Tara stares at her in disbelief and then continues to try and gives a very audible pull on the handcuff. Espinosa does not react, instead, she walks away, creating room and time for Tara to scan the rest of the garage for the first time.
Her heart drops. There are two bodies on the ground that Rosita is walking towards. Tara covers her mouth with her free hand and makes herself even smaller. It's the second crime she has been an accomplice in in two days.
Rosita turns around at the sound of Tara's sudden change in breathing and movement. She raises her shoulders, looks to the side, and presses her lips together like she doesn't understand Tara's shocked reaction. 'They wouldn't let me in.' She sighs and then starts to drag one of the corpses out of the garage, into the house.
Tara's panic kicks in, the ice that froze her has melted. She yanks and pulls on the handcuff, Rosita shooting her quick, indifferent glances while she comes back and drags out the second body. 'Unlock it! Let me go!' she screams.
That causes Rosita to run back into the garage in a hurry. 'Stop! Stop it right now!' She makes her way over to Tara and kneels down in front of her, pointing her finger at Tara first, and then pushing it against her soft pink lips to signal silence. Tara quiets down immediately, threatened by the sudden closeness and the seriously stern look in Rosita's eyes. 'Sound attracts them, you want to be eaten; go on like you were doing.' She watches closely as Tara lets it sink in. 'So please,' she whispers, 'stay quiet.'
Tara nods. It seems that the advice is genuine, because a few seconds after Tara's outburst, dozens of fists start banging on the garage door. Tara whimpers and Rosita jumps up, only staying low enough to not be completely visible to the outside through the high windows. She then looks at Tara again, and then at the door. 'It'll hold.'
• • •
After a few minutes of staying as still as possible, the infected people outside seem to drift away slowly, losing hope of having a meal inside. Tara pleads to Rosita, who has sat down against the wall on the other side of the garage. 'You can't leave me here to die.'
'What makes you think I'm leaving you to die?'
Tara can't think of an answer that doesn't sound too absurd to be said out loud. Everything she has now depends on this woman, keeping her locked in here while flesh-eating sickos are roaming the street.
The two of them sit in silence on opposite sides of the garage for a few minutes. Tara can barely sit still from the adrenaline. She surprises herself by asking Espinosa a question. 'Do you enjoy killing people?'
Rosita stares at her blankly. Tara waits for an answer, she already feels that it was an inappropriate question.
'I've saved your life twice.'
Yes, Rosita picked her off the street, saving her from the crowd of infected. But the first time? What was that then?
Rosita closes her eyes and the corners of her mouth curl up just a little bit. 'If I wanted to kill you, you would've been dead already.' She stands up and digs around in her pockets. 'That doesn't mean you should try anything,' she warns Tara, now holding up a small key. Tara's eyes widen and she sits straighter up. 'I can still change my mind,' Rosita adds.
Tara nods. Weirdly enough, Rosita Espinosa is starting to become more and more human, even while Tara's reality is getting further and further deformed.
Rosita locks eyes with Tara while she crouches down beside her and slowly sticks the key into the handcuff, not breaking eye contact once. The handcuffs click and Tara watches as Rosita frees her wrist from it. She nods a "thank you" and receives a pat on her shoulder.
'Get comfy, we might be here a while,' Rosita says as she stands up and walks away to a table equipped with tools.
Tara shuffles to her feet and carefully takes a look through the small garage door windows. 'What do you mean?'
'Those sickos outside, we can't fight them all off without getting into a deeper load of shit.'
'I'm confused.'
Espinosa scoffs. 'Have you been living under a rock?'
'Our power went out.'
'Jesus, already?' Rosita leans back against the tool bench. 'It's taking over, Tara, the virus. It makes you sick and it kills you and it makes you want to eat other living beings. It's not fun.' Tara's mouth hangs open. 'They're dead and hungry. The government is powerless. Welcome to paradise.'
Rosita leaves Tara a few minutes of silence to process it.
'I need to protect my family,' Tara then announces.
Rosita looks surprised, and then finally nods. 'Only you can do that, Tara. They're home? Inside?' Tara nods hesitantly. 'Then they'll be fine, for now.' She picks up a black backpack from the tool bench and starts digging through it.
'Where will you go?' Tara asks.
Rosita shrugs. 'I'm gonna have some fun.' She slings the bag around one shoulder and gestures for Tara to follow her into the living area of the house. Tara hesitates, but there's nowhere else to go right now and no one else to listen to. It's just Rosita Espinosa and her. And the dead house owners; she forgot about those. 'Oops,' Rosita says sarcastically when they walk past them.
