The crowd grew more fragmented as the neared the entrance to Parliment square, and the chanting stopped again. People were tense and excited: Naomi felt the electricity running through her, not quite MDMA but not dissimilar either, and walked faster to catch up with people in front, Emily beside her.
They were slowing down, though.
The line was slowly but surely coming to an awkward halt: everyone stood there, wondering what had happend, and then some people turned around, floating back towards friends and family behind them with confusion in their faces. Some just carried on walking- one or two at first, then more. Emily caught snippets of their conversations as they went past, and she took Naomis hand.
"Nai...what does kettled mean...?"
xxxxx
The rumour spread: if they went inside parliment square grounds, they might be kettled at some point later.
One woman said it was all nonsense: a fear-mongering tactic to make them go home; a man said he'd heard that they'd only be kettled if anything got seriously damaged, but that it was still worth going in.
Groups drifted: Naomi and Emily, standing together because they'd brought no one else with them, picked up as much as they could from overheard conversations.
A few people had left, but most, in the end, seemed to be resolving to stay.
"They can't kettle all of us" was said over and over again, and it was true, Naomi thought: how COULD they kettle everyone?
A little surge of people moved forward, and the girls moved with them. They were on the edge of Parliment square now, so many people around them they couldnt see. People clung to railings and walls and anything else that gave them a bit of height, but still no one seemed to know what was going on. Hand in hand, they ducked through the crowds, trying to get their bearings, Naomi craning her head to see, Emily not even trying that exercise in futility.
There was muttering, but nothing loud. They- with hundreds of others that they could not see- waited...
Then, without warning, a cry as something flew over the heads of the people near to them- dried manure from the police horses, and obviously hurled from the crowd. There were shrieks of protest from the crowd as they tried to get out of the way, but more of it was thrown, and people started shouting, not chanting but just shouting in the direction of the front of the crowd, with an unsettling harshness in their tone.
Naomi turned, craning to see over the crowd, then tugged Emilys hand.
"Come on-"
"What is it?"
"Nothing. Just the anarchists, i think, chucking stuff."
"The same ones as before?"
"Not sure. I dont want us to be too close to them-"
Emily nodded, and followed her girlfriend through the people.
She didnt want to be anywhere near those people if she could help it...
xxxxx
They'd been walking for only an hour or so, pointing out signs to each other and giggling over them.
"Em-" Naomi pointed to a large cardboard banner with a kitten on it, and Emily smiled.
"It's so sweet!" Underneath the picture, it read: TORYS KILL KITTENS.
"And that one-" Naomi couldnt help thinking of Cook when she saw it, it was just the kind of sign he'd have made if he had come: big and red, with jagged black letters, "USE PROTECTION BECUASE THE LIB DEMS FUCK YOU OVER".
"And-" Emily broke off. They'd unintentionally slowed down, and new faces were marching either side of them now. And while before they'd been amidst a mass of colour, the people to their left were dressed complelty in black. Most of them wore scarves or bandanas over their faces, each with a large A in a circle drawn over the middle; some of them carried what looked like makeshift truncheons. At least half of them wore plain white masks that coverd their entire faces.
They didnt march in time, but they walked close together, with a precision reminiscent of the army, their faces blank and their eyes cold.
Naomis hand jerked Emily back: Naomi had stopped walking entirely, and she kept her eyes fixed on the group.
"Wait with me a bit, Em, ok?"
"Yeah..." She supressed a shiver, unsure of whether it had anything to do with the cold. "Who are they?"
"The anarchists" Naomi replied, still not walking. "At least, i think so-"
"Really?"
She nodded "Well, its what they call themsleves. All i know is, they cover up their faces, hit out more than anyone, and usually destroy anything they touch. Walk with them and you'll end up in trouble. Its always the same-"
"Anti goverment?"
"If i wasnt convinced they were just fucktards who like breaking stuff under a banner, id say yes, but i've seen what they do" Naomi, obviously deciding that the group were a safe distance away, started walking again. "Spray paint everything. Burn stuff. Not, like, tactically, not so itll mean anything, not so it has a point, just so that the police see it, and label us ALL as vandals. Really fucks everything up, actually..."
"Oh...so not real anarchists?"
"If they are, its a sad look out for anarchists everywhere..."
xxxxx
Behind them, Emily could make out black jackets and hoods through the people; in front of them, the neon yellow of police jackets- enough to know they were there, but no way to tell how close they were, or how many. There could be-
Another shriek, then something else flying overhead, trailing acid green smoke.
It flew through the air, then dissapeard into the crowd as it hit the earth. A quiet pop, then clouds of the smoke began to rise up and engulf the crowd. Naomi recognized it. A smoke bomb.
Another one, red this time; then another green.
The smoke mixed together as it rose and spread, already swirling around Naomi and Emily, who were unable to move away.
People pushed to try and get away from it, the crowd thinned a little-
-and then a policeman, visible over the heads of the people around them , two, three, four, five policemen on horses, riding fast towards the crowd.
Up until that minute, Naomi had not realised how close the police were to them. or how many of them were there. Judging from Emilys face, neither had she.
People pushed with more urgency to get away from the horses which were still coming; people were panicking, crying out.
More manure was thrown, scattering over the shields and helmets of the police in their riot clothes.
Emily had never in her life been afraid of horses, she'd never even contemplated it...but now, seeing the mounted police advancing- not quite a gallop, but much faster than a trot- she suddenly realised how small and soft and vulnerable they were beside the huge horse, how utterly helpless they would be...and now she was afraid.
Naomi pulled her hand, tugging Emily along behind her, as they ran with the crowd, sudden adrenaline in the air. She wasnt exactly afraid- having seen too many horses on protests already, but she wasnt exactly calm either: she knew instinctivly that she wouldve been less afraid had Emily not been with her.
A man screamed somewhere in the crowd that one of the horses had stood on his foot, and one of the policemen slowed down...only for a group of men at the back of the retreating crowd to turn. Sensing weakness, they ran back towards the horse as one, and started grabbing at the policeman, their eyes bright with hate.
Even from where they were, Emily could tell the horse was panicking as much as the people now: as intimidating as it was, she couldnt help but feel sorry for it, surrounded by roung hands and unable to move. It tried to rear, and the policeman steadied it, hitting out the youths around him as he did so.
They were slowing down: the horses had stopped too, a sizable gap now left between police and protestors, and the two groups eyed each other...
Then, slowly, the horses began to retreat.
A collective sigh of relief went through the watching crowd.
