Lia Habel

“Keep this in mind, though: one false move and the teddy gets it!”

“No. No more surprises. No more secrets. Or so help me, I will rip off your own leg and beat you with it.”

“I was surprised by the growl that wanted to well up in my throat.... I told myself it was stress, not my illness's way of saying, Get your own take-out.”

“What about mold," Tom reminded her. "Fuzziness on a girl is never attractive.”

“First,' Dad said, giving me a stern look, 'Captain Griswold and you [Nora] and i must have a little chat.' I batted my eyelashes at him, even as my cheeks heated. Chas choked, and scrawled out, You stil ow me detales! Detales!!!”

“[after Bram bit Nora at her request] It hit me then that she wasn't half as disgusted as she should be. '[Nora, a]re you … sure you're okay with it?' She pulled her sleeve back up and shrugged. She was quiet for a minute before asking, '[Bram. ]Did you enjoy it?' I decided to tell the truth. 'Yes. You wouldn't believe how good you taste. I don't think i could even describe it.' She laughed. 'Good? Like filet mignon good? Or like … candy good?”

“What might not be there are the chances you have right now. If you can hold on another hour, another day - if you can live one more good, honorable minute - those are the victories. And they open up the whole world.”

“Nora, I just don't want you to become so obsessed with the present that you can't see the future.”

“Bram knocked, and Chas opened the door, her music growing louder. She had strips of tinfoil in her hair and a cigarette dangling from her lips–which she immediately hid behind her back when she saw Bram.   "Hiiii!"   Both of Bram's brows flitted upward. "Hi." He looked at the foil. "I'm not even gonna ask."   "Martians are trying to control my thoughts, stupid." She noticed me then and smiled. "Hi, Nora! Ooh…" Her eyes fell to the weapon. "Shiny."   "Nora needs some more appropriate clothes if she's to use the shiny," Bram said.   Chas clapped her hands together. "Makeover!"   Oh, God no.…”

“I was terribly, painfully present in the world, and so far removed from it.”

“So, could there be a cure?' Nora looked at me out of the corner of her eye. I found myself looking at the floor. I knew the answer to that one. 'No,' Beryl said. 'Prions essentially cannot be destroyed. We've tried antibiotics, antiretrovirals, acid …' 'Freezing flesh, burning it …' Samedi ticked off. 'Autoclaving works some of the time, but not enough to be thoroughly trusted. Um … industrial cleaners of all kinds …' 'Your mother's cooking …”

“Probably the easiest way to explain [the situation] is to simply say that your proteins refuse to bend [to the zombie protein's command].'My mother was right,' Nora muttered. 'Even my genes are stubborn.”

“I was jealous of [Nora] at first, because she had prettier dresses and the naturally curly hair that had been my ultimate worldly desire at that age. In fact, when our mothers initially introduced us, i had chosen to greet her by yanking on a fistful of her hair to see if it was real. Her response was to deck me in the nose.It had been love at first fight.”

“I gave [Nora] as long as she needed, all the while mentally designing my tombstone. 'R.I.P., Captain Abraham R. Griswold. He was completely useless and made girls cry.”

“… as well as a tiny brown glass vial of perfumed oil. It smelled of violets and chocolate. Yeah, like i needed the zombies to find me any more delicious. That'd be like a cow wearing 'eau de gravy'.”

“Nora was the only thing that made sense. She was the only unchanging thing in my universe. She was my lodestar. No matter which way my emotions and circumstances and the impulses of my dead, dying, trying body pulled me, no matter how many mistakes I made, she was always true north. Sometimes I’d side with the dead, sometimes with the living, but always with her.”

“I’m here for every bit of your life. The bad parts, the scary parts. And I vow to do all you ask of me that is fair … even at the end.” I knew I didn’t have to elaborate; I could see that he’d gotten it, and that it moved him. "I do.”

“I know I won’t be there for every part of your life, but I’d like you to be there for every part of mine. I do.”

“I love you, Nora. I will think you beautiful when I have no eyes left to see. I will remember your voice when my ears go. You can’t hold on to me forever, but I will hold on to you until I am nothing but dirt.”

“Hey, she's hot. Literally. And circulation, I find that very, very attractive in a woman.”

“You're a zombie. If you're not missing body parts, you're doing it wrong!”

“Dead folks use plastic! When in doubt, throw it out! Please use the bathroom appointed for your gender and mortality!”

“I hope there are zombie sharks in there and they bite you and you die!”

“As a youth I got my jollies by confronting my professors with facts that ran completely contrary to what they were trying to ram into our thick skulls. His expressions of bafflement and anger had never failed to amuse me.”

“Trying, trying, always trying. Trying was my life. I was guaranteed nothing.”

“What makes us the strongest tribe on the continent is the fact that a group that opposes these values--a group that would have mankind remain in the new dark ages--is permitted to grow, permitted to exist...and, after it becomes a violent terrorist organization, is allowed to live on it own lands, taken out of the lands of those it has attacked and continues to attack!" He had to stop speaking then--the applause was louder than even his amplified voice. "They expect that fear will drive us to become like them...closed-minded, blind, angry. Our society will remain open and free so long as I am standing upright," he continued, once the applause died down.”

