Community Mourns Loss of Grotian and Proscript Citizens

In an unprecedented act of cooperation, some Proscripts joined with a group of Grotian Underground members to free hundreds of Grotians who were still pending the horrific re-education process yesterday.

The entire community is mourning those losses today while also rejoicing in the fact that many of their family and friends have reached safe haven outside of the Proscription Zone.

An inside source tells us that all who made it out are "doing great."

The team members, whose names are being withheld to protect their identities, lost more than 100 Grotians as well as some Proscripts in the first wave of the plan's implementation.

Subsequent efforts were substantially more successful but came with additional loss of life.

Remaining members of the GU have asked The GG to express condolences to all of those who sustained losses, especially the Proscripts who aided this effort at considerable personal risk.

There Is More Than One Way To Lose Someone

My Robert's eyes used to glimmer like the clear blue lake where my boss has a vacation home. So bright and blue they would light up a room. I thought about that each time I was taken there to set up the house for the family's summer visit. God gifted Robert with good looks and a gentle soul, and I have been blessed to know and love him.

I saw him briefly after his "re-education." His eyes looked cold and vacant, frozen, empty. It was so shocking to see him that way. My turn was coming up and I dreaded it. Only two people were in line in front of me when the power went out. Security, not knowing what else to do, told us to go home and wait to be brought back.

Whispered rumors say that the Grotian Underground made it happen and saved many of us from torture today. Thank you GU!

Robert should have been there when I arrived. The section of tunnel between our home and the center is pretty direct but he was not here. He is still not here, and no one can tell me where he is now. Has anyone seen my husband? Please get word to me if you know anything. Please.

How can other human beings let this happen?

~Brooke Allenby

Grotians Suffer Setback As Re-Education Continues

People's Proscript Party President Garfield Jameson has just announced a continuation of re-education of Grotians in light of last weekend's escapes from centers within the Proscription Zone.

Called by an eyewitness "...a brutal an inhumane act," these procedures are being examined by staff from Freedom International (FI), which arrived on the scene this week.

Grotian Underground Activist and blogger Rosa Wells reports that in her meeting with FI spokesperson Bill White she learned that the organization is taking testimony about the murders of four Grotians who escaped from a re-education facility. Follow her blog at: http://rosawells.wordpress.com/

Here is President Jameson's announcement:

Breaking News: Freedom International To Investigate Human Rights Abuses

The GG has learned that a team from the internationally renowned organization Freedom International (FI) has arrived to investigate alleged human rights abuses by President Garfield Jameson's administration.

"FI has received hundreds of reports about the torture of citizens who spoke out for basic human rights. Extended brutal interrogation techniques, if proven to be true, will not be tolerated by the international community," said spokesperson Bill White.

"Further, FI has been told that Grotian citizens earn only minimal wages and do not have access to basic health care. All of these issues and others will be looked at carefully in the coming days."

Grotians Reflect On Weekend Searches

The weekend searches of Grotian homes in the Proscription Zone ordered by President Garfield Jameson have left Grotian hearts and personal objects broken but have renewed the peoples' desire for change. Below are some reflections on what it was like throughout our communities.

This was much worse than I’d imagined. They came in dark clothes with hoods on their heads. Shoved me aside, tore my place apart. ~ Rosa Wells

The tears will not stop. That china cup they broke was the only thing left belonging to my grandmother. It was everything to me. ~ Anonymous

My boss gave me some of his daughter's old books for my son this week. Why did they have to rip those apart? Could a Sword of Flames be hiding in there? ~ Cyrus Smith

How can I tell my children they are safe when they can't be protected in their own home? Michael didn't get up fast enough from his cot, and they yanked him up by his arm. ~ Elliot Eames

Why would I -- or any of us -- take that sword? Look at the destruction to our few possessions! We had no reason to take it. ~ Anonymous

One person benefited from the theft and one only. Admit what you have done and make this right for all people. Then you will be a true leader and someone people will respect. ~ Anonymous

No more! No more! No more! We will not tolerate this abuse any longer. We will be strong and stand together. As Rosa Wells has said so eloquently, "It is time." ~ Wilson Benson

A Personal Reflection On "Re-education"

If the Proscript Party had given me an education in something other than scrubbing floors in the beginning, then I would full understand the need for them to 'refresh' my mind.

But they didn't.

Yeah, they're good like that.

What I know about the world, the way I describe things, the words I use, the books I've read and my overwhelming sense of knowing that what's happening to me and my peers is not right, that's all me. I've gotten to where I am now, all by myself. I don't see my job as being anything to write about. Nor do I see it as any great achievement in my life, so before anyone starts going on about how helpful the party's been in that respect - just don't.

I clean up the Proscripts' messes after they've made them, safe in the knowledge that they wouldn't be alive if it weren't for my great grandfather. What a way to make a living. Wait. Stop Press. I don't make a living. If I were to be 'making a living,' I'd be paid a decent wage for what I'm doing. But I'm not. No surprises there. I've heard of places, far from here where justice and fairness are enforced by law. For all. Regardless of race, creed, colour...everyone is equal. I dream of those places at night.

We are a simple race, myself and my people. Our existence was simple and the dragons took that way from us. I'd like to say I'm angry at them for destroying our land, but it's not as if they had any control over what happened afterward. We didn't lust for power the same way the Proscripts did. We never have. We take what we're given because that's all we're likely to get now, and we have to do our best with what we have or we'll lose everything and more than that, we might lose each other.

Re-education is a joke.

I guess the reason I got out so easily is because I keep to myself. I don't talk much and just go to work each day, doing what I have to do and not asking any questions. It's all very robotic in nature, but I figure the less I stand out the better it'll be for me and my family. I don't want my parents to worry, especially. They feel guilty all the time for what I go through. I think they'd hoped that they'd have found a way out of this by now...but it's hard for them. They have to do what they can to stay safe and keep our family alive. I don't blame them.

They just sat me down and asked me a whole heap of questions. Sometimes they got angry. Sometimes they made threats. Threats against me, my mum, my dad...that sort of thing. I did what I usually do. Gave them the answers they wanted, nothing more. Nothing less. So I got out and got out alive and without any scars. No physical scars anyway.

The cries of the person in the next room probably won't leave me for a while.

Editor's Note: The writer asked that this story be published anonymously.

Woman Carrying Baby While Fleeing Accused of Theft

The GG has just learned from a source close to the woman who was killed yesterday while fleeing from a People's Proscript Party re-education center that what she carried was not the Sword of Flames but instead her infant son.

Cause of death is undetermined, but a large amount of blood observed on her chest area suggests a bullet or knife wound, according to eyewitness testimony.

"Carla Bowen did not steal the Sword of Flames. We left the re-education center together, and there's no possible way she had it then or at any time before her murder.

"Carla was wearing a cloak at the time to hide Connor, and that provided the perfect cover for the Party's scheme to pin the theft on a Grotian," the source explained.

"The Party knew that some Grotians would attempt to escape and clearly planned to pin the theft on one of them.

"Sadly, not only did this young woman and child perish but also her name is now wrongly linked to a crime she did not commit. The responsibility for this lies with PPP President Garfield Jameson" our source said.

Barry Bowen, husband of Carla and father of Connor, was too distraught to comment on this story except to ask for prayers for his family and to ask, "When will this horror end? How many have to die so that Garfield Jameson can continue to harm so many innocent lives?"