The living room of the house is dark, the curtains drawn closed. Rosita walks over to the window and peeks through a small gap. 'It's crowded on this side too, see for yourself.' She moves away to make space for Tara, who does as she says.
There are dozens of sick people walking the street, slaloming and stumbling about scattered still-lying bodies. Tara stares in awe. She feels sick. 'How are there so many?'
Rosita watches the back of Tara's head. 'They bite. That's all I know. You'd better not let them bite you.'
Tara steps away and closes the gap in the curtain back up. She turns around and sees that Rosita has taken out a flashlight. She uses it to illuminate the kitchen table. 'That'll do,' she says in satisfaction. 'Hold this.'
Tara takes the flashlight she's handed and keeps it pointed at the table. Rosita carefully places her backpack on top of it and zips it open. From inside, she unloads different guns and knives. The woman looks up at Tara, her eyebrows raised. 'No touching,' she commands.
Her heartbeat has never been louder. The guns are within reach. She could take one and shoot her right here, as long as she's fast enough. Her body tenses up when Rosita starts to load all the guns with bullets and fill up the magazines.
'Why'd you pick me off the street?' Tara asks.
Rosita stays focused on her work. 'Would you rather I didn't?' she remarks.
She doesn't need to answer her rhetorical question, instead, she follows up, 'why are you here?'
Rosita scoffs. 'It's much worse in the city center, better off staying in the outskirts. I mean that both cop-wise and outbreak-wise.'
'Really? What did you see?'
Rosita seems to have let her guard down as she goes into detail. 'It's what we saw vaguely yesterday. A bunch of those things show up, people scream, cops try and shoot 'em, they're unfazed, they bite, they feast, it's complete chaos. People are fleeing, evacuating and then getting hurt on the road.'
All the while Rosita is talking, Tara eyes the guns that she's preparing. It's Rosita Espiniosa, she's a murderer, a thief, a fraud. It's common sense to try and stop her from hurting anyone else. Yet she hasn't hurt Tara. She's actually been kind of nice to her.
Tara flinches when she realizes Rosita is no longer busy with her guns, but staring right at her. 'What ya thinking 'bout?'
Tara shakes her head. 'It's nothing.'
Rosita runs her hands over the guns and stops on a handpiece that had caught Tara's eye. 'You like it?' she asks.
Of course she likes it.
Espinosa empties the gun of bullets quickly and hands it to Tara. 'Get a feel of it.'
Tara takes the gun in confusion. Rosita stares at her expectantly, she seriously wants Tara to feel it. So she holds it up as if aiming for the gap in the curtains at the window, nods carefully in humble approval, and receives a smile. Upon further inspection using the flashlight, she notices a carving in the grip panel. It's a rose; the same kind that Rosita drew on her hand yesterday, and the same one that Tara imagined seeing on her window. 'It's nice.'
'It's yours.'
'Why?'
Rosita thinks for a second. 'You will need it.'
• • •
A gun for a gift. Trust for safety.
Rosita had made a plan, Tara had gone along with it. They would wait until dusk to go back out on the street.
Tara is standing watch on the garage side of the house, with Rosita watching over the living room side and her makeshift armory. It's weird having a loaded gun in her hands that belongs to Rosita Espinosa. It's awfully quiet in the other room. It's still crawling with sick ones outside.
Tara looks around and peeks through the doorway into the living room. Rosita is sitting on the living room table, her hands both busy playing with a knife, spinning and poking the wooden table top. They make a very soft distinct sound, a consistent rhythm almost music-like. Her handgun is in her holster and a sniper rifle is stood against the table within reach. The curtains are drawn open a little further than before since they agreed to keep it dark outside to not draw attention.
With no idea how long she has been staring, Tara straightens her back, forcing herself to be awake. She holds on tight to the gun, calm and collected. It's loaded and the safety is off. Rosita Espinosa is within shooting range. It's a target she could hit with the little practice she has had.
As if summoned by the mention of her name in Tara's thoughts, Rosita turns her head around. 'It's time,' she says, her voice raspy.
'Okay.'
Rosita starts gathering the last of her things and Tara pays extra close attention to the geeks outside. They must face them, Tara cannot wait any longer to go back to her house where her family is hopefully waiting for her. The plan asks for darkness, and that they are now supplied with. So yes, this is it. It has to happen now.
Rosita joins Tara in the garage and looks at her for a second, then holds the rifle out in front of her for Tara to take. 'You'll cover me, and you do it good,' she orders.
Tara nods. 'Just like we've planned.' She watches on as Rosita unwraps a number of firework packages and tests her lighter one more time. It's she who has to go outside quickly to set them off, it's she who doesn't seem all too worried about it.
