by McKay, Faith
"We have to get out of here," Jo yelled in Dee's ear.
Dee's mind was stuck. The fans were still screaming, but their cries had taken on a new pitch. They were backing away from the stage, instead of fighting toward it. Most of them looked as confused as she felt, some of them kept looking that way even as fresh corpses tore out from under the stage and bit off pieces of their flesh.
"Oh my god," Dee said.
"Move!" Jo dragged Dee until her feet started working on their own.
Noah and some of the crew ran past them toward the audience.
The backup dancers were dying on the far side of the stage. They were falling over like they were nothing, like they were Dylan.
"Run!" Noah screamed back at them, though they were already doing just that.
One of the guys she'd flirted with, who worked some of the floor lighting up front, ran up at her side and stabbed a zombie she hadn't heard coming up behind her. "Thank you!" Dee yelled without stopping.
The girls had all gathered at the left side of the stage, where the hall led to their dressing room. Dee tripped over a guitar in the dark. She didn't bother looking for its player.
"What do we do?" Gerri yelled.
"Keep going," Jo said, and shoved the hall door open. She came up short, not stepping inside. Dee leaned around her to see what the hold up was.
It was their voice trainer's body, bleeding from where his arm used to be.
“Sir Grumps-A-Lot,” she said, immediately feeling bad. I guess we'll never learn his name now, she thought.
Jo backed away. "Come on," she said, tugging Dee into the hall, but then shoved her back. "Nevermind. Go back! Now!"
Dee saw the two new zombies charging down the hall just before she finished turning around. Jo shut the door just in time. They watched the handle to see if it would move. A zombie shouldn't know how to open it, but they did all kinds of things they shouldn't.
Jo shook Gerri's arm. "Everyone get your weapons out!”
Gerri nodded. She was looking a little freaked, but she flicked her microphone out.
Dee pulled out her favorite weapon: her phone. Like a sane person, she tried to call for help—fighting loose zombies herself was so not in her job description—but none of her calls would connect. "The lines are jammed," she told them.
The fans were still screaming. Louder. Shriller. More desperate.
They were partially hidden from the crowd, behind one of the large lighting components that wasn't supposed to be used until the finale. Jo was peeking out around it, checking their surroundings. Dee sent out an emergency text to her whole contact list, begging for someone to send help. She didn't know if they'd go through, but it was something she could do.
"Here's what we're going to do," Jo said. "We stay in a circle. We have each other's backs. Weapons out in front. We are going to work our way across this stage and get to the hall on the other side."
“What about our parents?” Sadie asked. “They're up in that tower.”
“We can't go that way,” Carrie said. “I went that way first. Security locked the gate, and they're... well, they didn't look okay.”
“Is there another way to get there?” Sadie asked.
“If we went around through that hall Jo wants to get to,” Carrie said.
"What makes you think we can get out that way?" Sadie asked.
"Do you know another way out?" Jo asked.
They'd all already looked around. They could go back under the stage, where all the fresh zombies were running out of. That didn't seem like a good option. Every other exit was blocked by the crowds.
"Sounds safe," Carrie said.
Gerri was shaking her head.
"Hey," Jo said. "We are going to make it through this. Hey! We. Are. Going. To. Make. It. Through. This."
"Okay," Dee said.
The rest of them nodded.
"Can't we stay put though?" Dee asked.
"Do you think we can really defend ourselves here? They're going to find us," Jo said.
"This is really happening," Gerri said.
"Yes," Jo agreed.
"I'd feel better with a better weapon." Sadie shook her ax mic, and pulled a throwing knife out of her hair. She always had one hidden somewhere. That had seemed pretty stupid to Dee before now. "You know what this would be a great time for?"
"What?" Jo asked.
"A flamethrower."
"Oh my god," Carrie said. "Is now the time to get into this?"
Sadie shrugged. "I'm just saying."
Jo said, "Noah's office is down that hall. It has weapons."
Gerri perked up and asked, "When were you in Noah's office?"
"Not the issue right now," Dee said. "But you're going to tell us later!"
"Whatever," Jo said. "Are you all with me?"
