The Waterworks of Clearwash City - Timothy J Waters

A city isolated at the centre of a great desert is an ideal place for a dictator to arise and control its unfortunate inhabitants. We join the story many years after this has happened and, since Mr Erepsin Ville's ascension to power, things have gone from bad to worse; his recent decline in mental health being the main cause of everyone's trouble. Believing that everyone and everything is against him, he's lately passed numerous laws to seek to control every movement and action of the citizens under his care. Now police balloons inhabit the skies and patrol groups roam the many streets and cobbled lanes of Clearwash City. More laws appear every day and their increasing demands are weighing heavy on the hearts of the people. On top of all this, however, there's been a recent ban on washing - brought about by a rumoured shortage from the state's official water reserve, controlled by Erepsin himself. Advanced ancient technology, now lost to the people, once ran a huge waterworks that fed the people with fresh, clean water. Its been closed for many years and the people are only kept alive by Erepsin's secret and personal supply. Through his many laws and his incredible contraption which he calls his "Free Flowing Foamy Flusher Machine" (with which he performs his public medieval styled executions) Mr Erepsin Ville holds the people in an iron grip; rewarding those who are loyal to him and hunting down any who would offer resistance. Life is a mess for anyone who wants to have a normal existence. The people of Clearwash City would do better if they created a single united front against their enemy, but with eighty two official and unofficial rebel committees and sub-committees, they hardly pose a unified threat. There is one rebel council however, which has recently emerged from amongst the crowd, and this group seems to now speak for the majority of the rebellion. Rising through the ranks of this council is a young lady from the nobility who has caught everyone's attention. Despite the risks to life and limb, we find that this plucky female leader and her small band of loyal followers are willing to face the perils necessary to free the city from its bonds. This story follows their covert operation as they enter the old waterworks in an attempt to get it working again, but with disastrous results for everyone. Everything is stacked against them, secret police, informers, electronic sniffer devices, execution flusher machines, ancient old buildings falling down around them and floods that can sweep them away. Above all of this, however, is the tyrannical rule of Mr E who would love nothing more than to catch them red handed in their soapsud rebellion and put them on public trial for his general amusement and entertainment. Our unlikely heroes find their friendship key to everything. They learn that salvation often lies in the most unexpected deed and that never giving up is always the route to freedom, even when staring failure in the face!