Easy target - Flash Fiction Challenge - The four-part story (Part 1)

“The church bells may ring” Shabu told the kid just before leaving him. “They will ring every hour.”

And indeed the bells rang every hour making it difficult for him to sleep.

“You will be safe here” Shabu said.

The kid was old enough to know Shabu was right. In fact, the church was the safest place around. The church was a big building and the people who left the town passed by without thinking twice to stay in the church. “Easy target” they said. But what they did not know is there was one room that was secure against bombs and earthquakes. They called it bunker and was built long time ago for protection during the first world war.

Of course Shabu had been around when the church was built, he had actually been around long time before that, so when the war began he knew this was the safest place for the boy.

When he first arrived to the town, it wasn't even a town, it was just 2 or 3 houses, even too far away from each other to be part of any town. Shabu helped build most of the buildings and he became the the mayor and one of the funders of the town. That was until some of the near towns got together and tried to get Shabu's town to join them and their government. That would mean being subordinated to them, paying them taxes and letting them take the children to war if they needed to. When he refused to join them, they took the town by force, and they turned Shabu against everybody, calling him a criminal and turning him into a pariah.

Years before the war, one rainy night of October, there was a knock on Shabu's door. He was not expecting anybody, in fact nobody would dare to visit him or talk to him. It was a big surprise when he found the little baby mysteriously outside of his door. He never knew who left the baby, but if the town knew about this, they would never let him keep him, so he decided to act like it was his own child.

He never gave him a name, maybe he didn't want to get attached to that sweet child but, in spite of this, one day he realized he loved the child more than himself. He did everything for him, for many years his whole life was taking care of the child. He taught him how to behave, how to write, how to read, how to paint, etc. He never knew one day he would have to abandon him to protect him

There was plenty of food in the church for the little boy to survive. The kitchen was a big space with long tables, like a dining room in a school. There was a storage with plenty of food. This place was used as a diner for those who didn't have enough money for food. Even Shabu and the kid had been there a few times when times were rough. They gave 2 meals a day and it used to help many people, but this time there was no one left in the town to feed.

2 months passed by and Shabu did not come back for him. He could hear bombs and shootings in the distance once in a while. Whenever he would hear these noises the intelligent boy would hide away in the bunker. There were plenty of food cans and frozen food in the bunker as well, at least to survive 1 or 2 years if he had to. After the second month he started rationing the food in case he would need to stay there for even longer.

After a while, there were no explosions or any other noises. The church bells were the only noise. They were not a bother anymore, he had gotten used to them. Everyday he would sit down to have breakfast and after that he would pass the day reading books and playing chess with himself.

One cold night he woke up suddenly. It was just after midnight. Everything seemed normal, but the kid knew something was wrong. There was too much silence. He waited one hour to see if his suspicions were right.

When the clock on the wall showed it was 1.00 am, the kid knew what was wrong. It was not the noise of the bells that woke him up, it was the silence. The bells were not ringing anymore.

There could be two reasons, the bells were broken for not being maintained or, the most probable but terrifying reason, someone or something stopped the bells from ringing.

The kid came out of the bedroom and went downstairs trying to be as quiet as possible. There was some dim light coming from the kitchen, maybe from a candle. Did he forget to turn off the candles last night? He didn't think so. He walked to the door, stealthily, trying to listen to any noise. He peaked through the crack of the door and he saw them.

At least 20 men were sleeping on the kitchen floor. On top of the long tables were lying empty plates and glasses. Jackets, coats and bags on top of the chairs. The clothing looked like those of the army men, with the typical green pattern used for camouflage. There were different kind of weapons on the chairs and leaning against the wall.

His first thought was to run away and out of that church, but he didn't have time to react. He felt the cold barrel of a gun against his head.

“Who are you?” The soldier asked. “Talk or I will shoot you.”

But what the soldier didn't know is that the kid was born mute. He could never speak a word.

“You have brought this to yourself” Said the soldier after seeing the kid would not talk. With a sudden move, he lifted up his gun on the air and prepared to bring it down on the kid's head with all his strength.