the purge chapter 1

7/28/2019 The Purge Chapter 1

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Katie Markey

A Brief History of Tarhyn of the West Gate

This marking was tattooed in dark brown ink, just under my left eye, when I was eighteen

years old. I remember pain, but I did not cry, because if I had cried, it would have given the restof the Keepers all the more reason to think I am different. No marking on any villager is the

same. It is used as a way of identification, to unify us together as a people, but also distinguish

each of us as individuals. I relished in the opportunity to be unified with my people, but I did notneed another mark distinguishing me as different. The villagers knew I was an outsider, and as

hard as they tried to take me into their way of life, it was impossible to avoid skepticism.

I only remember one thing about my past. I was born in the Purge, but I was taken here

when I was only two years old. When I was given to my mother Ari, she changed my name toTarhyn Saol. I never knew my real mother or father or if they are still alive, or even why I wascast out of the city into the unforgiving forest beyond the concrete edge. I was much too young

to remember. My first memory was sitting in Aris lap as she sang something under her breath.

No one told me where I was from until I was twelve years old. Until then, I always thought I wasjust like them, a native to the forest. Still, I grew up knowing I was differentsomehow. The way

the villagers looked at me, with fear and hesitation, the way the children avoided my path, they

all taught me that I was not like the rest of my people. Not to mention my appearance: I am palerthan the others around me, and not nearly as strongly build. I have light brown hair and hazel

eyes, and most of the villagers have dark hair and dark eyes. The other children were afraid of

me, because I never had a real mother or father. Where most parentless children were victims ofwild beasts or poisonous plants, I never had biological parents to begin with. But even though I

looked different, I never once questioned whether or not I was one of the Keepers.

Keepers are the guardians of the forest. A long time ago, the human race split apart from

nature forever, forming grotesque cities and creating disease and drought that spread across their

borders. The original Keepers fled from the cities to survive in the overgrown wilderness. Thededicated their lives to protecting the world around them, and to keep others out. Little by little,

the city got bigger, and the drought got worse. It was like a curse that remained permanently over

their land. This became the Purge. The city that never rains.

When I was twelve, I came in contact with the people of the Purge for the first time. I

was patrolling the borders with Vanya, a Field Hunter. He was a shorter man, in his mid fortiethyear or something like it. Once you become apprenticed to your job, you begin to lose track of


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your age. He was a pleasant man, always finding something to talk about. He was not the

strongest hunter, but his eyes were sharp as a thorn, so he was in charge of foraging.

Vanya, are these edible? I pointed at a bush of overgrown greenery, bursting with smallturgid berries, poking one of the small ones with my index finger. They were violet, and one

could easily mistake them for blueberries, but in the Forest, you must be more vigilant than that.

Thats Lurch Brush, Rhyn. The berries are poisonous.Oh. I wiped my hands on my pants and followed him, leaping over fallen tree stumps.Lurch Brush has other uses, though. The juice from the stalk is thick, and it can help

soothe first degree burns if you apply it thinly to the burned area of the skin.

Ifyou know so much, why are you not a Scholar? I asked quizzically. Vanya seemedmore talkative than our Scholar, Anira.

Ive got a fascination for facts, Rhyn, but Im not good at anything practical with that

stuff. I only know what Anira tells me. I couldnt research that on my own.

Oh. Maybe I will be the next Scholar, so I can tell you random facts.Its possible. You never know.

What is that, Vanya? I pointed up at the canopy. A large black bird sat perched on one

of the branches. It had a long pointed beak and an even longer tail.Thats a Letira, a Shadow bird. They look dangerous, but theyre scavengers. Theyll

only bother you if youve got a dead animal with you.

Do they bother the hunters?

All the time.What do the hunters do, then?

Kill those suckers too. Vanya laughed. The more food for our village, the better.

Oh. I glanced up at the large black bird as it took off from the branch beyond thetreetops before scanning the earth around me. And what is that?

Vanya stopped and examined what I was pointing at. In the far distance, clusters of

shapes were huddled together. A thin stack of smoke seemed to be rising from the middle.

Are those people, Vanya?I think so. Wed better have a look. Stay silent.

I closed my mouth, biting my lips softly from the inside to keep them from opening.

Vanya took my hand to keep me close to him and we walked closer to the mysterious group. Asthey came into view, I got my first look at the Purge. There were two of them. Their skin was

paler than my people, similar in shade to my own skin, with different colored hair. One man had

yellow hair. The second was just a boy, about my age from the looks of it, and he had copperhair. With a cry that startled Vanya, I tugged my hand from his grasp and ran toward the people

who looked so much like me.

