The Human Spring

by Hollingsworth, David

“Not quite,” Cecilia replied with an edge that made Ehsan wonder if he’d said something wrong. Everyone remained quiet for a moment before Mateo asked another question.

  “It’s cool you two seem so close. Has it been this way since you were kids?”

  “Yes,” Fatima answered. “We actually had a really hard childhood, which brought us closer together. Our dad used to… well, he used to hit us growing up. Especially when he drank. As for our mom, she rarely said anything. Whenever she did our dad just hit her, too.” She crossed her arms. “We went through a lot, but we at least had each other. Everything we went through is actually what made me want to become a counselor. I want to help people who went through what we did.”

  “That’s very brave of you,” Sarah said with a warm smile. Mateo and Julie nodded in agreement. “I’m glad you made it out okay.”

  “Seriously, that’s so awful you had to go through that,” Mateo offered with a sympathetic shake of his head. “Especially as kids.”

  Fatima smiled sadly and nodded. “Thank you.”

  Sarah looked to Ehsan. “Did you study anything, Ehsan?”

  “Nope. I took a few classes at the nearest community college, but never really decided what I wanted to do,” he answered. “I guess I got lost in indecision instead of student debt,” he added jokingly with a shrug. Mateo and Josue grinned.

  “Did you have any more questions for us?” Cecilia asked Ehsan and Fatima after no one else could think of anything to ask them.

  “Now that I think about it, yeah,” Ehsan replied. “What does your usual schedule look like each day? Is it pretty set?”

  “We have a consistent schedule, yes,” Cecilia answered. “In the morning Mateo, Deon, and Manuel garden, Ryan and Josue are on lookout duty, and Julie and I teach. During the afternoon Mateo and I go on guard duty, Julie and Marcus clean, and Ryan and Josue rest. Josue and Ryan go back to guard duty when it gets dark.”

  “Sometimes we also practice mick-map when we feel up to it,” Ryan added.

  “Mick map?” Fatima asked.

  “Sorry, Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. M-C-M-A-P. They call it that for short.”

  “I see. So how do you two keep lookout at night?”

  “We basically just hang out in the room under the lookout area,” Ryan answered. “Usually the moon gives us enough light. When we don’t got that, we just listen for suspicious noises and have our flashlights ready. So far, we ain’t never had to use ‘em.”

  “Good to know.” She turned to Cecilia. “I have one last question. A little while ago you said ‘last time you checked’ when talking about how many marines the field workers have. Why phrase it like that?”

  “Fair question,” Cecilia replied. She nodded, seemingly impressed by Fatima’s thoughtfulness. “As you probably know by now, we have a sort of trade route between our four groups. From west to east we have the fisherman at the pier, us, the clinic, and then the fields. We only interact with the fisherman and the clinic for the most part, due to the distance. We only visit the fields for emergencies or holidays.”

  “Holidays?” Fatima asked.

  “Yes,” Cecilia confirmed. “We make it a point to celebrate Dia de los Muertos, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years as a community.”

  “I like that,” Fatima remarked.

  “Yeah,” Ehsan agreed. “Too bad those are all so far away, though.”

  Mateo nodded. “And you said Persian New Year already passed, right?”

  “Yes, unfortunately,” Fatima answered. “Nowruz always happens on the first day of spring. Usually March twenty-first or so.”

  “Aww, I’m sorry to hear that,” Julie commented.

  “I was thinking we could add that to our list of celebrations,” Mateo suggested to Cecilia. “Always nice to add some extra culture to our group.”

  “I think that would be excellent,” Cecilia answered. “The more our kids learn about other cultures, the better.”

  “Sweet,” Ehsan replied.

  “Thank you,” Fatima added. “We can teach the kids all about it next year. I’m sure everyone here would love it.”

  Mateo nodded, then turned to Ehsan. “So, with all that said, are you ready for guard duty?”

  Ehsan gave a thumbs up, though a wave of anxiety hit him. He hadn’t been without his sister since the fall of his Costco. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “Cool.” Mateo looked toward the front of the school. “I’ll get my fire axe and you can get your… what do you call your shovel again? Dragon Head?”

