Rehabilitation: Unbelief 1

Chapter 3

It's been a month since the last Selection. The people taken for Trials, kids mostly, have already come back. Everyone passed this time, which is good, but I still worry about that day in the courtyard. Jacob got a lot of attention and even though he's already eighteen, it's not beyond the realm of impossible for him be Selected for Trials again. I just know he wouldn't pass Trials if he was Selected again. He just wouldn't. He's not that good of a liar.

He's mostly worried about Samantha though, while I worry more about him. Kids are adaptable and I'm fairly certain Samantha would be okay. She might be retaught, but Sammy is only nine. Things would go a lot easier for her if she were sent to Rehabilitation than they would for Jacob. She would learn pretty quickly to forget everything he taught her.

But Jacob? I just don't think he's capable of forgetting God. And if I'm being 100% honest, I'm not sure I'd even want him to. It'd change who he is too much. He wouldn't be "my" Jacob any longer if his beliefs were eradicated. Even if I do think his stubbornness puts him in unnecessary danger.

I grimace inwardly, shoving thoughts of Jacob's crazy stubbornness aside. He drives me nuts sometimes with how stubborn he is, so I find it best not to dwell on it much.

We're out scavenging again today. It's early in the morning, and there's a low mist hanging in the air, so it's damp and cold. Winter's in full swing now and makes everything a lot harder. In a few more weeks, we won't even be able to go out into the Old World city, there will be so much snow.

The little wall surrounding the Gate will wind up completely covered and even if we managed to make the hike to the Old World city successfully, we'd have a hard time finding our way back out again. When snow comes down hard like that, everything looks the same. Makes it super easy to get lost, and lost around here usually means you wind up dead.

Jacob has been strangely quiet all morning. We move mostly in silence, our movements easy and practically in tandem. We're just so used to working together it's like we're one person sometimes. But today, whenever I look over at him, he's got a frown on his face. That's uncharacteristic of him. He's always the upbeat one, the ever hopeful one. I'm always the pessimist. Or realist as I prefer to call it. It worries me he's so stoic this morning though.

Our boots press through the soft new snow, creating firm indents with each step, the crunching and squeaking the only sounds to be heard out here. I keep trying to think of something to say to him, feeling a need to engage, to wake up the regular old Jacob, "my" Jacob, but I can't think of anything. When we've made it about a mile outside of the Gate, he stops.

After only a couple of paces, I realize he's not walking with me anymore. Stopping too, I turn back to look at him quizzically.

"Jacob?" I ask, hesitant. He's been so weird all morning.

He stares at me for a long moment. There's something in his eyes, a flicker of something important, but I can't read it, can't decipher what it means.

"We've been friends a long time, right Sinna?" he asks finally, his voice low.

I wrinkle my brow, wondering where he's going with this. "Yeah, of course," I answer without hesitation. "We've been friends for years now." I take a step back toward him, watching his familiar face as some unknown emotion flickers across it, and my brow creases even more.

He nods, clearly mulling over something hard in his head. "And you trust me, right?"

Trust? Did I trust Jacob? Yes, of course I did. There isn't a lot of trust between denizens of the Gate, but Jacob and I share a special connection. We understand each other and instinctively we both know we would never betray one another. "Yes," I answer after a moment. "Jacob, what's this all about exactly?"