I reached for the latch. Luckily, it gave easily enough. “Stay back,” I then commanded. Once again, luck was on our side, the zombies in the front freezing in place as we slipped outside, the gate clinking behind us.
The groaning dropped several notches as the ferry pulled away, taking any vestiges of life along with it. As to our brains, desiccated as they might have been, at least they seemed, for the time being, to be off the menu. Meaning, no zombies were trying to sink their teeth into my lovely, new hat.
“Maybe they don’t like pink,” offered Dara.
“Or have an aversion to fedoras.”
And then I stared ahead and Dara stared ahead and a few thousand zombies, milling in all directions, stared into the oblivion, none of them taking any further notice of the two of us, apart from groaning louder when we walked by. Too bad we couldn’t say the same for them, that noticing part, because they were, in fact, impossible to ignore. After all, they quickly surrounded us, enveloping us in a shroud of death and decay, their stench very nearly overpowering, the sound of them making my bones vibrate.
“Suddenly I know what Jonah felt like,” said Dara, her hand in mine as we trudged deeper into the foray. “Belly of the beast wise, I mean.” Her hand gripped tighter in mine as the undead strode all around us, forever on the move, their lifeless bodies brushing against our own as they bumped and thrashed into us.
“Jonah had it easy compared to this,” I made note as I pushed onward.
Dara nodded. “And I bet that whale’s innards smelled a hell of a lot better.” She then stopped and turned my way. “Still, hon, at this rate, and with so many of them on all sides, we’ll never get anywhere. In twenty-four hours, we’ll be lucky if we’ve moved a block away.”
My nod mirrored hers. “That does give me an idea, though.”
“Turn back and wait on the dock?”
I brushed her cheek with my lips. “Nice try, but no.”
She frowned. “I don’t think I appreciated Utah enough.”
And I couldn’t help but laugh. “Um, yeah, I believe you did, and then some.” I again began moving us through the dense mass of inhumanity. “In any case, maybe there is a trail of sorts that we can follow. All we need is the first breadcrumb.”
“I used to know a drag queen by that name.”
“Breadcrumb?”
She shook her head. “Brenda Crumb.”
“Awful drag name.”
“Equally awful act.”
“You’re wasting time, dearest.”
Her shake turned nod. “I know. On purpose. Twenty-three more hours of this witty repartee and we can turn around.”
But still we kept moving. “Again, nice try. Now back to those breadcrumbs.”
“Lost me.”
“Watch,” I replied, turning to the throng to my right. “Halt!” They halted, fifty or so of them, which was about the length and breadth my powers extended to. I then turned to my left. “Halt!” I repeated, another fifty or so stopping dead, as it were, in there tracks. I then looked at Dara. “Get it?”
She smiled. “Genius.”
I nodded. “That about covers it.” And our walking was made a bit easier now that the throng around us had temporarily paused. “Now all we have to do is find some zombies who don’t halt.”
“Breadcrumbs.”
I touched fingertip to nose, missing it as I grazed my chin instead. “Exactly. And then, goddesses willing, those crumbs lead to the head crumb, the one who started this whole mess to begin with.”
She grew silent as we continued pushing forward, my command going up every few minutes, but not a crumb to be found. Still, at least our journey was made slightly easier—apart from the sight, smell and infernal sound of them.
“This is how you found me,” Dara eventually said, voice barely above a whisper.
I stared into the dead eyes all around me, at the lips curled into snarls, at the tattered and dusty clothes, all now centuries old. “Even then you stood out, my love.”
She gripped my hand tighter. “And this is how your friends found you as well.”
I paused, but then replied. “And we already know how I stand out in a crowd.”
She chuckled, though the dread in her voice remained. For that, I couldn’t blame her. Two against millions, after all, weren’t such great odds. Though we’d clearly beaten odds far greater than that just by being who and what we were, and together at that. “Perhaps the goddesses are already looking out for us then.”
And then I chuckled. “Um, as it’s often been said as of late, not without tips.” I turned and caught her eye. “But if someone is indeed watching over us, then I for one am grateful.”
She smiled. “Ditto.” She again looked to the dense undead throng. “Okay, crumb, come out, come out wherever you are.”
“That’s the spirit.”
She nodded and pressed forward. “Well, at least I still seem to have one of those.”
***
Hours later and we hadn’t gone all that far. Heck, zombies don’t move all that fast to begin with. Put up an undead barricade, and you’re just adding insult to injury. And, yes, okay, every time I said halt, the zombies around us halted, and that usually would’ve been fine and dandy with me, but, well, nothing about any of this was usual, and I was finding it all that much harder to muster my dandy. Mainly because when they did indeed halt, it was then we got good looks at them. Good of course being such a subjective word.