  “Dragon Hair,” Ehsan corrected with mock indignation.

  Mateo chuckled. “I like it. Okay, let’s get going.”

  Ehsan turned and waved goodbye to Fatima, who nodded in return. She left, and even with Mateo, he couldn’t help but feel alone.

  Ehsan tried to forget about his sister as he and Mateo climbed up the furniture barricade. He saw three folding chairs perched on top of the roof, placed under a large beach umbrella a few feet taller than either him or Mateo. There were also refillable water bottles, a bowl of apples, a stack of magazines, and a deck of cards on a small plastic table in the middle. Mateo set his fire ax next to the umbrella and the two of them sat in the folding chairs, facing the direction Ehsan and his sister had come from only a couple hours ago. Only four zombies stood on the street, one of them hunched over the hood of an old minivan.

  “So what do we do with those fellas down there?” Ehsan asked, still trying to take his mind off of his sister.

  “We usually let ‘em be, unless we have a reason to take ‘em out. They’re not crowding up in one place like the ones at the chicken coop, so there’s no need to fight.”

  “Makes sense. Looks like there’s only a few of those things down there right now, anyway.” Ehsan stood up. “Though, actually, I kinda wanna go down there. Sorry if this seems dumb, but would you mind giving me some pointers on how to fight them?”

  Mateo grinned. “No worries, I’d be happy to. It’ll probably make the time go by faster, anyway.” He stood up too, scanning the street carefully. “There’s not that many, and they’re pretty spread out. This’ll be no problem.”

  Mateo picked up his fire ax and walked to the edge of the roof. He grabbed one of the ropes and slid down with a controlled grip that impressed Ehsan, landing with a soft clank onto the sidewalk in front of the school. The two nearest zombies turned around. One stood on the other side of the school’s small front lawn. The other stood by a minivan in the street. Both started plodding toward Mateo.

  Ehsan jumped down right after Mateo, holding his shovel in one hand while sliding down the rope, though he didn’t land nearly as smoothly as Mateo and got a rope burn on his palm. He shook his hand around to lessen the pain, then turned to see Mateo walk toward the closest zombie.

  “One thing I always try to think of when fighting is distance management,” Mateo explained without taking his eyes off the zombie. “Things get bad if we get swarmed. So, I always try to think about keeping ‘em away from me however I can.”

  The first zombie closed in on Mateo. As soon as it came within striking range, he kicked it square in the chest the same way he kicked the zombie by the chicken coop, though this kick looked far softer. The zombie stumbled backward, but didn’t fall down.

  “That’s called the ‘push kick’, also known as the ‘teep’ in Muay Thai,” Mateo explained as the zombie regained its balance. The second zombie now walked only a few feet behind the first. “It’s a really good kick for creating distance. You just gotta make sure you get it in the chest. If you kick it in the stomach the zombie will hunch forward, which’ll put it in the perfect position to bite your leg.”

  “No zombie’s eating my leg. Especially when I’ve got it so toned from all this running,” Ehsan quipped.

  Mateo chuckled. “Another thing you can do is use longer weapons like my axe or your Dragon Hair to stop ‘em from moving forward.”

  Mateo held his ax horizontally at chest level with b
oth hands. When the two zombies came close, he maneuvered his ax handle under the first’s armpits and up into its chest, blocking its ability to walk forward. The second walked into the first, both of them pushing into Mateo’s ax.

  “Notice that I’m digging up into its armpits and pushing up, which makes it harder to grab me.” He then shoved them forward and jumped backward as they lurched forward in response to the push. With Mateo no longer there, the zombies fell onto the ground in front of him. “When I pushed ‘em just now, they automatically pushed back to regain balance. When I wasn’t there to meet their force, they fell forward easily.”

  “You’ve really figured this stuff out,” Ehsan remarked.

  “Actually, I learned that last idea from Cecilia. It’s apparently a basic principle of judo. When you push your opponent, they push back. If you’re not there when they push back, they lose balance,” Mateo hit one in the wrist with the hilt of his ax as it tried to heave itself up. “Anyway, now they’re on the ground. I saw that you like to use your shovel to attack the legs of the zombies to make ‘em easier to take out. That’s smart. I probably don’t need to tell you how to fight once they’ve fallen down.” Mateo looked over to the other two zombies on the street. One of the zombies had noticed them and was now only about a front yard’s distance from them. The other, at the very end of the street, remained oblivious.

