annihilated: vapourized was the usual word.
For a moment he was seized by a kind of hysteria. He began writing in
a hurried untidy scrawl:
theyll shoot me i don't care theyll shoot me in the back of the
neck i dont care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of
the neck i dont care down with big brother--
He sat back in his chair, slightly ashamed of himself, and laid down
the pen. The next moment he started violently. There was a knocking at the
door.
Already! He sat as still as a mouse, in the futile hope that whoever
it was might go away after a single attempt. But no, the knocking was
repeated. The worst thing of all would be to delay. His heart was thumping
like a drum, but his face, from long habit, was probably expressionless. He
got up and moved heavily towards the door.
II
As he put his hand to the door-knob Winston saw that he had left the
diary open on the table. DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER was written all over it, in
letters almost big