Apoca Lips by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2023-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Zombie

Batoness was hovering close to Apoca. Then Baton winked out.

Apoca was startled. “What happened to Baton? He just winked out. I thought he wanted to romance you.”

The speech balloon appeared, and the print formed in it as Batoness answered. “Not while we’re on duty. Because there are now two of us, we can alternate, and the one not on duty can go elsewhere to relax. It is your turn to protagonize, and I will handle it unless you object.”

“I don’t object. I like being able to talk with you. Nolan sometimes wonders what Baton wants, as he doesn’t speak.”

“Males tend to think of themselves as strong, smart, silent types, but sometimes they are simply silent.”

“Amen to that! But without them there’d be no one to admire our special qualities.” Apoca inhaled, emphasizing a quality. Sure enough, Nolan’s eyes sneak peeked.

“True. They are useful to that extent. That just about makes up for their liabilities.”

They were walking back along the seventh path. Soon they came to the nexus. There were the other six paths, each leading into the unknown.

Apoca sighed. “DD Talents is bound to be on the least likely path. But these all look similarly unlikely. I fear there could be not here plaques on every one of them. I wish they were labeled.”

“There are hints. The nearest one has a loose screw on the ground that a robot must have lost. The next one has a torn strip of a sheet that a ghost could have left. Another has a rotting piece of flesh, evidence of the passage of a well-aged zombie.”

Apoca shuddered. “I don’t much like zombies. I don’t want to go there.” She paused, reconsidering. “Which may make it the least likely path.”

“Bleep,” Nolan muttered. He of course had heard their dialogue, because of his talent.

Apoca sighed. The one thing about that was that to do it properly she had to inhale fully, compelling Nolan’s attention.

They took the path. It soon took them to a sign saying zombie country—abandon life all ye who enter here.

“Ignore that,” Nolan said. “The zombies just want to scare off raiders who otherwise might steal their goods.”

“It is after all the border,” Batoness printed.

He nodded. “All the same, let’s check first. Ghorgeous, can you—”

The ghost appeared, deep cleavage first, then face. “I can fhirm up anything you want to get your hands on.” She had been flirting with him ever since kissing him, to Apoca’s muted annoyance.

“—verify what’s ahead and let us know?” he continued with only a trace of a pause.

“Just enough pause to make a mental snapshot of that mountain valley she flashed, that he can process later when you aren’t close,” Nimbus said cynically. “I doubt it was that impressive when she was alive.”

Apoca nodded. Ghorgeous lacked substance but had malleable appearance.

“I hear and obey.” The ghost was gone, leaving behind only a trace of evocative perfume.

Apoca adjusted her own cleavage. The living could play that game better than the dead could, when they had the mountains.

They gazed across the border.

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