  “I’ll let these three attack me at once so you can see how I like to deal with multiple targets,” Mateo continued. “Though I should probably point out everyone has their own way of dealing with groups. Take what you like from this. Don’t feel the need to use everything.”

  Ehsan watched as Mateo put his axe head under the chin of the zombies on the ground and helped lift them as they stumbled back to their feet. After both stood up he motioned for Ehsan to step back. Ehsan did as he was told. Mateo stepped back right after, waiting for the third zombie to join them.

  Ehsan couldn’t help but notice how comfortable Mateo looked, even with three zombies closing in on him. He thought back to how Ryan and Josue easily dispatched many more zombies than he and his sister did when they first arrived to the gates. Mateo used his footwork to move around the three zombies, corralling them into one group so that they kept bumping into each other. He circled to the left, striking the neck of the nearest zombie. “Always try to circle around and attack the one closest to you. That way you never get cornered.”

  Ehsan nodded.

  “Now, there are a lot of moves you can use to hit multiple targets at once,” Mateo explained. When the two remaining zombies stood right in front of him, one to his left and one to his right, Mateo struck: he simultaneously chopped at the neck of the zombie to his left while side-kicking the one to his right in the chest. He used the momentum of swinging his axe to help power the kick. The chopped zombie fell instantly, while the kicked zombie fell to the ground. Mateo grinned. “That one’s my favorite.” Ehsan grinned approvingly in return.

  Mateo finished off the zombie he had kicked over, then cleaned his ax on its clothes. He looked at the zombie at the end of the street. “Okay, I want you to take that one out. But first, I want you to bait it in. Use footwork to control the distance. Try out different types of attacks without finishing it off. Get comfortable around it.”

  Ehsan took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, I’ll do it.”

  “Great. Don’t worry, I’ll be right behind you.” Mateo gave him a pat on the back. “I see you and your sister like to always stay as far as possible when fighting these things, which is good. The way your sister only goes in with her knife when she needs to is good strategy. But I want you to be able to know exactly how close you can stand in front of one, to the inch, and still be safe. Once you get the hang of it, these things aren’t so scary.” Mateo rubbed his chin. “In fact, I want you to study the zombie and tell me a couple things. Details about what it’s wearing, how old it looks, maybe even guess what it did for a living. Really get as detailed as you can.”

  Ehsan nodded and the two of them walked toward the final zombie. Most of the time Ehsan simply looked at a zombie’s easy to notice traits, like its size and approximate age. He paid attention to little else. He always wanted to get through them as quickly as possible.

  This time Ehsan studied the zombie carefully as it got closer. It felt like a normal encounter at first, his adrenaline spiking slightly and his palms dampening, but nothing unmanageable. When he got only a few feet away from the zombie, however, he thought more and more about how he couldn’t attack. A dread he didn’t fully understand set in. He walked backward to avoid getting bit. He found himself pushing back against a primal anxiety that demanded he either end the zombie immediately or run. Don’t attack. He tried to study it. While alive it had been a woman, perhaps in her thirties. She had long hair that’d become wispy and clay colored. Ehsan’s hands started trembling, itching to use the shovel. Don’t attack. One ear had two bronzed hoop earrings. The other ear might have had the same at some point, but it’d either rotted or been torn off. Ehsan’s stomach jumped to his throat. Don’t attack. She had on a pair of shredded up jeans and a tattered, faded gray sweater. It seemed like the sweater had been a lighter color before, perhaps a pastel.

  Before he could look at her feet or her face, Ehsan had to take a few steps back and inhale deeply. Every cell in his body screamed for him either to fight or run. His body couldn’t stand his lack of action. After a couple deep breaths, he realized he’d forgotten some of the details he’d noticed. He used his shovel to help him stand up straight.

  “It’s okay, Ehsan. It takes some getting used to,” Mateo said soothingly. He took a step forward. “Now tell me about what she’s wearing.”

