The room they were in remained silent. Only the echo of known voice reverberated in their ears with "kids".
It would be too foolish, it wouldn't be possible. The thought that something good could happen was too much for them, but they were wrong.
Vanessa, who had been ready to start a new plan for revenge, now stood frozen in place as tears streamed down her face when she saw her best friend sitting on the couch, smiling at her. It took seconds for her to rush over to the couch and embrace him tightly.
"Hey, take it easy. You're going to crush my lungs," Alex said, gently loosening Vanessa's strong grip. Despite having survived, he was in immense pain and every squeeze was agonizing for him.
"I'll never let you go anywhere again," she sobbed as Alex wiped her tears away with his hand. He remained calm, he was the only one who knew how to do something horrific and still keep his composure afterward. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he looked to his left. It was Owen, patting him on the shoulder while staring at the ceiling. No one was allowed to see him with even a tear in his eye.
"You fool... Even death is scared of your plans," Owen added with a laugh before managing to look Alex in the eye and lightly punch him on the shoulder.
"Nessie, I think that's enough, you're going to suffocate him. Though you can't even open a jar with those hands, I'm saying nonsense." Of course, every moment of Vanessa's life had to be filled with one of Owen's ridiculous comments.
"Shut the fuck up, you're so short you could pass for a child's ticket," she added back.
"Who's shorter here and looks like a porcelain doll?" As Vanessa pulled away from Owen and began to argue with him, Alex couldn't help but laugh. Watching his friends was an enjoyment for him.
But he couldn't ignore the shadow approaching from the side. He knew exactly who that two-meter shadow belonged to. Before he turned to look, he felt a drop fall onto his palm. Glancing right and then straight ahead, he saw him.
"Oh Dan," Alex commented as he noticed Danny on his knees, resting his head on Alex's legs while hugging them tightly. In that moment, Danny couldn't say anything, he was holding back other tears. He couldn't believe he had really survived or that everyone was still alive. Yet Danny remained silent and motionless, like a statue. But for Alex, feeling the dampness on his skin was enough. He knew Danny was crying quietly—as he always do.
"Did you think I would leave you?" Alex added softly, trying to mask his own raspy voice that struggled against tears. He stroked Danny's head and then lifted his wet cheeks to reveal his tear-streaked face. The moment their eyes met, both wore smiles despite everything. This moment belonged to them alone, but it could never truly be just theirs.
"Now you can kiss the bride—well, groom ermm... how does that work with two of them?" Owen interjected as usual, looking at Vanessa with confusion while awaiting her response to his cheeky remark. But this time she simply gave him a blank stare.
"Are you done?" Danny asked as he stood up and wiped a tear from his face.
"Just getting started," Owen replied before looking at Alex. "Next time either die completely or don't, these dramatic pauses are bad for my heart." He joked, causing Alex to chuckle again until Owen spoke up once more.
"So where were we? Now that we're all back together again, we need a new strategy." He looked at them thoughtfully but not everyone agreed.
"Yeah, and the new strategy is one where you stay safe and don't move," Vanessa shot back. But Alex wasn't satisfied with that response.
"Pfft. Very funny, but we're not playing that game," Alex retorted. Vanessa leaned closer and bent down to look him in the face.
"We'll see about that," she said, placing a finger over his lips as if to silence him.
"I don't want to rush things but..." Danny tapped his foot against the floor.
"If these two needed to go somewhere specific, it means that as soon as the sun rises, the rest will come back here to check where they are." With this statement, all three were jolted back into reality without any joking around.
Alex then glanced at the bodies around them. "If we don't get rid of them soon enough, their scent will get stronger and attract them inside."
"What do we do about them? It's already dark," Owen questioned. But when Alex pointed upward with his finger, Owen couldn't believe what he was about to do.
"You know, you're actually crazy," Owen commented as he bent down just in time to dodge Danny's hand swinging toward him. "Reflexes, beat me now Harding ."
