Girls Save the World in This One - Ash Parsons Page 0,21

coming for us,” the man zombie says, smiling at me. I guess because he heard me say the cosplayers were cool.

“Don’t let them get you, babe,” the woman zombie replies. Her makeup is so cool. There’s a gaping bite mark in her neck, her skin looks positively necrotic, and her eyes are clouded with milky cataracts.

“Wow, you guys look amazing,” I say. “Can we take a picture with you?”

“Absolutely!” she says, so we get in the exhibit hall and slide to the side. I ask a man to take our photo, and the three of us act scared while the man and woman strike hungry-zombie poses at us.

“Thanks! Have a great day!” Imani says. The man groans and makes these wet choking noises, and the woman lets her head fall forward as she starts shuffling away.

The man stumbles after her, takes her arm, and steers her down the first aisle on the right.

They hold hands, and stumble-shuffle away. People all around are laughing good-naturedly, taking pictures of the zombie couple.

“True love, you guys,” Siggy says. “Till death do they part. And then not even then.”

“Those sweet kids. I hope everything works out for them,” I say.

“They’re already dead,” Imani says. “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

7

We start wandering into the center of the massive exhibit hall, just wandering at first, then I remember our schedule and turn at the middle aisle to cross to what will be the biggest celebrity autograph line.

“Wow, I feel like a rat in a maze,” Imani says.

“Sure, but an awesome rat in an amazing maze!” I say.

“Just as long as we don’t get shocked or anything,” Imani says.

“Bad things happen in mazes,” Siggy groans in a creaky voice.

I’ve never seen so many T-shirts, fan art posters and paintings, jewelry, and 1940s-style pinup dresses and pleated skirts made of comic-book-printed fabrics. There are books and comics tables, and so much more, we’ve barely scratched the surface of everything there is for sale.

The aisles are separated not just by the rows of tables and shelving and display racks in each booth, but also by tall black curtains that act like a wall between rows of merchandise.

On the ZombieCon! map the layout of the exhibit hall was styled to look like the Red Cross symbol, but with one wide center aisle bisecting multiple rows.

In the middle of the exhibit hall where the center rows meet the center aisle, there’s a hub of sorts. It’s a large, elevated square stage surrounded by folding-chair rows and food and beverage carts with tall round standing-tables. When I find the hub, I can turn left to cross to the left wall of the hall, where the biggest star of the show will be for most of the day. The other show actors take shifts at nearby signing tables only, and the less famous, B-movie actors are at a separate signing area called Autograph Alley, which is on the opposite side of the exhibit hall.

But I know from my research that the line for the lead actor, James Cooper, will only get longer as the day goes on, and since we don’t want to spend all day waiting for one autograph, our second stop of the day, and our first stop in the exhibit hall, is to go see if the line for James is still doable or not.

We reach the hub. On the elevated stage are a few armchairs and stools, as well as a black-tablecloth-covered table with a mixing board, mics, and headsets. Throughout the day, fandom podcasters are going to be recording new shows with the cast and crew of Human Wasteland as well as the other horror genre actors and authors at ZombieCon!

There’s a schedule posted on a stand beside the stairs up to the hub stage. I pause to look at it in spite of myself. The podcaster schedule didn’t get finalized until this morning.

“Keep moving, June,” Siggy says.

“I am, I just want to make sure when to avoid it here.”

Scott’s show is on the schedule, in under an hour, at 9:00 a.m.—Wasteland Stans. Good