„Not this Ronald Miller shit again!”, groaned Alf on the next morning, as he sat in front of his laptop and watched the news from all over the world. On an Internet site, which was officially marked with a blocking note and should actually not be accessible for “good normal citizens”, he saw the commemoration ceremony of a soldier of the international GCF troops in New York, kidnapped and shot by Iranian partisans.
The video had already been shown by the official television stations, but the forbidden Internet site complemented it with some background informations and let its content appear differently, from what the media of the system wished.
The World President squeezed out some crocodile tears in front of the cameras, which rolled along his beaked nose. Then he thanked the not anymore “unknown soldier” for his fight against terrorism, for human rights and world peace.
The television report showed Ronald Millers crying widow, his newborn baby and his daughter in the kindergarten. The report about his sweet little children lasted a whole hour. The daughter told, that she liked to paint pictures with her wax mark pins, loved her hamster and finally cried for her dead father - in close up.
The World President visited her in the kindergarten, tried to look affected and explained to the kindergartner, how important it was, to go on with the war against Islamic fanatics and renegade tendencies in all regions of the world. „Those fucking media rats should mention, that the World Goverment has nuked Teheran nine years ago!”, screamed Alf furiously and banged on the table. “So they could also make some good video reports about crying children there!“ He turned around to Frank. „At that time, over one million people, women and children, were burned to ashes. The GCF just wiped them out, in order to make an example!”
„I know… “, answered Kohlhaas.
„Oh, shit! I just hate the fucking media! I would execute them all, if I had the chance!”, he spat out.
„It`s the usual propaganda“, said Frank and went into the kitchen. „Calm down, Alf! Don`t risk a heart attack...”
Bäumer still grumbled for a while and finally followed Frank. He stood before his fellow and raised the forefinger.
„Today John comes back from Minsk“, he said. „We must talk to Wilden, so that he tells us, where we can live here in the near future.”
„Living together with you? Then I will give you the prohibition to watch TV!”, answered Frank with a smile.
„Don`t make me angry, little boy!”, hissed Bäumer, grinned villainously and made some boxing movements toward his interlocutor.
The discussion with the leader of the group was short and factual. Wilden told them that they could move into another vacant house at the further end of Ivas. It was an incredible hovel, but at least, it had an old wood fired oven and the two men could even get some electricity for the barrack.
When Frank and Alf returned to their provisional home, they met a probably 45 years old man in a cord sweater, unloading some crates from a shabby, white combi-van.
With him was a beautiful young woman with long fair hair, which she had tied up to a queue. John and the woman welcomed them.
„Oh, who are you? Allow me, I´m John Thorphy!“, he introduced himself.
„Julia Wilden!”, added the blonde and smiled.
„Alfred Bäumer, we don`t know each other yet“, answered Alf.
„Eh… Frank Kohlhaas!“, said the young man.
John Thorphy had a strong English accent, which, however, clarified the question of his origin only superficially.
„We lived in your house. Thank you again. We have been freed, straight from prison“, explained Alfred.
„No problem!”, replied John and continued to unload his car.
„I`m sure that my father has organized everything correctly”, said Julia and examined Frank with an inquiring look.
„And how was it...?” Frank tried to begin a conversation.
„How was what?”, asked the young woman and stroked with her fingers through the blonde hair. Then she beheld Kohlhaas again.
“Where you have been...I mean...your trip...?”
“Nice!”, returned Julia.
„The man is… eh… John…an Englishman?“, asked Frank.
„No, and he does not like Englishmen!“, he heard from Julia. „John is an Irishman. Don`t talk with him about England or even Englishmen...”
“It was just a question“, said Frank and looked unconfidently at the young beauty.
“Okay, all questions have been answered. Now you can help us to unload the van”, said Fräulein Wilden and kept a straight face.
„No problem!”, answered Bäumer and waved Frank nearer.
In the following weeks, Frank and Alf had a lot of work to do. Necessary renovations in their new home waited for them, and furthermore, Wilden gave them some more tasks, in the name of the community. Kohlhaas became acquainted with some of the other villagers and thought that most of them could stand him - more or less. However, a few still faced him with distrust and avoided to talk to the young man. Nevertheless, the fact that he had been in a holo cell, caused a mixture of compassion and respect in many of the villagers.
