It was a sight that no one had thought ever to see. It started earlier that day at just after eight AM, when one church, St. Martins-in-the-Fields, had decided to celebrate Christmas day by holding their early Communion service in the open air of Trafalgar Square. The initial congregation of a couple of hundred people had been joined by passers-by, people on their way to work, others on their way to their own churches. Over the hour of the early service, the crowd had grown to over a thousand people. Local news broadcasts had reported this phenomena as a 'nice little item' but this had acted like an invitation to the world and by ten o'clock the crowd had swelled to over eight thousand. The vicar of St. Martin's had quickly dragged their worship band out of the church and onto the steeps, PA systems were quickly set up and the still swelling crowd, were singing their hearts out.
By the time eleven o'clock arrived the media recognised the spontaneous event as an opportunity for free programming and sent their OB teams to the square, with aerial support from their 'eyes in the sky'. Now there were an estimated hundred and twenty thousand people packed into the square and the surrounding roads. Central London was choked, surface vehicles and public service vehicles could not get anywhere near the famous square, the London underground was also choked with more people trying to get to Trafalgar Square, London was at a standstill. The music was ramped up and local café’s turned the sound from the live broadcasts up to full, and it seemed that the whole of London was worshipping this Jesus, but not all.
On the stroke of twelve o'clock, announced by the nearby 'Big Ben' clock tower, another crowd, split into seven segments, one for each of the seven main access roads to the square, were approaching the outer fringes of the worshipping thousands. The objective of this crowd was not to worship but to attack. The mob had been hurriedly assemble and marshalled by a fairly recently formed 'Coalition of Militant Atheists' that went by the acronym 'CoMA'. The CoMA groups pushed into the crowd and started lashing out with baseball bats, scaffold tubes and various other items that could be used as a weapon. The screams started from all seven points, but the music was so loud that no one actually in the square heard them. No one heard, until that is, gunfire started from down the Pall Mall access route. The crowd stopped singing, and a few seconds later the band stopped playing, everyone craning their necks to see what was happening, then they heard the screams of anguish coming from all seven access roads.
Police teams who had been monitoring the event suddenly realised that there was no longer peace on Earth, and emergency calls went out to all areas. The British police headquarters was less than a mile away and both the on-duty SWAT and Anti-terrorist units were on the scene within five minutes. The police squads opened fire with energy-stun weapons on any person they saw wielding a weapon, and the police quickly became the target of the CoMA members. The impromptu worshippers were trapped in the square and panic took over from devotion. Within thirty minutes the police had the upper hand and the CoMA members started to run, pursued by arrest squads.
The lights came up to full and the floor manager gave the news-reader the count down, “Five, four, three,” and finished the countdown with fingers, finally giving a sweeping point.
“Good evening,” Lucy Forbes said with a very serious face, “here is the six o'clock news from central London.” The dramatic signature jingle interrupted her, “For the first time since broadcasting began the King's speech was cancelled today due to the disastrous events in Trafalgar Square this morning, Erin Martindale takes up the story.”
The picture changed to a shot of Erin with the flood-lit Trafalgar Square in the background, “This is the horrific scene of this morning's atrocity, that will forever mark Christmas Day twenty thirty-one as one of the saddest days in British history. At mid-day this square was filled with, what some estimates say, some hounded and twenty thousand plus people all worshipping and singing carols, when groups of thugs, belonging to CoMA, the Coalition of Militant Atheists, attacked the fringes of the crowd, killing and maiming indiscriminately.”
“The police have issued figures of the death toll which stands at two thousand three hundred and twenty-two people, with many more on the critical list, this number will inevitably rise over the next few days. The CoMA thugs and murderers approached along the main thoroughfares and attacked the back of the crowd using baseball bats, hammers, scythes, and crow-bars, and some with guns. Witnesses have said that at one time they were faced with a cloud of red mist. As you can see the roads around the square have been sealed off by police, so please, if you have business in central London over the next few days, you should avoid this area. This Erin Martindale returning you to the studio.
“Thank you Erin,” said Miss Forbes, “Parliament was recalled this afternoon to debate the crisis that seems to have hit this country. The Home Secretary, Henry Harden spoke to reporters on his way into the House of Commons an hour ago,” the interview tape was cued in and the picture changed to the gates of the Palace of Westminster.
“Home Secretary,” said a reported thrusting a microphone into his face, “what are you proposing to do about today's disaster?”
“That depends upon parliament, but I can assure the British public, that things will be done and this sort of vigilantism will not be allowed to happen again,” the Minister turned and walked away. The whole of the news bulletin was taken up with interviews of world leaders and representatives from the church and from the BHS, the British Humanist Society, who all condemned the actions of CoMA. Indeed the news was dominated by the incident for the following days.