Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 47

“So, Bob, do you know everything?” Xun asked, only half joking.

Bob chuckled again, picking up a second glass to shine.

“You probably have a lot of questions, being new to the place. Go ahead and ask. If I can answer your questions I will.”

Xun couldn’t tell how serious he was being, but decided to jump in anyway.

“Why do the people who join the compound have to go through the trials? And why are they so hard?”

“Well, the trials were originally used to teach the kids how to handle situations outside the compound. It was thought that they needed to be able to think outside the box, hone their survival instincts. It was tweaked and changed over time, because no matter how they tried to keep each trial a secret, eventually the tricks to getting past them would become known by everyone. Today, it’s not used to teach all the kids, like it used to be. It’s used to test the kids who want to leave the compound, to make sure they have a prayer of surviving outside the walls. It’s also used to test all those who want to enter the compound, so the leaders can judge how well the person may fit in or whether they could contribute something worthwhile to the compound.”

“But I don’t understand how finding something in the dark can help them determine if a person will fit in.” Xun took another bite, feeling frustrated.

“I heard you did really well in that trial, congratulations. If I remember correctly, that trial was to judge how well a person can deal with the loss of the sense of sight. There are many people who lose the ability to function when they can’t see. It can help the leaders see how well you do under stress too.”

“So, her telling me that I needed to be careful not to drown was just a way to see how I deal with stress?” he asked incredulously.

“No, several people have drowned in that test. I believe Willow couldn’t swim, and almost had to be rescued when she started hyperventilating.”

Xun looked at him for a moment, but Bob didn’t look like he was joking. How could he know that? Maybe one of the leaders was talking about it in front of him. He thought about each of the trials, and wondered if he thought they were worth the time and effort. After several minutes and bites of food, he decided they were still worthless. Only the maze and the fighting really offered an opportunity to judge a person’s ability to survive, but only to an extent. To make them really afford a realistic look at how a person would survive outside the compound, they needed to teach more about the monsters, how to find food, make fire, clothe themselves, and doctor any injuries.

“Why do the people here not know anything? The leaders keep asking stupid questions and trying to force rules on me that make no sense at all. How do I deal with them?” He grumbled with his mouth half full of some tasty meat.

“Think about it this way, Xun. The people here are protected to such an extent, they have never experienced what it is to find their own food, or how to make a fire. Their clothes are made for them and all their comforts are given with the single requirement being that they do some odd job that may or may not make sense to them. So, when you show up, acting in a way that doesn’t make sense to them, they want to make you go away. What if, by you acting differently, the way of life that they are used to, goes away, and all those skills that I just listed off suddenly need to be known? They would be in over their heads and probably wouldn’t survive.”

Xun nodded reluctantly. He had tried to explain things to the leaders with the understanding that they may not know what he was talking about. To think that everyone in the compound may be just as clueless hadn’t occurred to him. He thought about the people who were working here, who had the marks on their ears. They all seemed to be trying to fit in, to keep the comforts that Bob had just listed off. He looked down at his clothes, that were far better made than the leather ones he had been wearing when he first arrived. He still wanted to learn how to make clothes so that when he left, he could continue to make them.

The people he had seen who did not have marks on their ears seemed to act as if there were no threat to their lives. He suddenly understood that they didn’t have the constant fear of their compound being found by Slavers like all the other compounds he had ever been in. These people really had no fear of the monsters, because they didn’t have any reason to fear them. The monsters, according to everything he had seen and heard since coming here, had only recently been attacked.

As he finished his food, and Bob took his plate away, he thought some more about his situation. The job given to him was mainly to find the routes that the food animals took through the valley, and to report any dangers that might put the compound at risk. There were really only a few options for dangers to approach, so if he could place fail safes in those areas, he would free up a large section of his time to learn other skills.

Nodding his thanks to Bob, Xun headed back up the stairs. He needed to find his friends and talk to them before he tried to go back before the leaders. Maybe Rick would have an idea on why Lisa was acting so mean to him. If he didn’t know any better, he would almost think that her son Gavyn had blamed him for something. He hadn’t thought he was smart enough for that.