"Okay then, we'll get rid of the bodies. And you..." Danny looked directly at Alex.
"You stay right where you are."
"Oh he will, now he is under rules ," Alex's friends responded reasonably. They knew they could lose him very easily again. Now that he was back with them, they would protect him every moment they could.
Danny and Owen had taken two soldiers. They dragged them out of the room and found a set of stairs leading up to the attic. Once they reached the attic, they smashed the tiles and moved them aside to create an opening big enough to pass through. After that, they threw the two bodies off the roof. They knew the smell would attract zombies, but they didn't have a better solution. They finished the task quietly, unnoticed. As they covered the tiles back up, they could hear the sounds of zombies and their groans in the distance.
The air was thick with silence. They remained perfectly still, barely breathing, knowing any movement could expose them. The only noise that broke the tension was the tearing of flesh from the two soldiers' bodies. It was a grotesque sound—tearing, squelching—that sent a chill down their spines.
They went downstairs, trying not to make a sound. But as they reached the bottom, they overheard a conversation. Alex and Vanessa were arguing. It was a tense exchange, and although Danny wasn't interested in listening, Owen suddenly grabbed his arm.
"What?" Danny whispered, confused, but Owen quickly covered his mouth. He motioned for Danny to stay quiet, his eyes serious.
Danny didn't understand why Owen wanted to eavesdrop, but he didn't have nerves to argue. They both froze, listening closely to the heated conversation ahead.
"How can you say that?" Vanessa's voice was sharp. She was standing in front of Alex, her tone rising. "How can you not care? I care about your well-being! You don't care about yourself at all!" She glared at him, waiting for a response. Her chest was tight, her words biting, each syllable sharp like a knife.
Alex stood there, his face neutral, but his eyes betrayed his frustration.
"I'm fine, Vanessa," he said flatly. His words were stiff.
Vanessa didn't buy it. She stepped closer to him, examining his face with narrowed eyes. Then, suddenly, she grabbed his leg, squeezing hard. Alex flinched, letting out a sharp gasp of pain, but he held it in, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing him struggle. His fist clenched against the couch, and his teeth gritted.
"You think you can lie to me, Alex?" Vanessa's voice grew even colder.
"You're not fine. You're in pain. You can't hide it, and you don't want to admit it. You don't want to admit that you're weak!"
She leaned in, her words like daggers. But Alex didn't respond. His eyes dropped to the floor, his lips tight in silence.
"You've become weak, Alex. You can't fight. Not against them, not even against yourself." Vanessa's voice cracked, a moment of raw emotion breaking through the calm. She was staring at him now, waiting for something, anything—from him. But he remained silent, avoiding her gaze.
"You have to listen to us. We're trying to help you." Her words were firm, but there was a flicker of frustration underneath. She was tired—tired of seeing Alex suffer in silence, tired of watching him push everyone away.
But before she could continue, Alex's voice cut through the tension.
"Who were you listening to when you ended up in a coma?" His words hit her like a slap to the face. His tone was harsh, and it made Vanessa's heart race.
"Did you ever think about anyone else, when you almost died?" he continued, his voice loud with emotion.
The room felt colder now, as if the air itself had thickened. Vanessa's hands clenched into fists, her breath coming in short, ragged bursts. Her heart was pounding.
Flashback
December 23, 2023, 03:21 AM.
The night had passed, it was already past midnight. A full week had gone since Vanessa had eaten. She was huddled in the corner of her room, knees pulled to her chest, hugging herself tightly. Her tears soaked her face, and the only light in the room came from the dim streetlight outside, casting long shadows across the floor.
"Tomorrow is going to be the worst day," Vanessa thought to herself, choking on a sob. "Tomorrow I have to eat. Tomorrow Alex will be back. I'll have to eat." The words repeated over and over in her head, but they offered no comfort. Each sob racked her body, and she wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to hold it together.