Julia Wilden mostly just ignored him and didn`t seem to seek his proximity. He rarely saw her, even when he unusually often walked past Mr. Wilden`s house, although it was located in a side road.
„She looks good, but she is „Misses Important“, the daughter of the great boss…“, thought Frank sometimes. “She thinks that she is better than the rest here and she obviously doesn`t trust me very much.”
Frank was right. Julia Wilden and also the young Sven belonged to those villagers, who avoided the contact with him.
But Kohlhaas tried to understand the behavior of these people. They didn`t knew him and he had only come to this strange place, because of luck and coincidence. What should he expect now?
Prison or even liquidation would wait for them all, if he would prove himself as a blabber or a safety risk. So the fear of the unknown man wasn`t unjustified. But Alfred Bäumer and Thorsten Wilden seemed to like him. The village boss took every opportunity, to explain to him any political and historical facts. He started with world history, from the ancient cultures of the Indogermanics, over Alexander the Great, up to the present. Sometimes, however, even everything at the same time.
„They could have used Wilden for the reeducation hours in the holo cell, apart from the fact, that he preaches the converse theses. Nevertheless, he talks even more than that computer!“, said Frank to Alf once.
Bäumer admired the former entrepreneur, because of his universal knowledge about politics and history, but this time, he had to laugh about Frank`s statement. So the days, weeks and months passed in monotonousness. Often some of the villagers disappeared for a while. Occasionally, even one of the three small transport aircrafts left its hideout, in order to fly somewhere and to come back again a few days later.
The airplanes were always hidden under camouflage nets or in large, old barns. Although it was not illegal to own them, since they had been duly registered, caution was the first rule in Ivas.
In the meantime, Frank and Alf were working hard, in order to make their house more habitable. Wallpapers were procured over many detours, because there were no more shops in the periphery of many kilometers, which got such articles. At least, the most important rooms could be renovated.
Similar difficulties also appeared with the building materials, which had often to be taken from the other vacant houses, for example intact bricks to repair the leaky roof. It was a long and toilsome work, but the two men became friends along the way.
There was still only a very old wood fired oven in the biggest room of the house and both men became a bit nervous, when the thought about the coming winter of the year 2028. At the end of the month, Frank`s sleep disturbances suddenly came back. He had scary nightmares, in which the cruel light of the holo cell tortured him again, and also Mr. Madness returned.
Sometimes in these dreams, this strange man talked, an
d Frank was surprised that his voice was high and shrill. Bäumer often woke him up, when he flailed or talked while he was sleeping. It was weird. Right now, where peace had entered his life, compared to the time in „Big Eye“ even the idyl, the bad memories came back. Kohlhaas had thought, that the pain in his mind was over – but he was wrong...
One day in August, HOK stood in front of the entrance door on an early morning and asked Alf for Frank. Kohlhaas sat in the provisionally furnished kitchen and came to the door after a few minutes.
„Good morning, Frank! Please come with me, immediately!”, said HOK with a sad face.
„What`s up?”, asked Frank with an uncomfortable feeling deep inside.
„Hurry up! Just come with me!“, answered the computer specialist and spreaded a disastrous atmosphere.
Shortly afterwards, the two men went to HOK`s house and Frank hardly noticed the warm and bright autumn sun, which stroked the little village on this day. HOK ran to his untidy office and sat down in front of his computer.
„Please take a seat, Frank!”, hummed HOK. „And try to stay calm, with all, I will say to you now!”
„Tell me, what has happened?“, claimed Frank with a mixture of impatience and deep concern, because HOK`s countenance let expect nothing good.
„I have examined your old Scanchip. I meant no harm by it, but it is an order of Wilden, concerning each new person that comes into our village. It is a safety precaution. The Scanchip is examined for suspicious sub-datas and cross references. I penetrated an internal data server and studied some not public informations, which are automatically collected about every citizen in the sector „Central Europe” by authorities or secret services. These sub-datas contain many informations about a citizen`s life. Of course, the ordinary people don`t know anything about their existence. Okay, I have the skill to look for all this stuff. Let`s see...”
