"They are some of the older ones who work with the children. Those young men are joining the Watchers when they finish here."
Brant, Lisa, and Rodson watched as one of the leaders called sharply to a curly headed boy who had been playing with a pretty raven haired girl. The boy leaped to his feet at the sound of his name and raced to where the athletic young man stood. The man pointed to a group of two boys and a girl who were engaged in a tussle on the ground before him.
Brant and Lisa repressed their surprise as the boy quickly leaped into the melee and, by virtue of his superior strength and size, beat the two boys and the girl until they fled before his brutal blows. The boy stared after them a moment and then returned to the man whose directions he had followed. Rodson laughed a short harsh laugh as the man slapped the boy's face and sent him sprawling in the dust.
"These children must learn to be constantly on guard. The stronger the person, the better chance he has for survival," Rodson explained.
"It's a rather hard way to learn, isn't it?" Lisa asked.
Rodson stared icily at her for a moment before he answered. "Lessons learned the hard way are longest remembered," he said.
As Brant listened to Rodson talk about the Playground, the children, at shouted commands from their instructors, assembled in a rank and file in the center of the Playground.