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7. TAKE NOTICE. If there is a death in your family and your family
has accepted ration cards and that death is concealed, all ration cards for
the immediate family will be permanently confiscated except for those for children under the age of eleven, but said children will then be moved to the refugee center. If you are not a permanent resident of the community, you and all immediate family will be expelled except for children under the age of eleven.
That bothered him, the last sentence. It was still the defining of a different class within the community. Makala was standing beside him, reading the notice board, and he wondered how she felt about it.
8. NEWS! It is reported by one of our residents who has reached us
after walking from Greensboro that there is an operating shortwave ra-
dio in Morganton. The resident claims to have heard a broadcast from
the BBC in London. The British government has declared solidarity
with America and even now is mobilizing massive relief aid. Long Live
Our Allies of Old and of Today!
John smiled at that. And if true, it could mean that perhaps, just perhaps, communications gear was on the way to help reestablish links. The downside ... why only Great Britain?
9. WAR NEWS! This same resident reports that the attack is now be-
lieved to have been three missiles, fired from a containership in the Gulf
of Mexico. Our forces overseas are engaged in heavy combat in Iraq,
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Korea. There is progress on all fronts.
Responsibility for the attack rests upon an alliance of forces in the Middle
East and North Korea. Reports now confirm that a weapon similar to
the ones that struck the United States has also been detonated over the
western Pacific, creating the same widespread outages in Japan, South
Korea, and Taiwan. A similar missile is also reported to have been deto-
nated over Eastern Europe.
It is reported as well that the federal government, even now, is organizing the distribution of radios, which shall originate out of a stockpile kept in a secret reserve. Communications are soon to be reestablished with central authorities.
10. All announcements placed upon this board are official and in force from the time of placement. Claiming of ignorance of said laws shall not be accepted as an excuse for non-compliance.
Signed,
Charles Fuller
Director of Public Safety
WE SHALL WIN THROUGH TO ULTIMATE VICTORY. GOD BLESS AND PRESERVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
John turned away from the board and looked at Makala. "What are you thinking?" he asked.
"Feel like I'm in a bad movie or novel," she sighed. " 'Long Live the King,' or 'Long Live Our Glorious Leader,' or something like that should be on the board."
"We are nowhere near that yet," John said coldly.
"Might as well warn you now, I'm one of those old-style liberals who used to see conspiracies behind everything the right wing did." He looked at her and saw a trace of a smile.
"I used to feel the same about the left," and now it was his turn to smile. "Seems absurd now."
"Still, to go from where we were three weeks ago to this, it's impossible to grasp."
They walked back to the Edsel. He noticed that the parking area around the police station had been cleared of all the newer and now-useless cars. There was a row of half a dozen VW Bugs, "Courtesy of Jim Bartlett" stenciled on the side of each with an old-fashioned peace sign added in. That must really rankle Tom, John thought. Two old Jeeps, one of them the antique World War II jeep with a white star stenciled on the hood, an assortment of cars from the fifties and sixties, a few from the seventies, the years that Detroit really started to turn out junk, which didn't survive as well as the older ones. A number of older motorcycles and mopeds as well.
To his surprise a couple of horses were tethered