Remember, Remember
FlashNano 2019, Day 5
How could it happen? Nobody knew. It shouldn’t have been possible, not in this age of enhanced security. But it did.
Five years ago.
Five years ago, the world went down in flames, almost literally, when the Houses of Parliament were blown up. The Parliament had been in session, with almost the full government attending, as Brexit was being discussed. Survivors were but a handful.
London was thrown into chaos. Fire squads fought the fires for hours. Rubble from centenary stones was pushed into the Thames to make room for rescue vehicles and crews. Initially, after the shock, voluntaries helped as much as they could. Londoners were reminded of the Blitz Days and they carried on, stiff upper lip as expected. Sobs were left for indoors.
What came next was perhaps unexpected. The provisional Government claimed exceptional powers and started an inquiry on the bombing. It was decreed secret. The media tried to pry, but all they got were wild rumours about Brexit and Remain extremists, some new IRA scission and even an alleged Scottish independence group.
Meanwhile, the New Government started taking extreme measures, always for the good of the people. First came the curfew. Then the tax raises. Then arming the police until they were indistinguishable from the army.
Of course, there were protests all along.
They brought more fires. And dead people. And even more severe measures.
Then came the universal cameras. The free media prohibition. The compulsory phones. The control chips in the phones. The purges. The rationing.
The inquiry was apparently forgotten somewhere along the way. The public never heard about any kind of result.
The New Government changed several times, but it remained the same.
A Fascist state.
It all started five years ago. And yes, on a Fifth of November. Was that what the bomber intended?
We still wonder.
This is my flash for Day 5 of FlashNano 2019, (idea by Nancy Stohlman). The prompt for today was “Write a story that took place 5 years ago.” I freely admit I rushed this one: at first I couldn’t come up with an idea I liked, and when one presented itself it was a day late. I always liked the rhyme in the first line of Guy Fawkes poem… It was fun to twist the ideas in V for Vendetta (the comic, not the movie).
