Razor Girl by Marianne Mancusi

are—I hope—holed up there. They’re working on rebuilding society. When things started getting bad, they made a pact to meet. It was meant to be the Eden of the new—”
    “Hey, Tank, you’ve just survived the apocalypse. What are you going to do now?” Chase interrupted.
    Tank erupted in a howl of mirth, gave his brother a high-five, and the two men cracked up. “I’m going to Disney World!”
    The kids stopped playing and stared at them.
    Molly rolled her eyes. “I know it sounds silly,” she said. “But Disney makes perfect sense if you think about it. The way my father talked, his friends were planning to make the place completely defensible, underground service tunnels and all. Also, there are a ton of hotel rooms—localized residences with their own power and water plants. And Florida is warm year-round, so no worries about anyone freezing to death.”
    “I guess that could work,” Tank said. “Sort of like what we did here in the Wal-Mart, but on a larger scale.”
    Molly nodded. “Right. So my dad made me promise that once the doors of the shelter in which my mother and I were living all this time opened, I’d head down to find him. They opened yesterday, and so I’m on my way.”
    “Your mother?”
    “She…was sick. She passed on yesterday.” Molly felt her throat tighten as she pictured her mother’s unmoving body and the plastic rose. She fought the urge to spit.
    Tank shook his head, giving a little snort. “Well, nice idea or not, sorry, sister, you’ll never make it to Florida. Not with how things are. The Others will have you by breakfast. There’s too many of them. You can never predict where they’ll appear or when. It’s smarter not to travel, to hole up and keep hidden. To stay in places of strategic advantage. Otherwise, we don’t stand a chance.”
    “We’ll see,” she said, refusing to let his pessimism soak in. She was, like it or not, a razor girl; she could do things normal humans couldn’t. That was the whole point. “I mean, I’m not entirely helpless,” she explained, holding out her fingers, displaying her blood-encrusted razors. Ew. She really needed to clean those.
    “Yeah, check it, Tank. You should see what she can do with those bad boys. She took on one of the Others when I first ran into her. Big guy, too.” He mimicked her martial arts movements with an exaggerated flair. “Hiiii-yah! Bang! Boom! The thing didn’t know what hit it.”
    Tank let out a whistle, staring at the blades. “Damn. Your daddy make you those?”
    Molly nodded then looked down at the ground, suddenly feeling self-conscious. “It’s another long story,” she said at last. “I’ve got ocular implants, too.” She pointed to her sunglasses. “They allow me to see in the dark, have GPS navigation linked to an old-time satellite and allow access to special databases he left up and running.”
    “Nice,” Tank said, taking her hand and examining her fingers. “I could use a set of those myself.” He dropped her hand. “So, have you talked to your father lately?”
    She stared at the ground and shrugged. “No. Not for a bit.”
    Tank nodded. “I thought not. You, girly girl, should face facts. With all those things running around, your father’s probably dead. I hate to say it, but it’s true. And you’re not going to make it to Florida. Consider hanging out with us instead. We could use someone like you to pick up the slack for my lazy-ass, no-good brother over there.” He gave Molly a charming smile.
    Chase gave his brother the finger. “Please,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Who catches half the deer? And who’s the better cook?”
    “Me, of course,” Tank replied.
    “The last time you tried to boil water you nearly burned us out of here!”
    “Lies,” Tank said. “If there were any lawyers left I’d sue for slander.” He turned back to Molly. “So, what you do say? How about you skip Disney and join our little tribe?”
    She shook her head. It was