I'm sure you are... He has written a damn good story. Your questions could well be answered if you let him post. Sometimes brilliance puts too bright of a light on one's own ignorance...
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The Acts Of Julia Of Brixellum
- Thread starter Loxuru
- Start date
windar
Teller of Tales
If the policy of CF is to be "no questions allowed" then I will abide by that. But it seems to me that the purpose of having threads rather than having authors simply post complete stories as pdfs is to have open and honest discussion of the stories and issues raised by the stories. I have stayed off your threads purposely in an attempt to avoid conflict. Yet you attempt to provoke one over a comment that was not addressed to you and did not implicate you in any way. I will thank you to mind your own business. No one appointed you guardian of Loxuru's thread; he is a very intelligent person and a writer whom I greatly respect and I am sure will be happy to discuss my questions as I have been to discuss his when he has posed them on my stories.
I will not address you any further, but will wait to hear from the author. I suggest you do the same.
I will not address you any further, but will wait to hear from the author. I suggest you do the same.
Why cannot you let the author write. I was not attacking you but if you think such take it to PM. He has put much in the background that you have no right to pollute this thread starting with Alright, at the risk of being branded a troublemaker.
PM the author. As for you not liking my threads let us go to PM am not clutter this one. I do not expect a thread to reveal everything in a paragraph so I look forward to Loxuru's post and not yours. If you wish to reply PM me or go to a moderator. NOT HERE... it is not you thread...
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
A very interesting thought Lox, I'd never thought of Gestas in that way, but indeed he does have a place as the patron saint of atheists!
Not really the very first atheist, there certainly Greek, Indian and Chinese atheists BC, but the first who rejected the claims of Jesus -
and that he did so in the most extreme of situations, while suffering crucifixion himself and had nothing to lose by gambling on accepting them,
makes him something of a hero of free thought!
I'm a bit confused(as usual). Why are we saying that Gestas was an atheist? He didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah, which made him Jewish, I would presume, (or a pagan or a Buddhist (there were no Moslems at that point)) but not necessarily an atheist. Where did he say he didn't believe in God? Of course he might have been one, but I don't see that in the story.
Hang on please!
While you were debating, I was asleep. I live in a time zone hours ahead of yours, remember?
When I went to bed, I had made up my mind to answer Eul's remark.
But it is Easter Monday, a day off here on the Old Continent, and I a stayed in bed until 10 am.
I appreciate all your comments on my story very much. Be sure, I will explain it a soon as possible. But give me some time to read your comments and prepare an answer.
and even in the bit down south that's brexiting off - but not in Scotland
(pay-back time for the extra day we get to recover from Hogmanay
)
windar
Teller of Tales
Hang on please!
While you were debating, I was asleep. I live in a time zone hours ahead of yours, remember?
When I went to bed, I had made up my mind to answer Eul's remark.
But it is Easter Monday, a day off here on the Old Continent, and I a stayed in bed until 10 am.
I appreciate all your comments on my story very much. Be sure, I will explain it a soon as possible. But give me some time to read your comments and prepare an answer.
Sleeping in on a holiday? You really take liberties, my friend!
I didn't, like you I was saying that description wasn't quite correct -
whether or not he was an atheist, he was the first to reject the messianic claims attributed to Jesus.
It's hardly a fault in Lox's wonderful story, just an interesting and thought-provoking point.
I'm not a Christian in any recognisable sense, but I do take an interest in biblical scholarship,
and can assure you that no serious biblical scholar today, however sceptical, would accept that dating.
windar
Teller of Tales
I'm not sure I agree. The vast majority of the population in Israel or Palestine or whatever you wish to call that territory did not accept the messianic claims. Most hadn't heard them, but those who did did not accept them, except for a small group of followers.
I was exaggerating a bit for effect and due to the late hour, I admit -the earliest Gospel, Mark, is thought to date from 65-70, so approximately 40 years and the later ones as late as 100 or a bit later, so 70 years. None are believed to be contemporaneous to any of the events, which was really the point.
Fair enough, the Gospels tell of several, especially of the priestly class, Pharisees etc., challenging his claims.
