It was mid-noon, and Jensen was headed to the town hall to meet the captain. He came down from the train he took and was shocked at the number of people he saw. "Is it always so crowded here?" he thought to himself. "It'll be hard finding the captain through all of this. Maybe I should have come a bit earlier."
"Ouch," he said, grabbing his arm. It was hard for him to avoid getting bumped into in such a large crowd.
"Jensen, over here," a familiar voice called out to him.
"Who was that?" Jensen said, turning in every direction to find where his name was called. "It's hard to catch a glimpse of anything with over ten people passing my front every second," he said to himself.
His eyes caught a glimpse of a hand waving to the sky. "That's an officer's uniform," Jensen thought. "I don't know if that's the captain, but I don't really have a choice right now."
He pushed his way through the crowd, trying to get to the officer he spotted. "I could get through a lot faster if I flashed my badge and waved my baton," he thought, "but no, that'll just make people hate the police more," he said to himself, canceling his initial thoughts.
Jensen finally made it through the crowd and was surprised to see a good number of officers waiting for him. Among them was his captain, Erik.
"Glad you could join us, Jensen," Captain Erik said.
"I'm sorry, sir. The train was crowded, and I got here as fast as I could," Jensen replied, panting for air.
"Don't worry. I didn't think you would show with that injury of yours, but we're short on men, and we need to control the crowd, as you can see," Captain Erik said, pointing at both the people surrounding them and his policemen.
"The ratio of police to civilian is really small, sir," Jensen said, seeing the little number of officers present.
"Well, our power isn't in our numbers; it's in the uniform, and maybe the baton," the captain said, giggling at the last part. "But don't be afraid to get physical with them, boys. Some of these folks belong to a certain 'civil rights' group who are known to get riled up at these things. Now, our job, in case it flew over your head, is to keep the crowd calm while the mayor delivers his speech," the captain continued.
"Jensen, move to the east wing with Harrison. The rest of you, to the west," Captain Erik said as he left them and headed for the stands.
Harrison, who stood right behind the captain, was now clearly visible to Jensen, who hadn't noticed his presence.
Harrison stood with other officers, whispering things to them, and they all laughed, staring down at Jensen.
Jensen let out a burst of laughter too, which left Harrison and the rest with open jaws and wide eyes.
"Have you finally lost it?" Harrison replied, his hand above his mouth barely holding back his laughter.
"I find it funny that grown men act like children in the city," Jensen said with a smirk on his face and made his way to the east wing, leaving his squad members with clenched fists and frowns on their faces.
The crowds were starting to calm down all around the town hall apart from the east wing. A certain young woman stood atop a crate and was chanting, "We want answers." She was petite with black hair that balanced right above her shoulders. She had quite a loud voice that seemed to get the crowd going.
"Stop that right now," one officer yelled, pointing his finger at her.
She kicked his hand away from her and yelled back, "Doing what you're too afraid to."
The people began throwing things at the officers there. The man whom she had kicked was fuming, his face red and teeth gritting. He grabbed his baton and swung it at her with all his might.
"I warned you," the man said.
The young woman let out a scream that caught the attention of the whole town hall. Time seemed to stop as everyone watched.
"What do you think you're doing?" Jensen said, grabbing the police officer's wrist.
"What do you think you're doing, grabbing another officer?" he said, pushing Jensen back.
The young lady, whose eyes were shut expecting to be knocked to the floor, slowly opened them. "You see! How can they protect us when they fight each other?" she yelled at the crowd, causing more unrest.
The officer kicked the crate she stood on, causing her to fall to the ground. "Now it's your turn," he said, turning to Jensen. Before he could make a move, an image flashed in his eyes for a second—it was a fist, and everything turned blank.
The crowd at the town hall saw this and became even more riled up, chanting and cheering for Jensen.
"Let me help you up," Jensen said, giving the young lady his hand.
She gave him her hand, which was so small it could get lost in his. The two locked eyes, and hers were blue and sparkled like stars in the night.
"Are you okay?" Jensen asked her.
Her body was quivering, her once loud voice now soft like a timid child's. "I'm fine" were the only words she could manage to utter.
"Is she still scared?" Jensen said to himself. "I should say something to comfort her."
"Watch out," she yelled, pointing towards Jensen's back.
He turned only to receive a heavy blow, knocking him out.