Chapter Six:

David the Goliath Slayer

Location: Watts High School, Colorado

Back In Medical Isolation Room 3

Time: 18:00

Date: 11th of October, 2147

Okay, to be fair, David had never actually been interrogated before.

Not for real anyways, only in extreme simulations he had to undergo for his Death Angel training.

The problem with the design of those simulations was that there was never any information David could actually divulge to make those interrogations stop, he simply had to ask for them to stop by speaking a “safe word”. David didn’t want to disappoint Uncle Tío or look weak in front of his peers, so he never asked for mercy. Training like this made David’s body hardened and pain tolerant beyond belief, and to the GrandMaster, that was a success. His body adapted in ways no one else’s ever could.

His training did not, however, prepare him in non-physical ways.

David was a quick thinker, and very creative, but he was easily manipulated and caught off guard by social dialogue. He did not know much kindness, or even intimate personal interactions, beyond Uncle Tío.

On the battlefield, David could analyze a plethora of strategic variables at once, then recognize all the possible different outcomes of those variables interacting. He could assess and determine counters to those possible outcomes, judge their effectiveness, and decide the optimal plan to implement in order to maximize his survival chance within a matter of milliseconds.

But when he wasn’t fighting… Well… It was a different story altogether.

Walker threw his hands in the air hysterically while he paced. He couldn’t believe the events David just described to him.

“So you’re telling me you just tackled the thing, stabbed it in the eye with a door handle, then beat it to death with a couple damn toilet seats!?”

“I mean, not exactly that, but I killed it, yeah.”

Walker stared at him incredulously, “HOW?!”

David sighed. He was tired of describing his encounter with the Goliath in the bathroom.

“Alright, that’s enough Walker.” Clinton interjected.

David was back in his previous interrogation room, but this time he was sitting in one of the small chairs he had taken from the stack. The plastic hurt his butt, and forced his knees into an awkward angle, but at least he didn’t have to wear any handcuffs or have drugs pumped into his veins. Everyone but David in the room had guns in their hands ready to shoot if he were to try to escape again, so he remained restrained in that way rather than physically.

He didn’t miss the handcuffs, but he did kind of miss lying on the table. He felt sleepy. He considered laying down on the floor, but recognized it as socially unacceptable.

Clinton, Walker, Alex, Jade, Gage, and a few of Clinton’s aides were scattered throughout the room watching David intently.

Clinton was no longer in the white fluffy chair, Alex was.

“I remember his story. We all do. We don’t need to hear it again.” Clinton said.

“Good.” David thought to himself, he really didn’t feel like repeating himself anymore. Talking this much was exhausting.

Alex was shaking her head at David while searing a hole into him with her eyes. She didn’t actually expect David to make it out of his handcuffs with a paperclip. She especially didn’t expect him to get busted so soon if he did. Just great.

Clinton continued.

“The only thing I don’t understand is why you thought it would be a good idea to go into the only door marked with caution tape. I mean, it was locked! We left it closed for a reason. We marked it off!”

“You’re just listing reasons why no one would be in there!”

“But no one was in any of the nearby rooms! A cursory glance could have revealed that! No one was in that room either because it was locked and marked off, yet still you broke in!”

Clinton’s face was turning a bit red. His typically stoic demeanor was cracking in his anger. David shrugged.

“Hey man, you were the ones who handcuffed me and drugged me. I felt like a caged animal. I fled.”

There was an exchange of glances among the group.

Clinton leveled himself and took a very deep breath.

“Okay. You’re right. You make a very sound point, David. Yes. We handcuffed you, which is regrettable. But, look at our perspective, we didn’t know who you were, and you’re extremely suspicious. You wear clothes similar to people from SafeHaven, and we are all reasonably cautious of them right now. I mean, where does someone get an unbranded nanofiber shirt? It looks incredibly high grade too. Even new. You couldn’t have just picked that up at some high-end retail store after things went down. In fact, there’s no way that shirt was commercially produced. That’s special order. It has to be SafeHaven.”

David’s face revealed nothing, but he was surprised. Clinton might’ve been a bit more insightful than David originally thought.

“And as for the drugs, we were giving you them to help save your life! We even gave you a bit of morphine, to help dull any pain you may have been feeling. There aren’t exactly medical laws or ethical guidelines when it comes to those types of things anymore. We thought we were being generous. We could have injected you with one of Randy’s “cooperation syringes,” but I think we all remember quite vividly that we did not, in fact, do that.”

Alex slumped down in her chair like a child in trouble.

David felt the syringe still tucked into his belt. Clinton leaned in closer to David. His icy blue eyes met David’s stoic hazel ones. There was genuine concern in his voice.

“Kid, between you and me, you looked really beat up when we found you. We didn’t know if you would make it. There was a horde behind you and things didn’t look good for you. You have to understand that. You were dead otherwise.”

David didn’t like being called kid, but he let it slide. They had never used morphine on him at SafeHaven. He remembered being put under in the past, but he was seldom given any kind of pain medication. He was lucky to even know what morphine was at all.

“Alright, well, even so, I had every right to try to escape. You haven’t told me where we are, or who you are. Alex is the only person who has treated me like a human being since I got here.”

Jade made a face like he wanted to say something, but then kept his mouth shut. He wanted to point out his attempt to save David in the bathroom, but he recognized it was probably not the time.

Alex avert her eyes to the floor as she felt the others in the room glancing at her. Gage was standing next to her and he looked particularly guilty. Walker stood among Clinton’s different assistants and aides.

Clinton continued.

“Absolutely! But where, David, did you get the skills to break out? Where did you get the ability to kill a... Goliath, as you called it? I believe that’s what they call them at SafeHaven as well...” Clinton motioned around to all the various people standing in the room.

“See, we only ever fight those big zombies as a group. That one was dormant, so we deemed it not a threat and kept it locked in there. We figured it would be fine as long as no one messed with the door... But here we are.”

Clinton motioned around himself to vaguely reference the room they stood in.

“The thing is, David, NO one in their right mind would ever even try to fight any of those brutes solo. I’ve personally seen men torn in half like a piece of paper by one. I’ve seen skulls squished like grapes by their colossal meaty hands. You could have hid and let it attack the men outside that door, but instead you took it down by yourself, like it was the natural thing to do. Did someone in the family you claim you’re looking for teach you how to do that? Could this family possibly be a military unit of some sort?”

David kept his cool. He could keep up the lie.

