August's Secret Lair

Havermouth, Present Time

The Point Crest Triquetra led the way through the main streets of town. In the darkness of night, with no traffic and no lights, the stillness was unnerving. The shop windows reflected their odd little group back at them, seeming to emphasise how vulnerable they were, Cameron thought with a grimace.

Harry gleamed in the night with their vivid hair and clothing, as did Connery in his blue coat. The Point Crest Triquetra and Rhett, in their black, were least noticeable, whilst Cameron, Meguitte, Jules, the human woman and her children looked out of place in their casual clothing, caught between the glamour of Harry and Connery and the darkness of the Triquetra and Rhett.

Their hasty footsteps and hyper-vigilance reminded Cameron of movies about the end of the world. It was always during scenes like this that someone died, he realized as they reached the street corner and the Point Crest Triquetra began to cross the road. The warehouse was to the right.

“Where is everyone?” Rhett wondered.

“The town hall headquarters was destroyed, and the Van Helsings were concentrating their base out of the high school. The explosions tonight cleared the streets of their normal patrols as they were all called in to help. It won’t stay quiet,” Greg predicted. “But right now, we have a window during which we can take advantage of the more direct route.”

“To where, precisely? How far is not far?” Cameron asked. The adrenaline had worn off after the attack by the zombies, and he realized that following the Point Crest Triquetra was just extending the amount of time until he saw his mates again. It had been too long since he had seen them, and he and Rhett had no idea how Heath was doing. They needed to get back to the warehouse. They needed to turn right.

“Many people have been preparing for something like this to happen,” Tom told them.

“For the river to flood and zombies to be set loose on the town?” Rhett arched an eyebrow. “Would have been nice if they’d warned us.”

“No, you idiot,” Tom rolled his eyes. “For the Van Helsings to make their move. We’ve had spies amongst them for some time, so it was known that they were working towards something, however their precise plans were not available on the level of recruits that our spies were able to infiltrate. The formation of Triquetras was warning that the time was coming, and so preparations have been underway for over a decade now.”

“Rhett’s right,” Cameron defended his mate. “It would have been nice if someone had told us.”

“We did,” Greg reminded him. “We warned your Triquetra to prepare for this.”

“You chose to ignore our warning and focus on your careers,” Tom added.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rhett rolled his eyes at Cameron.

“We did prepare,” Cameron told them. “We have a bunker.”

“And yet, here you are,” Tom commented dryly.

“Sure, because - ”

“August has prepared for this eventuality?” Jules interrupted, his voice sharp and disapproving. “And yet over one hundred pack members and their children were being held in the gym at the high school? Where was August and aid for those people?”

The Point Crest Triquetra was quiet for a long moment.

Greg sighed heavily. “Sometimes in times of war, choices need to be made,” he said softly. “We will let August explain himself to you, Mr Edison. It is not our place.”

“Where is Talen?” Meguitte asked them. “Is he where we are going?”

“No,” Dan answered at the same time as Rhett and Cameron. “Talen Gawaine is not at this location, he is elsewhere,” Dan finished.

“Talen is with our mates Heath and Aislen,” Cameron told her. “We really need to go,” he added to the Point Crest Triquetra. “We can’t just… We need to get back to our mates. And if, like you said, the Van Helsings are distracted and not patrolling, we can get back quicker…”

“It’s not far,” Greg told him. “And you need to tell us what you saw, what you found out, what the explosions were about, and anything that might be helpful. We can’t just stand around here and discuss it...”

“Greg’s right, Cameron,” Jules said gripping Cameron’s shoulder. “We have a duty to the pack. I will go with them. You go to your mates.”

“F-k,” Cameron was torn between his father and his mates. “We need to get this woman to Leighton,” he said. “Why don’t you come with us, and then, we’ll tell you what you need to know, and you can take this woman and her kids back with you because the warehouse is already overflowing…”

“We are closer to where we need to be, than to the warehouse,” Greg replied. “It doesn’t make sense not to go there, Cameron Edison.”

“Go Cam,” Jules said.

“Dad…”

“Look, this is fun and all,” Connery added. “But Meguitte and I are not going to hang around. We’re going to this warehouse where Thaelen Gulgane is, and then…”

“Thaelen Gulgane,” Jules frowned looking at Cameron. “Is that a coincidence…?”

“Are we seriously standing around on a street corner having this discussion?” Tom demanded. “Move. You’re coming with us. End of story. All,” he glared at Connery. “Of you.”