“Care to apologize to the lady scumbag?" Bram asked angrily."Shut up, deadmeat. Turn on the screen”

“Tiny...little...freaking...parts!"-Bram”

“Besides, if you're sick, I'm on life support. As wrong as that joke is.”

“I had my father again.I had Bram back. We were a newly fashioned crew of soldiers and inventors and cheeky teenagers, armed with an airship and plenty or guns. We could, in theory, pack it all in if we wanted to, and strike out for part unknown. Colonize some little forgotten island, somewhere, and continue our adventures. Live generously; die gloriously.”

“Now. Bram, you are a good friend and an uptanding young man, but I'm afraid that tradition dictates I now attempt to scare you within an inch of your unlife.""Understood," Bram said, taking his arm back as I got myself under control.My father is a gentle-looking man. Thus, why I started laughing again as he attempted to look stern. "What are your intentions concerning my daughter?"Bram cast a look my way, laughing himself, before clearing his throat and doing his best to look scared. "Why, to care for and protect her until I rot away, sir.”

“I heard my father trail off, my face hidden in Bram's chest."Ah...I should have told you about that," Samedi said, sounding a trifle embarrased. Bram urged me back again and bent down to give me another peck on the lips, a calmer one. I melted into it."You do realize that this is wrong?" Bram joked. I opened my eyes and found him looking at me as if he wanted to rememorize my face."So,so wrong," I agreed, reaching up to finger another new cut he'd acquired on his hairline. The skin along his right cheek was lightly singed. He was still the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen."No, it's all right, Samedi," I heard Dad chuckling. "It's all right.”

“I broke away from Samedi and sprinted down the gangplank, screaming out Bram's name. His head turned, and he started limping toward me."Nora!" I heard someone yell.Bram met me halfway. He scooped me up with one arm and pulled my head toward his. I didn't fight it in the least. He kissed me harshly, and I returned it, leaping up on my toes, seeking out his chapped, broken lips with my own, inexpertly, needfully. And then he just held me as I cried, soaking his dirty T-shirt with my tears, his cheek on my head. "I thought you were gone," I managed to get out. "I thought you were really gone...""I thought I was, too," he said, laughing weakly. "But I'd never leave you if I had the choice. I was going to get back to you, or grind to dust trying.”

“As he puts it, he was reborn in a coal chute, so he can't look down on anyone now.”

“On the last page he'd written simply, She's so beautiful.”

“Later that evening, back at the airship, I cut a hole in a ribbon Beryl had given me and attached the cuff link, before tying it around my neck.Symbols are powerful.When he saw this, my father finally decided to ask after the extent of my loss. "I feel," he said, glancing across the rain-speckled deck of the ship, "like I have lost a on." His hand was trembling, a it always had whenever he admitted to great emotion. "I take it that you'd grown fond of him as well? He was such a noble young man.""Something like that," I confessed brokenly/”

“I know for a fact that many are in hiding. Until this moment my wife was in hiding, and my son still is."He stroked his wife's yellowed hand. "And I would kill an entire living army for one more moment with her.”

“And now, because of everything you were involved in, I will spend the rest of my life hiding in the outback, mourning the death of a man who was dead when I meant him!”

“I took a moment to savor the sensation of impending disastor before telling it to get lost."Things are pretty messed up right about now," I began. "What started as a weird phenomenon, something rare, is quickly building into what we might affectionately call 'the Apocalypse.”

“I mean, I don't even like guys with light hair, for one thing! Never mind the fact that he'd knock me into a coma every time he opened his mouth. Oh, and that he's a hateful, violent half-wit. Yeah, that's prime courtship material right there."It wasn't me. YES!Wait. Was this that Allister fellow?I drifted over and sat next to her. She looked at me and offered the com unit. "Bram, tell Pamma that there's no way I would want Michael Allister, ever."I ran this through my "girl talk" translator and said, "I could eat him, if either of you'd like. Seems like it might be the easiest thing to do.”

“We just had to keep going and hope that whoever was in charge up top got his act together or started receiving pro-zombie messages from a higher power-living or divine.It really didn't matter at this point.”

“Pam," Issy attempted, voice high with fear. "I can tell you, from this side of the fence..you really need to calm down.""I will shoot you in the face if you say one more word to me," I fumed."So noted.""I am so glad that I am an only child," Coalhouse remarked quietly.”

“I stepped free of Isambard and shoved Michael in the chest. I caught him off guard. He tumbled to the dock, and rolled into the water with a splash. "I hope there are zombie sharks in there and they bite you and you die!" I screamed.”

“I was a moron-a complete moron. A loser of the highest caliber.”

“But...ah...not that I'm on your side now or anything, but you haven't exactly got a lot of time for drama of this quality.”

“If I never see you again, I shall die happy.”

“You know, that bishop strategy you often use is incredibly devious, and I was just about to try a new way to block it before we were so rudely interrupted by the end of the world.”

“Bram was staring at me in dibelief, as if I were trying to persuade him that his entire existencce as a dead man was simply an incredibly realistic dream.”

“You're about the stupidest thing on two legs.”

“Stay away from us!" Michael ordered. He was looking at Nora in horror, as if he couldn't believe what she was saying. "No one's trying to get near you," Chas snorted. "I don't do living guys. Call me prejudiced.”