No, Tarhyn, get back here now!

Wait, Vanya, they are justpeople! I ran right up to them. Both of the men stopped intheir tracks and stared at me like I was an animal. I faltered a little at their expression, before

walking up to the brown-haired man. What are you doing all the way out here? Are you looking

for the village? Where did you come from?

Stay back! One of the men shoved my shoulder. I heard Vanya shout.Rhyn, run!

I heard the urgency behind his voice, so I turned and ran away from the men who looked

like me. It was too late, though. The damage was already done. Once a man from the Purge


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touches you, his diseases lay in your skin, waiting to attack. I reached Vanya, and he took my

hand.

What is it that you want?We need Clear. This boy is our offering.

I raised my eyebrows. The man wanted something, but I did not know what it was. Vanya

was silent for a little while. I looked behind the two strange men. In the distance, in view, theforest suddenly ended, giving way to something smoggy and brown. It looked desolate, worsethan any desert I had seen before. I couldnt see much after that.

Our village buys no Purge children. Go north, and stay near the city edge. You wont

survive past the edge.The man with the yellow hair looked at me again, a surprised look in his eyes. You

dont buy Purge children? What is that, then?

I realized he was referring to me. My knees shook.

Go North. We dont want your diseases here. Vanya ignored his comment from before,and with a disgusted sigh, the man pulled the boy by the arm toward the north. The boy had tears

in his eyes, and he looked at me with a strange sense of familiarity.

Who were they, Vanya?They were from the Purge. Its the city beyond the forest edge, filled with disease and

corruption.

What goes on in the Purge?

Bad, bad things, Rhyn.And who buys Purge children? Who lives north?

A man named Amoniel, and if youre lucky, youll never meet him.

For weeks after, I was not allowed to leave the village. Ari and the other village elder,

Bandon, talking in hushed voices, and the other villagers avoided me. I watched every day as

they turned their heads, fear in their eyes, and took meticulous care not to be near me, or touch

me. I could not fathom why these people started to hate me so much. Were the people in theforest a curse?

Ari, why do the others hate me so much? I asked my adopted mother one night. She

held a gaze with me, almost shocked that I had asked the question. Is it because of the men Isaw in the forest?

They are Purgers, child. They are men of the city, and they are bad people.

Why are they bad?Because the city is full of diseased people, sad people, that trick and deceive others for a

living. It is a cruel and unforgiving place.

Were those men mean and tricky?

Yes, they were.What about me? I felt a lump in my throat. They looked just like me. Am I mean and

tricky?

No, child.

Was I sold like that boy? Am I a Purger?She did not respond to me, only wrapped me in her arms. Speech was not necessary. I

already knew the answer to my question.

Child, listen to me. You might have been born in the Purge, but you are not anythinglike them. That is why I chose you to raise, because deep in your soul, you are a Keeper. What


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you look like on the outside or where your blood comes from has nothing to do with your

character. You were raised in the forest, and you are a child of the forest.Aris smile was warm

and motherly. And you were not sold to us. We do not buy their children like slaves. You cameto us.

I nodded, though I did not yet fully understand what she had said. The villagers were

afraid of me because I was born from the Purge. Stubborn and diligent, I made the choice then todo everything I could do make the villagers accept me. This decision, however, only lasted amonth before it was rattled and nearly derailed.

Vanya contracted a terrible disease. It ravaged through his body one day, and he wastaken to the medics hut. The Purges Kiss, a deadly illness that comes from the city, had gotten

him. This disease had passed from the strange men, through me, to him. The Purges Kiss, which

only harms Keepersthose who were not born immune to it, has no cure. I did not contract this

disease because I was blood related to these rats, but Vanya was not.First, it is fatigue. Lethargy overcomes you and you are no longer able to move without

much effort. Then, it is the spots. Black marks, the first physical sign, spread on your arms and

legs, into your torso, and through your whole body. But worst of all, I think, is the destruction ofyour mind. It takes over your mind like poison, and all human instincts, all the virtues, all the

emotions are gone, and in its place is nothing but animalistic paranoia.

I visited Vanya every day, and every day, I apologized to him. The regret for what I had

done to Vanya ate away at me like the Kiss ate away at him. He smiled and told me not to worry,and that there was nothing I could do. This only made it worse; I wanted to do something about it

so badly. We talked while he still could, and he told me what he knew about the Purge.

There is no waterthere. He mumbled. The only way they can obtain it is throughdealers, or through us. They call it Clear. We do not give our water to them, but up North, there

is a man named Amoniel, who was one of the Keepers before leaving to live life as a hermit. He

sells Clear from the river in cases, and harvests it in lakes. He buys the Purge children.

