Chapter Text
Lemme tell you a story.
On December 24th, 2021, a plague broke out. It was the plague to end all plagues, the next great flood—fire was the only thing that kept the infected down. In that, at least, the Bible was correct: the world was ending in flames. Flames that clung to dead flesh that still moved, spreading the fire like the disease that had started the whole mess.
As I write this, I’m watching Los Angeles burn to the ground. Our caravan—
“Max!” Max jumped, her pen shattering in her grasp and smearing ink across the diary page. From behind her, Justin winced, making an odd noise as he exhaled. “Sorry, boss, but we got movement on the perimeter.”
She looked up, almost hopeful. “Another caravan?” The last one they had passed had been nearly six months ago, and it had been the first one they had seen in nearly a year. Justin’s expression told her all she needed to know. “Ok, get the group packed up. Anyone showing any signs of infection?”
He flashed her a megawatt smile. “Glad to say the transgenic race is still proving it’s immunity time and time again. I was worried when Sam got bit, but, after all…”
His voice faded to the background, as Max’s mind flashed back, back to the turning point. Oh, Justin, you have no idea just how lucky we are. She mused, watching him blather on, Sandman could have fucked with your DNA, attempted to make you stronger with this… Faces swirled in front of her eyes. Devon, her clone. Frankie’s blue and red striped boots. Misha, and his bowl of oatmeal. Keema, looking so afraid. Clinic’s haughty snarl. The constant bickering of Keegan and Felix…and, of course… Alec. His bright green eyes lingered the longest and the brightest in her gaze. His white blonde hair somehow always tinged red with blood, his face bright with the rush of battle. Alec was her mate, and how amazing he had been in his element…if only she had seen him for who he was before this fiasco…before she watched him fight an un-winnable battle. Before they detonated the nuke. Before any remnant of their bodies could have a burial.
Tears welled in her eyes, and she hastily wiped them away. Thinking like that cost lives, she reminded herself. And, it wasn’t as if she didn’t have any reminders. Alec had pressed the dog-tags from every member of the Squad at Raccoon City, and they hung around her neck in a place of honor. And there was still—
“I lost you about ten minutes ago, didn’t I.” Justin said, gently flicking the back of one of Max’s ears.
She half-heartedly swatted at him, sighing. “My focus just isn’t where I want it to be today.”
“Well, you better get it back,” He said, his blue eyes squinting against the harsh sun. This had once been a thriving suburb of Los Angeles; now, it was nothing but sand, sun, and heat. “I don’t really fancy fighting any more of these things this month.” His lips quirked, and he leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to her lips. “Shall we go, boss?”
Max accepted his hand with a smirk, allowing his help and letting him know it. “Get the sentry duties out there, then get the kids loaded up. Everyone else needs to pack camp.” He mockingly saluted her, and she shoved down the cold shudder that crawled up her spine. Sighing, she picked up her notebook, frowning at the ink blotch. It was fitting, now that she was really looking at it. And it rather summed up the last six years. Her heart clenched tightly, and she forced the tears away. And, with a scathing look at the cardboard and paper, she flung the notebook out amongst the dunes, listening to the loosed leaves fluttering in the wind. Max turned on her heel then, heading back towards camp with a speed bourn of sorrow.
Moments later—if she had turned, she would have seen!—a hooded figure stepped from behind the nearest dune. It easily caught one of the fleeing pages, tipping down tinted goggles to read the words. The eyes snapped up, once again following Max’s progression. Under the shadow of the hood, they glowed green.
***
It was dark by the time Max ordered her caravan of wayward transgenics to set up camp. The children were quiet, but she could tell they were hungry. Everyone was these days. The canned food they had been scavenging was running out; things were expiring. Her people were so weakened by hunger that even the skills for hunting were stretched beyond their limit; healthy game was too few and far between to expand the effort needed to track it down. In her heart, she was starting to wonder if this was the cruelest joke of all, that the transgenics would survive this great cleansing only to starve to death in its aftermath.
“Mom?” It was the type of voice that would cause any female to look over. Everything about this little raven haired boy compelled you to cater to him, to care for him. He was most certainly his father’s son.
“Yes, Alec?”
