In Saving the Imperfect

21. The people who had faith

Layne stared at the flickering campfire without even a blink. Even with the rising sun, the last howls of the 'animals' were still coming from the nearby forest but he didn't care anymore. They weren't real. The brick buildings surrounding them looked almost cosy when lit up by the orange flames. Historic, even. The thought of exploring that village would have excited him back when he wasn't a Reject.

"Why didn't you just tell us?" Coden mumbled. He still couldn't speak clearly after the recent events. "I was terrified. I thought you were gonna let the animals kill us."

"I'm sorry, child." Adan squeezed out an apologetic smile. "We needed to see your reaction. To be completely sure you're innocent."

"We've had quite some problems with the... Other people," added bald, middle-aged man, who Layne learned was named Oscar.

Layne reacted to the whole conversation with light nods. Coden kept talking. "Why are they even doing all that? With the speakers and all."

Adan sighed, his shoulders dropped. "I'm not even sure. To be honest, I'm not sure the people in charge at the moment know why. It's been done for many years, no one's even survived in the Land for that long. I think they just, take over the tradition, now."

A plump blonde woman who's been watching the small circle of men from the steps of one of the houses came closer. Layne blew his eyes open when a small boy – younger than even Rissa – came running through the door and snatched her arm. She stopped for a second and ruffled his dark hair, her face shining with a loving smile. Then, both of them came closer to the fire.

"I've heard stories that at first there was nothing more than good intentions," she said upon nodding to both Layne and Coden. "All sorts of criminals were being sent to the Land and it was chaos. Hell, even. Especially for those who didn't commit any big crimes. Eventually, a few people wanted to bring order and make this place safer. When nothing else worked, they resorted to fear – and that escalated."

"That's insane," Layne whispered under his nose, more to himself than to anyone else.

"Of course, even if they did have good intentions at first, now it's mostly power greed more than anything," Oscar commented. "I mean, they do sorta control everything that happens here."

"And what are you guys all about?" asked Layne.

"We're the ones who know about what they're doing and instead of going along with it, decided to leave." Adan added a few pieces of dry bark into the flames.

"Just leave? You're not doing anything about it? Just... Letting them play the rest of the Rejects like that?"

"Yes."

Layne raised his eyebrows and so did Coden. Adan looked at them with a slight smile and shook his head.

"Not much we can do, really," he said. "They have more people – more people capable of fighting if it came to that. They even have some support from Eumain – they've been supplying them with all their devices and shit, after all. Most of the innocent ones out there are probably told lots of tales to make them less likely to question things, too."

"We've been told you were dangerous," whispered Coden.

"Of course you were. Teach them to be scared of everything..."

"We've also been told that those who don't obey the rules must leave their village. We just thought you were those people."

"They don't leave the village, they are murdered. They pose it as an animal attack to remind people about the 'dangers they are protecting them from.'"