Girls Save the World in This One - Ash Parsons Page 0,105
with that.”
“With themselves,” I add. “If they survive.”
Imani nods, and lifts her chin. Her hair shivers over her shoulders when she gives her head a clarifying shake.
“Okay,” she tells us.
But she steps up to the door again.
Her fist bangs on the door once.
There’s a startled curse, almost like the man on the other side had his ear pressed to the wood listening when she banged it.
Imani smiles, this gorgeous curve of righteous satisfaction. Her voice is just loud enough to carry to the preppers hiding in the banquet room.
“Enjoy your piss-water, assholes.”
Cuellar lets out a guffaw. Janet laughs that gorgeous villainess laugh, as Imani and I join the rest of the formation.
30
Since the preppers wouldn’t let us in, we decide to return to the stairwell to talk over our next move. For one thing, it feels like a space we can be marginally secure in, and for another, no matter what we plan next, it gives us access to the other floors.
And maybe we might find Rosa there, in the stairwell waiting for us. Even though it’s unlikely, it could happen, right?
“We have to figure out something,” Siggy says as we move down the hall. “How to stop the zombies before the army comes in the loading dock. We can’t let them out after all this.”
The second-floor lobby balcony is still a ways off, at the end of the hall past the escalators.
“I know,” I say.
The sudden image of the zombies being released by the SWAT team, swarming into the sleepy downtown of Senoybia, causes my heart to stop in my chest, a physical ache.
“I know it’s dinky,” Imani murmurs. “But I kinda like this town.”
“Me too.” I think of the park with the duck pond, the playground behind the cemetery, the cute downtown streets, and the hardware store with one of the first Coke murals ever painted.
They all seem almost indescribably precious now. Maybe they are. Maybe they always were.
“Not to mention, like, the people,” Siggy says, her voice a bit croaky, as we draw even with the water fountains and bathrooms. “Lots of good people in this town. You know. Our parents and siblings. And Mark.”
Her voice breaks on his name.
“Absolutely,” Hunter agrees, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Tishala could be anywhere,” Imani murmurs. “And Mom. They’re out on their girls’ day. Shopping and looking for—”
She looks at me, her eyes agonized at the jagged line of her thoughts.
“What if they’re close by? Looking at the Japanese bridge or the gazebo? And they don’t know, and the zombies get out?”
“We’ll save them,” I say, my voice steady, even if my heart is goldfish-out-of-the-water floppy. “We’ll save all of them. We’ll save Senoybia. And, like. The world.”
There’s a moment where we silently look at each other, acknowledging the task. And not knowing how we can do anything. But knowing we have to do something.
“Yeah,” Annie agrees. “But first, can we get some water?” She steps up to the fountains set between the men’s and women’s bathrooms.
We all stop, forming a protective ring around the water fountains and whoever’s turn it is to drink.
Imani takes a big drink. “Ahhh!” she exclaims, exaggerating. “That’s nice.”
We all laugh, thinking of the preppers.
Hunter steps up for his turn at the water fountain. He takes a long drink then lets the water run over his face for a moment.
He stands, swiping a hand down his face, scattering water droplets.
His eyelashes are bunched together by the water, looking impossibly darker. Thicker.
Imani nudges me with her elbow.
“Jeez, girl. Thirsty much?” she whispers, just to me.
I smirk back at her, then step up for my turn at the water fountain.
I’ve just taken my first big gulp of chilled water when I notice movement in my peripheral vision. The door to the women’s restroom is opening.