Fight or Flight

Veronica stood around with her colleagues, conversing after their second formation of the day. She held a coffee mug and a clipboard to seem like she was doing some type of work in case an officer asked. Everyone knew the tricks of the trade by now, and there were many tricks to pretending they were working. Veronica’s favorite was the clipboard. If anyone saw her with a clipboard, they usually assumed she was doing some type of accountability check up.

The day had been relaxed and uneventful. There were no major assignments or training events for the infantry units. For the most part, they helped out other units and hung around. Sometimes they weren’t working constantly and they were okay with that. Veronica checked her wrist watch, seeing that she only had about two more hours until the work day was over. With nothing to do, she just wanted to go home. She could be doing other things with this downtime.

“Scottie,” A voice called from behind her, demanding attention.

She glanced over her shoulder and broke away from the group, approaching Nathaniel. “Nate, what’s up?” She didn’t interact with him much at work, so she was somewhat puzzled.

“Get your stuff, we’re going to Huntington,” He instructed. “We leave in fifteen.”

“Okay,” She nodded with no questions asked. She wondered what was going on and why they would be going to Huntington Beach.

“I’m going to round up everyone else,” He told her, walking away. “Just grab your bag and your vest, we’ve got everything else. I’ll tell you on the way there.”

“Alright,” She nodded again. She poured her coffee into the sink and dropped her clipboard full of blank pages onto a table. She picked up her hat that was also on the table. She looked at her watch again, counting down the fifteen minutes.

Veronica used the restroom before she went to her locker to get her things. She opened up her locker, setting her uniform’s hat onto the shelf. She grabbed her vest, putting her head through it and strapping it to her body. She slipped her arms through the straps of her backpack and tightened it securely on her back. Her backpack was a lot lighter than if she was in combat. Still, the gear on average weighed about forty pounds, even when it was half empty.

Veronica shut the locker door. She made her way through the building and exited to the parking lot full of military vehicles. She spotted Sergeant, Nathaniel, and a group of other soldiers. She hopped into line, instantly standing at attention.

“Alright, we’re going for riot control,” Sergeant Collier announced. “Civilian police can’t control it, so they called us. We’re going non-lethal, obviously. Remember the controlling techniques that we’ve practiced.”

The soldiers nodded, standing with their hands behind their backs.

“Grab a gun, some ammo, and let’s move,” He ordered.

“Yes, Sir,” The group chorused.

Veronica grabbed a riot gun from its case. She held it and checked it before filling it with rubber bullets. She packed some more of the rubber ammunition and pepper balls into the pockets of her vest and cargo pants. She grabbed a riot helmet, strapping it onto her head. She attached a nightstick to the belt around her waist. She didn’t know she was in store for, but she was ready. They didn’t do riot control training for nothing, even if they rarely got called for riots.

When everyone was armed with the necessary weapons, they broke into groups. Veronica was assigned to ride with Sergeant Collier, Nate, Mitch, and Damon. She greeted Mitch and Damon with a nod of her head. She didn’t know them too well, but she knew them.

“I know this isn’t the usual team, but they’re good guys,” Sergeant told her off the record as they got into the truck.

“I know,” She said, climbing into the truck and shutting the door.

Sergeant Collier was in the passenger’s seat in front of her and Damon was in the driver’s seat. Nathaniel was at her left and Mitch was next to him. As the four trucks simultaneously roared to life, it was extremely loud. The truck began to roll forward slowly and Sergeant began speaking to the others over the radio.

“So what’s going on?” Veronica asked, looking at Nate.

He shrugged, “Even I barely know. There’s a riot going down on Main Street. All I know is that HB police couldn’t control it so they called in everyone in Orange County and they can’t control it either. That’s where we come in.”

“They do realize that it’s an hour drive to Huntington, right?” She questioned the choices of her commanders.

“Yep,” He nodded. “That’s why we’re leaving now and hopefully it’s not worse by the time we get there.”

“It must be pretty bad if we’re going,” She mused.

“It must be.”



“Jesus Christ,” Veronica groaned when she looked out the Humvee’s window, staring at the damage to the streets of Huntington Beach.

Main Street was filled with thousands of people. People were fighting in small groups and almost everyone had their phones out, recording the entire thing. The rowdy crowd tore down street signs and vandalized the cars parked on the street. The beach goers tipped the street’s porta potties over onto their sides. Human waste leaked onto the street and sidewalk. Overall, it was a catastrophe. Beach City had become Riot City.

