“Oh yeah,” Christopher said while patting me on the shoulder. “This is actually one of the most peaceful spots in the country. Not to say this doesn’t get attacked every now and again.” He said quickly. “But compared to the average city, this town surprisingly doesn’t see that much action.”

“Well,” I grunted as I let my scythe rest in my lap. “That’s a relief. I’m hoping to avoid fighting as much as possible for a while.”

“Heh, you’re acting like you’ve been fighting all your life,” Christopher laughed as he leaned back in his seat. I looked over at him and then returned my attention to the wall, not bothering to tell him how right he is.

“What do you think about Roby?” I asked while looking to the right and seeing the sun finally beginning to rise.

“I’m seeing a buttload of guards at the gate. Some are humans, about 2 minotaurs, and 3 battle mages who look like they’re on break.” Roby typed as he turned around to look at me. “Looks like a difficult fight, but if we do fight, we should certainly try to take out the mages first while they are not paying attention :].”

I grunted in response as I examined the gate. The gate’s wall surrounding the town was properly built and looked like it had seen its fair share of battle, with countless hollow craters and slashes coloring it. But the thing that truly was catching my attention wasn’t the wall, it instead was the weird smell that is annoyingly filling my nose.

Along with Sebrisha still snoring in the background.

“Hey, doc, could you wake her up?” I asked as I looked back, only to notice that Vinessa was also asleep. “There both sleep.”

Christopher looked back toward them and let out an exhausted sigh as he returned his gaze forward on the wall that was steadily approaching. “Maybe I should have done what they did while  we were still driving here.” He then stretched as he unbuckled his seat belt. “Are you not tired? I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you blink as we were traveling here.”

“I don’t have eyelids,” I explained while pointing toward my eye’s.

“Oh.”

“And I usually only sleep once a week.”

“Jesus, I don’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse.” Christopher nervously laughed as he stood up and began shaking both of them awake.

“Huh?” Vinessa groggled as she slowly began to wake up. “I’m awake. I’m awake.”

“Minorities, there hoping the border!” Sebrisha shot up as if she had just had a nightmare.

Everyone fell silent after that, with everyone looking at her with confused expressions.

Hmm, this dream must have been nicer than the last one.

“What the heck were you dreaming about?” Vinessa asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Eh,” Sebrisha shrugged her shoulders. “Another border patrol dream, only this time we were up against an army of tacos.”

“Oh wow,” Vinessa said with her eyes wide. “Was I in there?”

“Surprisingly not,” Sebrisha yawned. “You would certainly fit in with the group I was  against.”

Vinessa fell silent out of shock while Christopher burst out laughing and almost fell out of the sleigh.

Before an argument could start, I loudly cleared my throat to get everyone else’s attention. “We made it, and we are almost at the front gate. So how do we check in?”

Christopher finally calmed down and began walking back to his seat before he began explaining things. “Well, first thing we need to do is pull up toward the gate, then some of the guards will check our vehicles for any items or weapons that are classified as too dangerous to enter that place. At the same time, they will be checking our IDs and giving us a full-body scan. After that, if everything is ok, we will be allowed in the town.”

“I don’t have an ID. Will that be a problem?” I asked.

“No, it will just take you a little while longer to let you through the gate because they’re going to have to make you one,” Christopher said while pulling his wallet from his black cargo pants. “And hopefully, that will be the only problem we encounter at the gate.”

“Yeah,” I sighed through my nose. “Hopefully, my first experience with civilization will be one to remember.”

 

“How in the hell did you guys arrive here in the crack of dawn… IN A SLIEGH?!” The speakers boomed at the top of the gate. “No—scratch that. How are none of you wounded?! No—scratch that. How did y’all make it past the Wolvers in a sleigh?! Ya know what, scratch that too. What is that thing in the passenger seat?!”

“You mean me!?” I shouted so they could hear me. That might not have been a wise decision because all the guards at the front gate were in front of our vehicle, shook as if I threatened them, and now all of them have their hands on their weapons.

“Wow, he looks and sounds evil,” the speaker blasted in a way that I assumed was accidental. “Whoops.”

“Sir, I can guarantee that this guy is not evil,” Christopher yelled while trying to defend me.

“Sure buddy, but your words don’t erase the question. How did you guys get here before dawn without getting torn apart by Wolvers? We saw your headlights shining as you came here and tracked down your speed at 40 miles per hour, so unless you guys are the luckiest group of people to grace God’s green earth. We want to know how you guys made it here.” The speakers blasted, I began looking around to see who’s talking through the speakers. I saw a small building that had a similar cord hooked up to it.

They should at least have it somewhere we can’t see it.

“Hey Nigel,” Christopher tapped me on the shoulder. “Do you want me to tell them?”

“Go for it,” I answered while feeling the bandages around my arms to hide my irritation.

Christopher nodded his head, then returned his attention to the gate speakers. “The reason we made it is that this guy here is a Werewolf, and as we know, Wolvers do not hunt their own kind.”

The speaker went silent for a while, not only that, but the guards who were at the gate were giving me strange looks.

Ugh, I hate to admit it, but so far, grandpa was right about how they would treat me.

The speaker didn’t turn back on after that, instead, one of the guardsmen’s radios turned on and told them to proceed with the security measures.

After that, the guards opened the gate slightly so the rest of the guards could come through.

