Revolution: Schoolgirl Violence

The priestess was called Dionne and from her I learnt much of what happened in Lille. None of this was my mission, that had ended the moment I walked between the overcoats on the road, but more information was bound to be useful.

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I visited Dionne a few times during my time in Lille, I think sharing the church with someone cheered her up, and on the Sundays after my arrival the church was filled with our subdued singing. I'd always enjoyed the services in the little parish church back home and Dionne anchored me amid fallen Lille.

I usually avoided the church for a day after each stay and so on the morning of my twelfth day I was looking forward to my visit. After going on my rounds of the city, checking on how the rebuilding of the wall was going and what the security on the armouries was like, I carefully made my way to the church. There was a soft trail of smoke rising above the noble district and I grew suspicious, knowing that Dionne kept her continued presence quiet.

I found her astride a horse in a side chapel, a noose around her neck. It had been thrown over a surviving roof-beam and its other end was in the grip of a young woman in the clothing of a student. Four other students were standing around in the chapel and I ducked behind a support when I heard additional footsteps.
"Dionne. You should have left the city when we burnt away your falsehood."
I glanced around the frame of the arch, spotting the new arrival. She was tall, with severe features, and it was clear from everyone else's reactions that she was in charge.
"Monique, this is my home. Why would I leave?"
"Because it isn't your home anymore. It isn't your god's anymore either." Monique glanced at the student nearest the horse and nodded, the red-faced girl going to slap the horse's rump. "Enjoy your time with him."

As slowly and carefully as possible I'd been drawing and loading my pistol, bringing it up to take aim at the girl holding the rope. With a bang the student fell, Dionne ungracefully tumbling from the horse as it bolted, and Monique spun, pointing a finger at me.
"Get her!"
I turned and ran as the four students began moving, bursting out into the ruins of the noble district. Scrambling over a partially collapsed wall I hurriedly reloaded, straining to listen for my pursuers. I heard the sound of their footsteps change as they went from flat stone to the cobbled street.
"Where'd she go?"
"Check the houses. The bitch must be somewhere."
I gently snapped shut my pistol, heart pounding as I leant against the wall. Their voices could easily mask their footsteps, meaning they could appear without my noticing.

Rising into a crouch I crept away from the wall, my eyes flicking around nervously. The sound of a kicked piece of rubble had me turning to my right. One of the students walked past, a pistol held loosely in her hands, and I shrunk back, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as the girl kept walking. I must have scuffed something though as she turned, a quizzical look appearing on her face. It remained even after I'd put a bullet in her, a hand slowly coming up to touch the red spot growing across her white blouse. The sound of the shot echoed throughout the district, prompting shouting, and I rushed blindly from my hiding spot, glancing round for somewhere new to hunker down.

The street I was on was more like an alley, another building so close in front of me I could touch it. One end of the alley was choked by debris and I hurried for the open end, taking a moment at its mouth to reload. Another student had appeared, rushing to her dying friend, and I withdrew slightly back into the shadows.
"It hurts Esme. Why?" The girl I'd shot coughed, a line of bloodied drool making its way from the corner of her mouth. "Help me."
"Hush Miette."
Esme bent over her friend, hands fluttering as she tried to do something, and I briefly felt pity for Miette. Both Esme and I felt it when Miette passed, the student reaching down to collect Miette's pistol.

I stepped out from the alley, pistol levelled at Esme's head. I tried not to flinch when she bought her own firearm to bear, staring down its barrel, and took a single step away from her.
"You had to intervene. You couldn't just let us do away with the priestess."
I stopped when Esme began talking, glancing at her face and the tears streaming down it.
"What you were going to do is wrong." I paused for a moment. "I'm sorry about your lover."
I triggered my pistol at the same time Esme fired her's. My bullet punched through her brow but her bullet scored along my ribs, the pain doubling me over. I staggered from the bodies, pressing the cloth of my vest against the bleeding line left by Esme's bullet, and darted into what used to be a drinking club.

A lonely bottle was still in the floor-to-ceiling wine rack, a thick layer of caked-on dust and acid obscuring its label. Most of the furniture was in ruins but a single table had survived, tipped onto one side, and I took shelter behind it, popping open my pistol so I could reload. I think I knew it was stupid to stay so close to both the church and where I'd killed the two students but this wasn't really a battle I'd had training for.

Moving away from the table I walked to the flight of stairs at the back of the club's main room. The chamber above offered a wide view of the street in front of the club, including part of the church, and I could see a student seated near the church doorway, relaxed despite having no doubt hearing three gunshots in quick succession. Taking aim at the lounging student I pulled the trigger, watching just long enough to see her limply tip backwards before ducking back into cover.
It was good I did as a bullet thudded into the far interior wall. From the angle I guessed it came from the church tower, the final student only now having sight of my location, and I paused as I considered how to deal with her. Withdrawing towards the middle of the room I reloaded, my mind going to the pistols lying by the bodies of Esme and Miette. I'd need to put myself at risk, and probably have a clear line of sight, but with multiple pistols I could pull it off.

I managed to avoid a shot whilst running back into the church. I quickly looked around for Monique but put her from mind and hurried for the church tower's interior access. The door itself was lying some distance away, after Dionne and I had moved it, but I passed it without a second glance, instead looking up the tower. I skittered back to let a bullet ricochet from the doorframe and then leapt into the tower, taking the charred steps two at a time. Monique's final student was descending to meet me and I felt a sense of satisfaction as she tumbled past, a pair of bullets lodged deep within her flesh.

The girl had broken her neck upon landing and I knelt to claim her pistol for myself, reloading it and the ones I had fired. Walking back into the central chamber of the church there was a feeling of stillness and I hurried towards the chapel that was to have been Dionne's site of execution. The priestess was sitting against a cracked headstone, gazing sightlessly into some far distance, with a slender-bladed dagger sticking from her chest. Monique was nowhere to be seen but as I turned to leave I spotted her entering the church.
"You killed all of them?" I nodded and an expression of both anger and dismay came over Monique's face. "They could have been the leaders of tomorrow and you just snuffed them. What gives you the right?"
"The same that led you to kill Dionne." I pulled out a pistol and fired, the force of the impact making Monique double over and then drop to her knees. Stalking past as she held herself up with an outstretched hand I considered the woman, speaking over my shoulder at her. "Your Council will fail as you refuse a past. Such people do not have a future."