“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.
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