The purges did not spare the higher levels of the Party. One of the first to fall foul of the new Supreme Leader was the Minister of Information. The Supreme Leader still harbored a grudge over a past slight from their university days. The Minister of Information had stolen away a school sweetheart, and ever since, The Supreme Leader had planned his revenge. A revenge that would only taste all the sweeter now that the Minister had created a disgustingly happy young family.

One week after the appointment of the new Leader, the secret police had forced their way into the Minister's home and spirited him and his family away to a secret facility. A kangaroo court swiftly convicted the Minister of being a traitor and Western spy, and sentenced him and his family to death (as was custom back then).

The first to hang was the Minister's daughter, a sweet little girl who had just reached her 10th birthday a month before. Still clad in her school uniform, her strawberry blonde hair done up in a cute little pony tail, the sobbing child was dragged up the stairs of the scaffold. In a well oiled motion, the executioners looped the noose around her neck, letting it drape around her shoulder. A blindfold was gently tied over her eyes. The order was given, and the trapdoor opened up. She dropped about two meters, but it wasn't enough to snap her neck.

Her slender legs kicked frantically as the noose tightened and cut off blood and oxygen circulation. The Minister and his wife could only look on in horror as their little daughter slowly strangled, her neck stretching as gravity pulled down on her struggling body. Five minutes passed before her spastic motions began to slow. Then she went limp. For a moment, she was still. Then a frantic burst of motion as her body gave one last desperate attempt at survival. Her body jerked as her legs pulled up to her chest and shot down, straining to reach for a foothold that didn't exist. Then, a faint gurgling exhalation. The girl went limp once more as urine streamed down from between her legs.

Then, all was silent, save for the anguished wailing of the Minister's wife and the creaking of the rope as the girl's corpse swung in the wind.