(Present)
They had remained standing in the same spot for some time; there was nowhere else to go, there was little reason to move, and Naiomi had focused more or less entirely on the red haired girl standing close to her side.
Thorugh their coats, she felt Emily shivering; a mixture of cold and anxiety she was sure. Not once in the hours they'd spent trapped in the kettle had Emily made any complaints of cold, or hunger, or fatigue, but Naiomi knew she must be feeling their effects as sharply as Naiomi was herself, if not more so.
If she'd been given the choice, if the offer had been made, she would've had Emily leave the kettle and go home, even if she had to stay behind; she couldn't bear the idea of her girlfriend slowly freezing there with the rest of them. Even if she couldn't admit it, it was true that something about Emily made her feel strangely protective: her own happiness at having her girlfriend with her battled with the voice in her head that told her that a potentially violent and chaotic kettle, filled with angry teenagers, police and horses was not a place for Emily to be. Not becuase she was weak, or anything...just BECAUSE. Becuase you love her, the voice in her head chided. Becuase you can't bear the thought of anything happening to her. Because you love her, as much as she loves you.
"Its passed. Fees are up" A voice, close to them, sounding disgusted, suddenly broke into her thoughts. "The bastards have fucking passed it..."
For a couple of beats, Naiomi was numb, unable to comprehend what he was saying. The cold, the hunger, thirst, exhaustion, had almost overshaddowed exactly what they were there for.
Then, slowly, slowly, a feeling of utter hopelessness began to invade her entire body.
"What...?" Emilys voice was almost puzzeled, with a thin vein of anger rising. "But...we're...everyone...what the fuck!" she suddenly burst out " We're all fucking here...everyones here...how can they just ignore us like this?"
"I don't know, Ems..." Naoimi felt sick. All the effort, all the weeks and months, everyone coming together, all the effort people had put in, and for what?
So they could fool themselves into thinking they were going to be listend to? So they could pretend the goverment would actually pay any attention to the united student voice that had risen up, rather than simply closing their ears to the pleas?
"Its disgusting..." Emilys voice grew stronger, as anger pushed aside fatigue for awhile. "Is this supposed to be a democracy? They lied, Nai, they fucking lied to all of us!"
"I know, Ems...i know..."
All at once, people were talking with renewed vigour. Whispers turned to raised voices, slumped bodies begain to straighten, anger crackling through the people packed tight together. Eyes narrowed, fists clenched, and as Naiomi sensed the change in mood, she was suddenly terrified.
All these people, angry, furious people, all pressed close, all the police, so close, with their batons and horses... A shout went up, feet began to pound the concrete: wide, scared eyes met her own, as Emily realised the potential danger too. Impetuous boys with sticks and stones and indignation...police, with their riot gear, desparate to keep order at any cost. Horses, wild with tension; teenagers in trainers, and no place to move to geto ut of the way.
A stampede, a crush was inevitable...people could be hurt in the chaos that was about to break lose. People might even, even be killed.
"Nai-" Emily whisperd "Its going to be crazy..."
"I think-" Naiomi gripped Emilys hand as tight as she could "I think...we should try and move out of the way before anything happens..."
And then, suddenly, it began: a wave of sound, of bitterness and anger, torn from the throats of a thousand teenagers whose futures had just been crushed, hit them, with a force that felt like a blow.
The crowd surged forward, then back as the police kept their positions. Bodies pushed, straining against the confines of the kettle, and from the front of the crowd, people crushed between two forces began to scream in pain and fear.
Couples were wrenched apart; people stumbled and fell, and were swallowed up in the sea of faces.
"Em!" Naiomi felt caught in a currant; she fought against it with all her strength "DO NOT LET GO OF MY HAND!" More than anything, she dreaded them being separated. There were so many people, so many confused, faceless people, she knew it would be near impossible for them to find one another again.
Emilys fingernails dug into Naiomis hand with the effort of keeping contact. A head shorter than Naiomi, she couldn't see a thing. She couldn't breathe, couldn't draw breath with the weight of the people around her, and the iron bands of fear closing round her chest.
