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3

Silas

I’ve got one last person to visit when I see the burly guards drag Rex into his room. He’s unconscious—he has to be. Otherwise, I can’t envision any scenario where he’s manhandled like this without a fight.

“Jesus, he’s heavy,” one of the guards says. I duck around the corner, hoping they didn’t notice me. I may not be on lockdown, or outright banished like Levi and Elon, but I’m being closely monitored.

“Get him in there before he wakes up,” the other replies. “I saw what he did to his father. I’m sure he’d have no problem taking us out too.”

Rex did something to Anex?

“Do you blame him?” I hear one say. “Look at him, his father is the leader and he’s locked in here like the rest of the Fallen.”

“What did you say?” The voice is curt, tone hard. “You’re questioning Anex’s decisions?”

“N-no.” He clears his voice. “No. That’s not what I said. I just—nothing.” I hear them back in the hall, door closing behind them. “Let’s get out of here. It creeps me out.”

They move quickly, exiting the locked door down on the end of the corridor. I understand their haste. There’s an underlying fear in Serendee that Regressive thoughts are contagious.

I wonder where they got that idea?

As the days pass, I’m learning more and more that the people down here have done little to deserve their fate. I sensed it before, the punishments seemed too swift, too severe, the conditions the Fallen are held in, demoralizing and dangerous. The younger women are used as a receptacle for Anex’s hypersexual needs. The young men? An example to the rest of us about what can happen if you disobey.

Which is why, even though I’m worried, I don’t go straight to check on Rex. It’s too risky. Instead, I punch in the code to the room next door, pausing for a moment after the lock disengages. I’ve been avoiding this visit all day.

Charlotte is curled up on her bed, eyes darting to mine when I walk in.

“Silas,” she says, rising. Her eyes brighten a little and it just makes me feel worse. “I hoped you were coming today.”

I shut the door behind me. Charlotte is one of the Fallen I supervise now—a role given to me by Anex the night all hell broke loose. Charlotte, and the others down in this ward think they are being Reeducated to reenter Serendee. The truth is that Anex has bigger plans for them. They’re being groomed for sale, and I’ve been assigned to prepare them.

“How are you?” I ask, noticing her dinner plate is empty. Stacks of Anex’s books are on the small desk, pages dog eared and well-read. A food log is open. I stop by it and run my finger down. She’s counted every calorie and every bodily function. “You ate all your dinner.”

“I did,” she says beaming. When I came down here before, with Elon and Imogene, Charlotte was in bad shape. Her weight was tragically low and she had an infection. She was bruised, her hair a stringy nest. She was desperate for Anex’s approval, which was deranged. He was the one hurting her.

But as it became clear he wants to put her up for trade, he’s allowed me to increase her caloric intake, provide her extra grooming time, and a few additional rewards. She looks better, eyes brighter, hair cleaner, although there’s no mistaking her exhaustion. Anex is all about product, be it his classes or produce from the farm, or weed grown under the barn. He wants a superior product and Charlotte is nothing more than that.

An object to sell.

The craziest thing is that he managed to break her down to the point that she was afraid to eat the extra food at first. Terrified of accepting new things. Her brain was so twisted up, so wired to meeting Anex’s insane demands, that she felt better starving herself than being healthy.

“Good,” I say, and her smile widens, encouraged by my praise. I walk over and sit on the edge of the bed, taking her arm to assess her skin. The rash on her wrist from the shackles is finally healing. “I’m glad to see that it's better.” It took a while, but I finally convinced Anex that the chains were unnecessary. Unfortunately, Charlotte is as passive as they come. “How are you sleeping?”

“Better. The meditation techniques you showed me help.” She grins but ducks her head. “Do you think he’ll come tonight?”

She asks me that every time I come—sometimes they are the first words out of her mouth. He’s fully convinced her that the only way to reach Enlightenment is through his approval. She’ll do anything to attain his favor. Even with extra calories and hygiene, her devotion to Anex is no less intense. Again, our leader knows how to manufacture the perfect product. Docile. Submissive.

“I’m not sure.” I think about what the guards said, how they said Rex injured his father. “I think he may have other obligations.”

“Oh.” Her expression falls. “It’s been a few days.”

According to her journals, Anex used to visit her regularly—enacting Corrections personally as part of her Reeducation. Being in his presence is considered a gift, and for the Fallen, it was like being visited by God himself. What Charlotte doesn’t understand is that she is no longer of interest to him outside the amount of money she can add to his coffers. He’s done his work, broken her down, stoked her insecurities and lack of self-esteem. She’s putty, primed and ready for trade.

“You seem tense,” she says. “Everything okay?”

No, I want to say. Nothing is okay. My best friend was just dragged, unconscious, into the room down the hall. My other friends have been banished from the only home they’ve ever known, and the woman I love is being locked up in a fortress created to house and control the women of Serendee even more than before.

And the woman in front of me—girl really—is being expertly groomed for trade.