Layne refused to be anywhere near Coden or Iker. He didn't know how to go about behaving around them, so he simply avoided them. His next best choice, of course, was hanging out with Malia and Alana, who so happened to start volunteering as babysitters on their very first day in the village.
Alana loved children. She'd try to spend all of her time helping out the mothers. Malia appeared to only be there for the company, thus Layne didn't feel like he was the only one with a hidden agenda.
"Why would anyone have children in a place like that?" Malia whispered once when they were sitting within a distance of Alana, Mary and the children.
Layne shrugged. "I'd assume they might not have effective birth control?"
"I think I'd rather live without... Intimate relationships," she said just a little too loud. "It's such an awful place to grow up in."
Mary turned to her and smiled. "None of us chose to have intimate relationships, Malia."
Malia blushed and bit down her. "I-I," she stuttered, "I'm so sorry, I didn't even think about it."
"It's ok," Mary chuckled. "Just don't say something like that again, some of the others are more sensitive than me."
Malia only nodded and turned her eyes away. For some reason, Layne had an urge to laugh. He swallowed it down and took her hand.
"Let's go somewhere else," he offered.
"Yeah, okay."
* * *
They ambled around the streets, silent, most of the time. Malia kept her eyes down and Layne wondered whether she at least saw what was right in front of her at any given time.
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad," he said. "Besides, no one else will know."
Malia shook her head. "You don't get it."
"Guess I don't."
They fell silent for a while. When Malia spoke again, Layne had almost forgotten where they had ended. "I just should have known better."
"If everyone knew better maybe we wouldn't be here, but people often don't know better, so..."
She clenched her jaw and opened it again. It looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't make a sound. Tears started rolling and Layne got lost. Again. He never knew how to handle her like that, so he just wrapped one hand around her shoulders and continued walking, pretending not to see her crying.
He was only glad there weren't that many people in this village, thus, they didn't meet anyone.
"Erick," she sobbed.
"No, I'm Layne." He raised his eyebrows and quickly realised that wasn't what she meant, so, he laughed, trying to make it pass a joke. There couldn't have been worse timing for that and it definitely didn't help her.
"My... 'ex', Erick." Malia wiped her eyes aggressively but tears just kept coming. "He was never really my boyfriend. I mean, he pretended to be, at first. Then he just used me. For money."
Layne bit on his lips. He didn't understand why was she telling him that. He didn't want her to be telling him that. Since she did, he had to come up with an answer – which was too big of a task for him. He only cursed Malia in his head. They weren't that close or anything. Why was he always the person she'd decide to open up to?
"And when I decided I wasn't gonna do it anymore..." She squeezed her lips together and closed her eyes. "Suddenly, I'm visited by the RCI."
He tightened his grip on her shoulder. "Why are you telling me all that?" he asked. Those were wrong words. Those were very wrong words.
"Sorry," she whispered, shaking her head. "I really needed to talk to someone. Anyway. I should have known. But I chose not to."
"Why does that someone have to be me?" he thought out loud and immediately regretted it. Malia stopped and so did he. He released her and took a step backwards, knowing he had screwed up. "I mean, I'm probably one of the worst choices for hearing anyone out. I don't know how to comfort you or anything."
Wrong words again.
"I don't need comfort, Layne." She looked weird. Tears stopped and her bloodshot eyes now had a fierce spark in them, which just didn't quite fit with the red stripes going down her doll-like cheeks. "I like talking to you because you don't immediately start jumping around me and treating me like a child. Like Alana does. Like everyone else does."
He turned away from her. He didn't even know what was she talking about. He was ready to go back to the more populated part of the village, tho.
Malia had other ideas.
Without the slightest warning, she leaned in her lips met with his. For a moment, Layne froze. He did not expect that. Once he came back to his senses, though, he pushed her away.
Malia looked at him wide-eyed. "Layne?"
He shook his head.
He turned around.
He left her standing there.
* * *
For the most part, Layne simply avoided Malia. Since they didn't live in one tiny cabin anymore, it wasn't that hard to do. He noticed her looking at his direction from time to time when they were close to each other, but he chose not to acknowledge it. She didn't do anything else, neither.
It was a pity. He had liked Malia. Not the way she apparently liked him. The way he loved his niece. He could only hope it would all be forgotten with time.
He was still in bed and the light outside the window had a purple tint to it. It had to be early. Even Coden, who'd usually wake up earlier than him, still laid in his bed. Wide-eyed, just like him. Layne didn't know what had wakened them up. They must have heard something.
They exchanged looks and didn't say anything. A high-pitched scream came from the outside and they jumped up. Layne glanced through the window but couldn't see anything unusual.
"What's happening?" asked Coden, putting on a denim jacket.
Layne shrugged and grabbed his own. He was still trying to get his arm into one of the sleeves when they ran out through the door. Just outside the house, everything looked calm but he sensed something not right. Even for an early morning, it was too silent. Too tense.
"Get back inside," he whispered but Coden didn't move.
