0004 The Two Sides in Society

 

With a dramatic pause, he looked once more intently at those who paid him no heed.

“The devil is all around us, tempting us with sex, drinks, games, and especially this science that keeps us away from god...”.

“Shit! 
If I wanted to hear this bullshit, I'd wear a tinfoil hat!”.

He grunted low but loud enough to make Helena laugh out loud, making the man notice and glare at the trio.

“This devil virus is the evil disease!!
Don't think that vaccines will save your lives!
Only god can save their lives!”.

Speaking even louder, the man began to approach the three of them during the bus swings. 

Seeing this, Lucius already annoyed with the situation, just pulled the headphones from his jacket and looked into the eyes of a friend who immediately understood his suggestion and did the same, as Helena, leaned his head on the window and pretended to sleep.

“You devil worshippers! You three don't respect our Exalted!
I was once part of the drug trade!
I've already killed! 
If it weren't for the divine exaltation of the Exalted reforming me in his name, today I could be killing! 
Stealing!”. 

In front of the three, the man pointed his finger at Alex's face, in a clear indirect threat of death and theft as if this was something normal, but more of a 'Triumph for the Exalted!' resounded from the mouths of some passengers.

“Thank the Exalted for being alive today, give thanks for one more day of life, or you will find yourself in hell!!”.

“Triumph for the Exalted!”.
“Triumph for the Exalted!”.

Stunned with his finger almost touching his forehead, the young man didn't know what had brought such a lunatic to torment him today, and before he could act, a voice resounded like a growl at his side making him react less scared.

“Oh... 
Just don't forget that every day more I live, is a day less of life... 
... And looking at you makes me think hell wouldn't be a bad choice to live in!”. 

Anger and hatred were stamped very clearly in his eyes, the silence of the voices was cut by a rumble of thunder, announcing the worsening of the rain that fell with even more force.

Helena opened her eyes amazed by the recent development of the conversation and became worried about a possible fight taking place next to her, but then she heard a strange car roaring noise outside and looked out the window and felt confused with two police cars surrounding the bus.

"Strange... They are stopping the bus.". 

His speech aroused the interest of the two young men.

The passengers had already returned to their business, only a few still had an interest in what was happening there. 

The man startled by the young man's gaze felt intimated and embarrassed, not knowing how to respond.

"Yes, the bus is stopping, rather, they are forcing the bus to stop... 
... What do you think Lucius?".

Despite the rain, Lucius who was looking out intently noticed something.

"Look! 
They are coming down armed and there are other police cars arriving, one of them is communicating with the driver!". 

The three of them seemed curious about something that everyone else ignored.

Only the man who felt ignored by the three was furious.

His crazed look and his hand clenched on his holy book cheered up some spectators who were hoping for a good show.

“The Exalted will kill every one of you! 
The worst suffering will befall you and your families! 
You...”

Pah! Pah! Pah!
A violent knock on one of the windows interrupted the man's daydreams. 

Everyone, those distracted with cell phones and headphones, those talking and those interested in the fight between the young and the old man, the few people on the current street and another vehicle parked there, all looked at the same situation.

Four police officers with pistols and shotguns pointed at the bus, banging on its windows and waving people inside to get off.

A car advanced through the intersection with the driver distracted and hit another who was stopped, the noise of the crash drew the attention of residents of the neighborhood who soon appeared at the windows or opened their doors to understand the situation, but such an accident barely drew more than a second's gaze before people turned their attention to the bus.

Some police officers went to the crashed car, others tried to ward off possible onlookers, meanwhile, the driver opened the doors of the bus where people began to slowly get out one by one and went to a lot where an abandoned building under construction served as a shelter from the rain.

And so they lined up from side to side following directions with guns pointed at their bodies, causing distress and fear in all passengers, Helena and Julia were on the same side as Lucius, as for Alex, he was stopped by one of the policemen, but when he realized he was with Lucius and Helena, he sent him along to the same side.

It didn't take long to see a certain characteristic in the different rows, as the one on the left were people apparently wearing dress shirts, or carrying folders and suitcases, most of them were women and both women and men were mostly white.

In the row on the right composed mostly of men, and almost all of them black men, just two young white men with baggy, colorful clothes and dyed white hair, in their midst is a familiar teenager, Nathan, who was separated from his mother during the confusion and is now even more worried to see him on the other side.

Observing the whole scene, Lucius had an overview of the situation, where the bus was stopped on the street, they were in the lot to the right of the bus. 

At the intersection behind the transport on everyone's left, two police officers were assisting the drivers of the two crashed cars, on the right, two other police officers were pushing away curious people who began to gather.

In front of them, a muscular police officer with a military haircut watched Lucius' group while three others watched the group where Nathan was.

Now with everyone outside, one of the three police officers from the other group, the short one and a little chubby, arrived in the middle of everyone looking at the whole situation.

