So the new law has been passed and it starts in less than 12 hours, the announcement came over the entire country's TV stations interrupting peoples favourite TV shows and saving those suffering the drama of soap opera (seriously, there were sighs of relief throughout the country!) The new law being the annual purge.
Many are in absolute shock and fear while others are already prepared for it (we suspect these are the same people anticipating a zombie apocalypse.) It was announced that from 7PM tomorrow evening for 12 hours the punishment for killing another person will be dropped, with emergency services suspended. With only two rules in place, the people you really should consider killing (government officials) are not to be harmed (damn!).... and you can only use weapons below class 4 (sorry put your flamethrowers and bazookas back in their pretty ribbon wrapped boxes.)
The announcement came unexpectedly across the country at 2PM today giving the citizens only 5 gut wrenching hours to find safety or 'big up' for what is already expected to be a merciless night.
And with so little time and no money citizens retaliated by demanding more time and more protection. (some are reconsidering their political vote on the leader of their country with tissues for their self pitying tears)
Today, I have accepted my fate, as a lowly human being not rich enough to run and hide from the purgers. And to stubborn to out right admit defeat and neck a bottle of drugs. My plan is not to simply survive the purge but more to indulge in the kick of adrenaline as time ticks closer to the the hour of survival of the luckiest.
…
It is now 8PM, frankly I'm surprised I lasted an hour, this year has been a hectic one for me, I know at least four people want my head on a stick and my ass on a plate. I haven't been home, I am out with the dog in a cornfield..I have an assault rifle (a class 4 weapon but what good are rules if you are dead anyway?) My husband did not die at war without leaving me something to protect me in his absence. (I still don't know how he got it)
I have been lying low, the moon tonight is hidden by clouds. I have witnessed six deaths already, this cornfield is popular for families with kids, the noise attracts the purgers, but they are following the deafening wails of children to young to understand why their parents drag them through the field at night. They aren't hunting me or my dog. And if I move quietly during the noise of the others we go unnoticed. Always moving away from the sounds of people, and further into the countryside.
12AM
I'm still going, I was found by a group of masked 'hunters,' they seemed ridiculously young, one of them had a potato peeler, the other two had kitchen knives, all of them were stained in blood. The smallest lunged for my dog while the other two slashed at me, I had to defend myself and my dog. They are no more, I managed to glimpse their faces, one of them managed to gasp out 'our parents...murdered.' before her head dropped back to the ground. I took her mask, it was cracked as though they had struggled at some point in the night, maybe they got it from their last kill, but it will serve as a reminder to me of what I have done, and behind its sinister looking smile, I will remain guilty until I die.
3:45AM
I am no longer in the field, I have entered into a house, dark as the nightmares that are sure to follow if I survive this night, I almost trip over something on the floor, it didn't take much to come to terms with the fact that it was a body. The dog takes the lead and I follow him carefully, in the living room, TV static lights the room, I see on the sofa two more bodies, one with a knife through the skull, the other a bullet wound, I look over their bodies, they died holding hands, and the woman had the other resting on her pregnant belly.
I quietly find the kitchen and risk running the tap for water, fill a bowl for the dog while im at it. Together we drink, but we can sense one anothers unease. We have already outstayed our welcome. I look to the back door, wide open, the garden beyond baren and intimidating, was I imaging that I was being observed from outside? I looked to the dog, he showed no sign of alarm. So far his signals have kept me alive, his tail would curl up and his hackles would rise at something bad. I clicked my fingers for him to follow me back the way we came. Eyes always seeking the unknown.
6:23AM
Just a short while to go, an hour after leaving the house I was attacked, the empty streets became to comfortable, and I dropped my guard for only a few seconds, from behind I was shot in the leg, the person responsible had no mask on, but covered their face with a scarf. I turned to shoot and killed them dead, but they were not alone, My dog growled and lunged at the same time the attacker did, he slammed the dagger into the side of my dog throwing him into me to knock the weapon from my grasp, I forgot about the pain in my leg, because the pain of losing my companion overwhelmed me.
The attacker laughed down at me, most of their face clear as day not at all someone I recognised. They kicked the rifle from reach and dragged me across the ground with my dog bleeding and panting on my chest. I was thrown into a van, locked in chains alongside four other victims that looked fearful and traumatised, my dog was thrown in the middle carelessly, it took me a minute to take in what I saw, another dying dog, a dead child, a severed man's head and something else that I couldn't quite see.
I struggled against the restraints, 'Where are you taking us?' I screamed.
The man looked up revealing a deep slash down the side of his hairline. 'To a secret laboratory ran by the government where we specialise in creating assassins of the purge. We will take your grief and your weaknesses and turn you into cold blooded killers, so each year you can be released to decrease the human population, before we recall you to do it again year after year.' He smiled like he was a hero. But my eyes returned back to my companion, I could just make out the shallow rise and fall of his chest as his life drained away, and I couldn't comfort him.
'Let me go,' I gasped, 'My dog, my dog!' I struggled as tears fell freely down my unmasked face.
'Congratulations, you survived the purge. Sorry about your dog, but at least you get to keep the mask for next year.' The man chuckled and then slammed the door of the van shut.
'He said we will be contained in cells for the rest of our lives to serve them.' A woman mumbled.
I looked at my dog... his body now still... I puked, and inside I died.
7AM never came. I will forever be trapped in the purge.
