Christian's Sanctuary of Succinct Fiction

We stumbled up to Dustrocks right at noon, right as the sun was as high as it could possibly be. Sister June seemed to be none too bothered by the heat and the sun. I, on the other hand, was dying.  “You aren’t dying,” she said.  “The hell… I’m not…” “Calm down, feel the Lord’s light.”  “I’m feeling it now, it’s hotter than hell.”  “You two! Stop!” One of the men guarding the gates yelled to us. “Friend or foe?”  “We’re with the Monastery!” Shouted June.   I watched them shoot each other a look. One of them rubbed the back of his head and started walking away. “I’m not dealing with them,” I could hear him say as he left.  “The Monastery, huh? You know your territory is,” he pointed back the way we came, "back that way."   I stumbled up to him, and managed to get ahold of his collar. “Do you see a car? We’re dying out here for shits’ sake. Open the god damn gate.”   He shoved me back with the stock of his rifle. “Get the hell of...

When our lips parted and I looked into her eyes, my heart sank.  “What’s wrong?” I asked. She looked away, out towards the training yard.  “I… uh… sorry, Anna. I didn’t mean to worry you, it’s just that…” “What?”  “It’s just that I don’t know how much longer I can do this. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. Am I supposed to be able to rest with everything going on out there?”  “Are you talking about the war? Why? We’re home now, we’re safe. Besides…” I flexed my arm and smiled. "Nothing's getting past me."  “I'm sorry, Anna. I don’t feel safe. I never do.”  … The sand was very nearly blinding as it whipped up and around. I stared through my goggles at the gnarled creature crouched in front of me. It dug into the guts of one of those pilgrims with the urgency of a starving ghoul, due to it being a starving ghoul.  No, don’t let it happen to you too. They were a person once, just…  “You’re not her, are you?” It ignored me and continued digging. I don’t k...