Jess flinched. His calm, quiet intensity was more intimidating than the shouting men had been.
"So," Alex began, unbothered. "You're Jess Harding, right?"
"Dr. Harding," she corrected, more out of habit than arrogance. "But... yes."
"You're some... famous vet?"
Jess let out an impatient sigh. "Not 'famous.' I did one simple documentary in my last semester. I got my diploma with perfect scores. That's all. It's just hype from a few TV spots."
Alex nodded, accepting that. "What happened to you? Since the outbreak."
"I was here, shopping," she said, her voice tired. "When it happened... it was hectic. A group of us survivors... we huddled together. But our numbers started to dwindle. Some left, some... died." She scoffed, her gaze bitter. "I decided to stay for a few days, see if the government's reaction was swift, but I was skeptical. My plan was always to get to a nearby town. A farm. Somewhere I could sustain myself."
"And them?" Alex asked.
"One of those women," she nodded toward the entrance, "Frank's wife... had a severe panic attack. I helped her. But their reaction... they started treating me like some kind of miracle doctor, like I could cure cancer. They wouldn't listen when I told them I only know basics and my expertise lies in curing animals. They refused to let me leave." She yanked at her restraints. "When I tried to sneak out, they bound me to this chair. Not to mention their delusional son..." She shivered, her face tight with disgust. "He's been trying to 'seduce' me. He's repulsive."
She finally looked him in the eyes, her own gaze hard. "So. Now will you let me go?"
Alex was silent for a moment. "I understand your situation. And I can offer you two options." He held up a finger. "One: I let you go. Right now. Be done with it." He raised a second finger. "Two: You come with us. I have a safe place. A 'farm,' like you wanted. It has enough of everything to sustain six people. It has everything we'd need... and I could use your knowledge."
Her eyes lit up, but he cut her off. "But. It comes with rules. Big ones. It's a one-way trip. You come, you don't leave. Not easily. Not until the world is restored. And what I say is absolute. You can offer ideas, but you don't do something I tell you not to. Think it over."
He leaned forward and, with a quick, efficient slice, cut the zip-ties on her wrists. She was deep in thought, rubbing her freed wrists and ankles.
"Before I decide," she said, her voice steady. "Can I... can I ask about you? Who are you?"
Alex nodded. "Alex. 2nd-year engineering student." He paused, then said with a perfectly deadpan expression, "Part-time apocalypse survivor."
Jess was flabbergasted. She stared, unsure if he was joking, insane, or both.
"So," Alex pressed, standing up, "what's your decision?"
"I... I'd like to meet the others first," she said, standing on shaky legs.
"Fine."
Alex led her out of the Applebee's. The original residents of the place were standing by their pile of supplies, their faces pale, watching their "lifeline" being taken from them. As Jess passed, Shane, the older, leering son, took a step forward.
"Jess, c'mon!" he pleaded. "Don't go with him! He's just... we... we can work this out!"
Jess stopped. She looked at Shane, her face a mask of pure disgust. Then, in a spur-of-the-moment act of pure, delicious revenge, she turned, looped her arm through Alex's, and hugged it tight. "He," she said, her voice clear and cutting, "is way better than you'll ever be."
The man's face crumpled. It hit the nail in the coffin.
Alex, surprised by the sudden contact but registering it as a social "move," just started walking, pulling her with him. They left "hand in hand," and as soon as they were out of their vision, Jess let go, her face a little flushed.
"Sorry," she muttered. "It was... a spur of the moment thing."
"Don't care," Alex said, his voice disinterested.
They reached the Raptor. The rest of the group was already sitting inside, the doors locked. Next to the driver's side door lay a new body, a single infected with its head clearly bashed in by a pipe.
Alex tapped on the window, signaling them to get out. They all piled out, looking nervously at the new woman.
"This is Dr. Harding," Alex announced. "She wants to confirm if you're all psychos or not before she decides if it's safe to come with us." He then looked at the dead zombie by the truck, then at Mark.
He smirked, a rare, mocking expression. "Nice. How reliable. Our official 'zombie killer.' Those video games are surely coming in handy now."
Mark just flushed.
Jess, however, looked at the group. She saw a normal, scared couple (Mark and Jenna). She saw a bright, intelligent-looking young woman with a bad ankle (Alice). And she saw her hyper-enthusiastic fan (Mina). They were... just people.
After a brief, awkward round of introductions, Jess looked at the dead city, then at the relative safety of Alex and his monster truck. This was her best shot.
She turned to Alex and gave a single, firm nod. "Okay. I'm in."
