The Fort was an impressive stone building towering over every other structure alongside it, looking like something pulled straight out of a fairy tale. The castle-like building was surrounded by acres of green land and clusters of tall trees. Littered across the field were Troopers, like ants from a distance.
As soon as they'd arrived, a group of men were running towards their van carrying a stretcher. The injured girl was carefully laid down on the stretcher, and then she was taken away to the infirmary.
Louis gave Harry's hand a squeeze. "She'll be fine, Haz. She's lucky you saw her when you did. You saved her."
Harry smiled wistfully. "It's too early to tell. That was a pretty bad bite."
"Feeling alright there?" Liam asked as he approached them, an easy smile on his face.
"I guess." Harry sighed. "As I said before, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. So just, I don't know, walk me through stuff."
Both Liam and Louis nodded. "No need to worry. We're here."
Their luggages were handed over to them, and then they were walking down the dirt path towards the main entrance of the Fort.
"Is it true that this place is the closest to the heart of the beasts' home?" Harry asked quietly.
"No one knows for sure where the heart of the beasts' home is, but this is where the beasts' population is the thickest. Without the Fort, the beasts are free to roam the cities." Louis said.
Zayn appeared on Harry's other side, throwing an arm over his shoulder. "I feel like you're gonna like it here."
Harry just shook his head with a hint of a smile on his lips. "Let's hope that this place likes me instead."
Louis watched Harry's awe-stricken face as they walked into the Fort, its fifteen-feet-tall metal gates swinging open to let them in. Once they were inside, Louis led the way to Commander Roy's office, since he practically memorized the Fort's map by now.
There weren't that much people around since the Troopers were either resting for the night, or taking their shift. They silently walked down the torch-lit hallways until they finally made it to their destination.
"Why, the Winter boys have finally arrived." Roy greeted them from behind his oakwood table.
The buff man seemed to put on even more muscle, however that was possible, although he had a lot of additional scars all over his body, and a fresh bruise on his cheek. Louis had been working for him ever since he'd first gone to the Fort, and he had respect for the man.
They all shook his hand politely, and of course, Roy cocked an eyebrow when he shook Harry's hand.
"Ah, you're the new addition, then?" He said.
Harry seemed caught off guard, so Louis chimed in. "We've had some changes in our arrangements. Harry will be serving at the Fort, with us."
Roy nodded thoughtfully, eyeing Harry. "Hmm. But the boy hasn't presented yet, has he?"
Harry shook his head meekly. "Um, soon."
"Ah, well. There have been times when trainees presented here before. That wouldn't be a problem…" Roy drawled out with squinted eyes, "unless, of course, you present as anything but Alpha. As everyone knows, the Fort is a strict Alpha-only home."
"You've got nothing to worry about," Liam said confidently, squeezing Harry's arm.
"I do hope so." Ray said mindlessly, running through his papers."Well, I can tell that you are all tired, so you can all head up to your quarters for the night. Tomorrow, we begin early. Please do fill in Harry about how we do things around here."
"Yeah, sure. Thank you, Commander." Niall said cheerily, leading the way out.
The Fort didn't have individual quarters, but had several people within each room. Since they were pretty much a package—the Winter brothers, as everyone labeled them—they had a large room for the five of them.
Jaron quietly wished Harry a good night before leaving to find his own quarters. Louis would never say it out loud, but he was beyond glad that the giant finally stopped following them (specifically Harry) around like a lost puppy.
Inside, the room was spacious enough. Two double deckers were lined up on either side of the door, lying parallel to each other. Right across the door a single bunk was pressed up against the wall, having a beautiful view of the night sky.
Niall, Zayn, and Liam wordlessly changed their clothes before diving beneath the covers, snoring within seconds. Louis stayed up to help Harry place his stuff in the small chest found beneath his bunk bed.
"I really get to sleep on this bed, the one by the window?" Harry said in disbelief.
Louis smiled. "Yeah, it's been reserved for you ever since."
"I find it hard to believe that none of you slept here even once." Harry said.
"I mean, it wasn't here yet the last time we were here." Louis said distractedly, trying to fit in all of Harry's clothes in the chest (why Harry thought it was a good idea to bring so much clothes was beyond him. Like—chelsea boots, really?)
"Were you expecting me to come along with you when you returned?" Harry asked curiously, head tilted to the side.
Louis shrugged."More of like, hoped. I mean, you're going to present any time now. I just wanted to make sure that whenever that happened, you'd have a place ready for you right away. So I had someone add in a new bunk before we left a few weeks ago."
When Louis looked up, Harry was looking at him with so much warmth in his eyes, he couldn't help but fidget under the boy's gaze.
"Thank you, Louis. Really. For everything." Harry said softly.
Harry looked beautiful with the moonlight on his skin, making him look even more fantastical and otherworldly than he already was. A part of Louis wondered what a delicate, fragile person like Harry was doing in a place like this—where their job was to kill and risk their life every single day. A part of him wondered if it would've been better if Harry was just an ordinary person, if he was just a Beta so that he didn't have this responsibility on his shoulders.
But then again, Harry was one of the bravest people he'd ever met. Somehow, even though the boy confessed that he didn't want to kill a single beast, it made sense that he was in a place like the Fort, because everything needed some light and softness every once in a while. A gruesome, tired place like this very much needed a gush of fresh air, something beautiful and precious to distract it from its own horrors.
"Goodnight, Harry." Louis whispered.
