THE SCARLET WOMEN

Story 1 - Mr. 'X'

The cost of redemption is always high, and we've decided not to surrender before his plan for the redemption of this world. This war will exist until that day we suffer that deepest wounds and scars of it like haunted by nightmares every night and besieged by torments every day. In this wartime, we do not dream of peaceful tomorrow, nor any peaceful today, did the vengeance grow stronger by every moment we think of our past and walk over the bodies of casualties of war. Now we don’t believe in bullets that were fired by the same hand, but don’t rebel with just guns over our shoulders. This war taught us the cost of freedom for mankind.

-Now we must get ready for that day for which we've waited for so long. –Mac said. Tomorrow he's coming to visit our camp. –and then he exhaled.

-What? –I got stupefied to hear him. Is he really coming to us?

-Yeah. –Mac said. There's news among us that he'll be here at the dead of night.

-Oh, Mac…let that devil come and we'll put the fear of death in our enemy's eyes. Now we could hear bells of death are ringing.

It already was twilight and some wicked and wild winds were blowing down the hill. The felling of dreadful prognosticates had already arrived. For what reason I can't explain the glimpse of fear in revolutionaries' eyes, all I could hear was cavalry choirs singing the song of war. Next, the walls were closing on me and doors banging to the whistle of winds trying to speak something never heard before. Is this the feeling of doomsday? Or just mind trying to see the mirror which only reflects the fear of us?

-Mr. Commander, Commander…Mr. General, would you like to see you right now? –a combatant came running to me.

-Okay. I said and walked outside my camp.

Mac told me about his plan while we walked together around the camp. I agreed to it and decided to prepare the same way he said.

-What are you thinking? –Mac asked.

-Nothing. –I said. I took a back in our past when we used to share the dream of creating a new world and now we are fighting for the same but in another way. This war always was wrong and the victims were never.

This night had gone much darker than ever like it was revering the arrival of the devil. The burning fire inside our hearts was turning our fear into ashes. And the silence of our vengeance could be heard aloud inside our head. Everybody was waiting in full swing to see the devil of this outrageous war and full-throated cheer was about to begin. I was with Mac and watching his frowns and rushes in blood. He was acting like a thick head. The beauty of this moment of hell was outgrown of all the rage in their voices, not just like some rebellion speaking out his thoughts in revolt, but like a warrior whose voice could be heard like the still small voice of conscience.

-He's here…He's here. Some combatants came running to us.

The whole crowd got on its feet. They started shouting,' "Mr. X", "Mr. X" like a fighter moving towards the ring. Mac and I tried to move ahead.

-"Hello General", is everything secured here? –One of the combatants among the bunch of his protectors came towards him and asked.  Let us first check the camp, if you don’t mind. It's for the protection of our supreme.

-Yeah…Sure. –Mac said. It's our duty to protect him first. And we both started walking with them.

-Well, it seems you have some very interesting people out here in your camp, Mr. General. –he said looking at me. 'Mr. X' will love to see you here. You are the son of our greatest inspirer of all time. And we respect him just like the reason for fighting this war for our freedom. He put his hands over my shoulder.

-I too believe we'll love to see him. –I said looking at Mac. The winds blowing through the woods wrought ambiguity of panic all over our face.

-I know you two have done a great job out here. And therefore, 'Mr. X' is here to congratulate the work of both of you. –he said. And especially you Mr. Commander, he's here to appreciate you for continuing your work for a greater cause like your father. C'mon, guys, we have to get him here.

We kept looking at each other for a while without speaking a word. Suddenly there was havoc around the camp, we guessed something went wrong. The whole moment started shattering and it quickly turned like shambles. We could clearly hear the sirens of armies and their marching footsteps towards us.

-What…what is this happening Mr. General? –he asked pulling his gun out. Run, run quickly, and help us to get him out of here. We've to protect him. 'Go, go, and help him. He ordered all of the other protectors. The situation got tensed with the gunfire of the militaries entering into our camp. We all got terrified. The whole of the combatants quickly took their positions and started fighting them. We too started arming ourselves. The darkness began retarding of the lights of the explosions and laughter of death was heard on both sides. It started covering up the brutality of this warlike thundercloud.

-Mac, Mac…you get yourself out of here quickly. I'll go and get him. I cannot let him go after all this time.

-No…no…we cannot get to him now. –Mac grabbed my hand. It's too risky. I cannot let you go for this time. I know what's going through you inside; it’s the same thing that's going inside me. But I want to end this war together, not just for our families but for all the generations to come after us. And you know I cannot continue fighting this war alone. And if you think you still want to, and then first kill me. I'm not afraid of dying but I'm afraid of meeting them above and not being able to look them in their eyes for letting you go like this.

-Mac, my brother, we promised to end this war together, hold unto each other hands, how could I leave you fighting alone? You'll always find my spirit around fighting with you, not sometime my body may decide to leave. Please let me go and get that devil. Do you know how long we have waited for this moment to arrive? Please let me die for my vengeance if not for love.

-'Drive…Drive fast, take us from the road behind these woods. They'll never know that route. –the same combatant was shouting who was in charge of protecting him. His protectors were covering him from all sides. We hardly could see him from our distance. The sound of his jeep confirmed that he was about to leave. There were hundreds of men protecting him like a formidable fortress. And then we saw him appearing like the devil but disappearing like a god.

I didn’t doubt the miseries behind the veracity of this war but always the reason seemed verisimilitude to me. Why we were chosen to fight this war? Why we never could understand the reason for us to be chosen for killing the devil and turning us also like one of them? We both knew why we let this moment slip from our hands. We kept fighting till the dawn and saw our men die in front of our eyes. Death was dancing to the tune of war-dance. They outnumbered us and started capturing our camps and ammunition. We decided to retreat and run with some of our men left. We were drenched with the guilt of blood-bath and exhausted like bishop hearing all the confessions of this war. What we left behind us were the bodies of victims of this warpath.

 We kept running in the paths led by Mac. I didn’t know where he was leading us to. -Where are we moving towards Mac? –I asked. Let us get some rest here. Few of our men are wounded and I've to help them.

-No, we cannot rest now. –Mac said. It's not safe here. We're almost there. Just keep walking behind me. You all will see where we are moving towards in no time. We kept walking through those narrow caves in between the hills which I never had known before. Most of us were already touched bottom running like this without any rest. But Mac didn’t care about it at all.

Almost at midnight, we reached there. The whole path after the end of caves was like a flare path, of torches kept alive in a certain gap. As we entered, what we saw was really unbelievable. It was like we are entering a rampart, behind which lies a whole valley full of combatants. The combatants standing there for welcoming us were not only in thousands. I hardly could imagine how big this war has become.

-'Welcome General, Welcome to the valley of death. –One of the comrades came and talked to Mac. I really am sorry to hear about our great loss. But you all fought bravely to save our supreme 'Mr. X'.

Mac shook his hand and drew oneself up to make a full-blooded speech. We already were feeling flaked out but he still was vigorous to start a new battle. In a blink of eyes, he turned into a rabble-rouser. I could hear the anger in their voices of this high-flown speech and believe like I was going to witness the greatest revolt very soon. I realized that this crowd was not just combatant but an extremist getting ready for mass destruction. His speech became the eye of the storm and this war has already exposed itself to g******e.