Chapter 16

The glinting thing ... was a wall standing a short way from the bridge – maybe over a minute. It was revealed in whole by a field surrounding it from where Navy approached and to both sides, not a thing but short grass to the riverside and well around to obstruct its size, unmeasurable at that distance but without a doubt ... big. On the lower half was blueish and rusted-brown sheet metal overlapping at the corners yet evenly organized, an equally tall upper part made of chain-link fence ... with barbed wire entwined in and spooled over it. Distracting her from presumed simple lines on the wall, panels of white lights turned on in a row until one shone on them, bright enough to cover a wide area and be unpleasant to look at, though just not staring into it was enough for her to continue viewing whatever they were approaching.

Another direction was given before the bridge’s end. “Get to the side then walk directly at and over the partition. Follow the street after.”

Like before she followed Hane’s lead and went around whatever the stranger wanted them to. He’d said traps, though even on cracked road she couldn’t tell what kind ... But anyway, Navy had no intent to step off the line of bricks.

Going along to the left as instructed, she could then read what were actually very clear words (to the point she wondered why they hadn’t appeared so to her at first). Repeated over and over with mostly bright green pre-painted metal cut and hung to look like capital letters were the sentences, “COME UNARMED. ALL ARE WELCOME.”

A watchtower made of similar materials to the wall faced them, basically a box with a slightly narrower base holding it up behind the defenses, and an overhang shading a nearly full frontside of glass and making it unclear whether she couldn’t see inside because it was dark in there, dark outside, or the window was tinted.

Navy passed the initial wall and saw that, perpendicular, there was another twice as long, and a much shorter one looking at her that still couldn’t be seen past.

... The place was large enough from this alone to be a town. She didn’t know what was being protected, or who lived there. But she thought of the man with a gun pointed at her. She thought of an explosion.

...

Again, instinctually, her right arm resettled. It clenched in pain, and the tiger kept walking.

Their path went on a while. They passed that third wall and saw a fourth, again directly intersecting the last ... then went well beyond it. At a curve in the road they were told to face ninety degrees right and go that way, onto grass, so that’s what she did. Navy wondered how much gunpowder was still in existence. Navy recalled what could be put in a hole in the ground.

They turned the same amount, this time facing a long gate, and went to it.

It had been night for a while. The wall could still be seen ... and the towers ... all behind a cold wash of light. She wondered if pitch-black would be better than seeing how immense the place was, the sheer vertical metal, top half now identical to the bottom, easily over four times her height; or more. Definitely more.

She couldn’t climb it even with both arms.

... The gate opened from the middle, and someone armed walked out. The man in front, who was no older than forty, approached the other stranger and was spoken to in a hushed way so they couldn’t hear. No response from this new person implied he thought on what was told for a moment ... then, by two now, the three were led into a between space where one gate closed behind as the next was unbarred and opened.

To her, it was paramount she saw who was letting them in – If these were the guys outside, then maybe whoever was living ... there...

“Go straight,” she was told by the first man ... How a heavy threat in his tone loosened – put on, and taken off – to a feeling more relaxed ... It reverberated in her; a dozen men with automatic weapons gathered outside a home not far ahead, and this older man felt like he didn’t have to keep them in line anymore. He was almost ... comfortable.

Other things existed that they walked past, that were around the house across the street, with a warm, glowing light inside. She didn’t ... couldn’t count the number of people staring at her, some out of sight, most glaring with no ambiguity or question as a buffer. To follow Hane inside, Navy had to go through them and...

... Anyway.

A ceiling fixture evenly brightened the ... Well, it started with a hallway leading leftward, where the group was directed, with one door on the right ... so was it really...? It was painted like a home, pastel and kind of neutral colors, and it was built like a home at least on the outside, but modifications made were masked rather than hidden. Much clearer than the odd formatting was its blatantly makeshift wall to their right, cloth of a roughly equivalent yellow to the home’s real wall tacked over.

Not finding herself with the time to wonder what this was for, they arrived at a ... waiting area? Six chairs were up to the room’s edge, the section acting more like a connector from the first hallway around to another presumably leading out the home’s back, the “fake” wall lining the inside of the halls to form a long box.

They sat, Hane in the middle, waiting like they were told. Six men waited with them.

...

Mumbling outside stirred Navy from ... wherever. Soon, from the building’s rear and out of sight, a group of ten-or-so talking indistinctly shuffled in, and into a room in the box. Once they were shut in, all went silent again, save for someone approaching them.

It was two, actually. Two people came to meet them.

The woman leading took a place centered before them with her clipboard and a man trailing behind, her, a fennec fox aged over seventy with exceedingly tall and big ears, and him, a white-gray dog of indeterminate type in his late twenties. The elderly woman eyed them over just briefly, then said to Hane, “I apologize for how we’ve found ourselves here. Truly. Are there–”

She went to one of the men with a hand outstretched. “Scissors, please,” was requested in the open, then she whispered annoyedly, “Why didn’t you take them off already?”

Their bindings were offered and snipped, the tiger aware how visibly pained she was to move her arm a little and cradle one once they were free. Cerise noticed, looking from her to Hane, “Is anyone hurt? Are there any serious injuries we should know about?”

Hane replied, “No.”

With a little pep in her maturity, the fennec disclosed, “Alright then. Well I’m Cerise, and this is Ledger.” She thought. “ ... When I say this, I want you to know we’re just going down the hall to that room there; so, me and him will take one of you at a time to go have a talk. Starting with you, miss...?”

Oh, she wanted an answer. “Uh ... N–”

... On second thought, that wasn’t a good idea. Speaking.

The commander challenged, arms crossed, “Why in there?” Even seated he had to look down to meet her.

“What we’ll do is exactly as I said; I want to have a conversation with each of you and that’s all. There’s only two exits, and you could hear us coming from either down the halls. No weapons, not even physical contact – completely safe.” A gesture to everyone around them was made. The woman remarked, “Look where you are. We wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t telling the truth.”

... Hane didn’t say something back. Cerise stood patiently until he, or one of them, did.

Nothing really gave it away, but Navy understood him before the sounds bit in her ears. A leading nod and, “ ... Go,” made her feel oddly cold and unwilling, disbelief directed at him switching to a repulsion at the idea of getting up. Navy felt sick ... and she’d ... Okay. Cerise wasn’t wrong that they were already taken there by force, so if...

It was an order. She didn’t have a choice. Hane knew what he was doing. They’d leave, talk about ... stuff, and come back.

Through great reluctance in her, Navy got up gradually, almost taking a seat again at points and unable to help herself from looking to Hane and Case over and over. At standing height the tiger was well taller than Cerise even counting multiple inches of ear, the five-foot woman guiding with a little smile, “This way.”