The Wanderers (20 page)

Moses smiled kindly. “Well Isabel,” he said, “the Judgment Day parable is one of the most important ones of the gospel. It speaks of the final day of history, of the definite sentence of God upon human beings. This text is adorned with many legends and representations that are very... plastic, but it doesn’t cease to be a parable.”

“
I know, I know, but... everything’s so surreal.”

“
That’s all well and good, but now, we have a big problem,” said the Moroccan. “How would you say that priest found you? Did you go out a lot? Did you go out on the balconies?”

Roberto blinked, with his gaze wandering between Mary and Isabel. “We never went out. We had that supermarket right underneath the house, like I told you before. But we did use the windows, of course, and the roof. Isabel loved to look through the window... she used to spend long hours looking at the street.”

“
That,” said Isabel, somewhat uncomfortable “was when we threw the papers.”

“
Papers?”

“
Yes. We thought there could be more people like us, survivors hiding in their homes somewhere. After all, if we were making it, surely someone else was too,” she vaguely gestured with her hands, “like you. So I wrote on some sheets of paper, many of them, about five-hundred, and we threw them off the roof. We thought that the wind would spread them everywhere. On the sheets we wrote the address we were at and...” Sudden realization hit her. “Oh God... is that... is that how he found us?”

Moses stirred in his seat. “Well it’s not a sure thing. I can think of other ways, maybe because he saw you on the roof, or at the window, or he heard noises... or...” He suddenly opened his eyes wide. It was practically six, but in winter night fell early and the cloudy day was not helping to prolong the natural light. He had not noticed it before, but Cripple had already turned on the small light on the living room table.

He quickly stood up and turned it off, letting the half-light rapidly invade the room.

“
What’s the matter?” Roberto asked, quickly standing.

“
The light... the specters don’t care, but a human being would just have to take a short walk through the city center to find where we’ve hidden. How stupid! Maybe he’s already found us.

“
The light...” said Mary in a weak voice.

“
Close the shutters, Josue,” said Moses.

They made sure they properly closed all of the windows; fortunately, it was an old house and the windows were narrow and fitted with wooden shutters, not blinds. Afterwards, they covered the small lamp with the cloth of a few shirts and dared to turn it on again. The light was very faint, but enough to be able to see the shapes of the room.

“
We’re going to have to be very careful about these things from now on,” said Moses in a low voice, frowning.

“
That mother fucker,” Cripple blurted out, “like it’s not hard enough already, now we have to hide at night. Alright, and what happens if I want to look out during the day? What if that guy’s looking? And what if we don’t see him? What if he hides in the apartment across from ours?
This fucking sucks!
”

“
We’ll think of something,” said Moses in a conciliatory tone. “Either way, Josue and I were thinking of going someplace else. This is the center of the city... it’s quite possible that other areas are less populated by the living dead. There might be more people. Maybe everything’s different in other areas.”

There were a few moments of silence. The idea of escaping somehow had already crossed all of their minds. The idea of whizzing out of there on the highway, a highway that in their faded dreams appeared without wrecked or abandoned cars, and empty of those dead things, but they had never considered it to be a serious possibility.

“
And how are we going to do that?” Isabel asked.

“
I don’t know yet. I have an idea... we were talking about it yesterday. This morning I’ve been looking around a little, and I think it can be done. We haven’t worked out the details yet, but I thought that we could fix and recondition an old van we have in the garage downstairs. It’s closed off, so we can work comfortably.”

“
A van?” Roberto asked, not understanding. He had seen how a group of zombies easily overturned a Hyundai in their eagerness to trap those who were inside.

“
Reinforced. With things like wheel protectors, metal grille windows, steel bars to fortify the bodywork, and some wedges like the ones on a snowplow to remove the zombies that get in the way.”

“
Oh...
wow,
” said Roberto, not knowing for certain if he was hearing a serious proposition, or if it was a joke. He looked into Moses’ eyes, but he did not see even a trace of humor in them.

“
He’s gone nuts. No, absolutely bananas,” said Cripple. “You’ve left him speechless, seriously, look at him,” he laughed heartily, “he thinks you’re joking.”

“
Why?” Isabel asked. Her eyes were sparkling, full of the type of hope that is capable of conferring the idea of freedom crammed into the carnivalesque image of a van conditioned to go through a sea of living dead. “I think it’s a brilliant idea. It can work,
it
can work
.”

“
Well, we’ll see,” said Moses with a slight smile on the corner of his lips, visibly cheered by the warm support Isabel gave him. “We’re not going to solve everything today. It’s been a hard day for us all, and either way I’m not very happy about that light, not knowing how much can filter from the outside. Malaga’s so dark that even something this faint can shine as brightly as the Lighthouse of Alexandria. So, although it’s early, I suggest we go to sleep. We will see things from a different perspective tomorrow.”

Chapter 22

The next day they were all in a very good mood. There was good chemistry in the group, and all of them felt it. Mary had had restless dreams and sobbed at times, but Isabel was always with her and by morning, she felt much better and was able to answer simple questions coherently. Roberto praised the marmalade from the army provisions; he said it had a flavor that reminded him of his grandmother’s cooking. Cripple, in turn, encountered an unexpected truce in the torment that had been unleashed inside his mouth, but he dispensed with breakfast to avoid tempting the devil.

It was still morning when they went down to the garage. Isabel could not hide her expression of disappointment when she saw the terrible state of the van. While listening to Moses’ plan as they descended the stairs that led to the garage, she had imagined a well maintained van with large truck wheels and a solid appearance, capable of transporting them all out of their nightmare to a better place. While he explained his plans for the van, however, something in the Moroccan’s tone of voice calmed her again. She had faith in his plan, she knew it was plausible, and she realized that he was going to use every available resource to succeed in making it happen.

