Interview with an inmate from the Marna Labor y

  Interviewer: Good afternoon, so you were in the Marna Labor y on 6/29/968.

  Inmate: Yup, I was even in the same wroup of Aleksander Meliton.

  Interviewer: I like to see yetting straight to the point. Some of the other people I’ve interviewed for this have gone on for too long. Anyways, let’s get to it.

  Inmate: Well, if you want to hear about Aleksander, I only tell you some basic stuff I noticed that day. I’m sure you’ve already heard dozens of versions of this story, but from what I saw, I khat kid would achieve what decades of failed revolts and uprisings had failed to do.

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  Part 0: Birth of a Revolutionary

  | 0:5 | Emergence of a Revolutionary |

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  Fmewind 28th, 968 (6/28/968) - Spignane and Marna - Itronemi ty - Aleksander Meliton

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  The guards brought Aleksao his feet as they dragged him towards the courtroom. He already knew what was going to happen. These courts always find the defendant guilty and ship them off to prison, or worse. He had basically resigned himself to his fate as he walked through the doors of the courtroom, a no shame ret at what he had done. So, as he came to a stop, he stared up defiantly at the judge. The judge was an older man, and he didn’t seem to care all that much as he emotionlessly read out the charges against Aleksahen, without letting Aleksander speak in his own defense, he gave out his senteen years’ hard bor.” Then he gestured at the guards to take Aleksander away, which they did. As they brought him outside, they tied a blindfold on him and put him inside a police car.

  They drove for a bit before the car stopped, and they took Aleksander out of the car before leading him onto what Aleksahought was a boat. He was a bit fused. Sihey blindfolded him, he really didn’t know what was going on. Still, they made him sit down, and he felt them handcuff him again. Since he was now in plete silence, he started thinking ba his friends and hoping that they were doier than he was.

  Specifically Kra and Anton, since he didn’t know what happeo them, but he had faith ihehought about Rodya and Njord and hoped that they could carry out the mission that they had with their ittee. On the bright side, they were pretty much immune from getting kicked out, sihey had beey vocal about not wanting to be too radical, so he wasn’t too worried.

  After about an hour or two, he couldn’t really tell. The boat came to a stop and one guard brought Aleksao his feet and led him off the boat. Theook off Aleksander’s blindfold. After letting his eyes adjust to the light, he looked around at where he was. The first thiiced was the small wooden pier he was standing on. He looked behind him and sarisoners in striped clothes were busy unloading the boat he was just on, with them carrying off crates of supplies. As he was looking, a guard poked him in the back with his baton to get him to keep moving, which he did.

  Aleksander looked at the sign in front of the entrance, which read “Marna Labor y.” The camp itself looked small, with only a couple of buildings. His eyes moved towards one which stuck out was a small brick building which Aleksander guessed was the administrative building, si looked the . The building was a rge crete building, which he assumed was where prisoners lived. There were also a couple of other buildings he saw, which he assumed were ste buildings. Finally, he saw fields off in the distah prisoners w, and he uood what kind of bor he would do here.

  The guard guided him towards the administrative building. Inside, he handed him off to anuard who took him to a doctor who did a physical examination of him. Aleksander noticed he wrote something down, but couldn’t see what it was. Then he handed Aleksander his prisoner uniform. It was a bd-white striped shirt and pants, with the most distinguishiure being the solid red circle sown onto the sleeve. He khat sighat he was here because he’s a political prisoner. Eventually, after doing a few more things whicluded taking a picture of him, the doctor had a guard take Aleksao his cell.

  The guard dropped him off at his cell before leaving. When he left, Aleksander looked around at his cell. In the er there was a bed which he noticed was shaky but also weirdly hard and that’s basically it, other than a bucket behind a wall. It wasn’t much, but it was a bor camp, so he wasn’t expeg much from the pce. He sat down on the bed a how hard it was and started thinking about what he was going to do since he had no pn at this point. As he was thinking, he heard somebody trying to get his attention from outside his cell.

  He looked up and saw a slightly older man saying. “Hey kid, you’re new here, right?”

  Aleksander was suspicious about what he could want, answered anyway. “Yes, I just got sentenced.”

  He noticed that the other prisoner was looking at the red circle on his sleeve, and then he lightened up. “Ah, a political prisoner. What did you do to get sent here?” Even though his tone was lighter, Aleksander felt like he was almost being interviewed.

  He was ho. “I fought a police officer during a riot.”

  That made the prish. “I’m Fabian Theodor. You know, I think you have some potential. Since work is over for today, e, I’ll show you around.”

