post_apocalypse_story/qb-Banished.html

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<h1>Banished</h1>
<p>
<span class="quote speech">Isabelle!</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Lucas!</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">I got banished.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">What...?</span><br />
The guard behind Isabelle gives her a stern look, the one in front of her
turns around:<br />
<span class="quote speech">No chit-chat, move along.</span><br />
Isabelle takes a moment to understand the implication of what Lucas had
said.<br />
<span class="quote speech">...ohhhhh. Congrats!</span><br />
The guards grab her by the arms and drag her away.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Move.</span>
</p>
<p>
They bring her to a room adjacent to the main court room where a bunch
of important-looking people in suits are waiting for her. They introduce
themselves and they all, including herself, sit down around a somewhat
large table. One of the suits takes the word:<br />
<span class="comment">Does that work in English?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Before you go to trial, we have something
to discuss with you. You are being accused of breaking and entering,
robbery, interfering with law enforcement, compromising operationally
critical systems, and conspiracy of terrorism. Some of these charges
alone will land you in prison for a long time &ndash; unless you take
this deal...</span><br />
He grabs few sheets of paper from his bag <span class="comment">
Aktentasche?</span> and slides them over.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Basically admit to everything you&apos;re
accused of and you will be banished instead of going to prison.</span>
<br />
She absentmindedly acknowledges what he said as she is already reading
the first page.<br />
After reading it, she says: <span class="quote speech">There&apos;s
a bunch of things in here that aren&apos;t true.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Take it or leave it.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">What are you getting out of this?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">We don&apos;t want troublemakers like you
here &ndash; nor do we want controversy.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">What will happen if I sign this?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">You will be removed from Sunside Cove.</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">And in practical terms?</span><br />
Another one of the suits answers:
<span class="quote speech">There is an ongoing power outage to parts
of the city. We will have to send a group of people
<span class="comment">delegation?</span> outside to fix it.
You will join them and not return.</span><br />
She looks back at the pages.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Okaay.</span><br />
The other pages are some half filled-out forms. She is given a pen and
told to fill in the rest.
</p>
<p class="comment">
Note: It was always intended that at least some of the rebels who got
caught will be released to the outside. However, before starting this
chapter, I have never actually considered what this means for the rest
of the story. The following chapters weren&apos;t originally written
with this in mind and may need to be revised to take it into account.
</p>
<p class="copyright">Copyright &#169; 2023-2025 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) &ndash; All rights reserved.</p><script>let spans = ["<span class=\"paper green\">", "<span>"]; let pre_texts = document.getElementsByTagName("pre"); for (let i = 0; i < pre_texts.length; i++) {if (pre_texts[i].className != "paper") continue; let lines = pre_texts[i].innerHTML.split("\n"); let result = ""; for (let j = 0; j < lines.length; j++) {if (lines[j].length >= 80) result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + "</span>\n"; else result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + " ".repeat(80-lines[j].length) + "</span>\n";} pre_texts[i].innerHTML = result;}</script></body></html>