Chaos Walking Childhood One Shots

Todd - Aaron's Preaching

"...and the eternal flames of damnation will continue to rage beneath us if our ways remain the same. We were called here to rule, to stand above the creatures that roamed this bountiful home of ours, just as God continues to rule above us..."
On and on and on.
Aaron is preaching his regular sermon on our duty as God's people, like he does every Sunday.
I don't know how much of it I believe. He tells us things like how the Spackle were beneath us, how it was in our right to kill them, and how it's still in our right to remember them as some kinda lower beings. I don't know much for sure about the Spackle, but what I do know is that they ain't around to prove him wrong.
So I guess he's gotta be right.
Still seems like a pretty useless sermon to me, seeing as the Spackle are all dead.
"Todd..." Cillian warns under his breath.
But I can't help it.
Aaron's preaching drags on, and in the low light of the church and the heat of the sun on the metal walls around us, I have to think about something so I don't fall asleep.
Most of the Noise around me is tired or emotional from the teaching, which definitely ain't keeping me awake neither.
I try to focus on Aaron again.
"We are His chosen people, the ones that surpassed every trial thrown before us. We claimed this planet as our own with the strength that we were gifted..."
(Not true. None of the women survived and only half the men seemed to have this strength gifted to them-)
"...God's voice rings on in our thoughts..."
(Still, all I ever hear in men's Noise is just that, men-)
"...and when the day comes to finally let that voice be heard, we will once again find our place as God's victorious army."
(Assuming we've left any Spackle on this planet to even try and hurt us-)
"Todd," Cillian hisses.
I shut myself up.
The victorious army bit is the most interesting thing Aaron's said today, but Ben's avoiding eye contact and Cillian's got a glare like you wouldn't believe, so I don't let myself think about it no more.

Finally, after what feels like days and days of preaching, Aaron steps down from the pulpit and men start to get up and head back out to their day.
I wait for Cillian to stand first so he doesn't get mad at me again, and when he does, he's itching to get out of here too.
"Let's get ourselves home," Ben tries to say calmly to lighten the mood, "looked like there was a storm coming earlier this morning."
We leave the sanctuary and make our way into the front room of the church, Cillian looking 'round nervously in case Aaron is behind us.
I don't know what he's so tense about, Aaron didn't say anything different than he normally says-
"Todd, if you don't learn to keep yer ruddy Noise down during church, Aaron's gonna have a whole lot more to say to you than I ever will."
Cillian turns on me so fast I didn't even realize he was still mad at me.
For a second I just stare at him, baffled by the sudden scolding.
"Cillian," Ben says, tired as anyone is on Sunday, but still trying to keep us level-headed. "He didn't mean nothing by it, let's just get home and we'll talk about it later."
"No, we tried that last week. You said we'd talk later and later never happened, and here we are again in the same old situation."
I let out a huff of breath, cuz Cillian's talking about it like I ain't even standing here.
To be more than honest with you, I'd rather be spending my time with the group of boys that just caught my eye, Noises all up and excited and thinking about going to the swamp to screw around with the birds as usual.
My Noise is still bored of church and restless to be somewhere else, and the last thing I want right now is Cillian's latest life lesson.
The boys catch me looking at them.
"You comin', Todd?" Seb Mundy yells over to me from just outside the church.
And do I ever want to-
"No," Cillian says to me mostly. "Todd and I are gonna have a talk about his manners. Y'all can go and he might catch up later."
Anger starts roiling somewhere deep in my stomach, but I don't have any time to worry about that cuz we didn't even notice that the church has started to really empty out-
"It ain't too wise to stick around here long," Aaron says right behind us. "Not with this storm on the way. Wouldn't want any boys to get hurt out there."
He's looking right at me, with some deep-pitted pain that I'll never get close enough to try to figure out.
"We were just leaving," Cillian says, turning me to the door, apology in his Noise at whatever disruption my thoughts caused during the sermon.
I can't look at anyone as I'm pushed outside, but I can feel Aaron's eyes on me as he shuts the door behind us.
"Cillian, it's okay," Ben assures him again. "Aaron ain't mad at Todd."
"We still gotta talk," Cillian says down to me. "You can't keep letting your head wander like that, yer gonna get in some serious trouble with him one day-"
"Later," Ben says one more time. "We'll talk later. The sermon was enough for today, we don't need much else to make the day any darker."
I look up at Ben, kind of pleased that he at least thinks Aaron's preaching is as depressing as I think it is.
Ben flashes me half a smile.
I turn around and give another longing look to the boys waiting for me down the road.
"Can I go now, Ben?" I whisper, glancing nervously at the back of Cillian's head.
Ben nods and opens his mouth to speak, but Cillian interrupts-
"You'd better be home soon. I don't want you getting caught in the weather."
I don't stick around long in case he changes his mind.