Chapter 17: Chapter 16- Who Screwed Us Over?

Paulie groaned as he got up. He could barely believe it--he had actually gone to sleep during the night despite the creepy jailers lumbering about outside. 

He looked over next to him. Jackson was still asleep. That was a bit of relief. Paulie quietly got up and looked around. He and Jackson had found a spot off by the side where they wouldn't bother anyone. This spot also had a small window that Paulie could look out of, though it did nothing for his sanity.

Paulie walked toward the entryway and locked eyes with Rigs, who was sitting in front of the door with a crossbow across his lap. Paulie, unable to handle the stare, looked to his right at Mitch, who was asleep on a chair and hugging his gun. This hero had stayed up all night watching the door.

"I can't let you out yet," Rigs said.

Paulie finally looked at him. "That's fine," Paulie said as he raised his hands. "You weren't here last night, though."

"Yeah. I switched with Lorio and Pitter..." Rigs looked at Paulie with pity. "Listen man, we just need to get some things sorted out, and then we just got to make sure your people understand what their new normal is going to be. Right now, maintaining order is the best thing we can do. We can't have more people running off into the hills."

Paulie felt brave enough to ask--to confirm the situation--

"Are we stuck here? Like actually trapped here?"

Rigs nodded. "You are. Just like we are."

Paulie nodded to himself. "People always said the wilderness was still dangerous. But come on, it was just a bus tour."

"Those people that say that don't know about all that could happen outside the cities and off the main road. Don't try to use common sense--this place? This ain't anything like anyone can imagine. When those people say the wilderness is dangerous--they say it not knowing about this place."

"Right... Can I ask?"

"Ask what?"

"How long have you been here? Trapped?"

Rigs closed his eyes. "Twelve years."

"Shit, dude," Paulie said, stunned.

Rigs sighed. "So take my word for it when I say sequestering you, for now, is the right move. Just be patient."

"Yeah, I can respect that dude... Still, twelve years? I'd have gone mad."

"Most days are easy but..." Rigs sighed. "Might as well just tell you, but don't go telling the others just yet. This place gets riled up when new people arrive. It's like it wants to get to know you, test you, see what makes you tick... If you can, try to keep your thoughts inside your head... Sometimes... it just seems like this place is a great listener."

"Erm--that's creepy. And you talking like this place is alive with a straight face makes it worse."

"Thinking of this place as some living, breathing thing just makes the day-to-day easier... If all this was happening without rhyme or reason... I'd have gone mad years ago."

"Oh... Sorry, man."

Rigs shook his head. "I'm the one that's sorry. The first year's always the worse."

On that disturbing note, Paulie walked away. He passed by one of the patient rooms and peeked in at all the people. Kia was sleeping at Mei's bedside, the teenagers were near their friend, Cassandra was sleeping on the floor beside Greg's bed, and Mister Tolk seemed to be sleeping peacefully with the spear now out of his gut. Gran, though--Gran was clutching the spear like he couldn't bear to let go of it. At least it was safely stored in his bag.

Paulie moved on and went to another open area in the clinic--what would have been a waiting room, most likely. There, he found Hari sleeping next to Ryza, who was sitting on a chair, looking out the window.

He came closer and looked out the window to see a giant crowd outside.

"Can't open these windows. They're nailed down pretty well," Ryza said. "We won't be able to hear a lick of anything."

"Oh... So no idea what's going on out there?"

Ryza groaned. Paulie surmised she wasn't too happy about how their rescuers were sequestering them.  

"Lorio said they had to sort out a few things with the villagers."

"So they got a mob together?"

"I have a feeling it's a town hall. Wouldn't be surprised if that's everyone that lives here."

"Everyone?" Paulie scanned the crowd. "Maybe 100? 200? Can't be more than 300... wow... I didn't know people lived in such small groups like in the history books."

"Doesn't seem like they wanted to be here, though... People don't live in small groups out of choice. I mean, yeah, things are getting safer than in the time of our great-grandparents, but things are still dangerous outside of the cities. Case in point, look at us. We left the city for less than a day and already ran into trouble."

"Come on. That was a freak accident."

"Doubt it." Ryza stayed steadfast. "Sticking in small groups will invite trouble eventually. You're just throwing the dice when you stay small. We threw the dice and lost. We really lost. Stuff of legends, really."

Paulie looked back at the crowd in the square. "I've read the recreations of old books. How people lived in small villages and towns like these. They were supposed to be tight-knit communities."

"What do you think about these people? They tight-knit?"

"Well. More than a hundred people showed up to listen to one guy yell at them, looks like."