He grinned, his hazel eyes just as merry as his father’s. “You told me we could get another story after we settled.” His voice was hopeful, and at his heels, Max could see Ginny—another X5 kid—griping on to his belt, with her thumb in her mouth. Alec was by no means the eldest child in their caravan, but, just like his father, the others seemed to instinctively look to him. A natural born leader.
“Let me grab my dinner, and I’ll be with you guys soon.” She said, ruffling his hair with a sad smile. “I’ll be out of stories by spring at this rate!” Her hand clasping his, she started towards the campfire, but little Alec didn’t move; he had gone strangely still. She tugged his arm a little harder, “Al, come on.”
His eyes were on the horizon, scanning with an intensity that frightened her. “I feel…I feel like someone’s watching me.” He said, still searching the dunes.
Max shuddered, knowing the exact eerie feeling he was describing. “There’s no one out there.” She said, firmly. “Come on, it’s safer back by the fire anyway.”
A sound drifted past her ears on the wind. She knew it was there, because Alec started too. “Mom? Who laughed?”
Once, she would have called them out, bluffed her way either in or out of a fight, purely confident that she would win. That was a lifetime ago. “Move, Alec Guevera!” Unused to the anger in his mother’s tone, Alec snapped into motion, keeping his steps quick to match pace with Max’s larger strides. However, as any child would, his gaze was continuously drawn back over his shoulder, towards the shadowy dunes where he could just swear someone was standing just out of his vision. He would never say anything (not since that last time, no, mom was too upset, and she cried), but it was the same feeling he got just before the scouts would call that another caravan was spotted. His hair was standing on edge.
Just before they hit the campfire, Alec risked one last glance back. There was a figure standing there, dressed much the same as everyone he ever known was, but the stranger had his cloak up. Sand whipped at his eyes, and Alec blinked the harsh grains away. When his vision returned, the figure was gone, and with it, the strange feeling.
Alec wondered just how long this strange figure had been following them.
***
One of the first things Alec had learned, growing up as a nomad, was that ammunition was scarce, and very few, if any, people were making it. His own mother had Justin (not dad, never dad, no, because Justin didn’t smell like family) train him when he was strong enough to withstand the recoil. Even now, at five and a quarter years old, he was carrying his own small pistol. “Never shoot when you can run.” Was the golden rule, and in his short life, he had only seen shots fired when one of the caravan was in immediate danger. It was this rule that prevented him from grabbing his gun when he felt that strange feeling creep up on him. Slowly, he turned, fully expecting to be getting wigged for no reason.
The shadow man was there.
Fear leapt into Alec’s young mind, and he staggered back a step, reaching for his gun—He was disarmed before he could feel it, and as far as he could tell, the stranger hadn’t moved. Which wasn’t fair, he was the fastest kid in the caravan! When he got big, he should be the fastest!
“I have a hard time believing your mother wants her kids handling guns.” The voice…
Alec had heard the voice before, in his dreams. He stared up at the shadowed face. Bright, glowing green eyes stared back. Alec swallowed hard. “Mom had Justin teach me. We all have to defend ourselves. There’s zombies out there!”
The shadows under the cloak shifted, and Alec thought the man might have smiled. And then, without warning, the man dropped to one knee. “You really are Max’s kid, aren’t you.”
He knew Mom. Tentatively, little Alec stepped closer. He still couldn’t see under the hood. “I don’t like this.” He said, fear getting the better of him. “I can’t see you.”
The man carefully pulled off his hood. He wasn’t gross, and Alec almost felt disappointed. He was a transgenic male—Alec knew that scent anywhere!—and he was old. Old like mom was, so he was probably an X5, like her, but his hair was white, Alec didn’t think it was from age, because the strands by his neck were a darker, sandier blonde. However, what unnerved him were the man’s eyes. All transgenic eyes reflected light, it was a holdover from the night vision they were designed with. But this man’s eyes glowed like they were lit with some fire behind them. Like he was so full of life that the energy had to escape somewhere.
It was the last straw, and Alec ran. Little chest heaving, he bolted onto the faded yellow bus they rode and dove under his blankets. He refused to come out even for dinner. After a while, his cold shivering gave way to fearful tears, and he ended up crying himself to sleep refusing to leave the bus.
