### ### ### ### ### #### ### ### ### #### ### ### ##### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ##### ### ### ########## ### ### ########## ### ### ### ### Underground eXperts United Presents... ####### ## ## ####### # # ####### ####### ####### ## ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## #### ## ## #### # # ####### ####### ## ## ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ## ## ####### ####### # # ####### ####### ## [ Respublica ] [ By The GNN ] ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ "RESPUBLICA" by THE GNN/DualCrew-Shining/uXu The television set screamed out the latest football results. The beer in his hand was cool and strong. The sofa had, after ten years of use, finally adjusted itself to his heavy body and swallowed him like a soft cloud when he sat down. The cat slept next to him. His wife had left him several years ago. The children were gone and never called. He was alone in the apartment. The next football game was about to begin. Nothing could possibly ruin this evening, he thought and reached for the remote control on the dirty table in front of him. Then the telephone rang. "Yes?" "Is this Henry Abraham Coppel?" asked a strange happy male voice. "Yes..." Henry replied and leaned backwards, so he could see the TV from the hallway. He wondered why the guy on the other side of the line had used his middle name, but that question did not bug him for more than two seconds. The game was about to begin. He had no time for conversation. "Mr. Coppel! How nice to speak to you! My name is..." "Whatever you wanna sell, just mail it to me and I'll send it back after two days, okay? Bye." "Hold on!" Something in the voice persuaded him to not hang up. "Don't tell me you're my ex-wife's new lawyer?" "No, no," laughter, "I am from the government..." I am dead, Henry thought. They think I work for the CIA because I just watch television all day. "... and You, Mr. Coppel, are the most important man in this country at this very moment!" "Mmm?" Henry muttered and tried to move the TV to the hallway with his mind. Something had happened, someone had probably scored, and Henry just had to see who. "Could you please wait?" Henry said and rushed to the TV. Deluxe had scored. Henry screamed in joy and gulped down the beer. He hugged the cat and danced back to the phone. "Back. Now, what did you say? Something about me being the most important dude in the world?" "In this country, Mr. Coppel! In this country, Amerida! Amerida needs you to listen carefully! Amerida needs you sober and fresh! Amerida needs you to chose between the Blue Party and the Red Party!" Henry sighed. "I never vote. I'm opposed to... walking. I don't fancy standing in a cue just to feed some low-life politicians." "We know." The voice sounded understanding. "... and besides, wasn't the last day for voting yesterday?" "True." "How nice. Now listen to me, dear whoever-you-are. Today is the Day." "The... Day?" "Yes way!" "Way?" "The Day that Deluxe play against Frontlines! And I rather shit in my pants and walk to the north pole to ask Santa Claus for a piece of folded toilet paper than miss that game! So now I'll..." "Listen to me Mr. Coppel. I could have you killed in less than thirty minutes. Do as I say. Chose between the Red Party and the Blue Party. Now." Henry said nothing. His mouth remained wide open and his finger still pointed at nothing in the air. "With all due respect Sir," Henry said, "may I ask the simple but perhaps important question why?" "Of course! We are here to serve you, and you serve us by telling us who you want to be your servants! People voted yesterday, that's true! We had the greatest percent of people voting for years! Ninety-nine comma nine nine nine nine nine..." The man said 'nine' for several seconds. "... nine nine percent! Everyone voted in Amerida! Everyone rushed to the booths to fulfill the democratic way! Everyone! Except one person; you! You! We need your vote to make this country a symbol of the democratic free west! Everyone must vote!" "I see..." Henry said and wondered if his favorite color was blue or red. "Yes! There's another thing involved too..." "I'm listening." "You see, the Blue Party and the Red Party got fifty percent each. This means that your single vote will determine who the winner is. Or let me dress this situation in other words: the future of our children and our position as an economic power lies in your sweet hands, Mr. Coppel!" Henry dropped his beer. The crash woke up the cat. It yawned and stepped down from the sofa. It decided to visit its' personal bathroom. "Me?" said Henry with a weak voice, his face turned plain white. "Yes! You got five minutes to decide! We'll call you back! Bye!" Click. Henry held the phone in his hand and stared at the wall in front of him without a word. Then he shook his head and threw the phone back on hook. "Where the hell is that damn propaganda?" he muttered and began to rush through the apartment. He looked everywhere; in the trash can, under the sofa, on all shelves, in the fridge and so on. He had to find the damn propaganda. He had to form an opinion. Then he saw the propaganda. His cat were in the process of soiling it with excrements. Henry had placed the propaganda in the cat's litter box. Henry rushed to the cat, tried to kick it away but failed. He fell flat on his back. From his position on the floor, he saw the television right above his head. "This man is the judge! This man is God! This man is Henry Coppel, the one that will decide our future! Yes!" A hysterical voice declared the facts while an old ugly photo of Henry dominated the screen. "Oh no," Henry muttered, "what will mom say about this?" He did not have to wait for the answer. The telephone rang again. "... you, who cannot even take care of your old mother! You, who didn't learn how to separate right from left before the age of twenty-one! You! You are about to vote for my future! I've never heard such a load of..." Henry put down the phone and went back to the litter box. He took up two wet papers and began to read. WE ARE THE RED PARTY WE ARE THE BLUE PARTY AND AND WE LOVE YOU SINCE WE LOVE YOU SINCE YOU WILL YOU WILL VOTE FOR US! NOT VOTE FOR THE RED PARTY! The rest was just pictures of lions, deers, elephants, mice, cats, dogs and a bunch of other animals playing happily with each other. Henry cursed the lack of information and threw the papers away. He sat down in the couch and stared at the photo of himself that still occupied the television-screen. "His name is Henry Abraham Coppel, a normal citizen you would say. But Henry is far from normal. He is the man who carefully carries the whole Amerida on his back. He is the one that will decide if Amerida will turn into the Eden of Lust, Paradise on Earth, or if we will have to flush down our country down the misery drain! Yes, this is Henry. Let us all hope that Henry knows what's best for us! Let us pray!" Henry screamed. He screamed and screamed. He did never want to quit screaming. Then the telephone rang again. "Have you decided?" "Well... uh..." Henry heard his voice through the TV. "Yes!" Henry yelled. "The... the... uh...the....uh... Blue Party!" Some unknown crowd cheered and clapped their hands on the TV. Balloons wearing the Blue Party logo flew on the screen. People hugged and kissed each other before they started to cry in joy. Henry stared at the circus before he hung up. Then he sat down and waited for the football game to return. However, Henry never got the chance to see the football game. A few minutes after he had made his decision to vote for the Blue Party, two members of the fringe terrorist group No-Democracy-Please (NDP) broke into his home and assassinated him. In the end, perhaps that was the best thing that could have happened to Henry. The Blue Party later turned out to be a gang of extremists, who enjoyed to execute random parts of the population for fun and profit. The Blue Party was - of course - regarded as a menace to Amerida, and the rest of the world. But people just grumbled and muttered something when they talked about them. The real debates, those who contained screaming people and fist-fights were not at all about the Blue Party nor its members. When people wanted to get really upset, they just cursed that idiotic individual who had voted for the worthless Blue Party live on TV; Henry Abraham Coppel. People could never really agree on how he should have been punished if he had been alive. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Ostensibly a discussion about the nature of justice. But in real life just a BBS: THE STASH +46-13-READINDEXFORACHANGE \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Freedom in a cage. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- uXu #267 Underground eXperts United 1995 uXu #267 Call SOTH'S DOMAIN -> +1-401-463-8889 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------