[ WP ] A young police recruit is placed in riot gear and thrust to the front line against an escalating protest .

I wriggled my toes, attempting to create room in my boots that were 2 sizes too small for me. I felt the sloppiness of my ballistic helmet shifting around on my head. My Sergeant playfully slapped me on my back, throwing my visor over my nose, and a hearty chuckle erupted from the rest of my squad. I re-positioned my visor, looking out the 3 inch glass of our APV, taking quick glances around the stuffy carrier. Outside I could see the smoke change from grey with splotches of orange flames to black-as-the-devils-heart, and our squads reactions change just as quickly as our situation. I tried to listen to my pulse, but that ended up increasing it as I learned how fucked I was, with my limited training and ill-fitting equipment. How fucked we were. 
 
 Our APV rolled to a stop, and we flowed out. I looked around, smelling the burning everything, and formed up with my squad, just as we heard a yell. It started out as a single yell, but grew greater and greater until it was an inhuman screech of noise that penetrated our very hearts. Usually you would see them before you hear them, but because this black soup engulfed anything that dared enter, we only saw them when it was too late. We attempted to form up, but we could n't react fast enough. If we could of seen anything, it would of been a flood of people, pouring out of buildings, trees, anything that could hold them. Our Sergeant was hit in the chest by a rock the size of an apple, but was killed by a rock the size of a bowling ball to his head. He was lucky, because he was killed instantly. Some men we swallowed up by the crowd, others simply disappeared into the smoke. I can remember turning around and running into the black, while they died, and I lived.