Vanessa had always struggled with food since she was a child. She dreamed of becoming a ballerina , but no matter how hard she worked, she never had the "right" body. She was too thin, too frail, but not thin enough. She remembered the cruel words when she was just ten years old: "You'll be able to dance when cows start dancing."
That was the moment it all began. Anorexia had taken hold of her, and she never let it go. Food became something to avoid, something to fear. Instead, she lived on nicotine and gum, chewing it, spitting it out after hours. By the time she reached high school, she had made a decision: she would survive on water and cigarettes, just to stay thin.
She decorated her room with posters of supermodels and ballerinas, promising herself she would be like them, no matter the cost. The only taste she could bear was the lipstick on her lips, so she would apply and repeated it several times a day.
But everything changed when she met her best friend, Alex. At first, her destructive habits persisted, but Alex cared about her, more than she ever expected. He would spend more time with her, making sure she had at least one meal a day. Even when he didn't feel like eating, he would do it just to encourage her.
Now, though, Alex wasn't there. He was absent from school, sick with the flu. And while he called a few times, checking on her to make sure she was eating, she lied. Each time he called, she pretended to be eating, but afterward, she'd either spit out the food or force herself to throw it up. The lunch her mom had prepared for her went straight to her cat, Mimi.
But now, everything had fallen apart. Alex wasn't at school, her mom was working long hours, and no one was checking on her. Vanessa didn't have to pretend anymore. She could starve in silence. And that night, after hours of crying, she lit a cigarette, and fell.
Her mother found her when she returned from her shift, and called an ambulance. Vanessa was in critical condition from starving, and at one point, she even stopped breathing. The first person to hear about it was Alex. Vanessa's mother sent him a message at 5 a.m. and, because Alex never slept, he saw it immediately.
An hour later, Alex was sitting next to her bed, holding her hand. She was in a coma. For the next four days, he visited her every two hours when they allowed him. When he heard that Vanessa hadn't eaten for an entire week while he was gone. He promised, he'd never miss a day of school again, even if he's sick or injured. He would always be there for her, just to make sure she ate.
End of flashback
"I didn't mean to—" Vanessa tried to interrupt Alex, but it was too late.
"You think it was easy for me to accept that I could have lost you just because I was away from you?" Alex's voice was harsh, cracking with emotion. "And then I'd have to live with that every day? When the guys would ask me what happened, I would've had to say you were gone because of something I couldn't fix. That was the hardest thing for me to admit."
Vanessa didn't respond. She kept her gaze down, her eyes watering, but her lips stayed closed. The room felt heavier now.
"You weren't eating, Vanessa. Do you know how hard that was for me? Watching you waste away... I felt helpless." He paused, his words sinking into the space between them like lead. "I couldn't save you from yourself."
Vanessa wiped her eyes, trying to hold back the tears. She knew this conversation had to happen, but she wasn't ready for it.
"Okay, Alex. You didn't listen to me all the way through," she said, her voice shaking. "But do you think it was easy for me to accept your behavior?"
"What behavior?" Alex asked, confused.
"What behavior?" Vanessa shot back, her voice rising. "Did you even realize that you risked your life for someone else?" Alex didn't answer. "What were you thinking? Was it love? You think you did it because you love him? You are just afraid of being left again, for a second time. "
Alex's heart sank as her words hit him harder than he expected. He couldn't understand why she was attacking him like this.
"How dare you say something like that?" He responded, his voice filled with tension, his anger rising.
"When you hide the truth, I have no choice but to guess. What is it, Alex? Are you afraid?" She paused and wiped the tears from her face. "Are you afraid of loving again? Afraid of losing someone again? Was this your second attempt, Alex?"
Her words pierced his heart like an arrow. He sat there, staring at the floor, not knowing how to respond. The room felt suffocating, and for the first time, Alex felt as an arrow hit him straight to heart. But he shot back, with words that completely horrified Vanessa.
"I can finish your counting with third one."