I knew no matter how hard I scrubbed my face, it wouldn’t come clean. “Stop that,” said Henry, moving my hand from my face. “You aren’t going to get everything off, and now it looks like you slobbered all over your arm.” “Any idea what’s taking so long?” Henry asked Eric. McNair had informed us that he would be traveling ahead to talk with the community members, to recap our adventure. Then he would send some men to retrieve us. He left Eric behind for our protection, but I wondered if it wasn’t to make sure we wouldn’t run. They had gotten us out of the council’s territory, but that didn’t mean we were free. “This isn’t a beauty pageant. No need to worry what you look like,” Eric said, leaning against a tree. A few days back, the forest had become less and less dense. Whenever I imagined the life the Isolationists lived, I pictured crude huts nestled in some backwoods place. When we were taught about the Isolationists in school, we were told they were heathens, men and women who lived so immorally that they shunned all social conventions.
