Tiananmen Square Protester

“What is going on?” It seems so… surreal.

The year is 1989 and protests are occurring at Tiananmen Square in rebellion of the Chinese government. People are rallying… rather demanding a change… others are burning flags hoping that the government will understand and change.

The Government does understand. It understands that it must do whatever is necessary for the good of the country… and now, in this tense time for the country, the government has decided that it is for the best that the protests must end. They’ve decided to send the military into Tiananmen Square with the order to use force if necessary to end the protest. The first offensive wave is tanks… a dozen tanks, maybe more.

The tanks are driving towards Tiananmen in an ordered single filed line. As the tanks approach their destination, they run into an obstacle. A student daringly attempts to stop the tank alone! The tanks approach him, thinking he’ll move but he doesn’t. He stands firm… nervous and scared, his body shaking slightly, but he tries not to show it.

Uninterested in the boy’s game, the first tank driver attempts to drive around him, but the student moves and gets in his way. So… the tank driver attempts to drive around the boy again, but the boy moves in the way again.

The tank driver doesn’t know what to do. His commanding officer begins to cuss and swear. The boy on the other hand, still scared, decides to approach the now fully stopped tank. As he approaches, he can hear the engine of the tank rumble. Cautiously, he touches the tank… first his right hand, then his left. His hands can feel the heat from the tank on his bare hands. He now not only hears the rumble of the tank, but he feels it too. He then lifts his body up and climbs onto the tank. This wasn’t his plan… actually he didn’t really have a plan but he knows he has to do whatever is necessary to stop this oppression from the government.

Inside the tank, the driver hears a ‘thunk’ then a ‘thump’ from the boy climbing onto the tank. The driver inside the tank looks out to see the boy’s face looking back at them, but all the boy can see is black because his eyes couldn’t adjust to the light change. The driver looks at the boy’s face, and he is able to see a scar on the boy’s face, a deformity near his eye that he probably received playing sports just like the driver did when he was a boy.

The boy pulls his head out of the cabin, and continues climbing to the top towards the hatch. He’s afraid that the tank will move, so he climbs cautiously, so that he won't fall off. ‘Clink,’ he hears, unsure what the sound is. Another ‘clink,’ and he looks to see the hatch beginning to open. He begins to race down, off the tank. It’s hard to climb down; he doesn’t want to lose his footing. Then, suddenly a ‘whoosh’ and ‘bang’ and he knows the hatch is open. Just as the boy reaches the ground, he turns and he can see an officer come out of the hatch.

The officer wore a prominent green hat, with a red band wrapped around it. The same green color consumed the officers jacket as well. His face was angry, his eyes narrowed in on the boy. His narrow face added to his high cheekbones gave his face a spooky, mean feeling.

Frightened and scarred, unsure what to do, the boy stares at the officer… engraving the officers face into memory, purely subconsciously. He hesitates, and then as quickly as he decided to stand in front of those tanks, he swiftly flees the scene, leaving the angered tankers behind.