Memories: The Dome

In early 2008 I found myself without a job, had quit somewhere in August of 2007, and wasn’t really interested in looking for anything at that point until I got a call from a friend.

“Fuck face”

“What?”

“There’s an employment fair down at Town Hall”

“Alright, I’ll drop in a few”

Got my boots, picked up some cash that I still had left over and went for the Taxi site just half a block away from home, things were quiet that day, there was a taxi already waiting to go out but he still had to wait three more minutes or so to comply with their ten minute policy, I looked around and suddenly my attention was caught by some rockets exploding, but rockets don’t explode in short controlled bursts, or in faster bursts, or in continued bursts, as a matter of fact who in their right mind would find himself exploding rockets during the late hours of the morning. Probably it’s another fight between the cartel and the police, as usual, but nothing to worry about.

We leave the site and travel seems just normal as usual, probably the cartel already fled the scene or finished with the police, or vice versa; there is another burst, then another, a couple more, finally the taxi reaches a roundabout, just halfway through the road to the main boulevard, and we find the path blocked by Federals who insist we move out of there, FAST. At this point we all know something really bad is going on. The Taxi goes right, keeps going right, more, more, at least fifteen blocks in which we find Federals, State and Municipal Police Officers blocking the path and telling us to keep going until we found one that allowed us to go through the path they were about to block with the condition that we burn rubber through the remaining road towards the boulevard to which the driver is more than happy to comply except he had to stop when he saw a truck unloading soldiers, on their desert camos, holding G3A4 rifles, their faces covered, eyes visible, not attentive to us but in a way ordering us to slow down and let them pass, we saw them rushing, from one side to the other, they lined up on what looked like a small warehouse, they did a tactical entry, they rushed inside, they cover their 6, they look at the ceiling, double time, what the fuck is going on.

We continued our way, I got off at Plaza Rio and went to Town Hall through the bridge that passes over the river, and there was nothing of interest in the damn Employment Circus, Circus because it was laughable at, had some tacos, which was the only good thing of the day, and went back home after everything had ended up on the Domed House.

Little was I aware of that the confrontation had proven to be lethal as the Military displaced the Police Forces and there was an indiscriminate fight that lasted some good two or three hours, there had been a couple of dead, there were casings all over the street, a kindergarten located half a block away from the house had to be evacuated, a friend, who was working for the SEMEFO, which is the Forensic Medical Services, told me about the gruesome scene inside the house, a soldier had received him on the entrance, he sat just two or three feet away from the entrance, he laid there motionless, half his head off, the other half covering the walls and ceiling, he hadn’t managed to take a single shot at anything, more casings, more blood, plaster, splinters, a radio that they had used to put Corridos on the open band and threaten the police that if they’d dare step into that house they would get shot, several times, with deadly AK-47s.

I still didn’t have a job…