“Nah it’s just a regular family. I learned everything from my Uncle. He used to be in the military, I think he was a pretty high ranking officer, actually.”

“Oh, well that’s great David! I’m sure we could make a place for him within our community once we help you find him. You’ll find we are very welcoming to good honest people. We want you to know things don’t have to be hostile between us, okay? We aren’t your enemy. Does your Uncle have a name?”

“Yeah… Tío. I call him Uncle Tío.”

“Uncle Tío?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, David, do you really think we’re that stupid?”

“What?!”

David was shocked. That was one of the few things he had said that was true.

“David, look, I don’t want to be… racially insensitive here… which I didn’t think I’d ever have to worry about again, but… you’re obviously… of Hispanic descent. It’s pretty common knowledge that Tío is Spanish for uncle. You expect me to believe you have an uncle named “uncle uncle”? You couldn’t even come up with a better fake name?”

“Well, I mean, I’m sure Uncle Tío has a real name! I… just don’t… know it…”

David suddenly realized, somehow for the first time, that he didn’t know Uncle Tío’s real name. He thought his name was Tío. He didn’t speak any Spanish, even though he was genetically half Mexican. This was shocking information for him.

“Riiiight... Okay, well do you have any other family out there David?”

Clinton’s voice was particularly biting when he uttered the word family.

David hung his head down sadly.

“No… I don’t... I… I just have him now.”

He was still telling the truth, but David knew it probably sounded like more lies.

Alex was looking at David and saw the sorrow stretched across his face. She could tell he wasn’t faking it. Clinton could tell David was genuinely upset as well. No one could pull a façade that convincing, especially not after coming up with a lie as dumb as “my uncle named uncle uncle”.

David was a good actor, but his realization hit him too hard to hide. He hung his head down and hid his face slightly behind his curly black hair. His eyes were welling with tears against his will. He tried to remain silent, but couldn’t help letting out a small sniffle.

Why didn’t he know Uncle Tío’s real name? Why would his uncle hide that? How could he have been so naïve as to not realize he didn’t know his only family member’s real name?

“So… just David and Uncle Tío out in the wasteland together, surviving, thriving, and killing big ass zombies for fun. Right? That’s your story? For how many years? Were you with people before?”

David was silent. He didn’t want to continue anymore.

The silence filled the room for a while. Clinton did not utter another word, but studied David as if he saw through him. Walker started tapping his foot impatiently, but a stern glance from Clinton made him cease.

Jade felt like this might be a good opportunity for him to speak up. He pulled a chair up close to David and sat in it. He reached his hand out to console him, but decided against engaging David in physical touch without permission.

“Hey... David. I, um, know you don’t know me very well, but I’m the guy who was trying to get you out of that bathroom earlier. You can call me Jade. I’d shake your hand, but it looks like it’s covered in a lot of nasty gunk from killing that thing. I bet you didn’t wash your hands after using the bathroom, huh?”

Jade chuckled.

David looked up at Jade and just nodded distractedly.

“Jade. I’m David.”

Jade smiled warmly.

“Hey David. So listen, I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, you don’t know who I am, and I get that, but… I know a thing or two about being lonely. I really do. I know a lot about being lied to, as well. My parents… weren’t in the picture much when I was growing up. I basically had no family for a long time. No real friends. Just me.”

Jade again reached over to touch David on the shoulder.

However, after he watched David’s piercing gaze follow his hand, he retracted it before establishing contact. It was difficult to fight his natural inclination to empathize through touch, but Jade continued on, undeterred.

“I understand not wanting to trust people David. Seriously. Before all of this, believe it or not, I was a covert operative for the British government. It was just you, and this ‘Uncle Tío’ out there in the world for a long time? That sounds like a code name if I’ve ever heard one. I mean, hell, I go by Jade! ‘Uncle Tío’ is the most obvious code name I’ve ever heard!”

Jade chuckled a bit, perhaps from nerves, but stopped after noticing David’s expression didn’t change. He pressed his lips into his mouth. David had been staring at him, completely emotionless, the entire time. His hazel eyes seemed to be a point fixated in space that all other things circulated around. He never once cracked a smile, which struck Jade as odd, but maybe that’s just how David was.

He knew mercenaries long ago that had the same dead stare. They were among the fiercest and most efficient individuals he had ever met. Absolutely terrifying human beings.

Jade could sense something different about David though. Something that set him apart from those men. They wouldn’t have cried talking about their handler. There was something else at play here, and Jade figured the name “Uncle Tío” was a hint.

“I bet you’ve got a lot of suspicions of other people, huh? You probably think we’re all a bunch of killers and crazy people, because that’s what you know. But we aren’t like anyone else you’ve ever run into. I promise you that mate, we’re the good guys. I get wanting to roll solo if that’s your style, and… hey, we’re not even trying to force you to stay here with us if leaving is what you decide to do, but, as the good guys, we gotta keep pursuing our mission. We gotta keep doing good guy things, and in order to do that, we’re going to need some assistance from you.”

Jade made intense eye contact with David for a second.

“That’s going to have to start with the truth, David. The honest, actual truth.”

David nodded slowly. It was the first movement he had made since Jade started talking, other than blinking. He even spoke.

“Fine. But first, you have to tell me what good is to you. What makes you… the good guys, as you put it?”

Jade smiled broadly.

“I was hoping you would ask. A beautiful question, actually. So listen. We have a guy with us. Now I can’t divulge too much information, as per his request, at this particular moment, about him specifically. But I can tell you his mission, and our mission. Which is, you know, the fight to do good.”

Jade paused dramatically with his mouth slightly open, staring at David expectantly. He had his hands in the air like sparklers.

David stared back, once again expressionless. After Jade didn’t continue he raised his eyebrows slightly.

“…okay? And that is…?” He inquired.

“To end zombies once and for all!!” Jade exclaimed, tossing his hands in the air like fake confetti.

“To.. end… zombies… once and for all?”

Jade nodded. His demeanor was ecstatic. David instinctively wanted to dismiss the notion. That sounded preposterous.

“Oh yeah! So look, I know it sounds crazy, but, I mean, everything sounds crazy. It’s a crazy fuckin’ world we live in, right?! Anyways, you know, the zombie thing, it wasn’t a virus or a bacteria or anything like that.”

David looked at him expectantly, the first real shift in his expression. He himself thought that humans became zombies through a fungal or viral infection that nanites couldn’t treat. He personally didn’t care much, they died the same no matter what, but it was a subject of hot debate among some of the SafeHaven guards and soldiers.

