Chapter 10
Alejandro
Alex sighed with relief when the elementary came into view.
It wasn’t one of Prometheus’s gleaming academies, but an older, crumbling brick tower.
It was one of the few places for children whose parents wanted to keep them far away from the Collective’s elite programs. The irony wasn’t lost on Alex.
Despite its appearance, he’d seen firsthand how hard his parents had fought to keep him out of the academy, scraping together every last quarter just to keep him enrolled.
“Is it safe?” Luci whispered so softly he almost missed it.
The word safe meant so little now. Even behind fortified walls, there had never been guarantees.
“Safer than most places,” Alex answered, catching her worried eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to lie. “If we can hole up here for the night and get our hands on that gasoline Sable and Paxton swore must be here, then yeah, we’ll be fine.”
Grayson jogged ahead, dropping his bag with a thud at the entrance as he looked for the keys they’d hidden here years ago. It didn’t take long before the lock clicked open, and the chains slipped loose with ease.
“You guys have been here before?” Luci asked curiously.
Alex nodded. “It was one of the first places we cleared after things went bad.” He motioned her closer as Grayson shoved the heavy door open.
“Is this where you found those mozzarella sticks everyone kept raving about?” Luci asked.
A soft laugh escaped Alex. “You wouldn’t believe how many boxes we hauled out of here, it was like a shrine of processed cheese.” He gave her a faint smile, then added, “Stay close. It should be clear, but be careful just in case.”
Luci slipped behind him with Luna pressed at her side as though the pup could sense Luci’s unease. Alex found his spot at the front next to Myra while Grayson waited for everyone to pass through the mouth of the entrance before stepping inside.
The moment the door creaked shut behind them, the automatic lights flickered to life from motion sensors that had somehow survived years without maintenance. Harsh fluorescent lights lit up the hallway, buzzing from above.
The sight that greeted them was unnerving to say the least. Children’s artwork still clung to the walls.
From stick-figure families and suns with wide grins to finger painted handprints in every color of the rainbow.
A half torn spelling assignment dangled from a bulletin board.
The red ink that spelled out Great job! felt like a cruel joke.
The air smelled faintly of dust and something sweeter, like fruit that had been left out for too long.
Grayson cleared his throat, then deliberately banged the butt of his rifle against a locker.
The clang echoed down the hall, bouncing off the tiled floors and faded murals. Everyone tensed as they waited.
For a long, breathless moment, the silence was unbearable. Finally, a small squeak issued from the shadows. Luna barked once, startling all of them as a rat darted across the hall and disappeared under a classroom door.
The group let out a collective exhale.
“Just a rat,” Grayson muttered, though the relief in his voice betrayed that he’d expected worse.
“Let’s just hope that rat doesn’t decide to take a nibble out of us while we sleep,” Myra teased, her words aimed mostly at Luci.
“Rats are more afraid of us than we are of them,” Luci replied with an even tone that bordered on dismissive. Her matter-of-fact delivery made Alex smirk, and he felt a flush of warmth creep up his skin.
“Yeah, well, they better be,” Myra shot back, lifting her rifle ever so slightly with a smug tilt of her chin. “Because I’ve got one of these, and they don’t.”
Alex chuckled under his breath, shaking his head. “Alright, enough with tormenting the poor rat. We have to focus.” His voice was commanding but the slight curve of his lips displayed an amusement he couldn’t quite hide. “Secure the place, then settle in. The sun should start setting soon.”
The moment lingered just long enough for the tension to ease before they set to work preparing for the long night ahead.
In truth, this place wasn’t so different from the hospital.
It was just another roof over their heads, another night spent trading off shifts to keep watch and pretending a few hours of rest could make them feel normal again.
Survival had become routine.
Grayson wrapped the heavy chain around the door handles before he snapped the padlock into place and helped the others drag desks and stack chairs into a makeshift barricade. Only once the entrance was sealed did Alex allow himself to exhale.
“Paxton, Sable,” he called. “Go down to the basement. The gasoline reserve should be down there if I remember correctly.
“On it!” The twins responded in unison, heading down the hallway to a side door Alex vaguely remembered leading to the stairwell.
The building stretched upward ten or so floors, each one crammed with classrooms. Its present emptiness only emphasized how many students and teachers had once filled every corner.
“Grayson, keep Myra out of trouble while Luci and I track down some gym mats to sleep on,” Alex said, his tone light but commanding. Grayson chuckled while Myra rolled her eyes. Alex barely glanced at Luci before she gave him a small nod and fell into step beside him as they headed down the hall.
For a while, they walked in relative silence aside from Luna’s paws pattering against the floor until finally, Luci’s voice broke through the quiet.
“I used to go here before my parents died.” Her gaze fluttered around at the hall, everything familiar now warped by neglect.
“It looks so different now, but I guess that makes sense, considering how long it’s been. ”
Alex glanced at her with a furrowed brow.
“Really? No kidding,” he said, surprised.
“I went here too, though I would’ve been a year or two ahead of you.
