The people of Springfield stared at the group of EPA helicopters as they left, sealing the entire town in a transparent dome. Russ Cargill, director of the EPA, had appeared on a big-screen TV, claiming that the reason for quarantining them was 'pollution' down in Lake Springfield. They had protested, but Cargill had merely laughed them off.
But the puzzle to them was: Hadn't Lake Springfield been cleaned up and blocked off?
So the townsfolk of Springfield had rushed to the lake, to be shocked by the black waters of what had been picturesque Lake Springfield.
A little fishing around had revealed a missile silo painted with a crude caricature of a pig's face, and labeled as 'PIG CRAP'. Upon further inspection, the words, 'RETURN TO HOMER SIMPSON, NO REWARD', were found on the other side of the silo.
It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say that the townsfolk wanted to lynch Homer Simpson's family. They all gathered en masse, complete with burning torches, and trooped towards the Simpson's family home. Even Grandma Jacqueline, Patty, and Selma Bouvier, together with Grandpa Abraham Simpson joined the mob (the Bouviers were after Homer, so was Grandpa).
They were out for blood that night.
They had almost torched the wrong house, but were corrected by Homer Simpson's dimwitted laughter upon seeing their mistake. They had quickly surrounded the Simpson's home, and Chief Wiggum's men had promptly broken open the door.
The Simpson family huddled upstairs, where Homer almost successfully held the mob at bay by imitating the sound of a chainsaw. But this minor distraction was insufficient, and soon the Simpsons were walking slowly across a plank between their house and that of Ned Flanders, a wannabe Good Samaritan.
Fortunately for the mob, Homer's pet pig had knocked the plank down, causing his entire family to take shelter in Bart's tree house. That too, was dealt with, as Otto Mann's school bus was chained to the tree and started up. The ground shook as the entire tree was pulled into a steep-angled position, half uprooted. Unfortunately, this rendered the five nooses attached to the tree branches from being useful to hang the Simpsons.
Then, baby Maggie Simpson had jumped off the tree house into her sandpit, and appeared on the outside of the dome. Only the Simpsons, high up in their semi-uprooted tree, could see the sinkhole that allowed Maggie's safe passage.
"OK kids, follow me!" cried Marge Simpson, running towards the tree house door, towards the sinkhole.
Before anything else happened, Homer Simpson, behaving selfish as usual, shoved her aside and jumped for the sinkhole. He landed in it, but a beer-belly created from years of donuts and beer made him nothing more then a plug for the sinkhole.
After that, justice was quick.
The Simpsons, excluding Maggie, were rounded up and brought to the town square. There, four nooses had been tied from the Kwik-E Mart's signboard (The townsfolk decided that Maggie didn't really deserve to be hung. She was later smothered with a pillow.).
The four Simpsons were led to their respective nooses one-by-one, with Marge being the first. She had glared at a crying Homer with eyes full of hatred, even as a noose was slipped around her neck.
Her last words to him were, "Burn in Hell."
Then, Bart had been hung. He lasted considerably longer than Marge had, and this was probably due to Homer's hobby of strangling him. Then, Lisa was hung. Her death actually caused some tears, due to her last words.
"I love you, Colin…"Finally, Homer Simpson was dragged to his noose. The lynch mob decided that he had suffered enough from watching his family get hung one-by-one. He had been harder to hang, when his morbid weight caused to first noose to snap, and the Kwik-E Mart's sign to collapse on the second attempt. He had been put out of his misery by Montgomery Burns, who, with the aid of Waylon Smithers, had driven an axe through his (Homer's) head.
Many though it was the first time anybody agreed with something that Burns had done.
xxx
After the lynching of the Simpsons, Springfield had settled into a state of savagery. Supplies that ran out and were never renewed, and the dome, drove numerous residents to the point of insanity. The townsfolk of Springfield slept with their doors locked, and with loaded firearms by their side.
For the first week after the lynching, many gunshots were heard at night. People went missing and were presumed dead.
No bodies were ever found.
One-by-one, the residents of Springfield lapsed into a life of cat-and-mouse. If you walked alone on the streets, you were toast. If you decided to go outside at night, you were toast. If you wanted to go to work or school, the school and most offices had been burnt down. Only the Nuclear Plant remained operational, with several hardworking employees keeping the power running to the town.
When Krusty The Clown was found dead with bullet wounds, the townsfolk realized just how dire their situation had become.
xxx
Then, one day, Russ Cargill had announced that the President had ordered Springfield to be sterilized. The townsfolk, by this point of time, had been reduced to wariness, and dismissed this announcement as a farce.
When the single helicopter carrying the bomb had flown towards the dome, they had watched in silence. Watched as the bomb ticked away in mid air. People walked in the streets unarmed and unharmed for the first time in weeks. Confessions were made, and people came out of the closet for others.
Mr. Burns was seen in Smithers' arms.
Miss Krabappel and Principal Skinner were openly holding hands.
Jacqueline Bouvier and Abraham Simpson were watching the sun set, in each other's embrace.
Waiting for the second when Springfield was destroyed.