All the same, Gestas hanging there on his cross, offered the option of entering the Kingdom of Heaven
and turning it down, does seem to me to stand out as a dramatic moment, a kind of Prometheus,
a martyr to existential free choice. Whether the story is true or not is beside the point, so far as I'm concerned,
it's a powerful one.
To me the 'truth' of the Gospels - and of the Bible as a whole - is not factual, historical (let alone biological or geological) truth,
but 'literary truth', truth to the experience of being human. If you want to know about the history of Scotland in the 11th century,
Shakespeare's Macbeth isn't a good guide. But if you want insights into human nature and motivation, Shakespeare's your man.
I read the Bible in the just the same way. And Loxuru's certainly drawn my attention to just such an insight.
All the same, Gestas hanging there on his cross, offered the option of entering the Kingdom of Heaven
and turning it down, does seem to me to stand out as a dramatic moment, a kind of Prometheus,
a martyr to existential free choice. Whether the story is true or not is beside the point, so far as I'm concerned,
it's a powerful one.
To me the 'truth' of the Gospels - and of the Bible as a whole - is not factual, historical (let alone biological or geological) truth,
but 'literary truth', truth to the experience of being human. If you want to know about the history of Scotland in the 11th century,
Shakespeare's Macbeth isn't a good guide. But if you want insights into human nature and motivation, Shakespeare's your man.
I read the Bible in the just the same way. And Loxuru's certainly drawn my attention to just such an insight.
windar
Teller of Tales
That I agree with 100%
.And just to be clear, my asking questions is not a sign that I don't like the story. In fact, quite the opposite. If I don't like a story, I don't read it. This is a thought provoking story and it provoked some thoughts. The same has happened on some stories I have been involved with ("Plantation Plight", for example) and the discussions added to the story.
Threads, at least on serious stories, should be for more than just banter. Otherwise, let's just post the stories straight to the archives...
Marcius
Tribune
Jews, Christians... Gods-denying atheists who don't worship the Caesar, the whole lot of them!
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
A very interesting thought Lox, I'd never thought of Gestas in that way, but indeed he does have a place as the patron saint of atheists!
Not really the very first atheist, there certainly Greek, Indian and Chinese atheists BC, but the first who rejected the claims of Jesus -
and that he did so in the most extreme of situations, while suffering crucifixion himself and had nothing to lose by gambling on accepting them,
makes him something of a hero of free thought!
Of course, this is right, ‘atheist’ must be seen in this particular story context, with regard to Christ’s message.
I'm a bit confused
Furthermore atheist’ as used here, is a kind of sublimation, with a link to a today’s interpretation. Windar is right, historical Gestas was probably a Jew, or a follower of another local religion, whatever. It reminds me to a quote in Jollyrei’s Solomon story (part 9), set around 900 BC :
“We’re all religious, Ben,” I said. “We have no science, so we explain everything by telling stories about gods.”
‘The Christian scholars, who only recognized their own God as the true one, would probably have called Gestas an infidel. Whatever religion Gestas worshiped, there is no record he appealed to it on the cross. He could have refused Christ’s offer, by begging for salvation to his own god, instead he challenged Christ. What made him the bad guy for the apostles. Actually, in the story, there is a relay of Julia of Brixellum's account to the 2071 interpretation by Julia Bersel. 'Atheist' is how Julia Bersel interprets the events in 2071.
The whole story is about people perceived as ‘troublemakers’, or rather, the struggle of free spirits. Julia of Brixellum, Julia Bersel, Gestas, whom, as the character fictionised by me, had learned the lesson to take care of himself instead of counting on a god, even Malachius (first unwittingly, as he decides to protect Julia of Brixellum, whose execution opens his mind, particularly when he is himself persecuted by Nero’s successors – and in the meantime got rid of Livia – and fully discovers his own free spirit while dying on his cross in Jerusalem), and to some extent, Christ too (preaching against the tendency of radicalization, but already entangled by the ambitions of some of His followers).
