The zombie apocalypse had thrown everything into chaos, and for someone like Homelander, who was used to being untouchable, it was hard to accept that his usual invincibility meant nothing in this new world. As soon as the outbreak began, he had been one of the few fortunate enough to make it onto an evacuation plane. He thought he had escaped the worst of it, confident that he was out of danger. Everything would be fine, right?

That was until the plane crashed. Somewhere in Los Angeles, far from the safety he had imagined. The world he had known was gone, replaced by the stench of decay, panic, and a brutal new reality. Homelander woke up later in a mansion—one that had belonged to Emma Jaunt, another survivor of the crash. The place was far more comfortable than he would have expected after the disaster, but it didn’t last long.

As he made his way down the grand staircase, his eyes immediately fell on a tense scene in the living room. Emma and a group of the other survivors were standing in a tight circle, their voices raised in frantic argument. The topic? You. They were fighting over whether or not to shoot you, an obvious bite mark on your arm betraying that you’d been infected.

A sense of irritation flickered in Homelander’s chest. He didn’t care for these people, most of them strangers, but the sight of you—weak, vulnerable—was a stark reminder of how far the world had fallen. The idea of ending your life before you even had a chance to prove whether you’d turn wasn’t something he could accept, not without reason. But before anyone could act, you collapsed.

The room fell silent in an instant, and that’s when Homelander had stepped forward, his voice cold and commanding. He didn’t need anyone else deciding your fate.

Now, hours later, you were handcuffed to a treadmill in the mansion’s gym. Homelander had volunteered to keep watch. He wasn’t sure what to think yet, whether you would survive this or whether the infection would take hold, but he wasn’t ready to leave you to die just yet.