The scientists there never seemed to want to take the time to share their thoughts with any guardsmen, so they all just speculated by themselves.

“It was nanites, dude. Those little buggers are everywhere. They’re filling you and me to the brim right now! They’re floating around in the air we breathe!”

“Uh… then why aren’t we zombies?” David asked.

This elicit a few laughs from the group.

“Oh come on, you’re smarter than that David, surely! Please, don’t revert to pretending to be daft. I mean, I’m no nanotechnologist or even a programmer, but even I can tell you there are loads of different types of nanites. It’s just like with bacteria or viruses. There are specific nanites that turn people into zombies. Not just all of them. We’d obviously all just be zombies if that were the case. No, see, most of them are just husks, like dead skin cells, floating around making things dusty. They’re nothing without a host nanite, and those are the ones that cause people to… well, you know… Zombify. These zombie nanites are host nanites made to look like they spread just like any other disease.”

David was visibly confused. Jade waved his hand dismissively.

“Look, that’s a whole other tangent to go on. Then you get into classes of host nanites, version numbers, serial numbers, blah blah blah. None of the stuff you or I need to worry about. Our guy, the one I mentioned, he’s the one with all that info, and he knows it all. Believe me, the dude has, like, a million lifetimes worth of information stuffed in his head. It’s bonkers.”

David didn’t know if he believed Jade, but he nodded his head slightly to encourage him to continue talking. He squint his eyes a bit, clearly in thought.

“This is me being honest here, David, I hope you honor me with that same honesty. The things I am telling you… Well, in doing so I’m sort of betraying my government? I mean… I haven’t heard from them in like, fifteen years, but still… This is seriously classified stuff. Stuff that would’ve got me put away in some dark hole for the rest of my very brief life, back when I was an agent.”

David’s eyes grew wide. Jade had piqued his natural curiosity, and suddenly David felt more engaged in his story. Jade wished he were more engaged from the beginning, because he wasn’t actually able to divulge much more information to David.

“Wait, what?”

Jade smiled before he continued. He got a weird thrill out of divulging this information knowing he wasn’t going to be hunted down for sharing it, like his father was. “I was investigating reports of a potential biological weapon for MI6 when this all went down. That’s why I was in America. That’s why I’m here, right now, talking to you twenty years later. I got really close. We all got really close actually, then, poof. Game over. Doesn’t matter anyways, right?”

David’s eyes were gleaming at this point. He too was getting a bit of a thrill out of this information. No one spoke about what happened before, or how it all might have happened at SafeHaven. It was a very taboo topic for most social circles. Many just wanted to pretend that things were normal and everything outside the walls didn’t exist.

“Ugh. I wish I could tell you more about what I uncovered… about Happy Pharmaceuticals and the Durangos… But, I made a promise to our guy… And, I mean, you’re gonna have to talk to him anyways if you want a better explanation of all that technical stuff behind nanites. Guys like you and me, we like to crack heads together and have a good time, yeah? We don’t like splitting hairs and looking at equations. He’d probably just explain everything better to you anyways. Believe me, this isn’t me giving you the run around, David. You’ll get to have the pleasure of meeting him soon enough, I promise.”

Jade looked up anxiously at Clinton. He wanted to divulge more information, but knew he couldn’t. He continued speaking and David seemed to be slightly more engaged, until Jade looked at Clinton.

David knew that look.

David looked at Clinton as well. He was still the man he wanted to talk to. Jade was just another one of Clinton’s lackeys. He wasn’t sure what to think, but he was still listening to Jade’s story.

“The point is, our guy not only knows that the zombies are caused by certain nanites, but he knows, from his personal testing which nanites cause it, and he’s engineered a way to shut them all down. Oh, and before I forget, I know it’s crazy and just going to make me sound less credible overall, but he also basically knows the future.”

David actually laughed when he said that. It was the first time any of them had heard him laugh. His laugh was low in pitch, and out of practice. It came out in a big singular burst, almost like a scoff. Just, HA!

“Okay, well I know you were joking right then.”

Jade smiled coyly.

“Heh- yeah, sure, joking. He said you’d say that.”

Jade winked.

Clinton interjected. Jade wasn’t supposed to talk to David about Randy, but had obviously gotten carried away.

“Jade!”

Jade rolled his eyes. He wrapped up his speech.

“So, David, can we trust you to tell us the truth now? Just… you know. No spin. No bullshit. Just... The truth. I’m not asking you to be a part of our plan to eliminate all zombies, but surely that has to be something you want too, right? No more fighting, only fun! The world could be safe again! You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, you just have to tell us the truth, and then you’ve done your part to save the world! What do you say? The truth to save the planet? Sound like a good exchange, mate?”

David sighed. He didn’t feel like making up any more lies anyways. He was so tired.

“Okay.”

Jade looked back up to Clinton.

“Hell Yeah! All-roighty then!” Jade exclaimed in an over the top British accent. It sounded fake, but it technically wasn’t, it was just greatly exaggerated. He seemed to turn his British accent on and off as he wished. His speaking voice sounded convincingly American one second; like he could have been born in New York, or somewhere on the east coast. Then it would suddenly start sounding British, as if he couldn’t quite make up his mind, or thought certain sentences sounded better with different accents.

Clinton cleared his throat.

“Alright, David, what’s your full name?”

“David Cypress.”

Clinton seemed a bit surprised, then spoke with uncharacteristic hesitancy.

“Okay, well, going back to the honesty thing… I’m just gonna come right out and ask it. David, do you work for SafeHaven?”

David sighed.

“Sort of, yeah.”

There was a small gasp in the room. Most expected it, but hearing it said out loud was definitive. It was like admitting to working for Satan himself to more than a few of the individuals in the room.

In particular, Clinton’s aide Cooper had lost his entire family when SafeHaven raided a former CDC camp nearly five years into the apocalypse. His brother, his sisters, his mother and father… They were all callously gunned down so SafeHaven could have even more medical equipment.

He alone survived because he hid under the corpses of his sisters, covered in their blood, feeling the warmth leave their bodies. The nanites left in their bodies blocked the scanners from picking up his.

He bore a soul shattering guilt after the events of that day. He was only thirteen at the time, as Clinton had so frequently tried to explain to him when he voiced his guilt, but that didn’t matter to his heart.

He would do anything to avenge them.

