I looked over my shoulder to see Nico following us a short distance away. He still looked pissed. I glared at Miguel. “Why the hell are you pushing his buttons?” I hissed.
Miguel shrugged. “Because I’m tired of being ordered around. Because if the four of us have a shot, we have to start on even ground. No one can hold more power than the other, except for you, of course. But the three of us have to be equals, or resentments will grow.”
I sighed. Miguel raised a good point.
“I would have explained this to him if he hadn’t acted like an asshole. Now he can stew for a little while.”
“Or you could be an adult and talk to him now,” I suggested. “We have the time, it’s a long walk.” I gave him a stern look to emphasize that it wasn’t as much of a suggestion as it sounded.
“Yes, ma’am,” Miguel replied, stopping in his tracks to wait for Nico to catch up to him.
I shook my head and kept walking. They wouldn’t let me get too far ahead of them, and the streets were pretty dead so far. I snorted at my little joke. I hadn’t meant to be punny, but raw talent is impossible to suppress. About halfway there, they caught up to me. “Did you boys sort out your shit?”
“We did,” Nico replied. “And we realized that we owed you an apology.”
“What for?”
“For fighting like idiots,” Miguel replied. “We both could have handled that better. So we’re sorry.”
“Apology accepted. We can’t fight each other. It wastes time and energy and serves no purpose. If we disagree, we need to talk about it. Maybe the other person has a perspective you hadn’t considered. Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s get these pedicabs and get back.” As we neared Central Park, we noticed more zombie activity and had to take several down.
“It looks like the street is blocked ahead,” Nico stated from our hiding place behind a car.
“We can go down a block and come up from the other direction,” Miguel replied. “Come on.”
The detour was rougher than the rest of our trip from the tunnel had been. The side streets were much more cluttered. Suitcases and personal belongings were everywhere. Evidence of people trying to escape with what they could carry, abandoning their belongings and running. I noticed a trampled family album and bent to pick it up. A family’s entire life was in those pages—countless memories and special occasions that were important enough to preserve.
“They don’t need the pictures to remember, Princess,” Nico said softly. “Memories live on in our hearts and our minds.”
“What if they didn’t make it? Who will remember them then?”
Miguel kissed my forehead and then took the album from my hands and tucked it into his bag. “We will.”
It was such a simple gesture, and only a little creepy. We didn’t know these people. Keeping pictures of people we hadn’t known was weird, but the world had changed. Knowing that in a small way, we could keep them from being completely forgotten meant a lot to me. And for them to understand that, without needing an explanation, was everything.
When we got to the next block, we cut back over and finished the rest of the walk to the park. “Shit,” I said as we peeked around the corner and saw the large horde congregated in the street in front of the park. “What do we do?”
“You two get on top of the fire truck,” Miguel said as he started digging through his bag. “I’ll set up a distraction further down the block, circle around, and cut through the park. When the street is clear, you can head to the pedicab stand and wait for me. Just... stay silent.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
Miguel grinned and held up fistfuls of firecrackers. “It’s gonna get a little loud.”
“Be careful!” I grabbed the front of Miguel’s shirt and yanked him toward me, sealing my lips to his for a hard kiss. “I mean it. Stay the fuck alive.”
“I’ll always come back to you, Baby. You can count on that,” Miguel replied. He and Nico nodded to each other before Miguel took off.
“Ok, up you go, Princess.” Nico boosted me onto the truck and followed me to the top. We flattened ourselves as best we could in the center to stay out of sight of any zombies. The last thing we wanted was for them to set their sights on us rather than on Miguel’s distraction. We waited quietly, but as the time stretched, I began to get nervous. What if he didn’t make it to the first stage of his plan? He could have run into trouble.
Nico grabbed my hand and stroked it with his thumb. “Relax, Em. He’s fine.”
“You don’t—“
I was cut off by an explosion several blocks away. And not the kind caused by a bunch of firecrackers. This one was huge and shook the ground, causing the firetruck to shake as well.
“What the fuck?”
“Miguel must have found something bigger to blow up,” Nico chuckled.
