Z-Burbia 7: Sisters of the Apocalypse by Jake Bible

aren't gonna save your ass again."
    "I hear that," she says.
    That's not all we hear.
    "Engines," Marcie says.
    "More Doyles," Froggy Girl says and looks up and down the street. "We go this way. We can cut through that building. They'll pass right by us."
    "That the direction we need to go?" Audrey asks. "To get to our Humvees?"
    "You left them in a garage back by where you killed all my friends, right?" Froggy Girl asks. Ain't no anger in the question. Sounds like she's made peace with us taking out the Inezes. Not like she has much of a choice, really. "If you left them back that way then yes, this is the way to your Humvees."
    "Good," Audrey says. "Lead on."
    She does.

 
    Chapter Eight
     
    "What the fuck is this place?" Audrey asks as we squeeze between some boards after Froggy Girl. "What the hell?"
    It is a weird place. There's lots of bright-colored shit. Yeah, it's got dust all over it, but you can still see the bright colors. Looks like…
    "Indoor playground," Froggy Girl whispers. "I used to play here as a little girl. I liked the tunnel up on the ceiling."
    We all look up at the bright orange tunnel that's bolted to the ceiling. Every few feet there is a plastic window. A tickle at the back of my mind tells me I've been in one of these places before. Maybe when I was a kid too? I bet my nanny brought me here. Not my mother because she was too busy and too much of a cold bitch to do that. But, my nanny, for sure.
    My nanny? That's a weird memory. Did I have a nanny?
    "Why are you whispering?" Antoinette asks Froggy Girl. "This place hasn't been cleared?"
    "No," Froggy Girl replies quietly.
    She points back up at the tunnel on the ceiling. We all squint in the gloom and then gasp as Z faces show up against the plastic. Little Z faces. Undead kids.
    I fucking hate undead kids.
    "Don't worry," Froggy Girl whispers. "They're stuck up there. They aren't smart enough to figure how to get out. They get jammed in a bend, go back the way they came, then get jammed in that bend. Back and forth."
    "But we don't want them moaning and groaning," Audrey says. "They'll bring more Zs."
    Froggy Girl nods.
    "This way," she whispers and leads us around old play equipment to a door across the room.
    It's a big room. The whole ground floor is one giant room with support beams here and there. There are plastic slides. Some small, some big. Plastic houses, plastic animals to ride, plastic picnic tables. A lot of plastic.
    And a lot of bloodstains. Most of the plastic shit is covered in it. Might have been kid blood, might have been mommy blood. Ain't no way to tell now. It's all dried and brown. No bodies around to know for sure.
    We keep moving, our eyes glancing up at the tunnel now and then. The Z faces are gone, but we can hear them scurrying around like hamsters. The tunnel shakes a bit as they move and we give each other a look when we see what's gonna happen.
    "Shit," Audrey says.
    There's a far-off boom and we all jump. Hard not to.
    "Steph," I say. "Took them long enough to move her body."
    "I hope she took out a bunch of those Doyle assholes," Marcie says.
    It's good that the grenades I set finally went off. But it's bad because the sound gets the kid Zs even more active and dust starts falling from the ceiling as the tunnel begins to creak and pull at its bolts.
    "Here," Froggy Girl says as she shoves open a door in the back wall. "There's another alley behind this building."
    We run for it as the tunnel gives way. The bolts pop, pop, pop and half the ceiling just lets go, sending the bright orange tubes falling to the ground. The kid Zs groan and hiss at us as they try to get free of their tunnel, but Froggy Girl was right, they're all jammed up inside there. But they're loud enough, along with the noise the crashing tunnel made, to bring Zs to the front doors.
    It's the sound of Z hands slapping at boards that echo in my ears as we get through the back door and into a storeroom. No Zs here, just lots of boxes and some old