Chapter 6
Alejandro
Convincing Grayson, Paxton, and Sable to join the mission turned out to be far easier than Alex had expected.
Grayson, as usual, had raised more than a few logistical concerns regarding routes, timelines, and risk factors.
But in the end, he’d agreed. He hadn’t looked thrilled about it, but Grayson knew what Lucilla meant to Alex. That was enough to tip his moral scale.
Paxton and Sable, on the other hand, were another matter entirely.
Not because they resisted, but because they didn’t bother to.
The twins hardly asked a thing before agreeing.
Their eyes lit up at the opportunity to step outside of quarantine.
For them, this wasn’t just a mission, it was a reprieve and an opportunity to escape the suffocating walls of the hospital.
And if they could spend that time thinning out the hoards of infected out there, then they were game.
With the team settled, Alex moved on to the part he hated most: packing.
He had most of what he needed on hand, but he would need to hit the armory for extra guns and ammo in the morning.
What couldn’t wait was replenishing his deteriorating stash of first aid supplies.
People underestimated just how fast you could go through bandages and gauze even on a short run, and this one would last at least a week if they were lucky.
That’s what led him to the gift shop on the hospital’s main floor.
Once upon a time, it had been crammed with stuffed animals, helium balloons, and greeting cards that read, Get well soon!
in elegant fonts and bright colors. Now, it was stripped down to the essentials: canned goods, batteries, soap, painkillers, and medical supplies.
Alex scanned his list, grabbing items with one hand while reaching for a basket with the other.
Mrs. Garcia, the volunteer cashier who’d been fortunate enough to be on shift when the outbreak began, was busy attending to another customer.
Alex gave her a nod in greeting before turning back to the shelves.
Time was limited, and with every item he checked off his list, he became more and more anxious about leaving.
He filled the first basket with the essentials: bandages, two boxes of rolled gauze, a stack of gauze pads, a couple bottles of rubbing alcohol, and a couple other staples that could mean the difference between making it to Arizona and bleeding out on the road.
By the time he looked down, the basket was already full.
Dropping it on the front desk, he reached for another.
“Heading out again, Alejandro?” Mrs. Garcia’s voice was warm and carried the same gentle cadence she used every time he came by, whether that was to help her restock the shelves or quietly stock up for himself.
The sound of his name tugged loose a thread in his memory.
He could still picture his mother. She’d been just a smidge taller than he’d been the last time he’d seen her, silver threads of hair had already begun to sprout from the top of her head.
He remembered a small beauty mark under her left eye but beyond that, Alex wasn’t sure he would recognize her now.
Years had passed since he’d last seen his parents, and now he simply found comfort in the thought that maybe they’d been spared of all of this.
Mrs. Garcia reminded him of her, though. Not just in her looks but in the way she always called him by his full name, sometimes even pairing it with his last when she was especially proud of him.
“Not sure when I’ll be back,” Alex said, his voice softer than normal. “But I’ll make sure someone comes down to take note of what you need.”
“Where are you headed this time?” Mrs. Garcia pressed.
Alex opened his mouth to answer, but before he could get a word out, another voice cut in from behind.
“Yeah, Alex, where are we going?”
He turned to find Myra leaning against the archway, arms crossed over her chest in that defensive pose he knew all too well.
He didn’t need to guess why she was here.
Word of the mission had clearly made its way through the usual backchannels of the barracks before he’d had the chance to talk to her himself.
Before he could respond, Myra pushed off the wall, grabbed a basket, and disappeared into one of the aisles without waiting for an invitation.
“I’ll be right back,” Alex told Mrs. Garcia. She gave him an understanding smile, the kind that said she knew better than to get in the middle of whatever this was.
Talking to Myra was as difficult as trying to get her to obey a command.
Not because of their history, though that certainly didn’t help, but because Myra only ever moved on her own terms. She was stubborn, the kind of person who wouldn’t lift a finger unless she’d already decided it was worth lifting.
When Alex had ended their fling, she hadn’t looked hurt, just irritated that he’d been the one to do it first.
Myra clicked her tongue as she reached for the same medical supplies as Alex from the shelf, not bothering to look at him. “What’s in it for me?” she asked flatly as she moved on to the next item on her list. “You know everything comes at a price, so your offer better be pretty damn good.”
Alex huffed, threading a hand through his hair and tugging lightly at the nape of his neck. He’d expected this. Myra never agreed to anything without leverage, and this time he didn’t have anything valuable to offer her.
“They’ll promote you to sergeant if we make it back,” Alex said.
“I know you’ve been waiting for a chance to prove yourself, and here it is.
You get first pick on missions and,” Alex paused, measuring his next words carefully, “if you get promoted, they might be more willing to accept whatever is going on between you and Ciph —”
“Don’t,” Myra interrupted before Alex could finish his sentence. “Don’t bring him into this.” She rolled her eyes, completely unimpressed. “I’m going to need more than a title if I’m risking my life out there for Lucilla.”
