Human by Hayley Camille Page B

pressed themselves back against the walls to let her through, straight-faced in their shirts and ties, eyebrows furrowed disapprovingly. The only exception was a round man with a brightly coloured open-necked shirt and long silver hair held back in a neat, low ponytail. She grinned at Professor Karl Ellery and he saluted her with his cup as she ran by, and then chuckled into his coffee.
    Tucking her unruly hair behind her ears, Ivy joined the growing throng of people gathered in the great courtyard. Plastic tables were being set up by volunteers, bright orange and green banners hung between trees and the air was thick with anticipation. In her pocket, Ivy's hand closed on the crumpled flyer. Hundreds of the same were being passed through the crowd by volunteers in orange shirts. An outlined artistic impression of an orangutan face with large, sad eyes adorned their backs with the words ‘Systematic Genocide’ in large black print underneath. Bus loads of students arrived for their lectures and hesitated with curiosity as they wandered through the rally. Many stopped and joined the crowd. More flyers were quickly dispersed.
    Spying Liam, Ivy pushed towards an information stand. Nearby, a student in a giant orangutan costume lay on a rusty old hospital stretcher in the middle of the throng. A bloody bandage had been wrapped around his head. She paused, surprised. A little macabre maybe, but he was certainly drawing attention as people shuffled around trying to get a closer look. A second costumed student was handing out flyers in the west archway, drawing more attention from commuters. A dozen orange shirts carried posters on sticks through the crowd with photos of endangered animals behind bars. 'Green or Gone?' and 'Orphaned' were written above them in black ink. Reaching the information table, Liam had disappeared. Instead Ivy was greeted by the smiling faces of volunteers, eager to hand out information. She looked back through the milling crowd on the grass in front of the empty podium. Liam was nowhere to be seen.
    A few hundred students and passers-by were now jostling around the information booths. Orange shirts called out provocatively and cheering followed. Anticipating trouble, a few police officers roamed the outskirts of the crowd.
    “It's genocide! Systematic slaughter by multi-national corporations!” yelled an orange shirt near Ivy sporting a large banner. “Make them responsible!” Cheering and clapping resounded as the crowd closed in. “Once the forest is gone, how will the indigenous survive?” his voice rose angrily, “No forest, no food, no money! Where will the corporations be then? Counting their money!”
    The crowd again roared, eager to support this new champion to their cause. They jostled back and forth and Ivy felt bodies closing in around her. The chanting of the crowd became rhythmic, almost harmonic in intensity. Eager to escape the throng, Ivy turned away.
    It is time. The voice that had broken her nightmare, suddenly whispered warm in her ear. Ivy spun around, terrified, to find only a woman cheering the orange-shirt.
    Come to us. The voice came again, heavy in the space behind her neck, menacing in its soft promise. With a shriek Ivy spun around, wide eyed and frantic. A misplaced foot in the crowd tripped her. She fell awkwardly, grabbing at people as she hit the ground hard.
    “God damn it!” She heard gasps as people strained to look. The menacing voice was gone and her panic was broken. Suddenly, Ivy was conscious that her over-active imagination had crushed social etiquette. Again. Humiliation washed over her as she lay sprawled on the grass surrounded by feet. On this rare occasion that Ivy had chosen to wear a skirt, she now found it up around her waist. For a split second that seemed like agonising hours, the large strawberry coloured birthmark high on her left thigh glared back at the students looking down at her. Feet around her shuffled and someone heavy stood on her