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AXEL ALVARES
Axel Alvares scrubbedexhaustion from his eyes and then hoisted his backpack over his shoulder. He took a long look around the Cardinal City Fire Station and knew he wouldn’t return. The double shift he’d just pulled would be his last and it had nothing to do with the city falling apart.
He rubbed his chest, as if it would help his situation, but nothing helped. His sister Elena was still sick. Julius Allcott had promised a way to save her life… or at the very least replicate it and give her a second chance to live her dreams. All he’d had to do was become one of the Faithful—a henchman for the morally dubious organization—and terrorize the city.
So he had.
For over a year, he’d been a villain by night, and a firefighting hero by day. But even for Elena’s sake, Axel found it hard to turn a blind eye to blatant torture. He’d betrayed the Syndicate to save Daisy Lazarus and lost his chance at saving his sister. It seemed no matter what he did, someone ended up losing.
But he wasn’t giving up yet.
If there was air in Elena’s lungs, there was hope, and his sister’s life was more important to him than the city falling apart. If super-humans who shot poison from their mouth could exist, then so could a cure for his sister’s mystery illness. She was more important than this firefighting job. More important than anything.
He wouldn’t be back to work because he wanted to spend quality time with his neglected sister, and then once he’d regrouped, he’d go all in trying to find another way to save her.
John at the station kitchen had no idea Axel’s goodbye wave could be his last. Franny at reception gave her last flirtatious giggle and eyelash bat before she craned her neck to watch his ass wiggle as he walked past. Normally he’d pretend to catch her and wink, but this night, he continued straight through to the garage, past the truck, and into the Cardinal City street now presenting more like a battlefield than metropolis. Desolate during the day, but with the rising moon, so were the undesirables coming out, eager to capitalize on the chaos the Syndicate had wrought.
And Axel had been a part of that destruction.
Had.
He’d put to bed his guilt a long time ago. He’d do it all again if it gave him a chance to save Elena. And Daisy.
As he moved to the sidewalk, Axel pulled his unregistered Glock from his backpack and held it exposed and ready by his side. His brief stint as a Faithful had given him a rare understanding of the other side of sanity. If he wanted to make it home to his sister, then he had to be ready to face anything in his way.
Madness had many faces. It was the whisper of insanity in the ear, the confusion of the moment, or simply the will to survive. It peeled back the skin of humanity and made monsters of them all. Axel Alvares was still trying to figure out which kind of monster he was, if any. Because the sooner he knew, the sooner he could find his way back.
The city was in a strange state. The bridges had all been destroyed, essentially locking the city dwellers in a cage. Replicates were popping up, causing havoc. People were rioting and looting. A curfew had been talked about but was not active, same with Martial Law. The Mayor and the city folk were particularly in denial, or just blindly hopeful that the Deadly Seven would get it under control.
They wouldn’t.
Axel had insider information. Most of that deadly family was becoming unhinged because their partners had been kidnapped. As one of the Faithful, Axel had been in a position of trust with Julius, the leader of the Syndicate. If he’d not defected to save Daisy, he’d be out there right now, sowing chaos or being one of the Faithful guarding the kidnapped. He assumed.
He checked his cell phone. No messages. The Faithful group chat had gone dark. He’d been booted out and cut off. Not that it mattered. He was done with them. But he wanted to be helpful to the Seven, make up for some of the shit he’d caused, and he’d thought if he could pass intel back to them, then it was one step in the right direction.
Sure. That’s why you want to go back.It had nothing to do with the crush he had on the beautiful, silver-haired, scarred woman. Nothing at all.
He shoved his cell inside his pocket and checked his surroundings before heading home. Tall buildings interspersed with smaller, old buildings still kicking, and people going about their lives. No one cared that he wore his CCFD branded shirt. They gave zero fucks that he was someone who put his life on the line to save others. It was this kind of apathy that originally helped him make the choice to become one of the Faithful. He thought about it every time he’d had to do something morally dubious for the Syndicate.
Long-standing denizens refused to believe their city was falling apart. Some walked their dogs. Some went about their nightly duties. Life continued. But for every person ignoring the state of the world, there were two capitalizing on it.
“Hey!” Axel barked at a shady, toothless man watching an elderly lady watering potted plants on her stoop. Something in his eyes said danger. He caught Axel’s warning and kept walking on by.
Axel waited for him to completely leave and then turned to the old lady.
“You should stay indoors. It’s not safe out here.”
“Bah. I’ve been here for seventy years. Seen a depression. Seen wars. Seen murder in the street. I water these plants every night as the sun goes down. Ain’t gonna change nothing now.”
Axel’s nostrils flared but he got it. He was just as stubborn and so was Elena. If her battle with illness was a matter of will, she’d have kicked it to the curb years ago. He leaned against the building’s dusty brick wall and said, “Then it will be a shame to end it all now because of these dark days. I’ll stay right here until you’re done.” Then he added for good measure, “Ma’am.”
The old lady grumbled. Axel was grateful to see her hasten her watering. She turned the faucet off and headed back inside. Before she left, she picked up a small pot with sprouting flowers and handed it to Axel. She gave a salute before hobbling back inside.
Huh. Will you look at that. Someone gave a fuck.
As Axel continued the two-block journey home, he noticed most pedestrians had a weapon in their hand. It broke his heart to see the city he’d grown up in, the city he’d fought to keep safe, the city his parents had chosen to realize their dreams of a better life, had fallen apart.
And he’d been instrumental in the state. He frowned at the plant in his hands. His frown deepened when he realized what the flowers were—daisies.
