Girls Save the World in This One - Ash Parsons Page 0,78
too.”
“The army has to have set up a perimeter by now,” Simon says. “Locking us in was to buy time to set it up.”
“So, they’ll be ready to take out any zombies that get out?” Siggy asks.
“I would think so,” Simon answers.
I take another deep breath, and the words are there, spooling in my head.
“I don’t know what those zombies are, or how they happened exactly, but I know that I’m going to try to get out of here. And we will do better together. There’s no guarantee of safety. There’s no guarantee that I’m right about the atrium or ground floor being mostly empty. There’s just no guarantee for any of it. But all we can do is try, and I’m asking you to try with me. We fight together or we end alone. I’m asking you all to fight with me.”
There’s a heavy moment of silence, when I look at each of them, reading their faces. Janet smiles slightly, and I can hear her voice in my head, saying to trust myself. Imani, a fierce determination in her eyes, then Siggy, scared but sure. Annie, more determined than I expected, honestly. Simon, resigned but ready.
Mia nods. Rosa, standing beside her, frightened, but she nods, too.
Blair, as fired up as me. I can see it in her eyes. She’s ready to fight.
Good old Blair.
The spell of silence is broken by a rough guffaw.
Cuellar is bent over at his waist, hands on his knees, laughing. He screams ha ha ha at the ground.
Before I can begin to process it, or feel truly angry, or hurt, he holds up a hand, trying to signal through his laughter wait.
“Oh lordy,” he laughs. But he stands up, flipping the bloody bottle around to a ready position. “You’re a trip, kid. For a second there I thought this was one of those prank videos. Honestly.”
He swipes at his eyes.
“Here’s what I know,” he says, mocking me. “You’re not my leader. So, no. I ain’t with you. I ain’t with anyone. I’m out for me. But sure. Let’s go down to the atrium. Try those doors or bust ’em out. But this isn’t a team.”
Annie starts to protest, but Cuellar keeps talking over her half-formed words.
“Don’t get me wrong, girls. Or you, Wong. If I can help you get out I will, but this ain’t some kind of hero TV show. I’m for me, no one else. And I’m going first.”
“Just like you led the way back there.” Janet repositions her drawer plank, tucking it under her arm. “Turning tail and running. June and Simon had more courage than you. And Linus. He saved us.”
“Bra-freaking-vo,” Cuellar mocks. “Where did it get him?”
Linus. It lances through me, a guilt that cuts directly into my heart. Linus’s courage, his sweet demeanor, his humor. I barely knew him, but he was a whole person, a good person, no, a great person, and now he’s dead.
It was my idea, leaving the hallway and going to the third floor.
Cuellar keeps talking.
“Don’t for one minute think that I’m gonna be pulling a hero move. It’s survival, not social niceties. Got it?”
He flips the bottle around, whirling it forward, then backward. He stabs at the air, his opposite arm coming up to drive extra force behind the jagged glass.
“Any of you killed one yet?” he asks. “I’ve got three.”
He points the bottle at me, then drags it across, pointing at the others, a sweep like the slice of a knife.
“We leave together. We end alone. Everyone dies alone, no matter where they are or who they’re with.”
Simon Wong shakes his head.
But no one speaks.
Embarrassment floods my face that I said anything to start with. That I thought I knew what to do. And even though a part of me is screaming at myself to say something, to deny the harshness of his words, I also can’t help but recognize the truth.