Through the darkened tunnel as the man pumped the lever, the lantern guiding them through the darkness ahead, Cyrus introduced the people in his group to Theodore and Lila.
The man who found them's called Artyom, he doesn't talk much, but he's one of the best scavengers in Prime.
He tracked recent movement in the building and gone up to the flats, finding Theodore and Lila with ease.
Without him, they'd probably would've missed the two, or thought them as one of the many creatures in the Ruins.
The man with bleach blonde hair next to Artyom's called Boris, or bullheaded if Cyrus' honest, since he's always on edge, and the one who didn't initially want to bring the two back with them.
He's good with guns, repurposing broken or old ones that they find along the rubble. Even the most broken or rundown gun's an opportunity for him to create something new with them. They couldn't afford to waste anything, so he does what he can for Prime.
The last member's named after his favourite drink, Vodka, he's a good sniper despite his drinking habits and gives them an advantage when needed. Anything Boris creates with what parts he finds, Vodka tests them, and his favourite sniper rifle that keeps with him at all time's called Nastya.
Cyrus, well, he's their group leader. Older than he liked to admit, but he survived longer than people he knew in his younger years. He used his knowledge to earn his place in Prime and he's one of the few willing to risk his life going outside in search for supplies.
Crazier's finding four other people to help him, but their efforts gave them fruit for their trouble. Ammo, guns, vests, everything they used for the safety of Prime.
Didn't expect to find people during one of their scavenging attempts, but it's better than the alternate.
Cyrus knew people who died to the maws of the creatures lurking among the ruined city and tunnels.
"Er, so, what sort of creatures are we talking about here?" Lila sheepishly asked what they're going to have to watch their backs for, hoping that none of them matched the description of the bird man.
His answer, well, painted a different picture, though it doesn't sound like they have to worry about the chances of having a bird man try and eat them.
Due to the radiation from the bombs, affected animals mutated from the fallout, most of them died out as they're unable to withstand the blunt of the mutations. Those that survived managed to breed and further mutate, becoming monstrosities that hunt each other and the unfortunate humans.
No animals left untouched by the radiation.
Something as benign as a frog wound up a monstrosity with poisonous venom it injects with its sharp narrow tongue.
Worse mutations resulted in things such as haggard bears with their exposed skins, their two heads, and the temper to go with their miserable existence. Lashing out at a moment's notice, they'll silently hunt for whatever they can, even their own if they must.
Still more to come, such as the beasts that fly in the air at night. Only at night, their skins scorch under the sun, mutated creatures that might've been bats or some other nocturnal creature.
When they come out at night, they hunt with their exceptional sights and hearing, mutated to inhumane levels, looking for other mutant animals that come out at night.
Unfortunate humans caught ended up carried away to wherever the beasts made their nests, never seen or heard from again.
That's another reason why nobody goes out into the Ruins at night, them.
Nobody's successfully killed one and likely won't, too difficult to penetrate their thick hides, and more trying to capture the beasts to try and kill them with the sunlight.
Something else's occurred with the radiation, turning an unlikely animal to a predatory menace, the kind of animal nobody expected possible, rats.
Yes, the vermin everyone detested and dealt with at one point, ended up mutated into bipedal creatures, no bigger than a child, capable of hive mind, and setting traps.
Cyrus wasn't talking out of his arse, they set traps, have their own societies, still animals at their core, but still much more intelligent than anyone expected.
It's not uncommon for parents teaching their children stories about naughty children getting away from the safety of their camps, as the rats' prey on the weakest members possible, teaching them how naughty children end up captured before eaten by the swarm.
Cyrus' able to attest the nature of the rats, they're not strong, thankfully, they prey upon the gullibility and weaknesses of anything or anyone they think they have a chance of taking down.
One rat, they're able to take care of, two rats, it's not bad, but double the numbers, and they'll swarm.
Over a hundred razor sharp teeth with the biting power of a German Shepard, combined with their hive mind, they'll turn anything caught off-guard into bones.
The worst of them all, though, it's still the nightmares that allegedly lurked in undiscovered tunnels.
Oh yes, there's tunnels everywhere in the Ruins, built by man, built by the beasts, but there's tunnels older than that, made by neither, unknown to historians and time itself.
Some say it's a natural occurrence, formed by underground earthquakes, old underground rivers that dried up over the course of years, there's no telling.
Only that there's beasts that once laid dormant under mankind's feet, there, but not, quiet, idle. Nobody ever found them because they hid where man couldn't go or study.
Once the bombs dropped and chaos ensured, those beasts that once hid, don't have a reason to do so anymore, they sensed that man no longer controlled the world.
Unafraid, they've begun hunting man and the mutant beasts, never seen except quick glimpses, but you can be sure you won't live long enough to see them clearly.
No one really knows the truth in the story, as savvy people avoid tunnels, they don't recognize, told as children, horrible stories of people dragged to their deaths from creatures in tunnels they disregarded.
For Cyrus, he believes that there's things in their dying world that existed long before the bombs dropped, that haven't seen the light of day since his and everyone's ancestors drove them near extinction and those remaining into hiding.
Those that remembered their existence long since died and the beasts becoming nothing more than legends.
Lord, if he's still among them, knows what sort of beasts lurk a hair's inch underneath their feet.
Perhaps, they're the architect of the Devil from the Bible, having been driven underground. The imagery of the Devil, a reminder of what once roamed the lands.
"Don't go anywhere without me or someone who knows their ways around the tunnels," Cyrus summed what he expected from Theodore and Lila.