Why it is such a big deal, has to be judged against the social background of the time. The past is a years long conflict, which has been settled by a peace treaty that imposes a (temporary) setback of individual rights and freedoms, in order to rebuild the society and the economy. The future is a syncretic religion, wherein the ‘free spirit’ aspect of Christ will be minimized, in favour of the Mighty King, so that the powers can identify with religion. Rights and freedoms will be abolished. All faces have to look intothe same direction. No controversies or aberrant ideas anymore. No more place for free spirits.
In that society, any controversial subject would be interpreted as a conspiracy against peace. Actually, the big deal is simply about thought crimes. The Dean and the other university staff are afraid they will be held co-responsible, by Julia’s ideas, which they consider as potentially subversive (because they emphasize on free speech), and subversion is as much undesired by this society, as it was by the Romans (see Part 16). The University rather wants to serve the powers (that's what the Rector Magnificus' speech on responsability is really about) and therefore they try to censure Julia Bersel by all means. See parts 5, 7 and 13 of the story.
windar
Teller of Tales
That was a VERY enlightening answer, Loxuru, which I greatly appreciate your taking the time to write. And of course that "the whole story is about people perceived as troublemakers" gives me a certain satisfaction for some reason
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
PART 17 : AD 2051
The North Sea.
“Julia, don’t jump!”
In panic she had climbed the railing of the rear deck.
The high-speed catamaran 'Galatea' was hurrying at full speed. Anxiously, Julia looked down at the boiling, violently swirling water under her. Suddenly, the ship made a sharp turn to port, the side where she was hanging. The move made the ship list, and the violent backwash at the water line came frighteningly close to her, while she got showered by a torrent of spray thrown up along the hull. She feared she would lose her grip.
“Julia, come back! That helicopter will not…”
Galatea’s evasive action had come too late! The ship’s starboard side was simultaneously hit by two missiles, one in the cabin, the other one in the hull, just below the car deck. The explosions sounded like a huge hammer hitting an immense iron drum. The shock violently lifted the ship out of the water and Julia lost her grip. She felt the hot blast, blowing her away, but she could not remember having hit the water. She only recalled herself resurfacing, just to see that the Galatea was still moving ahead, while flames and thick black smoke emerged from the cabin and from the rear car deck door. The vessel was in a right turn and listing to starboard. The thick smoke prevented her from seeing clear what was happening on board. Suddenly, the Galatea capsized. She rolled over and sunk, bow first, while still making forward speed.
All that was left, was the black smoke, getting dispersed, over a field of wreckage. The helicopter that had fired the missiles slowly hovered forward over the site, the door gunner looking around for survivors. He fired several rounds into the wreckage field. He particularly aimed at the few life rafts, which probably had deployed automatically. Julia hoped he was not equipped with an infrared camera. After some ten minutes, the heli flew away.
Julia, swam back to the wreckage. She looked around, but apparently she was the sole survivor, since she saw no one alive. Incredible! The ship, that had departed from Rotterdam, had been crowded with maybe more than a thousand people, all evacuees. She praised herself lucky that she had not been in the overcrowded car deck, but in the cabin, just close to the exit to the rear deck. Her panic when the helicopter had approached, had saved her life. Curious, how she had survived without harm a drop from a ship moving at 80 kilometers per hour!
Julia grabbed a piece of wreckage and worked herself to the thin yellowish white line in the distance at the horizon. Three hours later, she was on the beach, crawling on her hands and knees over the hard round flint cobbles. She was exhausted, hungry, thirsty and near to hypothermia. On the run for a warlord, chased from the coast by another warlord, just to get sunk by yet another warlord, and all warlords claiming to commit atrocities in the name of God.
Since, the question of divine justification of power and violence, has kept her busy. From time to time, she clashed with authorities about it. Like it would be the case in 2071, about the Acts of Julia of Brixellum.
