Callie leaned against her handle as if it was a staff and rubbed her ankle. She was definitely hurt. She said, “I think I twisted my ankle.”
Suddenly there were pounding footsteps coming down the northbound road. Fast footfalls. Not a shambling man but someone running. I glanced around the corner and spotted a woman in military fatigues and cap running in our direction with a handgun drawn. When she passed the intersection the group of men had been traveling toward they began screaming all kinds of filthy things at her. None of their remarks or presence bothered her and she kept running. Waiting it out in the alley wasn’t going to be an option. Surely one of the men would spot us when they followed the woman. And she was an officer with a firearm. She had to know what was happening or where to go. At the very least she could protect us.
I jumped out of the alley and swung my broom handle in the air to get her attention. “Wait! Wait! Please help us! My girlfriend is hurt!”
Callie emerged from the alley after me, using her handle as a staff.
The officer holstered her firearm as she ran toward us. She stopped and proffered her back to Callie. Callie looked at her, confused, as the first couple of men rounded the corner and spotted us.
“Piggyback! Piggyback!” the woman shouted impatiently.
Callie didn’t question her. She jumped on her back clumsily and wrapped her arms around the woman’s neck. The officer held her under the thighs and instructed her to hold her shoulders rather than choking her and took off running before Callie had a chance to situate herself. I followed them closely as the group of men continued their relentless chase, yelling at the three of us the whole time.
“Only dykes and sluts enter the military!”
“Was your mother a beaver?! ’Cause damn!”
“Can I read your T-shirt in braille?!”
“If I could rearrange the alphabet I’d put my dick in your mouth!”
“I wish you were my pinky toe so I could bang you on every piece of furniture!”
“Women will never make as much as men so why don’t you make me a sandwich and give me a blowjob!”
We ran in the opposite direction of home. The woman appeared sure of her route and I imagined she knew where she was going. And it had to be a safe place.
A couple blocks in front of us a figure clad in a billowing red dress with an oversized white headscarf stood on the sidewalk, waving their hands above their head to get our attention. It took a few more seconds for me to realize what the enormous stone building the robed figure was standing in front of was and what their outfit meant. A nun from the monastery.
“In here! In here!” the nun yelled. “Take refuge in the Lord!”
Under other circumstances I would’ve passed on the sanctuary of a religious foundation. The faithful of almost any religion had never been particularly kind to me once they learned I was gay and I’d quickly established my own convoluted religious ideas which excluded any faith or belief in a higher being and was based loosely on a karmic checks and balances system. Do good and good things will happen for you. Be an asshole and hopefully your life falls to shit. But surely the situation at hand made a god moot and the three of us didn’t hesitate to head directly toward the nun, follow her up the steps of the monastery, and help bolt the heavy wooden doors behind us against a mob of rabid men who wanted only one thing.
The interior of the building was dim and cool and silent except for our hard breathing which echoed and bounced off the high ceilings of the church and main worship area we’d entered. The muffled and distant voices of the men from outside barely permeated the structure.
The officer set Callie on the stone floor gently and the three of us stepped away from the door and braced ourselves for the clatter of the mob tidal waving the front of the building. The nun didn’t seem to be aware of the situation outside and smiled beatifically at us. The crash against the door never came and the sound of the group died down to nothing we could discern through the thick doors and walls.
“There’s no need to worry,” the nun said. There were faint wrinkles around her mouth and there could’ve been some more at the corners of her eyes if her smile was something more than a forced expression. Her expression didn’t waver and it was unnerving. “This place is protected by the Father. They won’t enter his holy house.”
“They can’t see us,” the military officer said. “Once we’re out of their line of sight they stop.”
I noticed the name tag ‘Naff’ above the breast pocket of the woman’s uniform along with two bars on the lapels of the shirt. The same bars were on the front of her hat.
The nun stared at her and something almost imperceptible darkened her eyes but her smile didn’t falter. She said, “I’m Sister Catherine. You are welcome to anything the Sisters of the Precious Blood can provide you…” Her eyes flitted to the officer’s lapel. She tilted her head and added, “Lieutenant?”
“Captain,” she said. “Megan Naff.”
“Captain,” the sister repeated.
“How many civilians are you harboring here?”
“There are a few around.” She waved her hand toward a hallway behind her, leading out of the church area.
“Is the government rounding people up?” I asked.
Callie added, “They have to have a safe place for us.”
“Sadly they don’t that I’m aware of at the moment,” Megan said. “I fled from my company yesterday when the madness broke out.” Her voice cracked and it was evident she was struggling to keep her composure. “Some of the other female soldiers weren’t so lucky. It became chaotic and every woman for herself. But we were stationed off base and I’ve been trying to contact them or return there.”
Callie’s eyes rimmed with tears and she whispered, “Jesus.”
A flicker of agitation crossed Sister Catherine’s face. “It’s part of His divine plan.” She clasped her hands together and held them under her chin in a sign of prayer. “The fornicators have angered the Father and he has sent a plague. The world has accepted the castration of his will. They murder his children without their consent before their tiny bodies have been given a precious soul from The Almighty. Condemning the slaughtered to suffer in hell for eternity.” She opened her arms and raised them. She lifted her face toward the enormous crucifixion hanging above the pulpit. “And he will smite the homosexuals for choosing to defy his intentions!”
Callie and I looked to one another. Callie carefully placed her mop handle on the stone floor as to not make a sound and limped closer to me as if we might have to physically defend ourselves shortly. Each of us gave the other the ‘holy shit this woman is a fucking nut job, be careful around her’ look while Catherine continued to rant at the crucifix. I wanted to wrap my arms around Callie in that instant but knew better than to fan the flames of religious fanaticism.
Sister Catherine continued, “The Lord said in Genesis, ‘It is not good for man to be alone. Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.’”
She turned back to us as Callie and I were having our unspoken moment. Callie’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment once she realized the Sister was scrutinizing our body language.
Sister Catherine approached Callie and laid her hand on Callie’s shoulder. Callie tensed and I squeezed my broom handle so hard one of my knuckles cracked. It took everything inside me not to crack the delusional bitch over the head.
The Sister spoke to Callie, “Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed to cleanse the world of the homosexual infestation—”
I opened my mouth to tell Sister Catherine what I thought of her religion and what she could do with it but Megan beat me to the punch.