“Sergeant Gamin”, the new sergeant stopped in his tracks, “once you’ve organized your men, get to the weapons and equip them. We need to get order in this town and now may be the time we need to show some force around here and put fear back into these people.” Voler ordered.
“Yes sir” Gamin said as he ran off to gather up his men.
Voler continued through the town, he spotted the Mayor arguing with a group of women. “Mayor, I want a word with you. NOW!” Voler said.
The Mayor’s face turned white as he ran to Voler.
“Get your town in order, now, or else.” Voler said as he turned and walked away.
“That’s BS, that’s BS!” Voler heard a voice yell out. Voler walked in the direction of the yelling. Voler stopped short as he came to the center of the town. The watch fire had been put out and was completely cold, not even smoldering. Voler looked around for the guard that was supposed to be patrolling this area, knowing that he would be nowhere around. Voler looked up the pole that stood nearby and realized that it was empty.
“WHERE IS THE PRISONER WHO WAS HERE?” Voler screamed.
Voler looked around expecting an answer, not receiving one; he kicked the watch fire sending burnt wood and ashes spraying across the road.
Voler continued towards the source of the yelling. He saw two men, neighbors fighting and yelling.
“…my damn pig Scott!”
“I didn’t do it. That’s BS George.”
The two men yelled at each other, screaming profanities and blaming each other. As soon as it seemed like one may give up, the other would bring up something from the past and it would just add fuel to the fire. When there was enough of a break in the yelling, the two men would start to wrestle. Voler just stood there and watched. The wrestling wasn’t really wrestling at all; Scott would try to attack George. George would then drive Scott’s skinny frame backwards into his own yard; causing him to fall on his back, his bald head landing in a pile of pig shit. Scott would scramble to his feet and tackle George sending both of them to the ground. George would get up, grab Scott by the ankles and drag him through the yard covering Scott head to toe in pig manure.
Voler continued to watch, enjoying the humor of the situation. As soon as George let go of Scott’s ankles, he began to kick and jumped up and started to throw the manure at George. This lasted for a while until some of the manure missed George and hit Voler.
“ENOUGH!” Voler bellowed.
“He started it!” Scott yelled, pointing at George, “It was one of his schemes.”
“I don’t care who started it, I want it to end.” Voler said.
“But he took my pig.” George said.
“I did not.” said Scott.
“It was in your yard, so you took it.”
“You stole my tools. I saw them in your shed. go look in his shed Voler, you’ll find my tools. Go on, go look.” Scott encouraged.
Voler raised his hand to silence him. As he surveyed the situation, Sergeant Gamin came running up.
“Sir, we have a problem. The weapons are gone; they have been replaced with these.” Gamin said as he produced a sunflower plant.
“My sunflowers! You did this.” Scott yelled, looking at George, “You stole my tools and then you cut down my sunflowers, that’s how your stupid pig got in here, you left him behind. This is BS, this is BS Voler. Look at this.” Scott walked to his shed and swung open the door and all of the missing weapons fell to the ground.
“There’s the weapons!” shouted Gamin.
“Sieze him” ordered Voler, pointing at Scott.
Gamin raced towards Scott, motioning for another soldier to help. The two soldiers grasped Scott’s toothpick thin arms and proceeded to usher him towards Voler.
“Ah come on Voler, this is BS, this is BS Voler. This is just one of George’s Farming schemes. He set me up, this is BS.” Scott whined.
“Bring the prisoner; I’ve got the perfect spot for him” Voler ordered the soldiers.
Gamin and the other soldiers dragged Scott, who was now refusing to walk, behind Voler, coming to a stop near the watch fire and the pole.
Voler ordered, “String him up! This is what happens to those who defy the Envahir.”
The soldiers bound Scott’s thin hands and tied a rope to him lifting his skinny frame to the top of the pole, leaving him hang there.
“Ah come on Voler, This is BS. Do you know the ratio of the strength of this pole to that of a human body? It couldn’t possibly support that type of weight for an extended period of time. Come on Voler, come on.” Scott cried out as Voler and the soldiers walked away.
