"No," Caroline agreed. "Not by a long way."
"By the by," Bunny said as she stripped the blood-stained robe. "Why didn't you shoot him? You had a gun, too."
"Truthfully?" Caroline asked with a pathetic expression.
"Preferably," Bunny replied, leaning over the chair and giving her the best stern look she could muster.
"I forgot I was holding it," the other woman admitted.
Bunny couldn't help but laugh. "Wow. Good thing you got my back."
"Hey, when dead people start getting up to eat us, I think I'm allowed one ‘holy fuck’ moment," Caroline argued.
Bunny held up her hands. "Sure, no problem."
They fell quiet for a moment, the truth of Caroline's statement sinking in. Bunny sighed and brushed her hair out of her face, knowing the word floating unspoken in the air between them, the one neither of them had the courage to say out loud.
Caroline shook herself and stood, shrugging out of her own robe and set about unlacing the thigh-high boots she’d grown to loathe in the last hour. Bunny watched her, knowing how she felt.
"I somehow never imagined that when the world ended, I'd be in a G-string," she said after a moment.
Caroline laughed. "I always thought I'd be overdressed for the occasion if I was."
Bunny snorted a laugh and got rid of that garment as well. Together, the two donned what many in their profession referred to as ‘street clothes,’ as if they were superheroes or secret agents. Something other than what they really were.
"So, we still looking for Amy, then?" Caroline asked as she tugged her t-shirt into place.
Bunny nodded. "Marty wasn't sick that I noticed, so it goes back to her. She's got to be in the building still, and we need to deal with her."
"You think this is happening outside, too?"
Bunny paused, her shirt half-buttoned. "Haven't really had a chance to think about it."
Caroline looked at her for a moment, then at the floor. "I can't stop thinking about it."
"For now, let's just focus on securing our perimeter. After that, we can worry about everything else," Bunny told her.
Caroline grunted. "Our perimeter. Yeah."
Bunny dropped into the chair to tug her boots on. "I don't know what to tell you, Caroline. This is happening, and I know I sure as hell don't want to die, not like that. I don't figure you do either. So, we're going to have to do whatever it takes, and that's all there is to it."
"I get that. I just... never mind."
"No, go on. Get it off your chest."
Caroline stood there for a moment, looking like a completely different person than Bunny was used to. A plain white t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, with her hair lose around her shoulders, rather than the leather-clad dominatrix of the stage. A woman, afraid and uncertain, opposite of the daring queen who ruled the ground she stood on.
"If this is happening outside, how long can we really last? What hope is there, if this really is the end?"
Bunny shook her head. "It's not the end."
"Uh, hello, the dead are rising with a will to eat the living. If that's not the apocalypse, what is?" Caroline shot back.
Bunny shrugged. "One more thing to deal with than there was yesterday."
"I don't think it's that simple, Bunny."
"Make it that simple," she answered. "Or you'll end up eating that gun you've got before long."
Caroline stared at her, surprised. "I didn't mean it that way."
"Yes, you did." Bunny sighed as she stood. "Trust me, I know. Been there, dealt with that, moved on from it. Whatever else there may be to think of, staying alive and sane is, and must be, at the very top of your to-do list from now on, or you will end up putting yourself down."
Caroline found she couldn't meet her friend's eyes anymore. "As a last resort."
Bunny nodded slowly. "As a last resort, yeah, I'm on that page with you. But not until then. Until then, we fight."
"Has anyone ever told you that you’re pretty stubborn?"
Bunny smiled. "Oh, a few people. Once or twice."
Caroline smiled back. "I'm kinda glad you are, right now."
"Let's go find Amy, before she finds us, yeah?"
Though she’d roamed it for five years, Bunny had never realized just how big The Tawdry Tail really was. The clubroom itself only took up a quarter of the building's space, the rest devoted to the behind-the-scenes running of the establishment. Besides the cold storage and the DJ booth, there were several storerooms, bathrooms, showers, a kitchen and walk-in freezer, as well as a loading dock. Amy could be hiding in any one of them, waiting to feast on their flesh.
Moving slowly, and quietly, she and Caroline made their way through each room in turn, searching each storeroom carefully, a process that took much longer than Bunny had first thought. Glancing at her watch, she saw it had now been 8 hours since she'd woken for her day.
It was 10 past midnight. A new day.
As the two moved into the bathroom used by employees, they were assaulted by a horrid stench; one Bunny had smelled before on Sheila. With caution she checked each stall in turn before finding the source. She stared at the mess for a long time, knowing that it’d been here that Amy's life had ended. The thick coat of drying blood that stained everything in sight told the tale.
Whatever she was now, she was no longer the shy girl with the sad story of a sick mother and a mountain of medical bills to pay. She was a thing, a murderous monster that would kill her. Just like Sheila. Just like Marty. Just like Carl.
"Amy's dead," she said softly.
Next to her, Caroline glanced in the stall,