Actually, it could go the good way for her in that case in 2071. The accusation of theft would turn out to nothing. It was all about a monk in Santa-Maria-del-Monte, heaving early symptoms of Alzheimer. A few villain collectors had taken advantage of the poor man’s condition to acquire valuable manuscripts. But even worse, the monk had problems bringing manuscripts to their assigned place in the collections of the library. In that huge labyrinth, putting something at the wrong place was the same as hiding a needle in a haystack. Finding them again would be a sheer drudgery, but drudgery, that is what monks are made for. So, the lost manuscripts were retrieved one by one, including the one Julia Bersel had consulted.
Julia had no reason to confess theft, since the crime had never been committed.
Meanwhile, her suspension at the University had been…suspended. The Department of Education had judged that she had done nothing wrong my publishing her hypothesis in a popularizing magazine. Crucial was, that she had used a pen name, and that she had made no reference to her position at the University. The committee at the Department of Education had emphasized on the fact that Julia had published in an unrated periodical, totally uncovered by citation indexes. The paper would not count in her publication list and would be refused in the reference list in any paper submitted to a rated, peer reviewed scientifical magazine. Consequently, the contested paper would in no way contribute to Julia’s academic career, and therefore, the decision of the University to suspend her, went beyond the University’s authority. Hence, the University had no ground as a civil party in a trial, because without suspension and without theft case, there would be absolutely no ground for conviction.
For the time being, the peers of the Board of Peers, and the Dean, had to tolerate Julia as a full scale staff member of the University.
(to be continued)
The North Sea.
“Julia, don’t jump!”
In panic she had climbed the railing of the rear deck.
The high-speed catamaran 'Galatea' was hurrying at full speed. Anxiously, Julia looked down at the boiling, violently swirling water under her. Suddenly, the ship made a sharp turn to port, the side where she was hanging. The move made the ship list, and the violent backwash at the water line came frighteningly close to her, while she got showered by a torrent of spray thrown up along the hull. She feared she would lose her grip.
“Julia, come back! That helicopter will not…”
Galatea’s evasive action had come too late! The ship’s starboard side was simultaneously hit by two missiles, one in the cabin, the other one in the hull, just below the car deck. The explosions sounded like a huge hammer hitting an immense iron drum. The shock violently lifted the ship out of the water and Julia lost her grip. She felt the hot blast, blowing her away, but she could not remember having hit the water. She only recalled herself resurfacing, just to see that the Galatea was still moving ahead, while flames and thick black smoke emerged from the cabin and from the rear car deck door. The vessel was in a right turn and listing to starboard. The thick smoke prevented her from seeing clear what was happening on board. Suddenly, the Galatea capsized. She rolled over and sunk, bow first, while still making forward speed.
All that was left, was the black smoke, getting dispersed, over a field of wreckage. The helicopter that had fired the missiles slowly hovered forward over the site, the door gunner looking around for survivors. He fired several rounds into the wreckage field. He particularly aimed at the few life rafts, which probably had deployed automatically. Julia hoped he was not equipped with an infrared camera. After some ten minutes, the heli flew away.
Julia, swam back to the wreckage. She looked around, but apparently she was the sole survivor, since she saw no one alive. Incredible! The ship, that had departed from Rotterdam, had been crowded with maybe more than a thousand people, all evacuees. She praised herself lucky that she had not been in the overcrowded car deck, but in the cabin, just close to the exit to the rear deck. Her panic when the helicopter had approached, had saved her life. Curious, how she had survived without harm a drop from a ship moving at 80 kilometers per hour!
Julia grabbed a piece of wreckage and worked herself to the thin yellowish white line in the distance at the horizon. Three hours later, she was on the beach, crawling on her hands and knees over the hard round flint cobbles. She was exhausted, hungry, thirsty and near to hypothermia. On the run for a warlord, chased from the coast by another warlord, just to get sunk by yet another warlord, and all warlords claiming to commit atrocities in the name of God.
Since, the question of divine justification of power and violence, has kept her busy. From time to time, she clashed with authorities about it. Like it would be the case in 2071, about the Acts of Julia of Brixellum.
