What's Up? | Act: There Is No End

...

....

..

"Dude, what the hell man?"

"What? I'm sorrryy, mate. It just looked like you need some rest, you know.

"Mate, I was nearly late for supper. We know how our mothers get if we come home tardy..."

"Well, I was busy alright? I had to go somewhere. Do something."

"What you could've possibly have done that afternoon that made you all numb in the head?"

"Well, you're gonna have to wait and see..."

"Ugh..."

Sometimes, it's frustrating to be friends with a little selfish boy like Lentil.

Like, really? Leaving me there like a dead body to go do something 'special'.

I don't think he had anything special to do, considering the circumstances.

Plus, yesterday was the only day that Lentil was really... well, free.

Other than any orders given to him by his mother or father, I can't see what could be this 'important' endeavor.

"Well then, where are you taking me? You said you wanted to go somewhere." I asked.

"Somewhere fun. That's all I'll say." Lentil replied.

"But where?"

"Just have some patience, mate. We'll get there soon enough."

"Or rather..."

After saying that, Lentil started bursting through the street. Seeing this, I tried to keep up but his head start kept me biting his dust.

We ran across the streets of the farmer's market, the workshops, and many other buildings.

As we raced by, I started to notice that the buildings and the streets started to shift as we ran by each block.

We were getting to some part where the buildings were even disgusting and fragile, almost to the point of total destruction, the smells of rotten flesh grew in strength, and less and less people were sticking around outside.

We were starting to hit a part of town that I never knew existed.

I started to slow down to read what I was seeing: All of the buildings looked... burnt. The wood were in two forms: brown.... and ash gray. The bricks of the homes seem to be loose and cracked. The structure of all these houses were so... warped.

I was at a loss for words.

"Hey, stop acting up, mate, and try to keep up! We're almost there!" Lentil cried as he slightly slowed down his speed.

I look back at the neighboorhood. It was a sad sight. But it didn't seem like anyone was living there.... so that seemed fine.

Then I remembered the smell of the flesh again. It somehow overtook my nose despite it always smelling like that everywhere. And that's when I knew why was there no one there.

Well at least...

Why there was no one living.

Shaken, I quickly sprinted with Lentil and continued to follow him, as we seemed to go deeper and deeper into the neighborhood. At this point, these parts of the streets were forgotten. Barren. Alone. Abandoned. The smell of death seemed to be replaced by the smell of decay. Most of the buildings to have already fallen over or were completely decimated. The rest seemed to be barely holding.

Even the ground was different. The dirt was no longer muddy but dry.

Where are we going? Why are we here?

What are even going to do?

All of these questions were left out in the stems of my mind as Lentil continued to trot through the wasteland, giving me no answers.

Then, his feet finally came to a halt.

With the both of us tired and exhausted from running, I built enough air and dignity to ask Lentil "Why the hell.... Are we-we even... Here?"

He then replied with a simple thing. He pointed towards west and in that direction...|

Was a sight to behold.

There, about a few kilos from us, was a big building. Still standing. But this house seemed different. It was more wide and full. More like a headquarters or a place of planning. I took that moment to revel in the sight.

While it was nothing pretty, this building was unlike any other building around town.

"What is that place?" I inquired.

"This... This was where the old town hall lied."

The town hall... It was strange to see it in such a condition. I have the faintest memory of me and my parents coming here for some kind of union. I remember there were many people and there was a lot of shouting. It was a scary place for my baby head, at the time.

This version of the town hall though... it emitted the same kind of unease and fear factor that my kid head felt 7 years ago.

We walked towards it and we could hear just absolutely nothing.

No talking.

Just pure absolute silence, other than the accompaintment of our footsteps scraping across the dry surface, walking across the street.

This felt... so familar somehow. I... I'm not sure why, but it's all so similar to something somewhere in the back of my head.

I wasn't sure what it was.

Wait...

No...

Is it?...

Is it the strange st--

"Alright then..." Lentil abruptly says, interupting the flow created by my thoughts.

