“What’s wrong?” Ken asked immediately as he saw them run toward him.
“Zombies,” Fatima explained.
“And they weren’t normal zombies, neither,” Deon added.
“More sprinters?” Hector asked, the concern spilling over in his voice.
“Nope,” Sarah answered. “Well, actually, yeah. But also, zombies who can talk. Not to mention defend themselves.”
Ken crossed his arms and furrowed his brows, processing the information. Hector’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit,” Hector muttered.
“Those motherfuckers got Ryan,” Deon informed them. “And Josue got too wild, went into cardiac arrest right after. We’re all fucked up right now.”
“Holy shit,” Hector repeated, rubbing his temples in alarm.
“I appreciate the warning,” Ken began, “but you guys shouldn’t have come here. You left your school in danger.”
Ehsan, Fatima, Sarah, and Hector blinked in surprise. Deon shook his head. “Had to do it. Anyways, we ain’t got much time, we gotta go warn the fishermen and get back. Stay up.”
Before Hector could ask another question or Ken could chastise Deon any further, the group departed. They returned to the previous street, where they would normally cross to continue back toward the school. This time they veered right and walked down the street, sneaking along the front yard of each house so that they could run inside if the need arose.
The suburban neighborhood eventually gave way to railroad tracks. On the other side was a row of small sea-side businesses that stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction. Ehsan saw a street sign that said COAST HIGHWAY on what had once been a streetlight. He felt a wave of dread begin to envelop him… until he noticed a surprising lack of zombies along the street. They didn’t encounter a single one while crossing the tracks, nor did they see any near the shops. Still, with the buildings so close together, Ehsan imagined every corner held a potential threat on the other side.
“Weird,” Sarah commented as they scanned the street around them. “Usually we see at least a few zombies whenever we scout around here.”
“Maybe whoever is out there took them all to experiment on,” Fatima suggested.
No one said anything. While Ehsan dreaded that possibility, he secretly relished the fact that there were none nearby now, experiments or not. The group scanned the windows of the nearby shops as they approached the street. Nothing.
“Get ready,” Deon warned Ehsan and Fatima as they crossed the street. “The fishermen ain’t exactly friendly.”
“Why is that?” Fatima asked.
“They’re the least invested in our community,” Sarah explained. “They don’t think they really need us. I mean, they’re not awful people or anything, but they don’t really give a shit, and they don’t try to hide it.”
Deon nodded. “We can let Sarah talk to ‘em. They like her ‘cause of what she knows about fishing.”
Everyone agreed. Ehsan grimaced, bracing himself for a possible future argument upon their arrival at the pier. The group fell into a tense silence as they moved past Coast Highway and into a small stretch of houses. The ground there sloped gently downward toward the ocean. They could now see the beach, only half a mile ahead at most.
“Shit…” Deon started, trailing off as he looked in front of them. He pointed. “Looks like we found the missing zombies, y’all.”
Ehsan looked where Deon pointed toward. He saw the pier. He also saw a swarm of well over a hundred zombies, including a group of sprinters who descended upon a stray dog. All the other zombies stood around idly. The peer had already fallen.
“Well fuck,” Sarah muttered. Everyone stood frozen to their spots, unable to move. Surprisingly to Ehsan, he didn’t feel scared. Instead he felt an immense exhaustion pour over him. Another disaster? How many could happen in one day? It barely felt real. Ehsan’s memory, as well as heart, went back to the fall of his Costco. He felt light-headed. His balance gave out. He fell to the ground.
Fatima saw her brother faint. “Ehsan? Ehsan?” She ran over to where he laid on the floor and put his head onto her lap. She shook him. Deon and Sarah looked over her shoulder. “Ehsan. Are you okay?”
Ehsan stirred. He slowly opened his eyes and groaned. “Ugh. Sorry, yeah, I’m okay. I just… I just need a minute, that’s all.” Fatima sighed with relief. She gently set his head down on the pavement and looked to Deon and Sarah. This was just like when their Costco fell.