"Attention everyone!
We received reports that armed robbers boarded the bus after a late-dawn shootout... 
... So let's search the suspects on this bus...".

With the last words he looked to the right, many people were scared, but some were still indignant at the obvious division made between them, and the rain continued to fall, completing the mood of affliction.

But due to his lack of preparation, he realized that the place where they were because of the weather, was not ideal to continue searching, there were many construction objects left behind, like bricks, rebar, pieces of wood, masonry and many other things.

"Everyone in the row on the right, line up against the bus!
Go! Go! Go!".

"Sir, please, it's raining, don't do this!".

Unhappy with the order, none of them moved, and the man who took the front in protest was seen as a brave man by some, a savior for others and an annoyance to the policeman who walked slowly in front of him to look the individual straight in the eye.

Puuh!

Hit with a kick in the stomach, the man bowed to the ground, where he received a blow from the butt of the revolver in his neck and fell to the ground groaning, then the chubby rested his boot with the weight of his body on the fallen man's head and looked around at everyone in the area.

"I told everyone to pull over on the fucking bus!
Keep your back! 
Open arms and legs!
Now!".

The screams completing what happened made everyone tremble even more as they had guns pointed at them, então a fila de Nathan correu pela chuva e eles seguiram a ordem dada a eles, as for the fallen man, he received a few more kicks in the stomach and face, to make sure he didn't get up too early.

Julia tried to run to her son in desperation, but Alex and Lucius stopped her, afraid that something might happen to her, Lucius asked Helena to help calm and hold her, Helena didn't think much and just followed the request made to her.

"Julia, calm down, they shouldn't do anything with Nathan, he's just a boy...".

"Yes, Alex is right, wait a bit and it should be over soon...".

The three tried to comfort her, but everyone's situation was tense, a child was crying nonstop pointing to the fallen man, apparently the man was the father of this little girl. 

Friends, boyfriends, husbands, children, everyone there knew at least one person on the other side.

"Son of a bitch!”. 

“I want to see you doing it in a rich neighborhood!!".

"I don't see this happening to the rich and white people!!".

"Motherfucker militia!!".

In some buildings, people in the windows shouted and cursed pointing fingers and trying to film the event with their cell phones, the policeman looked at the situation and clicked with his tongue. 

Then he made up his mind as he turned to one of the companions pointing at the man on the ground.

"Arrest him for contempt and attempted police obstruction!".

"Nooo! Daad!".

The girl broke free from the people who were holding her and threw herself on top of the policeman dragging her father by the leg with his hands already cuffed behind his back. 

Everything was happening very fast when another policeman grabbed the girl by the hair making her cry louder, and thus leading both of them to a police car.

"I hope everyone understands their own place and no one obstructs our work, we are here to protect the population...".

This time, using a more reassuring tone in his speech, he turned and walked to the group leaning on the bus in the rain, while still receiving boos and curses from the few spectators in the distance, and so ordered the search to begin one by one, leaving aside the group behind watching everything.

In addition to the fear on the faces of the majority present, bitterness, anger and hatred could also be seen, along with clenched fists and heavy breathing, among these, Alex and Lucius shared anger and hatred, Helena embraced the bitterness, and Julia was lost in fear.

With some of the passengers already searched, even more people started to arrive to watch, most of them were residents of the street or nearby, and with the few minutes passing, the chubby police in charge started to get restless.

"Fuck! 
Forget the old people, focus on the teenagers!".

The officer who was searching stopped, looked at his superior and waved at him, then walked away for his colleagues to take action.

"You! You! And you! You there too!
Get down on the floor! Get down on the floor!".

The two cops holding shotguns started hitting and pushing the men away from the teenagers forcing them to lie on the mud floor, while pointing their guns and stepping on their backs to make them lie down faster.

Buoh! Buoh!

Two siren sounds were triggered in the distance coming from the street where the car crash had occurred, two more police cars stopping at the scene drew attention, the two police officers who were close to the crashed cars headed to receive the new colleagues.

"Shit! 
Forget about these fucking guys, search the boys now!!".

The policeman's concern was visible to everyone there, where some of the indignant searched passengers took the courage to try to interfere with the search, but they all got hit by the guns or kicked.

As for those in the group watching, they started screaming and complaining, with some of the bravest screaming for help, which led to the birth of a tumult.

Lucius and Alex looked at each other and were quiet, it was obvious that something was wrong and they feared that the worst could happen, so attention to every detail could help them avoid any possible tragedy.

From the newly arrived vehicles, four more police officers got out and started talking to the other two who received them, one of the four looked at the situation from afar with an ugly face and stopped his eyes on what he was commanding at the moment.

"Stay here, do what we came to do...
... I don't want unforeseen!".

Without looking to either side, the uniformed man walked through the rain, soaking wet, hearing cursing screams from all sides, straight as a righteous being, ready to receive his newly arrived friends.