Roberto, too, let himself be carried away by Moses’ enthusiasm. He listened attentively to how he planned to screw protective plates over the wheels, how he imagined he could solve the problem of the frontal wedges without covering the radiator’s airway, and other brilliant trifles. His vivid expression was contagious, charged with promises of tomorrow.

A little later that same day, during lunch, they shared their individual adventures. Each one told in detail how the first days of survival had been since chaos had been unleashed. Occasionally their tales were somber, but each of them had already lived through so much, that the details didn’t affect them too much.

Roberto had never spoken of his own experience, but encouraged by the circle of friends and the warmth of the candles that Cripple had placed on the table, he began to speak.

“
Do you remember when the streets started filling up with zombies, and people rushed to the roads to flee? At that time, even I thought that it would be the best solution. As you know, Malaga was already such a shit-hole that it began to be dangerous to even stay in your own home. Too many gangs, looting, and desperate people who wanted your things, even if it was just your grandfather’s suitcase loaded with filthy underwear,” he paused, “I tried to stay far away from all of that, but that afternoon I saw how a family stopped a van that was driving through the street. I didn’t hear what they said but, the man... well, he was talking to the driver through the window. The van accelerated for a second, as if it was moving on, but the guy put his hand inside. The driver dragged him while his family screamed. And then... the man took a revolver out of his pocket and shot him five times. They left the body on the ground and drove away.”

“
I think it’s because of those kinds of things,” said Moses in a low voice, “that we didn’t make it. I think the zombie infection brought out the worst in people.”

Roberto nodded his agreement and continued with his story.
“It was then that I realized that I had to leave, before some teenager with a katana sliced my neck open. I had an old Rieju motorcycle that I kept in a garage, and I decided to get it and leave town. All of you already know that the roads were completely out of the question. There was no way to move any kind of vehicle even an inch in any direction. Everyone was on edge, and it was a riot waiting to happen. People were screaming, they argued for senseless reasons, and it was even worse when you got closer to certain areas, where the cars had already been abandoned. It was horrible to see the cars all stopped, choking the roads, the lights still on, motors running and the doors open. The living dead were drawn there by the noise and the commotion, and nothing escaped them—not one driver locked inside his vehicle, nobody who dared to go through the area.”

“
Jesus...” said Isabel, vividly impressed by the tale, narrated in the neutral and even indifferent tone of someone who related an atrocity he had already overcome some time ago.

“
In the Park, they had set up a secure area around Town Hall and the Bank of Spain,” continued Roberto. “There still were cops, but even more zombies. I still don’t know how I dared to pass, using the walkways through the shrubs in the park, but I handled that bitch of a motorcycle well.”

“
What did the police do?” Cripple wanted to know.

“
They had a hell of a set-up over there. I don’t know how many operative vans they had in line, nor how many officers they had stationed there, but there were many more than what you usually see on the streets trying to restore order. They hit them with everything, they were shooting all over the place. There was a tremendous cloud of smoke, like the fucking fair fireworks. But the zombies got up—of course they got back up—over and over again, and they hurled themselves at them again.”

“
Oh shit,” said Cripple.

“
Sometimes I remember them. I imagine that it... well, it ended badly.”

There was a moment of silence as they all remembered their own horror stories, faces downcast faces. Roberto drank some water and continued his story.

“
I eventually managed to reach the Malaga exit. There were big cars and small ones, buses, trucks, a cement mixer, practically anything that could carry someone had been put into movement. I noticed that the traffic jam was in both directions, with people heading out to escape Malaga, and from people coming
to
Malaga, as if salvation was here,” he laughed through clenched teeth. “It was like a scene in a movie scene, a never-ending row of car lights, all of the cars steaming because of the heat of the motors. I moved through as best I could, but the backup was completely still. No one was going anywhere, and people were outside of their vehicles, which complicated things even more. I remember that there still were people who tried to make their cell phones work.”

“
Maybe things would have been different if the communications system hadn’t failed so soon,” interrupted Cripple tensely.

“
At least the atmosphere wasn’t as bad as in the city,” said Roberto, less tense, but just as dramatic. Then... they knocked me down.”

“
They knocked you down?”

“
Yes. I didn’t see it coming. Someone elbowed me hard when I passed by. I fell backwards and the bike continued its course for a few meters to end up falling on the ground. I was breathless for a few moments, lying on the ground, with my chest and back aching. Nobody came to see how I was, to help me get up, or see if I needed help. By the time I was able to sit up, the bike wasn’t there any more: someone had taken off on it.”

“
What a son of a bitch,” Cripple spat, disgusted now.

“
That changed everything. I stayed there for a while, leaning on the barrier on the curb. I had a small bottle of water in my backpack, and that’s what I did that whole time: take small sips while I let time pass by because moving forwards or going back didn’t seem to make sense any more. I could see the city from where I was, and I could see columns of smoke rising in several places. Then the zombies arrived.”

Isabel listened with growing tension. She looked terrified, and did not take her eyes away from Roberto.

“
At first it was just a far-away noise, “he continued, “I could hear it from afar, like an uneasy murmur. Understand me: it was as if madness was coming from the South, there were screams, and crashing sounds we could not identify, we heard it coming and people were scared. It was so evident that something was coming that more than one of them got their car out of the unending row and drove it off the highway into the woods around the road. After a few minutes, people came running; they were the first group. The others asked them when they passed by where they had come from, but they didn’t stop, they didn’t waste their breath saying one word. If you would have seen their faces, they seemed to be running at the edge of their very strengths, but still they did not stop. That made me uneasy. Very uneasy.”