“It looks like it’s already over for them,” Sarah observed with a morose shake of her head. “I don’t see anything moving faster than normal zombie speed, other than those sprinters getting that poor dog.”
Deon scanned the horizon closely. “There’s gotta be some people left,” he lamented.
I dunno, it seems unlikely,” Sarah replied. “If there are, though, they’ll make their way to the school. They know where we are.”
Fatima nodded. It relieved her to hear Sarah agree with her. “For now, we should focus on getting back.”
“What if there are survivors, though? We gotta try,” Deon protested.
Fatima shook her head. “Deon, I truly respect your dedication. But we need to get back. The risk is too high, and the chances are too slim.”
Deon pursed his lips and looked toward the ocean, then at the ground. “It is a bad sign we can’t see any non-zombie movement at all.” He looked back toward the ocean. “I guess we got here too late. But we gotta keep an eye out for any survivors on our way back, at least.”
Fatima and Sarah nodded. Fatima looked over to Ehsan, who finally started to stand back up. He used his shovel for support. Fatima rushed over to assist him. Sarah and Deon helped as well. The three of them brought Ehsan to his feet, one arm slung over Fatima’s shoulders and the other grabbing around Deon’s chest.
“Thanks, guys,” Ehsan grumbled, embarrassed. “I’m tired, but I think I’m okay.”
The group trudged back to the school. They took their time, knowing that every zombie in the area had been lured to the pier. Still, they remained cautious. Deon led the way, constantly scanning their surroundings. Fatima walked next to her brother, protecting him, while Sarah brought up the rear.
Fatima couldn’t stop thinking about the fall of the pier. How could their enemy corral all the zombies into attacking without it backfiring? Why did they only choose to attack the pier full-force? Would the school be next?
And why were they doing any of this?
Fatima thought of Josue’s words during the party. People are animals. He was right. Now she had to deal with the consequences of that darkness, deal with the toll humanity’s brutality took upon her new home that evening, and the toll it took upon the pier, and the even bigger toll it could take upon their future.
To think her biggest worry when they first joined was her new crush.
The walk back went slowly, but they encountered no trouble along the way. Normally the store fronts along Coast Highway would have grabbed Fatima’s attention, but not now. They made it back to the street in front of the school. With no zombies standing between them and Mateo, Deon and Sarah rushed back. Fatima and Ehsan continued their steady pace, Fatima not wanting Ehsan to be overwhelmed. Mateo came out to greet them, and Fatima could hear Deon and Sarah informing him about what happened.
“Shit,” Mateo replied. “This is bad.”
“Yeah.” Deon looked over to see Ehsan and Fatima approaching. “You good, Ehsan?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool. Now that we got back safely, it’s time to hit the hay. We gotta get ready to make moves in the morning.”
“Not to mention deal with Cecilia after we tell her what we did,” Sarah added with a bitter grin.
“I’d rather face another sprinter,” Ehsan joked weakly. Mateo and Sarah chuckled while Fatima smiled, happy to see some of his energy return.
Mateo and Sarah went to the lookout room while Ehsan, Fatima, and Deon returned to their own rooms. After making it inside, Fatima
set Ehsan on the couch in their room.
“Thanks, Sis.”
Fatima smiled. “No problem, Ehsan. Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” He pulled the covers over him, not bothering to change out of his filthy clothes. “I just need to rest.”
“Would you be up to talking about everything we saw?” Fatima asked. She wanted to plead, but she knew the further she prodded, the more he would resist.
“No, I’m too tired.” His eyelids looked heavy. Fatima at least appreciated the fact that he chose not to hide his discomfort with another quip.
“I Understand. Good night, Ehsan.”
“G’night, Sis.”
“You did what?!” Cecilia roared the next morning during a special meeting Deon called in the library. Ehsan, Fatima, Cecilia, Deon, Marcus, Sarah, Mateo, and Julie all gathered around two tables moved together for the meeting. Everyone grimaced upon Cecilia’s reaction.
“We had to do it,” Deon explained. “We-”
“Did nothing that happened yesterday convince you to be less reckless?” Cecilia demanded. She had bags under her eyes, and a few hairs stuck out from her normally impeccable bun.