Anything to make things right, even a little.

He rose through Clinton’s ranks through the methodical nature of his rage. He loathed SafeHaven and everything it stood for more than, in his mind, absolutely anyone else. Any effort to take them down was a meaningful and worthwhile effort to him. He was steadfast, strong, and incredibly stubborn.

He and David were actually quite similar.

The difference, was that Cooper viewed SafeHaven as a pox to the Earth.

He saw David’s home as a monument, built to honor and breed moral decay and business. A hub of unnecessary cutthroat commerce where the vain and sick went to relish in festering disease while poisoning the rest of the planet.

He shook his head and grimaced. He respected Clinton too much to try anything, but his rage would be sated, somehow. The universe owed him that.

Cooper was grinding his teeth silently, making the muscles in his jaw ache. Clinton continued questioning David.

“Did you have anything to do with the deaths of any of the attackers on SafeHaven a few nights ago, before we found you?”

“Yes.”

“Did you kill any of the men yourself?”

David’s eyes darted around the room. Everyone was staring at him. He could feel their hatred seethe out and seep into him. His eyes landed on Jade, his dark green eyes giving David the slightest reassurance.

“…Yes.”

There was another small gasp. Cooper’s eyes were on fire. He tried to focus on breathing, but he could barely control himself. He wanted to storm out of the room, but knew it would only hurt him in the long run. He balled his fists, digging his nails into his palms. Breathe. Just breathe.

Alex knew David killed them already, but still found herself a bit hurt when David said yes. His face was once again expressionless, detached.

“Do you have an estimate of how many?”

“No definitely not, I have no way of estimating all of them, but I definitely did kill at least one.”

“Just one?”

“At least one.”

“I see… Do you know if there were any survivors, and if so, where they might be holding up?”

David took a deep breath. He didn’t feel like anyone would turn to attack him, yet he still felt weirdly anxious.

“There were no survivors that attacked the South wall. I know that for certain. I remember being told all targets on the South wall were eliminated. I don’t know about the North wall. Those were the only attacks I remember hearing anything about.”

Clinton was silent for a moment, and he looked around at the other individuals in the room. They looked at each other, David, and Clinton. There were a lot of stirring emotions throughout the room, no one seemed comfortable, but no one exchanged actual words. Cooper stared rigidly at the wall, like a soldier at attention. His eyes glistened slightly. Clinton finally spoke again, after a long mournful sigh.

“Thank you for your honesty, David.”

David nodded.

“You’re, uh, welcome... Is that it? Now, do I get to ask you any questions? Who are you? Where am I? I deserve more of an explanation than some hocus-pocus story about nanites and a guy that can see the future!”

Clinton sighed.

“Okay. I feel like we owe you a bit more information, since you decided to be honest and open with us.”

“What we owe him is an execution…” Cooper muttered under his breath. No one seemed to hear him. He continued to grit his teeth.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Clinton sat down in a chair next to Jade. David, Jade, and Clinton sat in a triangle of plastic chairs designed for small children.

“My name is Clinton Hayes. My friends call me Clint, you can call me Clinton.”

He reached out to shake David’s hand, and they interlocked in a solid handshake.

They both felt surprised by each other’s grip strength.

“I was in charge of a group of survivors here at this high school for about a decade before a man named Randy Cannon came along with a story of undoing the wrongs of the zombie apocalypse. Normally, any guy spouting tales like that would get immediately dismissed, you don’t make it this long by believing any ol’ charlatan that saunters along, but Randy made it all the way to our front door without setting off a single alarm or booby trap. We’ve got over five miles of those suckers laid out around here in very particular patterns. The design was my doing, so I know it works. It takes more than just a keen eye and sharp wits to make it through those five miles. Someone would have to know exactly where to go and when. No one comes in or out without us knowing. Believe me.”

Clinton looked over at Alex and spoke a little louder.

“So, even if you did manage to run away, there’s no way you would’ve made it very far. I promise you that.”

Alex looked over at David and shrugged while making a sort of half smile. Clinton continued.

“Anyways, this guy Randy has proven to be reliable and knowledgeable about anything and everything. I’m talking, to the point of seeming downright magical. It’s crazy. You really have to see it to believe it. He claims some guy, who fits your exact appearance, named David Durango is the last key to his master plan. That’s you, buckaroo. I know, it sounds kooky at first, but what doesn’t, honestly? We’ve spent a coupla years collecting the other pieces of this plan, we still are doing so right now, and Randy has spent far longer independently working on this than we have.”

Jade nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah, I’ve worked with Randy longer than anyone else in this room, and I can tell you, he may seem crazy sometimes, but he really knows his stuff.”

David smirked.

“Well, that’s great and all, but I’m not David Durango, my name is David Cypress.”

Suddenly, a radio attached to Clinton’s hip sparked to life.

“BRZzzz... wrong!” A voice at the other end said.

David was taken aback. He thought to himself, “was someone listening in this whole time? Was he deceived by Clinton? Was this a trap?”

“Before you ask, no I wasn’t listening in on you David, my timing is just impeccable. My mind is amazing and you’re unsurprisingly predictable… Well… Mostly. Anyways, back to the point, your name isn’t David Cypress. No! That’s a super lame cover-up name given to you by the icky first Grandmaster. Blech, he had to go. No. The name on your birth certificate was, and is, David Durango. You know, as in, the legendary Durrrrangosss.” His voice was booming and theatrical, like he was speaking to a crowded stadium.

“What? Who are the Durangos? Who are you?” David retorted.

Jade laughed.

“That’s the guy we’ve been talking about. That’s Randy, on the radio.”

“How did he know what I was thinking?” David asked aloud.

The radio spoke back. No one was holding a button or doing anything that should have allowed Randy to hear David’s replies.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking David, I know what you’re going to say, and I know when you’re going to say it. There’s a big difference between those things, but it is impressive all the same, right?”

David was dumbfounded. He didn’t say anything, he just sort of scoffed. His mouth was ajar.

“Oh, I do wish I could see your face right now for a proper introduction, but I suppose I have before... and I still may again! Alas, we’re all on a very tight time-frame here, and that includes you, Mister Durango! I’m currently on a haul to Arkansas with Tex and Maria, neither of whom I suppose you know yet, but you will! Meanwhile, you’re about to embark on a mission with Alex to… well, I’ll let Clinton fill you in on the whole story, we’re about to come up on an ambush in a couple of minutes. It’s gonna get wild.”

