𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

↳ 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝟎𝟏

( the previous title page has important information: please read if you missed it )

Urgent Call to Action: Antarctic Disarray Reaches Fever Pitch
by Ciprián Hérnandez de León, winner of 2501 Best New Aztecan Journalist
Translated by [REDACTED]

    Coming off the heels of another skirmish at the borderlands between the Republic and the Democratic States, disaster has begun to hit the Democratic States once more. A new epidemic has hit, posing a severe threat to the Democratic States' goals to technologically develop the burgeoning colony further. And yet, despite the mounting death toll in the Antarctic Colony, global voices have been silent.

    Upon my last visit to the Antarctic Colony, I was confronted with increased Peacekeeper activity. Each time I attempted to interview a citizen, or to approach any buildings, I was harassed by these Peacekeepers. I saw a woman dressed in the scrubs of a nurse, returning to her home nearby, and when I attempted to reach out to her for comment, a Peacekeeper destroyed my camera and knocked me down into the snow. Still, I would not be deterred. No government office responded to my requests for comment or to my repeated visits to their offices. Eventually, I began to notice darkened cars following me throughout the course of my visit. I would turn, at random intervals, and no matter my own motions, they would always come back, hot on my trail.

    My fifth day, I watched a girl on the street die. It was from the epidemic, I knew, and her mother lay beside her, already dead. I sat beside her as she died, and spilled water she could not drink onto her parched lips. I held her as she breathed her last breath. The Peacekeepers dared not approach until she had died. I suspect now that they were afraid of approaching her while she still breathed. They dragged us apart. I do not know what they have done with her body. There is no increase in cemetery space that I observed.

    My sixth day, I stayed awake at night. I had gathered that they clean the bodies in the early morning, when they believe no one will observe them. I counted seventeen bodies.

    My seventh day, I counted twenty-six.

    A Peacekeeper saw my gazing eyes from my window. Six dragged me from my hotel lodgings, sent me on the next flight out of the colony without even an opportunity to pack my suitcase. I was held in the airport for six hours, during which they beat me. They held me against my will, while I had no knowledge of when or if I might be released. They hit me with blunt objects to my abdomen, so that any wounds or bruising would not be visible as they then led me to the plane. I was not allowed water or given any indication as to when or if I would be permitted to have any. I was handcuffed to the interrogation table for the entire duration of these six hours, with my legs restrained as well. Throughout, I was repeatedly threatened not to write this very article. I was told that I needed to remain silent about anything I "may believe I have seen."

    I have elected not to comply.

    The situation is worsening with each passing day, despite attempts at suppression of the news and increased violent Peacekeeper activity. They may disguise it, comrades, but the Antarctic Colony is a failed state. Its city is painted in the blood of its citizenry. Its Peacekeepers can only attempt to cover it up. With every passing day, they come closer and closer to failing. This colony is a wasteland of humanity. This plague has taken from us many lives. The Democratic States have robbed us of their names and their stories, of our ability to grieve a loss from our human family.

    But this plague shall also give. These victims have given us a blood sacrifice– an opportunity. Comrades, we must not allow them to die in vain. Comrades, now is the time. The Peacekeeper forces cannot disguise these deaths for much longer. They cannot suppress the flow of information to their Colonies for much longer. Perhaps even this article will reach them, our brothers and sisters in Antarctica. A revolution, we must believe, is imminent. We must not relent. We must not cease to ask questions. We must not accept the propaganda any longer.

    This article is not meant to be read over coffee. This article is not meant to be discussed in the ivory tower of a classroom. This article is not meant to be skimmed. This article is meant to enrage. This article is meant to instigate. To stoke the flames of this revolution has become our collective responsibility as brothers and sisters in the human family. May God damn our souls if we do not heed their cries to us.

THUS ALWAYS TO TYRANTS.
tatt.
Ciprián Hérnandez de León