“Yes, Papi,” I grumbled.
“And find my old thermos and bring them some coffee as well.”
Maybe I should fetch the morning paper for them, too, I thought to myself as I tried not to stomp back into the kitchen. Once I filled the thermos, I grabbed it and the plate of burritos and left the apartment. Nico, Luis, and Miguel were still downstairs. Miguel was standing at the door, watching for any danger outside, while Nico and Luis sat on the stairs. They jumped up when they saw me coming down the stairs.
“Good morning, Emery,” Luis said as he brushed his brown curly hair from his eyes, “Whatcha got there?”
“My mother made you breakfast burritos and my father told me to bring you coffee as well,” I said as I held both items out to them. “They want to thank you for standing guard last night.”
Both were plucked from my hands with excitement, and I wandered toward the door as they dug into their food and coffee. The streets were a mess. Bodies were strewn everywhere, but the dead still shuffled around. The army hadn’t killed them all. As I watched, I considered my mother’s words. Was I letting my feelings control me? Should I let go of Eddie’s death? I turned back to them, determined to attempt a civilized conversation. If I was going to let go of my anger, I had to start somewhere.
“How long do you think it will be until they clear us to leave the building?”
“I’m not sure that will happen any time soon,” Nico replied.
“There are still a lot of videos being shared that show the military starting to get overrun,” Luis said. “There are eight and a half million people in the city. That’s a lot of potential zombies, even if only a fraction of the population became infected.”
He had a point, and the truth in it was terrifying. “Well, thanks for protecting the building,” I replied as I ran past them and up the stairs. Even that barely existent conversation was difficult to have, and being indebted to them made me sick.
“Thanks for breakfast,” Nico called after me.
I didn’t reply as I slipped back into my apartment. Even if my mom was right, I wasn’t ready to let go of that anger yet.
Chapter four
Luis
Iwatched Emery run back to her apartment with curiosity. “Did she seem... nice to you?” I asked. Emery had never been friendly to us, not since the shooting. Most of the time, she pretended like we didn’t exist at all. We’ve spoken more since all of this started than we have in the last two years.
“Emery is never nice,” Miguel said, voicing my thoughts.
“Yeah, but Luis is right, there was something different about her,” Nico replied, staring at the closed apartment door.
Miguel shrugged as he collected his chin-length black hair into his signature man bun. Normally, I would mock him for it, but today it didn’t feel right. “Everything is different today. What’s the plan if they don’t lift the lockdown?”
“I’m not sure,” Nico replied, scrubbing his hand down his face, “but Emery and her parents are our priority. I’m all for helping the entire building, but they come first. I think we should take inventory of the food in the building. Make sure that no one is going without, but also make sure that it will last us.” He turned to me. “Luis, keep watching all the videos. Those will tell us the state of the city before the news does. They’re going to want tokeep everyone calm, which means censoring the truth from the public for as long as possible.”
“We need to be prepared for things to go south, because I have a feeling things are going to get much worse,” I agreed. “All the videos I’ve been watching haven’t shown much progress, if any, from the military on getting a handle on this. They might not get a handle on this at all, and if they can’t, society is done.”
“If they can’t control it, they will try to contain it,” Miguel said. “We don’t want to be inside that containment zone. Lockdown or not, we might have to leave the building soon and try to get out of the city. We can’t let ourselves get trapped here.”
“We won’t,” Nico said, moving toward the door to look out.
“Maybe we should leave now,” I suggested.
“Not yet,” Nico replied. “We can’t risk running into a group of zombies or the military. Leaving will be our last option.”
I had mixed feelings about leaving, despite suggesting we go now. I grew up in this building with my grandparents. I never knew my dad; I’m not sure my mother even knew who he was. Just some John she fucked for her next bump of coke. When she gave birth to me, she immediately handed over parental rights to my grandparents and left the hospital. They never heard from or saw her again. When I was sixteen, Miguel and Nico moved in with us. Much to my grandparents’ disappointment, we’d always been street kids mixed up in some gang or another before forming our own.
Emery had always lived in the building as well. We’d always gotten along, and even though he was a little older, Eddie had always been kind to me. He was kind to all of the kids in the building. On more than one occasion, he had tried to get us to walk away from the gang life. Watching him die had been hard on all of us. And while we didn’t pull the trigger, knowing he would still be alive if it hadn’t been for our involvement ingang wars would stick with us forever. I didn’t blame Emery for considering us responsible for his death.
Emery hadn’t said more than two words to us until now. Her screams when she saw Eddie still haunted my dreams.
Two Years Ago
“You know,” Emery said as she stopped on the sidewalk with a paper bag from the deli in her basket, “you’re more than capable of fetching your own lunch instead of calling down to the deli to have them hand it to me as I pass by. I charge people for this.” Her brown curly hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and her brown eyes were twinkling as she climbed off her bicycle. I immediately trotted down the three steps to the sidewalk and grabbed the bike as she handed the bag of food to Nico. I carried it up the steps and rolled it into the building for her.
“How else would we ensure you took a midday break?” Miguel asked. “Besides, maybe we just like to see your pretty face.”
