Special

"Maybe we should just calm down," Angela said with a nervous chuckle.

Axel knew he was in a dangerous position. No matter what sparks may have arisen between him and Elena, he was alone while they had three people. He wasn't about to let his dick control his actions. Almost everyone alive right now should have experience in killing (humans or zombies). Even his little sister Rae has killed a few zombies. That's why there was no chance he was going to leave himself completely vulnerable when he wasn't even at full capacity.

"I'm pretty calm right now. Just making sure you guys don't try anything."

The air thickened with tension as Axel wore a calm, confident smile on his face and the girls realized that the guy they thought was incapacitated was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Dylan's face reddened in anger and embarrassment when he saw he fell into Axel's ploy.

"Get...off of me," Dylan said, strained and out of breath from struggling. Axel had taken to kneeling on him, saving him energy while Dylan kept wasting his own.

"Nah. Now, tell me about yourselves. How the hell did you manage to get that horde chasing you?"

"We're new to the area. We just got here from New York. While we were searching for supplies, we were spotted around Washington Square." Elena spoke this time. She quickly calmed down as she surveyed the situation.

Washington was half the town away — the heavily infected side of the city. When the virus started to spread, everyone panicked. People in Boston rushed to leave the city, while everyone else thought that going into the city would be safer with a more heavily armed police force to protect them. With that combination, the west side of the city was left relatively zombie-scarce, while the right was left completely infested. That'll all change now.

Although Axel didn't have a good look while he was escaping, he knew that the horde must have numbered thousands if they came from Washington Square. While they split off from the main horde, the ones that followed them to the mall were still a few hundred strong.

"Fucking hell. You have to be kidding me," Axel cursed under his breath. The path to his hideout would now be crawling with infected. Getting back to Rae would take days. Luckily, they had taken enough food for a month for four mouths. It should last her at least a few months. The problem was that he was running out of time. He could feel the virus coursing through his veins. Spreading. From his ankle to his legs. His chest. His head.

"You...really fucked shit up."

"How were we supposed to know?" Dylan growled in response. He could not figure out how Axel could hold him down for so long.

Axel sighed. How many times has he even sighed in the past few hours? Bad news popped up one after another and he couldn't cope with it all at once. He wished he could go pop his head out and look outside, but the two girls blocked the way to the window and appearing in broad view was not the best idea since it would distract the zombies all over again and stop them from going inside.

Axel checked his watch. It read 9:06PM. His eyebrows creased as he thought about his little sister. She would probably be crying in the basement, mourning the death of her parents and worried to death over her brother. By sunrise, he should be able to start his trek back if he could dodge these people.

Looking down, he saw Dylan completely tired out. He exhausted himself trying to get out of Axel's grip, not noticing how that was Axel's plan all along. Axel dragged Dylan back a few steps and grabbed some spare rope he hid behind in one of the cardboard boxes in the hallway. Luckily, the two girls hadn't noticed odd supplies scattered around due to their panic.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked warily.

"Nothin'."

He tied Dylan up under the cautious gazes of the other two and casually sat down half a foot away from Dylan. "I'm just making sure the playing field is a little more even. Now, why are you guys passing through this town? And don't give me any bullshit. Almost no one should be left alive from Boston and that would be the only reason you were anywhere near Washington and here in Brookline."

Elena hesitated, while Angela gave her obvious side-eyes and nudges. She didn't know why, but she didn't feel as if Axel was...untrustworthy. "We're from the Morningstar Coalition."

Axel frowned. "The what?"

"It's just like, I don't know, the biggest coalition on the East Coast," Angela giggled. When she saw Axel's lack of response, she stopped. "Wait, have you been in contact with any other survivors?"

"No?" Axel's frown deepened. "Why does it matter?"

Angela laughed in disbelief, while Elena also seemed dumbstruck. It was almost impossible for anyone left over in the zombie apocalypse to have gone this long without being in contact with one of the coalitions. Each coalition was something like guerrilla groups, holding a few thousand people at minimum with most of them possessing some sort of combat ability.

Lone survivor groups were extremely rare as they must possess some sort of unnatural talent to have lived this long. One must remember that the world's human, and animal, population is five percent of what is was before. On the other hand, the infected are made up of what would be considered around twenty percent of the world's human population and whatever portion of animals that were infected, as well.

Although it may seem as if multiple small survival groups could exist, many would typically encounter hordes or groups of evolved zombies. Evolved zombies made sure that only coalitions sustained the remaining population in the world. In fact, Angela and Elena were wary because they thought Axel was a part of another coalition.

Human desire for power and greed knows no bounds, leading to hostile relations and perpetual conflicts between coalitions.

"How are you...alive?" Angela asked shakily. In the coalition, they're told that whoever stayed alive alone was special. No one ever elaborated. They just had cautious and scared looks on their faces as they said to be extra careful of survivors outside of the coalitions.

Imagine if they knew that Axel had kept his twelve-year old sister and elderly parents alive and healthy for so long. Or if they knew that Axel could single-handedly bring down a dozen zombies, while keeping their attention from wandering to his family and then having enough energy to spare to kill two more zombies. Axel himself didn't even know that the zombies he fought earlier were already evolved.