Previously I introduced you to a certain distorted reality, which has become mine over the years and there is little I can do to change that. I wonder myself how I managed to survive so long and how much longer will I be able to. But I have one advantage. It’s called The Code.

This Code isn’t something I ever really gave much thought. It developed subconsciously without my input – an ingenious mechanism, that let this animal called me survive in a hostile environment. I simply adapted and now I’ll try to think about these basic rules that let me do it.

First, golden rule. Whatever happens DON’T PANIC.

It’s a pretty simple one. When you panic, you expose yourself, you stop thinking clearly. You immediately become a suspect and you are bound to do things you’ll regret.

This actually leads to some extremely funny situations and, sadly, to recklessness (but there are rules to counter this). Also it makes you feel extremely powerful. If you don’t panic and show no signs of altered behavior you can do almost anything anywhere. You can fool everyone except other Partisans (but they usually are on your side or at least indifferent). This is a very important exception, because it leads to double deception, where you want to be the one to recognize other Partisans and still be able to slip unnoticed by them.

There is one more thing to this rule. When you master the art of not panicking, you’ll want to tell stories. You’ll want to tell everyone how you stole that case of beer from right under it’s drunk owner’s nose. You’ll want to share every detail of that crazy night, when you almost got caught by the police. You’ll feel the need to impress people with things you have done.

Don’t.

Unless you are a very creative story teller, it will sound stupid, forced. And most of the people will not understand anyway. I’ll elaborate on this later.

To be continued.