***

Lorio, with brow furrowed, addressed the crowd. "Alright, everyone, we've got a whole bunch of new people, and maybe some people lost in the world, fortune willing. But something went down last night, and I need to know... A bird that shouldn't have been there came out of nowhere and attacked a girl. Those birds shouldn't have been popping up in those woods. You all know the rules." Lorio scanned the crowd of concerned folks. "Who spawned the bird?"

People in the crowd exchanged glances as they murmured.

"Come on, everyone," Lorio said. "You know how we work. You can keep whatever personal goal you have to yourself. We just need to know if you fail it and what the penalty is. So, who spawned the birds?"

The people continued murmuring. Pitter, who was right beside Lorio, shot him a concerned glance. Lorio watched the crowd for ten minutes, but not a single person came forward.

"Seriously? Is no one going to admit to failing a personal goal?"

"I haven't opened up a goal in months."

"I'm not a main character, so I'm definitely not doing that."

"No one in my household has touched theirs."

The responses were all unified in their denial of "failing personal goals," much to Lorio's annoyance.

A person in the crowd raised her hand, and Lorio acknowledged her.

"Might it have been a community challenge?"

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Lorio nodded slowly. "Maybe. We're not sure yet. We've got people checking the usual sites. The thing is, we checked the sites two days ago in the morning. There weren't any then, and I doubt we hit the penalty in such a short amount of time. You guys would agree with that, right?"

Some people in the crowd nodded along while others kept whispering.

"So you can understand why we're here in front of you. Look, maybe you spawned the bird after we left and couldn't tell us. We're reasonable people. We won't get mad. Just let us know. We have to communicate if we want to continue living with some semblance of peace here. We all know that--"

"Lorio, we didn't do anything!"

"Yeah, stop blaming us!"

"I'm not blaming anyone!" Lorio yelled back.

"Hey, are WE going to be okay? A whole lot of new people came in all at once!"

"Yeah, and people are lost in the woods? What are we going to do about that?"

"If they're lost, they're dead. Are we going to look for the bodies?!"

"Listen, we're going to be fine as long as everyone communicates, okay? And yeah, we're gonna go out and look for them. Actually, does anyone want to volunteer for the search party?"

No one except for Anabelle raised their hands.

Lorio looked around, mouth hanging open. "Seriously, no one? Just Anabelle?"

"We're not main characters--"

"Drop the main character shit, Minora!"

"But there are birds in the forest. What if something else got spawned?"

"Hey, if no one's saying anything, then it's all okay, right?" Lorio dryly replied.

"Why not get Todd to help you?"

"He's out wrangling up the horses--"

"Why'd you let the horses get away?"

"We were kind of out of time, Abder--"

"Well, what are we going to do without the horses?"

"It's not like we need horses to search the woods, Basil."

"I vote for Lorio to be in the search party."

"I second that."

"I was going to be in the search party without you guys telling me--"

"Because you're a main character--"

"Minora, god help me, if you refer to us as characters one more time--"

"I'm going home. This is a waste of time."

"Yeah, I don't care about twenty new people eating up our stuff."

"No one move; we haven't decided anything yet--"

A bang rang out, and the people all looked at Pitter, who had a gun pointed at the sky.

The crowd panicked immediately, all dreading a falling bullet and all angry at Pitter.

"SHUT IT," Pitter roared. "This was just a cracker. No real bullet. Just loud enough to get you all listening."

The people quieted down.

"Now, listen all. I get it. You're scared. We're scared. We don't know what's going on, and we don't know why some things are happening, but there are people out there right now who might need our help. Please remember what it was like when you first arrived here. We've got to help them; we've just got to."

Pitter looked at Lorio, who nodded back.

"Listen, we've got a lot of our usual guys out checking the sites. We need help from anyone that knows the woods even slightly... If people aren't going to volunteer, then I WILL draw lots."

The people grumbled, but then some raised their hands.

"Thank you, guys. Seriously, thank you. We all appreciate it. Now, we've got twenty people here. We're going to keep them in one place for a bit while Lin goes and gets their accommodation sorted. If you see any of them wandering around, please just kindly get them back into the clinic. We've got to orient them to life here, but the missing people come first."

***

Paulie had studied the crowd, but he was no lip reader. Still, he could guess at a few things.

"So, looks like they're volunteering for something..." He glanced at Ryza.

"What do you make of the Jailers and everything else?"

"Feel like we died in that bus and went to some purgatory."

Paulie raised his brows. "Whoa. Didn't expect that."

"Yeah, well, I didn't expect to punch out a hairless mutt last night, but here we are."

"Hmm... Do you think the girls are alright? And Kaz?"

Ryza looked at Paulie with a quizzical look. She bobbed her head and came to an answer.

"It would be strange if they were all okay... so they probably are. 'Strange' rules here."

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