” The thought struck him with a pang of irony.
They had crossed paths more than once, never knowing their lives would one day be so tightly entwined.
As they rounded the corner, he spotted the gym doors just a few paces ahead. He quickly closed the distance, his hand hovering near the handle as his shoulders tensed. Taking a deep breath, he pushed forward.
The hinges squeaked as they stepped inside.
Dust swirled in the air, illuminated by the sudden brightness, but to Alex, the gym didn’t look all that different from when he’d last set foot in it.
The painted lines on the floor were faded but familiar, the basketball hoops still clung to the walls and the faint smell of floor wax lingered.
It was as if time had held its breath here.
Luna bolted across the court. Her claws clicked against the wood as she ran and touched the far wall before barreling toward them again joyfully.
“Do you remember whose class you were in?” Luci asked, her voice carrying a strange mix of nostalgia and disbelief as she twirled slowly, taking it all in.
Alex watched her for a moment. They had both been forced to grow up too fast. Grief and survival had carved them into something older than their true age.
Yet here, in the forgotten gym, he realized there might still be comfort in remembering that they had just been kids once.
The kind who would have groaned about dodgeball or celebrated a Friday gym day like it was freedom itself.
For a heartbeat, Alex almost believed that version of life might still exist.
“You know what? I’ve always been terrible with names,” Alex admitted with a quiet chuckle as he plucked a basketball from one of the carts and tossed it across the court for Luna to chase.
“It was this older lady though. She had this crazy looking bob that was totally uneven, and she used to stick me in this tiny desk facing the wall anytime I talked too much. She was mean as hell.”
“Mrs. Davis,” Luci said with a knowing groan. “She was awful to me too. She couldn’t pronounce my name, so she just started calling me Luci and it stuck.” Her voice softened into amusement.
For all her faults, Mrs. Davis had given them both names that never left.
“Well, it’s not like our names were impossible to say. She just didn’t like them.” Alex grinned. “And for the record, I think Lucilla is beautiful. It has this vintage charm, you know?”
Luci’s smile lit her features as she stepped in and closed the distance between them.
Her arms slipped around his neck as his hands settled at the curve of her waist. For a moment, Alex wished he’d known her back then when life was simpler.
When they might have met without blood and ruin hanging over them.
But he knew better. And besides if they had crossed paths sooner, she would have seen only the broken boy he once was, not the man standing before her now.
“Am I allowed to kiss you whenever I want now?” she asked, her question laced with innocent curiosity.
But there was nothing innocent about the way her smile curved, so radiant and devastating.
Denying her anything would be impossible for him.
She could have asked him to steal the stars from the sky, and he would have spent his last breath trying.
Alex’s lips tugged into an amused grin. His voice dropped low, rough just for her.
“You never needed permission.” His words vibrated between them as he leaned in.
Their noses brushed and their breaths tangled until their lips ghosted across each other in a tormenting near-kiss that promised far more than it gave. “Consider me yours to command.”
Luci’s smile bloomed brighter at his words. “Is that so?” she teased, her voice full of a dangerous sweetness. “Careful, Alex. I’ve been holding back for a very long time.”
Before he could reply, she closed the space between them, pressing her mouth to his in a kiss that began soft before she found a rhythm that pulled him under.
Every brush of her lips was a tether, every inhale a demand.
Alex’s control frayed with each second. He wanted nothing more than to pin her to the wall and peel away her jeans until there was nothing left between them but heat and skin.
But she was leading, and he let her. Even as hunger clawed through him, he surrendered to her pace and her restraint. It was intoxicating, and yet he couldn’t help but revel in being undone by her, on her terms.
For a split second, Alex thought she might let it go farther than this until Luna barked insistantly, wanting him to throw the basketball again.
Despite being disappointed, they both managed to laugh it off.
Though Alex did pull her in for one more kiss before he bent down to grasp the basketball at his feet.
After some searching they found a stack of worn gym mats buried deep in the supply closet, along with a few foam blocks they decided could double as makeshift pillows. It wasn’t perfect, but it beat sleeping on the hard floor or spending the night in a crammed car.
With a bit of effort, Alex and Luci managed to drag the mats out of the gym and into the hallway only to find Sable and Paxton lugging two five-gallon jugs filled with a yellowish liquid toward the classroom.
“You found it?” Alex asked, letting the mats fall to the ground with a loud thud.
“Yup.” Sable grinned, raking her fingers through her blonde hair. “This will get us moving, at least for now. We’ll have to scavenge for more along the way.”
“The energy stations through the plains should have some gasoline left,” Paxton added. “It won’t be easy, but we’ll manage.”
Alex glanced at Luci. When he’d first agreed to this mission, he truly hadn’t believed they’d make it this far. Yet here they were. Still standing and still moving forward. Against all odds, the road ahead felt just a little less impossible with every passing second.
“Alright,” Alex said at last. “Let’s eat, then lights out. We’ll find our way back to the car in the morning.”
For the first time since they left, the words didn’t feel like a promise he couldn’t keep.
They felt like hope.