“What the hell is going on,” Nate thought aloud as Damon parked and stopped the truck a block away from the large crowd.

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Sergeant said, getting out of the truck.

Veronica and Nathaniel followed him. The other trucks parked in a row next to theirs and the soldiers began to get out of the vehicles. The soldiers marched the short walk to Main Street with their guns in hand. Approaching Main Street, Veronica gagged when she caught the reek smell of the overturned porta potties.

“I’m Sergeant Collier with Marines from Camp Pendleton,” Sergeant addressed and approached the Huntington Beach Lieutenant. “What’s going on?”

“I was planning on going home tonight,” Veronica muttered while Sergeant spoke privately with the Lieutenant. She knew it was around four in the afternoon.

“Me too,” Nate agreed. “I guess we’ll be getting home late, unless we get this crowd under control quickly.”

“What’s the point of getting responders from all over the county if they’re just going to stand there?” Veronica said exasperatedly with a roll of her eyes.

The responding police officers stood in full riot gear at both ends of the street, trying to contain the crowd only to Main Street. They all stood in a line, some holding guns and others twirling nightsticks. They looked as if they had no clue how to get the situation under control.

“They want us to stop it for them,” He replied. “Lazy ass cops.”

“We’ll stop it alright,” Veronica scoffed, staring into the massive crowd.

There were shirtless guys and bikini-clad girls everywhere. Beer and water bottles were flung at the police. People jumped onto the hood of parked cars. The drunks stumbled and everyone screamed profanity, yelling nonsense. It looked like a wild spring break pool party.

“Stunner,” Sergeant called. “You know what to do.”

“Yes, Sir,” He said. As Sergeant walked away, he looked at Veronica, Mitch, and Damon. “Guess you’re my team for the evening.”

“What’s the plan?” Mitch asked.

Nathaniel looked down in thought for a moment. “Do what you have to do to disperse the crowd. The police can arrest if need be. Cover each other.” He looked at Mitch and Damon and the two of them nodded. “Scottie, you’ll be with me.”

“Hopefully, these people already got everything out of their system,” Veronica said. “They’ll get tired eventually.”

“Fuck, I hope so,” Nate exhaled.



The crowd still grew strong as the sun began to set and very little progress had been made. More fights broke out and the glass windows of stores were shattered and broken into. Store owners attempted to protect themselves by pulling down the grates in the front of their shops.

“HB police want to get down to business,” Nathaniel informed Veronica. “We can take non-lethal action.”

“Finally,” Veronica groaned, turning the safety off of her gun. She didn’t come to stand around like the local cops. Without authorization, all she had done for the past two hours was stand around and observe the brawling crowd.

She and Nathaniel stood meters away, trying to pick out the instigators from the crowd. Those were the people causing the most problems. She flinched instinctively at the bang and the orange flash hitting the concrete.

“The police are throwing tear gas,” Nate told her, pulling the plastic panel of his helmet down to protect his face.

Veronica did the same, recognizing the fizz of the gas bomb. The cops’ weak attempt to break the crowd with tear gas agitated her. The people that did inhale the gas gagged and coughed, but it didn’t affect the entire crowd.

“Get out of here guys, now!”

“We’ve gotta disable them before we can do anything else,” She said, raising her riot gun in both hands. “These cops suck.”

Two police officers in their navy blue uniforms stood beside her, following her lead. They aimed their guns at the crowd.

“If you do not the leave area right now, we will be forced to use our weapons, A voice echoed through the street from a bullhorn. “I repeat, we will be forced to use our weapons.”

When only a few people made the better decision and left, the others thought they were bluffing. Veronica’s finger grazed the trigger, ready to fire. She scanned the crowd for children and elderly people first. It would be very hard for her to miss at a semi-close distance and she knew how much a rubber bullet hurt if a person got hit by one. She looked at Nathaniel, silently asking for permission.

He nodded once. The line of cops and soldiers pulled the trigger at the same time, firing warning shots into the crowd. The pepper balls broke and fizzed upon impact with people’s bare torsos. Veronica’s eyes watched a few bodies go down after getting hit will the rubber pellets. She subconsciously hoped that she didn’t hurt anyone too bad.