There was some dismay in the background of the radio, one could hear a gruff southern voice in the background yell “A WHAT!?” followed by Randy cackling.

David still didn’t know why he should listen to anything this Randy guy said. Even if he seemed to be able to read minds, or tell the future, or whatever it was he was doing. He seemed insane, this was probably just some kind of trick.

Randy’s voice returned to the radio.

“Oh would you relax, I’ve got it handled Tex… And also David! The reason you need to help us, besides the fact you’d be saving the world, is because SafeHaven and Uncle Tío are not what they seem. Ask anyone there what SafeHaven has done to them! I know you’re already feeling mighty suspicious, right? Inquire about your real name to the guy who lied to you about his own. You know what I’m talking about. The monkey’s Tío. If he starts to clam up on you, ask him if the names Carlos and Eva Durango mean anything to him. You might also want to ask yourself if they mean anything to you.”

A vague mist of memory seemed to stir in the back of David’s mind. He felt… something indistinct, but definitely a hint of recognition. His forehead wrinkled in thought and his eyebrows stitched together. Randy continued on the radio.

“Yeah. I know you got that look on your face. Looking all determined and angry. Contemplative and troubled. Good stuff. I can picture it so well. It’s like I’m with you! Or like I just was, or will be… Huh, time is funny, but the mind is funnier. Speaking of! I’m wasting time, David! Look what you do to me! David Durango, right on time! I’m just so excited! Ah! You’ve got me rambling like a crazy person.”

A woman could be heard in the background yell, “You are a crazy person!”

“Psh, well, you would know crazy wouldn’t you? Go back to SafeHaven, David, take only Alex with you, and see for yourself. Carlos and Eva Durango! Your parents! You don’t even know! Spoilers! I know, you don’t believe me yet, but dig into that intrigue, bud! That’s what’s next for you on the optimal timeline -timeline -timeline.”

Randy’s voice boomed the last two words like he was a game show host, then he made it sound like it echoed. He spoke quickly and emphatically. His excitement was infectious, if not a little manic.

“Which I am keeping us on, ladies and gents. Oh! And Jade! Your spare ammo clip is under your pillow. Sorry for hiding it. Just needed to make sure things played out the right way, you know. Better go get that, huh buddy?”

Just like that, Jade’s eyes got wide and he dashed out of the room. He would be back shortly with his ammo clip.

“Alex, I know you’re also listening, so I want you to be careful, okay? All jokes aside, I can’t tell you anything about why you’re there. Just… Don’t forget your holdout knife kiddo. No guarantees, the universe is chaos and variables always exist, but I want you to be safe out there. Use the one on your left calf, not your right. Trust me. Left Calf. You’re gonna do great, I wouldn’t put you into any situation unless I knew you’re gonna walk out of it. You know this. You know I gotchu girl.”

Alex looked down to see she already had her holdout knife strapped to her left calf. She couldn’t find the one for her right that morning anyways.

“Gee… Thanks Randy.” She mumbled, suspecting her right knife shared a fate with Jade’s spare ammo.

“You know I got you Alex! Oh shit. Guys we’re in the danger zone. Aight, I gotta scramble! Randy Cannon over and out!”

There was a single report of distant gunfire, a distorted “Yee haw!”, possibly laughter, then the radio cut to silence again.

Jade had a silly smile across his face, as did Alex. They were both quite fond of Randy. Cooper continued to stare at the wall, and Gage was rolling his eyes.

Clinton seemed to wear a bit of a smirk.

David looked at Clinton.

“What…? What the fuck was any of that?”

Clinton shrugged.

“You heard the same thing I did. Randy talked to me earlier, days ago, about picking you up on the outskirts of The Ruins after the attack. He also told me to leave you alone with Alex, once I brought you into an interrogation room, and she predictably disobeyed her orders to come meddle in the situation. He said interrogating you wouldn’t work, and I think he was right. I had no intention of harming you, but we needed to make you think you were being interrogated the way SafeHaven does interrogations. So now, here we are. It sounds like Randy wants you to head back to SafeHaven with Alex.”

Clinton paused and looked down at his aged leather loafers.

“I have… many personal reservations about allowing Alex to go anywhere with you, and about her going anywhere unsupervised at all, but… I trust Randy has his reasons. The man is a freaking soothsayer. He may as well be God with a salt and pepper porn-stache.”

Alex looked shocked. She had no idea she was playing into Randy’s plan when she helped David escape. Randy didn’t say anything to her about it.

Alex grimaced and clenched her jaw tightly. She hated the idea of being predictable. Randy had a habit of making her, and everyone, feel that way. Predictable. Now Randy wanted her to go to one of the most dangerous places she’s ever even heard rumor of with a guy she just met that killed a mutated monster in a bathroom so recently he was still covered in guts. She liked Randy, but sometimes, he really did seem insane.

David spoke back up. His face contorted in confusion.

“What?! But... wait, just like that, you’re going to let me go back to SafeHaven? You’re not going to try to kill me or trap me or anything like that? I mean, I’ve seen your base of operations, I know everything now.”

“David, I mean, of course we’re going to let you go. You’re not our hostage by any means. What do you think this is? I… I mean, I can’t believe I have to explain this. You’re free to return home, but I think we’re going to have to insist you take Alex with you inside of SafeHaven.”

“You want me to take one of your members? What? How? They don’t know her! Why would they just take her in? What if I refuse? There is no way she could just sneak in. I don’t care what kind of stealth stuff you guys wanna use. That just isn’t happening. I’m not doing it.”

Alex interjected.

“So you’re telling me this is an impossible feat for you, David? Just can’t make it happen? I believe you said something about having pull with the people of SafeHaven?”

David shot her a dirty look, but conceded a nod.

“Yeah, and I do have pull... I mean… I’m sort of famous, so like, I guess I could make it happen.”

Clinton rolled his eyes.

“And so humble, too” he muttered to Jade, who chuckled in response.

David sat and thought for a second. SafeHaven had very specific criteria and rules about allowing people in, and David never saw anyone who entered leave. He never really saw newcomers get integrated into the community either although, to be fair, David was excessively isolated.

The Death Angels supposedly recruited new members from around the world, but SafeHaven never once introduced David to new personnel. The members just grew older, and had children to take over their professions.

David still wasn’t feeling great about his ability to sneak Alex in. It wasn’t necessarily that he didn’t want to, he just wasn’t sure it was worth the risk. Not just risk imposed onto himself, but the risk he would be placing Alex and these people in. He needed to think more about it.

