our new wilderness

PART III: ALIVE

"What are you going to do if I turn?"

That was not a question Brett would ever need to ask, not with Eddy Chen.

"I go where you go."

Brett stared at him coolly, not a single speck of stray emotion in his gaze. "You're not my Alpha."

You're not mine, he could hear lingering underneath the surface, you're not mine. You're not mine and I'm not yours.

But when, Eddy was fast coming to realize, had that ever mattered?

Belongingness wasn't something he particularly gave a damn about, not when it came to the biological sense. All he cared about was the overall wellbeing of one Brett Yang, and really—that desire went beyond any kind of orientation or physical dynamic, as far as he was concerned.

"You're my friend," Eddy said, with the kind of hardened surety he hoped his best friend would hear in his words. "I think that counts for some sort of bonding here, yeah?"

Brett stared at him for a few moments more, a wild windswept look in his eyes, and then he nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm not leaving you."

He didn't get a reply back this time, but with the way Brett's shoulders slumped ever so slightly, the way his spine curved towards the wall like a question mark finally resolved with an answer, Eddy figured his message got through.

We're in this together.

*

After the incident, his best friend wasn't quite the same.

Eddy had faced death and decay for so long, he'd eventually grown accustomed to them. Brett, on the other hand, wasn't as used to the true horrors that lurked in the dark wretched corners of the world, despite the edge to his persona and the bite in his talk. He put up a good facade of joviality, sure, but it didn't take much to see that the effort was grating on him.

And that was fine. They were allowed to grieve for however long it took them to.

He would be there by his side in whatever way Brett wanted him.

*

They ended up meeting several more groups making their own ways in the world in their journey forward. A young woman and her son finding a new home for themselves. A disheveled group of college students making their way back to their old stomping grounds at the local uni. A ragtag pack of looters on the other side of the highway they both agreed were best left alone. Since they went with Brett's way last time, Brett conceded to Eddy's way this time around, and then the time after that, and so on.

Sometimes, they accompanied these strangers. Oftentimes, they ignored them. And everytime, they never stayed too long. After the Lings, there just wasn't any common interest between the two of them about getting attached to someone new and then going through the same cycles of mourning when it would inevitably all go wrong.

But then: they met Leopold Chen, an old gentleman biker who shared Eddy's surname, to Brett's hidden amusement. Leopold had formed a gang of young alphas before the outbreak ever started, and now, they had established a safe perimeter around their neighborhood to keep the omicrons at bay. Their tiny town was safe, if not flooded with leather jackets and ratty old shotguns.