"Go! Go home! Get out of here now!”

The police moved in, waving their nightsticks and directing the crowd to move from the middle of the street. Through all the yelling and throwing of garbage, they successfully got a percentage of the crowd onto the sidewalks. The portion of people that were afraid of being shot and gassed left immediately.

“Right there,” Nathaniel pointed to another fight in the street.

Veronica focused her attention to two men fighting and fired a shot at the assaulter’s shin. She fired another round at his shoulder blade. Bingo, she thought after the altercation seized. The officers continued to fire more pepper balls into the crowd. The shrill, firecracker-like sound echoed through the air.

"How about I arrest you all?" An officer said over the bullhorn, motioning to the abundant number of zip ties attached to his duty belt.

The crowd shouted “fuck you” and yelled slurs at him, followed by throwing more trash.

It wasn’t easy to control the crowd without being in the crowd. The law enforcement officers didn’t want to make it any worse than it already was and they didn’t want to use more force than necessary.

“I hope they call an ambulance, or two,” Veronica said to Nate at her side. She held the gun in the crook of her shoulder and fired more shots.

“Or three.”



Well after the sunset and past the time Veronica should have been off duty and at home, the police finally restored order on Main Street. The majority of the crowd had left. Shaken store owners opened up the grates of their shops to leave. The police detained over ten people and many more had minor injuries from the pellets.

“I’m glad that’s over,” Veronica said with relief, pulling off her wet helmet. A bottle of water had been thrown at her during the standoff.

“Definitely,” Mitch agreed, running a hand through his dark hair. “Those bastards were determined to keep it going.”

“Really,” She shook her head at the thought of the disturbance that took them roughly five hours to clear. She bumped fists with Mitch and Damon on their good work. She rolled up her sleeves and wiped her hands on her already wet jacket.

“We’re gonna make sure everything’s all good, then we’re going to get the hell out of here,” Nate announced to his group.

While the others checked the streets and buildings, Veronica waited by the trucks until they could load up and get back to the base. She was somewhat pleased that they’d gotten into some action. It wasn’t the kind of action she preferred, but she enjoyed it. She’d rather take combat against enemies than deal with domestic situations, such as the one earlier. Civilians were not always the nicest and most appreciative people.

At the sound of a booming laugh, Veronica looked up defensively. She assumed there were more people coming to mess around in the night. She gazed down the street, seeing two familiar figures. They were hard to miss. They were the only two heavily tattooed men not in a uniform.

“Matt?” Veronica questioned from meters away.

“Veronica,” He called her name, confirming that it was, in fact, him.

She jogged over to Matt with Brian at his side. “Hey, Brian. What are you guys doing out here? You shouldn’t be here.”

“I didn’t see any road blocks,” Brian shrugged, glancing around like he’d missed them.

“I mean, the road’s not blocked off but look at it,” She sighed, motioning to the demolished street.

“One of our friends lives like two minutes from here,” Matt explained. “He called us earlier and told us what was going on. We just decided to come out and see for ourselves since it was over.”

“It was hell,” She chuckled, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “You locals can sure enough get down.”

“Hey, that wasn’t our people,” Brian said in defense of his city. “Everyone came down for the surfing competition. That’s apparently how it all started.”

“Yeah, well, that’s a dumb reason to start going bat shit crazy,” She said. She bent down, picking up a rubber pellet. She held it between her index finger and thumb to show them. “I’m glad you guys didn’t come out here earlier. There was tear gas and everything.”

“Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt, did you?” Matt asked, noticing that the front of her jacket was wet and her jacket sleeves were rolled up to her elbows.

“I’m okay,” She smiled. “Just got splashed with a little water, that’s all.”

He nodded, glad that she was alright.

Veronica turned around, noticing that everyone was starting to get back in the Humvees. “I’ve gotta go. It’s an hour drive back to base and then another hour back to Newport. It’s really fucked up. I’m better off spending the night on base.”

The corner of Matt’s mouth turned up at her minor rant. “We’ll let you go then.”

“Goodnight,” She said, walking backwards away from them. “You guys should get out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Brian said jokingly.

Veronica rolled her eyes, throwing her arm up in a wave. She turned on her heels, jogging back to the trucks. She could feel eyes on her back until she got into the truck. She yawned, resting against the car door.

“Please, let’s go home.”