What about me? Why did you take me in if you do not take Purge children?Your past is shrouded in mystery. We think that someone was trying to sell you to

Amoniel, but instead, you escaped. One night, you were found by one of the Field Guards, lost in

the trees. It was amazing that you had survived that deep into the forest at two. The animalsseemed to ignore you completely, or perhaps they missed you. Ari did not want to take you back

to the Purge to live life amongst the rest of your filthy blood ancestors, nor did she want to take

you do Amoniel, so against the others advice, she took you in.They didnt want me here.

They didnt want the Purges Kiss here.

One night, I visited Vanya, and I found him sitting up in bed, staring at me with fear inhis eyes.

Vanya. I spoke to him kindly. Are you okay??

He didnt respond, but only continued to stare at me. I tried asking him again, in our

language, if he was okay, but he did not speak. Then I continued with my daily apology.Vanya,Im sorry for

He groaned, and it sent chills down my spine. It was low, vocal fry, like growling. Fear

got the best of me then, and I turned and ran. He was moving, but he was already dead. Thatnight, while I slept, Vanya died. They covered him with a blanket, and I had not the heart to look


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at his body. During the funeral, as the villagers sang keens and performed their rituals, I

remained silent, eyes averted.

For many years after that, I devoted my life to restoring my integrity, to making a right to

the wrong I set upon my people. No matter where I was born, no matter where my blood came

from, I was a Keeper, and I wanted to show my people that.My mother told me many stories about the city.It is where all men went to die, she said,and their people are deadly to our people. There is nothing but pollution and disease there.

Instead of fighting the poisonous creatures and unforgiving wood that surrounds our people, the

people of the Purge fight one another. They fight each other for food, clean water, and places tosleep. I am glad to be rid of these people, and I wish I were never born of them.

The Elders of the village, Bandon and my mother Ari, are kind to me, but most of the

other adults avoid me. Purgers spread violent diseases amongst our village when they come, so

the villagers have come to fear them. Even though I have been here for twenty years, they stilltreat me like one of them. The children that grew up with me have mixed feelings. Usually, they

feel the same as their parents do. Some of them hate me, and others have grown to accept that I

am a part of their village. I do not affiliate myself with the city at all.

When I turned eighteen, all of the other kids my age and I underwent the first ritual in

becoming an adult of the village. The villagers gathered around us, putting their hands on the

shoulders and backs of us. Ari put her hand on my shoulder, and Bandon but his hand on myother. It was not an act of reverence, or affection. They put their hands on my shoulders because

it was their ritual, and I was no different than the others in their eyes. It was nice to know that I

was the same to them at least. All the adults sang, and I closed my eyes and listened. Noteveryone in the village could sing, but everyone sang from their soul. They were beautiful, and

every villager knew their part. They shouted praises as they saw fit, calling out our names. Then

we received the tattoos. I had never felt more oneness with the Keepers than I had felt that day.

After this ceremony, I could take my job in the village, and I wanted to take on theresponsibilities of the man I had killed.

A hunter, you? Ral, our chief Hunter, laughed at me. We were standing in his tent,heavily decorated in weapons and fur of the game he had killed. I grimaced at his reaction, but

stood my ground.

I have all of the qualifications necessary.Ral shook his head slowly, crossing his tent. You cant be a hunter. Hunters are

warriors. You are not tough enough.

Why do you say that? I asked, using a polite tone to mask my anger. Sarcasm was a

universal language. Is this because all the hunters were men? Just because I am not a man doesnot mean I am weak. What else do you think I should do?

Ral hesitated. Its not that I think youre weak, Rhyn, its just I need people I think are

trustworthy. I cant trust your ability with any of our weapons.

I have been practicing with Bandons old bow and arrow. I referenced to the bow I hadstrung around my back. How was he so blind?

He paused, biting his lip and pacing slowly around the tent. I waited patiently for his

response. With Ral, time must be taken to think things through. If you rush him, the answer willalways be No.


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Fine, Rhyn, but if you make any mistakes, youll be finding a new job.

I nodded eagerly, grinning from ear to ear.

And promise me something.Anything.

Once you become a hunter, youll be able to go further from the village. Never, under

any circumstance, go to the Purge.I promise you, Ral. I want nothing to do with it.

I vowed I would never enter the city. Through ritual, and through the spirit, I am a

Keeper, and that is how it will always stay. Through Vanyas death, I have learned what theirpeople have done to mine, and I will always do what is best for my people.

the purge chapter 1

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