The crowd shifted; a woman stumbled backwards, her head bloody from a recent wound, her eyes blank; a man pushed hard against the boy in front of him, not seeing the people around him, not seeing anything, his whole face contorted with hate as he roared wordlessly into the night air. Metal on metal; wood on metal; stone on metal.
A figure in a dark hoody with a scarf around his face scaled the bus shelter nearby and punched the air with his fists.
"OUR STREETS, OUR STREETS, OUR STREETS-" A few dozen people with enough breath left to chant took up his shout. Neon yellow blurs forced their way through the crowd, obviously intent in getting him down.
"OUR STREETS, OUR STREETS, OUR STREETS-"
No, thought Emily. Not our streets. The collective spirit of the morning had evaporated ,and now the chanting figures scared her as much as the armoured figures in yellow- their raw anger, the way you could tell it would be impossible to stop them or reason with them.
The chaos. The anarchy. There was no breath left for talking, no space in the mind left for reasoning, and now force was the only thing anyone responded to. The crowd pushed, the police pushed. Stones were hurled overhead, then sticks and the remanants of signs. The horses pressed forward, then galloped, and slowed, as the crowds scrambled desparately out of their way. Emily could taste their fear, as the horses beared down on them; and even the anxiety of the police, as they rode into a sea of pure hatred.
Someone pushed hard against their linked hands, and she screamed. "NAI! NAIOMI!"
She couldn't breathecouldn'tbreathecouldn'tbreathe, she could hear Naomi shouting something to her. Feet trampled over her own, sharp elbows dug into her sides, peole knocked into her again and again, and still she couldn't see where they were.
She couldn't see where the police were, if the chanters had provoked them, she could hear screams as the police got nearer but couldn't tell how close they were, or from what direction they were coming from. She could hardly see Naomi, only just feel her girlfriends hand in hers, their fingertips clinging...the twisting mass of bodies around her blurred, her head felt light...
DONT FAINT, she told herself. FAINT AND YOU'LL BE CRUSHED. JUST BREATHE-
But it was harder to breathe than ever by now.
Dark spots spun in front of her eyes-
And suddenly Naiomi tugged hard at her hand, and they were on the edge of the crowd now. People on one side, a decorative stone wall on the other, separating building from street.
The crowd was still close, but no one was pushing between them anymore; they were jostled rather than crushed...
"The wall-" Hurridly, Naomi pushed Emily against the wall, then onto it, before hopping up herself (her extra height making it easy) and breathing a sigh of relief.
"Thank god, we should be a bit more out of it up here, i think" Now they were on level with the shoulders of the people below. Then she looked at the girl beside her worridly. "Are you alright, Em?"
Emily still couldn't breathe. The pressure of the people around her had abated, but the bands around her own lungs hadn't.
She nodded, gasping in lungfuls of the cold night air, her throat and eyes burning, and Naiomi wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer.
"Its ok, its ok...just try and slow down a bit-" Her voice was soft, but Emily could hear the anxiety underneath. "Just calm down..."
She moved closer, Naiomis familiar scent of herbal essences shampoo and patchouli helping her to breathe more normally, and shut her eyes, trying to focus only on Naimois arms around her, her voice, her scent. She stopped hyperventilating; felt Naiomis relief as she held onto her tighter, but the fear was too recent to have faded.
A face slammed onto the top of the wall next to them. It was the boy from the busshelter, bent over as the police secured his hands. Close up, he looked about sixteen. Purple bloomed from a bruise on his temple; now he looked afraid. His eyes met Emilys for a moment, before he was hauled away.
Emilys eyes burned hot behind her closed eyelids. She kept her eyes closed to hold back the tears.
xxxxx
A/N This is drawn directly from my own experiences_ I've to protests before, but that was my first time in a kettle, and i swear, it was insane when we heard the Bill had passed. For those of you who don't know, a kettle is when police trap you in a certain area and refuse to let anyone in or out. I (and therefore Naiomily) are in Parliment Square.
Please let me know what you thought. Again, is it in character, do i portray them properly, was it vaguely interesting to read? Please let me know, so i can improve!