Rodriguez had been captain of the RPD's SWAT unit for several months, and he was very proud of his position. Sure some of the other cops tended to call his officers 'glory boys' or other slightly derogatory nick names. But when the shit really hit the fan it was Rodriguez who the chief called. As he looked around himself and saw what remained of his men, the scared and panicked civilians running past their position, and the approaching horde of rioters Rodriguez found himself wishing he wasn't in charge.<br/><br/>He'd been sent to stop the riots, which had already cost the lives of more than a few officers, at any and all costs. Not wanting to be the man responsible for a blood bath Rodriguez had ordered the use of non-lethal weapons only. But they'd had no effect, the rioters had simply walked into the blasts from his three teams' bean bag shotguns, and rubber bullet armed sub-machine guns, the only thing that had even slowed them down was the riot tank's water cannon. Not wanting to see his men wind up like the last cops sent to stop these crazies Rodriguez had been forced to pull back and switch to live ammunition. They'd pulled back a block and a half, re-armed and reloaded. Then they advanced to point blank range. The riot had already reached the central residential area and Rodriguez hadn't been willing to wait for the riot to get close to them and allow more houses and families to suffer.....it had been a mistake.... the live fire hadn't broken up the crowd, it didn't even seem to phase them. He'd shouted to fall back on the double but 7 of his officers hadn't had time to step back before the first hands had grabbed them. Dragging them down and.....Rodriguez shook his head, he didn't need to think about that right now.<br/><br/><br/>They'd been pushed back even further, the patter repeating itself again and again, he and his men would pull back and set up a new firing line, with the tank behind them, then they'd all open up on the crowd, which would keep moving forward getting closer and closer. Always walking...never running, why didn't they run? The rioters would keep moving until his officer's had to pull back again. And now it had come to this, they were at the north east end of the central residential area. With Fission Street just behind them, and the high school well within sight....The high school for fucks sake!! Rodriguez had gone to school there and now he and his men were the only thing stopping the riot from reaching it. To the best of his knowledge it hadn't been evacuated yet...what the hell was taking the principal so long to get those kids out of there?!?!?<br/><br/><br/>Closing his eyes for a second Rodriguez let out a long slow breath then began to speak into his radio to the remainder of his men, "Alright....the high school is a little more than a block away from us and it still has all the kids in it" he didn't like the note of grim determination in his voice, but for the life of him he couldn't get rid of it. "So until they get those kids out, we aren't pulling back anymore, we're going to line up and we are going to hold those fuckers back! I don't care what it takes, body shot's aren't doing it so I'm authorizing head shots. We need to stop them, deploy defensive formation."<br/><br/><br/>As soon as he finished his little speech Rodriguez moved to his position in the formation, standing a few steps away from the riot tank. He took aim, and seeing that everyone else was in their place began to squeeze on his trigger "Open fire!" he yelled out<br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>The apartment building was catching fire at a fast pace, the flames spreading across the 4th floor and beginning to reach out to the 5th and 3rd floors. The 6th floor showed no signs of a fire other then the thin layer of smoke that was filtering into it. The 6th floor comprised what would have been considered a pent house in an nicer building as it was the 6th floor was the owner's own living space and it was totally deserted. The 5th floor was not there were 5 people on the floor, all of them standing in the hallway, their doors open as they stumbled and shuffled around in the smoke. Seeming not to realize that the best thing to do would have been to hit the ground. As the two firefighters reached the the 5th floor hall way it's inhabitants seemed to know that they were there. Even though it would have been difficult for them to see anything in the smoke which was most likely irritating their eyes beyond belief. They slowly began to stumble towards the Sarah and Keven, the first person to reach them was a man (http://ui16.gamespot.com/1263/1wallpaper0216009_2.jpg), he didn't even seem to notice Sarah as he suddenly lunged at Keven. Wrapping his arms around the man before leaning forward and biting hard onto his shoulder! Behind him the others stumbled towards both firefighters, their arms raised and their movements the same as the man's had been....what ever was wrong with him was obviously wrong with them as well!<br/><br/>But above it all, above the moans of the approaching people, and the crack and snap of objects burning, and even the Keven's scream of pain one sound could be heard that sound was Rockford's emergency siren. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/history/worldwar2audioclipslibrary_clip02.shtml) And that could mean only one thing.....Rockford was in a state of citywide emergency.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>At Rockford College the air raid siren cut through the scholarly atmosphere with little effort. As it's blare finally died down every professor's office, and every occupied lecture hall received the same automated message. "A state of emergency has been declared....all classes are hereby released and canceled until further notice. Students are advised to follow public safety instructions, in addition, unless other wise stated by national, state, city, or college officials all local students are further advised to proceed home, those who live in the dormitories are asked to please proceed to their dorms and await further instruction from your residence advisers. Any acts of vandalism will not be tolerated and will be met with heavy punishment upon resumption of the academic year."<br/><br/>As the message ended another took it's place this one from the dean himself "This is the dean, I have just been informed by the city's emergency situation office that all citizens are advised to avoid the south western and south central areas of the city. The riots have grown far out of hand and spread quite a ways...I advise that all students remain on campus or return home should they live on the city's eastern side. Thank you very much."<br/><br/><br/>A soft click could be heard as the speaker shut off once the dean had made his announcement. Less than a second later Lasair's students were standing up and moving to the exits, shoving and pushing practically running one another over in their urge to get away. They had all been rather jumpy and this was all it took for them to shift into 'danger' mode.<br/><br/><br/>The class room Cal was in was no better, in fact if anything it was worse. The student's there hadn't even waited for the announcement to finish. They were already moving, rising and pushing for the doors. The professor was yelling at them to calm down, trying to establish some sort of order but it was an impossible task.