Culling

Part III • Chapter V

I didn't think so.

Greg was shaking, but the words coming out of his mouth didn't hint at his obvious fear. "What the fuck do you two want?" He snapped.

Not a wise decision, in my opinion, but to each his own.

"We just want to talk to you, Greg." I told him in the most soothing voice I could manage. "I'm not sure why you would think we'd want anything else. Unless..." I paused for dramatic effect. "Well, Greg, is there something we should know? Why else do you think that we would we be looking for you?"

"Fuck you!" Greg snapped, not even answering my question. He went to step forward despite the resistance in front of him, but Luke stood up straighter and growled, a terrifying look on his face.

"You are staying with us, asshole." Luke glanced at me, and I nodded slightly, and he looked back to Greg. "We have a few questions, and you are going to answer them for Kota. He's scary enough on his own, but if you don't cooperate you'll have to deal with me too. Let me warn you, I haven't had sugar lately. So I might be a bit testy, I am feeling rather strange."

"You're fucking psychotic!" Greg snarled at Luke in response, and not so quietly too. "I don't give a fuck about your sugar withdrawals."

This wasn't good, we had to go somewhere private where we could have a nice, calm discussion.

"Tie him up." I told Luke, who shoved Greg on the ground despite his muffled protests. Greg landed on his knees and glared at me as Luke pulled out a length of rope from his knapsack and got to work. I didn't pay any of it any mind as I continued to talk to him. "Now, if you can keep from screaming we won't hurt you. Much. You are going to die either way; so you can make your death either an easy one or a painful one."

Greg narrowed his eyes, but after a moment slumped slightly in defeat. He knew that he wasn't going to have a long life.

☜♡☞

After some time, we finally found a cave - hidden in the deep part of the woods before it finally began to thin out. Luke scouted the immediate area and the inside, and decreed the location to be acceptable for dealing with Greg. However, now that it was time, I knew that Luke and I were both feeling more anxious than not.

We both stood in the cave, watching Greg, who was glaring at us and cursing through his gag from a seated position on the ground. I noticed Luke out of the corner of my eyes, as he shifted his weight back and forth. I knew how he felt, torture wasn't exactly something any of us enjoyed taking part of; but being citizens of a military society, meant that we all had been exposed to it one way or another.

Sure, everyone assumed that districts one and two were the deadliest. The citizens of the Capital knew the rumors about us, and had heard the talk that other districts didn't think that we were a force to be reckoned with. Apparently, President Hendricks liked it like this.

However, what the other districts never realized was that the Capital's male citizens trained in everything that districts one and two did as well. Not only that, but our people also had education in psychological warfare - including enhanced interrogation techniques and military leadership.

It was a deliberate move to keep the extent of our knowledge hidden from the other districts. It was just another tactic in weeding out potential threats who might slip because they thought you were incompetent.

Different families in the Capital had different specializations. For example, the Blackbourne family used their abilities to control the flow of information in and out of the Capital. They worked within military leadership to gather information and use that information to make decisions on how the President should proceed.