The United States of Rebellia

by RJ Pritchett

  “… I’m sorry, Devonte. Usually, I’m good at talking to kids, but… this subject is too… it’s just too real for me,” Maria said, “I can’t keep this from you because if I do then you’ll never know what those dreams really mean. You’ll continue to get tortured by those nightmares and eventually you’ll find out whenever you go to one of Rebellia’s bonfires. Listen to me, Devonte. Those dreams you keep on having, those dreams aren’t really dreams. They’re memories. Everything you’re dreaming about happened just before you died. I’m sorry, Devonte. I really am.”

  “Before I-?” Devonte looked around, seeing the upset faces Faye and Rebellia were giving Maria.

  “But it’s okay,” Maria said, ignoring the looks, “everybody dies. Everybody in the world will die, even your parents. And then. When your parents die, they’ll come here. They’ll be with you and take care of you forever. After that, you’ll never be separated again because death is final.”

  “Maria, what the fuck?” Rebellia said, shooting daggers.

  “It’s time he learned the truth,” Maria said, turning to Rebellia, “We can’t lie to him forever. He will find out eventually.”

  “You don’t know how he’s going to take it,” Rebellia said, “he’s just a kid.”

  “…” Devonte looked up. He almost said something but couldn’t find the right words to say. “So. This is Heaven?” he finally asked when the words formed in his mind, “My momma told me that when people die, they go to Heaven. Only if they’re nice though. If a person is bad, then they-”

  “This isn’t Heaven.” Rebellia said, staring at Devonte, “at least not yet.”

  “Is this where the bad people go?” Devonte asked.

  “This world is… complicated. Come with me, I’ll tell you about it,” Rebellia said, giving Maria a sideways glance as she rose from her seat.

  “I never understood why she didn’t want him to know…” Tobias said when Rebellia and Devonte were out of earshot. Her arm was wrapped around Devonte as she escorted him toward the sanctuary. “I mean, what’s the point of hiding it from him? Daphne shrugged at Tobias’ inquiry, but Faye answered.

  “I… made a mistake of telling a kid the truth once. I didn’t hold back with the information I told that kid and the kid ended up…” she stopped.

  “Ended up what?”

  “You just don’t know what these kids would do if they found out the truth. Their minds are very delicate and… if you tell them things like that before they’re ready then… that can really mess them up, you know?” Faye eased her way into a small rant, “We don’t know how Devonte is going to react to him finding out he and everything around him is dead. We have no idea how he’s going to react to finding out that his parents aren’t here, and they’re not coming for him any time soon.”

  “That’s not all true,” Daphne said, “you don’t know that for sure. For all we know, one of them could come sooner than you think. Everybody dies, right? This is where they’ll end up.”

  “Daphne…” Faye said, almost cracking a smile. “I’m not sure you know exactly how big this world really is.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Well, I’ll let you know this… there are many areas of this world that a lot of people never see. There are cities, civilizations, bodies of water other than that river in the middle of the forest. There are mountains, caves, terrains, etc. This world has been home to decillions of human beings and an even larger number of animals, and it just keeps on expanding every day. If Devonte’s parents were to die and come here, who’s to say that they come straight here?”

  “But Vincent-” Daphne started.

  “Vincent was one of the lucky ones. That was a one in a million chance, and he happened to be that one.”

  “It took me about six months to find Travis and this sanctuary,” Patricia added, “that was pretty lucky if you ask me.”

  “Indeed it was, but just because some of us are lucky doesn’t mean all of us are,” Faye said, “look at it this way... You say your mother passed away before you, correct?”

  “Yeah,” Maria nodded.

  “If she hasn’t moved on to Heaven by now, there are many places she could be right now in this world. She could be somewhere far away, or she could be close by. You haven’t started looking for her because you’re just remembering who she is. And most likely, she has no idea where you are right now. If she’s here, you two will probably be reunited one day, but that one day can take a thousand lifetimes to come. Everything should come together when it’s the right time, but I don’t think it was the right time to tell Devonte the truth, especially all at once like that.”

