CHAPTER TWENTY

Leave your front door open and your lawn unguarded

Sincerely,

MOM (not the zombies)

-Plants VS Zombies

Liza ascended the stairs slowly, rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand and staring at the floor. What now? The plan had been pretty half-assed to begin with, but now it had no ass. And what kind of a plan had no ass? A bad one, probably.

“... is sick, I can’t wait to see her. She always forgets to take her medication.”

Liza looked up and her eyebrows raised up high when she saw that it was a broken and battered Angie speaking. Angie, of Eli and Angie fame, who had risked her life despite pure panic to carry out Liza’s plan. Beside her stood a bloodsoaked Eli, panting from exertion and occasionally sharply shaking his head to rid his hair of gore.

“Guys,” Liza said warmly, remaining in the stairway to keep a bannister between them -- just in case they felt like hugging. Somehow, miraculously, she was one of the cleanest-looking of the lot of them. And with no shower in the cards anytime soon, she wanted it to stay that way if possible.

“Yeah, look who we picked up on the way here,” Denslow added, stepping forward with her hands in her jeans pockets.

Liza craned her neck. “Where is James?”

Yana sighed. “Tucker went to help him out of the car. He’s been kind of a lump, to be honest. It’s been tough dragging him around.”

Liza resisted the urge to point out that Yana hadn’t really helped with any of the dragging. She had been helping out in general more than Liza had really thought she would; no need to start a fight.

“I got a headset on him and it’s just telling me he’s totally dehydrated,” Celia said, removing her glasses to clean the smudges from them on her probably even smudgier shirt. “We’ll water him and see how much it helps. From what we know about the headsets, probably immediately.”

“Yeah, I have some spare water,” Liza offered, gesturing for the small gathered crowd to clear a path as Tucker and James appeared. Tucker set down his pasty-faced friend in a small pile of camo pants and took the water from Liza and fed it to her. She checked out his status to see if there was anything more to it than Dehydration, but that was all there was.

“Guys, I really need you to explain to me what these headsets are,” Denslow said evenly.

“Headsets?” Eli piped up.

“In a bit,” Liza said, a little more dismissively than she meant to. Four big gulps of Tucker’s offered bottle later and James’s status changed to add a ‘Slight’ in front of it. He took a break and leaned his head back, taking in his surroundings.

“Fuck,” he moaned. Liza slid her back down the wall next to him and rested her hand on his knee. It was the most comforting that she wanted to get, and James seemed to appreciate that. He patted her hand with a smile. “I need to get some fucking sleep.”

“What happened to you?” Liza asked; she couldn’t hold it anymore. “After the beginning. What happened?”

James shook his head. “Fucking…” He swiped at some imaginary dirt over his face and smoothed his palm over his actually dirty jeans. “I barely even remember. I have never run that much in my life. I ran. I hid. I did more running.”

“Did you get bitten?” Yana asked, matter-of-factly. James looked up at her with his dry lips parted, and she looked to Tucker with her eyebrows raised, for support.

“James would obviously have told us if he got bitten.”

Liza tutted. “James would have turned by now if he got bitten.” She nodded to Denslow. “How quick was it?”

The dark-haired girl raised her eyebrows at being suddenly addressed, and recalled the recent change they had witnessed. “Oh, uh, it was … instant, wasn’t it?”

“Fine,” Yana said, and turned back to the shelves to look through them again.

“No Lilian?” Liza asked, but she realised as soon as she said it that she hadn’t been expecting her to come back with them. Not really. Celia shook her head.

“No, she went with Blazer.”

“Where?”

“They’re going to find the other survivors if they stuck around,” Celia said. “They’re going to get on the road to London as soon as they can.”

Liza thought about that for a moment. It would be almost impossible for her to find them and stop them. And … to be honest, why should she? “Listen, guys…” she began. There was no easy way to tell them what she had discovered downstairs. About the ultimate end of their journey. Or, really, the fact that there wouldn’t be one. They had to recalculate; recalibrate.

“Wait … am I asleep?”

Liza turned to frown at James. “Are you alright?” she asked, taking the bottle from Tucker and swishing it in front of James’s squinting face. He ignored her and continued to stare straight through them all, and Liza followed his gaze. To Denslow. Eli and Angie were making themselves useful -- probably still trying to prove themselves helpful -- and barricading the door behind them.

“Are … you going to do some kind of a cheesey pickup line right now?” Liza asked, and then blew out her cheeks. But Denslow had averted her gaze and was obviously reaching desperately for a subject change. “What’s going on?”

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“I’m going to search downstairs,” Denslow said.

“I’ve already done that.”

“I’m going to do it again.” Denslow gave a wide, fake smile and squeezed past Liza, who wasn’t really willing to move.

“Is something going on?” she asked, cracking an awkward smile. “You two know each other?”

“No,” Denslow said, uncomfortably.

“You totally do!” Liza cried.

“No, we don’t,” James said, shakily trying to get to his feet. He pointed a finger, his back to the wall, keeping him up. “You’re Denslow.”

Denslow stared at the floor.

“OK, what is going on here?” Tucker asked, moving from the temporarily barricaded door over to the rest of them. Eli and Angie exchanged an uncomfortable look from the doorway.

A big smile spread across James’s face and he shook his head as if he couldn't believe what was happening. “Denslow,” he said again. “I can't fucking believe it. I'm here, half-dead at the end of the world, and I'm in the same room as you.” He caught sight of Liza's desperately confused face, and then looked over at the rest of his friends to see matching expressions. “Guys…” he said. “I talk about Denslow all the time. “

Something seemed to click for Tucker. “Oh. She's famous?”

