"CARLOS, WERE YOU BORN A BAD DANCER OR IS IT AN ACQUIRED FREAKIN' TALENT?" I shout in his face.
For the past two hours, Minnie, Alec, Carlos, and I have been playing Mario Dance Dance Revolution, and a specific deadweight who shall not be named has been screwing up a dance to rebuild the girl mushroom's hotel and therefore we can't continue on in story mode. I step angrily on the forward arrow as Carlos backs up and BAD flashes on his side of the screen.
"EVEN PRINCESS PEACH THINKS YOU SUCK; HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLE BE SO UNCOORDINATED? THIS IS EASY MODE! EASY MODE! HOW IS THIS HARD? STEP FORWARD, BACK, RIGHT, OR LEFT; IT'S NOT GODDAMN ROCKET SCIENCE!" I yell. Minnie giggles softly as Carlos falls flat on his butt after trying to step on the left arrow with his right foot and miserably failing.
"Oh, come on, Cass. It's harder than you think." Amaryllis adds. I glance back, executing a perfect left-right combo while doing so, and see my cousin leaning against the doorjamb and watching us with an amused smile.
"An ape could do it!"
"Not everyone took dance lessons for twelve years."
"This is Dance Dance Revolution! Dance lessons are completely unnecessary and, quite frankly, irrelevant."
"Dancing gives you better coordination."
"It's. Just. Stepping. On. Arrows! If you can walk, you can do this."
Amaryllis sighs, rolls her eyes, and walks over to Carlos's control pad.
"Carlos, sweetie, I'll help her beat this level." She says 'sweetie' in a mocking way and his cheeks burn red as he scrambles out of her way. I wonder for a minute if something's going on, ponder beating the crap out of Carlos if there is, and discard all suspicions when I see Amaryllis change the mode from EASY to VERY HARD. Mario and Luigi are bouncing in place on little pedestals, making weird noises as they wait for us to both press start.
Amaryllis and I stomp on the arrows in perfect unison, building up the seashell hotel with a series of fast foot taps, and we beat the level with gold A's.
"And, that, Carlos, is how you play Dance Dance Revolution!" I say. Carlos rolls his eyes and ducks his head down. Minnie giggles and Alec has a huge grin on his face.
"Dinner will be ready in ten. You guys should wash up." Amaryllis eyes the dirt and hay that covers us with obvious distaste. "Progress requires blood, sweat, tears, and dirty carpets." Amaryllis raises her eyebrows at the muddy footprints on the white rug. "Whatever; when the carpet starts to smell like decaying flesh, don't come whining to me." She spins on her heel and sashays out of the room.
*POINT OF VIEW CHANGE*
Sayaka lounges in the armchair, which is spilling stuffing from the gashes in its upholstery, polishing her wooden sword, which she told Mary is called a bokken, which is like a practice sword in kendo, which is kind of like Japanese fencing.
Mary ties and unties and reties her running shoes. Alice bandages Jojo's sprained wrist; Hannah and Raven are playing a card came called BS. Wendy, Sam, and Ellen are cleaning guns and counting bullets and other supplies and doing math to figure out capital "i" Important stuff. Mary was never a good student. She prefered running on the track for hours over sitting in a cramped library, bent over a book that's older than her, learning pointless trivia that didn't matter much in the Grand Scheme of Things.
Mary was the only member of the group who wasn't really a student at the Academy; she was just there for a week to hang out with her sister, who actually attended the Academy, before she went to one of the "safe" towns in France. Tiffany was the smart sister. She studied and tested well and applied for scholarships and did Important Stuff. She played tennis and golf. She dressed in polos and crisp jeans and her blond hair was always perfect and braided. Dad always said Tiffany was Going Places.
Now, Tiffany's walking around eating people.
Mary's positive that's not what her dad meant by Going Places.
"Earth to Mary." Alice taps her forehead gently, a concerned expression marring her pretty face. "Oh, sorry, what?"
A slow smile spreads on Alice's lips. "You're such a space case, Mary." Alice giggles. "I asked if you got hurt."
Mary glances at her wrists and ankles. "Nope; I'm fine."
Alice nods and moves onto making sure Grace, who had an asthma attack on the way back to the building, is puffing her inhaler right and is as comfortable as can be.
Sayaka tosses the bloody rag on a table, crossing and recrossing her legs. Mary watches the Leader with a detached interest; she examines the way Sayaka tilts her head back and closes her eyes and wipes a hand across her face. "You're welcome to stare, Mary." Sayaka mutters. There's no sarcasm or anger in her voice. She just sounds tired and sad.
Nonetheless, Mary turns away and begins fiddling with her laces again. It's best not to mess with the Leader.
