Updates from G

Gia lives in a society where the sun doesn't exist. The citizens don't remember the last time they have seen the sun since the Barrier came down. They are under the rule of the Party, a governmental group that controls the city. But there are conspriacy theories rising as the living conditions get worse. Gia provides updates of her journey to uncover the truth along Theo.

[updates-from-g]

Welcome!

Hi there, it's Gia.

Here's my blog to give you updates about my life living in the North District within Barrier 201.

As most people in this city and everywhere else, I don't remember the last time I saw the sun because we've been living under the Barrier for a decade.

Hope these updates help you get insight into my life.

Please read in order. Thanks in advance!

Update 1

Update 2

MY MESSAGE

#updatesofmylife#lifeonnorthdistrict#barrier201#welcome#thesunisgone

0 notes

[updates-from-g]

References

Beyoncé. (2019, April 23). Freedom [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FWF9375hUA

Goodman, J. (2016). [Example image of faux skylight]. Builder. https://www.builderonline.com/products/electrical-lighting/faux-skylight-mimics-the-sun-and-clouds_o

​​P!NK. (2009, October 25). P!nk - Family Portrait (Official Video) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSjIz8oQuko

Stockcake. (n.d.). Mysterious pathway scene. [Image]. Stockcake. https://stockcake.com/i/mysterious-pathway-scene_161790_22803

Tristan Barton. (2020, March 30). Interlude - Tristan Barton [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyvNPJ5Ic-g

Hosie, J. (2024). Dimly lit hallway – An empty hallway lined with identities [Photograph]. DeviantArt. https://www.deviantart.com/jameshosie1995/art/Dimly-Lit-Hallway-An-empty-hallway-lined-with-id-1103858415

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Profile picture and background image of the blog are free stock photos from Pexels.

[updates-from-g]

MY MESSAGE

Dear citizens, 

I am Gia Heisling from the North District. 

Three months ago, Theo and I were arrested by the Party Guards for breaking into the restricted areas. 

If you’re reading this it means that my letter has made it out of this prison. 

The conspiracy theories have been hinting that there is something beyond the Barrier, something the Party hasn’t been telling us. And we managed to discover some disturbing facts about our city. 

Although this may come as a shock for many people… The Sun exists. 

It was never intoxicating or causing the cancer incidents pre-Barrier. The Party has gaslighted us the whole time into believing that our society was in the midst of an unknown crisis, when in fact they were keeping the Sun for themselves. 

The Party has built an energy generating machine that uses a large amount of solar power from the Sun and has been creating fortune out of its profit. However, we are unsure of their motive behind building this machine and where they are hiding it. 

Furthermore, deaths post-Barrier have been caused by an odorless lethal chemical that destroys numerous immune cells in people. These chemicals have been released with calculated doses so that not everyone dies, but some do.

Theo and I have been trying to escape this place for the past months but not been able to get through the security systems. 

We ask you to cooperate in searching for anything about what the Party is hiding, ways to escape, and the reason for the ongoing cancer incidents. 

For all of you who don’t remember the last time you saw the sun, we may find our way to see it again. To feel its warmth. To smile with others on a sunny day. 

So if you are seeing this we ask you to share this message and fight for your own freedom. For everyone’s freedom. And for those who have passed away through these years.  

Gia Heisling

(Beyoncé, 2019).

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Dear mother,

I am sorry if you feel betrayed for what I did. 

But I thought about it and realized that we can’t be living like this. 

You’ve shut yourself away from me since father and Albert died and I wish you would have told me. 

I heard you didn’t come look for me when I was gone, but is that true?

Is it true that you were the one who signed me up for night patrol as an exchange for getting money from the Party?

I always wondered why you were in love with the Party. 

If it weren’t for them, Father and Albert may have been alive.

Honestly, I wish you could see what I’ve seen.  

The dying nature. Starvation. Deaths. 

You said that the Party has been good to us all these years, but I think all they have given us is misery, pain, suffering. 

That’s why I’m fighting against them. 

If this message doesn’t reach you I want you to know that I’m sorry that I couldn’t make you happy and I still love you. 

Gia

(​​P!NK, 2009).

[updates-from-g]

(Tristan Barton, 2020).

[updates-from-g]

Update 2

(Hosie, 2024).

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We both walked in a narrow dimly-lit hallway. My hands were shaking in fear of getting caught by the Party Guards. Theo kept rushing forward determined to find something from this deserted building, but I started to lose hope after a few hours of searching. 

“Shouldn’t we get back? They could check on us anytime.”

He shook his head and kept moving forward. 

“My father has been dying from an unknown illness since the Barrier came down. And I refuse to believe the Sun is the problem.” 

