In our town when we vote for our local council we don't have an elected party and a non-elected party, we have the new council and the payment for the boon that's been keeping the town safe and economically stable all these years. The deal itself isn't discussed, we only know that no disaster can touch us as long as the losing party does their part and gives up their lives for the greater good.
Of course this has been put to the test, the last council party (this year's payment, unsurprisingly) suggested that we spare the other side just to see if we had finally paid off our debt. It was a major factor in them coming into power to be honest, we all wanted to know if we could stop the bloody tradition and spare whichever poor bastards got dragged into politics to begin with.
The day after they won, the other party was still alive. We were all alive and feeling confident until the weather forecast predicted a countrywide heatwave and forest fires with our town being right at the centre of the heatwave. Despite it being late autumn the next day felt like we'd been dropped into the desert.
Some people enjoyed it at first, until the sudden shift in temperature began to wreak havoc on the local agriculture causing a nationwide shortage in all sorts of vegetables. The ensuing panic lead to food prices shooting up and for the first time in over seven hundred years our town experienced financial hardship. For the first time family-run shops began to close and people thought about moving to a more stable and cheaper area.
That was when the losing party began to vanish, not that anyone cared much. It seemed like the more of them went, the better it got for the rest of us to the point where several hunting groups were formed to take care of the last few party members (there's really no other way to say it - we hunted them down like rabbits).
None of them begged for their lives, not one. They knew they would have to die eventually as soon as they decided to get into politics - it's just a fact of life around here. That and their continued existence meant that practically everyone they was suffering needlessly. It made the whole ordeal much more bearable for the rest of us.
I mean, it's hard to feel guilt when they want to die.
Of course this has been put to the test, the last council party (this year's payment, unsurprisingly) suggested that we spare the other side just to see if we had finally paid off our debt. It was a major factor in them coming into power to be honest, we all wanted to know if we could stop the bloody tradition and spare whichever poor bastards got dragged into politics to begin with.
The day after they won, the other party was still alive. We were all alive and feeling confident until the weather forecast predicted a countrywide heatwave and forest fires with our town being right at the centre of the heatwave. Despite it being late autumn the next day felt like we'd been dropped into the desert.
Some people enjoyed it at first, until the sudden shift in temperature began to wreak havoc on the local agriculture causing a nationwide shortage in all sorts of vegetables. The ensuing panic lead to food prices shooting up and for the first time in over seven hundred years our town experienced financial hardship. For the first time family-run shops began to close and people thought about moving to a more stable and cheaper area.
That was when the losing party began to vanish, not that anyone cared much. It seemed like the more of them went, the better it got for the rest of us to the point where several hunting groups were formed to take care of the last few party members (there's really no other way to say it - we hunted them down like rabbits).
None of them begged for their lives, not one. They knew they would have to die eventually as soon as they decided to get into politics - it's just a fact of life around here. That and their continued existence meant that practically everyone they was suffering needlessly. It made the whole ordeal much more bearable for the rest of us.
I mean, it's hard to feel guilt when they want to die.
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