"Night." Harry beamed at him, leaving a peck on his cheek before diving beneath the blankets and snuggling up against his pillow.
Louis just smiled and ignored how weak his knees had gone before walking over to his bunk bed—the one on top of Niall's—and trying to drown out his thoughts by blasting music on his headphones. Somehow, it worked, but he still dreamt of the same face he always dreamed about: green eyes, curly hair, and a breathtaking smile.
*
Breakfast in the Fort was very different from breakfast in the mansion. Troopers always had their meals outside where long, wooden tables were littered all over the field. But considering their call time of 4am, the sky was still dark and the air was freezing. There was no source of warmth other than the person sitting next to you (which explained why everyone was huddled up together), and the candles barely produced any light, so it was quite impossible to see the person you're talking to. The wooden seats were basically blocks of ice which was quite uncomfortable to sit on. The only positive difference of breakfast in the Fort from breakfast in the mansion was that Benedict Winter wasn't here to freeze everyone's ass off even more with his cold stares and sneers.
"As we are all aware of, the beasts have been attacking more and more homes in the past week. There have been more casualties, missing cases, and deaths in the past few days than in the past six months. That statement alone should tell you just how critical our situation is now." Roy said, pacing the wet grass, his voice booming across the field.
"The Commanders and I decided that it was time to investigate. We've been on defense for quite some time now, and while that may be a practical strategy, we can't end the attacks if we don't know what's going on. We believe that something has changed among these beasts, whether they've evolved, or something in the forest is forcing them into the cities, or maybe they're being controlled. These are merely speculations, and without hard facts, we'll keep on finding ourselves right where we've started." Roy announced.
Louis put a comforting hand on Harry's thigh beneath the table, earning him an almost shy smile from the boy.
"And so, we've come up with a mission. It's our turn to attack. We'll explore that forest and find out exactly what is causing all this. Along the way, we destroy any beast's nest we find. And once we've identified the problem, only then can we truly strike back to resolve it." Roy continued, but Louis' attention was now on the conversation happening in their table.
"Fucking bollocks, I say." It was Aaron McCarter, looking absolutely livid. "That would be like walking blindly into a trap. The forests are swarming with beasts, I don't think anyone has even returned from that damned place. And now they want to send an entire fleet?"
"Well, if we don't do anything, this place will be overridden by beasts anyway in a few days. At least we'll be making some sort of progress by trying to understand the situation better." A dark-haired man argued in a fervent whisper.
"I mean, cities have already been breeched by the monsters anyway. We've tried holding them back for a week, and see what that brought us. It's hopeless." Another one chimed in, this one looking a bit familiar to Louis.
The meeting went on for several gruelling hours. Louis could barely remember half of what was discussed, but Harry seemed to be paying attention anyway so he didn't worry that much.
When they were finally allowed to take a break, the sun was glaring down at them, its beams burning Louis' skin. They all gathered in the Main Hall where benches were littered all over the stone floor.
"Well, that was fucking torture." Niall groaned, massaging his forehead.
"Do you think this is going to work?" Zayn asked, though he didn't sound that optimistic.
"I have no idea." Liam said with a shrug.
Louis turned to Harry, raising his eyebrow. The younger boy sighed. "I mean, it sounds a bit crazy and fruitless, but it might work if they really do discover something. But then again, the forest is pretty vast, and there's the risk of getting attacked and not being able to come back, so."
"We'll be taking rounds in groups, and certain areas will be assigned to certain groups. We've got the East-West end of the forest." Liam said, reading off of a notebook.
Eventually, they got tired of discussing the mission and sauntered off to various places. Harry had convinced Louis to bring him to the infirmary, to check on the girl they'd found unconscious on the road.
"I told you, you don't need to worry. The healers here are great." Louis tried to reassure the boy.
"I know, I just—I just want to make sure." Harry muttered.
The infirmary was in a separate three-story building, so they had to walk across the field to get there. Inside, it wasn't as chaotic as Louis had anticipated. They walked past several cots, trying to find the girl with blond hair (it was her only feature Louis could remember, which he soon realized wasn't that much helpful.)
As they were walking, Harry pulled him to a stop. Suddenly, he was being pulled to the side, hiding behind a tall wooden shelf.
"Harry? What are we doing?"
The younger boy ignored him and continued to peak from where he was hidden. Louis followed his gaze, landing on a robed healer carrying jars and bottles of medicine and herbs. When the lady finally walked past them, Harry turned to face him, his face suddenly pale.
"Harry?" Louis said uncertainly.
"The healer she had—she had an ink stem!" Harry said, gasping.
Louis frowned. "I've never heard that word in my life."
"It's, it's basically a rare plant. Its stem has this black liquid, and it's basically poison, Louis." Harry whispered feverishly.
Louis' frown even deepened, if possible. "Poison? Why would she—"
"It leaves no trace, Lou. They can easily make it look like a natural death." Harry said, more to himself now.
Louis reached out to grab his shoulders. "Hey, look, don't overthink it alright? Maybe you mistook the plant. This is the infirmary, Haz. They're here to heal them, not to poison them."
But even as Louis tried to convince Harry, his mind travelled back to when they'd found the girl on the road. She'd begged them not to bring him to a hospital because she said that they would kill her. "Us," she'd said.
Somehow, he'd managed to force Harry out of the infirmary and back to their quarters. Louis didn't want to think about it, but there was truly something suspicious about that incident.
He had enough on his plate though, so he brushed it aside and took a well-needed nap instead.