„Aha…”, answered Frank with a complete lack of understanding.
„An usual Scanchip has about 500 internal sub-datas and cross references, which can`t be read by the owner, because they are only for the authorities“, explained HOK hastily.
Frank`s brain was tormented again with some technical terms of the computer language, although HOK tried to explain everything understandably for the layman.
The sub-datas of each Scanchip contain a fulness of informations, for example:
- Behaviour analysis at the workplace
- State of health, for the further economic utilization
- Income
- Consument behaviour statistics
- Social compatibility
- Subversive statements at the telephone, on the internet...
- Family members and relatives
- Reactions on political propaganda and advertising
- Religious faith
- Friends and acquaintances
- Frequentcy of contacts to friends and acquaintances
- Sexual behavior
There are still hundreds of further informations and details, but I think you know, what we are talking about“, said HOK.
„And now? What`s wrong?”, asked Frank quizzically.
„Just wait!“, answered HOK. „I have to look for some special things. For example, if there is an entry like: „IOS“ (informer of the state) or „ROP” (receiver of official privileges) - what would mean, that you are an informer – or you have been it once.“
„What do you want from me? I`m no informer, man!”, screamed Frank.
„You don`t have anything to do with such things! Your old Scanchip is clean, don`t worry!“, calmed him HOK.
„This is not the problem...“, he continued. „We must be very careful and everybody in Ivas has to endure this process!”
„Then you want to establish your own little surveillance state here, isn`t it?”, gnarled Frank angrily.
„No, we do not want that!“, replied HOK and seemed to feel ashamed.
„I looked at the cross references, concerning your family members and your relatives. I'm sorry, this didn`t belong to my tasks and I must excuse myself for that“, murmured HOK sheepishly and stared at his keyboard.
„And then you pretend to fight against the World Government! Maybe these guys were also just bored, and so they decided one day, to spy out all the other people!”, grumbled Kohlhaas.
“I'm sorry! Really!” HOK tried to calm down his angry guest. „Unfortunately, I have noticed something terrible on your Scanchip: Rainer Kohlhaas is your father, right? And Martina Günther, born Kohlhaas, your sister, isn`t it?
Nico Günther your nephew…? “
„What`s up with them?“, asked Frank excitedly.
„The Scanchips of Rainer Kohlhaas and Martina Günther are shut down. Their citizen numbers will be assigned to other people in the near future...”, spoke HOK quietly.
“What?”, Frank winced.
„On the Scanchip of your father, there is an arrest note on 09.04.2028. At the beginning of June 2028, it has finally been shut down. As additive there is a footnote: “ODOA” (official deactivation by official arrangement) and further „CSO“ (citizen switched off). He has been liquidated!”, explained HOK.
„What?“, cried Frank in pain.
„It`s the same in the case of your sister. She was first arrested, and then liquidated. Your nephew…“ HOK was interrupted.
„What? What`s up with Nico?”, gasped Frank with fright in his eyes. “Tell me what...”
„He is registered here as an “orphan in national care“. So he is still alive!” The computer scientist didn`t dare to look in Frank`s direction.
But it didn`t work. The young man was speechless with terror and sank back on the chair. He struggled for air and tried to shake off the claws of horror that griped his throat and took his breath away. But it was impossible.
Within a few seconds, he fell into a black hole of despair and ran crying out of the house of the computer scientist. All the distress and the fear had returned now. They had spared him in the last months, to come back in this second in their whole, dark size.
In the next days, Frank hardly left his sleeping room. Alf tried to explain to him, that the arresting of relatives or family members was used by the system, to lure disappeared offenders out of their hideouts, to make them ring up at home, while the telehone call was bugged, or to make them even visit their old homes. But Frank just told him to back off.
Now the scary nights returned and the mental terror, the holo cell had kindled in his mind, crawled around him in the darkness, arm in arm in old unity with the new horrors. Again, the young man thought about following his parents and his sister to the netherworld, he mused about terminating his hopeless existence, but Alf stopped him from doing such things and cared for Frank as good as he could.
