“Yes, I know,” said Nona sadly.
“We’ve got responsibilities.”
“I thought you were your own boss here,” said Nona.
“I have a lot of bosses,” said the Angel.
“How many?”
“Millions,” said the Angel, with perfect truth in the set of her shoulders. “Don’t worry about that for now—I’m being unhelpful and unkind—it’s just that, Nona, there comes a time in your life when you have to separate the things you do because they make you feel good from the things that make you—”
The Angel stopped so dead midsentence that Nona thought she had had a heart attack, that she had been hurt in a way Nona couldn’t understand. She was staring at the topmost drawing of the sheaf of papers. Nona peeked over, ready to apologise for another one of Honesty’s explicit anatomical sketches.
“Oh—that one’s mine,” she said, wanting to break the spell, wanting to help. “It’s mine, don’t worry.”
The Angel was speechless for a moment. Then she looked at the paper, then looked at Nona again, and looked at the paper. She said, “Sure,” as though everything were normal and she hadn’t acted like she had been knifed. She laid the drawing aside and said, “Give the rest out, why don’t you?” and smiled at Nona, but it was a weirdly awful smile, as though the Angel had forgotten how smiles worked.
Nona was a little stupefied, but after all it was strange times and everyone was stressed, so she went around handing back the drawings to their owners. Beautiful Ruby said, “I’ll take Born in the Morning’s, I don’t want mine, who cares,” and Nona did not argue.
When they were all packed up, Nona’s friends gathered together in the cloakroom, out of earshot of the others, Hot Sauce having shepherded them all there. The Angel followed them out and said, “Good luck, take care,” to each of them and shook everyone’s hand except Nona’s and Hot Sauce’s. She even specially shook Kevin’s. They all got tongue-tied and didn’t know what to say except Honesty, who said, “Thanks, sir.” Then they all took the time to pat Noodle, who was sitting on his haunches next to the Angel and even held out his paw when Beautiful Ruby said, “Shake,” which pleased everyone.
Then the Angel went back inside with Noodle and they all put on their sand sleeves and their UV jackets, only Nona and Hot Sauce didn’t button up theirs, and everyone’s hats and masks were hanging down over their necks or their chins. Their mood was sombre, and they clustered quite close to each other.
Honesty said, “You got a copy of that map, boss?”
“Yes. You remember it?”
“Yeah. You really got stuff out there? Like gun stuff?”
“Not saying. You don’t need the money. Who’s taking Kevin home?”
Beautiful Ruby said, “Aren’t you doing it?” and Hot Sauce said, “Can’t.”
“I’ll do it,” said Honesty handsomely. “All hands to the pump.”
Hot Sauce gave him the expression that everyone knew was Hot Sauce’s smile, and which each of them would have cheerfully punched any of the others to get, even Nona. She and Honesty reached out to clasp each other’s hands around the wrists. It was Nona who said, feebly— “What now? How do we stay together?”
“We’ll be together when we need each other,” said Hot Sauce. “We have a place to go. There’s stuff there. Bring your families. I’ll look after you. I know how.”
Beautiful Ruby said, “Even my mum, boss?”
“Even your mum,” said Hot Sauce, and Beautiful Ruby looked relieved.
Honesty said, “Let’s spit on it,” but they were wearing gloves and none of them wanted to take them off to spit on it. So Hot Sauce put her hand out in the centre and Nona put her hand on Hot Sauce’s, and Honesty put his hand on Nona’s and Beautiful Ruby put his hand on Honesty’s, and Kevin had to put his hand underneath, not being tall enough to reach the top.
“Doesn’t feel right without Born in the Morning,” muttered Honesty.
“It’s for him too,” said Hot Sauce. Then she said— “We swear to protect each other and die for each other. We are loyal to each other forever. Any zombies we kill, we kill for each other, and we’ll say, ‘This is for the others.’ That’s it.”
“I swear,” said Honesty.
“I swear,” said Nona.
“I swear,” said Beautiful Ruby.