The Human Spring

by Hollingsworth, David

  Josue grinned once more. This time, though, the grin didn’t conceal a hint of annoyance, but openly displayed an abundance of it. His face reddened and a dark shadow cast itself in his eye that deeply alarmed Ehsan. “You’re lucky I don’t get my feelings hurt as easy as everyone else here, miss therapist.” He attempted to sound amused, but his words contained an edge that made Ehsan think of his father.

  To Ehsan’s surprise, Fatima looked away and said nothing. He knew his sister well enough to know that Josue didn’t intimidate her. Not after everything she went through with their father. Ehsan had always stared at the floor and remained silent whenever their father’s demons reared their ugly heads. Fatima, though, spoke out against him time after time, no matter what he did to her in response. Why not now? The look on her face told Ehsan that she wanted to.

  Mateo spoke up before anyone else could. “It is scary, though,” he blurted out. “Everything we’re going through, I mean. I think we’re all on edge.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Ehsan with a cautious smirk. “Never thought I’d miss only having to worry about normal zombies.”

  The dark shadow in Josue’s eye flickered out. The grin remained, but its bitter undercurrent dissipated enough to ease Ehsan’s nerves. He drank almost half of his beer in one gulp. “Well, you guys can talk about your feelings all you want. I’ll stick to watching over this place and bashing in zombie brains. Maybe even get in a good workout with these sprinting assholes.”

  “Still can’t believe we ran into actual sprinting zombies, though,” Sarah commented, the frustration in her voice giving way to anxiety. “I don’t wanna dwell on it too much, ‘cause we’re supposed to be having a good time, but wow. I really hope Cecilia’s plan works. The sooner we can get to the bottom of this, the better.”

  “Speaking of Cecilia, I feel bad,” Julie admitted. “She’s been working in her room all night while we’ve been out here. What if we brought her something nice?”

  “I like it,” Mateo agreed. “The question is, what?”

  The group looked around. Sarah looked at the bottles of booze they had. “What if we gave her the nicest bottle of wine we have? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her drink the occasional glass of red.”

  The group agreed and sent Julie and Mateo to walk over an expensive-looking bottle of merlot to her. Ehsan guided the conversation to make sure everyone stuck to small talk, eager to avoid another argument. Mateo and Julie ran back a few minutes later, however, with concerned looks on their faces.

  “Cecilia isn’t in her room. We went to go check in on Manuel and his kids to see if she went to talk to Manuel, but they’re all asleep,” Mateo explained. “We should split up and search, though we gotta be quiet. We don’t wanna yell her name and attract every zombie in the neighborhood.”

  “Not to mention anyone else who might be nearby,” Fatima added. “Someone should stand watch by the kids’ bedrooms, just in case, while everyone else checks the rest of the school.”

  “Should we wake up Manuel?” Sarah asked.

  Fatima shook her head. “It would be hard to wake him without waking Natalia and Gustavo, and we should avoid worrying them. We should only get him if there is an emergency.”

  “Makes sense. You wanna make the plan, Fatima?”

  Fatima did a double take. She looked around to see everyone watching her. She assumed her usual thinking pose. “Well, I think we should have Deon and Marcus guard the row of classrooms we use as bedrooms. Josue, Ryan, and Julie can stay here, at the front of the school. Josue will stay in the front room on lookout duty while Ryan searches the other nearby rooms that face the street. Julie will wait by the door of the front room, acting as the go-between for Ryan and Josue.” She looked around the rest of the school. “Sarah and Mateo can check the other side of the school, by the garden and kindergarten area. Ehsan and I will check the classrooms in the back, as well as the field and back fences.”

  “What do we do if we find Cecilia?” Ryan asked.

  “When we find her,” Mateo corrected. Ryan looked at Mateo, then nodded.

  “Clap,” Fatima answered. She paused. “Since we will all be in different areas, if you hear a clap, wait a moment and then clap once, too. That way people who are further from the initial clap can hear. The person who clapped first will then clap twice. Everyone will come except for Deon and Marcus, who we can check in with after we figure everything out.”