"Let's do this," Gerri said.
"Okay," Jo said. "Stay calm. Stay in a group. Anything comes at us, we kill it. Don't run or one of us will get left behind. Make it to the hall door, get inside, and get to his office."
And then they were moving. Carefully, sticking together in that circle, they edged their way out of the shadows and onto the stage.
The fans were trampling each other to get to the stadium exits in the back. None of them had weapons. The zombies were in small groups, most of them near the stage still, but they were branching out as they worked through the crowd.
There were just so many dead people.
The Divas kept back in the shadows, and just when Dee thought they might make it all the way across without being noticed, a zombie turned its head and ran right for them.
"Square your hips, loosen your knees," Jo said.
"Places everyone," Carrie added, with that mocking tone. Dee wondered where Meghan was right then. Not saving them, obviously.
Sadie threw a knife, but missed. Without talking about it, like they'd done in their music video, they formed an inverted V shape and waited for the thing to run into their group. It was hard to get a blade into a fresh skull, at least with their barely effective stage props, but Gerri jammed hers into the thing's forehead with one swing. She leapt out of its way before it fell.
"Keep moving," Jo ordered.
The door to the hall opened smoothly—no bodies this time, hurrah!—and they all leaned against it once they'd gotten it closed.
After a deep breath in and out, Sadie said, "What is even happening right now?"
"We can figure that out when we survive," Jo said.
"Good plan," Sadie said.
And then they heard it: the pounding footsteps of someone running for their lives.
CARRIE
Carrie was already shoving Jo away from the door handle, trying to get it open, when Meghan turned the corner at the end of the hall. "Run! Oh my god, run! Run!"
It was right behind her.
They ran toward her, despite her cries for them to go, run, get away. Why would they start listening to Meghan now?
But they were too late. It grabbed a hold of the hair flying behind her as she ran and yanked her backward, pulling her shoulder into its mouth. They stuck a couple blades into the thing's head just as its teeth sunk in.
Meghan fell forward on them, and the zombie fell to the side. A chunk of Meghan's flesh fell from its mouth, tangling in her hair. Carrie knocked it away.
"Meghan? Meghan?" Dee just kept repeating her name, but Meghan didn't answer. She was too busy bleeding to death.
"Her pulse is jumpy," Sadie said.
Like it mattered. She'd been bitten. There was nothing to do for her.
Carrie put pressure on the wound.
"We can't just stay out here," Gerri said.
"We'll drag her to Noah's office with us," Jo said.
No one argued.
They drug her through the hall, keeping her clear of the zombie that had gotten her, like it mattered now.
Jo and Sadie moved a few steps ahead to get the door, but it swung open before they got there. Teegan blocked their way, crossb
ow in hand.
"Oh! Sorry! I thought you were another zombie!" She lowered her bow.
"Another zombie?"
She pointed to the dead one down the hall. Carrie hadn't even noticed.
"Okay, hurry inside," Jo said, and shooed everyone through the door.
"Aren't you, like, twelve?" Dee asked.
"Thirteen," Teegan clarified. "Oh no! Is that Meghan?"
Carrie was about to say that of course it was Meghan, then looked down at her. Of course Teegan would have to ask. Bloodied hair covered most of her face, her clothes were a mess, and without her attitude filling her up, she looked so weak and crumpled and... unMeghanlike.
“It's Meghan," Carrie said. She kept her hands tight on the shoulder wound, resisting the urge to wipe the hair off Meghan's face.
Jo and Sadie were passing out weapons. They strapped them to their bodies and filled a bag with others. "Can't have too many," Jo explained. When the bag was full, Jo leaned down and pressed her fingers to Meghan's neck, her wrist, and then put her ear up to Meghan's mouth. "No pulse," she said, eyes on Carrie. "We can't let her enter a second life."
"We're sure?" Dee asked, but no one answered, because everyone knew.
"Carrie?" Jo asked. "Are you with us?"
Carrie let go of Meghan's shoulder and stood up. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, calm center, she told herself. She asked Jo, "Did you get something for me?"
