The building is hideous. An old, deserted-looking factory, blackened from fires, boarded up windows, overgrown weeds in front of it. It's huge.

"We're here?" I repeat my sister's words, looking at her with slight confusion. She grins, nodding before turning back to the gates and slamming her hand on them. They rattle loudly and Emilia jumps at the noise. Reaching out, I curl my hand around hers, ensuring she stays close.

It takes half a minute before two men appear on the other side of the gate. They smile at the sight of Poppy before one of them pulls something out of his pocket, the gate opening as soon as he presses a button.

My sister smiles at us before continuing through the gateway. Emilia makes a move to follow her and I shake my head, yanking her hand and pulling her back, close to my body.

"Zac?" she asks questioningly, her eyebrow raised. "What is it?"

"We don't know..." I trail off as the entire group looks up at me, Poppy and her team already inside the grounds of her supposed safe place.

"Zac." Emilia reaches up with her spare hand before running it down my cheek. "We have to trust her."

"That hasn't worked out so well before." I scoff.

"We don't have any other choice," Emilia reminds me. "This could be the help we were looking for in London. We have no other leads."

"I know," I reply, my voice low.

"We've got this," Jordan says from beside us, gesturing down to the gun in his hands. "We do what we have to."

"Zac?" My sister calls back, a slightly confused look on her face at the sight of us standing behind the gate. "Are you coming?"

"We should go," Emilia whispers, and I glance over at the others. All of them nod, confirming that they're with me, a team united against whatever is about to be thrown our way.

"Yeah," I answer gruffly. "We're coming." I pull Emilia alongside me, stepping over the threshold and beyond the metal gate, into the wilderness of overgrown plants and grass.

"You'd think they would do some gardening," Anna mutters.

"It keeps them hidden," Sam retorts, rolling his eyes. I say nothing, focusing all attention on my hand in Emilia's; the way it makes me feel, the comfort that I get from having her so close. I relish in the feeling, stroking my finger along the back of her hand. The way she holds onto me keeps me sane, reminding me that she's here, and she's okay.

For now.

Dependent on what it is exactly that my sister has dragged us into.

We loop around the side of the building, eventually coming to some rickety steps that lead down to a basement floor. Poppy quickly descends them, gesturing for us to follow. With a final deep breath, I push Emilia behind me, taking the lead as I follow my sister.

At the bottom we face a black door, Poppy hammering on it in some sort of morse code, before it's slowly pulled open, a curious girl peeking out.

"Pop! You're back! With..." She trails off, eyes wide at the group of us.

"Stace, this is my brother, Zac." Poppy smiles. "And his friends."

"I thought he was dead."

"Me too," Poppy replies before shrugging. "It's a good day. Is Callum in?"

"He is." Stacy smiles, stepping back and allowing Poppy to enter. I follow close behind, glancing over my shoulder to make sure everyone is following before I avert my attention to analyse what we've walked into.

My eyebrows rise in surprise. The corridor is pristine white, both modern looking and clean. The lights hanging from the ceilings illuminate the entire space, enough so that even the daylight is not missed.

"What is this place?" Sam breathes out, all of us wide eyed at the room in front of us.

"It's our headquarters," Poppy explains, starting off down the corridor, all of us following. "You can't tell from the outside, and that's what keeps us safe."

"Who even are you?" Anna retorts, looking at the ceiling as she attempts to take everything in. "This is better than the shitty Safe House we had up in the North."

"Hey! I liked that house," Jordan replies.

"Me too." Heidi smiles.

We follow Poppy to the end of the corridor, the room suddenly opening out into a large balcony. Each of us step up to the railings and look down over the open air courtyard that's full of people sitting at various tables, chatting and laughing with each other.

Food covers most of the tables, every single person digging into more fruit than I ever saw in the North... more than any of us have had in years.

"Wow," Anna exclaims as Emilia's hand curls around my arm.

"That's a lot of people," she says softly and Poppy nods.

"This is the communal eating area."

"So, everyone here is...?"

"They're here because they want to be," Poppy answers Myles' unfinished question. "Somehow or another they've made it to London. We take anyone in who isn't a Slayer, or the ones who don't want to live that way anymore."

"But you're in hiding?" Jordan mutters, resting his hands on the metal and looking at the happiness below.

Poppy shrugs. "We're waiting. We don't know what's out there. People turn up here, dumped in the South from other sectors, but unable to explain why."

"Hold on," I exclaim, mind whirring at her words. "What do you mean people from other sectors?" I retort, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Literally that," Poppy replies with a shrug. "People turn up on the Southern border from the North, the East and the West."

"Why?" Emilia asks.

"Not a clue." Poppy shakes her head. "A lot of them are killed before they make it to London. The ones that do tend to find us."

"And you keep them safe?"

"Absolutely." Poppy smiles. "We have to. They come to us for a reason."

"People from the North..." Emilia trails off, her wide eyes finding mine. I know what she's thinking... everyone who ever disappeared for no reason. Could it be...

"We want to do something," Poppy continues. "We want to help this messed up country. Maybe we can even eventually get rid of the walls and save everyone." She shrugs. "We're building our defences everyday."

"The Slayers never come here?" Heidi asks and Poppy shakes her head.

"They can't get past the fence. It's wired up to the mains electric, the gate we came through is the only safe way in," she explains. "And that's heavily guarded."

"So, what you're saying is... we just walked into some excessively protected warehouse full to the brim with weapons. And we can't get out?" Anna smirks. "Fantastic."

