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Fiction

"In our town, you will see that everything is plastic. Our buildings are wrapped in bubble wrap and our furniture is pillows. There are no corners. In fact, that's a bad word here. Forget I said it in the first place. Everyone here is too afraid of sharp things to have solid roads or hard roads. I didn't know such a thing existed until I saw it in a magazine. With rounded corners. Oops, said it again! Sorry. Oh, a few other words you can't say: no, hot, hard, sharp, corners, imperfect, lawsuit, sick/disease/hurt, gross (of any variety), or weird. Any questions?" I shake my head.

Well, if I can't say no, then I have to shake my head. They really need different laws. The mayor is too friendly, I think. And it is weird here. No kids are outside. The paper in the mailbox has rounded corners. Nothing makes too loud a noise here. I've lived here for around a year and have not met anyone. The kids do not leave their houses and the adults look mind-controlled whenever they leave their houses. When I try to talk to them it's like they have a response that makes them sound like a robot. I should know, being a roboticist who works with AI's like those.

The mayor has yet to be voted against, or have someone else run for mayor at all. It was like the mayor was running everything. One thing happened, people panicked, the mayor said one word and they were standing at attention like they were soldiers. I watched this one time when a sign fell off a store shop. People were running around trying to put it back. The mayor said stop, and all the townspeople were at attention. It was like the mayor possessed them and now they had no other choice but to listen and agree. I am still confused.

The sign was made of bubble wrap and no one was even close. It was a complete overreaction. So one day, a bulldozer came into town, claiming it had to bulldoze the town. It popped the bubble wrap and I thought it was kind of cool. Then the mayor came out patted him on the shoulder, gave him instructions and he left. She went door to door then saying that he will never be back. When she got to my house, I asked her how we were going to keep it away from us. No reply. The next day, she scared everyone away from the edge of town. Having to go out of town and not being afraid of, "the boogeyman" who could, "give you the sniffles," I went to work and drove by the edge of town. No boogeyman, you guessed it. I was starting to grow suspicious.

When I came to the edge, there was this massive wired fence. I grabbed it, and it hurt a lot. But I was able to get home. The next day, the people were different. They were no longer robotic, and they were no longer like they were mind-controlled. Now, they were just afraid of everything. The mayor promised them security and happiness. They were happy and safe near her. A load of crud if you ask me. But they wouldn't listen to me. Just Mrs. Crazy-loony-mayor-lady whose name I still didn't even know. Yeah, but in all fairness, I think her actual name is something like the name of a crazy scientist.

The next day at work I overheard some of my co-workers talking about a crazy scientist. "I heard she figured out a way to mind control. Then she overtook a town and got them to follow her. All because she decided it would be safer for her. I think she's crazy. So why did the boss fire her?" I hear the other voice say something about how crazy she actually was. And then I think of someone who fits a very similar description of crazy and mind control. I ask them when she left. They tell me five years ago. And then I know it's her. She started the town five years ago. I just needed to find the device. And I knew just how to do that.

I went to the next town hall meeting. I snuck into her office and went into her bottom drawer. I grab one, put it in a bag, and leave. No one even found out I left in the first place. The next day I go to the police department a town over. Apparently, they'd been trying to find her for a while. The bulldozer was trying to provoke her but never came back. We went to city hall and she stood. We found her large collection of mind controllers and tested them. But the cowards that lived in the town couldn't, and refused to leave. In fact, they argued to stay.

"We like it here. It's safe. We like living here. We're protected, and happy. We never get, well, disgruntled, or unhealthy. We never get um," hurt someone says. I nod. I can see why they wouldn't want to leave. So we gathered all the willing citizens who wanted to leave out of the town and we put them in rehab. I did not need to be in rehab because I never really got cowardly like them. I didn't have as much of a problem as them. Most of them had jobs within the town. I did not. I had one outside of town and was smart enough to see right through her. Unlike the majority of them. And after a year of rehab, they had gotten out and were regular humans again. Trust me, we didn't forget about the others.

We started sending in therapists to houses every Monday and made the town regular. We developed the area and got rid of the damage the crazy mayor did before. It was obvious that they were permanently damaged. Most of them could nearly live alone. But after some help, they were able to be almost normal. It felt like being around normal people again. I continued to live in my house. Before I knew it, I was a co-mayor and scientist. I realized that running the town and taking care of the people was something easy for me. I was their leader and helped them so much.

March 01, 2022 21:34

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