Standing shoulder to shoulder, it was impossible to get an accurate body count. Colorful banners and hand-painted signs gave the spectacle an almost festive atmosphere, only the fierceness of the protesters belied that illusion.
Angry voices drowned out the riot squad bullhorns telling them to disperse. Like a runaway steamroller, a wave of people surged forward crushing those on the front line against heavy metal barriers. Bodies began to fall under the onslaught, cries of panic competed with the slogan hawkers.
Store front windows were shattered and innocent cars overturned in the melee. Civil disorder had degraded into anarchy.
* This week’s 100 Words is doing double duty for both Velvet Verbosity and Lance.
The 100 Word Challenge, a writing prompt created by Velvet Verbosity, takes a single theme to tell a story in only 100 words ~ no more, no less. This week’s theme is ‘Spectacle.’
100 Word Song, a writing challenge from Lance is based on a weekly music prompt. This week’s challenge is inspired by The Beatles – “Revolution”.
Thin spiral notebook 
Oh, Tara – beautifully written.
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I love the juxtaposition of the festive appearance with the foreboding of protests and the violence that might ensure. Great combo of the two prompts
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Brilliant work with the double duty. I thoroughly enjoyed this and was impressed even before I realized you’d done a double prompt.
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Again, with so few words you have expressed so much. I love how you capture the unpredictability of human emotion and behavior. My favorite line is, “Like a runaway steamroller, a wave of people surged forward crushing those on the front line…”. I have a fear of large crowds and this piece spoke directly to the heart of that fear.
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Very well done – You take the reader right to the scene.
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This made me think of Tiananmen Square. Which I probably just misspelled.
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This is exactly what I feared Chicago would be like this past weekend. I have to admit that I’m glad I live in the suburbs! This was beautifully put together and all too accurate and real. Nicely written!
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what Kir said
I would add that I didn’t think about either prompt. This was like a well written Rueters news story or something from a longform Time.com piece. It was excellent. I’m glad vel and I got to experience it all toegther.
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Here’s what I loved, that even though you know that these are living breathing people, the introduction of “body count” makes you sense the unease, it was a brilliant add.
you took both prompts and made them seamless, I could see/hear the crowds, could sense the moment that things turned unsafe.
I really liked it, Tara, as always you got to the heart of it.
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