"Alright what? What are we doing here, Len?" I asked, seemingly uncomfortable being here.

"There is one thing we must do before entering."

"What?"

He then proceeded to put his hand to his heart and motions me to do the same. Hesitantly, I did, but not before saying things like "What in Almighty Lord are we doing?"

Sighing, Lentil stated these following words:

"Will you keep any of the things that you may see inside here a secret, and will not be revealed to the general public?"

"Wha-What?"

"Answer the question."

"Ye-Yes. Yes, I will."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes."

"On behalf on our friendship?"

"On behalf of our friendship? What are you--"

"WILL YOU KEEP THIS ALL A SECRET?" Lentil seemed to heighten his voice.

"Yes! Yes, I will. On behalf on us."

Lentil smiled and pat me in the back, chuckling a little before saying...

"You know. I wouldn't have been so hard on you if you stopped asking questions."

"Maybe if you at least gave me an answer, an answer to anything, then I would've stopped." I replied with some kind of dignity.

"Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Your answers will be answered real quick."

Lentil pushes on the grand door, with the walls seemingly grinding in order for the gate to open.

It didn't take long before...

"Hghh..... Can't you help a brother out man?" Lentil said.

"I thought you had it all under control." I replied.

"Well obviously..."

He pushes harder, only to come back and say:

"I don't."

Shrugging a little, I joined Lentil and after a couple of seconds went by and we finally...

We finally opened the door.

"Man... that door must've been closed for a while." I stated.

"Oh no... That door has been opened before. Many times, it has."

"How do you even know that? You've never been here before."

"Hah! Come on mate! If I have never been here before, do you think I would've done what we just did all for nothing?"

He did have a point.

"Come on! Let me show something." Lentil said as he hit my shoulder and continued to walk through the gate.

As we walked through the hall, I tried and take in all that I was currently around. That dusty ceiling. The dirty walls. The abandoned architecture. All of the cracks in between. It was all a strange mess.

Everything was so still too. Echoes of our footsteps seemed to roam across the building, making the place almost seemingly larger than I thought it was.

And you know what appeared to me as odd?

For something so old and bare as this place, you would think that the hall would've been decimated already.

But surprisingly... everything seem to hold well together.

Other than a few points of interest, I presumed.

"Everything here is so... ancient for some reason." I said.

"Yeah. I still can't believe it's been only a few couple of years since this dump used to be a part of our town." Lentil stated.

"Well yeah... and so did the rest of those buildings we passed by."

"Yeah..."

"What has the world come to?" I asked myself.

"I don't know mate, but whatever it became... best suggest we take any advantage in it." He said.

"And what would that be?" I asked him.

"Well that's easy. We got each other."

"Heh. We do."

"Heh?' That's all you think about when it comes to our friendship?" Lentil said, almost sounding like he was serious, before he chuckled.

"It's the only thing you would think about." I jokingly said.

"You got me there." He said as we both grinned.

After a couple of minutes, walking across rooms and corridors, we seemingly had arrived at our destination, being in front of a room that seemed to be overtaken by nature.

"Is this it?" I asked.

"It is. But you haven't seen everything yet." Lentil said.

We both walked in and as we did, I heard a little rustle.

A rustle in the leaves.

As we both stood there, the rustling seemed to alternate sides, coming around us.

Circling us.

And as we tried to focus on where was it coming from, we could something more.

More rustling.

There were more of them.

We stood side by side, protecting each other with our backs facing one another.

And rapidly, the noises grew in volume and in strength.

It seemed to grow closer...

And closer...

Closer and closer still...

Closer and closer still...

And then...

"Heed to no one." Lentil abruptly stated.

Suddenly, the rustling stopped.

We stood there, anticipating their next move.

Although, I was more about 'questioning my friend's antics' than 'anticipating hostile movements'.

Silence seemed to surround us for a while.

Nothing was heard.

At least, to us.

And finally, the rustling came back.

But now, quieter and less menacing.

And it only came back because of one thing.

"Is it you, brother Lentil?" A voice was heard.

