Re: Mountain Home
Chapter 29
The election went off without a hitch, and Sylvia became the new mayor with nearly eighty percent of the vote. This was due in part to the fact that the community members under the age of twenty-one weren’t told until the day of the election itself that they were to be denied their right to vote. Oh, they were outraged to be sure, but by then there was nothing they could do about it. Also, Sylvia had been sure to mention to them that Jack was behind the idea of excluding them, and that his idea that they be considered adults had more to do with encouraging them to carry the bulk of the workload, than allowing them such privileges as voting. She knew that these people looked to him as their leader, and by telling them this they would be less willing to start trouble over it. For their part, while a few of the young people, those who had been there the longest, didn’t believe that Jack could ever do such a thing to them, many didn’t know him that well. These considered this to be the final betrayal and, unwilling to be forced to carry the responsibilities of adulthood without being allowed the authority to go along with it, began to make plans to get away on their own. Better to be an adult by yourself when your work would go to taking care of you alone, than to stay there and be practically enslaved by the people around you, they reasoned.
Of course, the main reason Sylvia had won was that Jack had never wanted the job to begin with. While she was quietly campaigning, and spreading as many rumors as she could, he’d been staying at the shelter ignoring the whole thing. Although so many people were starting to accept the rumors as fact that it’s doubtful he’d have been able to win if he’d tried.
Although the position of mayor was hers, according to the charter they’d agreed to the year before she could be over ruled by a unanimous vote from the council. This had never happened before, the council usually only went to Jack when they didn’t know what to do, and always agreed with his decisions, but now it was a major sticking point for the new mayor, and one she realized she’d have to deal with. One of the first problems she’d had was when she tried to enforce her beliefs that everyone under twenty-one should be treated like children. Oh, they could still work, after all without them who would grow the food or fly the planes, but as far as getting married or carrying guns, there was simply no way she was going to allow that. But no sooner had she announced her decision, than the council declared it null. Each of them had seen enough over the past year to understand that these people were a valuable part of the community, and they deserved to be treated as such. Returning them to the position of mere children would undermine their whole town, as they each felt the young people would refuse to act like adults if they weren’t treated that way.
Having been stymied over her very first ruling, Sylvia was determined to find a way around the problem. The best way she knew of, and the way that had always worked before, was to get the other council members to step down quietly. This would allow her to appoint someone else in their place, someone who would be willing to go along with her on issues. Knowing it would require careful planning on her part, she had to find or create an embarrassing situation for each of them, present them with her evidence, then convince them to step down, all without the others finding out. She knew that if anyone ever learned what she was doing the game would be over, and she would probably be run out of town. Fortunately she was good at this sort of thing, and it was also good for the town, as they needed her very badly in her estimation. Like everywhere she’d ever been, she realized the people here were sheep, and they needed a good shepherd. Well, according to the vote they wanted her to be their shepherd, and she was more than willing to take on that role.
Over the next several weeks she watched all the council members closely. One, she noticed, had an eye for the ladies. He was always letting his attention stray whenever one walked by, and she knew she could use that against him. She talked to one of her most staunch supporters, and the woman agreed to seduce him. A few days later the woman led him to one of the unused offices in the old police station/city hall they were using for a council building, and a few minutes later Jim, another of Sylvia’s people burst in on them. They hadn’t actually been in the act of doing anything, but they were both half undressed when they were interrupted. The woman immediately claimed the councilman had assaulted her, and Jim decided to bring the matter directly to the mayor. When they were all in her office, Sylvia got the story. As soon as the woman had finished she asked her and Jim to allow her to handle this, and to keep quiet about it. They both readily agreed (of course), and left the room. Smiling sweetly at the councilman, she said “well, this is an interesting situation, how do you think we should handle it?”
Looking at her darkly, he said “this is an outrage! I didn’t assault anyone. Maybe we shouldn’t have picked such a public place, but it was her idea, not mine!”
Smiling at him again, she calmly said “of course it was, but if we were to bring this out in public, who do you think the people will believe?”
Stunned, the man sat back. He hadn’t thought of that.
Continuing, Sylvia said “I think they might just believe her, especially when the one who caught you backs her up.” At this he realized he was being set up, and anger began to replace his outrage. “Of course, we could keep it quiet. And you could simply resign your position on the council.” She said, trailing off as he began to see the real reason for all of this.
