Chapter 11

I open my eyes to Alyx still asleep. The sunlight coming in from the window shining on her, giving her the aura of an angel. She snores, lightly, like a whisper. Everything about her is perfect. I climb out of bed, slowly, trying not to wake her, but fail.

I bend over to pick up my boxers, "there's the goods," she says. My face instantly heating up.

"Can you not?" I ask, embarrassed as hell.

"Oh, come on, I was going to see it sooner or later." I slide my boxers on. My bag got left in the fire, so I go to the closet to see if there's anything my size.

"You're not actually going to Charleston, are you?" Alyx asks.

     I stop what I'm doing and look at her over my shoulder. "Yeah, I am going, I promised Cassie I'd help her find her parents, so far, that promise is only half fulfilled."

     "Jack. You came close to dying more times than once. That Russian nearly killed you. He's still alive, I know it, I seen him stand after you kicked him out of the truck."

     So it wasn't my imagination. "He killed Dale, one of my best friends. Dale said 'when Jack kills you' before he died. I took that as his final wish, and that's a wish he'll get." I turn around, pulling a pair of jeans that are my size from a hanger. "Cassie's father is being forced to help advance this virus, maybe he can learn to reverse engineer it and formulate a cure."

     "That's a shot in the dark, Jack, and you know it."

     "A shot that I'm willing to take." I say, over her sighs. "No matter how much you beg, Alyx, this is something that I have to see through." I pull the pants over my knees and up to my waist and button them.

     Alyx stands from the bed, the sheet falling from her, revealing her naked body. The warrior in me drooling, not because of a coming kill, but because of his primal nature, he just wants to kill anything and procreate with every woman he lays eyes on. "Might want to put some clothes on before I pounce," I say, a sly smile crossing my face as I eye her up and down.

     "Who's to say that I don't want you to?" She teases, bends over and picks up her panties, never breaking eye contact with me. Holy fuck, she's sexy. Against every urge and temptation screaming at me I turn around and search for a shirt.

     I pull out a black t-shirt that's as close to my size as I'm gonna get, I pull it over my head, it's a tight squeeze, but it'll have to do. "Training starts today," I say over my shoulder to Alyx.

     "Training?" She questions.

     "There's no doubt going to be one hell of a fight when we infiltrate that facility. It's going to be us five against the 12 remaining mercenaries and whatever terrorist group is there. You guys need to be as prepared as you can get." I explain.

     "I'm scared, Jack." She says, "I'm scared to die."

     "What makes you think you're going to die?"

     "You aren't scared?"

     "Fear is an emotion that we imagine." I say

     "What does that even mean?" She says, mocking my logic.

     "We fear something that hasn't, and maybe will not happen. Something that we make up in our mind when running the outcomes of a situation through our heads. Fear is irrelevant." I explain.

     "Not all of us were soldiers," she states, "or police officers." 

     "You don't need to have served as either one. If you do come across something that you fear, don't let it make you hesitate, or second guess yourself. Do exactly what your instinct tells you, and you will make it through everything you are fearing."

     "Great. I've got myself a trained killer, and a philosopher." She says, rolling her eyes.

     "And an amazing lover," I turn around and wink at her, she giggles and turns her head towards the ground to hide her blushing cheeks. I walk over to her and lift her chin, a strand of hair falls in front of her face. I put it back over her ear and kiss her, passionately. "You're not going to die," I promise her, "not as long as I'm alive."

     She smiles, I blink and her face flashes to Lauren's, a knife enters my heart, I blink again it's back to Alyx's.

     "What's wrong?" She asks, looking into my eyes.

     "It's nothing, just lingering pains from last night," I lie. She looks into my eyes, as if she knew that I was lying.

     "You did take one hell of a beating," she says, looking over the grazing on my cheek, "but you're healing up quite nicely."

     "When did you become a doctor?" I ask with a smile. She kisses me again.

     "I always wanted to be a nurse growing up," she whispers in my ear.

She turns around to finish getting dressed and I walk to the door. I enter the living room and the smell of bacon smacks me in the nostrils. As if the imaginary hand on a wisp of steam was guiding me, I made my way to the kitchen. There, preparing a breakfast fit for none other than Vikings, is Cassie and her mother. Terry and Devin sit at the table, already ordained with plates and utensils, chatting about life before shit hit the fan.

     As I find a seat at the table Cassie walks over to me with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. As I take a sip from the glass she blurts out "Don't act like I don't know what happened last night," I nearly drown on the orange juice, it's at this moment that Alyx walks into the room. She acts as if nothing is happening and sits next to me. Terry and Devin lose their shit.

     "You two act like you've never even been with a woman before, like a couple pre-pubescent twelve year olds." Alyx stifles a chuckle and they instantly stop laughing.

     "That's enough of that!" Cassandra says, irritated, "this may be the last civilized meal we eat for a long time and you lot act like children." She scoffs, eyeing down Terry and Devin.

     "Tell em' Mrs. Goodman," I say, mocking them.

     She turns to me, "and you," pointing at me, "next time, wait until people fall asleep, for Christ's sake, I was kept up for nearly an hour more!"

     Alyx looks to the ground, unable to control herself and laughs silently. My cheeks light on fire.

     "Now then," she says, regaining composure, "let's eat." She brings a plethora of food to the table including; bacon, eggs, grits, biscuits, gravy, pancakes, and even homemade syrup in a jar.

