The Wanderers by Permuted Press

up making water scarce as well. None of the faucets delivered the essential element anymore. For this reason, the pool was used as a community bath, and it was kept hygienic thanks to the chlorine and the germicidal powders that were stocked.
    About thirty people lived in the encampment that some called Macondo , in honor of the book by Garcia Marquez, which was about survivors to a pandemic that had ravaged the world months before. Most of these survivors had experience fighting the wanderers; they each had survived more than one direct confrontation before they had arrived. Others, like Susana, had learned on the way. They also had many electrical generators: a complete battery of Berlans 3000 that they had brought from the nearby Carrefour, and two large Caterpillar 1250 taken from a construction site on one of the back streets. In addition, they had also found several three-phase Wilson Perkins in the installations that they had connected to the power supply.
    They made many efforts to conserve electricity, because using the electricity meant using gasoline, and obtaining it represented increasing risks. Therefore, the whole encampment went to bed early, and did not use televisions or other frivolities that required connection to the power supply. They did have, most of the time, one or more radios turned on. The only transmissions they received were in English, although the sound was broken up and surrounded in static; and in spite of a few of them being able to read the language with certain ease, none of them understood much of what they heard on the radio. Nevertheless, they liked to feel that they were not the last survivors in a world full of resuscitated cadavers.
    In the ensuing weeks, Aranda managed to become very popular in the encampment. He was very charismatic and was well liked by everyone almost instantly. He was calm, knew how to listen, and always had solutions for the problems that arose, no matter what kind: an unexpected problem with a pipe, improvements in the administration and management of food, or an improvement in the shift system. In short order, the words “let’s see what Aranda has to say about it” were in everyone’s mouth.
    Of the thirty people that lived in the sports center, a smaller group had become specialized in weapon use. Dozer and two others had been hunting enthusiasts and were also good athletes, and therefore were the ones to go for supplies when it needed to be done. They were extraordinarily good. They also took care of the undesirables that had regularly approached the camp when it was still young and there were not as many zombies.
    One group of them, arriving on powerful motorcycles, had stationed themselves close to the main entrance driving their bikes in circles. They carried weapons, and along with shots into the air, they shouted that it would be best if some of the women left with them in order for them to perpetuate the species. Dozer and the others had fired several shots in rapid succession and every single one of the marauders’ weapons fell to the ground; the hands that held them had been reduced to bloody stumps. They left, bikes roaring, zigzagging among the living dead.
    That had happened when there were still undesirables left on the streets. There were none left anymore.
    Susana was a part of the smaller, specialized group. She proved to have a natural talent for weapons use, as well as extraordinary aim. She trained hard daily to improve her physical form, and had discovered that doing so did not just strengthen her body, but it reinforced her mental fortitude. She had changed greatly since she had abandoned her apartment, now several months ago, and she felt proud of said change, of having left behind a timid and indecisive Susana that she did not identify herself with any longer.
    One morning, Juan went to the athletics track. It was an inclement, black day. He studied the specters’ movements, watching them hold on to the metal railing with their