"I've figured out our name!" Grace squeals.
All of the girls turn to the girl and wait, wondering what odd name will be suggested this time.
"The Slayers of the Sword! And we can call ourselves SOS for short! Intimidating name, but the acronym shows we're here to help!"
The girls turn to Sayaka. She runs a hand over her sword and looks thoughtful for a moment. "All for changing from the 'Bubblegum Slayers' to 'The Slayers of the Sword'?"
"Aye!" Grace squeaks. The rest of the girls mumble their assent.
"Then, I guess we're the Slayers of the Sword."
*POINT OF VIEW CHANGE*
Minnie skims through news articles and watches a few news feeds; everything is about the "undead enemy", as Reverend Patrick called it during the last sermon he gave before making a stand in his chapel in Washington. The first day of the outbreak has been called lots of things: Z-Day, the Day the World Ended, the Beginning of the End, the Day of the Plague, Dead Day, et cetera, but the name that really stuck was the First Night. Of course, this was borrowed from some post apocalyptic novel about zombies without the author's permission, but the author is probably too dead to care.
On the First Night, zombies seemingly spontaneously appeared in every country in the world: from the most remote African village to the populated streets of Tokyo, the dead were rising. A lot of people died and came back. People began to realize dying, even from something like cancer, ended in you rising again. Why? No one knew. All the theories were based on pure speculation. There was no evidence.
North America fell after about a month. All communications with military in America, Canada, and Mexico were lost by then. People from those places trickled into South America and onto remote islands and some even made it to Europe, but lots of people died.
After the First Night, small groups of zombie hunters- who liked to call themselves slayers- began clearing towns of the living dead and helping them turn the cities into "safe" towns. They built temporary barricades to hold off the hordes of zombies until the residents could finish making a fence or wall to keep the dead out. Some were mostly military guys, but a lot weren't. Most of the military died in the first month. Too much risk taking, too little planning, and bad aim killed them off.
Europe is the safest place, as of now. Asia is doing okay, South America is fine, and Africa is doing pretty well, but Europe is full of strongholds and country homes that are 100 % zombie free.
"Whatcha looking at?" Amaryllis asks from the doorway and Minnie quickly exits out of the news websites so the only page open is Netflix where The Breakfast Club was playing on mute. "The news isn't going to be very reliable, you know. They're sugar coating everything so that it seems like not all hope is lost. Why? Because they don't want bombs dropped on them under the disguise of help." She sits on the bed beside Minnie, closing the laptop. "If you want to know anything, ask me. I've got an inside track on most of that stuff."
Amaryllis starts applying some salve onto Minnie's bruised and cut up knuckles, making little noises of disapproval when she finds a particularly deep cut. "I understand that you want to train, but you should take it easy. It's better to conserve your energy for when the fight is real."
"I'm fine." Minnie snaps. "I wouldn't say fine. I don't think any of us are ever going to be fine again. The best we can hope for is as fine as we can be."
Amaryllis mumbles. Her eyes look distant and her mouth is pressed in a thin line; she's somewhere far away from Minnie. "Somehow, Chicago held its own, and they've put up fences and walls and barricades. Parts of New York City were cordoned off, but a few places are zombie free. Small towns everywhere are make themselves into 'safe' towns with the help of slayers. People are being brave- maybe even heroic. But the dead still greatly outnumber the living, even here in Europe." Amaryllis wraps a bandage around Minnie's right hand. "Some people talk about taking back the fallen cities, but most just want to find a place to hole up in. Every minute, a child is being born into this world, and people want these kids, the future, to be safe. Safety is the priority of the majority." Her voice is soft and soothing. She starts bandaging Minnie's other hand.
"Safety trumps victory. And, maybe if we're really lucky, we'll get safety."
*POINT OF VIEW CHANGE*
Sayaka roams aimlessly through the Slayers's of the Swords HQ- the new name was actually beginning to grow on her. It's at least better than Hot Pink Killers or Bubblegum Slayers.
HQ is an apartment building they cleared just outside one of the "safe" towns. The signs of the fight the occupants put up on the First Night is evident in the broken furniture and torn curtains and sagging doors and walls full of holes. A few apartments have nurseries or kids' rooms. Some have blood stains, some don't.
Sayaka can feel Mary following her, skulking through the shadows in the neon sneakers, but she doesn't feel the need to yell at her or to tell her to go away. Mary's so quiet it's like she isn't even there.
Sayaka swings her bokken casually, occasionally stabbing the air in front of her. The invisible enemies fall to the floor and she moves on.
The door swings open behind Sayaka and she spins around when she hears Mary's scream.