Free Asylum by Jason Sizemore

connecting with the drag queen’s crotch.
Even though Toby knew Diva still had a full package down there,
there was no reaction, and the zombie did not slow.
    Clive screamed, but there was nothing Toby
could do for him until he took care of Diva, or the shell that had
once been his friend. Toby backed up against the bar, looking for
something that could be used as a weapon, maybe the bat he’d seen
Gil with earlier, forgetting the bartender had lost it when he’d
gone outside. A hand fell on Toby’s shoulder; he looked over and
saw the Tasmanian Devil tattoo on the bicep. “Gil, thank God, what
are we going…”
    When Toby looked up and saw Gil’s face, the
words died on his lips.
    Then Gil ate his lips right off his
face.
     
    Jarvis and Curtis were lying on the floor,
sweaty and exhausted, when they heard Diva scream upstairs, then
the pounding of feet down the stairs and Devon shouting something
about God’s wrath.
    “ What the hell is going
on?” Curtis said, pulling out of Jarvis’s arms and pushing up to a
sitting position.
    “ Sounds like Devon has
really snapped. We should go out and see if we can
help.”
    Curtis retrieved his clothes and slowly
started to dress. Jarvis, who only had the thong and the boy’s
jacket, beat him to it. “You okay?” he asked. “I mean, I know these
weren’t the ideal conditions for your first time.”
    Curtis smiled at him as he shimmied into his
leather pants. “It was great, really. Hell, if the world wasn’t
ending, I probably wouldn’t have gotten laid.”
    Jarvis was about to respond when he heard a
great ruckus out in the club, like furniture moving around, and
Toby yelling, “Help her!” “We better get out there and see what the
hell is going on.”
    While Curtis put his shirt back on, Jarvis
opened the bathroom door…
    Just in time to see Lance gnawing on
Autumn’s face. Clive was advancing on them with a chair in his
hands, but Jarvis saw what Clive did not—Diva and Jimmy, both
obviously dead, coming down the stairs.
    Moving quickly before the zombies spotted
him, Jarvis closed the bathroom door and turned the deadbolt,
backing into the room.
    “ What is it?” Curtis
said.
    At first Jarvis couldn’t speak. He took a
couple of deep breaths, worked up some saliva in his mouth, then
said, “Zombies. Lance, Diva, Jimmy, they’re all zombies.”
    Curtis let out a laugh that sounded more
like a cough and hugged himself tight. “No, no, no, this can’t be
happening, can’t be real. Stuff like this just doesn’t happen.”
    From the other side of the door, there were
more screams. Clive, then Toby, then the sound of one of the doors
bursting open and Devon screamed, only once and briefly. Jarvis
could hear the stomp of many feet as the zombies from outside
poured into the club; it was like a stampede. In only a matter of
seconds they were pounding at the restroom door, as if they could
smell the two living beings inside.
    Jarvis took Curtis’s hand and they retreated
to the far side of the room. “How long do you think that lock will
hold?” Curtis asked.
    “ A while,” Jarvis said,
but he was pretty sure Curtis could tell he was lying. The door to
the restroom was nowhere near as sturdy as the ones to the club
entrances, and the deadbolt lock was flimsy. It wouldn’t be long
before those things were inside.
    Curtis put a hand on Jarvis’s chin and
turned his head so that the stripper was facing him. “Thank
you.”
    Jarvis frowned. “For what?”
    “ For making my last night
memorable.”
    Jarvis started to speak but paused. He was
all out of assurances and false hope. This was the time for
honesty, harsh and ugly. “I guess you were right,” he said finally,
pulling Curtis close. “It looks like we’re not going to make it
after all. Maybe I should have gone ahead and had that drink.”
    “ What?”
    “ Not important. So how do
you want to spend the time you have left?”
    In answer, Curtis leaned forward and kissed
Jarvis. They sank