Liberty Lost

This notice is effective immediately.

Citizens who betray their homeland

by attempting escape to poorer,

desolate lands

shall be struck down.

First by shame,

then by bullets.

For there is no greater betrayal

and no regret worse

than what you will feel

when you realize what you left behind:

your country,

your blood,

your dignity.

Without these, a man is better off dead.

We have raised our people from birth

with great personal sacrifice,

such as that made by the servicemen of our military,

whose lives, lost in vain to the ungrateful,

have their glory stolen by deserters.

And by your own actions, not to mention.

Do not bite the hand that feeds you.

Our society has existed,

dare we say, flourished,

only when its citizens allow it to.

When a society trusts its leaders,

when people follow the rules,

a society knows true peace.

If you choose to run in an attempt to escape,

you will not live to reach desolate lands.

However, if you are lucky,

and not many will be,

you will live out your days

alone,

in a cold, dark cell

in the homeland you betrayed.

Watched by guardsmen who,

unlike you, honor their country

and bring flowers to servicemen’s widows.

Your wives will know the same fate,

though no flowers shall come,

no well-wishers to their door.

The abandoner becomes the abandoned,

in a twist of fate.

Do not act as if you were not duly warned.

Runners will be shot.

Survivors imprisoned.

No mercy given,

unless by god himself