“It showed me even more that we gotta look out for each other,” Deon replied, standing his ground. “We got serious work to do.”
“Yes, we do. But I can no longer include you in my plans. I no longer have reason to believe you can act rationally.”
“Yeah?” Deon replied with a sarcastic nod of his head. “Funny word choice, rational. That shits been used forever to shut people up, talking about how we gotta be ‘calm’ and ‘rational’ when shit gets wild. Fuck that, we gotta get serious.”
“Hold on everyone,” Mateo pleaded. “We can work this out. You both have a-”
“I don’t think Deon has anything he needs to work out,” Sarah interjected, gesturing with her hand toward Deon. “She’s not our dictator, we’re individuals who can make our own choices. I don’t see the point of this lecture.”
“This is not-” Cecilia stopped herself and somehow straightened up even more than usual. Ehsan wanted to be anywhere else but in that room. “Actually, fine, this is a lecture. You can say we are individuals all you want, and you would be right, but we are also a group who rely on each other for safety. What would I say to the children if none of you came back last night?” Her jaw tightened, and Ehsan could swear he saw the pace of her breathing pick up ever so slightly. “You think I enjoy always having to be the bad guy? I wish I could go off on reckless adventures like you do, but someone has to keep us safe. Frankly, this is getting tiring.”
“Hard to disagree,” Fatima chimed in. She avoided eye contact with Deon and Sarah. “I’m sorry, Cecilia. I agree it was reckless.”
“I understand, Fatima. I get the impression you were not the one who wanted to go.” She glanced at Ehsan, Deon, and Sarah, then sighed. “I truly do not know where to go from here. I want to trust everyone. But I simply cannot if this keeps happening. How do I know none of you will run off and play hero in today’s operation? Will any of you be able to stick to the plan?”
“Miss me with that shit,” Deon shot back. “Sticking to a plan ain’t the issue here. Plus, you think we forgot about our own? You think the info we got ain’t helpful? We got a clinic that is ready to ride ‘cause we warned ‘em, and we know what we’re up against since we saw what happened at the pier. We’re way better off now than if we hadn’t gone out.”
“That’s a fair point, Deon. I see where you and Sarah are coming from, but I also get where Cecilia and Fatima are coming from, too,” Mateo said before anyone else could speak. Everyone looked like they wanted to say something, but he kept speaking. His eyes had the distant, dreamy quality of someone with a memory of a far-off place stuck in his head. “Y’know, the other day I was bit, I honestly thought for a moment that I’d die. At first it just made me think about how stupid it was to go out alone.” He smiled a bitter smile and shook his head. Everyone else sat quietly, no longer wanting to speak over him. “But then I started to think about our strategy as a whole. About all the decisions we’ve made, and will make later, and what that means for us and the kids. Especially what it means for the kids.”
“What did you come up with?” Ehsan asked. Everyone leaned forward slightly, even Cecilia.
Mateo smiled and shook his head once more, this time with a shrug added in, speaking with unflinching sincerity. “Nothing. I didn’t come up with a damn thing about which of our choices were right or wrong. All I could think of-” Mateo paused. “All I could think of was that I really didn’t wanna die. I wanna keep playing soccer, and talking about hip hop, and welcoming new people. I wanna keep spending time with everyone here.” His voice cracked toward the end of his sentence. His eyes grew misty. He spoke slowly and softly, enunciating each word. “I want to see Ana and Estefanía grow up. I want to be there when our kids start figuring out what they want to do with their lives. I want to see them go through love, and heartache, and maybe even start families. I want to see what kind of people they become, and I would give anything to make sure that happens.”
“I think we all want that,” Julie chimed in. She turned to Deon and Cecilia with a conciliatory smile. “I think both of you want that, too. Let’s figure out what we can do.”
Deon nodded, looking at the table in front of them. “Yeah.”
“I agree.” Cecilia’s body language had returned to normal, but her words had an uncommon undercurrent of warmth. “So then, we shall stick with the plan. All of us, together. Because that is how we win.”
