Chapter 39: You Won't Take Our Life From Us
MONDAY
[Hallways, Atenamal Regional High, 8:53 AM]
MR GOERING: (in passing) "Morning, Oscar."
OSCAR: "Goering?" (Goering stops; Oscar looks around) "You told Nick that you're gay."
MR GOERING: (sighs) "Sometimes, Oscar, we have to tell little white lies to prove a point."
OSCAR: "And you were proving..." (...) "You were proving that what Nick was saying wasn't because he was concerned for true Americans' dispositions; he was saying it because he was blatantly racist and homophobic." (...) "You know he's going to start that rumour now, right? You might need to defend yourself."
MR GOERING: (he shrugs) "The students can call me gay all they want. Why defend myself against something that's not offensive?"
(Oscar thinks about it for a second, then he smiles)
OSCAR: "I'm going to pass that one on to Fender."
MR GOERING: "He'll be glad to hear it. Go to class, now."
[Enter Elsie]
ELSIE: (she's clearly preoccupied) "Hi Mr Goering." (looks at Oscar) "I'm putting together a counter-protest once the walk-out starts. At least thirty students have said they'll join me - probably more."
MR GOERING: "Count me in. Have you got signs?"
ELSIE: "Not much. Do you think... do you think you guys can make some during lunch?"
OSCAR: "Yeah, Elsie. Where are we meeting?"
ELSIE: "The flagpole. Then we'll go down to the roundabout."
OSCAR: "It's just a couple dozen alt-right students. Everything should be fine."
...
[Flagpole, Atenamal Regional High, 1:03 PM]
(a group of students had gathered under the flagpole; some students are pouring out onto the street, encouraged by Nick McCarthy)
RANDOM WHITE BOY: (yelling; in passing) "'Sup, half-breed fucktard?"
(Oscar gives him the middle finger)
ELSIE: (clearly under pressure) "Okay - is everyone here? Do we have everyone?"
MR GOERING: "There's more coming up."
ELSIE: (addressing the students who are walking over to join them) "HURRY UP! WE'RE GOING NOW!"
MR GOERING: "You know, Elsie, this might not last long. Doesn't look like Nick's gathered many supporters."
ELSIE: (handing signs to people) "You're right, he only has about twenty. Doesn't mean we don't continue fighting."
FENDER: (solemn) "Twenty? Does that count the middle-aged men in muscle shirts marching up the street now?"
ELSIE: (whipping around) "What?"
(a group of white men have arrived; they don't stop coming; all seem to be at least twenty years old - most are in their 50s-60s; they carry confederate flags, Nazi flags, alt-right protest signs; some wear makeshift KKK caps; some wear bandannas over their faces; some carry SWAT riot shields)
(the group of men comes in contact with Nick's pack; some sub-groups start chanting; the march begins)
BASIL: "That's gotta be at least a hundred."
MR GOERING: (almost stunned) "No, Basil. That's at least one thousand."
ELSIE: (over the chants of the fascist protestors) "Doesn't matter. We came here to do one job! And whether I do it alone, with Oscar, with forty students, or with a thousand people, this rally will meet a match!"
(some of the counter-protestors clap; some woop)
ELSIE: "Now let's get to the roundabout before it's surrounded. Hold your signs high."
...
[The walk there, The Street Outside Atenamal High, 1:09 PM]
(they're walking amoungst the rowdy, black-clad fascist protestors)
OSCAR: "I didn't think there were this many white men in the town."
FENDER: (looking around as he pushes Basil) "Me neither. Listen to them."
OSCAR: "I wish I didn't have to." (...) "You know, Fender, Mr Goering only said he was gay to prove a point. I told him he might have to start defending himself, once the rumours get out. He said, 'why defend myself against something that's not offensive?'."
FENDER: "I'm not defending myself anymore." (looks at Oscar with a sad half-smile) "Remember? That's what I told Gabi, when I called her a bitch. I shouldn't have done that."
OSCAR: "Called her a bitch? She deserved it. She's been like that for a while. Maybe her entire school career."
FENDER: "I still don't like that word."
OSCAR: "You didn't have to like it to call her it. In fact, that just makes it even more profound, the fact that you used such a degenerate word on her."
