When we finally returned to the 'city,' the man who introduced himself as Damon left me outside the gates while he went inside. This 'city' resembled more of a military compound, featuring a large concrete wall and a reinforced gate at the front. As Damon entered the gate, I was quickly surrounded by four armed guards. Damon had instructed me to wait outside with them while he spoke with their mayor to get permission for me to enter.
I inspected them all; they seemed to have a similar build to Damon's—oddly tall and strong. All but one of them had matching brown hair and green eyes. The last one had salt-and-pepper black hair and blue eyes. He appeared older than the rest, not by a small margin, but his wrinkled face had a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his thin lips. He winked at me.
"So, you've met The Shade, have you?" He left the statement open, clearly not intending for it to be rhetorical. I could only nod in response, wondering how he knew. Had Damon mentioned it to him somehow during our journey here?
I decided to ask, "How did you know?"
He chuckled at that and replied with a wink, "I have my ways." One of the other men wrinkled his nose with disgust at him.
"Oh, come on everyone heard the woman scream six ways to Sunday from the clearing out there. There's nothing mysterious about that. They appeared just like everyone else does."
I blushed and then cleared my throat, or tried to before I started hacking up a lung, a clear but red-tinged phlegm being thrown onto the ground near my feet. A fragment of memory appeared for a moment, of a hand holding a cigarette near my face, and I wondered for a moment if maybe I used to smoke. I didn't miss the fact he'd stated that there had been others.
"I'm not too sure. I don't have any memories before waking up here, though I don't exactly know where here is." They looked at me like their eyes might pop out of their heads, the older one coughed into his hand for a moment before laughing.
"Sorry, kiddo, but we might have to wait to give you that information. Until the Alpha gives the all-clear, anything about this place is restricted." My brows furrowed in confusion as I glanced between them. Maybe he just meant the mayor; perhaps it was a matter of respect.
"R-Right, so this Alpha person—is that the mayor too? Damon said he'd go speak to the mayor to see if I could stay here." I noticed the bug-eyed look again, this time from all four of them. Someone elbowed the older man in the stomach, and he cleared his throat. I crossed my arms over my chest uneasily, starting to feel restless. This all seemed suspicious.
"Right! Yeah, that's just her... nickname. You know how it is—Alpha, mayor, same thing," he replied. I nodded slowly; it felt like the safest thing to do. They were all heavily armored and armed to the teeth, while I was wearing only the flimsy hospital clothes.
I tried to change the subject. "My name is Nick, I think. What are your names?" The older one gave me a strange look but introduced himself anyway.
"My name is Jack. Jack Morris. and these here are my triplets," He pointed at them from left to right, "Adam, Mercy, and Derrick. Adam's the oldest by about 6 minutes. Mercy and Derrick are only two minutes apart." I tried not to laugh at the way he introduced his sons with his chest puffed up in pride, but I did smile.
They did look like triplets, completely identical at a glance, but there were minor differences. Adam stood the tallest and seemed the most serious, he didn't smile. Mercy had a light scar on his chin, that looked like it was from an accident of some kind. Derrick and Adam looked the most similar face-wise, but Derrick seemed to have a smile on his face at a near constant, though he wasn't smiling now, he had smile lines on his face.
"How old are all of you?" I asked curiously, Damon was still nowhere to be seen, and though they certainly seemed suspicious, small talk with them was better than awkward silence.
"We're all twenty-three. Dad here is celebrating his fifty-sixth birthday tomorrow." Derrick snickered.
Jack rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as well, "I'm surprised that I made it this far with all the trouble you asshats get yourselves into." Something in my heart twinged at that, though I didn't know why. They seemed to have such a good familial relationship with each other.
Damon came jogging up shortly after, followed by an almost impossibly tall-looking woman and another shorter boy, who looked a little closer to my size. When they came to a stop, the woman addressed me first, dismissing the other men with a direct nod of her head. She was the leader then, I assumed.
"My name is Rosemary. I'm the Al-" She stopped for a half beat to correct herself, "Mayor, here. Damon is my second, and Jackman over there is my third in command. I'm sure you must be very confused, I've been briefed on your situation and wanted to come to meet you myself." The way she spoke was straight to the point, with no frills or dancing around. I decided I liked that.
"My name is Nick, I think. I was talking to Jack and his um, boys." She quirked an eyebrow at me and then gave a pointed look at Damon for a moment. I was confused, she wasn't the first to give me that look, something felt off; "Everyone keeps giving me that strange look, why?"
"I'm sorry, I think there was a miscommunication on our end. I was led to believe we were expecting another woman survivor. If you're a boy then, you'll be the first." She looked down into my eyes, as she spoke and I for a moment felt a little afraid.
"The first? The first what?" I took a step back for a second, trying to meet her eyes without having to crane my neck so far upwards. I felt like I was short compared to almost everyone here. She made a small noise in her throat and leaned back to whisper something in Damon's direction I couldn't hear. He gestured towards a figure standing in the gatehouse, and the metal frame swung open with a thunderous creak and bang as it hit the wall.
"Come into our home, and we can talk more in my office." She turned and went to start walking back into the gate they had come out of, and something in my heart shuddered. I felt like if I entered into this compound, I would not be coming back out. I swallowed once as I tried and failed to still my racing heart, and followed them inside.