  The group broke and went about their tasks. Ehsan and Fatima went with Deon and Marcus, as they had similar destinations. They jogged over, Ehsan’s mind racing faster than his legs. Even after everything that had happened earlier, he hadn’t considered the possibility of anything happening inside the walls of the school. Especially this soon. He didn’t want to imagine the school without Cecilia there to guide it. He hoped with such fierceness that this would end up being a misunderstanding that his stomach began to physically hurt.

  “There’s no way something happened, right?” Ehsan asked out loud to no one in particular.

  “Doubt it,” Deon answered. “Cecilia’s as tough as they come.”

  “She is,” Fatima agreed as they approached Deon and Marcus’s destination. “But we cannot assume anything, either. We will see what we find.”

  They arrived to the row of classrooms where the kids slept. Ehsan and Fatima ran past those classrooms, further toward the back of the school, while Deon and Marcus stayed. Ehsan studied every single window and doorway he could as they moved.

  “What happens if we don’t find her?” Ehsan asked his sister, the anxiety spilling out of his voice.

  “We adapt.”

  They searched a row of classrooms and almost made it to another before they heard what they thought was a clap come from the front of the school. A moment later, they heard a loud one from the direction of Deon and Marcus. Two distant claps followed after that. Cecilia had been found. They raced to the blacktop to see where the clap came from. They abandoned jogging in favor of running.

  As they left the classrooms and made their way onto the blacktop they saw Ryan, Josue, and Julie standing outside with Cecilia, who looked tired. Ehsan saw Mateo and Sarah closing in on them as well, also sprinting.

  “What happened?” Ehsan asked as soon as they got close enough to not have to yell.

  “I apologize,” Cecilia replied as they approached. “I did not think you would need to look for me.”

  Ehsan, hunched over from his sprint, couldn’t make sense of Cecilia’s words. “Huh?”

  “I hid in the rooms facing the street,” she elaborated. “The areas by the windows are barricaded in those rooms, but there are gaps. I was watching through one to see if anyone was spying on our party.”

  A jolt of realization flashed across Fatima’s face. “Did you allow this party to happen just so you could try to bait out whoever is out there?”

  Cecilia remained silent.

  “You should have told us,” Fatima pleaded.

  “Don’t you trust us?” Josue demanded.

  Cecilia shook her head and sighed. Her shoulders dropped ever so slightly. “No, I trust all of you. I just…” She paused, and went from looking tired to exhausted, and her eyes shone with a vulnerability that Ehsan didn’t imagine her capable of. “I wanted everyone to have a good time. I wanted to avoid troubling you.”

  Everyone remained silent for a moment. “So, you were just gonna sit there all night?” Sarah asked eventually, still processing everything.

  “Only until the end of the party.”

  The group sat silent for a moment. Then Josue spoke. “Well you’re a hell of a leader, Cecilia.”

  “Yes, you are,” Fatima agreed. “But please do not think you need to do this alone. All of us are here to help.”

  Cecilia smiled, the least guarded smile that Ehsan had seen on her face since meeting her. “Thank you, everyone. I know all of us are in this together. I just want to avoid worrying you all as much as I can.” The smile left and the look on her face hardened. �
�This threat we face is not just something we have never encountered before. I never even thought something like this to be possible.” She sighed. “I admit, it has been a little tough for me. But I promise I will avoid taking on more than I can bear.”

  “Good,” replied Mateo with a smile. “We don’t want you to burn yourself out.” He grinned. “Not before I learn all of your badass judo throws, anyway.”

  “Looks like I need to stay around for at least another few years, then,” Cecilia joked clumsily.

  Mateo and Sarah went to tell Deon and Marcus about Cecilia. Everyone else decided to go to bed. Ryan and Josue headed to the front room for guard duty. Both Ryan and Josue’s breath still reeked of beer, and Josue slurred his words. Fatima felt uneasy leaving them there in that condition, but they assured her they were up to the task. Ehsan agreed, more to avoid an argument than anything, and he and Fatima walked to their room as the moon shone in the reflection of the windows, brighter than ever. Upon entering, they changed quickly and settled into bed.

