One's Hat-Pins failed.[2014WC]

The World was supposed to end in December 2012, it didn’t.

Numerous new dates were raised in 2013 and in the early months of 2014, with wild speculation of Earth shattering cataclysmic events, all failed to come-to-pass.

September the 14th 2014, no-one had predicted anything to happen on that day. For most, it was just an ordinary day. People consumed with their own individual lives, scuttled around unduly doing their chores to fulfil that days demands put upon them by life.

News day was very quiet, mostly filled with the usual reports of rioting across Europe following the collapse of the Euro a year earlier. At first people were glued to those events unfolding, in utter disbelief at first that such acts, on such a huge scale could ever happen in Europe. It did.

People quickly became desensitised to it and boredom grew of the constant negative news coverage.
“Give us something good and up lifting to watch” were the demands from the viewers; reported to the board of BBC News Corporation by their investigation team. Their viewing figures were falling; they needed to give the viewers what they wanted to see, so they decided to focus on the Royal Family and produce coverage on the things they were doing for the Country on an hourly basis.

It was on September the 14th, that it began its first change to the hourly programme schedule.
At 10:15 am, the Queen Elizabeth was opening a new homeless shelter in Knightsbridge, of all places. An all pretty inane event and usually a totally un-newsworthy story, but it gave the BBC a chance to set the ball rolling on their new up-lifting feel.

The presenter, a young woman in her mid-twenties did her best to hype up the event she was covering, though deep inside she wanted to report on the latest night of rioting in Clapham. The main shopping centre had been totally destroyed by fire, that spread out of control due to the Fire Department refusing to go there for their own safety.

The small Square in Knightsbridge, off the main roads and more popular busy streets had become a hive of excitement. Parents had brought their children, all given free Union Jack flags which they waved frantically upon seeing the arrival of the car which carried the Queen. Cheers turned to squeals of delight upon glimpsing the Queen, who dutifully waved back with gloved hand and smiled at them as she passed.

Even though it was a cold and very windy day, like it had been for the past week, no-one could have dampened the enthusiasm and up-whelming love given off by the crowd towards Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth. The cheers grew to a climax as she got out of the car and stepped into the Homeless Shelter through the glass revolving doors.

The BBC news reporter gushed at her grace for her age, gave detailed descriptions of her attire and was amazed at how her hat, had stayed in place following 'several' strong gusts of wind, that seemed to lift it up at its sides, half expecting it to take off up into the air at any moment.

“Hat-pins!” she reported. “Lots and lots of them! Her maids must have done a really good job in securing THAT HAT.” She grinned to the camera. “With all those hat pins, at least she’ll be used to all that extra weight” she giggled.

Then they waited. The wind whipped up within the square like the starting of a mini-tornado, much to the delight of the young children who giggled and laughed at the adult’s discomfort.
They waited. Then she arrived for her departure.


Her bright blue hat and matching coat gave it away; it brought the crowd back into a frenzy of heart rending cheers as she stepped back into the glass revolving door. The burly security guards, (probably MI6) gave each other glancing concerns at the immense buffering the glass door was taking from the wind. That being the only exit meeting the red carpet, laid out by the charity in honour of their Royal guest, it had to do.

The glassed section she was in opened, out into the wind. She stepped out and stumbled due to an over-zealous security guard, as he tried to guide her away from the still moving glass door behind her.
A few gasps from the crowd nearest to her erupted out over the cheers as she fell backwards, head first towards the 'still-moving' edge of the revolving door and towards the metal framework which encased it.

Then it suddenly abruptly stopped. The Queens head leaned uptight against it. Her feet gave way from underneath her due to the force of being pulled sideways, her body slumped. There she hung like 'a coat on a peg' by the rim of her blue hat, wedged into the edge of the doorway.

The security guards, at lightning speed went to her assistance. They weren’t quick enough. A sloppy noise like the sound of 'pulling off a tight fitting wellington boot, filled with water' seemed to emanate from the Queen, as her heavy dangling body then fell onto the ground with a thud.

The guard’s leapt back in astonishment, their mouths agape.

There beneath the hat, still wedged in the doorway, flapped the skin from her face and hair from her head, still attached to 'that hat'.

The Queen’s body was lifeless, gasps of disbelief echoed out from within the square.

She then rolled over, exposing a bright green slimy skull, then lifted her misshapen head and opened her eyes.
Two yellow diamonds surveyed the now screaming crowd, she sprang to her feet, ran over to the car which awaited her departure and leapt over the bonnet towards the object her gaze had settled upon.
She crouched down beside the steel manhole cover and ripped it open, tossing it high into the air like a plastic Frisbee. It impacted into the side of the Homeless Shelter with an almighty clang.
The Queen again raised her head to meet the crowd and hissed angrily, then jumped down into the dark depths of the sewer.

Well, that was it! It went global.

Three hours later, that’s when the lights began to show up in the sky.