Midville, OH Info

Midville, Ohio, located about 30 miles south of Akron, is a small town which has received a great deal of publicity in the last several years. With its history of survival against pillagers during the Food Riots, cycle and raider gangs in the 20 years since, and recentralized government even today, Midville has emerged as representative of the new American spirit: clever, determined, independent, tenacious and, occasionally, vicious.

History

Before the Food Riots, Midville was a fairly typical small community serving the local agricultural area. With the advent of the Riots the town, under the leadership of mayor Al "Shiner" Cordray, organized into the equivalent of a military command center, linking its immediate environs with a series of short-wave radios and observation posts. An armaments raid on the local Army base just prior to its being abandoned is also "credited" to Cordray; while this has never been proven, history shows that the first raiders to venture into Midville met resistance ranging from pitchforks to heavy artillery. To counter the growing cycle gang menace, Midville formed its own guerrilla security force in 2018. The Midville Security Regulars (affectionately known as the Mashers) were precursors to the contemporary Midville Operatives for Neighborhood Defense Ordnance (or MONDOs). The Mashers were responsible for the development of now-common anti-cyclist tactics such as the Barbed Wire Howdy, the Trench Foot Opening, and the Kamikaze Oops. Their activities were responsible for Midville's categorization as a Fortress Town, the first such AADA classification granted to an unwalled, multiple-access urban area. This, too, was when Midville began to get extensive media coverage, as the flamboyant Cordray, in his renovated APC, the Sarah Bellum, began his series of assaults on regional raider headquarters. (The ruins of the Sarah and an associated monument can be viewed on 1-77 three miles south of Bolivar.)

Midville Today

Midville is still a fairly typical small community serving the needs of a large agricultural area. About 1,000 people live within the city limits, but some 3,000 individuals from the immediate area consider themselves Midville residents. Midville probably would have just been another small town in middle America if it hadn't been for its residents' success in discouraging cycle gang attacks. The story came to the attention of the fledgling United Broadcasting Network, which bought the rights to produce a minimaxi- miniseries based on the town's defense. The show, Crash City, proved to be so popular that it was turned into a regular series - then it became a broadcasting phenomenon. For over seven years people all over North America have been tuning in every Friday night to watch the "Midville MONDOs" defend themselves against "Black Jesse's Crusaders" (who, ironically, share in the contract fees and residual payments - Black Jesse has comfortably retired to a small house near Alliance, Ohio).

The Citizens

Most Midville citizens are farmers - they live outside city limits, tending the algae tanks, soybean fields and other Blight-resistant crops. The city-dwellers work at the various shops and offices, keeping commerce alive. About a third of the populace own cars or cycles; most of these are low-cost commuter and family vehicles, not meant for heavy combat. A $10,000 car is common, $15k or $20k is prestigious, any more is showing off. The average Midville citizen is, on the whole, unremarkable.