Red Rock

Chapter 20: Together, Alone (Part 1)

Chapter 20 Together, Alone

There was an unhealthy buzz in the air. Almost all of the Land of O'Connor's population gathered behind the wagon full of sambu sweaters. The six police officers kept an invisible line between the anxious people and the large carriage. "We will now begin to hand out the sweaters in exchange for your marked chips!" the lead officer called. "You will hand your chip to this man in black. After he has authenticated your chip's markings, you will proceed to grab a sweater that is provided. One size fits all!" the officer stressed. The man in pure black raised his hand to the crowd to notify them that he was the person to go to for the exchange. "There are only three-hundred sweaters, if you do not receive one today, you will receive one soon!"

Grumbles came from the crowd as each of them tried to get even closer to the sambu sweatshirts. One at a time, the six officers successfully retrieved each person from the crowd producing the exchange in a satisfactory manner. There was a growing tension. The more sweaters that were given out, the more anxious the crowd seemed to get, slowly inching their way closer to the wooden cart. "Hey! Stay Back!" one of the officers yelled waving his wooden club at a portion of the crowd over the invisible line. The crowd backed up half a step before returning to their slow climb forward.

"Get back there! I was in front of you!" someone from the crowd yelled pulling the woman's shoulder who had butted in line. The woman pretended as if the issue did not concern her, making the angry man behind her yank her down to the ground by her hair. "I said 'get back!'" he yelled again.

Like a domino effect the crowd exploded into anger with people throwing fists and kicks while others took advantage of the situation and slipped their way forward. Suddenly, people from the crowd were making a run for the cart, forcing the officers to tackle the greedy members trying to break through. Soon the police were overrun, and as more of the crowd successfully grabbed a sweater, the more people decided to join the raid. "Lock it up!" The exchanger hollered, hopping in the back of the wagon, trying to kick back the intruders. Both of the wagon runners ran to the back of the cart and threw up the back door, sealing its upper lip. "Go! Go! Go!" the exchanger yelled again. The two wagon runners returned to the front of the wagon and pulled the cart as fast as they could.

"Back to the wagon!" the lead officer shouted to his colleagues, forcing them to retreat and guard the wagon from the attacking rioters. The officers were using full force to control the crowd. As soon as someone made an attempt to jump on the wagon and grab a sweater, an officer would give him a wallop with the wooden club.

"For fuck's sake!" Jacob expressed his distaste by grabbing a fistful of his hair.

Daire shook his head, watching the crowd slowly die off in pursuit of the traveling wagon. "I didn't think that would happen," he said, feeling that his distribution plan had failed. "We need more officers."

Jacob shook his head in disagreement. "We need a military is what we need. The threat of physically trained forces would be more than enough to keep these bastards at bay."

Daire had thought about making a military before, but had decided against it. "As of now we don't need one."

"We need one now more than ever!" Jacob disagreed. "Especially, now that we have a potential rival."

"Goroth is not an enemy. We are soon to be trading partners. I don't want any military tension to dissolve that. We will solve our problems by diplomacy."

"You get more with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone."

Daire looked at Jacob strangely. "Who said that?"