Light Bearing by Ben Woollard

Author:Ben Woollard [Woollard, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-11-04T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

The Memoirs of Franz Thompson

The atmosphere within the UCG began to grow tense. Some of the members of cabinet, who were supposed to have a say in all official decisions, and to be able to veto them, had been increasingly angry with Shilk and his political allies for going over their heads, with some calling for a restructuring of power, which Shilk, of course, opposed. Throughout the city, leaflets were being spread everywhere with UCG slogans and mottos, such as “the light of civilization burns brightest under discipline,” with hand painted imagery of workers happily toiling in the factories. Other leaflets, often distributed by Red Caps, showed drawings of Shilk displayed as the altruistic leader of the UCG, something that only added to the resentment of his cabinetry. People began to whisper that he was planning some kind of power move. For my part, as well as the majority of the Red Caps that I knew, we all supported the idea of a Gov run exclusively by Shilk. We all felt that he was the most capable leader we could have, despite the horrors he had often commanded us to perform. In fact, those type of stern commands made us respect him more, as we felt that a man who can do what must be done is who should be in charge, and he always managed to convince us that such orders were the right thing, and that we were a part of a higher cause to bring peace and salvation to everyone. We spent so much time near him that it was hard not to be captivated by his magnetism.

About this time the UCG began to develop a solid understanding of how to operate a set of mines that had been discovered a few years before. The equipment and practices for gathering and transporting the materials had been slowly collected and put in place, so all they needed were the miners. They began advertising on the Daily News that they were looking for people to work the mines and the delivery routes. It didn’t seem to me they had much success, however, and every morning when I came into Central I would see that only a handful of dirty, ragged men and women were standing in front of the newly established mining commission. New internal organizations and bureaus were popping up all over the place, and nearly all of them were run by people close to Shilk, or by Shilk personally. These new subsections of the Gov made the structure swell and heave, and the majority of the UCG came under the Shilk’s direct control.

This didn’t sit right with everyone, though, and there was a growing voice of descent from within the UCG, especially the cabinet members, led by a man called Davis, that felt they were being ousted. It was for that reason that Shilk called a secret meeting of the Red Caps.

We met under darkness, in a building on the other side of town from Central.

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