Tales of the Wastelander Ch. 51 - Teaser (Patreon)

“They’ve been talking,” Bellona said after a moment. “The prisoners. More than yesterday.”

“Any of it useful?” Ben asked, and she snorted softly.

“Some, but a lot of it isn’t. I can feel the lies even without digging, but I can’t push like I normally would… not yet. The scream took too much out of me.”

Ben glanced at her. “You’re doing the smart thing.”

“Not the heroic thing,” Bellona replied with a sidelong look.

“Heroics get people killed,” he replied. “Recovery keeps them alive.”

They reached a landing and slowed, the sound of distant voices drifting up from below… the guards, not the prisoners yet. Bellona leaned lightly against the railing, considering.

“The scientists are what I expected,” she said. “Disciplined and self-justifying. They believe that what they were doing mattered and that belief makes them resilient.”

“And dangerous,” Ben added.

“Yes.” She hesitated. “The soldier, though… he’s different. More pliable… and afraid.”

Ben’s mouth curved humorlessly. “Afraid men talk, but they also lie.”

Bellona tilted her head. “He’s lying less than the others… but he’s still lying. Not about everything, about importance. He keeps positioning himself as useful.”

“That tracks,” Ben said. “I’ve seen that pattern before. In stories, old movies, and books from the Before. Characters who believed that as long as they kept talking and kept offering something… they’d be spared.”

“Even if it wasn’t true?” Bellona frowned.

“Especially if it wasn’t true,” Ben said. “Truth runs out faster than lies. Lies can be stretched.”

“That’s… messed up,” Bellona said with a slow shake of her head.

“It is,” Ben said without hesitation. “But that’s what fear-based systems create. People who learn early that survival isn’t about honesty… it’s about usefulness, or the appearance of it.”

They continued down another flight of stairs. The light dimmed slightly here, emergency lamps casting steady glows instead of flickers. Bellona’s expression hardened, not in anger, but in clarity.

“They were raised to believe that suffering was normal,” she said. “That it was currency and if someone else suffered more than you, you were doing something right.”

“And now that belief has teeth,” Ben replied. They stopped just short of the holding level. Ben rested a hand briefly on the railing, grounding himself before they went any further.

“This isn’t just about getting answers,” he said quietly. “Anything we learn about this faction: how they think, how they recruit, how they justify what they do, it all goes to the Regulators. Every officer out there needs to recognize these people before it gets this far again.”

Bellona nodded. “So we don’t just stop the next one… we prevent it.”

“That’s the idea,” Ben said. “Or at least… we try.”