He’d gone straight to Vista to talk. Last night, eavesdropping hadn’t really been a choice, my only other option had been to stop standing guard and keeping an ear out for trouble, and that didn’t make sense.

“Sentences aren’t really sentences in terms of time,” Theo said. “The Coalition and the other major civilized nations hate the idea of long sentences and stays in prison, they think it’s barbaric, so they make the stays short, unpredictable, and the punishments harsh. Getting dragged off means you get punished, yeah, but it also kind of acts like a chance to prove yourself and have a kind of parole hearing in front of ten randomly chosen citizens, where a lot of the time if you give the right answers you get released.”

“The part that got me,” Rain said, “was that once you’re out, your debt to society is paid.”

“There’s a bloodthirst to the punishment,” Theo said. “I won’t deny that. It took my breath away, just hearing it from the prisoners. But here, at least, they want to knock out your defenses and natural resistance.”

“And brainwash you,” Rain said.

“Yeah,” Theo said. “Basically. I would not say I’d rather come here than go to a prison on Earth, if I’d done something wrong, but… wouldn’t say I’d rather go to a prison on Earth either.”

“The ‘rebuilding’ is supposed to be according to strict rules and shit,” Rain said. “Revise and uncover coping mechanisms, perspectives, toxic relationships… really big focus on the rehabilitation part. I’m really not sure how I feel about it. The idea of going and within a year or three being done? Being allowed to re-enter society? That sounds good enough that I could see myself looking past the brainwashing.”

“Poor Rain,” Ashley said, putting a hand on Rain’s shoulder. “The last few brainwashings really did a number on him.”

“Fuck, don’t scare me like that,” Rain said.

The thought of brainwashing led to me thinking about the hospital room. I tried to divorce my thoughts from it, and found myself looking at Sveta.

More than a few of us had been brainwashed or affected mentally. Rain, legitimately. Ashley, through powers and programming. Sveta, through Cauldron. Me, through Amy. Kenzie had maybe perpetrated it, if blackmail and manipulation of her parents counted.

It looked like one in eight or one in nine people were being pulled out of line. To be punished, reconditioned. I saw a family two parents with kids leading their kids by the hands.

That wasn’t really my focus though. Supposedly we were safe. We weren’t supposed to be punished.

Supposedly.

My focus was in the crowd.