Jo handed her a forearm machete, like the ones they'd used in their music video, but without the sparkles. Carrie glanced down, just long enough to get a sense of where things were, and stabbed the blade down into Meghan's head. She stepped over the body without looking and waited for someone to open the door.
"We ready?" Carrie asked.
The rest of them nodded, and Gerri put a hand on Teegan's shoulder. "Not you," she told her.
"But I can help!" Teegan whined.
"You hide in here," Jo said. "Lock the door after we leave, and do not come out if you think you hear corpses! Don't even make a sound unless you hear a human speak actual words. We'll send help as soon as we can."
"You understand?" Gerri asked.
"Fine," Teegan said.
"You promise, hon?" Gerri asked.
"Fine," Teegan said again. "I promise."
Sadie covered Meghan's body with a coat Noah had hanging over the back of his chair.
Jo grabbed the door handle and said, "Now remember, stick together," before opening the door.
There was a bang. Everyone raised their weapons, even little Teegan with her crossbow, but the hall was clear. Another bang sounded. It was coming from an office down the hall. Carrie rolled her eyes up to the ceiling in exasperation. If they walked just past the banging door and turned the corner, they'd be able to see the exit out into the band and crew's private parking lot.
"It could be a person," Dee said. It was unlikely a zombie had been closed in there already. It probably was a person. "They might need help."
"Yeah, yeah," Sadie said, sharing in Carrie's exasperation. "We have to, right?" They tucked Teegan away in Noah's office, and followed the banging.
Gerri turned the handle slowly, and then flung the door open and backed away, letting Sadie and Jo take the lead.
The big pile in the corner was Marvin, wearing those blue polyester pants. If it weren't for the puddle underneath him, you could almost pretend the drying blood was a fabric pattern.
Tammi sat next to him. She was shaking, and covered in blood. There was no sign of the zombie that had gotten Marvin. Carrie wondered how long Tammi had been in there. The drying blood made her think it had been a while—likely before the attack on stage.
Gerri was calling her name to no response. Sadie slowly approached her, and told the others, "I think she's in shock."
"Imagine that," Carrie said.
"It's okay, Tammi, it's just us. I'm Sadie, remember? We have to get out of here."
"Wait, no," Jo said, and pulled Sadie back. Tammi's head jerked up at the movement. There was a collective gasp as Tammi's jaw fell open, exposing her recent meal.
The group of them took a step back, but there was no way all five of them could get out in time. Jo yelled, "Stay together!" just as Tammi stood up and zeroed in on Carrie.
Carrie said, "Why me?" and almost expected Tammi to respond when her jaw flapped uselessly up and down. Carrie squared the arm holding her forearm machete in front of her chest, blocking the thing that was Tammi from getting too close to her face.
Tammi took one lazy step, and then lunged at Carrie, knocking her flat on her back. Carrie's arm pushed uselessly against the weight. Her blade had to be cutting into the zombie's arm, but it didn't care.
The sight of Tammi straining in desperate hunger to get at Carrie's face was bad enough, but even if Carrie could have closed her eyes, the bitter iron smell of Tammi's breath, and the sound of her groans, and the agony of her nails scraping down Carrie's stomach, was enough trauma to send Carrie to therapy for the rest of her life.
Wet breath traveled only inches to Carrie's skin. It took all Gerri and Sadie had to hold the thing's head there. Carrie couldn't help but scream when she saw their finger's slipping.
"I got it! I got it!" Dee yelled right in Carrie's ear. She jammed a long knife up through Tammi's jaw. Hot blood poured down Carrie's neck.
The thing stopped struggling, and Sadie and Gerri let go. Tammi's head fell on Carrie's shoulder.
With the little breath Carrie had, she cried out, "Get it off me! Get her off me!" and Sadie and Gerri shoved until Carrie was free.
Carrie scooted against the wall, gasping for air.
Jo asked, "Are we all okay?
It was an absurd question. Carrie stood up and shook out her arms. "We're good. Let's go."
Dee said, "I should have been nicer to her."
