DISCONTINUED

Chapter 20

The walk downtown from Garreth's neighborhood took the better part of an hour, even at a fairly brisk pace, which gave the crowd plenty of time to get good and riled up. They spilled across the full width of the street as they walked, the roads now being eerily void of traffic. They'd absorbed other groups and stragglers along the say such that when they arrived downtown the group that Garreth marched with was at least several hundred people strong. And they weren't alone.

As they got closer and closer to city hall, more groups, some larger than their own, could be seen coming from other directions. And as they made their last turn, bringing city hall into view, Garreth saw what had to be several thousand people already crammed into the narrow street in front of the building, pressed up against the fence that surrounded it. The other side of the fence was lined with militia in full riot gear.

Despite the events of the day and the seriousness of the moment Garreth allowed himself a slight, satisfied grin. What a beautiful sight! This was democracy in action. Beautiful democracy... freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest. The people had joined together in solidarity and their voices would be heard. Whatever wrongs had taken place would be righted, he was sure of it. The sound of the crowd was deafening. Garreth was excited and proud to be part of it. Julia would have loved this. This many people couldn't be ignored. Yes, power to the people!

But as Garreth wriggled his way through the crowd towards the front he began to realize that the only thing keeping the relative "peace" of this protest was the wrought iron fence separating the crowd from the militia, and even at that things appeared to be threatening to boil over.

People were stretching their arms and legs through the fence trying to reach the soldiers on the other side as they screamed obscenities at them. Some spat at them while others began to hurl coffee, rocks, their protest signs... whatever they could get their hands on, through and over top the fence. One young lady shoved her obviously dead cat through the bars, holding it up to their faces as she screamed at them.

All the while, the only response from the otherwise silent and remarkably calm militia was that of a rather unemotional message being broadcast from some temporary speakers that had been erected outside city hall which simply periodically repeated "Go back to your homes and wait for further instructions". Garreth couldn't tell if it was a recording or not.

This was an angry, angry crowd, and frankly they had every right to be. But violence wasn't the answer. This mob scene... this wasn't right. This wasn't going to solve anything. Garreth began to slowly retreat. The last thing he needed - the last thing Luna needed - was for him to get arrested.

The gentle rain that had been falling started to come down in sheets now. In the distance thunder rolled and lightning lit up the darkening sky. Temporary spotlights blazed on, illuminating the crowd and making it hard to see the militia in any amount of detail.

There was that damn announcement again! While Garreth wasn't in favor of the actions of the more violent, vocal members of the protest, he agreed with them in principle in their right to demand some answers, and he felt it irresponsible of those in power to not at least attempt to address the crowd with anything other than such a useless "canned" message.

He looked towards city hall again, hoping to see some sign of activity that might indicate that there was a chance of some meaningful dialogue taking place, but the spotlights they had trained on the crowd were blinding. As he turned to look away, something odd caught his eye.

With the surging of the mob he couldn't be certain, but it had seemed to him that four or five, maybe six people had all of a sudden just dropped. Like, simultaneously. A couple of those images had been in just the periphery of his vision, so he couldn't be sure, but as he glanced around now at where he thought he'd seen people fall he began to notice the crowd parting.

The apparent synchronicity of it had been weird, but Garreth assumed that it was just part of some organized protest. Lightning flashed. What? He squinted as he scanned the crowd. Did he just see more people fall? Similarly fall?

He started to make his way back up just a bit closer but slowed as he began to sense the tone of the crowd around him change. Was that a scream, followed by another?

Thunder rumbled and the crowd began to surge back towards him, slowly at first, somewhat hesitant and questioning.

Then there were more screams and the crowd began running past him, although most of them did so looking back over their shoulders with expressions that conveyed that they weren't entirely sure exactly what they were running from.

As a gap between the crowd and the fence began to form Garreth could see at least a half dozen forms left lying still in the street, the spotlights that illuminated their bodies casting gruesome shadows. A young man smashed into Garreth's shoulder, almost knocking them both to the ground.

"What's going on? Why is everyone running... what's all the screaming about?"

The young man yelled at Garreth as he sprinted away. "They opened fire man. Or, something. They're killing people!"

What the...? Garreth began to slowly back away as he strained his eyes, looking towards the fence. Lightning flashed, briefly making visible the line of militia that was otherwise obscured behind the glare of the spotlights. They seemed to still just be standing there. He didn't even see any weapons drawn, but he couldn't be sure.

The once angry mob was now hysterical and stampeding away from city hall, and Garreth began to run along with them. He heard a shriek somewhere just to his left and turned to see a young woman crying over a still body. Were those gunshots, or was it thunder?

He started running faster. It seemed like people were dropping all around him now, and as they did the fleeing mob would trip over them. Some bodies just stayed where they fell, either lost in the crowd or simply left for dead. Others were being frantically dragged or carried to safety by loved ones.

Someone dropped almost right in front of Garreth and he had to stop abruptly to avoid falling over the body. It was Bob, his neighbor. He saw no obvious signs of injury, so he instinctively knelt down and reached out his hand. Nothing. Bob's open but vacant eyes stared up at Garreth. Was that blood or just a puddle? Garreth couldn't tell.

He didn't know what to do. He shouldn't - he couldn't - just leave Bob here. He glanced around. The street seemed littered with bodies now. He thought of Luna. He took another look into Bob's lifeless eyes, then got up and started sprinting as fast as he could towards home.