“I appreciate your art for being vague, but now is not the time. You need to start talking Masters, and I mean now. I’m not in the mood for fishing tonight, do you understand me?” I am full on staring him down and using every ounce of authority left in me. There is no way the Council would set me up would they? This can’t be it. My overactive imagination is working overtime but I need Masters to confirm this to ease my fears, which isn’t much of a comfort considering who he is. He seemed to see how serious I am and where my mind must be going.
“Look at me Roz, everything I know is from Vaughn. As you know the only people who are allowed to see the Council are presidents. Anything I am told came from him. I am just as confused as you are about this, but you better believe I want to get to the bottom of this just as bad as you do.” This helped ease my fears some, so I nodded for him to continue.
A few years back, Vaughn was having problems with people not following the rules, there are those in every bunch who are not willing to follow command. It’s human nature in some to fight authority. Vaughn was worried that if he didn’t contain it quickly he would have another uprising on his hands. Our country’s foundation is based on order and everyone having a place. You have some not willing to work in their job, others are going to follow suit, and he couldn’t afford to let that happen. He gave them the choice of going back peacefully to their zones, or getting kicked out of the zones for good. We own more territory than just what holds the zones. As you know we need a good barrier surrounding us for protection. He had the land, and he took the gamble that giving them their freedom would keep another uprising from occurring. He made it very well known that once you leave the protection of the ministry you are not welcome back, it’s a law now Roz. They will not be seen as citizens and they will not be welcome to any benefits as such.” Wow, people actually wanted this?
“So food, water, shelter, clothes how are they being provided for?” For a moment I swore I saw admiration flit across his face, but just as fast it was concealed.
“They are completely self- sufficient. They grow, trap and hunt all their own food. They build everything they need; they have their own community just outside of ours.”
“And this works for them?”
He nods. “Yes, it does very well. Most of the people who left all had jobs before. They have skills from their profession and use those skills to survive as a community.”
“Just like we do, I don’t understand, why leave somewhere to go somewhere else and live the same way?”
“I don’t have all your answers Roz, I wish I did. But I will tell you they have never been a problem. They are mostly peaceful, keep to themselves. My men aren’t allowed to engage or interact with them at all; but they have never had trouble with them.”
“Has anyone been out there besides you and your men?”
“No. But nobody else knows of their existence. Once you enter the outcast territories you aren’t allowed to come back. Vaughn wrote it into law.” I thought about this for a minute.
“I need answers Masters. I know you are doing your best, but the fact that I wasn’t told about this is freaking me out. I’m going to be 100% honest with you; I don’t think the Council would set me up but I won’t know for sure until I talk to these people. I need to go there, can you take me?”
“Yes I can, but are you sure this is something you want to do Roz? It isn’t wise for you to go against the Council.”
“Yes, I’m sure. Plus, I’m not going against the Council because they never even mentioned its existence to me, much less told me not to go there.” The first genuine smile I’ve ever seen broke out across Masters' face.
“Well I’ll be; it looks like you have more fight in you than I thought missy. We might get along after all.”
“As long as you are honest with me, yes, we just might.” I said with an answering smile. I look down at the clock. It’s been fifteen minutes, and no phone call. It looks like the Council has made their decision, and I have made mine.
Epilogue
Annabelle looked down at her message for the third time wondering how they let the situation get away from them, and now it’s come back to haunt them. The Council had to find a solution to this problem, and fast. Annabelle cut off Lucas in mid-sentence. “I’m sorry Luke, but we have a problem and this can’t wait.”
“What is it now?” Peter asked already sounding annoyed. It had been a very long day for the council and everyone was reaching the point of exhaustion, and yet they still had a huge issue to solve before they could even think about going home. Annabelle looked down at her message again. “Rosaline is very upset about something that we kept from her, and she said she is going to go find her answers if we don’t see her in the next ten minutes.”
Simon’s head shot up at this. “What do you think she is talking about, exactly?” This was the question of the hour. By the looks on everyone’s faces they all knew it could be only a few things, and those things were best left alone. “We have only one of two options that I can see.” Stated Samuel, We can either have her come in now and calm her down before she makes a rash decision, or we can figure out just exactly what it is she thinks she knows before we sit down with her. The more informed we are the less she will catch us off guard.”
Amira was shaking her head at this. “If we let her go and take into her own hands whatever it is she thinks is the problem, it is liable to blow up. We need to calm her down now.” She said.
“I disagree, before we do anything we need to find out just what she’s been up to.” Peter replied back. He hit a few buttons on their screen and up popped the security footage from Rosaline’s office. She is sitting at her desk when Judy walks in with her arms full of something, lays them on her desk and leaves.
Once Roz spreads them out you can see they are maps. “This can’t be good.” Patience states the obvious.
“Zoom in on where she is pointing.” Said Clarisse.
Once Peter zoomed in on the map everyone let out a gasp. “The O.C. I should have known.” Annabelle stood and started pacing. “What are we going to do about this? Should we meet with her? She’s going to leave in two minutes if I don’t get back to her.”
