He'd already had a feeling about what this is, but on another level he hadn't even been thinking about it, just trying to keep them all together against the rising tide of people. It sweeps them into the park, and when he hears Tom's horrified murmur he looks up and everything in him sinks.
A gallows. Not built for one person but five, and the nooses swing gently in the evening breeze. 'Special event' indeed. He feels faintly sick.
Once he wouldn't have felt anything at all.
Slowly, he becomes aware that a hush has fallen over the crowd, but it rises in a soft sigh as three men are shoved onto the stage by a phalanx of armed thugs, skinny and ragged and clearly beaten. They turn and face the assembly, and the tallest of the guards lifts his rifle and brings a bullhorn up to his mouth, bellowing "THE ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE!"
And there's a answering shout, but it sounds a little too outraged, a little too forced in its enthusiasm. As though every person there is fully aware of the very thin line separating them and the three men about to die.
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A gallows. Not built for one person but five, and the nooses swing gently in the evening breeze. 'Special event' indeed. He feels faintly sick.
Once he wouldn't have felt anything at all.
Slowly, he becomes aware that a hush has fallen over the crowd, but it rises in a soft sigh as three men are shoved onto the stage by a phalanx of armed thugs, skinny and ragged and clearly beaten. They turn and face the assembly, and the tallest of the guards lifts his rifle and brings a bullhorn up to his mouth, bellowing "THE ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE!"
And there's a answering shout, but it sounds a little too outraged, a little too forced in its enthusiasm. As though every person there is fully aware of the very thin line separating them and the three men about to die.