  “So we were supposed to keep that kid in the dark for how long? How long, Faye?” Maria asked repeatedly, “until he moved on? Until one of his parents or his brother died and found him here and told him the truth?”

  “Until he was ready,” Faye shot back.

  “Well, put yourself in his situation,” Maria said, pointing towards the sanctuary where Rebellia escorted the young boy, “Would you want the people around you to leave you in the dark about something because they were afraid of your reaction? This secret is way too big to keep hidden forever.”

  “You don’t understand,” Faye said, “you weren’t around to see what happened all those years ago. None of you were. Telling Devonte everything could put him in a very dark state that could really hurt him and all of us too. Finding out you’re dead is a very big deal especially with a fragile mind like that.”

  “He had dreams, Faye! He could see his death over and over. How else was I supposed to explain that?” Maria asked.

  “Well, I can’t really offer any solutions now because what’s done is done. We just have to hope that he accepts it and takes it well,” Faye said, looking up at the sanctuary with nervous eyes. “I’m sure Rebellia is teaching him about the value of life as we speak. Hopefully, he doesn’t end up like…” her voice trailed off.

  “It’s been damn near a whole month, and Devonte hasn’t been showing any ill effects,” Rebellia said to Faye as the two were gathering wood for the upcoming bonfire. “He just wants to be a part of what he calls ‘grown-up conversations.’ He only wants us to treat him like an adult sometimes. Nothing more, nothing less. You know I offered to let him carry a gun?”

  “What? Why would you do that?” Faye said, almost dropping a couple of branches in her hands before she ultimately stuffed them inside of a sack she carried.

  “Relax…” Rebellia said, “I was just testing him, and he didn’t take the bait. This kid is really something. Any kid I know would’ve loved to carry a gun, even if it was only for a few seconds. He didn’t even take time to think, he just told me no. I’m kinda proud of him.”

  “Aww,” Faye smiled, “I’m proud of him too.”

  “Yeah. Actually, gun control is the subject of tonight’s bonfire. I need to drill that into his head that guns are bad, even though he pretty much already seems to know. You know what, Faye? I do think that everyone comes to this world when they die, and because of that fact, I’m less angry with God these days. I thought that it didn’t see me as good enough, even though when I was alive, I tried to dedicate my life to God by going to church and reading the Bible. As a kid, I thought I already had my flight to Heaven booked,” she chuckled, “nowadays, I find myself shouting from outside the gates like ‘I don’t even wanna be in there anyway.’”

  Faye erupted into laughter.

  “It’s true,” Rebellia said, pulling her sack of sticks over her shoulder, “but I’m happy that God didn’t allow me in… because then I would’ve probably never met you.”

  “Aww,” Faye blushed even more, “why are you being so nice? What happened to rule number one?”

  Rebellia smirked, “You made it perfectly clear to me a long time ago that that rule was stupid. Especially when it comes to you… Yeah, that was a mistake. We can’t prevent ourselves from getting attached to people. Just look at Maria. Seems like she’s grown attached
to Daphne and Devonte. Probably because they remind her of her children, but she also fills in the mother role that they sort of need. It’s beneficial to all three of them. Attachment is necessary to get us through this.”

  “And to think, death brought them all together,” Faye said, as the two of them started making their way back to the sanctuary.

  “Death has been bringing people together for centuries,” Rebellia nodded, “people just were unaware that it also does that on this side of the spectrum.”

  “…” Faye paused.

  Sensing something was wrong, Rebellia turned around to look at her. “What?”

  “This tree...” Faye said, pointing at the trunk of one of the trees close by, “This mark.”

  Rebellia walked over to investigate.

  “You girls heading back now?” Abraham shouted from about a hundred yards away with his own bag of wood hanging across one of his broad shoulders, “I think we have just enough to… what’s going on?”

  Rebellia waved her hand, signaling for Abraham to come over to where they stood. She dropped her bag, creating a loud thump on the ground before unholstering her gun. “Where’s everybody?”