What plausible excuse would he have, to bring this random girl into the SafeHaven, after missing his radio contact, and then being abducted?

David knew SafeHaven would keep the occasional prisoner in a sublevel connected only to the south wall. These cells were for murderers and criminals. Getting Alex taken there would likely make it impossible for her to ever leave again, unless he staged a jailbreak, which was unnecessary and risky.

If Alex entered SafeHaven and ended up there, that would be her worst-case scenario, he thought.

In that same line of thinking, however, where was the best place she could end up? She obviously wasn’t going to prance in and just become the new GrandMaster. David recognized that. What was her best-case achievable scenario though? What could get her in without arousing too much suspicion?

Some of the higher-ups among SafeHaven kept “companions” in special housing along the top of the west wall. David was encouraged to take some concubines if he wished, he was considered an elite member of SafeHaven, and as a result he had many resources available to him for relaxation or pleasure.

One of his amenities, which seemed particularly relevant at the moment, was a small room specifically designated for him to house any “companions” he decided to take in from the wastelands. They even offered to let him choose among some of the women at SafeHaven to be his “companions.” Few would notice the right disappearance at the right time. Far fewer would question it.

David never did so. The whole thing felt deeply wrong to him, no matter how many times he was reassured it was totally ethical. None of the women that came ever left again and they largely didn’t seem to have a choice. They were essentially made into pets, locked in their rooms until one of their designated handlers decided to interact with them. In the beginning many died from starvation or neglect, until the second GrandMaster, who would take them under his own care when their initial owners would get bored with them.

David shook the thoughts from his head. He knew many of those women commit suicide or were met with equally unfortunate and grisly fates. They seemed to generally be happier now, despite their circumstances, but… David just preferred not to think about it.

Still, that might be the best option to get her in. David was known by many to be unpredictable and particularly calloused. Bringing a girl back would be uncharacteristic, sure, but not necessarily a cause for alarm. Alex was undeniably attractive, he would be lying to himself if he didn’t admit that.

David thought he might also be able to get her access by pretending she was a potential recruit for the SafeHaven military. She appeared to be able to handle herself, and David could fabricate some story about her saving his life in the carnage of his escape. That might earn her enough credibility to be given a legitimate chance in their ranks. David has never needed backup, so if she saved him, she’d have to be a phenomenal fighter.

David wasn’t sure she could live up to that though. There would be pretty immediate demands to observe her fighting prowess, especially if she was supposedly comparable to David.

The GrandMaster would probably prefer the concubine route as well. She was very healthy, young but “well-developed”, and visibly different from anyone at SafeHaven. Thirty years ago, she would have been a woman that got quite a few second glances in public spaces, but now her attributes were downright exotic.

The GrandMaster was extremely sexist to David’s knowledge, and was very unlikely to respect Alex’s boundaries. One week after any girl was introduced to a SafeHaven personnel leisure room, the rules dictated The GrandMaster was to be given equal handler rights.

Even though The GrandMaster intentionally avoided stepping on too many toes with this issue, he would still exercise this power frequently.

David didn’t like it, but pretending Alex was an incoming participant in his leisure room was probably the safest bet to get her in and out unharmed. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to stay a week. He would not let The GrandMaster touch her, he was sure of that.

Sadly, the military option would have her watched at all times within SafeHaven, and involved much more difficult to sell lies. Both of those factors would likely ruin whatever plans Randy had for Alex.

“I guess there are a couple things I could try that might get her in, but none of them will be particularly pleasant for her. It’s pretty much gonna be enslavement no matter how you slice it. One way or another if you walk into SafeHaven you aren’t walking out.”

Clinton grimaced before responding.

“I thought things would get pretty dark there. It’s chilling to hear you confirm it like that though. I don’t need to hear further details, you tell the lie you think you need to tell to get her in, but don’t let anything happen to her, do you understand? You got out before, and you will get her out. If you don’t, we’re going to come for you, and I know how to make a man shit out the front.”

Alex didn’t like the sound of any of this, but she already figured it was going to be bad. She knew the SafeHaven rumors were too good to be true. It always seemed suspicious.

SafeHaven was merely a legend for most people she came across. Watts High School, where she and Clinton stayed for over a decade now, was nearly 200 miles north of where SafeHaven was located. The flat deserts of New Mexico gave way to mountains and grassy plains closer to the school she called her home in Colorado.

Years ago, when Alex was much younger, they stationed themselves in a school near the Rio Grande national forest.

Maps were plentiful in the school, and Alex spent a ridiculous amount of idle time teaching herself the general geography of the area. Clinton helped her learn, of course, but now Alex possessed a comprehensive knowledge of the geography around her.

She had heard the name Durango many times. It struck her when Randy mentioned it on the radio to David. There was a town to the south west called Durango. She wondered if they had any correlation. It was closer to SafeHaven than it was to their base.

Her mind wandered back to SafeHaven.

For some, SafeHaven was a shining beacon of hope, a place where one could finally be safe after a long perilous journey. For others, it was a soulless entity with tendrils stretching across the globe; an oasis protected by gatekeepers and elite that siphoned its powers for personal benefit.

An elderly man named Lee whom Alex would often see attempting to coax birds out of trees, claimed to know much about SafeHaven. He referred to it once as “all that remains of the worst people and values our old society had to offer.” The phrase really stuck with Alex, as did his overall sentiment about the place. “It needs to die.”

She was born into the apocalypse, just like David. She didn’t know anything about “the old society,” but she heard it was far better than this one... Mostly.

She thought she also remembered Lee explain an elaborate plot of business people buying each other out, stock market catastrophes, politics, and something about a mercenary organization. Alex dismissed these things as the ravings of a madman as soon as Clinton did, because that’s what little girls do when their father figure says someone is full of crap. But now, having confirmed SafeHaven was a terrible place, she wished she could at least remember his story.

Lee had been gone for a long time now, one of the lucky few to die of old age. Alex was never going to hear that story again.

She had honestly assumed it looked like something straight out of one of the cyberpunk dystopia movies she had watched with Skeeter. Just a massive monolithic structure with vehicles and drones entering and exiting at all hours of the day.

Alex had never actually seen SafeHaven, even from afar, until very recently. She occasionally saw their supposed vehicles and personnel out and about, though. They often drove around in caravans followed by self-driving freight cars with Happy Pharmaceutical’s logo faded on them.