“Now that you have your weapons Sergeant, equip your men.” Voler said.
Voler walked back through the town, heading to the guard station for the main road at one end of town. He heard people yelling to be let out, who appeared to be locked inside of their homes. Others on the outside were struggling to open the doors. The smell of the town had begun to grow stronger as the sun began to warm the streets. All Voler could smell were the animals which were still roaming the town. Although it did seem that the farmers were beginning to corral some of them, there were still a few stubborn ones which children were still chasing.
There was food splattered in front of houses and rain barrels which had been propped in front of people’s doors which fell inward when the door was opened; spilling their contents into the homes. Everywhere people were either; screaming, crying or fighting about their situation.
Voler arrived at the guard station at the main entrance to the town only to find it abandoned, he didn’t need to inspect the other posts, he knew they would look the same. Voler turned back towards town, looking for Sergeant Gamin, to order him to get men stationed at each of the guard posts immediately. Before anyone is able to enter or leave the town without being noticed.
Voler reached Sergeant Gamin and issued his orders which were acted upon immediately. Voler noticed, with some satisfaction that Gamin was beginning to get the men organized and starting to make some headway with the town even though it had only been a few minutes. Gamin gave a few orders and the men jumped to their duty.
With the smell of the town, with its rotting meat and roaming animals beginning to get to him, Voler decided to go where he could think and make plans. Voler left to go to the small storefront which he now made his office. As he opened the screen door, he didn’t notice the rope that was pulled; causing two buckets of water to spill their contents over him. A very soaked Voler screamed as he kicked in the door of his office.
It was late in the morning when a very worried Creance saw someone coming out of the woods towards his hut. It was obviously Kiri but she had something slung across her shoulders. It wasn’t until she was closer that Creance realized that it was a person she was carrying. Creance ran to her and relieved a very tired Kiri of the load.
“We have to get him inside.” Kiri said.
“Who is he?” Creance asked.
“I’ll explained later.” Kiri said.
They took the man inside and laid him on a cot. Kiri began to remove what was left of his shoes and clothes. Creance washed his face and tended to and inspected his wounds. He gave the wounded man what water he could take but, it wasn’t long before the man would choke on the water. The man slipped out of consciousness and fell asleep. As they looked upon him, Kiri said, “It has been a long but fulfilling night. I believe I will retire myself.”
Kiri started towards her bed, laying her belongings on the stand.
“First, I would like a word with you, outside.” Creance whispered, not wanting to disturb the wounded man, as he turned and walked outside.
Kiri followed Creance outside.
“Where the hell have you been and who is that?” Creance asked.
Kiri, being that she was rather tired, gave a short version of how she had staged the town and the mayhem she had caused and that she had stayed on the outskirts of the town to watch the excitement but decided to leave as two men were throwing pig shit at each other.
“They had this poor man strung up a pole.” Kiri explained, “I saw him hanging there and if that wasn’t bad enough, I over heard a couple of soldiers talking about him. They said that Voler strung him up here because he was trying to put out a fire.”
Creance only looked at her with a quizzical look.
“The only fire they have had in town was my bar.” Kiri continued, “This man was trying to save my bar when it was burning and Voler hung him there to punish him and to prove a point. I couldn’t let the man just hang there and die after all; he was trying to help me and I felt that it was my duty to help him. So I cut him down and brought him here, I knew you would be able to heal him and it’s nothing more than you did for me.”
The blood rushed to Creance’s face, “What you did this morning could have destroyed everything we have worked for, everything the Network has planned. By your selfish actions, you could have brought the Envahir right to our doorstep! How do you know that he isn’t someone who was planted there just for you; or how do you know that he isn’t loyal to the Envahir and as soon as he is healthy enough he will leave and tell them exactly where we are and any plans he overhears?”
“I hadn’t thought of anything like that, and I guess we will have to deal with that and any other issues that may arise when the time comes. Because now it appears that it may be a bit late for any lessons on when to leave a person hang and die.” Kiri said sarcastically.
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