They drove into the night. The lights from Pacific Playland faded from view. All that lay before them was the dark night and what little they could see by their headlights. Wichita felt her hands grip tighter onto the steering wheel. She was trying her utmost to stay focused on the road. She had broken one of her rules. She took one less brick down from the wall that had taken her years to build. She felt Columbus's eyes on her.

Did he want more from her? She had given him too much already.

Columbus glanced into the back seat to make sure that Tallahassee's snores and Little Rock's silence meant that they were actually asleep. He knew that Wichita was freaking out. He could see it on her face. He could feel it in the tension in the car.

"So, uh,-'' he began.

"Just because I told you my name, Ohio, doesn't mean you can use it. Okay?" Wichita didn't wait for a reply. "If you're going to say something, you better spit it out."

"I was, um, just going to ask you – well, actually, I really just wanted to say that I'm grateful. –''

"For this shit fuck of a situation?" Wichita said was mild amusement. She tried her best not to show that she felt badly for crushing his honesty.

"That we were able to find each other, all of us, . . . despite the zombies and all," Ohio said quietly, his voice fading at the end.

"Thanks – I guess," Wichita's voice was soft.

Columbus decided to go for the plunge. He was going to say what was really on his mind.

"I don't expect fireworks," he began.

"Good, because there is no one but zombies to fire them," she retorted quickly.

"What I mean is that I don't expect things to change. Clearly, you have trust issues to work out." Columbus felt Wichita's eyes on him and immediately his eyes looked from her face to his hands. "What I'm trying to say is. . . or the point is that . . . I'm sticking around."

Wichita gave a small smile, but continued to look straight at the dark road. "Stick around." A phrase that seemed so simple, as if you had a choice in the matter. Wichita knew that people rarely did. Wichita's thoughts were interrupted because, as usual, Columbus couldn't contain himself for more questions.

"So, um, how did you – well, I guess what I mean to ask is why did you become a conartist?"

Wichita looked over at him with a small smirk. She wondered about this guy. Her life certainly hadn't been a predictable one and it had been far from normal. She never thought she would be transparent though, certainly to a guy like this.

"Who said I was?" she said casually turning back to the road.

Columbus shifted in his seat to look at her.

"Are you kidding me? You don't just need smarts to heist a car and sob to get your way for rifles. Admit it, you've been doing this a long time. Little Rock is surely a professional. Man!" His voice was more challenging than curious.

Wichita gave a sigh of surrender. Before she could respond, Columbus's impatience got the best of him again.

"I mean are you really even sisters?" his tone sounded as if he was saying a punch line. As if he knew the answers, but he was simply trying to get some sort of reaction. The reaction

he immediately received from Wichita told him that it wasn't funny.

Her eyes glared at him. It stung.

"Why would you say that?" she asked her voice soft but fierce.

"I was just – I'm sorry – I didn't mean . . ." his voice trailed off. He tried to recover. "Of course you are . . ."

"She's the one thing that I've always counted on. And she counts on me." Wichita's jaw tightened. In a harsher voice, she continued. "The answer to your first question is as long as I can remember. And to answer your second, we have the same parents and she is everything I have left in this world."

Columbus knew he had entered no man's land. He turned back slowly in his seat and didn't speak again until the sun came up.

Tallahassee sat in the back seat looking from the back of Columbus's head to Wichita's. There was something in the air. And it wasn't good. He glanced over at Little Rock who just shrugged. He finally asked. Clearing his throat.

"Did you get into a lover's spat already?" He scoffed. "It's been what 100 miles?"

He felt Little Rock punch him in the arm. She shot him an unimpressed look that said 'subtle.'

"What I mean to say is – what the hell happened to make you so pissed off and you so . . . . sulky?"

Columbus looked over at Wichita hoping for some guidance. Wichita didn't answer. Tallahassee folded his arms in annoyance and sat back against the back seat in defeat.

"Look there's a gas station," Little Rock pointed out. "We should fill up."

They all got out of the car. Columbus pumped the gas as the rest of them watched with the guns up waiting for a snarl or a scream from a hidden zombie. Little Rock was closest to Columbus watching the front of the SUV.

"You asked her an intimate question, didn't you?" she asked quietly not looking back at Columbus.

Although she couldn't see his face, she knew his face was blank with confusion.

"You asked about her? About us, I mean. My sister doesn't do intimacy. Her telling you her name is the biggest step you're going to get for a long time." Her voice was informative without being harsh. "Give it time. You always want her to think she has the upper hand, whether she does or not."

Little Rock's back was still turned but Columbus could hear the grin in her voice.

Columbus gave a small smirk and the pump stopped. The tank was full. Wichita looked over her shoulder at Columbus when she heard the tank pump pop. She didn't make eye contact with him but she was reminded of how easily this had become a routine. As they all carefully made their way back into the car, she caught a glimpse of her sister. This was their life. She wished so badly that it could be how it was before the infection, when they were running not from zombies but from the family business.

Her mind slowly back into a memory.