by McKay, Faith
Even though she'd technically been given a day without him, after their long day of beauty—which involved removing more hair from Jo's body than she was comfortable with—there was Gerri watching Jo give another fight lesson. Not participating, just sullenly sitting to the side, staring.
Though Gerri never again asked about Noah, Jo could feel Gerri's eyes on her, especially now that she'd hurt him. It was her own stubbornness that kept Jo from screeching at Gerri to give it up already. She was committed to pretending that nothing was going on. Especially when Noah was in the room. Especially with that sling around his arm.
The final music video rehearsal was basically the same as filming, which they'd be doing the next day, except they weren't made up or wearing their official music video clothes. They hadn't even seen the outfits yet, a point Jo was trying not to think about, and Dee was loudly yelling about.
“Yes, Dee, I know,” Meghan said. “Your stylist and their whole team will be meeting with you after rehearsal today, bright and early tomorrow morning, and they'll be on set. Are you happy?”
“Finally,” was all Dee said.
It was easier to listen about their clothes than to consider what they were about to do. Jo had seen corpses before, like everyone else. She'd put one to rest in her audition. None of that made the task before her any easier.
Noah opened the wooden door, exposing the rotting bodies in their cages, waiting, either to be fed, or to be put to rest at last.
"Okay, so, call me stupid, but I have a question about all this," Dee said, snapping Jo away from her thoughts.
"Yes?" Meghan asked.
"Why can't we just use, like, special effects? Why do we have to use actual zombies? We could use computers, or use real people and just dress them up. Doesn't it seem, like, I don't know, messed up to kill zombies like it's a game? Keep them in cages and stuff? I mean, these used to be people, you know?"
This was exactly what Jo was trying not to think about.
"Yes, well," Meghan said, though she clearly had nowhere to go from there.
Noah cleared his throat. Jo managed not to react. "We could," Noah said, "you're right. It's not a stupid question. However, for what we're trying to accomplish, we need the fight scenes to be as authentic on camera as possible. We are trying to show people that you girls can fight zombies, and therefore, they can, too. The less real that seems to them, the less they'll connect to that message."
Sadie rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's deeply socially important that we kill real zombies in our music video, and no one cares if it's gross, or crude, or socially inappropriate to take out zombies that possibly used to be family members of the people watching."
"They'll be disguised in the video," Noah said.
"Brilliant," Sadie said. "Can we move on?"
Noah nodded, and went to open the inner glass doors.
Tammi, who'd been checking their marks on the gym floor, ran forward. "Hold on, Noah. Shouldn't we run through the routine a few more times first?"
"Tammi, if you're uncomfortable, you don't have to be here. I'll make sure the cameras are on and you can critique their dance over the speakers."
"But—"
"I'm not going to wear them out with practice right now and have them fatigued and fighting for real in a few hours. Doing this now is a safety measure in itself."
"Yes, of course," Tammi said. "Okay then." She straightened her hair and walked back to the girls. “Everyone find their marks!”
Marvin took her hand. Their relationship was something of a mystery, one the other girls discussed regularly. Were they married? Did they hate each other? New clues emerged every day. Chattering Tammi, always flying about like a bird, made an odd partner for gruff and sullen Marvin.
They all found their marks. Carrie posed, always performance ready, and the other girls rolled their eyes but followed suit.
Noah rolled the clear plastic cage into the gym. "Now, remember," he said, unnerved by the undead corpse clawing at the walls, growling and biting and fighting with all it had. They say that a human never uses their full strength, because their brains protect them from it. They could tear their own muscles apart with the force human bodies are capable of. This safety mechanism doesn't work the same once a person passes through their first death. Zombies can tear their bodies to bits, break their bones and snap their tendons. This is part of why they weaken so drastically over time. This is also what makes a fresh zombie so intimidating. A newly undead could lift a car, or break through a building. The possibilities changed from zombie to zombie, which was another frightening factor: they were unpredictable. As much as people loved to tout that they'd been studied thoroughly and the surprises were out of the way, it was just ego. There was no telling what a fresh corpse might do.
"How old is it?" Jo asked. She was still ignoring him, mostly, but even her stubbornness had to yield to the reality growling in front of them.
Noah had just finished rolling out the last cage of the older corpses. "The fresh one is three days old," he said. "We only have the corpses for one practice run, so make it count."
"Once is enough for me," Sadie said.
"Oh come on," Gerri said. "This'll be fun."
"Fun?" Carrie asked.
"Honey, don't play that with me. If you didn't get a thrill out of this, you wouldn't be doing it."
Carrie looked surprised, but didn't argue, which told Jo all it needed to: these girls were just as foolish as the media thought they were. Her new friends were about to be eaten.
Jo wrapped her fingers around the handle of the machete hanging off her belt.
"One more time, before we get started," Noah said, pointing to the splotches of tape on the floor. "These mark where the cameras will be, these are your marks, and whatever you do, remember not to panic. While we are attempting to direct the corpses' movements, they may move differently than expected, and you will have to counter. Still, try not to enter these marked areas, as that's where they plan to edit in the extras. And again, remember, don't panic."
"I don't know about you all, but every time he says that, it makes me think I should panic," Sadie said.
