It had been a long, dirty campaign. Henrietta Rhodes Crenshaw had fought a tough battle against Jebediah Brier. Jebidiah was the brother of Gerry Brier, the current president. Their family had something of a modern American dynasty going on. Gerry Brier senior had been president for four years. He was the predecessor to Bob Crenshaw, Henrietta’s husband. He was president for eight years. It’s a little disturbing how all the presidents of the past 20 years came from only two families, and the next four were to as well. They claimed it was a democracy but it was clearly not so. Only the rich and powerful were elected, the system was corrupt. But I digress. Henrietta had won the election, she was to be the first female president in the history of the United States, and Bob was to be the first first man.

Henrietta Rhodes Crenshaw was dead eight weeks later. She was killed along with her running mate. They were at a celebratory rally and a bomb went off, killing 8 people and wounding 42 others. People suspected the republicans, and indeed the evidence might have been incriminating had the FBI bothered to conduct a real investigation. The official word from the Brier administration was that it was a cowardly act of terrorism.

People weren’t sure what to do, no law had been written for this contingency. The president and vice-president elect had been killed two weeks before inauguration day. All the people who were supposed to be next in line were appointed officials, and none of them had been officially appointed yet. The country was in chaos. No one knew who was going to be in charge after January 20th. But the date was fast approaching and a decision had to be made…