  Aleksander nodded and followed him. The pair of them walked as Fabian pointed out various things around the camp, as well as expining how they do things around here. “Every m a siren’ll ring, which will signal a m roll call. Every prisoner has to be here.” He gestured at the ter of the camp, where a raised ptform was at. “The overseer will deliver whatever speech he’s going to give for the day. Then we head here.” He then stopped in front of a board. “This board shows where you’ll be w for the week and for you.” He stopped and looked at the board for a sed before tinuing. “You’ll be w with me and some of my guys outside, clearing trees and breaking rocks.”

  This perplexed Aleksander, who asked. “Why would they let us outside the camp?”

  “The gover wants to develop this area, and having prisoners do the hard work is cheaper than actually paying workers. Not that they’re even paid that well.”

  “Still, isn’t it a risk that we could escape or rebel?”

  “I meahere’s a ce, but they always have lots of guards supervising us, so it’d be suicidal to try.” Aleksander nodded as Fabian expined, since he uood.

  Finally, the pair came to a stop, and Fabian asked. “Alright, so do you uand everything?”

  “Yeah, I uand.”

  “Good, well get some rest because tomorrow you’ll have to get to work. Oh, and just mention my name if somebody tries to give you trouble.”

  “Why are y to help me?”

  Fabian smiled cryptically. “You’ll see soon. I o have people I trust.” With that, he left, leaving Aleksao sit in his cell and then drift off to sleep.

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  Fmewind 29th, 968 (6/29/968) - Marna Labor y - Itronemi ty - Aleksander Meliton

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  Early in the m, a siren rang and Aleksander headed out of his cell. Dozens of other prisoners also headed out towards the ter of the camp. As the prisathered in the ter, armed guards surrouhem. Finally, the camp administrator stepped up oform.

  He spoke. “You all have itted crimes against our empire and so you have to pay for your crimes. Under my watch, you will work until you die or your sentends. The bor you do here will redeem you and one day you will see the error of your ways. Long live the emperor!”

  The prisoners repeated the st sentence as they split up to go to their work assigs. Aleksander joihe prisoners, who were beio clear trees and rocks for infrastructure projects. As he did, the guards loaded the prisoners onto trucks with their guns pressed against their backs as the guards loaded them onto the trucks.

  As soon as Aleksander settled iruck Fabiaured at him to e by his people and Aleksander did. The group sat in silence as the truck rolled along the tryside of Marna. Thick trees lihe path that the truck was going down. Finally, the truck came to a halt, and the guards got the prisoners off the truck. As the prisoners lined up, the guards put shackles around their legs. eg them to each other in small groups. They then handed out various tools to the prisoners. Then the guards marched them to where they would be w.

  As the prisot to work, they mainly focused on clearing the ground by either breaking apart rocks in their way if the prisoners had hammers ging out the route that the road would be following. The prisot to work on it fast, although their speed wasn’t so fast on at of the shackles. Still, within an hour, they had dug out a det amount of the assigned route. As Aleksahrust his shovel into the ground, he thought about how much he hated doing this. Ten years was what he had to endure of this and holy Aleksander wasn’t very ready for it.

  As he struck the ground again, he resolved that one day he would fight back against this system, but at the moment, there was nothing he could do. So, for the few hours, he tio shovel dirt and other debris. Eventually, he basically went on autopilot as he stopped fog on the job at hand. Only for him to almost instantly realize he was falling. He dropped his shovel and used his arms to soften the fall. He looked to his right and saw other people had fallen too and quickly saw that it had started with another prisoner, who colpsed. The guards quickly took the prisoner and, after unlog his restraints, brought him back to the truck. Then they gave the prisoners a break and gave them their food.

  It was nothing too special, just a piece of bread and a pieeat so thin it was almost shog to Aleksander. Still as he sat down to eat Fabian came and joined him asking. “So how’s the work, new guy?”

  “Could be worse.”

  “Ah, tough guy, huh? Anyways, I’ve got something you might be ied in.”

  Aleksander raised an eyebrow, and Fabian tinued. “How badly would you say you want to get out of here?”

  “Depends on what I have to do.” Aleksander said, keeping his voice monotone, not wanting to give anything away.

  “Well, I’ve got a pn to get out of here. You saw how those guards have keys, right? Well, if we knock out at least one of them, we could get their keys and then escape. There’s nothing but forest around us.”

