Prompt 165: Ficlet
Title: The Day The World Ended
Author: angelus2hot
Rating: PG-13(character death)
Word Count: 362
Prompt: 165
Characters/Pairing: Book
The day had begun like any other. Everyone went about his or her daily business of trying to scratch a living out of the backwater planet. While the grown ups were busy with the day to day survival their kids ran and played pretending to be soldiers from a battle long over and best forgotten.
Suddenly, without warning fire reigned from the heavens, screams filled the air and blood covered the ground like a river. The world as they knew it was gone. Nothing would ever be the same again but no one would be left alive to realize it.
*****
At the first scream, Shepherd Book tossed the Bible he'd been reading onto the bed and ran out of the room. He stopped still in the doorway his eyes wide in shock, his mouth open in a silent scream. Dead, broken bodies were everywhere but it was the littlest ones that ripped a hole through his heart. This couldn't be happening, it shouldn't be happening. Dear God, why was this happening?
If there was one thing Shepherd Book was sure of it was that mere men shouldn't get to decide who would live and who would die and he doesn't want to play God. But someone has to stop the ship.
Silently, his heart pounding in his chest he ran passed the bodies of his friends and their children. He had to get to the cannon. A blast sounded and suddenly his legs buckled out from under him. A scream was torn from his throat.
After what seemed like hours but in truth was only moments he managed to crawl his way to the cannon and fire upon the ship. With two shots he managed to kill the ship that destroyed them all.
He finally allowed his body to collapse where he stood and let the remorse overcome him. He knew that firing on the ship wasn't a very Christian thing to do but he had to believe it was the right thing.
As he lay his head back and waited for the Lord to take him, whispered prayers passed his lips for all the souls that were lost, including his own.
Author: angelus2hot
Rating: PG-13(character death)
Word Count: 362
Prompt: 165
Characters/Pairing: Book
The day had begun like any other. Everyone went about his or her daily business of trying to scratch a living out of the backwater planet. While the grown ups were busy with the day to day survival their kids ran and played pretending to be soldiers from a battle long over and best forgotten.
Suddenly, without warning fire reigned from the heavens, screams filled the air and blood covered the ground like a river. The world as they knew it was gone. Nothing would ever be the same again but no one would be left alive to realize it.
*****
At the first scream, Shepherd Book tossed the Bible he'd been reading onto the bed and ran out of the room. He stopped still in the doorway his eyes wide in shock, his mouth open in a silent scream. Dead, broken bodies were everywhere but it was the littlest ones that ripped a hole through his heart. This couldn't be happening, it shouldn't be happening. Dear God, why was this happening?
If there was one thing Shepherd Book was sure of it was that mere men shouldn't get to decide who would live and who would die and he doesn't want to play God. But someone has to stop the ship.
Silently, his heart pounding in his chest he ran passed the bodies of his friends and their children. He had to get to the cannon. A blast sounded and suddenly his legs buckled out from under him. A scream was torn from his throat.
After what seemed like hours but in truth was only moments he managed to crawl his way to the cannon and fire upon the ship. With two shots he managed to kill the ship that destroyed them all.
He finally allowed his body to collapse where he stood and let the remorse overcome him. He knew that firing on the ship wasn't a very Christian thing to do but he had to believe it was the right thing.
As he lay his head back and waited for the Lord to take him, whispered prayers passed his lips for all the souls that were lost, including his own.