Actually, it could go the good way for her in that case in 2071. The accusation of theft would turn out to nothing. It was all about a monk in Santa-Maria-del-Monte, heaving early symptoms of Alzheimer. A few villain collectors had taken advantage of the poor man’s condition to acquire valuable manuscripts. But even worse, the monk had problems bringing manuscripts to their assigned place in the collections of the library. In that huge labyrinth, putting something at the wrong place was the same as hiding a needle in a haystack. Finding them again would be a sheer drudgery, but drudgery, that is what monks are made for. So, the lost manuscripts were retrieved one by one, including the one Julia Bersel had consulted.
Julia had no reason to confess theft, since the crime had never been committed.
Meanwhile, her suspension at the University had been…suspended. The Department of Education had judged that she had done nothing wrong my publishing her hypothesis in a popularizing magazine. Crucial was, that she had used a pen name, and that she had made no reference to her position at the University. The committee at the Department of Education had emphasized on the fact that Julia had published in an unrated periodical, totally uncovered by citation indexes. The paper would not count in her publication list and would be refused in the reference list in any paper submitted to a rated, peer reviewed scientifical magazine. Consequently, the contested paper would in no way contribute to Julia’s academic career, and therefore, the decision of the University to suspend her, went beyond the University’s authority. Hence, the University had no ground as a civil party in a trial, because without suspension and without theft case, there would be absolutely no ground for conviction.
For the time being, the peers of the Board of Peers, and the Dean, had to tolerate Julia as a full scale staff member of the University.
(to be continued)
old slave
FELIS RESPICIENS
She got away with this one.
The next will be more audacious and controversial.
Julia, you can't keep escaping danger; the question is how and when, not if, the punishment begins.
windar
Teller of Tales
We've all known people who do far more outrageous things and get away with it their entire lives.
I won't name any names, of course.
old slave
FELIS RESPICIENS
We've all known people who do far more outrageous things and get away with it their entire lives.
You've experienced a faculty committee meeting as well, have you?
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
PART 18 : AD 2073
In town.
Surreal!
Julia Bersel jumped out of the bus.
“Run! Run!”, Julia and tens of others were hurried through a labyrinth of tunnels by soldiers, fully dressed and armed for combat.
There had been troubles again the previous months. Terrorist attacks. Neither the cause nor the identity of the terrorists had been very clear. The Governments warned the people against attempts to sabotage the referendum on the new religion and to destabilize society in general. Extra security measures were declared.
The new religion had met with more opposition than The Governments had expected. The prospect of a final abolishing of rights and freedoms, which had already been suspended for long, met with a lot of opposition. The critical voices against the project were heard. People were not so eager to let themselves restricted by a religious cover up of a totalitarian state. With the referendum approaching, it looked like it would be tie. The once expected two-third majority was far away. Some powerful people got nervous.
The evening before, for the first time in many years, Julia had heard a terrifying sound : the sound of explosions, the sound of rifle and machinegun salvos, the sound of low flying jet aircraft.
The radio announced a state of emergency and a curfew. Overnight, it was announced that a coup d’état was going on against the institutions of The Governments. People were instructed to stay home. Around noon the next day, news was broadcasted that the coup was over, and the lockdown was lifted, but not the state of emergency or the curfew.
In the afternoon, Julia went to work, but the University was closed by the authorities. She kept dwelling around a while, with others, waiting for an explanation. After a while, police arrived. They ordered them to disperse, since they were violating the ban on gathering, imposed by the state of emergency. As they left the campus, everybody’s identity was registered.
In the evening, a speech by Antonio del Nero, Chairman general of The Governments was broadcasted. Accusations about the responsibility for the coup were vague (actually as vague as the claims of the terrorist attacks from the previous months). But a swift and strong purge of ‘enemies of peace, stability and prosperity’ was announced. The referendum, on the other hand, would go on as scheduled, but state of emergency was prolonged, at least until the day of the referendum, in order to keep peace and serenity during the campaign.
Afterwards, Julia phoned to Martha, her lawyer, to ask if there would be consequences for herself. Martha could not answer the question yet, but warned Julia to be careful. Particularly because from what she had heard, she had heard some people suspected The Governments to have staged the coup ‘against themselves’, in order to gain a pretext for a purge and to set fear, in the hope to win the referendum. Del Nero now could stand up as the savior of stability, and campaign for a yes at the referendum, for the sake of that stability.
