Chapter 12
Alejandro
Alex moved on instinct alone. He didn’t have time to process Luci’s words with every second slipping through their fingers.
He dug into his bag and found the emergency syringes he normally carried to administer morphine.
His hands shook as he shoved them into hers.
Luci gave quick orders, forcing Grayson to sit while the pounding at the door grew louder.
The wood began to splinter under the weight of the infected on the other side.
“I need you to keep his neck steady,” Luci commanded, her voice brittle but stable as she drew the fluid from one vial and topped off the syringe with another.
Alex’s stomach twisted. He knew this wasn’t how it was supposed to work.
Luci had told Myra as much when she said the vaccine was designed as a preemptive dose, not a last minute miracle.
But this was Grayson on the line, and the veins in his eyes were already shifting from red to dark purple, the Hollowed virus running its course.
“Please tell me that’s not going in my neck,” Grayson mumbled as sweat rolled down his temple.
Luci forced a wobbly smile. “I thought you guys were supposed to be tough. It’s just a needle.”
Alex swallowed hard and leaned in closer so he could steady Grayson’s jaw with both hands. His vision blurred with tears, but he kept his gaze locked on his oldest friend. He refused to look at Luci’s trembling hands.
“Yeah, man,” Alex said, forcing half of a smile. “Remember when you got shot overseas? You acted like it was just a scratch. After the whole damn thing you were still joking about needing a bigger scar to impress people.”
Grayson huffed a broken laugh, though it ended in a cough. “Chicks dig scars,” he responded.
With Grayson distracted, Luci pressed the needle into his jugular.
Her hand shook as she forced herself forward, slipping the needle through his skin and into his vein.
Grayson winced and his muscles tightened against Alex’s grip, but Alex kept his hold steady.
“You’ve been through worse, Grayson,” he whispered. “You’ve got this.”
The door shook violently as Luci depressed the plunger. The vaccine flooded in, and Alex prayed harder than he ever had in his life that this would be enough.
For a breathless moment, everything stilled. The pounding at the rooftop door dulled, and the only sound in Alex’s ears was the rush of his own heartbeat. Luci kept her trembling fingers pressed to Grayson’s neck, taking his pulse while they waited for some sign that the vaccine was working.
Alex’s grip on his friend never wavered. His thumbs pressed firm against Grayson’s jaw, his gaze searching his face for the smallest hint of relief. “Come on,” he whispered. “Come on, Grayson. Stay with me.”
But then Grayson’s veins darkened further, spreading outward from the bite in ugly black tendrils that crept all the way up his cheek. His pupils throbbed with a sick purple haze, and his breath hitched in a guttural sound that didn’t belong to him anymore.
He was still turning.
“No, no, no, no…” Luci stammered as tears filled her eyes. “It has to work. I — I thought it would work.”
Grayson’s hand shot up, catching Alex’s wrist. His grip was still human but not for long. “Alex,” he whispered. “Stop. It’s done.”
Alex shook Grayson as if he could rattle the infection loose. “No! We can try again, she can try another dose.”
“Come on, man. You know what this means. We knew one of us would outlive the other.”
The door shook as the Hollowed’s pounding against the metal grew louder and more desperate.
The infected were only seconds away.
Grayson shoved his handgun into Alex’s chest, forcing him to close his fingers around it. “Fill it with ammo. I can hold them long enough for you two to get away. Don’t waste your time standing here arguing with me.”
Alex’s tears finally fell, streaking down his dirt stained face as he fumbled for the spare magazine at his belt. Luci pressed her sleeve to her mouth and muffled a sob.
Alex wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all, but instead he told Luci to shove the box of remaining vials back into her bag.
Grayson’s grip softened as his eyes found Alex one last time. “Alex,” he said, his voice steady despite the veins creeping across his skin. “Give Prometheus hell for me.”
Alex nodded and gave a sharp whistle for Luna before he strapped her into the carrier on his back. The dog nestled against him with a low whine while he tightened the straps as though it might protect her from everything still crashing down around them.
His other hand clutched the single gasoline jug they’d managed to salvage.
“I’m sorry,” Luci whispered to Grayson. But apologies couldn’t fix this, and there was no time left for goodbyes.
The rooftop door shuddered violently, and the wood barricade groaned before splitting into two with a sickening crack.
Alex shoved Luci towards the ladder leading to the fire escape.
As they climbed down, his heart pounded with every gunshot that rang out behind them.
Grayson’s voice bellowed in defiance, each shot a promise to buy them one more second.
Alex didn’t dare look back, not even when the first infected spilled over the rooftop ledge.
Luci screamed as the Hollowed plummeted past them. Their snarls cut through the air until the splatter of flesh on the pavement silenced them. Alex’s body trembled, but he kept climbing down.
They had to make it down.
That was all that mattered now.