  “She has some earrings, and jeans,” Ehsan panted.

  “Good. What else?”

  “She has a-” Ehsan looked back at its clothes. “A sweater. It looks like it was maybe light orange, or pink or something.”

  “Good. Very good, Ehsan,” Mateo said with a pat on the back. “Alright, after you catch your breath, I want you to move around it. Attack lightly, without taking it out. Get comfortable.”

  Ehsan took one last big breath and exhaled slowly. He stood up straight. He stopped walking backward, his heartbeat calmer but still erratic, and started moving to his left. Something deep within him demanded he swing his shovel as hard as he could. Instead, he kept circling to the left and slightly backward, occasionally poking at the zombie with his shovel.

  “Now change direction,” Mateo ordered. “And keep changing directions every few seconds.”

  Ehsan did as instructed. Once the zombie followed, Ehsan changed direction back to his left. Then the right once more. Ehsan kept this pattern going, changing his direction as soon as the zombie started to pivot. This proved too much for it. It eventually tripped over its own legs trying to keep up.

  “Awesome,” Mateo remarked. “Okay, that’s all for right now. Go ahead and finish it off.”

  Ehsan gladly obliged. He raised his shovel and, doing what his body had been screaming at him to do for the last few minutes, decapitated it with a swift chop to the neck. Afterward he breathed the most satisfying sigh of relief he’d ever breathed.

  “How’re you feeling?” Mateo asked.

  “A bit shook, but fine,” Ehsan answered, his quaking voice confirming his words. “That was way more intense than I thought it’d be.”

  Mateo chuckled. “No kidding. Reminds me of when I started doing MMA. I’d been in a few street fights before where my adrenaline and size carried me through, so I thought I’d be able to do the same thing in the cage. Then I actually stepped in there. It was a disaster.”

  Ehsan chuckled, though he assumed Mateo was just being modest. He couldn’t imagine Mateo ever lacking control in a fight. He started moving his arms around to stretch them out, already feeling tired as his adrenaline left him. “I doubt it was that bad. But, either way, I definitely wanna learn more stuff later.”

  “You got it.” Mateo looke
d back to the school. “Anyway, we should get back to the roof. We’re probably fine here, but it’s better not to risk it.”

  The two walked back to the rope. Mateo handed his fire ax to Ehsan. He easily pulled himself back up. Ehsan handed up both his and Mateo’s weapons. He then grabbed onto the rope and realized he could barely hold on. When Mateo saw Ehsan struggling, he pulled up the rope and offered Ehsan his free hand.

  “Thanks,” Ehsan said as Mateo pulled him up.

  “No problem. You’ll be doing the same thing once you get more practice.” The two walked over and sat in the chairs overlooking the street. Mateo looked back over at the corpses of the zombies they had just dispatched. “Shit. I forgot about burying ‘em.”

  “Bummer.”

  “Well, I’ll take care of that now,” Mateo decided. He stood back up and grabbed his fire ax. He turned to Ehsan and shrugged. “If I don’t do it now, I’ll put it off forever.”

  Ehsan chuckled. “I know the feeling. Want some help?”

  “No thanks, I’ve got it.” He walked toward the rope, then turned back around. “Actually, do you mind if I borrow Dragon Hair? That’ll be way better for digging than my ax.”

  “Sure.” Ehsan grinned. “But you gotta come up with a name for your ax, first.”

  Mateo grinned back. “Okay, I’m down. What do you think? I can’t think of any famous axes.”

  Ehsan shook his head. “I don’t know any, but it doesn’t matter. You should come up with the name.”

  Mateo stared intently at the axe. “I dunno. I can only think of different types of weapons, like light sabers. I can’t think of any specific weapons.”

  “What did you like as a kid, or a teenager?” Ehsan suggested.

  “Power Rangers and Star Wars as a kid, Dragon Ball Z when I was a teenager. That’s about it, though. I was usually playing sports or working when I was in high school.”

  Ehsan crossed his arms and put his hand on his chin. “How about Nimbus, like that cloud Goku had? It’s not exactly a weapon, but he used it to help him in his fights, at least.”