Chapter 3 : Date in a café

Time and again he was stopped by blockades, traffic jams or infected people. He plundered looted markets, pharmacies, stores and changed his clothes into something less conspicuous. 

A few days ago he found a village where there were survivors.They had hinted at it by hanging policemen and building huge pyres of infected.He had made a quick getaway. 

At some point he happened to find a wolf from the German army. He knocked out the infected and searched the car. The driver had shot himself, there was no sign of the passenger. 

He found a map with markings of zones, an HK433 with some ammunition and a pistol with some ammunition. 

The car was empty. He sighed and moved on. Noted his sightings on the map. 

He rattled off the zones that were overrun, as well as some survivor strongholds that dismissed him.

Alex didn't know when it would happen, but he didn't feel well and moved on. His hunger was tormenting him, and since Düsseldorf his looting successes had dwindled considerably. He decided to search a café. So he raised his rifle and entered, taking aim.

He was surprised to see someone inside. A guy with a short blond haircut in a damn expensive suit, too clean. That alone didn't fit the picture, that such a guy was sitting at the table - with a pot of coffee and something to eat.

He took aim at him.

"I'm not doing anything," came from him. He had a deep, hot voice.

Alex continued to point at him.

"You're suspicious - at this time," he coughed.

"Ah, yes." 

He pulled an electric baton from under the table and placed it in front of him.

"They don't do well with electricity and as long as you're not loud." 

He grinned and sipped his coffee.

Alex coughed again. He thought to himself, "What's that guy talking about and that grin." The last time he had seen someone grin like that had been his grandfather and that had never been good.

"Come on, be my guest," Alex said suspiciously and sat down next to him. 

He poured him coffee and put the cup down in front of him.

Alex smelled the coffee, when was the last time he'd had coffee and it smelled so good, and he sipped it, carefully at first, then greedily. The sandwiches were pushed towards him and Alex wolfed them down. Then he realized that he had eaten everything.

He looked up from his empty plate a little guiltily.

The guy took a cigarette from a pack and lit it with an imposing lighter in the shape of a monster. 

"Sorry... me," Alex began.

He took a drag on the cigarette.

"Not a thing, so out of curiosity, what are you doing here?"

Alex looked at him studiously.

"I'm trying to get to a safe zone. The last ones were all overrun." 

A cloud came towards him. 

"And you? You don't look like..."

The guy ashed on the ground.

"I needed some fresh air, been in a shelter the last few days." 

"Shelter..." My company was in tunnel construction and transportation for various countries. Officially, I built tunnels for railroad companies.

Alex pondered: 

"And unofficially?" 

Another grin from him.

"Underground network. Get on a train in Munich and come out in a few hours in the States, like Vegas. But they've blocked it."

"Uh-huh..." 

Mentally, he categorized him as a weirdo.

"What do you say you come along and get some new stuff for your trip?" the guy said to Alex.

She followed him suspiciously when they arrived at a public restroom. The guy pulled open a door and went down a flight of concrete stairs. Until they stopped in front of an armored door. He stared at the door, thinking it could withstand even a nuclear bomb. 

"Why isn't there another refugee here?"

The man looked at him.

"Ask the refugees."

The guy typed something into the console and the gate opened silently.They entered the station, which reminded him of a subway station. It was lined with boxes and a train stood alone on the track. "Holy shit..."

The guy hadn't said shit, he saw hundreds of boxes, just no people.

Some boxes were opened. "Take what you need," he said.

Alex looked inside, it was pure gold.

The guy took a drag on the fag. He reached into the box, paused and looked at him.

"Sure, there's enough here anyway."

"Why don't you give it to the survivors?"

A grin appeared. "Simple, I let them have their power fantasy."

He pointed to a box of army rations. He equipped himself well, said his goodbyes and set off.

"We've reached anarchy, this sort of thing won't help them. The poor get robbed, the strong get even stronger and greedier." "Hmm..."

He thought to himself, what an oddball. 

A short time later, he had already forgotten about it and was making good progress. He felt better than ever and covered a good distance. However, he also consumed masses of food, so he had to go searching again. He occasionally got carried away with studying the infected and filming them or taking photos.