The tale of the unknown beasts' enough to shake Theodore and Lila, but Theodore grew more curious, and asked if any mutations occurred in humans, to which Cyrus replied that those beasts lurked on topside only. They never went underground, nobody knew why, but he suspected it's because they know what's down in the tunnels, that even they're afraid.
Within an hour or two, the rail car pulled up to another train platform with armed men waiting for them.
Cyrus got out first and talked to them before the others filed out of the rail car.
"Find anything good, Cy?" Cyrus heard one of the guards asking him about their latest scavenge attempt.
Cyrus replied that they found more ammunition and packets of military food. It's been slim pickings so far, however, and the guard sighs as he mentions that they'll have to start going further out of the Ruins for supplies.
As he talked with Cyrus, he noticed Theodore and Lila.
With his thick glove hand, he pointed towards them walking in between the members of Cyrus' group, asking who're they and Cyrus told him their names. He then asked what camp they're from and Cyrus replied they're from Prism, transferring to Prime.
There's back and forth from Cyrus and the guard, but the guard eventually relented, allowing them to continue onward to Prime.
Following Cyrus through a passage hidden behind a large bookcase near the adjacent corner of the station, the group walked through the lit passage until it opened up into an area that Cyrus said used to be a warehouse.
Converted into a traveler's hub for inbound and outbound survivors, there's armed men at all access points leading into different areas.
Guiding them, Cyrus brought towards the access point for Prime, identified by the symbol etched into the stonework above the doorway where two armed guard wore similar symbols on their armbands.
Cyrus conversed with them for a bit and one opened the doorway leading into another tunnel that was almost a kilometer until they found themselves back at their camp.
Prime's situated in a former library with areas converted for their needs, shelves brought down and converted into resources that built up their camp from the ground up.
Everything reinforced with scavenged material, windows covered with sheets of metal, blocked with stacks of bricks, the exits sealed off with fake walls keeping out any creatures lurking on the surface.
Behind the group, there's circular stone cover large enough to cover the passage, heavy enough that nobody's able to move it, and strong enough that nothing can break through it.
Like a bank vault, it closed over the passage, and the first person to greet Cyrus' an angry older woman.
"You said you'd be back before dark!" the older woman hissed at him as he pulled off his gas mask, revealing his face full of fine lines.
Sighing, Cyrus tells her that they gotten sidetracked, but she chided him that he promised her, this continued, and while they argued back and forth, Vodka informed Theodore and Lila it's Cyrus' wife, Mink.
Breaking promises with her's one of his past times.
Every time they go out and scavenge, Cyrus promises her he'd be back by a certain time, of course things never go the way they wanted, and it results in him coming back late.
"I'll never understand how they married in the first place," Boris snorts as he pulled off his gas mask, rubbing the side of his chiseled face.
Snorting, Vodka responded with, "Same way anyone marries, just drink a lot!"
Artyom quietly shook his head, preferring to keep his gas mask on, and went ahead, passing by the others as he took off for his section of the library.
Not very social, either, but it's expected considering what happened to him, though the details remained scarce, for a good reason. Artyom never talks about his time before he became a member of Prime. Just doesn't. Better not to push him for answers, either, he'll sooner deck your lights before he'll talk.
Cyrus talked with Mink until she left to tend to her duties and he returned to the four waiting for him.
"Alright, you put the supplies where they go, good job everyone," Cyrus waved off Vodka and Boris as they left to turn over the scavenged items from their latest attempt.
Sighing, he turned his head towards Theodore and Lila who waited quietly, telling them that since they're 'new' they'll have to go through the medical checkup just to ensure that they're not carrying anything that risked Prime's health.
Nothing personal against the two, just the rules for Prime.
The appointed doctor's Dimitri, he's nice, a little too nice, but he's one of the few genuine people Cyrus knows.
Cyrus led them through the bustling Prime as members stood around, talking, selling and trading things with each other, nothing exclusively important though, Prime attempts to keep everyone fed and clothed, anything extra than the allocated supplies, they have to buy on their own terms, or go on a scavenge.
It's an intricate system that Cyrus can't get into because he doesn't care to talk hours about the subject, but it works with little problems.
Everyone's fed and clothed, residents get treatments they need if they weren't idiots.
With everyone appointed a job that they're good at, it keeps the system greased and operating at peak capacity.
Not perfect, Cyrus admits, but compared to some of the alternatives in other camps he witnessed during his long years as a scavenger, it's better.
Going through a door into another part of the converted library, Cyrus led them towards one of the rooms that used to be an office, and entered through the doorway while Theodore and Lila waited beside the door.
"Oh crap," Lila remembered as she looked towards Theodore with worry in her chestnut eyes.
Theodore asked her what's wrong and she reminded him of his two hearts. The doctor's going to use a stethoscope and hear them, that'll put him and Lila in trouble because as far as Lila kept track, they're going to ask questions. Theodore couldn't wave it away as him born near a power plant.
Wincing as he's reminded, Theodore sucked air through his teeth as he tries thinking of a way to keep his secret from exposing.
"Hey, what about the thing David made?" Lila asks if Theodore thinks the psychic paper that David invented would work in a situation like this and Theodore pondered before shrugging his wide shoulders as he replied that it could work.
The door opens and Cyrus exits the clinic, telling them to enter, Dimitri's waiting for them, and they filed into the clinic where there's a man going between filing cabinets as he's putting paper inside them.
Patchy blonde hair with some brown mixed in, short, curled around the ears, as he turned to face them, he's got a comparable nose like Theodore's, and dark green eyes.
"Okay, my name is Dimitri and I'll be your doctor for the evening," he tells them as he grabbed his clipboard and a fresh piece of paper with a pen.