When September brought the autumn to Ivas, Frank was afflicted by a strange dream one night. He could no longer completely remember each detail, when he woke up again on the next morning with a bad headache, but the most pictures remained in his memory.
He was a spectator in an hall, which looked very similar to a court room. In front of him were the judge desk and the dock, and only this place was lit by a lamp. The rest of the room remained in a hazy twilight, also the seat rows of the spectators, on which Frank sat alone. In front of the dock were two persons and Frank could not exactly recognize, who it was, because he saw only their backs. Behind the judge desk was no human being, it was rather a shadow or a ghost.
“The negotiation starts!“, called the shade. „Be quiet please! Today, we talk about the following criminal case: The politics against Mr. Rainer Kohlhaas and Mrs. Martina Günther, born Kohlhaas.”
The two accused turned around and gave Frank a fearful look. It were his father and his sister. Now they turned around to the judge again, because he began with his remarks. The spectator nervously stared at the ghost and tried to decipher the name on the plate, which was on the desk in front of him. Only after an arduous staring, Frank was able to recog
nize that there was no name. The only words on the plate were “The Politics”. Now the judge read out the charges and began with the interrogation.
„I will start with you, Mr. Rainer Kohlhaas“, he said with a glowering, deep voice. „Can you remember, that you have ever cared about the important facts around me?”
„Well, I have already been concerned with you, if it had something to do with my life”, stammered Rainer Kohlhaas.
„Can you describe that more exactly?”, asked the judge.
„Thus, I watched TV and read the newspapers”, Rainer Kohlhaas tried to explain.
„And you, Mrs. Martina Günther? Did you have ever seriously worried about me?“, grumbled the shady judge with a threatening voice.
„Perhaps not enough. Only sometimes. I was too busy, most of the time. My job was full of stress and so I had other things on my mind than thinking about you…“, replied Frank`s sister sheepishly.
„And it was the same in your case, Mr. Kohlhaas?“, resented the judge angrily.
„I'm sorry, but if I`m honest, I have just worked all my life, and have primarily cared about myself. It was a constant struggle to survive and to make money. And finally, there has been no more time to think about any politics”, explained Rainer Kohlhaas ruefully.
„And you really think, that was enough? That you could just ignore me in all these years?“, hissed the ghost.
“Please forgive us, Mr. Judge! Today, we know that we have made a big mistake! But we still have watched the news on television...”, Rainer Kohlhaas tried to justify himself.
“Yes, I did the same!”, agreed Martina.
“And you think, it was sufficient, if others talked about me and you just parroted their slogans? Why didn`t you think about me for yourself?”, asked the shadow reproachfully and stared at them.
“Forgive us, Mr. Judge, but we viewed many other things in our life as more important, than caring about politics!”, lamented the two accused, full of sorrow.
Suddenly Frank appeared at another place in his dream. A disgusting stench became noticeable to him at first. It crawled over the ground right into his nostrils. He was on a great field that extended till the horizon, and only some mountains were recognizable, somewhere in the far distance. Now he saw, what covered this field. It were corpses. Hundreds, thousands, millions. They terribly stank and rotted. The grey, dead skin of the bodies was shrunken, and larvae, maggots and worms crept out of the mouths and eye sockets of the dead.
This graveyard was gigantic, it was full of men, women, children - some had died lately, others were already putrid and had become skeletons.
Frank had to be careful, trying not to slip and fall by walking on this carpet of bones and rotting flesh, because the sea of the dead seemed to be endless and it filled the plain till the horizon. The young man simply went straight ahead for some hours and he was scared of this terrible environment. But the plain still extended and was still covered with countless corpses. Then he suddenly recognized, that the mountains in front of him were gigantic piles of skulls. Millions of skulls, towering up, to create an atrocious picture. Frank walked through the land of the dead and when he already thought, that he would never find a way out of this terrible world, he suddenly heard a voice.
„Frank Kohlhaas!”, it resounded from somewhere far beyond. The dreamer went to the place, from which he had heard the voice and could soon recognize a dark spot that continued to grow, the nearer he came. Then he saw that it was the shadowy man, the eerie judge, who called him.
