Mark and Jenna practically yanked them inside, and Alex slammed the heavy apartment door. The sh-clack, sh-clack of the half-dozen deadbolts sliding into place was the most beautiful sound in the world.
The moment the last lock was set, the three of them—Alex, Alice, and Mina—collapsed. They didn't even make it to the furniture, just slid down the wall by the entryway, the adrenaline of the last 48 hours draining out of them in one go. The only sound in the hall was the ragged, gasping sound of three people finally, finally safe.
After a few haggard breaths, Alex was the first to speak, his head still leaning back against the wall.
"Okay," he panted. "Which one of you... was the big brain... who left a key in the lock?"
Mark, who was hovering nearby, had the decency to look embarrassed. He meekly raised his hand. "Uh... that'd be me. You know... so others can't open it? Like... lockpicking, and stuff?"
Alex turned his head slowly. "Right. And how... was I supposed to come in?"
Mark scratched his neck. "Uh... like you just did? Knocking... and saying it's you?"
Alex's eyes twitched. He was too tired to argue. "Doesn't matter. We're in." He pushed himself to his feet. "Let's see what kind of mess you two made of my home."
He helped Alice up (who winced) and gestured for Mina to follow, guiding them into the main living room. He looked around. It was... fine. Clean, even. "At least it's almost the same as I left it." He turned to Mark and Jenna. "Did you use the guest room?"
They both nodded, but their faces flushed a bit. Alex frowned, instantly getting it. "Okay... I didn't want to know that."
To this, Mark just laughed, fully caught red-handed.
"Anyway," Alex said, shifting back to mission mode. "Did you have lunch yet?"
"We were just about to make some," Jenna said, grateful for the change of subject.
"Good," Alex said, already walking to the kitchen. "Then make it for five, please." He went straight to the freezer and took out a gel icepack. He wrapped it in a clean dishtowel, walked back to Alice, and pointed to the couch. "Sit."
She did, and he knelt, gently taking off her hiking boot and sock. He placed the wrapped icepack on her swollen ankle.
The reaction in the room was instantaneous.
Mark and Jenna exchanged a very "knowing" look.
Mina, standing behind the couch, had a look of pure, satisfied vindication.
Alice's face got redder by the second.
"Jenna, right?" Mina chirped, breaking the silence. "You were just about to make lunch, right? I'll help!" She quickly pulled a still-blushing Jenna towards the kitchen, leaving the other three.
Alex let out a long, heavy sigh and sprawled out on the couch's other end, a considerable distance from Alice. The tense, always-alert aura around him dissolved, leaving behind just a 20-year-old who was bone-tired.
He turned his head to look at his friend. "So... how'd you two manage to get here? And what else have you been doing... besides... 'that'?"
Mark leaned back, a self-satisfied, almost sheepish look on his face. "Man, it was... it was crazy. We ran, just like you said. But one of them... one of them was right on us, at the corner of 117th. I... I grabbed a tire iron from a wrecked car. I... I actually did it, Alex. I killed one. Bashed its head in." He glanced at Jenna, who gave him a supportive (if still pale) smile. "It was... heroic, right?"
Alex, still sprawled on the couch, smirked. "Heroic, huh? Well, I guess your 'heroic' actions paid off. Got you two real close, real fast." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Nothing like the end of the world to progress a relationship."
Mark's "hero" expression dissolved into genuine, surprised confusion. He leaned in. "Wait... how did you know? Does this place have... cameras?"
Alex stared at him, his expression flat. How can someone so smart be so dense? "No, Mark. It doesn't have cameras. You're both flushed, you're sticking together like glue, and you couldn't look me in the eye when I asked about the guest room. It's called an 'educated guess.'"
Mark nodded, accepting it, and then his grin returned, this time aimed at Alex. "Right, right. Smart. But look at you! You're thinking I'm lucky? Bro, I see you. You're the lucky one." He gestured with his head toward Alice, who was still quietly holding the icepack on her ankle. "Pulling the campus queen... when did you even do that?"
Alex's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
Mark stared at him, incredulous. "What am I...? How do you not know her? Dude, that's Alice Kovalenko. She's top of her year, speaks like three languages... her mother is that nationally recognized diplomat! She's... she's Alice Kovalenko!"
The revelation made Alice flush with embarrassment, and she looked down at her hands, but before she could say anything, Alex just... scoffed. The sound was sharp, dismissive.
"What 'campus queen'?" he said, his voice flat. "I don't know any campus queen. All I got was two crybabies to care for."
The words hung in the air, sharp and cold. Mark looked bewildered. Alice flinched, as if slapped, and her face paled. From the kitchen, the sound of chopping stopped.
Mark, sensing he'd stepped on a landmine, immediately changed the subject, looking around the living room. "So... anyway... what is this place, man? This is more than a 'go-bag.' You've got all this long-lasting food, the medical kits, all the self-defense tools... this is..."
"You know I have strange habits, Mark," Alex answered dismissively, cutting him off. "This is just one of them."
"If you say so," Mark mused to himself, clearly not believing it but dropping the subject.
Quite some time passed as the two guys chatted, the initial tension easing. Finally, Jenna and Mina emerged from the kitchen, carrying plates and a large pot of pasta.
"Lunch is ready!" Jenna announced, her voice a bit forced, trying to restore normalcy. "Come on, let's eat at the table."
As they ate, Jenna looked at Alex, her expression full of a curiosity that's stronger than her fear. "Alex... what... what happened to you? After we got separated. You gave us six days... it's..." She glanced at the daylight outside. "It's only... day three, isn't it?"
Alex put his fork down, his brow furrowed as he did the math in his head.
