Chapter 14/Call me patriotic but at least our governor had a pulse

Governor Williy's mansion.

Having just escaped from Alexander. I had rushed upstairs. I was standing on an open landing with a staircase leading up and another down to the expensive party below. When they had taken over Legoland to be the new reception center they had disassembled a real historic Governer's mansion from somewhere. Taken it bit by bit across the wastelands and reassembled it here at great cost.  You would think that in the aftermath of a viral epidemic would be a mad use of resources and in my view your right. As a possessed, I was in a silent minority and the general population had somehow thought this was necessary.

The Governor's mansion seemed to be some kind of tribute to velvet. The old staircase was clearly designed for the large Victorian ballgowns. I always wondered why Victorian women thought that the height of style was looking like a taffeta covered tank. Perhaps this wasn't the first time the virus had struck.

As I moved around I could see paintings of past governors of California. The current governor was a totally mistake not like the paintings the old legitimate governors like Gray Davis, Ronald Regan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I finally came to the painting of governor Willy.  I mean, even I could see electing an Orca whale as governor of the emergency sector of California was a bad idea.

To be fair we had done quite well by electing a whale to be our governor. There were some emergency sectors which had elected things like a cardboard box, roadkill and a bowl of rocks as governor. One emergency sector had actually elected an orangutang with an orange Toupée as governor. All he did was fling his own feces at a board listing various decisions on it held up by his secretaries.   So actually electing a mammal was a huge achievement for our sector. I don't want to sound overly patriotic but at least our governor had a pulse.

I had often wondered how people could vote for something which was clearly unsuited to the post of governor. You could sometimes overhear conversations about this in Vicky's cafe. The reason seemed to be split into three principle causes. The first reason could be summarized as 'you may not like an Orca Whale for governor but it will be a cold day in hell before I vote for that democratic unicycle'. The second one was 'I feel I know him from all his movies' and the third was 'With Willy you know exactly what you get, he's a whale of the common folk and 'I'm proud to see someone going to stand up for the common man and the forgotten people like me'. Still didn't quite understand how a wealthy orca whale could represent the common man. I think people just wanted someone who they knew wasn't infected. All the news about the dangers of the possessed had rather poison the well getting some openly smart people to do it.

I was really irritated by the stupidity of people who said they had 'proudly voted for a fish', as I knew whales were actually air breathing mammals. It was also very irritating not to be able to correct people on this as it was a sure sign of my possession.

Time was running out. I started looking around looking for anything that might be a maze. I knew I had to find something which would have more than one leg. There were some old oil paintings but nothing maze on them like especially ones with second legs. I kept looking around. The publicly accessible space was running out. I felt like the sand in an egg timer. Just then I was approached by TDM, the young man who had been acting as a car-boy. He was dressed as a waiter and was now carrying a tray of thin stemmed glasses.

Looking around to make sure he wasn't overheard he said. "You should get out of here now".

"I thought this was public space," I said "I was just looking for the ladies room," I added.

I didn't think I had walked into anywhere off limits. I didn't see any signs. I tried to look suitably dumb.

"You must leave now, " he said again. He glanced up, I followed his eyes to see a number of troops with dangerous looking guns standing around the entrance to a grand bedroom.  Just then the troops stood to attention as a tall thin Wiesel faced man emerged, then slinked off. That was govenor Willy's translator and spokesmen.

Suddenly from behind a large body moved forwards and grabbed the waiter.

"No I think it's time for you to leave, before I beat your brains out," said Alexander grabbing TDM  by his shirt. He apologetically retreated and Alexander grabbed two glasses of Champagne before TDM left.

Alexander was certainly the possessive type. I think I should explain to him I wasn't his property. He had clearly vaulted up the staircase to my rescue and he wasn't in a calm looking mood.

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"You look hot. You should come out into the balcony and look at the view of the garden with me?" said Alexander.

The soldiers were looking at me Alexander's threat had attracted their attention and given them something to do. Anyway, he was right there would be no way that labyrinth society would hide a clue somewhere where it would be so easy to get caught. The balcony would be a good place to spot anything maze like in the garden. In fact thinking about it, there could well be hedge maze in the garden. I accompanied Alexander who reached down to take my hand and we walked through a large bay window doorway onto a semicircular stone veranda. It was cool, but not cold and the night air was lit by the glow of a full moon.

"Are you warm enough?" said Alexander "You can have my jacket if you like."

"I'm fine," I said putting my hands to my arms.

We stood next to the balcony which just came up to my knees. It was clearly designed to look better than be an effective functional safety barrier. Below us, there was a large swimming pool and a fountain surrounded by partygoers. I looked over the dark ground beyond. I could see well manicured open grass, trees but nothing that look like a maze. Beyond the large open grounds of the governor's mansion, I could see a large iron fence and beyond that, buildings and the streets of Springfalls. I leaned cautiously over the edge. Alexander had clearly got me out here for a reason. He was arrogant and overly possessive, I wasn't sure what I felt towards him, he was both nice and horrible. But I knew things couldn't go any further, it wouldn't be good to him to be so dishonest. I already felt a little guilty taking such an advantage of him coming here. It would be best for him to know that there was no future for us. For a man like Alexander, I'm sure no a future wasn't a barrier, but I wasn't going to be a one-off fling either. Call me picky, but I wanted my first encounter to be meaningful for some reason. It sounded odd but somehow I respected him too much not to be used and disposed of by him.

