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Five fifteen PM. Monday, I think. Not sure about the date. The month, yes. November. Year? Last time I checked, 2027. I'm in some sort of...holding cell. It's an old building, like a manufacture. I saw high ceilings, chains, industrial-looking stuff. They've split us into groups. Nobody in this room knows anybody. I'm gonna start recording progress of our captivity in case somebody finds this tape. Maybe I'll leave enough clues for someone to figure out where they've taken us, or maybe it'll be of use for new prisoners who'll wanna know what's coming. They're following this protocol. No actual massive arrests. They just tell you there's a situation and they need to take civilians to safety. Then they stuff everybody in buses and they're off. I was crammed in a school bus with over 50 people. I'd hopped in like an idiot, but I had no choice. Out there... Anything was better than staying behind, in the city. But then I soon saw what was going on. They ID'd some of us, took away wallets, cards, passports. Some guy demanded to be disembarked. They refused. They said nobody was allowed to leave this bus. They said we were prisoners. The guy argued, got up, tried to hit the driver in the face. They didn't even tell him to relax. One of the guards stuck the barrel of his machine gun to his head and just shot. Said the same would happen to anybody who got smart. I knew I had to leave some kind of warning behind, otherwise other people would have embarked. I had my red sharpie, wrote all over the benches, on the windows. They didn't see me, bus was too crammed. I wrote "They are gathering us like cattle" and "Run". I was desperate to leave something behind, for others to know... I wrote and wrote and wrote, I shoved people aside, threatened to kill them if they didn't let me write. But then we got there. To the place, the "camp" as they called it. Kicked us out one by one, another man got bold. Said he knew all about their plans, that he'd obeyed just to see where they'd take us. Yelled a bunch of nonsense that doesn't sound like such nonsense anymore now that I think of it. They grabbed him. Said he had too many ideas in his head. Stuck him to the ground. Held his hands behind his back. One guard brought some kind of roller, I don't know what it was. Pressed it against his skull and squeezed his brains out, I swear he did. "Let's get rid of all those ideas", the guard snarled. "Propaganda doesn't always work, we need a push." His exact words. I hid my sharpie. My recorder in my pocket. That day I knew something was gonna happen. I carry them all the time anyway. Leave something behind. I won't let them erase me completely. I'll scratch the walls behind me with my fingernails as I'm pulled away. Somebody'll know. If I can save one person, just one person... Keep your eyes peeled. Look around. Don't let the eyelids sink. If you're asleep, wake up. If you're hypnotized, break away. If you trust, distrust. And if you're an idiot, just run. Run. They don't want your good. Why would they? There's enough of us to spare. They don't need the whole set. They can share the world between themselves. Like a deck of cards. The fewer players, the more cards in your hands.

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