Girls Save the World in This One - Ash Parsons Page 0,102
all excited to shoot their weapons. Go all Johnny Hotshot.”
He sounds exactly like his character, and also, incidentally, exactly right.
“All it will take is just one zombie to get out, and everyone we know could be infected. Hell, the whole world,” I murmur.
“They’re going to be overrun,” Hunter says.
“Can you imagine if someone who was bitten got on an airplane?” Janet whispers.
“We have to do something,” Simon says. “We have to warn them.”
“How?” Imani asks. “The phones are jammed, and my app wouldn’t send.”
“Maybe there’s a radio,” Hunter begins. “A walkie-talkie, I mean. Downstairs in the security booth.”
“I didn’t see one, did you?” I ask.
Siggy’s blue eyes go wide.
“I saw one,” she says, turning to me. Her hands rise to her face, like she’s about to yelp in excitement, jumping up and down.
“Where, Siggy?”
A smile rises on Siggy’s mouth, pure as a sunrise. Her expression is happily thunderstruck, like she bought the winning lottery ticket and just now found it in the bottom of her purse.
“The preppers.”
We explain to the others about the Apocalyptic Preppers panel, and how the preppers might still be in the same banquet room, just down the hall.
“They had an afternoon session on the schedule, too,” Siggy says. “We nearly decided to go to that one, but we worried it cut too close to our photo-op time.”
At the mention of the photo op, this thing from earlier today that now sounds like something from an alternate reality, Simon Wong smiles, Cuellar Tucker scowls, Annie Blaze unconsciously fluffs her hair.
And Hunter Sterling gives me a speculative look.
“What?” I whisper.
“Just wondering who your photo was with, that’s all,” he teases.
“Like I’ll ever tell you,” I sass back, but I also wink.
Siggy’s still talking excitedly to the others, telling them about the session and about the big yellow radio that was standing on the table to the side of the preppers.
Hunter bumps his hip against mine.
“So, it was with me.” His whisper is somehow also a crow, self-satisfied and jubilant.
“Don’t get too cocky.” I hip bump him back. “You still don’t know the props we were gonna make you hold.”
Which, okay, we weren’t going to, but you never know and some fans get very, well, shall we say elaborate.
Hunter lets out a little laugh, and smiles at me, this direct, almost admiring-feeling gaze? It beams right into my eyes.
I return it. I swear his eyes just sparkle, somehow.
I might get an anime nosebleed if I keep looking at him, I swear. He’s so handsome.
Siggy turns back to me.
“Right, June?”
Even though I wasn’t paying attention, her tone isn’t asking, it’s showing everyone else that she’s right.
So I don’t hesitate.
“Right,” I agree, backing her up.
“Well, let’s go, then,” Janet says. “Sounds like that radio could solve all our problems.”
The rest of the group agrees, so we move swiftly down the hall, away from the escalators and past a set of bathrooms, to the banquet hall.
It’s a strange sense of déjà vu, almost like we’re going to walk right back into another session. Like the zombie apocalypse hadn’t started at all.
Except, well, the door’s closed now.
One of the doors was open, propped open, so that latecomers to the sessions could ease in and find a seat without disturbing the rest of the audience.
But now both of the doors are closed. Siggy reaches out and tries the handles.
Locked.
“They’re in there for sure,” Siggy says. Her voice is still bright, and I can’t blame her. I’m excited, too. That radio could save us, could save everyone. It’s the link we need.
Siggy knocks on the door, three swift raps.
Behind us, Hunter, Simon, and Janet stand guard with Annie and Blair in between.
“Hello?” Siggy calls. “Are you still in there? Preppers?”