“No, we can’t let her call the shots on this.” Peter’s voice was firm, with no room for arguing. Samuel hit a few buttons on the screen to pull up the video feed of her right now. She was sitting in her office talking to Masters and she looked furious. Annabelle continued to pace, “Oh, this is not good, not good at all.” Amira stood up and walked over to Annabelle and brought her back to her seat, laying a hand on her shoulder to calm her. “If she’s talking to Masters then he would have already told her what the O.C. is. If we bring her in now we are going to have to have a good explanation of why we kept it from her, and she is going to demand to go there and see it for herself anyway. We need to get our thoughts together, so we might as well let her go and talk to her when she gets back." The group didn’t look too confident with this idea.
“We need to let her go." Samuel said with authority. Amira is right, we need to discuss this matter at length before we talk to her, and she won’t be happy with waiting. She’s going to go either way, so we need to get on the same page and decide what we are going to do.”
“What can we do?” Simon asks.
“She isn’t Vaughn, she’s not going to be ok with people living outside of the Ministry.” Clarisse said.
“That is why we chose her, because she isn’t like Vaughn.” Annabelle stated. She stood up and began her pacing again. “We chose her because she loves people, she actually hurts for them. She is an amazing natural leader who doesn’t need the praise for her good works. She has the Country’s best interest at heart. That’s why we love her, because she feels people’s pain and does something to fix it.”
“The same reason we love her is also the reason we are going to have nothing but problems.” Peter said staring Annabelle down. “She feels peoples pain so she is going to sympathize with the Outcasts, s
he is going to want to open the boarders and we can’t allow that or they will rebel and cause another uprising. We can’t handle an uprising, not now. We are too weak to be able to withstand it right now. The Outcasts will never allow us to monitor them, and without constant monitoring our country won’t be able to run as efficiently as it has been.”
Samuel nodded but quietly spoke up, “and if she sympathizes with them, if she sees their cause as hers, and she leaves to join the outcasts, then what? Her people love her. Our people love her. She has won everyone over with her fierce loyalty and strong conviction. They will in turn be loyal to Rosaline, and if Rosaline is no longer the Ministry, their loyalty is no longer with the Ministry. So you better think long and hard, because as she chooses them, so will everyone else, and we won’t need the outcasts to rebel, we will have our own rebellion within these walls.”
No one was able to say a word, there was nothing but dead silence because they all knew what he spoke was the truth. The same reason why they loved Rosaline, why she made the best president is the same thing that could haunt them now. She wanted what’s best for the people and will stop at nothing to get it, but sometimes the best isn’t black and white, sometimes its grey and that is the Council’s job, to make her want the grey.
Peter stood up with hands on his hips. “We already decided as a council that she could have full reign over everything but the monitoring system and the Outcasts. We drew a line that we said we would not cross. Vaughn did us a huge favor by banning those people, they will only cause havoc in our perfectly run system. If they come back they will demand privacy, and we can’t afford to give them that! We won’t! So appease her for now, let her walk among them, feel for them, and then make her see our way is the only way. Make her know she is sacrificing what she thinks is best for the best of the people. Give her time to think it over, and then when she does we will be ready, even if that means we have to find a fast replacement for her and tell the people it was too much responsibility for someone so young. It would be worth losing her to keep this contained.”
Samuel jumps to his feet, anger raging on his usually jovial face. “Would it? Would it be worth losing her Peter? If you think that you are a fool and past time for you to retire.” There were a few gasps at that comment because it hit a little too close to home for Peter and Samuel knew it.
“Look at what she has done in just the short time she’s been here. She has broken every single record to date, without even trying! The staff’s hours are significantly down, vacation days up and yet the work has been almost doubled in productivity over all previous Presidents’ bests. Two Acts Peter! Two amazing Acts in a month. I’ve never seen anyone get more work out of less production time and neither have you! The people respect her because she treats them better than even they treat themselves. They are willing to work themselves to the bone because she doesn’t ask them to. She has brought more unity to this country than even the founders would have thought possible. We brought her here for a reason, so maybe if she is saying something you better shut up and listen!” Samuel slammed his fist on the table and then stormed out with Amira running after him.
Seamus who has stayed quiet until now finally spoke up, “Annabelle, when Masters comes back you need to find out just exactly what was said and what is going on. We all need to calm down and be as prepared as possible because there is a huge possibility that our biggest asset will also become our loosest cannon.”
###
About the Author
Jaci Wheeler is an Up and Coming Author in the Young Adult Genre. Her combination of believable worldly scenarios and relatable characters make her a must read. A Mother of two fantastic children, she is an avid reader and loves taking her kids to the park. She enjoys cooking, not baking, planning birthday festivities and having family dance parties in the kitchen.
Other books by this author
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The United Trilogy:
United
Divided (Coming Soon)
Aligned (Coming Later This Year)
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