  “You really put Josue in his place,” Ehsan commented.

  “I suppose,” Fatima replied as she laid on her back and looked at the ceiling.

  “You don’t think so?”

  Well…” Fatima paused. “I thought about it, and I think it was a bad idea to do that. When I first got here I thought Josue was just a toxic bully. And he is. But I think he is also hurting, and whether I like him or not, I need to think of my desire to be a counselor. No way I can be a good one if I just blow off people I dislike, even if I have good reason to.” She turned over toward Ehsan. “Plus, who knows? He could become a better person with some help.”

  “It’d be nice,” Ehsan agreed. “I hope you can help him.”

  “I do, too. I mean, I barely know what I’m doing. But I will give it a try. It could help all of us.”

  “Well, I think you can do it.” Ehsan stretched and yawned. “Anyway, I’m falling asleep. G’night, Sis.”

  “Good night, Ehsan.”

  Ehsan had trouble falling asleep. His mind couldn’t stop going over the sprinting zombie. Left alone with his thoughts and no distraction, he couldn’t think of anything else. What stuck in his mind most was the way its arms flailed unnaturally by its side as it ran. He didn’t ever want to face something like that again.

  The thought of everyone at the school comforted him, though. He thought of Cecilia’s unbreakable dedication. Of Mateo, Ryan, and Josue’s fighting skills. Of Deon and Sarah’s stealth. Of Marcus’s readiness to treat zombie bites. Of Julie’s warmth and care for the kids. Of Fatima’s ability to plan almost as well as Cecilia. He felt anxious about the idea of the school being threatened, but he trusted his team. He eventually fell asleep, his mind on the plan they had the next morning. He knew it would work.

  A loud, primal, human scream jolted him awake.

  DAY 5

  FRIDAY, APRIL 7th

  Ehsan bolted upright. He looked to Fatima to make sure it hadn’t just been a bad dream. She sat up too, equally alarmed. They heard another scream. They jumped to their feet, threw on their shoes, and rushed outside without exchanging a word.

  Outside the classroom Ehsan saw that the others had heard it, too. Everyone peaked their heads out from their rooms, including the kids. Ana and Estefanía clung to Julie, whom they shared a room with, as did Gustavo and Natalia to their dad, and Andrew to Sebastian. Sebastian himself looked like he wanted someone to comfort him. Manuel recognized the look on Sebastian’s face and beckoned the two of them over to him. Cecilia looked toward the front of the school.

  “Manuel, Julie, stay here with the kids,” Cecilia instructed them. “Everyone else, run.”

  Ehsan, Fatima, Mateo, Sarah, Deon, Marcus, and Cecilia sprinted toward the front of the school. They heard a loud squishing sound as they turned the corner around the library, as if someone were hitting a piece of meat with a piece of metal. The sounds came from the front gate, just out of view from the lunch tables. They heard Josue cry “SON OF A BITCH!” at the top of his lungs as they got closer. His voice trembled. Ehsan feared the worst.

  Deon reached the gate first. He froze at what he saw. Sarah reached it next, followed by Ehsan and Fatima. Ehsan saw the source of the noise: Josue smashing the head of a dead zombie with his crowbar. Its head had already been smashed in completely; its brown-gray insides covered the concrete. Josue kept hitting it, or more accurately, hit the concrete that had only a thin layer of brain matter remaining on it. Josue’s shirt had been torn in the attack, and Ehsan noticed large tattooed words all over Josue’s back, though he couldn’t make out what they said as Josue thrashed around. A few feet away from Josue laid Ryan, motionless and facedown, covered in blood. Next to Ryan laid two more motionless zombies.

  As everyone else arrived Fatima looked over to Ryan, then to Josue. “Josue…” Fatima began softly.

  Josue stopped hitting the ground and froze. Ehsan saw his back tattoo. A list of names. Below each name was a set of dates. The initial dates under each name were quite different, but the end dates were the same: seven years ago, the date of one of the biggest battles in Iraq. At the top of Josue’s back it said THE GOOD DIE YOUNG.

  “What happened here?” Cecilia asked.