  “Sonia and Tobias are right behind me!” Abraham shouted while jogging, “Is something wrong?”

  A loud shriek echoed throughout the forest right before a gunshot rang off.

  “Shit,” Rebellia said, running to where she thought the voice was coming from. More shots followed shortly after. Panic ensued.

  “Rebellia! Watch out!” she heard Faye scream and she immediately saw the reason for the shout. She dove to the ground, as a bullet sailed over her body. She scrambled, looking for the shooter and finding the masked person in a matter of seconds. She shot without aiming, but that was good enough to drop her attacker. Rebellia sighed and ran towards the person she shot. The person was wearing a mask that looked exactly like the image that was carved into the tree. Seven prongs were extended from the top of the black mask and the person’s entire face was covered with a black silk cloth aside from the eyes. Around the eyeholes were silver coloring that matched the color of the prongs above.

  Another gunshot sounded off.

  “It’s Vivian’s g-!” Rebellia shouted but Faye’s scream cut her off. The screams soon became muffled as Rebellia made their way over to her. Abraham was laid on the ground with a wound to the chest. Rebellia jumped over Abraham’s body and charged at the person that was pulling Faye away. She aimed at the attacker but didn’t feel confident in the shot. Instead, she tackled the burly masked figure to the ground. Faye, being released from the man’s grasp, took the bag of branches she held and brought it down on the masked man over and over. She let out loud screams as she smashed the bag of wood down onto the man’s head and back. She kept going until the man laid flat on the ground. He groaned and rolled over on his back.

  After admiring Faye’s ferocity, Rebellia finished the attack off with a gunshot to the masked man’s right eye. He stopped moving immediately.

  “Come on, we have to save the others!” Rebellia shouted, grabbing and pulling Abraham’s motionless body towards a pile of leaves. She did her best to cover his body as fast as possible before she and Faye moved on.

  Sonia and Tobias were soon dropped by a pair of gunshots when Rebellia and Faye didn’t arrive fast enough to prevent it. Rebellia fired one shot and missed her target, the target changed their roles and fired a shot that struck her in the shoulder.

  “Fuck!” she shouted, shooting again and hitting her target this time. Her arm was numb. And another masked person aimed at her.

  Boom.

  Rebellia flinched but saw that the masked person was falling down to their knees. Quentin was responsible for the gunshot that saved her.

  “Faye, listen to me. I’m going to need you to run back to the sanctuary now. We don’t have time to argue just-”

  “Okay,” Faye nodded. Before Rebellia could turn, Faye grabbed her by her black jumpsuit and planted a kiss on her lips, “Stay safe,” she said once they separated.

  “You stay safe,” Rebellia said, kissing her again. She turned, “Quentin, can you go-?”

  “Come on, Faye. Let’s get out of here,” Quentin nodded and rushed away before Rebellia could finish asking.

  “Be careful!” Rebellia shouted, “Both of you!”

  ‘Sonia, Abraham, Harold, Elijah, Tobias, Jabari, Patricia, Daphne, Larissa, Brett, Quentin, Faye, Me’ Rebellia recounted the people that set out to gather wood for the bonfire earlier. She kicked the motionless intruder as she stepped over their body.

  “Vivian!” she shouted out, “Orion! Come out and face me, cowards!”

  A gunshot missed her, although she was unaware. A second gunshot sent her to the ground after it caught her in the leg. No blood was spilled, but her leg was just as numb as her shoulder was. Sharp pains were where the bullets passed through.

  “Pussies,” she said, spitting as she leaned over on her back.

  As much as she tried, she found it hard to move. She finally got to her feet, but a third shot caused the ground to rise and smack her in the face. She didn’t even know she fell until she rolled over onto her back again.

  She stared up into the sky. The clear blue sky kept her calm as she reached for the pistol she dropped. That calmness quickly turned to panic when she saw a pitch black boot stomp on her pistol right before she was able to grab it. Her hands were wrapped around the boot instead. She looked up to see the same mask that the others wore before she shot them.