     "Wow, Mrs. Goodman," I say in awe, while piling my plate full, "you really outdid yourself."

      "Why, thank you, Jack." She sits back and waits for everyone else to get their plates before she even picks hers up, a typical motherly thing to do.

     I don't realize how hungry I am until I take the first bite, from then on it's like I can't stop. It's been nearly four days since I'd eaten and I haven't even had time to think about it.

     No words are spoken as everyone chows down, only the sounds of smacking lips, and forks scraping plates can be heard.

     I fill myself until it fills like the lining of my stomach is going to burst. I lean back in the chair, feeling about fifty pounds heavier. I let out a humongous belch.

     "Manners." Cassandra says, not even looking up from her plate.

     "Excuse me," I say through the napkin I'm using to clean my face. As everyone begins to finish their meal I explain that we have to begin training today, everyone sighs, including Cassandra.

I get up from the table and walk to the door, "fifteen minutes, then lets go people, we're running on a clock here." I open the door and walk outside.

It's a very beautiful place, this farm. It's very open for about two acres, then the surrounding that area is a forest. Open pastures that used to house cattle are now empty. "Huh, I guess even the wild stock knew this was the end." I say to myself as I walk to the back yard. In the distance long rows of corn stalks sit, waiting to be harvested. I find a shady spot under two trees just as everyone starts to come outside.

They gather around me in sort of a half circle, "Okay, everyone," I address the small crowd, "we're going to start off with simple throws and sweeps. Who would like to volunteer for the demonstration?" I ask. The group looks at each other, and Terry steps up.

"Okay," I say, walking towards Terry. "I want you to try and hit, with either hand, it doesn't matter, as hard as you can." Terry looks at me, questioning my tactics.

"Are you about this, Jack."

"Of course I'm sure." I say.

"Okay," he winds back his left arm for a hook. Leftie, huh? I think to myself. I stop his swing by grabbing his wrist with my left hand, I spin into him and lay his left arm across my left shoulder and thrust my hip backward. This lifts him off his feet, I bend over, bringing his arm with me, he follows my body weight, he has no other choice or his arm would snap like a twig. He flips over my back and slams into the ground with a thud.

"What the fuck, Jack!? Warn someone next time why don't you?" He says, catching his breath. I turn to the crowd, and give a little bow.

"Okay, Alyx and Cassandra, you two pair up. Terry, you're with Devin and Cassie, you're with me. Practice for as long as you need, everyone. It's just going to be us going into that facility."

...

For the rest of the day I demonstrate many different throws and sweeps and techniques to disarm, I point out weak points in the human body to target. I mainly focus on defensive maneuvers though. By the end of the day, everyone is drenched in sweat, and they are also more equipped with the knowledge to hold their own in a fight; although, it's not enough. They'll need more time to learn, there is still much I have to teach them.

"Good job today, guys. That about wraps up today's lessons. If we had fire arms, I'd teach you to shoot, but that is for a different day." I say, looking at the crowd. "Tomorrow morning we continue our journey to Charleston, we can't spend too much time in one place, time is of the essence. Now, lets eat, and get some rest. Bright and early tomorrow morning.

We all walk inside and help Cassandra prepare a high protein meal out of a chunk roast that was left in the fridge, on its last day, according to the 'fresh if eaten before' label. With potatoes, carrots and spinach.

At the table during dinner Cassie turns her nose up to the spinach.

"Hey, Cass, come on. You need the nutrients." I say, encouraging her.

She looks at me and rolls her eyes, "fine," she says through a sigh and shoves it down to not taste it.

As everyone finishes we all sit in the living room, discussing what our lives were before we met. Cassandra was a physical therapist, that's where she met Thomas, Cassie's father. She said that he was on his way home from work when a mugger attacked him. He took his wallet and shot him in the back, severing his spinal cord and leaving him a paraplegic.

Terry was a UPS truck driver who got called in on his day off and Devin was a construction worker.

I give my back story and everyone says their apologies when I get to the part about Lauren. I tell them it's not their fault and that it was almost a half a year ago, the room falls silent for a while.

"Congratulations on surviving your first day of Jack Stanley's training regimen," I say, standing up and stretching. "Now, everyone needs to rest up, trust me. You'll regret it in the morning if you don't."

A collective okay flows through the room. I walk to the bedroom, Alyx follows. I pull off the shirt and slide under the covers. Alyx follows suit.

"That's what was wrong this morning, wasn't it?" She asks into the darkness.

"What?"

"You seen her in me." She says, matter of factly.

"Lauren?"

"Yeah."

"Alyx. Lauren was my first love. I'm always going to have a soft spot for her, and she died because of me. That's something I have to live with, I'm sorry if that upsets you, there's just nothing I can do about it." I explain.

She rolls over, "I just don't want to lose you, Jack. In just a day you've become special to me, maybe it's the apocalypse, maybe it's not. I have feelings for you, Jack."

"The feelings are mutual, I promise you, Alyx. It's just going to take time."

"Okay, I'm holding you to that." She says.

"Good night, Alyx."

"Good night, Jack."

I close my eyes and flashes of white appear under my eyelids. Images of a wheel chair and multiple syringes flow across the inside of my eyelids. The words 'ealim jadid' keep getting repeated for what seems like forever. The one thing that burns itself into the back of my mind though are the words.

"The neural link has been established." In a very familiar deep Russian accent.