Everyone nodded, including Deon and Sarah. For a moment they remained quiet. Ehsan tried to imagine what it had been like for Mateo to be so close to death, to have to contemplate his own mortality. He hoped he wouldn’t have to experience it anytime soon, though with everything happening, he couldn’t be sure. His mind drifted back to Ryan, lying face down on the cement. What had his final thoughts been?
Marcus spoke next, eager to break the silence. “Josue was doing good when I left him before coming here, by the way,” he clumsily informed the group. “He’ll be okay after a couple more days of rest.”
“That’s a relief,” Ehsan replied. Ehsan never thought he’d miss Josue’s presence as much as he did then, even if he could still do without half the things he said.
“So what’s the plan, Cecilia?” Mateo asked. Everyone turned to her.
“The same plan from yesterday.” A yawn started to emerge from Cecilia’s mouth, but she stifled it. “At this point it seems they wish to pick us off, site by site. Since they attacked our west-most site first, we are almost certainly their next target. I imagine they will send someone to spy on us before they strike.”
“So we’ll stick to the plan as is?” Mateo asked.
“Almost. I believe we should no longer attempt to use the scouting party as a decoy. Instead, we shall strengthen the scouting component of the mission by getting some of the boxers to join you three, while having Sarah join Deon in watching over Julie to guarantee her safety. The scouts will have to raid not only every house on the way to the clinic, but those to the west as well, since the pier was our west-most outpost. Any houses up to the train tracks are fair game to search through. Our enemy’s accumulation of forces is not something that could be easily hidden. I believe that if we can find their base now, before they can fully build their forces, we have an easier path to victory. We simply need to make sure our scouting party is strong enough to endure any surprises.”
“I like the plan as a whole, Cecilia,” Sarah said. “But what makes you think they wouldn’t send out a big scouting party? They’ve already sent both sprinters and sentient zombies our way. I don’t want anything to happen to Julie when Deon and I won’t have eyes on her.”
“I understand your concerns. My hypothesis is that they had to test these modified zombies,” Cecilia explained. “Whatever experiments they have done, they needed to make sure their subjects came out the way they wished. They te
sted the sprinters and watched through the window, then used them as part of the attack on the pier. Now that they have tested the sentient zombies, I imagine those will become part of their arsenal as well. Luckily, because both the sprinters and sentient zombies have been tested on us, we know about them. We can strategize accordingly.”
“It was scary, but better finding out then instead of the middle of a siege,” Sarah agreed.
“Exactly.” Cecilia looked at everyone around her. “Okay everyone, it seems our plan is set. We have a more immediate matter, however: Ryan’s funeral.”
The group held Ryan’s funeral at his final resting site in front of the school gate. All the adults came outside except for Manuel, who stayed inside to guard the still-sleeping children. Those who had weapons brought them. Ehsan, sore both physically and mentally from everything that’d happened the previous day, hoped he wouldn’t have to fight. Mateo brought Josue from his room, arm around his waist, making sure he didn’t expend too much effort in walking over.
“I made a tombstone last night,” Julie informed everyone when she joined the group. She brought out a smooth, light gray rock that had RIP RYAN DEMPSEY on it in green paint. “It’s not much, but I hope it’s better than nothing.”
“Should we say a few words?” Fatima suggested as Julie placed the tombstone at the head of Ryan’s burial spot. Ehsan looked to Josue, but he seemed despondent.
“I’ll start,” Mateo decided. He cleared his throat. “Ryan, you were a true warrior. You always looked out for every member of the school, and you never hesitated when it came time to protect ‘em. You were a warrior who cared, who fought for a reason.” Mateo narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brows. “Thanks for everything, Ryan. Rest in power.”
“I can go next,” Fatima offered. “Ryan, you were a welcoming, friendly person who made Ehsan and I feel safe about joining this group. I can only imagine who else joined this place because you were stationed in front of the school during the day. Thank you for helping make Ehsan and I feel welcomed here, and for making everyone else feel welcome and safe, too. Rest in peace.”
The Human Spring Page 22