He was holding my hand and then put his arm around me pulling towards him. He had his arm around my back and I felt the gentle touch of his hand on my bare arm.

"You're cold," he said.

"I'm fine," I said pulling away. If anything given the shortness of my dress my leg's were freezing but I didn't want to give him any ideas about touching my legs.  I felt a little ripple drift over my tight skin as I felt him about to put his arm around me.

Alexander held me and stood close to me looking out at the spectacle below. He looked back at me and stared close into my eyes. I was still a bit angry about how he had treated the waiter. I needed to speak to TDM.

"You look lovely in the moon light.I like your eyes. I can't tell if I can see diamond or monsters in them, but I'd like to find out." he said then suddenly pulled me towards him.

Before I could say anything he grabbed me and began to kiss me. I'm pushed uselessly away

"There you are Alexander," said Evian's voice. Alexander let go.  Alexander stiffened at the sound.

"Mother," said Alexander slightly exasperatedly. "we're busy"

Was I pleased that there was someone else around? Was I upset that there was someone else around? Again, I felt my emotional side was completely disordered. Normally I rely upon my emotions to be my moral compass. Currently, it felt like I was standing at the North Pole and my moral compass was spinning lost beyond control.

Evian strode onto the balcony followed by some gorgeous looking girl better suited to the pages of a fashion magazine. She was all long hair with soft curls and pouty face, cheeks so hollow you wondered if you could go spelunking in them. I wouldn't say she had large teeth but you did wonder she found her face in a dinosaur burial pit.

"Alexander, I just found someone incredibly suitable for you," Evian said coming between Alexander and me. As she did her body pushed me back against the low veranda. I still wasn't used to balancing well in these shoes and felt my weight being thrown backwards.

"Kaitlyn!" said Alexander.

It happened too quickly, Alexander reached out but he had to go around his mother. Evian and her new chosen one just stood there looking at me blankly. Clearly, the Botox of her forehead wrinkles had finally reached out to her whole face, her brain and her sense of right and wrong.

"No her name isn't Kaitlyn" Evian got out while turning around referring to the other girl.

"Idiooooott." I let out falling. Rather weird last words I admit.

I had no memory of falling. Just the feeling that this was the end. And that when they found my fake ID my gravestone would have the wrong name. Suddenly I felt this massive slap across my back I felt instantly cold and deaf. I was floating, I realized I was in a pool of water. I could hardly see and wasn't even sure which way up was. Suddenly I felt something push me up. I knew enough not to breathe the water in.

Then, I was out of the water. I was being lifted up by something. The sound of the party continued.

"Governor Willy!" said a voice behind me.

I look behind me to discover I was being lifted up by an Orca whale. What I had read as a swimming pool was in fact a large tank holding a black-and-white orca whale.

"Governor Willy let me help you with that," said one of the people by the pool.

Then there was another large splash launching a huge amount of water up like an explosion. It was Alexander jumping into the pool after me from the second story. That was such a dumb thing to do, oh yes, well I guess that everybody was infected including Alexander.

Alexander swam strongly over to me, while I was being held up by governor Willy.  We moved to the side. Some arms next the pool reached out and took mine. I felt myself being pulled out of the water like a dunked cat. As I did I could see the sparkles you see in a cartoon happened. People pulled ou phones and cameras and took pictures of me and the Governor.

One of the governor's security detail complete with earpieces, assault rifles and dark glasses came out and shouted, "No more jumping into the governor's pool, by anybody."

Governor Willy pushed it's snout out of the water a clicked and buzzed. Ian Bush The man I had occasionally seen on television as the governor's translateor and spokesmen came over. He bent down and listened nodding to the Orca.

"The governor says folks have thrown many treats into his pool but known as ever so lovely as you," said Mr. Bush.

"Tell Governor Willy thank you," I said.

"Tell him yourself his English is very good," Said Mr Bush.

I felt myself stuck in a narrow channel with nowhere to go. Cameras were recording this conversation and there's no way I was going to look possessed in front of them. It seemed obvious I needed to play along with this game.

"Thank you Governor" I began "I without you I could have died."

The orca wailed clicked a second, Mr Bush nodded.

"He said you're very welcome to drop in any time, but next time, bring your swimming costume," said Mr Bush.

Everyone burst into laughter followed by applause. While this happened Alexander was able to pull himself out of the pool unaided.

I the distance in the crowd, I saw the waiter TDM looking horrified.

Suddenly Captain Nass appeared.

"Now the governor is quite done saving people's lives I was wondering if we could carry on our conversation about our important work rooting out possessed cells," said Captain Nass. He was wearing a formal black uniform now.

Mr Bush leaned forward and to the Orca clicking again. He continued from about a minute. Mr Bush kept leaning going 'yep' at stage. Finally, the Orca dived into the pool.

"The governor said sure," Bush said getting up "but we need to listen to the vice governor's speech first"

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