“Oh my gosh.” I leaned forward, looking at the broken marquees that hung in front of towering hotels. “This is Las Vegas.”

“Yeah. Where did you think we were?” Lazlo asked.

“I didn’t know. I just knew desert.” I had spent so much time isolated in the quarantine that it never occurred to me how near we were to a city. “We should stop.”

“What for? You in the mood to gamble?” Lazlo asked.

“These are really nice hotels. I’m sure the suites and kitchens are loaded with non-perishable food,” I said.

Blue slowed down. He rolled up over the curb, driving around the deteriorating decorative features to pull right in front of the doors.

“We won’t be able to get up to the suites because they’re on the top floors and the elevators are broken, but there has to be stuff on the main floor,” Blue said and turned off the SUV.

“So we just started on this road trip, and we’re stopping?” Harlow raised an eyebrow at us.

“We should stock up while we can,” I opened the door and hopped out. “We don’t know when we’ll be able to again.”

I went around the back and opened the door so Ripley could get out, and I grabbed the handgun from Harlow’s bag and shoved it in my waistband. The sun was blinding and hot, making me even more thankful for the vehicle and its air conditioning.

Blue and I walked into the casino first, with Lazlo and Harlow following. I didn’t like the idea of them being together, because Harlow froze and Lazlo was an idiot. I wanted to get in and out of here as quickly as possible.

“I’ve been here before,” Lazlo said to no one in particular. “I played at the Hard Rock, and we partied it up in Vegas for like three days after.”

“Yeah, great.” I did my best to ignore him as I stepped through the broken glass and squinted in the darkness of the casino. “Does anybody have a light or something?”

Casinos were built without windows so people can’t keep track of how long they’ve been there. That’s fine when it’s full of bright lights, but with the power out, the casino was a pitch black tomb. We were left feeling around broken chairs, upended slot machines, and lots of dead bodies.

“It smells horrible in here,” Lazlo grimaced after he’d made it a few feet inside. It smelled pretty rank, but I was getting used to the smell of death, as much as anyone could get used to it.

“You should’ve smelled the truck I was in yesterday.” Harlow gagged at the thought.

“Blue, can you see anything?” I walked farther into the darkness. Blue was ahead of me, and I couldn’t see him anymore

“Not really. I’m trying to find security. They should have flashlights.” He started to say something else, but he grunted and I heard a bang. “I’m okay. I just tripped.”

“You know, I saw a flashlight in the car,” Lazlo said. He waited just inside the doors, rubbing his arm and looking around in the dark. “Should I go get it?”

“Yeah, that might be helpful,” I said dryly.

He came back a few minutes later with a flashlight, and I took it from him. I had deemed him too stupid to even handle a light. After that, we were able to find the security area and two working flashlights. I gave one to Blue and one to Harlow.

Lazlo made some kind of complaint, but I ignored him. Blue went to the right to look for food, and I went to the left, thinking it’d be quicker if we split up. I left Harlow and Lazlo with the instruction to look for food but not to stray too far away.

“Is she always like this?” Lazlo said to Harlow as I walked away.

“Usually,” Harlow replied, and I sighed to myself.

I held the flashlight up over my head, shining as much light as I could, and made my way through smashed slots and broken tables, looking for a kitchen or bar.

Without air conditioning or windows, it was suffocating. By the time I found the kitchen, I was drenched in sweat and finding it hard to breathe. The air was filled with dust, heat, and death.

I found an empty black trash bag, and I rummaged around. Most of the food had spoiled, and a body lying on the stove had burned to a crisp some time ago. I pushed past it and hunted around the shelves.

There were many jars of maraschino cherries and olives for drinks, and I tossed them in the bag. The best thing I found were cases of bottled of water, and I was filling the bag with them when I heard a shaky groan behind me.

A solitary zombie stood in the door to the kitchen. It was so far into the end stages of the disease, I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. Most of its hair had fallen out, and it was emaciated and pale. It looked like a reanimated corpse.

Part of its bottom lip was gone, as well as most of its teeth. Yellowish drool dripped down from its mouth, and it just stood there, staring at me. A younger, healthier zombie would’ve already sprung on me, but this one was almost dead.

I didn’t want to waste a bullet on it, but I couldn’t leave it alive either. I scanned the kitchen, hoping for something less personal than a butcher knife but more dangerous than a ladle.

The zombie walked towards me, hobbling and bumping into everything. I grabbed the thing nearest to me – a super long meat thermometer. I worked with what I had.

I stepped forward, and before it could react, I jammed the thermometer in its eye, right through its brain. The zombie stopped moving, but it took a second before it collapsed back on the ground.

When it fell, my flashlight picked up the bigger problem.

– 6 –

Waiting outside the kitchen door were three young, hungry zombies, but I hadn’t heard them over the dying zombie’s labored breaths. I had been too busy concentrating on the wrong zombie.

“It was a fucking decoy,” I said, feeling confused.

The other zombies charged towards me. I grabbed a metal pan and chucked it at the charging zombie’s head. It didn’t kill him, but it bought me a second to think of a better plan.

I dropped my flashlight on the counter and dove across a stainless steel island, sending pans flying as I slid out of reach of another zombie’s grasp. I slammed into the stove across from it, knocking a spoon, a salt shaker, and box of matches down onto my lap when I fell to the floor.

A zombie dove across the island, and I dropped to my belly, sliding in the gap underneath it. I barely fit. The zombie crashed onto its head, falling onto the floor next to where I lay hidden under the island.