While foraging, he was attacked by bandits who beat him up, tied a rope around his neck and began to hang him up, laughing.

He cursed inwardly at having been so careless and panicked, seeing his life end on some random shit pole out in the sticks.

His eyes went black, he heard gunshots and then he felt a hand nudge him.

"Hey, I know you," he heard hazily. He was pulled along and automatically sat down in the SUV. Slowly everything became clearer again, it was the weirdo from the café.

"Thanks... I really thought I was going to die," he said, rubbing his neck.

The car roared to life, rumbling, and sped ahead at full throttle.

"No thing, you want me to drop you off where?"

Alex asked, lighting a cigarette. 

"To be honest, I miscalculated and was looking for food..."

"There's a freezer in the back seat with something in it." 

Alex looked at him questioningly, turned around and brought a cooler forward and opened it carefully.

"Where the... 

Even now you can get something like this, so where are you going?" 

Alex pulled out a beer and a wrapped sandwich. 

"I wanted to go to Kiel, there's supposedly still a safe zone there." 

"Well then, I'll take you there," said 

Alex said silently.

"Don't worry, I've got nothing to do anyway."

Thoughts flashed through Alex's head: how can a guy like that be boring? Especially with all that stuff.

"Okay ... is that 

your car?" the oddball asked, grinning.

"When I found it, the owner was already dead," Alex said. 

He wanted to say something, but the guy took a drag on his cigarette. 

"Nobody cares anymore anyway," he added.

Alex pondered. 

He was right, but it was a relaxing drive. Alex was able to sleep in and had the feeling that this guy was a lucky charm. No blockades, petrol stations that hadn't been looted and still had fuel.

They got talking, so he found out the guy's name was Uther and he was stuck smuggling stuff.

The whole journey he couldn't get used to his driving style, which only meant full throttle. They stopped every now and then. Since Alex wanted to observe infected people again and he always had the feeling that he was in good hands with Uhter, he stood on a roof during one of these observations and stared at a sea of infected people. 

Since Alex wanted to observe infected people again and he always felt he was in good hands with Uhter, he stood on a rooftop and stared at a sea of infected people. The sounds of them alone were eerie, which scared him. 

It was like standing by the sea with your eyes closed and listening to the noise, only this time it was croaking and rattling.

His hands were shaking because the guys had spotted him. "Time to experiment, Alex." He grabbed a bottle, lit the stuff and threw it into the mob. Alex looked over to where a wall of fire was going up.

"Come over here," came from Uther as he threw next. Alex watched, mesmerized, as the infected burst into flames. What shocked him even more was that he brought him safely to the wagon without haste when there was nothing left to throw. As the fire spread among the infected and the stench of burning flesh followed him.

The experiments he mentioned continued. Alex didn't know whether it was good or bad, but more than once he thought his life was over. Uther, on the other hand, spurred him on. So they tested how infected people reacted to different elements, how much of them had to be destroyed before they were really dead, etc. etc. etc. He wondered more than once how Uther got the volunteers. It wasn't like there weren't enough of them, but individual strays had become rarer over time as they formed groups to hunt more effectively.

They had seen groups of survivors overrun several times, whether in vehicles or buildings. The larger the group, the easier the threat had it. Alex wanted to help, but Uther held him back. Inwardly, Alex knew he was right, but people were dying.

Then Uther experimented with what attracted the infected. Alex knew that they wanted him and that noise attracted them. He didn't need to know any more, but Uther tested everything and was his lab assistant.

More than once he woke up in the back seat of the SUV and looked around in irritation.Panic attacks or nightmares of experiments made him smoke a cigarette and make coffee while infected people hung like deer on a rope from a tree or a lantern.He slowly began to feel sorry for the infected, at least when Uther was around. 

They came to the end of their journey, Alex packed his things and got out.

"If you can't find anything, just light something that makes a lot of smoke and I'll pick you up," he said. 

Alex watched the car speed away.

"Knowing him, he'll make himself comfortable in some café..." he muttered and walked off.