Chapter 6: 6.- A Good Fight, Thank you Very Much (1/2)

 

The next morning, she set out to explore the terrain and forage for food with a group of young people. She did not try to make friends with any of them, as she was not very good at that. The others barely spoke to her, only to tell her where they were going and what their names were, which she forgot a minute later.

They had been walking all day through rubble and abandoned buildings. The route they had chosen was erratic and went through hidden and protected places, ideal for hiding from the nonis, who were big and wide, and preferred to move along spacious paths.

At a certain point they found a humble warehouse among large buildings, in the shadow of what had once been the central area of the city. They entered to search it from one side to the other, the group scattered through the little space for food and supplies. Not long after, however, the inner door of the shop opened, letting in a squadron of nonis.

The one at the front looked like the leader. As soon as they entered, he noticed the children. He immediately alarmed his comrades and pointed his pistol at the youngsters, but Erica, quick on her feet, slipped past her partners to approach the soldier and grab his rifle. Before he had time to react, she grabbed him and smashed him with one swipe. Then she took another step towards him and pushed him against the other nonis coming behind, to slow them down and gain a few seconds.

—Run!— yelled the girl.

The humans obeyed without complaining. The nonis on the other side of the door aimed at Erica to shoot her, but she saw it coming. She propelled herself from the doorframe toward the nearest noni. From there she ducked down and hit him in the jaw from below. Before the others could counterattack, the girl jumped on the third one to hit him in the neck, breaking it. Finally, she took the latter's rifle and used it as a projectile towards the fourth noni, but the weapon did not follow the trajectory she had expected and ended up crashing into a window.

The girl and the noni looked at each other, dismayed for a few moments. Erica couldn't believe she had missed, while the noni couldn't believe he was still alive.

They quickly shook off their stupefaction, they had to concentrate. The girl ran towards the soldier, who raised his rifle to shoot her. Erica threw herself to the ground to roll. The soldier missed his shot. The girl emerged from the side, kicked one of his knees to break it, jumped to grab his head by the horns and threw it against the ground as if it were a ball. The noni stopped moving.

Erica took a moment to confirm that she had knocked them all out. Finally, feeling satisfied, she left the warehouse to meet her group. They saw her appear without a scratch, they couldn't believe it.

—What about the nonis? — one of them wanted to know.

—I defeated them— she assured, as if nothing had happened.

—Are they dead?— a girl wanted to know.

—No, I don't think I killed any of them— Erica tried to remember. It did not seem to her that his wounds were lethal, she hoped.

The youngsters looked at the natural leader of the team: Joaquin, a boy barely of age, as tall as a noni and with a mischievous face.

—How about taking away their guns?— he suggested.

—What a good idea!— exclaimed a girl.

—We could give them a spoonful of their own medicine— proposed a fat boy.

—I want a big one!— exclaimed a shy boy.

Everyone agreed. It was a great idea, they had never been able to shoot one of those things before. Surely the nonis would freak out if they pointed their own guns at them.

However, Erica shook her head vigorously.

—I defeated them, I decide what to do with the guns.

And she was about to say that no one should dare touch them, but Joaquin interrupted her.

—We can't avoid it, it's a necessity— he argued.

With that, everyone tried to repeat Joaquin's comment using other words.

—Yes, we need to protect ourselves.

—Why should we leave them there? They will only use them to kill more people.

—Strategically, it's a very bad idea to leave them here.

—You have no right to the guns!

Without further discussion, the group entered the warehouse and stole the weapons from the unconscious nonis. Erica felt the need to punch their teeth out of their faces, but she restrained herself. Ever since she was about 14 or so she had been trying to restrain herself when something made her angry, for her fits of rage always came back to haunt her in some way.

—Fine, but if one of you points that shit at me, I'll shove it up your nose— she demanded, though no one even turned to make her understand that they had heard her.

—Hehe, of course— answered Joaquin, at her back.

Erica just looked at him with a frown. She didn't like people like him, she didn't like it when people contradicted her, much less when they disobeyed her orders. That was why she disliked everyone. Finally, she turned and walked to the wall to wait for the others. In that moment of silence, she wondered if she had really made the right decision.