James turned to him and nodded with a wide grin. “She's my favourite singer. I have a poster of her in my room.”

Liza snapped her fingers. “Yes! You do! I knew I'd seen you somewhere.” She rounded on Denslow, triumphant as if she had solved a mystery. “Why didn't you say?” Seeing the look on the other girl's face made her regret her dumb question instantly.

“Why didn't I tell you that your breathless pal over there has a poster of me on his wall?” she repeated, eyes narrowed. Her eyeliner was still undisturbed; probably the only thing left that remained unaffected by the apocalypse. “I guess mostly I didn't know.”

“Right...” Liza said. “I just figured you were a student.”

“She was probably passing through Fairacres to get to her tour in Slutts,” James said, referring of course to the neighbouring seaside town of Slutterby Bay. He was looking more animated by the second, healthier than he had since this whole thing had started. Silently she figured it might be best to keep James and Denslow together if possible. Even if being outed had clearly made her uncomfortable.

“Yeah,” Denslow said with an awkward shrug.

“Why don’t you want people to know you’re a singer?” Yana asked, hands on hips and lips pursed. She had no time for … well, for most things, and she wasn’t afraid to show it. “Like, it’s just your job.”

“It’s just not relevant,” Denslow snapped, wheeling around again to try to get down the stairs, but Liza’s hands were still on the bannister and a smile was still on her face.

“I was going to go to that concert.” James nodded at Liza. “You remember? I was trying to convince you to come with me.”

“Oh, yeah,” Liza said. “I said I was going to be sick that day.”

James shook his head. “Worst friend ever.” He took a couple of steps towards the two girls and Denslow let out a laboured sigh. “You know what would be really good for morale?”

“What, if I looted a guitar or something and sang to all of you?” she said. “It’s not gonna happen, man. Look around you. Jobs, vocations, social status -- none of that matters until we’re safe. Until we get to London. Right?” She raised her eyebrows at Liza.

“About that…” Liza began.

“How is sitting around in a circle and listening to someone sing a song going to help any of us?” Yana snapped, and then waved her hands through the air as if angrily erasing a whiteboard message. “Just get supplies. We need to get going. I can’t stand to spend another second in this city.”

Tucker rested his hand on her arm and she snatched it away and stalked to the other end of the store.

“Let’s talk upgrades,” Celia said, cutting through the weirdly stilted, quiet atmosphere in the room. “Liza … did you get points for the fire deaths? I figured if anyone did it would be you, since you lit the fire itself.”

Liza glanced around. “No … no one else got points?” she asked. “Yeah, I got points.”

“How many?”

Feeling a little guilty about hoarding them when she hadn’t really meant to, Liza brought up the little box at the top of her vision. “It says a total of … 569,000 UP.” Almost everyone in the room sucked in air in unison, and Tucker whistled low.

Denslow stepped forward. “What is she talking about?” she asked. “Is what good?”

“I also would like to know what you’re talking about,” James said, consciously or unconsciously sidestepping so that he was on the same side of the room as Denslow, facing all of the others alongside her. She flicked her gaze in his direction with veiled irritation. “I mean … I know what you’re talking about, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He gestured at Eli and Angie who were keeping to themselves by the makeshift barricade. “Neither do they.”

“Fine. But you’ve got to be happy with the abridged version:” Celia began. “We have headsets. The apocalypse was an augmented reality event, triggered by Revelations Software and the Alpha Virus. He handed out these limited headsets to make sure that humanity wasn’t entirely wiped out, but he wants our population to lower by a lot. No more civilised society. Not for many years, anyway. The headsets give us limited upgrade powers, fed by points we earn by killing the undead.”

“Do you understand how fucking insane you’re sounding right now?” Denslow snapped.

“It’s the truth,” Yana replied coldly. “No need to waste time by calling us crazy.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Liza could see James mouthing bitch-off to her and she resisted the urge to snicker.

“Liza, you have enough points to upgrade your character viewer to a character editor,” Celia said, staring glassy-eyed into the distance with her fingertips on her chin -- probably staring at her display.

“What does that mean?”

“I’ve been spending a lot of time getting familiar with the headset to make sure there isn’t anything we’ve been missing. Have you seen the display picture of your avatar? I mean, um, of you?” Celia said, glancing around.

“Oh, yeah, I did see a picture of myself come up at one point,” Liza recalled. “Does it do anything?”

“Yes,” Celia said. “Concentrate on the text ‘Character Screen’ and upgrade it to ‘Character Editor’. You’ll still have plenty of points left over, even if you don’t like what you see.”

“I’ll take a look. Everyone else, lay out supplies. Sort through them. Yana and Tucker -- do you have enough points to upgrade your clothing thickness?” Liza asked. They shrugged and nodded respectively. “Will you teach James how to use his headset, and show the others how it works?” The last line came out a little stilted. Liza couldn’t help but wonder if there was any chance that either Denslow, Eli or Angie would harm any of them in return for their headsets so that they could have their own -- or a backup pair. The advantage couldn’t be denied, after all. “Safety is in numbers!” she added loudly, as if foreseeing a rebellion and crushing it.

Once people were done awkwardly hovering and back to sorting through piles of thick clothing, scopes, BB pellets and knife holsters, Liza took a seat on the clothing pile where James had sat, rested her wrists on her knees, and opened up the Character Screen again. She concentrated on the text, letting her gaze drift briefly over the hardened expression in her picture before a new window came up.

This is your Character Screen.

Would you like to upgrade to a Character Editor?

100,000 UP