Page 65 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

The Tribunal

A trio of bailiffs ran out of the chamber and returned immediately
with a whimpering shriveled figure in shackles.
“Stand him up and shut him up!”
A new tone of cruel enjoyment was audible in the Inquisitor’s
voice. The prisoner was jerked to attention and slapped into silence.
“Bruce Leonard: your crimes against humanity have been exposed!
Your masquerade as a decent citizen is over! The Tribunal is ready to
administer justice: have you anything to say?”
The man’s lolling tongue and rolling eyes bespoke the unlikelihood
of any adequate defense. His guards nevertheless prompted a
response through stimulation of soft tissue.
“Nyaba-zarky-doops!” he cried, mouth gaping megaphonically.
“Nyaba-zarky-doops!”
“What?” The Inquisitor’s surprise, if any, was lost in his ominous
snarl.
“It was his sign-off, your Astuteness,” interjected Myra Zorr. “He
ended his nightly broadcast with that bit of infantile drivel. His fans
loved it, imprinted it on garments and placards. It meant nothing,
nothing at all.”
“Sign-off, indeed,” chortled the Inquisitor with characteristic
nastiness, and entered the third and final check mark.
“Bruce Leonard!” he thundered. “Hear now the judgment of the
Tribunal. And let the word go out to every celebrity still on the run:
you will be found and brought before this court to face the righteous
wrath of the people—as represented by me!”
He banged down his fist, and the erstwhile entertainer was helped
to his knees by gravity. An expectant hush was inhaled by the crowd.
“Bruce Leonard! Had we wood to spare, you would be burned at
the stake. Were there any natural gas or coal left in the world, we
would find—somehow, somewhere—an oven in which to roast you.
If horses were not extinct, you would be drawn and quartered. No,
we have no source of energy left except that bequeathed us by the
pre-Collapse economy of insanity: nuclear power! The plants are old,
now; but someone must keep them going until the last light is
extinguished, the last computer screen goes blank and humanity is
thrown into total reliance on its own muscular strength. Yes, the
shields are rusty, the cooling pipes cracked, the rods of uranium
slowly fusing in their cores; radiation leaks from containment vessels

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