Six (Countdown book 1)

Chapter 5

Tony kept his word and knocked on my door at exactly twenty past six. He had his sunglasses tucked into his t-shirt, and was dressed in clean clothes. He had a bandage covering his arm where he'd cut it when he fell on the stairs. I pointed to his sunglasses.

"Why do you always wear them?" I asked. He gestured vaguely to his icy-blue eyes.

"Don't exactly blend in with normal people with my eyes. They're too blue." he said. It kind of made sense. We had to be inconspicuous, otherwise we'd be caught by Hunters. We continued walking in silence until we caught up with Andy and Mackenzie, chatting happily as they walked along a few feet ahead of us.

"Hey guys." Tony said as we approached.

"For the last time, Tony, we're girls." Andy said. Mackenzie stopped and looked at me carefully, and I got the feeling she wasn't too sure what to make of me.

"Yeah but, 'hey, girls' sounds like I'm flirting with you."

"You're the new Six." Mackenzie figured, ignoring Tony completely.

"Uh, my name's Eli." I said, offering her my hand.

"Mackenzie." she said, shaking it. She stared at me like I reminded her of someone. Tony's stomach growled.

"Can we go?" he whined. "I'm hungry."

"Wait for me!" Aiden's voice called from behind us, as he ran up to greet us. "Looks like we're all here, huh."

"Apart from Scarlett." I pointed out.

"She's usually late anyway." Tony said. "Come on, let's go." We all chatted as we walked, and I realised that these guys were really close friends. Maybe they even considered each other as family.

We eventually made it to the dinning room. I tried to remember the way, but lost myself after the fifth right and third set of stairs. Everything looked exactly the same, but even Mackenzie, the newest of the other five, was navigating easily through the corridors.

"Good evening." a voice said as we walked it. A middle aged man was sat at the head of an eight seated table. He had brown hair was flecked with grey and his brown eyes were surrounded by smiling creases. He had a neatly trimmed beard, and he was wearing the same as us, except he was wearing combat trousers instead of jeans. At first, I figured that this must be Ben.

"Eli, is it?" he called over to me. I nodded mutely. "I'm Wyatt. Come and sit down. Where's Scarlett?" he asked curiously, looking around our group.

"She's, uh, late." Tony said. "She'll probably be here in a moment. Where's Ben?"

Tony took a seat next to Wyatt, and then Aiden took the seat next to him. On the other side, the two girls left a space next to Wyatt, and then Andy sat down, with Mackenzie next to her. I realised they were sitting in age order, with girls on one side and boys on the other. I sat down next to Aiden and looked down nervously at the white table cloth.

"He's in his study." Wyatt said carefully. "He won't be joining us for dinner tonight." he turned and studied me for a moment, then turned back to Tony. "Do you think Scarlett would be up to giving him a haircut later?"

"Yeah, that should be fine." Tony replied.

"What?" I asked, suddenly realising they were talking about me. "I like my hair."

"That may be," Wyatt said. He reminded me of a wise old owl. "But some of the things you will learn to do here mean that you can't leave your hair that long. It's dangerous. So your options are to either put it up in a ponytail or have it cut off."

"Cut off." I said immediately.

"Well then that's settled." Wyatt said with a friendly smile. "Scarlett's probably the best person for the job. Tony, Andrea, could you please go and get the food."