The Raptor's cab was uncomfortably cramped. To make the 6-person-in-a-5-seater work, Mina was perched on Alice's lap in the back, wedged between a nervous Jenna and a very-still Dr. Jess. Mark had the front passenger seat.
The initial tension was broken by Mina, who, incapable of being still or quiet, decided that Dr. Jess needed the full story.
"So, Dr. Jess," she started, her voice a conspiratorial whisper that everyone could hear. "You will not believe Alex. We met him in the dorms, right? And these awful guys, these... these animals... were trying to break into Alice's room. And Alex... pfft," she made a small explosion sound with her hands. "He took out, like, four of them. It was... it was gross, but so cool. He was so mad."
Alice's face flushed, and she tried to shush her sister, but Mina was on a roll.
"But that's not even the start! He saved us in the gym! He threw Mark the keys to his flat and was like, 'If I'm not back in six days, assume I'm dead.' How-! How badass is that? And then, when we met him, he was all cold and said, 'All I got was two crybabies to care for.' And then, at the Target, before you showed up, he fought, like, four more guys! They shot him in the arm, and he just... he just got mad and... and..."
"Okay, Mina, I think she gets it," Alice muttered, her face buried in her sister's hair.
Mark, overhearing this from the front, twisted in his seat. "Yeah, I... I knew he trained and all in high school. But I never, ever thought he could... you know. Put it to use so... well. It's... intense, man."
Alex, his eyes locked on the road, just chuckled, the sound low and dry. "Instincts, Mark. They just... kick in when you need 'em."
They were about halfway there, having left the city's decay for the more open, but no less-dead, suburbs. Alex was maneuvering the truck through a clogged highway exit when he slowed to a stop.
Ahead, the road was completely blocked. A large sedan was positioned sideways, with a semi-truck just behind it, creating a perfect, unavoidable funnel. A woman, her face streaked with tears, was waving her arms frantically.
Alex frowned. "Damnit." He stopped the Raptor a safe hundred yards away. "Our only option would be to blast through them."
He killed the engine, and the truck went silent. He turned to Mark. "Mark. You can drive, right? Get in the driver's seat. Now. Be ready to leave."
Mark, confused but not questioning, scrambled over into the driver's seat. Alex got out, his pistol still holstered, his hands empty and visible. He put on a calm, "helpful" expression, like a good Samaritan.
"It still gives me chills," Mina whispered from the back, watching him. "How he just... changes his whole vibe."
"He's just being careful, Mina," Alice pets her hair, though her own heart was hammering.
They couldn't hear what was going on. They watched Alex talk to the woman. She pointed frantically at the sedan's front wheel. Alex nodded, his face a mask of 'deep thought.' He gestured, as if asking a question. The woman nodded. Alex then squatted down, as if to look at the "problem."
The woman nodded, a quick, sharp signal, to the sedan.
A man, who had been hidden, suddenly burst from the other side of the car, raising a crowbar high, ready to bring it down on Alex's exposed, squatting body.
"ALEX! BEHIND YOU!" Jenna and Mark screamed, but the windows were up.
Before they could even honk the horn, Alex, who had been watching the woman's reflection in the truck's chrome bumper, moved.
He didn't stand; he rolled backward, under the crowbar's swing. The tool smashed into the pavement where his head had been.
Alex was already on one knee, his pistol in his hand.
BANG!
The crowbar guy was thrown backward, a hole in his chest.
The woman shrieked, "He's got a gun! Kill—"
BANG!
Alex's "iron treatment" cut her off. She fell in a pool of blood.
The sedan's driver, who had been hiding, tried to start the car.
BANG!
The bullet went through the driver's side window. The man slumped over the wheel.
Silence.
Alice instinctively, instantly, slapped her hand over Mina's eyes. Jess's hand flew to her own mouth, her eyes wide with shock.
Alex stood up. He calmly walked to the sedan, yanked the driver's body out, put the car in neutral, and single-handedly pushed it just enough to the side to create a gap. He walked back to the Raptor, his face impassive, as if he'd just finished changing a tire.
He reached the driver's door, where Mark was frozen, his hands still on the wheel.
"Mark. Sit aside," Alex said, motioning to the passenger seat.
Mark, recovering from the shock, just said, "Yes... yes..." and scrambled back over.
Alex got in, started the engine, and drove. He didn't swerve. He drove the Raptor straight over the bodies and through the now-freed road.
After a few minutes of stunned, heavy silence, Jess finally found her voice. It was low, and trembling. "How... how did you know?"
