Wretched and Divine

We left soon after the information came to light. We had nothing on our back except our clothes and a small material satchel the man in the apron gave us. He filled it with warm bread and he waved on after us as we fled the village with south in our direction.
We never spoke to each other; as we marched on with our journey the rest of the day was filled with silence. We were busy though. The Deviant was trying hard not to outburst into a raging argument about how he thought we weren’t going in the right direction, the Mystic was focusing on the track in front of us, determining F.E.A.R’s whereabouts and distance, the Destroyer was mumbling to himself, I only heard words such as ‘peace’ and ‘forever’. The Mourner was gazing all around him, I supposed he was thinking about where F.E.A.R was as well, but maybe thinking about logistics determining attacking them at any moment. As for me, I couldn’t stop thinking about my family, most of all my brother, who’d been struck with tumbling rubble as he was running from the darkness F.E.A.R was creating.
He was the last one I saw of my family, I was running right next to him. I’d easily dodged the rocks under my long legs but he wasn’t so lucky. But the worst part was that I couldn’t stop and pull away the rubble to find him and bury him with dignity. He was left under the rocks, and I bet he was still there.
Natural darkness soon covered the sky and we could clearly see lights from a nearby village draw near us. We were slightly tired from walking in the blistering heat all day, but luckily we were unscathed from any attack.
There were lots of people running, walking, and bustling around the village, we couldn’t understand why there were so many people. Some children were even laughing.
“Excuse me sir.” I heard the Mystic ask, and I turned my head to look at the conversation. “What’s happening tonight?”
“Well son, it’s New Year’s Eve, you know, the start of the New Year,” he informed and walked off in the direction of a loud building with lights blinding through the windows.
“Shall we follow him?” the Mourner asked. I nodded as no one else answered and we all walked into the busy building like before in the other village. Unlike before, no one stopped to look at us, mostly because it was packed with people and it would be hard for every pair of eyes to look in our direction.
The Destroyer spotted an empty table in the corner and led us over. Once we all sat down we all got a better look of the scene around us. Many adults were chatting with each other, each of them with a glass of golden liquid in their hands, occasionally sipping it. No one was sad, yet no one was really happy, just the emotion of content.
“What can I get you gentlemen?” A man appeared at our table suddenly, it took me by surprise a little.
“Uh, five glasses of whatever’s on tap,” the Deviant replied. Neither of us knew what was on tap, but surely it was nice since everyone was drinking it without hesitation.
Again we were silent, soaking up our surroundings as we waited for the man to come back. I felt fully comfortable with the fellow Immortals around me; however I did feel a little doubtful. I didn’t know I could trust them to the full extent of defeating F.E.A.R. They were so powerful; also they had more than five fighting for their side. And despite actually having support of the mortals, it wasn’t like any one of them was going to stand up and speak out against F.E.A.R.
They shouldn’t have had anything to worry about though, I was certain that the rebellion was going to be a success. Earth was going to reborn into a utopia from the corrupt dystopia it was in. I had to remind myself often that we couldn’t leave until the deed was done, there was no reason to be afraid of F.E.A.R, they were nothing but giants with empty souls. Our souls were filled with love and vengefulness, and they were the ones receiving the horror we were going to enforce on them.
The legend of the Rebels would go down in history as one of the greatest achievements created by two worlds. They would talk of our courage and our dying will of never giving up until F.E.A.R were gone. That’s all I wanted.
My thoughts were soon interrupted by the man coming back with five very similar glass of the golden drink. He put them all down in front of us and walked away.
We all drank a sip together, but we were very quick to spit it back out into the glass. A few disgruntled moans were spoken.
“Kinda makes you wish we’re back home, huh?” the Mystic groaned. We all nodded in agreement with the sour taste upon our lips. We return the glasses to the table and that was where they stayed all night.
There was some more bustling around the large room and everyone was looking towards the large clock on top of the stacks of alcohol. The clock was ticking, soon enough it was only a minute till midnight. The second hand kept moving, once it reached fifty people started counting down.
“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” they shouted, and hugged each other half-heartedly. No kisses were shared between couples, no one was cheering so loudly that you’d complain, every just accepted that it was another year. It was unusual for me; I was used to big celebrations, fine wine and plenty of good spirits. Then I knew the reason why.
“Here’s to another year under F.E.A.R’s order,” grizzled an old man sitting at the table next to us. We all heard what he had said, and we weren’t too pleased upon hearing it.
Suddenly, the Deviant slammed his fists against the table in a quickening frustration and stood up, then stood up on his chair.
“HEY!” he screamed. The room went deadly silent and every head was turned towards him in confusion. The rest of us joined the emotion of confusion as we had no clue on what he was doing.
“Is this how you’re going to celebrate a New Year? Sipping horrid alcohol and barely enjoying yourselves? What is wrong with all of you?”
The man who had made the comment a few moments ago challenged the Deviant’s sudden burst of confidence. “If you haven’t noticed, we are in war with F.E.A.R. Now I don’t know if that means something to you,” he spat out, “but we have to live in a constant distress of knowing someday we all won’t be alive because of them”
The Deviant was quick to respond, it was as if he’d practiced the speech before. “That’s where you’re wrong. I am an Immortal” he announced, and everyone in the room gasped in shock and looked around wildly at everyone else, making sure that the person next to them had heard what they had just heard.
It’s not how I would’ve wanted our identification to have been revealed, but I wasn’t angry at him, more impressed than anything. He knew better than I that we needed people to know they had hope in surviving.
“And these four gentlemen around me are also Immortals. We escaped from the evil hands of F.E.A.R, we know why you’re afraid, but luckily, we’re here to stop the madness. We’re here to save Earth, it’s the only place that we know you mortals can be safe. You should not fret anymore; we are the ones who will protect you now. We are the Rebels and we will save you”
Everyone then came rushing over, in excitement, in shock, in worry, and in liberation. It was exciting and distressing at the same time. People could rely on us to save them, that’s what we wanted, but pressure was at an all-time high. We had to free the man-made slaves F.E.A.R made the humans into, we had to set them free so they could restore Earth back to the beauty it once was. They had to rise from the wasteland they dwelled in, for it was no longer relevant to their lives.
We all united together that night, the night that the mortals became aware of their positive future.
It wasn’t what they were expecting, but their New Year’s Day had taken a turn for the better.