Rebels

The Rebels of the Arrow, usually shortened to Rebels or collectively referred to as the School of the Arrow, are the last surviving students and staff of the Woodweald Senior High School in Seraph City.

7/1/08
At 11:44 PM on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 (during lunch), NERI personnel surrounded the school and ordered the evacuation of everyone on the premises, staff and police included: their intention was to renovate the space and use it to establish a secondary barracks for NERI. Remaining loyal to their school, its students refused to comply; staff unsuccessfully attempted to convince them otherwise. When armed NERI soldiers entered the school, they were immediately swarmed by several hundred students, who tore them limb from limb. NERI then gathered its forces and assaulted the school; as the students made an attempt to fall back, NERI officers opened fire, killing approximately 700 of them. However, some students and staff managed to aquire their weaponry, and used it to fight back, but continued to die in massive numbers. Staff made a break for the attendance office and initiated a lockdown of the entire school, allowing the rest of the students to retreat to the roof of the building, where they would have an advantage over NERI. Every staircase was blocked off except for one; several students spraypainted a gigantic red arrow pointing upward, toward the roof, near the doorway to this staircase, signaling students to take the stairs to the roof and join the others. When the last of the school's students and employees had reached the roof, they barricaded the staircase and began distributing NERI weapons and ammunition amongst each other, then used these weapons to return fire on Damian's forces. When NERI's numbers began to thin out, they withdrew from the school and retreated. The survivors of the horrific massacre then celebrated their astoundingly unlikely victory. By the end of the battle, 963 students and staff had been killed, with NERI losses at about half that number, totaling to approximately 1440 deaths.

Aftermath
Since this event took place, the surviving students, who refer to themselves as "Rebels of the Arrow", have made the school their home, and remain there almost constantly, no longer fearing the threat of NERI, as these Rebels now possess superior weaponry and the experience to use it. They have decorated the school halls and classrooms with their own unique designs in order to encourage recovery through creativity, and they frequently use classrooms as meeting places for announcements and recreational events. They have adopted a sort of militaristic mindset, forming a hierarchy and assigning students to patrol school halls and the outside grounds for disturbances. They wear either stolen NERI armor, or a makeshift type of armor made from unused supplies, and typically label their clothing and armor with the phrase "7/1/08" as a reminder of the event.

The Arrow
The Arrow, which the Rebels named themselves for, still stands next to the door to the main staircase, sprayed in bright red as a symbol of hope and unity, and as a constant reminder of those who died in the dawn of their lives. The Arrow is a popular place for students to convene and share thoughts, laughs and memories of their friends and loved ones whom were taken from them.