Early in the morning, Julia woke up from a violent noise in her apartment. The door of her sleeping room was pushed open, and men in anthracite jump suits, wearing a police belt and a gas mask, and armed with a submachine gun, stormed inside. Julia was rudely dragged out of her bed and she had to face the wall, while her apartment was searched – actually ‘made over’.
Julia got quickly dressed, cuffed and hurriedly drawn out of her apartment block. She was driven to an assembly point nearby, where a large police bus wind blinded windows stood ready. Some thirty people were inside already. Shortly thereafter, the bus drove away. The bus drive ended into a building. One by one, the prisoners had to step out. Their cuffs were released, and then they had to run the gauntlet between soldiers with batons, driving them deeper into the building. The men had to go right, the women left. It was hectic. Soldiers yelled loudly, people cried, screamed. Those who did not advance enough or protested or showed signs of disobedience, were beaten with the batons.
Julia had to run into a long corridor. She tried to avoid to come too close to the soldiers, and to show that she would obey. Suddenly, she heard a machine gun salve from behind. There were cries of pain and terror howling through the corridor. Anxiously, she looked back.
“Run! Filthy terrorist!” a soldier her right arm with his baton. “There is nothing to look at!”
At the end of the corridor stood a queue. Julia joined it. Orders were given to the women further in the row. Along the row stood officers, men and women, in the same uniform as those who had arrested her. They were armed with an electroshock gun. The row advanced.
“Take off your shoes!” Julia was ordered.
Julia obeyed. She lifted her legs one by one and took of her shoes.
“Into the box!” She threw them into a box already full of women’s shoes, along the wall of the corridor.
In the meantime she had already noticed the purpose of the row.
“Strip! Everything!”
The women in front of her were undressing without saying a word.
“Clothes into the box! You won’t need them no more!”
Slowly moving forward with the row, Julia took off her jacket, then her blouse and her skirt and threw them into the box.
“Everything!”
“All right All..”
“Silence!”
The women in front of her had already completely undressed. Julia took off her bra and her panties and disposed them too. Shivering from embarrassment, and from the cold, she followed the shuffling rows of bare naked flesh, closing in to seek protection and a little bodily warmth from each other.
In groups of twenty, they were briefly given a cold shower. After they had dried they were given a T-shirt and a short. Finally, they were held in one of the rooms deep inside the labyrinth. They were not locked up, but they had to sit down against the wall and were not allowed to move. Sleeping bags were distributed.
“Where are we?” one of the captive women whispered.
Julia already had an idea. The showers were next to a changing room. The shirts and the shorts…
“I think we are in a football stadium!”
(to be continued)
In town.
Surreal!
Julia Bersel jumped out of the bus.
“Run! Run!”, Julia and tens of others were hurried through a labyrinth of tunnels by soldiers, fully dressed and armed for combat.
There had been troubles again the previous months. Terrorist attacks. Neither the cause nor the identity of the terrorists had been very clear. The Governments warned the people against attempts to sabotage the referendum on the new religion and to destabilize society in general. Extra security measures were declared.
The new religion had met with more opposition than The Governments had expected. The prospect of a final abolishing of rights and freedoms, which had already been suspended for long, met with a lot of opposition. The critical voices against the project were heard. People were not so eager to let themselves restricted by a religious cover up of a totalitarian state. With the referendum approaching, it looked like it would be tie. The once expected two-third majority was far away. Some powerful people got nervous.
The evening before, for the first time in many years, Julia had heard a terrifying sound : the sound of explosions, the sound of rifle and machinegun salvos, the sound of low flying jet aircraft.
The radio announced a state of emergency and a curfew. Overnight, it was announced that a coup d’état was going on against the institutions of The Governments. People were instructed to stay home. Around noon the next day, news was broadcasted that the coup was over, and the lockdown was lifted, but not the state of emergency or the curfew.
In the afternoon, Julia went to work, but the University was closed by the authorities. She kept dwelling around a while, with others, waiting for an explanation. After a while, police arrived. They ordered them to disperse, since they were violating the ban on gathering, imposed by the state of emergency. As they left the campus, everybody’s identity was registered.