FASCIST PROTESTORS: "UNITE THE RIGHT! UNITE THE RIGHT! UNITE THE RIGHT! UNITE THE RIGHT! UNITE THE..."
ELSIE: (screaming) "OSCAR!"
OSCAR: "What?"
(Elsie points up ahead; a group of non-Atenamal students had formed to counter the fascist protestors; there are women, people of colour and men who hold Black Lives Matter signs galore; they begin a chant of their own though it's indistinguishable against the thundering boom of the white men marching down the street)
BASIL: "Fender, you might want to go a bit faster."
(it gradually becomes clear that a riot had broke out between the fascist protestors and the counter-protestors; the street is filled with yelling, curse words, and scuffling; skirmishes are breaking out)
MR GOERING: "Everyone, go to the roundabout, now!"
(Oscar starts running; he turns back to see Fender struggling with Basil's wheelchair; Oscar runs back to them and gets hit in the face with the base of a sign on his way)
FENDER: "Her wheel is stuck on something - "
OSCAR: (crouching to meddle with the wheels) "The lock came down." (unlocks it) "Come on - "
FENDER: (pausing in the midst of the ruckus) "Your face is bleeding..."
OSCAR: "Doesn't hurt - come on - "
(a pair of people - a woman counter-protestor and a male fascist - in a scrum boulder into Oscar, knocking him to the pavement; his head is kicked by somebody's boot; suddenly an older-looking white man with a mustache and a shirt that reads 'PROUD SUPPORTER of the MUSLIM BAN' materializes over Oscar)
MAN: "ARE YOU FOR US, OR ARE YOU AGAINST US, BOY?" (Oscar feels dizzy) "ARE YOU FOR US, OR ARE YOU AGAINST US?"
(Fender grabs Oscar by the hand and pulls him up; they start weaving their way through the exploding crowd)
(Shots ring out behind them)
OSCAR: "Oh shit - !"
(the three of them make it to the roundabout; the Atenamal counter-protestors are mostly on the curb of the roundabout or on the decorative rocks in the middle)
ELSIE: "Someone's shot! Someone got shot!"
OSCAR: "We know - "
ELSIE: (sees Oscar's face) "Oscar! Oh my God!"
OSCAR: "I know - "
MR GOERING: "Let's put the banner up now - And remember, peaceful protesting! We don't want to get anyone hurt!"
MS HARROWFORD: "Walter, we have to call it off. We're putting our students in danger." (police sirens wailing) "Someone was just shot down there - "
MR GOERING: "Anyone who wants to leave can leave, Mindy. Only they'd have to fight their way through a sea of angry armed men to get somewhere safe. We're here now - we may as well stick together until - LET'S PUT THE SIGN UP!"
MS OVAL: (begins chanting loudly) "NO NAZIS! NO KKK! NO FASCIST USA! NO NAZIS! NO KKK! NO FASCIST USA! NO N... "
(the other students and teachers join in; some stray counter-protestors from outside school join in; the chant barely rings out over the street)
FASCIST PROTESTORS: "WHITE LIVES MATTER! WHITE LIVES MATTER! WHITE LIVES MATTER! WHITE LIVES MATTER! WHITE LIVES MAT..."
COUNTER PROTESTORS: "BLACK LIVES MATTER! BLACK LIVES MATTER! BLACK LIVES MATTER! BLACK LI..."
(another skirmish begins on the lawn of an apartment building)
(the police show up in numbers; most wear riot gear - riot shields, armor, helmets)
(the chanting dies out a bit)
ELSIE: (she looks around; she holds her sign higher; she begins a chant) "NAZIS GO HOME! NAZIS GO HOME! NAZIS GO HOME! - "
(the counter-protestors take up her chant)
FASCIST MAN: (yelling) "STUPID NIGGERS!"
(the media are swarming the scene with cameras)
ANOTHER FASCIST MAN: (in passing) "BUILD THE WALL!"
