OPEN CIVIL WAR
For six months after the vote it was an open civil war. I suppose that it was inevitable really. Half the country had wanted one thing and the other half had wanted the opposite. So there was no scope for compromise. However much the Clockwisers shouted, it was clear from the outset that the Anticlocks wouldn’t give way. They’d won and they weren’t going to listen to any Clockwise whining about the need to alter the outcome and be accommodating.
When I look back on it all, I can see now that the divisions had been there all along: young against old, rich against poor, north against south, high-fliers against downtrodden survivors, city against countryside, nationalists against internationalists. The list was endless and it all crystallised around a simple choice: inside or outside Safronika.
Everyone had an opinion but those who’d suffered badly from being part of Safronika were the most active, the most vocal. They’d had enough and they invested time in organising themselves to vote. They weren’t detached from the real world like me.
23 June: a fatal day; a moment of destiny. I blame myself for not getting involved. What had I been thinking? That politics didn’t matter? That the outcome wouldn’t change the natural order of things? That I would go on living my own insignificant life in the same old way whatever happened? I don’t know. My vote alone would have changed nothing. But the votes of everyone like me who hadn’t bothered to turn up at the polling station could have made the difference. Together we could have prevented the Anticlocks from seizing power.
Once they’d won they immediately set up their own security police who were quickly nicknamed the `Snoops’. The Snoops spent most of their time prying into what we were getting up to. Citizens’ rights began to disappear. The names of everyone who’d voted to stay in Safronika were collected and very soon the deportations began. It wasn’t long before several million people were expelled from Anticlockwise as `undesirables’. They were just rounded up and forced to board transport ships that took them beyond the frontiers of the Anticlockwise Empire to Safronika where they were welcomed with open arms. The Anticlocks didn’t want the new regime to be undermined by recalcitrant Clockwisers.
The problem arose for all of us who hadn’t voted – that was thirty per cent of the population. The authorities had to 
decide what to do with people like me. We were all placed on what was labelled the Undecided List. They hedged their bets and kept us all under surveillance until they had a better understanding of where each one of us stood.
Many quickly rallied to the regime as a means of survival. Other less malleable types rebelled simply because they didn’t like being told what to do. They were soon eliminated. Many like me though just bided our time unsure what might happen. In our hearts we much preferred Safronika but we didn’t have enough imagination to know what to do next.
Then the posters started to appear telling us to beware of strangers. That was code for everyone who didn’t fit in. Since I felt like an outsider myself, that did nothing to quell my anxiety. Once the authorities have sanctioned an open civil war, anyone who looks out of place is in trouble.
People like me were just keen to stay out of trouble, to keep away from the Snoops. It soon became clear to everyone that the Snoops were a law unto themselves and that they’d been recruited primarily for their psychopathic tendencies for violence. They liked hurting people, as many people as they could lay their hands on. They took pleasure in eliminating undesirables, in burning their houses down and generally humiliating anyone who showed any sign of sympathy for Safronika. Resistance to the Anticlockwise Empire virtually disappeared once the Snoops were given free rein. Democracy is now a thing of the past. Nobody talks about elections and legitimacy any more.
So there we are. The Clockwisers have been deported to Safronika. The Anticlocks and their attack dogs, the Snoops, rule with an iron fist and all of us on the Undecided List eke out our existence in fear and uncertainty. We have no idea what the future holds.
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