Bombs Away
They had started out distant, like far off thunder. She wondered if the same rule of thumb applied, that the amount of seconds between the lightning and the shaking rolling boom was equal to the amount of miles between you and the storm.
Flash.
One.
Two.
Three.
Boom.
The woman next to her began to get hysterical, her muttering growing louder and more shrill. “They’re coming closer, they’re coming for us.” A man yelled for someone to shut her up.
To her left she heard someone say “Oh God” and begin to pray in a trembling voice. All she could hear were the words “Deliver us” over and over.
Another boom and the walls shook. Dust fell in the flickering light.
Oh God, deliver us.
She sat with her back against the cool concrete and hugged her knees close. Someone pried her right hand away and clamped their fingers around her own. He had green eyes. She squeezed his hand, hard.
A bomb dropped and everything ripped apart, expanding and destroying in a million directions. Mouths spilt open in screams but she was careful only to look at their hands, knuckles white as bone. His fingernails were so clean.