She also saw their tanks.

Once.

Their tanks were the color of sand and trampled over undead like a shredder. Where they weren’t colored the beige of the desert, they were a burnt bloody red.

Alex’s bright eyes stared softly into the distance. They were fixated on a point on the wall. She saw a desert, decayed buildings, and many rotten corpses, with beasts crawling over them. The sun caked the metal of the guns and tanks, tireless illuminating the slaughter in vibrant detail. The closest she had been to SafeHaven, years ago...

She never had a positive encounter with SafeHaven herself, but then again, she didn’t have a lot of positive encounters in general.

Every sign was pointing to this being yet another awful experience for her.

She wanted to cling desperately to the notion it wasn’t going to be that bad. Nothing could be worse than what was already behind her, right? Things were supposed to get easier...

Gage nudged her.

“Hey are you okay? Are you... um… cool with all this?”

Alex looked up at him, then over to Clinton and David who were both looking at her expectantly.

“Ah... I mean, I dunno… It sounds dangerous, which like, I’m all about danger, woo-hoo danger” she shook her fists a little to emphasize her ironic enthusiasm, but it appeared more to be trembling.

“But I also wanna make it back… I don’t want to get… taken…ya know… a-and… I mean, he seems tough, but I don’t really know David very well. Randy said we can’t take anyone else? Oof. Geez. It’s just… This sounds like it should’ve been a job for Maria. Ya know? It’s like infiltration and- and probably requires seduction and acting…”

David shook his head.

“There’s no way I’d be able to bring back more than one person. I just can’t make up a lie that would let that happen. Alex, I don’t even know who Maria is! Randy said just you, right? I’m lucky if I can even get that. This is-”

Alex snapped at him, her voice tense and close to breaking.

“I know, David! I’m just fucking scared, okay?”

David looked at her, or rather, stared at her, really. He seemed to be puzzling something together in his mind.

“Alex… I…” He stared at the ground for a second before looking back up at her.

“I get you don’t trust me any more than I trust any of you, but, I can promise you that I won’t let anything bad happen to you. No matter what. That’s not the kind of person I am.”

Alex and David made intense eye contact for nearly twenty silent seconds. Gage seemed visibly uncomfortable after a few seconds. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but Jade held up his hand to stop him.

Jade observed David’s face. David’s eyes were no longer emotionless.

Alex looked over at Clinton. He was visibly exhausted, but did his best to give her a look of reassurance. He nodded slightly.

Finally, Alex nodded and said,

“Okay, David. I believe you. I’ll do it.”

Gage was shocked and furious, and it was obvious. He was standing next to Alex and David, and really wanted to say something when they were just staring into each other’s eyes.

David didn’t even blink!

Gage felt like Alex wasn’t considering his feelings at all.

Subconsciously, he didn’t like the unspoken chemistry between David and Alex, but more overtly, he hated how quickly she trusted him. He hated they were supposed to leave together. He was just expected to stay here, silently okay with that?

She never seemed to place any trust in him, or anyone other than Clinton, and now she was going to go on a two hundred mile journey with this random dude just because Randy ordered it? Ludicrous!

Gage had been seeing Alex for nearly two years now and she was emotionally distant the entire time. She tried to make it as obvious as possible it was a casual affair, and not something she was emotionally invested in, even two years in.

They had sex quite often, but nothing to be said of emotional intimacy. It felt like they were always fighting about something.

Jade stood up with a smile, and Walker left the room to go do something more interesting. He seemed to be singing or rapping to himself, re-enacting a song playing in his head.

Jade spoke and approached David.

“Well then, David, I don’t think you should leave until tomorrow, it’s getting quite late. How about you stay with me and Skeeter tonight? We’ve got an extra bed in our room, and that way… if you try anything… I can put you in the dirt.”

Jade had a devious grin on his face and was wiggling his fingers like he might cast a spell.

David shook his head and smiled.

“Yeah, just try it old man.”

Jade frowned.

“Awe… c’mon mate, I’m only like 43.”

David’s face looked apologetic.

“Oh I’m sorry, I was just kidding, I thought we were joking.”

Jade laughed again. His smile was bigger than before.

“Ha-ha! I love this guy! Come with me! Let me show you your fine quarters for the evening!”

With that, Jade grabbed David by wrapping his arm around him and whisked him out the door.

Alex, Gage, Clinton, and a few stragglers were left in the room. They were mostly various underlings to Clinton. Most of them were waiting to hear if he issued any new orders, idly discussing their next strategic moves in terms of SafeHaven and troop recovery. They didn’t need to stage a second attack right now, but they wanted plans for one, just in case.

Other subjects circulated as well; which fields would grow which crops in the next rotation? Did the previous crop deplete or replenish nitrogen in the soil? Which traps needed to be reset? When were they last checked? Should a retaliation be expected from SafeHaven? In what time-frame?

Gage and Alex were having a less than civil discussion while sitting on a table near the back of the room. They weren’t in private, but they were mostly alone. Gage kept his voice low, but stern.

“Alex, I can’t believe you would just agree to go on a mission to SafeHaven with that guy!”

“I mean, you know his name, everyone just said it like a billion times, and look, I dunno... I think it’ll be okay. Randy thinks it’ll be okay. Clinton thinks it’ll be okay. David promised it’ll be okay.”

“Clinton, Randy… Even David! David the killer! The outsider! You thought about all of them, but you didn’t even think about me! About us!”

Alex looked at Gage with an eyebrow cocked.

“We aren’t going to SafeHaven, Gage. I am. This isn’t a discussion about you or us, it’s about me and my life.”

Gage looked away, he felt a tugging in his chest.

“That isn’t what I meant… just like… what happens if you don’t come back?”

Alex took a tentative step towards him.

“Don’t think like that. I will.”

Gage looked at her again, this time more sternly.

“But, what if you don’t? What am I supposed to do?”

“Gage…”

Alex looked down at her hands, and she fiddled with the ring he gave her. It was mostly given as a joke, just a charming trinket, but she appreciated the sentiment so she wore it. Now it seemed to symbolize a lot more than she felt she originally agreed to.

They had only been seeing each other for a couple of years. Marriage was a luxury no one could afford any more, and even if marriage was a reasonable prospect, in her heart she knew she wouldn’t marry Gage. Gage was around. He was attractive and a few years older than her, but she didn’t exactly have a slew of options to choose from. His age often resulted in him talking down to her in a way she, honestly, couldn’t stand.

