Confutatis Maledictis

Issue 3

A Declaration of War

Custos was taken out of the interview and the good Doctor Jennifer Mathis had no idea why. This had never happened before. She had never witnessed one of the people that she was interviewing be snatched away from in front of her very eyes. She had heard the rumours, like everyone else, that the government was taking people, murdering them, experimenting on them. She didn't believe the rumours. They were just rumours, but where there is smoke, is there always fire? She knew better than most. She was superior to most.

Custos was stolen away by silent officers, to become a rumour, an idea. A belief. To become something less tangible. These officers were known as the Faceless because their helmet showed no evidence of a face. It was just a white screen, no eyes, no mouth, no nose, just a white screen. They looked like shadows. They didn't speak. But there were stories about them, children's stories about how they will come and snatch you away if you are a naughty boy or girl. In all truth, they weren't supposed to care about regular crimes, drugs, murder, fraud, theft, this was not the purpose of their existence. No, they existed for something else entirely.

They snatched away Custos and Doctor Mathis didn't hear anything more about him...for at least a minute. But suddenly something happened. There was a flash of light and the world shook. Walls cracked and crumbled, screams resonated in the once uniform corridors, and smoke fled to the sky.

No government building had been attacked or infiltrated since before modern memory existed. There was always this idea of peace, but it was wrong. People were afraid. They feared sin. They feared retribution. They feared reputation. They feared for their sons and daughters. They feared for their mothers and fathers. There was no trust, so they feared. This fear was peace. This peace was safety. This safety was not freedom and in this lack of freedom, friends, family, words, all became enemies.

The government had been unchallenged for many years. Now, on this beautiful day, with the sky painted the colour of rubies, with the magnificent Sun shining down in all of its blood-red glory, with a soft breeze rustling the leaves on the trees; a loud sound desperately burst out of the House of Justice followed by many other collateral sounds. It was a medley of vehicle alarms, shattering glass, falling stone, crumbling debris and the screams of men, women, children. It was a symphony of death and destruction.

There was a black pillar of smoke billowing into the sky. No one had heard the sound of an attack before, no one had even heard the sound of gunfire before. There was panic in the streets. The House of Justice was under attack. There were people evacuating the building, coughing, bloodied and dirty. They were gasping for life, their eyes watered from the dust, they barely paid attention to the gashes in their skin, their broken bones, their leaking, fragile bodies covered in catastrophe. It is no surprise no one noticed the five people who had entered the building after the explosion.

At that moment there were soldiers being called in from all over the city to come and investigate. Surveillance teams were called in to scan every piece of information that they could find on the video surveillance feeds, roads were blocked off, cars were searched and the entire city was being locked down. But this was a big city and it was always going to be difficult to find the person responsible for this, especially if they had never left the building in the first place. There were police cars arriving at the scene within minutes, not to mention the large number of police inside the building. There were police inside rushing down to the lower floors to see what had happened, there were more and more police vehicles arriving outside, there were more and more people evacuating, but there were no ambulances. Let the innocent die, just catch the guilty.

In the First House, where the glorious 'leader' sits and makes important decisions for the country with her staff, an important meeting is taking place.