The telephones went wild with calls to the police. Gronk anticipated this and everything was redirected to a designated team. Names and addresses were noted down and passed to Pinkshirts, who conducted house visits. Formal warnings were issued, more mobile phones extracted and overhead phone wires cut.
Notices were displayed around Area Seven stating any travel needed a permit issued by the authorities. Furthermore, mobile phones, landline phones, TVs, radios, newspapers, post, two-way radios and the internet were all banned. Area Seven was going into communication blackout.
It took the Pinkshirts several weeks to enforce the order as offending devices were confiscated in methodical house-to-house searches. People were unhappy about the removal of their possessions, but the Pinkshirt force was too large to argue with and the blood from the entrapment of Area Seven was still fresh in the memory. All employment beyond the borders of Area Seven was impossible so only shop staff, other local businesses and Pinkshirts had jobs. Everybody else milled about, wondering what the future held.
Most who lived in Area Seven were already inside its borders, but those outside had to make an application to return to their families and homes. Once residency was confirmed, they were allowed back in but there was no way out. Identification papers were issued. Fuel allocation was only for official matters, so domestic vehicles remained parked. Travel permits were unobtainable. Anyone who had been caught inside the border without proof of residency were forcibly ejected.
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