Girls Save the World in This One - Ash Parsons Page 0,58
door, and I jab and twist, feeling for the indent and lock confirming that the key is in place.
Righty-tighty, righty-tighty.
Behind me is the empty backstage area.
Well, not precisely empty.
Have the zombies billowed the curtain more? Has any one of them moved through the gap, past the chain link and the curtain?
Can they feel the fresh air from the hall?
Is there a zombie backstage now? Spotting us standing, and me kneeling, like a sitting duck, here in the doorway?
Don’t look.
Just turn.
I mean, just turn the key. Don’t turn around.
Turn, don’t turn.
My inner voice is very helpful.
A huff of humorless laughter puffs a stray hair away from my mouth.
The key stops turning, the ratcheted tightness gone.
I scramble up to my feet and step back.
The backstage area isn’t empty anymore.
A single zombie has found his way through the curtain. He’s tall with a wide, jutting jaw like an ice scraper.
He looks at us, somehow seeing through the clouded, bloodshot mess that are his eyes. His mouth opens and his arm jerks up and out as he rushes toward us, gasping, a wretched, rattling groan sounding out of his throat.
Linus’s crisp, normal speaking voice breaks the spell of shocked fear.
“Not today, thank you,” he says, speaking with perfect British diction as he swiftly pushes the door closed.
There’s a double clunk as the locks at the top and bottom of the door fall into place.
Then there’s a thump, and the thump repeats and repeats as the zombie knocks into the door.
I can’t help the titter as it flies out of my mouth, powered by extreme relief, and the fact that it was actually funny.
Imani giggles, too, squeezing my hand, and we lean into each other for a second, a lean that’s like a hug, a little.
She puts on an upper-crust accent.
“Not today,” she says, and dissolves into helpless giggles.
“Thank you,” I finish. And we laugh.
Linus smiles, then laughs, too.
“Y’all are messed up,” Annie says, shaking her head at us.
Linus wipes his eyes, and sticks out his hand.
“I’m Linus. Thanks for saving us . . .” His voice trails off, waiting for me to introduce myself.
I feel the blood rushing to my cheeks, and at the same time also draining from my head.
Feeling a little dizzy, I take his hand and shake it.
“June.”
“Thanks for saving us, June.”
He turns and shakes Imani’s hand.
“Imani,” she says.
“Pleased to meet you, Imani.”
The camerawoman nods at them. “I’m Rosa.”
“Mia Fontaine.” The woman in the edgy black-and-red business suit steps forward, improbably pulling a business card out of her pocket and handing it to me.
“When we get out of here, give me a call,” she says. “I can use quick thinkers like you.”
A blush of pride rushes to my face along with the sudden ridiculous image of me bowing out my arms, cowboy-style, touching the brim of my nonexistent hat at Mia in response to her praise.
“Okay, thanks.” I look at the card. Apex Management. There’s an address in Los Angeles, and a phone number.
I slide the card into my back pocket, like the ace it is. I mean, maybe she’ll give me an internship or something if college doesn’t work out.
After we get through all this.
“And I’m Annie, y’all know that,” Annie Blaze says. “And I cannot even believe that we’re in some kind of biohazard outbreak.”
“Zombies,” I say. “It’s the zombie apocalypse.”
“Sure feels like it, huh?” Linus says, shaking his head.
Imani and I glance at each other. I can feel her wondering at his reticence to call it what it so clearly is.
Maybe it’s just too scary? Or he’s wanting to be scientific? Precise?