When their feet hit solid ground, he grabbed Luci’s arm and pulled her into the shadows, away from the open street where the infected had begun to scatter in the chaos.
His lungs burned, but he pressed forward until they stumbled into the cover of an alley.
That was when he spotted a moving truck parked crookedly against the curb with its back door hanging slightly ajar.
“Over here,” Alex whispered, tugging Luci toward it.
They climbed inside and dragged the heavy door down until it slammed shut.
Inside it felt suffocating, but they were safe.
Darkness swallowed them but at least now there was a barrier between them and the horde.
Luna whimpered softly, her nails scratching against the carrier, wanting to be set free.
Luci collapsed against the wall of the truck, her face damp with sweat and tears she hadn’t realized had fallen. The stale air inside smelled faintly of dust and old cardboard, but it was shelter and that would have to be enough.
Alex set the gasoline jug down carefully and pressed his forehead to the cold metal wall, his fists clenched at his sides as he resisted the urge to pound into the metal. He could still hear the distant, muffled gunshots.
Grayson’s final stand.
For a long moment, the two of them said nothing. They just collected their breaths despite being trapped in a steel box. They’d survived the horde, but the cost weighed heavily on the both of them.
Sleep eluded Alex for the rest of the night.
Luci had dozed off against his shoulder, and Luna was curled at his feet. But every time his eyes slipped shut, he saw Grayson. Sometimes he was the man on the rooftop, bloodied and doomed. Other times, it was the boy he’d first met in the Academy. Shy, quiet, and always keeping his distance.
They hadn’t started out as friends. For months, they’d existed as strangers forced to share the same room and sleep only a few feet apart without ever truly speaking.
But everything changed the morning Alex overheard the other recruits mocking Grayson and calling him a “Prometheus freak” during drills.
Back then, Alex had thrown punches without hesitation, and though he’d expected Grayson to be furious for breaking protocol, his only response had been a quiet sort of acceptance.
That unspoken moment forged something unbreakable between them.
From then on, they weren’t just allies, they were best friends.
Grayson had never seen Alex’s fists as violence but as a strange token of loyalty and friendship. Alex, starved of both, had taken what was given. From that day forward, they had been inseparable. Through sleepless nights, punishing drills, and days full of laughter, Grayson had always been there.
Always.
Now he was gone. That truth carved into Alex sharper than any blade.
There would be no more late night arguments over video games. No more shared meals or exasperated looks as Alex ranted endlessly about everything and nothing. The silence Grayson left behind felt like its own kind of punishing death.
The loss of Sable, Paxton, and Myra cut deep as well. Each of them had meant something to Alex. But Grayson…Grayson was the wound that would never heal. Alex couldn’t imagine surviving without him, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
Yet as he sat in that suffocating darkness with Luci pressed close against him, her presence was the only thing that kept him grounded.
Alex swore himself to a single truth. The world could tear itself apart, and he could endure the grief and the fury, but he would never, under any circumstance, allow Luci to become another name on his list of losses.
By the time the sun began creeping through the thin crack in the moving truck’s door, Luci began to stir. Her hand raised to brush at her swollen, puffy eyes. “Where do we go now?” she asked, her voice groggy.
Alex sat rigid against the cold metal wall with Luna still curled at his feet.
He didn’t look at Luci right away but rather kept his eyes fixed on the faint strip of daylight.
“We go back,” he said, his tone full of conviction.
“We go back to the hospital, and we negotiate a different deal. It’s the only way to keep you safe. ”
Luci shook her head. Exhaustion still weighed heavily in her expression but something stronger burned beneath it.
“We can’t go back. If we don’t make it to Arizona, I’ll never see Noah again.
We can’t go back — not when I have this.
” She gestured to her backpack where the vials rested.
“I have a chance to actually save lives. If we stay hidden behind walls, all of this…everything we’ve lost. It means nothing. ”
Alex’s jaw tightened. “Luci, you don’t get it. Out here, it’s worse than you think. Last night proved that. They’re changing, they’re stronger and smarter than I thought. If we push forward without backup, we’re walking straight into a death sentence.”
Her eyes met his, unyielding despite her fatigue. “If Grayson had gotten the vaccine before, he’d still be here. I know it.” Her voice trembled, but she pressed on. “I’m not going to let that happen again. I can’t. Not when we have a chance.”
The silence that followed pressed into the wound in Alex’s heart. He dragged a hand through his hair and stared at her as though he was torn in two. “Damn it, Luci,” he cursed under his breath.
“Then we do this my way. We’ll find a way to make this work.” He leaned in closer, his voice soft but firm. “But understand that if it comes down to it, if this world tries to take you from me, I’ll burn everything — I’ll kill everyone before I let that happen.”
Luci swallowed the lump in her throat and managed a shaky nod. But Alex couldn’t shake the feeling that she had no idea just how far he was willing to go.