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The man and woman each grabbed her by the arms, yanking her forward.
Saff decided there was no use in trying to struggle, even as she heard Maddie yelling behind her. She’d already committed when she dropped all of her weapons, or—almost all of them. So now, her only option was to do what they said, even if that meant being manhandled by two people who looked like they barely knew how to hold a gun.
She turned back, watching as an older woman took Maddie gently by the arm. Then her head ripped back as the two people pulled her forward. Her eyes scanned to the top of the large wall with rusty, faded green sheets of metal before her. It had to have been at least two stories tall, with a lookout tower on each side. And as they moved closer, the wall spreading out before her, she spotted more lookout towers every thirty feet or so.
Carter hadn't been exaggerating when he said they were intense.
The young man roughly patted her down, searching through each of her extra pockets for weapons.
The woman that accompanied him ripped her backpack from her shoulders, then kicked it onto its side.
Saff wanted to roll her eyes. The man clearly didn't know how to properly search and skimmed right over the knife she had hidden, strapped to her leg beneath her pants.
They were no better than children playing dress-up.
"Come on," the man grumbled as he seized her elbow, dragging her forward.
The woman walked up beside them and grabbed her other arm for good measure. Again, Saff wanted to roll her eyes. If this really was where Maddie was going to be living, she might need to give them all some tips so they’d be more effective at keeping people safe.
They led her through the opening of the gate, and right as she stepped through, someone kicked the back of her legs.
She grunted in pain as her knees struck the asphalt.
Then, before she had a chance to look up, a hood was thrown over her head, and everything went black.
She could only see faint light from outside coming through the seams of the fabric.
Before she could move a hand up to her face, someone grabbed her wrists, quickly wrapping them with what felt like a plastic zip tie. They tightened it too far, and the edge of the plastic instantly dug and cut into her bare wrists. For a split-second, she wondered if Carter had known that this would happen to her before they walked in, and simply chosen to keep that information to himself.
Cruel hands clutched onto each of her arms again, pulling her back onto her feet.
They walked her forward for a while until she tripped on a pair of steps.
She stumbled up and over them before coming to a halt. Then they kicked her down to her knees again, and she waited there until finally someone removed the hood.
Saff blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust to the faint light. Then she turned, slowly taking in her surroundings.
She appeared to be in a house—a house with electricity. Lights hung on the walls in the room around her, continuing on down another hallway.
"What's your name?"
Saff’s head snapped to the right, noticing for the first time that there was someone else in the room besides the people who had walked her there.
An older woman with cold, vacant eyes glared down at her.
She stared back for a moment, still processing her surroundings.
"What is your name?" the woman asked again, slower and sharper.
She cleared her throat, her eyes bouncing away, looking around the room. “Saff.”
The woman stared at her for a moment. “Saff,” she repeated, testing the word. She hated the way it sounded coming out of her mouth.
“Why did you come here, Saff?” the woman asked, and this time her voice was laced full of suspicion.
She wondered if the woman would believe anything she said. She also wondered how much of the truth would be wise to share.
Should she tell her that she needed medicine from them? It felt like that might not be the right thing to say, but it was also probably the most believable. And it also happened to be the truth, so that was a plus.