  Aleksander looked around, and he wasn’t wrong. There was nothing but forest around them. Still, it was risky. After all, he doubted the rifles the soldiers had were just for show. But it was an iing proposition. So he asked, “What do you wao do?”

  “I just need you to distrae guard. You know, get them close so one of my people take them down.”

  “Alright, but how will you make sure yuy follows up?”

  “I have my ways.”

  Aleksander went for it and said. “Sure, I might as well try something.”

  With that, the two parted ways with the guards, sooing the prisoners bato their positions and reeg their s. As the hours rolled on, Aleksander waited until it got darker and ohe sun dipped below the horizon, he khey would soourn to the camp, so he made his move. As one guard passed by him, Aleksaarted loudly coughing and doubled over, saying. “Please sir, I need help.”

  The guard came over to him. He was a young man like Aleksander, probably the same age or younger if he was being ho, and he looked at him with . “What’s wrong?”

  Aleksaalled, giving Fabian’s guy a shot, which he took as a shovel smmed into the guard’s head, causing him to fall to the ground limp. The abruptness and violence surprised Aleksander for a sed, never having seen anything like it. The prisohat hit the guard pounced on the body, quickly grabbing the key and unlocked his s. As he ran off, he threw the key to Aleksander, who unlocked his s and then gave the key to the new prisoner. As more and more prisoners bolted, Aleksander quickly tried to feel for a pulse on the guard, only to find none. For a sed, he stopped thinking about how he had essentially just killed a man, but quickly snapped out of it and grabbed the guard’s sidearm before bolting for the trees.

  Just in time too, as bullets whizzed around the area as guards emerged and started shooting the prisoners. Looking back, he saw Fabian was on the ground, but he didn’t see any visible wounds. As much as he wao go back, Aleksander knew if he did, it would be a death sentence. So he tinued on into the forest. He ran and ran until his heart felt like it would explode. As he slumped down by a tree, he finally checked the pistol he grabbed. It was ohat he had trained with during his mandatory training.

  As he drifted off to sleep, he tio repy the events of the past day in his head. He wondered if there was somethier he could’ve done. He wondered if he should’ve done something else. In the end, though, he knew he couldn’t have a do over, so instead he tried to push those thoughts away. But as he dreamed, he couldn’t and the face of the dead guard and the other prisoners who were no doubt killed also fshed through his mind.

  Then he jolted awake as he thought he heard a sound ing from the trees. He pulled out the pistol and with shaking hands he aimed it at the surrounding forest, ready to shoot anything that moved. But nothing moved, and he slowly got up, cursing his nerves.

  So he got up and started walking. He didn’t really know where he was or where the city was. Because of this, he just started walking in the opposite dire of the work site. It was a bit nerve rag as he gripped the pistol tightly as every sound could be police uards ready to capture him and bring him bato custody or arrest him. However, none of them came and instead he finally hit what he thought was the outskirts of a town. He saw it was the town of Marna. One big problem though, he was still in his prisoner’s outfit, so he would easily get arrested the sed he stepped into the town.

  He then started looking around for any clothes. After searg for a few minutes, he came across a house which had their clothes outside drying. So without a sed thought Aleksander rushed over and took the clothes he thought fit him the best. Only to hear a scream from behind him as he grabbed the clothes. He turned around and saw a young girl who shouted that there was a thief. Without taking a sed, he ran bato the forest with the clothes he stole.

  As soon as he was sure he was safe, he took off his prisoner clothes and ged into the new ones he took. They were nothing special, just standard practical work clothes with these. He was sure that he could blend into the crowd. So he finally stepped out of the forest and onto the road leading into town. The town itself was rather small and mostly had most buildings made of bricks or crete if they were newer strus. He just hoped that it was big enough that somebody arriving wouldn’t draw too much attention.

  As he went into town, he kept his head down and tried not to look at anybody, hoping that other people would do the same. Surprisingly, it worked. The only people who tried to speak to him were street vendors trying to sell him stuff. He had no mohough, so he didn’t i with them. Eventually, he found his way to the docks. He saw that the town was on a rge river. The docks also had a map, probably for people trying to buy a ticket on a boat. He saw that there was only one major road out of the city, which was an issue and a bigger issue being the road led through a few towns and then to Spignane. With a quiet sigh, he realized why the camp was having prisoners build that road and holy; he wished they had succeeded because it would’ve made trying to get out of the try easier.