"And what would we have to panic about?" Carrie said.
"Right," Sadie said. "We're perfectly safe. Isn't that right, Noah?"
"If you aren't ready to do this, we can put it off," Noah said.
"Oh, just start the damn song already," Gerri told him.
NOAH
Tammi told them, again, to remember their marks. She was covering her nerves better now, though some panic slipped through when Noah moved closer to the cages. She caught him looking at her again and righted herself. Perhaps it was naive, but he didn't believe she'd be a problem once he opened the cage doors. She seemed like someone who, even in panic, enjoyed pretending things were okay for an audience. He hoped the girls had the same reaction.
She started the music.
They managed to keep their eyes off the corpse, which was a professional feat in and of itself. Gerri was embellishing the dance they'd rehearsed, showing off, and if she'd hoped Tammi wouldn't notice, she was wrong. Tammi treated the choreography like it was life or death, when it was just dance. Contrasted with the choreography he'd designed for the opening of the cage in just thirty seconds, you'd think she could loosen up a little. Not that she was any worse than Marvin. It was actually a relief that guy wasn't in there; he'd probably stop the music and tell them to start over if they breathed on a step they weren't supposed to.
Time for the real show.
He opened the first two cages, and just as slow as he'd planned, the corpses ambled out. With the flashy colors the girls were wearing and their dance moves drawing attention he wasn't surprised the corpses ignored him completely, but he was relieved.
After watching the audition tapes it had been hard to convince some of the suits that giving the girls chainsaws was, in fact, too much for an audience to take. He hadn't bothered trying to explain how impractical or unsafe it was; they weren't
interested in things like that. From those same tapes, however, he had convinced them to give the girls forearm machetes. Of course it had been the only weapon Jo had considered. It was the swiftest, the most effective. For their first video, that kind of attack was exactly what they needed to show that these girls could handle this.
Which was exactly why he'd positioned Jo in the front right, the perfect position to take care of the dead and have her be seen. Of course, he hadn't expected how hard it would be to just stand there and watch a corpse go straight for her. It was ridiculous. While he was better with people, books, and planning, Jo had always been the better fighter, even if no one around her was willing to admit that. Jo could take care of herself and everybody else. He'd watched zombies go after people in fights he'd choreographed hundreds of times now, and yet, there he was, struggling not to step in.
Carrie, in the center of the dance floor, dropped down and rolled into the first zombie's legs, knocking it to the floor. Dee drove her machete cleanly into its skull. It should read well on camera, he thought.
Noah opened the third, and final, slow zombie's cage just as Sadie went for the second one. This was where Sadie was supposed to pin it in the chest with her machete, and Gerri was supposed to come in and hit it in the skull. It wasn't going as planned. Before Sadie got there, Gerri pushed forward and sliced the head in two. Gerri was then supposed to turn and help Jo take down the third one, but Jo stepped in and whipped her machete through the third skull. It was more graceful than any of their dancing.
Things weren't going exactly as scripted, but Noah released the fresh corpse as planned. The girls lined up, focused on what was coming for them. Despite how they'd diverged from the script, he was confident they'd do this part correctly. The threat was too obvious for them to risk anything else.
The plan was easy to follow, particularly because it was much looser. A fresh corpse was too difficult to predict to allow for a detailed approach.
The corpse would have been faster if each of its steps weren't pounding the floor so hard, but it made a good lead in, building the audience's fear and anticipation. If this were the filming day, it would have been a perfect show. As Noah had told them, they didn't wait for the corpse to get too close before rushing to attack. Arms out, aware of each other, they spread into a half circle around the corpse. Jo took the first swing, and missed. It drew the corpse's attention, which Noah was sure was her intention. She nodded to Sadie, who'd moved behind the corpse, and Sadie stepped to the side. Jo kicked the zombie square in the chest.
This was something Noah had specifically told her not to do. She was relying on the belief that she'd be fast enough that the zombie wouldn't get hold of her foot, but when you're fighting something unpredictable, it's dangerous to take those chances. Still, it worked, and the zombie flew back and lost its footing. Gerri swung her arm at the zombie's face, but it was quicker than she expected—despite how many times Noah had told them to be wary of that—and she only just swiped it. Sadie was still in the game though, and threw a knife hidden in her sleeve straight into the thing's forehead.
End scene.
"Was that enough of a show?" Carrie asked.
Noah ignored her. He'd already told them all to worry less about the showmanship; that was his job. He needed them to worry more about keeping themselves alive. Between the executives, the trainers, and the girls themselves, Noah seemed to be the only one concerned about their lives. Maybe he'd been more of a survivalist than Cole thought.
"You went off script," Noah said. "That kind of thing is okay if it's a counter move, but you can't just go slicing off heads in order to show up your comrades."
"Whatever," Gerri said. "It was way cooler than what you had planned."
"I am not arguing with you, I'm telling you."
"And I didn't argue with you," Gerri said. "I did it. And it was awesome."
"I shouldn't have to explain why it's a bad idea, but I will tell you anyway. Not only is it dangerous, but viewers may not be ready to see brain matter. I can't be responsible for—"
"Then you go ahead and talk to whoever is responsible, because I think they're going to like what we did," Gerri argued.