When he woke the next morning, the scary man felt like a bad dream…until he saw his pistol lying on the broken leather seat next to him.
***
Crows. When the shadows started circling overhead, Alec felt a fear rise up that had paralyzed him for as long as he could remember. There were nightmares, about being in his mother’s arms, screaming as crows dive-bombed her. He didn’t know if it was real or not, but considering what he lived with, it was very possible. Alec was on firewood duty with Agatha, an X4, and two X5 kids, when he saw the shadows. His pile of shelving dropped to the ground with a clatter, and Agatha paused, turning around, the sun glinting off her sunglasses. “Alec, come on! We can’t linger!” She started back towards him, bending down to pick up the first piece of his dropped wood.
The crows were on her before she had reached it. Alec had seen the moment she realized her mistake, as her reach turned into a shove, knocking him as far from her as his little body would go as the crows hit her body like a hail of bullets. “Aggy!” Alec screamed, skittering toward the two other kids, seeing them pull their weapons even as he drew his. “Aggy!”
“Run!” Her scream was wet, and Alec could see the inside of her throat as she yelled. His fingers went limp.
One of the swarm turned, it’s dead eye focusing on the three children cowering together just a few yards away. It let out a squawk. The two behind him took off running, but Alec, who had been leaning on them, fell to the ground, watching with petrified horror as more crows turned away from his former nanny. Alec closed his eyes, hoping the whole ordeal would just go away—
Gunfire exploded around him, and he instinctively dropped to the ground, hands covering his sensitive ears. A hand closed around his belt and yanked him up into arms. The woman holding him—he could tell because she was soft on top—was too warm, especially in the chilly desert night. Her other arm was firing a weapon of some sort, he could see the muzzle flashes from the corner of his eyes.
“Duck!” Alec felt the woman drop to the ground, careful of his own smaller form, just as a burst of hot wind blasted over them. A moment later, his protector was being pulled to her feet, and Alec was carefully placed on the ground.
He opened his eyes, ready to run. He was not ready for the completely flabbergasted looks appearing on the three adult transgenics standing in front of him. The first one was the female—dark in skin and hair like his mom, but her eyes were a shining, wolfish yellow, and she was wearing far too little clothing for the temperature. Next to her was a man who looked similar to his own reflection, dark haired, olive skin, soft brown eyes. The man was a clone, and the clone was next to him, light to his dark, his skin brown from too much sun, and his eyes…It was the same man who had tried to speak with him before. Alec even told him so.
A long moment of silence stretched after his announcement, followed by the three bursting into laughter. Alec started like a skittish dear, and only held his ground when he realized that they were not a danger…to him at least.
“My gods, he’s got your attitude.” The dark haired male said, elbowing the blonde. “Looks a bit like me, though. Heh, told you your blondeness was a freak accident.” The blonde elbowed him back.
Alec didn’t like it. “What do you want with mom?” He asked, feeling oddly unnerved by their appearance and instinctually knowing they weren’t there for him.
The tears in the light male’s eyes were not what he expected from the question. “I…” He paused, looking back in the direction of camp. Alec turned too, seeing the outlines of his caravan running towards him, his mother in the lead looking horrified.
“Well?” Alec demanded, turning back. But there was no one there. Only fading footprints in the shifting sand, soon to be erased. Well, footprints, and a whole mess of dead crows. Alec really couldn’t blame his mom for confining him to camp for a week.
***
Max sat atop the lead truck in the caravan, looking out over the shapeless desert that had once been the west coast of the United States. She had spent hours screaming into the night, demanding for her son’s protector to show himself. After a while, she fell silent, just hoping to catch a glimpse of the shadow that she thought, she hoped…
“Alec? Seriously?” The voice surprised her, and she hastily turned her head to see a hooded figure sitting next to her on the truck’s roof. His eyes glowed from under the shadow of the cloak. “You really couldn’t have thought of a better name for our son?”
Tears leapt to her eyes, but she forced them to stay there, looking back out on the horizon. “I thought you were dead.” She said by way of explanation. “It’s been six years.”
