The Press Guardian #10
David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving
There was pandemonium in the streets. It started during the last hour before polls closed that night, but tensions had been rising all day. Now, that feared moment arrived. Cynthia Blake watched hundreds of demonstrators from the New National Dream violently disrupt polling stations and get into physical altercations with city residents who were simply trying to cast their votes. Tables were overturned, windows smashed, and ballot boxes thrown open onto the sidewalk to the sound of their cheers. Cynthia was horrified.
She tried desperately to capture the event. She took quick notes and snapped so many photographs in succession it was like a machine gun firing. As far as she could tell, the mob’s logic was upside down, but compelled them into action regardless. According to their chants and to the handful of interviews Cynthia had conducted, the New National Dream wasn’t claiming that they had won or even that they would win the capital city’s mayoral election. Instead, they were shouting at the top of their lungs that the party “deserved to win” and that the capital “needed them” in charge. “Destined for victory” was another phrase she heard several times, echoing the words of party pundits. Crime, refugees, and drugs were repeatedly cited by people she concluded didn’t actually live in the city. But her activities soon attracted the wrong kind of attention. In the middle of one interview, a burly man slapped her notepad out of her hands and she was encircled by a dozen party members hurling insults and threatening her.
“Why don’t you write the truth?!” one yelled, “Lying bitch!”
“Stupid blonde bitch!”
“Fucking traitor!”
“Cunt reporter!”
“Get out of our country!”
“Fuck you!”
“I hope you fucking die!”
“Lying whore!”
Their yelling blurred together into primitive grunts and guttural sounds. Then, a stiff pair of forearms suddenly connected with her shoulder blades and Cynthia was pushed to the pavement, scraping both her knees. In the chaos, part of her panicked. Part of her rebelled. She balled her fists and punched one of her attackers below the belt as hard as she could. The young man dropped to the ground, then curled up into a fetal position, moaning. When she stood up, she busted the lip of another.
She grabbed her yellow notepad and brushed herself off. Luckily audio was still being recorded on her phone from the interrupted interview. It was all being captured and backed up. That’s when Cynthia saw the teenager she’d struck in the face pull a knife from his waistband and walk towards her with intense hatred in his eyes. The Press Guardian, who had been forcing his way through the crowd, arrived just in time. He kicked the knife from the boy’s hand, then hit him in the nose and down he went. The other demonstrators screamed obscenities at the Press Guardian, each hoping to be the one to knock him out until they were actually face-to-face with the hero. The fights that ensued were short-lived and the group receded a few meters back. In the distance, Cynthia could see columns of riot police closing in and locking down the area. Tear gas was already beginning to saturate the air. But the party members’ loud chants still rose above the sound of police sirens and megaphones.
“We have to go now!” Perry shouted to Cynthia and pulled her to safety.
The pair slipped down a side street, then into an alley.
“They went that way! This way!” A woman yelled as a hundred footsteps thundered close behind them.
“Oh god!” Cynthia said, “They’re following us.”
The city was a maze that the Press Guardian navigated from experience. The pair ran. Perry threw smoke bombs in their wake to obscure their route. And that zigzag path weaved between old buildings, over fences, and down into the subway until it stopped at the boarded up entrance to a long, neglected utility tunnel.
“Come on!” Perry said, then put his shoulder through the door.
Cynthia could still hear the rambunctious attackers in pursuit. She saw their shadows fast approaching. They had to get out of here! The Press Guardian and Cynthia quickly barricaded the door, then continued on through the shadowy guts of this metropolis.
When they returned to the surface, the two were shaken and exhausted, but they were alive. Cynthia had a dozen missed calls from Nathan and others. For a while though, she didn’t feel like talking. Not to anyone. Neither did Perry. After the fact, every journalist they worked with blamed themselves. All their sources and research and analysis and they just never imagined how bad things would get.
At Cynthia’s apartment, she and Perry nursed their wounds and worked tirelessly on their laptops, while seasoned TV anchors announced the election results.
“… a tight race tonight and we definitely saw a lot of enthusiasm for the New National Dream’s candidate for mayor, Douglas Yov, but it looks like the Social Democrats have hung on in the capital! We’ve just got confirmation that the New National Dream picked up three seats on the city council, but Amtilica’s incumbent mayor, the Social Democrat Emmanuel Mitter, has won tonight! But in Yahel City, the Center Conservative Party has come up short. You heard it hear first. We’re just getting word that the New National Dream, the party of President Krebtz, has won in the country’s financial center, but lost in capital. Now, we’re joined in the studio by News Prime chief political analyst George Tyrut for his reaction. George, you were in Yahel this afternoon, what are you seeing in the exit polls that would explain the upsurge in support for the…”
After Unrest, Much Needed Election Security Law Introduced in Parliament
Andrew Andrewson | The National City Bulletin
Last night, Yaharza’s two largest cities watched their local elections turn into a shameful disaster. With no respect for law and order, dangerous left-wing radicals clashed with supporters of the New National Dream as they were peacefully marching to city hall. And while our brave first responders prevented the situation from escalating further, the disruptions offended many civic-minded Yaharzans. But at a press conference this morning, a spokesman for the president offered new solutions instead of just empty promises, “Everyone can agree that we need orderly elections in this country, not activist violence! That’s why President Krebtz is proposing that Special Office should take charge of election security from now on. We can not and will not allow these political provocations to go unanswered!” CONTINUED ON PAGE A2