"You're free to leave whenever you like," Poppy replies quickly. "We aren't trapping anyone. People have the option to stay here." I sure fucking hope so.

"Of course." Emilia smiles at my sister. "Anna is just being rude. Like normal."

"Yep," Anna breathes out, crossing her arms and leaning her hip on the railing, looking down at the loud crowd.

"Anyway... I'll show each of you to a room where you can freshen up and get some rest."

"How long are we staying?" I hear Anna ask Sam.

"Shut up," he retorts, a slight hiss in his voice.

For once, I'm with Anna. How long are we planning on staying? Is this it now, we just trust these people, move on with our lives and pretend that everything is absolutely fine?

I'm not sure I can... there's no way to relax after all that we've been through, knowing what's out there and what our friends back in the North are under attack from. My other sister.

"We'll stay for a short while," I announce suddenly, my voice low. Both Emilia and Poppy look at me, Emilia raising an eyebrow in surprise, Poppy's expression one of sadness.

"Okay," she replies, dropping her gaze to the floor. I almost reach for her, inwardly berating myself for making my sister feel like shit. I'm doing an awful fucking job here. I'm not an idiot, I know how badly I'm coming across.

I want to tell Poppy that everything is okay and reassure her that I'm still her older brother, protective until I die. Deep down, I probably am still that guy, but at the surface it doesn't exist anymore, long annihilated by our family's betrayal and the fear that she could do the exact same thing as Gia.

"Thanks for letting us stay, Poppy," Emilia says and Poppy nods, turning and gesturing for us to follow her. I shoot one last glance at the happy group downstairs to see many people laughing. A strange twinge of hope strums within me and I grimace, turning away. I don't want to put everything on the line for this place. We've been burned one too many times.

"Of course," Poppy replies. "I'm sure Callum will want to speak with you as soon as possible."

"Callum?"

"He's the leader here," she explains, turning back with a smile. I feel Emilia tense beside me, noticing as Jordan straightens up and Anna purses her lips. Heidi's eyes widen as Myles wraps his arm around her. None of us have ever had a good experience with leaders.

"Maybe we should..." Anna gestures back towards the corridor we came down. Towards the exit.

"Don't be silly, Anna," Emilia retorts. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Callum is really nice." Poppy smiles over her shoulder, continuing to lead us around the balcony, towards a set of doors at the other end. Two people stand either side of it, no weapons in their hands, yet they look as though they're guarding the place, my eyebrows furrowing at the sight. "Ulias, Jamie," Poppy greets them. "I'm just showing our new guests to a few of the spare rooms."

One of them steps in front of my sister. "Whoa, Pop. You know the rules."

"I know, but please... they've been through a lot!"

"We can't, Pop." The other guy shakes his head. "Callum would have our head."

"Well... this sure does sound like a lovely place to stay." Anna's snarky voice comes from behind me.

"I'm sorry." Poppy glances back, an apologetic look on her face. "We don't allow weapons into the main living quarters."

I suck in a lungful of oxygen. I know exactly what Poppy is suggesting. They want us to give up everything we have, to walk into their lair without a single thing to defend ourselves. The idea is fucking absurd, an absolute joke and it one hundred percent is...

"Not happening!" Anna exclaims, shaking her head.

"Poppy, you have to understand..." Emilia trails off as I glare at the two people behind my sister, my spare hand curling around the cool metal of my gun.

"I do!" Poppy replies. "But these aren't my rules."

"We shouldn't have come here," Myles mutters and Sam nods in agreement.

"Look, we didn't ask any of you to step into our home," Jamie snaps, eyes narrowing at us. "But these are our fucking rules. If you want to stay, you give up all weapons."

"Zac!" Poppy looks pleadingly at me and I shake my head.

"I'm not opening myself up to get fucking burned," I snap, shaking my head.

"Well, you can't leave!"

"Why the fuck not?" Anna snaps, stepping towards my alarmed looking sister.

"Because... I only just found you," she admits, her eyes tearing up with regret and unshed tears, pulling at my fucking heartstrings. I blame Emilia. She's the one who turned me into this idiot, an emotional twat who's affected by how others feel. Whatever happened to living however the hell I wanted to, and fuck anyone else?

"Guys, maybe we could do it-"

"Are you crazy?" Heidi cuts Emilia off before shaking her head. "How many times have we nearly died in the last year? And you want me to give up my only freaking comfort?"

"We don't hurt anyone here-" Poppy tries.

"Excuse us if we have a little trouble trusting you," Anna retorts, glaring at my sister.

"Zac!" Emilia turns to look at me, grabbing the side of my face with her hand. "I think we're safe here. I trust Poppy." I tear my eyes from her and she lightly slaps my skin, forcing my gaze to return to hers. "Please!"

I stay silent, glancing around our group, Jordan watching me intently, Sam clearly uncertain over what to do. Myles, Heidi and Anna are all glaring at my sister and her companions. My sister is begging me with her eyes, Emilia's hand is in mine, squeezing and rubbing against my palm, a clear attempt to encourage me to relax and give this a chance.

"I want to stay," I admit, Poppy's eyes lighting up. "But... we can't do what you ask of us." 

"Then you need to leave." All of us whirl around at the sound of the deep voice, coming face to face with a tall, muscular man, built like a fucking machine, his arms the size of my thighs. Fucking hell.

"Callum!" Poppy exclaims.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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