Layne shook his head at him and was about to go look around when heavy footsteps sounded from around the corner. He jolted to their direction and saw Oscar, dragging one of the children by the hand.
"You're awake, good," he said in a hushed voice and pushed the weeping girl towards them. "We're under attack, take the kid and go get your other friends, we're trying to get as many people out as we can without them noticing."
He ran away and left them with a child. Just like that. The little girl sobbed quietly and bit down on her fingers. Layne only knew her from seeing her around with the other kids, but he was proud of her. She couldn't have been more than seven years old, yet she handled everything that was happening in a rather mature way.
Layne only wished he'd known what was actually happening.
"Run with her to the forest," he said to Coden.
Coden shook his head. "What? I can't run like that. I don't even know what's going on! Can't leave everyone."
Layne pushed his finger to his lips, Coden's been getting a little too loud. "Well we're responsible for her, now, what do you wanna do? Drag a child along or leave her?"
It was clear that Coden wanted to interrupt, but Layne just kept talking. "You're mostly a child, yourself. You're not brave, you're not strong, you won't help. But you're fast, so you can get her away. Maybe you can help someone else out if you meet anyone. In the end, you're a Haslett and that matters to them for some reason, so fucking run."
Layne didn't wait for Coden's response. Mostly, he just thought there was no time to argue with him. He sneaked around the corner of the house and looked around. Still calm. Too calm.
Then, out of nowhere, another scream.
His heartbeat intensified. It was so close to him. Creeping through the village, he met a few people running in various directions but he just couldn't see the threat. In a way, it reminded him of the first nights in the Land. Sitting in the dark, in a small cabin, listening to howls of animals they thought would kill them upon seeing – but not even knowing how they looked like.
A loud yelp came from the house right next to him and he jumped. He ducked around the corner and watched a large, dark figure exit through the door. It was holding a weapon, Layne couldn't make out the exact shape and decided that it could have just been a large knife. A part of him wished to jump into a fight but the rational side told him that he was armless and there was no helping to the people inside, anyway. He could have stopped whoever this was from hurting anyone else – but would he have managed?
A shiver ran through his body. He wasn't a great fighter. He could smack someone hard if they weren't fighting back – and that's about it. The figure wasn't in a big rush to keep moving. It stood around there, door still open, looking around. Eventually, it walked away at a calm pace and Layne sighed.
It wasn't long until he reached the house in which Alana, Malia and Iker were staying. The door was closed and he took it as a good sign. He pressed down on the handle and hesitated for a second – but there was no time to be scared, he told to himself and pushed the door open.
He checked the two bedrooms. Both of them were empty. That probably meant they had already gotten themselves out. At least, that's what he'd hoped for. Not waiting around much longer, he rushed to the next house.
Two women were inside of it, huddling in the corner of one of the rooms together. When Layne entered, both of them startled and the younger one hid her face in her hands.
"It's ok," he tried to reassure them. "I'm not one of them."
"What's happening?" the one looking older whispered. "We keep hearing screams."
"We're under attack, come on, I'll help you out of the village."
They helped each other stand up and followed him outside. He didn't fully know what was he doing – but he knew that if there was any way for him to help these people, it was this.
Together, they visited a couple more houses and found three more people in need of help. That's as big of a group as he dared to lead as more people would have made it harder for them to remain unnoticed.
The task proved itself to be even more difficult than he would have thought at first. He saw more and more of those figures exiting some of the houses. What made it worse is that he couldn't see any pattern. They wouldn't leave one house and move on to the next one... They'd just leave. And always with the door open.
Whenever he could, he'd put in the effort to close those doors. That wouldn't slow them down for long – but every second meant more people making it out. And they didn't have many people, to begin with, so every one of them counted.
When they reached the forest, he waved them to keep going. "Run as far as you can from here," he said. "They'll probably scan the surroundings, hide if you hear anything."
And he turned back. Navigating through the houses, he almost tripped over something. He looked down and pressed his hand over his mouth to stop himself from gagging. It was a body of a man, blood flowing from a deep gash in his throat.
Layne closed his eyes for a moment and tilted his head up into the sky. He jumped over the corpse and rushed forward, not looking back. He didn't know who the man was but had only hoped that he was on Victor's side.
He visited a few more houses but didn't find anyone alive. He did find a few more bloody bodies, one of them being that of a little boy. He tried not to think about it. He noticed Alana sneaking around, checking the houses, just like himself. He decided not to approach.
Finding more bodies, Layne started getting carried away. That was really happening. Victor and his people came to 'take care' of their 'opponents' and they did nothing to prepare for that. He knew Adan was getting something done – but where were the results?
A figure of a man carrying a weapon emerged right in front of him. He froze. He wasn't careful enough and he was going to die.
But that wasn't the case. Another figure appeared right behind the first one and sliced his throat in a matter of seconds. Layne didn't even have the time to think about it. He just recognised the second person as Adan. His expression told him to turn around and so he did.
To meet with the third figure.
And a blow to his head.