Always Watching

Haggrith sat calmly in her makeshift hut, brewing a medicinal tea for her ill husband, whom had recently contracted some debilitating ailment. Unable to take him to the nearest medical facility for reasons obvious, she tried various holistic treatments she had accumulated over many years of seclusion with her coven in the woodlands of Kielder, Northumberland.

The seclusion was a gift, being that after world war II, the country took a steady turn of dictatorship and absolutism in their belief of their government, supplemented with drugs and other mass-produced products that kept the proletariat in order, and even then the luxuries were scarce.

That’s when she heard an unusual sound, a mechanical roar broke through the underbrush, and almost simultaneously, witches from the other huts peeked out meekly, fearful and knowing.

A large vehicle that one could describe as a hybrid of a tank and a truck broke through the forest and into the witches’ opening in the forest, presently rolling over patches that grew rare herbs without remorse. It’s cannon pointed forward as it crushed anything beneath, and it stopped just a little way out of the centre the huts. following the tank-like vehicle was a truck used for ferrying people and a rather-expensive looking car.

The coven looked on, and a grim reality began to settle, they knew what was going to happen.

A well-dressed officer stepped from the car, completely in black aside from the white shirt beneath his suit, medals and insignia. with a trio of battle-dressed soldiers emerging from the truck. All of them were armed. The former had a pistol at his hip whilst the soldiers wielded submachine guns, held idly as they approached, each soldier flanking the officer in a triangular fashion.

“Comrades, present yourselves” The well-dressed man commanded in a loud, well spoken voice, and those able to move quickly stood outside, as if at some military boot camp. He stood upright, his face placid and calm, his thoughts indiscernible. had his hand placed on his right hip, where his pistol was obvious, and stood there looking like a teapot without a spout and the man continued.

“The Party wishes to aid you, many of you are ill, sick and…” His voice trailed off, as he preambleed amongst the witches, scrutinizing them and inspecting the decrepit teeth of the witches, before continuing “in need of dental treatment… Please leave all your belongings here, and we will escort you to Edinburgh for aid”

The witches had little to no choice but to submit. If they protested, they would likely be shot, and their homes destroyed, so noncompliance wasn’t an option, and they were guided one-by-one towards the truck the soldiers emerged from, until there was nobody else left in the settlement. They all found themselves sitting across from each other, stooped as they sat. More people boarded, including Haggrith’s husband with the aid of a soldier. All the meanwhile the remaining two soldiers scoured their abodes with their keen eyes.

Once the soldiers had secured the area, the officer’s car and the truck, with soldiers sitting on the rear end, near the door, their suspicious eyes riddling all within with a sense of paranoia. Took off to the north, where they were to never be seen again, a stench of acrid air and smoke was visible as they departed, likely the tank-like vehicle burning the place down to oblivion as if they’d never existed at all.

“I suppose it’s true…” Haggrith thought, as did most of the witches looking across at each other did. 

“Big Brother is always watching.”