Dark Space

Chapter Seven; Losing My Religion

I stared at Joseph, who stood smiling in front of me. He seemed unhinged to me, as if he were clinically insane.

"We'll just turn around and leave. No harm done" I said, beginning to turn on my heel. As I began to usher my people in the opposite direction, every gun pointed at us was suddenly cocked and ready to fire.

"I don't see this being settled with logic, do you?" I asked Violet, who was on my left.

"Not really, but they're too spread out for us to take on. We wait until we have an opportunity" Violet instructed. I nodded.

"I'm going to need all your weapons. Then your people need to get on the ground" Joseph said. I couldn't see him, but I could tell he was smiling.

"Okay... guys, do as he says" I said with a false fearful tone of voice. we dropped all of our weapons and laid on our stomachs on the ground. The people ran swiftly down on to the road and tied our hands behind our backs.

"Thank you very much. We'll take good care of you from here" Joseph said as we were lifted forcefully to our feet. They marched us down the road and into a massive walled off farm. They walked us into a massive metal, two story, barn, cut our hands free and locked the two huge doors behind us. Carter and Jamie instantly walked around the perimeter of the barn, checking for weaknesses in the walls. Abbie and Darcie were Scouting around trying to find a way up to the second story. Violet, Corey and I were stood around, trying to see if there were any ways out. Jeffrey was practically having a panic attack. Jake and Tim were trying to calm him down,

"Okay, doesn't look like we're under guard" I observed. Suddenly, someone walked up to the edge of the walkway above us,

"QUIET DOWN THERE!" the young man's voice yelled at us.

"Spoke too soon" I sighed. The walkway was about twelve feet above us, not too hard to jump to with some help. I turned to violet and nodded. She pretended to click her fingers, squatted down with her fingers locked and nodded to me. I ran at her at full speed, put my left foot in her hands and she catapulted me high into the air. I reached for the walkway and just about grabbed on to it. I pulled myself up and the guard came rushing over, aiming his high powered rifle directly at my head.

"I don't want to have to shoot you, but I will" he growled. I smiled at him and shook my head. he was, after all, too close. I grabbed the barrel of the gun and snatched it out of his hands. I hit him in the forehead with the butt of the rifle, knocking him out cold. I looked around and found a ladder behind me. I lowered it down to the ground floor and everyone climbed up with me. I threw the guard down to the ground floor and pulled the ladder up to the walkway.

"What do we do now?" Corey asked.

"Well, we have to get out of here as fast as we can. No telling what these maniacs will do to us" I stated. I peered out of a huge window in the side of the barn and saw a massive pile of wood outside with a massive wooden pole sticking out of it. Just as I was about to speak again, about thirty people dressed in holy robes with preacher's collars escorted a young man bound and gagged, in nothing but a pair of shorts and black shoes, out to the massive pile of wood and tied his torso and his ankles to the pole at the centre of the pyre.

"This young man, left behind in this holy time, is obviously a sinner!" an old man began calling out his sermon, "The ones that these sinners call 'the dead' are just people whose souls have been raptured to heaven and we, the faithful, are left behind to cure those unfaithful to our cause, left behind in this rapture, of their sins!" The old man yelled.

"What the hell are they doing?" Violet asked. Just as she asked this, one of the preachers, Father Joseph, walked up the pyre and began pouring liquid over the man's head as he struggled against his bonds and tried calling for help, but it came out as muffled groans.