  “SON OF A BITCH!” Josue cried. He jumped at another one of the other motionless zombies and ravaged its head with his crowbar. Ehsan looked into Josue’s eyes and saw the overt rage, and quiet desperation, of a cornered animal. He felt nauseous. He started breathing slowly and deliberately to make sure he didn’t throw up.

  Fatima walked over and put her hands gently on Josue’s shoulder. “Josue, please. You are safe now. What happened?”

  Josue stopped and turned around with a twisted smile on his face as if Fatima had told him she had killed Ryan herself. “Safe? You think we’re safe?” He let out a fake laugh laced with so much hurt that Ehsan felt as if he’d been struck in the stomach.

  Cecilia walked in front of Josue and looked him directly in the eyes. “Josue, I need you to be specific. What happened here?”

  “You wanna know what happened?” Josue asked, letting out another fake laugh. Ehsan cringed. “Talking. Fucking. Zombies.”

  Everyone except for Cecilia and Deon gasped or covered their mouths in horror. “Are you certain?”

  “Of course I’m fucking certain,” he shot back. He looked at Ryan and started to shiver. His breath became short and shallow, and his eyes widened. “Oh God, I can’t believe he’s dead.”

  Mateo and Sarah joined Fatima and Cecilia by Josue’s side. Ehsan, Deon, and Marcus stayed glued to their spots. Mateo put his arm around Josue while Sarah gave him breathing exercises. In, out. In, out. In, out. After Josue calmed down, he continued to speak.

  “We were nodding off when we heard some zombies shuffling by the gate. They usually don’t get that close, so we figured one of us should check it out,” Josue explained, shivering so violently his teeth began to chatter. “I still felt buzzed, so I sent him out there.” He stopped, his eyes widening. They looked as if they could pop out of his head at any second. “I sent him there!” Josue’s jaw trembled. Snot ran from his nose. He took a deep breath in, but it only made it worse. The damn broke and he started to sob.

  “Hey, hey, it is not your fault,” soothed Fatima as Mateo embraced him. “Josue, it is not your fault.”

  “Oh? So I didn’t send him out there to his fucking death?” he retorted through his tears, pushing away Mateo. “God, I’m such a fucking idiot. If we’d both gone out there…”

  “There was no way to know. The fault lies only with those things,” Fatima said as she nodded toward the dead zombies on the ground. Josue continued sobbing without giving any indication he had heard her.

  Cecilia studied the other zombies, then returned her attention to Josue. “Josue, you deserve time to grieve. But first I need to know everything that happened.”

  Josue wiped his eyes and nose with his forearm. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Another round of
sobs came. Mateo took his shirt off and offered it to Josue as a tissue. He gave Josue a pat on the back as Josue blew his nose.

  “So…” He dabbed his eyes with the makeshift tissue. “So, he went outside. I heard the gate open, which confused me. Ryan had no reason to do that. Then I heard him say my name. He sounded scared. By the time I was out there…” His breathing became sporadic again.

  “Easy, Josue. Easy,” soothed Fatima.

  “So they had already killed him by the time you got there?” Cecilia asked.

  Josue nodded, his eyes focused on nothing, or at least nothing anyone else there could see. “He’d taken one out, but another bit his neck. When I got out there he was clutching his windpipe, gasping for air. All that blood…” His eyes welled up once more. He looked at the zombie closest to Ryan. He jumped on it without his weapon, hitting its head with wild haymakers. “SON OF A BITCH!”

  Mateo and Cecilia pulled him off. He struggled for the first few seconds, but then resumed crying and curled up into a ball. He no longer made an effort to hold back his tears. Everyone looked on uncomfortably, Fatima and Mateo trying their best to soothe him. After a few minutes Josue stopped and started breathing again.

  “How do you know they spoke?” Cecilia asked him as he settled down.

  “One of them spoke right to me.” He cleared his throat and blew his nose on Mateo’s shirt again. He then lifted his trembling arm and pointed to Cecilia. “As soon as it saw me, it pointed and said ‘food.’ And that’s not all, either. It avoided walking toward me mindlessly, and it blocked my attack with its arms.”