San Cegos

"I love killing them, I killed them all with great pleasure," a man said to the sheriff. A flock of pigeons was dead in the pavement and blood mixed with feathers painted the ground. The sheriff blankly stared at the proud killer from the sidewalk. Everyone was looking at the murderer of pigeons with a vigilant look. He was a foreigner, a man that had come to town just four weeks ago and set up a pest control business. The townspeople voted to exterminate the infestation of pigeons, the dirty rats of the sky as they called them.

They hired Adam, the foreigner, to take care of them. Now that a large number of them were dead, the townspeople felt like they had blood on their hands. They all looked through the windows of the shops in the center of town and wondered if that was the right course of action. Adam placed statues of owls and a dead pigeon next to each one of them in the roofs of some of the stores. From that day forward the townspeople treated him completely different. Everyone looked at him with suspicion.

Adam really hated pigeons since he was a kid. Ever since a flock of pigeons were biting the dead body of his beloved dog Fluffy he just couldn't see them as benevolent animals. In his country they had a lot of pigeons and when he was a young boy he would hunt them down and capture them for a minimal fee. His mother used to make really good pigeon soup, but after setting up the pest control business he couldn't stomach pigeon soup anymore.

San Cegos was the name of the town and most of the people who lived there were long time residents. Not much happened in that town. The largest employer was a slaughterhouse and a cattle farm. The rest worked on one of the service stores on Main St.. Very few strangers actually passed by the town. Most of the drivers preferred to stop in the town of Caraluna on the other side of the highway because it had more amenities and the center of town was minutes away from an overpass.

The people of San Cegos hated foreigner anyway and liked to keep to themselves. The Mayor, Gustavo Greene, was a senile old man that could barely hold himself together. It wasn't too hard to be the mayor though. Most of the work was done by the all powerful council of San Cegos. Every long time resident of the town could be part of it. The council voted on everything from pest control to criminal offenses. Majority always ruled in San Cegos. They only needed a simple majority to approve anything. The head of the council was Prof. Marc Rice, a man that had lived in San Cegos for almost half a century. He used to be a professor of political sciences in the University of Caraluna. Adam despised this man, mainly because Prof. Rice was probably the rudest man in San Cegos.

Despite the townspeople's hatred towards foreigners most of the workers in the slaughterhouse were foreigners. Adam was the first foreigner to actually set up a shop in San Cegos in a long time. Prof. Rice was the last one to set up shop in San Cegos, the so-called old classics bookstore. Before coming to San Cegos Adam lived in Caraluna but the place was becoming too expensive so he decided to move. Sheriff Carline had talked to him in Caraluna about the possibility of setting up shop in San Cegos a long time ago. The Sheriff was also the owner of the slaughterhouse and the cattle farm so he knew a thing or two about setting up shop in San Cegos.

The townspeople never really warmed up to Adam, specially the members of the council. Before Adam move the council was trying to restrict the settling of too many foreigners to their beloved San Cegos. Sheriff Carline advised them to stop their attempts but the council didn't listen. The mayor gave an exception to Adam and allowed him to set up the shop as advised by Sheriff Carline.

Months passed and the people from the cattle farm were been trained in the slaughterhouse. Most of them were happy to receive a promotion but they sense that something big was about to happen. Most of the people the foreigners that worked in the slaughterhouse and the cattle farm lived on the outskirt of San Cegos. Run down houses that were mostly forgotten and neglected by the rest of the population. Both communities had little contact with each other; the only real connection was Sheriff Carline. He had constant contact with both communities as well as with the towns close by like Caraluna.

The council was very uneasy that day. Everyone knew that the slaughterhouse training meant something big was about to happen. Prof. Rice was especially uneasy; he was urgently looking for Sheriff Carline. The council had an emergency meeting called up by the Mayor. All the council was there. The Mayor and Sheriff Carline were at the podium. Prof. Rice was the last to arrive. He was sweating and incredibly uncomfortable. In a burst of insanity he starts to scream at the Sheriff telling him to spare his life. All the councilmen and councilwomen looked at each other confused. The former workers of the slaughterhouse enter the building with machetes and big meet clovers.

In a matter of minutes some of the people in the council started to demand an explanation. Adam emerges from the crowd of slaughterhouse workers with a shotgun. Prof. Rice tries to run towards the Sheriff but he pulls out a revolver and shots the crazed man in the head. The entire council looks confused and terrified.

"Will you all be so kind as to follow the head of our new council to the slaughterhouse," said the Sheriff as he points at Adam and towards the direction of the slaughterhouse.

A few months later.

"Welcome to the first order of business, we need to entice new foreigners to staff the cattle farm. All of those in favor raise your hand," said Adam from behind the podium as he spoke to the former staff of the slaughterhouse, now the new council of San Cegos.