting on the bed a moment later, Tom buried his head in his hands. He was not ready to deal with this, but everyone else needed him to be strong. So he would.
Pulling his clothes and armor on, as he never went anywhere without armor in this world, He stood, then went to the door to leave. He paused and walked around the room one time out of habit to see if he left anything, and decided to take the bedding with him since he had mostly been sleeping on a mattress.
Exiting his room, he headed down the corridor to the stairs. It was quiet this morning, so he was alone in the hall and all the way down the stairs. When he reached the lobby, people would smile at him as he walked by, but most of the smiles didn't quite reach their eyes. Somberness resonated through the room as even those who didn't know Seth, felt the weight of a loss of their own. Some openly weeping at a wound they had covered with the need to survive, and now that they were safe, it bubbled to the surface.
Walking outside, Tom stretched and looked up at the sky. Vibrant blue with just the right amount of big fluffy white clouds to offer some temporary shade as they floated past the sun periodically.
"Tom, there you are," A familiar voice said, and Tom looked over to see John walking over to him from a set of tables that had been set up as a makeshift buffet.
"John, how has your morning been?" Tom asked making polite small talk.
"Oh, as good as it can be, given the circumstances. But we are feeling the sadness of the mood as well. Seth will be greatly missed." John said reverently.
"Yeah, he was an amazing person. We miss him so much." Tom admitted though he wasn't sure why.
"It warms my heart to hear that. I would have hated to hear that Seth had left with people who cared nothing about him. Your strength of character shows through your friends." John patted Tom on the back as he spoke. "Are you hungry? We set up a breakfast buffet for everyone in town today to celebrate Seth's life. We decided to set aside this entire day to honor him."
"That's an amazing gesture to offer. I am feeling a bit peckish." Tom said as he eyed the buffet longingly.
"Then, by all means, dig in. Don't hold back on my account. I'll walk with you." John offered, extending an arm in motion for Tom to begin.
Making his way through the options was something Tom had come to miss in this new world. Most of the time it was eat what you could find, so to see a full buffet with options was a wonderful treat. Juicy sausage in both patty and link form, piles of bacon, large dishes of scrambled eggs, muffins, biscuits and gravy, grits, golden crispy hashbrowns, yogurt parfait with fresh fruits, the options were overwhelming to look at. By the time Tom had gotten halfway through the serving line his plate was already full and he hadn't even gotten a waffle or pancake yet!
Tom glanced around trying to decide what to do. People were behind him waiting for him to move forward, but he didn't want to leave the line and miss out on the delicious light and fluffy treats just waiting to have butter and syrup put on them. A plate entered his view from the side and Tom looked up to see John smiling at him.
"I thought you'd need a second plate, so I grabbed one when we were getting in the line. I already ate so I don't need it." John said, plate extended for Tom to take.
Tom's eyes began to well up. "Thank you, you don't know how much this means to me..." And he broke down crying in the buffet line.
People stared awkwardly at the grown man crying over being handed a plate.
"Okay, Tom. Let's get you to a table to sit and I'll get you some pancakes and waffles, is syrup and butter ok?" John offered trying his best to get Tom away from the line.
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"Y-yes," Tom said through sobs.
They moved to a table and Tom sat down to wipe his eyes and set his food down. John rushed back to the buffet where people were more than happy to let him cut to get the items he needed after watching Tom meltdown in the line before. When he returned, Tom had composed himself more.
"Sorry about that," Tom said looking embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it. You actually are the fourth person to breakdown in the line today. So it's no big deal." John tried to make him feel better. "Plus, I'm guessing you weren't actually crying about the flapjacks?"
"No," Tom admitted sheepishly. "It's the whole moment of being here and the memories it's bringing up, and the past we have been through."
"I understand. I actually had my own breakdown this morning in my home. I didn't expect it to affect me this much, but it seems like this moment of taking the time to remember one person is also the time we can take to remember everything that has happened." John spoke as though he was feeling something else but made deep eye contact with Tom as he did. "We have been holding so much back from everything that has happened and have had to move from fire to fire putting out all the problems we have now that we couldn't take the time we needed to process our grief, fear, and anxiety."