"Day one... the outbreak, the gym," he muttered to himself. "Spent that night in the dorms." He glanced at Alice, who nodded. "Day two... we went for Mina, stayed at your place." He looked up, his eyes clearing. "Yeah. You're right. Day three."
He took a sip of water, gathering his thoughts. "It feels... longer."
He looked at Mark. "After I threw you the keys, I had to draw those three runners away. I led them in the opposite direction, down 116th. Managed to lose them in the chaos near the John Jay dorm—a big group was getting overrun, so they got distracted."
"I was... drained," he continued, his voice flat. "The... 'morning' wasn't great." Mark nodded, understanding the hangover reference. "I found a janitor's closet in another building. Barricaded it. I figured I'd wait out the first wave of pure, city-wide panic."
"It was getting dark when I woke up. Knew moving at night was stupid. My plan was to find a secure room in one of the dorms, wait for morning. That's... when I ran into a problem."
He glanced at Alice, then back at his plate. The table went quiet.
"I found Alice," he said, his voice carefully neutral. "She was in a bad spot. Some guys... they weren't students anymore. They were... animals. They were trying to break into her room."
Mark's eyes widened. "Jesus. What... what did you do?"
"I handled it," Alex said, his voice flat and cold, in a tone that stopped any further questions on that topic. "She was fine, just... scared. We found a secure room in another building, spent the first night there."
"Day two," he continued, "she told me about her sister, Mina." He nodded at Mina. "She was stranded at their apartment, not far from here. It was... a detour, but it was on the way. We left at dawn."
Alice spoke up, her voice quiet. "He cleared the building. Got us out. We... we ran into some trouble on the way. Three men, from a supermarket."
Alex tapped his bandaged arm. "They... 'offered' to 'help' us. We refused. They didn't like that. Got this." He said it like it was a minor inconvenience. "But we handled it. We made it to their apartment, found Mina. The place was secure, high-floor. We spent night two there."
"This morning, day three," he concluded, "I scouted a new route from their place. We packed up. On the way here, we... ran into another 'welcome party.' You saw that part."
Mark nodded, his face grim. "We... we saw. From the window. We saw you talking. Then... god, Alex, you... it was..."
"They gave us a choice," Alex said, his voice hard. "I made one. Got us here." He looked around the table, his expression final. "And that's it. We're all here. We're safe. Now you're all caught up."
The heavy pasta meal, combined with the safety of the locked room, settled over the group, and the adrenaline of the day finally gave way to a profound exhaustion. Mark, finishing his water, was the first to break the silence, voicing what everyone was thinking.
"So, Alex... man..." he started, leaning back in his chair. "What is the plan? From here on out? We can't just... stay here forever, right? Not with... all that." He gestured vaguely toward the windows.
Everyone's eyes turned to Alex. He didn't answer right away. He stared at his empty plate, his brow furrowed, clearly thinking deeply. They could almost see the calculations running in his mind. Finally, he just shook his head, dismissing the question.
"I don't know yet," he said, which felt like a half-truth. "I need to see what the news says tomorrow, see if the grid stays up. See... a lot of things. We're safe here. The door is solid. The food in this apartment," he gestured to the kitchen, "will last the five of us maybe three, four days if we're smart. So we don't have to worry about it. Not just yet. We just... wait. We rest. We recover."
The non-answer left a heavy, uncertain silence. They were safe, but trapped.
Alex, sensing the drop in morale, stood up. He walked over to a large wooden cabinet under his TV, one that looked like a simple media console, and pulled the doors open. Inside, it was packed, floor to ceiling, with dozens of board games.
"My 'strange habits' again," he said, a small, tired smile on his face. "Figured if the power ever went out, I'd need... something." He started pulling them out. "So. Who wants to play something? Risk? Catan? Settlers of Catan will probably take us 'til the food runs out."
The suggestion was so absurdly, wonderfully normal that it broke the tension. Mina, predictably, was the first to jump at it. "Ooh! Catan! I am ruthless at Catan!"
So they did. The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent in a bizarre bubble of normalcy. As the city outside went dark and silent, the apartment was filled with the sound of dice rolling, fake, whispered arguments over trading sheep for brick (Mina, it turned out, was not lying), and even a few quiet, stifled laughs.
As night fell, the game ended. They took turns showering, one by one, the hot water a miracle they all cherished.
Finally, the question of sleeping arrangements came up. Mark and Jenna, with a slightly awkward, shared look, wordlessly retreated to the guest room they had already claimed.
This left Alex, Alice, and Mina in the living room.
"Okay," Alex said, walking over to the couch. He grabbed the cushions and tossed them on the floor, then found the handle. "You two can take my room." He pointed to the master bedroom. "I'll take the couch." He grunted as he pulled, and a folded mattress and frame expanded with a thwump-thwump-squeak, turning the sofa into a double bed. It didn't look luxurious, but it wasn't just a couch.
"Alex, no," Alice said immediately, standing up (wincing on her ankle). "That's... that's your bed. You're injured. We can sleep here. It's fine."
Alex just sighed, already tired of the argument before it began. "Alice, look at it," he said, gesturing to the pull-out. "It's not big enough for both of you. Not comfortably. And," he glanced from Alice to Mina and back, "unless one of you wants to sleep beside me, you should just take the bed. It's the only logical option."
Mina's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. Her mouth popped open, her hand half-raising, an "Ooh! I volunteer!" clearly on her lips.
Before she could utter a single, humiliating word, Alice jabbed her, hard, in the ribs.
"Oof!"
Alice shot her sister a look that promised death, then turned back to Alex, her face warm with gratitude and no small amount of embarrassment.
"Thank you, Alex," she said, her voice soft. "For... for your care. We'll... we'll take the bed. Goodnight."