Day 966 - Morning

Vince

Vince felt a mixture of awe, paranoia and fear settle in the bottom of his stomach as Sanctum reared its head in front of him. The settlement was comprised of four great towers that were connected via smaller buildings, boxed in by tall, concrete walls with barbed wire at the top. The gates had originally been wrought iron as far as he could tell, but they had been boarded up so as not to provide an easy access point.

"What the fuck is this place?" Mitchell asked, breaking the silence. Fear and concern were visible on his face. "Is this a fucking prison?"

Vince had been expecting something like Carver's camp; something simple that had been converted into a fortress – this place had always been a fortress. Silas looked a bit unnerved before he spoke. "I'm not gonna tell you what this place was because that might affect your decision. Once you come in you can speak to our leader and learn all the details. Now, come along; the time to decide has almost come."

The man turned and started walking towards the large gates with Sonja and Hector following him closely as they led the horses down the path. Vince shared a quick, concerned glance with Becca and they all started creeping towards Sanctum cautiously.

Once they were all at the gates Silas waited for them, before banging against the wood that reinforced the opening. As the man knocked, Vince noticed an indent in the wood slide back to reveal a pair of eyes. They scowled at the crowd directly in front of them and then widened when they saw Silas and the others from Sanctum.

"You're back early, pal." The stranger said. It was a man, Vince could tell that much.

Silas chuckled. "I brought some folks who might want to settle here, but they're a bit skeptical, as you can see." He gestured to Vince, showing his ally that he was armed.

"Hmm." The guard said, "What do you want us to do about it? They don't, like... have a gun pressed to your back or anything, right?"

"Not at all. They're understandably cautious. Open the gates but tell the others to back up and leave the newcomers alone. They need to be in power otherwise they'll never come in."

The guard huffed, inconvenienced by the plan. "Fair enough. Hector and Sonja can take the horses back, you take these folks up in." He reached in and fiddled with an object that prompted the gate to swing open.

Even though they had already seen the main buildings, everyone still gaped at the sight in front of them. The large grey buildings were surrounded on all four sides by tall, yellowing grass that stretched for about twenty five metres in each direction, further reinforcing Sanctum's appearance of a castle.

"Jesus, man." Sully gasped. "This is... incredible."

"So," Silas said, "Now's the time to make that choice – you folks in?"

Vince looked nervously at Wyatt, Becca and Annie for support, though they had more than enough time to make their choice as Emily and Kiff tentatively walked forwards, holding their guns out. It seemed as if they were similarly skeptical of the place but not so much that they had to hesitate. Once they made it to the other side of the gate the guard on the inside waved them over and started pointing things out to them.

Hector and Sonja were the next to enter, though that came as no surprise considering Sanctum was where they lived. The duo hopped on top of their horses and led Silas's mount down the path. Vince assumed that they had stables somewhere.

Silas turned to the remainder and raised his eyebrows to tempt them over. In contrasting states of anticipation and disregard came Sully and Mitchell, the former of whom was exited to enter, while the latter didn't seem all that happy about it.

Once he passed the threshold Sully turned to Vince's group. "Come on, guys," he said, "think about it, you won't have to worry about the dead any more."

Vince was still worried. "If I make the wrong call, it's my fault." he murmured.

Wyatt shook his head. "We all decide together. We'll check the place out and see where it goes, and we don't let them take our guns off of us."

"We don't plan on it." Silas said. "It's too much of a risk to start a fire fight this close to our people."

"So, dudes," Wyatt asked, "Where do we stand? Who wants to go in?"

Annie raised her hand first. "I think we should. The others already have and we're safer if there's more of us. I don't want to be around the walkers any more."

"Okay," Wyatt told her, then looked at Vince, "If she wants to go, then I'm gonna have to cast my vote the same way. I'm still not a hundred per cent on this place, but if there's a chance Annie's safer in there I have to take it."

"We stick together when we go in," Becca commanded, "we don't split up, we stay armed. That's the only way this is going until I trust these people. Vince?"

Vince was torn. He was still paranoid about the implications of being 'trapped' in Sanctum, but Wyatt told him that if they all went in together it would be their joint responsibility. If something were to happen it wouldn't be Vince's fault.

The other three had all suggested going inside and Vince had to do what was best for them, so he let them have what they wanted. "All right," he said, "We're going in."

Silas smiled and waved them in, bringing up the rear as he did so. The man who had been monitoring the gate had bright, yellowish eyes and black hair, along with a creased forehead and a moustache. He nodded to them briefly as he walked back towards the entrance.

Vince kept hold of his gun and felt worried as the gate clanged shut behind them. He, Becca, Wyatt and Annie paused for a moment as they watched Emily, Kiff, Sully and Mitchell walking down the path, half-expecting a mass of guards to jump out of the bushes and force them to surrender, but no such thing occurred.

"I'll get someone to switch shifts in an hour or so, okay, Curt?" Silas called to the guard. In response the man merely nodded and shimmied towards a ladder that reached the top of the wall so that he could see if anything was coming their way.

"Just so you folks know, I'm not sure how busy our leader is at the moment. It might take a while before you have your induction meeting so I'll show you around a little bit before that."

"Induction meeting?" Vince questioned. "What's that?"

Silas chuckled. "Nothing complicated – we just need to get your details and profile you a bit so we know if you'll fit in here. It's practically a questionnaire so don't worry about it."

The group walked up to one of the four towers of Sanctum and Silas rapped his knuckles on another series of doors. Vince admired the scale of the buildings during the wait for someone to answer Silas's call, staring at the mossy grey bricks that built the fortress.

They heard footsteps, then bolts sliding back before someone answered the door. A hispanic woman wearing a hooded jacket opened the door and smiled when she saw Silas, opening the door and standing back as the group all piled in. The people here were a lot more welcoming than Vince would have thought.

"So," Wyatt mused, "Apparently knowing what this place used to be would have affected our decision."

Vince looked around. The floors were a great white mass, as were the walls and ceiling. The room was doused in a bluish light that made it all look very sterile and hygienic but cold and manifest. "Looks like a hospital from the inside," Vince remarked, "but a prison from the outside."

"Yeah, that's about right." Silas said. "This place was out of use for decades before it was refurbished to be less... archaic and could be used again. As it turns out the best place to hide from the end of the world is an insane asylum."