Day Dreamers Diary
Defenceless, Helpless and Alone
By:
Stan Marknet
Copyright ©2011, Stan Marknet.
It started like the films but that was the only thing that was similar everything else had to be learned from scratch and in a hurry because that was the only way to survive. I was at work when it hit but at that time we didn’t really realise what was happening. I was sitting in my office with my two co-workers and my boss as I did every day. We were all doing our everyday activities which I won’t go into any details about because after the events of that day they became irrelevant. It started out as a couple of barely heard screams from somewhere off in the distance. So inaudible that you would think it was the wind playing tricks on you except that there wasn’t any wind on that ominous day.
At about eleven a.m. one of the people of another department ran into our office and said in a breathless voice, “There is a riot outside,” and quickly moved on to tell the next office the same message. Even though it was a short message we all understood what it meant as it happened from time to time but never this close but we didn’t realise it was a riot unlike anything we could have prepared for.
“What do you think it’s about this time?” asked Beth. Beth was short lady with shoulder length black hair that was naturally curly but she went to extreme lengths to straighten. She was neither thin nor fat but tried to keep in shape by going to the gym.
“Don’t know, I haven’t heard of anything that would cause them to riot here,” replied my boss John. He was of Chinese decent but was born in the country and couldn’t actually speak any language other than English. As one would think he wasn’t tall but not as short as Beth but a well-built man who also attended gym on a regular basis.
“Do they ever need a reason to riot?” I asked looking around the office thinking that it was a sad fact that in our lives something like this leads to a debate rather than a panic and I wondered how people in other countries would handle this situation but gave up that thought quickly knowing I would never know. “I guess it means I can’t go out front for a smoke,” I commented and frowned. I unlike the two of them did not attend a gym or prescribe to the whole ‘my body is a temple’ thing because I preferred to think of my body as an amusement park when at the end of my life I could think, “that was one hell of a ride you ole beast you,” and not think, “why I worked out and kept fit so why?”
“Do you think they will come in here?” asked the fourth member of our team. Richard rarely spoke to us and I didn’t really get along well with him on a personal level so I didn’t really know much about him other than work related stuff and that he was married and had a kid.
“Let’s go have a look,” replied John as he stood up from his desk.
“Does this mean we can go home early boss?” I asked sarcastically while standing up to indulge my curiosity.
“You wish,” he replied with a smile.
At this time I finally noticed the screams from outside which caused me to move to the window but this was not to see what was happening as this window faced the car park and had no view of the roads outside. When I looked out the window I saw people rushing from both the building I was in that the other building across the parking lot. Some were heading to their cars while others were rushing to the fence to see what was happening outside and yet others were rushing around but not going anywhere in a shear blind panic.
“This isn’t looking good people,” I said without turning around.
“What is it?” asked Beth.
“Look for yourself and decide for yourself,” I replied turning away from the open window and taking a couple steps back to allow space for the others to see what was going on and to keep an eye on the door. There is little that is good about living in a city with a high crime rate but the one thing any person who has lived here for a long time has developed which is helpful in a time like this is a healthy dose of paranoia at this time I noticed that Richard was no longer in the office with us.
“The rioters must be a lot closer and more violent than we thought” said John after a moment of looking out of the window.
“What are we going to do?” asked Beth as she walked passed me towards the door. There was a hint of panic in her voice and body language but she was keeping it together.
“Well the first thing we aren’t going to do is panic and the first thing we should do is,” I started to say but was interrupted by Richard running back into the office.
“They are right outside in the street and are attacking each other,” he said out of breath and with an expression of panic. He started making his way to his table.
“Do you know if there are any around the back entrance?” asked John stepping in from my side.
“It doesn’t look like it,” Richard replied while picking up his keys from his desk.
“But who is it and why are they rioting?” asked Beth who had now visibly tensed up.
“I don’t know but it’s different to what it normally is,” replied Richard turning away from his desk and towards the door.
“How so and have they locked they front gate?” I asked still watching the door.
“Yes the security guards managed to lock the gates in time but I don’t think that it will keep them out with the way that they are reacting,” he said while edging his way closer to the door.
“Before we rush anywhere let’s try find out the extent of the riot,” said John in a reassuring voice while he moved towards his table. When he reached it he turned on the radio.