  “Show yourself, coward,” she said.

  The masked person shook their head. The only answer was in the form of a gun being aimed down at her. Rebellia went to shout something but was interrupted when the trigger was pulled. The sound of the gunshot ricocheted off the nearby trees as the sound caused the entire forest to pause. The shot was sent through Rebellia’s forehead, putting her to sleep.

  Chapter 11 (Courtney)

  “What’s your name?”

  Her vision was blurry as she tried to make out the dark figure in front of her. Her vision was too obscure to make out the shadow, even when the shadow inched closer to her. The man stepped out of the shadow, but a pair of goggles covered part of his blurry face. She couldn’t make out the words he said as he walked closer to her. Upon hearing his fading voice, Rebellia shook her head just before almost passing out again.

  “Courtney,” a gruff voice called over and over again, “Courtney. Wake up, Courtney.”

  “Where's-?” Rebellia’s head drooped. Her arms and legs were shackled to a wall, paralyzing her limbs at that moment. When her eyes finally opened, she looked over to see Tobias, Sonia, Abraham, Daphne, Quentin, and Faye all trapped the same way as her. “Courtney.”

  “You’ve destroyed our place and kidnapped some of my people. I know you didn’t expect us to let you get away with that, did you?” the dark figure said in a hazy voice, removing some of the loose strands of hair from Rebellia’s face. The single braid that wrapped around her head was an incomplete mess, many loose strands strayed from it, wandering in all different directions.

  “What--?”

  “Wake up!” the man shouted, grabbing her chin and looking into her sleepy eyes, “you caused this harm on yourself, Rebellia,” the voice said her name as if it contained poison.

  Rebellia’s grunting soon turned into screams when a few volts of electricity shocked her. When the screaming stopped, her body calmed. She lost consciousness once again.

  She was alone. Darkness consumed her surroundings, blinding her from everything around her. She felt the soft grass underneath her back. Her head rested against a lonely tree with a strip of gauze wrapped around its perimeter. She felt the pain in her head immediately when she first opened her eyes.

  “Hello? Mommy?”

  She looked around but was unable to see anything of significance. The only thing around her was the tree she rested at, grass, and… there was a large building out in the distance, but the building seemed
too far for her to walk.

  “Help…” she found herself drifting off, “my head hurts…”

  “Leave her alone!” Daphne screamed, to the strange man’s surprise. He smiled and made his way towards her; his right hand was concealed inside an electric glove. He used those gloved fingers to adjust the goggles he was wearing. Daphne was unable to see his eyes.

  “Daphne Summons, the blue-haired rebel,” the man said with a smile, “sadly, your life has been cut short but your death was a very honorable one. You gave up everything to do what you thought was right. You acted selflessly in your death, and even that wasn’t good enough for you to enter Heaven’s gates. A big mystery -even to myself. I know a lot about you, Daphne. I’ve dreamt of this moment, I’ve watched your life in the stars. I know your story, and I know you do too but you’re a little afraid to tell it. You were supposed to be a part of my group, but after you were taken from me, I understood why it happened. It was written in your stars. Daphne and Rebellia together in this world. The perfect combination. You know, you two are more alike than the both of you may know. You both took a stand for something you believe in, and you both lived very short lives. Rebellia here was… what? eighteen when she died. And you, about seventeen. So sad to see the youth dying at such young ages. There were supposed to be many years of life left for you two to find out your true callings, but you both died very young with a lot of years left on the table. You both were robbed of your destinies. I know the feeling. The feeling of being robbed of your destiny before you had a chance to reach it is a feeling I know all too well. I was excited to talk to you, Daphne, I really was. I found you out there and I took you in as my own… But then she stole you away from me!” he turned back to face the unconscious Rebellia. After staring for a second, he took a step toward her.

  “Don’t you touch her!” Daphne screamed, waking Faye and Quentin up simultaneously as they too hang from thick chains that connected their limbs to the wall behind them.