Part 6

Another update? So soon? Madness! This might actually develop into a serious thread yet! Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to continue with the story. I've sort of figured out where I'm going with it. Sort of.

How long had we been in this town? A week? A month? When I tried to think about it, I couldn't seem to nail down the amount of time that had passed. It seemed like a short time, but so much had been done, so in that regard it seemed like a long, long time...

I tried to clear my mind. The exact number of days we had been in City Name were like one of those floaters in your eye. The more I tried to focus on it the more it slipped away. This sort of thinking only served to give me a headache these days. Deryl and I were preparing for yet another meeting with the city council. We seemed to do that a lot. I had run into Jim in the hallway a few hours earlier and he had bellowed at me that the council had "BIG NEWS TONIGHT SO DONT BE LATE."

Deryl had really gotten into the whole city planning thing. I was a lot more apathetic about it, but his newfound enthusiasm to push the city ahead required my support as mayor so I tried to keep up as best I could.

While we were preparing, Deryl said out of the blue:

: Don't you think it's weird that there isn't any radio or television stations in town?

: Really? I never noticed. I guess it isn't all that weird, I mean this was a pretty small town when we got here.

: Don't you think we should get some?

: Sure, I don't see why not. I'll leave that up to you.

We finished our preparations and walked down the hallway towards the council chambers. Along the way, we ran into Dexter, the head of the school board.

: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Were you able to read my report on the new educational institutions across the river?

: Yes, I was. I'm pleased that they were able to be constructed.



Dexter grinned.
: So, do you feel smarter?

: Yes, thank you.

Before I had time to ponder this oddity, we entered the council chambers. We took our seats and got down to business. After the boring preliminary budget stuff and some outstanding issues, our bonds guy whose name I never really learned stood up.

: And now, Your Honor, it is my great pleasure to inform you that we have reached a great milestone. Because of our recent massive increase in population, budget, and the size of our city, we feel that the time has come to construct a new, grander City Hall. We leave it to you, the mayor, to choose the location of what will be our new home!

For those that don't know, this is another reward that you get when your city hits a certain population. The exact number is not one I remember offhand, but it means that our city has made some pretty significant growth.

: SO MANY NEW PEOPLE, NOT ENOUGH ROADS! THEY ALL WANT TO DRIVE SOMEWHERE LIKE THE ANTS THEY ARE!

: Yes, well, I'll take that into consideration, Jim. Perhaps you could get us a report on traffic congestion for next time?

Jim stood up, knocked his chair over, screamed "SURE!" and stormed out. I may never figure out how to handle Jim.

That night, Deryl and I were playing Dead Rising and discussing things. As Frank chainsawed another zombie, I remarked

: You know, I'm not all too sure how prepared this city is for a possible zombie outbreak.

: Your right. We really should take that into consideration when we put in the new city hall. Obviously the best place to wait out a zombie invasion is an island, but we seem to be out of those.

: Nah, just dump a bunch of dirt into the river and make a new one. It will need to be self-sufficient, like this house. Power, water, and all that.

: Yeah, but we should put in a really big power plant, just in case.

: What if we get trapped here and can't make it to the city hall?

: Well that's easy. We put in a tunnel from here to there.

: Sometimes you scare me.

And so, we brought the proposal to the city council the next day.



And the day after, I bid farewell to my surly driver and started taking a private subway car to and from work.



I said factories would come this update, but they were edged out. So, coming next update, industry! And after that, the sky's the limit.