Tom thought about it and realized he had just been running around completely engulfed in solving everyone else's problems or struggling for his life at every turn, that he hadn't taken that time.
"Now everything is building in this moment and because you are letting yourself feel for this one person, all the other similar feelings are coming out at once. You can't stop it, nor should you. This is a time to get them out so you can make room for new feelings." John said softly as he continued staring at Tom.
"It's just hard to let them out knowing everyone else is depending on you," Tom admitted.
"It is, but I've talked with your friends and they are here for you just as much as you are for them. Let them be a part of it." John advised, sitting back in the chair he was in and crossing one leg over the other as he sipped a cup of coffee.
"You're right. I will do that more. Now, what is the plan for today?" Tom asked both curious about the events for the day as well as trying to move the subject to something else.
"Nice deflection, but I do agree we should move on to the next set of things," John chucked as he spoke. "We will have lunch and dinner prepared as well today, there will be a ceremony this morning for Seth and all of those we have lost so far, and then we will have some time for people to have a celebration of how far we have come after lunch and into dinner. Then the evening will end with a big party after dinner to try to get people to let loose and relax for a while."
"So its just a day of parties?" Tom asked confused a little as to why they were planning it this way.
"Sort of. The first ceremony will be like a funeral, followed by lunch, then the celebration where we have remembrances so I'm sure that will be a little bit sad as well, then dinner, then the final party there is no sadness allowed and we look to the future to what will come." John explained a little more in detail.
"Perfect. Then let's get this started." Tom said pushing away his now empty plates.
"Not sure I've seen anyone put food away that fast before," John said as he stared at Tom with a curious look.
"Gotta eat fast these days and these new bodies seem to require a bit more energy than they did before," Tom explained wiping his mouth with a napkin.
"I hadn't noticed that yet, but then again I'm not out battling monsters and leveling up everyday." John said, groaning a little as he stood up from the chair. "But all of that aside, I would like for you to speak at the ceremony for Seth today. Nothing fancy, just a nice remembrance of him and what he stood for."
"Me? You want me to give a speech?" Tom asked feeling put on the spot.
"Yup. Figured if I asked before now you would crash and burn trying to write something. I want this to be just true feelings for him." John said smiling at putting Tom on the spot.
"Alright, I would be honored. Terrified, but honored." Tom accepted.
"That's the spirit! Now let's go to the area we set up for the memorial." John said, leading Tom over to a makeshift stage that had been prepared in front of the courthouse building and had blankets strewn about in the street for people to gather on.
Some were already making themselves comfortable on the blankets to get a good seat for what was to come. Others came in as people were going around and telling them it was time to begin and where to move to.
Once most of the people were there, John walked out on stage and gave a moving speech about his interactions with Seth and what he had meant to him. He also talked about others he had lost. Friends, family, and even a pet to show people it was okay to mourn the losses they were feeling. He spoke for about thirty minutes so Tom was beginning to feel pressured to give a longer speech than he felt he was capable of.
Walking off the stage another woman moved to talk next. Confused, Tom looked over at John.
"You're going last since he spent his final time with you. Also, don't feel pressured to talk for any period of time. I talked for that long because they expect the mayor to do that sort of thing." John explained seeing Tom's confusion.
"Alright, thanks for telling me that. I was getting worried about the speech." Tom sighed, relief flowing through him.
"All we want is honesty and realism. Just your feelings." John said patting him on the back again.
The woman finished her speech a bit later and four more people came up to give speeches too. One of the people was a clinical psychologist who gave a presentation on the best ways of coping with the kind of changes they were experiencing. She seemed very passionate about this topic and was doubly excited because no one had ever gone through end-of-the-world events, so she was going to be one of the first to get to explore its effect on people's mental states.
That was a little clinical for Tom, but it seemed that her presentation had a lot of good points and ideas for coping with this kind of tragedy and world-altering event. He filed a few of the points away in his mind to try later.
After about an hour and a half, the final speaker was finished and Tom was pushed onto the make-shift stage. There was no podium, or microphone to speak into, it was just the crowd sitting on blankets staring up at him with expectant eyes. Swallowing hard as his mouth began to dry up like a sponge left on a Texas summer sidewalk, Tom made eye contact with a few people and began his speech.