“Be warned that there is a violent outbreak in the city at the moment where people seem to have lost their minds and are attacking everyone else even relatives and or friends. The official police statement asks people to avoid any large crowds and stay indoors until they are able to contain the situation but sources inside the police force have told us that they do not have enough people to contain all outbreaks of violence as it is occurring all over the city,” a male voice said from the radio.
“Did I miss something?” I asked confused.
“What do you mean?” asked Beth.
“I didn’t hear of anything that would cause a mass outbreak like this. Even the xenophobic riots a couple years back didn’t happen this fast or on this scale,” I replied.
“I think we all missed it then,” replied john who seemed a little introspective at that time. He was probably worrying about his wife and kids.
“What are we going to do by the sounds of things the cops won’t be able to help us anytime soon,” asked Beth with an edge in her voice.
“Where’s Richard?” I asked looking around the office.
“He must have left when we were focused on the radio,” replied John.
“Kind of funny that it’s a radio and yet we all watched it to hear the news,” I said shaking my head slightly.
“I am sorry guys I am going to have to go,” said John ignoring what I had said and then continued, “I need to get my kids from nursery school and get them home”.
“I need to go home as well,” said Beth as she walked to her table.
“I think that is a bad idea,” I commented.
“You only think that because you don’t have anyone to worry about” said Beth as she picked up her keys.
“Nice. I have people to worry about like my parents and friends but at this point everyone will be doing the same thing as the two of you. Rushing home all at the same time in a panic which makes the roads even more dangerous than usual and traffic will be a nightmare because of the rioters and additional cars,” I said trying not to be offended. I was single and lived with my parents which some people would think a sad state of affairs for a twenty eight year old man but it was by choice that I lived with my parents as it enabled me to save money so I could buy a property for all of us in a safer neighbourhood but Beth had a boyfriend and also lived with her parents, sister and baby niece which made things more complicated for her.
“I am sorry Mark I didn’t mean it but you can be heartless from time to time. I can’t stay here I have to go,” she said and started making her way to the door.
“I have to go too,” said John grabbing his keys and making his way to the door.
They both left the office without saying anything else leaving me alone to navigate the coming storm which suited me just fine because I have always worked better when I only had to deal with myself. I looked at my cell phone which had full signal and dialled home and after a couple rings a pleasant female voice answered, “We are currently experiencing high call volumes. Please hang up and try again later,” there was no emotion in her voice while she spoke. I didn’t think I would be able to get through but it was worth a try. First I needed to find out more about what was happening and also organise a weapon of some description. I looked around the office for anything that could be used as a weapon but couldn’t find anything that would fit the bill. I decided to break a leg off of the meeting table we had in the office. The table was about a meter in diameter and a meter off of the ground. It was held up by four tapering round legs. I flipped the table over and unscrewed one of the legs. It was a little too thick to fit in my hand properly but would have to do. “Next I need some more information,” I mumbled to myself and walked to the door to the office and closed it and then moved towards John’s desk and turned on the radio and lowered the volume so it wouldn’t be heard from outside the office.
“We are getting conflicting reports from all over the city at the moment but the call volumes have dropped due to overburdened networks. From all accounts there seems to be no apparent reason for the riots or why people are attacking each other. This has however caused some sections of the city to break into panic and people have started looting anything they can. There is no way to tell the damage or loss of life at the moment but it will be significant once this is all over. The police have not yet released a statement about any progress in containing the situation but we have had a couple reports that road blocks have been set up around the city. Hold on one moment we have news coming in now,” Said the male reporter and after some moments he continued, “We have reports of a confrontation between police and rioters which has ended in the police being pushed back. The police fired rubber bullets at the rioters to no affect and had to move to live ammunition, is this right?” asked the reporter to someone else in the studio and after some more whispering continued, “The live ammunition was also ineffective at dispersing the rioters who pushed through the road block attacking the police. From eye witness accounts the bullets didn’t seems to injure the rioters even though they were being hit. There is one report that after the rioters moved passed the road block some of the police officers that had been severely injured in the confrontation stood up and joined the rioters,” I turned the radio off as the screams from outside increased.
-----------------------------------------
If you would like the ebook version of this for free please leave your email address as a comment and i will send you the kindle version.
No comments:
Post a Comment