The Wretched and Divine {Black Veil Brides}

1 - I Am Bulletproof

    It astounded me how many times people fell victim to the guards that paced the wall.  They weren’t smart enough to get past them without being seen, their brain matter spewed upon the rocky structure enough to bar most others from slipping past the barrier.  I was not one of those folks.  The sons of bitches didn’t frighten me and I had my fair share of kills.  The ministers and whatever the hell they called themselves would pay for the murders of my friends and family members that had simply been pushed out of line while being shuttled into the church.  I could see their faces in my dreams, screaming and begging. 

    I vowed that I would not be one of them.

    We had nicknamed our faction the Black Veil Brides after the widows who had lost husbands, mothers who had lost sons, fathers who had lost babies and men who had watched the loves of their lives raped and decapitated for adultery.  My brothers and I made a pact that we would get as many citizens as we could out of the city to strengthen our group, to reinforce our rebellion.  The revolt had just begun and our flag was starting to spread through the lower ranked people like wildfire.  A five pointed star made of capitol B’s and V’s created the symbol of freedom for the people who starved and died in poverty.  We were oppressed by the group F.E.A.R. that which ran the cathedral we were all pushed into each day.  They brainwashed people into believing that they protected us, that without them there would be war as there had been in the past.  Humans had become so afraid of change or freedom that we allowed ourselves to be locked in a box and treated like animals.

    But I wouldn’t let that happen any longer.  The masses needed to take hold of their liberty and my generation would start that fire.  I for one knew who had created life and because of that I felt the need to save anyone and everyone I could.

    I grinned wryly as I hopped up on the stairway that led to the top of the wall, now nicknamed the Wailing Wall after the once popular site in Jerusalem.  However, that place had long since disappeared after the third World War that decimated humankind.  The church had made peace a century ago between the remaining forces of men and women, creating this place as a haven to grow food and live.  However, in the last forty years the cathedral had become an oppressive dictatorship rather than the loving liberators we had been lead to believe they were. 

    When I watched my best friend quartered for shits and giggles, I couldn’t take it anymore.  I found others who felt as I did.  We nicknamed one another so that we couldn’t be traced if our names leaked to the guards.  The microchips in our arms did not match the identifications we had taken for ourselves. 

    Jinxx was the first to find me; he and his wife Doll had been seeking refuge when they came upon my house three years ago.  My parents had eagerly taken them in before both my mother and father were hanged for unprecedented treason.  I kept Doll hidden.  She had been raped by a guard and they were still on the hunt for her so that she could be stoned for being a ‘whore’ according to the government.  Jinxx made a good accomplice to steal food with because he had become an accomplished distraction without causing the guards to take notice while I took enough rations to feed the three of us.

    Later on CC and Pitts found the place.  They initially believed this to be one of the many false homes that guards occupied to spy on citizens, but had found Jinxx, Doll and I inside.  When we had five people to start out with, we began joking about a name for the revolution we so desperately wished for.  It took a year for that to start becoming a reality.  People made flags and banners, speaking out and being shot in public.  Some days I wondered if it really aided the uprising or hindered it by making people more frightened than they already were.  We knew we couldn’t stop though so we started posting anonymous signs made of cloth all over the town.  Our symbol of hope dotted broken down areas, the white paint standing out fitfully against desolate homes and bringing a shine to the eyes of those who knew what it meant.