"Hey! Who are those people?" Megan whispered.
"I don't know, but we shouldn't trust them," Matthew recommended. "Let's just keep our mouths shut and stay silent for the time being."
Daniel swept his rough hair up, sighing. "So first, we found out that this safe place isn't safe, ironically. Then, we have some random, non-trustable people roaming around here, then news that we're stuck in NYC, and then the fact that Mr Palmer may not be here at all?" he fretted.
"Whoa, whoa. Who said Palmer won't be here?" Matthew stopped Daniel there.
"Well, if he left you to die at the hospital, no one said that he'll make a commitment to return here either," Megan groaned, supporting Matthew's idea.
"But this is a safe place. Well, at least we thought so. But he owns this place. Of course, he'll want to come here for refuge since it's marked," Matthew argued.
"Either way, we should find a way out of here," Megan suggested. "We can't stay here for long, can we?"
However, Matthew had a different idea, changing his mind. He had a feeling in his gut that approaching the group of strangers at the funfair would help them somehow. "I think I want to confront them," Matthew voiced out his thoughts.
"What? Are you nuts? Who knows what they will do to you?" Daniel warned.
"Uh, I think I'll go with Matthew with this one. We should try," Megan said, altering her opinion as well.
Daniel groaned. He couldn't argue against the other two since he was obviously outnumbered. As a result, he gave in and got up, following the two of them. The trio, however, found that they were no longer in their sight. Until Matthew felt a tap on his shoulder.
The detectives turned around to see a man holding a gun at them in one hand.
"Whoa, gun down, please," Daniel pleaded. The man still kept his gun out, proving to be a threat.
"Who in the world are you?" Matthew asked. It seemed to him that it might have been a mistake to make known their presence to the mysterious group.
Meanwhile, the man scoffed, not answering Matthew's question. Instead, he returned a question to him. "More importantly, who are you?" he interrogated.
"I'm Sergeant Matthew Davis from the NYPD," Matthew introduced himself to the unfriendly stranger. The stranger had an uncanny similarity to Gregory from the hospital, but he didn't want to think about that. "With me are Detectives Daniel Washington and Megan Stewart," he added on behalf of the rest.
The stranger then lowered his gun and slipped it back into his pocket before the foul look on his face went away. "Forgive my manners," he said. "It's just a precaution we like to take. So, it just happens that you three are the NYPD officers we've been looking for a while already."
Matthew shook his head, signalling that he had something to say. He then cut into the conversation, making another query. "I'm sorry, but can you please answer my question regarding you and your group's identity?" he questioned.
The stranger nodded, agreeing to reveal the group's identity. "We're the Salvation Rebellion Alliance. We formed in 2013, three years after Yael Biology marked its corrupt beginning. I'm Eliot, the leader of the organisation," the man elaborated.
Daniel raised an eyebrow. "So... you're Yael's "secret" enemy organisation?" he questioned, finally more open to them.
"You can put it that way," Eliot replied. He shuffled around the spot a little, getting a little impatient as he spoke. "I don't have much time to go through all the details on our origins and all that. What I do need to assist you with is to help you with your confrontation with Yael."
Daniel frowned, slightly sceptical after hearing the group's goal. A goal that very much depended on the success of the detectives. "Confrontation with Yael?" he questioned.
Eliot sighed. He felt slightly bad that he was pushing the responsibility to someone that barely knew the group, but he had no choice. There were reasonable rationales that he had. "I know you're probably not enthusiastic about going face-to-face with Yael, but you have to. We would have done so, but we can't risk exposing our identity. Furthermore, we don't even have authority to detain them, unlike you three officers, who just happened to get involved in all this because of a missing persons report," he gave a long explanation.
Matthew scratched his head while Megan pursed her lips. They all contemplated the choices they would make—the choices that would affect their future. They could either trust the group, ignoring the fact that they could have been sent by Yael, or they could leave immediately and go on their own way. Because of this, all three of them were sent into a dilemma.
Matthew then looked back at Eliot, away from the floor. "Excuse me," he said as he cleared his throat. "I think I need to speak with my colleagues for a moment."
The three detectives then distanced themselves from the group of strangers, huddling together for a discussion. They ensured that their conversation couldn't be eavesdropped on even from a foot away, although Megan found it odd that one of the group members attempted to listen intently.
"So, what do you think about them?" Megan got the ball rolling, marking the beginning of their decision on whether to trust the mysterious organisation.