"Just don't look at her," Carrie said. She kept her own eyes pointed toward the ceiling, but she wasn't seeing anything. She was focusing on the feeling of her own breathing. It was loud, and heavy, and it was still happening—she was still breathing. "Don't think about it," she told Dee.
Gerri shook her head. "We have to get out of here."
"Right," Sadie said. "Let's move."
Jo checked the hall before motioning them forward. Carrie had always known that Jo was a better fighter than the rest of them, it had been obvious during their training sessions, but she never would have thought that Jo would have been ready for anything like what they were going through. But then, she never would have imagined Dee on the floor, stabbing a knife into Tammi's jaw to save Carrie's life, either.
It was only five steps to the exit they'd struggled to get to. Carrie sighed in relief as they jogged up to it. Freedom. At last.
"No, no, no!" Sadie shrieked and stepped back. She slammed her body into the door again and again.
Jo scooted Sadie to the side and pushed on the long metal bar. You should be able to simply push on the bar, the door would unlatch, and open. Jo tried it four times before she said, "It won't open."
"I've got this," Gerri said, and pulled an ax from the bag Jo was still carrying. The two girls moved out of her way, and Gerri whacked the ax until the bar snapped off the door. She shoved against the door with all her weight, but it didn't budge. Jo and Sadie squished in and shoved with her.
Sadie gave up and said, "I think something is blocking the door on the other side. Like a cement wall."
"Agreed," Jo said, panting for air. They were all looking rather ragged.
Dee walked around in a circle, as if looking for answers, and then asked, "Well now what do we do?"
"Is there another exit?" Gerri pointed to the side hall. It was dark, and only went about twelve feet before it ended in a swinging door that appeared to break the hall into two sections. There was no telling what was beyond there, but it only made sense there'd be an exit. There had to at least be a window.
Sadie said, "One way to find out," and led the way toward it.
&nbs
p; Jo raised her knife and looked to the others. Carrie let go of her forearm machete, rubbed her hand clean on her skirt, and gripped it tighter. "Ready," she said.
Sadie pushed the door open and gasped. Carrie didn't know how she had it in her to even be surprised at this point. The hall was packed with old, weak, decaying zombies. They would have almost been a relief after the strong new ones they'd been seeing, if there weren't so many of them.
Sadie threw a knife into the head of the closest one, who'd begun lurching, and then took a large step back. "Leaving now," she said.
Dee said, "But..."
The group of them got halfway back to the blocked exit door and watched the swinging door close.
"What do we do?" Gerri asked.
Dee said, "Maybe we fight them."
"What?" Sadie asked. "Did you see how many there were?"
"But they're old," Dee argued.
"So was the one that ate Dylan,” Gerri pointed out.
"There are too many," Sadie said. "Even if we killed them all, we don't know if there's a way out. I don't know about you all, but I don't want to die for a maybe.”
Two zombies pushed through the swinging door. The girls braced themselves, ready to fight the ones coming for them, but the door swung open again, and it was hard to get an accurate count of how many were pushing to get through.
Jo said, "Go," and they did.
Carrie glanced at the door Teegan hid behind as they ran past. As long as she didn't open that door, she should be fine with the old corpses going by. She sent a ball of hope out into the universe that it was true.
They turned the final corner and slid to a stop. The stage door had been broken open. There was less screaming now, though the chorus still rang out in the distance. Up close, the screaming was the agonized, deep grunts of final battles mixed with the sorrowful sobs of final pains. The sounds of massacre.
Dee asked, "Are we really going out there?"
No one said anything. Carrie didn't figure any of them wanted to be the one to make that call. This wasn't grabbing a pretty weapon in a controlled environment to get a good job with lots of fame. This was blood and death and screaming for no reason. There was no reason, just violence.
A zombie was still groaning on the floor. There was a hunk of broken metal where its eye should have been. Gerri stepped over its legs and stabbed it through the other eye. “Okay,” she said, and rolled her shoulders loose. "There are people out there. People who might help us. People who might need help. We could hide in a room back here, but if we do, we might just get attacked, alone and without an exit. No one knows we're here, so there's no real hope of anyone coming to help anytime soon. I say we rally."