They got to the street and trotted to the corner where Alex arrived. There was a small line of cars waiting to turn, but they were in for a long wait until the jam cleared. Ellie was looking for a way to hop onto the handlebar with the plant and bag.

Alex: Is the plant really necessary?
Ellie: I’m not leaving Clementine behind. I’ve been caring for her for two years.
Alex: The world is going to hell… We might not even survive!
Ellie: We’ve been discussing it at work. It’s not that bad. Even if monsters come, modern countries have armies and technology. It won’t make much of a difference. Society will adapt.
Alex: It’s not just monsters. The balance of power will change. That thing—God, or whatever—was clear: a new phase is starting. So I wouldn’t bet on the government keeping everything in check. Let’s get to safety, and we’ll see the next steps from there. I’d rather be cautious.

Ellie was about to say something, but when she saw how serious Alex was, she decided to humor him. She put Clementine in the bag with extra care and climbed onto the handlebar with Alex’s help.

They started going down the street against traffic. The way was downhill, so Alex barely pedaled until the street ended in a dead end. Alex turned left and started pedaling hard for a block until they got to the avenue. The car jam seemed to cover most of the avenue now, and it was packed. Two drivers were having a fistfight. Ellie got off the handlebar, and they ran through the cars while Alex held his bike high from the frame. Once on the other side, Ellie hopped on, and they were on their way.

This time he went farther through the inner streets until he turned right. This would lead straight to the main avenue, and then it was a straight line until they were almost home. Ellie first looked at Alex’s worried, sweaty face. He was usually very chill, but now he seemed to be in a very bad place. She didn’t think everything was going to spin out of control, but as they started their way home, she was seeing bad signs. Shops were closing and putting their security fences and blinds. The car jams and the fistfight convinced her they needed to be home quickly, but reality sunk in when they turned at the main avenue. There was a car upside down, and people were trying to open the door to rescue the passengers.

Ellie: Should we help?
Alex didn’t even respond. He was drenched in sweat and running out of air, but that wasn’t it. He was staring farther away at a group of people running.
Alex: We can’t go this way; looting is starting. Let’s go through the parallel street.

Ellie couldn’t reply. ‘Looting? What is the police doing?’ 

They went to the next street and started pedaling. All Alex could think was: if they could avoid danger for one more mile, they’d be safe at home. But they couldn’t. After pedaling for only one block, a man opened his car door just as they were passing by. They weren’t going super fast, but they crashed and got hurt.

Ellie was lucky—she side-flipped with the inertia and landed on her feet first, then her ass, hip, and arms. She was bruised and scraped, but Alex took the worst of it. He fell hard on his back and was gasping for air.

Two men came down from the car, and as Ellie was about to insult them, they showed her a small metal baseball bat and a knife.
Driver: Stay where you are, or I’ll smash his head. We’ll take the bike.