Alex smirked, a tiny, cold flicker at the corner of his mouth. He glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
"Come on, Doctor. Think about it. Two men and a woman? With a 'broken down' car in the middle of the road? No zombies nearby? And the road is conveniently blocked so that anyone coming has to stop and can't ignore them?"
He scoffed, his eyes back on the road. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out what they want."
The mood in the Raptor was thick with post-adrenaline jitters. The brutal, casual efficiency of Alex's actions had sobered everyone. Mina, as usual, was the first to break the tension, her resilience (or naivete) astonishing.
"That was so cool, Alex!" she beamed, leaning over the front seat from Alice's lap. "I mean, pow! Bang! You're like a real-life action hero! Big Brother Alex," she continued, her eyes sparkling, "will you teach me how to shoot, too? I wanna be cool like you!"
Alex, his eyes locked on the road, just chuckled, the sound low and dry. "Sure, Mina. Why not."
She laughed, a triumphant, giddy sound, and puffed her chest proudly. "See, sis! Don't worry about a thing! I'll learn everything from Alex, and then we won't even need him anymore!"
She clearly said it in a joking tone, but the effect was immediate. Alex's small smile vanished. He started to slow the Raptor, the engine's growl dropping. He pulled onto the shoulder of the highway, the truck slowing... 10 mph... 5 mph...
The cab went deathly silent.
Mina's face went white. "Alex? What... what are you doing?"
Alex didn't look at her, just stared straight ahead.
"No!" Mina said, her voice frantic, scrambling over Alice to get closer. "No, I didn't mean it! I was just joking! Alex, I'm sorry! I'll never say it again! I'd rather starve to death than leave you behind! Please! I'm sorry!"
Alex held the silence for one more agonizing second, then... he floored it, the Raptor merging smoothly back onto the road. He let out a hearty, genuine laugh.
Alice, who had been holding her breath, finally exhaled and shook her head, exasperated. "Mina... when will you ever learn not to joke like that?"
Mark, quick to change the subject, leaned forward. "So, uh, speaking of not leaving... Alex, this 'farm' you've got. You never mentioned it, man. Not once in all the years I've known you."
Alex pondered for a second, his expression turning neutral. "It's nothing crazy, Mark. Just a place my parents bought a while back. It's... a moderate-sized field. Has some animals, some crops, vegetables, fruits. Got an average fence around it. A normal-sized house. Secure basement."
He said it so normally, so blandly, that they all pictured a simple, rustic farmhouse.
An hour later, they turned off the highway, onto a state road, then onto a county road, and finally... onto a gravel track. When they arrived at the "edge" of the farm, they were met with a 12-foot, high-tensile steel mesh fence that stretched, identical and imposing, as far as the eye could see in both directions. At the entrance, a heavy, automated steel gate blocked the path.
Mark just stared. "...Average fence, my ass."
Alex pulled out a remote control. The large metal gate slid open with a smooth, hydraulic hiss.
They drove past sprawling green fields of growing plants, past herds of wandering cows and flocks of sheep, all safely inside the perimeter. After about 10 minutes of driving on his own property, they finally saw another wall, this one made of 8-foot-high reinforced brick, surrounding a central compound. Behind it, a 3-story modern house, more glass-and-steel fortress than "farmhouse," was visible.
Mina, her face pressed to the glass, turned to him in disbelief. "Alex, do you... do you actually know what the words 'moderate' and 'average' mean?"
Alex ignored this comment and rolled down his window, stopping the Raptor before the new driveway gate. He leaned out and let out a sharp, two-tone whistle. "Wheee-Whooo!"
"JIMBO! GATES!" he shouted.
A moment later, the new metal gate began to pull aside, revealing a small, pristine flower garden, an outdoor fireplace/patio area... a perfectly normal, cozy weekend house setup.
And then the dog came.
It was a tsunami of fur and muscle. It burst from the side of the house, a creature that looked more like a genetic experiment than a pet. It was clearly taller than a meter at the shoulder, a mass of dark fur and bared teeth that easily weighed 100kg in the least. It looked like a bloodthirsty beast from a nightmare.
And it was running at them, bounding, like an excited little puppy.
Alex just grinned, killed the engine, and jumped out of the truck. "Hey, buddy! You miss me?!"
He was instantly tackled. The massive beast hit him chest-high, knocking him flat on his back, and began to lick his face with a tongue the size of a dinner plate, its heavy tail thumping the ground hard enough to shake the truck.
Mina, the last to get out, just sighed, her bag in hand.
"Of course," she said to no one in particular. "Of course his dog isn't normal either."