Reunion
In Eduardo's apartment...
"If it weren't for Iñaki," says Mike sprawled in the chair "we wouldn't be here right now."
"I'm saying the same thing," adds Iñaki. "Although I'm sorry I didn't help you get water."
Martina looks out the window with chapped lips as Maria takes a sip of Sofia from the last bottle of water.
"As for that…"
Sitting next to Mike, Eduardo opens the backpack, throws it on the floor, and a few bottles of water roll out.
"Time to boil."
A few hours before…
The hooded figure waited impatiently in a corner. Its eyes looked up the street and down the street. There were no traces of infected. The figure looked at its watch and snorted. The wind rolled a garbage can a few meters away while the buildings around it remained impassive.
Then the vehicle appeared, stopped and a man got out.
"Is everything ready?"
"Yes," the figure replied.
"What about your lover?"
"That won't be a problem"
"Food?"
"There's enough."
"Water?"
"There 'll be enough tonight."
The man chuckled and patted the figure.
"I am proud of you. Food, water, defenses..."He turned around and before entering the car sentenced. "Remember to open the door for us."
"You will be welcome," the figure replied.
"And did the infected follow the sound of your voice, Iñaki?" Maria asks incredulously.
"Like a dog to a bone," Eduardo answers between bites. "Or not, Rambo?"
"That's why you have the voice like this..."
"Better, so he doesn't talk so much." Mike winks at him and takes a spoonful of chickpeas to his mouth.
"How's your leg?" Martina asks caressing him under the table.
"I can't move it too much." "Changing the subject… no sign of Victor?"
"No," Maria says.
"We'll have to go get him."
"I agree," Eduardo adds.
Martina looks at her plate, Rambo smacks his lips, Sofia puts a spoon in her mouth totally oblivious to the conversation, and Iñaki doubtfully looks at the glass of water in front of him and drinks it.
"We'll have to die of something!" Iñaki says, drying his lips.
"Amen," Mike replies, clinking his glass with Iñaki's.
"All right, where do we start looking for him?"
"You stay here," Eduardo replies without blinking. "Maria, Martina, Mike, and I will look inside the urbanization."
"It seems fine" Maria offers Iñaki a half smile.
Martina remains silent.
"If we don't find him tonight, we'll start looking for him in the neighborhood tomorrow."
"Okay, are we sure we want to find him?"
Mike snorts playfully.
"It may seem strange to you, but yes," says the Yankee, whom Victor picked up in the Buenos Aires of the dead, "un pour tous, tous pour un, as Alexandre Dumas would say. You didn't forget your promise, did you?"
Then Sofia, who until then had been absorbed eating, looks at Iñaki with giant eyes.
"Who are these women and men?"
"Who?"
"The monsters," she insists.
"They're …dead."
"And if they're dead," Sofia doesn't seem affected by the answer. "How do they walk?"
"I don't know," Iñaki says honestly.
"And why do they want to hurt me?"
"Because...they eat people."
Sofia looks at her plate frightened.
"They don't eat soup?"
"No, Sofia."
The girl withdraws into herself and Iñaki would like to know what is going through her mind.
"Sofia?"
"Am I going to eat people too?"
"No, I promise."