Nestor yelled at me to hurry up as I ran into the bathroom. The first few days were a little rough. No one was used to anything and rules weren’t really discussed until we had accidentally broken them. There was a small bathroom at the end of Emery and I’s hallway, but during the morning that is when it’s used for women’s showers. I walked in needing to use the restroom and almost got a broken nose. Emery laughed about it for a solid ten minutes before she was willing to go in there and explain that I was just confused. By the time I had met Nestor for the daily walkarounds, I still hadn’t gone to the bathroom. He let me into the canteen restrooms and warned me to be quick. The kitchen staff didn’t like sharing. I was in the middle of washing my hands when I realized there was a mirror in front of me. I had to pause and laugh.

I hadn’t seen myself in God knows how long. The haircuts Margaret gave everyone with the solar-powered clippers were actually pretty good. I ruffled my hands through the layers in my black hair. The sides were nice and short, I guess she must have seen my bed head and knew that the shaved sides would help. I fiddled with my glasses. Through the cracks, I could see my eyes. A small smile spread on my face. Emery would always tease me about my looks, in the most innocent way she could. She would always say to me, “You have olive skin, olive-green eyes, your name is Oliver, and yet you hate eating olives with a burning passion. You cannot escape your destiny, my friend. Tis your fate.” She would then try to shove the olive pizza into my mouth, but I always gagged whenever it touched my tongue. My thumb traced over the scar on my eyebrow. I had gotten it when I slammed my head into the corner of Emery’s coffee table. We were playing tag in the house and I tripped on the living room rug. Emery’s mom had done a good job at stitching it up, but we were never allowed to play tag in the house after that. We still tried.

I wiped my hands on my red, Hawaiian shirt and left the bathroom. Nestor was waiting outside, tapping his foot against the concrete.

“Took you long enough, come on. We have to go meet Darcy in the med station. She thinks that someone has been stealing supplies.” We hurried over to the medical ward. I always loved going there because I caught glimpses of Emery working. Joey needed a lot of help recovering. He didn’t fully wake up from his sleep for four days, Roy stayed by his side for most of it. Now, he works as a janitor for Maribelle. She didn’t have the heart to keep him away from Joey, but now that he was awake, they needed Roy to give him some space so he could work on rehab. Emery always bounced around from patient to patient. You could tell that everyone loved her, she made everyone feel cared for. That day, we walked in, and I saw her talking to the male nurse from our first night here. Nestor had gone to the back to look for Darcy, I crept closer to Emery and the nurse. I hid behind a curtain as I listened.

“Oh thank you! I’m so glad that you’re so willing to do this for me. How can I pay you back?”

“Don’t even think about it, just don’t let him see you. I would hate for him to find out.”

“Me too, thank you!” Emery threw herself at the nurse, her arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him down closer to her. He lightly placed his hands on her back. My cheeks flared up. I could feel my teeth start to ache from the pressure of me clenching them together. Was she hiding something from me? Emery and I have known each other for so long, why would she keep secrets from me? Does she not trust me? Does she think that I would react poorly? I wouldn’t care if she had a boyfriend, right? Nights would just be a little lonelier, and I wouldn’t see her as much anymore, and I’d miss getting to hold her close to me as we counted stars out the window, but I wouldn’t care. Totally won't care. I heard Nestor and Darcy come back out from the supply closet.

“Hey, Darcy!” I started walking towards them, but I could hear Emery break away from the nurse behind me. I continued, but my chest started hurting.

“Hey, Oliver. So Nestor and I were talking some numbers. There’s been a sudden decrease in the amount of rubbing alcohol and pseudoephedrine. I’m worried that someone’s trying to get people high. I don’t have time to take care of sniffers and junkies during the apocalypse. Have you heard anything about users during your time here?” I shook my head. “Damn, I was hoping that maybe you heard-” Darcy paused and turned towards the entrance. A man drenched in sweat and mud came bursting through the front door. Maribelle started yelling about how unsanitary it was for him to be here, but he started yelling too, with big gasps and a raspy voice.

“Helicopters. There are helicopters in the sky. I dunno what’s going on. I’m freaking out, Nestor, why now? Why are there helicopters now? Someone answer me! Please!” The med ward fell silent. He was right, why now? My feet start moving before I could think why. I bolted out of the med tent, eyes aimed towards the sky. Nestor and Darcy followed behind me. Everyone around us was looking up. Two, black helicopters were passing over us, too high up to hear anyone screaming. A lady to my right was crying, her arms were flailing above her head, she was desperate to be heard. The helicopters just kept on going. Others started screaming and running. Nestor tried getting them to calm down, but his attempts were futile. The group already was halfway to the gates. We followed the screaming crowd. Darcy, Nestor, and I pushed to the front and tried pushing people back. The guards were yelling at people to get back. Someone ran up to the gate from the other side. Blood was pouring down the right side of her face.

“Please, someone help me! There’s so many of them, I don’t know what to do, please!” The crowd had died down a little, Nestor turned around to see the woman.

“Open the gates!” The guard standing next to Nestor put his hand on Nestor’s shoulders.

“Kahale, we can’t do that without letting the horde in,” I looked past the woman and saw what he meant. A huge swarm of zombies was heading right towards our gates, attracted to the screams of the desperate people and the blood of the crying woman. She was shaking the bars with all of her might, sobs were wracking her body. Nestor spun around. His jaw was clenched and he took a step towards the guard.

“I made it very clear from the beginning that we would never turn a person away, we are better than the others. We won’t leave people for slaughter. Open the gates, I’ll kill the horde myself.” Darcy screamed in protest, begging for Nestor to see reason, but he had started marching towards the power box for the gate. Jerry was on rotation for guarding the box, he tried standing between Nestor and it, but he got thrown to the side. I felt all of the blood in my body rush to my feet as the gates start to creak open. The woman squeezed through the opening that was growing wider, and a zombie’s fingernail caught on her shirt. The crowd of screamers ran back, I reached for my machete that was hilted to my side. This wasn’t going to be good. What had we done?