Alex’s jaw tightened. “Fine. Tell me what you want, and I’ll see it happens.”
“Even if it involves her?” Myra asked.
That caught him off guard, but he didn’t flinch. “I’m listening.”
“There’s a peds patient in 1107,” she began.
“Jace?” he asked.
Myra nodded. “Yup. Poor kid’s dying waiting for a kidney transplant. Get Luci to move him up on the transplant list and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
Alex studied her for a moment. Her request was different than what he’d expected. It wasn’t selfish but it was calculated, maybe even noble in its own way. But asking Luci to bypass protocol would put her in direct violation of Prometheus’s rules.
He exhaled slowly. “You don’t make anything easy, do you?”
A faint smirk curved on Myra’s lips. “You wouldn’t trust me if I did.”
After a second, Alex nodded. “Alright. I’ll talk to her.”
“Good,” Myra replied, tossing a roll of gauze into her basket. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a deal, Sergeant.”
Alex lifted his hand to knock against the thick sliding glass door of Luci’s lab, but before his knuckles could make contact, the door hissed open.
She stood with her back to him, focused on whatever occupied the counter in front of her.
He slipped inside, letting the sterile chill of the lab wrap around him.
Nearly everything was in order now. His bag was packed, gear accounted for, and Myra’s price set. All that remained was convincing Luci to break protocol.
“Shh, give me a second,” Luci said without turning, her voice soft and distracted.
He nodded silently and watched as her gloved hands moved with precision, locking the vials into place.
“Sorry,” she muttered, glancing over her shoulder. “I had to get that right first try. Once this box is sealed, I can’t open it until we reach AZ-7.” Luci tapped at the latch as if to emphasize the finality of it.
Alex shifted his weight and rested his hands at his hips.“That’s actually why I’m here. I’ve got Myra on board, but you know something’s always gotta be in it for her”
Her brow arched as her expression turned into a mix of curiosity and confusion. “I’m listening.”
“It’s about a kid named Jace in pediatrics.”
Luci’s expression shifted with faint recognition, the kind that came with remembering a name from a chart she’d likely looked over a dozen times. “What about him?” she asked cautiously as she closed the final latch on the case.
Alex hesitated. The request felt wrong, like it wasn’t something he should ask of Luci in the first place. “He’s waiting for a kidney transplant. Myra wants you to move him up the list.”
Luci’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Can you remind me exactly why it’s so dire that Myra come with us?”
“I-I know how it sounds but she says he doesn’t have much time left,” Alex answered, careful to keep his voice even.
Aside from Grayson, there was no one else that Alex trusted more out there than Myra.
He chose not to verbalize that, though he suspected Luci could already see it written all over his face.
Luci turned toward him now, peeling off her gloves deliberately slow. “You’re asking me to jump him ahead of other patients — people who’ve been waiting longer, some of them just as or in more critical condition than him…because Myra asked?”
Alex exhaled sharply and rubbed at the back of his neck, wishing there was another way. “I’m asking because without her, the team’s weaker. We need her out there, and if this is what it takes to get her on board — ”
“You think I don’t want to help him?” she cut in defensively. “I’ve read his file. I know exactly how bad it is but I can’t just — Alex, I swore an oath. This would be an ethical breach.” She pressed her lips together.
The silence stretched between them. They both knew she could do it. They both knew it wasn’t about whether or not she could. It was about stepping over a line she’d been taught not to cross a long time ago.
Alex stepped closer, his voice softer now. “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think this mission was worth it. If we make it to AZ-7, we’ll save more than one kid in that ward. But to get there, we need her.”
Luci’s gaze held his for a long moment, contemplating what the right thing to do was. Finally, she looked away. “You’re lucky I like you,” she whispered.
Alex felt the knot in his chest loosen slightly. “So that’s a yes?”
She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she reached for a datapad on her desk and began typing, her tone resigned. “I’ll bypass the system, but you tell Myra this is for Jace, not for her.”
Before she could finish typing, Alex stepped forward and gently slid the datapad out of her hands and set it aside on her desk.
“Alex — ” she started, but he didn’t let her finish.
In one smooth motion, he lifted her onto the edge of the counter. She gave a startled little gasp, but as her hands instinctively braced against his chest, she didn’t push him away.
He looked at her for a long moment, noticing the faint cloud of exhaustion and worry in her eyes. “You have no idea,” he said softly, his voice rough but sincere, “how amazing I think you are.”
Then he leaned in and kissed her gently, like there was a promise tucked between the press of their lips.
When he pulled back, he kept his forehead resting lightly against hers. “C’mon, you’ve got to rest before we head out tomorrow.”