There have been multiple cases of death post-Barrier without a clear diagnosis which has kept the conspiracies going on. Theo’s father was one of them and he hasn’t been able to accept it since his death a year ago. I follow him as I feel the silence closing in on me and I wonder what would become of us if we get caught by the Party Guards. 

Suddenly, Theo stops in front of a concrete door with a pin pad. He kneels down and shuffles through his khaki satchel from his ‘breaking-in’ instruments. While he fidgets with the pin pad, I look around the room we have stopped in. There are multiple abandoned hospital beds, electrocardiogram monitors, and ruins of ripped curtains on the floor. I tried not to notice the marks and bloodstains on the bed sheets as goosebumps formed on my arm. 

“Do you think we should really be here?”

Theo doesn’t hear me with headsets on. Before I could protest further the door creaked open. 

I was speechless by what I saw in the room. The sense of warmth, the orange blaze, but somehow I was blinded by the light. 

It was the Sun, but it wasn’t real. It was a well-replicated 3D hologram kept under a glass globe. 

I felt my heart sink deeply as I saw this hologram glow. Meanwhile, Theo starts taking pictures of the room. 

“Theo, what are you…”

I turn to face him but get caught up by the numerous codes written on the walls of the room. There were diagrams that seemed like a blueprint of a machine, but I couldn’t quite understand. Just when I was about to ask Theo the alarms went off. 

“INTRUDER DETECTED. INTRUDER DETECTED. CLOSE ALL DOORS AND SHUTTERS. PARTY GUARDS ATTEND TO BUILDING 506 IMMEDIATELY”

“Oh crap we gotta get out of here.” 

We see that the door we came through slowly close and rush towards the gap. We run through the building barely making it through the shutters coming down. I could feel my feet aching as I ran with my ruined shoes. We made it to the field when we saw a massive army of Party Guards outside the fences. I looked back to find a different exit but realized that we were trapped from every corner. I could feel my whole body freeze as I started to hyperventilate. 

I barely remember getting grabbed by the Party Guards and Theo screaming as he got strangled and electrocuted. 

[updates-from-g]

(Stockcake, n.d.).

[updates-from-g]

Update 1

(Goodman, 2016).

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Hi I'm Gia, and I don't remember the last time I saw the Sun.

In the summer of 2050, when I was 7, the Party declared that the sun had become too intoxicating and that the citizens had to be protected from its rays. The news spread across all social media and television platforms where there were increased incidents of people dying from cancer due to the toxic radiation. With the immense amount of scientific backup of the news, the whole society went into a state of panic. After a year, the Party had created a high-tech planetarium, the Barrier, that hovered over the city that replicated the sky and protected the citizens from the rays. They also declared to destroy the Sun using their own methods.

And in the winter of 2050, they succeeded.

But strangely the situation of our lives became worse and worse every year. Nature withered, food supplies decreased, and oxygen levels gradually started to become low. When conspiracies rose, the Party declared that these incidents were simply part of a transition. But there remain theories that the Party was hiding something beyond the Barrier. 

I told my mother about how Theo had told me that there was brewing an intoxicating poison in the restricted areas and that was the cause for the cancer. She stayed silent as she sipped on our daily brown colored porridge. I thought it had a nauseating taste and couldn’t get myself to put my spoon into these musty liquids. But it was the most we got living in the poorest district in the city. 

“So, what do you think?” I asked eagerly as she slurps the porridge. 

“I think it’s stupid.” She snapped. “The Party has been so good to us. And in time we will get an alternative.” 

I sigh and stick my spoon in the porridge. 

“That’s what Professor Fredrick says too. But Theo told me not to believe in his fake science.” 

My mother raised her eyebrow and sighed. 

“Don’t let this boy brainwash you with such ridiculous ideas.”

“But Theo’s not ridiculous! He’s gotten A’s in all the sciences!”

“And a high school dropout.” my mother said with a cold tone. 

She picks up her empty bowl and places it in the basin. My mother faces me with a stern look.

“Don’t you have to go on your night patrol?” 

I roll my eyes and walk off to my room. 

I sigh as I stare at the broken glass near our door to see my tattered navy uniform and unwashed frizzy hair. I open our crooked door and run across the fake evergreen grass. 

I reach the barred fences and see Theo, also wearing a ruined uniform, leaning against them. He greets me with a nod.

“So, are we breaking in tonight or not?” He asks.

“How are you so sure that they’ll be something beyond these fences?”

“There’s so many witnesses about light seeping through the Barrier. The Party says it's just a fault in the system, but I don’t believe that.”

He starts cutting through the fences and I stare at him anxiously. He finally cuts it open and walks in, but I don’t move. 

“You coming or what?”

I slowly take a few steps forward.