Girls Save the World in This One - Ash Parsons Page 0,125
volcanic rock waterfalls.
“Hey!” the whisper-call startles me so much I nearly drop the mic stand.
Rosa rushes up to us from the hallway that stretches along the window wall and continues past the escalators, to the meeting rooms beyond. A huge smile is on her face. Her arms are held open.
“Rosa!” Simon whispers in surprised joy.
She hugs first Simon, then Annie, then me, Hunter, and Imani, Siggy, and Blair.
“I knew you made it!” I say, but the relieved tears spilling down my face tell the truth of my fears.
Rosa gives Siggy another hug, and Siggy squeezes her tight in thanks.
“Where are the others?” Rosa asks, frowning at our smaller group. “Janet and Cuellar?”
So we tell her. About Janet, sacrificing herself so we could escape in the elevator. We tell her about Cuellar, getting ambushed and bitten, then letting himself fall.
And she tells us about running down the meeting room hall after we got separated. About how she managed to lock herself into a maintenance closet.
The first time she could no longer see the shuffling shadows through the gap at the bottom of the closed door, she cracked it open, only to hear a commotion above her head, from the second floor.
Then when she opened the door wider, first water, and then zombies started falling.
She was one level below us, almost exactly in the same spot that we were one floor above, when Imani hosed the zombies over the balcony railing.
Rosa waited in the closet a long time after that, only daring to come out when the lights dimmed, then flickered.
She thought it was the army, cutting the power, getting ready to come into an unknown situation.
It was us.
We explain about our electrocution plan as we walk toward the backstage hall.
We turn the corner and see two zombies standing in the hall, facing the backstage door.
“Not today, jerks,” Imani says, dropping her bag and swinging her mop-handle-hex-key spear up.
Suddenly I remember, from before we dropped the lights, two zombies rushing out of the ballroom.
“Wait,” I say as the zombies turn.
The man zombie is grimacing, wide red-shot eyes and hanging mouth.
When he looks up, his wide-hanging mouth transforms into a smile. “Oh, thank God,” he says.
The woman zombie lifts her head.
“Seriously,” she says. “I have to take these contacts out already.”
“—the hell?” Simon breathes, his weapon still up.
I can’t help the peal of laughter and relief as I recognize them.
“Hello, young lovers,” I say. “Imani, Siggy, remember them?”
Imani’s eyes widen. “No way.”
“Way,” the woman says. They’re staying back, a wise move until Simon believes what his mind is trying to tell him, instead of his eyes.
“Simon, Hunter,” I say, holding a hand out to the zombies, “these are cosplayers.”
“Oh,” Simon says, lowering his vanity stool somewhat.
“Uh, hi.” Hunter gives them a little nod. “Sorry,” he adds. “It’s just a bit disconcerting after everything.”
“Think nothing about it, my good fellow,” the man zombie says, waving away the apology.
“Tell me about it,” the woman says at the same time, her voice overlapping his as she stretches her neck. “But it saved our lives. I’ve got to tell the world. Write a book, Cosplay Saved My Life. No hyperbole. They didn’t know we weren’t one of them.”
“Wow, that’s lucky,” Annie says.
“Not just lucky, smart, too,” the man says. “Rachel here realized it. Other cosplayers panicked and ran screaming. Rachel made us blend in.”
“Aw, thanks, babe,” Rachel says. “But it was you who realized what their plan was, with the water. Good one, by the way, guys.”
But she’s not looking at us, as she smiles adoringly at the man.
Their foreheads come together, as they start cooing “You’re awesome,” “No, you’re awesome” love-talk to each other.