I join her there, taking a seat on the other mattress.
We waste no time going through the script. Brinley reciting her lines, me doing mine. The screenplay consists of only four short scenes, but together, they pack a surprising punch. So far, we’ve focused heavily on the first three scenes, but now it’s time to move forward.
The last part of the fourth and final scene is open-ended. Kind of like a choose your own adventure type of thing, where Brinley’s part is concerned.
“So I strut in with the bright red apple,” Brinley says, “and you get ticked because that means I’ve been climbing the tree again. Guess we’ve picked the lower ones clean.”
I nod. “Guess so. Probably lucky to have any apples at all.”
Brinley shoots me a look. “Zombies don’t eat food, remember?”
“Ah, right.”
“Okay, but then Nick is going to switch the conversation back to their ongoing argument about the Fix. But push is really coming to shove here, and Libby must make a choice.”
“That’s exactly right,” I say. “Nick chops wood. Libby climbs trees. And now Nick wants Libby to—”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” she chides. “What I’m not understanding here, is why it says I’m the one who has to make the choice. It doesn’t tell me what Libby does. It wantsmeto decide what she does.”
I nod. “That’s right.”
Brinley lifts her chin and sets those gorgeous eyes on me. “That’s too hard,” she whines.
I lift a brow. “You can’t decide whether or not you want to kiss me?”
She gives my arm a swat. “I have no idea whether Libby should kiss Nick or not.”
To me, it’s a no-brainer, so I explain it from my perspective. “Nick senses that their time as half-Zs is growing short. He’s been wanting to test the legend of The Fix since they were first bitten over two hundred days ago. Libby continues to refuse, so Nick’s ready to force things into play, so he challenges her—kiss me, and we see if the Fix is real, or take my axe—which I freely offer—to slice open his skin and see if I bleed blue.”
“Since zompires bleed blue.”
I nod. “Precisely.”
Brinley drums her fingers. I can tell she’s agitated, but I’m not sure why. “I find it hard to believe that Libby hasn’t seen his blood up to this point,” she says pointedly.
I stare at her for a blink. That’s her beef with the script now? She acts like she’s just discoveredoneabsurdity in this thing. Has she forgotten that it’s a cheerleading chainsaw zombie apocalypse? Filled with half-Zs and zombies and zompires?
“Shehasseen Nick’s blood,” I remind, “but that was before he would have been changed. Remember, she thought his bite wound looked different from hers, which is what made her think Nick’s bite was from a zompire in the first place. But again, they’re not even sure zompires exist.”
Brinley nods, but the tightness in her face gives her away. I sense she has a bone to pick, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe she’s simply overwhelmed because she’s out of her wheelhouse. That, I can help her with.
“Picture it,” I say. “Nick and Libby have done an incredible job of defending themselves all this time. They’ve been through everything together, surviving one attack after the next. Libby’s waving around that chainsaw, cutting off heads one minute, tending to her cheery little garden the next. They’ve been securing this safe space and against all odds, they’re actually thriving.”
Brinley gives me a nod.
I keep on. “Everything they’ve worked for is paying off. The attacks are fewer and further between. Nick and Libby really might be able to do this whole, repopulate-the-earth thing after all.”
She nods, then frowns. “I don’twantto choose which action to take. I wish it would just tell me which one to do.”
I sense this might be the crux of it. Her indecision about which one to choose. I give her my sinister grin. “I’lltell you which one to do.”
Brinley laughs and shakes her head. “Says the one who knows what Nick is. If I make the wrong choice, how would I even know? You’re notreallygoing to bleed blue.”
I stiffen. “I hope I’m not going to bleed at all,” I say. “You know you’d onlypretendto cut me, right?”
Brinley rolls her eyes. “Boring.”
Since my script has instructions, I give her a little insight. “I’ll have a capsule ready. If you choose to cut me, I’ll activate it, and you’ll see for yourself whether you chose wrong or right.”
