FOR GOD AND FOR COUNTRY

The bustling crowd that piled into Central Square was made up, majorly, of youths from Capital University and their allies from around the country. The state police had been defiant initially, confident that the threat of violence and death would be sufficient to keep the crowd in check. That quickly changed when the magnitude of the crowd became clear. They reluctantly backed away from the advancing crowd, all the while calling for backup, which proved insufficient when it came.

The crowd was armed with placards and banners boldly displaying their demands. They had initially called for accession to their demands in a mild manner. They had resorted to discussions on Student Radio, and then the few bold talk-show hosts remaining took their demands mainstream on more popular stations.

The government waved the demands aside as the vituperations of student leaders hungry for fame. The government spokesman accused the speakers of attempting to unseat the government and destabilize the country so they could usher the opposition into the National Palace. He claimed the opposition was actively manipulating the youth into doing their bidding. He said the government couldn’t be bothered by such baseless condemnations of the recent decision made by the Supreme Leader. They were focused on more important issues, he said, issues that had a stronger bearing on the future of the country. He warned that any form of disobedience would be met with full force.

In times past, such statements took the form of ice cold water and doused the resolve of the people, but a lot had changed. The statement failed to prompt the locking of doors. The statement failed to prompt the shuttering of the windows and window-blinds that locked the world out. The statement, instead, served as accelerant to a fire that had been burning under the surface for decades. 

People began to converge on the Capital from all over the country right after the spokesman’s statement was aired. Some youths were so determined to be a part of the gathering that they trudged through the woods all through the night to make it to the capital in time for the gathering. 

***

Rumor had it that the Police Chief received hundreds of calls that morning from ‘concerned parties’, many of whom were rumored to have gone as far as hinting at their fear for his family’s safety if he failed to quell the protests. By midday, he had had enough. Enough of the advancing protesters. Enough of the incessant calls. Enough of the pressure from both sides.

She was the first to spot the trucks with water-turrets atop them. She alerted those around her immediately she realized what was happening and the news quickly spread around the crowd. They braced themselves. The line of officers blocking the road to the National Palace gave way for the trucks to pass. Their sighs of relief gave way to broad grins. They had full confidence in the water-turrets, they had handled bigger crowds in the past. 

The people who were closest to the two trucks turned their backs to them, while others took cover behind whatever they could use. The people closest to the blast of water locked elbows for support and crouched to avoid being flung around by the impact.

She stayed in place for a while, doing her best to withstand the force of the water whenever the turrets turned in her direction. With each round of beating, she experienced an intensification of the emotions boiling within her. In her crouched position, she recalled watching a similar scene on the TV in her dorm-room a few years earlier, all the while struggling to calm her frenzied heart. She had watched the turrets rapidly wash away the resolve of the protesters, and one-by-one, they ran to safety till it remained only a few of them. She recognized one of the defiant ones. She knew him intimately. He’d spoken to her on the phone about their decision to take Central Square that morning. She remembered warning him against it as calmly as she could. She remembered recounting the fate of those who’d taken similar actions in time past. She remembered him lovingly urge her to never succumb to cowardice. She remembered watching the police drag him by his greying hair into a van along with the other six and taking him away, never to be seen again.

The scene on the TV flashed before her eyes repeatedly till her emotions boiled over. When the turret passed by her and began its twenty-second journey across the backs of the protesters beside her to the back of the young-man to her farthest left, she freed her elbows from those of her comrades and picked the bottom-half of the stick she’d used to prop-up a placard that was nowhere to be found. She spun around, ignoring the shocked looks on the faces of her comrades, and remained in her crouching position as she sprinted towards the closest truck. 

She had spied the insides of the truck and noted that there were two men manning the vehicle. There was an older man behind the wheel and a younger-man, who looked like a newbie, was the one in-charge of the turret. If she acted fast enough, she believed her plan would work.

She had already closed in on the truck before the newbie noticed her. Before he could prompt the older-man, she pulled open the door on the driver’s side, jumped to the highest stair she could reach, and rammed the bottom of her stick as close to his eyes as she could get it. With the driver disoriented, she disarmed him and pulled him out of the truck. When she jumped into the cab to take the wheel, she pointed the pistol she had acquired at the newbie. He dropped his pistol on the chair in the middle of the cab and raised his hands in surrender. His hands were still raised when the door on his side of the cab flung open and someone pulled him out. The girl who had been crouching beside her entered the cab and took the newbie’s position. 

The other officers didn’t realize what had happened till they saw the newbie sprinting towards them. Before they could react, she turned the vehicle around and her comrade redirected the water-turret in their direction. They fired shots in the direction of the bullet-proof vehicle, but it was futile. The conquering of the water-truck would be the first step in the take-down of the entire regime. A few weeks later, the Supreme Leader would be spotted rushing up the stairs of one of his numerous private planes, to be flown to a destination unknown.

***

She had a broad smile on her face as she opened her eyes, marking the end of her long journey through time. A lot had changed since the water-truck was conquered. The Central Square had been transformed from an ocean of concrete and asphalt into a world-renowned garden, and had been renamed the People’s Square. The country had rapidly transformed into a bastion of democracy. The national wealth that had been restricted for the use and benefit of the Supreme Leader and his closest allies had been used for the benefit of the entire country and it had resulted in its rapid transformation into a prosperous nation.

However, prosperity was quickly followed by other vices. From her bench in the People’s Square, she spied a couple frolicking on a bench in full-glare of the public. With their lips locked in deep embrace, the young-man desperately kneaded one-half of the lady’s chest, while his other hand hungrily explored the space between her thighs. In another part of the Square, she spied a horde of youths, deeply engrossed in their daily ritual of dancing to music issuing from giant speakers and smoking themselves to oblivion. In another part of the Square, she spotted a mass of people scattered around the grass. Some rolled on the floor in a dazed state while some staggered around and grabbed at the trees around for support. Others, eager to join their comrades, hurriedly pumped the widely-used concoction into their arms. In another part of the Square, she spotted scantily clad males and females idling around and catcalling passers-by in the hope of making a client of them. In recent times, the country had become well-known for such activities. Males and females flocked to the country from far and wide to satiate all sorts of forbidden desires, leaving behind all sorts of epidemics and taking new ones with them.

As she walked out of the Square, she stopped and glanced down at the sticker she’d been gifted that morning. “I VOTED”, it boldly proclaimed to anyone who cared to know. She turned back and took a quick glance around the Square. The same scene was being replayed in the hundreds of gardens and community centers scattered around the country. 

With her teeth clenched, tears forming in her eyes, she wondered, “Is this what we fought for?”