Apocalypse Rising: Brains After Brains

Crystalline University - Late Afternoon

They broke from cover... dodging a burning umbrella stand and stepping over an unconscious campus security guard. Xenia's bare foot landed square in someone's discarded pudding cup.

She skidded. "Grossgrossgross... why pudding?!"

Rafe caught her by the arm, pulled her upright without even breaking stride.

She blinked. "Did you just... lift me like a barbell?"

"Focus," he grunted.

Jecipher snatched up a crusty event banner, wrapped it around his waist like he was about to hit the Met Gala, and announced, "Well, if I'm crashing and burning, at least I'll look fabulous doing it."

They whipped around the corner and... yikes... smacked right into a fortress of trash bins. One was half-melted, oozing some unholy goo. Another crashed down onto Jecipher, who let out a scream that could've shattered windows. Seriously, Mariah Carey would've been jealous.

"My hip! My flare hip!"

Rafe yanked the bin off him. "Don't die in a recycling pile," he snapped. "Let's go."

They ducked through a broken fence, leapt over a low wall, and found themselves on the side street parallel to Crystalline's library.

Xenia gasped. "We're close. That's the bookstore."

"Two more blocks," Rafe said. "Keep your heads down."

They sprinted.

A man staggered into the alley ahead, blood down his face. Not a biter. Just someone injured. He looked up...

And screamed.

Xenia screamed too.

As they swung around the corner, this dude just lurched out of a sketchy side alley... barely on his feet, blood running down his jeans, arm hanging at some godawful angle. His eyes? Pure terror, like he'd just seen a ghost or maybe something way worse.

Xenia slammed on the brakes, heart thudding in her throat.

"Oh! Sorry!" she yelped, reflexively stepping back.

He wasn't chasing them.

He was running from something.

And he was already bitten... Xenia saw it now. A chunk missing from his shoulder, flesh torn open like someone had taken a rabid bite out of a sandwich.

He locked eyes with her, breath hitching all over the place. "Don't stop," he croaked out. "They're way quicker than they look."

Then... just like that... he hobbled past, dragging himself down the alley like a guy who knew the universe had already cashed his check.

Xenia just stared, heart going nuts. "Uh. He was… definitely not okay. And I apologized. Like we'd bumped carts at Walmart or something."

"Yeah, trauma etiquette," Jecipher wheezed. "It's a thing, apparently."

And then, boom... outta nowhere, a graduation cap sailed down from above, caught on some rogue wind, and clocked Rafe in the face like a dollar-store shuriken.

Whap.

He peeled it off, deadpan. "I hate this day."

"I think we all do," Jecipher muttered, still running.

And when they turned the final block and Rafe's apartment came into view... brick, two stories, and ringed with a tall iron gate...

It looked like the closest thing to salvation they'd seen all day.

Xenia let out a breathless, broken laugh.

"Remind me to thank my GPA for this," she wheezed.

Jecipher raised a brow. "Your GPA?"

"Yeah. If I hadn't been valedictorian, I wouldn't have been standing next to a jacked gym professor when the world fell apart."

Rafe gave her a sideways look. "You're welcome."

Xenia smirked. "Just don't let me die before I submit that gratitude speech."

"Deal," Rafe said, already reaching for the keys.

RAFE'S APARTMENT, LATE AFTERNOON

The door clicked behind them.

Zuko, this ridiculous little golden retriever with fur so fluffy it could probably double as a pillow... came zooming out from the living room, tail going nuts, like, if there was a medal for wagging, he'd win gold every time. He let out this single yip (honestly, more dramatic than necessary), then basically launched himself at Jecipher, all paws and pure chaos.

"A baby angel sent from the gods," Jecipher gasped, cradling him like a newborn. "Oh, you are the only good thing about today."

Xenia, barefoot and still a little dazed, took two steps in... then stopped.

This was not the kind of apartment she'd imagined Professor Rafe Lysandros would live in.

She half-expected old leather chairs, maybe a pile of books teetering somewhere dangerous, but nope. The place was almost aggressively tidy. Minimalist to the point of looking like a museum, or maybe a showroom for people who don't actually live in their own homes. There was this black chair... total mid-century flex parked beneath some artsy lamp that probably cost more than her rent. The sofa was this sleek, soulless gray, and honestly? She doubted anyone had ever dared to actually sit on it.

The bookshelves? Perfection. Scarily so. Every spine lined up like little soldiers, arranged by color and then alphabetically. Even the plants looked suspiciously healthy, like maybe they did yoga or something.

"Why is your place giving me therapist-with-a-side-homicide vibes?" Xenia muttered, scanning the room.

"I'm screaming internally," Jecipher added, plopping down in the sleek black chair. "This is too clean. Where's the personality? Where's the dirty laundry of a tortured gym rat?"

But Rafe didn't answer. He was already on his phone, typing fast, jaw tight.

His fingers paused. A new message popped in.

Brooo, I'm so..... total panic mode here. I'm stuck in the stupid café by your place. Literally locked myself in the bathroom (don't even ask). I have no clue what's going on outside. Feels like something's off. Plz bro—come get me Srsly. – Rafaela

Rafe stared at the screen. His shoulders tightened.

"Where are you going?" Xenia asked.

He yanked a beat-up duffel from under the table and just started cramming stuff in flashlight, a roll of bandages, a couple of those sad-looking energy bars, lighter... basically whatever he could grab.

"I gotta go. My sister's trapped somewhere close. She's at Café Nero," he blurted, already halfway to the door.

"Then I'll go with you," Xenia said, already taking a step.

"No," Rafe snapped. His voice wasn't angry... it was protective. "Absolutely not."

"But..."

"You'll just drag me down," he shot back, not even pretending to be gentle. "Seriously, you barely even made it here in one piece. No shoes and you look like you just crawled through a tornado. What am I supposed to do, babysit you and look for my sister at the same time? Sorry, but I can't risk you getting hurt while I'm out there. That's not happening."

She opened her mouth, probably about to protest, but he didn't give her the chance.

"No." He yanked a black jacket off the rack... one that looked like it'd seen better days... and shoved his arms through the sleeves in one quick, angry motion. "You're staying here. Seriously. Lock the door behind me, and don't let anyone in unless it's me. Keep Zuko safe. That's your only job right now, got it? I'll figure out the rest. Just... don't make this harder than it already is."

He shot one last look over his shoulder... eyes all jagged edges and panic, like maybe he had a mouthful of words he wanted to spit out but just couldn't drop the mask. And then poof... he was out. The air felt colder, like he took the last bit of warmth with him. Her heart? Yeah, it was hammering, stuffed with a hundred unsaid things that might as well have been grenades.