Penitent-Chapter 11: Reasonable

Michael snapped awake as the lights to the barracks came on. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked around, seeing everyone else doing the same.

“What’s going on?” he asked Davi who was already pushing himself out of his bunk and onto the floor.

“I don’t know,” he replied, cursing a bit in Portuguese as he shielded his eyes from the light.

The barrack doors slammed open and more than a dozen soldiers marched in. Real soldiers, not the young ones that they were all so used to having to escort them.

Kline, looking as if he’d hastily dressed, walked in next. His usual relaxed expression was gone, and had been replaced with a look of anger that would’ve made actual children crumble to see.

“Line up! Front of your bunks! NOW!”

Everyone complied quickly without a word. Ollie didn’t even mutter something crass as he went to stand in front of his bunk, sensing the immediate shift in the feeling of the room.

Kline walked in front of all of them, looking at each of them and their bunks as he passed. When he was at the far end of the barracks Michael realized something.

He didn’t look at Ollie, but he whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

“Do you hear that?” he asked.

Ollie glanced at him, but didn’t turn his head either.

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly. No one is crying, and this is exactly the type of thing that would normally cause it.”

Ollie glanced around, looking toward the crier’s bunk.

“Shit… he’s not there.”

“Quiet!” yelled one of the soldiers in their direction, causing them to snap their eyes forward and clamp their mouths shut.

Kline walked up and down the line, looking at each and every recruit for at least ten seconds each, then made his way back to the door and whispered in the ear of one of the soldiers, stepping outside.

The soldier pointed at Prakash and to the door. “Follow.” He did so. He was gone for fifteen minutes and then another of the Penitents was called. This pattern continued for the rest of the night, and Michael found himself regretting the choice of a corner bunk, as no one was allowed to sit for the duration. One of the other Penitents actually collapsed, having locked his legs as he stood for too long, cutting off his circulation. His collapsed form was ignored by the soldiers, only told to stand back up once he awoke. Michael watched Pyotr, Davi, Marcus, and finally Ollie go. He was one of the last to be called.

“You,” said the soldier, pointing at him.

His legs ached as he forced himself to follow the soldier out of the barracks. The air was cold as he stepped outside, and he was led quickly across the campus and into a medium sized building outside of which he saw a gallows, a whipping post, and a number of waist high concrete structures that seemed to be built into the ground itself. They all had small slats at the top of them, and when he looked at one, he saw eyes looking back at him and almost jumped. When he looked again the eyes were gone.

Inside he saw the other Takers all lined up and standing against the wall. They all looked tired and scared, many of their legs wobbling from the effort it was taking to continue to stand. He knew they were all adults in the bodies of children, but the sight was so pathetic it made his heart drop in his chest. He was led through a thick doorway into a small windowless room with a guard in each corner and Kline sitting in a chair looking at him. He pointed at a chair across from him with its back against the far concrete wall.

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“Sit.”

Michael did so, having to climb a bit to properly get into the seat. He was grateful to have the chance to rest his legs.

“Do you know Xiu?” he asked.

“He’s the one that cried all the time?”

He nodded.

“Not personally, no.”

“Have you seen him interact extensively with anyone else?”

Two names came to mind immediately, members of that little group he’d seemed to form recently. “No. I never really paid any attention to him.” They may not have been in his own little group, but he knew an interrogation when he saw one, and didn’t have any intention of being a rat.

Kline stared at him for a moment as if giving him a chance to change his answer.

Michael stayed silent.

“Have you noticed any abnormal behavior from him?”

“He cries a lot. Tries to get in good with the natives. Nothing aside from that.”

“Have you seen him talk extensively with anyone who was not a teacher or another lifetaker?”

Michael thought about it. “I think he was friendly with one of the women that serves food in the mess. I don’t know her name though.”

Kline looked at him intently for a few more seconds, then turned his head to one of the guards in the corner. The guard opened the door and gestured for him to leave. Michael pushed himself off the edge of the chair and onto stiff and sore legs. He led him to the wall where the other lifetakers were lined up, and had him stand at the end. The remaining lifetakers were interviewed and soon lined up next to him. Two more of them passed out from locking their legs, but after guards ensured they were alive, they simply left them there as the other guards back at the barracks had.

Kline emerged from the room shortly after the last interview. He left the building and everyone else was escorted behind him, made to stand in front of the gallows. Neat rows of exhausted men in the bodies of children looking at the swinging ropes as they were blown gently back and forth by a cool breeze. It was morning, and dozens of native recruits had gathered at the gallows as well, curious as to what was happening. There were no attempts to send them on their way, and as they stood there and waited more of the native recruits joined them until there was a medium sized crowd watching the proceedings.

Three children were pushed roughly up the steps by an equal number of guards. One of them fell as he hit the steps and was grabbed and thrown up to the top step with one hand. They had sacks over their heads, and muffled curses and screams could be heard as they were made to stand in front of each of the three nooses.

Kline walked out to the front of the gallows with a look of rage on his face and looked out over the gathered takers. “Your fellow takers Xiu, Tash, and Tian attempted to escape the academy today. An already dire offense. In planning for his escape Xiu convinced Jenn Tymond that he was here by accident. That he was no lifetaker, just a child forced to be here under terrifying circumstances. Because of his deception and her kindness, she attempted to smuggle him and his accomplices out along with supplies and an intention to hide them away in her home village. When they were caught, Xiu, who she trusted, took her hostage with a blade to the throat, and killed her. She had three children and has served here for five years.”

He paused for a few moments.

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“We have been reasonable to you. Kind in comparison to our neighbors. Witness what happens when you prove you are exactly what we expect you to be.”

The hoods were removed from each of the guilty, and the faces of three weeping six year olds looked out at the crowd. Kash and Tian struggled and cursed through their tears, but Xiu just went limp and cried trying to use sympathy the way a predator baits prey. The soldiers behind each of them looped each noose around their throats, tightening them very far to make them properly fit around their small necks.

Michael knew that they weren’t actually children, that they were simply men, murderers even, but that didn’t change what his eyes saw. There were no announcements, no last words. The moment all three were secured, the soldiers simply stepped back in unison, and pulled the levers to open the trap doors beneath them.

Their small bodies fell, and even at a distance Michael could hear the snap off their necks, involuntarily jumping at the sound, his body shaking. A few of the native recruits cheered or clapped, happy to see evil punished. Michael watched the bodies of children swing back and forth, lifeless. The image of it seared itself into his mind, it would live behind his eyes, coming unbidden, in the same way that the parent’s of his body’s screams came to his ears.