„I am the politics, Frank Kohlhaas! Nice going, my boy! Now you have found me! Here they are!“, said the ghost and pointed at the ground.
There lay Rainer Kohlhaas, his father, and Martina Günther, his sister. Both had been killed with a headshot and their bodies were rotting, while maggots crawled over their faces.
“Mark my words, Frank Kohlhaas! If you don`t care about politics, politics will care about you one day!”, shouted the judge.
Frank startled up and could not sleep anymore for the rest of the night...
The rest of the year 2028 passed without any changes in the life of the young man. The winter in Lithuania was really unpleasant and very cold, and there was no sign of that global warming, the international media had proclaimed in 2011, in order to justify coercive measures and further restrictions of civil rights.
Frank`s fear, his sleep disturbances and his depressions still came in waves and particularly in these dark winter months he had to suffer.
Wilden and the other villagers had given him a lot of tasks, he had to do for the community. And this was good, because it diverted him. During autumn, the fields around Ivas were harvested by the inhabitants and the yields were made winterproof, like in old times.
All this was also a new ground for Frank, since he had only eaten the cheap food of the big agrarian companies so far. Moreover, Alf and he renovated the old house, but they progressed slowly. Apart from this, the young renegade was not yet ready to join the group of rebels – if it were rebels at all.
Except for talking, Frank hadn`t noticed any considerable rebellion, although Wilden told him everything about politics, without having a break.
His daughter didn`t seem to think a great deal of him and Frank was sure that she still distrusted him too. But at least, he had aroused her compassion. „Nevertheless, ti is something!”, thought Kohlhaas.
When it was stormy outside and the ice rain pattered against the still leaky windows, when it was dark and cold, Frank felt lost. Even if Alf was in the next room, looking for some new informations on the Internet. Sometimes Kohlhaas heard him rant and sometimes Bäumer jubilated.
„Is this my life for the next decades?”, he occasionally asked himself. „Is this my fate? Hanging around in this dump in Lithuania, with this gang of so called freedom fighters?“
If he saw the face of his father and his sister in front of his inner eye, if he thought about the holo cell and about the fact, that his little nephew was raised somewhere in an institute for brainwashing, while his sister, who had never done something wrong in her life, was rotting in a mass grave, he was fuming with rage.
„Alf, what is the meaning of the symbol of the “Red Moon” groups? Please explain it to me again?“, he asked his fellow one evening.
„I already answered that question!“, remarked Alf, who wanted to go to bed.
„I want to know it - exactly!“, said Frank with a black look, which even caused some respect in Alf.
„Well, it is an old cult symbol. The “bloody moon“ or „blood-moon”. The old Celts, just as many other people of the ancient times, knew this mystical indication. In the winter, it was more important than everything else. At that time, the cattle was slaughtered in great numbers before the beginning of the snowfall on a certain full moon night. Therefore, our ancestors called this moon the “blood moon“.
Moreover, it was also a ritual for the old gods, in order to invoke their protection and assistance in the cold months. The elders cast a magic circle with blood, drank red wine, prayed and danced. Some even believed, that during this ritual not only the souls of the decedents were present, but also the spirits of the animals, which had donated their lifes to give food to the humans”, explained Alf.
„Then it was some kind of ritual for the dead?”, asked Frank then.
„This is one meaning. The other meaning is the coming war, the revenge, the bloodshed, the rage of battle. One also knows the bloody moon as a warning to the enemy. It just depends on the interpretation of the symbol. The founders of the „Red Moon” groups thought, that this sign would just look cool or interesting”, said Bäumer.
„I like the second meaning! Yes!“, hissed Frank.
Alfred looked at him with surprise, scraping with his fingers over the wooden table.
„Let us bring the blood moon upon our enemies! I will talk to Wilden. If I join your so called rebellion, I fucking want to make rebellion!“, grumbled Frank.
„We are rebels...”, returned Alf and stared at his aggressive fellow.
“I hope it! I want to take lives!”, screamed Kohlhaas and banged his fist on the table. „Revenge! Blood moon!“
Frank turned around and went to his room. He slammed the door behind himself and up to the next morning, Bäumer didn`t see him again.
Rebellion and Fresh Snow