Matthew scratched his head. He already knew what he was going to say, but he hesitated for a moment, fearing that Daniel would object to his opinion. However, he couldn't just stop there to be "considerate" of others' views. He decided that it was only right to voice his own thoughts. And so, he began. "I think it might be a good idea that we tag along with them, although we'll still be cautious about their actions and speech," he said.
"Wait, so now you trust them?" Daniel questioned, appalled. His reaction to Matthew was nothing unexpected, however. "Matthew, we came here to seek shelter and hopefully find Palmer. Not follow some shady group to our possible deaths," he argued.
Matthew sighed. He couldn't really explain it to Daniel, but his instincts just told him to follow the group this time. This would also mean breaking their rule of trusting no one, which they had to make a compromise on for the sake of finding Mr. Palmer and confronting Yael.
"I know, I know," Matthew tried to identify with Daniel by understanding his thoughts and fears. "But this is the only way we can advance. This may be our only lead. Even if those people happen to be from Yael, we all know we'll eventually get hunted down.
Daniel then became frustrated and overwhelmed by stress. He felt that his opinions were always being shunned. Megan constantly supporting Matthew's ideas didn't help either. Of course, he understood that a time would come when Matthew would be wrong.
A time that he would have to pay.
"Whatever you say, then," Daniel gave in as he backed away from the debate.
As a result, the three finally came to a mutual agreement to go with Eliot and his alliance. The detectives then returned to the sight of the group, ready to announce their decision. On behalf of the group, Matthew spoke to Eliot. He cleared his throat before beginning. "We've decided that we'll agree to join ties with you and your group."
Eliot nodded, rather impressed by their unreluctant decision. He then stepped forward from the rest of the group. "I assume we can move on to discussing with you the plans we have," he stated.
Matthew and Megan nodded, while Daniel remained expressionless, making it hard to tell what was going on in his mind. It was part of his intention to do so, after all.
"Well, I also assume you three came for another purpose other than seeking safe shelter, didn't you?" Eliot asked.
"Yes," Matthew replied. "We suspected that a man, James Palmer, may be hiding somewhere here, so we decided to search around this area until we encountered you."
Eliot nodded, taking in the information. "Great. The reason why we gathered here was also for the purpose of finding James," he then explained to the detectives. "We suspect that he's hiding there in that small storage room there," he added, pointing to the room that he was referring to.
The three took a glance at the room for themselves. The room, unlike many others, didn't have any windows, meaning that they couldn't see into it. The front door seemed locked too, which meant that there wasn't any way into the room.
Matthew thought about whether there might be an alternate entrance, but he knew there couldn't be. The room itself was using the walls of the funfair as the rear wall for the room. This implied that there wouldn't be another entrance, seeing how no one would place a side entrance to a small room.
"So, how are we going to get in?" Matthew questioned Eliot, assuming that he would have had an idea thought out beforehand.
"I can't really answer that question," he said, bringing down Matthew's hopes of getting to Palmer. "We'll have to resort to some old-fashioned knocking down of the door or anything else we can think of."
And so, the detectives, joined by the members of the Rebellion, moved towards the room that Palmer was suspected to be hiding in. They walked at a quick pace while remaining as silent as they could. They wanted to make sure that Palmer couldn't hear the sounds of them approaching, other than the sound of them banging down the storage room door.
Just as they arrived in front of the room, there were more shrieking sounds from behind. Once again, they weren't the usual shrieks coming from terrorised people. The shrieks reminded them of a familiar being that emitted such noises. And that was a distinct indication that what was going to follow wasn't going to be pleasant.
The entire group turned to see a hoard of creatures prancing towards them. Their menacing roars became more terrorising by the moment, and everyone knew that they had to move quickly. Soon enough, Eliot assigned a common task to all of the members.
"Everyone, get your weapons out. Shoot them all dead," Eliot said before taking the three detectives towards the storage room.
The detectives then grabbed out their guns as well, holding them up as they stood to the side with Eliot. Matthew then faced the door, lifting his leg up and ready to kick. He then pounded on the door forcefully with his foot multiple times before it gave way.
His entire leg hurt for a moment as he acknowledged the fact that it was the second time that he had had to kick down a door in the past few days. However, there wasn't time to waste to think about such trivial matters. Instead, he entered the room, wielding his gun and expecting to see Palmer.
The outcome was rather disappointing, however.
"Palmer isn't here."