“You held on pretty good.”
“Adrenaline is a crazy thing,” I said.
We both caught our breath and then stared up and over.The thing was snoring, its massive head nodded, and its breathing was so loud I could feel it in my stomach.
“What should we do?”Eddie asked.
“I hate to say this, but I think our best bet is to let it sleep,” I said.“I’ve seen what those things can do.One of those got Nagisa.Gave him a new belly button piercing.”
Eddie narrowed his eyes at me.
“What are you saying?”
I turned and realized I hadn’t actually explained what was going on.I pursed my lips and considered how to reply, but Eddie shook his head.
“You’re not the Stacey I know,” he said.
“No, I’m not.I mean.I am, just...not the one that fell off the bike.”
Eddie slowly pulled out his tire iron, brandishing it and seeming to hold me at a distance.
“Explain yourself,” he said.“Right now.Before I brain you.”
“I’m Stacey.From the future.I know what’s going to happen, and I’m here for damage control.”
Eddie stared at me for a few more seconds and then put his weapon away.
“You just blink back this morning?Right before the docks?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“We really screw the pooch, don’t we?”
“That’s what Vic says,” I said.“If we don’t do this right.This is the only chance we have to get this over with.I have to set something up at Feedworthy—write an article or something that explains how this is a bad case of food poisoning.”
“I think we’re a little past that,” he said.“Didn’t you see those Cross-fitters eat that guy?”
“Yeah,” I said.“But we have to have a plausible explanation for the humans.Or else the Government nukes Chicago.”
“Oh, fuck,” Eddie said.“So there’s no way to find your apartment and use your laptop?”
“Don’t distract me,” I said.“All my best writing is done in my cubicle.I have to check on my coworkers anyway.”
“And there are no back-alleys that can get you into the building that aren’t butt-up against a giant undead troll?”
“There might be,” I said.“Some of the interns kept coming back to work with those stupid sticky hands.You know, from elementary school—you whap people or things with them, they’re like gummies but they just stay gross and wet.I kept wondering where they were getting them.Andy, my boss—he’s got a system where he keeps track of Interns through their badges.It helps way more than you might expect when it comes to office parties.Anyway, he told me Interns were disappearing without tripping the sensors.”
“Couldn’t they just have been removing their name tags?”
“There’s an alarm for that, too,” I said.“Stay with me.Anyway there’s an Arcade attached to the same shopping center we’re in.A few weeks back we tried to track how the Interns were escaping.I was working on cross-referencing annoying sticky hands with Intern disappearances, and there was some strong correlation.”
“Any day now, Stace.”
“Okay, so.My hypothesis is that there’s an underground passage from Feedworthy’s skyscraper that leads to the Arcade building, or vice versa,” I said.
“So all we have to do is go in through the Arcade a few streets over and then climb our way underground.In the dark.During a zombie apocalypse.With limited electricity and visibility.”
“Would you prefer to go face to face with that guy?”
