Panic on the Streets

I remember clearly the day the trouble really started. We'd gone for lunch at an Indonesian restaurant across the road from the barracks. We were heading out the door, when suddenly a strange wind blew up the road, and everyone out there began to run towards the hills. The restaurant proprietor quickly locked the grilled front gate, and we all waited anxiously for about a half hour. We could see a big plume of black smoke rising up from somewhere in the direction of the parliament building. The rebels, who were protesting at the parliament, had broken through police lines and started smashing and burning cars and motorbikes. Somehow news of this reached the people on the street, and they ran.