As soon as the shop where he worked shut at one, Daniel made his way back out to the university.

He instantly spotted Darren, leaning up against a wall near to where Daniel had dropped him off the previous day. Today he was dressed in blue denim flares, a dark purple t-shirt and a brightly coloured patchwork waistcoat that came down to hang just below his hips. Daniel had to smile at the alluring picture it presented. Darren wasn’t merely a flower child, he was a whole garden of fragrant blooms.

Waving Dan walked towards him.

‘Hi there.’ Darren’s face broke into a welcoming grin.

‘Hi.’

‘Wasn’t sure you would come.’

‘Well here I am.’

‘So you are, come on I’ll introduce you to the others.’

Peeling himself off of the wall Darren lead Daniel over to where five other students were idly standing around chatting, waiting for the rally to begin.

Upon Darren’s arrival they all turned and greeted him in much the same manner as Daniel had observed before.

‘Hey everyone, this is Daniel. Daniel, this is Josh, Matt, Brad, Lisa and Sarah.’

Daniel smiled and nodded at Darren’s friends, returning their willing, if a little suspicious acknowledgements.

They were all dressed much as Darren was, a veritable rainbow of colours, the girls in long flowing dresses and the men without exception with hair down below their collars.

Daniel would hardly had classed himself as conservative in his dress but his hair whilst floppy on top was short at the back and his clothing consisted of the standard young persons’ dress of faded jeans and plain T-shirt.

Gradually they all relaxed in each other’s company, helped greatly by Darren’s explanation of how he knew Daniel. The words ‘surf’ and ‘record store’ going a long way to convincing Darren’s friends that he wasn’t entirely a ‘straight.’

At Brad’s prompting they started to follow the steady stream of people who were beginning to drift over to a large expanse of open ground on the other side of the campus.

By the time a young guy with a megaphone fought his way up to stand on the top steps of what Daniel assumed must be one of the main faculty buildings, the crowd was easily three hundred strong with more people still joining them, pressing ever forward. Inevitably it wasn’t long before Darren and Daniel got separated from the others.

The speaker was both powerful and articulate, denouncing the upcoming draft lottery, how it was wrong, how your birthday would now determine who would be called and who wouldn’t, how if you drew a high number you would be safe.

Daniel heard a number of ‘right on mans’ and ‘you tell them brothers’ coming from those around him. More than once the guy had to hold up his hands for silence before he could continue.

Just then a movement out of the corner of his eye caught Daniel's attention. Turning his head towards the edge of the crowd he saw what had caused the disturbance. There, all fully kitted, up in riot gear stood a rank of around fifty National Guardsmen.

A quick glance around showed him that no-on else seemed to have noticed their appearance, everyone's concentration was still firmly focused on the young guy who had now moved on to condemn what he called ‘the senseless waste of life and slaughter’ of the war in general. He was exhorting his fellow students to resist the draft, to destroy their cards.

'Darren?' Daniel lightly touched his arm to get his attention.

'Mmm, what?'

Cocking his head, Daniel indicated the increasing authoritarian presence.

'Shit!' Darren muttered under his breath.

Gradually others were noticing the unwanted intruders and the mood of the crowd began to shift. Peace turned to anger and aggression. People started to push and jostle in an attempt to distance themselves from the guards.

Daniel was swept forward by the crush, blindly searching around for Darren who only moments before had been standing by his side.

'Daniel!' Darren lunged forward and grabbed a hold of his arm. 'We've got to get out of here. Come on.' Taking a firm hold of his hand, Darren began to drag him towards the outer edges.

The crowd was emitting outright hostility now and the ominous dull thud of batons on riot shields began to ring out.

A strange hissing sound, foreign to Daniel's ears, was heard, followed by screams from some of the people around him.

To Darren the sound was nothing new and without letting go of his grip on Daniel, he used his free hand to pull his t-shirt up to cover his mouth and nose, instructing Dan to do the same.

'What?' Dan shouted back as the cries of panic and confusion increased.

'I said.' Darren put his lips up close to Daniel's ear. 'Use your top to cover your mouth and nose.'

Daniel had no idea what Darren was on about but imitated his movements never-the-less.

The once peaceful rally had now degenerated into outright chaos, some protestors deciding to fight back with bottles and stones and whatever other implements they could find, and both men were panting hard from a mixture of fear and exertion as they eventually reached the relative safety of the fringes. Without giving Dan time to collect his thoughts Darren broke into an open run, as everyone scattered in a vain attempt to find an escape from the guardsmen, who were now intent on breaking up the gathering with as many blows of their batons and as much tear gas as they could muster.

Finally Darren slowed up and Daniel joined him in doubling over and noisily drawing deep lungfuls of air into his lungs.

‘Fuck!’ was Darren’s first comment as soon as he was able to speak again.

Standing up straight again Daniel looked around him as people continued to run past. ‘What about your friends?’ he asked.

‘We’ll go find them in a bit. It’s ok, I know where they’ll be.’ He stood up and looked at Dan. ‘You alright?’ he asked with concern.

‘Yeah, I’m fine, I think. What happened back there?’ Daniel had heard of such occurrences happening before but to have actually been right in the middle of one scared him more than he was willing to admit, even to himself.

‘Fucking pigs, fucking authorities.’ Darren’s voice dripped with anger. ‘Come on,’ He motioned to Daniel with his head, ‘You ok to drive?’

‘Sure. Where are we going?’

‘Panhandle. It’s where Josh and the rest will have gone. It’s where everyone always gathers after shit like this.’

Dan nodded. This was all so new to him, sure he knew what was going on in the city but for the main part it had passed him by. He was content to go to work, have a few beers with his friends and catch his beloved surf. Yet today he had seen government soldiers attack what were, for the most, peaceful protestors and his head spun.