World Gone Wrong Pt 5

PART 5


Throughout the city there were clashes between between the police, National Guard, who had been called in a few hours after the protests began, and groups of pirates, literature professors, juvenile delinquents, Jehovah's Witnesses, motorcycle gangs, the ACLU, and the Crypts and Bloods. All of these groups had united against what they perceived to be a fascist regime that ruled the city and controlled the military and police force. There was also a fare share of peaceful protests and sit-ins but the media didn't pay any attention to this because blood lust equaled ratings.

Phoenix and Ron wandered the streets stopping everyone they knew hoping for some kind of news on the whereabouts of Louise but everyone ignored Phoenix's questions because there was something going on that far outweighed the location of a woman and a talking Rooster.

The duo crossed through John Ellis (Jeb) Bush Park and found themselves in the midst of a large mass of people moving towards City Hall which was on two blocks north of the park. Ron, tired of all the people and the chaos moved to the edge of the moving bodies and stepped into a doorway where he found his friend Red.

Red, a physicist, had been in a car accident a couple of years ago and had lost his legs. When he had his legs he stood 7 ' 2” and was all muscle. He friends gave him the nickname Red after a redwood tree. After his accident he designed and built himself a cart that has the plush interior of a Cadillac and is powered by an electric motor that is capable of going fifty miles an hour.

“What the hell is going on? Where are all these people headed?” Ron asked Red.

“A mass execution.”

“What?”

“The Mayor had the cops start arresting and hanging people.”

“How in the hell can he do that?”

“Declared Marshall Law, then got the bodies swinging.”

After the crowd thinned out, Red and Ron, headed down to the execution site. Ron figured that Phoenix followed the crowd, hoping to see Louise, and that he'd probably run into him there.

When they arrived they found people carrying signs and signing songs at the back of the crowd. Ron left Red with a group singing “We Shall Overcome” and moved through the pacifists to where the more aggro-protesters had stacked their claim. Ron sees that these people are armed and are ready for a bloodletting revolution.

Ron was near enough now to see the ropes still tied to the trees that lined City Hall. The bodies had been taken down, and due to the inefficiency of hanging, Guardsman began shooting men and women of all races and sizes as they were brought before them. A barricade of barbed wire and armored vehicles separated the protesters from the action.

Fifteen rifles shots rang out and a four Molotov cocktails sailed over the lines and exploded setting the green lawn ablaze. Before anyone could react six more went sailing from about fifty feet to the left of where the first had come from. Without even taking the time to find what the reaction would be, Ron turned to run but could get very far because others had the same idea. He only made it three rows back before his forward progress is halted and he felt the surge of bodies pushing from behind.

Shots were fired into the crowd and Ron's ears fill with the screams, his nose the smell of smoke. Explosions start going off behind him, from the city hall area and Ron knows that the Revolutionaries have brought out the big weapons. He found a crease in the people and pushed his way through them and out, when he reached the edge of the crowd, some still fleeing but others pushing forward, towards City Hall, he turned to bare witness but can't make sense of the chaos through the smoke, so he started running again, toward Pistol Pete's apartment.

Ron found Phoenix and Pistol Pete stoned, sitting in front of the TV watching the city wide riots via Channel 10's Eye In The Sky brought to you by reporter Archie Sunflower and his fearless pilot Max Braun.

“Were you out in this chaos?” Pete asked Ron after he sat down in a chair next to Phoenix.

“Yeah, I was down at City Hall for the executions and then the crowed started attacking the cops and National Guard and I got the hell out of there.”

“That's smart. City Hall's on fire. The fire department can't get through.” Phoenix added.

“Any news about Louise?” Ron asked Phoenix.

“Nothing.” He responded glumly.

The three men watched most of the city burn and be destroyed. Ron wandered if his apart was still there, Phoenix wandered where Louise might be, Pete tired not to cry when he saw images of dead bodies lying in the park where he played as a child, and Archie Sunflower knew that his coverage would certainly get him a Peabody. Max Braun just kept thinking, why are people so damn stupid.