'All right,' Rosita lets out a deep breath, keeping a calm voice, 'fucking shit.'
When the garage door is pushed up into the ceiling by Rosita, the sounds of the infected are all Tara hears. She watches anxiously as Rosita sprints off through the street, covering a distance of around three hundred feet, smoothly dodging the hands and mouths of the dead people reaching out for her. At the furthest point, she starts and lights the first fuses, placing a package of fireworks on the asphalt efficiently. That's when the infected start to close in on her. Tara, now looking through the scope of the gun, comes into action. She starts to shoot off the people who come closest to Rosita, careful not to shoot too close to her. Rosita pushes the other ones away from her when she has to. She lights more fireworks, the first ones about to go off. Tara shoots more bullets. Rosita draws closer and closer again, navigating conveniently through the hungry crowd. She ducks without losing speed, her footsteps light and swift. She takes the last firework package that she had held clutched under her arm and finishes setting it up, then she crouches down behind a parked car and finds Tara's eyes, nods at her, smirking. She's literally insane.
The show starts. An explosion of colors lights up the starry night sky. The dead people forget about the woman hiding behind the vehicle and head towards the gunpowder-powered noise machines. It's working.
Tara looks back to Rosita, who gestures for her to run over to her now. She takes a deep sigh, copying Rosita, and tries to be just as graceful when she crosses the street. She made it. Tara drops down next to Rosita, her heart racing, her chest about to explode with adrenaline. Rosita grins. Tara can't believe it. To try and calm herself, she holds out her fist for Rosita to bump. Rosita laughs out loud carelessly. 'All right, we gotta run.'
Tara shakes her head, still panting heavily. Rosita stands up straight and is already half-turned away to get out of there before she notices the fear in Tara's eyes.
'What? Are you shitting me?' she says loudly. It doesn't matter, the fireworks are still popping off, covering her sounds, and at the same time lighting up her face in pink, yellow, and green hues. It is quite a magical sight. She waits a few seconds, then throws up her hands in retreat. 'Okay then,' she turns on her heel and starts to walk away.
'No! Wait!' Tara says, taking fewer risks with the volume of her voice.
Rosita turns around, smiling. She sticks out her gloved hand to help Tara get to her feet, and together they run in the opposite direction of the fireworks.
• • •
When the last of the fireworks die out, Rosita and Tara are left in the dark on a corner close to Tara's house. They had taken a moment to stand still and take the view of it in: the beauty and the success of their collaboration. Now it is just dark again. Both of them are quiet.
Tara hands Rosita the rifle back.
'You know, you did quite alright out there. Your aim is pretty decent.'
'Thanks.' Tara thinks of a way to return a compliment. 'Your plan worked,' she states dryly.
In silence, they quickly continue speedwalking in the direction of Tara's house. Luckily, the streets are quieter of geeks now. It's only a short walk from here. Still, they are both alert and scanning their surroundings.
'How long do you think this will last?' Tara softly asks.
Rosita keeps her gaze forward. 'I think this just might be the end of the world, Tara.'
Tara swallows. That theory hadn't crossed her mind.
'In some time, there won't be anyone left to mess around with or to kill. Everyone is already dying.' Tara looks at her while she talks, inspecting Rosita's side profile while she is off guard. 'I don't even know what I'm going to do now. At least everybody is distracted, I guess. I oughta relax a bit.' It must be the adrenaline that induces Rosita to say what is on her mind, for her to let a glimpse of her unhinged nature slip out of her mouth.
Tara looks forward again. In a couple of blocks, she will be relieved to finally see her house again. She stops walking and immediately Rosita notices and does the same. Tara uses the last bit of common sense left in her brain. 'I'd rather you didn't know where I live.'
Rosita's reaction is a genuine smile. She lets her head hang down shortly and then shoots Tara a proud look. 'Okay then, go. But be careful. It's pretty dangerous out here for a girl like you.'
'Is that supposed to be an insult?'
Rosita grins and nods to the handgun she gave to Tara. 'Use it carefully, only when you absolutely need it. It's loud.'
Tara smiles. 'Thank you.'
'Be safe, Tara. Take care of your family.' Rosita's smile softens. 'Then this is where our paths divide.' Rosita Espinosa nods sincerely, and just as abruptly as she had entered Tara's life, she disappears into the darkness of the night.
A/N This is possibly the chapter that had the biggest 2024 glow-up of the ones I've rewritten so far. So happy with how this is going, it's not perfect and it never can be but it's fun and decent and I'm loving it, hope you're having a good read <3