We've all been beaten back and the remaining six zealots are closing in. We might all die yet. We cluster around the pulpit, shooting as best we can. Around me, I can hear bullets start to hit their marks. Though we're dodging our best, Malik and Kenji have now also taken bullets. I decide to stop hoping and prepare to stand from my position and just take out as many of them as I can. I look around at my friends. We did good. We did really fucking good.
"Hey Tal?" I say.
"No, I know that voice!" My earpiece clips from how loud Talyn is shrieking, "Do not do anything heroic. I have another explosive, I brought it just in case. Which purple cluster are you?" I don't want to throw it in the wrong group. I laugh; my girl always has a plan.
"We're closer to the pulpit."
"Got it, everyone look out!"
KA-FUCKING-BOOM!
Then silence. I dare to peek over the pew.
"Everyone ok?" Talyn asks, "That was bigger than it was supposed to be."
"You've made a huge hole in our floor, darling," I chuckle as I survey the crater.
"But everyone's alive?" she asks nervously.
I turn to my friends.
"Are we all alive?" I ask, and poor bleeding Roman gives me a thumbs up. I take a deep breath.
"We're alive!" Then I laugh. And I laugh and laugh.
"FUCK YES!" I laugh harder, standing, looking out at all the bodies. It's probably fucked up to be this excited about all these dead people. I'm certain I'll feel bad about it later, and probably lose a lot of sleep, but right now I'm jumping for joy. We lived, and this church is ours. I start towards the stairs to the steeple. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kenji hugging the two little girls he rescued. I smile as I continue up the stairs.
By the time I'm almost there, I'm dizzy and breathing heavily, but I'm ecstatic nonetheless.
I burst out into the night air, the cold slapping me in my face. My girl who's also ecstatic greets me.
"We did it!" She whoops and holds her arms out to me. I grab her face yet again and kiss her. It's not a tender kiss, it's an excited, adrenaline-filled, passionate kiss. When we pull away I grin down at Bishop.
"This is gonna be fun," I reach up to the handle of the bell, "This is my steeple now." I laugh again. I ring the bell with all my might, announcing to all of New Canaan...this is our church.
And this is our steeple.
YOU ARE READING
The Steeple- Orignal Story
Science FictionA work of original Science Fiction, written as a final for an English class, but I was extremely proud of it and wanted to put it somewhere. CW for violence and cursing