“Resign?! And allow you to fill the position with someone of your choosing?!”
“It’s either that, or we go public. I’ll bet we could even convince everyone that execution was the only way to keep us truly safe from such a monster as yourself…what do you think?”
Realizing his very life could be on the line, the councilman sank back into his chair. Hanging his head he said “you win, but you must be the most evil person I’ve ever met. How can you sleep at night?”
“Oh, I sleep very well, thank you. Here, I took the liberty of writing your resignation for you. All you have to do is sign it, and everything will be forgotten.” She said, sliding a piece of paper across her desk to him.
Understanding that he had no choice, he signed the paper, vowing to get as far away from that town and her as he could.
As soon as he’d signed the paper, Sylvia convened the council and presented it to them. She said the councilman had confided in her a personal reason for having to step down and, while she agreed with his reasoning, she couldn’t divulge the details to anyone else. Shocked at this turn of events, the other two council members could only accept what had happened, and ask who she was going to appoint to take his place. Acting like she had forgotten that she had to do this, she took several minutes, apparently trying to make up her mind. Finally she turned back to the others and said “how about Jim? I’m not sure he’ll agree, but I think he’s got a good head on his shoulders, and would do a fine job. The others saw no reason to oppose him, and agreed with her choice. And later that day she had her first ally on the council.
One of Sylvia’s friends was Jean. He’d been a colonel in the French military before the plague, and she’d recently appointed him head of the towns’ security department. The rest of the security personnel had already taken a dislike to him, and already there were whispers floating around that he’d been seen inviting young boys into his home in the middle of the night. Going to him now with the problem of removing the other two council members, he was enthusiastic in his willingness to help.
The next day, while most people were off performing various jobs, Jean first went over to the house of Margaret, the only female council member. Her door wasn’t locked as, without a crime problem, most of the homes weren’t secured. Careful not to disturb anything, he went into her bedroom, and from the closet selected one of the council woman’s high heeled shoes.
Making his way from there to other homes in the neighborhood, he proceeded to break into several, knocking out window panes with the shoe. Going inside he looked around for personal items. Money wasn’t being used in town yet, and most possessions people had were items found in the town and free for the taking. However, almost everyone had some personal item they’d brought from wherever they’d come from, and these were what Jean was looking for. Finding one or two valuable items in each of the homes, he carried them with him as he went. At the last house he did the same thing, but this time, after breaking the window, he broke off the heel of the shoe, tossing it to the ground underneath the window.
Finally he returned to the council woman’s house, going inside and hiding his found items in an obvious place. Returning the shoe to the closet he closed up the house and returned to his desk to await the festivities.
Several hours later, as people returned to their homes, a commotion started outside the community center. Arriving with several security people, Jean asked what was going on. A heavyset woman spoke up in English, heavily accented with german, saying that her home had been broken into and a precious family heirloom had been stolen. As she finished others spoke up also, claiming the same thing. Jean announced that they needed to get to the bottom of this, and asked several witnesses to accompany him, along with the homeowners and his security detail.
They went to each house, looking at the damage and getting descriptions of the items missing. At one house a security member found the broken heel Jean had dropped outside the window, and he took it as evidence. Finally, he asked the crowd if anyone had seen anything unusual during the day, such as people messing around the area, acting suspicious. One of them (another friend of Sylvia’s) spoke up and said she’d seen council woman Margaret messing around the homes, but didn’t think anything of it since she was an important person and all.
Upon hearing this, the crowd demanded Jean and his security team go immediately to her house and do a search. When they arrived and pounded on the door, Margaret answered and demanded to know what was going on. Ignoring her, Jean, followed by the crowd, pushed into the house, and quickly found the items in question. Calling for the security team to arrest her, he continued the search and finally found the shoe in the closet. When the heel matched the shoe, he declared to the crowd that they had found the guilty party, and ordered her brought before the mayor, as they didn’t presently have a judge.
A judge wasn’t the only thing they lacked, there was no courtroom in the town, nor was there a jail of any sort. Until they were able to gather the town to an impromptu town meeting, they simply held Margaret in one of the unused offices, under guard. Later that night she was brought out. Protesting her innocence, she was forced to sit as the ‘evidence’ was presented. When her turn came to speak she claimed ignorance to the whole thing, but the crowd obviously didn’t believe her.