“You need to understand that when—" Noah was interrupted by a throat clearing over the ceiling speakers.
Willa said, "It's been approved."
Gerri beamed, and the rest of them joined her. They believed they'd done it. There was no stopping them now.
FENNEC NEWS
“And what can we tell from this first photo of the girls called Deadly Divas?”
“Really, Tracy?”
“I'm just opening the floor, John.”
“What can we tell? It's exactly as we expected, if not worse! They're little girls, Tracy. What do you think they're going to do about the corpses?”
“Exactly, very true. Now, have you seen the interviews with their old classmates?”
“Of course I have, Tracy. Do you have the footage of that young man, Pete, where he explains to the camera that this Carrie girl is mentally unstable? Or the many young men claiming Gerri as their girlfriend? I don't even know if we should talk about the short one—this is a family-friendly news program.”
“And what can we learn from this, John?”
“That these girls have no business claiming to be role models, Tracy! Can you even fight corpses when you wear clothes like this? Look, I have daughters, I know how it can be, but where are the parents in all this? Where's the record company? Where are the adults? We all know that women in the military are three times as likely to be injured as men, that's just a fact. Have we become a society that doesn't protect our women? Our young women are our most valuable asset in these fragile times! No one can afford for this to become the model for what a young woman should be. We'll perish.”
Chapter Twelve
SADIE
"Now, this is what I'm talking about," Dee said.
Sadie didn't want to admit how excited she was, but damn. That was what clothes were supposed to look like. If Dee's wardrobe was an indication of what was to come, Sadie couldn't wait.
"This is your rack over here, Sadie," the stylist's tall assistant said. The guy still hadn't told them his name, which was becoming an all too frequent occurrence at Last Chance Records.
Sadie rifled through the hangers and thought over and over again of course, of course, of course.
"What is it?" Carrie asked, leaving her unquestionably pretty clothes behind.
"Huh?" Gerri asked. "What's wrong with you guys?"
They converged on the rack and Dee gasped. "What the hell is this shit?"
Meghan came into the room, clapping. "You girls really need to be getting dressed!"
"And we'd like nothing more than to do that," Carrie said, "but we have a serious problem."
"You can't have us all go on camera with Sadie wearing this hideous excuse for clothes," Gerri said. “It's not even fashion.”
"I thought Jo was going to be the problem," Dee said. "No offense."
"You will wear the clothes assigned to you," Meghan said.
"It's so adorable how she always believes that's going to work on us," Carrie said.
Gerri gasped. "Oh no." She pulled out the prosthesis from a bag hidden in the middle of the rack. It was boring and would be strange to dance in, assuming it even had the right kind of foot for what she needed to do, and if that wasn't bad enough, it was flesh colored... if you were Caucasian. "You don't wear ones like this, do you?"
"No," Sadie said, and turned to Meghan. "We're going to need Willa."
"Willa is not available for your every beck and call," Meghan said.
Carrie put a hand on Sadie's arm and then said, "That's fine, Meghan. Don't call Willa. We'll figure out this style malfunction ourselves. Sadie, you can wear what you have on, or I think Dee brought a pair of neon pink hot shorts that would probably fit you."
"Oh, yeah!" Dee squealed. "We're going to have so much fun, Sadie! This is really a blessing i
n ugly clothes."
Carrie smiled at Meghan and waited for her to make the call.
It only took a few minutes for Willa to show up, which made Sadie think that she'd been on the same floor of the building. Why she didn't deem being on the set of their first music video worthy of her time was beyond Sadie. What did managers even do?
"What's the problem?" Willa asked.
Gerri held up two of the pant suits.
"Speak," Willa said.
"Aren't they already loud enough?" Gerri asked. They stared at Willa until she looked up from her phone, only to stare back. "Okay, we're all wearing cute dresses, and skirts, and shorts, and you put Sadie in a hideous... what do you even call this? Is it meant for cleaning the bathroom?"
"It's a jump suit," Willa said, "and it was specifically designed for Sadie."
"Because why?" Gerri asked. "People aren't even going to know she's part of the band; they're going to think she's the cleaning lady."
"I think that's the point," Sadie said.
"Of course not," Willa said. "We thought you'd be more comfortable like this."
"Because the whole slinky dress thing she's got going on is so conservative? Her dresses hug every inch. Girl's got a rockin' body," Gerri said.
"Thanks, Gerri," Sadie said.
"Just tellin' truths, hon."
"Sadie, as I'm sure you can understand, we don't want the public to judge you unfairly," Willa said. "With how much scrutiny Deadly Divas is under already, we wanted to give you the opportunity to prove yourself as a strong and capable woman, and then do a reveal at a later date. Until such a time, we had clothes designed that would help blend you in and keep your leg hidden."
"I don't need to hide my leg, because I don't have one," Sadie said. The other girls all shifted where they stood, and Sadie's cheeks burned. If this was where they decided she'd said too much, made them too uncomfortable by saying out loud that she only had one leg, then so be it. She was used to rooms of people not being on her side, not understanding, too uncomfortable to act. It was nothing new.