Day breaks in the Frontroom. All is quiet. The birds had returned since the unexpected disturbance of their morning routine yesterday, although they were not singing, as if wary that there would be a similiar breaking of the silence today. The fact that the Chief of Police had spent the previous night looking out the window overlooking his car, clutching his hunting rifle, probably didn't help things either.

The mood of the birds of the Frontroom was a microcosm for the mood of the village as a whole: Normal, but cautious. Yes, they had lynched one of their own the previous night. Yes, Beirut had done so with the most inhumane procedure any of them had ever heard of, especially in the Kingdom of Peace and Love. Yes, the townspeople were confident in their choice.

But... there was still the possibility that they were wrong.

It didn't bother Andres enough to keep him from his own morning jogging routine, however. After all, what was a potential mafia attack with the consequences reaching the possibility of the total extinction of his peaceful little town when compared with the maintenance of his fitness regimen?

To be fair, it helped that he jogged on the other side of town from Tratorix's usual route. Andres went the scenic way, spending quite a bit of time in the Frontroom Park, far away from the alleyway which, by this point, had been sealed off.

He jogged past the lake, with its many ducks and trace amounts of osmium, around the Frontroom cliffs with its extremely pointy rocks at the bottom, back to the lake where, sitting on a bench that looked like it hadn't been there before, was a man, impeccably dressed, wearing a fedora and trenchcoat and waving at Andres.

Andre, out of breath, stopped automatically to wave back and chat with the man. "Excellent morning for running, I do say," he said aimiably.

"They all are," Andres said.

"Indeed," said the man. "Allow me to recommend a beautiful route up in the hills, if you're up for a change of scenery."

"The hills, eh?" Andres panted. "Maybe it is time to adjust my route. I'll have to try that sometime."

"I'm afraid you won't be able to," the man said, whipping out his revolver and blasting Andres, all with an apologetic smile on his face. Andres's lifeless corpse rolled into the lake, the ducks having already made room for him by flying away upon the sound of the mafioso's gunshot.

Craterus, deep in the Frontroom marshes, watched the ducks fly away with his high-powered binoculrs. They were headed right for him, probably to make themselves comfortable in their second habitat now that the lake in the park (and the many breadcrumbs to go with it) had been disturbed.

He took his own hunting rifle and prepared to make a kill... but decided against it. If he shot one of them now then the others might pass by him entirely, headed for perhaps another habitat. No, better to let them rest, lull them in a false sense of security... and then pick them off with the help of his trusty decoy.

So he watched as the ducks landed in the marshes and spread out... and lied in wait.

Time passed...

Thirty minutes...

...an hour...

Finally, he was ready. The decoy had been set afloat and one particular mallard was now interested in it, swimming over to it to further examine it. Craterus had his gun ready, the duck in his sights, his finger on the trigger...

BBBB-BRBBTA-BRBBTA-BRAWWWWWWW!!!

Startled at this new sounds, all the ducks flew away. Craterus, totally concentrated on getting the duck by the decoy, was taken totally by surprise and missed any chance he had at nabbing any of the ducks. Cursing silently, he waited as the sound drew closer.

The sound in question was a motorboat, strangely being piloted by a fully-dressed man, heading right for him.

"You idiot!" Craterus shouted when the man in the motorboat was close enough. "You made me miss my ducks! I had been lying in wait for over an hour!"

"And lie you shall do some more," the man said, pumping his shotgun and sending Craterus into the quickly-dirtying water.

"At least there was one kill in the marshes today," the man said as he piloted his boat back to civilization.

Later that day, Chief of Police Beirut had gathered the remaining villagers into the town square in order to make an announcement.

"Gentlemen," he began, "today there has been two more kills, both concerning the ducks of the Frontroom. The poor creatures got so startled at listening to two separate gunshots that one of them FLEW RIGHT INTO MY BAY WINDOW!!! Do you realize how much those things cost?! That was imported glass, too..."

"Who was murdered?" somebody asked.

"Andres and Craterus," Beirut said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Thus, we will have to begin the lynching process again. I have a couple of notes, though. First of all, due to all the property damage caused by these murders - namely, my property being damaged - a $2000 fine will be imposed in addition to execution. Second of all, I received a note from the OBI (the .Org Bureau of Investigation, that is) saying that killing somebody via a rusty knife, live burial, and tarantulas is inhumane and thus, illegal. So scaring the mafia is out."

"Wait a minute, the OBI tells us ways we can't kill people but won't help us out with this mafia problem?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Beirut said. "Get voting!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still alive: (33)
Ichigo
RoadKill
TinCow
Elite Ferret
woad&fangs
shlin28
makaikhaan
Sasaki Kojiro
LittleGrizzly
Sigurd Fafnesbane
Caius
Gaius Scribonius Curio
peverpink
Sarathos
Mithrandir
Beefy187
Tiberius of the Drake
KukriKhan
TevashSzat
|Sith|R|AntiWarmanCake88
Crazed Rabbit
Fenring
Lord Winter
CountArach
Kommodus
Rythmic
Seamus Fermanagh
Quintus.J.Cicero
Kagemusha
georgeman51
discovery1
FactionHeir
Joe Monks

Killed:
Tratorix
Omanes Alexandrapolites
Andres
Craterus

Executed:
Privateerkev