OSCAR: "Build the wall to keep you out of Mexico!" (Fender grabs his arm)
(the man turns around and squares up to Oscar, putting his face right up in Oscar's business)
MAN: "WAD YOU SAY T' ME? WAD YOU SAY T' ME?" (he roughs Oscar up; the teachers in the counter-protest start yelling in terror) "GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY! LAND OF FILTH! LAND OF RAPISTS!" (the man keeps making a move to leave, then turning back to yell at Oscar) "THIS IS OUR COUNTRY! BLOOD AND SOIL! WE FOUND THIS LAND, WE BUILT THIS LAND GROUND-UP, MOTHERFUCKER! Y' GOT SOMETHING T' SAY NOW?" (gets closer than ever) "GET OFF MY LAND, SPIC! - "
(Mr Goering steps off the roundabout curb and cross-punches the man in the face; a policeman intercepts Goering, grabs him by the arms and body-slams him to the pavement)
MAN: "FUCK YOU, COMMIES!" (hustles away, like a frightened beetle)
OSCAR: (trying to get to Goering; he's a bit disoriented) "Goering - Goering - "
ELSIE: (belting) "OSCAR! STOP!"
(Oscar looks around, feeling dazed)
FENDER: (grabs his arm again) "Are you okay? Do you need to get out of here?"
(Oscar shakes his head)
(Basil sees a counter-protestor girl being pulled to the ground by a mob of white-nationalist men; she starts wheeling herself through the throng towards them)
FENDER: (looking around) "Where's Basil?" (yelling) "Where's Basil!?"
ELSIE: (screaming) "I SEE HER! I'LL GO GET HER!"
(Basil stares a man holding a 'NIGGERS = VIOLENT AMERICA' sign down as she makes her way to the girl who'd been pulled down; some man starts shaking Basil's wheelchair to taunt her, yelling profanities; more men group around Basil to taunt and torment her, jabbing her with sticks and yelling)
(Elsie is ducking out of the way of multiple skirmishes before she reaches Basil; she pushes several men out of the immediate vicinity, earning a few gropes and hits)
ELSIE: (breathless; yelling over the noise around her) "Are you okay? Basil, you're bleeding!"
BASIL: (tears going down her cheeks) "Someone hit me on the head..."
ELSIE: "What were you thinking!?"
BASIL: "There's a girl up there - I think..."
ELSIE: "I saw her too - she got out, though. She's not hurt. You are, though."
BASIL: (clearly distraught) "Elsie, why - why - " (she looks around, seeing all the signs and all the white men swarming her)
ELSIE: (places a badge that reads 'Diversity Is Our Strength' in Basil's hand) "Here. Put this on when we get back to the roundabout."
(Elsie starts wheeling Basil back towards the roundabout)
BASIL: "Shit - Elsie! I dropped it."
ELSIE: "The badge? You dropped the badge?"
BASIL: "It's okay - Elsie. ELSIE!"
(Elsie walks the couple feet back to where Basil dropped the badge; she bends down to pick it up - )
(the crowd starts screaming; a car is ramming through the protestors; it hits Elsie)
BACK AT THE ROUNDABOUT
OSCAR: (sees the car ram through the crowd) "HOLY FUCK - "
MS HARROWFORD: (screaming) "ELSIE! DO YOU SEE ELSIE!?"
(the car hits the breaks and starts backing away rapid-fire; some people are chasing after it; civilians lie wounded on the street; first-responders start sprinting to the scene)
FENDER: "Where's Basil - where's Basil - "
OSCAR: (shoving through the crowd) "BASIL? ELSIE?"
THE SHERIFF ON A MEGAPHONE: "Everyone is to leave the street immediately. Everyone is to leave the street immediately. Everyone - "
FASCIST PROTESTORS: (they begin a new chant, seeming to claim the car-attack as their own) "YOU WON'T TAKE OUR LAND FROM US! YOU WON'T TAKE OUR LAND FROM US! YOU WON..."
(Oscar gets wacked in the face by a flag pole; he's jabbed and nudged as he makes his way to the scene of the car-attack; first he sees Basil, for the most part unharmed) "BASIL - " (then he looks and sees Elsie laying motionless on the pavement)
FENDER: (catching up with him) "What happened? Is she okay? Where is she - " (he sees Elsie) "Why is nobody doing anything?" (starts shouting) "WHY IS NOBODY DOING ANYTHING?" (to the medics assisting other injured people) "HELP HER! SHE'S FOURTEEN! SOMEONE HELP HER!"
(a medic checks her pulse; he starts performing CPR on her; this goes on a while)