  Instead, he really had no way of getting out of the city that didn’t involve a boat or travelling through the woods agaihen turowards the bain and saw that several wanted posters hung on the board. As he examihem, he noticed his face was on one of them. There was also a caption listing him among various prisoners who had escaped and killed a guard. He was in a dangerous position here, since he khat the local police were probably looking for prisoners. Still, he started thinking of a pn. Only to get interrupted by a pair of cops who were demanding papers.

  “Hey kid, we o see some papers. We've had some trouble with criminals around here.” One cop.

  “I don’t have any,” Aleksander admitted without thinking.

  “Oh, really? Then why don’t you e with us?” The other cop said as he grabbed Aleksander’s arm. Then he looked at the board and then said. “Wait, a sed-”

  Almost immediately Aleksander puhe cop, causing him to drop his grip. The rabbed his baton and swung, which Aleksander couldn’t dodge, hitting him on the shoulder. In response, Aleksander pulled out his pistol and leveled it at the cop. The cop didn’t flind instead pulled back, ready to swing again as if he didn’t think Aleksander would pull the trigger. Unfortunately, he guessed wrong as a sh out on the docks. The cop fell to the ground with a bullet to the chest.

  Aleksander froze and stared as the cop bled out. The other cop then tackled him and twisted his arms behind his back, putting handcuffs on him. Then more cops arrived and took Aleksander aretty sooook him back to the bor camp, and they pced him in indefinite solitary fi awaiting transfer further north.

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  Kesanorson 3rd, 968 (9/3/968) - Marna Labor y - Itronemi ty - Aleksander Meliton

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  After the first few weeks, he had lost track of time. Without light to give him pany and being stu basically a hole in the ground, one loses traost things. Occasionally, he heard screams from other cells as some prisoners went insane or as they snapped. Other than that, though nothing, he didn’t evehe guards who slid him his food. Instead, he saw the faces of all the people who had died because of his as. First was the prison guard. Probably just out of high school and trying to find work. Still, Aleksander caused his death. Even worse, the guard didn’t seem to be that bad, but still. Then the cop who he shot came to his mind. Although that one was more justified in his eyes, it was still the first time he took a life.

  Was it really justified for him to have taken at least two lives? This was what he grappled with for weeks as he went bad forth on the issue. On one hand, they both served an ?imperialistid authoritarian system, but did Aleksander hold the right to hold them responsible for the crimes of the system? Again he wrestled with it, but time and time again he remembered that they always had a choice.

  The guard could’ve chosen any path a was the one who worked as the guard of a bor camp. Aleksander knew from personal experiehat there were plenty of jobs open and plenty of jobs across the try. Same with the cop. He could’ve chosen not to harass Aleksander, but he assumed he was a newly arrived worker and demao see papers. Theried to haul him off. In all of those cases, Aleksander felt he was just reag and wasn’t to bme for the deaths. If anything, it was the system’s fault, the ohat put them into those positions.

  Still nothing he could do about it now. That was until one day the door to his cell swung open as a pair of guards arrived and put a bag over his head. Naturally Aleksander protested, but they didn’t speak as they dragged him to a truobody else spoke as the truck rumbled along the road until they reached what sounded like a train station. The guards herded the prisoners into a train car, which then got moving along the tracks. Several of the prisoners spoke ied tones about what was going to happen to them.

  Some said that they were bei north to be killed away from public view. Others said they were just being taken to another camp. Aleksander, for his part, didn’t specute and instead stayed sileually, he drifted off to sleep. Only to be woken up moments ter by the train ing to a screeg halt. Almost immediately, automatifire and explosions echoed outside. Then the doors to the train car opehe light nearly blinded Aleksander as somebody took off his hood.

  As soon as his eyes adjusted, he saw a man dressed in bat fatigues with a bck beret and when he focused; he asked, fused. “Anton?”

  It was him, although Aleksander didn’t know why. Anton was just as fused asking. “Aleksander, is that you?”

  He just nodded, and Anton quickly got him and the rest of the prisoners off the train. Around the train y the dead bodies of the guards and, standing at a small distance away, were more of the men is and bat fatigues. They quickly introduced themselves as the bat anization, the armed wing of the Spignanian Democratic Socialist Revolutionary Party. Then they all stopped and saluted as the st prisot off the train. They had just liberated their ander and now they could begin their war again.

  Yet at that moment, nobody khat the first domino in the Spignanian Revolution had fallen and, within a decade, revolution would spread across the nd. Aleksander would grow to bee a key figure in this struggle as from that moment on he would stantly be fighting a war with the state. Sometimes alone and sometimes with thousands of rades. However no matter the losses he would never give up fighting until the very end.