He skips the bottle from his glass to Alex's, mystery booze splashing happily.

"The last time I spoke to my wife, she told me our son was dead, and that she and our daughters had left for a safe zone." The bottle comes up empty and he sets it aside. "When I got there, they were gone. Not dead... the whole place was just gone. Abandoned. That was three years ago."

He picks up his glass and drinks.