"Yes, it is." Lentil responded.

PSHEW!

And swiftly, the bushes around us seemed to have exploded and from that came...

"Ha-hah! Brother Lentil!" A voice stated as quickly, something had gotten on top of Lentil as he fell towards the ground.

PSHEW!

"Phew! That was a close one. Almost thought I would've needed to use my secret move." Another voice came and said to...

"Mate, it was just Lentil and his 'friend'. I'm sure you wouldn't have needed to use it." Another voice.

"You never know. Maybe they would've resisted. Forgotten the code, I assume."

"He may be new, but he doesn't seem like the kid to forget things."

"Welcome back, brother!" A figure said as he got up and helped Lentil up.

"Hey, I said I would come back, didn't I?" He replied

"I didn't know you would. Well, at least... with him."

What...

What is this?

Wait...

This must be a hideout, isn't it?

The code... 'Brother'....

They must be in a group...

And Lentil joined them?...

"Oh, sorry Deus if you feel confused. But these guys here... they're my people." Lentil said to me as he walked up and faced them.

"Wha-What? You've joined a group already? In one day?" I cautiously said, not to try trigger anyone here.

"Well, not necessarily." He replied. Continuing from that was this: "I've known them for quite some time."

"Wha... For how long?"

"About a week or so."

"But how? Your parents would never let you outside alone..."

"Oh but there's a key detail there. A-"

"Alone. So you've met them outside with your parents."

"Well... I kind of ditched them for a little but yeah. I did."

"How?"

"Simple. They were doing something interesting. I wanted to join in and so... FWOOSH! I joined in."

"We were getting some supplies. It wasn't that interesting." The figure said.

"Well, we were stealing them. That might've been the interesting part." Another said.

"Definitely was. Especially when I did that spectacular flip off that bed of wheat." A third figure said.

"One: It's wasn't that amazing. You even almost hit your head when doing that. And second: What bed of wheat?"

"From the cart we passed by."

"Oh that. To be honest, it looked more like a blanket. Maybe that's why the fall was a little harder than what I thought it would be."

"Yea, strange."

"Anyways, Deus, these guys are the Brothers from Nowhere." Lentil said as he tried to introduce me to these people.

"That's a weird name for a group." I commented.

"Well, we really didn't want to name our gathering a lot like how the adults would." One said.

"Is that your whole schtick? To deny adults? Because from the code, living in a abandoned hall, and rejecting normal society seems to support that." I further commented.

"Yeah. Pretty much." Another said.

"And that's how things will always be." The third stated.

"...Alright then." I said.

"As I was saying, Deus, this is Allen, the main guy." Lentil said as he showed me who would be Allen.

"The main guy? Hold up, hold up... No one said you would be the leader." The second figure said.

"No, but it's because of your banter that deems you unfit for the role of leader..." Allen replied.

"What?"

"Basically you two are pretty much babies."

"Hah! Like you aren't one." The third commented.

"Not as much as you guys." Allen also commented.

Friendly, yet serious tension built up during this banter. They really were kids. Sort of.

"Come on guys! Can we stop with the arguing?" Lentil as he tried to calm down the three.

"Perhaps." The second figure stated.

Sighing, Lentil continued with "Deus, this guy here is Anthony."

"Hello there, Anthony." I said.

"Greetings, I guess." Anthony replied nonchantly.

"And the last member of the pack is this demon, Chris." Lentil continued.

"You mean 'one hell of a man', right?" Chris inquired.

"No." Lentil replied.

Chris slightly frowned upon this, and then playfully hit Lentil for that.

"So, now you know the whole group. What'd you think?" Lentil said.

"Why are you asking me about them?" I inquired.

"What do you think of these guys? They're pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah... if they only stop fighting, they could be pretty cool."

"Yeah... they basically only fight so we're done for."

We both laugh. And following were a bit of chuckles from the others.

I got to be honest, they didn't seem that trustworthy. Well, at least from that little act that they did.

But they seem good... I think.

Yeah, they seem cool.