Piper hated this part. Her hand shaking as she focused on her face, she raised the bubblegum pink lipstick to her lips and swiped the sticky formula over what passed for a smile, her lips eaten long ago by an overzealous herd of maggots.
"There. I'm freakin' perfect." Turning her head so Maggie could check the results of her makeup job, Piper closed her eyes against the gasp she'd come to expect. Determined to not have the lack of a pulse diminish her night out, she pulled Maggie to the door. "Come on. I bet we even meet a guy who can still form full sentences."
Stepping into the night, Piper felt the pull of the music from the bar. Her feet shuffled not from dislocation but from disco and she loved it.
“Maggie. Hurry up. By the time we get there, all the good men will be gone. I hate being stuck with the moldy ones.”
An object struck her head from behind. Her neck cracked as she turned to see what was on the dirty sidewalk. A finger. Maggie’s middle one. “Very funny.”
What Maggie lacked in vocal chords she made up for in questionable moral support. Piper couldn’t imagine going through Zombification without her best friend; she hoped Maggie would forgive her for that one tiny incident that dragged her down Hell’s Highway. She couldn’t help herself – one minute Maggie was yammering away about her fiancé and the next, she was lying in a pool of gore at Piper’s feet.
Piper tried to make it up to her. Maggie’s asshole of a fiancé took off with another woman before her body was cold. The permanent sneer on her face left by rotting gums a subtle reminder that love sucks. Piper fell behind her truculent friend and pushed her toward the smoky doorway of the bar.
“Dude! Cervesas” Piper’s voice barely made a dent in the boom boom of the music as she staggered to the bar. Maggie fell back against the doorway, the chipped wood framing a delicate woman abused by fate and wounds that went deeper than the zombie virus. Raising her hand to shield her gaping mouth, it shook as she locked eyes with her ex-fiancé.
Smiling, Paulie said, “Maggie! I thought your friend over there had finished the job. Stupid bitch can’t even do that right.” Tossing his head toward Piper, his hand followed spilling beer over the closet table and onto the patrons. “Say, you still look like you have all the right parts. I need you, Baby.”
His eyes grazing her body, Maggie felt revulsion and something new – control. Taking his hand, Maggie led him outside into the muggy night, proceeding to rip his heart out as he had done to hers then returned inside.
“Maggie? Girl, did you get lucky?” Piper carried two large pints toward her friend. In the dull light of the bar, Maggie looked almost happy. Licking her fingers, she made her way to the dance floor.
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