In the evening, a speech by Antonio del Nero, Chairman general of The Governments was broadcasted. Accusations about the responsibility for the coup were vague (actually as vague as the claims of the terrorist attacks from the previous months). But a swift and strong purge of ‘enemies of peace, stability and prosperity’ was announced. The referendum, on the other hand, would go on as scheduled, but state of emergency was prolonged, at least until the day of the referendum, in order to keep peace and serenity during the campaign.
Afterwards, Julia phoned to Martha, her lawyer, to ask if there would be consequences for herself. Martha could not answer the question yet, but warned Julia to be careful. Particularly because from what she had heard, she had heard some people suspected The Governments to have staged the coup ‘against themselves’, in order to gain a pretext for a purge and to set fear, in the hope to win the referendum. Del Nero now could stand up as the savior of stability, and campaign for a yes at the referendum, for the sake of that stability.
Early in the morning, Julia woke up from a violent noise in her apartment. The door of her sleeping room was pushed open, and men in anthracite jump suits, wearing a police belt and a gas mask, and armed with a submachine gun, stormed inside. Julia was rudely dragged out of her bed and she had to face the wall, while her apartment was searched – actually ‘made over’.
Julia got quickly dressed, cuffed and hurriedly drawn out of her apartment block. She was driven to an assembly point nearby, where a large police bus wind blinded windows stood ready. Some thirty people were inside already. Shortly thereafter, the bus drove away. The bus drive ended into a building. One by one, the prisoners had to step out. Their cuffs were released, and then they had to run the gauntlet between soldiers with batons, driving them deeper into the building. The men had to go right, the women left. It was hectic. Soldiers yelled loudly, people cried, screamed. Those who did not advance enough or protested or showed signs of disobedience, were beaten with the batons.
Julia had to run into a long corridor. She tried to avoid to come too close to the soldiers, and to show that she would obey. Suddenly, she heard a machine gun salve from behind. There were cries of pain and terror howling through the corridor. Anxiously, she looked back.
“Run! Filthy terrorist!” a soldier her right arm with his baton. “There is nothing to look at!”
At the end of the corridor stood a queue. Julia joined it. Orders were given to the women further in the row. Along the row stood officers, men and women, in the same uniform as those who had arrested her. They were armed with an electroshock gun. The row advanced.
“Take off your shoes!” Julia was ordered.
Julia obeyed. She lifted her legs one by one and took of her shoes.
“Into the box!” She threw them into a box already full of women’s shoes, along the wall of the corridor.
In the meantime she had already noticed the purpose of the row.
“Strip! Everything!”
The women in front of her were undressing without saying a word.
“Clothes into the box! You won’t need them no more!”
Slowly moving forward with the row, Julia took off her jacket, then her blouse and her skirt and threw them into the box.
“Everything!”
“All right All..”
“Silence!”
The women in front of her had already completely undressed. Julia took off her bra and her panties and disposed them too. Shivering from embarrassment, and from the cold, she followed the shuffling rows of bare naked flesh, closing in to seek protection and a little bodily warmth from each other.
In groups of twenty, they were briefly given a cold shower. After they had dried they were given a T-shirt and a short. Finally, they were held in one of the rooms deep inside the labyrinth. They were not locked up, but they had to sit down against the wall and were not allowed to move. Sleeping bags were distributed.
“Where are we?” one of the captive women whispered.
Julia already had an idea. The showers were next to a changing room. The shirts and the shorts…
“I think we are in a football stadium!”
(to be continued)
Frightening! So many things running through my mind ....
"Antonio del Nero, Chairman general of The Governments" ... connections from Nero and ancient Rome to a totalitarian present?
Echoes of what has happened recently in Turkey?
Thoughts of a film I have seen, the name of which escapes me, set in a South American country, in which a woman is arrested and taken in a similar manner, and ends up naked with others in some kind of arena-like setting and forced to masturbate.
Sinister and dark, Lox .... exciting and stimulating writing!