A lot of people died around Alex. A lot of people she grew to care about. To the point she grew to expect it. Yet somehow, Gage just… didn’t die.

“Then just... move on with your life, ya know? You existed before knowing me. You can just go back to doing that.”

Gage grabbed her hand.

“But I don’t want to, Alex. I wa-”

Alex pulled her hand away.

“Well look, maybe you’ll have to. That’s just how it is sometimes Gage. I’m sorry.”

She got up and left the room.

Gage didn’t know what he did wrong, but he felt it was best to let Alex cool off when she got angry. It seemed like he only ever made the situation worse by trying to console her.

So he just sat there at the table for a few moments, trying to imagine his life without Alex (a very empty one, he concluded) before sighing and joining in on the strategic conversations Clinton was having with his lackeys. They had many pressing things to attend to.

Jade guided David into a large classroom near the entrance of the school, identifying various rooms as they passed them. Outside the front doors, David could see that dirt around the school had been dug into a large moat complimented by a protective wall created partially from the dirt, and a drawbridge that allowed access in and out.

It was currently pulled up, disallowing access.

While it was nothing compared to the magnificence of SafeHaven, it was an impressive feat of engineering, and was obviously quite effective in its own right.

Clinton really did seem to know what he was doing with the defenses here.

“Welcome to mi casa David! This is my crib! Ha-ha!”

Jade clapped his hands and span around. He pointed with both hands over to a guy wearing sunglasses even though they were indoors. He held up a couple of fingers in acknowledgment, but was preoccupied, staring at some handheld device in his hands.

“This dude right here is Skeeter, he’s my b-f-f. We met each other right when the world turned bad… I guess you could say we sort of worked together.”

Skeeter was laying in his bed, listening to music in one ear. He was probably in his early to mid-30’s.

“Yeah, something like that. Did he tell you he was a spy? He loves to just flaunt that shit around.”

David nodded and Jade went over to whack Skeeter on the arm.

“Ow!” Skeeter exclaimed, rubbing his arm, but laughing it off.

“For real though… I was a spy too, and way younger and better at it than he was.”

“Woah! Jackass! Younger, yes! Better? No way!”

They both gave each other sly grins and pretended to aim at each other with finger guns in various different positions. Skeeter then pretended to whack Jade with a karate chop, but Jade caught Skeeter’s hand in between his own. Jade laughed in triumph, then continued.

“We worked for competing government intelligence agencies. There are actually four of us in our happy little former-covert-ops family, but the other two are off with Randy right now.”

Skeeter slid himself into the conversation.

“Yeah, Tex and Maria, I worked with the dude named Tex, who is one big ass motherfucker.“ Skeeter flexed his arms and continued in a faux southern accent, “and the sweetest southern gentlemen ya ever did meet. A real cowboy type.”

Jade snorted, and Skeeter smirked, but continued.

“We worked for the CIA, had a pretty sweet base with some military types for a while as well... Jade worked for -”

Skeeter put on a fake British accent.

“The British MI6, who put him way up in a poppycock fancy hotel... Which we had to save his ass from,”

Skeeter gave Jade, who was shaking his head, a coy look and continued in his regular voice.

“And Maria…”

“Who we haven’t really talked enough about yet! And they didn’t have to save me, for the record.” Jade interjected. He sounded decidedly less British than normal.

“Yeah, well, Maria’s… a bit less hospitable than the rest of us…”

Jade sneered a bit at him. “Yeah… I guess… You’re the one making fun of accents…” He continued for Skeeter.

“But Maria’s… inhospitable nature, if you’d call it that, is understandable. She worked for the KGB as a spy from a very young age. The KGB did things a little differently than MI6 though. She had nearly four times my number of confirmed kills, and those are mostly from honeypot missions. You wanna talk about manipulation? She was one of the best. But you don’t just end up that way. She went through a lot, even before the world got all apocalyptic.”

Jade’s tone was sobering, and Skeeter looked like he might have been a bit uncomfortable. It was hard to tell for sure with his sunglasses, but he seemed to be chewing on his lip.

“She lost contact with her handlers, and pretty much all of Russia when this went down. She didn’t have a ton of ties there, but still, most people had something. After a while, she ended up in the same boat as any of us. She was broken down, had no one, nothing.”

Jade shook his head and pictured his mom in his mind.

“I at least got to call my mother one last time and tell her how much I loved her. Skeeter and Tex both had family in Texas. A few of them are even still alive and around, they just had to move north east a bit. Most people still have something to lose, which means they have something to hold onto.”

Jade shook his head softly. “Maria had no one to begin with, yet still somehow lost everything. Then she found us. She found Tex, really. Her road has been... Harder than most, but she’s one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. She has my empathy and understanding. There has not been much acceptance for her in her lifetime. She grew up in Russia, but she does not look Russian. She actually likes to play a guessing game when people ask her ethnicity and people never get it right. Don’t tell her I told you this, but if she tries to get you with it, she’s half-Russian and half-Brazilian.”

“And all crazy.” Skeeter added, attempting to lighten the mood.

Skeeter laughed, but Jade shook his head slightly, maintaining his sensitive composure.

“She’s... maybe a little crazy. I’m just saying, it’s for good reason.”

“Well I don’t know a lot about crazy, but it sounds like she’s felt a lot of pain.” David concluded.

Jade responded, “yeah, she’s opened up a lot after she started seeing Tex romantically, but she can still be a bit… cold.”

“Ice cold” said Skeeter.

Jade rolled his eyes, then pretended to punch Skeeter. Skeeter chuckled “oh yeah?” then leapt up from his seat, assuming a fighting stance that David couldn’t help but register as impractical.

They laughed together some more, and continued to play fight for a second, then they both stopped and looked at David.

His face was expressionless. He looked a bit tired.

Jade lowered his hands and asked.

“So, um, any questions David?”

David pondered for a second.

“Yeah, just two… Where am I sleeping, and do you guys have any more carrots? I think I’m… hungry.”

Jade point to a bed on the far side of the room. It looked comfortable enough and it seemed clean. There were blue sheets stretched over the mattress, and a large hand-sewn quilt laid over that.

“I’ll see what I can do about the carrots, although looking at you, I think you could use some protein as well...”

As David snuggled into the bed, he thought to himself.

“I wonder what they’re doing over at SafeHaven right now…”

Then he drifted into a dark dreamless slumber.