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She continued to defend the group while they took food and, against her wishes, weapons from the nonis. Joaquin, the leader of the group; Marco, the shy and smart boy; Clara, a cheerful girl; Roberto, a fat and funny boy; and Gustavo, a robust young man who loved to talk about his muscles. She did not like any of them.

Several days went by, Erica was busy all the time. When she had time to herself, she thought about her dad and what he was doing at the moment.

Lucifer also stopped at times and wondered what his beloved daughter was doing, but she didn't know that, nor could she imagine where he was.

As time went on, Erica inevitably forged certain bonds with the people at the shelter, especially the people her age, though she never saw any of them as friends. No, none of them deserved as much.

Joaquin became her closest person, or at least he tried to be. He spent most of the day with her, not because he needed to, and constantly looked for ways to make her laugh or tease her to direct her attention to him. Erica was strong, in many ways, but not socially. She could not find a way to get away from the boy who made her angry with his silly face or irritated her with his presence, so she gave up after a few days and decided to tolerate him, an attitude that Joaquin mistakenly took as an invitation to get closer to her.

 

One day, when she could hardly stand the discomfort of the place or Joaquin's personality, Erica realized that she had already spent a long time in Santa Gloria, almost three weeks. She had learned nothing about her father's whereabouts and little about the nonis. Perhaps it was time to leave... But where to?

They walked as usual; hiding from the nonis and searching for food. Erica usually didn't need to fight, so she stayed behind the group. Joaquin took advantage of her creating some distance to go and talk to her.

—Why don't you like it when we take the weapons?— he asked.

—Because you don't deserve them— she answered, as if it were obvious— I beat all those nonis, not you. Besides, I've never liked guns.

—You once said you liked fighting with knives— he reminded her.

—I said they weren't bad, I still prefer fists.

—And why don't you like guns?

Erica began to feel irritated by the interrogation.

—I don't know! Why do you like the things you like?

—I don't know...

In truth, Erica could talk for hours about why she didn't like guns, but she hated talking to him, she hated walking next to him and she hated talking with a dry mouth, and that day it was hot and she didn't have a drop of saliva, or so she felt. Joaquin annoyed he so much that she had the fantasy of leaving him and his group alone as soon as a noni appeared, to see if they would learn to respect her when they were really afraid.

—Why do you think the nonis want to invade us?— Joaquin continued — Oh, we could interrogate one, what do you think?

—And by "we" you mean me— the girl guessed.

Joaquin shrugged his shoulders.

—If you want to.

No, she didn't want to. She had no reason to interrogate a noni. Erica thought about making it clear, when a crazy idea crossed her mind: Maybe, if the nonis had a connection to her dad's disappearance, one of them could give her a clue on how to find him. As simple as that! She felt foolish not to have thought of it before.

—Is that okay with you? Could you interrogate one of them to get information out of him?— Joaquin asked

Erica looked at him and nodded. Yes, she could, but not exactly because he asked her to.

—We are here— said Marco.

Erica and Joaquin stopped behind the others. In front of them was the old shopping mall, the only one in the city that was still standing, or at least a part of it. They entered quietly and carefully, and made their way toward the supermarket store on the second floor. To their surprise, as Erica stepped forward down the aisle to confirm that there were no soldiers, the floor beneath her collapsed. The group ran to the edge to try to help her, but when they looked down they found her on a pile of mattresses, as surprised as they were.

—I'm all right— she announced, staring in dismay at the room she had fallen to— Look what I found.

And she was right to be so surprised, since in front of her were dozens of food boxes, all with canned or non—perishable food. It was a treasure trove for refugees like them.

The gang soon carried the boxes up to the second floor and made makeshift wheelbarrows out of what they had around them to take as much as they could to the shelter.

Cautiously, they walked through the empty streets and rubble to the mini market. The rest of the refugees were overjoyed, as they had been enduring a period of scarcity, but that would all end with the food the gang had found.

They soon organized another group to go and pick up what was left. Of course, Erica would go with them, as such an important trip needed every measure of security.

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