Finally, Sylvia called for silence in the room. Looking straight at Margaret, she said “as the Mayor of this town, I find you guilty of stealing from your neighbors. Obviously you can not continue on as a council member now, and the only question left is what to do with you. As I see it, we have only two options, as we have no jail. They are execution or banishment from the community.”
At the mention of execution, Margaret’s face turned pale and she felt faint. She knew she was innocent, but had no way to prove it. Wondering how she had gotten into this, and whether she’d get out alive, she looked with horror at the embodiment of evil before her.
“Execution seems to be too great a penalty, even though you stole items greatly valued by those to whom they belonged. Therefore I sentence you to be exiled from this town, effective this very night. You will be given water and food for one day to take with you, along with the clothes on your back. If at any time you attempt to return, no matter the reason, you will be shot. Do you understand?”
Unable to believe what she was hearing, Margaret simply stared at her. Finally the security team was brought in, and they escorted her from the town. Later that same night, April became the second council member to be appointed by Sylvia.
The third member was easy. The two new people simply voted with Sylvia on everything, effectively making him unable to oppose her. Although he argued with her and them, they simply ignored him, at the same time pressuring him to step down. During this time, Sylvia passed several rulings, making the changes that would ensure the community would become exactly the way she thought it should be. The first thing she did was declare anyone under twenty-one to be a child, and to effectively have no rights whatsoever. Young community members with houses of their own were forced from them and made to live in ‘child dormitories’, which were homes overseen by older people the Mayor had appointed for the purpose. One of these people was Jean, and he was given charge of a dorm where preteen boys were forced to live. This gave him access to the boys at all hours of the day and night, and soon horror stories were floating around of the goings on in that house.
Also, marriages between young members of the community were absolved, and the people concerned were forced apart. The only time this didn’t happen was when one partner in the marriage was an adult, as seen by the community, and from then on marriage of young people was allowed only with the permission of the Mayor, and only if the person requesting the marriage were an adult. Many older men were soon to be wed to some very young female community members, even if the girl in question didn’t want to. She had no say in the matter, as she didn’t have any rights. Every one of these marriages that occurred just happened to be with older men who were in good favor with Sylvia, and in this way she maintained her position of power.
Another ruling that was quickly passed was the confiscation of all firearms, except from the security people. Explaining to the community that, with the exception of the stealing Margaret had done, there was no crime in town, there was no reason therefore for anyone to be armed. Most in the town had thought for a long time that this was needed, and gave up their arms willingly enough. A few however, were resistant to the idea, and held out. Knowing who was most likely to be resisting the new law, Sylvia announced that anyone who still possessed a gun would be considered an armed criminal from that point on. Further, she said that an armed criminal was a danger to the community, and that if caught, would be executed, since they couldn’t be trusted to live peaceably with their neighbors. Many refused to believe she could really be serious, and still refused to turn in their guns, until Sylvia carried through with her threat and actually executed one of the residents after his neighbor reported he’d kept back a shotgun. After that no one opposed her order, and soon the only people who had guns were the security people.
During this time the people who had started out working as security either drifted away from the town, or were fired for various trumped up reasons. Jean was systematically replacing them all with people who would be loyal to him and Sylvia, no matter what. Still concerned that they might rebel at some later time, he locked up all supplies of ammunition and only issued five rounds to the people who were on duty. Their rifles would be passed from one shift to another, and all others would remain locked up along with the ammo. In this way, he figured, they’d have enough ammunition to enforce the Mayor’s directives, especially among unarmed people, but wouldn’t be able to rise up against him. Most of the new people had never shot the rifles to begin with, and few had even been shown how to operate them. In short order they became corroded as the different guards refused to take care of them, preferring not to even have them.
Finally, the Mayor announced that being a Christian wasn’t to be encouraged among the towns’ people anymore. As she said, there were many ways to get to God, and it wasn’t right for them to claim any one way was the only one. At this many who had said they were Christians suddenly announced they were atheists, and others who had never made such claims even began practicing such things as pagan rituals.
Finally, the time came that Sylvia had been fantasizing about, biding her time. She had the support now to pull it off, and saw no reason to wait any longer. This was the day she’d rid herself of that pervert who’d started all this! Today she’d get Jack and force him to stop his perversions with everyone in that bomb shelter. Calling for her security detail, she announced her ruling that Jack be declared an outlaw, and told them to go at once to his shelter and arrest him, bringing him before her to be sentenced.
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