fingers as he moved toward the door and the outside world. “So, where’s our next stop? Where’s the next ‘safe place’?”
Sam smiled. “How do you feel about Albuquerque?”
“ Like it’s six hundred miles away?” he laughed.
The kids at the barrier let them out and they let go of hands to raise their weapons as they scanned for zombies.
Sam clicked the remote entry system for the car. “Then it’s settled. We’re going to New Mexico.”
“ Hey Sam?” Troy moved to the driver’s seat and hesitated there.
“ Yeah?”
“ There is a safe place out there. I know it.”
She smiled. “Me too. Now let’s go find it.”
They’re the Lions Now
The line around the August Memorial Zoo stretched into the parking lot. People shifted from foot to foot, talking and laughing as they waited for the gates to open for the day. At 9 AM exactly, a guard came out and slid the metal bars behind the fake rock walls and motioned the people forward to the payment gates.
Ryan looked at his brother. “Why are we doing this again?”
James stared at him as they inched forward. “Um, because of the new exhibit, asshat.”
A lady behind them glared and shot a meaningful look down to the kid she had strapped into a stroller. James turned his back on her and ignored the daggers shooting from her eyes.
“ Are you really telling me you think it’s going to be worth ten bucks to see this?” Ryan sighed.
James shook his head. Ryan was fourteen and nothing impressed him anymore. Even the Outbreak halfway across the country had been yawn-worthy and though their Mom said it was just his way of coping with the carnage, James wasn’t sure it wasn’t just his younger brother’s annoying way of rebelling against everyone else’s horror.
“ I’m paying, so what do you care?” James asked, a bit more sharply than he had intended. “Look, we’ll check out the new exhibit, maybe take a pass around the lions and the snake house and then we’ll be outie.”
Ryan laughed. “You are such a geek.”
“ You say that like it’s a bad thing,” James said with a shrug. “Geeks end up ruling the world, so I say… bring on the geek.”
“ Go!” Ryan pointed ahead of them. The lady in the booth was motioning them forward.
James paid, grabbed a map and hauled his brother into the big open area that was beyond the gate. There was a souvenir shop, a set of bathrooms and a bigger, wooden version of the map he held in his hand. No one was looking at that stuff, though. Everyone was moving toward the same area.
“ Come on before they all block everything and we can’t see,” James snapped.
Ryan let out a put-upon sigh and followed his brother, sneakers dragging on the ground. James suppressed the urge to smack his brother and abandoned him, hurrying through the crowds of people, dodging the strollers with crying, whining kids.
He hesitated at the archway that said, “Scenes of the Outbreak” in big, red letters. His heart leapt. This was it. What he’d been waiting for over the last six months… ever since the zoo had been renamed as a memorial to the Outbreak of the Summer of 2010 and they’d announced they would be caging and displaying…
“ Zombie!” one of the little kids squealed.
The crowd gathered around a cage gasped and stirred and James sprinted forward. He elbowed his way through the crowd, ignoring the grunts and protests of the people he was running over in his zeal to see…
“ Whoa,” he whispered.
The cage had iron bars and there was an expanse of grass between those bars and the barrier that everyone was currently leaning on. Behind the bars, though, that was the best part.
There were two zombies in the exhibit. A male and a female. Both were dressed in tattered rags, the remnants of what they had once been before the Outbreak.
“ Oh look, this tells us more about them, Timmy,” said a lady a few people down to James’s right. She looked at the metal sign while her kid
Sam smiled. “How do you feel about Albuquerque?”
“ Like it’s six hundred miles away?” he laughed.
The kids at the barrier let them out and they let go of hands to raise their weapons as they scanned for zombies.
Sam clicked the remote entry system for the car. “Then it’s settled. We’re going to New Mexico.”
“ Hey Sam?” Troy moved to the driver’s seat and hesitated there.
“ Yeah?”
“ There is a safe place out there. I know it.”
She smiled. “Me too. Now let’s go find it.”
They’re the Lions Now
The line around the August Memorial Zoo stretched into the parking lot. People shifted from foot to foot, talking and laughing as they waited for the gates to open for the day. At 9 AM exactly, a guard came out and slid the metal bars behind the fake rock walls and motioned the people forward to the payment gates.
Ryan looked at his brother. “Why are we doing this again?”
James stared at him as they inched forward. “Um, because of the new exhibit, asshat.”
A lady behind them glared and shot a meaningful look down to the kid she had strapped into a stroller. James turned his back on her and ignored the daggers shooting from her eyes.
“ Are you really telling me you think it’s going to be worth ten bucks to see this?” Ryan sighed.
James shook his head. Ryan was fourteen and nothing impressed him anymore. Even the Outbreak halfway across the country had been yawn-worthy and though their Mom said it was just his way of coping with the carnage, James wasn’t sure it wasn’t just his younger brother’s annoying way of rebelling against everyone else’s horror.
“ I’m paying, so what do you care?” James asked, a bit more sharply than he had intended. “Look, we’ll check out the new exhibit, maybe take a pass around the lions and the snake house and then we’ll be outie.”
Ryan laughed. “You are such a geek.”
“ You say that like it’s a bad thing,” James said with a shrug. “Geeks end up ruling the world, so I say… bring on the geek.”
“ Go!” Ryan pointed ahead of them. The lady in the booth was motioning them forward.
James paid, grabbed a map and hauled his brother into the big open area that was beyond the gate. There was a souvenir shop, a set of bathrooms and a bigger, wooden version of the map he held in his hand. No one was looking at that stuff, though. Everyone was moving toward the same area.
“ Come on before they all block everything and we can’t see,” James snapped.
Ryan let out a put-upon sigh and followed his brother, sneakers dragging on the ground. James suppressed the urge to smack his brother and abandoned him, hurrying through the crowds of people, dodging the strollers with crying, whining kids.
He hesitated at the archway that said, “Scenes of the Outbreak” in big, red letters. His heart leapt. This was it. What he’d been waiting for over the last six months… ever since the zoo had been renamed as a memorial to the Outbreak of the Summer of 2010 and they’d announced they would be caging and displaying…
“ Zombie!” one of the little kids squealed.
The crowd gathered around a cage gasped and stirred and James sprinted forward. He elbowed his way through the crowd, ignoring the grunts and protests of the people he was running over in his zeal to see…
“ Whoa,” he whispered.
The cage had iron bars and there was an expanse of grass between those bars and the barrier that everyone was currently leaning on. Behind the bars, though, that was the best part.
There were two zombies in the exhibit. A male and a female. Both were dressed in tattered rags, the remnants of what they had once been before the Outbreak.
“ Oh look, this tells us more about them, Timmy,” said a lady a few people down to James’s right. She looked at the metal sign while her kid
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