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>On the streets Eddie found a city very different from the one he had known before going to bed, cars and stores lay abandoned much like they always did during a riot. But things were different....there weren't the large numbers of looters that usually accompanied such events, it seemed like everyone was too scared to even consider the possibility of looting. Of course there were a few looters on the streets and most of the places had their windows broken in. But even in the small run down drug stores and other places that marked the east most of the items behind the broken windows were left behind. It was as if who ever had broken in hadn't wanted anything that was held inside.<br/><br/>The city's emergency siren could be heard wailing away in the distance.<br/><br/>There were a few people on the street, some running from one direction to the next, looks of near panic on their faces. And others, others were simply standing there as if in shock. Starring off into space. Half a block away sat a black Corvette Stingray (http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs31/f/2008/235/f/d/black_Corvette_Stingray_427_by_Partywave.jpg), it was parked with it's front driver's side tire on the side walk as if who ever had been driving it had been more concerned with getting out quickly rather than parking safely. The driver's side door was closed and a small splash of blood was pressed on the door, a few steps away by the rear of the car lay a woman's body. The car itself was a little scratched but had no obvious signs of serious damage.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>Like his students, Principal Carlson had been forced to resort to watching the news to determine what was going on, he'd kept the tv in the teacher's lounge tuned to it as he tried to decide what would be the best course of action. When he'd heard about the SWAT teams being forced to fall back the first time he had decided enough was enough. He made the call and told the bus barn to send over all the buses as soon as possible. He'd rather be the man who over reacted than didn't react enough. He'd turned back to the tv. To find the face of Hally Alls in place of the on the scene footage that had been rolling. She was apologizing and explaining that they had lost contact with their reporter in the field and already had News Chopper 1 on route to keep the public updated on the situation. Carlson had then left the lounge and made the short walk to the auditorium, moving behind the seated students and approaching each teacher in turn. Telling them what was happening and that the buses were on the way. He told them that once the buses arrived they'd turn off the movie and get the students moving quickly and safely. His voice was strained and nervous but he was still in control of himself and knew he needed to set the example by appearing outwardly calm.<br/><br/>That had been 15 minutes ago....and the buses still hadn't arrived Carlson knew that even moving slowly they should have been here several minutes ago. He'd already tried calling the bus barn several times and had gotten no answer...as for the news they were still waiting on the chopper to get on scene.<br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/>Unbeknownst to those inside Rockford High School, the reason for the buses' delay could be summed up in two words Jason Bastion, one of Rockford High's less than reputable students, he and his girlfriend had decided that it would be a better idea to hide out in his car, a modified Volkswagen Jetta (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QiblywYib5E/Sy0lE875WDI/AAAAAAAADUc/pR4EHN4MzD0/s400/VW-Fast-And-The-Furious-Jetta-400.jpg) that he kept in the parking lot. They had listened to the radio for several minutes as the story got worse and worse. When contacted had been lost with the reporter on the scene Jason had decided enough was enough. Starting up his car he'd floored the accelerator and raced out of the school's parking lot turning sharply and heading for the docks, his dad owned a boat there. He planned on hopping on board and getting himself and his girl to the north side of town via the river. It was a solid plan and had Jason been smarter, or a better driver it might have worked. But he was neither of these things; so he didn't think to slow down as he whizzed down the street in a car that was moving much faster than it had ever been designed to, and when the lead bus left the bus barn's garage entrance Jason did not have the skill to avoid it. His car slammed into the side of the bus at a reckless 97.32 miles per hour igniting the nitrous oxide canister's he kept in the trunk and turning both vehicles into blazing wrecks. The drivers of the other buses now found their vehicles trapped in the bus barn as it began to catch fire from the blazing wrecks half in and half out of it. With no other choice they abandoned their buses and ran out the side door...there would be no evacuation coming for Rockford High School.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Anyone watching or listening to the news was no longer forced to wait for an update, though given the details they may have wished that they had. Hally Alls could be heard saying "News Chopper 1 has just arrived on scene where the Rockford City Police SWAT Teams are attempting to stop the riots, we go to them now for an update...." those watching tv would be greeted by a black screen for a second while those listening to radio would only hear static, this was followed by the image of the riots from above and the sound of a mans voice "this is Mike Smutts for RCN, we are currently above the forward elements of the riot in progress. The mob has moved east across Fission Street and is now heading straight for Rockford High School! There is currently no sign of the RPD's attempts to stop the rioters other than a single SWAT van which appears to have been stormed by the rioters. Looking down I can see several bodies dressed in RPD tactical gear. It appears that the city's attempts to stop the progress of this riot are in complete disarray. The mob is less than a block away from Fox Street now. And closing the distance....this reporter can only hope that Rockford High has already been evacuated"<br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>As Carlson saw this his eyes grew wide, the had to move now! Where ever the buses were it was too late. He stormed out of the lounge and began to sprint towards the auditorium. He knew what had to be done. They'd get the students up and moving to the other side of the school, they'd move calmly and walk out the doors so that the school was between them and the riot, from there they could head for the river walk. They just had to keep everyone calm or his school would turn into a charnel house. As he made it to the auditorium he was just in time to see his quickly formulated plan fall apart before it could even be put into action. Somewhere in the student body a boy yelled out "They're coming here!! the mob is heading for the school!" at another end of the auditorium a young woman screamed "The cops a all dead! We need to get out of here!!"<br/><br/><br/>Raising his arms up and yelling as loudly as he could Carlson tried to get the students' attention "Please be calm! Please we need everyone to be calm" but it was like trying to stop a train with a potato gun, as the city's emergency siren began to wail and the sounds of large numbers of fists banging on the front doors could be heard Carlson realized he had failed as a principal, and that his school would more than likely be the grave for a large number of it's students.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>