Hollowland

“What’d you do?” I asked, looking at Lazlo.

“I tased him,” Lazlo nodded to the square gun lying on the carpet. Two cords went from it, connecting it to the burning corpse. “I grabbed a taser off a security guard. What happened to the zombie, anyway? Why is he on fire?”

“Cause I lit him on fire,” I shrugged and brushed dust from my pants.

“Why didn’t you just shoot him? That’s why you have a gun,” Lazlo said, pushing his dark bangs out of his eyes.

“I was saving bullets.” I rubbed the back of my neck and avoided his gaze. “We might not have any for a long time, and… I mean, the zombie looked like Paul Giamatti! How the hell was I supposed to know he’d be so flipping fast?”

“Who’s Paul Giamatti?” Harlow asked.

“Never mind.” I looked over at her. “Why didn’t you run when I told you to?”

“Cause Lazlo was here, and he wasn’t running.” Harlow said it like it made complete sense. As if Lazlo was the voice of reason.

“When I say run, just run! I don’t care what anybody else is doing! You could’ve been killed!”

“If you’re so worried about my safety, maybe you shouldn’t light zombies on fire and then lead them to me,” Harlow shot back.

“I wouldn’t have led him to you if you’d run,” I muttered.

“Is everyone okay?” Blue asked, and I saw the bobbing glow of his flashlight as he rushed towards us from the other side of the casino.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Lazlo told him, grinning broadly. “Thanks to me.”

“I heard yelling. What happened?” Blue slowed down when he came into the light of the entrance, carrying his own garbage bag full of stuff, and clicked off his flashlight.

“I saved Remy’s life,” Lazlo beamed, and I rolled my eyes and started walking out. “Oh, come on. I totally did.”

“He was gonna die. I just had to run a little bit longer,” I reasoned and carefully stepped through the shattered front doors into the sun, which seemed obscene after the darkness of the casino. “Ripley! Kitty, kitty!”

“You could just say ‘thank you.’” Lazlo stood next to me, but I refused to look at him.

“I could,” I admitted but said nothing more. “Ripley! Come on, girl! Kitty, kitty!”

“Maybe she’s not coming,” Harlow said. She walked over to the SUV and opened the door. “She is a wild animal.”

Blue opened the back of the SUV, setting his trash bag in with our stuff, and he left it open before he got in the driver’s seat. Even Lazlo got in the SUV, but I waited outside, calling Ripley.

I was just about to give up when I heard her roar, and the clanking of her chain. She flew right past me, jumping into the back, and I had to suppress a smile. I shut the door behind her and went around to get inside.

“I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to admit that I saved your life,” Lazlo said almost the instant I got into the passenger seat. “It’s not shameful. I’m sure you’ve saved people’s lives before, and they’ve saved yours. It’s part of life.”

“It’s not hard for me to admit anything,” I said.

I still had the bag of stuff from the casino, and I dug through it. All that running had left me in need of sustenance. I pulled out a jar of cherries and opened it.

“What do you have there?” Lazlo asked.

“Cherries.” I popped one in my mouth, and then held out the jar for anyone to take one. Harlow reached in and grabbed one, and so did Lazlo, but Blue passed because he was driving. “What did you get?”

“Mostly just bottled water, and a couple bottles of vodka,” Blue said. “How about you?”

“Cherries, olives, water,” I shrugged. “It wasn’t that great, but we can always use the water.”

“Check it out.” Lazlo leaned forward between the seats. He plucked a perfectly tied cherry stem from his mouth and held it out for me. “I tied that with my tongue. You know what that means?” He waggled his eyebrows at me, I’m assuming in an attempt to be seductive.

“That you’re an idiot?”

“Whatever. I’m awesome,” Lazlo leaned back in his seat, looking mildly defeated.

“What does it mean?” Harlow asked, giving him a perplexed look.

“How about some more driving music?” Blue suggested.

Before anyone could disagree, he turned up the stereo, causing “You Give Love a Bad name” to come blasting out of the speakers. I settled back into the seat, preferring Bon Jovi to conversation.

We sped past what little remained of a booming human society. It was still a strange thing to get accustomed to. Knowing that most of the human race was dead or infected. I lost my appetite and handed Harlow the rest of the jar of cherries.

I tried to get some sleep as the city scenery gave way to more vacant desert, and the sun moved across the car. Even with the safety of being in a moving vehicle, I couldn’t sleep.

We stopped at a gas station just before the sun set. Getting gas was a hit or a miss. As quickly as the pandemic hit, some stations had instantly run out of gas, never to be refilled, while others had lost all their customers before they had a chance to run out.

We were lucky this time, and Lazlo went inside to steal beef jerky while Blue filled the SUV up.

Blue got in the passenger seat, and I took a turn driving while he rested. Eventually, everyone managed to fall asleep, which seemed pretty amazing to me considering how loud Ripley snored. Harlow twitched a lot in her sleep, jerking and occasionally moaning. I thought about waking her, but I decided she needed the rest more than she needed to escape her nightmares.