“It’s the train station,” Dan said as Rhett opened his mouth to tell Tom where to go. “Just to the old train station. They’re going to know anyway,” he said to his Triquetra. “Please,” he appealed around the rest of the group. “Just come with us. Your information could be important, and you should know what’s going on.”

“We could still become separated,” Tom was irritated. “And if they were captured, they could betray us.”

“Tom…” Dan raised his eyebrows. “That’s true for anyone, and this is their pack’s secret bunker, not ours.”

“I want to know what’s going on,” Harry said, looking between them. “This thing is pretty big. I want to know how big it’s going to get.”

“I don’t,” Connery grimaced. “I’ve seen things like this before, and the best thing is to find a hole and stay in it.”

“We, still, are standing on this f-king corner,” Tom pointed out.

“We will come,” Cameron decided because Tom was right. They couldn’t stand around on the street corner all night, and he didn’t want to be separated from his dad if he could avoid it. “But we will not stay for long. And you will make sure that we get to the warehouse.”

“Believe us,” Tom met his eyes. “We want to go back to your warehouse as much as you do, and taking you there after this is a good excuse. Right, let’s go then and get this done.”

They crossed the road and continued out of the main streets, through suburbia, passing through the more affluent area of the town, to where the houses shrank in size and garnish, the gardens withered into weed, and the pavement cracked and remained that way.

“Nice,” Harry looked around. “Humans haven’t changed at all, have they? Money still decides just how human you are and how you deserve to be treated.”

“So says the vampire,” Tom muttered.

“Tom,” Dan’s voice was sharp. “Don’t say that.”

Tom looked up, his expression blanking and then he smiled, luminously. “I don’t think of her that way. Do you? She’s just… ours.”

“Someone’s in love with a vampire,” Harry crooned. “Who is the lucky lady?”

“It’s none of your business,” Greg shook his head. “And quiet down. We don’t want all the town wondering why a dozen people disappeared into the old train yards.”

There was a construction fence around the property, as there had been for over a year. No one in town wondered about it anymore, they just assumed that whoever it had been who’d made the odd decision to buy the dump had exhausted their money in doing so. For a while there had been construction activity, trucks coming and going, but then it seemed to come to an end.

“Why here?” Cameron wondered looking at his dad.

“Location,” it was Greg that answered. “Close to town, but in an area no one cares about, surrounded by people who don’t really care what goes on here. Old buildings mean that no one wonders if there’s construction at the site, as they assume it’s a restoration attempt, which gives the opportunity to erect fences to obscure the view, without causing anyone to wonder about them. It’s actually pretty perfect for a bunker of this size.”

Tom and Dan pulled apart a section of the fencing just wide enough for a single person to file through, and their group squeezed from one side to the other. Within the train yard, it was precisely as Cameron remembered. Old red bricked buildings with their arched windows of warped and weaving glass were scattered around the trainlines.

The actual old train station with it’s platform was somewhat fancier than the buildings around it, but they were all marvellous examples of the era they had been constructed.

At some point, someone had pulled up great swathes of the tracks, for the metal or the wood, Cameron did not know, but the lines were broken and interrupted. Weed grew waist high in places, through the gravel bed that the tracks had been laid on.

At some point in Havermouth’s past, before the new station had been built and this one had been returned, a carpark and some modern buildings had been erected, and they remained, the carpark rippling beneath the roots of trees, and the buildings empty-eyed due to smashed glass.

The road into the old train sheds was less dilapidated than elsewhere, and the lack of weeds betrayed traffic too and from, but it was to the main train station that the Point Crest Triquetra led them, or more precisely, under the platform. Greg ducked under and lifted an metal trapdoor that was barely distinguishable from the shadows, revealing a staircase hidden beneath.

“Not the main entrance,” Tom told them. “But it’s good enough for us.”

Dan led the way, trotting lightly down the stairs, which glowed with a soft reflective light. Cameron paused to help the human woman and her children down. Their human eyes were not good enough to see the detail that soft glow illuminated. Connery put down the umbrella and set it against a pile of rubble before offering his hand to Meguitte.

“Connery,” she said very quietly. “We… Well, we have to talk.”

“Yes,” he agreed, undaunted. “When the time is right.”

At the bottom of the stairs, there was a steel door. Dan entered a code, and turned the round handle to unseal it, before pushing it open.

“F-k me,” Rhett murmured to Cameron. “What the f-k has August been up to?”