For Lack of a Better World

 

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Introduction

                Aaron’s blood was spilling across the operating table as the emergency room doctor’s desperately tried to put him back together. He could feel their hands prodding at him, each touch sending a new wave of pain through his chest. There was no doubt in his mind that he was going to die. The bullets had done far too much damage.

                He wondered what the doctors were thinking as they cut into his denim jacket and saw the patches that adorned it. One depicted the Ku Klux Klan, and a large swastika adorned his right lapel. He had been proud of those symbols, even if they had led to his death. He had been proud to show his colors, and stand up for what he believed in.

                It had been only days before that he had marched on the capital, holding a sign that protested the removal of the confederate flag. His eighteen-year-old voice had been just as loud as any of his fellows had been, and he had made sure that the politicians had heard him scream at them for removing the symbol of his heritage. But they hadn’t listened. They hadn’t bowed to the whims of the people like he had expected. Instead they had called in the riot police and had them forcibly removed.

                That was when they decided to attack another church. That was when they had decided that enough was enough, and they were going to teach a lesson to those who stood in the way of the master race.

                Bubba had said they wouldn’t kill anybody. He said they were only there to scare everyone, but the preacher had pulled out a gun from behind his pulpit and fought back. Daniel had been first in line, and he went down under the preacher’s fire. Aaron had been next, and he dove behind a pew as Bubba slid behind the opposite row for cover. He took out the preacher in his first shot, and then he turned his eyes on the congregation.

                Aaron saw the little girl, running toward her father, the young man who had rushed to the preacher’s side. He saw Bubba’s eyes dart toward her, his ready finger on the trigger. In that moment Aaron made his final choice, and he jumped for Bubba’s gun, hoping to stop him from killing the child. Aaron collapsed to the floor of the church, his body filled with the bullets that had been meant for the little girl just as Bubba was tackled by another member of the congregation.

                A smile crept onto his face as the doctor’s announced his fate. At least he was going to die having finally done something good. The girl as alive, and she’d have a chance to make a better world. His hatred was gone; replaced by love for his fellow man. His eyes slid closed and he embraced a better world of his own.

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