He nodded, also looking out over the horizon. “I think it might have been better if I were. Dead, that is.” Sighing, he turned, his hood falling away. “I don’t know what I am anymore.”
Max risked a glance, and gasped. “You haven’t aged a day!”
He shot her a look. “Out of all the changes, that’s the one you’re gonna go with?” he shrugged. “Ok.”
“I thought you would be awful.” She admitted, looking away again. “They nuked you. The burns alone…”
“Umbrella had us out by the time they bombed Raccoon City.” He said, his voice tight. “They were experimenting on us for at least a month after. Saved our lives, yeah, but… even I don’t know everything they did to us.” He shuddered. “I can sense him, you know.” Max wasn’t sure how to respond. They settled into a slightly uncomfortable silence that stretched for minutes. “I want to be here.” The statement startled her, and Max found herself drawn to peer back into his glowing green eyes. “I want to be with you and our son. I want to find us a place to settle down, away from all this…” He glanced back over his shoulder, and Max followed his gaze to see two more figures at the edge of the camp.
“Felix and Keegan survived.” She said, feeling relief, “Did anyone else..?”
He shrugged. “Dunno. We were the only ones at the facility.”
Max felt her lip tremble. “Then why can’t you come back? You’d all be welcome here, we have plenty of psy-op transgenics!”
Alec gave a small laugh, looking back out over the dunes. “Umbrella isn’t done with us, Max. They’re tracking us, even as we speak.”
She felt as if the breath was knocked out of her. “What?”
“Apparently Wesker was a little too quick to attempt to terminate our project parameters. The current head of Umbrella is apparently very interested in recapturing us freaks. We’ve been evading their satellites since we broke out…about five years ago.” He offered her a ghost of his former smile. “I’ve been around…it took a while to track you down. By the time I did…” he turned away. “So, how is Justin anyway.”
Max felt a flicker of guilt, but shoved the slight aside, knowing Alec was just being Alec. “He’s nothing compared to you.” She made him look at her, so he’d know she was telling the truth. “Can’t you stay?”
She knew by the set of his jaw what his answer would be. “One day soon, I promise, and I’ll even fight the bastard for the privilege of reclaiming you…but I’m needed.” He glanced back at Keegan and Felix, looking slightly guilty himself. “If I had found you sooner…well, odds are I wouldn’t have had the strength to leave.”
“And I wouldn’t have needed to be all self-sufficient.” She smiled at him, trying to stay brave. “Go. And hurry back.”
Alec smirked, “Tell Junior I’m sorry for scaring him.”
Max swatted at her mate, even as he dodged, leaping easily down from the truck. “You are NOT calling him junior.”
“Well I’m not calling him Alec either, silly woman, giving him my name.” He grinned, the glow of his eyes dimmed by the goggles he now wore.
She returned it, her heart heavy, but some of the chains around it had broken. “At least it’s not Bullet.”
Alec flashed her one more of his patented smiles, whispering, “Well, touché.” Before literally vanishing before her eyes. Moments later, she caught his figure next to the ones of Felix and Keegan, and then all three were gone from her sight. Slowly, carefully, she made her way back to the tent she shared with Justin, peeking in on the nursery tent just to make sure her trouble maker was snoring first.
As she bunked down, Justin came in, his nose twitching and a peculiar look across his face. “Now, now, it’s not happening just yet.”
Even with her assurance, Justin took a long moment before lying next to her, wrapping his arms around her with a possessiveness tinged with remorse. “ I always knew he didn’t die. I’m not sure I liked the thought. Mostly because now I know he can survive pretty much anything.” He paused. “X5-494…he’s something more than transgenic.”
Max smirked into her pillow. “Please. And can’t we just enjoy the moment?” When Justin didn’t move, she rolled herself over and looked him in the eyes. “You knew if he ever came back that he has my heart. You’ve been a great friend, and amazing lover…”
“But I’m not him.” Justin wrinkled his nose. “I know.”
“Then let’s just enjoy the evening. With a teasing grumble, Justin joined her on the ground, reveling in her embrace.
Across the desert, Alec—X5-494—was staring back at where the camp was. I’m coming back this time. he promised, before following his pack’s footfalls over the cold, desert sand.