Orthodontics in the Zombie Apocalypse

18. The Romantic Interests Split Off...and the Pipsqueak Goes With (2/2)

The goodbye was kind of awkward afterwards. We just sort of stood there blankly for a beat and a half before Sean picked up the bags, setting everyone else into motion. Shaniya and Sean both gave Angel fistbumps, and Greg gave her a half-smile. Mikah shook everyone's hand. And everyone just gave me weird looks. Shaniya stared at me with eyes narrowed, and it felt like she was staring into my soul, maybe trying to see if there is a good person underneath after all. Sean nodded with a stone-flat facial expression. Guess I didn't impact him much. And Greg gave me what I can only decipher as a half-glare, half-"I don't totally hate you" stare. But what got me was that as we turned away, I took one more glance over my shoulder, the same time as Shaniya, and she nodded at me with a small smile. Guess she didn't hate me after all.

"We're finding an orthodontist, like I said." Gosh, doesn't she listen? I see ears. When is she planning on using them?

"Mikah, why'd you steal the cure?" she asks next.

Mikah half-chokes. "Don't know what you're talking about."

"I saw you. Everyone else was sleeping, but I was only pretending. You were good. I almost didn't realize it until I went later to check."

"I don't trust Bad Idea Labs."

My eyes widen. "Hey! You said you stole it for me!"

"I did! But not to give it directly to some rando orthodontist. We need to get it to a scientist who can replicate it. We need to know how to use it. Is it meant to be ingested, injected, or heated up and inhaled, or rubbed on the skin? Doesn't help much if we don't know how it works."

"Ugh. Fine, I get it. I'll feel special again in a moment."

Angel chuckles.

"Something funny?" I ask, eyes narrowed and lips pursed, on the brink of crossing my arms, but I don't because that's just a little too defensive for my high level of self-esteem.

"Nope."

I glare at her. "Fine." I didn't want to hear her annoying voice explain it, anyways.

My shoelace comes untied after a few more minutes of walking. I set my suitcase handle down next to me while I stoop to tie it. "Have we been walking aimlessly so far?" I ask as I get up again.

"Sh." Mikah's eyes are wide. "Piper, pick up your handle," he whispers. "And turn around."

That's when I hear it. The quiet gurgle. Then the "grahhhh." Right behind me. It sniffs and the "grahhhh" cuts off.

I lunge for my suitcase handle and swing at the zombie's head. It comes clean off. "Home run!" The rest of the body keeps coming at me, but without its head it doesn't know where to find me, so I step a little to the left and sit back while it keeps grasping at air. "Let's get out of here. But, first, what's our plan?"

"Hospital," Mikah says.

"You idiot, I hope you're joking," I say while Angel claps a hand to her face.

"Why? Hospitals have doctors."

"If the zombie apocalypse has been going on as long as everyone says, there are definitely not going to be any doctors out and about. I bet all the patients got bitten and the doctors made a run for it when they realized what was going on," I explain.

"Yeah," Angel says.

"Oh. Then where should we go?" Mikah side-steps the zombie as it fumbles back our way.

"The Doctors' Guild," Angel says.

My nose crinkles. "Aren't those the assholes who sold the cure to the highest bidder?"

"No, that was Pandora Medical. The Guild helped develop it. They know how to make more and how to use it."

"Not what I understood from the story, but sure. Whatever. I'll just beat them with a pipe if they try to do anything shady."

Mikah smirks. "I think it's really cute how you say that without any reservations."

Wow. You touch a guy's junk once—through his pants, I might add!—and suddenly you're "cute." Can't say I hate it.

I really need to find some feminine hygiene products and birth control if my mind is going like this, though. PMS is most definitely upon us. Well, shit.

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A/N

Things are about to get serious, my friends. I was thinking to myself, "What's worse than braces in the zombie apocalypse?" And it hit me: Getting your period without any feminine hygiene products in sight.

Stay tuned for the madness to continue in the next chapter! You're a real champ for making it so far through this nonsense, and I wanted to say thank you for sticking around so long!

Remember to tap that orange star and be as vocal as Piper in the comment section!