“Alright,” a human guard spoke loudly while standing in front of our sleigh with a helmet that looks a little too large to be on his head. “All of you grab your hand-held items—backpacks and weapons that you can carry and step out of the…. sleigh.”

We all listened to him and began grabbing our hand-held stuff. I grabbed the straps on my coffin, which was lying on the floor, and quickly pulled it onto my back, then grabbed my scythe that was on the floor next.

“What the hell?” The guardsman said in shock.

“What?” I asked as I got ready to get out of the sleigh.

“Why do you have a coffin as a hand-held item?”

“Just in case,” I shrugged. I heard Sebrisha facepalm right behind me as she swore something under her breath.

“I did not like that answer,” he said, looking at me sideways. “Just in case.”

We stared at each other for a moment, and I’m hoping I’m not supposed to respond to that, otherwise I may have accidentally made things harder for myself.

The Guardsman then sighed. “Just step out of the sleigh and line up.”

We all got out of the sleigh and lined up while some of the guards began searching the sleigh. Something then grabbed me by the arm, and I barely stopped myself from swinging. I looked over, and it was Sebrisha who grabbed my bandaged arm.

“What?” I asked, while gently pulling my arm away from her.

“These guards are on edge, so try to be as compliant as possible so they won’t have an excuse to detain you.” Sebrisha then paused for a moment. “But if they start turning their body cam off, just be ready to make a run for it.”

“Alright,” the main guardsman interrupted with 4 other guards right beside him. “We will go down the line with the scanner and ID checks. After that, we will tell you whether you can proceed or not.”

I dropped Rajeet in front of me as they started to scan everyone. Most of everyone’s scans went by rather quickly, with positive results. Roby’s results showed that he had multiple counts of unstable energy and wiring in certain places, but besides that, nothing too serious.

I was the last one to get checked, and it seemed as though everyone was on edge now, even the 2 minatours had their hands on their weapons.

“Alright, before I start. Is there anyone in the coffin?” The Guardsman asked while eyeing my coffin sharply.

“You mean anyone living or dead?” I asked while tapping the coffin.

Alright, play it casual, try to joke a little to ease tension.

“Um… Is there… anyone in there,” the Guardsman said while backing up.

“Not yet,” I said while tapping the coffin again and letting out a small laugh. That was a bad course of action.

The Guards flinched at my laugh, and when I tapped the coffin one last time, it opened up slightly, which made the main guard jump back in shock.

“But to answer your question, no,” I quickly informed, as I pointed at the chains that poured out on the ground. “All that’s in here are chains.”

The guards let out a sigh of relief, and that told me not to make any more jokes throughout the rest of this altercation. The guards then pulled out a weird pistol-like object that almost made me swing at him, but I took a closer look and saw that it was the scanner they used on everyone else.

I need to calm down.

“Alright, now hold still, this should only take a second.” The guard said while aiming the scanner at me. A green light then shined from the scanner for about 10 seconds, then disappeared. “Alright, now let's see what we have he-” The Guard then paused as he looked at the screen on the scanner. “What the hell?”

The Guardsman stared at the screen for a couple more seconds, then shook the thing and tried scanning again. After that second attempt, he then smacked the thing against the butt of his sword and then tried again for the third time.

“Okay, hey Tommy. Could you try using yours? I think mine is on the fritz,” the Guardsman said to the guy beside him.

“I got ya,” Tommy sighed as he pulled out his scanner. After his scanner beeped, he stopped pointing it at me, then looked at his screen. “Alright, let's see what we have here-” Tommy froze as he stared at the screen of his scanner.

The main guardsmen then walked up to him and looked at his scanner. They both looked at each other for a moment and proceeded to walk back while discussing something.

“Hey, make sure he stays right there,” The Main Guardsman yelled.

“And whatever you do, don’t touch him!” Tommy yelled quickly.

All the guards had their hands on their weapons after that, even the mages who were on break. I sighed through my nose as I pushed the coffin over and sat down on it.

“Hey, Pazzo!” Sebrisha called out. I turned around to look at her and saw that she and everyone else were near the gate’s entrance. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. There scanner picked something up and now there telling me to stay here,” I yelled out. “So I’ll most likely be here for a while.”

“Oh. Do you want us to wait on you?” Sebrisha asked.

“Naw, don’t worry. I’ll track you guys down once this gets situated.”

Sebrisha gave me a thumbs-up as she began to follow behind everyone else. Roby was the last one to enter the gate, and before he rolled through, he looked over at me, and a small antenna rose from his back.

Heh, couldn’t wait to use that, huh?

After everyone disappeared, all that was left were the guards who were tasked to keep an eye on me. I suddenly began to smell the strangely familiar scent again. I try to ignore it as I wait and begin spinning my scythe for entertainment.

I began looking off into the woods as I waited and began to somewhat reminisce on the things that I’ve missed out on. Everything felt so alive and chaotic that it should frighten me, but for some reason my reaction is the exact opposite. I felt relieved and happy to see something that grew, something that lived and wasn’t out to kill me like that last mutant tree Grandpa got me.

I took a deep breath through my nose to take in the nature, only to once again smell that familiar scent. But this time, I finally managed to pinpoint what it is.

I snapped my head to the left at the Minotaur, who jumped at my sudden movement. “Hey, I have a question.”

“Um, sure,” the Minotaur responded.

“Do you guys have a corruption problem around here or something?” I said while standing up.